Undercurrents

This Thursday May 22nd is the opening day of the Farmers’ Market at Billings Forge.  The market is located on Broad St. between Capitol and Russ, right next to the Firebox Restaurant.  Chef Jason Collin will be giving a cooking demonstration at 12:30 pm.

After last year’s successful first season the market will be open Mondays and Thursdays from 11 am to 2 pm with twice the vendors, prepared foods, picnic tables, and live music through the month of October.  Please visit their website for more information at www.hartfordfarmersmarket.org.

Share This

Changes at CCH

If it weren’t for the awesome show that took over the big gallery at Real Art Ways last night, I would have felt totally disenchanted. They’ve raised their fee for the Creative Cocktail Hour, which I won’t complain about because it helps support an art gallery. Except now that art gallery is selling out by getting corporate sponsorship at the CCH. At the Hartford IMC, we are well aware that it costs money to operate, and that getting financial support is not the easiest thing. But damn, don’t sell out. Not to Target.

That’s right, Target. Their red and white logo was projected onto the walls during the light show that went along with the music. That’s fucking tacky. (more…)

Share This

We’ve posted before about how the Courant is running features on Hartford’s “movers and shakers.” Today’s feature is Audrey Conrad, a woman I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with at many a Creative Cocktail Hour. There were two things that surprised me about/in this article:

1. Audrey is about 15 years older than I thought she was. Damn!

2. The author did a decent job of portraying her as a human being, and not as a freakshow, as is what often happens when transgender folks are in the media.

Share This

By Steve Thornton

Alexander “Sandy” Taylor died on December 21. If you don’t know his name, you will know Daisy Zamora or Martin Espada, Carolyn Forché or Ernesto Cardenal. These revolutionary poets have all been published by Curbstone Press, the small publishing house built by Sandy and his partner Judy Doyle in 1975. Curbstone is a gem and it’s 30 minutes from Hartford.

Go visit the Julia de Burgos Park in Willi, just across from Curbstone’s office. Named after the noted Puerto Rican patriot, poet, and feminist, the park was a labor of love by Judy, Sandy and local folks, dedicated in September, 2001.

Friend and fellow poet Bobby Byrd writes: “He wanted to promote a literature that was out in the street and at the barricades, fighting for issues and igniting causes against the machine. Truly, he raged war against the machine. No wonder he was at home publishing so much Latin American literature, the literature of peoples of color, the literature of the disenfranchised—literatures that made political issues the rationale of their aesthetics.”

Byrd tells the story on his blog of how Sandy and a friend drove a truck of medical supplies to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua during the revolution. The supplies helped the people, the truck was a present for the FSLN. Now that’s poetic.

For more about Sandy and some tributes to his life, visit Curbstone Press at Curbstone.org. You can buy a book while you are there.

Share This

I like to bash the Courant as much as the next newspaper junkie. But I have to give them credit for running a series of weekly articles called Hartford Faces. Each week a different person is profiled, people who are taking matters into their own hands, making a stand, stirring things up, cultivating community in Hartford, a place that is often held up to the Big Apple and Beantown and found wanting. The Hartford Faces are not concerned with woulda, coulda, shoulda or wannabes. They’re making it happen here. The first person profiled was Dave Rozza of Food Not Bombs . This week it’s Julia Rosenblatt of Hartbeat Ensemble.

Share This

Frank Rizzo gave HartBeat Ensemble’s “Ebeneeza” a glowing review in today’s Courant.

The show is Dickens’ Christmas Carol set in modern day Hartford. According to Rizzo, the show is able to “melt hearts as it illuminates minds.”

“Ebeneeza” opened last weekend and will run through December 30.

To purchase tickets for “Ebeneeza” visit the Charter Oak Cultural Center box office at 21 Charter Oak Ave. between 9am -5pm Monday through Friday or call Charter Oak at 860-249-1207. For group sales call HartBeat Ensemble at 548-9144. Ebeneeza – A Hartford Holiday Carol will run Thursday – Saturday at 7:30PM for the month of December. Sunday @ 2pm on the 16th & 30th.

*Full disclosure: One of the playwrights is my partner (Julia B. Rosenblatt).

Share This

That’s what the Metro Hartford Alliance’s new promo campaign could say.

Read the post below and maybe that headline will make sense. Howsoever, on the Veterans of Future Wars Monday Night at the Movies outing last night, we saw a movie  at Real Art Ways called “Romance and Cigarettes”. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll come out humming a tune. It’s worth stepping over a few bodies and dodging a few bullets to see.

Share This

I just finished listening to a wonderful and inspiring interview by Amy Goodman with Ernie Harburg, the son of Edgar “Yip” Harburg on the 75th year anniversary of Yip’s “Brother Can You Spare a Dime.” (more…)

Share This

“Be our Guest: A Contemporary Look At Immigration”

Featuring artwork by David Bacon and Marela Zacarias

Opening reception tonight, open and free to all
6:30-10pm

Broad Street Gallery, 1283 Broad St., Hartford

Stop the Raids! Students of Trinity College (a project of Trinity`s Amnesty International chapter) presents Be our Guest: A Contemporary Look at Immigration, an art exhibit that will focus on the immigrant experience in the United States and along the Mexico-U.S. border.

This exhibit will feature the works of Marela Zacarias and David Bacon. Zacarias is a local muralist who has done work all over the United States and in her home country of Mexico. Bacon is a nationally recognized photojournalist based in San Francisco.

In related immigration news, Hartford police chief Roberts says “Don’t…fear your police department.”  (more…)

Share This

One weekend last May videographers armed with disposable video cameras wandered the streets of Hartford. See what they came up with at a special screening tonight at La Paloma Sabanera, 405 Capital Ave., Hartford, at 7 p.m. and the after party at Red Rock Tavern, just down the street at 369 Capital Ave. Suggested donation, $20, but if you’re a little short, give what you can. All you need to know will appear by gently stroking your magic mouse.

Share This