Category: Events
More than Oysters: “Talking” Tour of Fair Haven East, Sunday, Oct. 26 at 2 p.m.
by New Haven Preservation Trust
The borough of Fair Haven East, incorporated in 1872, represents the city’s one (and only) experiment with this semi-autonomous form of local government.
This two-part lecture featuring presenters Oliver Gaffney and Joe Taylor will explore architecture that exemplifies the development of the borough from its roots in East Haven; through its annexation to New Haven in 1881; and its eventual consolidation with city government starting in 1897. Historic maps, newspaper articles, and rare photos from the Joe Taylor Collection will help us visualize changing patterns of commerce, agriculture, transportation, and housing in the borough – and some interesting stories about the residents who called it home!
Please RSVP as seating is limited. This event will be held indoors, rain or shine, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2 p.m. at the New Haven Friends Meeting, 225 E. Grand Ave., New Haven. Register at nhpt.org/events.
Greater New Haven Labor History Association Annual Meeting ‘Remembering the 50th Anniversary of the 1975 Teachers’ Strike,’ 3-5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7
by Steve Kass, President, GNHLHA
Please join us for our annual meeting at the New Haven Labor Center, 267 Chapel St., New Haven, for a special program looking back at the 50th anniversary of the 1975 Teachers’ Strike.
There will be a presentation of all the news articles from the strike, followed by a panel discussion featuring some of the 90 teachers who were jailed for refusing to return to work until a new contract was in place. There will also be a keynote address by Frank Carrano, the president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers during the time of the strike.
As usual, the Augusta Louis Troup “Pass It On” awards will be presented to people and organizations that advance the labor movement agenda of decent working conditions at a good wage, with hope for the future.
Frank Panzarella will perform some labor songs.
Seating is limited, the event is free. We will start promptly at 3 p.m. Parking is available behind the building.
Sun Day Festival at CCSU on Sept. 21
by Lynn Stoddard, Third Act CT, Sun Day Co-Coordinator
Sun Day is a national mobilization on the weekend of the Autumnal equinox, September 20 – 21, 2025 to celebrate the power of clean energy and mobilize millions to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels. Spearheaded by Bill McKibben and inspired by the success of Earth Day, Sun Day will harness Americans of all stripes to highlight the benefits of solar, wind, and electrification through thousands of local events and a massive online campaign. Learn more at www.sunday.earth.
CT Third Act and partners are holding a big statewide Sun Day Festival at the Student Center, Central CT State University, 1615 Stanley St., New Britain, from noon-4 p.m. on Sept. 21. Please RSVP at Connecticut@thirdact.org to join us.
In addition, many communities are holding local Sun Day events on or leading up to Sept. 20 (the day before the statewide festival). Interested in holding a local Sun Day event? You can find info and resources here: https://www.climateactionct.org/sun-day.
Pedal for Palestine, Sunday, Sept. 21
by Ellen Rubin, JVPNH
Jewish Voice for Peace New Haven (JVPNH) invites you to join us on September 21, 2025 for Pedal for Palestine. We will be cycling in “slow motion” through the streets of New Haven to create connection and community with Gaza and Palestine. We welcome bright banners with clear messaging and visibility, noisemakers of all types, high spirits and riders of all ages and abilities – with safety as a priority. Please wear your helmets, honk horns, ring bells, blow kazoos, follow the marshals and make new friends!
We will start at 10 a.m. at the Mill River by Cross High School to highlight the destruction of educational resources in Gaza, stopping at the water treatment plant, public library, local hospital, and media outlets to highlight the corresponding devastation of life-sustaining resources in Gaza today. We will end by the Sea at Long Wharf around 2 p.m., with plans to get to know one another, enjoy the food trucks, and hopefully dance! The goal is to promote solidarity, education and funds for the families in Gaza facing famine, genocide, and internment camps. Folks can join at any of the planned stops (maps will be provided) or join us at the start or finish or anywhere in between. If you are not a bike rider, you can help with refreshments, leafletting, fundraising to the grass-roots organizations providing food, healthcare, and children’s services in Palestine (MECA and RAWA) &/or just party with us. We stand and pedal for Peace and Justice in Palestine. Join us!
For more information and to register to ride, go to jvpnh.org/pedal-for-palestine.
Branford’s Inaugural Celebration of the Sun on Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025!
Sun Shines on Branford is an all-ages festival, with activities taking place near Branford Town Green and throughout the town. This event will focus on solar energy and opportunities for sustainable and renewable resources that abound in Branford, Connecticut.
