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By Kerri Provost, December 17, 2010 6:13 am

Because it’s often my route to work, I have seen the lights in Bushnell Park plenty during the daytime, which is to say, I have not had much to look at but cords running everywhere and people constantly working to adjust the display. Still, it is a treat to hear laughter coming from the area of the ice rink, as it’s being used by people of all ages. Last night was my first opportunity since the kick-off tree lighting event to return to the park in the evening. They have added lots of lights since then, including the small white ones that were absent from the aforementioned event.

This was also my first time this season getting to see Constitution Plaza at night. I had heard that there were fewer lights there, but honestly did not think it was a noticeable difference. Christmas music was playing loudly on the plaza. As in other years, only a few other people were out enjoying the lights. Since Spris has closed, there was even less of a human presence in  that area.

Continue reading 'Lights, Window Displays, Action'»

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By Kerri Provost, November 27, 2010 9:00 pm

Rape, eviction, death due to complications in childbirth, capital punishment, violence against women, and unlawful detention are some of the human rights abuses being focused on in this year’s Amnesty International Write for Rights Day. During the time around International Human Rights Day (December 10th) thousands of people around the globe write letters “to demand that the rights of individuals are respected, protected and fulfilled.” The organization states that “in doing so, we show solidarity with those suffering human rights abuses and work to bring about real change in people’s lives.”

If you are not confident in your letter writing abilities, no worries. Amnesty International has compiled tips for you. For the cynics, here is a list of results from past letter writing campaigns.

As of publication, La Paloma Sabanera is hosting the only public 2010 Write-a-thon in the Greater Hartford area. The coffeehouse will be open on December 8th from 7am-8pm and those who take part in the letter writing event will receive a free cup of coffee as thanks for participating. La Paloma Sabanera Coffeehouse is located at 405 Capitol Avenue.

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By Kerri Provost, October 28, 2010 5:07 pm

Already stores are beginning to stock Christmas items. Readers who wish to participate should know that this post is an unabashed effort to steer you away from the strip malls and toward fueling a more local economy and/or supporting smaller businesses. This list reflects my taste, though not always my paycheck(s). Some possibilities may have been accidentally omitted; others were very intentionally omitted.

Crafts, Arts, and the Bazaar

Every year the All Saints Orthodox Church on Scarborough Street holds its Russian Tea Room and Bazaar. It may be too early to consider holiday shopping in early November, but this is an opportunity to find gifts like nesting dolls, jewelery, jewelery boxes, and more. If you’d rather just fill your gullet, there will be blini, vareniki, borscht, and other Russian foods. They typically have tours of the church, though the craft fair and food are located in the basement of the building.  This year’s festival goes from November 5th through November 7th. Admission is free and there will be activities for children.

Jewelery by Ellen Rosenberg at the Sugarloaf Craft Festival

From November 12-14th the Sugarloaf Craft Festival will be back in town. I attended this back in March when they were last here and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of arts and crafts. There will be over 200 artisans from around the country displaying their work at the Connecticut Expo Center. There is a wide range of work — from furniture to wind chimes to olive oil — so people of modest income are not instantly priced out. There will be paper art, baskets, clothing, paintings, ceramics, photography, soap, wall sculptures, food, items for children, and more.

Besides shopping, you can watch craft demonstrations including iron forging and copper spinning. Some of these demonstrations will be interactive.

Check back on Real Hartford as the date of the event draws near, as we will be having a small ticket giveaway.

If you still feel like ogling arts and crafts that weekend, on November 13th and 14th, Hartford will be holding its Open Studio Weekend. This year’s Open Studio Weekend seems…together. Admittedly, I am a sucker for full color glossy brochures which lend the sense of organization to a happening. It gives me confidence that the event will happen, that it’s not just thrown together at the last minute. This year, given the vast number of artists participating in the event, the brochure seems necessary if one is to navigate the weekend’s options with any success. Here is a sampling of the wares that will be on display and for sale: clay jewelery, pottery, handmade books, photography, pastels, acrylics, stenciled and dyed clothing, knits, tiles, beads, Lucite jewelery, silk-screened clothing, fiber, mixed media, book binding, sculpture, wooden bowls, crochet, wire, leather, oil paintings, felted wool, fused glass, mirrors, greeting cards, pencil and watercolor, pen and ink, ceramics, and more. Many of these displays are at ArtSpace, but others are located in other spots like 30 Arbor Street, Billings Forge, and the Institute for Community Research. Besides goods to purchase, there will be jazz, blues, funk, acoustic guitar, salsa, and classical musical performances. There will be dance, poetry, and films to view. To find out exact times and venues, go to the Open Studio Hartford site.

