New Haven magazine May 2011

MAY 2011

FITNESS

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TEEMING

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WITNESS TO

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New Haven I May 2011

06 INTEL

28 OF NOTES

Hedge-fund shenanigans and a hog haven up north

Connecticut’s ‘official’ state troubadour takes wing

08 ONE2ONE

30 BODY & SOUL

Portrait of the New Haven artist as a businessman

You may never have heard of Nia — but you wil

15 UNCHAINED MALADY

32 BIBLIOFILES

A Valley family’s life unhinged by a little-understood illness

18 WITNESS TO GENOCIDE A Rwanda survivor makes a new life in the Elm City

Body paint artist

by Ezia [ Z] Leach , Assistant Photographer Stefanie Kapra , Photographer Anthony DeCarlo.

New volume illustrates the art of war in Iraq and Kuwait)

42 WORDS OF MOUTH An Indian restaurateur tackles Mexican cuisine

46 DISCOVERED 20 HOUSE OF THE HOLY

The coast is clearly teeming in Milford

New Haven’s first Hindu temple gets an unlikely home

22 NEW LIFE, NEW FAMILY Elegant Fair Haven mansion gets a new purposel

New Haven

| Vol. 4, No. 3 | May 2011

Publisher Mitchell Young, Editor Michael C. Bingham, Design Consultant Terry Wells, Contributing Writers Brooks Appelbaum, Duo Dickinson, Mimi Freiman, Liese Klein, Melissa Nicefaro, Karen Pasacreta, Cindy Simoneau, Karen Singer Photographers Steve Blazo, Anthony DeCarlo, Carli Freeman Senior Publisher’s Representatives Mary W. Beard, Roberta Harris, Ronni Rabin

4

May 2011

New Haven is published 8 times annually by Second Wind Media Ltd., which also publishes Business New Haven, with offices at 20 Grand Avenue, New Haven, CT 06513.

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 not be held liable for failure to publish an advertisement or for typographical errors or errors in publication. For more information e-mail: NewHaven@Conntact.com.

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INTEL care resources,” research grants and summits for medical professionals.

Pimp This Ride Registration for the Connecticut Challenge cycling event opened in late March at ctchallenge. org. The rides will take place July 30 begin at the Fairfield County Hunt Club in Westport, featuring ten-, 25-, 50-, 75- and 100-mile rides. More than 750 riders joined the “challenge” in 2010, and as many as 1,000 are being sought for this year.

The 100-mile ride is called “New England’s Toughest Century.” The course passes through upper Fairfield County into Redding, Bethel and Brookfield and into New Preston in Litchfield County.

Registration by May 1 will yield a Connecticut Challenge cycling shirt.

The event was started in 2005 to raise money to assist cancer survivors. California-based biotechnology company Amgen is among this year’s sponsors.

Over the years $5 million has been raised for “supportive

Another Money Marauder GREENWICH — Hedge Fund Shenanigans may be the name of the next television show created for Connecticut. In this month’s episode, the Wall Street Journal reports that Yale Med grad Joseph (Chip) Skowron III, MD has been charged with securities fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Skowron was running

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six health care-related hedge funds for FrontPoint Partners, LLC, when he allegedly sought inside information to avoid $30 million in loses his funds had racked up. He allegedly paid French physician Yves Benhamou, MD for secrets on the side effects of a drug for the treatment of hepatitis C being studied in a clinical trial.

Benhamou himself pleaded guilty and apparently gave up Skowron, whom authorities arrested two days later. The stock of Human Genome Science dropped 44 percent after news of the adverse side effects became public.

The FBI alleges that Skowron gave Benhamou a series of cash payments in Barcelona and Milan totaling nearly $20,000 in 2008. Bail was set at $6 million — the value of his home — for Skowron.

Green Wedding Day NEW HAVEN — Kate Harrison, CEO of the Green Bride Guide, has been pitching investors since 2007 when she began GreenBrideGuide.com while pursuing a graduate degree at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Harrison’s website lists vendors, green products and services all dedicated to help brides and

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Hog Haven THOMPSON — Most of us know that Connecticut is well stocked with wild “boors,” but now we have real-life razorbacks roaming in the Kingdom of the Husky. A wild boar has been spotted, armed with twin tusks and

lots of attitude, in the tiny town of Thompson in the northeastern corner of the state (previously known as the “Quiet Corner”).

The animal, spotted near Tourtellotte High School, is said to have begun tearing up the athletic fields.

their guests create, manage and give gifts for a “green wedding.”

Harrison says there are 2.5 million weddings per year, and her site alone attracts more than 20,000 unique visits per month. She hopes to reduce the carbon and other environmental excesses of those weddings.

The state’s venture capital fund, Connecticut Innovations Inc., has joined her cause and provided $150,000 in financing. CII was joined by the private fund Advantage Capital Partners, which matched the amount.

Driving a Harder Bargain HARTFORD — Raising taxes may be getting tougher, but Connecticut lawmakers are not afraid to raise hell with drivers. Bills to allow red-light cameras, increased fines for texting while behind the wheel and increased shifts at the state’s truck weigh stations are all on the current docket.

Also, in a bid to maybe make life easier for some, legislators want the Department of Motor Vehicles to notify drivers electronically when their licenses are about to expire.

Red-light cameras are being authorized in cities with populations of at least 60,000.

The cities would receive 70 percent of the proceeds from fines; the state 30 percent.

To deter texting, police will gain the right to seize for 24 hours the licenses of drivers who are repeat texting offenders.

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Portrait of the New Haven artist as a businessman

PHOTOS: STEVE BLAZO 8

May 2011

Falcone: ‘New Haven and other cities have to learn how to be happy cities, meaning where people do more of what they want to do creatively and lend their talents to a city that is culturally rich.’

PHOTO: STEVE BLAZO

T

ony Falcone, 62 grew up in Bethany but has become an unlikely New Haven icon by painting icons himself — on the sides of buildings, handball courts, firehouse walls, on canvases, in family rooms, on postcards, in the back of bars, at the Coast Guard Academy — wherever they’ll have him. Falcone may be best known for his murals — some faded by time; others, like the horses on the side of the OTB building, still exciting us years later. NHM Publisher Mitchell Young interviewed Falcone for ONE2ONE.

YYY

When did you first become involved in art — in junior high and high school?

No, but I was the kid in grammar school that knew how to draw maps, so everyone would say, ‘Do my map assignment.’ But I didn’t do art really ‘til I was about 27. I went to college for business — I wanted to be an architect.

My dad was a fireman and he built homes on the side. I would watch him build houses without blueprints, — he was amazing. When I told him I wanted to be an architect he said, ‘You don’t want to be an architect. ‘He grabbed the Yellow Pages and said, ‘See how many [architects] there are? You want to be businessman. I went to Oglethorpe [University] in Georgia and then to the University of Bridgeport. I ended up hating it. Calculus and economics? I was glazing over. I ended up dropping out and taking a job as a firemen.

Was that your first job?

I took the exam and I scored perfect — now I’m a fireman. I was 22 and stayed at it for seven years. I hated it. I grew up in the ‘60s. I was a hippie, and the fire department was quasi-military. You had to cut your hair short, so I cut my hair short. But I had a mustache, and then if it went beyond the corner of your mouth…I had this captain — he just hated my guts.

I went to him and said, ‘I’m giving you 150 percent; why can’t we get along?’ He says, ‘You see these captain’s bars? You know what I had to go through to get those?’ And every fireman has a paper route…

Paper route?

Part-time job on your days off. I was a lifeguard at a pool club and I did this

doodle one day on my break. And a guy who was doing arts and crafts with the kids said, ‘Wow — you’re an artist!’ I said, ‘I’m just doing a doodle.’ And he said, ‘Let’s do a mural,’ and I said, ‘What’s a mural?’ We painted this wall at the [Woodhaven] country club. I had an amazing time. It’s a giant ice cream cone lying on its side in the grass. It was probably 12 feet by 12 feet and it’s melting and there are giant blades of grass, and there are red ants and black ants sliding down the grass. That was my first painting and I flipped out — ‘I have to do this.’

What was the reaction?

We had some people at the club saying, ‘You gotta paint my hardware store.’ Or, ‘Come to my house — paint a wall.’

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So that was the start of a business?

We did a business card. We called ourselves Cabana 29, because I had cabana No. 29 for my pool towels and stuff. My partner, the arts-and-crafts guy, was Dan Dedonna. He was a schoolteacher and I was a fireman.

After seven years it culminated with us painting the movie theater in Hamden — a 10,000-square-feet mural. It was three sides of the building, you could see the whales from three angles as you went around it, a big ‘fish tank.’ We called it ‘la Aquariada.’ I had the cardboard model and painted it and would go around to companies [and ask], ‘Do you want to be a sponsor?’ After two years [radio station] WPLR became interested.

That would have had to be Dick Kalt [then WPLR general manager and later co-founder of CRN in Hamden].

Yes, Dick Kalt. He knew the big guys at Warner Electra Atlantic Records. I go to this guy there with his big cigar and set up the model I have in my portfolio. He says, ‘What have we got here?’ I said, ‘What do you think?’ And he says, ‘What do we get out of it?’ I said, ‘You get your name connected with this amazing project.’ And he says, ‘No, you don’t understand — what do we get out of it?

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No, he was serious. I was getting ready to leave and looked at the model and at the bottom of the fish tank I had pebbles.

On the wall the pebbles are going to be the size of a real [human] head. So I said, ‘Why don’t I paint their faces on the pebbles?’ He goes, ‘That works. I thought when we got out of there, ‘Good — we’re going to get the money for our project.’

Then I get a package in the mail — 60 rock stars I had to paint on the pebbles.

There don’t seem to be as many murals in cities as there once were.

There is a movement again, Philadelphia has a huge mural project throughout the whole city. Boston’s got some, and Stamford has a proposal out for designs for a block-long mural, six stories high, called ‘Reinventing Stamford.’

At any point did you think you should go to art school?

I’m a good learner. When I did the cinema I said, ‘This is a 10,000-square-foot building.’ So instead of going to an artsupply store, I went to an auto-body store.

We started late and ended up finishing in

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PHOTO: STEVE BLAZO

December. I quit the fire department to do the mural.

What did your father say about that?

He went ballistic. But he knew me. He said, ‘In the fire department you have to keep your nose clean; they keep files on you.’ By the time I left they had a file cabinet on me. I never screwed up — I just always rubbed the authorities wrong.

Were you concerned leaving an established career?

When I was thinking of quitting I invited the chief and the assistant chief to lunch and I asked them to consider giving me a leave of absence with no pay. I said, ‘If I fall on my face can I come back, because I have a family?’ I said the city has seven years invested in me. The chief said, ‘You want to be an artist? Good luck to you.

[If] you want to be a fireman, stay a fireman. No leave of absence.’

One of my favorite pieces of yours immortalizes the New Haven fire department — a painting of a horse-drawn water pumper.

That mural I did before the movie theater, I was still a fireman. It was in the oldest firehouse in the city, on Orchard and Dixwell. It had a hayloft. They build a new fire station [and we] moving to the

This portrait of business icon Herb Pearce, “fell off the brush”.

new firehouse. I went over to the new building and saw this big wall. I had only painted the ice cream cone and a hardware store. I found this photograph of three horses pulling the steam engine. I talked to the chief, [who said], ‘What’s it gonna cost?’ We worked out an arrangement — I

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How did the other fireman treat you?

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I was the rookie. Every fireman had a nickname. I was ‘The Guru.’

Falcone left the New Haven Fire Department to paint ‘La Aquadira’, a 10,000 square foot “Aquarium” in Hamden.

What does the New Haven fine-art community think of Tony Falcone, artist, doing a community mural, then some fine art posters, Coast Guard commissions, a portrait of a businessman?

They like the fact that I’m busy and pursuing my dream — maybe even admire the fact that I’m doing it full-time. That’s what always set me apart: I quit a career to be an artist. I decided, literally, ‘I can’t fail; I have a family.’ I could never afford to be proud and say I’m just a mural painter, or portrait painter.

So it was just survival to do what you wanted to do?

I always thought I would just do murals and after I finished that big giant mural and quit the fire department, I was expecting the phone to start ringing. Instead it was like the scene in Ghostbusters where they hire a secretary and she’s just polishing her nails.

So what does Tony say Tony does?

I call myself a fine commercial commissioned artist. I can’t call myself a fine artist, because they’re in the studio painting what they hope they sell. I couldn’t [just] hope [my] paintings sold, so I became a commissioned artist. For a time when it was tough making it, I painted billboards along I-95 — 90 feet up, hanging off the ladder. That was down and dirty. Finally I said, ‘I’m not going to be a billboard painter.’ I could have been a sign painter, a lot of terrific friends are sign painters and do really well. I was getting calls for (commercial) murals.

One guy wanted me to do big tire ads. I just couldn’t do it.

You’ve been doing this now for 37 years.

Was there a time you said, ‘I can’t do this anymore’?

Plenty of times. When I first opened the studio in 1977, the reason I was this far out from New Haven is because I couldn’t afford a space in New Haven. This was a dilapidated barn and the owners fixed it up for me. In the Regan years everything was drying up and I took a job teaching inner-city kids to paint houses. It was paying well and I came out at night to paint. It was a good spell that I had another job. I made it as an artist through three recessions. But there were days when I’d say, ‘It really sucks — what am I going to do now?’

What about the opposite — have you ever felt complacent because of commercial success?

12

May 2011

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Relaxed? Once, maybe. I can’t say I‘ve ever relaxed to say, ‘Why don’t I just take an artist’s holiday?’

Is that just something your father put in your head?

