New Haven magazine March 2009

MARCH

2009

www.newhavenmagazine.com

THE NEW STREAKERS

Running for their lives

MARLEY & MOM A family copes with cancer

LIVING THE DREAM

A hockey hopeful tastes the NHL

HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL Teenage tribulations — in their own words

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New Haven I March/2009

What Matt Nemerson doesn’t know about public policy probably doesn’t matter

In a debut novel, a New Haven surgeon plumbs the ethics of organ donation

14Horse Sense

37 Run for Your Life

A pint-sized equestrienne rides tall in the saddle

This athletic obsession has miles to go before it sleeps

16 High-School Confidential

40 Movies with a Mission

The cruel crucible of teendom, in teens’ own words

Youth Rights Media hands expressive power to New Haven teens

25 Marley & Mom A family copes with a child’s cancer

27 Living Large in the NHL A former Yale hockey player tastes the big time

Anthony DeCarlo

35 Body & Soul

PHOTOGRAPH:

8 Wonk-in-Chief

46 Color Your World Think pink — and yellow and green — to brighten your fashion mood this spring

50 Stage Coach Annie DiMartino is building a new generation of theater artists from the ground up

29 Labor of Love A Milford home arose from a family miracle

17 New Haven

| Vol. 2, No. 6 | March 2009

Publisher Mitchell Young, Editor Michael C. Bingham, Design Manager Larissa Wigglesworth, Design Consultant Terry Wells, Contributing Writers Brooks Appelbaum, Elvira J. Duran, Joyce Faiola, Michael Harvey, Liese Klein, Cindy Marien, Melissa Nicefaro, Tashema Nichols, Joanna Pettas, Ron Ragozzino, Steven Scarpa, Cindy Simoneau, Editorial Assistant Sarah Politz, Photographers Steve Blazo, Anthony DeCarlo

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Advertising Director Laura Whinfield, Senior Publisher’s Representative Mary W. Beard, Publisher’s Representatives Cynthia Carlson, David Gullotti, New Haven is published 12 times annually by Second Wind Media Ltd., which also publishes Business New Haven, with offices at 85 Willow St., New Haven, CT 06511. 203-781-3480 (voice), 203-781-3482 (fax). Subscriptions $24.95/year, $39.95/two years. Send name, address & zip code with payment. Second Wind Media Ltd. d/b/a New Haven shall

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EDITOR’S L E T T E R

City Chic

The Crucible

W

ill 2009 be the year the arts come home to die?

Don’t laugh — it’s a distinct possibility. Nationally, cultural funding made it into the stimulus package, though just barely. In its version of the bill, the House gave $50 million to the National Endowment for the Arts. Then the Senate took that out, but a deluge of phone calls and e-mails from various arts supporters resulted in the restoration of the funding in the final version.

Fifty million in an $800 billion package. Whoopee.

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The non-profit group Americans for the Arts estimates that 10,000 arts organizations could disappear nationwide in 2009.

On the state level, Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s proposed budget eliminated $15 million in earmarks for 19 major arts and tourism groups and replaced it with $10 million in competitive funding. That means cultural groups such as Arts & Ideas New Haven, which stages the annual International Festival of Arts & Ideas, can no longer count on its annual $1 million state stipend, which represents nearly a third of its budget. Long Wharf Theatre anticipated significant state help to build its proposed $30 million-plus downtown theater, a possibility that seems remote now. The same holds true for many other arts groups statewide. Last month the Connecticut Opera shut down after 67 seasons.

The arts groups themselves scream bloody murder at all this, of course. The arts, they like to say, create jobs and buttress the economy through a “multiplier” effect. Arts & Ideas has built this argument into its operations, which include an annual survey by the Quinnipiac University polling institute purporting to document the festival’s “economic impact,” which was pegged at $20 million last year.

Do arts events stimulate the economy? Sure they do. So do lots of other things, from Girl Scout cookie sales to Manhattan squeegee men.

Surely one issue facing arts organizations is their overall dearth of professional management talent. Think of it: People spend their entire lives preparing to become a professional actor or oboist, but there are few educational institutions that specialize in training professional managers of arts organizations.

We believe that arts groups miss the point when they try to sell themselves as some sort of economic stimulators, because then they place themselves effectively in competition against, for example, every private company out there. They would do better to focus on what the arts provide that is truly unique — they enrich our spirits, elevate the public discourse, and imbue us with a beauty that transcends our day-to-day lives.

Can Connecticut’s arts institutions save themselves? They can if they remain true to their central mission and not try to pass themselves off as widget-makers. Art is too important to be left to amateurs. v

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Landline Addiction AT&T says it’s going to roll out a significant investment to increase its 3G mobile broadband network here in Connecticut. With 250 new cell sites including some in New Haven County, it may still be difficult for the phone giant to make it pay in the Land of Steady Habits. Connecticut is ranked in a recent study by the National Center on Health Statistics as 49th in the nation among households (5.6 percent) that rely solely on cell phone service.

Comparatively, 26 percent of Oklahoma households have cell phone-only service, 11.4 percent in New York, 16.3 percent in North Carolina and 9.3 percent in neighboring Massachusetts.

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Currently the tallest structures in Old Lyme, a town known for its tough development battles, are 190-foot cell phone towers.

The project is expected to come with a $7.7 million price tag and the company hopes to tap the feds for $2 million in funding to stimulate the project.

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The Rail Way NEW LONDON — Rail Service Advocates are still waiting for a train they had hoped would come this spring to New London.

Tourism officials and others have been pushing for full Shoreline East service to New London as well as an extension to Mystic. The hope is to bring more tourists with a lower transportation impact. Currently there is limited Shoreline East service on weekends to New London, which commenced last July 4. The state’s Department of Transportation had planned to extend service this spring, but Amtrak says more work is to be done on the tracks this summer first.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry NEW HAVEN — The popular Restaurant Week returns this month to New Haven where more than two dozen of the finest restaurants offer fixed priced meals, $16.38 for lunch and $29 for dinner. The weeklong foodie fest will run from April 19 to April 24. Here’s your opportunity to stimulate your senses, try out a great restaurant and keep your budget intact.

Meet the Beetles As if Chinese beetles weren’t enough of a pest in Connecticut gardens, there are new invasive intruders making their way to Connecticut forests from the Chinese homeland. Asian Longhorn Beetles and Emerald Ash Borers, positively identified in Massachusetts and New York, are now poised to invade the Nutmeg State.

Hundreds of square miles of forest in the upper Midwest have been quarantined and destroyed due to one Emerald Ash Borer. The Asian Long-horn Beetle kills trees. Nothing about this insect is cute and the only way to eliminate them is to remove and destroy the trees they infest. The beetles can be killed with pesticides, but it isn’t practical or politically possible to have widespread pesticide spraying. For more information on protecting Connecticut’s trees, visit the Connecticut Tree Protective Association at ctpa.org.

Waiting To Inhale Connecticut residents may not have to hop over the border to Massachusetts to “cop their pot” if Senate Bill 349 is passed. The bill aims to reclassify the possession of minor amounts of marijuana from a misdemeanor to an infraction. The bill has the support of Senate Martin Looney, Majority Leader.

Under current state law, the first-time possession of small amounts of marijuana is punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. S.B. 349 would amend the law so that adults who possess one ounce of marijuana or less will be issued a ticket.

In 2007 both the state senate and house passed a bill by wide margins that would have allowed for the use of medical marijuana in the state. Gov. Jodi Rell vetoed the bill, so it’s still best to keep your stash private for now.

new haven

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april 2009

PHOTOGRAPH:

Steve Blazo

Yale’s Dan Esty is leading the charge against carbon dioxide

PHOTOGRAPH:

Steve Blazo

F

ormerly president of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce and onetime head of Science Park, Matthew Nemerson, 52, is now president of the Connecticut Technology Council. In that role New Havener Nemerson is an advocate for technology and a handmaiden to many start-up companies. For more than two decades this self-proclaimed lover of cities has helped form views of what type of region, and what type of Connecticut we need to forge to remain competitive. Against the backdrop of a troubled economy, NHM Publisher Mitchell Young interviewed Nemerson for ONE2ONE.

vvv

Connecticut leads the county in terms of private R&D on a per-capita basis.

We do a tremendous amount of private development work. Inevitably some will be cut back, and there will be researchers [who] are going to be told, ‘This is an idea that doesn’t meet our goals any more.’

So you’re hoping they’ll say, ‘Let me do my own thing.’

They’re going to. People around the country are being told, ‘Go find the money, go find the laboratory, go create your own company and we’ll take some of the ownership.’ The outplacement of development work happens during downturns.

How are the Connecticut technology companies doing in this economy?

How innovative are Connecticut’s big companies?

You have to look at [them] in different categories. Technology employment in Connecticut comes in a lot of different flavors. The large companies — [for example] UTC [United Technologies Corp.] is a huge technology company, and they’re doing well. The whole defense thing is doing well; they have been doing well with the office part [building-systems companies like Otis and Honeywell] because of Asia and the growth there. GE continues to do very well in the tech and industrial areas.

If you look at a place like Aetna or the Hartford, they absolutely introduce new technologies — for the Web, new security systems. They test things; it happens but it happens in a different model. It doesn’t give us that entrepreneurial spirit, even though a lot of the technology is cranking along. No one is going to say UTC is not absolutely cutting-edge, the way they design components with computer systems. You don’t think of this feverish pitch, but when you look up after five years, it’s happened.

Those companies don’t have much tech in Connecticut, do they?

Your job is to incubate a culture of technology and entrepreneurship. Doesn’t slow and steady make that difficult?

No, but they think about tech in Connecticut. Our chairman, Chris Kalish, is head of the Edge Lab at UConn/ Stamford, where a lot of cutting edge things are tested out. All the divisions around the world have leading edge ideas or concepts and they go to the lab and use, as the bulk of the consultant force, UConn MBAs. At the other end of the spectrum, the capital crunch is also affecting [entrepreneurs’] ability to raise risk capital. America is not as wealthy as it was six months ago, and the excess wealth is the money that people take flyers on. Even though the market is not great to commercialize things, it is a great timr to develop things. With large companies cutting back, some of their [R&D] projects are on the street.

What do you mean ‘on the street’?

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It’s hard to convince young, talented people to hang around [Connecticut].

People don’t think of Hartford, and didn’t for a while of New Haven and Stamford, as places where there is lots of creative innovation going on. Yet [it is], in bigger buildings and larger groups.

Sometimes I worry we’re trying to sell, instead of fix, ourselves. Is there really good science that can be applied on our campuses to become products and companies?

Today both Yale and UConn have significant operations that are going through their portfolios of research and trying to isolate them. Absolutely they have things to commercialize. Yale is creating a pipeline of companies in medical devices and therapeutics; these

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PHOTOGRAPH:

Steve Blazo

to play, and since they both happen so spectacularly obviously in New Haven, the story is the wrong story. We concentrate poverty because it’s just easier politically. We had hoped that people would see cities in a more regional way and that hasn’t happened. Most of our cities are pretty well run: New Haven is very well run; Stamford is well run.

How did you first get to New Haven?

My father was recruited to be on the faculty at the [Yale] medical school [when] I was seven. We looked at the neighborhood where I live now, East Rock; my parents couldn’t afford the houses.

Even then his Yale colleagues said, ‘You may not want to send your kids to school [in New Haven].’ In those days the lowcost option was to move to a newly built colonial out in the suburbs. They decided they wanted to live in Woodbridge in the woods, in a mock colonial [laughs].

Why do you mock the suburbs?

Not at all. What was different then [was that] the suburbs were built for young families. They were affordable; they had new schools. There were lots of new families. People really did play ball on the street.

Isn’t that the kind of place the world has the fantasy of coming to America for — Guilford, Woodbridge, Cheshire?

Nemerson: ‘When you’re spending other people’s money and competing feverishly, it is very reality-based.’

things take a long time. There are folks going around to the smaller schools — Trinity, Connecticut College, UNH [the University of New Haven] — to at least catalogue all the research that is going on.

You helped run a tech company for a while before you came to the CTC. How did you have to be different in that environment?

You have to be very quick. Speed is very important; there are many people who are trying to do what you’re trying to do.

The whole mentality is, ‘Good enough and distribution.’ You can’t wait too long.

With public policy, unless you have a sense of urgency, a lot of other people may not. Failure in economic development is always an option.

You’ve been out of New Haven’s economic development scene for seven years. You were president of Science Park, then president of the New Haven chamber.

During those periods, the community was 10

march 2009

working hard on economic development issues. How well do you think New Haven has done?

The concept, going back to the early ’80s, [of New Haven as] the creative center of mid-New England — with the Yale community as the international front door, and as a place that was very livable that could attract money — that has worked.

To the extent young people want to live [in Connecticut], it’s New Haven and Norwalk.

The region is doing well, but doesn’t the city still have some big issues?

The New Haven story always has the [qualifications], ‘But there are neighborhoods that aren’t succeeding.’

‘We organized the state for poor populations to live in the 13 cities and not to live in 150 other towns.’ But cities are where creativity happens. We have two different roles that we want cities

It’s a great question; people want to live in a community where they can feel comfortable. They do want to move to a place where they’ll be other Indians, or Chinese. For the generation of my family [the suburbs were] a tough place for women, being ‘way out.’ There were a lot of responsibilities driving people around, getting places; there were all these afterschool activities.

Was your mother a stay-at-home mom?

She hadn’t been; she had worked in New York. She was a fashion designer on Seventh Avenue.

And now she was in the woods?

At first, it seemed a very appealing, more family-oriented, more nurturing opportunity, but kids go off to the school and she eventually went back to work. I was an urban person; I related to cities.

I would come into New Haven to go to Sunday school or shopping. I loved cities.

I was desperate to go to a big city and I went to [college at] Columbia. I studied history and politics — always about cities.

You ran for first selectman of Woodbridge at age 22. Had you won might that have

kept you in the ’burbs?

buses coming, [affordable] housing.

When I graduated from college, a friend of the family had gotten me an internship with [former Connecticut governor and U.S. senator] Abe Ribicoff. We had a private breakfast in the Senate dining room and he said, ‘You should go home and get into politics. Don’t go to law school or business. Go home and change your community and that’s how the world will be a better place.’ He probably said this to everybody, but I always thought he said it to me. I didn’t know it was the generic speech he gave to every intern.

That’s why you lost.

How did you come to run for office?

Woodbridge had never elected a Democrat as first selectman. I said [to the Democratic Town Committee], ‘The only way Democrats will ever win is if we find a woman to run. She had to be [someone] well-educated, who has run something and then gave up her career and understands the schools’ issues, family, house. They said, ‘That’s a great idea,’ but couldn’t find anyone. So they said, ‘Why don’t you run?’ They didn’t care.

What issues did you put forward?

One of the things I talked about in 1979 at age 22 was regionalism. I talked about

That’s why I lost terribly. At the final debate even some of the people running with me [on the Democratic ticket] said, ‘Vote for me, not for him. He doesn’t get Woodbridge.’

During your time as head of the New Haven chamber, you were in the center of lots of things. Did that eventually change?

I had the opportunity to run the chamber when I was quite young; I was 30 when I got hired. The chamber had lost a lot of its power because a new group had [been formed], the Downtown Council; most of the top businesses had joined that. They wanted to be near Ben [then-New Haven Mayor Biagio DiLieto], and the chamber was too regional and small business [-focused]. Eventually we merged with the Downtown Council. Ben gave us a contract to [the chamber] to figure out what to do with Tweed Airport.

John [DeStefano] came in [as mayor], and in the early days didn’t think that much about economic development. He quietly brought us in [on economic-development issues] and we had a great relationship.

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Then Yale’s approach to New Haven changed, and you had a bird’s-eye view.

[Early on] we would go to Yale and say something like, ‘How could we help the Park Plaza [Hotel, predecessor of the Omni]?’ They’d say, ‘Please don’t get us involved.’ When [Yale President] Rick Levin came in [in 1993], part of his change was to say, ‘New Haven is my image and no matter how great we are, we will never be seen in the same league as Harvard and Princeton and Stanford, so we have to fix New Haven. So I’ll take the risk of making a mistake.’

One of the CTC events that has gotten much attention is Women in Innovation, which celebrates the achievements of females working in technology. What is the status of women in tech companies today?

I went to the big employers and asked about their challenges. It was about finding engineers so they could grow their research here. One of their strategies was being attractive to women. Fewer women were going into engineering [generally], although more in biotechnology. The companies wanted to say to the world, ‘We give opportunities to women.’ Women were picking employers that they felt were not going to discriminate.

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This was a change for the companies?

There was a series of generational issues with male managers [who] were not integrating women. As you go higher in the educational attainment area, fewer women were staying in the sciences, although women were testing higher in science than men. But we found that in the laboratories and in some of the tech fields there were a lot of senior women.

We have no problem getting hundreds of applications. We also found that women in their 50s and 60s felt that they had survived a minefield, that there was a hazing that went on in their 20s and 30s.

How have these women impacted their companies?

One of the things the companies wanted is to show that it is a sellers market in the competition for talent. We want less competition and more collegiality than the male approach of survival of fittest.

Does that social engineering create betterengineered products?

The model is more collaboration, ideas in Shanghai to be networked with research in California or Connecticut.

You have daughters. Are they likely to be in technology?

I have an 18-year-old and a 14-year-old.

As with all kids now they are very fluent with technology. The question is, when do they take calculus and are they writing software? My eldest daughter took programming in high school and is trying to use technology in computer art with graphic design. My younger daughter understands that science is very important, but like a lot of kids, her love is more social. She’s an actress and class president.

I keep saying, ‘Calculus, calculus.’

Your job is to advance science. But in schools isn’t the drama club more popular than the science club?

Clearly we’ve spent the last ten years where transactional skills [are] what people related to. Wall Street, real estate — the things that made sense were about communication skills. We’re going through a different age now. That’s over.

Now is an unusual and troubled period.

How do you think Connecticut’s economy and companies will emerge?

You have to use these very difficult

Bridal Page

times to position yourself a little better than other places. The very thing I sometimes make fun of — all those little communities watching out for themselves — means that we have more capacity, taxing capacity, efficiencies. We’ve had successes without doing all the things to make us more productive. The Northeast still has so many smart people and our connections to New York and Boston are still very important.

Well, your ‘region’ now is the whole state.

That’s what I love about being in a state organization — we connect people from towns all across the state. Technology people see themselves as part of a technology community. It’s not about New Haven or Hartford; they’re selling to the world.

Technology people are portrayed as being more conservative. Is that the case here?

No, they’re not more conservative at all.

They’re just not that political. When you’re spending other people’s money and competing feverishly, it is very realitybased. When they look at government or public-relations campaigns about a community, they just don’t have time for

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that. They do want excellent schools.

You’ve always pushed regionalism, but what is our ‘natural’ region? Some tell me it is the New Haven-to-Hanover, N.H. corridor, not Boston to New York.

It is a good observation that states are artifacts. There are ‘cultures’ out there but they are not about state lines. [When planner and futurist] Michael Gallis did his big strategic plan for us, he absolutely identified that. In Fairfield County you have a lot of corporations that relocated from the City or Westchester, and they sort of colonized Danbury and Stamford and Norwalk, but people still had their friends (and other connections) in New York. [Gallis] said the whole I-91 corridor had tremendous medical and basic research assets and a history of selfsuccesses in Springfield and Hartford and Waterbury. People for 100 years had built their own companies and attracted people and money. He saw connections that he wanted us to promote as a knowledge corridor. It did get promoted as a Hartford–Springfield duopoly for a while, and it left off New Haven for a variety of [political] reasons. Gallis said if you look at the research and clinical offshoots, and

you add Springfield, Hartford and New Haven, you have a community of biotech and medical that is almost as vibrant as Boston — well not quite, but you’re a player.

I would ask this question without a busted economy: Is Connecticut the next upstate New York with an innovative past, but perennially weaker economically?

It’s the perfect question. In public policy it’s the Clayton Christiansen question, the Innovator’s Dilemma: Why doesn’t IBM invent the personal computer, or General Motors the hybrid? The issue is when you’re the best you develop complacency, but you also develop a series of special interests, not just in a political sense. It’s a perfect analogy to compare Connecticut to great corporations when they are about to find competitors. It doesn’t have to do with one set of political leaders; it has to do with entrenched powers, business powers, union powers, municipal powers.

As the psychiatrist says, ‘You won’t change because you’re not suffering enough.’

Twenty years ago I asked Jim Tobin from Yale, the great Nobel economist, why it was so hard to change the tax structure

in Connecticut. He said Connecticut is one of the few places in the world where the vast majority of people are happier the way they are now than the way they can envision themselves being in the future. In most economies and cultures [people] are striving. to be better, he said.

Connecticut isn’t striving; they’re trying to defend what they have.

There’s no running out the clock.

I am constantly optimistic that next week or next month people will say, ‘Now it’s time to really change what we’re doing.’

Unlike upstate New York, we’re still near Boston and New York and that has saved us for the last 200 years. The J.P. Morgans and the Winchesters were able to bring in capital and ideas, and people can come here and that still works. These metropolitan areas — as frustrating as they can be sometimes, because we concentrate all the poverty into a few census tracts; from a political-justice standpoint this isn’t fair but from an operational standpoint there is a ‘cruel elegance’ to it — we have suburbs with few problems and cities with problems but very bright leadership and the will to address them. v

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By Cindy Simoneau

Dream Team: Angelina Ditta and Walter at Bethany’s Wynter Thyme stables.

S

o many young girls have an inexplicable (but undeniable) fascination with horses. They love just the thought of owning, brushing them, but often settle for simply riding them.

Twelve-year-old Angelina Ditta has rare opportunity to have it all.

Angelina not only is the proud owner of her own horse, but with him has won multiple equestrian awards and championships on the national and world stage.

Last October, Angelina was the winner in the age 11-and-under category of the World Championship Walk-Trot Hunter Seat Equitation title. In addition, she was awarded first place in the Grand National competition in her division in the same event. In addition, she was named champion of the Grand National Walk-Trot Hunter Pleasure competition.

Her outstanding performances came in Oklahoma City, Okla. at the 2008 Grand 14

march 2009

National & World Championship Morgan Horse Show.

Angelina says her accomplishments are the culmination of a dream that began at the wistful age of five when, like many her age, she loved to attend horse-centered birthday parties.

“I guess I’m like a lot of girls my age who love horses, but I’m just very lucky that my parents have helped me follow this dream,” says Angelina one cold afternoon as she exercises her horse boarding at Wynter Thyme Manor Services in Bethany.

She calls her horse, whose show name is the Lion King, by his barn name, Walter, after Disney founder Walt Disney.

The black Morgan stands more than 15 hands and sports a distinctive diamondshaped blaze on his forehead.

He’s a friendly horse who stands close

to his owner as she displays the ribbons, plaques, pins, halters and horse coolers and other awards they have won together.

Later, Walter calmly stands in his stall as Ditta, reclines atop his back as she hugs him and explains her love for riding.

“Riding make me happy. It’s work, but it’s fun work. I just love it and do it every day I can.”

Her parents, David and Joann Ditta of Hamden, agree. “She’s out here as often as possible and, no matter the weather, she never complains or says she doesn’t want to do it,” says Joann Ditta. “We let her pursue this because she wants it. If she didn’t dedicate herself to this pursuit, we wouldn’t.”

“My parents have told me if I ever want to stop that I can,” agrees Angelina. “But I know this is what I want to keep doing.”

Angelina is a sixth-grader at Hamden Country Day School, and hones her

Anthony DeCarlo

Pint-sized equestrienne Angelina Ditta and her faithful steed Walter are cleaning up the competition

PHOTOGRAPH:

What Has Six Legs and Wins Titles?

equestrian skills and techniques two to three times each week during coldweather months and three to four times during warmer ones. And, unlike more pampered riders, she is expected to handle all of Walter’s needs while at the stables and on the competition circuit. “I’m learning to do everything that has to do with owning a horse,” she explains.

At school, she says her favorite subjects are math and science, and she enjoys playing soccer. While her equestrian pursuits consume most of her free time, she says she also enjoys playing tennis and Alpine skiing with her father. “I don’t have much time for TV and movies, but I do like to read,” she says. “My favorite books have been the Harry Potter series.”

