INNER-CITY NEWS

New Haven Public Schools Early Childhood Programs

FREE and Sliding Scale 6-hour Programs for 3 and 4 Year Olds of low-income New Haven families

Available in the following New Haven Public Schools:

• Benjamin Jepson Multi-Age School

• Dr. Mayo Early Childhood School

• Fair Haven School

• John Martinez Sea & Sky STEM School

• Lincoln-Bassett Community School

• Truman School

• Additional community locations also participate in the program.

Contact: Esther Pearson-Pinckney, Head Start Social Service Coordinator at 475-220-1462/1463 or email: esther.pearson-pinckney@nhboe.net

We are Accepting Applications (for NOW & in the Fall )

How to Apply

Parents of 3 and 4 year olds are encouraged to apply.

Application begins with a phone call

Contact the Head Start Program or School Readiness Program at 475-220-1462/1463.

What you will submit with your Application

1)Proof of Age

Child’s Birth Certificate OR Legal Custody/Guardianship Papers

2)Proof of Address

Current utility bill (Gas, Electric, Phone, Cable) in your name

3)Proof of Income

• 2 months of Current & Consecutive pay stubs OR W-2 or 1040 Tax Return

• Budget Statement from the CT Department of Social Services or Social Security Office or Child Enforcement Bureau

• Notarized Statement indicating Parent is unemployed

• Additional forms may be requested

4)Proof of a Physical (within one year-to-date)

• CT Department of Education Early Childhood Health Assessment Record

• Anemia and lead level test results

• TB assessment

• Immunizations records

• Seasonal flu vaccination

• Health insurance card

5)Proof of a Dental Exam (within 6-months-to-date)

Dental Exam record

Public Safety Committee Approves Bill Requiring Police To Provide A Reason For Traffic Stops

by Hugh McQuaid

The clock was ticking toward the Public Safety Committee’s Thursday deadline to pass bills and as the panel neared the end of its 39-item agenda, Sen. Herron Gaston stood from the table, made for the exit, and dialed a colleague. “Hey,” he said, “I need you to come vote.”

Gaston, a first-term Democrat from Bridgeport, co-chairs the public safety panel and his legislative priority — a bill that would require police to tell drivers why they’d been pulled over — looked in danger of failing after a midday committee vote. Republicans opposed it and at least a couple of Democrats had joined them.

But the state legislature runs simultaneous committee meetings, meaning lawmakers frequently miss in-person votes and are permitted a window to cast them with the legislative clerk after the fact. Gaston dialed Sen. MD Rahman, another freshman Democrat, who dutifully appeared moments later to cast a vote in support.

By the time the meeting wrapped up that afternoon, the bill had passed 14 to 11. “It was a close vote,” Gaston said afterward. “We have the votes. We edged it out. Some folks who were considering voting ‘no’ on this bill have since then come around to voting ‘yes’,” For some, the controversy over the proposal might have seemed baffling. Many Connecticut residents assume police are

already required to explain the purpose of traffic stops and generally police say they’re already trained to do just that.

Besides, the bill had been stripped down before it was even raised for Thursday’s meeting. It contained no penalties for officers who refused to explain traffic stops; gone were new police training and reporting requirements that had been included in the original seven-page proposal.

What passed out of the Public Safety Committee on Thursday was a simple statement of intent: “Prior to the completion of any stop of a motor vehicle, a police officer, as defined [by state law], shall verbally inform the operator of such vehicle of the purpose for the stop.”

Legislators spent considerable time debating what message that statement sent. Gaston, who is Black, 34, and has previously told the panel about difficult traffic stops he has endured, said it sent a message of equality.

“It is simple. It’s a courtesy issue,” he said during the meeting. “I just want to ensure that people across this state who look like me, that they get the same treatment that a person in Stonington gets.”

Gaston went further during a public hearing last month. When discussing his own traffic stop incident, he referenced Tyre Nichols, a Memphis man who died in January following a traffic stop and a beating by five former police officers. “In that moment, I thought that I too could be a Tyre Nichols.”

Opponents of the bill said it sent a dif-

ferent kind of message. Rep. Greg Howard, a police officer and Republican from Stonington, argued that the proposal amounted to a symbolic slight directed at Connecticut police officers. Hiring and retention numbers at Connecticut police departments have dipped so far in recent years that the legislature was considering

separate proposals to boost recruitment, he said.

“Many of the answers I’ve been provided are basically, ‘We’re sending a message,’” Howard said. “I think that message that we are sending is that we are going to continue to drive a divide, continue to tell our law enforcement officers

negative things about their profession.”

Others argued that the proposal was unnecessary at a time when all Connecticut police officers are equipped with body cameras that could be used to demonstrate incidents during which police refuse to state a reason for a stop.

“It seems like a solution looking for a problem,” Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, said. “I’m concerned about the public impression that it’s assumed that because the legislature has to come in with a law and mandate this that [the notification is] not happening.”

For his part, Howard did not oppose the concept of notifying motorists why they are pulled over (“When you are stopped by the police, who are a branch of the government, and you are detained for any amount of time, you should know why.”) but argued the bill was redundant.

“Where I think I disagree is that it appears to me that we have uniformity,” Howard said.

Gaston did not agree and at one point pushed back against arguments that police already make the notifications.

“You can’t debate me about my lived experience. I’ve been Black all my life. I have had experiences that you have not had,” he said. “I think that it is important to understand and to recognize that people who look like me, whose skin has been kissed by the sun, who have endured the stigma of systemic and institutional injustice … have a different viewpoint than you would have.”

Judge Concludes Racism Was Behind Capitol Spitting Incident

by Christine Stuart

A Connecticut judge has awarded more than $295,000 to a Black woman who was spit on by a white woman during a protest at the state Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Judge Matthew Budzik concluded that Yuliya Gilshteyn tried to intimidate Keren Prescott “based on racial bigotry or bias,” when she spat on her following a verbal confrontation during dueling rallies that day. Most of the damages awarded were for emotional distress.

“I’m in shock but I am also relieved that the judge recognizes racism is a public health crisis,” Prescott said. “To me, that is what this judgment says and this is reparations for what she did to me.”

Gilshteyn was at the state Capitol rallying calling for medical freedom and was unmasked. Prescott, who has Multiple Sclerosis and is immunocompromised, was there masked to espouse the views of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Gilshteyn, who is Jewish and originally from Lithuania, had her baby strapped to her chest during the protest. She was arrested that day and received accelerated rehab, a prison diversionary program, in a criminal case related to the incident, but Budzik made his decision following a

hearing in civil court.

During the hearing last October Gilshteyn argued she was concerned that Prescott’s shouts of “Black Lives Matter” were drowning out the parents protesting the end to medical exemptions for childhood vaccines. Budzik said he credited

her testimony to that point.

When she first confronted Prescott she asked about “black on black crime” and told her that “all lives matter,” which Professor Charles Gallagher testified can be seen as a “racist trope indicating individuals who use those phrases may hold racist

attitudes.”

Gilshteyn testified that she was concerned about her baby’s hearing since Prescott was using a megaphone to shout them, but the court found it was less about the baby and more about the concern her views were not getting across to lawmakers.

“Ms. Gilshteyn testifies that she was spitting at Ms. Prescott’s megaphone, not at Ms. Prescott’s person. The court does not credit Ms. Gilshteyn’s testimony on this point. The court concludes, as a factual matter, that Ms. Gilshteyn intended to spit at and on Ms. Prescott,” Budzik wrote.

Prescott was struck on her mask, glasses, and megaphone with the spit and testified that she experienced severe emotional distress as a result.

“Ms. Prescott testifies that she experienced severe emotional distress over increased concerns she may contract COVID-19, emotional distress over the concerns that COVID-19 might worsen her MS, humiliation over being spat upon in public, and that the bodily violation of being spat upon reawakened the trauma of her past sexual assault. The court credits Ms. Prescott’s testimony,” Budzik wrote in his decision.

The whole incident which was captured on video lasted one minute.

Prescott said she feels vindicated by the decision. “What I’ve been saying for 2 years is that not only did she attack me unprovoked but it was a hate crime. That It was racism,” she said.

Prescott was represented in the matter by Attorney Ken Krayeske, who was awarded more than $53,000 in attorney’s fees as part of the judgment.

“To eradicate racism, we must make it cost prohibitive,” Krayeske said. “If the only thing America seems to value is money, then we Must create a society where racism is too expensive to engage in.”

It’s unknown if Gilshteyn, who is represented by Attorney Kevin Smith of Pattis & Smith, will appeal the ruling.

In court documents Smith argued that there is no basis for intentional infliction of emotional distress. “Simply put, it is not enough for Prescott to hold an idiosyncratic worldview through the lens of which Gilshetyn’s attendance at and participation in a political protest and her otherwise peaceful conduct there would give rise to reasonable apprehension or fear of harmful or offensive contact,” he wrote.

Yuliya Gilshteyn spitting on Keren Prescott on Jan. 6, 2021

Ct. News Junkie

Sen. Herron Gaston and Rep. Pat Boyd. Credit: Hugh McQuaid / CTNewsJunkie

Ct. News Junkie

More than 200 business owners have recovered and expanded with loans from the Connecticut Small Business Boost Fund

With its low-interest loans and free support services, the Connecticut Small Business Boost Fund is a flexible, accessible solution for small businesses and nonprofits seeking working capital. The fund is supported by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, and it has already distributed $23 million to businesses around the state, with an emphasis on historically underbanked communities.

More than 200 business owners have now benefited from the fund, one of whom is Willie Jones. He launched YJ Cleaning & Maintenance in 2016 and has been providing janitorial work, construction clean-up and other services in and around the Hartford area. At one point, he was up to 18 staff members.

When the pandemic hit, Jones’ company was more in demand than ever, especially when he added COVID-19 decontamination to his list of services. But he also needed a larger staff to meet that demand, which required more capital and resources.

“The more opportunities that come up, the more people you need. We fell behind a bit, and I don’t want to miss good opportunities because there’s still a lot of work out here,” Jones explains. “Business is great, but we’re still trying to catch up from three years ago.”

Jones was connected to the Connecticut Small Business Boost Fund through the

nonprofit Minority Construction Council, and he opted to receive free financial support services through the Fund. His advisors helped get his financial documents in order before applying for the loan, and they have also gotten him leads on new projects, provided clerical services and assisted with OSHA and other relevant trainings and certifications.

Since receiving the loan, YJ Cleaning & Maintenance has been able to maintain payroll, expand its scope and purchase cargo vans that can more comfortably transport a growing staff to areas beyond the company’s original reach.

“The loan was a lifesaver,” Jones says.

“I think the Connecticut Small Business Boost Fund could help a business take their next step because some of the banks don’t give you a chance. We’re out here, we can grow with the right capital and guidance, and we can hire more people from the community.”

More Connecticut-based businesses could have the same experience: $125 million in loans is still available for at least a year. Businesses that have no more than 100 employees and annual revenues of less than $8 million are eligible to receive loans of up to $500,000 at a fixed interest rate of 4.5%.

Learn more at CTSmallBusinessBoostFund.org.

Legislature Considers New Felony for Threatening Judges

by Hugh McQuaid

Two branches of state government engaged in a philosophical debate Wednesday morning over how best to protect Connecticut judges from a rising number of threats and incidents of intimidation.

Chief Justice Richard Robinson testified during a hearing of the legislature’s Judiciary Committee in support of a bill that would, among other things, create a new Class C felony for intimidating a judge or a family support magistrate in an effort to influence a court ruling.

Robinson told legislators that unprecedented levels of threats necessitated the change. Many of these threats stemmed from civil cases or family court matters, he said.

“These are judges who have been experiencing an increase in threats like I haven’t seen since the time I’ve taken the bench,” Robinson said. The intimidation has occurred nationwide, he said. “We’ve had some murders of judges. We’ve had some bomb threats. We’ve had guns. We’ve had people hinting that other people should take action.”

