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A Guide to Finer Living in Connecticut & Abroad October 2026

Vol 21 Issue 249 inkct.com

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OCTOBER 2026

Vol. 21 Issue 249

Feature Stories

Departments

Follow The Heat

Bridgepor Art Trail

That was Then - Daddy had a Chevy Bell Air..........................24 Indelible Ink - Ahn Love, On an Ocean of Dreams...............36 What’s Greg Drinking - Love You Bunches............... ............50 October Events - Our INK To-Do List...................................52 "You meet people who forget you. You forget people you meet. But sometimes you meet those people you can't forget. Those are your friends." ~ Mark Twain

The Wisdom of

the Winding Path

Barry B. had always wanted to go to Pepe’s. You see, even though he had grown up and then subsequently spent his entire life in the Midwest, he also knew a few things. Barry liked to travel and was also someone that I considered my brother. He and I had become fast friends back in high school. Such good friends, in fact, that I talked him into singing lead vocals in my first band. Notwithstanding the fact that he had no real interest in doing that. Well, maybe a little at first, but nowhere near the enthusiasm that I had for the sport of music back in those days. Barry had a big personality, which was job one of a front man.

No Place Like Here Jeanne Rosier Smith

He and I spoke for about an hour on a Sunday and firmed up our plans, as he would be flying out the first weekend in Sept. We were going to spend a few days together. He always had a thing about Pepe’s. Getting a pie in New Haven was just on his list. We both knew that the weekend would almost certainly be busy, so we decided to head there on Monday for lunch. Three weeks, planned ahead, done and done. Four days after our conversation, I received a text from someone close to him. It was one of those messages you have to read and then have to reread a few times before your mind will even let it in. Barry was gone. It has taken about a month to digest it. It is not as if I haven’t lost anyone in my life. We all lose people we care about. I did, however, lose a couple of very dear soldiers over the course of the last twelve months. I am very thankful that the last words I said to him were, “I love you man and can’t wait to see you.” You just don’t know, do you? See you again, my friend, my brother. RIP Mr. Badertshcher

What Survives...

From Bakhmut to Plymouth

Contributors

Laurencia Ciprus - editorial Sara Drought- Nebel - editorial Ellen Lessard - editorial Rona Mann - editorial

Jeffery Lilly

founder / publisher

Carolina Marquez-Sterling - design Gregory Post - editorial Deana Simmon - editorial Jan Tormay - editorial

Advertising

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On the Cover: “Life is Not a Race” - photo by Jeffery Lilly (enhanced)

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Summer Light, Pastel, 12 x 36”

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Sun Splashes, Pastel, 20 x 16”

OCTOBER 2 -31, 2026 Opening Reception: Friday, Oct. 2, 5-8 pm

SUSAN POWELL FINE ART 679 Boston Post Road, Madison, CT 203 318-0616 www.susanpowellfineart.com Snowy Boughs, Pastel, 12 x 16”

Wild at Heart, Pastel, 12 x 16”

Turandot by Carlos Bautista Biernnay

ou’ve got a coffee in one hand, studio map in the other: a shout out from the street sez, ‘you gotta see what’s happening around the corner’. The Bridgeport Art Trail sizzles and flows: doors wide open... music pulsing the blocks...wet paint flashing in studio light. In its 18th year, Citywide Open Studios returns Nov. 5–8, 2026–taking Connecticut’s largest city on a four-day romp through galleries, lofts, mills, and cafés...theaters, classrooms, storefronts, and pop-ups. The Trail is more than the predictable weekend wander. Bridgeport’s art scene carries a higher voltage than tidier stops up the coast. Yes - it delivers polish but also urban bite: insider and outsider works on paper, canvas, sculpture and fresh media. Political to traditional...classic to ready-mades.

Art Trail kick off

For over two decades, Suzanne Kachmar has been the elemental force behind this staying power. Equal parts curator, rainmaker, traffic controller, and unflagging believer, Kachmar and her team transform a sprawling arts scene into a cohesive weekend the public flocks to each year. It’s an endless call. Artists need space. Venues need schedules. Visitors need a map. Partners need nudging. Details multiply. Somehow, by opening night, the city feels effortlessly loose, alive, and easy to enter. I sat down with Kachmar to explore the long lens vision: how the Trail maintains, thrives, and continues to expand without losing its

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pulse; how old buildings become cultural anchors, and how Bridgeport counters outdated assumptions by exhibiting serious work: “I have been the founder and leader of Bridgeport Art Trail for the past 20 years. It continues to serve the community through art programs and free school enrichment learning experiences. There have been long strides forward and many milestone successes. We have surpassed the $1M mark in distributing funds to artists through various forms: in referrals, sales, commissions and work. After 20 years of serving the community, we launched the Bridgeport Art Trail Roundtable to avert the Chelsea + Brooklyn cycle which forces artists out of the very communities they developed on a grass roots level. Artists, Community Leaders, State + Government officials convene to exchange and foster collaboration” The Weekend Starts Downtown lights the fuse: six walkable venues, a tight opening-night loop, abundance of art, drinks, people, and street life. City Lights Gallery, the hub for the Art Trail, leads with Now Is the Time, a show of more than 20 artists working through urgency, memory, protest, imagination, and time gone sideways. The title lands hard in Bridgeport, a city leaning into reinvention and impatient with nostalgia. The exhibition’s strength is its range: installation, painting, photography, fantasy, social commentary, and artists willing to treat the present moment as both raw material and alarm bell.

Housatonic Museum of Art

Tom Mezzanotte -AmFab

Read’s ArtSpace brings Artists Choose Artists into a former downtown department store turned live/work hive. Read’s carries its own gravitas. Not a white box; it carries the ghost of a commercial downtown and the vitality of artists living and working inside a reimagined civic landmark. The show’s message is prime for the Trail: artists inviting other artists into the room; developing a chain of alliance and trust. Creative communities are built by this model: the simple act of saying, “You need to see this person’s work.” The route swerves to Ursa Gallery Café. Dan Makara’s WTF commands a room already buzzing with food, coffee, neon, found objects, and attitude. Makara amps voltage with assemblage, signage, street memory, humor, and cultural debris snapped back into focus. In a café context, that energy becomes even more direct.

The Arcade Mall brings another kind of drama. One of the country’s early enclosed shopping arcades, its glassy, period atrium gives pop-ups, music, and contemporary work an architectural backdrop that feels cinematic without trying too hard. The tension is perfect: historic bones, new sound, young artists, old retail energy, and Bridgeport’s gift for turning overlooked space into charged rooms. It is the kind of venue where the building does half the storytelling before the first artwork even gets named.

Rick Shaefer Colossus At Metro

Housatonic Museum of Art sharpens the feature’s other major point: this Trail is not only about fresh paint and raw space. It also connects visitors to serious art history. The museum’s curator-led tours of work by F. Luis Mora bring a nationally recognized artist into the weekend’s flow. Mora, born in Uruguay and associated with important currents in American painting and illustration, links Bridgeport’s contemporary scene to a longer story of artists moving across borders, institutions, commissions, public memory, and private imagination. In the middle of all the hustle, that museum stop gives the weekend depth. It says the Trail can move fast and still hold space for history. Weekend mode: the map blows open. Nine studio-building sites invite visitors in from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with pop-ups, studio sales, spoken word, music, performances, and whatever detour grabs you next. This is where the Art Trail becomes less event and more expedition. Some studios will be pristine and carefully arranged. Others may feel like the work stopped five minutes before you walked in. Both are part of the appeal. You get process, not just product: tools on tables, frames leaning against walls, half-finished canvases, welded edges, printers, sketches, reference photos, scraps, experiments, and artists explaining how an idea survived long enough to become an object. That access is the magic. Recognized artists may show near younger names still building their audience. A collector may be standing beside a student. A painter who has exhibited widely may be talking shop with someone who came in off the street because the door was open. The hierarchy loosens. The weekend lets viewers see art as labor, not mystery; as practice, not pedestal. It also lets artists see each other, which may be just as important.

