“Our materials are for the whole community,” Henry Dutcher, the Director of the Enfield Public Library, announced on Monday evening.
Last January, an Enfield resident complained about how the town library was planning to screen Sicko. Instead of simply opting to not view the film, he took the complaint to a council meeting. With unprecedented speed, politicians pressured the library to cancel. After gaining a reputation for being backwards, Sicko was permitted to be shown in Enfield last February. Dutcher reminded the crowd at the Hartford Public Library that the materials in public libraries are not just for “one, two, or a dozen individuals”; they are for everyone.
During Monday’s “Beware of the Book” program, five people read passages from banned books, one commented on the frequently banned (and censored) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Dutcher spoke at length about the choice to show Sicko. This event was moderated by Colin McEnroe and was introduced by Andrew Schneider, Executive Director of the ACLU of Connecticut.
Councilperson Luis Cotto read a passage from Bless Me, Ultima, a coming-of-age story that many have found controversial for religious reasons. Susan Schoenberger, author of A Watershed Year, read from Ulysses. Schoenberger said that as a writer, she admires Joyce’s unwillingness to self-censor. For those familiar with Joyce, the attempt to ban his work might seem unnecessary, as it is so inaccessible to most readers that the majority would give up before even being able to decipher to “objectionable” passages. Dennis House read from The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, which he described as “crass” and filled with bad spelling; a grandmother in California pushed to have the potty-humor book pulled from her local public library. Continue reading 'Freedom to Read Celebration'»
The following is not intended to be an all-inclusive list. Rather, these are my snobbish selections of what sounds most interesting in the upcoming month. Also, to mark the ten years since September 11, 2001, there will be numerous events, re-broadcasts, etc. For this calendar, I am only including those that appear to promise not to pander to reactionaries, nor foster chauvinism.
Art After Hours: Escape to India. The Wadsworth Atheneum’s monthly party will feature Indian cuisine, dancing, henna body painting, and a fashion show by Sadhna’s, a downtown clothing boutique. The event begins at 5pm and concludes after the screening of Monsoon Wedding.
The Art of Carlos Hernandez-Chavez: “I am My Mother.” The opening reception will be from 5-8pm at the Pump House Gallery, located at 60 Elm Street at the edge of Bushnell Park. This collection of work by “Hartford visual artist, muralist, photographer, musician, arts educator and activist Carlos Hernandez-Chavez” will be on display through September 29th. Continue reading 'Happening(s) in September'»
Of the productions being filmed in Hartford these days, Royal Comics is the first to have nerd appeal.
Royal Comics is a homegrown web series written and directed by Helder Mira, who is a long-time city resident, currently living in the Asylum Hill neighborhood.
The series’ pilot will be premiering in September.
Mira says the original idea for Royal Comics began in 2002 “when some friends,” he says, “had an idea to do a sitcom for public access television.”
These are just a select few of the events going on through the remainder of July:
Tonight
Beach Block Party at the Wadsworth Atheneum will feature summer fashions and the film Soul Surfer. Begins at 5pm; film at 8.
July 8th
Hot Rhymes, Spicy Flows: HartBeat Ensemble’s BBQ & Poetry Feast in the Hollander Building on Asylum (enter on High Street). There will be vegetarian bbq available from 6:30-7:30. The show starts at 8 and goes until 10pm. Continue reading 'July Events'»
The Guerrilla Girls‘ work might never be done. The activist group — which is featured in the film !Women Art Revolution — began in the 1980s after observing that an exhibit intended to highlight all of the major contemporary artworks actually excluded women; 13 of the 169 artists in this exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York were women. In 2007 — two decades after the Guerrilla Girls began their work — they created a poster which counters the commonly held belief that everything is copacetic today. On it are the names of several major museums which, at the time, favored work by male and white artists. The National Gallery of Art was described as displaying work by men 98% of the time, and work by white artists 99.9% of the time!
!Women Art Revolution provides footage of female artists since the 1960s.
The film opens this Friday at Real Art Ways and runs through June 30th.