According to statistics from the Judicial Marshal Services, Connecticut judges have received nearly 80 threats since 2016. Last year was the worst of those years with17

John P. Thomas

Publisher /

CEO

Babz Rawls Ivy

Editor-in-Chief

Liaison, Corporate Affairs

Babz@penfieldcomm.com

Advertising/Sales Team

Keith Jackson Delores Alleyne

John Thomas, III

Editorial Team

Staff Writers

Christian Lewis/Current Affairs

Anthony Scott/Sports

Arlene Davis-Rudd/Politics

Contributing Writers

David Asbery / Tanisha Asbery

Jerry Craft / Cartoons / Barbara Fair

Dr. Tamiko Jackson-McArthur

Michelle Turner / Smita Shrestha

William Spivey / Kam Williams

Rev. Samuel T. Ross-Lee

Contributors At-Large

Christine Stuart www.CTNewsJunkie.com

Paul Bass

www.newhavenindependent.org

really not,” Stafstrom said. “Maybe there should be a broader conversation about, you know, threatening the governor, threatening the legislature, whatever. That’s a valid conversation this legislature could have if it wanted to… But going from the A misdemeanor currently, skipping the D felony altogether and going straight to the C felony, I think is where I get a little — are we going too big, too fast?”

Robinson said he believed that law enforcement officials were wary of charging offenders under the current law and expected the specificity of the proposed new charge to ease their concerns.

Rep. Pat Callahan told Robinson that he was sympathetic to the issues as well. The New Fairfield Republican’s father, Robert Callahan, was Connecticut’s chief justice from 1996 to 1999. Callahan said his family was threatened when he was a child.

Memberships

National Association of Black Journalist

National Newspapers Publishers Association

Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce

Greater New Haven Business & Professional

Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council, Inc.

threats directed at judges. During one recent incident a defendant appeared twice outside a judge’s house and left messages on their work phone.

Robinson argued that a judiciary could only fulfill its constitutional obligation if its judges were free to make difficult decisions without fear of physical violence.

However, legislators from both parties

were skeptical of the proposal to create a new felony. Connecticut already has a misdemeanor threatening statute under which someone could be charged for threatening a judge. Rep. Steve Stafstrom, a lawyer and Bridgeport Democrat who co-chairs the committee, said that more severe charges often result in fewer prosecutions.

“I’m not unsympathetic to the ask, I’m

“As a kid I was driven to school by the police because of threats,” Callahan said. However, Callahan said lawmakers were also frequently threatened and he had personally been subjected to threats as a football officiant. Two years ago a legislator filed a bill in the Judiciary Committee that would have hiked penalties for threatening sports officials. It was never raised for a

Con’t on page 22

The Inner-City Newspaper is published weekly by Penfield Communications, Inc. from offices located at 50 Fitch Street, 2nd Floor, New Haven, CT 06515. 203-387-0354 phone; 203-3872684 fax. Subscriptions:$260 per year (does not include sales tax for the in State subscriptions). Send name, address, zip code with payment. Postmaster, send address changes to 50 Fitch Street, New Haven, CT 06515. Display ad deadline Friday prior to insertion date at 5:00pm Advertisers are responsible for checking ads for error in publication. Penfield Communications, Inc d.b.a., “The Inner-City Newspaper” , shall not be liable for failure to publish an ad or for typographical errors or errors in publication, except to the extent of the cost of the space in which actual error appeared in the first insertion. The Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising for any reason and to alter advertising copy or graphics deemed unacceptable for publication. The entire contents of The Inner-City Newspaper are copyright 2012, Penfield Communications, Inc. and no portion may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

Willie Jones

Chief Justice Richard Robinson and O’Donovan Murphy director of Judicial Marshal Services Credit: Hugh McQuaid / CTNewsJunkie

New 5-Year Parks, Public Works Union Contract Advances

by LAURA GLESBY

(Updated) Seventy-five parks employees are now one step closer to a new contract — three years after their last city labor accord expired.

UPSEU Local 424’s New Haven chapter, the Parks and Blue Collar bargaining unit which represents some employees of the Department of Parks and Public Works as well as animal control officers and public safety mechanics, have reached a tentative agreement with the city that, if approved by the Board of Alders, will result in a retroactive, five-year permanent contract for the bargaining unit for the first time since 2020.

If approved, the contract would include a new salary step system, a 2 to 3.5 percent raise most years, and a raised retirement age from 62 to 65. It will increase costs to the city by $813,369 through 2025.

During a Board of Alders Finance Committee meeting in City Hall on Monday, the committee alders voted unanimously to favorably recommend the proposed labor agreement, which now heads to the full Board of Alders for further consideration and a final vote. Director of Labor Relations Wendella Ault Battey took the lead Monday on presenting on the changes proposed in the agreement.

A key change is that an eight-step salary schedule will be condensed to a two-step system.

Workers will receive a retroactive wage increase of 2 percent for 2020 – 2021, after which the new salary scale will be implemented. Then, from July 2022 to July 2024, union members will receive an annual 3.5 percent raise.

Those combined salary adjustments mean

that by 2025, a union member at step 1 could make between $51,841 and $75,307, while a union member at step 2 could make between $57,217 and $84,887.

“By condensing the steps from seven to two, we were able to elevate most of the workers on the bottom step,” said Battey. The agreement also raises the retirement age for employees hired after the contract’s ratification from 62 to 65, with an early retirement pension penalty of 5 percent (up from 2 percent) for each year below the age of 65.

In addition, the agreement makes a number of changes to the healthcare options for the employees, requiring new employees to participate in a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) in which the city contributes 50 percent of the deductible and employees take on 12 percent of the premium cost shares by July 2024.

Finance Committee Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand pointed Monday

night to the following language in a summary document provided by the city: “Subcontracting is not grievable or arbitrable; City shall not lay off and City shall use best efforts to fill vacant positions.”

“Management always has a right to subcontract,” asserted Battey. In her view, this language simply prevents the union from challenging that right should the city decide to subcontract in the future. “We don’t have to get their permission, it’s just notice.”

Battey said that the guarantee that the city “shall use best efforts” to fill vacancies in the department stemmed from a thorough discussion over wording with union bargainers.

On Friday, Liz Ditman, the labor relations representative for UPSEU Local 424, Unit 128, responded to Battey’s comments: “Wendella Ault Battey’s quote about subcontracting is egregious. The Union still has it rights to challenge subcontracting under the Municipal Employee Relations Act, which is where all of the subcontracting claims for this bargaining unit have been filed and will continue to be filed and fought tooth and nail, so her claim that they don’t need our permission and they now just have to give us notice is emphatically false.”

“We know there are a lot of vacancies” across city departments, said Marchand. How will this contract affect hiring and retention efforts?

There are currently six vacancies among members of the bargaining unit, Battey said. “While we’re able to hire, we see lots of turnover,” added Acting City Budget Director Michael Gormany.

“We definitely think the pay raise will attract more employees,” said Battey.

LAURA GLESBY PHOTO City Labor Relations Director Wendella Ault Battey at Monday's committee meeting.

Collective Consciousness Theatre Bounces Back

by Lucy Gellman, Editor. The Arts Paper newhavenarts.org

James T is running his mouth again. In his left hand, a flip phone rests between his thick fingers, its plastic body still sleek. “Now y'all wanna sit back today and act like we a normal gatdamn family,” he spits. A can of beer, half full, is gently warming in his right hand. “We ain’t no normal gatdamn family and we ain’t never been no normal gatdamn family—” Green foliage explodes all around him. “But now all of a sudden ya’ll read a book or see a tv show and ya’ll wanna gather up and act like we a normal gatdamn family.”

The trees stand completely still, so close it seems like they’re listening. It’s less than two minutes into the call, and already, the questions abound. Who is he talking to? What’s got him so riled up? Who else is he expecting? And what in this story belongs to him, and to his family, at all?

A sharp, biting and thoughtful humor defines Robert O’Hara’s Barbecue, running at Collective Consciousness Theatre (CCT) Thursdays through Saturdays, March 23 through April 8. Deftly directed by Jenny Nelson and produced by Dexter Singleton, it marks a long-awaited return to the theater, with a cast and crew that comes back swinging. By the end of the show, it has become a blistering and funny interrogation of ownership, appropriation, collective memory, class boundaries, and the precariousness of a dominant narrative.

All shows take place in CCT’s longtime home at 319 Peck St., on the second floor of Erector Square’s building 6S. Tickets and more information here: collectiveconsciousnesstheatre.ticketleap.com/barbecue/

“We just wanted to come back big for our community,” Nelson said at a rehearsal Tuesday night, as actors ran through warmups beneath a pavilion built into the set. “We wanted to give them something really fun and entertaining but also thought provoking, and asking those questions. It’s still rooted in race, class, and culture, all the things that are important to us, but with this really hilarious script.”

“To come back here, it’s like we’re always coming back home,” Singleton added. “The impact that CCT makes on the community, all the people that missed it and wanted it back, artists that spent so many evenings and weeks at a time here, that’s really what it’s about. Being able to open this place back up again.”

Written by O’Hara in 2014 and first produced at the Public Theater in 2015, Barbecue is a show about many things, including the porousness of language, the construction of race and class, and the public spectacle of other people’s trauma.

Set in a lush public park in the near past, the play opens on the O’Mallery family, four grown siblings who are working to wrangle the fifth, their sister Barbara, into rehab far away. The place seems nice

enough—yoga, equine therapy, and a new setting—but there’s more than a sneaking suspicion she won’t want to go.

Her reputation precedes her: she is the relative that most of us have, who can go nuclear with just the right amount of substances in her system. When siblings introduce here as Zippity Boom, it’s a nickname audiences can parse almost immediately.

From the get, O’Hara is playing with the idea of the line—where it is, where it blurs and kinks, and what it takes to cross it. All of siblings have some vice, a reminder of how selective the language of addiction has become. None of them,

it seems, made it out of childhood completely unscathed. But it is Barbara whose habit is deemed severe enough for treatment. In this sense, an intervention is the perfect device: it raises its own questions about perception, truth, and consent, and somehow manages to be comical while doing it.

Scene by scene, O’Hara begins to peel back the layers on the intervention— which really is to say, the layers on the O’Mallery family—leaving plenty of gray in a world where substance use disorder is often painted as black and white. In one universe, Barbara’s family is the one that gets a casserole and a Hallmark

crew. From the moment lights come up, actors are mining the potential for laughter, walking that tightrope of what’s appropriate and what’s overkill. Cast members—particularly Debra Walsh, Laura Sheenan, and Kendall Driffin—put their entire bodies into the show, with a knack for physical acting in a way that makes them feel deeply human.

As two parallel O’Mallery family narratives unfold (per CCT’s request, that’s the only spoiler that will make it into this article), cast members mirror each other, using a shared language and family history that exposes race and class as both socially constructed and historically entrenched. It’s a sharp, rhetorically tight trick built into the script, and one at which cast members shine.

Just as certain actors master physical humor, Susan Kulp and Elizabeth Reynolds, as well as Geoffrey Sheenan and Raphael Massie, are particularly adept here, playing verbal hopscotch as they unfold the story. In so doing, they nimbly reveal how absurd the binaries, the prejudices, and the country’s consistent disdain for poor people is.

The set, a public park designed and painted by artists David Sepulveda and Amie Ziner, is a character itself, as much a part of the action as the bodies that move, laugh, dance, and challenge each other upon it. In the small blackbox theater, it wraps nearly half of the space, in an extension meant to make the audience feel like it is very much part of the show.

On Tuesday, as actors opened cans of seltzer and flipped burgers against it, it could have been an afternoon in West Rock Park or College Woods, where half a dozen birthday parties sprawl out over the space on a given afternoon.