Hard work and Italian — ‘Twelve hours?

Okay, it’s half a day — let’s take a break.

Now I’m the same way. I owe a lot to him for that, because I wouldn’t have made it as artist if I took this as a hobby. That’s what people said at the fire department: ‘You’re on three days, off three days. Do [painting] as a hobby and when you retire

[you can paint full-time].’ I didn’t want to wait to be an old man.

When you do a personal portrait how do you negotiate what the subject wants to look like vs. what they really look like?

When I did Herb Pearce’s portrait it just fell off the brush. I met with him, we picked a background — he was so much fun. Then there are portraits that never seem to be right — ‘Are you sure we need that little wrinkle right here?’

So Herb Pearce wasn’t too vain?

He liked his wrinkles. With portraits I just let it go. I want to collaborate with what they want. This is the type of career I want to be known for. I’ll always want to paint murals until someone tackles me and says, ‘Dude — you’re done.’

Today, in the digital age nearly everyone has a camera on their phone. Has that devalued the hand-wrought image?

I have friends that can take a digital picture and make it look like an oil or a watercolor, soft edges, because of the their computer skills. I think the better those things get, hand-done work becomes more valid. I love mixing the paints, figuring out solutions. It’s not art when it’s done; it’s how it got done. Someone had to figure out how to make that red work next to that pink and be a perfect complementary color.

thinking they would hire a maritime artist, someone who does nothing but oceans and ships. So I made it to the first round, now I get another letter and it’s more work. I hate doing these things. I’m a commissioned artist — ‘Give me the money; I do the painting.’

Maybe that should be the headline for this interview.

Maybe not [laughs]. This was 2000, 11 years ago. They had this room with all these WPA murals and they had the

three artists [finalists] there and you had to make your pitch to this jury [of] archivists, gallery owners, museum people.

I got up there and said, ‘I’m going to tell you about my process and how I’m going to exceed your expectations. Based on what I see, you’re going to want very detailed painting, and that’s what I can do.’

So, I got the [commission].

How many of the paintings have you completed so far?

You have a lot of Star Wars kitsch here.

I guess I never had enough toys as a kid.

I became fascinated with Star Wars. The fact that George Lucas had this whole thing in his head, that’s one thing. Now he can write it, then produce it and to hire artists to create all of those characters, costumes and sets and to make that vision work is the most intriguing thing I’ve seen. I’ve gone to one of the [Star Wars] conventions for four days.

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Were you one of the oldest — or youngest?

I guess I was in the older grouping. You have folks my age dressed up as Obi-Wan Kenobi with a kid dressed up as Princess Leia — it would be the grandkid. I go because I get to go to these breakout rooms and meet some of the best artists and to talk to them and watch how they work. It inspires me.

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We talked several years back about a commission you had started at the Coast Guard Academy. How did that come about?

I received a letter in the mail, a Request for Qualifications [that said] ‘If you’re interested in a project for the U.S. Coast Guard, just send in your box tops and we’ll get back to you.’ They wanted up to 14 paintings in mural form, themes like rescuing people off an oil tanker, D-Day. I don’t do these competition things all that well; it’s a lot of work and material. I was throwing it away and Judy [Andrews, wife of 25 years] says, ‘No, they want you to do this. It’s your thing.’ So I sent them my box stops.

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talent and creative spirit. In the 1960s most of the creative spirit was in music.

The art scene was really happening in the big cities. What’s happening in New Haven is a symptom of people who have talent and they have to create. At that panel discussion I said something that a lot of people laughed at because it sounded hokey. I said New Haven and other cities have to learn how to be happy cities, meaning where people do more of what they want to do creatively and lend their talents to a city that is culturally rich.

It’s not just painting — it’s everything.

Florence [Italy] still works. It was totally a business area until the richer families starting hosting people who had talent. It still works, and it is a thriving metropolis and when business people come they have a great experience.

D-Day depicted to hang at the Coast Guard Academy one of fourteen paintings commissioned by the ‘Class of 62’.

I’ve finished nine and I’m working on the tenth now. It was the [Coast Guard Academy] Class of 1962 that wanted to give a gift to the Academy. They said, ‘When we were cadets, we would go into this room and there were all these murals from the WPA era — the Coast Guard from 1790 to 1930 depicted in this room.’

So I get the job of 14 paintings to depict [the Coast Guard] from 1940 to today.

What happens with the business side of this kind of transaction and copyrights?

Well, it took three lawyers. They didn’t want me to have any rights — ‘Just paint and leave us alone.’ I don’t do that. I’m a fine artist not a commercial artist. I may want [to include the images in] a book or have it my portfolio. We worked it all out.

Do you run into copyright issues a lot?

I did this painting of the old SNET building and I look in the Advocate and here’s my painting and written across

So how does New Haven stack up in that way?

the painting is ‘The Eli’ [the name of the building]. So I call up, and I don’t want to do punitive things, but [I say], ‘If you want to continue using it, [here is] how I would feel better about it.’ He says, ‘What do you mean? I own the building.’ I went and saw him and it turned out great — ‘Here’s the check.’ It all depends on someone’s understanding of business.

When we first met about ten years ago it was during a panel discussion about business and the arts. I made the mistake of saying that New Haven was too much about arts groups and not enough about artists.

Yes, that’s when I fell in love in you [laughs].

But art has been flourishing in New Haven.

Is there something we’re doing, or is this a wider trend?

Every city in the world is experiencing what you’re describing; there is so much

It’s got the best restaurants around, the best theater, the best artists of all caliber.

It’s working on its transportation — the trains being improved, the airport. I’ve talked to the mayor, I don’t know how many times, about getting a monorail system.

Oy, we need a monorail system?! And where do we want this monorail to go: from New Haven to where — Prospect?

New Haven was set up with these spokes leading into New Haven. That was great in 1915. You have to imagine the future.

Try to drive through Westville.

So when you told the mayor that what he needed was a monorail what did he say?

He laughed and walked away.

Then I did a painting of it, with a monorail going right by City Hall and it was at an auction for Rachel’s Table and they fabricated my painting out of chocolate.

What more can we say than that? Y

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A Valley family’s life is turned upside upssid ide de down by a little-understood illness

By Melissa Nicefaro

Erika Poquette can’t predict when she will have enough energy to get through the day, or when her illness will get the best of her.

E

rika Poquette doesn’t even look sick.

But when she gets out of bed every day, she feels like hell.

Debilitating aches and exhaustion make her feel as though she has the flu, but she can’t stay in bed all day. She’s a busy 20-year-old college student. She’s in the prime of her life.

When Erika was 14, she was diagnosed with lupus, a chronic disease that affects the joints and causes inflammation in the soft tissue of the body.

Erika’s mother, Laura, is on a crusade to increase public awareness about this little-understood illness. She’s organizing an event called “Walk With Us To Cure Lupus” on June 25 (walk.lupusresearch. org). “You hear the word ‘lupus,’ even more these days with all of the medical television shows,” says Laura Poquette.

“But most people still don’t know what it is.’

PHOTO: JESSICA HO

Joseph Craft, a rheumatologist and researcher at Yale, describes lupus as an inflammatory disorder that is caused by an underlying immune system abnormality.

It’s an autoimmune disease that makes the body’s only immune response directed against fighting infections.

Yet she wants the world to believe that she’s okay.

She is okay. That’s what she says.

“I feel like it is under control,” Erika asserts. “Because I don’t think about it constantly, it’s better. Even when I was first diagnosed, I haven’t been scared. I “With lupus, the immune system causes guess I’m conditioned, since I had the an attack on soft tissues such as the skin,” rheumatoid arthritis when I was little. explains Craft. “It causes inflammation or I see it as another thing I have to take irritation in multiple organs.” For example, medicine for. But over time, it is setting in “It can cause inflammation in the skin and that this is for real. joints and requires treatment. It can also “In ten years, my health could go right cause inflammation in deep organs like down the tube at any minute,” Erika the kidneys — and when that happens it explains. “I try to keep in mind that I feel can be severe and require more aggressive like I’ve lived a full life and I’ve lived it therapies.” how I’ve wanted to live it. I’m not scared To Erika, it means she can never rely on if I were to become disabled. I take it as feeling well. Mornings and late nights a gift from God. It makes me who I am, are the worst, along rainy or humid days. and it makes me stronger.”

Lately she’s been experiencing a burning Lupus most often affects young women sensation in the roots of her hair and (the prevalence of women to men with extreme temperatures that literally hurt the malady is 10:1), and is most common her skin. new haven

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in females during their childbearing years.

There is no cure, but there are a variety of agents or medications to control the disease. Although there has not been a new agent approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for lupus treatment for more than 50 years, Craft says: “There’s some excitement because the FDA has approved a new agent called Benlysta for treatment of patients with lupus. There’s optimism for some patients with lupus, though not all, since it is approved for individuals with milder lupus and who suffer with mild inflammation rather than those with inflammation in deeper organs. It may work better in women of European descent rather than women of African descent, since it’s often more difficult to treat in women of African descent.”

Craft adds: “The one problem with Benlysta is it’s going to be quite expensive, and is going to require approval by insurance carriers. There are other agents that work quite well.”

The lifespan in lupus has been well documented. According to Craft, the probability of ten-year survival in patients with lupus is 95 percent or greater compared to individuals without lupus.

“That sounds good, but we’re thinking about young women,” Craft allows. “If

you’re a 20-year-old with a 95-percent chance of living to 30, you want 100 percent.”

When Erika was five, she was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. When she was nine, however, she went into remission and her mom thought she was home-free.

“One day — I remember it was a Saturday — we were home and [Erika] started yelling from upstairs that she couldn’t move. She literally couldn’t move. Of course I automatically thought the arthritis was back,” recounts Laura Poquette. (Erika Poquette also has Raynaud’s Syndrome, a disorder of the small blood vessels of the extremities that constrains blood flow and causes pain and numbness. She also has cysts on her ovaries and problems with her kidneys including kidney stones.)

“She is incredible, she truly is,” says Laura Poquette of her daughter. “She never let it stop her. She was vice president of her student body all four years she was at Ansonia High School. She played softball and volleyball and was captain for both teams.”

“When I tell you she is my hero, I truly mean it,” Erika’s mother adds. “I’m so proud of her accomplishments.”

There are days when Erika just gets so sick of taking medications, but when she tires of it, she reminds herself that the alternative is far worse.

Her mother has found strength in educating herself and others about the disease. When Erika was first diagnosed, Laura discovered the Alliance for Lupus Research and immediately became involved.

“Robert Woods Johnson of Johnson & Johnson is the founder, and his daughter has lupus,” Laura Poquette explains. “He realized that there wasn’t much going on with finding more help for those with lupus. The new medication [Benlysta] is exciting because I feel like we were a part of making that happen. The ALR [Alliance for Lupus Research, lupusresearch. org] helped fund the researchers that developed the drug, and that makes us feel good.”

Laura struggles with worry daily, knowing that her daughter’s health could take a turn for the worse at a moment’s notice.

“The scary part is to look at Erika — young and beautiful and energetic — and we don’t know what’s in store for us,” acknowledges her mother. “It’s the hidden disease. She doesn’t look sick, but we just don’t know what the future holds. Just like she went to bed the night before the day she couldn’t move. When she gets a flare, she’s down and out and she can’t move. It hurts too much. Any cold she gets is magnified. But she can’t live in a bubble.”

Erika had a hard adjustment socially during her teenage years and admits that in high school, she lost a lot of friends because the disease “got in the way.”

Recounts Laura Poquette: “In her senior year of high school she lost a lot of friends because she didn’t drink or do the things the other teenagers were doing. They stopped asking her to go out and do things. It was a rough time for her — very sad. She was ready to move on and go to college. She’s an R.A. [resident advisor in a dormitory] and she has great friends.

She’s so happy now.”

Her daughter’s illness has lent new purpose to Laura Poquette’s life. ‘When I tell you she is my hero,’ she says, ‘I truly mean it.’

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May 2011

This is a special time of the year for the Poquettes as they are knee-deep in organizing the June 25 ALR fundraising walk in Ansonia. After doing the walk in Boston for a few years, Laura Poquette decided to launch her own here in Connecticut — a three-mile walk around the track at Ansonia’s Nolan Field. This June will mark the event’s fourth year.

Laura Poquette says she’s happy that when her son enrolls in Emmanuel College in Boston this September, he’ll only be a quick $7 train ride from his big sister.

Laura Poquette calls the upcoming walk and involvement with ALR her “therapy” — the only thing she can do. “I can’t take this away from her,” she says. “I still cry.

I still get emotional. I wish I could take it away, but I can’t.”

Erika admits that she has had a tough time adjusting socially, and acknowledges there’s a fine line between friends cutting her some slack when she’s running low on energy, and being coddled.

Craft: “The immune system causes an attack on soft tissues such as the skin”.

“The greatest thing about this organization is that 100 percent of donations go to research,” Laura Poquette says. “It really bothers me when I donate [to another charity] and find out that it’s going to so many different hands. I love this organization.

“At first Erika didn’t understand why I was pushing so hard to have a walk here — it’s almost like she didn’t want so many people to know,” Laura adds. “It’s hard enough for a teenager to be anything less than perfect to begin with, and this sets her aside from others.”

Erika’s brother Tyler has been a force for good, too, fundraising at Ansonia High School, where he is a senior. As president of the school’s Interact Club, he’s drawn attention to lupus by raising money and forming a team for the walk.

“Everyone in high school knew I had lupus and I was always reminded of it,” Erika says. “But when I came to college, I was reluctant to tell all of my friends. I didn’t tell them until second semester of my freshman year. I still don’t tell everyone. I don’t want it to define who I am.”