Join the fun all around town. Crafts, demos, workshops, art, music, and much more — an exciting day for everyone!
All activities are free. Select retailers will be participating in their own way with special sun-related offerings.
Come out and celebrate as the Sun Shines on Branford!
Sun Shines on Branford is in partnership with Sun Day, a national day of action to be held on Sept. 21, 2025 celebrating solar and wind power.
More info: https://www.sunshinesonbranford.org.
International Day of Peace Event Tues., Sept. 30
by Aaron Goode, New Haven Peace Commissioner
The City of New Haven Peace Commission will celebrate International Day of Peace 2025 by planting a new tree and dedicating a plaque at Common Ground High School, 358 Springside Ave., on Tuesday, Sept. 30. There will be student readings and performances, a proclamation by the mayor, and more. Details will be announced on the Peace Commission website, peacecommission.org.
IWagePeace Interfaith Service Festival
The Interfaith Service Festival will be held on the International Day of Peace, Sunday, Sept. 21, 12-4 p.m.
Keynote address will be given by Dr. Elias Farah, Executive Director, Jerusalem Peacebuilders.
There will be discussion groups about food scarcity, gun violence, the unhoused, peacemaking, and prison reform.
Events include a beach clean-up with Save the Sound, community billboard painting, a chance to turn guns into jewelry with Swords to Plowshares CT, and films and discussion with Stop Solitary CT.
Enjoy fellowship, service, and a beach walk on Sunday, Sept. 21, from 12-4 p.m. Activities will be by the shoreline on the grounds of St. John Vianney Church, 300 Captain Thomas Blvd., West Haven.
For more information, please go to bit.ly/3Vdn28C.
Our Thanks to Our Readers! You’re Great!
It was fantastic on July 19 to have thirty of our subscribers and supporters at the PAR PARty, held at Edgerton Park’s Carriage House.
PAR readers through the years were there, including “original” PAR members from the first meeting in 1993, to our current internet subscribers. Conversation, camaraderie, food, and music made it an all-around wonderful gathering.
PAR’s history of local organizing was also on display. There were decades-old PAR newsletters and a poster of PAR documents and minutes of meetings from the 1990s.
For about the first ten years, PAR met once a month. As activists were busy in so many other organizations, the main focus of PAR became creating the newsletter. Judging by how much fun everyone had getting together, the in-person socializing needs to happen more often!
See some photos here ::::
Thoughts on Medical Assisted Suicide Film Showings in September
by Joan Cavanagh, PAMAS member
Recently produced by Progressives Against Medical Assisted Suicide (PAMAS) and Karyl Evans Productions LLC, the 36-minute film, Thoughts on Medical Assisted Suicide, will be presented followed by discussion with the filmmakers and audience members at the Fair Haven Public Library, 182 Grand Ave., on Thursday, Sept. 11 from 6-7:30 p.m. and at the Unitarian Universalist Society of New Haven, 700 Hartford Turnpike, Hamden, on Sept. 14 from noon until 2 p.m.
The film considers the historical context, current practice, and impact on health care of enabling medical providers to offer lethal drugs to patients for the purpose of ending their own lives.
With poetry and song written and performed by West Haven, Connecticut-based poet, songwriter, and performance artist Elaine Kolb, it features interviews with disability and social justice activists including Anita Cameron of Rochester, New York, former Director of Community Outreach at Not Dead Yet; Jules Good, programs coordinator of the Autism Self Advocacy Network and the founder and director of Neighborhood Access LLC of Barrington, New Hampshire; nationally and internationally recognized palliative care specialist Dr. Diane Meier, professor at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine; retired Connecticut disability rights attorney Nancy Alisberg; and five local community activists. It is narrated by Scott Harris, producer of the WPKN radio program, Counterpoint, and includes ASL interpretation by American School for the Deaf Community Interpreting.
Thoughts on Medical Assisted Suicide premiered at the Miller Library in Hamden on March 25 and has since been shown at five other venues in Connecticut, including the West Haven, Woodbridge, and Westville Public Libraries, as well as two classes at the University of Hartford. It is streaming on the PAMAS website, https://pamasprogressives.org, into September.
Please contact PAMAS at progressivesagainstmas@hotmail.com if you know of a venue that might be interested in a future showing and discussion of the film.
For more information, visit the website at https://pamasprogressives.org.
Thoughts on Medical Assisted Suicide was partially funded by the Haymarket People’s Fund and the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, with support from the Patients’ Rights Action Fund and Not Dead Yet, and fiscal sponsorship from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and the Center for Disability Rights, New York.