Angelina says she enjoys almost all animals — not just horses — especially the menagerie of more than 70 animals at Wynter Thyme stables, and observing nature.

Riding, she notes, can be a solitary activity.

And while she sometimes misses playing team sports with many of her friends, she has forged many other new friendships at riding events and competitions.

“They’re all special friends who understand what I go through, and what it’s like to have to practice all the time,” she says.

“Some of my school friends have tried riding and competing, but many have a lot of other activities they like better,” Angelina explains. “I understand what they like, and they understand what I like to do. We do spend time just hanging out.”

The feeling atop the horse, Angelina explains, is majestic. “It’s so unbelievable when Walter and I are doing this together.

I very much like the feeling of being able to control the horse below me. He’s so big and powerful, and makes me feel in total control of what we are doing.

“Horses have personalities all their own,” she adds. “It’s fun to get to know them.”

At Wynter Thyme, Angelina and Walter study under the tutelage of Melissa Lambrecht, who currently handles 21 horses at her stables, and works with riders of all ages, but primarily six- to 16year-olds. Lambrecht is currently working with about 20 student riders.

Lambrecht says she looks for students who, like Angelina, have a special level of

interest, determination and dedication to building strong relationships with their horses. And they must be willing to learn every aspect of meeting the needs of the horses (including the icky ones).

Lambrecht praises Angelina for her accomplishments thus far, and she has high hopes for the continued success of the pair. “Angelina has the commitment to continue,” she says. “There’s always more to learn, and practice, but, if she keeps working hard she will keep progressing at the next level.”

About her accomplishments, Angelina is modest. “I was incredibly surprised by everything,” she says. “Winning the championship is what every girl who rides dreams of, and I feel so special to have this happen for me.”

The next level for Angelina will be the in the 13-and-under age bracket, where the level of achievement, and competition, will be elevated. And the circuit begins anew in April throughout the region and New England.

“I can hardly wait to see what happens next,” Angelina says. “I’m so looking forward to it.” v

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15

Trash or

Treasure?

Eco-fashions come in inďŹ nite shades of green

By Melissa Nicefaro

y name is Colby Mrowka and I am the future President of the United States. The President is required to know what life is like for all people living in the country and to be an understanding and compassionate leader.

By Colby Mrowka, ’11 East Haven High School

Anthony DeCarlo

M

PHOTOGRAPHS:

The President

When I was young — around third grade — my life was perfect. My parents would buy my two brothers, sister and me anything we wanted. We were showered with unconditional love — the perfect family. That all changed when my parents got divorced in late 2005. My father, the only provider for our family, took off.

Within a day my mom had no income coming in to support her four kids, pay for the house, pay for the car, food and other daily necessities we had taken for granted.

By mid-2006 my family had nothing. At one point we had no electricity, no hot water, no car and no food. We were on food stamps and had no health insurance.

I would come home from school every day taking on the huge responsibility of watching my siblings while my mom worked to keep the house. I cooked supper with what little food we had, helped my siblings with homework, gave them baths, and put them to bed all while managing to do the same for my 13-year-old self.

Thankfully, by 2007, the worst was over. My mom sold the house and we moved from the center of East Haven to Momauguin. I may not have as much as I used to, but I am much happier. I understand how almost everyone in the United States feels and what they are going through during this recession. With over half the population struggling, I understand their needs. This experience made me stronger than I was before and it made me a better person.

For example, if I see a homeless man in New York I understand his hunger and will offer to buy him some food. I treat everyone at school with the same respect, whether they are “cool” or not. I am definitely a leader. I can take charge of things successfully and have in the past. I took care of my brothers and sister at a young age, worked for my aunt, and take charge in many after-school clubs. Two of the clubs involve working with my principal to discover a new way to educate students and improve East Haven High School.

These experiences, both past and present, have made me the person and leader I am today — the future President of the United States of America. v new haven

17

The Commuter

M

y eyes shot open like shutters as I heard the piercing cry through the wall. It was my mother; she was going off on one of her daily incantations of how this day she will surely leave me in her morning wake. Face down and smothered in my pillow, I thought that I must find another way to school. I finally propped myself up in my bed, letting my nightly dreams slowly drain from my head like grains of sand from an hourglass. I trudged down the steps and swung open the door that led to the garage. I then found myself standing in front of our silver Honda Accord once more. I sighed and popped my ear-buds in, clicked open the car door and fell into the daily routine.

The garage door slowly unhinged and I was released from the dark gloom of the garage.

The dew had crystallized and glistened in the morning sun, which now was peeking through the willow trees ahead. I could see that cars down the road were bustling like a perpetual caravan flowing into the inevitable bottleneck. The cars seemed to breathe deep like beasts of burden through the morning air.

As I progressed down the asphalt I could see all the other students and parents and commuters embarking on their commutes as if forgotten flocks of geese bewildered by the wearying temperature’s fluctuations. I wondered what it would be like to be the leader of a flock — the responsibility and the constant demands and knowing that so many others’ lives hung in the balance. What would it be like to spread one’s wings rather than arms upon waking? I pondered this thought as cars flew by and red lights glared in opposition.

A boat of a car slowly lurked into my lane and rocked right to left ever so slightly on worn shocks. Could this really lead to my downfall I thought? Would this be that straw that cracked the fabled camel’s back?

I was on schedule at this point in the commute and making good time at that.

But a slowed lane could quite easily chisel away minutes faster than I could pick them up. My commute had come down to mere minutes. Every second lost was a dire strain on my stress level that was now seemed tethered to the coasting boat.

But the East Trade Winds of my route from Waterbury had blown in my favor and the flashing light of the boat turning

18

march 2009

right whisked away my growing dread.

Sand dunes of snow were now appearing around corners so I knew that I was growing closer to my final destination.

The aged Colonial-style frame of the Bowdon Hall of Cheshire Academy became more than just a silhouette as I neared its entrance. I found myself scrambling through papers and slinging

By Carlos Arata, ’09 Cheshire Academy

my backpack over one shoulder. The newly fallen powdered snow felt like flour under the soles of my sneakers as I exited into the elements. I quickened my pace as the double-doored Dining Commons came into sight. My hand curled around the cold steel handle, and I squeezed my thumb down to open the latch. This is the moment when my day begins. v

The Nerd I Am

L

ast spring when I found out that my school was holding a cabaret for people to sing, dance and perform, I recognized this as a wonderful opportunity to show my piano skills and rock the house with Beethoven’s Sonata No. 27 (the famous “Moonlight Sonata”). I signed up, auditioned and was admitted to the show.

By Samuel Genecin, ’10 Hamden Hall Country Day School

On the night of the show as I waited backstage, I listened to a band play a Red Hot Chili Peppers tune. A second band, garbed in sleeveless shirts, followed the first and performed a Radiohead song.

Next came my turn; I walked onto the stage in my khakis and blue blazer and introduced myself and my piece to the audience. As I began the piece with its slow adagio of arpeggios, people in the audience began to whisper, inaudibly at first but then louder and louder. At a certain

The Journalist

I

’m writing huddled over the heater in my bathroom.

I have retreated here in an attempt to clarify my thoughts.

The furnace rustles around restlessly as it churns out tendrils of heat against my legs. Somehow writing about being a “writer” has me contemplating one’s credibility for such a title. And after much self-evaluation I believe that I am qualified.

By Jasmine Wilborne, ’09 Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School, New Haven

For example: My systematic writing process always reaps a product. It’s about how I use writing as a form of identification. And I’m addicted to journaling. If I was stranded on a desolate island with sand the color of ground ivory, I would want an unlimited amount of paper and pens. My name is Jasmine, and if I’m not a writer than who is?

I have a distinct process that helps me write short stories, articles and poetry. Take note:

point about two minutes into the piece, a baby wailed and several audience members laughed. Although I finished the piece and received some kind compliments afterwards, I left the auditorium a bit irked at how out of place I felt at the cabaret.

In high school it goes without saying that “nerds” carry a certain stigma for being socially inept and physically awkward. However, it is impossible to actually define a nerd due to the myriad of nerdy characteristics. While I have a number of close friends and am not particularly clumsy, I certainly fall into the category of nerd. I cherish the noble game of chess, the elegance of a Brahms lieder, and the subtleties of a challenging math problem.

Needless to say, these are preferences that are rarely shared by my peers.

“Sorry guys, I can’t — I’ve Continued on 23

I never approach the computer on a first draft. Instead, I retrieve one of the countless blue Paper Mate pens I’ve collected from the floor, and then slip away into a writing frenzy. I avoid writing on any paper that resembles lined paper. Loose-leaf is so restricting. I like to preserve the natural state of my creative intentions. Then I type it up and wait for the printer to conceive. For a moment I allow myself to revel in its infancy, realizing that completion is in the distant future. Finally, I begin the long process of dissecting and plumping the piece until perfection.

Writing is a lengthy but rewarding passion of mine. It took me 27 days and 24 drafts until I finished my college essay. I was determined to have the essay submit to the scalpel of my writer’s marks — to the cut, paste and delete of the computer, to the long hours Continued on 23

new haven

19

success. Better yet, what is it that I will become as a result of it? My future career ambition is to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice, and I am beginning to learn that maintaining an open and receptive attitude to constructive criticism and helping hands in general will greatly assist me as I begin my challenging journey to the Supreme Court.

By Jermaine Brookshire Jr., ’09 Wilbur Cross High School New Haven

I was afraid that if I opened myself up too much that it would be one of my greatest weaknesses. However, as I became involved in activities such as the model United Nations, football and mock trial I was forced to listen to and work with my peers in order to achieve success. The Model United Nations taught me how to become more patient and open-minded.

It did this through requiring consensus among delegates on resolutions in order to increase their probability of being passed as new Model UN initiatives.

Football allowed me to become more trusting in others and it taught me how to cope with failure and disappointment.

As with any other sports team, trust is needed so that the team members will work together, especially during those inevitable times of loss — and for those experiences I am most grateful. Lastly, mock trial helped me to build more confidence in my own abilities and in those of my more personal and less superficial.

The Team Player

M

y cynicism drove me into a state of loneliness that proved to be a great detriment to me socially. I believed that I was all that mattered.

In school, I would become upset if I was not the group leader of the project, enraged when another student would tell me that what I was doing was wrong, and I would feel inadequate when my work was not the piece that the teacher was praising. Although I have always 20

march 2009

maintained one of the highest grade point averages in my classes and I hardly ever had a bad relationship with my teachers, I was inept at dealing with my peers, especially as it pertained to their feelings.

I had this misperception that the road to success was a lonely one, and so I had this “I could care less” attitude toward those whom I saw as being of no value to me.

I have grown to know that this does not have to be the case. That road is what you make of it; and I have begun to reevaluate myself and ask what it is that I truly want to become on this road to

In order for me to win in the aforementioned activities, we all had to win. I had to trust, grow to be compatible and learn to be a follower as well as a leader in order to succeed. I have learned that while I may not always agree with everyone I work with, that is not an excuse for not working hard and producing a finished product that demonstrates my fullest potential. I have become more receptive and accessible in a way that will allow me to continue to grow as a student, friend and teammate.

I have learned to find the good in others and to trust my own judgment while welcoming other sometimes-divergent points of view. These are life skills that I know I will need once I begin my college experience.

Throughout my life there were times when I felt that I knew it all, but through my experiences I have found that there is still so much to learn. I look forward to the journey ahead and the path that will lead me to my destination and goal of becoming successful student, athlete and citizen. v

By Mario Antonio Marra, ’09 Notre Dame High School West Haven

The Piano Man

S

eptember 29, 1991. My father was singing the leading role in Verdi’s opera La Traviata but had to rush off the stage in the middle of the second act to respond to a phone call — I was making my grand entrance.

Ever since I was in the womb, I have been surrounded by classical music. My current piano teacher knew me before I was born. By the time I was three, I would make my way to the piano in our house and press the keys, smiling at the sounds I made. Onxe of my earliest memories is feeling the joy of playing the piano; even though I have grown much taller and learned so much more, I still feel that same joy when I sit to play — I become a little kid again.

Since I was four years old, I have been studying and performing as a classical

The Descendant

M

y first day at Hopkins, I walked into seventhgrade history and saw a room full of students already at their desks. Scared that I was late, I ducked into a seat, pretending to have been there already. The bell suddenly rang. Confused, I heard the teacher say, “Hope you have a great start to junior year.”

By Nathaniel Zelinsky, ’09 Hopkins School

Only then did I realize that, let out early from my last class, I had entered the final minutes of an upper-school elective.

Older students filed out and the teacher, spotting me low in my desk, squinted. To this day, I can still hear his dry comment: “Ah, Mr. Zelinsky.

Didn’t you have a number of siblings go to this fine institution? Did none of them tell you when classes start?”

For each of the past 18 years a member of my family has attended Hopkins. When it came time for me to leave

concert pianist and accompanist. Playing St. Rita School’s first Friday masses in middle school, playing the organ for Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican with the Notre Dame High School Choir, attending the Tanglewood Institute’s piano program: all these are examples of my creative outlets. I have used music to build bridges and to form bonds of friendship and trust with my peers and fellow musicians.

The most satisfying aspect of playing the music of the great composers is the challenge.

What captivates me most about classical music is the sublime nature of the music and the fact that the performer must attempt to achieve seemingly unattainable musical perfection. I am fascinated by the interpretations of the great concert pianists — Rubinstein, Horowitz, Cortot, and Argerich. All of tese musicians Continued on 24

grade school, there was no question that I would follow in the footsteps of my sister and brothers. I filled out just one high school application.

There was no backup plan if an acceptance letter didn’t follow.

From that first day I realized that my siblings, though now in college and practicing law, followed me around the corridors between classes.

Teachers raved about the brother who published an original math proof as a 17year-old, the sibling who was student body president and a varsity lacrosse Academic All American, and the sister who won all the English awards.

Occasionally (to my ire) teachers slipped, calling me by my brothers’ names. It seemed that everyone expected me to be them, and I, desperate to leave as strong an impression, tried — dressing like them, playing their sports, joining their clubs.

Continued on 24

new haven

21

The Girl Jock

I

t’s 5:30 a.m. My annoyingly punctual internal alarm clock wakes me up.

Ready, or not, I have to push myself out of my warm bed and gather my stuff together for another long day. A big “thank you” to whoever invented automatic coffee makers! One cup of coffee, my eyes perk open, and my head feels a bit less hazy.

As a committed student-athlete, effective time management has become my greatest ally. Preparation is a key part of athletics, so every night I organize my three bags for the next day. One bag is for the gym, one bag is for soccer or basketball practice after school, and then there’s the all-important backpack for the academic part of my day. Stumbling out the door, I throw all my bags in my car (now my locker, too), and head to the gym for my workout at 6:15 a.m.

As an athlete, I know how important it is to stay fit and strong. Staying in shape helps prevent injuries and helps my team because it raises my level of play. Team play requires a commitment not only to myself but to my teammates as well. As captain, I feel that my level of commitment must be even higher. I love being part of a team. The camaraderie is worth facing the miserable disappointment after a loss, and the joy after a difficult win is hard to capture in words.

One of my most memorable times as captain of the basketball team came when we beat our rivals in a championship game.

For me, nothing is better than the intense silence that fills a gymnasium when the game is close. I live to play in down-to-thewire games that are decided by one final play or one final shot.

As a captain of a female basketball team, my teammates aren’t ones to get too intense and try to take over a game.

Sometimes we need someone to remind us to play tough. Sometimes nice doesn’t cut it. Sometimes it becomes incumbent upon one person to hype up the team. For this game, I was that person. “Come on guys!” I yelled. “This game is crucial to us.

We’ve fought so hard already! And most of all, it’s HOPKINS!” It’s no coincidence that I had my best game ever against our archrival; I think it was because of the supercharged atmosphere and ball of fire in my heart that refused to go away.

22

march 2009

With confidence in each other’s abilities and competitive determination, we won the league championship. Emotions come easily on a team of girls, and after pulling together to notch the close victory, smiles stretched across everyone’s faces, and laughs echoed throughout the gym. I was interviewed for the paper and got nothing

but support from my teammates. To know that they were so happy for me made me very proud to represent our team and our school. The smiles and laughs said it all.

They expressed how wonderful it is to be part of a well-functioning unit, a unit larger than oneself, a true team of female athletes who love to compete and love to win. v

By Laura Joseph ’09 Hamden Hall Country Day School

Samuel Genecin Continued from 19

got homework to doâ€? is an answer that I constantly ďŹ nd myself supplying to friends when they inquire as to why I cannot hang out with them on weekends. In my Yaleconnected family, it has always been fashionable to stay home on Friday nights and read. Be it nature or nurture, I seem to be of the same mold.

The persecution of nerds

Jasmine Wilborne Continued from 19

spent stitching together its excellence.

I wanted to be satisďŹ ed by my identity marked in quickdrying ink. By embodying the essay, I was able to have my writing solidify the essence of myself.

can probably be traced to an anti-intellectualism that has thankfully become less popular in recent months. The 2008 Presidential election pitted one man who ďŹ nished 894th out of 899 in his class at the U.S. Naval Academy against a man who obtained a B.A. at Columbia and a J.D. at Harvard. Regardless of one’s political beliefs, one can agree that the American people were happy to choose the more intelligent, more educated

candidate — the nerd.

goals. After high school, regardless of his success at forming an Internet start-up or winning international chess championships, the nerd joins the social landscape.

Although my identity as a nerd might not be something to aunt during my high school days, I joyfully anticipate my college years and beyond when I can ďŹ nally embrace my idiosyncrasies in the company of other self-proclaimed nerds!

And yet personal justice and respect for us high school nerds is often hard to come by.

In prehistoric times, I imagine the physically ďŹ ttest and most sociable hunter/gatherers lived the longest and became leaders of the tribe. In the current age of technology, however, it is possible for people to be sociable and ďŹ t in while also triumphing in the pursuit of notable intellectual

v

I never used to journal. When Lengthy prayers, raw poetry I was younger, I used to write and the description of several on my wrists. Now I seek treacherous track workouts refuge within the creamy saturate the pages. Though it pigmented pages of my journal. recounts my past, my journal I used to scoff enviously at my — not be mistaken for a diary classmates who mentioned — captures my creative juices their own journals, because to so swift in evaporation. me it symbolized legitimacy.

Writing is time-consuming, Now my journal is like a but I revel in its ability to parasitic lesion in danger of preserve and maintain the revealing my spontaneity.

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imprint of life’s vivacity.

I might not be able to manufacture pieces at astonishing speeds, but I write for myself. I write because inevitably it’s something I can do forever, and contently reminiscing on the past is something everyone should be able to do. Perhaps you may ďŹ nd it satisfying, too. v

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Mario Antonio Marra Continued from 21

found a deeper meaning in music, making it so much more than notes on a page.

In my career I have

Nathaniel Zelinsky Continued from 21

Most of the time, I failed.

Lacrosse practice was the worst. The ball ricocheted off my helmet, pads constricted my motion, and I wobbled like a duck. After a particularly bad afternoon, I sat in the locker room holding my head.

The grey-haired, tough-asnails coach walked down the row and stopped at my feet.

Looking into my red eyes, he put his hand on my shoulder, and spoke in an unusually kind voice. He explained that I needed to judge myself by my own metrics. Trying to emulate someone seven or 14 years older only leads to failure.

experienced many different types of music and academic areas, much of this at Notre Dame High School of West Haven, where I have flourished. I enjoy studying other subjects besides music, and in this regard Notre Dame

has been instrumental in both my musical and personal growth. I am a member of my school’s chorus and jazz ensemble, but I am also a co-president of my school’s human relations club and a cofounder of the Environmental

Action Club. All of these experiences, including the wonderful teachers and academic life I have had at Notre Dame, have enriched my life, making me a more well-rounded pianist and an independent thinker. v

Coach Cole’s talk stuck. I tried to pick my activities not based on a sibling’s legacy, but my own interests. There were plenty things I wanted to be a part of, but in which my family had excelled. With a touch of trepidation, I gave them my best shot, always careful to heed Cole’s advice.

hoarse, placing my trophies alongside older versions.

flag to the incoming one. I watched my brother receive that emblem, and my two other siblings served Hopkins in different ways. When I gripped the flagpole last May, my predecessor whispered to me to take care of his school.

It was the same charge my brother gave his successor.

I also noticed something I had missed before. When I slipped on the field or wrote a poor English paper, it was my family who picked me up and cheered me on. They called from dorm rooms and apartments to commiserate.

And they celebrated in my successes too, driving to my games, screaming themselves

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My peers eventually chose me to represent them in our student government, an honor they bestowed for the maximum five years.

The first meeting between the Head of School and a new student representative is nerve-wracking. During our discussion, she mistakenly called me by my older brother’s name. Instead of it irking me, I found myself grinning. I love my family and can think of no higher praise.

At every graduation ceremony, the outgoing student body president hands the Hopkins

With that request came the expectation of its fulfillment.

That expectation came not just because of personal successes, but because of the family to which I belong. I am proud to be a part of that family legacy, and when I leave Hopkins, I will pass on that flag knowing my sister, brothers and parents watch with equal pride. v

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Marley & Mom While family and friends move mountains to help, a teenager struggles to understand why cancer chose her

By Steven Scarpa

At left: Marley Kornowa (second from left) with (l-r) mother Maureen, father Michael and sister Mallory at a January 31 fundraiser for Marley at the Woodbridge Country Club.

C

ancer has a terrifying vocabulary all its own — dense Greek and Latin terminology twisted by fear.

For 17-year-old Marley Rae Kornowa, the learning curve on the disease isn’t just about medical terms and procedures — it is about being the best person she can be in the face of daunting odds.

Kornowa’s cancer journey began with a little spot on her leg, nothing more noteworthy than a bug bite. Except for one thing: “It had been changing colors,” she recalls.

Like most protective moms, Marley’s mother Maureen Kornowa, who lived in Orange, felt it was something they should get checked out, just to be safe. In the interim, Marley continued cheerleading for her high school in Atlanta, Ga., a hobby she found immensely gratifying.

“I love being in front of people, leading everyone in front of a crowd. And the friends you make are once-in-a-lifetime kinds of friends,” she says.

On August 3, 2007, Marley was pulled away from painting good luck signs for her high school’s football team and given heartbreaking news — the spot on her leg had been diagnosed as melanoma.

the news — she got angry. She didn’t understand why she got sick. But by force of will, those thoughts were quickly put aside. “I don’t have any choice but to be positive,” she explains. “I have to live that way. I can’t live with that fear and I don’t want to.

Less than two weeks later, on August 16 she went into surgery to have the infected tissue removed. The doctors thought the “I have amazing faith,” she adds. “I know surgery had gone well, and Marley felt she that everything is going to be okay. And was on her way to recovery. But just over I know that this is supposed to happen. one week later, on August 24, she and her Even if things don’t go the way I want family were dealt an even more shocking them to, it is okay. Even if I don’t like it blow. The cancer had spread through two I’ll live with it and I’ll do it with a smile.” of her lymph nodes. Marley had Stage III Maureen shares her daughter’s attitude metastic melanoma, a type of skin cancer about the disease. “When you have cancer that has a survival rate of about 60 percent. in your home, you have real conversations “She went from being with a very active that no one should have,” she says. “It group to being hospital- and home-bound,” does bring you closer together. You try says Maureen. “We try to stay ahead of it. to find the goodness and the humor in It is a cut-it-out-where-you-find-it kind of everything. Nothing matters anymore, disease.” none of the day-in-and-day-out stuff that people get caught up in. Nothing matters Marley had a natural initial reaction to any more except staying together and new haven

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After more surgery to remove the lymph nodes in her upper leg and groin, and a year of an intense cancer treatment called interferon, Marley’s first PET scan turned up normal. For the first year or two, Marley will have a PET scan every three months. If her scans remain clean, her prognosis for a long life is good. If more cancer is found, her survival rate drops dramatically. Marley’s next test is at the end of January. “We are in a great place today,” Maureen says. “Right now we live one scan at a time.”