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The bottom line is that she has to listen to her body. “When it says stop, I need to stop. And when I feel like I can keep going, I do,” Erika says.

“I think it’s really important to be involved in something like the walk, because even if you don’t know someone who has lupus, you know that there are millions out there who suffer from it,” says Erika Poquette.

“The cause is not known — people don’t know much about it. But if you’re involved with it, you can spread awareness and help the people who do suffer from lupus.

“My friends want to come to the walk and support me,” Erika adds. “I tell them they’re not only supporting me, they’re supporting the million other people who have lupus as well.” Y

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Bearing Witness to Genocide Orphaned at age five in his native Rwanda, 22-year-old Daniel Ndamwizeye has made a new life worth cherishing

By Cindy Simoneau

Ndamwizeye on campus at Southern: ‘I have a message to share about what happened to me and how we can all overcome obstacles.’

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May 2011

D

aniel Ndamwizeye wanted what all children want — the love and security of his parents, siblings and extended family and friends. That dream was shattered by the bloody nightmare of genocide in his native Rwanda. As a helpless young child, he saw members of his family and village killed or fleeing to find safety by hiding from the civil war.

At age five, he watched as his mother was beaten to death outside his village church

by Hutus. That was in 1994, when he was left to depend on the kindness of others, and his own innate instincts to survive.

The deadly genocide later claimed the life of his father and two of his sisters.

He was shuttled from family members to friends of friends and then strangers in the Congo as he grew up waiting and hoping for a better life. Finally, in June 2005, after enduring abusive living arrangements and years of uncertainty, Ndamwizeye at 16 years old set out on a new journey to the United States to live with his sister and her husband and begin his new life.

Ndamwizeye during a recent trip to Haiti to take part in a weekly feeding program run by Child Hope International.

Rather than feeling beaten and broken, he embraced life and education and set out to be a role model for others. At Bridgeport’s Bassick High School, he was elected vice president of the senior class, and became a standout athlete in volleyball and cross

country — a favorite among teachers and classmates.

“I was very, very happy,” he says. “But, each day was a struggle. I had experienced Continued on 45

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PHOTO: SUSAN FALZONE

20

May 2011

An unlikely setting gives birth to the Elm City’s first ever Hindu temple

By Eliza Hallabeck

A

rea residents who practice Hinduism, the oldest and thirdlargest religion in the world, have had a shorter trip to prayer services since Connecticut’s fifth Hindu temple opened in November in New Haven.

The temple’s caretaker, Prakash Shah, says that the roughly 350 practicing members of the Pond Lily Avenue temple, on the site of the former Belvedere banquet hall, seem happier now there is a prayer space closer to home. Before it was unanimously approved by New Haven’s City Plan Commission on November 17, the space was used as a community center, explains Shah.

Shah says the facility was previously rented out for parties and other events since opening in September 2008.

When new owner the Gujarati Samai Association of Connecticut assumed ownership of the property in September 2010, Prakash Shah says, plans to turn the facility into a practicing Hindu temple began in earnest.

The former Belvedere banquet hall is unlikely setting for a Hindu worship site, but members of the faith enjoy the convenience.

Now the temple is called Shree Nashji Haveli, and offers a place for practitioners to pray to Shree Nashji, the seven-yearold Hindu god Krishna. Before Shree Nashji Haveli opened, worship took place in private homes for some. For others, worshipping with other members of the faith meant traveling to Middletown, where the Connecticut Valley Hindu temple is located, Shah explains. The

space, now brightly painted with a statue of Shreenathji, is ready to welcome worshippers with activities and services.

The Shree Nashji Haveli was founded by the Gujarati Samai Association of Connecticut, a nonprofit, nonpolitical, nonsectarian organization that was organized in 1995. The goal of the organization is, “to unite all Gujarati people under one roof and to promote and preserve our culture, heritage, language, social and cultural awareness and respect of Gujarati, India by providing a platform to Gujarati community while serving the community needs.”

Community members who follow the faith and attend services at the temple, are also welcomed for other activities that take place there, including yoga for senior citizens, as well as music and dance classes for students. Community meals are also offered to those who attend certain prayer services or activities. The temple also offers lessons in the Gujarati language.

Jitendra Shah, manager of the temple, says the facility is open seven days a week, and it offers six services a day. “We service to the god,” says Jitendra Shah, “and to the community.” Prakash Shah says a website for the temple should be online soon. In the meantime prospective visitors may phone 203-387-7400 for more information about the temple and services there.

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PHOTOS: ANTHONY DECARLO 22

May 2011

New Life, New Family Built at the dawn of the Civil War by a captain of industry, and elegant Fair Haven mansion gets a whole new purpose

By Duo Dickinson

AT H O M E

A

s you cross the Quinnipiac River and drive eastward up the hill on Grand Avenue, you catch a glimpse of history. To the north, reposing in elegant calm, are two mid-19th-mansions that are virtual time machines back to Fair Haven’s history as a prosperous fishing village.

The original mansion set back from the road was built by James F. Babcock, a lawyer and publisher of the New Haven Palladian, in 1862. It sat upon the crown of the hill and once dominated 30 acres of clear-cut estate.

Anecdotally, it was said that Babcock was Abraham Lincoln’s best friend in the area, and that Lincoln would actually stay in the house when he came through town. Following the Civil War the house was sold, the property subdivided and the more visually prominent mansion set directly on Grand Avenue was built in 1875

by Lucius Moody, a successful insurance agent whose wife, Mary Blair Moody, was the first female physician in the area. (Yet another home was built to the other side of the Babcock house in that period, long since demolished.)

The Babcock house and its remaining offspring home are nearly perfect examples of mid-19th century Carpenter Victorian Gothic architecture — a fusion of an elaborated wood design with elements of pointed arch (“ogee”) detailing. Both of these homes have a profusion of stick built brackets, porches, bays, dormers and applied ornaments.

The James F. Babcock House is a classic example of Victorian Carpenter Gothic architecture, with a tack-on social wing (at right) added several decades after the home was built in 1862. The distinctive porch detailing, fully restored slate roof and animated roofscape make the exterior a point of pride for the Fair Haven neighborhood as well as for architecture aficionados.

These twin anomalies came to be surrounded by much smaller homes as, piece by piece, the original 30 acres was whittled down to 0.5-acre lot surrounding the original Babcock house. What is wondrous is that upon entry, the home is largely unchanged save for a wing projecting south that appears to have been built later in the 19th century. Otherwise, the original layout remains almost intact — and although a bit shopworn, the elegant openness of the generous interior spaces, trim and wood floors remain true to its vintage.

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The third floor has a generous stair hall with bedrooms located to the corners off its central location. The ceiling’s imposition is a direct reflection of the roof’s Victorian lines.

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May 2011

While its intact neighbor appears to have a loving family keeping its exterior presence proudly intact, the Babcock house has a more checkered history. Given the economic ups and downs of the region generally and Fair Haven specifically it is not surprising that the house was foreclosed on several years ago, and was sold to recoup losses from an overextended loan from the 1990s.

Although that scenario is hardly uncommon, the recent history of the historic Babcock house is, well, a little freaky.

For the last 15 years (according to its current owner) this work of significant historic and architectural value was ambiguously known as a “party house” — available for a bacchanalias. More scandalously, there are even rumors that the home was for a time a house of ill repute.

Be that as it may, its present proposed use likewise strays from the conventional. The house was purchased out of foreclosure last year for $165,000 — a fraction of the sum owed to the bank.

Unoccupied for several years, it was intact but a mess.

Nevertheless, an amazing bargain due to the oddity of the home, the depressed real estate market and its location in a neighborhood that had seen ups and downs.

And the purchaser was as unusual as the home itself.

Throughout the U.S. notfor-profit groups build (or “repurpose”) single-family residences for unrelated people living together as if they were a family. In Connecticut, the legal term for this use is “reasonable accommodation.”

Robert Hargrove, director of a non-profit known as The Way Back, realized that the Babcock home was in an ideal location for this type of occupancy — close to public transportation and of a size and capacity that would allow for efficient

operations. Hargrove saw an opportunity to at the same time save a house — and a bunch of human lives. The Way Back is an organization dedicated to help adults ravaged by drug and alcohol addiction become productive.

The Babcock house offers an opportunity for the next level of The Way Back’s mission: It would become a “sober home” for those who have gone through a 12-step program to break the cycle of addiction.

This would be the group’s fourth home in addition to the two for men and one for women Hargrove previously created. This particular home would create a safe place for between 16 and 20 male residents to live.

Not surprisingly, this use has generated neighborhood concern given the troubled histories of the occupants. But

YYY given the presence of live-in staff and close supervision, the history of sober homes such as these has been quite benign.

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However, having 16 or 18 people living in a single eightbedroom structure raises reasonable concerns among neighbors in the single-familyhome residential community that envelopes this historic gem. Which is why the proposed sober house, as envisioned by a partnership between Hargrove and Herbert Schwartz, is being reviewed by state authorities in terms of what they would deem it to be its appropriate use and level of occupancy.

The light renovation that this 5,400-square-foot house has undergone essentially cleaned things up. The home seems to have been fairly carefully renovated and tightened up from its previous dubious occupancy. Most of the bathrooms, for example, are in relatively good shape.

Although the interior is neither squeaky-clean nor decorated,

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Many bedrooms in the Babcock house open up to one another, creating a social arrangement for the new residents that James Babcock could never have envisioned when he built the house almost 150 years ago.

Robert Hargrove in a former servant’s quarters room, a classic ‘ell’ wing off the mansion’s symmetrical center hall house.

A lower shape, the ceilings help shape each room’s space.

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May 2011

the house as cleaned up does maintain the silent elegance of the original. When Babcock built the home an entire wing was given over to “staff,” and a tiny portecochere allowed occupants of carriages to disembark out of the weather before entering the house.

It would be a rare traditional family (read: large, rich and brave) that would buy a building of this size, maintenance requirements and property taxes in a neighborhood that has not had a consistent value. Hargrove’s and Schwartz’s for-profit effort, created to save lives, may be the only economic model that can preserve this particular home at this particular time of the century. In any event, Hargrove sees this building as a “perfect fit” for his vision.

Explains House Manager David Seiniger: “The layout works well. We want for everyone to spend time together — meals, watching TV, just hanging out. The layout of the downstairs to perfect for that. A lot of men in recovery are not coming from the best of life circumstances — living out of a car, shelters, rehabs... Most have had any sense of ‘home’ removed from

their lives long ago. Many in fact have been kicked out of their house by a wife and family who want nothing to do with them.”

In truth, a “home” is likely the most fundamental structure humans create for themselves. It is intended to be a safe harbor — originally safe from weather; more recently a place where creature comforts and possessions ground and embellish a family’s life and legacy. When James Babcock built his house in 1862, he could never have envisioned that a day would come when its very survival would depend on a large group of unrelated men living there.

This is no rooming house — not a place of casual accommodation where strangers come and go as they please. The explicit intention of this sober house is to create a family environment where everyone meets at the end of the day and shares meals, counseling and creates the bonds of family that are normally associated with the nuclear variety.

Here, men who have lost hope and the ability to function have been brought back

from the brink of disaster. They need the unconditional acceptance of family that many of them have never had. In that way the Babcock house has regained its status as home from “party house.”

The Babcock house has always been a focal point — the elegant structure high on the hill, looking west over New Haven. In recent years it gained infamy as a place of questionable social use in a quiet residential neighborhood. Now, once again, a new spotlight is cast on an old building: People will live there, and hopefully grow and thrive — though not as a traditional family. Homes can reflect status, as this one did for James F. Babcock. Homes also reflect values, as do the sturdy homes that cluster around Babcock’s “statement” home.

But there are homes that give hope and safety to those who need it. It’s not just the architect’s job to do that, but when a house becomes a home, it’s the people who live there that offer the protection and acceptance necessary to allow a family to happen. Maybe that will happen here.

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O F NO T E S

s ’ t u c i t c e n n Coied Piper P

Chuck E. Costa’s more than Connecticut’s ‘official’ troubadour — he’s a muse to musical kids

appointment. “We are fortunate to count him among our rich and talented pool of state artists.”

Costa was chosen from among a dozen applicants last year, based on three published criteria: “excellence in singing and songwriting, substantial performance and songwriting experience, and experience with diverse audiences.”

In truth, it’s kind of a sweet gig, though not exactly a life-changer. For three “official” performances each year of his two-year term, Costa receives a $2,500 annual stipend from CCT (an agency whose entire marketing budget for the whole state was $1 last year).

While it’s easy to make fun of out-of-it Hartford bureaucrats presuming to dabble in folk music, the 33-year-old Costa is the real deal, a crafter of highly literate and finely crafted contemporary folk songs.

One of just a handful of Connecticutbased folkies able to support himself through music alone, Costa has plied the folk circuit for six-plus years, playing venues as intimate as house concerts in someone’s living room to folk festivals with a few thousand people, opening for legends like Pete Seeger.

Moving to Connecticut following college, Costa beat his stage fright into submission by attending every open-mic he could find.

He has released four CDs, the most recent 2009’s At the Drawing Board.

In addition to his solo career, Costa is a member of a band called Mon Monarch, whose music he describes as “indie folk with a little bit of a rock edge to it.” The trio has a new CD, Waterproof Matches, available online at monmonarch.com.

Costa also performs music workshops, including songwriting workshops for children. “I love their spontaneity,” he says.

By Michael C. Bingham

M

erriam-Webster defines “troubadour” as “a singer, especially of folk songs.”

