Comments (0)

By Kerri Provost, February 1, 2012 7:23 pm

Stokely Carmichael / Still from The Black Power Mixtape

A series of politically-themed films will be presented at Cinestudio this Spring.

The series begins Thursday night (2 Feb 2012) at 7:30 with a screening of the 2008 German film The Wave.  Professor Johannes Evelein will lead the discussion that follows. The Wave (Die Welle) is about how a high school teacher teaches his students about dictatorships by starting a social experiment.

The Black Power Mix-Tape, scheduled for February 9th, was screened at Real Art Ways last year.The film is divided into segments, one for each of the years between 1967-1975 when footage was taken. This includes archival footage of Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, and Bobby Seale. Seth Markle, Professor of History and International Studies at Trinity College, will lead the discussion afterwards. Continue reading 'Free Admission to Democracy in Film Series at Cinestudio'»

Comments (18)

By Kerri Provost, January 26, 2012 10:36 am

Yesterday James Jones, the President of Trinity College, sent a message directed at Trinity students, staff, faculty, and parents, and potentially, to Hartford residents.

While careful to say Trinity does not want to cut itself off from the community, administrators described how the college may add cameras, fencing and police to the periphery, along with potential changes to the landscape:

January 25, 2012

Dear Trinity Students, Faculty, Staff, and Parents,

We write to update you on our efforts to improve campus safety at Trinity. As mentioned in our previous message to the campus community, we want to be deliberate in our efforts to make changes that are effective and lasting. We have visited other campuses in the Bronx, Boston, New Haven, and Bridgeport to examine best practices at other urban institutions. We have met with private security consultants and will, as mentioned in our previous email, host a visiting team of campus safety professionals who will do an external review of our staffing, protocols, training programs, and allocation of resources. We have also heard many constructive ideas from students, staff, and parents. While we want to make sure we factor in all the expert advice we can get, it is increasingly evident that we need to make some critical changes.

Back in December we told you that we would increase the number of officers on patrol and improve lighting. Under the leadership of Director Charles Morris, the Campus Safety staff has organized a tactical patrol of five additional officers during the hours of 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. who will focus on the periphery of campus in the areas of Summit Street, Crescent Street, and College property on Allen Place. We will be hiring five additional officers to permanently staff this team and rely on overtime until we are able to hire additional officers. We have, working with students from the Campus Climate Council, identified several areas on campus where we are adding new lighting and we have replaced or upgraded 275 lights across campus. We have also put in place an auditing program to ensure prompt repair when a light is not working. These efforts will increase the visibility of our Campus Safety patrols and provide better and more lighting. But we realize these efforts alone are not sufficient to make our community feel as safe as we would like.

We have received a formal proposal from the SGA and have heard from some faculty and staff and numerous parents and students that we need to do more to monitor access to the campus at certain times of the day. We have no intention of withdrawing our welcome to the local community to enjoy the benefits we extend to them, but we need to do more to discourage criminal activity that undermines safety and creates resentment and fear instead of appreciation for the assets of Hartford. At its meeting last week, the Board of Trustees authorized us to explore strategies for how we can do more to manage the routes of access to the campus. We are in the process of selecting a security consulting firm to help us determine the feasibility of such a plan. It would most likely require some additional fencing, landscaping, and cameras in critical areas and could mean providing internal access to some of the parking areas on the periphery of campus that are currently accessed from the city streets to allow for controlled access.

We want to hear from the campus community as we develop our plans. We also want to assure you that we have no intention of separating ourselves from Hartford and diminishing the mutually beneficial relationship we have with our neighborhood and the city. That is a relationship we want to see grow. Our focus remains on providing the highest level of safety and security for all members of our campus community.

We will write again to update you on our planning process as soon as we have the recommendations of the consultant and our visiting team. In the meantime we wish all of you the best for the new semester.

Very truly yours,

James F. Jones, Jr.