Friends and family in Connecticut are trying to help — Michael, Marley’s dad, and Maureen Kornowa lived in Branford and Orange before moving to Atlanta. Aileen DeFeo, Marley’s aunt and Maureen’s sister, organized a fundraiser with the goal of helping other children afflicted with cancer. A dinner dance took place January 31 at the Woodbridge Country Club, hosted by “Marley’s Mob Squad,” a group of family and friends.

Per Marley’s request, all of the proceeds will be donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, an organization granting

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wishes to children afflicted with serious illness. The foundation has granted a wish to Marley, allowing her to get a full makeover by the stylists of the television show America’s Next Top Model. “She didn’t jump up and know what she wanted right away,” Maureen says. “I told her, it is okay to be completely self-indulgent here.”

Marley also finds support attending Camp Sunshine, a retreat for kids dealing with cancer. One might imagine it to be a depressing, foreboding place, but it is in fact the opposite. It is a place where Marley can go to find people who truly understand her plight. While it breaks her parents’ hearts to hear her say it, no one can truly understand how frightening cancer can be until they go through it themselves. “So many kids go through it with a smile on their face,” Marley says.

All of this doesn’t mean there aren’t hard days, days where the illness, rather than Marley’s spirit, wins. On those days, Marley draws her strength from her family, her friends and her extended network in Connecticut, who are all thinking about and praying for her. “In the Bible, God says if you just follow Him and follow His ways, things are going to be okay,” says Marley. “If we follow Him,

we’ve got a place in heaven. Realizing that, if the cancer comes back there is a place for me up there.”

Maureen Kornowa marvels at her daughter’s resiliency. “I wish I could say I found [my strength] in God, but the truth is I found my strength in Marley,” she says. “If I could take [the cancer] from her I would, but she said, ‘Mommy, I wouldn’t let you.’”

For now Marley is beginning to look at colleges, most of them near home so that she may continue her treatments. Endless hours in hospitals have had a way of adjusting Marley’s priorities. She watched pediatric oncology nurses spend time with small children who had little to no chance to of survival, making them comfortable and establishing a relationship that brought joy to their very difficult lives.

Marley thinks it is a task she would like to tackle. “They would sit and they would talk to me,” she says. “They inspired me. Because it is such a hard job, it takes someone special to do it. I want to make a difference. “I am just not sure how I am supposed to do it yet.”

For more information about Marley Kornowa or to make a donation to Marley’s Wish, contact Aileen DiFeo at 203-214-9082 or via e-mail at aileen.defeo@cbmoves.com. v

Photographs: Rich Stieglitz - Team Photographer Bridgeport Sound Tigers Contributing Photographer, New York Islanders

staying healthy. Nothing matters but today. We’ve learned to appreciate the little things a lot more.”

Photographs: Rich Stieglitz - Team Photographer Bridgeport Sound Tigers Contributing Photographer, New York Islanders

Living

theDream After years of toiling in minor-league obscurity, a onetime Yale hockey standout gets a taste of the Big Time

By Steven Scarpa

Compared to hockey in the ECAC and AHL, the NHL, says Callahan, is a little faster, a little more intense.

T

here were no bells and whistles announcing Joe Callahan’s arrival in the National Hockey League.

No press conferences. No muss, no fuss.

Around 10:30 a.m. December 8 a seriousminded coach pulled Callahan off the ice in Bridgeport, telling him to get himself to Philadelphia to join the New York Islanders on the road. A defenseman had been injured and Callahan was needed to fill in. Oh, and by the way, congratulations, you deserve it.

“That call was very businesslike,” Callahan recalled. “But you get in panic mode for a few minutes. It was probably better for me [that it happened so fast] because I was so nervous.”

Callahan, a 26-year-old graduate of Yale University and a defenseman on the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the Islanders’ American Hockey League affiliate, had earned his tickets to the big-time with steady, consistent play, scoring three goals and tallying four assists in 40 games,

while leading the squad in hits. “In the American [Hockey] League, we want him in the game all the time. He is on the ice in very crucial minutes,” said Pat Bingham, Sound Tigers assistant coach in charge of the defense.

Callahan had played in NHL exhibition games and during training camp, but there is nothing like making one’s debut in a regular season game. The little boy from Brockton, Mass., dreaming professional hockey dreams, came back to Callahan for a few moments when he first took the ice. “During warm-ups, I was definitely looking around the stands. It was packed and loud [in the Philadelphia Forum]. My head was spinning a little,” he recalls.

Hockey is a little bit faster in the NHL, a little more intense, Callahan explains. “As far as the game went, the first few shifts, I was nervous,” he acknowledges. “As a player, you have to remind yourself that you got there for a reason, you know how

to play hockey…You just try not to think too much.”

Yet it might be his acute thinking that got him to the NHL in the first place. Pat Bingham believes that Callahan possesses tremendous “hockey intelligence” — he understands the game as it unfolds before him and can adjust quickly to the warpspeed chaos of game action.

In 2002, Callahan’s freshman year at Yale, he was drafted in the third round by the Phoenix Coyotes. “It wasn’t something I had planned on at all,” says the political science major. “I took both school and hockey seriously. It wasn’t like I was ever a hockey player that stood out so much that I knew it was going to happen to me.”

At least on paper, Callahan’s future was set — it was just a matter of keeping up his grades and enjoying life in his Crown Street apartment with friends from the hockey team. He continued to play well for Yale. “[Being drafted] changed the

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During his Ingalls Rink days, Callahan patrolled the blue line for the Bulldogs. Right: The defenseman in his Soundtigers sweater.

way I thought about hockey a little bit,” Callahan recalls. Summer training became more than just a chore to be endured for a successful ECAC campaign — the Coyotes were watching. “I would talk to them each summer,” he says. Being under a microscope has a way of focusing a young man’s attention.

After college as Callahan learned the pro game, things became a little more difficult.

The sport he loved as a boy became a job, with all of the ups and downs. He began to bounce around to different organizations, moving from Phoenix to the Anaheim Ducks and then as an Islanders farmhand. “It has been an experience. I’ve loved every minute of it,” Callahan says. “It has been a lot of fun. It has its ups and downs, like any job. I always try to remind myself to stay grounded.”

After playing the 2004 through 2006 seasons for minor league teams out West, Callahan became a free agent, signing with Anaheim, who in turn farmed him out to its AHL club in Portland, Me. Coming back East clicked for the Massachusetts native, and in 2007-08 he had his best season in the pros thus far, scoring 24 points (one goal, 23 assists) during the regular season and leading all Portland defensemen in scoring in the playoffs (one goal, 11 assists). “It was a good team and I had a good year,” Callahan said.

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That good year netted another opportunity: a one-year contract with the Islanders. “There is a really good line of communication in this organization,” Callahan says. “You always know where you stand here.”

thing that is tough for young players is to go up and play well and then someone else gets healthy and they get sent down again. When you find yourself in that pecking order, the X factor is the focus and maturity to bring it every day.”

Callahan’s coaches have nothing but good things to say about his style of play. “He is a solid, steady, physical defenseman [who] handles the puck very well. He is a great influence, a great role model for the younger players,” Bingham says, pointing out that Callahan leads all Sound Tigers defensemen in hits. “I think he’s got all of the tools its takes to be an NHL player.

I don’t think there are many holes in his game.”

Callahan says has enjoyed his time in Bridgeport, spending a lot of spare time traveling his old haunts in New Haven.

But the NHL is a siren call for Callahan, and he is a heartbeat away from a fulltime job in the big league. “I think I’ll stay for a bit longer next time,” he said recently. “I think I’ll get an opportunity soon.”

It takes more than skill alone to get promoted from the minors to the big club.

It takes timing, luck — and sometimes a little bit of misfortune to another player.

An injury to Islander Andy Sutton prompted Callahan’s recall the first time.

The woeful state of the club — at press time the Islanders were in last place in the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division — can also create opportunities for new faces to excel.

“When the Islanders signed Callahan, they thought he would be a great depth guy in the organization and that he would make a terrific call-up,” Bingham explains. “You put together a winning team piece by piece. It is a day-to-day situation. The

It turns out that Callahan was right. An injury to Islander defenseman Thomas Bock prompted Callahan’s recall from Bridgeport on February 5. “I was hoping to play in more games this year, maybe get a string of ten or 20 games,” Callahan said before being summoned back to Long Island.

According to Sound Tigers spokesman Kimber Auerbach, Callahan will be up for at most two weeks or until the Islanders get healthy again. Perhaps Callahan’s dream — the dream of a little boy skating on the ice in Brockton, the dreams of a young Yale student toting his gear to Ingalls Rink for practice — may have to wait a little bit longer. v

Labor of Love

By Michael C. Bingham

PHOTOGRAPHS:

Nathan J. Topf aia, Architect, LLC

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The Morningside lot previously was the site of a faux Colonial where Acampora lived before replacing it with the home of her dreams.

ATH OME

E

very home, no matter how plain or pedestrian, has a story. In the case of Andrée Acampora’s seaside Milford home, the story is more poignant than most.

Native New Havener Acampora grew up in Westville, but in the early 1990s fell in love with a funky beach cottage in Milford’s Morningside neighborhood, two lots from Long Island Sound. She loved the location and liked the unpretentious Colonial-style house, but over time dreamed of something larger and more permanent. “I was growing up,” she recounts, “and I wanted my house to grow up with me.”

Growing up in Westville, Acampora loved the intimacy of the neighborhood setting, and hoped to replicate that feeling when she moved to Milford in 1991. “Everyone seemed to be moving to these big lots of acres in Orange and Woodbridge, and I didn’t want that,” she says. “I wanted something that reminded me of home.”

And she fell in love with seaside Morningside.

“I liked being in a neighborhood,” she says. “I liked being around my neighbors.

I liked seeing them and being involved with them. So when it came time to build a new house, I just decided to stay where I was in what felt like home.

“This has been a project of love, really,” Acampora explains. “We started in 2003 as a dream to live in the neighborhood I had always loved, but somehow have a house where we could entertain and enjoy with friends and family, but still live close to work ands the things I had become familiar with.”

Acampora, a health-care administrator who works in Orange, had one key ace up her sleeve: her father, Albert, of Acampora Builders in North Haven. “My dad is a builder and a craftsman, so I thought, ‘Let’s put him to work,’” she says. “But three months after we knocked down the old house [in May 2006] and had nowhere to live, he was diagnosed with a very deadly form of throat cancer. The doctor told us he had only a 50-percent chance of living.”

Well. “So, my [old] home was gone, I

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had no place to live, and I thought I was going to lose my dad,” Acampora says. “I basically thought my dream was over.”

But sometimes miracles do happen.

“My father, in the midst of all this, just decided he was going to build this house and survive cancer all at the same time,” she says. “So he came to this house every day, went to radiation therapy every evening, had chemotherapy every week, and fed himself through a tube in his stomach in a trailer that I put on the lot, because he couldn’t eat, he couldn’t swallow and he couldn’t talk.”

Through all that, recalls his daughter, “He never missed a day of work.”

What did Andrée Acampora learn from the experience?

“I learned that not only is my father an unbelievable craftsman, but what his constitution is made of is far beyond what I ever knew. You grow up with someone your whole life, but until you confront a crisis you really don’t know them.”

Acampora describes her father as on “old-school” craftsman, and every inch her new, 3,000-square-foot shingle-style home exudes exactly that kind of quality

Triple French doors provide diners with a stunning panorama of Long Island Sound beyond.

The muted color scheme of the sunken living room is intended to provide psychic refuge from the hectic workday world.

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The vine motif of the glass backsplash above the Wolf range came from Cheryl Hazan Mosaics in Manhattan.

The master bedroom features a king sleigh bed recessed into the wall in front of upholstered paneling.

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workmanship and attention to detail.

But equally evident is the skill of the architect, Nathan J. Topf of Woodbridge, with whom Acampora worked for two years to devise and perfect the design and ow of the structure. The pair came up with a design “that was reminiscent of an older Newport/Block Island beach home,â€?

Acampora says.

Where did the original idea come from? “Water has always been a big part of our lives,� says Acampora. “My dad is a sailor; we’ve always been around water. It feels peaceful to me. And I always loved the old-time seaside homes. My designer, Ed Bottomley [of Cama Inc. in New Haven] calls it ‘beach chic.’ I wanted the feel of a casual beach home that wouldn’t feel fussy, where people would feel comfortable but would still be open and airy and ‘beachy.’�

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Open, airy, beachy — check. But the ďŹ nal product seems a bit more gracious than her description might imply. The appointments and furnishings are anything but beach-house haphazard — each piece feels perfectly suited for the space it occupies.

The tour begins (as so many do) in the kitchen, and the room design really begins with the red knobs on the stainless-steel Wolf range. “The red was to be the focal point,â€? Acampora explains. “My brother lives in Manhattan, which gave us an opportunity to explore some interesting places in downtown where we could get some things made.â€? One of those “thingsâ€? is a spectacular glass backsplash mosaic from Cheryl Hazan Mosaics Studio that is the real visual focal point of the bright, sun-ďŹ lled kitchen (“and maybe the focal point of the whole downstairs,â€?

Acampora adds). An oblong-shaped island is topped with Millennium Cream from Connecticut Stone in Milford, which supplied all the marble in the home.

The kitchen opens into an open dining area with a breathtaking panorama of Long Island Sound from three bay windows. Architect Topf has beautifully framed the southern and eastern water views from the ground and upper stories. “I didn’t really have views like this before,�

Acampora says of her previous home. “So although I didn’t move any closer to the water I feel much closer to the water because all of a sudden I can see it much better.�

The sunken living room is framed by graceful Empire-style millwork bordering the ceiling and gas ďŹ replace, lovingly crafted by Acampora’s father. The muted

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tan color scheme is intended to be “relaxing,” Acampora says. “I needed a place where I just felt relaxed and comfortable and soothing. I have kind of a hectic life and hectic personality, and I needed a place that seemed soothing.

And these colors really fit that.”

Two large seaside landscapes by Atlanta painter Elizabeth Stockton “seem like they could have been painted right here in Milford, which is why I was attracted to them,” says Acampora.

The foyer likewise features Albert Acampora’s signature millwork — barreled ceilings, a classic staircase.

Also downstairs is a tidy library housing antiques including a library table and African artifacts from previous expeditions.

Recessed shelving in the cozy library houses artifacts from an African adventure as well as other keepsakes.

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At the top of the stairway, behind frosted-glass Japanese shoji doors, is the master bedroom suite rendered in a rich salmon. Looking out over Long Island Sound is a king-sized sleigh bed with upholstered headboard recessed into a space with upholstered panels. On a clear day you can see Long Island from the room’s inviting window seat.

Down the hall is a tidy south-facing guest bedroom — “Even our guests get to see the water, which I love,” Acampora says. Like most of the rooms, it features exposed white-oak floors finished “street-shoe”-style, as opposed to a glossier oil-based finish, giving them a duller, honey-colored sheen. To show them off Acampora has in many living spaces left the floors bare.

A wonderful home — and one that nearly didn’t come into being except for what Acampora refers to as her “miracle.

“I never would have been able to have this beautiful home if not for my father,” Acampora says. “I probably couldn’t afford it, nor could I find someone who would put the kind of craftsmanship and love he put into this house. It’s just a gift I could never repay him for.”

Acampora moved into her new home in November. A month later she celebrated her first Christmas in her new home with her family. Including her father, who is now cancer-free.

“It’s amazing,” she concludes. v

B O D Y & SOUL

Brain Salad Surgery In his debut novel, a New Haven surgeon plumbs the ethics of organ donation

By Sarah Politz

A

cardiac surgeon has been working on an innovative new procedure that could help his colleague, also a surgeon, undergo a successful transplant.

The committee overseeing his research might give him the go-ahead, but the chairman is out of town. Does the surgeon operate and try to save his friend, or wait for permission? Does the choice rest with the patient, the doctor — or a third party?

Medical ethics is now forced to confront such issues, according to Yale heart surgeon John A. Elefteriades, MD, author of a new novel whose subject is organ transplantation. “The funny thing about ethics is that I think that one person’s sense of right and wrong is just as valid as any other person’s, but then society creates rules, because you can’t just live in chaos,” he says.

Elefteriades, known to his patients simply as “Dr. E.,” has previously published two nonfiction books for a general audience (Your Heart: An Owner’s Heart Guide and The Woman’s Heart: An Owner’s Guide), but Transplant, available April 18 (Robot Binaries & Press, $17.95), is his first foray into fiction.

“I had the kernel idea in my mind,” he says. “I had the privilege of operating on [the late author] Robert Ludlum [whose typewritten letter is displayed on the doctor’s office wall], and we talked a lot while he was in the hospital about writing.

He said that what he does is he gets the ‘kernel’ concept, and from there on, for him, everything is easy.

Getting to the heart of the matter: Surgeon/novelist Elefteriades.

“[Ludlum is] probably one of the greatest fiction writers of all time,” Elefteriades says. “He said that the kernel is the hard part for him. Once he has it, it’s easy to hang things from that for the story to unfold.”

Without giving away too much, Elefteriades’ “kernel” has to do with a controversial, fascinating twist on organ donation that plays on the dynamics of money and power. How much can a donor give (up to and including his life)?

Who holds the authority: donor, doctor or patient?

“Increasingly, we have turned the professionals into technicians by assuming that they do what we pay them to do, or that what they do they do because we hire them,” says ethicist Harold Baillie, provost and professor of philosophy at the University of Scranton (Pa.).

“Often when you have a medical-ethics discussion it tends to be on very abstract cases that are leached of all of their human interest,” Baillie says. “[Transplant]

certainly makes it a little more exciting, and a little more interesting because of the attachment you develop to the characters.”

“I liked the kernel,” says Elefteriades, “because I thought it’s something that may happen tomorrow, or it may happen next year.”

Transplant tells the story of a fictional Yale surgeon, Athan Carras, who, after getting in trouble for performing an experimental “heart-and-a-half” procedure on a colleague, is whisked away on a fast-paced thriller of an adventure that leads him through an island paradise, imprisonment and violence, and ultimately, into the hands of money, power and shocking ethical dilemmas.

The novel’s protagonist shares similarities with Elefteriades: He is a cardiothoracic surgeon at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

His daily life is filled with New Haven landmarks: Whitney Avenue, Farnam Hall, Mory’s dining club.

“A lot of the protagonist is based on my life because that’s what I know,” he explains. new haven

35

Christopher Mir’s ’Is There Life After Birth?’ (oil, 53” X 38”, 2009).

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april 2009

Anthony DeCarlo

In the Long Run

PHOTOGRAPH:

Neither rain, nor snow nor dark of night will keep these ‘streakers’ from their appointed runs — every single day

By Michael C. Bingham

Yvette Faris (left) with her running team: husband Malcolm Ferguson and high-mileage pooch Millie.

Y

vette Faris is a streaker. And a very well dressed one at that.

Depending on time of day and season, she will leave the house turned out in nylon shorts and singlet, wind jacket and pants if the breeze is blowing, and of course a sturdy pair of running flats to help her navigate the rough terrain of Hamden’s Sleeping Giant State Park.

Faris, of Wallingford, is a streaker — but not in the sense of silly 1970s college kids streaking across campus in their birthday suits. Instead, the 48-year-old has hit the trail or road every morning since March 2007 for an invigorating run.

And we do mean every morning.

If you live around here you have likely seen bumper stickers for the Milford Road Runners club that crow, “10K Every Day — Well, Almost.” With hard-core streakers like Faris and Frederick Murolo

of Cheshire, there’s no “almost.” They are on a mission to run at least a mile every single day.

If it’s raining, they run. If it’s snowing, they run. If it’s below zero, they run. If the wind is howling (which runners hate much more than cold or precipitation), they run.

Even if they’re sick, they run. They run, therefore they are.

Streakers even have their own organization: The U.S. Running Streak Association Inc., which has five active members (including Murolo and Faris) in Connecticut, including two with streaks of more than 25 years. The USRSA defines a running streak as “running at least one continuous mile within each calendar day under one’s own body power.” It doesn’t matter where — the running can take place on a road, a track, over hill

and dale or even on a treadmill. It just needs to be every single day. Once a runner makes it to the one-year mark, that feat is memorialized on the USRSA Web site (runeveryday.com).

Faris had run off and on since her late teens — “more off than on,” she acknowledges. “I was just like your typical 5K-type [road race] person.”

Then, after injuring her knee and complications from surgery to repair it, she stopped running altogether. “I had a really bad knee and didn’t know if I would even walk again without a cane.”

After a year of physical therapy to rehab the joint, in 2005 Faris decided to start walking to build strength. Walking turned to jogging, jogging turned to running at about a 10-minute-per-mile clip, and running turned to running almost every day. new haven

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The long and winding road: Husband and running companion Malcolm Ferguson (who snapped this photo) and canine companion Millie were on hand to memorialize Yvette Faris’ first 1,000 miles in 2007.

favorite runs are through the craggy trails of Sleeping Giant.

And always — this part is key — first thing in the morning. “Just getting out the door — that’s the hardest part. That’s why I run in the morning: I don’t have time to make a decision [about whether to run]; I just get out and go.”

She has run “in freezing -3 degrees, stifling 98 degrees, snowstorms, thunderstorms, pouring rain, pitch dark and on the most glorious of days,” Faris says. “I have witnessed many surreal sunrises and spectacular sunsets.

“Some people think it’s crazy — sometimes I think it’s crazy — but others are really impressed,” she says. “It’s what keeps me going.”

And the benefits — “I have never felt better,” she says. “Exercise is the fountain of youth. I feel much younger, I’ve lost a lot of weight. And I can support my microbrew habit,” she adds with a laugh.

Over the course of his 27-year streak, Muolo says he has run ‘only’ 16 marathons and four 100-mile races. He always runs alone, and always outdoors.

His hardest days: 35 degrees (F.) and pouring rain.

Does Faris have a specific goal — three years, five years, ten years? “I just want to keep doing it,” she says. “Life does not get any better than this.”

Although the Ides of March will mark two years without a break, Faris nevertheless considers herself a streaking newbie. The same can’t be said of Fred Murolo.

A 52-year-old Cheshire attorney, Murolo began running in his late teens during the halcyon days of the initial running craze, when Jim Fixx’s The Complete Book of Running was a bestseller and marathoners like Frank Shorter and Boston’s Bill Rodgers were international celebrities.

“They didn’t even really have running shoes then,” Murolo chuckles. “I started running in Converse All-Stars [very oldschool basketball shoes].”

But she had no idea she was transforming into a streaker, or even what that was, until in December 2006 she read an article on the subject in Runner’s World magazine.

“I was having trouble getting motivated and staying motivated” to run every day.

“When it’s dark and cold — there are more excuses why you don’t want to go out than reasons that you do,” she explains.

“So I read that and I thought, ‘I’ll do this for January just to get me through’” the cruelest month for runners.

“So I did that, and I thought, ‘I can do this — so I’ll try it for another month.’ So I did it for [February] and I thought, ‘That’s kind of cool.’ Her running was morphing 38

march 2009

into “something bigger.”

After two and a half months of faithful daily running, Faris took a tennis ball to the eye, which tore her retina and shut her down for a few days. But before long she was back out there — and hasn’t missed a day since March 15, 2007. Which, by the way, was 2,071 miles ago. (She knows precisely because she tracks her mileage on a Excel spreadsheet — “I get a little neurotic with it,” she admits.)

Faris runs three miles or so weekdays and five to ten on weekend days, typically with her husband Malcolm Ferguson (whom she describes as “the real runner in the family”) and dog Millie. Their

Murolo was a (literally) fair-weather runner who mostly shut it down during winter months. But in the summer of 1978 he decided to try racing. On Labor Day of that year Murolo entered the very first New Haven Road, a 20K won by Bill Rodgers. The following month he ran the New York Marathon as an unregistered “bandit.” “My sister dropped me off at Staten Island where the starting line was, and I ran the entire race. They let me do it — gave me water and everything — but they wouldn’t let you actually cross the finish line. There was a police officer there to make sure you didn’t” — this after 26.1999999 miles.

After that, Murolo stopped running as usual for the winter, as he did the

following year, even though he was racing with increasing frequency (and increasing speed). Then, in December 1981, “I decided I wanted to be more consistent in 1982, so I made goals. I set a goal to run 300 days, and 1,000 miles [for the year]. I started 1982 two days early, on December 30, 1981, and I ran three and a half miles.”