Fiesta Latina! Celebrating Hispanic Culture noon to 5 p.m. Sat., Sept. 27 and Sunday, Sept. 28
Junta for Progressive Action will hold a free, family-friendly street festival with live music, dance performances, food vendors, kids’ activities, and cultural pride in full force on Saturday, Sept. 27 from noon to 5 p.m. at its location on 169 Grand Ave. in New Haven.
The Peabody Museum will hold a day of curated exhibits, youth performances, music, dancing, and educational engagement celebrating Hispanic culture on Sunday, Sept. 28 from noon to 5 p.m. at the museum, 170 Whitney Ave.
Save the Date for Refresh & Recharge 2025, July 19, 1-4pm
Join a host of CT environmental organizations for the second annual Refresh & Recharge. In these times, it is good to gather with friends old and new to discuss important issues, how to move forward and gain momentum. The afternoon will begin with networking and lunch followed by a panel discussion about how to extend our reach. The fantastic panel will include:
- Attorney Cynthia Jennings (a civil rights and environmental lawyer and longtime activist in Hartford)
- Christine Palm (founding director of Active Voice and former 3-term state legislator)
- Alycia Jenkins (an organizer for Sierra Club CT and an author)
- Pramod Pradhan (community engagement librarian and liaison to the West Hartford Human Rights Commission and co-founder of the Nepali Association of CT)
Following the panel, participants will have a choice of activities (beginner Pilates, poster-making, or advocacy mini-workshop). REGISTER
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Deb Roe, Program Manager
Join I Heart New Haven Day, Saturday, June 7
by Jane Hendrickson, Exec. Director, Bridges of Hope
Bridges of Hope is a group of diverse New Haven area churches from across denominational, social, and cultural lines that have agreed to come together as one to serve the New Haven community as members of the community.
This year, we are organizing our tenth annual “I Heart New Haven Day,” which will take place on June 7, 2025. The goal is to serve the city through over 29 different projects with over 400 volunteers participating from Christian Tabernacle Baptist Church, Church on the Rock, Vox Church, Vertical Church, Trinity Baptist Church, Christ Presbyterian Church, All Nations Church, Shoreline Community Church, St John’s Episcopal Church, CT Korean Presbyterian Church, and several other churches. This is our tenth anniversary of coming together to build partnerships, serve immediate needs and give back to the city our volunteers know and love. People know these volunteers as the “blue shirts,” but they are also residents, public servants and leaders in the city. The day will begin at 9 a.m. on the New Haven Green with words of encouragement from the pastors of the churches, and then the volunteers will be sent off to their projects to serve from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
2025 Walk to End Alzheimer’s, Sept. 28
The Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s® is the world’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s care, support and research. Held annually in more than 600 communities nationwide, this inspiring event calls on participants of all ages and abilities to join the fight against the disease.
The walk will take place on Sunday, Sept. 28 at Lighthouse Point Park, 2 Lighthouse Road in New Haven. There is the option of a one- or two-mile walk.
The event opens at 9 a.m., followed by a ceremony at 10 a.m. The walk begins at 10:30 a.m.
To register, go to https://bit.ly/43yz7ZP.
For more information, contact Caroline Kachmar, 860-362-0936, ckachmar@alz.org.
History of Blake Street Cemetery
by Ben Ross, First Unitarian Universalist Society
The First Unitarian Universalist Society New Haven worship committee invites you to hear our guest speaker Sherill Baldwin on June 8, 2025. The service begins at 10:30 a.m. at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of New Haven, 608 Whitney Avenue, New Haven.
Family historian and genealogist Sherill Baldwin will share her research on the history of Blake Street Cemetery and some of the people buried there. Blake Street is a small “paupers’ cemetery” for indigent burials adjacent to the larger Westville and Mishkan Israel Cemeteries. Over 2100 people were buried at Blake Street from about 1881 to 1931. For the last year Sherill has been uncovering and sharing the stories of New Haveners buried at Blake Street online at her website “Buried Stories,” including the fascinating stories of John Bray, Edward Ditymus, Matilda Fitch, and Charles P. Geyer, Jr. Also buried at Blake Street Cemetery is Lois Tritton, a formerly enslaved woman who was sold in the last known auction of enslaved people ever to happen in New Haven (and possibly the state of CT) on March 8, 1825 on the Green.
If you cannot join us in person, here is our link: bit.ly/43g4fym.