For Nelson and Singleton, it is the right show to return to the theater after an unwelcome pandemic intermission. When Covid-19 hit New Haven in March 2020, CCT was midway through its run of Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew, which follows Michigan auto workers during the 2008 financial collapse. Tuesday, Nelson remembered standing in the parking lot of Long Wharf Theatre, which had just announced its 2020 season, and thinking any shutdown would run just a few weeks.

card when she goes to rehab, because she has a disease. In the other, Barbara’s family is dealing with a system that has criminalized and punished families, because her addiction is a moral failing.

As one O’Mallery family splits into two, O’Hara begins to push on an audience’s understanding of both, asking them to explore how they perceive and stereotype the world around them on a daily basis. It’s a tight and biting device from the playwright, also known for his 2014 “Bootycandy" and direction of Jeremy O. Harris’ Slave Play.

As it hits New Haven, it comes together in the hands of an extremely able cast and

“I’m kind of glad we thought that, because if we knew what was going to happen, we would have been really panicked,” she said Tuesday.

Weeks became months, and months became years. Nelson and Singleton both started new jobs, at Westport Country Playhouse and Theatre Squared respectively. As gathering became safer in 2021, they tried to bring Skeleton Crew back with the same cast, but “it just never really worked out for us,” Singleton said.

It was impossible to get everyone in the same place.

Con’t on page 07

The cast of Barbecue. Raphael Massie is pictured at far left.

Kendall Driffin, Jacque Brown, and Elizabeth Reynolds in Barbecue.

Bounces Back

Then the theater rallied, thanks in part to a Neighborhood Cultural Vitality Grant from the city. Only weeks ago, when Ziner and Sepulveda finally started work on the set for Barbecue, did the space start feeling reborn again.

“It was hard to come back into this space and see it frozen in time for so long, and feeling like it really wanted to come back to life,” Nelson said. “We really tried, everybody tried to have Skeleton Crew come back and it just—the world changed. Things changed. It was hard to see it here.”

Weeks later, the set extends into the first few rows of the audience, making attendees feel like they have a stake in the action as it unfolds. And they do: Barbecue leaves an audience with something to chew on, served sizzling hot.

It also opens a discussion for the theater, where incisive social commentary has often come only on dramatic form, around who gets to tell specific stories. When Covid-19 hit, Singleton was still relatively new to his job at Theater Squared, a Fayetteville-based stage that now has him commuting to Arkansas from New Haven at least once every three or four weeks. Nelson joined Westport Country Playhouse, where she is now the director of education and community engagement.

When they read the show, Nelson said, they knew it was the one. She can’t remember the last time she laughed out loud at a script, she said. Singleton, who has known about the work for nearly 10 years, said it set the right tone to bring an audience back. That isn’t to say it’s a soft landing: Barbecue gives a viewer plenty to think about, no matter what their lived experience may be.

And if Barbecue is a nesting doll of a play, it also reflects the new normal into which Nelson, Singleton, and the cast are stepping. Beyond masked rehearsals, weekly testing regimens, and temperature checks at the door, there’s been a reckoning with white supremacy and an equally strong backlash that wasn't quite the same in 2020. Nelson said the past three years have pushed her to think more critically about what plays she should be directing as a white woman, and what plays she should step back from to make space for new directors. That’s also her hope for the show.

“You sit in this theater, you have a communal experience with a group of people you’ve never met, that you may never see again, you have an experience together,” she said at a rehearsal Tuesday night, as actors ran through warmups beneath a pavilion built into the set. “Which is what makes theater so special. That thing of sitting in a dark space with a group of people, having the same shared experience together, is really what theater does best.”

Robert O’Hara’s Barbecue runs at Collective Consciousness Theatre, 319 Peck St., from March 23 through April 8.

Elevated Archives / Underground Treasures: Local Global Dixwell

Review by Reggie Woolery

Organized by NXTHVN’s Cohort 04 Curatorial Fellows Cornelia Stokes and Kiara Cristina Ventura, NOT FOR SALE featured artists who reappropriate products like du-rags, bamboo earrings, and corner store food items. The exhibit centers on Black and Brown ways of seeing the world, ascribing prestige, value and affect to everyday materials, moments and in-between spaces read by beauty networks like mainstream galleries and museums as too ghetto.

There are works by Anthony Akinbola, LaKela Brown, David Hammons, Lucia Hierro, Arthur Jafa, Emmanuel Massillon, and Sable Elyse Smith. Entering the gallery, Anthony Akinbola’s silky red field of stitched du-rags holds court. On an adjacent wall, LaKela Brown’s white and gold bas relief painting from bamboo earring impressions, claps back. Sable Elyse Smith feeds us on bricks of ramen, along with oversized sacks of rice and black beans.

Renown American conceptual artist David Hammons is known for repurposing objects like liquor bottles into poetic works that convey a blues aesthetic. In NOT FOR SALE, his necklace of discarded bottle caps hangs from the walk snakelike, sending juju to Emmanuel Massillon’s Contemplating Existence, a hefty wood sculpture affixed front and center with a picture of white Jesus and tourist African totem atop, suggesting folk constructions of spirituality.

Alongside NOT FOR SALE, engaging new works by NXTHVN Cohort 04 Studio Fellows Anindita Dutta, Modupeola Fadugba, Donald Guevara, Ashante’ Kindle, athena quispe, Edgar Serrano, and Captain James Stovall V are on display. Dutta’s sensual fabric sculptures invite touch, even as they convey the precarity of doing so. Edgar Serrano’s paintings raid art historical styles and visual street forms like comics, tattoos, and mural painting to arrest contradictions.

Athena quispe’s describes her work as a trans-mutation of her Quechua heritage, a pre-colonial romantic poem set on healing – claiming that the Western gaze has packaged indigenous ways as New Age spiritual concepts. Thus, quispe problematizes materials and enacts ritual gestures to reshape love, labor, and melancholic honesty. Within the exhibition, her paintings disrupt expectations of composition, perspective, and story – calling us to look again, fresh.

At the entrance to the permanent collection at the New Britain Museum, they have placed a contemporary Titus Kaphar oil painting Javann and the Unknown Gentleman, 2011, alongside its colonial inspiration, Gentleman with Attendant, ca 1785. Kaphar, co-founder of NXTHVN, gives a name and dignity to the Black enslaved and silences ‘the gentleman’ who by dress, title, and placement within a

portrait, is the economic beneficiary of the slave trade.

Thus, re-appropriation is part of NXTHVN’s essence. Titus Kaphar and Jason Price’s arts incubator is an incredible intervention, much as Noah and Karon Davis’ Los Angeles local global art spot in the hood, the Underground Museum. Here in Dixwell, with galleries, housing, and office spaces re-fashioned from a former factory, revitalizing a neighborhood economy in flux, the modern glass and brick façade also convey the present in the past in the present.

At the Toni N. and Wendell C. Harp Historical Museum at the Dixwell Community House, with support from the Bienecke Library at Yale University is the exhibition TIMELESS: TELLING NEIGHBORHOOD STORIES, focused on New Haven native daughter Constance

Baker Motley. The museum’s inaugural exhibit, with the theme of overlooked local history, featured New Haven born, famed New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

The organizers of this exhibition are Constance Royster, niece of Constance Baker Motley, and Dr. Frank Mitchell. Dr. Mitchell holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Michigan and was appointed by Governor Ned Lamont to the Board of Connecticut Humanities. He taught at the University of Connecticut, Trinity College, and Franklin & Marshall College, serving as Director Emeritus of The Amistad Center for Arts & Culture.

In TIMELESS, we see images of Constance Juanita Baker at Columbia Law School, out nightclubbing in New York City, with Thurgood Marshall for whom she clerked, standing alongside Dr. Mar-

slave hunters abducted a large group of African people in Sierra Leone and transported them to Havana, Cuba for auction. The would-be enslaved revolted and attempted to sail the schooner La Amistad back to their homeland. After two months adrift, the ship was discovered by a federal brig in Long Island Sound and the Mende passengers were imprisoned in New Haven.

Abolitionists intervened to keep the ship and cargo from being returned to the Spanish authorities. They also raised funds to hire future Connecticut governor Roger Sherman and former U.S. President John Quincy Adams to argue the case. Seeking basic human rights, they were able win the release of the Mende with their leader the 25-year-old Sengbe Pieh (known as Cinque). Yet, Motley argues, these lessons of freedom were short lived.

In 1857, just sixteen years later, the Supreme Court “when asked to determine the status of Africans in the American community, the court explicitly noted that our Founding Fathers never contemplated that free Africans would constitute a part of the body politic. The high court said, in dicta, that free Africans in American society had always been regarded as an inferior order of beings and had no rights that ‘a white man was bound to respect.’”

The Harp Historical Museum is named for New Haven’s 50th Mayor, Toni Harp, and her husband Wendell. It was during her tenure that a sculpture was erected on Yale University campus of King William Lanson to commemorate this nineteenthcentury pillar of the city and Black community. TIMELESS’s sub-theme “Every day we write the book,” suggests future presentations will focus on lesser-known stars who over the years led community change.

NOT FOR SALE is TIMELESS. TIMELESS is NOT FOR SALE.

tin Luther King Jr., and attorney William Kunstler in Atlanta, and later being sworn in as Manhattan Borough President. The photos and archival materials weave a portrait of an activist and scholar who was the recipient of a rich community and cultural life.

At the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Motley led litigation that integrated the University of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi among others. She was the first African American woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court, and the first to serve as federal judge. In Baker Motley’s autobiography EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER THE LAW, she credits the Supreme Court in 1841 for acknowledging that non-enslaved Africans were free persons.

It is significant that this ruling involved Motley’s hometown. In 1839 Portuguese

One exhibit lifts Black and Brown people by highlighting their cultural expressions, which at the same time are timeless. The other exhibit centers on an individual who was no sellout, but through personal and collective action was able to take on the white South at a time when desegregation seemed impossible. Taken together, residents of Dixwell can see themselves as part of global movements, spoken through local histories and vernacular narratives.

TIMELESS: TELLING NEIGHBORHOOD STORIES

Opening: March 4, 2023 Toni N. and Wendell C. Harp Historical Museum Dixwell Community House (Q House) 197 Dixwell Avenue, 2nd Floor, New Haven www.dixwellqhouse.org

NOT FOR SALE

March 4 – May 14, 2023 NXTHVN 169 Henry Street, New Haven www.nxthvn.org

A Filmmaker-Photographer Looks Back To Focus Forward

by Lucy Gellman, Editor, The Arts Paper newhavenarts.org

A mother runs her daughter’s hair gently through her palms, her hands a sudsy ballet. The little girl leans back, completely at peace. Her shoulders gleam. Her eyes close; there’s just the hint of a smile in her still-baby cheeks. It’s just bath time, but the moment feels holy. A singing drumbeat hammers steadily away beneath the frame.

The scene is part of Nappy, a graduate thesis film from photographer and filmmaker Lydia Douglas that turns 25 this year. From now through the end of March, her exhibition How I See Us runs at the Kellogg Environmental Center in Derby at 500 Hawthorne Ave. For the artist, who also took part in Seven Lenses at Southern Connecticut State University and a celebration of Black hair at ConnCORP earlier this year, it’s part of how her work continues to evolve decades in.

“What I’m doing is capturing us,” she said in an interview on WNHH Community Radio’s “Arts Respond,” a collaboration between WNHH and the Arts Paper. “Most of my subjects are Black people … Black people in the diaspora. I see beauty in us that I don’t know that a lot of people see. And what I want to do is convey what I see and feel when I’m looking at a Black person.”

Initially, Douglas didn’t intend to be a photographer. While her late father was an artist and “I was always interested in photography,” including documenting her family at gatherings, Douglas’ gravitated initially toward fashion design. In high school, she became skilled at making her own clothes, and dreamed of what a career in design might look like. So when she enrolled at the University of New Haven, the discipline seemed like a natural fit.