Artist-Poet Iyaba at NEST

Arcade Mall-Photo Dariusz Kanarek

The Trail creates a temporary citywide common where reputations, experiments, sales, friendships, arguments, and future collaborations can all start in the same crowded hallway. The smartest way to move through it is to leave room for accident. Pick a few anchors, then follow the noise, the stairwell, the artist waving you in, or the bike crew rolling out from City Lights for the Urban Bicycle tour and annual BAT cyclists’ photo. That ride is more than a fun add-on. It captures the whole spirit of the Trail: bodies moving through the city, small groups forming and reforming, streets becoming connective tissue, and Bridgeport itself acting as the frame. The city is the medium.

Urban Bike Tour

Saturday night keeps the charge going. Artists, Trail wanderers, and Greater Bridgeport Symphony folk converge at the University of Bridgeport’s Bernhard Center near Seaside Park. Schelfhaudt Gallery’s Attracted to the Flame + New Works pairs Bridgeport Art Trail artists with welded work sparked by university curriculum. That setting adds another layer of recognition and ambition. It places local and regional visual artists in conversation with a university gallery, a symphony audience, and the shoreline campus environment, expanding the Trail beyond the studio crawl and into a wider cultural night out.

The show’s title does a lot of work. Attracted to the Flame sounds romantic, dangerous, stubborn, and completely at home here. Bridgeport art often feels forged, not fussed over hammered, patched, lit back up. Welding makes that metaphor literal: metal altered by heat, joined under pressure, made stronger at the seam. It is a clean image for the city’s art culture, which has always depended on people making something durable from tough conditions. The Trail is a portrait of a city with range and is a deep bow to the people who maintain the alchemy. The civic layer: Suzanne Kachmar, City Lights Gallery, and the organizers keeping the map alive year after year. The architectural layer: mills, arcades,

storefronts, campus galleries, theaters, and repurposed commercial spaces. The robust social layer: artists choosing artists, converging audiences, visitors discovering neighborhoods through culture. Lastly, the artistic layer: recognized names, museum holdings, serious craft, experimental installation, community-rooted practice, and the kind of local brilliance that appears emergent because the wider world has just not caught up yet. This mix is what makes Bridgeport feel young without faking youth. The energy does not come from trend-chasing. It comes from density, friction, and proximity. Aritst looketha - Marcella Cavaliere at Reads ArtSpace

Art of Carlos Bautista Biernnay at University of Bridgeport

American Fabrics -AmFab building

Go for that. Not just the art—the city making it in real time. Walk the blocks. Climb the stairs. Buy what hits you. Talk to the makers. Take the detour. Look closely at the names on the walls, because some carry serious regional, national, or historical weight; others may be hanging in international galleries soon. The Bridgeport Art Trail runs on hustle: old buildings, fresh work, big nerve, low-key genius, and a scene that never waited around for permission. Mark your calendars and visit BridgeportArtTrail.org to learn more.

Art + Community Schelfhaudt Gallery BAT 25

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19 e all have individual and family rituals: morning cofffee, mealss, afternoon walks, w yoga, tai chi and reading to our childrren at bedtim me. Some people have added a new one, which w has beeen practiced for thousands of years by many differ f ent rreligions an nd cultures alike: walking a labyrinth, a winding pathwaay that even ntually leads to the centerr.. “Something g happens to the brain when it finally understands th hat it doesn’t know how it’s going to get to n’t plan it out. A part of your brain the centter. Yo You can o. And when it does, your whole has to o let that go m has the opportunity to reorient. nerv vous system Thee path will lead you to the center center. And it will leaad you bacck out again. There’s no trick or d decision or turnaround, but the mind at a certain mo oment releases and goes, ‘Oh, I’m going in, but I’m moving out,’” said Jessica Cerullo, director of Connect to Create, a fit organization she founded after for-profi Maple Lawn L Farm’s labyrinth was created. Con nnect to Create’s goal is “to bring peoplee together through collaborative art, mo ovement and place-based projects that ho onor nature and the quiet poetry of everyd day life.” The laabyrinth was completed during the pandeemic in 2022, a time “when people wanteed to be outside, but still gather...I and m many of us were really struggling with o our sanity during that time,” she said “T said. T labyrinth is a place where our The o stress leevels can be mediated by synch hronizing tthe body and mind and sinking into the senses.” The outdo oor 80-foot, seven-circuit modifi fied cclassical lab byrinth was created with rocks and s small, crrush hed stones and paths wide enou ugh fo or peoplee to o walk side by side or assisted. “Wh hen you walk, you’re cr togeth her with h the move beeneath y your she said. This peaceful setting iss situ ly-owned 50-acre farm at 343 necticut, now home to Jessicca’s par and open to the pub blic by ap ppoi Advice for approaching thiis “c labyrinth includes entering e g wi then releasing an in ntention n - or

Jessica Cerullo in center-others walk at Maple Lawn labyrinth during the summer of 2026. Photo courtesy of Jessica Cerullo

, especially when n passing ey reach the cen nterr,, thereby mes skipping outt) because ,” Jessica said. (including ocks), th he Cerullos ief of Naour choices forwards

aretakers of ded d d to t this thi having the ust taking e of this. ugh to

ery state town/city t to you. y eative exp pression der tto go out den n, your writing that you want to be

Paul Cerullo building the center of the labyrinth at Maple Lawn Farm

writing, or just the moment when you leave the labyrinth and you write or read a poem that’s been left by the hammock or on the tree, just to find that space to make meaning of the world around you.” One can walk the labyrinth with a question or use it as a means to focus, center and calm the mind, said Jessica, a theater actress and professor at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. “It’s a journey in and then another journey back out. So it’s a practice.”

J Jessica Cerullo with finger labyrinth in August 2026. Just like the larrge labyrin nths, ppeople use finger labyrinths for all kinds of re reasons. “Y Yoou might use it as a mean ns to ffocus, center and calm the mind.”

21 “Yo

illiant ideas,” saaid er property (wiithout ” d carry it with th hem h ake it home with d leave it in a bowl y’re grateful forr ght mebody else mig en we get to heaar a are here are gratteful aid.

rts, t crosses, pen ntat he nd medicine wheels, as well as th

classic and u desig Maze two e Labyr found and fo inside Jessic when She sa

Left to right: Autumn 2025 laby yrinth walk prroompts. On right is a finger laby yrinth Je Jessica Cerullo holds a bone from ro the earr.. The smallest b bone i the in h hhuman bbody dy,, the h ““ovall window i d w,,” ” iis deep within the inner earr.. Becausee of its curved shape, it is re referrreed to as a labyrintth—and “that’s the part of the body wherree balancee lives,” she said. The photo was taken in March c 2024 during anatomy and somatic movement training t for her rreesearch for the Oval Wi Window Prrooject. o

Pooetry at the Labyrinth Dance Spriing 2023

Labyrinth panoorama

ommunity rve farms. f nth.

y Liz family u had ullo ears. solo, Connect s are

try). Since th side, Jessica said m many of their com mmunity gatherings focus on th he ability to expand and take thee sun in and celebrate those day ys. “W Wee willl have a group in the shade som meplace in the summer or in the su un someplace in the winter on o or near the labyrinth and we do a synchronous movement practiice that is very gentle and revitalizes all the joints in the body y..”

L Stanton at the Maple Farm Labyrinth in 2022. She co-deLiz ssigned it with Jessica Cerullo.

Depending on who is leading th he session and how nature inspir pires them, “It could be qigong, tai ch hi, yoga or dance,” she said. Jessica explained, “When we sy ynchronize our movement, whether ether her person or tango dancing, ther here you’re rowing a boat with anoth ody are certain things that you havee to do with the brain and the bod ody feels that you are in community unity and the rhythm, where your bo and that you connect with otherrs.” In addition to weekly individuaal and group events at the labyrinth, which people can requesst by appointment, Connect to Create hosts classes, walks, retrreats and other events that “are scaffffolded on somatic, and exprressive arts practices,” according to its website.