(Actually, that is M-W’s second definition; the first is “one of a class of lyric poets and poet-musicians often of knightly rank who flourished from the 11th to the end of the 13th century chiefly in the south of France and the north of Italy and whose major theme was courtly love.” But that wouldn’t apply here.)

Created in 1991 by an act of the General Assembly in its boundless wisdom, Connecticut’s official state troubadour serves as an “ambassador of music and song and promotes cultural literacy among Connecticut citizens,” according to the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism (CCT), under whose suzerainty the troubadour toils.

That description fits Chuck E. Costa, but to fully do justice to the Madison singer/ songwriter, one needs to add another word: official. As in, “Official State

“Chuck’s music and songs will serve as an inspiration for Connecticut citizens of all ages, “said Karen Senich, the CCT’s executive director in announcing Costa’s

28

May 2011

Troubadour” for the 2011-12 troubadouring session.

Costa’s main instrument is guitar, and his playing style is deceptively simple. For some songs his right hand will straddle the line between flat-picking and fingerpicking, similar to clawhammer (or frailing) banjo technique. Costa’s wistful tenor will remind older folk lovers of Jonathan Edwards or a younger Loudon Wainwright Jr. (without the smirk).

But it is Costa’s songwriting that is his calling card. His songs are understated but rich with keen observations about himself and the world around him — and always deeply felt.

“I think my music is really honest,” Costa says. “I write a lot about my experiences,

my family, my childhood, relationships.

My songs are very lyric-based.�

culminating at the Connecticut Folk Festival in New Haven in September.

Costa was raised in a “relatively� musical family — his father was a jazz saxophonist and his grandfather a classical violinist. “I learned a punch of different instruments before I took up guitar,� he recalls, including piano, saxophone and baritone horn. His two favorite bands, he admits, were a “somewhat odd combination� — the Indigo Girls and Metallica.

Costa’s other objective for his troubadour tenure is to compile a catalogue of recorded songs about Connecticut — by Connecticut children. “Children are uninhibited — they come out with these amazing things,� says Costa, who has not yet himself begun a family.

In high school, “I picked up the guitar because my mother had an old guitar lying around unused.� His sister’s boyfriend gave the young Costa a grand total of two guitar lessons — and a lifelong passion was kindled. That, combined with his love of poetry, and Costa had all the raw material for a songwriting career. “I love the idea of putting the music and words together,� he says. “I was always kind of a shy kid, so I was a way for me to express myself.�

Marrying words to music was never an issue for Costa. His bugaboo was that “shy kid� thing, which meant that fear of performing in front of audiences was a hurdle that would need to be overcome.

As a philosophy student at the University of Colorado, Costa hit the open-mic circuit to hone his life-performance chops and confront the stage-fright demon. “That was a struggle,� he acknowledges. “I was very uncomfortable for a very long time.� After graduation he moved to his bride’s hometown of Madison, where he worked for a time at Starbucks. During that period, he recalls, “I open-mic’d every night. I’d work during the day, then I would drive to Boston, drive to New York, play every open-mic on Connecticut.�

In other words, he literally beat his fear of performing to death. Now, he says of performing, “I love it. It’s one of my favorite things to do.�

Costa hopes to set his two-year reign as troubadour apart with a couple of unusual initiatives. One is a planned “Green Tourâ€? whose purpose is not to save the planet, but to attract musicloving crowds to town greens around Connecticut. “My original idea was to play every green in Connecticut, but that’s impossible,â€? he says. “It would take ten years. But I’m going to pick ďŹ ve or six greens this summer for a performance and songwriting workshop for kids.â€? That will take place over a week or so, Costa adds,

“Most of the musical exposure most kids get is learning an instrument or being in a chorus — kind of rote learning,� he says. “Those are extremely important

[experiences] but not that creative. In the songwriting workshops I give kids a chance to actually compose music — they come up with the melodies, the songs, the words, the rhymes. The stuff they come up with is pretty beautiful.�

Who knows? Maybe the ofďŹ cial state troubadour for 2025-27 will have gotten his start at a Chuck E. Costa workshop. How ďŹ tting would that be?

Check out Chuck Costa’s music and liveperformance schedule at chuckecosta.com.

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re you ready to learn the secrets of the pleasure principle? All you have to do is let your inhibitions go and dance. No experience required. Get your body moving to jazz, funk, Middle Eastern chants and yes, even disco. It’s all in an incredible exercise called Nia, a combination of modern dance, martial arts and yoga that’s designed to make you feel good.

And although all these disciplines may seem like an odd combination, they are blended into beautiful free-flowing arm, leg and whole-body movements to create

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choreographed routines that are fun, challenging and personally expressive.

“Nia is like chocolate,” says instructor Nancy Hammet. “You just have to taste it.” For many, though, it’s still virtually unknown and hasn’t caught on like the latest fitness fad, Zumba. For instance, there’s only one professional Nia studio in New Haven County, and it’s Hammet’s.

Sound Mind & Body is located in Milford and offers Nia classes four times a week.

But be forewarned, you just might become addicted and leave your Zumba at the door. Nia is healthy life choice, Hammet says, and it’s here to stay. “It is the most physically comprehensive workout program I know of,” she says.

A Lifestyle Practice We all need a little something to get us through the day. Nia is the aphrodisiac offering that special touch — just like chocolate. And once you try it, you keep coming back for more. Like when Fairfield resident and former Nia instructor Pam Murphy had to quit to make time for massage therapy training, she found herself craving it. “I just had to have my Nia,” Murphy recalls. “So I put it back in my life.”

Hammet says that happens often with Nia. “It is the work of body awareness,” she

says. Nia is a whole body experience that tantalizes your muscles and stimulates your senses and leaves you wanting more.

You don’t even feel like you are exercising.

It is more about energizing areas that need to be awakened.

The benefits are tremendous. Nia stimulates weight loss, strengthens muscles, improves endurance — all while relieving stress and providing a sense of calm.

Steeped in spirituality, Nia was first founded on the West Coast in 1983 by then-husband-and-wife fitness team Carlos and Debbie Rosas and has since spread across the globe. This bodymind-spirit discipline is now taught in 40 countries by more than 1,750 licensed teachers.

Originally an acronym for Neuromuscular Integrative Action, Nia incorporates a combination of nine different movements: three dance, three martial arts, and three healing. All work to create fitness through dance with different dance routines. Like yoga, Nia is practiced in bare feet, and begins with a warm up of exaggerated arm and leg movements all designed to jump start your heart rate, loosen up your muscles, and promote flexibility. And like the martial arts it incorporates (t’ai chi, tae kwon do, aikido), instructors need to

train for years earning degrees of belts in order to teach it.

Presently a brown belt, Hammet began her training in 1999. A former dancer, she has used Nia as a way to cope with muscle injuries she developed over the years from working out and sitting at a desk as a former marketing professional. “Nia changed my life,” says Hammet, who gave up dance at a young age for a more practical job. “It allowed me to continue with dance in my life.” It also helped heal her injuries and get in touch with inner emotions — the kind that come when you get older and realize you are not living up to your dreams. Nia is about finding your balance.

Sandy Giordano knows. Just last year she lost her job and as an older female, she knew finding work would not be easy. Depression set in. “Nia was a lot cheaper than going to a psychiatrist,” says Giordano. “Nia is joyous. The music is healing.”

Finding a Focus Nancy Hammet begins her class with a focus: passion, love, joy, self-expression — these are only several of the Nia principles embodied. During a recent class, Hammet

focused on passion and bringing joy to your life. “Are you ready to dance today?” she said as she entered the carpeted room full of about ten students. For a full hour participants smiled and laughed as they sweated to Hammet leading with beautiful gestures at three different learning levels.

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And that’s why students are encouraged to go at their own pace, as low- or highimpact as you need it to be. Nia routines range from a low pace, which keeps your legs on the ground, to picking it up by lifting the legs slightly, to lifting them higher and adding a bounce in your step.

A total of 52 movements are distributed among several routines. Some moves are so recognizable you may even feel like you are in a chorus line on a Broadway stage auditioning for a show — without the anxiety that comes with winning the part.

Any inhibitions were left at the door with this group, who weren’t afraid to let their bodies feel and respond to the music. If you wanted to spin around, you spun.

If you wanted to slide, you slid across the room. If you felt like popping into a penguin dance, you popped.

“Nia is about enjoying your body and not feeling bad about it like some gyms make you feel,” says Pam Murphy, who has been practicing Nia for more than eight years.

“It’s about rewarding yourself for feeling good.”

Again, the pleasure principle. The sensation of pleasure is at the heart of every Nia practice and gives you access to a deeper level of self-knowing. With Nia you find your inner voice, pull it out of yourself, become vulnerable and reach for the highest level of confidence possible.

“Nia has it all,” says Hammet. “It is easily adaptable to every fitness level — it’s

Awaken your little one’s love of learning.

Unique, high-quality books, games & toys that stir your child’s imagination.

intelligent, therapeutic, expressive and fun! But even more, as a lifestyle program, it offers infinite possibilities. Through Nia, students discover the best in themselves.”

You are competing with yourself, pushing your body to be more coordinated, stretching it a bit further, enduring just a little bit more. But only if it feels right that day. It’s a holistic philosophy with the benefit being greater than the sum of its parts.

“Your body is telling you what feels good in the moment,” says Hammet. “We believe in if it feels good, do it. No pain, no gain doesn’t apply here.”

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BIBL IO F I L E S

The Art of War In harm’s way, U.S. soldiers decorated Mideastern blast walls with distinctive murals The T-Walls of Kuwait and Iraq, edited by George Hauer and Robin Whitney. Operation Music Aid Inc., 2010. 212 pps., $24.95 hard.

By Michael C. Bingham

T

his unusual volume is unlikely to end up on the New York Times bestseller list, but it is notable both for its unlikely and ephemeral subject matter, as well as for the good cause sales of the book supports.

George Hauer runs the Madison-based non-profit Operation: Music Aid, which gives musical instruments (guitars, keyboards, electric drums) to severely wounded U.S. servicemen and –women to help them with their physical and psychological rehabilitation. To date nearly 2,000 instruments have been delivered, and Hauer says that 100 percent of net proceeds from sales of the book go to help the wounded and their families.

“T-walls” (a/k/a Bremer walls) are 12-foot high portable, steel-reinforced concrete

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walls used by U.S. and Coalition military personnel for blast protection against mortar and rocket attacks throughout Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. The drab landscape of these theaters is marked by thousands of these walls, and to break the impersonal monotony of these blank concrete walls, soldiers saw fit to fill them with images and artwork that were used in imaginative ways to personalize and transform their environment.

Not intended to be seen by the general public, the images the soldiers selected and the memories they honor speak to universal human impulses: to identify with your own group, to make your surroundings distinctly your own. Many walls serve as memorials for fallen comrades and carry a powerful charge of grief and loss.

What makes this project and book so urgent is the ephemeral nature of the artwork created freehand by GIs and Coalition military personnel, a number of which date back to 2004. Subjected to 135-degree direct-sun bleaching, sandstorms and mortar fire, the images are rapidly disappearing.

Moreover, Hauer points out, “When the Iraqis take over the bases, the last thing they will want to see are these walls, so they will paint over some and the rest will be blown up for gravel.

In other words, gone forever. Except in the memories of the soldiers who created and were comforted by them — as well as in the pages of this remarkable, rare volume.

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CALENDAR BELLES LETTRES The Mystery Book Club meets the first Wednesday to discuss a pre-selected book. Books are available for check out prior to the meeting. 3-4 p.m. May 4 at Blackstone Library, 758 Main St., Branford. Free. 203-483-6653, blackstone. lioninc.org/booktalk.htm.

The Connecticut Humanities Council sponsors a Literature for a Lifetime Book Discussion. This evening’s subject is George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion (basis for the musical My Fair Lady), with discussion led by Julie Stern. 7 p.m. May 4 at Case Memorial Library, 176 Tyler City Rd., Orange. Free.

203-891-2170, casememoriallibrary.org.

New members are welcomed to the Blackstone Library Second Tuesday Book Club. The group meets on the second Tuesday to discuss a preselected book. Books available for loan in advance of discussion. 6:45-8 p.m.

May 10 at Blackstone Library, 758 Main St., Branford. Free. 203-488-1441, ext. 318, blackstone.lioninc.org/booktalk.htm.

Release your inner poet. Time Out for Poetry meets third Thursdays and welcomes those who wish to share an original short poem, recite a stanza or simply to listen. Ogden Nash, Robert Frost, William Shakespeare, Dr. Seuss and even the Burma Shave signs live again. 12:30-2 p.m. May 19 at Scranton

Library, 801 Boston Post Rd., Madison.

Free. 203-245-7365.

Psyche and Muse: Creative Entanglements with the Science of the Soul explores the influence of cultural, clinical and scientific dialogues about human psychology on 20th-century writers, artists and thinkers. Works from the Beinecke Library’s 20th-century collections including the Modern European Books and Manuscripts Collection, the Yale Collection of American Literature, and the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African American Arts and Letters. Figures represented in the exhibition include Lou AndreasSalomé, James Baldwin, Max Ernst, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Moss Hart, Carl Jung and Eugene O’Neill.

Through June 13 at Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 121 Wall St., New Haven. Free. Open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri., noon-5 p.m.

Sat. 203-432-2977, beineckelibrary@ yale.edu.

BENEFITS The Junior League of Greater New Haven presents New Haven’s Most Eligible, with proceeds to benefit local charities and non-profits. Contestants are local men and women actively engaged in philanthropic endeavors.

