In New "Career Closet," SCSU Students Get A Professional Boost
Lucy Gellman, Editor, The Arts Paper newhavenarts.org
The neat rows of clothing, tucked into a corner of the library's back offices, are easy to miss at first. There's a full rack of blazers, the shoulders padded and broad; pressed dress shirts; dozens of pairs of pants. Sweaters announce themselves in red and grey wool. A steamer stands at the ready. Around them, there is the steady clicking of keyboards, the occasional ring of a phone. Sunlight spreads across the floor.
Welcome to Southern Connecticut State University's (SCSU) new "Career Closet," a project of students in the school's Gold Leadership Program and the Office of Career & Professional Development that connects students with items of professional clothing. The idea is to open up access to professional clothes, which can cost hundreds of dollars, for things like job interviews, career fairs, and that anxiety-inducing first day of work. Currently, students are invited to take up to three items, which become part of their own closets. Tucked into the back offices of Hilton C. Buley Library, it is open to everyone on Southern's campus; no questions about income or need are ever asked.
"This breaks down barriers for our students," said Dr. Thierry Thesatus, associate dean of Career and Student Success at the school, in an interview at the closet Friday morning. "A lot of our students need to work. If we're able to provide this as they go out into the world," it makes that professional step that much easier for them.
In addition to the Office of Career & Professional Development and the Buley Library, the initiative is supported by SCSU's Sexuality and Gender Equality (SAGE) Center and the Office of Student Involvement & Leadership Development. It has also received financial support from SCSU alum Christopher Borajkiewicz, who made a major gift to the school in 2023.
The idea for the closet was born over a year ago, when a cohort of students started dreaming up their final project for SCSU's Gold Leadership Certificate program. The program is a relatively new part of the school's longtime focus on real-world experience and social justice. As they brainstormed, several kept coming back to how prohibitively expensive professional attire—business suits, interview-ready dresses and blazers, dress shoes that weren't scuffed or too worn— always seemed to be. A suit, for instance, could easily run between $150 and $200. A pair of shoes, even on the cheaper end, could cost as much as groceries for a week. That was discretionary income that many students on campus didn't just have.
Those first discussions "planted the seed," said senior Jordan Cervantes, who intends to pursue graduate work in educational psychology and was recently
named a Barnard Scholar by the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities system. The idea struck a personal chord, too: Cervantes has been that student who stresses out over the cost of professional clothing. He's been that person at conferences who is painfully aware that he doesn’t own a blazer.
“We were sort of racking our brains,” and then the idea emerged, he remembered. After identifying the closet as a project, Cervantes sent out surveys to Southern's student body, trying to get a better sense of student needs. The results, pulled from over 100 respondents, told him that the cohort was on to something.
Forty-nine percent of students reported that they were currently looking for work, and almost 40 percent said that they did not have access to the correct professional attire. Thirty-five percent reported not owning such attire either (for instance, they might have access through a parent, sibling, or roommate, but the clothes were not theirs to keep). And ninety-six percent of respondents said they would be interested in an on-campus resource addressing the need.
That research was only part of the team’s approach. John Romano, a senior who plans to pursue nursing, learned that several other Connecticut schools—UConn, Central, Eastern and Western Connecticut State Universities, and even elite institutions like Yale—already had similar programs, making SCSU an outlier. He loved the idea of having something similar at his academic home. With both Thesatus and fellow cohort members, he
worked to find space inside the library, which felt like the perfect fit.
“I feel really good about it!” Romano said. Alongside him, Thesatus credited SCSU Library Services Director Dr. Amy Beth, who began her tenure last year. “”I’m just really happy that someone picked it up and ran with it.”
The library was like a puzzle piece sliding into place, all three added. Buley—which sits in the heart of SCSU’s campus, with an oversized clock that feels more like a searchlight—is already working to address student needs, from research and reading materials to the services that the library provides. Just this year, library staff has worked to acquire every textbook in the school’s curriculum, so students can take them out of the library instead of buying them.
“We’re always looking for new partners, especially when it comes to providing access,” said Parker Fruehan, interim head of access services and systems. “Libraries are about more than just books.” Now, the group has proof of concept. Since launching earlier this year, the closet has received donations from students, faculty and staff, something that Thesatus chalks up to a spirit of campus-wide generosity. On any given day, students can sift through neat, folded stacks of wool sweaters, bright dresses, thick blazers and a rack of button-down shirts pressed and neatly arranged by size. Dozens of ties, mostly from a single donation, weave in and out of each other in a soft packing cube. Garbage bags filled with not-yet-sorted items sit under an unused desk.
The hope, Romero suggested, is that it can quietly change professional outcomes and boost student confidence.
As students trickled into campus for their Friday morning classes, Buley sprang to life, the library soaked with the morning sunlight. Behind the reference desk and through a door, Thesatus motioned to the closet, which sits in the back of library offices. Among the gentle click-clicking of fingers on keyboards, dozens of clothing items waited eagerly for new owners.
A pink blazer peeked out with three-quarter length sleeves and a kind of perennial blush color that looked like New Haven at nightfall. Piles of pants beckoned, inviting students to see if their size was available. Thick blue and black blazers hung heavy on their hangers, interview-ready right off the rack.
“It’s really kind of highlighting our mission” as a social justice school, Thesatus said. “This is who we are."
Next month, he added, SCSU plans to hold a more public, week-long donation drive to keep building out the career closet. It will coincide with the end of the second Gold Leadership Program cohort, in which students have been study
ing housing insecurity in New Haven’s Dwight neighborhood and food waste on campus.
John Romano, Jordan Cervantes and Dr. Thierry Thesatus, associate dean of Career and Student Success. Lucy Gellman Photos.
Yale Exhibition Showcases Beauty Through Disability
Jay’Mi Vazquez, The Arts Paper newhavenarts.org
One in five Americans lives with a disability. Yet their stories often remain unseen.
The Bold Beauty Project aims to change that by presenting powerful visual art exhibitions that showcase portraits of women with a variety of different disabilities. On April 18, "The Bold Beauty Project: Yale Edition" event was held at the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health.
The exhibition featured eight striking portraits paired with written and audio narratives, offering an intimate look into each participant’s story and perspective. Through this kind of immersive display, the BBP aims to challenge assumptions, broaden societal definitions of beauty and amplify the voices of disabled individuals within the Yale community.
“We’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of very powerful, remarkable and interesting women with disabilities,” Director of the BBP Dr. Evo Ritvo said.
Launched in collaboration with the executive board of Disability Empowerment in Public Health at Yale, the project brought together student photographers and models to create a personal and artistic exploration of beauty, identity and lived experience.
Chantelle Pereira is one of the Yale-affiliated BBP models and her portrait was featured in the exhibition. She said her portrait, photographed by Ismaël Mounime, showcases her disability of endometriosis beautifully through hidden elements placed purposefully on the bookshelf in the background.
“I’m really grateful to the Bold Beauty Project for having such an inclusive defi-
nition of the disability that's allowed me to show endometriosis to the community and show what living with chronic illness is like,” Pereira said.
Pereira said it was gratifying to see so many people supporting community-based art, but also to continue having a space where disabilities can be discussed and showcased openly to debunk stigmas associated with people who have them.
The Yale exhibition was spearheaded by Cassandra Michel, a graduate student in the School of Public Health. She began her journey with the BBP in 2022 creating the university edition series. The project has also mounted exhibitions at the University of Miami and Florida International University.
“At Yale disability isn’t something that people shy away from taking about, but
continuing to break the stigma overall through this project has been amazing,” Michel said.
Another model for the exhibition and national and statewide Latiné disability advocate, Doris Maldonado Mendez and the photographer for her portrait, Kelly Mahoney attended the event.
Maldonado Mendez said her participation in the Bold Beauty Project is a rev-
olutionary act of defiance against invisibility.
“To be seen is to survive; to create in the face of erasure is to reclaim power. The Bold Beauty Project isn’t just art, its resistance embodied,” Maldonado Mendez said.
Her portrait titled “Invisible with Liberty and Justice for All,” which was featured at the exhibit is a crafted visual representation that tells a story of visibility, defiance and self-acceptance.
“Photography, much like policy and advocacy, is a tool for truth-telling. My collaboration with Kelly Mahoney was an act of translating emotion into art,” Maldonado Mendez said.
Mahoney said the process of working on the BBP is a collaboration between herself and the model.
“Her image is something I’ve never done before,” Mahoney said. “I imagined her wearing big angel wings because her journey is never ending.”
Mahoney said working on the BBP gives one of the most marginalized populations a voice and it sparks conversations for those with visible and invisible disabilities, which echoes the mission of the project.
For more information about the Bold Beauty Project and to view past exhibitions, visit its website here or follow @ boldbeautyproj on Instagram.
Jay’Mi Vazquez is a journalism student at Southern Connecticut State University. This story is republished via CT Community News, a service of the Connecticut Student Journalism Collaborative, an organization sponsored by journalism departments at college and university campuses across the state.
Portrait of Doris Maldonado Mendez by Kelly Mahoney.
Dr. Eva Ritvo, Doris Maldonado Mendez, Christina Cabading, Chantelle Pereira, Laura Bairett and Cassandra Michel after the models discussed their personal stories of dealing with disabilities and what the BBP means to them. Jay’Mi Vazquez Photo.
Zine Workshop Centers Poetry, Power & Potential Of The Page
Nelani Mejias, The Arts Paper newhavenarts.org
Inside the Hilton C. Buley Library, two tables full of craft supplies waited eagerly for a flurry of student hands, and the poetry that would push them into motion. Beside a rainbow-patterned assortment of markers, sheets of construction paper and stacks of old magazines beckoned, all asking to be snipped, reconfigured, and given new life.