While visiting Ireland’’ss National Museum, Jessica Cerullo examined a stone dated to 2500-1700 BCE.

Its ritual walks include focusing g on gratitude, shedding and clearing space during the (releasing)) fall season and setting intentions f th for the N New Ye Year “over “ warmth, th h fire fi and d community” it ” during d i an e evening W Wiinter Solstice Labyrinth W Wa alk. Themes for other (listeni ing) winter seasonal walks are rest, internal reflection and creative roots. During the (awakening) spring, the focus is on intention, r

23 while thee (radiant) summer’s theeme eativitty y.. h d in just connecting with aid Jessica, who holds a ional space that can meeet at can intensify whatever it ou ace that really invites yo

While some permanent labyrinths can be found insid de, others are created outside using a pattern of stones laid across o a grassy field. T Teemporary ones can be created with flowers, saand, candles, canvas, masking tape and chalk. Learn more about Maple Lawn Farm’’ss labyrinth and other eventss at connecttocreate.net. re To attend an upcoming event or re request a time to comee alone or with others, email info@connecttocreate.net. Find a labyrinth near you u and arroound the world at labyrinthlocator.or r. rgg. When visiting the labyrinth, ind dividuals arree invited to make a donation, which supports the maintenance of th he labyrinth and the food sovereignty re of the Eastern Pequot Tr Tribal Nation.

d the labyrinth

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Daddy Had a Chevy Bel Air essay by / photo of RONA MANN

remember when he drove it home for the first time. It was shiny, long, and painted in gleaming turquoise and white, colors I had never noticed on a car before. I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

It was 1955, a banner year for General Motors with their new Chevy Bel Air, today thought by many classic car enthusiasts to be the most popular car ever made.GM sold over three million of those beauties that year, an unheard-of number back then in the automotive world. The ‘55 Bel Air sported not only a great look, but a powerful new V8 engine and a brand new body design, just absolutely loaded with chrome and trim, more than any other model on the road. It also had “brand new”, state-of-the-art options like power steering and power brakes. My father was in heaven driving this exceptional automobile, completely unaware that it would eventually go down in history as a classic. Ardent cinephiles may recall the screen debut of Harrison Ford in the classic film “American Gra ti,” in which the young actor drove a black 1955 Bel Air straight into what would become worldwide stardom for both of them. But to a little girl who knew nothing about what constituted a classic and what didn’t, I had little knowledge and even less interest

in anything automotive; I just knew one thing: my Daddy had bought us a beautiful new car, and I couldn’t wait to go for a ride in the turquoise and white beauty. “Hop in,” he announced with a big smile. My mother wasn’t home at the time, so I was going to be the first in the family to be treated to its maiden voyage. He drove what seemed like hundreds of miles to my childish way of thinking – time mixed with a healthy dose of youthful impatience -but in truth, the Alderney Dairy was only 19 miles northwest of our home. It was a glorious working dairy farm that was one of the largest independent dairies in the United States, but the real attraction, especially for kids, was that they had a creamery. Milkshakes and fresh ice cream were being dispensed while you gazed at nearby cows who made up a significant part of the Alderney product line. ey gazed back at us, looking bored, and just kept chewing their cud while we licked our cones, being careful to enjoy them outside the new car. Daddy and I traveled many miles in that Bel Air, hundreds of them with Mom, but there was a special something when it was just the two of us out for a drive, as though we were going on some mysterious adventure, even if it were only to the hardware store. I had wonderful parents, but there’s something very special about the relationship of a father and his only daughter, that “Daddy’s little girl” thing you hear about. Sometimes we took long rides, other times short ones, but always there was the gi of time that he would give me, coupled with undivided attention, and an ear that would always listen to my childish chatter. It wasn’t the turquoise and white Bel Air that made me feel special. It was the short Polish man with the blonde hair and blue eyes, tiny mustache, and big heart that made me feel special.

Today, when I see a “Cruise Night” with an array of vintage cars, I always have to stop and look at the selection, for many times there is a Bel Air, and more o en than not, it’s turquoise and white. It brings back such wonderful memories of those happy days filled with love and warm nights when we “put the top down.” Daddy’s Bel Air wasn’t a convertible, but we liked to pretend it was every time we took rides on beautiful, sunny days that melted into starry, summer evenings. Evenings when we’d open the windows wide, let the wind blow through our hair, and pretend we were rich and had a convertible. I didn’t realize it then, but I do now. We were indeed rich...very, very rich. Occasionally, Daddy would flip the chrome button on the radio and turn the dial to one of our favorite stations that played all the great vocalists of the day. Sometimes Paul Anka was crooning, “Put Your Head On My Shoulder.” And I would.

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Memories Of Tomorr o ow, 12 x 16 inches

Profile by y Rona Mann Photographs Courtesy Jeanne Rosier Smith

f you could bottle joy y, the label on that bottle would show a relaxed, smiling Jeanne Rosier Smith because she’s thee real deal, and her joy is like lightning in a bottle. udbury y,, Massachusetts, a When we spoke with her from her home in Su few weeks ago, her personality just burst righ ht through the phone as she y. This woman is not a self-styled Pollyanna; couldn’t wait to tell us her story. this is not an act construed for an interview w.. Shee is honestly so in love with where she is and what she does that she cannott wait to share it. The energy is absolutely infectious, because the lady is absolu r utely real. As a child growing up in Maryland, Jeanne allways loved painting, but it was something she did for pleasure and her o own satisfaction. “I’ve always been an artist, but I didn’t start full time untill I was 35,” Smith says. “Still, I always loved it. I just didn’t think I could make a living doing this.” So, Jeanne pursued her education, earning a deg gree in American Literature with a minor in art, and following graduation, she beccame an English professorr.. “But I also joined a morning art group to satisfy my passion for painting. Before long, people in the group were asking me how to do ccertain things, and the teacher in me just naturally came out. Suddenly y,, it grew org ganically y,, and I realized this was a lot more fun than adjunct teaching.” So, with jo oy winning out, Jeanne Rosier Smith leaped and started teaching art classes in h her own home. use; additionally y,, I was getting “I had as many as 35 students a week in my hou w,, I can do this, so adjunct known in galleries. All of a sudden, I realized thaat wow Wiith her special brand of English teaching went smack in the rearview mirrrorr..” W joy now bubbling to the top, Smith became a fulll-time artist! She also became a full-time motherr, having thrree children within five years! She stepped back for a brief time to fully givee of herself to her children, so y,, when asked what she mosst wanted, she replied, “Just one Mother ’s Day give me some time to paint.” That wish was easily granted, and within a very short time Smith was waking up each day y,, eager to get into her studio and do what she loves best. “I realized, “W Wow, ow, every day is Mother ’s Day y,, and I am so lucky to be able to do this.” Lucky y,, absolutely y.. But more than luck, it was her talent bursting forth, especially when she began to work strictly with pastels. “Y Yo our medium chooses you, you so when pastels chose me, I felt as though I was reborn.”