Votes can be purchased (seven votes cost $5), and the contestant with the most votes will win $500 to donate to the charity of his/her along with title of “New Haven’s Most Eligible.” 6:30-10:30 p.m. April 29 at Wicked Wolf Tavern, 144 Temple St., New Haven. $10. 203-5625076, jlgnhme@gmail.com, jlgnh.org.

A Taste of the Classics is the New Haven Symphony Orchestra’s fifth

annual wine tasting. Guests may purchase first-class wines (Dom Pérignon, Veuve Clicquot) while sampling Connecticut oysters, carving and pasta stations, delectable hors d’oeuvres and desserts. They may also win tickets to summer cultural destinations including Jacob’s Pillow, TheaterWorks, Glimmerglass Festival, Berkshire Choral Festival and more. 6-9 p.m. May 5 at 360 State St. (6th floor), New Haven. $125. 203-865-0831, ext. 15, shardenber@newhavensymphony.org.

Shape the Future: Creative Arts Workshop Looks Forward celebrates 50 years of art education and thought-provoking exhibitions. Silent auction, dinner under the stars followed by music and dancing. 5 p.m. (cocktails) 7 p.m. (dinner) May 7 at Creative Arts Workshop, 80 Audubon St., New Haven. $150. 203-562-4927, creativeartsworkshop.org/gala.

Keys to Our Future: Vegas Style is the Palace Theater’s year-end annual fundraiser featuring dueling pianists from New Haven’s Keys to the City.

Talented artists from NYC, Boston and Vegas will provide interactive entertainment while taking your musical requests and performing songs by Elton John, Billy Joel the Beatles and more. Fun, food, prizes. 7 p.m. May 21 at Palace Theater, 100 E. Main St., Waterbury. $50. 203-346-2000, palacetheaterct.org.

CINEMA The King’s Speech (2010, USA, 118 min.). Inspirational true story of King George VI’s struggle to overcome his stammer as World War II looms cleaned up at this year’s Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Director

CRITIC’S PICK First View of Lincoln Letter at NHFPL C Commemorating the 1150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, the New Haven W Public Library offers tthe public a first-time opportunity to view a o letter signed by Abraham Lincoln.

O On Dec. 8, 1863, P President Lincoln iissued a Proclamation o of Amnesty and R Reconstruction as a first sstep toward reconciliation w with the rebellious sstates. The proclamation sspecified a process by w which Confederate states ccould rejoin the Union aand an oath to be taken b by rebels who wished tto reestablish their aallegiance to the United S States.

T The library displays a ffacsimile of Lincoln’s lletter dated January 16,

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1865 (pictured) which authorized the release of two Confederate prisoners from Rock Island (Ill.) Prison, and also contains the signatures of several Springfield, Ill., notables, including Lincoln’s former law partner, William H. Herndon. This letter has been privately owned for 74 years and has never before been shown in public. As the display makes clear, this is the story of one document, one prisoner of war, and the oath that was designed to mend the Union.

Through June 30 at New Haven Free Public Library, 133 Elm St., New Haven.

Open noon-8 p.m. Mon., 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Tues.Thurs., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri.Sat. Free. 203-946-8130.

(Tom Hooper), Best Actor (Colin Firth) and Best Original Screenplay (David Seidler). 7 p.m. May 2 at Case Memorial Library, 176 Tyler City Rd., Orange. Free.

203-891-2170, casememoriallibrary.org.

Country Strong (2010, USA, 117 min.).

A rising country-music songwriter (Garrett Hedlund) sparks with a fallen star (Gwyneth Paltrow). Together they plot his ascent and her comeback. 7 p.m. May 11 at Case Memorial Library, 176 Tyler City Rd., Orange. Free. 203-8912170, casememoriallibrary.org.

Rabbit Hole (2010, USA, 91 min.).

Nicole Kidman stars in this drama of a happy couple whose life is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident. 7 p.m. May 23 at Case Memorial Library, 176 Tyler City Rd., Orange. Free. 203-891-2170, casememoriallibrary.org.

Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964, USA, 133 min.). The arrival of a lost relative visits terror upon an aging Southern belle, forever plagued by a horrifying family secret. Starring Olivia DeHavilland and Bette Davis. 5 p.m. May 26 at Hagaman Memorial Library, 227 Main St., East Haven.

Free. Registration. 203-468-3890, hagamanlibrary.info.

COMEDY Don’t miss the fifth edition of Comedy Central on Campus, featuring some of comedy’s brightest stars of tomorrow. 8 p.m. April 29 at Lyman Center, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent St., New Haven. $10 (SCSU students/ staff free). 203-392-6154, southernct.edu/ lymancenter.

Funnyman Joe Moffa brings his bluecollar NYC sensibility to Joker’s Wild.

Erin Jackson opens. 8 p.m. May 13, 8 & 10:30 p.m. May 14 at Joker’s Wild, 232 Wooster St., New Haven. $16.50. 203-7730733, jokerswildclub.com.

One of the busiest comics working today is Philly native Chris Coccia, who has worked some major rooms including the Improv, Catch a Rising Star and others. Mike Burton opens. 8 p.m. May 20, 8 & 10:30 p.m. May 21 at Joker’s Wild, 232 Wooster St., New Haven. $16.50. 203-773-0733, jokerswildclub. com.

CULINARY Consiglio’s Cooking Class Club.

Chef Maureen Nuzzo explains and demonstrates how to prepare mouthwatering southern Italian dishes that have been passed down from generation to generation. May’s menu features puff pastry baked with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes, iceberg wedge with pancetta and Gorgonzola, risotto with jumbo shrimp and asparagus and crepe Consiglio (strawberries, hot fudge, bananas and ice cream). Are you hungry yet? 6:30 p.m. May 26 at Consiglio’s Restaurant, 165 Wooster St., New Haven. $65. Reservations. 203-8654489, consiglios.com.

City Farmers Markets New Haven.

Eat local! Enjoy seasonal fruits,

PHOTOGRAPH: EDUARDO PATINO

5-6:30 p.m. Fridays at Blackstone Library, 758 Main St., Branford. $10. 203-4881441, ext. 313, yogidoakie@earthlink. net or events@blackstone.lioninc.org, blackstone.lioninc.org.

Full Moon Gong Relaxation. Deep sound healing with Kundalini yoga and meditative gong vibrations promise to bring you awareness and balance, physically and spiritually. 7-9 p.m. May 20 at Your Community Yoga Center, 39 Putnam Ave., Hamden. $20. 203-2872277, yourcommunityyoga.com.

NATURAL HISTORY

Kevin Petite and Rosita Adamo are principal dancers in the company of Ailey II, performing May 8-9 at the Shubert.

vegetables, and herbs from local farms including seafood, meat, milk, cheese, handcrafted bread and baked goods, honey, more. WOOSTER SQUARE: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. first and third Saturdays at Russo Park, corner Chapel St. and DePalma Ct. EDGEWOOD PARK: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. second and fourth Sundays at Whalley and West Rock Aves. 203-7733736, cityseed.org.

DANCE In the Wesleyan Dance Department’s Spring Dance Concert, student choreographers present worlds created over the course of a full academic year of dance composition studies. 8 p.m. April 29-30 at Patricelli ’92 Theater, Wesleyan University, Middletown. $5-$4.

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

Ailey II dancers are among the most talented of their generation, captivating audiences nationwide with their exhilarating and diverse repertoire that includes Alvin Ailey’s timeless classics as well as new works by dance veterans and the most exciting emerging choreographers on today’s scene. 3 p.m. May 8 (school performance 10:15 a.m. May 9) at Shubert Theater, 247 College St. New Haven. $39-$15 (5/9 performance $10). 203-562-6666, shubert.com.

FAMILY EVENTS Each Tuesday the Yale Astronomy Department hosts a Planetarium Show. Weather permitting there is also public viewing of planets, nebulae, star clusters and whatever happens to be interesting in the sky. Viewable celestial objects change seasonally. 7 & 8 p.m.

Tuesdays at Leitner Family Observatory, 355 Prospect St., New Haven. Free. cobb@astro.yale.edu, astro.yale.edu.

Creating Readers Saturdays at 2 Program. A fun, interactive program that engages young readers by bringing books to life using theater, dance and music. Each family that attends receives a copy of that week’s book

to take home. 2 p.m. Saturdays at Connecticut Children’s Museum, 22 Wall St., New Haven. $5. 203-562-5437, childrensbuilding.org.

The Connecticut Audubon Society presents a Sea Squirts, a parent/ child nature series for children 3-5.

Each one-hour program features an outdoor discovery walk or live-animal presentation, plus stories, songs, and crafts. 10:30-11:30 a.m. May 12, 26 at CAS Nature Center at Milford Point, 1 Milford Point Rd., Milford. $10 CAS members, $15 non-members. 203-8787440, ctaudubon.org.

LECTURES In a lecture entitled “Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist,” Michael J. Fox discusses his battle with Parkinson’s disease and how he has become a happier, more satisfied person by recognizing the gifts of everyday life. 7:30 p.m. May 13 at Lyman Center, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent St., New Haven. $25 ($20 SCSU faculty/staff, $10 SCSU students). 203-392-6154, southernct. edu/lymancenter.

MIND, BODY & SOUL The Women’s Center for Breast Health at the Hospital of St. Raphael hosts guest speaker Nancy M. Cappello, a breast cancer survivor and founder and president of Are You Dense?, an organization that focuses on the challenge of cancer detection in women with dense breast tissue. Also, Q&A session with HSR Breast Center physicians and other providers. 5-8 p.m.

May 5 at Cronin Auditorium, 1450 Chapel St., New Haven.

Led by Nelie Doak, Yoga promotes a deep sense of physical, mental and emotional well-being. 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.

Invasion of the Bloodsuckers: Bedbugs & Beyond. How do you identify bedbugs, lice, mosquitoes, fleas and other bloodsucking arthropods? This family-friendly multimedia display will include interactives, giant models, preserved and living specimens, film footage of blood feeding and signage that explores where and how they live.

Visitors will learn about the complex evolution of their mouthparts that enables blood feeding and how these organisms differ from other household pests. Large-scale photos and specimens will compare and contrast them with common lookalikes such as spiders, mites, beetles, millipedes and silverfish. May 28-January 28, 2012 at Yale Peabody Museum, 170 Whitney Ave., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, noon-5 p.m. Sun. $9 ($8 seniors, $5 children). 203-432-5050, peabody. yale.edu.

National Geographic Crittercam: The World Through Animal Eyes is a 6,000-square-foot traveling exhibition developed by the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C. Crittercam is a scientific videoand data-gathering tool safely worn by wild animals, offering researchers insights into animal behavior and clues to protecting animals and the world we share. The exhibit — which includes interactive displays, firsthand footage and evocative environments — focuses on Crittercam’s deployment on seals and sea lions, sharks, sea turtles, whales, penguins, bears and lions. Through November 30 at Mystic Aquarium, 55 Coogan Blvd., Mystic. Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. $26 ($23 seniors, $19 children). 860-572-5955, mysticaquarium. org.

SPORTS/RECREATION Cycling The Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride is an 8.58-mile route from West Rock to East Rock — flat, safe and fun for all ages. (There’s also an alternate 22.6-mile route that extends north to Sleeping Giant State Park.) Best of all, it’s for a good cause: Proceeds will benefit a consortium of environmental organizations that work together to get New Haven kids out into the natural world. 10:30 a.m. April 30 at (start line) Common Ground, 358 Springside Ave., New Haven. $25 advance, $30 race day adults; $15 children. 203-389-4333, ext.

1214, rocktorock.org.

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

Cyclists leave at 10 a.m. from Lulu’s European Café as a single group; no one is dropped. 10 a.m. Sundays 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 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 at Lulu’s European Café, 49 Cottage St., New Haven. Free. 203773-9288, paulproulx@sbcglobal.net, elmcitycycling.org.

Tuesday Night Canal Rides. Mediumpaced rides up the Farmington Canal into New Haven. May split into two groups based on riders’ speed but no one will be left behind to ride alone.

Lights are essential. 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays at Café Romeo, 534 Orange St., New Haven. Free. william.v.kurtz@gmail. com.

Elm City Cycling monthly meeting occurs on the second Monday. ECC is a non-profit organization of cycling advocates who meet to discuss biking issues in New Haven. Dedicated to making New Haven friendlier and more accessible to cyclists and pedestrians.

7 p.m. May 9 at City Hall Meeting Rm. 2, 165 Church St., New Haven. Free. elmcitycycling.org.

Hiking Join the Sleeping Giant Park Association for a Spring Wildflower Hike that will last about three hours and involve traveling over uneven, rocky terrain, possibly with some rock scrambling. No pets. 1:30 p.m. May 8 at Sleeping Giant State Park (meet at kiosk at park entrance), Mt. Carmel Ave., Hamden. Free. sgpa.org.

The Sleeping Giant Park Association invites you to an Introduction to Hiking in the Giant Hike. Learn about the park’s many hiking trails, how to navigate in the park, and clothing and equipment that is needed for safe and enjoyable hiking. No pets. 1:30 p.m.

May 15 at Sleeping Giant State Park (meet at kiosk at park entrance), Mt. Carmel Ave., Hamden. Free. sgpa.org.

Road Races/Triathlons Celebrate Mother’s Day with Milford Hospital’s Live Well 5K Run/ Walk. Proceeds support education/ prevention programs in Milford schools. 8:45 a.m. (walk) 9 a.m. (run) May 8 at Milford Hospital, 300 Seaside Ave., Milford. $20 advance, $25 race day. msrunningproductions@yahoo.com.

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ART CREATING ART Intergenerational Sculpture Workshop with Sue Chism. Create still-life sculptures from natural objects.