That was the idea behind “Poetry in Print: Zine workshop,” held on a recent Tuesday afternoon at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU). Sponsored by the Library of the Americas: Latino Poetry, The Latin American and Caribbean Studies program, the Art & Design Department, the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; and the American Institute of Graphic Arts, it showcased the work and mentorship of Daniel “silencio” Ramirez, a current senior at SCSU and founder of El Rincón de Papel.
El Rincón is a community resource supporting Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) creatives working with and in paper-based formats. Like the nascent arts collective Fair Side, it is an artistic venture meant to return power and agency to creators of color who have always been working, but have long been pushed to the artistic margins.
“Paper has been used as a way to combat institutions and oppressions,” Ramirez said, describing the power that zines can have for a community. In New Haven, where they have had something of a renaissance in recent years, that’s especially true.
He explained that having an easy, accessible art medium can provide a sense of solidarity and become a platform where people come together to have a voice. As an early member of Fair Side and longtime maker in Fair Haven, he knows that firsthand: he fell in love with art during his time at New Haven Academy, and has brought that love with him to SCSU.
He’s used zines—small magazines that are both art objects and documents of a specific moment, inherently ephemeral in their nature—to express some of that.
As Ramirez dove into a presentation, he looked to sources like the Queer Zine Archive Project or QZAP, a Milwaukee-based initiative that preserves queer zines and zine culture as time rolls inevitably forward. Like some of the zines that have popped up across New Haven, QZAP recognizes the power of zines as a form of storytelling, documentation, and alternative media, in the same way beloved alt-weeklies were a fixture of the late 20th century and early 2000s.
Ramirez leaned on QZAP’s definition: that a zine is “a self-published, small circulation, non-commercial booklet or magazine, usually produced by one per-
son or a few individuals.” Many things— including low cost and the relative ease of reproduction— have made it a near-perfect medium for marginalized groups, used to uplift voices and create connection.
Ramirez moved forward to a section on the historical background of zines, including a timeline of their use for underground subcultures for decades. These include, for instance, “The Comet,” a science fiction fanzine that ran in the 1930s. Or, Ramirez said, consider zines made during the Riot Grrrl feminist movement of the 90s, all the way up until now.
Zines are still very much alive, he added—and there are many artists for whom they are an ideal medium. Today, they can be found through zine meetups, such as the New Haven Zine Scene, where a per-
son can trade zines, meet other zine makers, and make their own.
Under the all-caps headline, “Zines Are Radical,” Ramirez then moved on to the impact zines can have in a community, both among artists and in a wider social context.
“Zines, as much as they can be a personal expression, can always be used to disseminate information during social movements,” Ramirez said, inviting participants to get a hands-on look at finished zines displayed on a back table. They included, for instance, Connectic*nt, the brainchild of Zoe Jensen, Iyanna Crockett, and Mariana Pelaez, Unmagnolia, and Against The World Plantation among others.
The presentation was meant to prepare attendees to become "zinesters" themselves. In real time, Ramirez also provided an opportunity for attendees to experience zines as the interactive medium they are. Unfolding different pieces and types of paper— cardstock, construction, printer— he showed how each had its own personality. Then he handed out a template with guided lines and page numbers. He taught attendees how to fold their own one-page zine.
For the rest of the time, participants were able to delve into the world of zine making, cutting out images from magazines that interested them, writing a poem, or drawing an original image, all were able to create their own mode of storytelling.
Glue sticks were passed back and forth in tandem with scissors and colored pencils. Encouraging words of praise were traded for the innovative ideas of the person sitting next to them.
Attendees were able to leave the workshop with the principles of zine making— that there are no rules, and they can be made by anyone from any on-hand materials. In turn, they got a reminder: even the smallest of art actions can provide a voice and sense of community for groups that have been marginalized.
Sabrina Selk joins Connecticut Health Foundation as director of policy
HARTFORD, Conn. (April 28, 2025) –
Sabrina Selk, an expert in health equity, public health, and community engagement, is joining the Connecticut Health Foundation as the director of policy.
Selk joins the foundation from the National Network of Public Health Institutes, where she served as director of health and racial equity. She led a team that provided technical assistance and training for local and state public health agencies. She previously served as director of the Office of Health Equity in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, where her leadership work included developing data standards, a community engagement framework, and the LGBTQ Working Group. Selk’s experience also includes serving as associate director of applied research at the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality. In addition, Selk served
for nine years as a commissioner on the Cambridge Human Rights Commission in Massachusetts.
As the director of policy, Selk will oversee the foundation’s policy agenda, working with grantees, policymakers, and other partners to advance health equity through policy development and implementation. She will support grantees in their advocacy work and serve as a resource for policymakers.
“Sabrina will be an exceptional addition to our team, and we are excited for our grantees and partners to get to know her,” said Tiffany Donelson, president and CEO of the Connecticut Health Foundation. “She brings a deep understanding of health equity, public health, and how state and local governments can work with community organizations to create policy change that will improve people’s lives. We are thrilled to have her join the foundation.”
"There are both tremendous areas of need and tremendous opportunities for
John P. Thomas Publisher / CEO
Babz Rawls Ivy Editor-in-Chief Liaison, Corporate Affairs Babz@penfieldcomm.com
improving health across the state. I'm excited to be joining a community of changemakers dedicated to a vision where everyone can achieve their optimal health outcomes,” Selk said. “For decades, Connecticut Health Foundation has been a pillar of the philanthropic community in Connecticut. I am honored for the chance to support their mission to improve the health of all Connecticut residents and ensure health equity."
Selk received her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Washington, and received both a Master of Science and doctorate from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Her first day at the foundation is Monday, April 28.
For more information, please contact Arielle Levin Becker at arielle@cthealth. org or 860-724-1580 x 116.
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Ramirez: Tapping into the radical potential of zines. Photo contributed by Ramirez.
Listen: Breaking Bread, Sharing Stories
Lucy Gellman, Editor, The Arts Paper newhavenarts.org
Shayla Streater can already see the dinner unfolding before her. On one end of the table, old friends and new sit shoulder to shoulder, their hands hovering over oyster mushrooms and okra stew. On the other, someone has just bitten into a root vegetable empanada, and turns the flavor over in their mouth, savoring it. Nearby, storyteller Bruce Trammell, Sr. prepareAs to speak, his voice holding decades of New Haven history.
That’s the dream behind “A Seat at the Table: Breaking Bread Remix,” a series from Streater that puts plant-based food, the power of storytelling, and New Haven’s cherished elders all in conversation with each other. Inspired by her own journey through food and family, the series is meant to raise awareness around both physical and emotional health, from food’s curative properties to the way people show up for each other.
It begins Saturday afternoon, with food from Chef Justin “J-Infuse” Hernandez and an initial story from Trammell, a beloved fatherhood coach and advocate in New Haven (his claim to fame may be teaching chess to hundreds, in not thousands, of young New Haveners). It is a project of Streater’s budding venture Div9ine Enterventions, which seeks to recognize and nurture the divine inherent in all people. Tickets and more information are available here.
“This event was a vision that came to me through meditation,” said Streater on a recent episode of “Arts Respond” on WNHH Community Radio. “I saw my elders coming together, I saw the community coming together, and I saw us eating together, like breaking bread.”
“At the end of the day, it’s about bringing the community [together],” she later added. “It’s time to heal. It’s time to heal. It’s time to heal through conversation, it’s time to have a safe space to just be. Just be. Be your authentic self. There’s no judgement … that’s really what this is about.”
Saturday, that will mean a four-hour cultural and culinary odyssey, beginning with a two-hour cooking class with Hernandez—based on some of Trammell’s favorites—and ending with a night bathed in story. In the middle, attendees will sit down and eat together, regrouping before Trammell takes the stage. Together, the night is meant to both gather and educate the community, giving people the tools to better care for themselves and for each other.
But Streater’s journey to “A Seat At The Table” is a much longer one. While the series unfolds just in time for the rebirth and renewal of springtime, the inspiration behind it has been percolating for years, since she turned to plant-based food as a way to heal herself. At the time, Streater was recovering from the birth of her third child, a daughter who had been born prematurely.
.It was a hard recovery. Streater—who is also statistically less likely to be believed in the American medical system because she is a Black woman—had developed preeclampsia, a dangerous type of high blood pressure that is caused by the stress of pregnancy on the body. In giving life to her daughter, she had almost lost hers. In the weeks and months that followed, one of her doctors predicted that she would never be able to come off medications that helped control her blood pressure following the diagnosis.
But “no’ was not acceptable for me,” Streater remembered. She began to research ways to care for herself beyond medication. She learned how to ask for support, and how to make cooking into a ritual. She started going to farmers’ markets. She also started reading food labels, cooking from scratch and picking out seasonal vegetables, teaching her own children to cook as they got older.
“It’s a way of living, right?” she said, describing everything from homemade barbecue tofu to vegan collard greens with onions, peppers and a hint of liquid smoke. “It’s not a diet. It’s a way of living. And you do have to be gentle when you’re going into this.”
That period of her life is also where the concept of breaking bread comes from. Close to a decade ago, Streater started gathering with a friend, educator and SĀHGE Academy founder Arden Santana, to break bread once a week. It was never fancy: the two pulled from fridge and pantry staples to create a meal. It created a sense of shared community that also let them breathe a little more easily. Meanwhile, their kids got to play together.
“From that, it blossomed,” she said. In 2022, while she was still part of The Elements of Abundance, the idea took root in Hamden’s Town Center Park, among tall, lush late summer grass and a playground filled with laughter. Three years and one venture later, this is its newest form.
In addition to her elders, who she credits constantly, she nodded to the work of the small business incubator Collab, which helped her build Div9ine Enterventions in early 2024. Collab has since joined forces with the Hartford-based organization reSet.