Jeanne Rosier Smith

Brasserie Balzarr,, Pastel, 8 x 16 inches

From the moment she picked up a pastel sticck, it became an extension of her hand. “My arm is my brrush.” She cou uld hear its voice, unlike any other medium. It was not only tactile, but inttimate, a form where her hand could meet pure pigment without the need ffor brushes or elaborate tools. For Smith, pastels were color speaking in theeir purest form. It speaks not only visually but also lets both the artist and d the viewer know how it feels. “Pastels are sensuous, fragile, a voice of direct human touch. I can smudge or blend with just a touch, and I want the peeople who view my work to not just see a painting, but to be invited into my feelings and feel connected. It is very intimate.” Living in Sudbury y,, Massachusetts, puts the aartist squarely into a painting of its own: a bucolic, colonial New England tow wn just 22 miles west of Boston that offffers not only the beauty of four season ns, but also the unexpected joys that a distinct fourr--season climate can bring. “That’s what I truly ru love. W Weet snow on my face in the winterr,, swimming in n the ocean in summerr.. I try to create in my art not just what it looks like, bu ut what it feels like. I literally get weak in the knees sometimes from all the beaauty around me; the views often take my breath away y.. That’s what I want to cconvey in my painting so viewers can feel the same way y.. I don’t have to go any ywhere else; it’s all right here.” And she is never very far from her palette.. “I have all my colors laid out, so many different brands that I’ve accumu ulated over the decades. They are my tools. I choose my subject first, then n work quickly and intuitively y,, adjusting the color and texture as I go, tryiing to connect to the scene.” Susan Powell, owner of the well-respected S Susan Powell Fine Art Gallery y,, has been featuring some of the finest artists iin New England and elsewhere for some 40 years at her downtown Madison n gallery and is well familiar with Jeanne Rosier Smith’s outstanding pasttel paintings. “Luminous waves

April in Paris, Passtel, 16 x 12 inches

Swimming in Blue, Pastel, 15 x 30 inches

Sun Splashes, Pastel, 20 x 16 inches

Sheltering View, Pastel, 18 x 24 inches

Lit from Above, Pastel, 10 x 10 inches

with sunlight passing through ttheir translucent crests, sunlit beach scenes, lush lily ponds, gardens, and fieelds overflowing with colorr,, the lively streets, brasseries, and Seine River scen nes of Paris are the many subjects that inspire Jeanne. Her paintings reflect thee joy of seeing the world with fresh eyes,” says Powell, who is announcing g a solo show of Jeanne’s work October 2nd-31st. The show opens on Frriday y,, October 2nd, with a reception at 5 PM and a chance to meet the artist aand enjoy 40 paintings, a great representation of her work. On Saturday y,, O October 3rd, Smith will be giving a painting demonstration in the gallery gaarden from 1-2 PM, a free event open to the public and a wonderful opportu unity to see what joy can be created when a hand picks up sticks of color an nd an arm quickly transforms a canvas into a brush of color. Pastel’s most distinctive quality is the way in which it engages the viewer. Because pastel strokes are so viisible and tactile, the process makes the viewer feel close to the artist’s process, and that is precisely what Jeanne Rosier Smith hopes for each tim me she begins to paint a feeling, for it is the feeling that comes before the acctual scene. It is what she hopes you will see when you visit Susan Poweell Fine Art during Octoberr,, a feeling so sensuous and powerful that yo ou may want to make it a part of your life. “My paintings come from a sen nse of joy y.. Finding astonishing beauty in the world every day y,, I hope to share that feeling and fresh perspective with every painting I make. The natu ural world brings continual change with the seasons, delighting and surprising anyone who cares to look. Every season brings fresh inspiration. Familiaar spots transform, sometimes gradually and sometimes overnight. For me, th he key to discovering beauty in the world is simple: eyes wide open, heart fu ull of wonder.” ...Jeanne Rosier Smith

Visit the solo show featuring the workk of Jeanne Rosier Smith Oct. 2- 31st at Vi Susan Powell Fine Art, 679 Boston Poost Road, Madison (203) 318-0616 susanpowellfineart.com Facebook: Jeanne Rosier Smith Pastel Studio Instagram: @jeannerroosiersmith Tw T witter: @JRosierSmith Viideo Instruction: EpiphanyFineArt.ccom V

Wild at Heart, Pastel, 12 x 16 inches

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Ahn Love: On an Ocean of Dreams

rances Park and I met a stack of years ago, our friendship sparked with our common love of words, scraps of mad youth, and Gilmore Girls. I've read and reread her expansive body of work: Ahn Love dazzles as her most heart-crafted saga. With elements germinating just under the surface for many years, Park's latest novel at last examines the complexities of loss within family—unearthing memory, displacement, and the curious ways the past fails to fade into the distance. Ahn Love centers upon the what ifs that ghost us, following the early death of a parent. Moving beyond any predictable grief trope, Park questions what happens when grief refuses to hold true to a straight line and the dead continue to live—not literally, but in the vivid imaginations of those left behind. What would have transpired during all those unlived futures? Readers first meet an adult Margaret Ahn visiting her widowed father, Sam, to mark his ninetieth birthday. Deeply lonely and devoted to his memories, Sam holds fast to his remarkably tender faith. If his orchids bloom, they might somehow summon his dead wife back. The idea is both heartbreaking and slightly mad, precisely why it feels so true. Grief carries its own illogical logic: the mind makes frantic bargains with flowers, anniversaries, weather, and dreams—any molecule of maybe that the person we lost has not entirely disappeared. Then the what ifs: Park propels readers back to the summer of 1969. Margaret was then a teenager known as Monkey, and she and her family embark on a seven-day cruise across the Pacific. Here is the pivot. The novel suddenly slips beyond the realm of the ordinary, and readers enter this parallel universe. Against Park's detailed and glamorous backdrop, the voyage becomes Monkey's rite of passage into a long list of teachable moments: desire, family tensions, the stunning grasp of social hierar-

chies, adult secrets, and shattering realizations that the people she has always imagined as permanent are not. This loss of innocence is where Ahn Love becomes especially powerful as a novel about grief. When a parent dies young, the child loses not only the parent who existed but every future version of that parent—the person who might have grown older alongside us, offered advice at twenty-five, wisdom at fifty, or simply been there for the ordinary moments we never knew we would need. Park addresses time throughout the book. Monkey’s circular walks around her childhood

cul-de-sac... the houses divided into hours. Walk long enough, and you arrive where you began. The cul-de-sac also becomes the landlocked twin of the cruise ship: mirrored, enclosed spaces where geography becomes a meditation on time. ...and then there are the orchids. Sam’s orchids could easily have become too sentimental a symbol. In Park’s hands, they are a poignantly haunting ritual that gives Sam a way to remain in relationship with someone who is dead. If the orchids bloom, perhaps his wife is only a blink away. Ahn Love is not only about private grief. Monkey’s emotional awakening coincides with a life lesson about social hierarchy. The cruise ship appears a floating paradise, but Park skillfully exposes who makes this paradise a seamless illusion. Its glittering decks conceal service corridors and invisible labor. Passengers inhabit one world; workers inhabit another. The ship’s vertical architecture becomes a structure of power. It is a jarring realization for young Monkey. Uncle Bong’s story deepens this complication. His transformation and movement toward emancipation are liberating, but they also expose the hierarchies embedded within the family itself. Love, loyalty, obligation, and dependence are not always cleanly separable. A person can be cherished and diminished at the same time, as long as they remain in their defined roles. For Monkey, these realizations are part of her transformation into adulthood. A child notices who serves, who decides, who leaves, who stays. Only later does memory supply the vocabulary. Park's dexterity in balancing reality and possibility is the reason the novel’s return to the past feels so alive. Our adult Margaret knows what Monkey could not possibly have grasped. But she cannot simply hand that knowledge backward through time. She has

to revisit the girl she was and sit beside her in uncertainty. That, ultimately, is what Ahn Love does so beautifully. It brings Margaret back to Monkey without pretending that going back can change what happened. Perhaps that is why this novel feels larger than a family story. The book is interested in the stubborn persistence of love after its object has disappeared. Love does not necessarily become less powerful when it can no longer

act upon the person it loves. Sometimes it becomes stranger. It becomes memory, ritual, imagination, regret. Park’s cruise ship is therefore both a time machine and an elegy. It carries Monkey toward adulthood while allowing her, temporarily, to remain suspended in the moment before loss. Its ocean is vast enough to contain first love, family rupture, immigrant identity, social hierarchy, memory, desire, and grief. Its decks glitter, but beneath them people work. Its clocks move, but time seems to stop. Its passengers arrive somewhere else, but Monkey spends years trying to return. We cannot go back and rescue the dead or give our parents the futures they were denied. We cannot make the other life—the one that might have happened—materialize alongside this one. But we can imagine it. Reading Ahn Love, I found myself thinking about the unique privilege of knowing someone over many years: how people become

entangled with our own chronology, how friendship accumulates its own archive of conversations and possibilities, how books written by people we know can feel like messages from one part of life to another. Perhaps that is why Park’s central metaphor stayed with me. We are all, in one way or another, at sea with what might have been. We carry people who are gone, the selves we once were, and futures that never arrived. We cross datelines we cannot see and sometimes walk in circles, hoping memory might return us to a place we cannot reach. And every once in a while, something blooms. For more on the wondrous words of Frances Park: http://www.parksisters.com