But at UNH, she realized she didn’t like drawing—the practice of which is necessary for fashion design. She also wasn’t thrilled about taking studio art classes. On

a whim, she slipped a photography class into her schedule, with every intention of going back to painting and studio art. She credits her late friend, fellow UNH alum Alan Lewis, with seeing and fostering her love for the camera and the darkroom.

She never went back to that painting class. She fell in love with the nuance and delicacy of film photography instead. She loved everything about it, she said: the alchemy and quiet of the darkroom, the precision of choosing the right moment, the wait before knowing exactly how a photo would turn out.

“I picked up the camera and I never put it down,” she remembered. By the end of her time at UNH, she was known for her deeply human, often very intimate photographs of Black siblings, parents, families, and friends living their lives. In her work, she found a calling to depict Black people in a way that she didn’t see journalists—most of them white—doing in the mass media. The images are meant to speak to the deep, complex humanity of her subjects.

There’s a print she returns to, for instance, of her late brother with his theninfant daughter lying on his chest. It’s a gentle, fleeting moment, the two enmeshed in a time-limited tableau. In a few years, she will be too old to lay there, sweetly drifting between sleep and wakfulness. And then in a few more, he will be gone. The shutter clicks. She manages to freeze that warmth between them.

“When people look at that, I want them to see the softness in my brother,” she said. “I want them to see the connection between the two of them. I want them to see how the baby trusts him, and how comfortable she is with him. Because there are so many pictures in the media … they don’t always capture us as we really are. Those tender moments aren’t there.”

From photography, she said, film seemed like the logical next step because it would reach more people. In the 1990s, she enrolled in the graduate program in

cinematography at Howard University. Nappy grew out of a thesis proposal focused on Black women and girls, and inspired partly by her photo series Sista Sista. The series contrasts Douglas’ work with depictions of Black women in the media, showing how a white gaze nearly always reduces them to stereotype.

As she crafted the documentary, she was interested in women who were choosing to wear their hair natural, sometimes for the first time since very early childhood. There was something necessary and exhilarating in the pushback against a European standard of beauty, she said—it had never spoken to her lived experience, and was never meant for Black women. Instead, the idea that straight, frizz- and volume-free

“When Black women wear their hair natural, it is a political statement,” she said. “Even though we may not consciously say, ‘I’m trying to make a political statement, I’m gonna shave my head,’ [if] you do it, it’s a political statement because you’re going up against the status quo.”

It was personal too. Douglas grew up with her mom using a hot comb, and later fought with her about natural hair. If she went to church over the weekend as a kid, she had to straighten it first. When she tried to learn how to swim, she found that swim caps had never been made with Black women in mind. She was 19 years old when she shaved her hair off for the first time.

To find participants, she placed a classified ad in the Washington City Paper, an alt weekly that has since survived in digital form. In particular, she said, she specified that women and girls “had to wear their hair natural as a commitment,” she said. That meant no chemical treatments, no hot combs, no flat irons, no blow dryers. In the film, there is only one exception, a mother who blow-drys her daugh-

Con’t on page 12

Photo: Pari Dukovic

THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL

Photographer and filmmaker Lydia Douglas (at left, in the purple) at an opening reception for Seven Lenses at SCSU last month. Lucy Gellman File Photo.

Eastern receives state grant to launch nursing program

Written by Ed Osborn

Eastern Connecticut State University is receiving a $1.2 million grant from the Connecticut Health Horizons project, a three-year, $35 million program established by the state to address the nursing shortage in Connecticut.

The grant, announced on March 1 by Terrence Cheng, president of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities System, will fund equipment and faculty positions in Eastern’s new Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree. The new major, which awaits approval by the Board of Regents of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities System, is scheduled to enroll its first students this coming fall 2023 semester.

Although 3,000 new nurses are needed each year in Connecticut, nursing schools in the state are graduating only 1,900 new candidates, according to the Governor’s Workforce Council. Connecticut Health Horizons data notes that the state’s nursing programs can accept only 25% of qualified students due to the lack of faculty and clinical placements.

In 2022, Gov. Ned Lamont introduced the Connecticut Health Horizons project to address the nursing shortage. The threeyear initiative brings together the Office of Workforce Strategy, other state agencies, the state’s community college and state university system, the University of Connecticut, the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, and the Connecticut Hospital Association. Elements of the project include tuition assistance

for low-income students, nursing school faculty recruitment and retention, and employer-higher education partnerships.

At the March 1 press conference, Cheng was joined by Kelli-Marie Vallieres, chief workforce officer of the Connecticut Office of Workforce Strategy, and other Connecticut Health Horizon partners. A total of $30.5 million in grant funds was announced for 20 public and private colleges and universities in Connecticut.

Eastern will use the $1.2 million from the state for instructional equipment and

three new faculty positions beginning in academic year 2024–25. In addition to these state funds, Eastern’s BSN program is being supported by Hartford HealthCare, which plans to construct a clinical simulation lab at Windham Hospital for use by Eastern students and faculty. In addition to renovations at the hospital, Hartford HealthCare is also providing staff to serve as adjunct faculty as well as clinical placements for Eastern’s nursing students.

“I applaud our state officials for their

response to the critical nursing shortage in Connecticut and beyond,” said Eastern President Elsa Núñez. “President Cheng’s announcement provides a crucial infusion of funds to jump start our nursing program, and we are very grateful for that support. I am also pleased that we have Hartford HealthCare as our working partner on this initiative. With their support, our students will receive important handson instruction as well as invaluable clinical placements as they get ready for professional nursing positions. We will not only be part of the solution to the nursing shortage, Eastern will be preparing dozens of nursing students for rewarding, meaningful careers.”

“Hartford HealthCare is pleased to work with Eastern to create a Bachelor of Science in Nursing program,” said Dr. Rocco Orlando, senior vice president and chief academic officer at Hartford HealthCare. “Connecticut faces a profound nursing shortage and this program will help alleviate that.”

Eastern’s new four-year baccalaureate degree in nursing will be cohort-based; the first group of students enrolled this coming fall will progress through the program at the same time. Courses planned for the major include Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, as well as Human Anatomy and Physiology, Pharmacology, and Nutrition for Nursing. Specialty areas will include Maternal and Newborn Care Nursing, Geriatric Nursing, Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, and Community and Public Health Nursing.

In addition to science classes, courses in nursing practice and hands-on learning experiences, students in the new program will gain leadership and decision-making skills while becoming patient advocates and knowledgeable about health care disparities among vulnerable populations.

Equipment that will be used by fac-

ulty and students on Eastern’s campus includes a virtual dissection table; high fidelity simulators—manikins that mimic human physiology; specialized manikins such as trauma, birthing and pediatrics; and a skills/demonstration lab. The simulation facility being built at Windham Hospital by Hartford HealthCare will provide additional clinical training.

“Our faculty are excited about the opportunity to provide instruction and guidance to prepare students for careers as professional nurses,” said Yaw Nsiah, professor and chair of the Department of Health Sciences. “With Eastern’s expert faculty and outstanding teaching facilities, coupled with the support from our partners at Hartford HealthCare, we look forward to launching our Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree this coming fall.”

Students completing the degree will be eligible to take the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Licensing Examination–RN. The program will also seek accreditation from the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education and the Connecticut State Board of Nurse Examiners.

About the Connecticut Health Horizons Project

Connecticut Health Horizons is financed through the federal American Rescue Plan Act–Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Funds awarded to the State of Connecticut by the U.S. Department of the Treasury (FAIN: SLFRP0128). Connecticut Health Horizons is a collaborative partnership that includes the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities System, the Office of Workforce Strategy (OWS), multiple state agencies, the University of Connecticut, the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges and the Connecticut Hospital Association. For more information, visit https://www. ct.edu/cthealth.

Health Sciences Prof. Yaw Nsiah Students in nursing program

How Mary Ann Shadd used her law degree and newspaper to fight for women’s rights

Stephen Nartey, Face2FaceAfrica.com

Mary Ann Shadd Cary is considered one of the towering feminists of the 19th century. She defined her own narrative of what the contemporary woman should be, challenged those who were bent on asserting the status quo, and won with her definition; it was non-negotiable.

She was born on October 9, 1823, in Wilmington, Delaware, as a freeborn in an era where the system disadvantaged African Americans. Though many blacks were free in Delaware, there was limited access to education for their children. As a result of this, Mary Ann’s parents relocated to West Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1833 to provide an enabling environment for their daughter and enable her to pursue her dreams. She was enrolled in a Quaker boarding school until she turned 16, and took on teaching jobs in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New York City when she graduated.

She was committed to making education accessible for black children, and when the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850, she saw it as an opportunity to

pursue this agenda. Mary Ann relocated to Windsor, Canada, to live among the expatriate community of African Americans, and began teaching at integrated schools, producing her educational materials such as the pamphlet Notes of Canada West.

She wanted many African Americans to move to the North, where she enjoyed unlimited opportunities, and was able to establish her own weekly newspaper, the Provincial Freeman in Chatham, a small city east of Windsor, in March 1853 to fight the systemic barriers. She handled the reporting, editing, and selling of ads and subscriptions for the newspaper while working as a teacher, according to the library of congress. She was also a gifted orator, and honored speaking engagements on issues centering on racial segregation and discrimination. In 1855, she wooed a crowd at the Colored National Convention in Philadelphia.

Mary Ann married Thomas Cary, who operated a number of barbershops in Toronto, and had two children. He however died in 1860, leaving Mary Ann as a single mother; a tragedy which occurred

when her newspaper business was crawling. Her life, however, took a different twist during the Civil War when the U.S. Army appointed her as a recruiting officer, making her the first black woman to be given that position. She was influential in recruiting African Americans in Indiana.

When she was discharged, she applied to Howard University to offer law, and graduated in 1870, making her the first black woman to get a law degree in the United States. She honed this knowledge to assist women’s rights groups and was part of 600 citizens who endorsed a petition to the House Judiciary Committee, demanding for women’s right to vote.

Mary Ann was also a member of the National Woman Suffrage Association and founded the Colored Women’s Progressive Franchise Association in the 1880s. She used her knowledge of the law to help the black community deal with legal issues and left a legacy as a torchbearer for women’s rights and equality for African Americans. She passed away in June 1893.

Mary Ann Shadd

CDC Recommends All Adults Get Tested for Hepatitis B

has decreased significantly in the last 30 years, the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says it is still a problem for African Americans.

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent@StacyBrownMedia

The U.S. Centers for Control and Prevention have issued a new recommendation urging all adults to receive screening for hepatitis B at least once in their lifetime.

The agency describes hepatitis B (HBV) as a liver infection caused by the HBV virus. It can progress to liver cancer and other serious illnesses.

CDC officials said as many as 2.4 million people live with HBV, and most might not know they have it. A severe infection could lead to chronic HBV, which could increase a person’s risk of getting cancer or cirrhosis.

Further, the CDC said those diagnosed with chronic or long-term HBV are up to 85% more likely to succumb to an early death.

“Chronic HBV infection can lead to substantial morbidity and mortality but is detectable before the development of severe liver disease using reliable and inexpensive screening tests,” CDC officials stated.

Even though the number of people with HBV has decreased significantly in the last 30 years, the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says it is still a problem for African Americans.

That office reported that, in 2020, nonHispanic blacks would be 1.4 times more likely to die from viral hepatitis than nonHispanic whites.

Also, non-Hispanic blacks were almost

twice as likely to die from hepatitis C as white individuals.

Further, while having comparable case rates for HBV in 2020, non-Hispanic blacks were 2.5 times more likely to die from HBV than non-Hispanic whites. Medical officials noted that HBV spreads through contact with infected blood or bodily fluids, which can occur through sex, injecting drugs, or during pregnancy or delivery.

The CDC previously issued a recommendation in 2008, when it urged testing

for high-risk individuals. In its most recent recommendation, the agency said that adults over 18 must be tested at least once.

The agency declared that pregnant individuals should also undergo screening during each pregnancy, regardless of whether they’ve received a vaccine or have been previously tested. Additionally, incarcerated individuals, those with multiple sex partners, or people with a history of hepatitis C should test periodically, the CDC said.