A year later, she said, she’s thrilled to be kicking off the series with Hernandez, who she first met at the Westville-based business BLOOM several years ago. In advance of Saturday’s event, the two worked together to build a menu based on one of Trammell’s most beloved dishes, chicken and dumplings.
Because it is “the remix,” Streater said, it will include oyster mushroom dumplings and okra stew with biscuits, “rooted” vegetable empanadas, fried plantains in fresh, zingy sofrito and crunchy coleslaw with fresh cabbage. After months crafting and recrafting the event, she said, she’s ready.
“We heal through storytelling,” she said. “We find that we have similar stories, and that’s like, wow—that’s something similar to what I’m going through. You hear how someone, they triumphed through that. It’s like, you’re not alone in that situation. You don’t feel alone. You’re sharing that experience with other people.”
"Arts Respond" is a collaboration between WNHH-LP 103.5 FM New Haven and the Arts Council of Greater New Haven.
Shayla Streater pictured with friends Hafeeza Turé and Arden Santana in 2022. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
Court Sides With New Haven, Against Trump
by Thomas Breen
A federal judge in California ruled that the Trump administration can’t withhold funds from New Haven, San Francisco, and a dozen other cities just because they are “sanctuary jurisdictions” that limit local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Judge William Orrick of the U.S. District Court of Northern California handed down that six-page preliminary injunction Thursday in the ongoing federal case City and County of San Francisco v. Donald J. Trump.
Orrick’s order states that the defendants including President Trump, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, among others are “hereby restrained and enjoined from directly or indirectly taking any action to withhold, freeze, or condition federal funds” from the plaintiff cities just because they limit local cooperation with various immigration enforcement orders. The judge’s preliminary injunction essentially invalidates, for now, a handful of Trump’s executive orders including these two – as well as a Feb. 5 directive from the attorney general insofar as they attempt to financially punish municipalities for not proactively assisting the federal government’s immigration enforce-
ment efforts.
There are now a total of 16 plaintiffs, most of which are West Coast cities. They include the California cities of San Francisco, Santa Clara, Oakland, Emeryville, San Jose, San Diego, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, and Monterey. They also include New Haven; Seattle; Minneapolis; St. Paul; Santa Fe; Portland, Oregon; and King County, Washington.
The lawsuit challenges the Trump administration’s executive orders on the grounds that they attempt to“commandeer” city workers to assist in federal immigration enforcement in violation of the 10th Amendment. Defenders of the Trump administration’s orders centralizing power with the presidency have promoted the so-called“unitary executive theory,” which interprets the Constitution in such a way to bolster the president’s control over the shape, administration, and direction of government.
New Haven operates under a“Welcoming City” executive order that Mayor Justin Elicker signed in 2020. That order prohibits city employees from inquiring about someone’s immigration status, disclosing confidential information, or using city resources to assist in an investigation unless compelled by state or federal law. The city also does not coordinate with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE). In preparation
for the Trump administration, all city employees were retrained on the order.
Per Judge Orrick’s order, the Trump administration pushed back on the request for a preliminary injunction by New Haven, San Francisco, and the other municipalities. The administration argued that the executive orders in question “merely provide guidance for executive agencies reviewing federal funding to sanctuary
jurisdictions, and because the Cities and Counties have not yet suffered a loss of funds.”
This is the same argument that the Trump administration made in 2017 during a similar federal court case seeking to prevent the federal government from effectuating similar sanctuary-jurisdiction-punishing orders.
Orrick also heard that case and also ruled for the municipalities and against the Trump administration, as he found “that the plaintiffs had a well-founded fear of enforcement’ of the orders in question.
Mayor Justin Elicker sent out an email press release Thursday and a reelection campaign fundraising email Friday, celebrating the court’s ruling as a victory for New Haven.
“We need to make sure our police department is working to fight crime and not commandeered to do the work of the federal government,” he is quoted as saying in Thursday’s press release. “We are very pleased with this ruling and that New Haven will be able to use lawfully obligated federal funds to further strengthen public safety in our city.”
And in Friday’s campaign email, Elicker wrote, “We were one of the first cities to sue Donald Trump this year, and yes-
terday we had a ground-shifting win.”
He continued: “I’ve said from the very beginning of this administration that I will do everything in my power to stand up and fight for New Haven residents when they come under threat. This victory is a sign that our efforts are working.”
According to Thursday’s press release, New Haven, Minneapolis, Portland, St. Paul, Santa Fe and Seattle are all being represented in this case by Public Rights Project, “a nonpartisan nonprofit that works with local governments to protect civil rights.”
“The law is clear: the federal government can’t coerce local law enforcement to do ICE’s job,” Public Rights Project Founder aned CEO Jill Habig is quoted as saying in Thursday’s press release. “The Trump administration’s attempt to destroy sanctuary cities by stripping funding is an illegal attack on public safety and local authority. We’re proud to stand alongside our government partners to defend their communities and policies that help people thrive.”
Elicker, a Democrat, is seeking a fourth two-year term as the city’s top elected official this municipal election year. He faces a challenge from Republican Steve Orosco, who has said he’s opposed to sanctuary city policies and disagrees with Elicker’s decision to sue the Trump administration on this matter.
Mullins Sworn in as Supreme Court Chief Justice — ‘Destined for Greatness’
by Jamil Ragland
HARTFORD, CT — The Connecticut Supreme Court filled to near capacity Monday, despite there not being a controversial case on the docket.
Rather, the crowd of dignitaries, government officials, family and friends were there to witness Chief Justice Raheem L. Mullins’ swearing-in ceremony.
The proceedings were ceremonial in nature, as Mullins officially began his term on Sept. 30, 2024, three weeks after he was nominated by Gov. Ned Lamont for the position. He replaced Chief Justice Richard A. Robinson, who retired after serving as the court’s first African American chief justice.
Mullins, 47, is the youngest person to ever serve as the chief justice for the state Supreme Court, and only the second African American. He was nominated to the Supreme Court on October 4, 2017, by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and was sworn into the court as an associate justice on Nov. 1, 2017. Before his appointment to the Supreme Court, Mullins served as a judge on the Appellate Court and as a trial judge on the Superior Court.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, said Mullins had made the law “a force for good … a force for justice” during when Mullins had worked in the Child Protection Unit during Blumenthal’s tenure as
attorney general. Blumenthal also commented on the political and social environment in which Mullins would be serving.
“Never before in my life have judges been physically threatened as they are now. Never before have elected officials threatened and frightened people, as they do now,” Blumenthal said. “So
this occasion is meaningful because it gives me, and I hope you a chance to reaffirm our support and admiration for people like the chief justice and others who have served on the bench, federal and state.”
Former Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers told Mullins to rely on his support from the judicial branch, colleagues, family
and friends to confront the difficult challenges which lie ahead.
“Unless you’re extraordinarily lucky, you’ll be faced with some form of crisis during your tenure as chief justice,” she said. “Looking back over just the past 25 years, chief justices have had to deal with separation of powers issues that led to tensions with other branches of gov-
ernment, desperately needed modernization of an institution that prides itself on tradition, budgetary crises, and debt.” Robinson said the day’s proceedings were a reaffirmation of the court’s commitment to justice, fairness, and the rule of law.
“In an era increasingly defined by political polarization, the rule of law stands as an unwavering mandate,” he said. “It forms the bedrock of public trust in our institutions and serves as a guiding mandate in turbulent times.”
He said the current circumstances presented significant challenges.
“There are further complexities on the horizon,” he said. “I find reassurance in the wisdom of an African proverb: ‘Smooth seas do not make good sailors.’”
Calling Mullins his “adopted son,” Justice Lubbie Harper, Jr. told the story of his mentorship of Mullins, and how Mullins impressed him.
“From the earliest days of his legal career, it was evident to me that he possessed a keen intellect, a deep respect for the law, and most importantly a steadfast commitment to fairness and justice,” said Harper. “As his career progressed, I recognized that he was guided by an unshakeable moral compass. When I saw firsthand his appellate advocacy skills, I knew he was destined for greatness.”
Thomas Breen photo Mayor Elicker, fundraising off of fed court injunction: "This victory is a sign that our efforts
Chief Justice Raheem Mullins is sworn in by Gov. Ned Lamont at the CT Supreme Court on April 28, 2025. Credit: Jamil Ragland / CTNewsJunkie
DiasporaCon Delights In Dixwell
by Jisu Sheen
In another era, artist Mahogany Rich went on a first date with her now-ex at Roller Magic in Waterbury. The couple earned a bag full of tickets at the arcade and spent it all on Flippy Frog toys.
“Then we broke up, and now it’s art.”
On Sunday afternoon, those same Flippy Frogs dangled from beaded chains at Rich’s vendor table at New Haven cultural org Kulturally Lit’s graphic novel and comic conference DiasporaCon, where they faced a brighter, or at the very least weirder, future.
The annual conference, featuring Black, Brown, and underrepresented creatives, transformed the event hall at Dixwell art gallery and fellowship program NXTHVN this year as part of Kulturally Lit’s larger effort to promote, nurture, and celebrate the literary arts of the African diaspora. The team, consisting of IfeMichelle Gardin, Shamain McAllister, Zanaiya Leon, and Juanita Sunday, delivered all this and more.
NXTHVN’s event hall buzzed with vendors selling comics, prints, clothing, zines, and jewelry. Some people showed up in costume, including pre-teen jewelry vendors the S.A.N. Girls (Santana, Amayah, and Neváe), who came in coordinated outfits as the PowerPuff Girls. In a lofted area, kids and adults lounged on couches and played video games provided by New Haven arcade lounge Third Space. Upstairs, attendees sat in on talks and workshops on imagination, power, and ingenuity.