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Plans for o bringing your vision to life. www.sh oreli ne pla ns.c om

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719 B os t on P os t Roa ad, Old Sa ybr ook, CT 06 475

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• Cakes • Cupcakes • Weddin g Cakes • Individu al P as tries • Chocolat es • Homemade Breads • PLU S A Gift shop

By Carolina Márquez-Sterling Photographs Courtesy Gayle Corrigan, Brave Selections

Photoshop Illustration by Carolina Márquez-Sterling

Its is believed, or simply imagined, that objects carry the energy of those who own them. A bottle of wine abandoned in the devastation of a home or rescued from a cellar after floods, fires, and war have swept through, stands as a quiet, relentless watcher: whole against all odds, its seal intact, a listener to the silent stories it carries.

bottle, a silent survivor from a shattered city, found its way to my doorstep in New Hampshire. I had never heard of Bakhmut Artwine. As I learned more, the story of Bakhmut wine unfolded at a strange intersection where culture, commerce, war, and despotism meet. Until recently, the war in Ukraine existed for me as a collage of images —smoke, ruined apartment blocks, maps, Zelensky, and flags draped in solidarity across the country. This perception shifted when my friend Lisa, from my small New Hampshire town, told me about bottles rescued from underground caves beneath a devastated city. The city now known as Bakhmut was called Artemivsk during the Soviet period and was renamed after the Bolshevik revolutionary “Comrade Artem,” an ally of Joseph Stalin. In 1950, under Stalin’s USSR, the Soviet government ordered the creation of a massive sparkling wine operation there. One story repeated in modern reporting is that Stalin wanted high-quality Soviet champagne after the start of the Cold War, when French exports became difficult or were embargoed. Far below Bakhmut, an old gypsum mine—once part of the 19th-century Neoclassical building boom in Eastern Europe—was transformed. A labyrinth The wines arrive in NH of gypsum and alabaster tunnels, their cool, constant air and winding corridors proved perfect for nurturing sparkling wine to life. From this hidden realm emerged the Artemivsk Champagne Factory, destined to become Artwinery as Ukraine shed its Soviet past. Over the next 70 years, the winery aged its top cuvées for 72 months, twice the required aging for vintage Champagne. For generations, “Artemivske” sparkling wine was the flavor of Ukrainian celebration, poured at New Year’s, weddings, and birthdays. In memories shared online before the city’s fall, people remember it with yearning, an everyday toast stitched into the nation’s

Historic Underground Entrance Artwinery

Artwine Aging Music Bach playing.

spirit. Yet behind each bottle stood the people whose artistry and care gave it life. The head winemaker, Iryna Kholoimova, believed wine needed more than cool air and time to mature. Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart drifted through the underground galleries day and night. She believed music belonged in the making of the wine. But soon the music would stop. From early 2022 to spring 2023, Bakhmut became a furnace of aggression, its streets transformed into some of the war’s fiercest frontlines. Artwinery’s cellars and halls stood vulnerable as the city’s fate teetered. Amid the siege, the winery’s team made a bold decision: to rescue every bottle they could carry. With the city darkened by the loss of electricity, workers descended into candlelit tunnels, generators powering only the essentials. Bottles were carefully turned, their sediment removed, and each one packed by hand, all while shells thundered overhead. As pallets rose from the caves, artillery fire grew fiercer. Some shipments disappeared instantly in explosions; others made it to warehouses that missiles would soon shatter. Each loss represents years of painstaking attention obliterated in seconds. Nine months pregnant, Artwinery’s export manager Natalie Lysenko was sheltering in her bathtub as air-raid sirens sounded outside. When she answered a call from her U.S. importer, Brave Selections, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, she said matter-of-factly, “The bastards are bombing 10 kilometers away. So, what are we going to do about your next wine order?” In May 2023, after months of relentless fighting, Bakhmut fell to Russian forces. The winery above ground was reduced to

Artwinery Before and After

rubble, its operations scattered. Only the bottles rescued and sent abroad before the city’s fall still carry Ukrainian certification and remain identifiable as products of Artwinery in Ukraine. What remains is all that will ever exist. Enter Gayle Corrigan. Gayle took a circuitous route to this story. Growing up in Cranston, Rhode Island, in the ’80s, she watched her father open their home to newly arrived Soviet Jewish families. He believed gratitude was something practiced, not simply celebrated. She learned early on that Thanksgiving was not merely a noun but a verb. Gayle’s interest in wine began during a 1989 study abroad in the USSR, where she attended a feast hosted by Georgian students, tasted homemade wines, and experienced the culture’s warmth and hospitality. Years later, working with Brave Selections, an advocate of Georgian and Ukrainian wines, she came to see these bottles as more than rare treasures. Today, each purchase helps support Rebuilding Cellars, a nonprofit working to keep Ukrainian winemaking alive during the war.

47 As she spoke, my mind drifted to wine and winemaking, not just as craft but as living art. The winemakers seemed to believe this too, risking everything to preserve what mattered. Each bottle rescued became quiet evidence of courage against being forgotten. Objects that survive catastrophe travel along mysterious journeys. Now, in New Hampshire, I was amazed that I was the one chosen by circumstance to open a relic of recent history and let its story reach far beyond Eastern Europe. A small, stubborn witness to everything it had survived. I unpacked a few bottles and lined them up on my desk, next to my computer, the photo of my sister and me laughing, and the clock. For weeks, they’ve kept me company. I feel odd admitting it, but they have become companions. They have claimed a place in my workspace. I know I will miss them when I finally put them away. I catch myself gazing at them, picking one up, imagining the world they left behind, as though, if I waited long enough, they might whisper their secrets. Standing before this wine, I feel a peculiar anticipation. I reach to open it, then hesitate. The bottles look regal and dignified, their presence radiating defiance. Unlike French or Italian wines, these are robust and bold yet possess an elegance reminiscent of a black-tie affair. I feel underdressed in their company. The labels suggest the crest of a nation or a storied family commanding attention. They rest on my desk like soldiers, both

Artwine Riddling Racks

magnetic and at attention. They seem to speak a different visual language, more suited to a table in an old Eastern European film than among the familiar bottles on American shelves. I picture those who ferried the bottles to safety, air-raid sirens screaming, explosions shattering cities that once hosted tastings and trade shows. The society and culture they cherished were being torn apart. These bottles withstood the unimaginable. This is no ordinary wine. This bottle is a steward of history and tradition. It carries a story none of us can fully grasp. These bottles once rested in caves beneath a city now forever changed. What moves me most is that wine, especially sparkling wine, is about celebration. It marks life’s milestones: weddings, birthdays,

Artyomovsk Winery, Bakhmut, Ukraine, 2008. The winery, later renamed Artwinery, was destroyed during the battle for Bakhmut. Photo courtesy of wikicommons.

championships. Yet the war did not just topple buildings; it interrupted birthdays, postponed weddings, and erased promotions. Suddenly, these bottles are not just preserving wine. They are protecting the memory of everyday life. Perhaps this story has gripped me because I grew up hearing about things left behind forever—objects that survived only in memory. Here, for once, was something that survived. The fact that these bottles made it feels like a victory—a small triumph over a monumental rupture to ordinary life.

Artwinery bottles survived intact after a warehouse bombing in Ukraine. Against the destruction around them, they remained whole.