The agency warned that symptoms of acute HBV could include fever, fatigue, abdominal pain, dark urine, and jaundice. Symptoms could take several months or longer to present and last for months.

The CDC’s latest report further notes the following:

• It’s estimated more than half of people who have the hepatitis B virus (HBV) don’t know they’re infected. Without treatment and monitoring, HBV infection can lead to deadly health outcomes, including liver damage and liver cancer.

• The report updates and expands previous guidelines for HBV screening and testing by recommending screening for all U.S. adults and expanding continual periodic risk-based testing to include more groups, activities, exposures, and conditions.

• Providers should implement the new CDC hepatitis B screening and testing recommendations to ensure all adults are screened for HBV infection with the triple-panel at least once in their lifetimes and that people who are not vaccinated for hepatitis B – but are at increased risk of HBV infection – receive periodic testing.

“Although a curative treatment is not yet available, early diagnosis and treatment of chronic HBV infections reduce the risk for cirrhosis, liver cancer, and death,” CDC officials noted in the report.

“Along with vaccination strategies, universal screening of adults and appropriate testing of persons at increased risk for HBV infection will improve health outcomes, reduce the prevalence of HBV infection in the United States, and advance viral hepatitis elimination goals.”

Con’t

Looks Back To Focus

ter’s hair before braiding it.

As women responded, the project became collaborative, Douglas remembered. Mothers brought along their young children. Subjects in the film recommended their friends. People made music suggestions. At one point early on, almost a dozen women sat together around a table talking about their choice to go natural. What started as a single thesis idea became an entire community.

“It was this really amazing community of Black women that wanted to get this project done,” she said. Within it, she credits some of her own family members, including her aunt Lily and late father. Following the film, she stayed in touch with a few of the women, including an aunt of hers who lives in Connecticut and has long worn her hair natural. Subject Zakiya Carr, who Douglas documents as she has her head shaved, has become a champion of the film in her own work on Afro-Latinidad. She is currently working to get the film translated into Spanish, she said.

Two and a half decades later, she’s struck by how relevant the film still feels. In the United States, the C.R.O.W.N. (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) Act, barring discrimination against natural hair, only became a movement in 2019, and came to Connecticut two years ago. She closely follows the growing number of lawsuits that point to a link between hair relaxer and certain reproductive cancers. And when she looks around, she said, she still sees an overwhelming bent towards relaxed styles over natural hair.

“We’ve internalized this thing about hating our natural hair,” she said. “Our aunts, our moms, our family members, even some Black men. And then we get discriminated against from the outside community.”

She is also still very moved by the subject, Douglas said—and intends to build on it. Currently, she’s raising funds for a national HBCU and community tour of Nappy, a screening and fundraiser for which took place last Sunday at the Kellogg Environmental Center. In New Haven, she said, locations for the film might include an event at the Dixwell Community Q House or Stetson Branch Library.

She also doesn’t see the subject as done, she said. She still wants to use photography and film to tell the hairstories of Black women and alopecia, Afro-Latinidad, Black men’s feelings on Black women’s hair, and documentary filmmaking on the African continent. A quarter of a century after the film first made its debut, she said, the ideas are still coming.

“When it [the film] first came out, like the first 10 or 15 years, I was very very excited about it,” she said. “So now, I just have to keep that excitement up by constantly showing the work. Making new work, showing it in different places, and just being out there in the public.”

Even though the number of people with HBV

YALE SCHOOL OF MUSIC ELLINGTON JAZZ SERIES PRESENTS

EPITAPH: 100 YEARS OF MINGUS

APRIL 2, 2023 | 2 P.M. | WOOLSEY HALL

In celebration of Charles Mingus’ 100th birthday, the Ellington Jazz Series presents the revered Mingus Big Band, with Grammy Award-winning saxophonist, YSM Lecturer in Jazz, and Director of the Yale Jazz Ensembles Wayne Escoffery and Yale students, in a performance, conducted by Escoffery and trombonist Frank Lacy, of Mingus’ idiosyncratic jazz-orchestra epic, Epitaph. This rarely performed, enigmatic work reflects the genius of its composer while defying all categorization and offers the world an experience of the man himself and of the ideas that filled him.

Tickets from $23, students $10 | music-tickets.yale.edu

What Asian American Oscar Victories Mean for All of Us

By Emil Guillermo

After the Oscars, when Asian Americans were everywhere on the winners list, from actors, writers, directors, but also makeup artists, and not just in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” but also in movies like “The Whale,” I turn to the Oakland playwright Ishmael Reed who must be wondering will Asian Americans now go for the Whiteness Prize?

(I consider Asian American to be a generic term, indicating people of Asian descent either living or working not necessarily indicative of their citizenship status.)

I’m in New York as an actor in “The Conductor,” the latest Reed production now off-Broadway (get your in-person or live-streamed tickets here: https://theaterforthenewcity.net/shows/the-conductor-2023/).

I play a brown-skinned Tucker Carlsontype on a faux Fox, and very conservative news network.

That’s how good an actor I am!

As an Asian American sometime-actor, I’m gratified to see Asian American creatives take their historic star turn at the Oscars. Asians have won the Academy Award for best supporting actor before, but never has there been a best actor/ actress winner until the Malaysia-born, Hollywood-based Michelle Yeoh last weekend.

There’s something about being a “first.”

A “never before.”

But what’s next?

And that’s where Reed’s play got me thinking.

In Reed’s “The Conductor,” Blacks

start a new underground railroad to help Indian Americans — not American Indians, but those from the continent of India — escape a wave of xenophobia that is forcing them to flee to Canada.

The main character, columnist Warren Chipp is Reed’s alter ego. When a conservative Indian seeks refuge and asks Chipp why the liberal Chipp is being so nice to him, Chipp reveals his grasp of irony.

“Minorities make alliances with us (Blacks) until their admission to the white club is accepted. This happened to the Jews, the Japanese, the Irish, the Italians and now you guys (Asian Indians).”

It’s just one of the provocative asides in

the play, but the historical examples are there.

Says Chipp/Reed: “These groups come running to us when the white man decides to sic mobs on them because of some geopolitical conflict or culture war. Begging us to hide them and save them. And then, when they get an ‘all-clear’ sign, they return to auditioning for whiteness again. Lining up and trampling over each other, asking white people to ‘choose me!’ Some of them even change their names to go Anglo.”

Reed says it’s the root of “Afro-Pessimism.”

What’s that?

It’s a term by Frank Wilderson, as Reed explains, that means Blacks can’t depend upon Blacks’ “junior allies.” Wilderson calls B.S. on intersectionality and says that Blacks “must go it alone.”

After rehearsals and the first four performances, the passages from the play haunt me.

Especially last Sunday. When the Asian Americans were preparing for their Oscar turn, I was off-Broadway living Reed’s play.

Is the Model Minority now back to auditioning for whiteness again?

I hope not. I get what Reed’s saying in his play. But I see the Oscar victory as a win for not just Asian Americans but all BIPOC communities in all their unique narratives.

AAPI stories have a kind of heat now. An independent film about a family with a laundromat dealing with the IRS and the multiverse where people have hotdogs as fingers puts us in a whole new ballgame. We aren’t so weird after all. We’re of immigrant descent, sure. We’re different, yes. But we’re of the modern world and our stories deal in universal truths.

People flocked to “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which gave it some cache as an indie project that was making money. Not like “Top Gun” money, but enough to satisfy Hollywood accountants. Once it caught the attention of the Academy looking for diversity, the film was simply recognized for its off-beat ingenuity and its creative weirdness.

I was having lunch in New York’s Chinatown with a lawyer friend of mine, a Chinese American immigrant and also a

triple Harvard (College, Law School, and MBA) graduate. My friend surprised me when he said he couldn’t understand the hype about “Everything, Everywhere…” He called it unwatchable. He liked the movie “Tar.”

I told him maybe it was generational. Just goes to show you that not everyone, not even Asian Americans are on board with “Everything, Everywhere…”

But the huge victory on Sunday makes the film like a Golden Spike in Hollywood. The track is finally connected and open for AAPI creatives bound for glory.

“Everything, Everywhere…” has put everyone in the equation on notice. We have stories to tell that sell, and that people want to see.

Stories that win Oscars.

I see the phenomenon as a rising Asian American film lifts all boats. And with AAPI at just over 6% of the population, I don’t buy the “Afro-Pessimism” idea in his play.

We can’t go it alone. We don’t have the numbers. We need each other.

Like anything worthwhile, it’s going to have to be done together.

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. See his vlog on http://www. amok.com And see “The Conductor” in person or live-streamed tickets here: https://theaterforthenewcity.net/shows/ the-conductor-2023/

The post What Asian American Oscar Victories Mean for All of Us first appeared on Post News Group. This article originally appeared in Post News Group.

Angella Reid, the second Black person to manage the White House as chief usher

by Stephen Nartey, Face2FaceAfrica.com

She made headlines on international news sites when she was fired by the Trump administration, especially given that her position was non-partisan, but buried in the news glut was the history she made. In 2011, Angella Reid became the first woman, the second African American, and the ninth person to be named chief usher at the White House. She played a supervisory role in the construction, remodeling, food, administrative, and personal functions at the White House.

For someone born in the St. Thomas parish of Jamaica, securing such jobs was in her wildest dreams, but as they say, every dream is possible. She applied for the role with modest hope, and soon, the Obama administration offered her the job. She had a high school education in Kingston, Jamaica, before moving to the United States.

Angella spent 25 years in the hospitality industry before taking up her role at the White House. She holds a degree in Hospitality Management from the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft School in Munich, Germany, and is conversational in German and basic Spanish. She started her career at the Half Moon Club in Jamaica and later rose to the position of General Manager at The Ritz- Carlton, Pentagon City, Arlington, Virginia.

According to CNN, from the day she received her appointment details, Angella managed the White House and the residence of staff working abroad. She was tasked to ensure that all operations and activities within the Executive residence and its grounds were in top state.

As the chief usher, she maintained a close relationship with the White House Historical Association, the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, and other related entities to take care of and

preserve the historic People’s House. She also took care of the annual inventory of the White House property, which is operated by the Office of the Curator and the National Park Service.

Angela did not find her job at the White House any different from her earlier role, the only difference this time around was to add the glamour and class of her over two-decade experience to bear on the historic House. While in charge of Ritz Carlton, Angella managed properties in Miami, Washington, D.C., Florida, Arlington, and Virginia.

She once told CNN when she was appointed to the White House, she was bewildered by how her feet walked on history. She wondered about the Presidents and the First Ladies who had walked in the hallway as any other guests, according to the Obama White House Archives. She may have lost her job due to partisan influences, but she left a big legacy for the black community.

Angella Reid/Photo credit: Vanity Fair

FREE CONSTRUCTION TRAINING & JOBS!

COME IN PERSON TO APPLY AND PROVIDE YOUR REQUIRED DOCUMENTS. TRAINING WILL BEGIN IN THE FOLLOWING WEEKS. SIGN UP ONLINE TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT! WWW.CWI2.COM/APPLY

BRIDGEPORT NORWALK

MARCH 15TH THRU MARCH 17TH 11 AM - 6 PM

NORWALK CITY HALL, 125 EAST AVENUE, NORWALK, CT 06851

NEW HAVEN

MARCH 20TH THRU MARCH 24TH 11 AM - 6 PM 446 BLAKE ST, NEW HAVEN, CT 06515

Cathay Williams —

The Only Known Female Buffalo Soldier

Cathay Williams knew that she couldn’t volunteer to serve as a regular soldier in the U.S. military. But knowing didn’t stop her. The young girl who had once labored as a house slave on the Johnson Plantation in Jefferson City, Missouri devised a plan to enlist in the U.S. Regular Army: she would register under the pseudonym William Cathay.