Local artists Kulimushi Barongozi and Ruby Gonzalez Hernandez held it down at a zine-making table for El Rincón de Papel, a zine distro run by Fair Haven artist silencio. A few feet away, Candyce “Marsh” John, or Marshun, offered flash tattoos, with designs from a themed selection of well-loved fandoms.
Rhode Island artist k. funmilayo aileru, who came to Connecticut to vend for the event, said it was a “loving day” with good music, good people, and plenty of affirmations of xyr artwork. Quiana Stanley, who works in New Haven with the Arts and Ideas Festival, appreciated the “good, positive energy” blessing her first-ever time vending. She made sure to grab a tattoo from Marshun before the day was over.
Rich, who is an artist from New
Britain studying studio art at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU), used her table to display creations forged in her classrooms and dorm room. She said she likes collecting pretty things and recycling objects that once had a different function. Some of her materials included charging cords, bottle caps, and plastic toys. One of her flippy frogs had silver stars dangling from each of its hands, seeming to conjure something from the ether.
Rich wasted no time adding to her art collection, pasting stickers from fellow vendors Jacqueline Barnes and Tyasha/Ty on her laptop as she waited for people to walk by.
Both Barnes and Ty had participated in a panel earlier that day on radical zines, along with moderator Genesis Cubilette, Shannon Shird, founder of The House of Ease. “It’s part of zine culture to confront things no one wants to confront,” Barnes said.
Rich and Ty reflected this reality, both in their creations and in their appreciation for radical art. When I got to Rich’s table, she was reading a zine she’d gotten from Ty’s table, on abuse in lesbian relationships. Publishing in traditional routes means navigating gates and the keepers of those gates, but with zines, you can pass information quickly and on your own terms.
Kulturally Lit said their focus for this year’s DiasporaCon was on “graphic novels, comics and zines as tools for disrupting, reclaiming and reimagining our histories and futures.” Through the conference, they provided the intellectual grounds to discuss these topics in depth. Crucially for those in Connecticut and beyond, they also set up the perfect physical space for people to create those disruptions together, in real time.
This year, Kulturally Lit celebrates The Year of X: Radical and Revolutionary Reading, honoring Malcolm X and Medgar Evers in their 100th year. They are holding a monthly Year of X book club on the third Thursday of every month at Edgewood bookstore Possible Futures. Their next meeting is Thursday, May 15 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., where they’ll be discussing Ilyasah Shabazz’s book Growing Up X. Kulturally Lit is also collecting nominations through June 30 for New Haven’s poet laureate for 2025 – 26.
Jisu Sheen photos Santana, Amayah, and Neváe of the S.A.N. girls.
Rich reading a zine from Ty's table.
Sky Daniel Blue, 5, catching the gaming spirit.
“Black Governors” Opens At Yale, Centering History
By Jasmine Marshall
Jasmine Marshall is a first-year MBA student at the Yale School of Management and a Board Fellow with the Ely Center of Contemporary Art (ECOCA). She submitted the following as a citizen contribution.
In the glass-lined hallways of the Yale School of Management (SOM), a new presence now holds space—an examination of commerce and the complex history of New Haven. On a recent Thursday, the unveiling of Black Governors, a new painting by Detroit-based artist Mario Moore, transformed the typically corporate setting into a site of cultural and communal memory. Light filtered through the windows as guests gathered, drawn in by Moore’s layered depiction of “Black agency” through time, resistance, and labor.
“Black agency is about the history of this country, drawing attention to historical moments,” Moore said during his artist talk. He also referenced “post-traumatic slave syndrome,” a term coined by Dr. Joy DeGruy, calling attention to the linear trauma Black people have endured in America that still impacts us today. Through his work, Moore sheds light on the often overlooked, albeit available, nuggets of history that highlight this phenomenon, driving viewers to pause and reflect.
Moore’s painting was commissioned by Yale SOM following a yearlong collaboration between the artist and the university, supported by The Artsy Fund, which was established through the generosity of an anonymous donor. Drawing from New Haven’s history of slavery and commerce, Black Governors is both a site-specific reflection and a national commentary. In richly textured oil, Moore highlights Black leaders from the 18th and 19th centuries, focusing on innovators in New Haven such as William Lanson, Bias Stanley, and Margaret Stanley.
The remarkable contributions of these entrepreneurs—Long Wharf, neighborhoods, churches—have shaped the New Haven community in many ways.
The result is a visual archive of Black life and leadership: Yale custodians
("Sweeps") are featured alongside references to one of the earliest known images of an enslaved Black woman in America, from the late 1700s. At first glance, the painting captivates with its detail and precision. But with closer examination, its layers begin to reveal themselves, uncovering histories and narratives that reflect Moore’s commitment to “telling multiple stories within one framework.”
A Portrait of Process
Moore’s process is as much about human connection as it is about visual sto-
rytelling. Before his brush ever touches the canvas, he moves through communities, sketchbook in hand, engaging with people whose stories he hopes to portray.
During his time in a residency program at Princeton University, for instance, he struck up a conversation with Jalen, a local man who worked outside of the university. What began as a casual chat became the start of a portrait partnership.
“It’s not about making a great drawing,” Moore said. “I’m interested in learning what representation means to them and
then working together on the painting.”
This ethos of mutual recognition carries through his practice. When painting figures like Jalen, Moore often produces etchings or prints that he gifts to the subjects. His upcoming contribution to the Ely Center of Contemporary Art's 10th Anniversary Benefit Gala, for instance, is an etching of Jalen, based on the original painting Moore created during his time at Princeton.
“Printmaking started for me when I
studied abroad in Italy in undergrad,” Moore said, reflecting on his interest in exploring different mediums.
Art as Resistance
The artist’s own history—growing up in Detroit with a painter mother, attending Malcolm X Academy, and taking an early apprenticeship with an oil painter—grounds his work in both discipline and defiance. His practice resists erasure, asserting Black presence in spaces where it has historically been denied.
Moore recalled a recent episode where a museum board member resigned in protest over a proposed acquisition of his work. The museum acquired the piece anyway, a testament not only to Moore’s artistic talent but also to the role of art in challenging institutional norms and sparking critical dialogue.
Rather than striving for hyperrealism, Moore focuses on texture and luminosity, qualities that reveal themselves as you zoom into his pieces. “I want you to feel like you can enter into the piece,” he said. In Black Governors, this philosophy becomes visceral. The painting invites the viewer not just to look, but to witness: to consider the legacies of racialized labor, the role of institutions like Yale in shaping those legacies, and the possibilities for reimagining who belongs in spaces of power.
A Living Archive
Attendees at the opening ranged from SOM faculty and students to members of New Haven’s broader arts community. Several lingered near the painting after the talk ended, taking in the details and seizing the opportunity to chat with Moore.
As Moore continues to explore themes of representation, labor, and resistance, his presence in New Haven will live on—not only through Black Governors, but through the etching of Jalen that will soon make its way into another community setting. And for those who walk the halls of Yale SOM in the years to come, Black Governors will remain as a quietly powerful, ever-present, and uncompromising call to remember, reflect, and consider what could be.
Heidi Brooks, Professor and Artsy Fund Committee Member at Yale SOM, artist Mario Moore, and Anita Sharif-Hyder, Dean of Students, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs and Student Life, and Artsy Fund Committee Member at Yale SOM. Mara Lavitt Photos.
Arts Council of greater New Haven
A New Haven Artist Dives Into "The Mind Of A Saint"
By Lucy Gellman
The little boy—later, we’ll learn that his name is Franklin—pedals forward on his bike, eyes fixed on the horizon. He is focused, determined; his mouth hangs open, as if he’s about to shout something into the air. His hands, fingers gently rounded, grip the handlebars. On his back, a green bookbag sits snugly across his shoulders, whole universes stuffed inside.
Welcome to the illustrated version of The Mind of a Saint, a collaboration between artist Raheem Nelson and the lyricist, writer and musician Skyzoo inspired by the eponymously named album and series that inspired it. Based on decades of Black history—and John Singleton’s FX series, Snowfall—Nelson has released a limited run of the book, selling hundreds of copies to a dedicated fan base.
This week, he’ll be presenting it at the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival, a program of Trinity College in Hartford. In a time of increasing uncertainty, he’s counting it as a personal win.
“This has opened a lot of doors already,,” he said in a recent interview at the Ives Main Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library. “I’ve gone from fan to friend to collaborator. It’s a dream project, honestly.”
The idea for the collaboration was born a year ago, after Nelson found himself particularly moved by Skyzoo’s The Mind of a Saint. The album, which came out in January 2023, presents 10 tracks from the perspective of Franklin Saint, the character at the center of Singleton’s Snowfall. In the series, Saint is a young Black kid growing up in 1980s-era Los Angeles, the son to a real estate agent and former Black Panther with whom he is estranged.
Through a series of events—call them decisions, call them systemic failures, call them America’s war on Black men— Franklin becomes involved in selling drugs, using it to build wealth when other sources of labor and income consistently come up short. Around him, America is veering toward the height of the crack epidemic, particularly pronounced in dense, populous and segregated cities like Los Angeles.
When the series came out, Skyzoo— who grew up in Brooklyn’s Crown
Heights neighborhood in the 1980s and 1990s—found that it reminded him of a system that had failed generations of Black men and Black families, in a chapter of recent history that felt distinctly, cruelly American.
“The idea of ‘The Mind of a Saint’ was inspired by growing up in the late 80’s and early through mid 90’s as a child growing up in NYC and seeing the effects of what I, amongst others, feel was a premeditated and predetermined plan to wreak havoc on communities of color, communities of
people who look like myself,” he wrote in a forward to the book. “Communities like the ones I was born and raised in.”