And he hasn’t missed a day since.

How does Murolo love running? Let us count the days: This May he will pass 10,000 consecutive days and his mileage is at about 62,000. Plenty of new cars don’t make it that far. “My goal was to run 10,000 days in a row and 100,000 kilometers,” he says. That averages out to about 10K (6.2 miles) a day, every day, for more than 27 years. Will he take a break when he passes that goal this spring? “No, no,” he says.

And even as he ages, his mileage is actually increasing. Murolo averages 60 to 75 miles a week (closer to ten miles than 10K each day). And he’s graduated from running mere marathons (well, he still ran two in ’08) to ultra-marathons — 100-mile crucibles of human endurance (some “ultras” are 24 hours in length; the winner being the contestant who has run the farthest).

His first was a 24-hour affair in Massachusetts, of which Murolo ran for 12 hours straight, completing 52.7 miles. “I really liked it,” he says with a straight face.

So he just kept doing it.

What’s it like to run 100 miles, which at Murolo’s pace takes about 24 hours? “You come to a point where your body really starts to protest,” he explains. “You get one of those at 25 or 30 miles. And then you start to think, ‘Oh, my God. I’m feeling really tired and worn out — and I’ve still got 71 miles to go. That’s like the distance from New Haven to New York City.” But he has done four of them, with more to come.

Neither illness nor injury has ever cost him a single day. The hardest days Murolo has ever faced? The days after running 100-mile ultras.

“A couple of years ago I ran a 100-miler that started at 6 a.m.,” Murolo recalls. “So when I finished it was the next day. My wife reminded me that I had to run at least one consecutive mile in each calendar day to keep my streak going. I did, but that was kind of funny.”

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ONSCREEN

Students at a youth forum hosted by Youth Rights Media organizers to discuss common issues facing high school age youth.

Movies with a Mission Youth Rights Media hands expressive power to New Haven teens

By Sarah Politz

A

youth appears in a blank lot, out of focus and moving in slow motion as a hip-hop beat fades into the soundtrack.

He has no friends or allies in sight. He is alone. A do-rag covers his head and headphones hang around his neck. He is moving slowly toward the camera with his eyes to the ground.

As the short film progresses, we return to the image repeatedly. Each time he is closer, and his features come into clearer focus. But still his eyes avoid contact.

When we return to the youth the final time, the film rolls at normal speed and the young man, Solomon Green, jerks into action, the words flying in rapid fire from his lips:

40

march 2009

If I had a batch of millions, I would stash it for my children.

There’s a riot in me and it’s toppin’ with piety.

There’s a lot of irony in society, because the lions, see, are not telling entirely the truth.

But I grabbed the facts fast like an emotional diary that I die to read.

I’m sick and tiring of being bumped to the side for future failure.

It ain’t right to me, money being sent off to prisons. I don’t see no visions. Only teen killings, and our teens aren’t the mean villains.

Millions of billions of G’s lockin’ up teens, But the G-O-V re-owes me my J-O-B. I say, if not, I say that we take a lead.

We’re in jail, but breakin’ free so I can speak.

This is No Haven, a short ďŹ lm produced in 2008 by students of Youth Rights Media (YRM), a New Haven non-proďŹ t that uses media to empower high school-aged youth to tell their stories. Green is one of eight young producers in YRM’s media lab who created the ďŹ lm, which addresses the lack of resources available to youth programs in the city, creating a vacuum for high-schoolers and others who, hassled by police and uncomfortable at home, begin to feel that they have no safe place to go. The ďŹ lm asserts that the money for youth centers is instead being spent on programs to imprison urban youth.

Youth Rights Media is more than just the carrier of the ďŹ lm’s message; it may also be part of the solution. The organization’s roots go back to the summer of 2000, when then-Yale College student Laura McCargar, a major in American studies, teamed up with two students at the Yale Law School, hoping to confront through volunteer work the tension that existed between youth and police ofďŹ cers in the community. Partnering with the New Haven Public Schools and the New Haven Police Academy, the three got to work. “The idea was: we can use video as a tool to educate young people about the law and their rights and use that as a strategy

for improving youth-police relations,â€? explains McCargar, now executive director of YRM. “So in the summer of 2000, before we were any sort of real entity, we worked with a group of young people, got some cameras, trained them in some basic video production stuff, and then ďŹ lmed a series of narrative vignettes that sort of looked at encounters between youth and police ofďŹ cers.â€?

Then the program was known as the Juvenile Rights Advocacy Project. “The year following we designed a curriculum around it,â€? McCargar says, “and [we] took it into New Haven Public Schools and did peer presentations where we matched law students with peer educators and basically had them talk about what [youth’s] rights and responsibilities are in encounters with police ofďŹ cers, making sure that they were informed of their rights and of police protocol and policy so that they could make the safest decision — safe legally, safe physically — in any given encounter with a police ofďŹ cer.â€?

The reaction was overwhelmingly positive. “For a lot of young people, it was something that was easy to relate to, because it was something they were all too aware of,� says Erika Brown, a Newhallville resident who participated

in the program in high school. “There’s a level of empowerment that took place.â€? “Young people who participated in the workshops in schools were the most engaged,â€? concurs McCargar, “because for many of them that presented their experience in encounters with police ofďŹ cers.â€?

After leaving New Haven to earn a degree in criminal justice and psychology from Tennessee State University, Brown has been YRM’s outreach coordinator since 2007. “I wanted to be a cop or FBI agent,� she says. “Then being in [YRM], seeing how the political issues and the democracy of systems works — it opened my eyes to see which end of the spectrum I wanted to be on. I don’t want to be the person causing the problem. I want to be the person developing solutions.� “After doing this presentation to hundreds of kids, even as volunteers, it let us know that there was a real seed and energy in what we were doing, that it’s something that we wanted to be able to continue,�

McCargar says.

When McCargar graduated from Yale in 2002, her collaborators asked her if she wanted to stay in New Haven to grow the project. The Oakland, Calif. native recalls

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Youth Rights Media’s Summer Institute is a five-week summer employment program that trains youth to use media educate and engage their peers and community.

with a laugh, “Totally green and totally naïve and having absolutely no clue what that would really mean, I said, ‘Of course — I would love to.’”

The organization then incorporated as a non-profit, and Youth Rights Media was born. The group expanded its mission beyond advocating legal rights. “It was the youth in the back of the class who often didn’t participate or got in trouble or got yelled at for not wanting to take their hat off, who became the most engaged and the most participatory,” says McCargar, “So the challenge became: how do we target those young people and move them from the back of class, so to speak, to the front of the room?”

Part of the key turned out to be the appeal of video and other media for young people. The media lab dovetails with the program’s community-organizing component, which helps youth to look for solutions to the issues important to them.

Explains McCargar: “The media production lab program, where we teach youth how to produce digital stories, public-service announcements and documentaries, really became about engaging young people in a process of identifying the issues that they felt were impacting young people, critically analyzing why those issues exist and some alternative approaches or strategies to address [them].”

Plus, she says, there’s creative media’s potential to work against popular 42

march 2009

perceptions that fill mainstream television and film. “The mainstream media plays a big role in forming public opinion of teenagers as a demographic, teenagers of color, or teenagers who live in inner-city neighborhoods, and that [affects] public will to address issues affecting teenagers.”

people have launched about the school policies,” says McCargar. “I think those critiques are absolutely necessary and need to be made. Our role is to facilitate their thinking and their analysis around an issue, and when they arrive at a platform for change, that becomes the position that we adopt.”

Working against those mainstream attitudes has sometimes landed YRM in sticky territory politically. In the summer of 2007, YRM community organizers reacted to the transfer of several students from Hillhouse High School to the Hillhouse Armory across the street. The Armory’s 75 to 100 students were selected based on chronic truancy, academic failure and repeated suspensions for what was supposed to be a more disciplined learning environment.

Ashley Burney was involved with YRM throughout her high school years, working on the Hillhouse Armory issue and several documentaries. Now a UConn freshman, Burney reflects on her work with YRM: “I think I learned how to think critically, how to examine the systems and how to challenge authority without being disrespectful. A lot of youth don’t think that they have a voice.

Youth should be able to have input in the policies that will affect their lives.”

Classes at the Armory were less challenging, the building was surrounded by barbed wire and even lunch was less healthy, students reported in the YRM documentary Book ’Em: Undereducated, Overincarcerated, which outlined the “school-to-prison pipeline.” The students held a press conference to demand better conditions at the Armory — a move that was initially brushed off as insubordination by school officials. But a year later, the Armory students were movedinto a more agreeable setting at the Prince Street School.

Brown says that forging alliances with young people is key to her work as outreach coordinator. She finds the work rewarding, she says, because it gives her the opportunity “to be a mentor and set an example for them of what they can and cannot do, helping them set standards and goals in their own lives. It’s great to see people transition from a place of not knowing to the light bulb going off with ‘Oh, I understand — this is how we can make it better.’

“YRM has received a lot of attention and criticism for the critiques that young

“You can see a young person change and develop before your eyes.”

To learn more about Youth Rights Media and view film trailers, youthrightsmedia.org. v

CREATING ART Studio Tuesday is an informal, noninstructional “paint-in” that meets every Tuesday. Come work in a creative environment alongside other artists.

9 a.m.-noon March 3, 10, 17 & 24 at Margaret Egan Center, 35 Matthew St., Milford. Free. 203-878-6647, milfordarts. org.

It’s hip to knit. The Blackstone Knitting & Crocheting Group meets Wednesdays in the Lucy Hammer Room. Informal gathering for knitters, crocheters and other fiber artists of all ages, from beginner to the expert.

First-time knitters welcome — coaches available. 5:30-7:45 p.m. March 4, 11, 18 & 25 at Blackstone Library, 758 Main St., Branford. Free. 203-488-1441 ext.

313, events@blackstone.lioninc.org, blackstone.lioninc.org.

Join Yale students and gallery staff as they relate folktales and myths from across the globe to works of art in the Yale University Art Gallery’s collection in Stories and Art. All ages welcome; drawing materials provided for older children. 1 p.m. March 8 at the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-0600, artgallery.yale.edu.

Bring your sewing, fine art or craft projects to the Contemporary Sewing Circle. Artists share ideas and get advice from one another every second Thursday of the month. 6-8 p.m. March 12 at Artspace, 50 Orange St., New Haven. Free. 203-772-2709, artspacenh. org.

The third annual Open Doors of downtown Milford, an open-air public arts festival celebrating Connecticut artists, announces a Call for Artists to apply to participate in the festival.

Completed pieces will be on display throughout downtown Milford from August 22 through September 27 concluding with a live auction.

Selected artists receive a $100 stipend and 45 percent of their door’s selling price, while 45 percent benefits charity.

There will also be a $500 first prize for the best door, as judged by the committee. To apply submit photos of current work along with biographical information to the submissions committee at info@downtownmilfordct. com or by mail to Rosemary CelonGordon c/o Gilded Lily Gallery, 101 River Street, Milford 06460 by April 15.

GALLERY TALKS/TOURS Take a Yale Student-Guided Tour of the Yale Center for British Art’s (YCBA) permanent collection. 1 p.m. Sat.-Sun. at YCBA, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven.

Free. 203-432-2858, ycba.yale.edu.

Experience “Endless Forms”: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts under the guidance of a YCBA docent in an Exhibition Tour. 2 p.m.

March 1, 15 & 29, 11 a.m. March 12 & 26, noon March 7 at YCBA, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-2858, ycba. yale.edu.

Enjoy a Masterpiece Tour of the Yale University Art Gallery collection. Tours led by YUAG docents and every tour is different. 1:30 p.m. March 1, 7, 8 & 29 at the YUAG, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven.

Free. 203-432-0600, artgallery.yale.edu.

Internationally renowned baroque music specialist and conductor Nic McGegan offers a light-hearted look at 18th-century England and its love of animals in the pre-Darwin era, with poetry readings and music in Baroque Birds & Beasts: A Menagerie of Pets in Words, Music & Painting. 5:30 p.m.

March 2 at the YCBA, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-2858, ycba. yale.edu.

Ari Friedlaender, assistant research scientist at Duke University’s Marine Geospatial Ecology Laboratory, lectures on Art in Context in They Ain’t Just Whistlin’ Dixie: The Evolution of Social Sounds and Echolocation in Marine Mammals. 12:30 p.m. March 3 at the YCBA, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Free.

203-432-2858, ycba.yale.edu.

Kate Ezra, the Bradley senior associate curator of academic affairs, presents a lecture on Ideal Humans and Wild Beasts: Bamana Art at the Yale University Art Gallery. 12:20 p.m.

March 4 at YUAG, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-0600, artgallery. yale.edu.

Curators from the Department of American Decorative Arts lead a Furniture Study Tour. Noon March 6, 13, 20 & 27 at the YUAG, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-0600, artgallery.yale.edu.

Take an Introductory Tour of the YCBA’s permanent collection. 11 a.m.

March 7, 14 & 28 at YCBA, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-2858, ycba. yale.edu.

Lust for Wood. Architect Duo Dickinson gives an intriguing presentation about the emotional power of wood. 2 p.m. March 14 at Fairhaven Furniture, 72 Blatchley Ave., New Haven. Free. 203-776-3099, fairhaven-furniture.com.

Get the lay of the Yale British Art Center’s land with an Architecture Tour.

11 a.m. March 21 at YCBA, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-2858, ycba. yale.edu.

St., New Haven. Free (space limited). 203432-9525, artgallery.yale.edu.

Jim Secord, professor of history and the philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge and director of the Darwin Correspondence Project, lectures on Global Darwin. 5:30 p.m.

March 31 at the YCBA, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-2858, ycba. yale.edu.

EXHIBITIONS Of All the People in All the World is a fascinating performance/art installation that uses grains of rice to bring formerly abstract statistics to life. In this captivating exhibition, each grain of rice is equal to one person and you are invited to compare the one grain that is you to the millions that are not.

As part of Feet to the Fire, Wesleyan has commissioned Stan’s Café to produce a version of the work that will help humanize the issues of climate change.

At the conclusion of the installation, the rice will be donated to local food banks. Through March 3 at the Zilkha Gallery and Olin Library Lobby, Wesleyan University, Middletown. Free. 860-6853355, cfa@wesleyan.edu, wesleyan. edu/cfa or wesleyan.edu/feettothefire.

Westville’s Kehler Liddell Gallery Live Music every Wednesday. Enjoy new sounds while perusing works of art. 7-9 p.m. March 4, 11, 18, & 25 at the Kehler Liddell Gallery, 873 Whalley Ave., New Haven. Free. 203-389-9555, kehlerliddell. com.

Organized by students in a Wesleyan seminar, the exhibit Modern Times: American Graphic Arts, 1900–1950, includes works by John Taylor Arms, Thomas Hart Benton, Martin Lewis, John Sloan, Grant Wood and others.

Through March 5 at the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, 301 High St., Middletown. Open noon-4 p.m. Tues.-Sun. Free. 860-685-2500, lberman@wesleyan. edu, wesleyan.edu/dac.

Deep black and beautifully textured, this exhibition’s contemporary Chinese Rubbings record distant places and ancient times. By pressing paper onto stone monuments and inking it, the Chinese were able to make copies

ART of important documents before the invention of printing. Through March 6 at Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies Gallery, Wesleyan University, 343 Washington Terr., Middletown. Open noon-4 p.m. daily except Mon. Free. 860685-2330, wesleyan.edu/east.

Layers of Time & Memories: A Retrospective of Hand-Dyed Watercolor Torn-Paper Collage Portraits from 1988-2006. Marilyn Cohen’s work is a reflection of collage — layers of lives and families, images and memories. The colors and textures are like the colors and textures in each life. Through March 8 at Thomas J. Walsh Gallery, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Rd., Fairfield. Open 11 a.m.5 p.m. daily except Mon., noon-4 p.m.

Sun. Free. quickcenter.com.

Who I Am on the Inside is an exhibition of works by young people in the state’s juvenile-justice system. The Connecticut Juvenile Justice Alliance organized the exhibit to highlight the struggles and potential of these young people. Through March 13 at the Small Space Gallery, 70 Audubon St., 2nd floor, New Haven. Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. Free. 203-772-2788, dhesse@ newhavenarts.org, newhavenarts.org.

Creative Arts Workshop (CAW), New Haven’s community art school, hosts its biannual Student Show, featuring the new works of students of all ages and experiences in a variety of media including paintings, sculpture and pottery. All aspects of creating art will be represented — from the free abandonment and exploration of materials by young people to the studied and skillful application of technique by those who have practiced for years. The Student Show not only offers students the opportunity to showcase their creativity, but also serves as an inspiration for visitors to explore their own creative side through art making at the Workshop.

Yale University’s Eugene Higgins Professor of Geology, Brian Skinner, shows visitors A New World as Seen Through the Eyes of a Young Darwin.

12:30 p.m. March 24 at the YCBA, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. 203-4322858, ycba.yale.edu.

Francis Bacon’s Medievalism will be explored at length by Yale senior Andrew Lee, who is also a student guide at the center. Noon March 31 at the YCBA, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven.

Free. 203-432-2858, ycba.yale.edu.

Artist Barkley L. Hendricks responds to works on view in Picasso and the Allure of Language in the lecture series Contemporary Artists on Picasso. 5:30 p.m. March 26 at the YUAG, 1111 Chapel

A Creative Arts Workshop student fills in her portrait in the course Drawing the Portrait Made Easy. See works produced by students at CAW through March 13.

new haven

43

Through March 13 at Creative Arts Workshop, 80 Audubon St., New Haven. Open 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. daily, 9 a.m.-noon Sat. Free. 203-562-4927, creativeartsworkshop.org.

A prolific artist whose work defies easy categorization, Mark Mulroney borrows familiar imagery from popular culture and turns it on its head. In Wet with Glee, his newly commissioned installation for Gallery 1, Mulroney renders colorful images of people, places and things in an illustrative, even cartoon-like, style. Through March 14 at Artspace, 50 Orange St., New Haven. Open Noon-6 p.m. Tues.-Thurs. & noon-8 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Free. 203-772-2709, artspacenh.org.

Jewelry, clothing and accessories are on display at the Wearable Art Show, featuring pieces by artisans Patricia Glover, Keelin Brett, Carissa Black, Cynthia Callan, Rita Patel and Amity Doolittle. Through March 15 at Wink Art & Design, 87 Whitfield St., Guilford. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tues.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Sat. 203-453-5921, digitalwink.com.

Middletown public middle-school students showcase their work in the Middletown Public Schools Art Exhibition. The Middletown Board of Ed, Public Schools Cultural Council and Wesleyan’s Center sponsor this event.

March 7-15 (reception 5-7 p.m. March 7) at Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, 283 Washington Terr., Middletown. Open noon-7 p.m. weekdays & 1-4 p.m. Sat.Sun. Free. 860-685-3355, boxoffice@ wesleyan.edu, wesleyan.edu/cfa.

A range of media from realistic to abstract, representing varied issues from identity to environmental concerns, are on view in Oppositions, a juried exhibition of recent artwork exploring dichotomy and/or binary opposition presented by the Arts & Literature Laboratory. Works will be integrated with furniture in a unique architectural space. Through March 21 at River Street Gallery at Fairhaven Furniture, 72 Blatchley Ave., New Haven.

Open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Wed., 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Thurs., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat., noon-4 p.m. Sun. 203-776-3099, fairhavenfurniture.com.

The Prodigal Son Returns: The Art of Soichi Watanabe. A resident of Koshigaya City, Saitama, Japan, Soichi Watanabe is the 2008–‘09 artist in residence at the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven.

Watanabe’s oil paintings have been displayed in numerous solo exhibitions in Tokyo. Through March 26 at Yale Institute of Sacred Music, 409 Prospect St., New Haven. On view 9 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays. Free. 203-432-5062, yale. edu/ism.

Artspace presents seven solo exhibitions in Galleries 2-7 including artists Kwadwo Adae, Gail Biederman, Stephan Millar, Jeremy Bell and others. Through March 28 at Artspace, 50 Orange St., New Haven. Open noon-6 p.m. Tues.-Thurs. & noon-8 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Free. 203-772-2709, artspacenh.org.

All entries submitted by area artists for

44

march 2009

the Photo Expo are on view this month.

March 7-28 (opening reception 7-9 p.m.

March 7) at Milford Center for the Arts, 40 Railroad Ave., Milford. Open 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 2-5 p.m. Sat. Free.

203-878-6647, milfordfac@optonline. net, milfordarts.org.

In Vanishing Points, an exhibition of selected new works, Bob Gianotti and Alan Shulik offer viewers an opportunity to disappear into the photographs, to surrender personal reality to mesmerizing visual pleasure.

Gianotti’s photography captures the surreal and transcendent aspects of nature, taking ordinary moments and transforming them into abstract universes. Shulik finds his work taking him to remote locations in which the environment seems to swallow the people inside of it. His work was shot in Connecticut, Martha’s Vineyard and Pennsylvania, with new work shot last year in Texas border towns, Tuscany and Sicily. March 5-30 (sneak preview reception 6-8 p.m. March 4; artists’ celebration 3-6 p.m. March 22) at the Kehler Liddell Gallery, 873 Whalley Ave., New Haven. Open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Thurs.Sun. and by appointment. Free. 203-3899555, kehlerliddell.com.

Teresa Galuppo is the March Artist of the Month exhibitor at Stevens Auto Group. Wine-and-cheese reception March 4. Visitors may enjoy her work and enter a drawing to win an original piece of artwork. March 1-31 (reception 57 p.m. March 4) Stevens Auto Group, 717 Bridgeport Ave., Milford. Open 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Mon.-Thurs., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri.-Sat. & noon-4 p.m. 203-783-5924, plynn@ stevensautogroup.com, stevensauto. com.

Guitar strings decorate stoneware sea sponges in Hungry Coral, a classic example of the Mixed Media X 2 on display at City Gallery this month.

Jane Harris and Sheila Kaczmarek exhibit their art in Mixed Media X 2 — an exhibition including clay sculpture, two-dimensional pieces with encaustic, found objects, collage and monoprints.

March 5-29 (reception: 2-5 p.m. March 7) at City Gallery, 994 State St., New Haven. Thurs.-Sun. noon-4 p.m. or by appointment. Free. 203-782-2489, art@ city-gallery.org, city-gallery.org.

Transpositions features works by Connecticut artist Pamela Marks.

Marks’ latest work expresses our hybridized existence between the digital and physical world. Her process is innovative and instructive. March 6-29 (opening reception & artist talk 6-9 p.m. Friday, March 6) at EO Art Lab, 69 Main St., Chester. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Pamela Mark’s Camocanvas 1 is one of her many works featured in Transpositions at EO Art Lab in Chester March 6-29.

Tue.-Fri., noon-6 p.m. Sun. or by appt.

Free. 860-526-4833, chester@eoartlab. com.

Emerging, a photography exhibit exploring the nature of rebirth. Through April 1 at Wink Art & Design, 87 Whitfield St., 3rd Floor, Guilford. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tues.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat. Free.

203-453-5921, digitalwink.com.

The Road Less Traveled: Thomas Nason’s Rural New England, examines the visual poetry of printmaker Thomas W. Nason (1889-1971). Exhibition draws parallels between the carefully carved, deliberate lines of Nason’s wood engravings and the thoughtfully chosen, measured language of poet laureate Robert Frost, with whom he collaborated. Through April 12 at the Florence Griswold Museum, 96 Lyme St., Old Lyme. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $9 ($8 seniors & $7 students, free under 12). 860-434-5542, flogris.org.

Senior Thesis Exhibitions. View the work of seniors in the Art Studio Program of Wesleyan’s Department of Art and Art History. March 24-29 (reception 4-6 p.m. March 25): Catherine Gavriel, Jeremy Fisher, Toshihiro Osaka and Cara Stewart; March 31-April 5 (reception 4-6 p.m. April 1): Sasha Portis, Jason Quincy Bailey, Elizabeth McClellan, Nicole Irizarry and Lena Shichijo; April 7-April 12 (reception 4-6 p.m. April 7): Kathryn Bofshever, Travis Fitzgerald, Omar Hunter Craighill, Claire Staples and Joshua Koenig; April 14-April 19 (reception: 4-6 p.m.