As contraband, or a captured slave, Williams served as an army cook and a washerwoman, traveling with the infantry all over the country while serving under General Philip Sheridan. This experience with the military didn’t satisfy Williams; she wanted more. Military service held the lure of independence for a young, unmarried former slave.

On Nov. 15, 1866, the 17-year-old, born to an enslaved mother and a free father in Independence, Missouri in 1844, enlisted for a three-year engagement, passing herself off as a man.

At the time, the army did not require full medical examinations. After passing the physical tests, Williams was assigned to the 38th U.S. Infantry Regiment, one of four all-Black units newly formed that year. The regiment would later be known as the Buffalo Soldiers.

This excerpt, dated Jan. 2, 1876, was pulled from an interview with the St. Louis Daily Times: “The regiment I joined wore the Zouave uniform and only two persons, a cousin and a particular friend, members of the regiment, knew that I was a woman. They never ‘blowed’ on me. They were partly the cause of my joining the army. Another reason was I wanted to

make my own living and not be dependent on relations or friends.

“Soon after I joined the army, I was taken with the smallpox and was sick at a hospital across the river from St. Louis,

but as soon as I got well, I joined my company in New Mexico. I was as that paper says, I was never put in the guard house, no bayonet was ever put to my back. I carried my musket and did guard and other duties while in the army, but finally I got tired and wanted to get off. I played sick, complained of pains in my side, and rheumatism in my knees.

“The post surgeon found out I was a woman and I got my discharge. The men all wanted to get rid of me after they found out I was a woman. Some of them acted real bad to me.”

Williams was discharged honorably by her commanding officer, Captain Charles E. Clarke, on Oct. 14, 1868.

After leaving the army, Williams moved to Pueblo, Colorado, where she again worked as a cook and washerwoman. She was married for a short time and bore no children. There are no official records of her death, however, it is estimated that she passed away sometime around 1893.

What Makes Cathay Williams

An American Hero: Though over 400 women served in the Civil War posing as male soldiers, Williams was the first African American woman to enlist and the only documented woman to serve in the United States Army, while disguised as a man, during the Indian Wars. Williams is also the only known female Buffalo Soldier. Williams’ determination to serve her country demonstrates the extraordinary feats women have accomplished simply trying to live their lives.

Cathay Williams

The Wire’ & ‘John Wick’ Actor Passes Away at 57

by Jenny A. Casiano, BlackDoctor.org

Fans of the hit HBO show “The Wire” and the high-octaine action movies “John Wick” are saddened by the passing of its stars. Lance Reddick, a veteran character actor known for his performance as Cedric Daniels on “The Wire” and for his work in the “John Wick” franchise, passed away of natural causes at the age of 60, according to his representative, Mia Hansen.

His “Wire” co-star Wendell Pierce remembered Reddick as a “man of great strength and grace” in a tribute on Friday. “As talented a musician as he was an actor,” Pierce wrote. “The epitome of class. A sudden unexpected sharp painful grief for our artistic family. An unimaginable suffering for his personal family and loved ones. Godspeed my friend. You made your mark here.”

“Shocked!! Speechless!! This talented, kind, intelligent King is gone!! I was blessed to have worked with you and blessed to have known you,” actress Viola Davis wrote in a tribute on Instagram. “Praying for comfort for your family and loved ones! Rest well Lance Reddick….. see you on the other side.”

Reddick was often put in a suit or a crisp

uniform during his career, playing tall, taciturn and elegant men of distinction.

“I’m an artist at heart. I feel that I’m very good at what I do. When I went to drama school, I knew I was at least as talented as other students, but because I was a Black man and I wasn’t pretty, I knew I would have to work my butt off to be the best that I would be, and to be noticed,” Reddick told the Los Angeles Times in 2009.

Reddick also starred on the Fox series “Fringe” as a special agent Phillip Broyles, the smartly-dressed Matthew Abaddon on “Lost”.

As a teenager growing up in Baltimore, he had intended to become a musician, he once told The Guardian. He fell into acting as a means of supporting his young family and in hopes of laying a base for a music career.

He began earning roles in regional theater and at 29, he applied- and was accepted – to Yale University to study drama, eventually graduating.

In New York, he first auditioned for “Wire” creator David Simon for his project “The Corner,” an HBO miniseries that came two years before Simon’s “The Wire.”

After being asked about his role on the

critically-acclaimed “The Wire,” Reddick admits he had no idea that it would be that well-received.

“I thought it would be a hit but I didn’t anticipate that it would take so long to catch on, or that it would become this phenomenon,” Reddick told the Guardian. “Or that it would be so ignored by the industry. That really floored me, because I knew how good we were; we all did.”

He went on to book his first regular role on HBO’s “Oz,” where he played an undercover detective posing as an inmate.

Reddick’s Joh Wick co-star, Keanu Reeves, issued a statement to share his shock with his fans.

“We are deeply saddened and heartbroken at the loss of our beloved friend and colleague Lance Reddick,” Reeves, 58, and director Chad Stahelski said in a joint statement to Variety.

“He was the consummate professional and a joy to work with. Our love and prayers are with his wife Stephanie, his children, family and friends.”

The duo said they will dedicate John Wick: Chapter 4, which is set to be released in cinemas on March 23, to Reddick’s “loving memory”.

“We will miss him dearly,” they said, Page Six reports.

Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb

NOTICE

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING FOR THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF BRIDGEPORT (HACB) SIGNIFICANT AMENDMENT TO THE FY2022 ANNUAL PLAN

Town of Bloomfield

Assistant Director of Human Resources

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

The Housing Authority of the City of Bridgeport d/b/a Park City Communities (PCC) plans to incorporate a significant amendment into its FY2022 Annual Plan. Copies of the plan and the significant amendment are available on the agency’s website www. parkcitycommunities.org.

VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this development located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

Members of the public are invited to provide written comments addressed to: Park City Communities, Significant Amendment FY2022 Annual Plan; Attn: Phoebe Greenfield, 150 Highland Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06604 or via email to: agencyplans@parkcitycommunities.org. The forty-five (45) days comment period begins on February 24, 2023, and ends on April 10, 2023. All comments must be received by April 10, 2023.

$79,596 to $122,857 –expected starting pay maximum is mid-range Pre-employment drug testing. For more details, visit our website –www.bloomfieldct.org

Request for Proposals

Fully Integrated Web Based Housing Authority Software

Elm City Communities is currently seeking proposals for a full integrated web-based housing authority software. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

Monday, March 13, 2023 at 3:00PM.

NOTICIA

Please be advised the Public Hearing will be held on Tuesday April 12, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. via Zoom. The Zoom Link will be placed on PCC’s website. Please note, participants are limited to the first one hundred, (100) call-ins. The public hearing is scheduled for ninety (60) minutes and address concerns by residents and general public.

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

Water Quality Inspector

HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510

Town of Bloomfield Finance Director

Salary Range - $101,455 to $156,599 (expected starting pay maximum is mid-range)

Payroll

Performs responsible specialized work in protecting the quality of the water supply and distribution system for the Town of Wallingford, CT. Requires an Associate’s degree in environmental science or sanitary engineering, plus 3 years of experience in a water utility. Successful candidates must have a valid Connecticut driver’s license and be in possession or be eligible for a Class I Water Treatment Plant or Distribution System Operator Certification and Certification as a General Backflow Preventers, Tester and Cross-Connection Survey Inspector issued by the State of Connecticut. The Town offers a competitive pay rate of $27.79-$33.76 per hour plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply: Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main St., Wallingford, CT 06492. Forms will be mailed upon request from the Department of Human Resources or maybe downloaded from the Department of Human Resources Web Page. The closing date will be that date the 50th application form/ resume is received, or March 7, 2023 whichever occurs first. (203) 294-2080. Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE

Fully Benefited – 35 hours weekly Pre-employment drug testing. For more details, visit our website –www.bloomfieldct.org

Portland

Police Officer full-time

Go to www.portlandct.org for details

NEW HAVEN

242-258 Fairmont Ave

2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA

POLICE OFFICER

All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 highways, near bus stop & shopping center

Payroll Clerk- Performs responsible office work in the processing of all general government payrolls and maintain all payroll records. The position requires a H.S. diploma or G.E.D, plus 5 years of experience in responsible office work involving typing, accounting, bookkeeping, data entry and payroll processing. $27.22 to $32.68 hourly plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply: Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Forms will be mailed upon request from the Department of Human Resources or maybe downloaded from the Department of Human Resources Web Page. The closing date will be the date that the 50th application form/resume is received, or April 10, 2023, whichever occurs first. EOE

INVITATION TO BID

Subcontractors are invited to bid on the Temple Pine Renovations. 555 Pool Rd, North Haven, CT 06473. The project consists of Reno to 30 Apartment Units, Exterior Envelope Replacement, and sitework.

QSR STEEL CORPORATION

Invitation to Bid: 2nd Notice

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

APPLY NOW!

BIDS DUE 2:00 PM, April 07, 2023. Send email to kmcdonnell@pacgroupllc.com for copy of the detailed Invite and Trade Bid Packages. Project partially funded by DOH. This project is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements. An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Minority/Women's Business Enterprises are encouraged to apply.

Old Saybrook, CT (4 Buildings, 17 Units)

Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258

Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders

Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project

Top pay for top performers. Health Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT

Listing: Lead Installer

CT. Unified Deacon’s Association is pleased to offer a Deacon’s Certificate Program. This is a 10 month program designed to assist in the intellectual formation of Candidates in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016

3:30 Contact: Chairman, Deacon Joe J. Davis, M.S., B.S.

1:30-

(203) 996-4517 Host,General Bishop Elijah Davis, D.D. Pastor ofPitts Chapel U.F.W.B. Church 64 Brewster St. New Haven, CT

The Wallingford Police Department is seeking qualified applicants for Police Officer. $ 1,301.20 weekly plus an excellent fringe benefit package to include a defined benefit pension plan. The written and oral exam processes will be administered by the South Central Criminal Justice Administration. To apply, candidates must register through the South Central Criminal Justice Administration webpage found under the “Associations” menu at www.policeapp.com by the registration deadline of Wednesday, April 5, 2023. The registration requires a fee of $ 85.00. EOE

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

THE GLENDOWER GROUP, INC.

Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

Request for Proposals Financial Underwriter

A pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

The Glendower Group, Inc. is currently seeking proposals for a financial underwriter. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Glendower’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castin-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection. This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management

HVAC department has an opening for an experienced, full time, lead installer for all mechanical systems (Hydronic, Duct-less, RTU’s). Candidate must possess a minimum D2 license, EPA Certificate, and a minimum of 5 years experience. Benefits, 401k, Paid Time Off, Company Vehicle. Send resume to: HR Manager, P. O. Box 388, Guilford, CT 06437 or email HRDept@eastriverenergy.com

**An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer**

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016

Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016

The Town of East Haven is currently accepting applications to participate in the examinations for the following positions:

Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

Secretary II, Grade Level 10-$21.36/hour.

Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for a Fiscal/Administrative Officer. Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions are available at: https://www.jobapscloud.com/ CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?b=&R1= 230309&R2=1308AR&R3=001

Account Clerk, Payroll-$55,412.00/year

HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 AA/EEO EMPLOYER

beginning on Monday, March 6, 2023 at 3:00PM.

Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority Office, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

Information regarding qualifications and job duties are available along with the application online at https://www.townofeasthavenct.org/civil-service-commission/pages/ job-notices-and-tests or from the Civil Service Office, 250 Main Street, East Haven and must be returned by March 17, 2023. The Town of East Haven is committed to building a workforce of diverse individuals. Minorities, Females, Handicapped and Veterans are encouraged to apply.