Models will be marine life from the shores of Long Island Sound, as well as natural specimens from the meadows and woods of Connecticut. Students will work with soft, self-hardening clay and will be able to take their work home that day. All ages and levels welcome. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. May 14 at Lyme Art Association, 90 Lyme St., Old Lyme. $100 members advance, $125 others. 860434-7802, lymeartassociation.org.

Stapleton Kearns leads a workshop on New England-Style Plein Air Painting.

The will also discuss the business side of painting, as well as perform a seascape demonstration. (All media welcome, though emphasis will be on oils.) 9 a.m.-4 p.m. May 21-22 at Lyme Art Association, 90 Lyme St., Old Lyme. $260 members; $310 non-members. 860434-7802, lymeartassociation.org.

Pressed Seaweed Art Workshop with Lisabeth Billingsley Learn how to create art with an unusual medium.

Pressed seaweed in every shade of brown, bright green, red, orange, even camouflage will be supplied as well as watercolors, acrylics, interference paint, pastels, markers, tissue paper and more. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. May 21 at the Guilford Arts Center, 411 Church St., Guilford. $54 members, $60 others ($10 materials fee). 203-453-5947, guilfordartcenter.org Beyond the Eye: Advanced Camera Practice encompasses any type of advanced digital camera and lenses including night photography, stopaction photography, composition and lighting, basic portrait lighting and more. Students need to bring a camera with fresh or fully charged batteries and battery charger, instruction book, lenses, tripod and flash. 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Mondays May 2-30 at the Guilford Arts Center, 411 Church St., Guilford. $108 members, $120 others. 203-4535947, guilfordartcenter.org.

EXHIBITIONS Opening High/Line. New work by Jane Harris and Sheila Kaczmarek featuring silk aquatint prints and sculptures. April 28-May 29 (artists reception 2-5 p.m. May 24) at City Gallery, 994 State St., New Haven. Open noon-4 p.m. Thurs.-Sun. or by appt. Free. 203-782-2489, city-gallery. org.

The Madison Art Society presents its 36th annual Juried Exhibition and Sale. More than 300 works of art by Connecticut artists were expected to be juried, with up to 100 chosen

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Robert Francis Sheehan’s Cars in a Wrecker’s Yard (1950, printed 1986, cibachrome color photographic print) from the Ellen G. D’Oench Collection on view at Wesleyan’s Davison Gallery. for this exhibition. Juror is artist and lecturer Jerry Caron, former member of Lyme College of Fine Arts, where he served as faculty advisor to the board of trustees and dean of students. May 2-27 (reception and awards 5-7 p.m. May 6; watercolor demonstration 1:30 p.m.

May 15; poetry reading 7 p.m. May 18) at Scranton Library, 801 Boston Post Rd., Madison. Open 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Wed., 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Thurs.-Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Sat., 1-4 p.m. Sun. Free. 203- 245-7365, scrantonlibrary.org.

The Fine Line Art Gallery hosts its annual Spring Show featuring newest creations by award-winning local and regional artists. Media include oil, watercolor, acrylic and pastel paintings, as well as prints, photography, pottery and jewelry. May 6-8 at Fine Line Art Gallery, 319 Main St. South, Woodbury.

Open noon-5 p.m. Fri., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Sat., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-2660110, finelineartgallery-connecticut.com.

Meet the Artists & Artisans is an annual art show held on the Milford Green. Painters, sculptors, craftspeople, photographers and musicians from all over the country present their newest work. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. May 7-8 on the Milford Green, High at Broad Sts., Milford. Free. 203-874-5672, meettheartistsandartisans.com.

Vincent Giarrano: New York City Street Scenes is a one-man exhibition of oil paintings. May 13-June 18 (artists reception 5 p.m. May 13) at Susan Powell Fine Art Gallery, 679 Boston Post Rd., Madison. Open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, noon-5 p.m. Sat., noon-3 p.m. Sun. Free.

203-318-0616, susanpowellfineart.com.

Artists have rendered the human figure since the beginning of time, the first instances in chalk on cave walls. A new exhibition by Joe Adolphe and

Rod Cook highlights contemporary iterations of the figure in paint and photography. May 19-June 19 (artists reception 3-6 p.m. May 22) at Kehler Liddell Gallery, 873 Whalley Ave., New Haven. Open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Thurs.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. weekends. Free. 203-3899555, kehlerliddell.com.

Seeing Seeing: Capturing a Moment is CAW’s annual juried show which highlights photography in 2011. Juried

by Felice Frankel, an internationally renowned science photographer.

May 20-June 24 (opening reception 5:30-7 p.m. May 20) at Creative Arts Workshop, 80 Audubon St., New Haven.

Open 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m.-noon Sat. Free. 203-562-4927, creativeartsworkshop.org.

Poser is a group exhibition of art works in all media that explore various notions of posing for an image, as it relates to artist, subject and/or viewer.

May 13-June 26 at the Mill Gallery, Guilford Art Center, 411 Church St., Guilford. Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. daily. Free.

203-453-5947, guilfordartcenter.org.

Continuing Into the Light of Things: Rebecca Salter, Works 1981-2010. Some 150 works by British abstract artist Rebecca Salter, who spent several years studying and working in Japan.

Encompasses paintings, drawings, prints, sketchbooks, sculptures and documentary material. This is the first solo museum exhibition for the artist, whose work has been showcased in international group shows and at commercial galleries. Through May 1 at the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat., noon-5 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-432-2800, ycba.yale.edu.

Birds of a Feather is a group show featuring oil, pastel, watercolor, collage, mixed media paintings and pottery in traditional to contemporary styles.

Through May 7 at Elm City Artists, 284 York St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Wed., 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thurs.Sat., noon-5 p.m. Sun. Free. 203-922-2359, 203-218-3832, elmcityartists.com.

The Milford Fine Arts Council’s Blues Exhibit is a collection of work by local artists focus on work primarily using the color blue, as well as work reflecting the mood and musical genre. All styles and media represented. Through May 12 at the Firehouse Art Gallery, 81 Naugatuck Ave., Milford. Open noon-5 p.m. Thurs.-Sun. Free. 203-206-0016, milfordarts.org.

The American Decorative Arts Furniture Study is a working library of American furniture and wooden objects, encompassing some 1,000 works from the YUAG collection. Weekly tours led by curators from the Department of American Decorative Arts. Noon-1 p.m.

Fridays through May 13 at Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven.

Free. 203-432-0600, agalleryinfo@yale. edurt.

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven, in partnership with students of Common Ground High School, presents Common Ground: What Matters Is the Dream, a multimedia exhibit of works focusing on sustainability. Through May 13 at Sumner McKnight Crosby Jr. Gallery, 70 Audubon St. (2nd floor), New Haven.

Free. 203-772-2788, newhavenarts.org/ programs.

Coruscations and Cotyledons.

Marjorie Wolfe’s collection of photographs highlighting architectural elements, plus Gar Waterman’s wood

sculptures inspired by cotyledons.

Through May 15 at the Kehler Liddell Gallery, 873 Whalley Ave., New Haven.

Open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Thurs.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat.-Sun. Free. 203-389-9555, kehlerliddell.com.

Garment Workers Labor History Historical Photography is a photography exhibition that paints a vivid portrait of the lives, victories and defeats of a courageous group of working people in the garment industry in New Haven in the early 20th century.

Produced for the Greater New Haven Labor History Association. Through May 18 at the New Haven Free Public Library Gallery, 133 Elm St., New Haven.

Open noon-8 p.m. Mon, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.

Tues.-Thurs., 1-5 p.m. Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Sun. Free. 203-946-8130, cityofnewhaven. com/library.

Collecting Photographs: Ellen G. D’Oench and the Growth of a Collection. Photography exhibition highlights D’Oench’s collection amassed during her tenure as curator of the Davidson Art Center. Works on view comprise more than half of all the photographs now in the collection — more than 4,000 of approximately 6,000. Through May 22 at the Davidson Art Center, 301 High St., Middletown.

Open noon-4 p.m. daily except Mon. Free.

860-685-3355, wesleyan.edu.

A Group Exhibition by Gallery Artists offers works by contemporary artists from the Connecticut shoreline as well as selected artists from elsewhere in the country. Oil, watercolor, print

media and sculpture. Through May 29 at the Sylvan Gallery, 121 West Main St., Clinton. Open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat., noon-4 p.m. Sun. Free. 860-669-7278, sylvangallery.com.

In its only North American venue, Regency Power and Brilliance showcases works by British portrait painter Thomas Lawrence. Organized jointly with London’s National Portrait Gallery, the exhibition features more than 50 portraits from collections around the world, including the Royal Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Palace of Versailles and Art Institute of Chicago, as well as works never been seen by the public. Through June 5 at Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat., noon-5 p.m.

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

Samuel F.B. Morse’s masterpiece Gallery of the Louvre, one of the most important American paintings of the early 19th century, is on view at YUAG, on loan from the Terra Foundation for American Art. Through June 12 at Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.Sat. (until 8 p.m. Thurs.), 1-6 p.m., Sun. Free. 203-432-0600, artgallery.yale.edu.

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven presents an exhibition of paintings

by Connecticut landscape artists Katie Kindilien & Lenny Moskowitz.

Kindilien works primarily in oil and gouache paints while Moskowitz works with acrylic and ink. Through June 12 at Gallery 195, NewAlliance Bank, 195

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Open 9 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays. Free. newhavenarts.org.

The exhibition James Prosek: Suriname (NHM, March/April 2011) draws on ďŹ eld notes and watercolors James Prosek made in the former Dutch colony of Suriname in late March and April 2010 as a member of a biological research and collecting expedition sponsored by Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History. Through June 24 at the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St., New Haven. Open 3-5 p.m., Mon.Wed. or by appt. Free. 203-432-0670, yale. edu/whc.

A collaboration among a team of students from Yale and the University of Maryland/College Park, Embodied: Black Identities in American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery features works that address, question and complicate the paradigms that have mapped meanings onto AfricanAmerican bodies throughout history.

The 54 works selected for the exhibition, representing YUAG’s commitment during the past decade to growing this area of the collection, include paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, prints, drawings and photographs. Through June 25 at Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tues.-Sat. (until 8 p.m. Thurs.), 1-6 p.m., Sun. Free. 203-432-0600, artgallery. yale.edu.

A decade ago, the Florence Griswold Museum received a gift from the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection &

Insurance Company of a collection of 190 American paintings, prints and sculptures from the 18th to 20th centuries. To commemorate the tenth anniversary of this gift, the Gris presents Inspiration and Impact: The Legacy of the Hartford Steam Boiler (HSB) Collection, which highlights the works from the original collection as well recent acquisitions that reect the museum’s focus on American art.

Through June 26 at the Florence Griswold Museum, 96 Lyme St, Old Lyme. 860434-5542, orencegriswoldmuseum.org.

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven presents See Inside, a highly collaborative art exhibition that gives incarcerated youth a chance to share their stories. Through June 30 at the Parachute Factory, Erector Square, 319 Peck St., Bldg. 1, New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Wed., noon-5 p.m. Thurs.-Fri. Free. 203-772-2788, newhavenarts.org.

Blessed: A Tribute to John Paul II featuring some of John Paul’s personal effects as well as mementos of his apostolic journeys to North America.

Exhibition will also include a selection of paintings by Italian artist Franceso Guadagnuolo (b. 1956) which were on exhibition at the Vatican as part of a 2010 symposium by the PontiďŹ cal Council for Health Care Ministry.

Through June 30 at the Knights of Columbus Museum. 1 State St., New Haven. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Free.

203-865-0400, kofcmuseum.org.

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MUSIC

WILLIAM ALWYN Naiades for flute and harp; BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor. 8 p.m. May 3 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. $15-$10 ($5 students). 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

Classical As part of Trinity Church’s Wendell H. Piehler Memorial Organ Series, international acclaimed virtuoso and recording artist Stephen Tharp presents a program that showcases both the awesome firepower and subtle colors of Trinity’s historic AeolianSkinner organ. 7 p.m. April 30 at Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven. $10.

203-776-2616, trinitynewhaven.org.

Dorothy & Nicholas Renouf perform music for piano four hands by Mozart, Schubert, Dvorak and Fauré on a grand piano made by Erard in Paris in 1883. 3 p.m. May 1 at Yale Collection of Musical Instruments, 15 Hillhouse Ave., New Haven. $20 ($10 students). 203-432-4158, music.yale.edu.

Liederabend is an evening of Italian art songs by Monteverdi, Donizetti, Mascagni, Verdi and others performed by the rising stars of Yale Opera. 8 p.m.

May 2 at Sprague Hall, 470 College St., New Haven. Free. 203-432-4158, music. yale.edu.

Award-winning performances from the Yale School of Music’s 2011 Chamber Music Competition. ANTHONY PLOG Mosaics for brass quintet; MOZART Divertimento in E-flat Major, K. 563;

$10 ($5 seniors & children). 203-624-5189, neighborhoodmusicschool.org.

The 125-year-old Trinity Choir of Men & Boys joins forces with its younger sibling, the Trinity Choir of Men & Girls, for a Spring Concert brimming with seasonal favorites both sacred and secular — and maybe even a few musical surprises as well. 4 p.m. May 8 at Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven. $10. 203-776-2616, trinitynewhaven.org.

The Yale Schola Cantorum perform J.S. Bach’s transcendent St. Matthew Passion with then ensemble Juilliard 415. 8 p.m. (pre-concert talk 7 p.m. in Presidents Room) May 6 at Woolsey Hall, 400 College St., New Haven. Free. 203432-4158, music.yale.edu.