The album blends snippets of the show and tight, often poetic lyrics and audio. In “Panthers and Power,” for instance, Skyzoo samples a tinny, archival recording introducing the Black Panthers’ 10-point program, launched by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in the 1960s. Later in the album, the artist has moved on to the fifth season, and opens with a clip from an episode about the devastation and isolation that comes, inevitably and frequently, from participating in violence— sometimes because the system is already rigged against you—that guts the same communities that raised you.
The first time he heard the album (which, of course, turned him on to the show), Nelson was equally moved. He kept listening, finding new things to appreciate each time he pressed play and traveled through the 10 tracks. A lifelong music lover and self-described grown up “geeky kid,” he’d already been following Skyzoo for about a decade, all the way back to his “Barrel Brothers” and “Music for My Friends” days.
What hooked him, in part, was how cinematic the album felt, as though he could see the scenes playing out in the threeto five-minute chunks that comprised each song. In Snowfall, Franklin Saint is named after Peanuts’ first Black character, himself also a creation of 20th-century Los Angeles history. Nelson, who has been drawing comics for as long as he can remember, couldn’t stop thinking about what an illustrated version might look like. He ultimately decided to reach out to the musician, and leave the rest up to fate. He was thrilled, if also surprised, when Skyzoo responded.
“I went to bed one night and it kind of hit me,” Nelson remembered. “I wanted
to do an art series based on every track of the album—to add something to the music and the show. We would have conversations about what the art would look like—there was a lot to pull from. Each song portrays just a segment of the show.” Now, it lives out in the world, chronicling—not without a critical eye—the same time period that both Singleton and Skyzoo dive into with their work. From Nelson, a viewer can see Franklin’s descent from convenience store clerk into a young guy caught in the midst of a drug epidemic that is so much bigger than him, struggling to step back without losing everything he has.
On one page, he and colleagues roll giant, snowball-colored boulders up a hill, his head tilted down as a supervisor—call him a kingpin, or maybe an overseer— looks on from above, a foam cup perched in his hand. There’s something deeply Sisyphean here, undercut with the fact that it’s a cartoon character bringing the scene to life.
In another, Franklin is hunched in his kitchen, in front of a pink platform that reads “Mother Knows Best.” Behind it, his mom, Cissy, listens with her head tilted to one side, a concerned look on her face. Behind her, an electric mixer sits untouched on the counter; the buds of a tree and smear of sky appear through a window. The image works on multiple levels, a direct quotation of Schultz’ comic strip, in which Lucy sets up a lemonade stand and offers five-cent psychiatric consults to Charlie Brown.
What Nelson nails, in this Schultzification of Franklin and of those around him (the characters, all done in a Peanuts-esque style, are figures from the FX series), is a balance between the fleeting, delicate and precarious nature of youth and the devastating realities of a drug epidemic in Con’t on page 11
“NEXT LEVEL CHEF” STAR CATHY CANN TURNS UP THE HEAT TO HEADLINE VIP HOUR AT CONNECTICUT’S BEARDSLEY ZOO’S WILD WINE, BEER & FOOD SAFARI!
Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo turns up the heat for this year’s Wild Wine, Beer & Food Safari on Saturday June 7th, with a next-level, local celebrity twist.
Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo is thrilled to announce that Chef Cathy Cann, the culinary queen behind Cat’s Kitchen of Connecticut, will be featured during VIP Hour at this year’s must-attend fundraising event! Cathy Cann was recently a participant on FOX’s hit show "Next Level Chef" with Gordon Ramsay, where her bold flavors and creative cooking took the stage.
Guests at the VIP Hour on Saturday, June 7th will get a chance to taste Cat’s creations in person—before the gates open. With early entry, special animal encounters, and exclusive pours from Foolproof Brewing, Sound Coffee and Bites Company, this experience is nothing short of unforgettable. Tickets for VIP hour are limited and almost sold out, click here for your ticketshttps://www.beardsleyzoo. org/wild-wine.html.
Chef Cathy Cann’s involvement is a preview of the caliber of offerings attendees will find throughout the entire event. The Wild Wine, Beer & Food Safari is a full-flavored expedition through a vibrant scene with over 40 incredible foods, beer, and wine vendors, each offering tastes as exciting and diverse as the animals on exhibit.
Wild Wine, Beer & Food Safari features fare from local restaurants and caterers such as: Amrita Health Foods, The Batch Pantry, Colossal Kielbasa, Shake Shack, East Coast Clambakes, Dave Grant Caterers, Fortuna’s, Garden Catering, Lesser Evil, Little Pub, Nuovo Pasta, Palmer’s Catering & Events, Retreat Sweets, Rose Sisters Chips, Taco Loco, The Taste Garden, Vazzy’s, and Vinny’s Pizza. Guests will also enjoy live music, fun games, a premium silent auction, and encounters with amazing zoo animals. Don’t miss your chance to eat, drink, and go wild for a great cause! Click here for tickets and more details https://www.
beardsleyzoo.org/wild-wine.html.
As one of the Zoo's largest fundraisers, Wild Wine, Beer and Food Safari supports the care of endangered species, exhibit expansions, and educational programming. This is an adult only 21+ event, rain or shine. For tickets visit https://www. beardsleyzoo.org/wild-wine.html.
Thank you to all sponsors who make this event possible: Generous Guinea Hog Sponsors M&T Bank. Grand Gator Sponsor Liberty Bank. Big Hearted Bear Sponsors Aquarion, Ring’s End, Coca-Cola Northeast, Baileys and Casamigos. Opulent Otter Sponsors: Industrial Health & Safety Consultants, LLC and Shoprite. Kind Condor Sponsor: Robinson & Cole LLP.
To volunteer, sponsor, purchase tickets, or more about the silent auction please visit the website athttps://www.beardsleyzoo.org/wild-wine.html. Stay updated by following us on Facebook and Instagramfor the latest news and announcements.
Nelson at the Ives Main Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library. This week, he'll be presenting some of his work at the Trinity International Hip Hop Festival in Hartford. Lucy Gellman Photo.
Arts Council of greater New Haven
At Local Shelter, Men’s Group Participants Seek Hope & Direction
by Lisa Reisman
“One thing I know for sure. I do not want to die in the streets. I want to live a good life so when I die, they’re saying good things about me 20 years from now.”
One of the attendees of a men’s group called HIMpact shared those words at a Wooster Square-area shelter Saturday afternoon.
The group’s participants requested to remain anonymous to preserve their privacy.
HIMpact founder Marcus Harvin came up with the idea for the group from conversations with the shelter’s clients while he and his team were delivering food to the shelter as part of Fresh Starts, the organization he created using excess meals from area universities to ensure no one goes hungry.
Harvin led a similar group while incarcerated at McDougall-Walker Correctional Institution with Babatunde Akinjobi, now a HIMpact facilitator. “We saw how it could be life-changing in helping people overcome depression, addiction, incarceration,” Harvin said. “Men don’t like to open up about themselves, but give them something they can connect to, and they will.”
Cont from page 10
"The Mind Of A Saint"
which the U.S. government (and a growing, anti-Black surveillance state) was an active participant.
If a reader knows Peanuts, that makes sense: Charlie Brown is a kid with a generalized anxiety disorder, always on the precipice of some existential platter of woe. Nelson, a son of New Haven, grew up loving the series. It’s also cheeky: Peanuts’ Franklin has good grades, he plays music, his dad is a Veteran and he doesn’t get in trouble. He meets Charlie Brown on the beach, when he returns a ball to the character. Here, that gentleness is punctured by something much more raw.
“Raheem has been an excellent illustrator and artist in his own right for as long as anyone can remember, and the inspiration that he drew from my lyrics came together in a way that I couldn’t have pictured any better in illustrated form,” Skyzoo wrote in a forward to a limited print run of the book. “Proud is an understatement … I’m humbled and gracious to see it come together.”
For Nelson, it’s part of a creative dream that’s still evolving. Eventually, he said, he’d like to hold an exhibition of his work in L.A., with the showrunners, cast and crew members from the series. Six years after Singleton’s death in 2019, that carries even more weight, as a way to keep his work alive.
“I create art because I love it,” he said. “I create art because I want to make the world a better place. I wanted to tell this story without judgement, in a special way.”
In weekly meetings since November, Harvin has distributed copies of The Alchemist and To Kill a Mockingbird, with the group discussing their larger meanings. They’ve taken on topics that range from personal destiny to the power of faith to changing the narrative.
On Saturday, the topic was legacy. Harvin said he had passed Evergreen Cemetery, where his grandmother is buried, on his
way to the group. “There’s tombstones there that only have someone’s name, birth date and death date,” he told the 19 men seated in rows of rectangular tables.
“Maybe their family didn’t have enough money to do more than that, but still a question came to mind. If I die today, what would they say? What would be my legacy?”
“He tried to do the right thing,” said one
man in the second row after a long pause.
“He didn’t have much to pass on with money, but he passed on his experience, his wisdom,” another said.
“I always made people smile,” said a third.
“How about you?” Harvin asked a young man with his head down in the front row. “How would you want to be remembered?”
“My mom would say I’m kind,” he said. Harvin asked what the man would say about himself.
“I honestly don’t have the right to say how I’ll be remembered,” he replied. “I don’t really have that much experience, except in construction. All I know is I have a job interview on Monday, and that’s all I can think about.”
“Okay, so that’s amazing,” said Akinjobi, the facilitator. “That means you’re driven, determined. Don’t diminish that.”
Harvin agreed. “There’s not very many people looking for jobs in a shelter because they look at this as security,” he said. “It’s not. It’s a stepping stone.”
Another man chimed in. “What I’m doing right now, trying to stay positive, and people are coming through trying to help me.
By me staying focused, I ignore the negative, I just keep moving.” He had gone to another men’s group earlier that week.
“It just brought it home, that if you stay positive, if you stay focused on what you have to do, good things will come.”