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks:

Construction

South Central Regional Council of Governments (SCRCOG)

“Metropolitan Transportation Plan 2023-2050” Review

NOTICE

Construction Equipment Mechanic preferably experienced in Reclaiming and Road Milling Equipment. We offer factory training on equipment we operate. Location: Bloomfield CT

We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits

VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

Contact: Tom Dunay

Phone: 860- 243-2300

Seeking to employ experienced individuals in the labor, foreman, operator and teamster trades for a heavy outside work statewide. Reliable personal transportation and a valid drivers license required. To apply please call (860) 6211720 or send resume to: Personnel Department, P.O. Box 368, Cheshire, CT06410.

The public is invited to offer comments on the Region’s Metropolitan Transportation Plan 2023-2050. This plan guides major transportation and transit investment in the Region and also updates air quality conformity. A copy of the plan is available at www.scrcog.org.

Email: tom.dunay@garrityasphalt.com

Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

Garrity Asphalt Reclaiming, Inc seeks: Reclaimer Operators and Milling Operators with current licensing and clean driving record, be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits

HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this development located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/V Drug Free Workforce

PVC FENCE PRODUCTION

Public comments may be emailed to jrode@scrcog.org or mailed to James Rode, Principal Planner, South Central Regional Council of Governments, 127 Washington Avenue, 4th Floor West, North Haven, CT 06473 with receipt, in both cases, by no later than April 8, 2023.

Key Dates

February 22 - April 8, 2023: Public Comment Period

March 8, 2023 @ 1:00 PM - Informal Public Meeting*

April 8, 2023 @ 12:00 PM – Transportation Committee Meeting – Review*

VALENTINA

NOTICIA

Contact: Rick Tousignant Phone: 860- 243-2300

MACRI

Email: rick.tousignant@garrityasphalt.com

VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

Large CT Fence Company looking for an individual for our PVC Fence Production Shop. Experience preferred but will train the right person. Must be familiar with carpentry hand & power tools and be able to read a CAD drawing and tape measure. Use of CNC Router machine a plus but not required, will train the right person. This is an in-shop production position. Duties include building fence panels, posts, gates and more. Must have a valid CT driver’s license & be able to obtain a Drivers Medical Card. Must be able to pass a physical and drug test. Please email resume to pboucher@atlasoutdoor.com.

April 26, 2023 @ 10:00 AM – SCRCOG Policy Board – Approve*

*All meetings at SCRCOG, 127 Washington Avenue, 4th Floor West, North Haven, CT

Union Company seeks:

Tractor Trailer Driver for Heavy & Highway Construction Equipment. Must have a CDL License, clean driving record, capable of operating heavy equipment; be willing to travel throughout the Northeast & NY. We offer excellent hourly rate & excellent benefits

HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510

Contact Dana at 860-243-2300

Email: dana.briere@garrityasphalt.com

Women & Minority Applicants are encouraged to apply Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Employer

NEW HAVEN

242-258 Fairmont Ave

AA/EOE-MF

Full Time Administrative assistant position

for a steel & misc metals fabrication shop who will oversee the daily operations of clerical duties such as answering phones, accounts payable purchase orders/invoicing and certified payroll. Email resumes to jillherbert@gwfabrication.com

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR Exterior Insulation and Finish (EIFS) Repairs at D’Amato Building in New Britain, CT

THE HOUSING AUTHORITY of the CITY OF NEW BRITAIN (Authority) will receive sealed bids, in TRIPLICATE, The work generally consists of the repair of EIFS at one building. Bids will be received until March 7, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. at the office of the Authority, 16 Armistice Street, New Britain, CT 06053, at which time they will be publicly opened and read aloud.

Invitation to Bid: 2nd Notice

State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management

To obtain a copy of the "Request for Proposal and drawings" visit www.nbhact.org under procurement

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

Old Saybrook, CT (4 Buildings, 17 Units)

INVITATION TO BID

Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project

Subcontractors are invited to bid on the Downtown Evening Kitchen Addition and Renovations. 266 State St New Haven, CT 06510. The project consists of new Stair/ Elevator Addition 850sf, and Gut Reno 5,400sf to the 4 Floors. BIDS DUE 2:00 PM, April 07, 2023. Send email to ngorneault@pacgroupllc.com for copy of the detailed Invite and Trade Bid Packages. Project partially funded by DECD, DOH, DEM. This project is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements. An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Minority/Women's Business Enterprises are encouraged to apply.

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castin-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection. This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for a Fiscal and Program Policy Section Director. Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions are available at: https://www.jobapscloud.com/ CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?b=&R1= 230303&R2=1585MP&R3=001

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016

Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

Invitation for Bids

LIPH Carting, Rubbish & Recycling Removal Services

Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com

HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483 AA/EEO EMPLOYER

Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids for LIPH carting, rubbish and recycling removal services. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at 3:00PM.

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

NOTICE

Request for Proposals

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Request for Proposals

Fully Integrated Web Based Housing Authority Software

VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

Fully Integrated Web Based Housing Authority Software

Elm City Communities is currently seeking proposals for a full integrated web-based housing authority software. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

Monday, March 13, 2023 at 3:00PM.

HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this development located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

360 MANAGEMENT GROUP, CO.

NOTICIA

State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management

Elm City Communities is currently seeking proposals for a full integrated web-based housing authority software. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

Monday, March 13, 2023 at 3:00PM.

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Invitation for Bids

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

Invitation for Bids TRASH REMOVAL ALL SITES

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for a Fiscal and Program Policy Section Director.

Bid Package #1 Scattered Sites East – CO and Smoke Detectors

360 Management Group, Co. is currently seeking bids for trash removal services. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from 360 Management Group’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

Monday, March 20, 2023 at 3:00PM.

HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510

Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions are available at: https://www.jobapscloud.com/ CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?b=&R1= 230303&R2=1585MP&R3=001

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids for bid package #1 scattered sites east – CO and Smoke Detectors. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

Monday, February 6, 2023 at 3:00PM.

360 MANAGEMENT GROUP, CO.

MINORITY

NEW HAVEN

242-258 Fairmont Ave

2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA

All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 highways, near bus stop & shopping center Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258

CONTRACTOR OPPORTUNITY – Waltersville Commons –Bridgeport, CT SOLICITATION OF SBE/MBE CONTRACTORS: Enterprise Builders, Inc., an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer, seeks certified SBE/ MBE Subcontractors and/or suppliers and local business enterprises to bid applicable sections of work/equipment/supplies for the following construction project: Waltersville Commons, project consists of a conversion of two existing buildings into 70 new apartment units, additional there will be some historic renovation work involved. Bid Date and Time: April 14, 2023 at 10:00am. Electronic Plans and specifications can be obtained at no charge by contacting the Estimating Department at Enterprise Builders at (860) 466-5188 or by email to bids@enterbuilders.com. Project is Taxable on Renovation (labor and material) and prevailing wage rates DO NOT apply. This project is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements. EBI encourages the participation of certified SBE/MBE contractors. EBI is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

ELETRIC UTILITY GENERAL MANAGER

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

Invitation for Bids Landscaping Mill River

360 Management Group, Co. is currently seeking bids for landscaping services at Mill River. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from 360 Management Group’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems. com/gateway beginning on

Old Saybrook, CT (4 Buildings, 17 Units)

Monday, March 20, 2023 at 3:00PM.

Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castin-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection. This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

Request for Proposals

Payroll Services & HR Management Systems

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

A pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority Office, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

The Town of Wallingford Electric Division seeks a strong manager and leader to direct all aspects of a municipal-owned electric utility located 10 miles from New Haven, CT. The electric utility serves 25,000 customers in a 50+ square mile distribution area with a peak demand of 130 MW and an excellent rate structure. This executive-level position involves responsibility for planning, directing, and coordinating all of the activities necessary for the efficient operation of the utility. Applicants should possess 12 years of progressively responsible experience in the electric utility field including at least 5 years in a management position, plus a bachelor's degree from a recognized college or university in electrical, mechanical, civil, or environmental engineering, business or public administration, or related field, or an equivalent combination of education and qualifying experience substituting on a year-for-year basis. Salary: $137,774 to $176,287 annually, plus an excellent fringe benefits package that includes medical insurance, pension plan, paid sick and vacation time. Applications may be downloaded from the Department of Human Resources Web Page and can be mailed to the Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492, or emailed to: wlfdhr@wallingfordct.gov by the closing date of April 17, 2023. Phone: (203) 294-2080; Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any informalities in the bidding, if such actions are in the best interest of the

EOE

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016

Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016

Elm City Communities is currently seeking proposals Payroll Services & HR Management Systems. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

Monday, March 13, 2023 at 3:00PM.

The Guilford Housing Authority is currently accepting applications for one bedroom apartments at Sachem Hollow in Guilford, CT. Applicants must be age 62 and over or on 100% social security or federal disability and over the age of 18. Applications may be obtained by calling the application line at 203-453-6262 EXT: 107. Applications will be accepted until end of business day or postmark of March 20, 2023 4PM. Credit, police, landlord checks are procured by the Authority. Smoking is prohibited in the units and building.

REQUEST FOR INTEREST

NOTICE

Solar Voltaic Power Panel System Installations

Town of Bloomfield

Patrol Police Officer

Listing: Dispatcher

VALENTINA MACRI RENTAL HOUSING PRE- APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

New Haven Parking Authority

New Haven, Connecticut NHPA Project #23-049

Responses due April 11, 2023 at 3:00 p.m. EDT

Documents regarding the Request for Interest are available at no cost on the New Haven Parking Authority’s website at https://parknewhaven.com/request-forbids/. Any subsequent addenda will also be posted on this website.

New Haven Parking Authority is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

HOME INC, on behalf of Columbus House and the New Haven Housing Authority, is accepting pre-applications for studio and one-bedroom apartments at this development located at 108 Frank Street, New Haven. Maximum income limitations apply. Pre-applications will be available from 9AM TO 5PM beginning Monday Ju;y 25, 2016 and ending when sufficient pre-applications (approximately 100) have been received at the offices of HOME INC. Applications will be mailied upon request by calling HOME INC at 203-562-4663 during those hours. Completed preapplications must be returned to HOME INC’s offices at 171 Orange Street, Third Floor, New Haven, CT 06510.

TOWN CLERK

NOTICIA

$37.93 hourly ($78,885 annually) – full time, benefited Pre-employment drug testing. For more details, visit our website – www.bloomfieldct.org

Deadline: Applications will be accepted until position is filled

Town of Bloomfield Finance Director

Extremely fast paced petroleum company needs a full time (which includes on call and weekend coverage) detail oriented experienced Dispatcher. A strong logistics background and a minimum of one year previous experience required. Send resume to: HR Manager, P.O. Box 388, Guilford, CT. 06437

********An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer**********

Listing: Commercial Driver

Immediate opening for a Class A full time driver for petroleum/like products deliveries for nights and weekends. Previous experience required. Send resume to: HR Manager, P. O. Box 388, Guilford, CT 06437 or email:hrdept@eastriverenergy.com

********An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer**********

VALENTINA MACRI VIVIENDAS DE ALQUILER PRE-SOLICITUDES DISPONIBLES

TOWN CLERK - Responsible for public records management and supervision of a Municipal Town Clerk’s Office The position requires a H.S. Diploma or GED with five (5) years of responsible office experience in records management. (1) year of supervisory experience is required. Municipal government experience is preferred. Wages: $66,273 $84,794 plus an excellent fringe benefit package. Apply: Department of Human Resources, Town of Wallingford, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Forms will be mailed upon request from the Department of Human Resources or may be downloaded from the Department of Human Resources Web Page or emailed to: wlfdhr@wallingfordct.gov by the closing date of April 10, 2023. EOE

HOME INC, en nombre de la Columbus House y de la New Haven Housing Authority, está aceptando pre-solicitudes para estudios y apartamentos de un dormitorio en este desarrollo ubicado en la calle 109 Frank Street, New Haven. Se aplican limitaciones de ingresos máximos. Las pre-solicitudes estarán disponibles 09 a.m.-5 p.m. comenzando Martes 25 julio, 2016 hasta cuando se han recibido suficientes pre-solicitudes (aproximadamente 100) en las oficinas de HOME INC. Las pre-solicitudes serán enviadas por correo a petición llamando a HOME INC al 203-562-4663 durante esas horas.Pre-solicitudes deberán remitirse a las oficinas de HOME INC en 171 Orange Street, tercer piso, New Haven , CT 06510

Construction

Affirmative

NEW HAVEN

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

242-258 Fairmont Ave

2BR Townhouse, 1.5 BA, 3BR, 1 level , 1BA

Salary Range - $101,455 to $156,599 (expected starting pay maximum is mid-range)

Fully Benefited – 35 hours weekly Pre-employment drug testing. For more details, visit our website –www.bloomfieldct.org

Portland

Police Officer full-time

Go to www.portlandct.org for details

QSR STEEL CORPORATION

Listing: Commercial Driver

Full Time Class B driver for a fast paced petroleum company for days and weekends. Previous experience required. Competitive wage, 401(k) and benefits. Send resume to: HR Manager, P. O. Box 388, Guilford, CT 06437 or email HRDept@eastriverenergy.com

********An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer**********

ELM CITY COMMUNITIES

Invitation to Bid: 2nd Notice

SAYEBROOKE VILLAGE

Invitation for Bids

Bid Package #1 Scattered Sites East – CO and Smoke Detectors

Invitation for Bids

All new apartments, new appliances, new carpet, close to I-91 & I-95 highways, near bus stop & shopping center

Hotels/Temporary and Emergency Housing

Pet under 40lb allowed. Interested parties contact Maria @ 860-985-8258

APPLY NOW!