The Connecticut Gay & Lesbian Film Festival begins on Thursday, May 26th and runs through June 4th. Screenings will happen at Cinestudio on the Trinity College campus. Individual tickets are $9; discounted passes are also available for three shows and the entire festival. On June 3rd, you can check out GAZE at Real Art Ways from 5:30-8:30. This is a free gay happy hour, which fits neatly into the film festival schedule. You must be thinking, “Isn’t Pride during June as well?” Traditionally, June has been the time for gay rights celebrations and actions because of the Stonewall riots. While the major events in New York and San Francisco remain scheduled for June, the local “rally,” which has mainly been an apolitical festival in recent years, is moving to September. Maybe there will be fewer sunburns.
Anyway, you’ll have to be a decider on June 4th, or be ready to do a lot of event-hoppin’. From 5-7pm you have the chance to donate to the St. Genevieve School in Haiti and have a dinner of Haitian cuisine. The Taste of Haiti fundraiser will be held at the Franciscan Center for Urban Ministry. After getting your fill of Caribbean food, you can take a ten minute walk north to the Fr. Thomas Geokler Social Justice Fundraiser, which will be held at Sacred Heart Parish on Winthrop Street from 5-8pm. The pasta dinner (suggested donation of ten bucks) will be followed by a presentation about how to support the Youth Ministry.
There will be a fundraiser for the Hartford Jazz Society from 6-10pm at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church. How does one raise funds for jazz? With jazz. There is a suggested donation of $25, but they say that nobody will be turned away for lack of funds. From 7-9pm there will be a tribute to James Brown at the Riverfront Plaza. And,from 7-11 pm at St. James Episcopal Church in West Hartford, there will be a dance party fundraiser for Hartford Catholic Worker, which is a Catholic community in the North East neighborhood dedicated to “nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the homeless, exiled, hungry, and forsaken.” If you feel bored on June 4th, you might just be a boring person!
You can see what the mayoral candidates have to say for themselves on June 8th at the Hartford Public Library. This goes from 5:30-7:30pm, with refreshments available during that first half hour.
You can help the CT Science Center celebrate its second birthday at the Liquid Lounge on June 10th. This party from 6-10pm is for adults 21+ only. Do you know what that means? No guilt for elbowing some defenseless child out of the way so that you can play Mindball.
February's Liquid Lounge at the Connecticut Science Center
Last Saturday, about 25 people took part in a free walking tour through parts of the Frog Hollow neighborhood. The purpose of this was mainly to highlight the remainder of the Lyric Theater, but also to show some of the other interesting historical and cultural aspects of the area. For those who missed it, here’s how it went.
The group met up at La Paloma Sabanera and headed up Babcock Street to the Park Branch of the Hartford Public Library.
One of the ways people find their way to this blog is by searching for things like “best neighborhood” and “what is it like it Frog Hollow.” While I appreciate the blog traffic, there’s no better way to find out about a place than to actually visit. Consider yourself cordially invited to check out the Frog Hollow neighborhood on Saturday, May 14th.
On this walking tour, you’ll get to look at artwork, visit the site of the old Lyric Theater, and watch one of the films that played there:
Still from David Wojnarowicz, A Fire in My Belly, video, 1987.
Trends from the 1980’s have made a resurgence in the last few years, nearly all of which have been unfortunate: tight jeans, legwarmers, huge sunglasses, neon colors, cocaine, and now, censorship of art.
According to “U.S. Representative John Boehner Is Now a Curator,” the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery needs a backbone replacement, evidenced in its recent removal of A Fire in My Belly, a piece of video art by David Wojnarowicz. In response to this utter nonsense, Real Art Ways is currently showing the work in its gallery.
“The Smithsonian has given in to anti-gay bullies,” says Real Art Ways director Will K. Wilkins. “We are presenting this video to enable people to make up their own minds about the work, and about the incident. David Wojnarowicz can’t be here to speak up for himself, but his work has a power, rage and sorrow that is soulful and unforgettable. We are proud to again present his art.”
Real Art Ways is located at 56 Arbor Street in Hartford. The gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday, 2-10 PM; Friday and Saturday 2 PM-11 PM. They are closed on Mondays. Admission to the gallery is free, but donations are accepted.
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“Our materials are for the whole community,” Henry Dutcher, the Director of the Enfield Public Library, announced on Monday evening.
The following is not intended to be an all-inclusive list. Rather, these are my snobbish selections of what sounds most interesting in the upcoming month. Also, to mark the ten years since September 11, 2001, there will be numerous events, re-broadcasts, etc. For this calendar, I am only including those that appear to promise not to pander to reactionaries, nor foster chauvinism.
Of the productions being filmed in Hartford these days, 