The doorbell buzzed. Someone else came in, nodded at Harvin, and took a seat.
A man in the front row who seemingly had been absorbed in his iPad looked up. “I’ve been doing jail time since ’89, in and out, and I’m getting tired,” he said. “I’m too old, life is too short.” He had recently gone to the New Haven Green. “I sit on the bench there and that’s no place to hang out,” he said. “I seen people dying out there, overdosing. I go ‘wow. I gotta get myself outta here.’”
Akinjobi interjected. “I would say that’s a step forward,” he said. “You knew to remove yourself.” That showed, he said, “a transition within yourself. I’m a different person. I’m not like this. Let me move on.”
Harvin sounded a similar refrain. “These are some of the worst days of your life, but there’s something inside each of you guys that the average person doesn’t have, and that’s the ability to remain positive in a negative situation,” he said. “Our friend here went to the Green for the last time. That’s a positive step.”
The next one, he said, “you have to outgrow the shelter. Your mind has to realize you deserve better, you have to internalize it, believe it to the point that you become it. You don’t belong here, you just happen to be here. Make it your business to get too big for this place.
“One thing I know for sure,” he went on. “Your eulogy is not going to be preached about you living here or dying here. You’re just traveling through. This is just a pit stop.”
Blumenthal, Elicker Blast Visa Revocations
by Nathaniel Rosenberg
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal marked Thursday’s “day of action” for higher education by sending a letter to senior Trump administration officials demanding information about at least 53 international students across Connecticut who have had their visas revoked.
Blumenthal, Mayor Justin Elicker and 20 orange-clad members of Local 33, Yale’s graduate student union, also gathered on the second floor of City Hall to decry those visa revocations, which the senator described as an “attack on higher education.”
“We’ve watched, in horror, over these last weeks, as international students with valid visas have seen those visas revoked,” Blumenthal said at Thursday morning’s press conference. “We’ve watched the revocation of those student visas, arbitrarily, capriciously, without any apparent due process or rhyme or reason. These visas have just been revoked on the say-so of officials in Washington.”
In the letter, which is addressed to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons, Blumenthal requested the total number of visas revoked by the administration, as well as the forms of notice and due process students received to challenge the revocations. Blumenthal
requested a response by April 25. Click here to read the full letter.
The visas of at least 13 international students at the University of Connecticut have been revoked, along with at least 40 from the member schools of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, which represents 14 private colleges and universities.
Rubio has defended the visa revocations
as necessary to clamp down on what he described as “lunatics” disrupting campuses with pro-Palestinian activism. In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order promising to “quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses.”
It is not clear if any of the students with visas revoked in Connecticut were involved in pro-Palestinian campus activism.
At the Thursday morning presser, Blumenthal argued that the worsening academic climate for international students, particularly graduate researchers, hurts the state’s economy, which is disproportionately dependent on educated researchers.
“We don’t have gold mines, we don’t have oil wells, we don’t have the Grand Canyon,” Blumenthal said. “What we have is really smart people who work hard and study and then graduate and stay here and produce research as well as economic benefits. Our great resource is human talent.”
The event’s other speakers presented dire visions of Trump’s governance. Elicker lambasted Trump in a fiery speech, saying his administration is causing “America’s great decline.” Arita Acharya, a Yale graduate researcher in genetics and Local 33’s Secretary-Treasurer, added that the administration’s targeting of immigrants and international students is “catastrophic for our nation’s standing on the global stage.”
Despite this, Blumenthal seemed optimistic that he would be able to find bipartisan support in the Senate to oppose the visa revocations, saying he thinks Republican senators are “increasingly dismayed” by the Trump administration and fearful of the political cost of supporting him. So far, Republican senators have largely backed Trump’s crackdown on international students.
Lisa Reisman photo Marcus Harvin leading Saturday's men's group.
Nathaniel Rosenberg Photos Blumenthal: Visa revocations have been "horrific."
The New Haven independent
State Leaders Describe ‘Con Artist’ Trump’s First 100 Days as ‘Devastating’
by Donald Eng
HARTFORD, CT – Connecticut’s constitutional officers issued a call to action Tuesday to state residents concerned about the direction the country is going during Donald Trump’s second administration.
“The scale of the devastation and the destruction in just 100 days is unprecedented,” said Attorney General William Tong. “It has been devastating for our state. For people, for families. For real people, for neighbors and friends, for our communities and our cities.”
Tong called the current climate in the United States a constitutional crisis.
“We live in a country, right now, where I never thought we would see it,” he said. “People are picked up randomly off the street and subject to extraordinary rendition.”
The term extraordinary rendition refers to a US Government practice of transporting someone to a foreign country for detention outside the legal safeguards for prisoners.
“Remember that word? Extraordinary rendition? Kidnapping. People taken off American streets, Connecticut streets,” he said.
Treasurer Erick Russell said he was most saddened for those who voted for Trump under what he called false pretenses.
“Many people who supported this president did so because they were struggling,” he said. “And they were pitched a vision of economic prosperity and affordability. And what we have seen over the past 100 days has been the exact op-
posite.”
Russell referred to “haphazard on and off” tariffs that he said were “ultimately a tax on working families, increasing the cost of things that they rely on.”
But, Russell said, the American people were wising up.
“People are starting to pick up the game,” he said. “People are picking up on this con that’s being perpetrated by, frankly, the biggest con artist that we’ve
had in this country.”
Governor Ned Lamont criticized the climate of fear he said had taken hold in colleges and universities, where students feared being deported if they attend anti-war protests.
“Those kids are scared,” he said. “One day their visas are canceled, the next day they’re coming back. … That’s sending the wrong signal around the world. This is not who we are.”
“Every day I hear that our trans kids, our Hispanic kids, don’t feel safe coming back to our schools,” he said. “And every day, each of us standing here together working arm in arm want you to know: We want you here in this state. We want you in our schools.”
The good news, Comptroller Sean
Scanlon said, is that ultimately power still rests with the people.
“We still have a democracy even though that democracy is under assault,” he said.
House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford issued a response to the Democrats’ event Tuesday afternoon that did not address any of the points they made.
“Connecticut Democrats have some nerve,” he wrote. “The same party that’s turned our state into one of the most unaffordable places to live had the gall to hold another scary press conference with manufactured outrage about affordability and fiscal responsibility – just one day after it was revealed that the departing CSCU chancellor will keep his bloated salary for what sounds like a no-show job. And they defended that. That’s not just hypocrisy; it’s political theater at its most insulting…. If they want to talk about ‘con artists,’ they’d better start by looking in the mirror.”
Later Tuesday, US Rep. Joe Courtney also issued a statement, saying 100 days into his term Trump had broken his promises to lower costs; protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; and stop waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.
The cost of gas, groceries, and homes is up, Courtney said, and as a result the majority of Americans have a negative view of Trump’s handling of the economy.“President Trump has signed over 100 executive orders. Not one has lowered costs,” Courtney said in a March 31 floor speech, adding that “inflation is up. Consumer confidence has tanked.”
Tong Joins Lawsuit Against Trump Tariffs
by Jamil Ragland
HARTFORD, CT – Connecticut will join 11 other states in suing the Trump administration to halt what Attorney General William Tong called the president’s “lawless” tariff policies, Tong announced Wednesday afternoon.
Standing in the lobby of the attorney general’s office building on Capitol Avenue, Tong was flanked by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, and Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District.
“We’re suing because the president is hurting people here in Connecticut right now,” Tong said. “But we’re also suing because his actions are utterly unlawful, unconstitutional, unauthorized, whatever the word is. He’s got no power to go through with this.”
The lawsuit, being led by Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, alleges that the president does not have the constitutional authority to impose tariffs.
“The Constitution assigns to Congress, not the president, the ‘Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,” Art. I, § 8,” the lawsuit states.
“Yet over the last three months, the President has imposed, modified, escalated, and suspended tariffs by executive order, memoranda, social media post, and agency decree. … By claiming the authority to impose immense and ever-changing tariffs on whatever goods entering the United States he chooses, for whatever reason he finds convenient to declare an emergency, the President has upended the constitutional order and brought chaos to the American economy.”
Trump has claimed the authority to levy a 10% tariff on most imports, and in some cases much higher, to the United States under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Trump declared a national emergency regarding trade on April 2, arguing that under the conditions of an emergency, IEEPA empowers him to act. Tong rejected that argument on Wednesday.
“I, and my tax lawyer wife, and attorneys general in other states have had to learn what IEEPA means and what it does,” he said. “Let me tell you what it doesn’t do. It doesn’t authorize the president to levy tariffs. It says nothing about tariffs. And only when there is an unusual and extraordinary
threat to our country and national security can he act. He hasn’t made that showing.”
Tong cited research from the non-partisan Yale Budget Lab, which stated that the tariffs will increase annual costs for consumers by $4,900 per household. Consumers will pay 87% more for shoes and 65% more for clothing in the short term. In addition, food prices will be 2.6% higher in the short term, and motor vehicles will rise 12% in the short term.
Blumenthal said the decision to sue was not made easily. He said he has done so in the past as attorney general and it is not done lightly.
“It’s a last resort,” he said. “It’s done because the harm is so grievous and urgent and the lawbreaking is so clear and blatant that there’s no choice but to go to court and say to the president of the United States, you are breaking the law. You are hurting people, you’re harming them, and you are creating a burden for the people of Connecticut whose well-being we represent.” Courtney, who serves as a senior member on the Armed Services Committee, said his primary concern was the impact that Trump’s tariffs will have on military partnerships and deals between the United States and its allies.
“Connecticut is an export-oriented state,”
he said. “If you look at our geography, if you look at our gross domestic product that we produce in terms of goods and services, we have to have trade in terms of creating and maintaining the wealth that exists in this state.”