President and Trinity College

Professor in the Humanities

Frederick Alford

Dean of Students

None of the added safety measures address the most common types of crimes that occur on college campuses, which involve students violating the rights of other students, nor does it address how students are violating their own safety through binge drinking. Continue reading 'More Safety Measures at Trinity Fortress'»

Comments (17)

By Kerri Provost, January 11, 2012 2:55 pm

rendering courtesy of iQuilt

As barrels of trash heaved into the pond in Bushnell Park remain there for nearly a week and as the water feature in the playground nearby continues to be broken for years on end, residents and stakeholders were presented with the iQuilt’s dream plan of bring flowing water through the park.

Using identity strategy and enculturation to rally support, those leading this project dismissed skeptics as lacking vision. As much was said twice yesterday at a mini-presentation during a Rising Star Breakfast and in the evening before the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. The presentation included codewords,  as several supporters described selves as “believers” and even went so far as to say that bring flowing water back into the park would be good for our “souls.”

The presentation included visual appeals to nostalgia and romance. The lovely, verdant design renderings seduced the participant into imagining a pristine urban paradise in which those seeking recreation can choose to wade across a 50-100 foot wide brook, meander through pop up studios and greenhouses, or linger on any of the nine bridges that would be added to Bushnell Park.

Urban design presentations, as a whole, dazzle those from whom they want support, but fail to provide real answers that concerned residents have about what is slated to happen in our backyards.

Prior to the presentation, Real Hartford readers submitted questions they had about this project, which are marked in bold and are direct quotes, unless noted otherwise.

Who is doing the planning?

The iQuilt, in the works for several years now, is described as a “culture based urban design plan for Downtown Hartford.”

The iQuilt is a private/public partnership which receives support from various institutions including the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, Bushnell Park Foundation, CIGNA, City of Hartford, State of Connecticut, MDC, Riverfront Recapture, Connecticut Light & Power, Northeast Utilities, Travelers, and United Illuminating. Suisman Urban Design has been leading the iQuilt design team. A 501(c)3 was formed recently. Continue reading 'iQuilt: Dotting i’s'»

Comments (0)

By Kerri Provost, January 9, 2012 8:52 pm

Although City Council took its first official action of 2012 last week, Monday evening was its first regular (read: not accompanied by ceremony) meeting.

The public comment session showed two prevailing issues on residents’ and stakeholders’ minds: housing and employment. Continue reading 'On Residents’ Minds'»

Comments (0)

By Kerri Provost, December 8, 2011 9:03 am

With eyes closed, a circle of about sixty people were asked to visualize a street they were familiar with– what it looks like now and what this community could look like. Shawn Sweeney, of Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots program, asked participants to think about whether or not there was litter, if there was a grocery store in walking distance, and if they could safely walk to that store.

This is an exercise similar to the creative visualizations that Sweeney leads for youth in the Roots & Shoots program. For that group, he then takes it further, having them draw onto a map the things that they believe would make their communities more ideal.

Sweeney shared this as part of the “Creativity, Social Change and You” event held Wednesday night at Billings Forge. Other guest speakers included Chris Doucot from Hartford Catholic Worker, LaResse Harvey of A Better Way Foundation, Magdalena Gómez, a performance poet out of Springfield, and Joe Miguez, with the Labyrinth Experience.

The purpose? To inspire. Continue reading 'Creativity, Social Change and You'»

Comments (0)

By Kerri Provost, December 2, 2011 4:38 pm

Artists of all ages and levels who live in Hartford or Middlesex County will be competing for a total of $2,400 in prize money.

The Community Renewal Team is inviting artists to submit any type of visual art that they have created within the past three years. They explain that, “first, second and third prizes will be awarded in each of the adult categories of Amateur, Intermediate and Professional. First prizes are worth $300, second prizes are $200 and third prizes are $100 each. First, second and third prizes also will be awarded in Youth (12 and under) and Teen (13-18) categories. First prize is $75, second is $50 and third is $25. An overall best of show prize of $300 also will be awarded. Each artist will receive a Certificate of Participation in the National Arts Program.” Continue reading 'Competition for Local Artists'»

Comments (7)

By Kerri Provost, December 1, 2011 9:10 am

One critique of the Occupy Hartford movement has been that a number of uninformed activists — new to the area or to activism in general — attempted to reinvent the wheel; instead of immediately reaching out to other organizations in the spirit of solidarity, or simply to learn the ins and outs of local community organizing, it took weeks of nagging by residents and several changes in the make up of the core group before Occupy Hartford began to reach beyond the muddy patch at the corner of Broad and Farmington.