48 I am torrn. Part of me longs to taste it, to see if I can sense the spirit of Ukrainians in their creation n. Another part feels there is something neearly sacred about it. It also feels wrong tto keep it to myself, as if I would be denying g the very purpose for which people scarred by war saved it. Now it sits here, on my desk k, feeling unavoidably personal in a way I neever anticipated. I thought this choice would b be simple. I find myself frozen, bottle in hand d. g swept p Then it strikes me,, as if I were being up in a current. This wine was not about one. taste alo

Natalie Lysenko and Gayle Corrigan

Bottles of of Artwine

Head winemakerr, Iryna Kholoimova

My desk with the ccollection of friends

BY THE NUMBERS • 50 million bottles once re rested beneath h Bakhmut in Artwinery’s ’s undergr rgroound gypsum caves. • 2022–2023: Morree than 300,000 bottlles were re re rescued frroom the underground rgro cellars beforree the fall of o Bakhmut. • Less than 15,000 bottles are re currreently y accounted for acrrooss the United States, United Kingdom, an nd Eurroopean Union, according to a May 25, 2026, inventory y. • Brave Selections imports the winess to the United States. • Rebuilding Cellars helps Ukrainian winemakers preserve their craft during the warr.. • Common Man for Ukraine is a Neew Hampshire–based nonprroofit delivering humanitarian aid a and support to Ukrainian children and families.

This courtly bottle stands as proof against vaanishing. This wine is not just any wine. It is a sip of w what survived. To raise a glass of this wine is to toast what ssurvived. To These bottles arree rreemarkable not simply beccause they survived, but because they carry forwarrd d a tradition that w war tried to interrru upt. They keep the story alive. natched up the handsome And just like that, on a sudden impulse, I sn ded for Lisa’s house. This Brrut Rosé bottle, grabbed my keys, and head wine was always meant to be shared. Budmo

Budmo

Bu udmo

Hey!

A FINAL TOAST Beforree Bakhmut fell in May 2023, millions m of bottles rreested beneath the city in Artwinery y’s undergr rgroound gypsum caves. Wi Winemaking is one of Ukkraine’’ss most beloved traditions. To Today y,, only a small numbber of those original bottles remain. Perhaps the best way y to honor these bottles is not simply to admirree them, but to raise a glass. They werree rescued not to become museum m pieces, but to carry a tradition forward. LEARN MORE • Artwine: artwine.com • Brave Selections: braveselections.ccom • Rebuilding Cellars: thrroough Bravee Selections • Common Man for Ukraine: commoonmanforukraine.orrg g

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What is Greg Drinking? ‘Love You Bunches’ Sangiovese, Stolpman Vineyards I love a good proverb. At worst, they are cheeky and corny bits of colloquial wisdom frozen in time like a fossil for observation. The best ones come from some higher power or a deeper understanding of the universe at large. You can hear the tone and temperament of the times they are crafted from. One that I think of often is “your feet will bring you to where your heart is”, originally written in Gaelic (Irish). When I think about the myriad things I am eternally thankful for in this life, I often see a thread of random decisions that, at the time, seem unrelated or insigniﬁcant but later emerge as momentous. So it is with wine, a beverage that traverses time and tradition, melding process and patience into a shared experience. My own journey to the immersive and expansive culture of wine was a product of little miracles and happy coincidences lining up just so. With a full heart, I ask you to consider ‘Love You Bunches’ Sangiovese from Stolpman Vineyards in sunny California. Italian roots growing on the other side of the planet, basking on different sunny slopes with a microclimate influenced by a much larger body of water than the Mediterranean. If ever there was a reason to try this style of wine outside of Tuscany, this is it. Stolpman pulled out all the stops to share this Sangiovese from Santa Barbara County. The soil is laden with limestone and produces a very delicate and chillable expression of this varietal. Organic and biodynamic are the featured farming practices. Even the fermentation is next level, utilizing a process called carbonic fermentation to punch the juices into their fabulous final form. That term, which this article has discussed before, involves sealing the clusters in steel containers to let fermentation begin within the grapes themselves. This ostensibly accomplishes two great things for the grape and, eventually, the imbiber: it preserves the freshest fruit bouquet while keeping the texture and mouthfeel playful and bright. The necessity of maintaining fully intact clusters means delicate hand harvesting is a must. The wine made a splash at a wedding attended by the winemakers, and as an homage to the intricate processing and the resulting charming, chillable red, the name Love You Bunches was adopted. The vine-

yard team is so close-knit and fully immersed in the process that everything, right down to the personalized handwriting on the labels (the signature of the vineyard manager!) As mentioned above, this wine is not just able to be chilled, but it is recommended that you do so from the winemakers themselves. The vintages of this wine, like any boutique, smaller-vineyard release, are extremely subject to changes from vintage to vintage. The 2024 apparently shares more commonalities with the earlier ‘in the teens’ years at the beginning of its existence than with the early 2020s decade releases. This wine is electric with fruit notes that are ripe and ready to go. Whereas the traditional flavor profiles you would know (from a Chianti, for example!) are more herbaceous and nightshade botanical elements, the 24’ release makes my palate pop with cherry fun dip frivolity. While this is an exceptionally fun wine to drink, it certainly does not lack a sense of self or structure to that effect. The tannins are tight-fisted and hold you until the acidity is fully realized and appreciated. The bite is reminiscent of farm-fresh strawberry rhubarb pie. Fresh out of the fridge, this wine gives you waves of electricity and excitement in a glass. During the Halloween season, this is certifiably a treat. Pizza night perfection or charcuterie chaperone, this is a wine that has main character energy and supporting actor depth. When opening the bottle, you will notice the darling heart on the top of the cork. This is especially well timed because one of my favorite humans, my ‘niece’ Kelsey, is getting married this month to a person who looks at her the way sommeliers look at Grand Cru designations. We will also be helping run a California wine dinner on October 6th at Meryl & Masa in the Stonington Velvet Mill, so come on by and try some of the coolest California corked beverages paired with exquisite scratch small plates. You can wish her well on her pending nuptials and raise a glass to your feet bringing you to where your heart is. Jones of Field Recordings, I am ever so grateful that it did.

Gregory Post is a sommelier and manager at Saltwater Farm Vineyard, afﬁliated with Kingdom of the Hawk Vineyard.

“Chair-ity” Event | Old Saybrook CT

CT Cancer Foundation 15 North Main Street Old Saybrook CT 860·388·0788

Join Tidewater Lighting & Design and Cat Francucci Art for the inaugural “Chair-ity” Fundraiser at the Connecticut Cancer Foundation. See creatively repurposed chairs before they go up for silent online auction throughout October, while enjoying wine, cheese, and artwork by Cat Francucci, Patrick Ganino, and Melissa Imossi. The free October 1 event kicks off a month of fundraising, with proceeds supporting Connecticut breast cancer patients and their families. www.ctcancerfoundation.org/chair-ity-for-a-cause/

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Bee’s Knee Pottery| Old Saybrook CT

355 Middlesex Turnpike, Old Saybrook Fall Member Showcase & Studio Open House 10:am - 4:pm •A curated showcase of beautiful, handmade pottery available for purchase. •Meet the artists, tour our studio & learn about our community •Light refreshments will be served. •Free and open to the public, all are welcome!

The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (The Kate) 300 Main Street, Old Saybrook, CT • Tickets at thekate.org

Blind Boys of Alabama | Old Saybrook

Suzanne Vega | Old Saybrook

Six-time GRAMMY® winners and Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductees The Blind Boys of Alabama celebrate the 50th anniversary of Stevie Wonder’s iconic Songs in the Key of Life. Blending gospel, soul, and Americana, the performance pairs Wonder classics with beloved selections from the Blind Boys’ celebrated repertoire. With more than 75 years of inspiring audiences, their connection to Wonder runs deep—including a GRAMMY®-winning rendition of “Higher Ground” and Wonder’s 2007 presentation of a Vision Award for Lifetime Achievement to Blind Boys singer Jimmy Carter. Show starts at 7pm.

Suzanne Vega brings her distinctive voice and masterful storytelling to a career-spanning performance featuring favorites like “Tom’s Diner,” “Luka,” and “Marlene on the Wall,” alongside songs from her 2025 album Flying with Angels. She’ll be joined by longtime guitarist Gerry Leonard and cellist Stephanie Winters. Show starts at 7:30 p.m.