The Glass Harp is made of 50 glasses of different sizes holding different amounts of water producing different pitches when played by carefully rubbing the rims with moistened fingers. Led by glass harpist Brien Engel, this program explores musical instruments made from everyday materials and related concepts of physics and sound. 2-3 p.m. May 7 at Omni-New Haven Hotel, 155 Temple St., New Haven. $15 ($12 seniors, $5 child).

203-865-0831, newhavensymphony.org.

Orchestra New England premiers a new work by Mark Kuss: Sounds.

Distant. Written for Chinese musicians Hsiao-Mei Ku (violin) and Jennifer Chang (guzheng), the work explores the challenges of community displacement resulting from the Three Gorges Dam project in China. Also, music of Schubert, Bartok, Ives, Elgar and Copland. 8 p.m. May 7 at Battell Chapel, 400 College St., New Haven. $35-$20 ($5 students). 800-595-4849, orchestranewengland.org.

The lines that Jane Harris uses in her silk aquatint prints meander like the streets of Brooklyn that are still her internal map.

Works by Harris and sculptor Sheila Kaczmareks are on view this month at City Gallery.

The Neighborhood Music School’s Greater New Haven Youth Ensembles present their joint Spring Concert. 2:30 p.m. (Greater New Haven Concert Orchestra, Greater New Haven Concert Band) & 4 p.m. (Greater New Haven Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Greater New Haven Youth Orchestra) May 8 at Battell Chapel, 400 College St., New Haven.

In celebration of Gustav Mahler’s 150th natal anniversary, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Music Director William Boughton stages a monumental performance of the composer’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor (“Resurrection”). With Teresa Eickel, soprano, and Annie Rosen, mezzo soprano. 7:30 p.m. May 12 at Woolsey Hall, 400 College St., New Haven. $65-$10. 203-432-4158, music. yale.edu.

The American Guild of Organists holds a recital and gala benefit reception Honoring Thomas Murray, the internationally renowned organist and Yale School of Music professor.

Proceeds benefit the AGO Endowment Fund, supporting education and outreach for organists and choral conductors. 4 p.m. May 15 at Woolsey Hall, 400 College St., New Haven. $100.

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

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Tribute Concert features music by Orchestra New England and Moxie.

5 p.m. May 29 at Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven. Free.

Reservations. 203-946-8200.

Embrace your inner dweeb by taking in a Nerds show on York Street. 8 p.m.

May 13 at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven. $15 ($12 advance). 203-6248623, toadsplace.com.

Popular In addition to its namesake drummer, the Tom Rainey Trio includes saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and guitarist Mary Halvorson. 8:30 & 10 p.m. May 6 at Firehouse 12, 45 Crown St., New Haven. $18-$12. 203-785-0468, firehouse12.com.

Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs.

Golightly has traversed many a mile since her days as a member of the lo-fi British all-girl garage rock group Thee Headcoatees. Since launching a solo career in 1995, she has graced the music world with more than 15 albums.

The English expatriate (who now lives on a farm in Georgia) performs with Lawyer Davetogether as the Brokeoffs, putting a fresh musical spin on dusty sepia-toned country roads and the spirits that travel them. 8 p.m. May 8 at Café Nine, 250 State St., New Haven. $10. 203-789-8281, cafénine.com.

The pride of Wichita Falls, Tex., Bowling for Soup comes to York Street.

Opening for them are irrepressible Cali pop tarts the Dollyrots. 8 p.m. May 11 at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven. $18 ($15 advance). 203-624-8623, toadsplace.com.

The Rob Brown Quartet features tenor man Brown and accomplices Matt

A Dutch treat: International jazz sensation alto saxophonist Candy Dulfer rocks SCSU’s Lyman Center in support of her most recent CD, Funked Up & Chilled Out. 8 p.m. May 14 at Lyman Center, Southern Connecticut State University, 501 Crescent St., New Haven. $32 ($28 SCSU faculty/staff, $16 SCSU students). 203-392-6154, southernct. edu/lymancenter.

Singer/songwriter Bari Koral crafts bouncy, tuneful pop-rock for the wee set.

She’ll be at the Woodbridge Library May 21.

Moran, vibraphone, Chris Lightcap, bass, and drummer Gerald Cleaver.

8:30 & 10 p.m. May 13 at Firehouse 12, 45 Crown St., New Haven. $18-$12. 203-7850468, firehouse12.com.

Riding high on the success of their acclaimed release, Gulag Tunes, Russia’s The Vivisectors fuse surf-rock, Soviet, gulag and Odessian melodies, and hit the bullseye. Local surf monsters the North Shore Troubadors open the festivities. 9 p.m. May 13 at

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For many years the lead singer and guitarist for the popular bluegrass group the Seldom Scene, Phil Rosenthal is a nationally renowned singer, songwriter, recording artist and record producer. The Connecticut native is also highly respected for his instrumental skills on banjo and mandolin. 7 p.m. May 20 at Café Nine, 250 State St., New Haven. $10. 203-7898281, cafénine.com.

Echo Echo Mirror House is the latest conceptual innovation in the five-decade career of composer, saxophonist and theorist Anthony Braxton. In this ensemble, all the musicians wield iPods in addition to their instruments, while navigating scores that combine cartography and evocative graphic notation, creating a musical tapestry combining live

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The U2 tribute band Unforgettable Fire rocks Daniel Street, with openers Ink. 10 p.m. May 20 at Daniel Street, 21 Daniel St., Milford. $10. 203-877-4446, danielstreetclub.com.

Children’s performer Bari Koral (New York Post: “Sheryl Crow for kids”) earned a 2010 Parent’s Choice Award for her family-friendly performances. 2 p.m. May 21 at Woodbridge Town Library, 10 Newton Rd., Woodbridge. Free. 203389-3439, woodbridge.lioninc.org.

End of the World Finale Show. What better way to spend your last hours on earth than at Café Nine with a performance by South Carolina country/punk duo Royal Tinfoil. Be there — rapture happens at midnight!

9 p.m. May 21 at Café Nine, 250 State St., New Haven. $7. 203-789-8281, cafénine.

You may be able to guess what sort of fare that The Beatles A to Z serve up. 6 p.m. May 22 at Daniel Street, 21 Daniel St., Milford. $10. 203-877-4446, danielstreetclub.com.

On their 2011 Uprising Tour, The Wailers make a stop in the Elm City. 9 p.m. June 2 at Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven. $25 ($20 advance). 203-6248623, toadsplace.com.

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by Bob Rich and James Maroney. 8 p.m. April 29-30 & May 6-7 at the High Plains Community Center, 525 Orange Center Rd., Orange. $20. 203-824-1335, orangeplayers.net.

ONSTAGE Playwrights Call for Submissions. Playmakers Spring Festival (June 3) seeks newly written plays that incorporate two of Wilderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trademarks: minimal stage sets and the use of a narrator.

Submission deadline May 15. Visit playmakersct.com/submissioninfo.htm or e-mail playmakerstheatrect@gmail. com.

Opening Julia Kiley (The Irish and How They Got That Way, Anything Goes) stars in the one-character play Shirley Valentine.

Written by Willy Russell, the play centers on an ordinary housewife who sets out on an extraordinary life-transforming journey. April 28May 22 at Seven Angels Theatre, 1 Plank Rd., Hamilton Park Pavilion, Waterbury. $33.50-$29. 203-757-4676, sevenangelstheatre.org.

The Odd Couple (Female Version) was written in 1985 by Neil Simon who revised his wildly popular The Odd Couple for a distaff cast. Presented by the Orange Players, it is directed by Tristan Robin Blakeman and produced

Tony award-winning musical Spring Awakening is about a group of late 19th-century German students who attempt to navigate teenage selfdiscovery and coming-of-age anxieties.

(Mature themes). 5 & 9 p.m. April 30 at the Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven. $75-$15. 203-562-5666, 800-228-6622, shubert.com.

Dead Manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cell Phone, a comedydrama by award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl, explores a womanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journey when she ďŹ nds herself in possession of a cell phone owned by a man who happens to be deceased.

Directed by Sheila Hickey Garvey. 8 p.m. May 3-6, 2 & 8 p.m. May 7 at the Kendall Drama Lab, Lyman Center for the Performing Arts, 501 Crescent St., New Haven. $10 ($5 seniors, students.

203-392-6100, southernct.edu/ lymancenter.

Candy Buckley, whose Broadway credits include Cabaret, After the Fall and Thoroughly Modern Millie, stars as Charlotte in the stage adaptation of the Ingmar Bergman ďŹ lm Autumn Sonata at the Yale Rep.

The Yale School of Drama presents The Carlotta Festival of New Plays featuring three new works by graduating playwrights. The Tall Girls (8 p.m. May 8, 11 & 14; 2 p.m. May 13), written by Meg Miroshnik and directed by Mike Donahue. Blacktop Sky (8 p.m. May 6, 10 & 13; 2 p.m. May 12), written by Christina Anderson and

Summer at Foote School Cory Grant (and his shoulders) play Ari Hoffman, a young Jewish boxer pulled between his faith and ring stardom, in Goodspeedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s production of Cutman: A Boxing Musical.

directed by Devin Brain, is inspired by the Greek myth â&#x20AC;&#x153;Leda and the Swan,â&#x20AC;? examining the intersection of love, violence and seduction. Penned

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Calendar

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May 2011

May 7 & 12; 2 p.m. May 11 & 14) is an examination of how we encounter the most traumatic events of our histories through museums, art and theater. May 6-14 at Iseman Theater,

Continued from 40

The New Haven Symphony Orchestra hosts its ďŹ rst-ever Run for the Music 5K Run/Walk to beneďŹ t NHSO education and community-engagement programs.

Course through scenic East Rock Park.

9 a.m. (kidsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; run 10 a.m.) May 15 at College Woods Pavilion, Orange & Cold Spring Sts., New Haven. $20 advance, $25 race day. 203-481-5933, jbsports.com.

The Cheshire Sea Dog Road Races include a 5K run/walk, 10K race, kids â&#x20AC;&#x153;doggie dashâ&#x20AC;? fun runs and bike events. Part of Cheshire Community YMCAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Healthy Living Expo. 8 a.m.-2 p.m. May 22 at Bartlem Park, 525 S. Main St., Cheshire. $20. cheshirehealthylivingexpo.org.

The whole family will enjoy the third annual Memorial Day 5K Freedom Run/2-Mile Fitness Walk/Kids Rock Hopper Run to beneďŹ t Oxford American Legion David S. Miles Post No. 174. 9 a.m. May 30 at Oxford Town Hall, 486 Oxford Rd., Oxford. $20 advance, $25 race day (veterans & military personnel free). 203-888-2543, ext. 3069.

Please send CALENDAR information to CALENDAR@conntact.com no later than six 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.

1156 Chapel St., New Haven. $13. 203-432-1234, drama. yale.edu.

Cutman: A Boxing Musical is the story of a young Jewish boxer pulled between his faith and ring stardom. Boasting a contemporary score, the production features music and lyrics by Drew Brody, book by Jared Michael Coseglia, with a story by Jared Michael Coseglia and Cory Grant. Directed by Jared Michael Coseglia. (Recommended for ages 13+).

May 12-June 5 at the Norma Terris Theatre, 33 North Main St., Chester. $45.50. 860-873-8668, goodspeed. org.

Legally Blonde: The Musical was adapted for the stage from the MGM film of the same name in which sorority star Elle Woods, an underestimated blonde who doesn’t take no for an answer, sets out to go where no Delta Nu has gone before: Harvard Law School. Along the way, Elle proves that being true to yourself never goes out of style. 8 p.m. May 13, 2 & 8 p.m. May 14, 1 & 6 p.m. May 15 at the Shubert Theater, 247 College St., New Haven. $75-$15. 203-562-5666, 800-228-6622, shubert.com.

The Tony Award-winning play Art is a witty portrait of modern art and old-fashioned friendships as three wealthy middle aged, longtime friends come to blows over the value of a very expensive work of art. Playwright Yasmina Reza is also the author of the Broadway hit, God of Carnage. May 13-28 at the Square One Theatre, 2422 Main St., Stratford. $20.

203-375-8778, squareonetheatre.com.

TheatreWorks U.S.A. presents The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, a musical based on C.S. Lewis’s enchanting adventure of four children transported to the fabled land of Narnia. 3 p.m. May 15 at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center, 300 Main St., Old Saybrook. $16 ($10 children). 877-503-1286, katharinehepburntheater.org.

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Continuing Alan Ayckbourn’s How the Other Half Loves is a famously acid comedy that follows the lives and loves, passions and panics of three married couples.

Through May 1 at the Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main St., Ivoryton. $40 ($35 seniors, $20 students, $15 12 & under). 860-767-7318, ivorytonplayhouse.org.

Director Robert Woodruff, whose Yale Rep credits include 2009’s Notes from Underground and last season’s Battle of Black and Dogs, returns with the U.S. premiere stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata. Through May 7 at the Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St., New Haven. $70-$35. 203-4321234, yalerep.org.

Huey Maximilian Bonfigliano has a problem: He’s still stuck on his ex-wife in Italian American Reconciliation, a light-hearted comedic turn by John Patrick Shanley, author of Moonstruck and directed

by Eric Ting. Through May 22 at the Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Dr., New Haven. $52-$42. 203787-4282, longwharf.org.

My One and Only, a tap-dance spectacular, brings the glamorous Roaring Twenties back to life. A classic Gershwin score including “’S Wonderful,” “Funny Face,” and “Kickin’ The Clouds Away.”