April 15): Alexandra Hutchinson, Sara Swetzoff, Elizabeth Wheatley, Samuel Wilder Duncan, Silvie Deutsch and Yale Yng-Wong. At Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, 283 Washington Terr., Middletown. Open noon-4 p.m.

Tues.-Sun. (until 8 p.m. Fri.). Free. 860685-3355, boxoffice@wesleyan.edu,

wesleyan.edu/cfa.

Tea Culture of Japan: Chanoyu Past and Present illuminates the importance of Japanese tea culture and examines the ways in which it has evolved over the centuries. Through April 26 at the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Tues.-Sat. (Thurs. until 8 p.m.) & 1 p.m.-6 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-432-0600, artgallery. yale.edu.

An exhibition of wall sculptures by Jonathan Waters and Joy Wulke is titled Smoke & Mirrors. Waters combines painting and sculpture to create geometric constructions that explore the conceptual region between 2-D and 3-D. Wulke, who studied environmental design at Yale, evokes the patterns of architecture with her sculpture, using fragmented glass and organic materials. Through May 1 at Gallery 195, NewAlliance Bank, 195 Church St., Fourth Floor, New Haven. 203-772-2788, newhavenarts.org.

Seduced: The Relevance of Landscape in the 21st Century. Group exhibition of landscape works in a variety of media that consider the art historical legacy of the genre, the power of nature, land-use politics and the relativity of aesthetic beauty. The works can be profoundly beautiful, but they also represent appalling environmental conditions, therefore expressing the aesthetics of the environment’s decline.

March 13-May 8 (opening reception 5-7 p.m. March 13) at Guilford Art Center, 411 Church Street, Guilford. Open noon5 p.m. weekdays. Free. 203-453-5947, guilfordartcenter.org. (un)spoken. Artspace presents a group exhibition that explores the boundaries of collaboration and artistic production within the context of a marital relationship. On view in

CRITIC’S PICK Razzle Dazzle The exhibit Pinch was inspired by internationally renowned artist Jack Laroux’s visit to the Louvre Museum in Paris where a circa 1594 painting drove him to create the series. Laroux studied at the Parsons School of Design in New York and Parsons Fine Art & Illustration in Paris. His works are enhanced by urban, surreal and abstract concepts and based upon shattered glass

Gallery 1, the collaborative work of three artist couples: Jesse Lambert and Linda Ganjian, Christopher Mir and Karen Dow, and Maggie Michael and Dan Steinhilber. In Galleries 2–7, each artist’s solo work. March 31–May 9 at Artspace, 50 Orange St., New Haven. Open noon-6 p.m. Tues.-Thurs. & noon-8 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Free. 203-772-2709, artspacenh.org.

Building on the rich collection of artworks and materials at the YUAG and the Gertrude Stein Archives at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Picasso and the Allure of Language surveys the relationship between art and literature, and painting and writing, in Picasso’s work. Through May 24 at YUAG, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat. (Thurs. until 8 p.m.) &

and Kaleidoscope imagery portrays illuminating, complex surfaces.

Get lost in the fabulously interlaced and interconnected layers of images found in his works. The vibrant colors and the desire to find the pictures-within-thepicture will surely give viewers much to ponder and appreciate.

These works will put a sparkle in your eye.

March 2-April 11 (reception: 5-7 p.m.

March 14) at White Space Gallery, 1020 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.6 p.m. daily (until 7 p.m. Thurs.); Sun. by appt. Free. 203-495-1200, whitespacegallery.com.

— Elvira J. Duran

1 p.m.-6 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-432-0600, artgallery.yale.edu.

In Judith Joy Ross: Photographs, the photographer presents large-format portraits of ordinary people — public school children, visitors to the Vietnam Memorial and Iraq war protesters.

Visitors will see three decades of Ross’ visionary photos, which reveal the subjects’ simultaneous vulnerability and strength, and their trust in the

artist. Andrew Szegady-Maszak, Wesleyan professor of classical studies, and Jane A. Seney, professor of Greek, will give a gallery talk at the opening reception. March 27-May 24 (reception 5-7 p.m. March 26; gallery talk 5:30 p.m. March 26) at the Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, 301 High St., Middletown. Open noon-4 p.m. Tues.Sun. Free. 860-685-2500, www.wesleyan. edu/dac.

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So Percussion, the ensemble of former Yale students which premiered Lang’s “the so-called laws” at the Bang on a Can Marathon in 2001.

Reich. Lang’s work has even been called post-minimalist or “totalist,” in that it troubles the notion that repetition alone can make a piece provocative today — although Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times probably got it about right when he said of Lang’s compositions, “There is no name yet for this kind of music.”

“All my work is about that issue,” Lang says, “about how repeating things not quite exactly but with very tiny differences can, over a period of time, make you listen more closely. When you hear things that make grand gestures with lots of change, you can sit back in your chair and hear loud things happen and not pay that much attention. When things are happening on a very microscopic level, slightly the same and slightly different, then you have a different job as a listener.

Your job is to listen more closely, to listen in a more focused way and to become a more active participant in what’s going on.”

Lang works in an original language that plays with all of the boundaries of traditional concert music, and yet is beginning to garner the establishment’s attention in a substantial way. Last year he earned a Pulitzer Prize for music in his hybrid opera The Little Match Girl Passion, a mark of distinction for any composer — and an edgy move for the Pulitzer jury, even after giving the award to experimental jazz musician Ornette Coleman the year before. And now his new album Pierced is out on the Naxos label, whose catalogue usually hews carefully to more mainstream classical art music.

The irony is not lost on Lang.

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april 2009

“My world is messed up,” he admits. “It’s unusual for Naxos. This is slightly creepy, but now that I won the Pulitzer Prize, people who would not get near me with a ten-foot pole are actually being a lot nicer to me.

“If people are really willing to go out on a limb for me now because I have the credential so they can trust me, how far out on a limb can I go?” he wonders.

“Maybe I can actually ask for more ridiculous things now that somebody will believe me. I feel like that’s the way I’m going to handle it — by being even more ridiculous.”

So what’s next? Lang says, “[It’s] sort of my love, doing these weird, hybrid operas,” like The Little Match Girl Passion, inspired

by Hans Christian Andersen’s fable and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Another of Lang’s choral works is a strange, beautiful allegory called The Difficulty of Crossing a Field for the Kronos Quartet and 11 singers, which is gaining popularity after two productions and has a tour in the works. Lang’s current project is a complete musical rewrite of Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, using the original libretto and bringing to light its hidden political overtones.

“The interesting composers very often create their own standards for your judgment,” says Bresnick. “Nobody really knew how to think about that until they tried it. David Lang is often associated with minimalism, but his particular brand of simplicity — his own approach is quite distinctive. I don’t think anybody else does what he does.” v

necklines don’t need to be draped over both shoulders. Symmetry is so 2008.

Detailed shoes — If the shoe fits, it’s still going to need more embellishment to be up to fashion speed this spring. Fringe, beads, zippers, lace, sequins: look for all of these to be bedazzling the newest footwear. Whether you prefer heels or flats, individuality is key. The hottest stilettos to come down this season’s runway at Dior had miniature statues of fertility goddesses in place of the heel.

Quirky? Yes. Chic? Absolutely.

Flowers — This just in from the Obvious Department: Florals are hot for spring.

But not all blossoms are created equal; instead of chintzy rose patterns from your grandmother’s tablecloth, try either bold, artistic flower prints or abstract, watercolor-inspired florals. Chanel’s spring runway featured giant, voluminous rose blossom hats. Make this trend a bit more workplace-ready by pinning a fake blossom to your blouse, or picking up an inexpensive floral pendant necklace at Laila Rowe in New Haven.

Exotic jewelry — Gemstones, ethnic baubles and geometric pendants are going to trump anything dainty this season.

“Turquoise jewelry is making a huge comeback,” Bonosconi says. Stack on a few boldly tinted bangles or fasten on a bejeweled statement necklace and melt the dullness away from that monotonous black sweater.

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Trench coats — Admit it: as much as you treasure your North Face parka, it makes you feel like the Michelin Man, lumbering your way down Church Street in a marshmallow-y cocoon. Swap that downfilled puffer for a sleeker and prettier trench coat. Tommy Hilfiger’s spring runway showcased glammed-out trenches in satin and silk; for the recessionresistant price of $39.99, Target currently features a stylish cotton coat in springhappy shades of green and lemongrass yellow.

Harem pants — Yes, you read that right.

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MUSIC Classical Annual Carnival Children’s Concert.

The Wesleyan University Orchestra, under the baton of Roy Wiseman, presents a family-oriented program. 2 p.m. (1 p.m. pre-concert activities) March 1 at Crowell Concert Hall, Wesleyan University, Middletown. Free. 860-6853355, cfa@wesleyan.edu, wesleyan. edu/cfa.

Nicholas McGegan guest-conducts a Celebration of Four Masters. The Yale Philharmonia, Yale Camerata, Yale Glee Club, Yale Schola Cantorum and Yale Collegium join him for a night filled with the music of Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn. Program includes HAYDN: Te Deum, Der Sturm, Symphony No. 103 in E-flat Major, Drumroll; MENDELSSOHN: Verleih uns Frieden (Hear My Prayer); HANDEL: As Pants the Hart; Te Deum; Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah. 4 p.m. March 1 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven. Free. yale.edu/ism.

Harpsichordist Linda Skernick performs works of J.S. Bach. Works include: Prelude, Fugue and Allegro; the Four Duets; the French Suite in G Major; and the Partita in E minor. 3 p.m. March 1 at Russell House, Wesleyan University, Middletown. Free. 860-685-3355, cfa@ wesleyan.edu, wesleyan.edu/cfa.

The Yale School of Music’s Degree Recitals continue with Master of Music Recitals by soprano Samantha Talmadge (2 p.m. March 1); flutist Jihoon Shin (8 p.m. March 1); horn players M. Elizabeth Fleming (8 p.m.

March 5 at Sudler Recital Hall,100 Wall St., New Haven) and Donna Yoo (5 p.m.

March 28); Marko Mustonen, piano (8 p.m. March 23); guitarists Christopher Mallett (8 p.m. March 24) and Austin Moorhead (8 p.m. March 26); violinists Jennifer Hsiao (8 p.m. March 28) and Michelle Abraham (8 p.m. March 29); and organist T. Jared Stellmacher (8 p.m. March 29 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven). Also, violinist I-Chun Yeh (2 p.m. March 2) and double bassist James Hasspacher perform (5 p.m. March 2) Artist Diploma Recitals.

Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, yale.edu/ music.

Jasper Quartet. The Graduate Quartetin-Residence at the Yale School of Music includes J. Freivogel and Sae Niwa, violin; Sam Quintal, viola; and cellist Rachel Henderson. 8 p.m. March 2 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, yale.edu/ music.

Yale School of Music Faculty artists Allan Dean, trumpet, William Purvis, horn, and trombonist Scott Hartman comprise the Yale Brass Trio, which performs with pianist Mihae Lee as part of the Faculty Artist Series. 8 p.m.

March 3 at Sprague Hall, 470 College

48

march 2009

St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, yale. edu/music.

St., New Haven. Free. 203-624-5189, nmsmusicschool.org.

Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. Free.

203-432-4158, yale.edu/music.

Student Recitals. Performances by pianists Robert Thompson (5 p.m.

March 3), Elena Miraztchiyska (5 p.m.

March 24) and Jeong-Ah Ryu (5 p.m.

March 31); guitarist Chieko Hata (5 p.m. March 4 at Sudler Recital Hall,100 Wall St., New Haven) and A Yung Kim (5 p.m. March 26 at Sudler Recital Hall), cello. At Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, yale. edu/music.

Artistic director Benjamin Verdery orchestrates a Guitar Extravaganza: From Baroque to Electric, a day-long event featuring guitar workshops, guitar lectures, guitar exhibits, guitar panel discussions, guitar master classes and guitar concerts from morning ‘til night.

9 a.m. March 7 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. $40 for the day.

203-432-4158, yale.edu/music.

Faculty Friday. Travel Around Europe in 60 Minutes with Terrence Fay (trombone), Irene Senedak (piano) and Mark Rike (violin). 7:30 p.m. March 13 at 100 Audubon St., New Haven. Free.

203-624-5189, nmsmusicschool.org.

Vista: Chamber Music gives everyone a fresh look at chamber music. 8 p.m.

March 4 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, yale. edu/music.

For Several Friends, a new New York-based viola da gamba ensemble, perform 16th- and 17th-century English and Italian music. The group is joined by soprano Ruth Cunningham of the medieval outfit Anonymous 4 as part of the city’s monthly “First Thursdays,” when restaurants and cultural events stay open throughout the evening. 5:30 p.m. March 5 at Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Free.

203 432 2800, ycba.yale.edu.

New Music New Haven features music by composer Aaron Jay Kernis, with Wendy Sharp, violin and pianist Julie Nishimura. 8 p.m. March 5 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. Free.

203-432-4158, yale.edu/music.

Bring your own lunch and enjoy the Bach’s Lunch concert series, where Neighborhood Music School (NMS) faculty members and guest artists perform. Art Hovey, tuba, leads the NMS Ragtime Ensemble in Floral Rags (12:10 p.m. March 6); Grace Feldman, Marshall Barron, Phoebe Barron, Julia Blue Raspe, Margaret Ann Martin and Larry Zukof explore Music from 15001750 and Its Influence on Contemporary Music (12:10 p.m. March 13); piano faculty members Mary Bloom, Rachael Jungkeit, Margaret Ann Martin and Rita Rack demonstrate how Forty Fingers Make It Easy to Play Rachmaninoff (12:10 p.m. March 20). At 100 Audubon

Seth Josel & Gyan Riley split the bill in this exciting performance. Josel will perform his own reconstruction of Morton Feldman’s The possibility of a new work for electric guitar as well as Michael Fiday’s Slapjack and Eric Lyon’s Golden Melodies (U.S. premiere).

Riley will play his own compositions, including Four Etudes, The Changes Stay the Same and Zonata. 5:30 p.m. March 7 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. Free with all-day pass, $15 nonpass holders (valid for Eliot Fisk concert also). 203-432-4158, yale.edu/music.

Renowned guitarist (and Yale grad) Eliot Fisk caps off the day-long Guitar Extravaganza with a solo recital. 8 p.m.

March 7 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. Free with all-day pass, $15 non-pass holders. 203-432-4158, yale. edu/music.

Wine experts from throughout Connecticut will guide attendees of A Taste of the Classics through a global selection of wine. Guests may also place orders through the wholesalers on site at significant discounts. The New Haven Country Club will offer an array of hors d’oeuvres specially prepared to complement the wines.

In support of New Haven Symphony Orchestra (NHSO). 6 p.m. March 12 at New Haven Country Club, 160 Hartford Tpke, Hamden. $50. 203865-0831, sjacobson@capa.com, newhavensymphony.org.

Mitchell-Ruff Duo (Dwike Mitchell, piano, with bassist and French horn player Willie Ruff) explores AfricanAmerican oral traditions of music, worship and dance both sacred and profane. 8 p.m. March 12 at Sprague

In the New England Guitar Society’s Latin Extravaganza, Mexican classical guitarist Raùl Olmos presents new and traditional works from his home country and works by Mexicano composer Manuel M. Ponce. Olmos has championed the Mexican guitar repertoire internationally and frequently performs commissions of new works by Mexican composers. 8 p.m. March 14.

Master class 2 p.m. March 15 at Center for the Arts, 40 Railroad Ave., Milford. $15. 203-882-0969, milfordarts.org.

Pianist Larry Harris performs works by Haydn, Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninoff and Liszt in a recital to benefit the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. 8 p.m.

March 21 at Blackstone Memorial Library, 758 Main St., Branford. $20 ($10 students, seniors).

Now in its seventh year, the High School Choral Festival is an exciting annual collaboration between the Yale Glee Club and the choirs of the New Haven Public Schools. Guest conductor Judith Willoughby. 7 p.m. March 24 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven. Free. yale.edu/ism.

Violinist Kyung Hak Yu and pianist Elizabeth Parisot perform for the Faculty Artist Series. 8 p.m. March 25 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, yale.edu/ music.

Check out a musical survey of our country in all its diversity in American Perspectives with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Program includes COPLAND Rodeo; IVES Variations on America; GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris; BARBER Knoxville Summer of 1915; BERNSTEIN Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. 7:30 p.m. March 26 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New

CRITIC’S PICK They Will, They Will Rock You On February 14, 1975, rock ’n’ roll history was made as the band Queen performed their mega-hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” onstage for the first time at Waterbury’s Palace Theater. Now, 34 years later, the signature sounds of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, et al. rock the Palace once again as the world-renowned Queen tribute band Gary Mullen & the Works present One Night of Queen, a two-hour extravaganza

of over-the-top staging, lighting and of course the supergroup’s catalogue of hits. The show has sold out theaters in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, France, New Zealand and, now, the Brass City. Opening act Crosseyed Cat. 7:30 p.m. March 16 at Palace Theater, 100 E. Main St., Waterbury. $40. 203-7554700, palacetheaterct.org.

— Michael C. Bingham

Haven. $65-$10. 203-562-5666 or 888736-2663, newhavensymphony.com.

Red, White and Blue. What better way to usher in the spring season than with NHSO Associate Conductor Gerald Steichen and a 50-piece orchestra? Listen to works by some of America’s greatest composers including Leonard Bernstein, John Philip Sousa and Connecticut’s Charles Ives. Featured work is Gershwin’s musical impressions of the sounds of Paris street life, his masterpiece, An American in Paris. Check out the Instrument Discovery Zone before the concert. Program: COPLAND Fanfare for the Common Man; IVES Variations on America; HANDY St. Louis Blues; GERSHWIN An American in Paris; SOUSA Liberty Bell March. 2 p.m. March 28 at Woolsey Hall, 500 College St., New Haven. $12 ($5 children).

203-865-0831, sjacobson@capa.com, newhavensymphony.org.

Romantic Salon Music of Brahms, Schumann, Schubert and Rossini is what the Yale Voxtet will share in Chamber Fantasies. 8 p.m. March 28 at Marquand Chapel, 409 Prospect St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, yale. edu/music.

Pianist Wei-Yi Yang, acclaimed for his amazing performance with the Yale Philharmonia in Messiaen’s Turangalila at Carnegie Hall last December, performs: BACH French Overture (Partita) in B minor, as well as a collection of birdsong-inspired music for piano by Janacek, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Couperin, Liszt and Messiaen. 8 p.m.

March 30 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. $18-$10 ($5 students).

203-432-4158, yale.edu/music.

Popular Drum Circle. Bring any hand percussion, large or small, and a chair and join this improvised ensemble. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Every Sunday at the bus stop at Cross High School, 181 Mitchell Dr., New Haven. Free. jef@eastrockstudio. com.

Catch a spirited tribute that recreates one of the famous “Summit at the Sands Hotel” shows, where the Rat Pack was creating hipster legend with a free-wheeling, no-holds-barred nightclub act starring Vegas’ four favorite sons: Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin and Joey Bishop.

2 p.m. March 1 at the Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven. $68-$15.

800-228-6622, shubert.com.

Parents and children alike will enjoy Robert the Guitar Guy, whose fun-filled performance incorporates music, rhythm, movement, humor, role-playing and props. Ideal for kindergarten and pre-school children.

4 p.m. March 6 Neighborhood Music School, 100 Audubon St., New Haven. $10 ($5 children age 2 and older). 203624-5189, lisa@nmsmusicschool.org, nmsmusicschool.org.

Simply Sinatra Soirée and Pops Concert. Cocktails, light fare and

CRITIC’S PICK Groovy Pair Synchs Up

Favorite of the youngins Robert the Guitar Guy, will perform at the Neighborhood Music School, New Haven

They may have to batten down the hatches at Toad’s to make sure the roof can contain the serious funk that is sure to result when bassist Victor Lemonte Wooten and drummer JD Blair arrive to bless our town with their infallible groove. Wooten is perhaps best known to popular audiences at the bedrock of the Grammy-winning supergroup Béla Fleck and the Flecktones,

but he is a virtuosic funk and jazz player in his own right. Many believe that he has admirably taken up the mantle of the late fusion bassist Jaco Pastorius.

outside of Nashville, Tenn., on April 5. The pair is also scheduled to give a clinic at Sam Ash Music.

Wooten has joined forces with Blair, a lauded country drummer, of all things, in their March tour, titled 2 Minds 1 Groove, before the bassist launches Wooten Woods, his bass/ nature retreat center

Clinic 2 p.m. March 26 at Sam Ash Music, 95 Amity Rd., New Haven.

Free. Concert 9:15 p.m. at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven. $20 in advance, $22 at door. 203-624-8623, toadsplace.com.

Silent Auction to benefit the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. 5:30 p.m.

March 6 at Bespoke, College St., New Haven. $100 party only; $135 party and preferred seating for show. 203-931-2997, shardenber@newhavensymphony.org, newhavensymphony.org.

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day early with Black 47, a feisty, political rock band of Irish expats based in the Bronx. The Divide and Frank Critelli Band open.

9:30 p.m. March 13 at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven. $12.50 advance, $15 at door. 203-624-8623, toadsplace.com.

The New Haven Symphony Orchestra Pops ends its season in style with Come Fly With Me, a tribute to the legacy of Frank Sinatra including favorites like “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “My Way” and “New York, New York,” featuring vocalist Steve Lippia. 7:30 March 6 at Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven. $49-15. Also 3 p.m. March 8 at Shelton Intermediate School, 675 Constitution Blvd. N., Shelton. $33. 203865-0831, newhavensymphony.org.

That Brian Peters is England’s leading squeezebox player may be reason enough to go check him out, but that he doubles on melodeon and Anglo concertina may just clinch the deal. While he is committed to the musical traditions of his homeland, specializing in the ballads of the British Isles, the singer and multiinstrumentalist ventures comfortably into the contemporary and pens his own contributions as well. 8 p.m.

March 14 at Branford Folk Music Society, First Congregational Church, 1009 Main St., Branford. $12 members, $15 non-members, $5 children 12 and under.

203-488-7715, branfordfolk@yahoo.com, harbourtownrecords.com/peters.html.

L.A.-based rockers Ok Go, winners of a 2007 Grammy Award for their music video “Here It Goes Again,” bring their showmanship and impeccable fashion sense to Elm City. Longwave and Oppenheimer open. 9 p.m. March 10 at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven. $15 advance, $17 at door. 203-624-8623, toadsplace.com.

Take in a meditative service of Jazz Vespers with New Haven’s own Rex Cadwallader Trio. 6:45 p.m. March 12 at Episcopal Church of St. Paul & St. James, 57 Olive St., New Haven. Free. 203-5622143, stpaulstjames.org.

No American folk group has lasted longer or amassed a more loyal following than Peter, Paul and Mary.

During its now legendary career, the trio won five Grammys, produced 13 Top 40 hits, as well as eight gold and five platinum albums. 7:30 p.m. March 12 at the Palace Theater, 100 E. Main St., Waterbury. $70-$40. 203-755-4700, palacetheaterct.org.

Andy Sherwood’s Dixieland Quartet offers an evening of traditional New Orleans jazz featuring clarinetist Sherwood of the U.S. Coast Guard Band. 8 p.m. March 13 at Center for the Arts, 40 Railroad Ave., Milford. $12. 203-882-0969, milfordarts.org, andysherwoodclarinet.com.

The most important Mexican guitarist in today’s international guitar scene, Raul Olmos, visits the Milford Center for the Arts. 8 p.m. March 14 at Center for the Arts, 40 Railroad Ave., Milford. $15. 203-878-6647, milfordarts.org.

Rapper Busta Rhymes shows his face in town, anticipating the release of a new album Back on My B.S. out on March 24. 9:30 p.m. March 14 at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven. $25 advance, $30 at door. 203-624-8623, toadsplace.com.