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Robbie Collomore Concerts|

Chester CT

Historic Haunts | New London, CT

New London Union Station 35 Water Street, New London, CT October 9 • 7–8:30 p.m. • $25 860·443·3786. Walk the historic streets of New London and uncover stories of the people who shaped the Whaling City—and the mysterious tales of those who may never have left. Explore reported encounters, unexplained happenings, and the history behind some of the city’s most historic buildings. Is there something more to these lingering stories, or are they simply legends? You’ll hear the stories, learn the history, and decide what you believe.

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Susan Powell Fine Art |Essex CT

679 Boston Post Road, Madison, CT Opening Reception Friday, Oct 2, 5-8 pm Jeanne Rosier Smith - Seasons of Joy "Luminous waves with sunlight passing through their translucent crests, sunlit beach scenes, lush lily ponds, gardens and fields overflowing with color, and the lively streets and Seine River scenes of Paris are among the many subjects that inspire Jeanne. Drawn to brilliant color, contrasting textures, changing seasons, and shifting light, and atmosphere, she finds beauty in moments that invite a second look. Her paintings reflect the joy of seeing the world with fresh eyes." - Susan Powell, owner of the gallery. www.susanpowellfineart.com

The Chester Meeting House, 4 Liberty Street, Chester, CT 4:00 PM - 6:30 PM New Haven native Christian Sands brings his acclaimed jazz artistry to the stage. A GRAMMY®-nominated pianist and composer, Sands began playing at age four and was mentored by jazz legend Billy Taylor. His music blends the traditions of jazz with fresh, forward-looking sounds. The Zodiac Trio internationally acclaimed, brings clarinet, violin, and piano together in an inventive program spanning classical masterpieces, new works, and imaginative arrangements. Join the ensemble for an afternoon of virtuosic music followed by a complimentary wine and cheese reception with the artists.

A Musical Tribute| Clinton CT

Clinton Town Hall Theater For The Performing Arts 54 E Main Street, Clinton, CT Silver Threads A Musical Tribute To Linda Ronstadt Linda Ronstadt fans, this one's for you. Sing along to the songs you love as Silver Threads brings her timeless music to Clinton for an afternoon benefiting the Rotary Club.

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Fine Arts & Crafts Festival|

Woodstock CT

556 Route 169, Woodstock, CT 860·928·4074 •10 a.m.–4 p.m. It’s a juried show with about 180 artisans, plus food vendors, live music, and first-floor tours of the historic cottage. Admission is $5 for nonmembers; children under 12 are free.

Shubert Theatre | New Haven CT October brings an eclectic lineup of concerts and special events to this New Haven venue. For the complete schedule and ticket information, visit the College Street Music Hall website.

01- Michael Franti Trio – Heartstrings & Dynamite with Wheeland Brothers (Acoustic) 03 - Snail Mail / Soccer Mommy: The S&M Tour with Brennan Wedl 08 - The Midnight: Time Machines with Jessie Frye 15 - Sylvan Esso 21 - Cannons: The Everything Glows Tour with Caroline Kingsbury 24 - The Living Tombstone: The Multiplayer Tour 25 - Rodrigo y Gabriela

Blade Runner Live

Experience Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner in a whole new way as the 2007 Final Cut is projected on a vast HD screen while Vangelis’ iconic electronic score is performed live in sync with the film. Follow Rick Deckard through the film’s atmospheric dystopian world as image and music converge in this immersive celebration of one of cinema’s most influential science-fiction classics.

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Greater Hartford Theater Week | Hartford CT • 860·525·8629

• www.letsgoarts.org/theater-week Two weeks, five theaters and plenty of reasons to make a night of it. Greater Hartford Theater Week brings together The Bushnell, Hartford Stage, TheaterWorks Hartford, HartBeat Ensemble and Playhouse on Park for special performances, events and behind-thescenes experiences. There are Buy One, Get One Free ticket offers at four participating theaters, plus special pricing at HartBeat Ensemble. Use code THEATERWEEK26 where applicable and check the Greater Hartford Arts Council for participating performances

Hempsted Halloween | New London, CT

11 Hempsted Street, New London, CT 860·443·7949 • 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm Walk the historic streets of New London and uncover stories of the people who shaped the Whaling City— and the mysterious tales of those who may never have left. Explore reported encounters, unexplained happenings, and the history behind some of the city’s most historic buildings. Is there something more to these lingering stories, or are they simply legends? You’ll hear the stories, learn the history, and decide what you believe. Admission is FREE, with a suggested donation of $5 a person

247 College Street New Haven, CT For Tickets or Information www.shubert.com or call (203) 562-5666 Mon - Fri 12:PM to 6:PM Opened in 1914, New Haven’s historic Shubert Theatre is one of America’s legendary Broadway houses. Built for live theater long before television, rock concerts, or “talkies”. More than a century later, the Shubert remains vital to New Haven’s cultural life. Here are a few October highlights from its lineup.

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THE WIZ

The Tony Award-winning Best Musical that took the world by storm is back.

Evening with David Sedaris

David Sedaris, America’s best-selling humorist and social satirist, returns following publication of his most recent book of short stories, The Land and Its People. In his customary sartorial and humorous manner, David will make you laugh and think in equal measures, with all new, unpublished stories and commentary. As always, the reading will be accompanied by a pre and post-show book signing.

Nrityagram Dance Ensemble

For something truly different, experience the mesmerizing artistry of India’s Nrityagram Dance Ensemble in KHANKHANA: The Sound of Dancing Feet. Led by acclaimed choreographer Surupa Sen, the ensemble brings Odissi, one of India’s oldest classical dance traditions, to the stage through movement, music, and storytelling. Rooted in centuries-old sacred traditions, this captivating performance explores love, spirituality, and the connection between the human and divine.

Michael Jackson HIStory Show

Celebrate the music and legacy of the King of Pop in this spectacular live tribute to Michael Jackson. Garth Field channels Jackson’s electrifying stage presence in a full-scale production featuring a live band, choreographed dancers, authentic costumes, iconic music videos, and hits spanning his career—from the Jackson 5 to Thriller, Billie Jean, Beat It, and beyond. A high-energy celebration of one of pop music’s most influential performers.

Corn Maze | Middlefield CT

32 Reeds Gap Rd, Middlefield, CT (860) 349-6015 Get lost after dark at Lyman Orchards’ Halloween Flashlight Brew Maze. Grab a flashlight and venture into the four-acre corn maze under the moonlight while sampling six local beers. Add an outdoor pop-up bar, giant Jenga, cornhole, Connect Four, and other yard games, and you’ve got a decidedly grown-up way to celebrate Halloween. October 31, 6:30–8:30 p.m.; 21+.

Autumn Traditions: Apple Picking Few things say fall in New England like a crisp afternoon spent wandering through an apple orchard. Pick your own, fill a basket with the season’s best, and stay awhile for cider, doughnuts, farm stands. Here are a few Connecticut orchards worth a visit when apple-picking season arrives.

Old Norwichtown Colonial Burying Ground| Norwich CT 40 E. Town Street, Norwich, CT Steeped in Revolutionary-era history and local folklore, Norwichtown’s Old Burial Ground is a place where the past seems close at hand. Weathered stones, tales of those buried here, and legends of spirits lingering among the graves have given this historic cemetery an enduringly eerie reputation.

Curioporium | Southington CT Factory Square, 168 Center Street, 860-426-2256 • www.curioporium.com Free admission; open year-round. Hours vary • see website Step into a world of the strange and unusual at Curioporium, an immersive curiosity shop filled with oddities, antiques, occult objects, and unexpected discoveries. Part museum, part shop, and part haunted experience, it’s a wonderfully weird place to explore.

Scotts’ Connecticut Valley Orchards | Deep River 274 Kelsey Hill Road • 860·526·9633 Apples, peaches, nectarines and plums; a nearly 50-acre family farm with particularly nice Connecticut River Valley scenery.