Retail

Hartford Denim Company Photo: Luke Davis

Hartford Denim Company creates handcrafted jeans and belts, and has a workshop at 75 Pratt Street, Suite 500. Their website has contact info and photos of their products. In the recent Hooker Day Parade they carried yards of denim overhead. Fun people, they are, if a bit irregular, like their hours. I was warned to call ahead (860) 356-6896 to ensure someone would be at the workshop. Their off-the-rack jeans start at $200 and custom jeans begin at $300. Continue reading 'Fulfilling Your Materialistic Desires for the Holiday Season'»

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By Kerri Provost, October 11, 2010 12:13 am

Volunteers from Hartford, West Hartford, South Windsor, and elsewhere pitched in to help clean a bike path yesterday. This path, which is part of the East Coast Greenway, runs from Bushnell Park to behind the Legislative Office Building parking garage and does not seem to be maintained by anyone. It’s often covered with broken glass and it is not unusual to watch litter wear away, rather than actually be removed. By the end of the afternoon, volunteers removed about the equivalent of a dozen municipal trash cans filled with garbage and carted away one full recycling barrel. As a result, the path has an extra three feet of usable surface and is a bit less dangerous now that the sand pit has been removed. Unfortunately, that sand trap is destined to return due to erosion problems that could be easily remedied if whomever owns the land (Amtrak? City of Hartford? State of Connecticut? State Armory? The possibilities are endless.) took the initiative to install either fencing or, better, plant some vegetation with root structure. Sunday’s event was part of the 350.org 10/10/10 Work Party. Events of various sizes with small-to-very ambitious actions happened all over the globe and can be read about on the site.

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By Kerri Provost, October 6, 2010 6:13 am

Copyright: Syracuse Cultural Workers http://syracuseculturalworkers.com

Opportunities for building community abound in October.

This Sunday, October 10th, volunteers will have the chance to learn about basic bicycle maintenance before heading out to clean up local bike lanes. Events begin in the Atrium of City Hall at noon and run until about 1pm. We will ride our bicycles through Bushnell Park and go from there, stopping wherever we need to in order to clean up litter and debris. Volunteers are asked to supply their own shovels, rakes, brooms, and/or gloves. All garbage will be hauled away by bicycle and disposed of (or recycled) appropriately. When finished cleaning, volunteers can head over to Red Rock Tavern for a late lunch/early dinner/snack. First round of non-alcoholic beverage is on the event organizer, for the first ten participants. This event is a 10/10/10 Work Party in affiliation with 350.org.

The following weekend, “Celebrate the Year of the Urban Tree” is taking place at the Memorial Baptist Church (142 Fairfield Avenue) starting at nine in the morning and continuing until one that afternoon. Thirty new trees will be planted, lunch will be provided, and there will be music. To reserve your free lunch, call 860-951-7694. This event is a collaboration of the Knox Parks Foundation, the City of Hartford
and the Greater Hartford Arts Council.

The Source to Sea Cleanup, originally scheduled for October 2nd, has been moved to October 17th due to the possibility of flooding. The Hartford location for this day of volunteer work is at the confluence of the Park River and the Connecticut River, which is accessible (by bicycle or on foot) from the path that runs between from Riverfront Plaza to Charter Oak Landing. The original event was scheduled for 10am to 1pm, and it seems as if the time will be the same for the rescheduled event. The contact person for this can be reached at (860) 729-9603 or oiseaux@gmail.com.

And if you’re just here for the party, well, there is something for you too. On October 23, the Hooker Day Parade will be winding around downtown. In a message to possible parade participants, Hartford.com writes: “With your help, it could become the weirdest, awesomest, funnest, most made-up, rag-tag, candy filled parade in New England.” Think of it as a chance to try out your halloween costume. The parade starts at 2pm; raindate is October 24th. For more details, check back to Hartford.com. If feeling compulsive about cleaning, sprucing up the streets after they are covered with candy and wayward plastic necklaces will likely be welcomed.