He said one concrete example is in the aerospace industry. He cited a 2023 deal between Lockheed Martin and Canada to sell the northern neighbor 88 F-35 fighter planes, with every engine for those planes being built in Connecticut at Raytheon and Pratt and Whitney. That deal will potentially come under review from the next prime minister as a result of Washington’s tariff policies, he said.
He also referred to AUKUS, a trilateral security agreement between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom that sets the stage for three Virginia-class nuclear submarines to be built and delivered to Australia in the 2030’s, with significant parts of the work being done in Connecticut. That deal is also under threat thanks to the Trump tariffs, he said.
“This is totally unjustified, totally unnecessary, and, as the attorney general said, totally unconstitutional,” Courtney said.
Attorney General William Tong answers questions about Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office outside the State Capitol in Hartford on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. Credit: Donald Eng / CTNewsJunkie
Lamont said schools should be a place where students feel safe.
Attorney General William Tong addresses the media on April 23, 2025, joined by Rep. Joe Courtney, left, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, right. Credit: Jamil Ragland / CTNewsJunkie
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Historic Black Sites Under Threat, May 3 Mobilization Set
By Stacy M. Brown BlackPressUSA.com Correspondent
Reverend Shavon Arline-Bradley, president and CEO of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), is mobilizing a national response to what she called a deliberate effort by the Trump administration to erase Black history and dismantle long-standing institutions. “Our ancestors have seen racism before,” Bradley said on Black Press USA's Let It Be Known news program. “But they haven’t seen this level of foolishness in the White House that is outright anti-law. What we’re seeing now is lawlessness.” NCNW has adopted a “Three C Strategy”—consumer action, constituent engagement, and commitment—aimed at protecting Black institutions and advancing economic power. That includes defending NCNW’s historic headquarters, the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House in Washington, which Bradley warned could be targeted by the Department of the Interior.
Across the city, civil rights veteran Dr. Frank Smith is fighting to complete the expansion of the African American Civil War Memorial Museum. Budget freezes have stalled progress. “We survived slavery, Jim Crow, and the Ku Klux Klan. We’ll survive this,” Smith said. “African-American soldiers helped Lincoln save this union. Now, we need to finish what we started.”
Meanwhile, Black Press USA has confirmed that the Trump administration has begun dismantling exhibits at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Journalist
April Ryan reported the removal of the iconic Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in exhibit. The display honors four North Carolina A&T students who sparked a national wave of protests in 1960. “This
president is a master of distraction and is destroying what it took 250 years to build,” said Rep. Alma Adams of North Carolina. “You can take down exhibits, close buildings, ban books, and try to
change history, but we will never forget.”
Officials also notified Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, pastor of San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church, that his loaned Bible and a historic volume by George W. Williams would be returned. Emails dated April 10 and 15 confirmed the transfer. Bradley said a national mobilization is set for May 3 in Washington, D.C., urging people to join the Smithsonian and support endangered cultural institutions. “This is not random,” she said. “This is consistent. This is deliberate.” NCNW is also countering recent executive orders eliminating civil rights protections and gutting diversity programs. “We’re issuing a newsletter to respond to every executive order so that Black women understand what this water hose is all about,” Bradley said. She also called out Target’s retreat from its 2020 diversity pledges. “They were the leaders in DEI. But now they’re scared. We need to push them to do the right thing anyway, even if the words change.” With $1.7 trillion in annual Black consumer spending—half from Black women—Bradley said economic power must be leveraged. “That kind of economic power should never be underestimated.” She concluded, “The Black Press is our Underground Railroad. If we don’t invest in the Black Press, we lose our Underground Railroad—period.”
Despite Trump’s Crackdown, Some Colleges Rebrand DEI Programs Instead Of Eliminating Them
The Trump administration has not demonstrated that DEI college programs are violating the law, causing confusion responses from Harvard University and Columbia University.
As the Trump administration intensifies its campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in higher education, it has yet to substantiate claims that these programs violate federal law.
The lack of clear legal justification has led to widespread confusion and inconsistency across academic institutions. Many institutions have not gotten rid of DEI.
According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, there have been changes at 324 college campuses across 39 states, with many of those universities opting to fold their DI departments into other departments instead of dismantling them completely.
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Justin Driver, a professor at Yale Law School and a Constitutional and education expert, told The New York Times that the Trump’s administration’s desire to make colleges and K-12 school districts submit to its desires is alarming.
“The Trump administration is trying to use a relatively narrow decision and turn it into a broad holding that brings about whatever it wishes,” Driver told the outlet.
Although the administration has argued that some diversity programs violate federal civil rights law, they have not, according to legal experts, been able to cite a clear
violation of existing law.
According to Politico, 27 of 31 flagship universities in red states have made chang-
es to their diversity offices since 2021, and the response to Trump in particular from higher education has been captured by the
Columbia capitulated. Harvard refused to comply, which resulted in a declaration from the Trump administration that the letter Harvard received was from rogue actors.
Tabbye Chavous, the vice provost for Equity and Inclusion at the University of Michigan, said that there is no plan from universities on how to address the needs of historically marginalized students without diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“If we just dismantle things and don’t replace it with anything else, then we actually are not just dismantling an office—we’re actually turning our back on the goal,” Chavous told Politico. “We’re saying we don’t care about increasing our Black enrollment; we don’t care about increasing our Latino enrollment; we don’t care about increasing our Asian enrollment; we don’t care about efforts that support our disability community. None of these goals are illegal.”
Like colleges and universities, companies have also rebranded their DEI programs, although they technically can’t have funds pulled or don’t actually have to comply with the unclear executive order unless they’re government contractors.
According to CNBC, this is exempli-
fied by the work of Paradigm, a consulting firm which post-George Floyd, said that it helped its clients “harness the power of diversity and inclusion to create a culture where everyone can do their best work and thrive,” the company’s website now says that its solutions “create an inclusive, high-performance culture where everyone can do their best work and thrive,” a subtle change which its CEO, Joelle Emerson explained to the outlet.
“We started using that a lot on our websites so that companies searching for ‘DEI’ could find us,” Emerson said. “Pre-election, as we were seeing a lot of the backlash, we reduced our use of the acronym because I didn’t think it would be the best description of what we do.”
Fran Harris, an entrepreneur based in Austin, told CNBC that moving away from using DEI or its acronym isn’t necessarily the solution either.
“DEI means everybody has a fair and equitable opportunity to succeed. We have to remind people what DEI is–it is the work. It’s not just an acronym. It’s the work of creating equal opportunities, period,” Harris said.
RELATED CONTENT: Trump’s Anti-DEI Review On Federal Attractions Threatens Future Of African-American Museum
Portrait of a person holding hand-made sign on cardboard about equal rights for every person. (Photo by Leo Patrizi)
Civil Rights Groups to White House: ‘We Won’t Back Down’
By Stacy M. Brown BlackPressUSA.com Correspondent
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights has launched “The Pact: A Civil Rights Coalition Unity Commitment,” a declaration of mutual support among dozens of major nonprofit organizations representing millions of people nationwide. The coalition said it’s responding directly to escalating threats and retaliatory actions by the White House and federal agencies targeting groups engaged in public service, advocacy, and civil rights work. The Leadership Conference said that for 75 years, it has helped secure every major federal civil rights law enacted in the United States. It warned that the same government systems used to advance justice are being weaponized to suppress it. “Today we face a campaign by the government to interrupt and intimidate the ability of those who represent the vulnerable, ensure people know their rights, have a voice to make demands of their government, organize unions and speak freely and have their rights protected,” the Pact states. “We will not be silent, divided, or stop serving the public or allow the people we serve to be harmed.”
The coalition cited specific government actions that it says are designed to dismantle public services, eliminate oversight, and undermine nonprofit or-
ganizations. These actions include the termination of grants without cause, politically motivated investigations into climate and civil rights groups, threats to tax-exempt status, and a chilling effect on pro bono legal support out of fear of retribution. “The administration has made clear it will attack organizations that speak truth to power, defend the vulnerable, petition and sue the government, preserve and share knowledge, and fight for our freedoms,” the Pact continues. “They want us to fight alone, hoping we’ll stay silent as others are targeted. Not us.” The Pact outlines a series of commitments among the signatories. If any organization is unjustly targeted, the others have pledged to stand with it. They will share knowledge and resources, refuse to censor their missions, and continue advocating for the communities they serve—re-
gardless of political pressure.
The coalition includes organizations representing people who are Black, Latino, White, Asian, Indigenous, LGBTQ+, disabled, immigrant, working-class, and of all faiths and backgrounds. Together, they reaffirm their support for basic rights and services, including access to healthcare, quality education, legal representation, clean air and water, the right to vote, and protection from discrimination. The Leadership Conference said the government’s current actions seek to isolate and silence advocates while concentrating wealth and power in the hands of a few. “We will not be divided,” the Pact declares. “We will not be intimidated into silence or abandoning our communities.” More than 70 civil rights, labor, faithbased, and public interest organizations signed the Pact. Among them are the ACLU, National Urban League, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, UnidosUS, National Organization for Women, People for the American Way, and the League of Women Voters. “We have the right to assemble—and we will continue to do just that, and we will encourage and support people and allied organizations to do the same, uniting across communities, sectors, issue areas, and identities,” the coalition said. “We will not be silenced. We will continue to do the work that puts people over power.”
Photo Caption: Protesters during a demonstration in the street (Photo By FG Trade)
Continuum of Care, New Haven, Connecticut –
LEGAL NOTICE INVITATION TO BID
LEGAL NOTICE INVITATION TO BID: CONTINUUM OF CARE, NEW HAVEN is requesting licensed and insured general contractor bids for their property located at 501 Quinnipiac Avenue, New Haven.