Old Saybrook, CT (4 Buildings, 17 Units)

Steel Fabricators, Erectors & Welders

Tax Exempt & Not Prevailing Wage Rate Project

Top pay for top performers. Health Benefits, 401K, Vacation Pay. Email Resume: Rose@qsrsteel.com Hartford, CT

formation of Candidates in response to the Church’s Ministry needs. The cost is $125. Classes start Saturday, August 20, 2016

Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids for hotels/temporary and emergency housing. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/ gateway beginning on

Monday, March 27, 2023 at 3:00PM.

New Construction, Wood Framed, Housing, Selective Demolition, Site-work, Castin-place Concrete, Asphalt Shingles, Vinyl Siding, Flooring, Painting, Division 10 Specialties, Appliances, Residential Casework, Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Protection. This contract is subject to state set-aside and contract compliance requirements.

State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management

Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids for bid package #1 scattered sites east – CO and Smoke Detectors. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems. com/gateway beginning on

Monday, February 6, 2023 at 3:00PM.

SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY

360 MANAGEMENT GROUP, CO.

Invitation for Bids

TEMPORARY STAFFING SERVICES

Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 3:00 pm on Tuesday, August 2, 2016 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 for Concrete Sidewalk Repairs and Replacement at the Smithfield Gardens Assisted Living Facility, 26 Smith Street Seymour.

360 Management Group, Co. is currently seeking bids for temporary staffing services. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from 360 Management Group’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https:// newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

A pre-bid conference will be held at the Housing Authority Office 28 Smith Street Seymour, CT at 10:00 am, on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

Bidding documents are available from the Seymour Housing Authority Office, 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 (203) 888-4579.

Monday, March 13, 2023 at 3:00PM.

The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any informalities

Bid Extended, Due Date: August 5, 2016

Anticipated Start: August 15, 2016

Project documents available via ftp link below: http://ftp.cbtghosting.com/loginok.html?username=sayebrookevillage

Fax or Email Questions & Bids to: Dawn Lang @ 203-881-8372 dawnlang@haynesconstruction.com

The State of Connecticut, Office of Policy and Management is recruiting for a Fiscal/Administrative Officer. Further information regarding the duties, eligibility requirements and application instructions are available at: https://www.jobapscloud.com/ CT/sup/bulpreview.asp?b=&R1= 230309&R2=1308AR&R3=001

360 MANAGEMENT GROUP, CO. Invitation for Bids Tenant and Employment Background Screening Services

HCC encourages the participation of all Veteran, S/W/MBE & Section 3 Certified Businesses Haynes Construction Company, 32 Progress Ave, Seymour, CT 06483

The State of Connecticut is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and strongly encourages the applications of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities.

360 Management Group, Co. is currently seeking bids for tenant and employment background screening services. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from 360 Management Group’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on

Monday, March 27, 2023 at 3:00PM.

10 banned books by Black Women

by Aziah Siid, Word in Black

Your favorite Black woman author? Chances are their work has been banned or challenged in a school district or library in the United States.

According to data compiled by the American Library Association, there were 781 “attempts to ban or restrict library resources between Jan. 1 – Oct. 31, 2022.”

In addition, a shocking 1,835 unique titles were “targeted between Jan. 1 – Oct. 31, 2022.”

The suppression of literature that features queer or BIPOC characters, addresses the truth about the Black experience, or is specifically written by Black authors, is common. Books are either being challenged — which means people are attempting to get them removed but aren’t successful — or they’re banned outright.

But book banning in the United States is nothing new — it’s actually been happening on these shores since before we became a nation. In 1637, for example, the Puritans banned “New English Canaan” by English businessman Thomas Morton. His offense? He publicly criticized the strict rules of the newly established Massachusetts colony.

Since then, the crusade against books has taken on many forms. More than 380 years after Morton’s controversy, politicians, school boards, prejudiced parents, and even police are deciding what literature K-12 students should have access to.

As Dr. Fedrick Ingram, secretarytreasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, told Word In Black last year, “Laws have been enacted that have teachers on their heels.”

In addition, Ingram explained that teachers “can no longer teach books that have been taught as curriculum in English classes for years.”

Derrick Ramsey, the co-founder of the nonprofit Young, Black and Lit, says that this attack on literature is actually an attack on the entire education system.

“Education should be the space where you can learn about everything and anything that you want,” Ramsey told Word in Black. “There should be no limits to the creativity of the ideas and the dreams that you inspire into every child.”

“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison has long been one of the most banned or challenged books in the United States. But, there are plenty of other books by Black women who used the power of their pen — and have had their work banned or challenged as a result.

Here are 10 others that students, parents, educators, librarians, and authors have fought to keep on school and library shelves.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” is the first of seven

autobiographical works by the poet and civil rights activist. Published in 1969, the book describes her coming-of-age journey as she deals with the toils of sexual exploitation, racism, and insecurities as a growing young woman. In 2001, the book was challenged for being on a Poolesville, Md., high school reading list and started a string of bans and removals throughout the U.S.

Beloved

“Beloved,” by Toni Morrison, is a spellbinding portrayal of a woman trapped in the traumatic memories of life as a slave. Born into slavery, the protagonist, Sethe, escapes to Ohio, and although she is physically free from bondage, she is still held captive by her memories of Sweet Home — the beautiful farm where horrendous events took place. The 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning work examines the destructive legacy of slavery even as time passes.

While structural racism has changed forms since the book’s publication in 1987, that pain and suffering can be seen throughout American society today. In 2007, two Kentucky parents raised concerns about violence in the novel, and it was pulled from a senior Advanced Placement course at Eastern High School. This blockage from the reading list was not the first of its kind, as parents began pushing back against the novel as early as 1995.

The 1619 Project

Written by New York Times journal-

orism and misogyny during the early 20th century. In 1997, parents at Stonewall Jackson Highschool in Brentsville, Virginia, objected to the sexual explicitness of the text, but after review, the text remained on their English reading list.

Black Looks: Race and Representation

“Black Looks: Race and Representation,” written by feminist icon bell hooks, examines the African American experience and looks at topics like Black femininity, culture, and history. The collection of essays is designed to challenge ways to discuss the contemporary representation of race and ethnicity within a white supremacist system. Hooks is named as one of the several Black authors cited by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in an explanation for blocking the African American Advanced Placement course.

Grown

ist Nikole Hannah-Jones, “The 1619 Project” reframes Americans’ modernday understanding of slavery. The NYT Magazine award-winning “1619 Project,” rather than covering the enslavement of Black people as an additional part of U.S. history, put it at the epicenter of our national narrative. The book rendition of the project is a culmination of 18 essays and 36 poems that speak directly to our current moment in time while contextualizing the issues of race and class that plague our society. In 2021, lawmakers began the push to ban it from schools.

The Color Purple

Bringing readers through a journey of sisterhood and hardships, “The Color Purple,” written by Alice Walker, is a cultural touchstone of modern literature. The one-of-a-kind novel takes readers through the lives of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery, Sophia, and their experiences as they navigate abuse and intimate partner violence, all while narrating their pain, self-determination, bravery, and growth. The stories of African American women in the South during the early 20th century is a story that continues to transcend even today’s generation. The book has been banned from school libraries since 1984.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

“Their Eyes Were Watching God,” by Zora Neale Hurston, follows the life of Janie Mae Crawford, a young, conventionally attractive, light-skinned Black woman navigating the intricacies of col-

Kendall tweeted she will not stop using her pen to speak out against injustice.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” is a staggering account of the criminal justice system. The book highlights the role of mass incarceration as a driving force of racial control in the United States. Alexander, an attorney, shows the truth, not just about the shocking percentage of African American men who are incarcerated, but also a revelation of how mass incarceration is a modern continuation of slavery.

This article was originally published by Word in Black.

Con’t from page 04

Written by award-winning author Tiffany D. Jackson, the 2018 novel “Monday’s Not Coming” is Jackson’s latest book removed from circulation. The book dives deep into the sudden disappearance of a teenager, Monday Charles. As her best friend Claudia digs more into her friend’s disappearance, she discovers no one can recall the last time they saw Monday. While she continues the search for her friend, Claudia asks herself how can Monday just vanish without anyone noticing?

Sulwe

Lupita Nyong’o’s debut picture book, “Sulwe,” goes on a heartwarming journey to inspire children to see the beauty in their Blackness. The main character, Sulwe, which translates to “star” in the Dholuo language, is the darkest person in her entire family and touches on the pangs of colorism in a world centered around European beauty standards. The book has been tabled by school boards in Florida and Pennsylvania.

Hood Feminism

“Hood Feminism” by Mikki Kendall is a feminist text that examines the shortcomings of the mainstream feminist movement. Through a collection of essays, Kendall points to prominent white feminists who have, historically, demonstrated a lack of intersectionality — often exhibiting bias when it comes to race, class, sexual orientation, and disability and its intersections with gender. Drawing on her own experiences with violence, poverty, hypersexualization, and more, “Hood Feminism” looks at how advocates can stand in solidarity as a movement that wholly addresses feminist issues. In response to being pulled from some shelves,

Legislature Considers New

public hearing.

Callahan said he had also been threatened when he worked as a probation officer. He asked Robinson where the chief justice would stop carving out special considerations.

“Having been threatened as a family member of a judge and having been threatened in other capacities, where do we draw the line?” Callahan said.

With judges, Robinson answered, specifically judges who had been threatened in relation to a ruling.

“We should be able to make [decisions] in a way that is threat-free. Will that happen? No. There’s things less than threats and we’ll take all that,” Robinson said. “But when it comes to threatening your life because of a decision you’ve made, I think that’s a place to draw the line.” Other legislators questioned why the same enhanced penalty should not be applied to other court officers like lawyers or attorneys ad litem assigned to represent children.

“The same risks, the same threats are directed on a daily basis against virtually every other person in the courtroom,” Rep. Doug Dubitsky, a lawyer and Republican from Chaplin, said.

As chief justice, Robinson said he sought to protect everyone who enters Connecticut courthouses, not just judges. However, judges had an additional obligation to protect the rule of law.

Robinson said he believed the law to be narrowly tailored. In some places, he would have liked it to go further and apply to the family members of judges. “We have judges whose families are threatened too,” Robinson said. “We’re not asking for that. Do I want that? I would love to have that… My wife has been subject to some really horrendous stuff, you probably heard about that. I’m not asking for that protection. I’m going to do my best to protect her myself.”