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By Kerri Provost, September 30, 2010 7:24 am

The Park River Watershed — which stretches from Bloomfield through Hartford, West Hartford, Farmington, New Britain, and Newington –”pours into the Connecticut River through tunnels buried beneath Bushnell Park,” according to Park Water Arts and the Park River Watershed Revitalization Initiative

Park Water Arts is coordinating “art actions and events” through August 2011; this Festival of Eco-Arts is intended to “draw attention to the history, present condition, and future design of the Park River Watershed.” Most of these events are open to the public, though the kickoff on August 30 — Our Campus, Our Planet — was exclusively for University of Hartford first-year students. Continue reading 'Park Water Arts: Celebrating Our Local Waterways'»

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By Kerri Provost, September 15, 2010 6:13 am

There will be a Global Work Party on 10/10/10. What’s with all these numbers?

350.org, the sponsoring organization, gets its name from 350 parts per million, which is the highest safe amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We’re already past that point. The organization, anticipating attitudes of helplessness, explains:

We’re like the patient that goes to the doctor and learns he’s overweight, or his cholesterol is too high. He doesn’t die immediately—but until he changes his lifestyle and gets back down to the safe zone, he’s at more risk for heart attack or stroke.

For the skeptics who are going to label this as a one-day feel-good bleeding-heart event, well, it might just be. For some, this could be the one “green” thing that they do all year. For some, this is going to be just one more way that they live an environmentally friendly life. For most, I’d bet that this is the second or third environmental action they have participated in during the year. Maybe these people have already converted all their light bulbs to CFLs, recycled everything that they can, shunned bottled water, and rely on reusable bags when grocery shopping…but they have not quite given up their cars or taken out a loan in order to install solar panels. Some might even not care about whether or not climate change is real. That’s fine. At least in Hartford, you are welcome to participate in the day’s activities no matter how skeptical you are of science. If you hate the environment and just want to remove garbage from the bike lane so you don’t keep getting flats, that’s cool. By helping, be aware that you will be making local bike lanes more appealing for cyclists, tempting many to leave their cars parked in the garage more often.

Here in Hartford, the event will be split into three parts. Continue reading 'Do a 350: A Day to Celebrate Climate Solutions'»

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By Kerri Provost, September 2, 2010 8:53 am

There are two upcoming scavenger hunts in Hartford. Continue reading 'A Walk for Jane and a Dash for a Difference'»

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By Kerri Provost, August 28, 2010 2:12 pm

Volunteers from the West End Civic Association Beautification & Planting Committee gathered Saturday morning to clean up Elizabeth Park, rounding out the Week of the Parks. A press release says that Mayor Segarra and First Gentleman Charlie Ortiz were at the Sunrise Overlook area at 6 a.m. to talk about clean up efforts over the past week.

Visitors easily notice the difference in park maintenance when crossing Prospect Avenue. The section of Elizabeth Park that is in West Hartford is always spotless (or close to it), while the section in Hartford is often decorated with broken glass and other litter. Volunteers diligently cleaned and weeded this morning. This was no small effort, so it was great to see just how many people donated time on a gorgeous weekend.

The Broken Window theory states that if a window is broken and left in a state of disrepair, then more windows will be broken. People see neglect as a sign that vandalism is acceptable. In the same way, it’s hoped that this space in Elizabeth Park (which just ranked fifth in America’s Best Rose Garden Competition ) will be regularly cleaned and maintained, to discourage the notion that littering here is acceptable.

Other parks that experienced cleaning, repairing, and beautification this week include Keney Park, Bushnell Park, Goodwin Park, and Colt Park.

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By Kerri Provost, July 31, 2010 7:09 pm

The Pump House on the edge of Bushnell Park has been closed for a few years. In past incarnations, it has been a cafe and a grill, in addition to a gallery.

On August 26th, there will be an art opening at the Pump House Gallery. Before this happens, the building and grounds will need some sprucing up.

This morning, community volunteers began to remove weeds and overgrown vegetation from the patio that faces Pulaski Circle.

Inside the building, volunteers began to clean and refresh the movable canvas walls which art will be mounted on later. A more thorough clean up of the park will be happening on Thursday, August 26th during the Week of the Parks. Attending to the overgrown hedges around the Pump House is one of the items on the City’s to do list for late August. Continue reading 'New Life for the Pump House Gallery'»