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By Kerri Provost, January 30, 2012 6:06 pm

You could spend all winter working on growing out your leg hair while watching reruns of 30 Rock, but why? Here are some alternatives to that scenario: Continue reading 'February Events'»

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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'»

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By Kerri Provost, November 7, 2011 2:48 pm

Roksana Mun of DRUM

“We’re not asking you to speak for us. We can speak for ourselves,” said Jasmine Burnett of SisterSong and Trust Black Women.

In a time when progressive movements still lack diversity and many refuse to have meaningful conversations about privilege, such words are refreshing to hear.

Burnett was one part of the panel last Friday at La Paloma Sabanera; Denisa Jashari, Marie Lausch, Carmen Cordero, Roksana Mun, and Marissa Janczewska also presented on the history and current state of women’s oppression at the forum sponsored by Socialist Action. The opening and closing speakers were occasionally heavy on the socialist rhetoric, but those in the middle spoke plainly, with the intention of being understood by all. Continue reading 'Power and Privilege at Women’s Forum'»

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By Kerri Provost, November 6, 2011 10:15 am

Three police on horseback kept themselves at a respectful distance from activists near the Bank of America on Park Street. Saturday morning’s march had been billed as a family-friendly, law-abiding event, yet a speaker from Occupy New Haven threw around phrases that could be interpreted otherwise, at one point telling the throng to “seize the banks,” while the crowd stood opposite one. It is this uncareful rhetoric that escalates tense situations and alienates others who would have joined in. It makes one curious as to who this “99%” actually is if there is a lack of sensitivity toward those with children (this, in effect, primarily excludes mothers from the movement), those who can not risk arrest because they can not afford to be bailed out from jail, and those who can not risk injury because they lack health insurance.

Ignoring the weight words carry only further dilutes the message.

As the anti-Bank of America activists walked down Broad Street and Park Street, residents and shop owners, for the most part, looked puzzled. Sometimes the chants were about banks getting bailed out, but other times, the chanting called for an occupation of Hartford; little thought seems to have gone into what this might sound like in a neighborhood where many residents’ native countries have actually experienced occupation.

And this population along Park Street is not one Occupy Hartford activists should want to alienate. If anyone knows something about poverty, unemployment, rental housing, and medical bills, it’s Hartford locals. According to data from HartfordInfo.org, 42% of Frog Hollow residents live below the poverty line; the median household income for this neighborhood is just above $17,000. Almost all of the housing in this area is rental. The Park Street corridor might not have as much to say about student loans as some of the Occupy Hartford activists, but the residents could offer more insight about what it is like to live paycheck-to-paycheck and worry about whether or not the electricity will not be shut off that month.

Despite the lapse in judgement by a few, Saturday’s march remained peaceful. The police-to-activist ratio was something like 10-to-1, perhaps in part to the public announcement that civil disobedience was being discussed as a possible tactic. While activists stood across from Bank of America, one was inside closing her account, which was, after all, the purpose of Bank Transfer Day. Continue reading 'Occupy Hartford: Marching through el barrio'»

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By Kerri Provost, October 31, 2011 11:11 am

Here is your monthly list of hand-picked events. There may be others, but those did not make the cut:

November 1st

Hartford Candidates Forum: Candidates from all parties and running for all offices this year have been invited to participate in a forum hosted by the Greater Hartford NAACP. This will be held in the Northend Senior Center at 80 Coventry Street, from 6 to 9 in the evening. The local NAACP’s president, Muhammad Ansari, says “this forum will provide an opportunity for residents in North Hartford who may not have been able to attend events in other parts of the city.” UPDATE: forum cancelled due to Storm Alfred. It will not be rescheduled.

November 1 (through next year)

New Life for Connecticut Trees: Furniture by City Bench exhibit at the Connecticut Historical Society Museum. Objects made from trees otherwise destined for the landfill.

November 2nd

Get HYPEd at ON20. The casual networking event, open to members and non-members of HYPE, will feature a free raffle. The prize? A tasting dinner for two at ON20. This event runs from 5:30-8:30pm.

November 4th

Women’s Oppression and Liberation Forum: three of the six panelists will include Nellie Bailey, the host of weekly radio program “Inside Housing” on WHCR; Monami Maulik, founder and executive director of Desis Rising Up and Moving; and a representative from Hartford Vecinos Unidos. The event begins at 7:30pm and will be held at La Paloma Sabanera.

November 4th and 5th

Killadelphia is a 75-minute show by Sean Christopher Lewis, presented by HartBeat Ensemble, in the Hollander Building. It presents perspectives on crime in Philly. Click here to get ticket info for this performance. Continue reading 'November Events'»

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By Kerri Provost, October 27, 2011 8:16 am

John Sayles speaking at Cinestudio

If you missed the talk with Amigo’s director John Sayles, you can still see the film at Cinestudio, but what you will not be able to get is the refresher Imperialism 101 lecture that he provided for the audience on Wednesday evening. Having this context in which to view the film is not necessary, but does add depth. It’s historical fiction, based on no singular figure or battle, but made from many truths. While this story focuses on the Philippines, it should not be forgotten that this was the same era when Guam and Puerto Rico were also annexed as territories of the United States.

In History classes, this period is typically represented as an eyeblink between the Industrial Revolution and World War I. Not much has been done cinematically with the Philippine-American War either. According to Sayles, Amigo is only the third American-made film about this subject.

A criticism of the film has been that it serves as a metaphor for the War in Iraq, which would be apt if the language and appearance of occupation had been invented in the last ten years. Continue reading 'Winning Hearts and Minds with Amigo'»

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By Kerri Provost, October 9, 2011 4:15 pm

On the first night that activists slept in the park on the corner of Broad and Farmington/Asylum, someone in the apartment building across the street shot BBs at protestors. Continue reading 'Occupy Hartford: After the March'»

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By Kerri Provost, August 30, 2011 8:57 am

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.

August 31- September 4th

Quidam: Cirque du Soleil at the Civic Center.

September 1st

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'»

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By Kerri Provost, August 15, 2011 4:52 pm

Depending on how you measure it, this may be the oldest church in Connecticut. It’s definitely the oldest church in Hartford.

Center Church was founded in 1632 in Cambridge (née Newtown), Massachusetts. Thomas Hooker was the minister, who, after some kind of dispute with the State of Massachusetts, said “we out” and brought his congregation to Hartford in 1636. Hooker is credited as being the founder of Connecticut; a parade has been named in his honor.

This meeting house piqued my curiosity over the years, mainly because of the historical angle. If facing the church from Main Street, you can see the Ancient Burying Ground to its right, where something like 90% of those buried never received grave markers, and where Hooker is rumored to be buried. It is also rumored that Hooker’s grave is underneath Center Church.

How is that possible? Continue reading 'Hartford Pew Review: Center Church'»

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By Kerri Provost, August 13, 2011 10:21 pm

The 49th Annual Greater Hartford West Indian Day Parade tried out a different route Saturday afternoon. Continue reading 'A Glance at the West Indian Day Parade'»