Irish vocalists Chloë Agnew, Lynn Hilary, Lisa Kelly and Alex Sharpe together with fiddler Máiréad Nesbitt make up the musical ensemble Celtic Woman.

The group’s performs traditional Celtic tunes, as well as modern songs. The group has four albums releases under their belts: Celtic Woman, Celtic Woman: A Christmas Celebration, Celtic Woman: A New Journey and Celtic Woman: The Greatest Journey. 2 & 7 p.m. March 15 at Chevrolet Theatre, 95 South Turnpike Rd., Wallingford. $76-$36. 203-269-8721, livenation.com.

— Sarah Politz

One Night of Queen is a stunning live concert recreating and celebrating the music of Queen. Performed by Gary Mullen and the Works, this show’s fantastic staging, lighting and effects will rock you – guaranteed. 7:30 p.m.

March 16 at the Palace Theater, 100 E. Main St., Waterbury. $40. 203-755-4700, palacetheaterct.org.

Get your fill of revved-up reggae trombone as ska-punk group Less Than Jake headlines. The Expendables, the Flatliners and Modern Hearts Break Faster open. 8 p.m. March 16 at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven. $17.50 advance, $20 at door. 203-624-8623, toadsplace.com.

Check out West Coast rapper Jayceon Terrell Taylor, better known as The Game. 9:30 p.m. March 19 at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven. $25 advance $30 door. 203-624-8623, toadsplace.com.

Roy Hargrove Quintet, led by trumpeter Roy Hargrove, brings its own unique style of jazz that has firmly established this talented musician among the premier players in jazz and beyond. Ever-stretching into more challenging and colorful ways to flex his musical chops, Hargrove has left indelible imprints in a vast array of artful settings. 8 p.m. March 20 at Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Rd., Fairfield. $40-$ 30. quickcenter.com.

Julian Lage Group opens Firehouse 12’s Spring Jazz Series. Guitarist and composer Lage started playing guitar at the age of eight and has come a long way. He was featured in the Oscar-nominated documentary Jules at Eight, and was legendary Gary Burton’s “latest guitar find” in his Next Generation Quintet, an honor which Burton has previously bestowed on such musicians as Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Larry Coryell. 8:30 ($15) and 10 p.m. ($10) March 20 at Firehouse 12, 45 Crown St., New Haven. 203-7850468, firehouse12.com.

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Anthony DeCarlo

school-age students in one of our rehearsal halls before they go and see the play, which is wonderful.”

PHOTOGRAPH:

Every aspect of the Student Theatre Series — including a workshop for participating teachers in which they can see a preview or final dress rehearsal before they bring their students — is free, except for the reduced ($16.25) student group rate ticket.

“We hire theater artists to teach theater techniques that can be transferred over into the classroom,” explains DiMartino.

“And it’s not just for the English and drama teacher. We also try to include techniques that would be suitable for foreign language, history, science or math.

The teachers are given two two-hour workshops and lunch, and during that lunch we have a roundtable discussion that lasts for an hour, in which the teachers talk about the techniques they just experienced, how they’re going to use them in the classroom and brainstorm ideas.” New Haven schoolteachers get Continuing Education Units for attending.

The Educator’s Laboratory is also free.

Stage Coach Annie DiMartino is building a new generation of theater artists from the ground up

By Brooks Appelbaum

A

nnie DiMartino glows. And it’s not the effects of a chilly, late afternoon wind. DiMartino is talking about the numerous outreach programs she either administers or runs as director of education for Long Wharf Theatre. Unlike programs at other regional theaters, DiMartino’s education program has numerous facets that serve a broad range of communities, ages and needs. Most importantly, perhaps, LWT has DiMartino herself: indefatigable, passionate and visionary.

As described in the February 2008 NHM, the Next Stage Program — of which DiMartino is the administrator — consists of eight residents exploring various aspects of professional theater. For these

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“This is our third year with the Ed Lab,” says DiMartino, “and I’ve had teachers repeat all three years, which I think is wonderful.” One teacher, she says, watched her English students’ scores “just skyrocket” over the three years she participated in the program. “That’s pretty exciting for everyone.”

men and women Next Stage represents “a stepping stone or bridge after college,” says DiMartino. In April, the residents will stage their own evening of one-acts — Edward Albee’s Finding the Sun and Caryl Churchill’s Seagulls — for which they will perform every function from directing to marketing.

An especially exciting offering for the community is brand-new: the Urban/ Suburban Collaboration. Last fall DiMartino paired a school from Ansonia with a school from Bridgeport and began by talking with juniors at each school about their similarities and their differences. She also introduced them to playwriting, which would become key to their year-long experience.

DiMartino also heads up Long Wharf’s Student Theatre Series, which offers video study guides, teacher information packets, student matinees at group rates and postshow talk-backs. Before each matinee, DiMartino runs “a two-hour experiential workshop, which gets the kids up on their feet and learning the themes and a little bit about the playwright.” She adds, “We’ve had as many as 150 to 175 high

DiMartino went to the two schools at least once a week, devising activities that would help the students explore their identities and emotions in concrete ways.

For example, she took photographs of inanimate objects around the Long Wharf Theatre and created picture frames. She then had the students choose the picture that best “mirrored who they were,” frame it and write a page explaining their choice.

She also had the students from each school compile a CD of what they were listening to — the music that spoke of their circumstances, wants and dreams.

The key is that DiMartino then took Ansonia’s materials to Bridgeport, and the Bridgeport materials to Ansonia. The assignment: each student had to write a monologue in the voice of a student from the other school. They could use imagination but had to avoid caricature: “The idea,” she says, “is that they get at the other person’s heartbeat.”

Next semester, the two schools will collaborate to form their own theater company and present a production of this work — titled Reflections — on Long Wharf’s Stage II. DiMartino is the director, but her assistant director is a student, and a student will fill every other position in the company as well.

If you were to have stopped by Rehearsal Hall A on a Saturday morning in February between 10 a.m. and noon, you might have seen 17 people between the ages of 20 and 60 walking around the space, touching any and all objects in the room, and using what Anne Bogart’s “Viewpoints” technique calls “soft focus” to be hyperresponsive to one another’s movements. A week later, you would have observed the group learn how to make bold, evocative shapes out of their bodies and use architecture to create conflict.

Upper School Grades 9 – 12

I can hardly wait. v

Lower School Pre-K3 – Grade 5

OPEN HOUSE

April 4,19, 2009 October 2008• •1 pm 1 pm TO RSVP: 203-236-9560 OR ADMISSIONS@CHASEMAIL.ORG AN ACADEMICALLY DEMANDING COED DAY SCHOOL IN THE CLASSIC INDEPENDENT SCHOOL TRADITION

565 Chase Parkway Waterbury, Connecticut 06708 Tel: 203-236-9560 admissions@chasemail.org www.chasecollegiate.org

Your Palace ~ Your Place T O B E E N T E R TA I N E D

Later still, you might have thought you were watching a conventional scene-study class — pairs working from scripts like The Crucible, Doubt, How I Learned To Drive and Death of a Salesman — but with a difference. DiMartino asked her actors to play the scenes with only one line that captured their conflicting objectives: “Leave me alone!”/”I want you!” or “Choose me!”/”Tell the truth!” Once the actual lines were in place, you would have seen that she has a talent for creating physical obstacles that force her actors to fight harder for their goals. “Blocking” was not allowed or discussed. Actors were to move when — and only when — their partners forced them to.

All of the above occurred in a recent adult acting course that combined Viewpoints with Stanislavsky technique. The work was not for the timid, but I can say — since I was there — that I’m a stronger and braver actor because of DiMartino’s combination of skill, toughness and warmth. Next summer, she is planning an adult course based on Anton Chekhov.

Middle School Grades 6 – 8

RELIVE THE EXPERIENCE...

Queen’s debut performance of Bohemian Rhapsody in North America was Feb. 14th, 1975 on the Waterbury Palace Theater stage!

MARCH 20 • 8 PM MARCH 21 • 2 & 8 PM TH

ST

One Night of Queen has sold out theatres all across the UK & Europe - Now it’s finally here in the US don’t miss this incredible tribute!

MARCH 16 7:30 PM

Tickets $40

203.755.4700 PALACETHEATERCT.ORG GROUP SALES HOTLINE • 203.755.8483 X134 100 EAST MAIN STREET, WATERBURY, CT

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ONSTAGE AUDITIONS Artfarm in Middletown is holding auditions for July’s Shakespeare in the Grove production of The Taming of the Shrew. Production dates July 16-19 and 23-26 outdoors at Middlesex Community College. Ages 18 or over.

Particularly looking for seasoned male actors. Some stipends available. 5-8 p.m.

March 14 & noon-3 p.m. March 15 at 128 Washington St., Middletown. 860-3464390, info@art-farm.org, art-farm.org.

CABARET Flowers and Other Stories, written

by José Rivera and directed by Jesse Jou. 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. & 11 p.m. Fri.-Sat. March 5-7 at Yale Cabaret, 217 Park St., New Haven. $15 ($10 students). 203432-1566, ysd.cabaret@yale.edu, yale. edu/cabaret.

THEATER

National Acrobats of China, a dazzling ensemble whose work, straddling martial arts, traditional music, acrobatics and illusion, captivates every generation with breathtaking abilities. This internationally acclaimed company’s skillful performers often use objects of daily life, such as chairs, tables, poles, ladders, bowls, plates, bottles and jars as props to perform their amazing feats of physical prowess.

8 p.m. March 7 at Quick Center for

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In The Pajama Game, the feisty employee representative has found her match in the pajama shop superintendent, and when the two get together, they wind up discussing a whole lot more than job actions. Bright and riotously funny, this fast-paced, frisky tale is Broadway at its very best.

8 p.m. March 20-21 & 2 p.m. March 21 at the Palace Theater, 100 E. Main St., Waterbury. $58-$48. 203-755-4700, palacetheaterct.org.

When Elmo and his Sesame Street Live friends think about growing up, it’s a musical show-and-tell. Bert dreams of becoming a forest ranger, Telly longs to be a cowboy and their newest friend, Abby Cadabby, wants to be a fairy godmother just like her mommy. Elmo thinks about becoming a “weather monster,” but has a hard time predicting his own forecast — he wants to be anything and everything all at once. 7 p.m. March 13, 10:30 a.m. & 2 p.m. March 14 & 1 p.m. March 15 at the Palace Theater, 100 E. Main St., Waterbury. $32.25-$15.25. 203-755-4700, palacetheaterct.org.

The Pajama Game, a funny story of workplace romance. Playing March 20-21 at the Palace Theater in Waterbury.

Come find out what Elmo and his Sesame Street Live friends want to be when they grow up. At the Palace Theater (March 13-15).

Seven Angels Favorites Semina De Laurentis and R. Bruce Connelly star in It Had To Be You, a comedy about Theda Blau, a struggling Hollywood B movie actress and wannabe playwright, looking for love and success in New York. Vito Pignoli is a highly successful television commercial director. Theda meets Vito by auditioning for him and then convinces him to become her partner in dramaturgy and marriage by holding him hostage in her apartment one snowy Christmas Eve. Through March 15 at Seven Angels Theatre, 1 Plank Rd., Waterbury. $35-$29. 203-7574676, sevenangelstheatre.org.

Stomp, the international percussion sensation, comes to New Haven.

The eight-member troupe uses everything but conventional percussion instruments — matchboxes, wooden poles, brooms, garbage cans, Zippo

Haley Walker is a Texan in New York City with a top-tier restaurant to run, a teenage daughter to raise and a perilous dating scene to navigate.

From the privacy of her bedroom, she dishes about her hilarious adventures in Theresa Rebeck’s Bad Dates. Haley takes us through a motley array of suitors, looking for the man who will fit her like a great pair of shoes. By Directed by Eric Ting. Through March 22 at Long Wharf Theatre Stage II, 222 Sargent Dr., New Haven. $62-$32.

203-787-4282, 800-782-8497, info@ longwharf.org, longwharf.org.

“What’s he that speaks for Edmund, Earl of Gloucester?” When characters fight on stage, the actors must be at their best. Safety, precision, passion and an expert partnering are required to bring these crucial moments to life.

Have at You Now! – An Examination of Violent Encounters explores the use of stage-combat choreography both as a primary means of, and as a support to, storytelling in the theater. These scenes of violence and combat are drawn from a wide range of texts, including plays of the European Renaissance, Kabuki and Greek Tragedy. 8 p.m. March 2628 & 2 p.m. March 28 at Patricelli ’92 Theater, Wesleyan University, Middletown.

Free. 860-685-3355, cfa@wesleyan.edu, wesleyan.edu/cfa.

Santa Inés-El Cartucho, one of the most ancient and emblematic neighborhoods

of Bogotá, Colombia, fell prey to the violence of rampant arms and drug dealers in the late 1990s. El Cartucho was demolished to pave the way for a public park, displacing thousands.

Witness to the Ruins is the powerful testimony of that vanished community.

Mapa Teatro, founded in 1984 by Colombian artists Heidi, Elizabeth and Rolf Abderhalden, creates temporary, experimental communities by inviting diverse groups of people to come together as a collective subject. Witness to the Ruins is the result of five years the company spent with the residents of El Cartucho before, during and after its razing. Performed in Spanish and English. 8 p.m. March 26-28 & 2 p.m. March 28 at the New Theater, 1156 Chapel St., New Haven. $35 ($25 seniors, $10 students). 203-432-1234, yalerep.org.

Internationally-acclaimed director Robert Woodruff and award-winning actor Bill Camp join forces to stage Notes from Underground — the revolutionary novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. “I am a sick man...I am a wicked man,” cries the Underground Man, one of modern literature’s first and most remarkable antiheros. A former government official who has defiantly withdrawn from a corrupt society, the Underground Man wages his own personal war on everything — and everyone — around him. At once laugh-out-loud funny and terrifying, Notes from Underground is the passionate, obsessive and contradictory confession of a tormented soul. March 20-April 11 (opening night March 26) at Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel Street, New Haven. $65-$20. 203-432-1234, yalerep.org.

David Cooper

Quinnipiac University Theater for Community presents William Shakespeare’s comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost, a story about the King of Navarre and three companions who take a public oath to study together and renounce women for three years. Their honor is tested by the arrival of the Princess of France and her three lovely companions. The men discover love at first sight followed by their entertaining efforts to disguise their feelings.

Directed by Drew Scott. 8 p.m. March 4-6 & 2 p.m. March 7 at Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Dr., New Haven. $10 ($5 seniors & students). 203-582-3500.

The award-winning Salvage Vanguard Theater of Austin, Tex. is committed to fostering a dynamic exchange between visionary artists and audiences new to their work combining explosive energy with expert technique, creating forms that defy tradition and define new American theater. The nationally acclaimed, family-friendly production of The Intergalactic Nemesis is a hilarious melodramatic radio drama with great writing, original music, live sound effects and a group of talented actors who play dozens of characters.

8 p.m. March 14 at Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Rd., Fairfield. $30. quickcenter.com.

lighters, hubcaps — to rock the house with irresistable rhythms. March 17-22 at the Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven. $56-$15. 203-562-5666, shubert.com.

PHOTOGRAPH:

Catherine Filloux’s delightful farce about an upstate New York economy motel brimming with transvestites holding their annual Miss Buffalo Contest becomes the setting for an unprecedented “lake-effect” Buffalo blizzard. When the motel’s remaining rooms are booked by a stranded group of Amish travelers, an impromptu costume party ensues between two sects of Americans who find themselves All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go. Directed by Sheila Hickey Garvey. 2 p.m. March 1 & 8; 8 p.m. March 3-7 at John Lyman Center for the Performing Arts, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven. $10 ($5 SCSU community & seniors). 203392-6154, tickets.southernct.edu.

the Arts, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Rd., Fairfield. $40-$30. quickcenter.com.

Yale Repertory’s production of Notes from Underground features Bill Camp delivering Dostoevsky’s confessions of a tormented soul. On stage March 20-April 11.

Mid-Life! The Crisis Musical. This small musical from Minneapolis has taken regional theaters by storm. A humorous, forthright, no-holdsbarred assessment of mid-life, from reading glasses and red convertibles to weekend warriors and proctology exams. March 26-April 26 at Seven Angels Theatre, 1 Plank Rd., Waterbury. $45-$32.50 ($10 students). 203-757-4676, sevenangelstheatre.org.

BELLES LETTRES Poets from New York City and Greater New Haven will perform at the sixth annual James Marshall Memorial Poetry Slam. Poets will compete for the James Marshall Memorial Poetry Prize. The event honors the late health management professor James Marshall, former chairman of Quinnipiac’s Black History Month Committee. 7 p.m.

March 1 at Café Q, Quinnipiac University, 275 Mount Carmel Ave., Hamden. Free.

203-582-8652, quinnipiac.edu.

Connecticut writer Anatole Konstantin discusses his recent memoir, A Red Boyhood: Growing Up Under Stalin in the Writers Live! series. Atticus Bookstore Café provides coffee and books for sale and signing. 6 p.m. at New Haven Free Public Library, 133 Elm St., New Haven. Free. Registration. 203946-8835, redboyhood.eventbrite.com.

French Women Don’t Sleep Alone: Pleasurable Secrets to Finding Love with Jamie Cat Callan. Join author Jamie Cat Callan for a delicious evening where she will take guests on a personalized, guided tour through the corridors of French love. Callan’s French Women Don’t Sleep Alone is a feel-good book about relationships that will dramatically change women’s approach to men and dating. Discover the secrets to: why French women always feel sexy; the French art of flirtation; why French women walk everywhere and love to be seen; where French women meet men; what French women do when their man misbehaves. 7-9 p.m. March 5 at Greenstreet Arts Center, 51 Green St., Middletown. $3 members, $5 nonmembers. 860-685-7871, gsac@ wesleyan.edu, greenstreetartscenter.org.

Children’s Story Hour is a weekly gettogether for children and parent story lovers alike. 10 a.m. March 7, 14, 21 & 28

at The Yale Bookstore, 77 Broadway, New Haven. Free. 203-777-8440, crc-events@ snet.net, yalebookstore.com.

From Start to Print: A Primer for New Writers is a three-hour workshop for adults that will address three fundamentals of story writing: where to find story ideas, how to set them to paper and how to submit stories for publication. Teaching Artist Sari Rosenblatt’s writing awards include the Glimmer Train Award in Short Fiction, PEN New England New Discovery Award in Fiction and the New Millennium Writings Fiction Prize. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. 1-4 p.m. March 7 at Greenstreet Arts Center, 51 Green St., Middletown. $60 members, $70 nonmembers. 860-685-7871, gsac@ wesleyan.edu, greenstreetartscenter.org.

The Writers Group of the Milford Fine Arts Council, which includes fiction and poetry scribes, meets monthly.

Bring work in progress or completed manuscripts. 7:30 p.m. March 12 at the Center for the Arts, 40 Railroad Ave., Milford. 203-878-6647, milfordarts.org.

Play your way to a cure and make a slam dunk against multiple sclerosis (MS). The annual Petit Family Memorial Basketball Tournament, Dunk It! benefits the Connecticut chapter of the National MS Society as well as the Hayley’s Hope and Michaela’s Miracle MS Memorial Fund. Pre-registered teams compete throughout the day, culminating in a championship game.

Individuals, families, organizations and businesses are encouraged to form teams and participate in this day of fun. This year the tournament also offers the opportunity for virtual players to participate. Event is the brainchild of four Cheshire teenagers: Megan Alexander, Justin Ivey, Wayne Lawrence, and Stephen Selnick. In addition to the basketball tournament, the day will feature a silent auction, bake sale, concessions, music and more designed for family fun. 10 a.m. (registration: 9:30 a.m.) March 14 at Cheshire High School, 525 S. Main St., Cheshire. $20 players, $15 virtual players, free for spectators. malexander@ctfightsMS.org, petitmemorialbball.com.

CINEMA BENEFITS Thanks to area residents, raising a pint to end MS has now become a springtime tradition, met each year with enthusiastic expectation. The Team Jenifer Beer Tasting, now in its fourth year, supports Cheshire resident Jenifer Walsh and her dedicated walk team, Team Jenifer. Admission includes food and samples from more than 25 microbrews. Also, raffles and music.

7-9:30 p.m. March 13 at St. Bridget Parish Center, 175 Main St., Cheshire. $25.

203-439-0687, info@teamjenifer.com, teamjenifer.com.

Lord of the Flies (UK, 1963, 92 min.). In this 1963 film directed

by Peter Brook, a group of boys stranded on an island must fend for themselves. Inevitably they split into two factions: one begins to build shelters and collect food and the other resorts to violent hunting, illustrating the difference between civilization and savagery. Based on the novel by William Golding. 2 p.m.

March 7 at the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. 203432-2858, ycba.yale.edu.

Americans in Post-WWII Europe: A Film Perspective is a series of four films where the director of Fairfield

CRITIC’S PICK Opening Hearts via the Eyes Breaking down psychological barriers is the name of her game. Jane Elliott exudes all the confidence and warmth of a true crusader.

Quinnipiac’s Community Service Office, Multicultural Affairs Office, School of Business and Student Programming Board invite diversity trainer and teacher Jane Elliott to present her lecture on The Anatomy of Prejudice.

Elliott’s presentation is about her Peabody

Award-winning film The Eye of the Storm.

Elliott explores racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia and ethnocentrism and the responsibility everyone has to illuminate and eliminate prejudice from ourselves and our environment.

The eye-opening Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes

exercise was devised

by Elliott more than 30 years ago. It labels people as inferior or superior based solely on eye color and exposes them to the experience of being a minority.

— Elvira J. Duran

7 p.m. March 2 in Alumni Hall at Quinnipiac University, 275 Mount Carmel Ave., Hamden.

Free. 203-582-8652, quinnipiac.edu.

University’s American studies program, Leo O’Connor, introduces each film and leads a discussion after the screening. This final film in the series, Academy Award-winner The Search (Germany, 1948, 105 min.) was directed

by Fred Zinnemann and written by Oscar-winners Richard Schweizer and David Wechsler. The story takes place in postwar Berlin where an American private, Montgomery Clift, helps a terrified nine-year-old Czech boy, fleeing from a refugee center after surviving Auschwitz, to find his mother. Light refreshments will be served. 7 p.m.

March 11 at the Multimedia Room of the DiMenna-Nyselius Library, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Rd., Fairfield. Free. 203-254-4010.

The Live Music Project will take you through a magical evening, demonstrating how music and film work together. Watch fascinating and frightening scenes from some of the great silent films with brand new orchestral scores and also hear a few beloved standards. 8 p.m. March 13 at Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Rd., Fairfield. $35. quickcenter.com.

A young scientist marries into an aristocratic family in Victorian England. As he begins to study the insects in their villa’s garden, his strange behavior helps to reveal the family’s own failures and passions in Angels and Insects (USA, 1995, 116 min.). Directed by Philip Haas.

2 p.m. March 14 at the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven.

Free. 203-432-2858, ycba.yale.edu.

A compelling and unforgettable portrayal of life within the maze prison at the time of 1981, Hunger (UK, 2008, 96 min.), is an odyssey in which the smallest gestures become epic and when the body is the last resource for protest. The story focuses on the last six weeks of the life of the Irish republican hunger striker Bobby Sands. Starring Michael Fassbender as Sands with British-born Steve McQueen directing and co-writing the screenplay with Irish-born Enda Walsh.

Light refreshments will be served. 7 p.m. March 18 at the DiMenna-Nyselius Library, Multimedia Room, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Rd., Fairfield. Free. 203-254-4010.

Darwin (France, 1993, 53 min.). This film, directed by Peter Greenaway, tells the story of Charles Darwin and his controversial theory of evolution through a series of 18 tableaux. 2 p.m. March 21 at the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven.

Free. 203-432-2858, ycba.yale.edu.

Savages (USA, 1972, 106 min.), directed by James Ivory, tells the tale of a tribe of primitive jungle dwellers who encounter a croquet new haven

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ball rolling through their forest and follow it to a deserted manor house.

When they occupy the mansion, it begins to have a civilizing effect on them. What follows is an allegory of upper-class behavior. In the end they devolve to their original status, and, after a battle at croquet, disappear into the woods. 2 p.m.

March 28 at the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Free.