Directed by Ray Roderick, who also directed Double Trouble, Singin’ in the Rain and 42nd Street. Through June 25 at the Goodspeed Opera House, 6 Main St., East Haddam. $75.50-$31.50. 860-873-8668, goodspeed.org.

new haven

41

WORD S o f MO U TH

Photo: Carli Freeman

NEW EATS: Oaxaca Kitchen The kitchen opens strong with its first basket of tortilla chips, a throwaway at most Mexican restaurants. Instead of greasy wedges dumped out of a bag, these chips are rich with baked flavor and shatteringly crisp, perfectly complemented by two puréed salsas.

Both the fruity green and smoky chipotle salsa were beautifully balanced, although they could have benefited from some texture on the palate.

Fresh ingredients and precise proportions also elevate Oaxaca Kitchen’s margaritas far beyond the usual sour-mix swill.

Fresh lime juice and agave softened the drink’s bite and solid ice cubes that melted slowly prolonged the pleasure.

Mojitos with fresh mint and lime are also appealing, along with a margarita showcasing chipotle-infused tequila.

The spicy, smoky kick of Mexican chorizo sausage blended with meaty shrimp made an inspired filling for a taco appetizer, along with a less distinctive shredded fish version. But we couldn’t take our eyes off a neighbor’s giant cauldron of guacamole, made at a special open-air station with fresh avocados and fixings.

T

he months passed, the snow fell, and still New Haven diners waited: What would the mastermind behind a regional Indian food empire do with Mexican cuisine in New Haven?

Oaxaca Kitchen on College Street, initially slated to open in January, finally made its debut this April in time for balmy weather, and serious eaters now have another destination in downtown.

Prasad Chirnomula, owner of Thali and Thali Too in New Haven and a mini-chain of upscale Indian eateries in Fairfield, has brought his signature skill with spice, service and presentation to south-of-the-border fare.

Located in a former Ethiopian café, Oaxaca Kitchen boasts a light-filled

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May 2011

dining room up front with a warren of alcoves in back for a more intimate repast.

The décor features low-key Southwest touches such as punched-tin light fixtures, a braided-leather and copper bar and rustic tilework. Sophisticated design and servers quite a bit more glamorous than the New Haven average make for an elegant and upscale ambience, although I could have lived without the kitschy giant lizard on the wall by the bar.

But based on the eatery’s Restaurant Week menu, Chirnomula and his team are ready to go beyond clichés to elevate a cuisine often slighted in these parts.

Entrées featured a few touches reminiscent of Indian food: A foamy, herbal mole sauce enrobing free-range chicken wouldn’t be out of place at Thali, and the fresh peas adorning a scallop dish spoke more of Delhi than Durango.

Both added interest and spice to already top-notch dishes. Accompanying sides of rice and beans were intensely flavored if a bit on the small side.

We ended dinner with a fudgy flan tasting of brown sugar and cinnamon and a cheesecake with a ricotta-like texture and spectacular cookie garnish.

In all, Oaxaca Kitchen delights with its fresh take on Mexican standbys and its welcoming and skillful service.

Chirnomula’s done it again.

Oaxaca Kitchen, 228 College St., New Haven (203-859-5774).

EDITOR’S PICK: High Street Burger New Haven folk may have doubts about the steamed-burger concept, devoted as they are to Louis’ grilled masterworks and the oleaginous also-rans at Educated Burgher and Five Guys. Steamed burgers have their regional stronghold 20 miles north on I-91 in Meriden, thanks to the world-famous Ted’s.

But in search of a concept for a tiny storefront adjacent to the Yale campus, High Street Burger’s owners decided to bring the concept to the Elm City.

M

uch of the activity during a recent lunch rush at High Street Burger in New Haven was centered around a wonky-looking metal box a bit bigger than a toaster oven — the burger steamer.

Patties of ground beef went into the steamer and emerged a few minutes later as some of the best burgers in town.

At first, this burger aficionado — a fan of the local classics and California’s In-and-Out — was skeptical, especially after taking note of the shiny and cubist uncooked Strange patties brews: waiting

by Republic the box.

Cask proprietor Burns And no fries on the Christian menu? Sacrilege.

Fighting to keep an open mind, I ordered the classic cheeseburger ($4).

My selection arrived in a steamy plastic clamshell, opened to reveal a towering pile of beef and toppings, melted cheddar running down the sides of a fluffy bun. A bite of the patty revealed a welldone interior unappealing in color but succulent with lots of clean, beefy flavor.

Dripping down my hand was juice, not grease, and the cook’s expert slatherings of mayo and ketchup complemented the down-home flavor.

I’m now a steamed-burger believer: Who needs grill marks or grease stains?

A cheeseburger at High Street is filling on its own, but those yearning for spuds can try one of the affordable baked potatoes. Just keep it simple: A broccoli and cheese version ($3.50) suffered from the neon blandness of processed cheese spread. That’s one classic American food better left in the past. Sour cream and butter are a better option.

Shakes ($3.50) in flavors like Creamsickle and Cookies & Cream round out a diet-busting meal, along with creamy frozen custard ($2.50). A vanilla soft-serve was rich and flavorful, but its granular mouthfeel on a recent day might make Fro-Yo World across the street a better bet. As long as the focus is on the steamed patty, High Street Burger delivers an appealing alternative to the usual Elm City options. High Street Burger, 45 High St., New Haven (203-503-0717).

We’ve Moved 932 State St. (next to Humphrey St.) New Haven, CT 203.787.0227 Come see our new location.

Same great food & original cocktails.

Our meticulously composed small plates provide our guests with a premier dining experience while offering seasonal American selections in the heart of New Haven Our signature cocktails incorporate fresh fruits, herbs, house made infusions and modern cooking techniques all for the sake of deliciousness.

Our guests can also enjoy an extensive wine list with over 27 wines by the glass, specialty beers and a vast selection of spirits.

new haven

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Photo: Carli Freeman

JUST A TASTE: Augie’s

for he t

O

ne can spend years in greater New Haven and never have occasion to stop in Short Beach, Branford’s westernmost neighborhood bordering East Haven. But serious diners have been buzzing since last summer about Augie’s, a new restaurant in this upscale area.

5K Run & Walk Kids’ Run Family Activities Bands along course Entertainment on site All proceeds bene t the NHSO’s education and community engagement programs.

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May 2011

Chef John Accardi and his wife Jessica opened the eatery last June after years working in New York. “It was a really nice location,” Jessica Accardi says.

She sums up the restaurant’s philosophy as “adventurous,” with dishes like grilled sardines and baby octopus selling well to diners looking for something different.

You know you’re in for an unusual experience as soon as you start searching for parking near the eatery. Judging by the open curtains and late-night dog walkers, this is a not a neighborhood expecting outsiders or commercial traffic: Dinner at Augie’s is more like stopping in to visit a friend.

Upon walking in diners are greeted by a casual yet sophisticated space with lots of maple and gleaming metal and glass. A family feeling pervades the space, with multigenerational groups and couples with kids predominating on a recent night. It may not be the perfect setting for an intimate tête-à-tête, but you’ll feel welcomed and at home right away.

Fresh bread with a tiny ceramic crock of butter was an appetizing starter, along with a gin fizz picked off the cocktail menu. Refreshing but with a nice herbal kick, the drink may be my new regular quaff as beach season approaches.

Another well-executed classic, rack of lamb, was stunning, cooked to medium-rare and flavorful perfection.

Tender potatoes and generous portion of peeled asparagus made for a classic and brightly seasoned combination.

Summer arrived early with a dish of gnocchi with pesto, the rich sauce somehow capturing basil at its peak months

before it appears in local gardens. You won’t want gnocchi anywhere else after sampling the pillowy and delicate version at Augie’s.

An audaciously bittersweet chocolate pot-de-crème finished off our meal triumphantly despite its relatively Lilliputian portion size.

Some service glitches marred an otherwise enjoyable evening.

Our appetizer arrived late, and the lamb special’s price was not revealed until the check came, although it was markedly more expensive than most entrées on the menu.

Take heed local restaurants: It’s time to follow the big-city trend and announce prices with the specials menu to avoid this kind of unpleasant surprise.

But Augie’s still charmed with its combination of quirky, skillfully prepared food and homey atmosphere.

We’ll be stopping in Short Beach again before long.

Augie’s, 130 Shore Dr., Branford (203-315-8200).

Rawanda Continued from 19

so much and now my life was changing completely.â&#x20AC;?

While happy to be reunited with relatives, Ndamwizeye says he also realizes that his upbringing changed his views of the world. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My family is always saying Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m different from them. I feel there is so much more I want from life and so much, I want to share.â&#x20AC;?

From Bridgeport he moved to West Haven to attend Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, where he is a full-time student majoring in business administration, with a ďŹ nance concentration. At 21, dependent on scholarships and his own savings, he is also a full-time, ďŹ nancial services representative at TD Banknorth in New Haven.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a career and a recent promotion he says he enjoys. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Everybody has one thing in common â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ďŹ nances â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and I like meeting people to talk about it,â&#x20AC;? says Ndamwizeye.

Helping people is his new mantra. The assistance, however, goes beyond the ďŹ nancial realm, extending to the needs of orphans like himself. With the help of people who believe in him and his mission of help, Ndamwizeye has formed a foundation which allows him to travel and offer assistance to orphans. During SCSUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s winter break, he traveled to the earthquake ravaged city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti volunteering in a Child of Hope International orphanage. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been helped multiple times in my life,â&#x20AC;? says Ndamwizeye. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be here without that help. Now I need to help others. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m an orphan and can understand whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s it feels like as a child to lose the people you love and depend on. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Getting off the plane and seeing armed U.N. [United Nations] soldiers brought back

a lot of memories for me after the last six years of living here in peace,â&#x20AC;? he says.

He says he also saw the feelings of determination and survival in the orphan children he encountered that reminded him of his own experiences. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I, like them, was very determined to survive. I fought hard for it. I pushed back when people thought I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. I want to share with other orphans the need to reach within themselves and to let others help,â&#x20AC;? he says.

distinctive

He is also concerned about safety issues surrounding orphans. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I know how unsafe the world is for them, and how much they want to feel safe. I understand, and want to tell them, what they need to know to start trusting again. That loss of trust tears at them deep inside.â&#x20AC;?

To raise money for his Daniel Trust Foundation, he has launched a line of T-shirts.

His partner is another SCSU junior business major, Vani Petit Frere.

Today Ndamwizeye is working with a group of supporters to seek grant funding to have the foundation help orphans in need around the world.

He also has a side career as an inspirational speaker, which has to date been limited by his work schedule and SCSU classes, but which he hopes to bring to larger public audiences in the future. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have a message to share about what happened to me and how we can all overcome obstacles.â&#x20AC;?

While Ndamwizeye continues to celebrate his new life, he is also proudly boasting of another important accomplishment: becoming a U.S. citizen. â&#x20AC;&#x153;To know I belong here, and am like everyone else, free, is everything to me,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I am grateful for all America has done for me, and the opportunities I have had to become a better person who wants to help others.â&#x20AC;? Y

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45

PHOTOGRAPH: FRANK GALLO

The Coast Is Clearly Teeming

By SUSAN E. CORNELL

Family canoe cruises are among the Coastal Center’s most popular offerings.

T

he Coastal Center at Milford Point can be found on an 8.4-acre barrier beach, the Smith-Hubbell Wildlife Refuge & Bird Sanctuary. Located at the mouth of the Housatonic River next to the Charles Wheeler Salt Marsh & Wildlife Management Area, the Coastal Center is one of a half-dozen Connecticut Audubon Society nature centers.

“Our focus is education. Our motto is ‘to promote awareness of the Long Island Sound ecosystem and to foster its preservation,’” explains manager Louise Crocco.

The Coastal Center provides unique access to tide pools, coastal dunes, sand marshes and sandy beaches. It also hosts educational exhibits and live animals.

“We have thousands of schoolchildren come for our educational programs each year,” Crocco says. “We also bring our programs into the classroom. We have extremely popular summer science camps.

We do science birthday parties. We do programs for Girl and Boy Scouts that enable them to earn their [merit] badges.

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May 2011

We have evening lecture series and family programs on the weekends. We also offer naturalist-led canoe tours of the 840-acre Charles E. Wheeler salt marsh that we are situated on.”

tours are very different as the seasons change — different birds, different views.

The grass gets very high in summer, so you feel like you’re canoeing through a tunnel of grass.”

Known as one of the best spots on the East Coast for bird-watching, the Coastal Center has not only nesting platforms for ospreys that return year after year, but also a camera spying on them that can be viewed on a TV screen in the building as well as on the center’s website (ctaudubon. org/visit/milford.htm). Some 315 species of birds have been spotted from the property.

On the center grounds one finds the adjoining eight-acre Smith-Hubbell Wildlife Refuge & Bird Sanctuary, a boardwalk and observation platform with interpretive signage, and a covered observation tower affording panoramic vistas. The center itself features a salt marsh lab funded by the Long Island Sound License Plate Fund office, educational exhibits and a tide-pool demonstration tank.

Family canoe programs are popular.

Explains Director Frank Gallo: “We take a two-and-a-half-hour or so natural history tour of the marsh. We stop periodically to talk about the history of the Wheeler Marsh and about the wildlife and plant life to be found. It’s a lovely tour — quite scenic and surprisingly quiet. You can’t even hear the car noise from I-95 less than one and a half miles away.

“People really enjoy the tours and come back for repeat trips,” Gallo adds. “The

The Coastal Center opened in the fall of 1995. There are only three paid staff members, but many volunteers.

Located at 1 Milford Point Rd., Milford, the Coastal Center is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily except Monday, and noon to 4 p.m.

Sundays. The grounds are open from dawn to dusk daily. Admission is by donation.

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