Meanwhile, the movement has lit a fire beneath long-term area activists, many of whom have been involved in Occupy Hartford to some capacity, including some who left it in disgust.

Tonight at 6pm there will be a “meeting of Hartford grassroots groups or groups that are doing work in Hartford.” Organizers describe it as an “opportunity to listen and learn from each other and to see how we can all work together. ”

This will be happening in the Hartford Areas Rally Together (HART) office at 385 Washington Street.

But the anti-union sentiment that has popped up in the few months of Occupy Hartford — some are concerned that “the unions and Democrats” have tried to “co-opt” the OWS movement — raises questions about with which types of groups the Occupiers would be willing to build alliances. Continue reading 'Beyond Occupy: What is and what could be'»

Comments (0)

By Kerri Provost, November 29, 2011 8:32 pm

“We’ve become complacent” about AIDS, a community member said during Tuesday’s World AIDS Day forum in the Hartford Public Library.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, she said, society talked about AIDS. Now, not so much. She called for the need to have conversations in places like barbershops. grocery stores, and in Spanish; then, she passed her microphone to another audience member, who delivered comments in Spanish.

This sentiment was echoed by panelists. One of them, Yvette Highsmith-Francis, the Director of Community Health Center, Inc., said we should be having these dialogues at Thanksgiving dinner and when having pedicures.

Even in 2011, misinformation about the transmission of HIV exists. Highsmith-Francis told the audience about an encounter with a woman in her forties who believed she could “catch AIDS” from hugging someone. Continue reading '“Getting to Zero” Community Forum on HIV/AIDS'»

Comments (9)

By Kerri Provost, November 28, 2011 7:00 am

Making 'Of Lamb' on display at Real Art Ways through December 11th

December tends to be a whirlwind of activity, between festive events, office parties, and the gatherings for family and friends. Here are just a few of December’s open-to-the-public highlights:

December 1, 2011

December 1st is World AIDS Day, which means it is also The Day With(out) Art. Real Art Ways will be participating by screening Untitled all day. This is free. While there, check out the “Making ‘Of Lamb’” exhibit.

In the evening, there is the opening reception for Andres Chaparro’s artwork at Theatreworks (233 Pearl Street) from 5-7:30pm. Continue reading 'Your Guide to December'»

Comments (3)

By Kerri Provost, November 22, 2011 10:27 am

Not unusual: people coming into Hartford with big ideas about what residents need and what will “save” us.

The Public Allies — an AmeriCorps program — promise that is not their mission. They insist that they are “not here to re-market Hartford.”

Young adults in the program work with a non-profit four days every week; each Public Allies “community” — Connecticut has ones in Hartford, Bridgeport, and New Haven — undertakes a service project each year.

This year, the group’s goal is to “strengthen community through figuring out assets and problems,” Al Riccio, one of the Allies on the “Greater Hartford Team”, told participants at the Hartford Public Library Monday evening during the Hartford Unity Community Conversation. In chatting with residents, the Public Allies identified that many residents feel “proud to be from the city,” but believe that there are negative perceptions of it due to the news media. He added that a lack of jobs, housing, and access to resources were other issues identified.

During the first of what Public Allies say will be several community conversations, residents were told that the Allies — several of whom are long-time Hartford residents — would be facilitating discussion, but not participating. Heads nodded as residents commented that these conversations need to be in the neighborhoods, not just Downtown. The library was named a “hub,” a natural place for civic discourse to take place, and there are library branches throughout the city.

Broken into small groups, residents and stakeholders named activities that could “create attention toward positive aspects.” In the brainstorm, two groups named the Walk the Frog tour as an example of an event that has highlighted the positive aspects of a neighborhood Continue reading 'Hartford Unity Community Conversation: “Empower People Already in Hartford”'»