203-432-2858, ycba.yale.edu.

COMEDY Test your knowledge and have fun doing it at Anna Liffey’s Trivia Night.

Teams of one to five compete for prize money. Topics range from music to movies, politics to Shakespeare, geology to sports and everywhere in between. Ages 21 and older. Arrive early to get a table. 9 p.m. March 3, 10, 17 & 24 at Anna Liffey’s, 17 Whitney Ave., New Haven. $10 per team. 203-773-1776, annaliffeys.com.

CULINARY City Farmers’ Market at Wooster Square. Enjoy food from local farms including seafood, meat, milk, cheese, organic greens, root vegetables, handcrafted bread and baked goods, honey, more. 10 a.m.-1 p.m. every other Saturday through May 2 at Russo Park, corner Chapel St. and DePalma Ct., New Haven. 203-773-3736, cityseed.org.

DANCE Showcase of New England Choreographers. A juried showcase of four of New England’s most innovative choreographers: Deborah Goffe, Adele Myers, Lisa Race and Candice Saylers, along with Honorable Mention/Emerging Choreographer Arien Wilkerson. 7 & 9:30 p.m. March 6 at Bessie Schönberg Dance Studio, Wesleyan University, Middletown. $12$6. 860-685-3355, cfa@wesleyan.edu, wesleyan.edu/cfa.

DanceMasters Weekend celebrates its tenth anniversary as one of the most anticipated dance events in the Northeast. The combination of master classes and performances by premiere companies has made this immersion in dance an important retreat for students, professionals and enthusiasts. Enjoy a showcase DanceMasters Performance featuring the Limon Dance Company, Battleworks Dance Company and the Brian Brooks Moving Company. 8 p.m. March 7 at CFA Theater, Wesleyan University, Middletown. $23-$18. 860685-3355, cfa@wesleyan.edu, wesleyan. edu/cfa.

The fourteen DanceMasters Master Classes on March 7 (10 a.m.-5:15 p.m.) and March 8 (11 a.m.-5:30 p.m.) provide intermediate to advanced dance students and dance professionals, the opportunity to explore diverse dance techniques. At Wesleyan University, Middletown. $19/class ($17/class four or more classes), $13 Wesleyan students.

860-685-3355, cfa@wesleyan.edu, wesleyan.edu/cfa.

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Learn how to get jiggy with it, rumba, tap and much more at the Wesleyan DanceMasters Weekend featuring plenty of dance companies and dance moves for experts and beginners alike. March 7 at Wesleyan University in Middletown.

The Russian National Ballet will perform the timeless classic Giselle, often considered the finest achievement of the classical ballets. The company was founded in Moscow when the great dancers and choreographers collaborated to form new and vibrant companies. The Russian National Ballet is not only committed to the timeless tradition of classical Russian Ballet, but to the invigoration of this tradition with new developments in the dance world. A post-show “Art to Heart” Q&A session with the company will follow the performance. 8 p.m.

March 27 at the Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Rd., Fairfield. $45-$35. 203-254-4110, quickcenter.com.

FAMILY EVENTS Saturday Naturalists. Join the Coastal Center’s professional teacher-naturalists for fun new nature exploration. This family-friendly series teaches you how to be a naturalist.

Discover the names of the trees in your backyard, or what those shells are on the beach. Learn to identify plants and animals, and how to make your own pressed plant collection. Themes include aquatic plants and animals, animal tracks and signs, identifying trees in winter and endangered species. All ages. 10-11 a.m. March 7 at Connecticut Audubon Society Coastal Center at Milford, 1 Milford Point Rd., Milford. $7 members, $12 non-members ($5 child member, $8 child non-members, $5 seniors). 203-878-7440, ctaudubon. org/visit/milford.htm.

The fun of Saturday Story Time continues the exploration of nature through popular children’s books.

Bring your family and learn how plants and animals survive the winter, why no two snowflakes are alike and much more. As always, there will be guest appearances by the Coastal Center’s

animals, fun crafts will be made and the outdoors will be explored (weather permitting) to help the story come to life. 3:15-4 p.m. March 7 at Connecticut Audubon Society Coastal Center at Milford, 1 Milford Point Rd., Milford. $5 members, $10 non-members ($3 child member, $6 child non-members, $5 seniors). 203-878-7440, ctaudubon.org/ visit/milford.htm.

and 2008 and nearly every major story for NBC, including the O.J. Simpson trials, the trial of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the impeachment of Bill Clinton and the death of Pope John Paul II. 7 p.m.

March 25 in Alumni Hall at Quinnipiac University, 275 Mount Carmel Ave., Hamden. Free. 203-582-8652, quinnipiac. edu

The Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade is the sixth oldest St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the nation. It’s also Connecticut’s largest single-day spectator event. It has received national recognition as part of the Library of Congress Local Legacies Project, which commemorates and celebrates America’s richly diverse culture. Don’t miss out on the music, the culture and the plain fun this parade brings to downtown New Haven. 1 p.m. March 15 from upper Chapel to Groves streets, New Haven. Free. grnhspdparade@comcast. net, stpatricksdayparade.org.

Come hear What’s All the Fuss About Stem Cells, Regenerative Medicine and All That? The History Matters when Jane Maienschein, professor of life science and director of the Center for Biology and Society at Arizona State University, presents her talk on the ins and outs of biology fused with technology. Maienschein studies the history and philosophy of biology and the role of biology, bioethics and biopolicy in society. Focusing on embryology, genetics and cell biology, she analyzes epistemological standards, theories, laboratory practices and experimental approaches with the study of people, institutions, society and law.

7:30 p.m. March 26 in Alumni Hall at Quinnipiac University, 275 Mount Carmel Ave., Hamden. Free. 203-582-8652, quinnipiac.edu

Picture This! Widgeons & Pigeons!

First of a two-part program at the Peabody Museum of Natural History will introduce visitors to the remarkably diverse family of pigeons and doves.

The Peabody will display specimens from its ornithology collection, demonstrating the variety among domestic and wild pigeons. In addition there will be live ornate pigeons on hand, specially bred for their wild colors and feather formations. 10:30 a.m. March 21 at Yale Peabody Museum, 170 Whitney Ave., New Haven. Free. 203432-2858, peabody.yale.edu

LECTURES/DISCUSSIONS The Center for Catholic Studies sponsors the Living Theology Workshop with Fr. Joseph Othieno who will speak on African Catholicism: A Ugandan Perspective. 9:30 a.m.-noon March 14 at DiMenna-Nyselius Library, Multimedia Room, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Rd., Fairfield. Free. 203-254-4000 ext. 3415.

Albert Berry, photojournalist and documentary film producer speaks on The Lost Wooden Synagogues of Eastern Europe. 7:30 p.m. March 16 at Charles F. Dolan School of Business Dining Room, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Rd., Fairfield. Free (registration required). 203-254-4000, ext.

2066, quickcenter.com.

The Open Visions Forum welcomes Earl A. Powell III, director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. 8 p.m. March 23 at the Quick Center for the Arts, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Rd., Fairfield. $45. 203254-4110, quickcenter.com.

David Gregory, moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, lectures on Watching History Unfold: The 2008 Election.

Gregory served as White House correspondent during George W. Bush’s presidency, reporting extensively on the September 11 attacks and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He covered presidential campaigns in 2000, 2004

The Center for Catholic Studies presents the Commonweal Lecture with Paul Baumann, editor, Commonweal magazine. Baumann will lecture on “Conservative, Liberal or Just Catholic? Religious Identity in a Pluralistic Age.” 8 p.m. March 26 at Charles F. Dolan School of Business Dining Room, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Rd., Fairfield. Free. 203-2544000 ext. 3415, quickcenter.com.

The Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies hosts its annual Lecture in Jewish-Christian Engagement

by John Pawlikowski, professor of ethics and director of the CatholicJewish Studies Program at Chicago University. Pawlikowski will delve into a discussion of Benedict VI and the Jews: Change or Continuity? 8 p.m. March 30 at Charles F. Dolan School of Business Dining Room, Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Rd., Fairfield. Free. 203-2544000 ext. 2066, quickcenter.com.

All would-be officeholders should attend How To Run for Political Office and Win, a class on how to (or not to) run for political office being offered by the Office of Continuing Education at the University of New Haven (UNH).

Class to be taught by Gary Fetzer, a professor of political science at UNH with 25 years of experience in politics, public affairs, lobbying and communications, and Matt Petrillo, experienced journalist, political consultant and current chairman of the Connecticut Blue 2 Political Action Committee. Class topics will include reasons to run for political office, what it takes to run and win, knowing your constituency, dealing with the media, meeting the voters, fundraising, debates, forums and GOTV operations.

6-8 p.m. Wednesdays March 18-April 15 at UNH, 300 Boston Post Rd., West Haven. $265. 203-932-7212, gfetzer@ newhaven.edu.

MIND, BODY & SOUL Gia Khalsa’s gentle style of Yoga has developed over her career since 1970 and is ideal for people of all ages. In this class you will learn how yoga stretches and tones the muscles, brings breath awareness and control, increases mind concentration and focus, lubricates joints and strengthens the bones, massages and conditions internal organs, balances mentally, physically and emotionally, gives flexibility in mind and body and strengthens the nervous system. 1-2 p.m. March 2, 6, 9, 13 & 16 at Green Street Atrs Center, 51 Green St., Middletown. $10 per session ($8 members, student & seniors).

860-685-7871, gsac@wesleyan.edu, greenstreetartscenter.org.

Yoga promotes a deep sense of physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. Classes are designed to help cultivate breath and body awareness, improve flexibility, strengthen and tone muscles, detoxify the body and soothe the spirit. All levels welcome.

Bring a yoga mat. Class led by Nelie Doak. 5-6:15 p.m. March 6, 13, 20 & 27 at Blackstone Library, 758 Main St., Branford. $10. 203-488-1441, ext. 313, yogidoakie@earthlink.net or events@ blackstone.lioninc.org, blackstone. lioninc.org.

Happiness Club of Greater Milford events are held the second Thursday of each month. All ages invited. Visitors should bring a food item to share such as appetizer, munchie or dessert. Guest

speaker will be Rosemary Chieppo of “Born to Organize” speaking about Get Happy, Get Organized — achieving happiness through clutter control and time management. 6-8 p.m. March 12 at Golden Hill Health Care Center, 2028 Bridgeport Ave., Milford. 203767-3582, plynn_135@hotmail.com, happinessclubmilford.ning.com.

On the second Saturday of each month, Sarah Aldrich Pilates invites the public to their Pilates Studio Open House. Visitors may ask questions about this transformative exercise method and learn how Pilates can help them reach their fitness goals or relieve common orthopedic issues such as lower back pain. 2-4 p.m. March 14 at Sarah Aldrich Pilates, LLC, 681 State St., New Haven. Free. 203-589-7948, sarah@ aldrichpilates.com, aldrichpilates.com.

SPORTS/RECREATION Cycling Elm City Cycling organizes Lulu’s Ride, weekly two- to four-hour rides for all levels (17-19 mph average).

Cyclists leave 10 a.m. from Lulu’s European Café as a single group; no one is dropped. 10 a.m. every Sunday at Lulu’s European Café, 49 Cottage St., New Haven. Free. 203-773-9288, elmcitycycling.org.

The Little Lulu (LL) is an alternative to the long-standing Sunday morning training ride. The route is usually 20-30 miles in length and the ride is

Sarah Aldrich instructs a student during her Pilates Studio Open House.

Come stretch and strengthen your body at the monthly gratuitous event in New Haven. no-drop, meaning that the group waits at hilltops and turns so that no rider is left behind. The LL is an opportunity for cyclists to get accustomed to riding in groups. Riders should come prepared with materials (tubes, tools, pumps and/or CO2 inflators) to repair flats.

10 a.m. Sundays in March at Lulu’s European Café, 49 Cottage St., New Haven. Free. 203-773-9288, paulproulx@ sbcglobal.net, elmcitycycling.org.

ranges from 30 minutes to over an hour depending on weather. Critical Mass is not an organization; it’s an “unorganized coincidence” — a movement of bicycles in the streets as traffic. After the event, everyone is invited to a potluck dinner at the Devil’s Gear Bike Shop. 5:30 p.m. March 27 at Temple and Chapel streets, New Haven. Free. elmcitycycling.org.

Critical Mass. Participants meet at the flagpole on the New Haven Green at 5:30 p.m. on the last Friday of each month for a slow-paced ride through New Haven streets. The ride

Hikes Active Singles sponsors hikes on the first and third Sunday of each month throughout the state, as well as occasional dinner dances, beach

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parties, cruises, bus trips, coffee and conversations. There is never a fee or dues collected to belong to Active Singles. March’s hikes will be at Upper Paugussett Forest (9:30 a.m. March 1) in Newtown and Giuffrida Park (9:30 a.m. March 15) in Meriden. Free. 203-2712125 or 860-489-9611, activesingles@ snet.net, activesingles.org.

This three-mile, Class C hike will traverse the Oxford Reservoir Block.

Rain cancels. Elizabeth Buckley leads the trip. 10 a.m. March 1, meet at Route 42 in Oxford. 1.5 miles west of Exit 23, Route 8 (Beacon Falls). Free. 203-3930141, nhhc.info.

Enjoy great food in a familiar friendly place — just a few blocks south of Sleeping Giant – at the Potluck and Schedule Meeting. 5 p.m. March 7 at The Herzenbergs, 6 LeGrand Rd., North Haven. Free (bring a dish to share). 203239-7048, fullmerj1@southernct.edu, nhhc.info.

Get ready for a long open ridge walk of 9 to 11 miles along the Mt. Tom Loop.

Sturdy boots and foot traction aids are required. Steady rain cancels. Bring rain gear anyway. Features 1-2 miles of silent hiking. March 22 — call for time and meeting place. Free (car pool fee). 860663-3373, nhhc.info.

There will be a free Milky Way bar for everyone attending the one-mile, Class D, Star Trek on Saturday or Sunday.

Come one or both days, weather permitting. If sky is nearly overcast, the event is canceled. Gaze at Saturn, star clusters, starbirth clouds and individual mountains casting shadows on the Moon. Please bring a flashlight. The hike will explore a scale model of the Solar System. Leader has a 25-inch (mirror diameter) telescope. Dress extra warm. 7:30 p.m. March 27 & 28, meet at 30 Birch Mill Road, Killingworth.

860-663-3373, nhhc.info.

Scale Mohawk Mountain with this tenmile, Class A hike at a 2-mph pace. 8 a.m. March 8, meet at CPL, Exit 26 off of I-84. Free. 203-393-0141, nhhc.info.

Canoe/Kayak on Shepaug River. Class 2, life jacket required. Experience necessary, no first timers. Bring lunch and liquid. 9 a.m. March 28 -- call leader for details before March 25. 860-7396622, nhhc.info.

Geoffrey Smith will lead a Class C, 3mile trek along Maltby Lakes in West Haven. No pets. Heavy rain or snow cancels. 9:30 a.m. March 13, meet at the parking lot off Derby Avenue (Rte 34).

Free. 203-488-3352, nhhc.info.

Push yourself up through a hilly, rough, three-mile, Class C trail in the West Rock Loop. A walking pole is recommended. Rain cancels. 10 a.m.

March 29, meet at Blake St. Center, New Haven. 203-393-0141, nhhc.info.

Sleeping Giant. See nice views on this ten-mile, Class A hike through the steep blue trail and white trail. Bring warm clothing and food. March 14 (call for meeting time), meet at Mount Carmel Ave. parking lot, Hamden. Free.

203-435-1962, nhhc.info.

Spring Hikers’ Hike. A strenuous hike over rough terrain for experienced hikers only. Trek through Sleeping Giant State Park with others. Wear comfortable shoes, bring snacks and water. No pets, please. 11 a.m. March 22, meet at bulletin board at park entrance, Sleeping Giant State Park, opposite Quinnipiac University on Mount Carmel Ave., Hamden. Free. 203-272-7841, sgpa. org.

Get out your walking poles (recommended) to join the steep threemile, Class C climb at Tyler Mill Open Space. Rain cancels. 10 a.m. March 15, meet at CPL Exit 15, I-91. Free. 203-3930141, nhhc.info.

Music Calendar Continued from 49 Philly-based jam band Lotus’ Northeast tour churns into town. Blvd opens with electronic hip hop. 9 p.m. March 24 at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven. $15. 203-624-8623, toadsplace.com.

Student saxophonist Andrew Fogliano performs in his senior recital Andrew Fogliano: Collective Improvisation — Intention and Conversation in Free Jazz. 7 p.m. March 27 at Crowell Concert Hall, Wesleyan University, Middletown.

Free. 860-685-3355, cfa@wesleyan.edu, wesleyan.edu/cfa.

Leon Redbone once said that “The blues ain’t nothing but a good man feeling bad.” Dan Stevens can’t be feeling all that bad, although maybe a little Broke Down and Hungry (the title of his most recent studio album); the New York Times has called him “Connecticut’s hardest working

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Hike through and learn about Sleeping Giant State Park in the History-ofthe-Giant Hike. Wear comfortable shoes, bring snacks and water. No pets, bluesman,” playing more than 200 dates a year. The Old Lyme resident clearly has a story to tell, and like any good bluesman, makes his living telling it time and again. 8 p.m. March 27 at Center for the Arts, 40 Railroad Ave., Milford. $10. 203-882-0969, milfordarts. org, danstevens.net.

He’s been called the best gypsy jazz guitarist alive (among many other accolades), so no matter what music you like, from classical to jazz to bluegrass to Celtic, John Jorgenson will leave you speechless. 8 p.m. March 27 at North Madison Congregational Church, 1271 Durham Rd., Madison. $20 ($5 children). 203-421-3241, workdog@ mindspring.com, northmadisoncc. org/9.html.

The Jimmy Greene Quartet releases a new disc, Mission Statement, next month. Catch the saxophonist who Jazzwise magazine has called “without doubt one of the most striking young tenors of recent years.” 8:30 ($15) and

Hikers young and old gear up to climb up Sleeping Giant in all kinds of weather.

Sleeping Giant Park Association leads informative and social treks through the park all year long. This month’s hikes include: the Spring Hikers’ Hike (March 22) and History-of-the-Giant Hike (March 29). please. 1:30 p.m. March 29, meet at bulletin board at park entrance, Sleeping Giant State Park, opposite Quinnipiac University on Mount Carmel Ave., Hamden. Free. 203-272-7841, sgpa.org.

Spectator Sports Catch some hard-hitting ice action at one of the AHL’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers games this month. The Sound Tigers face off against the Norfolk Admirals (7 p.m. March 3), Binghamton Senators (7 p.m. March 6), Philadelphia Phantoms (7 p.m.

March 7), Hartford Wolf Pack (4 p.m.

March 8), Worcester Sharks (7 p.m.

March 20 & 24), Providence Bruins (7 p.m. March 21), Portland Pirates (4 p.m.

March 22). At Arena at Harbor Yard, 600 Main St., Bridgeport. $43-$17. 203-3681000, arenaatharboryard.com.

Don’t miss a minute of the car crashing excitement as the Monster Jam trucks fly off the dirt ramps, crushing cars along the way to the finish line. Monster Jam features the top monster trucks in the world. These 10,000-pound, 1,500horsepower, four-wheel drive beasts

will be racing to become the champion of the Monster Jam in Bridgeport and win points towards a spot in the Monster Jam World Finals. 2 & 7:30 p.m. March 14 and 2 p.m. March 15 at Arena at Harbor Yard, 600 Main St., Bridgeport. $28.25-$18.25 ($9.25 children).

203-368-1000, arenaatharboryard.com or monsterjamonline.com.

Don’t miss the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey East Regional games.

The top teams will compete to claim the top honors of the region. 3 & 6:30 p.m. March 27 (semifinals) and 6:30 p.m.

March 28 (finals) at Arena at Harbor Yard, 600 Main St., Bridgeport. $75. 203368-1000, arenaatharboryard.com.

Please send CALENDAR information to CALENDAR@conntact.com no later than seven weeks preceding calendar month of event. Please include date, time, location, event description, cost and contact information. Photographs must be at least 300 dpi resolution and are published at discretion of NEW HAVEN magazine.

10 p.m. ($10) March 27 at Firehouse 12, 45 Crown St., New Haven. 203-785-0468, firehouse12.com.

Graduate student Sally Norris performs in the recital Clara: Music Box, A Life In. 8 p.m. March 28 at Memorial Chapel, Wesleyan University, Middletown.

Free. 860-685-3355, cfa@wesleyan.edu, wesleyan.edu/cfa.

The Tony Rice Unit pioneered a new genre of music in 1980s, infusing bluegrass with experimental jazz to form what Rice called “spacegrass.”

Regarded as the best guitar flatpicker of our time, Rice returns by popular demand for his second appearance at the Little Theater. He brings a stellar band including Rickie Simpkins on fiddle, Josh Williams on mandolin and lead vocals, Wyatt Rice on guitar and Bryn Davies on bass. The Tony Rice Unit plays few gigs, so don’t miss. 3 p.m. March 29 at the Little Theater, 1 Lincoln St., New Haven. $65-$55. 203430-6020, guitartownct.com.

Tony Rice infusing bluegrass and jazz at the Little Theater, New Haven Wesleyan University Senior, Galen DeGraf performs in From Cuba to Nuyorico, A Concert of Explosive Salsa and Latin Jazz. 8 p.m. March 29 at Crowell Concert Hall, Wesleyan University, Middletown. Free. 860-685-3355, cfa@ wesleyan.edu, wesleyan.edu/cfa.

W O R D S of MOUT H

By Liese Klein

PHOTOGRAPH:

JUST A TASTE: Yellowfin’s Seafood Grille

Anthony DeCarlo

Top-notch fish and shellfish and a casual, friendly atmosphere are the attraction of Yellowfin’s Seafood Grille in Cheshire, where owner Greg Thomas sets the mood.

W

hy brave I-95 to the Shoreline when you get seafood like this inland?

That was the thought going through this diner’s mind as she finished off her crabcake appetizer at Yellowfin’s in Cheshire.

With big hunks of fresh-tasting crab, a crispy panko crust and a sweet-hot sauce spiked with wasabi, this crabcake was as good as it gets north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Yellowfin’s Chef Matt Favor brings a light touch and innovative spirit to seafood at this casual eatery, located off Cheshire’s Main Street, known elsewhere as Whitney Avenue and Route 10.

Despite a strip-mall setting, Yellowfin’s manages to create a nautical-themed retreat inside with art and cozy booths.

Best of all, the restaurant is designed to allow for quiet conversation in the dining room even as the bar crowd gets festive.

New Haven eateries, take note.

Drinks start off on a high note, with unusual and excellent beer choices like Bluepoint Oatmeal Stout on tap. Wines by the glass range from a Yellow Tail Chardonnay at $7 to a Juan Gil Monastrell at $10, with most bottles around $40.

The meal begins with warm, crusty rolls served with olive oil, swirled with a vibrant pesto. Salads are also simple yet well-prepared and dressed with tangy balsamic vinaigrette. In the appetizer course, the crabcake outshone fried calamari that came out of the fryer a bit limp.

The dish was partly redeemed, however, by a bright marinara sauce studded with hot peppers and chunks of gorgonzola cheese.

The chef’s way with crustaceans was evident again in a main course of cappellini with blue crab sauce, which lent a deep, briny richness to the pasta. A ciop-

pino stew was overflowing with plump mussels, clams, scallops and breaded fish.

The tomato broth, flecked with parsley, was a meal in itself.

Chocolate cake added a welcome note of sweetness to round out the meal.

Yellowfin’s well-stocked and reasonably priced raw bar will beckon as the weather warms and tempting entrées include lobster ravioli and swordfish with crabmeat and andouille sausage in a Pinot Grigio sauce.

The fixed price menu offers many of the eatery’s favorites in a three-course $21 meal.

So save on gas and stress this summer when the seafood craving hits and make your way to Yellowfin’s instead.

Yellowfin’s Seafood Grille, 1027 South Main St., Cheshire (203-250-9999).