Bishop’s Orchards | Guilford 480 New England Road • 203·458·7425 Apple and pear picking, a corn maze, wagon rides, cider, pumpkins and more. Their annual Fall Festival runs through November 1.

Rose Orchards | North Branford 33 Branford Road C • 203·488·7996 A longtime family farm with pick-your-own fruit, a farm market, bakery, creamery and fall activities.

Scott’s Yankee Farmer | East Lyme 291 North Bride Brook Road • 860·739·5209 Apples, pumpkins, a corn maze and wagon rides make this another good full-fall outing. Scott's Yankee Farmer ~ Pick Your Own Apples

Mansfield Drive-In & Marketplace | Mansfield CT 228 Stafford Road, Mansfield Center, CT Movie 860-423-4441 • Flea Market 860-456-2578 Take a trip back in time at this classic three-screen drive-in, where movies under the stars share the property with a sprawling Sunday flea market. Browse hundreds of vendors for antiques, collectibles, vintage finds, crafts, and the unexpected. Hunt for a treasure, grab a snack, or stay after dark for a double feature.

Fall Foliage Drives There’s no better excuse for a road trip than autumn in New England. Take the scenic route, set the GPS to “avoid highways,” and make a day of winding roads, mountain views, farm stands, little towns and plenty of stops along the way.

Witch’s Dungeon Classic Movie Museum | Plainville CT •103 E. Main St., Plainville 860 817-6095 • Fri. 6–9 p.m.; Sat.–Sun. 3–9 pm Step into the dark side of Hollywood at this wonderfully strange museum devoted to classic horror and science-fiction films. Life-size figures of legendary movie monsters—including Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy and the Creature from the Black Lagoon—share the space with authentic props and memorabilia. Founded in 1966 by Cortlandt Hull, the museum is a Connecticut original and a must for classic movie fans.

Old Burial Ground|Essex CT 37 North Main Street, Essex, CT Dating to the 1600s, Essex’s Old Burial Ground is steeped in history— and local ghost lore. Wander among the weathered gravestones and you may encounter stories of unexplained lights, apparitions, and a mysterious figure said to wander among the graves after dark.

The Berkshires | Route 7

Sheffield Great Barrington Stockbridge Lenox Williamstown

Lake Waramaug & the Litchfield Hills |Routes 45, 202 & 47 New Preston Warren Washington Depot

Connecticut's Quiet Corner | Routes 169 Norwich Brooklyn Pomfret Woodstock North Woodstock Mount Greylock Scenic Drive | Lanesborough Adams A climb to the highest point in Massachusetts, with big mountain views along the way. Road-trip note: These are scenic suggestions, not turn-by-turn directions. Check your GPS before heading out—and leave room for a few wrong turns. That’s often where the good stuff is.

The Cultural Heart of New Lo ondon and Beyond.

RANDY TRAVIS: THE MORE LIFE TOUR THURSDAY AY, 10.01.26 | 7:30 PM Experience the timeless hits of Randy Travis live on the More Life Tour, featuring James Dupré performing all 16 of his #1 songs, with a special appearance from the legend himself. THE REAL MOVIE PA PALACE EXPERIENCE MANHATTAN SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2026

TIGG NOTARO

SUNDAY AY, 10.04.2026 | 3:00 PM

SATTURDAY AY, 12.19.26 | 8:00 PM

THE MACHINE PERFORMS PINK FLOYD FRIDAY AY, 10.09.2026 | 8:00 PM The Machine has forged a 30+ year reputation of tending the musical legacy of Pink Flo extending Floydd performing a diverse mix of The Floyd’s extensive repertoire, complete with faithful renditions of popular hits as well as obscure gems.

THEE ROCK ORCHESTRA BY CANDLELIGHT WEDDNESDAY AY, 03.17.27 | 7:30 PM The Rock Orchestra by Candlelight returns with an epic new 90-m minute concert, breathing beautifully dark energy into legeendary Rock & Metal.

MANHAATTA TTAN SHORT is the only film festival of its kind where you are the judge with audiences around the world during a one-week period choosing the Best Short Film and Best Actor awards. These are movies you can only see on the giant screen!

JIM HENSON’S FRAGGLE ROCK BACK TO THE ROCK LIVE SUNDAY AY, 10.11.26 | 3:00 PM A family stage musical from The Jim Henson Company follows Gobo, Red, Mokey, Wembley, and Boober on a quest to find a lost stone that can bring people together, featuring puppetry from Jim Henson Henson’ss Creature Shop and music from Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. Sponsored By: Liberty Bank

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AN EVENING WITH SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS CHRISTMAS CARAVAN 2026 FRIDDAY AY, 12.18.26 | 8:00 PM Am must-see holiday show where SNZ’s Jimbo Mathus fusees 1920s jazz, klezmer, and old-time music into a joyful, high-energy mix of festive warmth and speakeasy swinng.

Expeerience an evening of smart, deadpan comedy with Emm my and Grammy-nominated comedian Tig Notaro, whoose uniquely understated storytelling and sharp obseervations turn everyday moments into unforgettable laugghs.

REDD HOT CHILLI PIPERS 25THH ANNIVERSARY WORLD TOUR FRIDDAY AY, 03.19.27 | 8:00 PM Bagpipes with attitude. Drums with a Scottish accent. A blazzing rock band and show so hot, it carries its own health warning. RICHHARD THOMAS IN MAARK TWAIN TONIGHT! BY HHAL HOLBROOK FRIDDAY AY, 04.13.27 | 7:30 PM Markk Twain To Tonight! is a legendary one-man show that brings the wit, humorr,, and wisdom of Mark TTwwain to life on stagge. Originally created and performed by Hal Holbrook, the play features Twain’s sharp observations on politics, socieety, and human nature - remarkably relevant to today.

HARRY CHAPIN’S GREATEST STORIES LIVE FEATURING THE CHAPIN FAMILY SAATTURDAY AY, 10.17.26 | 8:00 PM Experience iconic performances and timeless hits from Harry Chapin’s Greatest Stories LIVE performed by The Chapin Family. Don’t miss this unforgettable night of music! BURRN THE FLOOR PRESENTS MAAKS & PETA LIVE! THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW FRIDDAY AY, 05.07.27 | 8:00 PM SUNDAY AY, 10.18.26 | 7:00 PM The ultimate high-voltage dance extravaganza, exploding Celebrate The Rocky Horror Picture Show with a costume- withh jaw-dropping choreography and breath-taking filled, shout-along screening of the cult classic where movves, filled with infectious energy and irresistible charm, Brad and Janet stumble into Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s wildly celebrating the pure joy of dance. unforgettable world. THEE MOTH - MAINSTAGE A.J. CROCE PRESENTS: TRUUE STORIES TOLD LIVE CROCE PLAYS CROCE SATURDAY AY, 05.15.27 | 8:00 PM SUNDAY AY, 10.25.26 | 7:00 PM The Moth is true stories, told live and without notes. A J CCroce performs A.J. f CCrooce Plays Pl CCroce, a special i l performance f celebrating the timeleess songs of his father, Jim Croce, SO GOOD! alongside favorites froom A.J.’s own acclaimed catalog. Don’t THEE NEIL DIAMOND EXPERIENCE miss this unforgettable night of music and stories. STARRING ROBERT NEARY SATURDAY AY, 06.12.27 | 8:00 PM PAUL MECURIO: PERMISSION TO SPEAK Broaadway, television, and film star Robert Neary delivers a SAATTURDAY AY, 11.07.26 | 8:00 PM criticcally acclaimed Neil Diamond tribute concert featuring Permission to Speak is a one-of-a-kind live show where 26 classic hits, immersive storytelling, and an authentic Emmy-winning comedian Paul Mecurio transforms real audience Broaadway-caliber experience that is selling out venues and deeply human theatrical natioonwide. u stories into a hilarious, unscripted, experience—no two perrformances ever the same.

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