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BREAKFAST/DINERS The Pantry, 2 Mechanic St., New Haven (203-7870392). Lines get long on weekend mornings at this East Rock institution, known for its breakfast goodies like gingerbread pancakes, fluffy waffles and hearty omelets.

Bella’s Cafe, 896 Whalley Ave., New Haven (203387-7107). Brunch with flair is the specialty at this Westville favorite. You can’t go wrong with the daily specials or omelets like the Tuscan with eggplant and peppers or the Tex-Mex with cheddar and salsa.

PHOTOGRAPH:

Anthony DeCarlo

Parthenon Diner, 374 E. Main St., Branford (203-4810333). Open 24 hours for hearty, well-made Greek and diner fare, with some low-carb and vegetarian offerings. Another location (not 24/7) in Old Saybrook at 809 Boston Post Rd.

Copper Kitchen, 1008 Chapel St., New Haven (203777-8010). Downtown’s most convenient spot for a diner-style, affordable fry-up of eggs, bacon and toast. Cash only, but you won’t need much of it.

Patricia’s Restaurant, 18 Whalley Ave., New Haven (203-787-4500). Tasty and very affordable diner basics in an unironically retro setting near Broadway and the Yale campus.

Athenian Diner, 1064 Boston Post Rd., Milford (203878-5680). Visible from Interstate 95 — if not from outer space — this chrome-and-glass landmark draws customers from all over the region with its hearty portions and tasty classics. Great Greek favorites and overstuffed sandwiches. Open 24 hours. Also open all night in New Haven at 1426 Whalley Ave.

SOUTHEAST ASIAN/KOREAN Bentara Restaurant, 76 Orange St., New Haven (203562-2511). Supersized noodle soups and spicy curries are good bets at this Ninth Square Malaysian/ fusion hotspot. The stylish interior and extensive cocktail list also make it an excellent pre-nightlife stop. Open for lunch.

Kari Restaurant, 1451 Whalley Ave., New Haven (203389-1280). Bright flavors and unusual ingredients make this Malaysian restaurant worth the drive up Whalley. The friendly servers are happy to explain the cuisine to newcomers and highlight the catch of the day.

Pot-Au-Pho, 77 Whitney Ave., New Haven (203-7762248). Great for a quick bowl of pho, Vietnamese soup, along with tasty noodle dishes and affordable Asian specialties. Limited hours, so call ahead.

ON THE MENU:

Maureen Nuzzo prepares ingredients for one of the popular cooking classes at Consiglio’s, a Wooster Square Italian favorite that’s stood the test of time.

Consiglio’s

Y

ou know a restaurant is a New Haven institution if it’s got a starring role in one of Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” cartoons. (Trudeau attended Yale in the 1970s.) But Consiglio’s in Wooster Square, an Elm City favorite since 1938, is hardly resting on its laurels.

With its savory, expertly prepared southern Italian food and truly warm service, Consiglio’s deserves to maintain its status well into an eighth decade. Now, generations of Italian food expertise are being passed on in Consiglio’s popular cooking classes, held nearly every Thursday through April.

Here you’ll learn how Chef Maureen Nuzzo balances the caramelized sweetness of sautéed shallots with the bite of lemon juice in the restaurant’s fettuccini.

RECIPE: Stuffed Escarole 24 large escarole leaves 6 small fresh mozzarella balls (ovoline) 12 pieces prosciutto, sliced very thin 1 clove crushed garlic

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2 lemons 1 cup white wine ½ cup chicken stock ½ cup plum tomatoes 2 tablespoons butter salt and pepper

Soak escarole leaves in warm water for five minutes, remove and blanch in boiling, salted water for three minutes. Cool in ice water. Lay out two pieces of escarole, one on top of the other, and place one slice of prosciutto and half a mozzarella ball inside. Roll up. Sauté garlic in a little butter for one minute. Add plum tomatoes, lemon and white wine. Bring to a boil.

Add chicken stock, bring back to a boil.

Place escarole roll-ups in a baking dish and cover with sauce. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees and serve.

If you can’t make the classes, content yourself with the regular menu’s standouts like an eggplant rollatini that expertly marries fried vegetable with mozzarella, ricotta and a vibrant tomato sauce. Or try the Pepper Tuna and Tomato, a generous portion of seared albacore dressed with olives, capers and a fluffy, steamed pile of fresh spinach.

The pastas are handmade at Consiglio’s and the sauces sing of tomatoes grown in Italian soil. Sop up the juices with crusty Italian bread so flavorful it will have you hoovering up the crumbs.

If this is what an institution tastes like, lock me up and throw away the key.

Consiglio’s, 165 Wooster St., New Haven (203-865-4489).

Oriental Pantry Grocery & Gifts, 486 Orange St., New Haven (203-865-2849). A foodie favorite for its home-style Korean dishes like soups and bibimbap.

Takeout sushi, breakfast sandwiches and Asian drinks and sweets are also available.

Soho New Haven, 259 Orange St., New Haven (203-745-0960). Right downtown and in an elegant space, Soho draws a diverse crowd for its top-notch Korean fare. Try the mandu dumplings and fieryhot chicken galbi.

Midori, 3000 Whitney Ave., Hamden (203-248-3322).

Big flavors in a small space are the hallmark of this Korean/fusion restaurant, tucked away in a strip mall. Best bets are soups, the fresh-tasting bibimbap and spicy bulgogi.

THAI Thai Taste Restaurant, 1151 Chapel St., New Haven (203-776-9802). A standout on Chapel’s “Thai Row,” with toothsome basics like pad thai, drunken noodles and green curry.

Bangkok Gardens, 172 York St., New Haven (203-7898718). Tasty Thai in a charming, light-filled dining area with great service. Wide ranges of classics and vegetarian options.

Rice Pot Thai Restaurant, 1027 State St., New Haven (203-772-6679). Great spot for a romantic dinner and some truly tasty Thai food. Try the impeccably fresh spring rolls, delicately flavored soups and assertive curries.

Thai Awesome, 1505 Dixwell Ave., Hamden (203-2889888). Tangy curries and rich soups make this Thai eatery worth the drive from downtown, but leave time to find parking on this busy stretch of Dixwell.

The Terrace, 1559 Dixwell Ave., Hamden (203-2302077). The chef’s French training shows in this Thai eatery’s above-average plating and seductive flavor combinations.

Ayuthai, 2279 Boston Post Road, Guilford (203-4532988). Quality Thai in a casual setting. Excellent duck and curry plates, along with above-average papaya salad and desserts.

CHINESE/TAIWANESE Iron Chef, 1209 Campbell Ave., West Haven (203-9323888). Unusual Taiwanese specialties and wellexecuted classics shine at this student favorite.

House of Chao, 898 Whalley Ave., New Haven (203389-6624). This Westville institution draws diners from across the region for its bright flavors and eclectic menu.

Lao Sze Chaun, 1585 Boston Post Rd., Milford (203-7830558). You don’t get much more authentic locally than this outpost of Szechwan delicacies and tasty dim sum.

East Melange Too, 142 Howe St., New Haven (203848-3663). Affordable and authentic noodles and Cantonese classics keep this lively eatery near Yale hopping at all hours.

Great Wall of China, 67 Whitney Ave., New Haven (203-777-8886). Its location near downtown’s best Asian market and an affordable, high-quality buffet attracts a multicultural clientele to this Yale-area spot.

COFFEE SHOPS Cafe Grounded, 20 Church St, Guilford (203-453-6400).

Tasty sandwiches and coffee drinks star at this aviation-themed cafe that operates inside a quonset hut near the town’s Green.

Publick Cup, 276 York St., New Haven (203-787-9929).

Top-notch sandwiches, coffee drinks and teas with a creative flair and a studious vibe that befits its oncampus location. You can even order ahead online.

Kasbah Garden Cafe, 105 Howe St., New Haven (203-777-5053). Quality teas, good conversation and Moroccan treats on New Haven’s best outdoor patio.

Willoughby’s Coffee & Tea, 258 Church St., New Haven, (203-777-7400). Enjoy both the low-key ambience and the region’s best selection of premium roasts and rarities at this small chain.

With Branford and Madison locations.

Bare Beans Coffee, 14 East Grand Ave., New Haven (203-260-1118). A funky new outpost of quality beans and drinks over the bridge in Fair Haven. Weekday mornings only for drinks; order top-quality organic, Fair Trade and eco-friendly beans online at barebeanscoffee.com.

Cafe Atlantique, 33 River St., Milford (203-8821602). Visit this neighborhood favorite for creative caffeinated classics, bistro food and wine and a charming indoor/outdoor seating area.

FUSION CUISINE Mickey’s Restaurant & Bar, 2323 Whitney Ave., Hamden (203-288-4700). This eatery’s sophisticated interior and artful blend of Israeli and Italian flavors bring big-city flair to downtown Hamden.

Sip a Mickey’s margarita with your Marrakech salmon and Israeli couscous and you’ll swear you’re on the beach in Tel Aviv.

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Anthony DeCarlo

FRENCH

PHOTOGRAPH:

Terry Boyd with some of the nearly 800 rare beers available at Mountview Plaza Wines & Liquors. On tap for spring are light, refreshing brews.

Union League Café, 1032 Chapel St., New Haven (203562-4299). New Haven’s most beautiful dining room and world-class cuisine near the heart of downtown.

Le Petit Café 225 Montowese St., Branford (203-4839791). Prix-fixe menu features beautifully prepared classics with a modern twist in a casual setting.

Caseus, 3 Whitney Ave., New Haven (203-624-3373).

Quiche and onion soup with top-notch cheeses stand out at this charming bistro.

Gastronomique, 25 High Street, New Haven (203776-7007).Classics like croque monsieur and steak tartare, plus sandwiches and burgers, expertly prepared at affordable prices. Takeout only.

AMERICAN

JUST A SIP: Spring Beers with Terry

K

nown as the state’s “Beer Geek-inChief,” Terry Boyd of Mountview Plaza Wines & Liquors in Naugatuck is the man to see if you’re seeking an obscure label or rare variety of suds.

With a lifetime of beer knowledge under his belt, worldwide connections in the trade and nearly 800 types of beer in the store, he’s a resource for connoisseurs and novices alike.

Spring brings lighter, fresher beer styles, Boyd says, meant for drinking in the warmer weather.

Europeans are most attuned to the season, with Belgium leading the way with styles like Biere de Garde and Saison. Biere de Garde is a light-bodied ale with a malty taste perfect

for weather that isn’t quite warm yet. Phil Markowski of Guilford brews an excellent beer in this style, called Biere de Mars, for New York’s Southampton Publick House. Boyd has it in stock and highly recommends it.

their warm-weather wheat beers as spring winds down for a crisp, refreshing segue into summer. Hartford’s Olde Burnside Brewing Co. makes a crisp Belgianstyle white beer called Penny Weiz Ale that will satisfy any thirst.

American craft brewers have their own distinctive early-spring tradition, rooted in this country’s craze for anything Irish around St. Patrick’s Day. March sees a flood of “Celtic beers” come to market.

But Boyd’s favorite rite of spring is the onset of beer-fest season, when beer lovers gather around the state to sample the newest and rarest quaffs.

Naugatuck will host a wine and beer taste on April 4 at the Elks Lodge and the 15th annual Connecticut Craft Brewers Festival arrives in May. “It’s a great time,” Boyd says. We’ll drink to that.

“It’s a way to get the Irish beer buyers,” Boyd says.

Regional brewers like Harpoon and Saranac make red ales, known for their mild taste and dry finish.

Breweries roll out

Bespoke, 266 College St., New Haven (203-5624644). High-end Latin fusion with a flair, wit and excellent service. Try the lobster arepa and duckconfit empanada upstairs at Sabor, the in-house Latin lounge. Fixed-price pre-theater menu serves up three courses for only $29.

Friend House, 538 Boston Post Rd., Orange (203-7956888). In a plaza next to Trader Joe’s, Friend House brings together stylish sushi and Chinese and Thai favorites. Best bets are the inventive hand rolls with ingredients like mango, tempura flakes and mint.

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Mountview Plaza Wines & Liquors, 727 Rubber Ave., Naugatuck (203-729-5445).

Formosa, 132 Middletown Ave., North Haven (203-2390666). Creative and beautifully presented dishes with pan-Asian panache. Don’t miss the Szechwan “ravioli,” tender chicken dumplings in a delicate peanut sauce, or Taiwanese seafood specialties.

Kudeta, 27 Temple St., New Haven (203 562-8844).

Every major cuisine of Asia is represented on Kudeta’s menu, with something for every taste in an evocative interior. Generous and inventive drinks along with good sushi and noodle dishes.

Bespoke, 266 College St., New Haven (203 562-4644).

Cutting-edge presentation and flavor combinations take center stage at this successor to Roomba. Latin flavors are featured in the upstairs lounge, called Sabor. Open for lunch.

Foe, 576 Main St., Branford (203-483-5896). The perfect setting for a romantic evening, Foe shines with sublime beef and pasta dishes. A black fig and cherry-glazed duck breast also showcases the chef’s sure hand with poultry. Lunch and bar menu.

Sage American Grill & Oyster Bar, 100 S. Water St., New Haven (203-787-3466). The tranquil harborfront view sets off skilled seafood and raw bar selections.

Excellent seasonal specials and a full bar add to the attractions of this veteran favorite.

Foster’s, 56-62 Orange St., New Haven (203-859-6666).

The chef himself is likely to bring over your meal at this acclaimed newcomer in Ninth Square. Comfort food with cutting-edge flair like llama burgers on toasted brioche.

Zinc, 964 Chapel St., New Haven (203-624-0507).

Consistently excellent food, drinks and service in a central location. Innovative seafood like tamaricured tuna with wasabi oil is a good choice, along with the drink specials and seasonal desserts.

INDIAN Zaroka Bar & Restaurant, 148 York St., New Haven (203-776-8644). Opulent setting for one of the city’s most popular Indian buffets. Enjoy the birayani pilafs, crunchy pappadum crackers and desserts.

Royal India, 140 Howe St., New Haven (203-787-9493).

Tasty North Indian fare in an intimate setting on Howe’s mini-restaurant row. Nice variety at lunch buffet with fresh bread.

Darbar India, 1070 Main St., Branford (203-481-8994).

Award-winning shoreline favorite with excellent atmosphere and north Indian classics, run by Royal India owner. Spicy vindaloos and tandooris are a good bet.

Thali, 4 Orange St., New Haven (203-777-1177).

Downtown’s best Sunday buffet, with ample meat and vegetarian selections as well as fresh masala dosa crepes and unusual treats like goat curry and carrot pudding.

Coromandel, 185 Boston Post Rd., Orange (203-7959055). Great breads and regional specialties from the local outpost of a celebrated Fairfield chain. Try the shrimp in coconut sauce and unusual lentil dessert.

Skappo Italian Wine Bar, 59 Crown St., New Haven (203-773-1394). White truffles and chestnuts are two of the compelling flavors you’ll encounter at this cozy eatery in Ninth Square. A great place to sample wines and small plates in an unpretentious setting.

Tre Scalini Ristorante, 100 Wooster St., New Haven (203-777-3373). Acclaimed pasta, seafood and antipasti in an opulent Wooster Square setting.

Also open for lunch.

L’Orcio, 806 State St., New Haven (203-777-6670).

Outstanding modern Italian in an intimate setting.

You can’t go wrong with the pasta specials and perfectly cooked and seasoned steaks.

Roseland Apizza, 350 Hawthorne Ave., Derby (203-7350494). Don’t let the casual pizzeria decor fool you — this Valley favorite makes some serious Italian food. Look for the daily specials and enjoy.

Adriana’s Restaurant, 771 Grand Ave., New Haven (203-865-6474). Meat is the thing at this Grand Avenue favorite, especially veal and sausages.

Fresh pasta and classics in a formal setting.

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Consiglio’s of New Haven, 165 Wooster St., New Haven (203-865-4489). Beautifully executed Italian classics and a warm, welcoming atmosphere set this Wooster Square eatery apart. Also open for lunch and private parties and hosts cooking classes.

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ITALIAN

WELCOME TO 4MOE’S

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Swagat, 215 Boston Post Rd. West Haven (203-931-0108).

A tiny outpost of south Indian favorites near the University of New Haven. Best bets are the masala dosa and vegetarian dishes, plus the friendly service.

- KIDS EAT FREE -

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YellowFin’s Seafood Grille

Where OLD New England Meets NEW New England

1027 South Main St • Cheshire

yellowfinsseafoodgrille.com

203-250-9999

MEXICAN Baja, 63 Boston Post Rd., Orange (203-799-2252). An expansive salsa bar and fish taco entrée appeal to homesick Californians and big eaters.

Guadalupe la Poblanita, 136 Chapel St., New Haven (203-752-1017). Simple, authentic cuisine from Puebla in a down-home atmosphere.

Jalapeno Heaven, 40 N. Main St., Branford (203-4816759). Tasty Americanized fare in a cozy setting with excellent margaritas.

Long Wharf Taco Trucks, Long Wharf Drive near Veterans Memorial Park, weekdays at lunch. Tacos as they’re served in Mexico — just corn tortillas, meat, cilantro and a spicy sauce — eaten al fresco.

Mezcal, 14 Mechanic St., New Haven (203-782-4828).

Big portions and wide-ranging menu with lots of surprises. No liquor license.

Taqueria Mexico No. 1, 850 S. Colony Rd. Wallingford (203-265-0567). The best tortas — or small sandwiches — in the area, filled with spiced meat and accompanied on the weekends by a lipsmacking posole hominy soup.

Viva Zapata, 161 Park St., New Haven (203-562-2499).

Toothsome classics and a killer sangria in a festive pub atmosphere. Open for lunch.

MIDDLE EASTERN Mamoun’s, 85 Howe St., New Haven (203-562-8444).

Cheap plates of falafel and Syrian-style specialties like stuffed eggplant keep this student favorite hopping late into the night. Make sure the fryer’s fired up and stick with the classics.

The

Playwright Irish Pub, Restaurant & Banquet Facilities HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY 144 Temple Street • New Haven • 752-0450 1232 Whitney Avenue • Hamden • 287-2401 WWW.PLAYWRIGHTIRISHPUB.COM new haven

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Istanbul Café, 245 Crown St., New Haven (203787-3881). With its airy yet opulent interior, this critics’ favorite has the best ambience in town and consistently flavorful food. A grilled octopus salad and red lentil soup standout, along with lamb dishes.

Turkish Kebab House, 1157 Campbell Ave., West Haven (203-933-0002). Every kind of kebab imaginable, from doner to minced chicken to cubes of lamb, is on tap at this neighborhood eatery. Also vegetarian and seafood options.

King Falafel, 240 College St., New Haven (203-8483076). Follow a trip to the Shubert with a tasty falafel sandwich across the street at this late-night favorite. Large portions of the freshest fried chickpea patties in town, with all the trimmings.

Kasbah Garden Café, 105 Howe St., New Haven (203777-5053). Moroccan-style lamb and vegetable dishes prevail on the limited but tasty menu. Savor mint tea and baklava outside on the idiosyncratically landscaped patio.

SEAFOOD Lenny’s Indian Head Inn, 205 S. Montowese St., Branford (203-488-1500). Fried clams praised by national critics and the freshest steamers around make Lenny’s a local favorite. The Shore Dinner includes cherrystones, corn, lobster and steamers.

Anthony DeCarlo

Lenny & Joe’s Fish Tale, 1301 Boston Post Rd., Madison (203-245-7289). What it lacks in formality it makes up for in taste — the freshest, crispest fried seafood around. The perfect spot for quick eats after beach

or a coastal drive, with an ice cream stand onsite.

Guilford Mooring, 505 Whitfield St., Guilford (203-4582921). Pasta dishes, a stellar chowder and a full range of grilled fish set this Shoreline favorite apart. And where else can you savor Lazy Man’s Stuffed Lobster as you watch lobstermen work on the Sound?

YellowFin’s Seafood Grille, 1027 South Main St., Cheshire (203-250-9999). Flavors are light and bright at this fusion eatery, with a menu that ranges from cioppino to Tilapia St. Tropez. A raw bar and housebrewed beer round out the offerings.

SUSHI Wasabi, 280 Branford Rd., North Branford (203-4887711). Good quality rolls and sashimi at reasonable prices, along with Korean specialties like mandu dumplings and bibimbap rice bowls. The sake flows freely on Monday nights, a favorite with students.

Akasaka, 1450 Whalley Ave., New Haven (203-3874898). Unusual specials like baby octopus and blowfish make this veteran eatery worth a visit.

Live sea urchin roe and scallops are also a best bet, along with tasty pickled vegetables.

Sono Bana, 1206 Dixwell Ave., Hamden (203-281-9922).

Fresh fish, inventive rolls and extensive combo options make this a neighborhood favorite. Try a fruity saketini with your sashimi “boat” and ask the chef to load up on the catch of the day.

Miya’s Sushi, 68 Howe St., New Haven (203-777-9760).

Unusual combinations like rolls with cheese and Ethiopian spices are the draw at this Elm City

PHOTOGRAPH:

Raw food concoctions like this tasty fruit smoothie are both a passion and a lifestyle for Glen Colello of Catch a Healthy Habit Café in West Haven.

N

o, it’s not a bunch of leaves and birdseed.

The raw food on offer at Catch a Healthy Habit Café in West Haven will open your eyes to the flavor potential of this brand-new cuisine and perhaps even have you seeking out esoteric

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items like raw cacao and goji berries.

To appreciate this distinctive eatery you first have to get past the exterior — it doesn’t look much like a restaurant.

The storefront advertises holistic services and the

institution. Let go of your preconceptions about sushi with help from the infused-sake cocktails.

Number 1 Fish Market, 2239 State St., Hamden (203624-6171). Make your own sushi at home with fresh seafood from this market, which supplies many area restaurants. The helpful staff will steer you toward the best quality tuna, salmon, scallops and red snapper.

VEGETARIAN Ahimsa, 1227 Chapel St., New Haven (203-786-4774).

Wide-ranging vegan fare is featured at this (kosher) eatery that uses no animal products. South Indianstyle dals and curries star at the daily $10 lunch buffet, with more offerings at Sunday brunch.

Claire’s Corner Copia, 1000 Chapel St., New Haven (203-562-3888). This veggie veteran has updated its menu with lots of vegan options, of-the-moment meat substitutes and superfoods like acai berry juice.

The ambience and great location seal the deal.

Edge of the Woods, 379 Whalley Ave., New Haven (203-787-1055). The natural market offers a superb selection of vegetarian products in addition to a lunchtime buffet with salad bar, hot entrées and a colorful array of main-dish salads.

Shoreline Diner & Vegetarian Enclave, 345 Boston Post Rd., Guilford (203-458-7380). Non-veg diner fare along with vegan favorites like a tempeh Reuben with sauerkraut on grilled rye and “Twin Towers” of vegetable strudel. Great place for groups with different dining preferences.

EDITOR’S PICK: Catch a Healthy Habit Café array of items on shelves up front suggest a health-food store more than a café. But make your way to the back and you’re bound to meet Glen Colello, raw food entrepreneur, chef and health counselor in one.

An easy way to ease into raw food is the smoothies, many made with a base of raw, soaked nuts. The “nut nog” is an outstanding example, with soaked cashews and dates blended up with frozen banana and essential oil of nutmeg for a rich, satisfying and improbably tasty minimeal. The price, between $5 and $7 for most smoothies, reflects the fact that these are not for chugging — my glass of “nut nog” was savored for several hours.

If the smoothies get you hooked, graduate to one of the entrées like the “Tomavo Sandwich,” made from

avocado, tomato slices and almond paté on onion “bread.” Of course since something can’t be called raw if it’s heated above about 118 degrees, this “bread” is actually a paste of onion and other vegetables dried out in a dehydrator to a toast-like consistently. Once again, your “sandwich” may look small for the price of $6.50, but you won’t leave hungry. Each bite of salty, pungent bread is slathered with creamy avocado and nut paté for an invigorating mix of flavors and textures. Top off your meal with one of the excellent raw macaroons — made from coconut, agave and raw cocoa powder — that deliver an explosive chocolate kick with just a hint of sweetness. ”Catch a Healthy Habit Café, 487a Campbell Ave., West Haven (203-521-7648).

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