Demolition and Replacement of exterior 2nd floor deck. Architect demo and construction drawing requests should be sent to moconnor@continuumct.org . Further information and detail of scope will be reviewed by the owner and architect on the scheduled site visit. GC price should include dumpster and permit feeds. The project is tax-exempt and funded by the City of New Haven. Minority/women’s business enterprises are encouraged to apply. Project will have Section 3 Compliance and Davis-Bacon/Prevailing Wage rate. The selected company and any subcontractors must comply with EEOC workforce requirements. A bidding site meeting will be held at 501 Quinnipiac Avenue, New Haven on 4/3/2025 at 11am. Additional questions post site visit must be in writing, due by 5 pm on April 8th. All questions will be answered in writing by 5 pm on April 12. All bids are due by 4/16/2025 at 10 am. All bids, W9, work scope/project timeline, COI should be submitted in writing to Monica O’Connor via emailmoconnor@continuumct.org or delivered to 285 State Street, Unit 13 North Haven.
LEGAL NOTICE
The South Central Regional Council of Governments (“SCRCOG”) will be accepting sealed Qualifications for Temporary Planning & Zoning Services. SCRCOG is seeking planning and/or zoning firms to provide temporary and durational services to all fifteen municipalities in the region. Disciplines include, but are not limited to, municipal planning, zoning enforcement, land use regulation, environmental planning, GIS & mapping, and community engagement. Disadvantaged, minority, small, and women-owned business enterprises are encouraged to respond.
The complete request for qualification (“RFQ”) document can be obtained on the SCRCOG website, www.scrcog.org/
RFQs shall be submitted in the manner specified to the SCRCOG Regional Purchasing Consortium, 127 Washington Avenue, 4th Floor West, North Haven, CT 06473, until 12:00 P.M. eastern standard time on Wednesday, May 28th, 2025
For questions concerning this RFQ, contact Brendon Dukett, Municipal Services Coordinator at bdukett@scrcog.org. SCRCOG is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
INVITATION TO BID:
SEYMOUR HOUSING AUTHORITY
Sealed bids are invited by the Housing Authority of the Town of Seymour until 2:00 pm on Thursday, April 24, 2025 at its office at 28 Smith Street, Seymour, CT 06483 for the COMBINED HEAT & POWER COGENERATION EQUIP-
MENT REPLACEMENT at the Reverend Albert Callahan House, 32 Smith Street Seymour. The work includes the replacement of combined heat and power cogeneration equippment.
A mandatory pre-bid conference will be held at the Reverend Albert Callahan House at 2:00 pm, on Tuesday, April 8, 2025.
Bid Documents may be obtained by visiting www.seymourhousing.org Under the Contact Us tab select Bid Opportunities and find the RFP for Combined Heat & Power Co-Generation Equipment Replacement.
The Housing Authority reserves the right to accept or reject any or all bids, to reduce the scope of the project to reflect available funding, and to waive any informalities in the bidding, if such actions are in the best interest of the Housing Authority.
A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from 360
https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway
The Glendower Group
Request for Proposals
Site Civil Engineer- Church Street South Development
The Glendower Group is currently seeking proposals from qualified firms for Site Civil Engineer. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on
Monday, March 24, 2025, at 3:00PM.
WATER TREATMENT
The Town of Wallingford Water Division is seeking qualified candidates for Water Treatment Pumping Operator I to operate and maintain the Town’s potable (drinking) water treatment plant and pumping, storage tank, pressure regulating and groundwater well facilities. Must possess a H.S. diploma or equivalent with 1 year of experience involving the operation and maintenance of equipment used in water supply and treatment; or a technical high school diploma with demonstrated career and technical education related to electronics technology, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, or water supply and treatment activities and operation; or completion of a program in water management. Applicants must possess State of Connecticut Department of Public Health Class I (WTP I) or higher Water Treatment Plant Operator certification, and completion of a program in water management or have the ability to obtain both within twelve (12) months from the date of hire. Must possess and maintain a State of Connecticut driver’s license. Wages: $29.61 - $35.75 hourly, plus an excellent fringe benefits package that includes pension plan, paid sick and vacation time, medical insurance, life insurance, 13 paid holidays, and a deferred compensation plan. To apply online by the closing date of April 29, 2025, please visit: www.wallingfordct.gov/government/departments/human-resources/. Applications are also available at the Department of Human Resources located in Room #301 of the Town Hall, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Phone: (203) 294-2080; Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE
METERING SUPERVISOR
The Town of Wallingford, CT is offering an excellent career opportunity for a strong leader to supervise and manage the meter department of the Town’s Electric Division. Applicants should possess 3 years of progressively responsible supervisory or management experience in a utility relating to metering, plus a bachelor's degree in engineering, or an equivalent combination of education and qualifying experience substituting on a year-for-year basis. Must possess and maintain a valid State of Connecticut Driver’s License. Annual Salary: $115,203 to $144,003. The Town offers an excellent fringe benefits package that includes pension plan, paid sick and vacation time, medical insurance, life insurance, 13 paid holidays, and deferred compensation plan. To apply online by the closing date of May 5, 2025, please visit: www.wallingfordct.gov/ government/departments/human-resources/. Applications are also available at the Department of Human Resources located in Room #301 of the Town Hall, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Phone: (203) 294-2080; Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE
CLINICIAN
The Town of Wallingford is seeking a qualified professional to perform social work, counseling, case management, and crisis intervention services to youth and adult clients in the community. Requires a Master’s Degree in Counseling, Marital and Family Therapy, Social Work, or related field with training in crisis intervention and community services, and two (2) years’ experience in counseling or social work with youth and adult populations. Bilingual language skills (Spanish/English) are desirable. Must possess and maintain State of Connecticut licensure as a Clinical Social Worker, Marital and Family Therapist, or Professional Counselor, and a driver’s license. Wages: $32.08 to $38.98 hourly. The Town offers an excellent fringe benefits package that includes pension plan, paid sick and vacation time, individual and family medical insurance, life insurance, 13 paid holidays, and deferred compensation plan. The closing date will be April 23, 2025 or the date the 25th application is received, whichever occurs first. To apply online, please visit: www.wallingfordct.gov/government/departments/human-resources/. Applications are also available at the Department of Human Resources located in Room #301 of the Town Hall, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Phone: (203) 294-2080; Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE
ELECTRICAL / ELECTRONIC TECHNICIAN
Performs skilled work in the repair, maintenance and calibration of all electrical and electronic equipment pertaining to the wastewater treatment plant in the Town of Wallingford. Applicants should possess a H.S., technical or trade school diploma, plus 2 years of experience in the repair and maintenance of electrical and electronic equipment; or an equivalent combination of experience and training substituting on a yearfor-year basis. Must possess a valid Connecticut Driver's License. Hourly rate: $32.24 to $36.79. The Town offers an excellent fringe benefits package that includes pension plan, paid sick and vacation time, medical insurance, life insurance, 13 paid holidays, and deferred compensation plan. To apply online by the closing date of April 22, 2025, please visit: www.wallingfordct.gov/government/departments/human-resources/. Applications are also available at the Department of Human Resources located in Room #301 of the Town Hall, 45 South Main Street, Wallingford, CT 06492. Phone: (203) 294-2080; Fax: (203) 294-2084. EOE
ELM CITY COMMUNITIES
Invitation for Bids
Comprehensive Pest Control Services for Rodents and Insects
Elm City Communities is currently seeking bids for Services of a firm to provide Pest Control Services for Rodents and Insects. A complete copy of the requirement may be obtained from Elm City Communities’ Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on
Monday, March 31, 2025, at 3:00PM.
360 MANAGEMENT GROUP, CO.
Request for Proposals Redesign of Chatham HVAC System
360 Management Group, Co. is currently seeking a qualified engineering firm to provide a full redesign of the existing Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) HVAC system servicing approximately 32 units within our facility. The objective is to enhance efficiency, meet current building codes, and optimize overall system performance. be obtained from 360 Management Group’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on
Monday, March 24, 2025, at 3:00PM.
South Central Regional Council of Governments
Draft Public Participation Guidelines
The public is invited to offer comments from March 3, 2025, until April 18, 2025, on the Draft Public Participation Guidelines for the South Central Regional Council of Governments (SCRCOG). The Plan documents the actions taken by SCRCOG to facilitate public participation in transportation planning, in accordance with Title 23 CFR 450.316.
Copies of the Draft Public Participation Plan are available at www. scrcog.org. Hard copies are available upon request to James Rode at jrode@scrcog.org.
Public comments may be emailed to jrode@scrcog.org or mailed, postage prepaid, to James Rode, Principal Transportation Planner, South Central Regional Council of Governments, 127 Washington Avenue, 4th Floor West, North Haven, CT 06473 with receipt in both cases by no later than April 18, 2025. Public comments may also be offered at a Hybrid Public Meeting on April 9, 2025, at 12 pm. Instructions for participating in the Public Meeting will be posted at www.scrcog.org no later than 10 days before the event.
Bridgeport Housing Authority dba Park City Communities is accepting bids for Phase I of Stair Renovations at the P.T. Barnum Apartments. Full bid documents can be found on our website: www.parkcitycommunities.org or requested via email to: procurement@parkcitycommunities.org
Elm City Communities/The Housing Authority City of New Haven
Invitation for Quote
ECC/HANH Landscaping Services
Elm City Communities dba The Housing Authority of the City of New Haven (ECC/ HANH) is seeking quotes from qualified contractors to perform landscaping services. A complete copy of the requirements may be obtained from ECC/HANH’s Vendor Collaboration Portal https://newhavenhousing.cobblestonesystems.com/gateway beginning on
Wednesday, April 30, 2025, at 3:00PM.
Continuum of Care, New Haven, Connecticut –
LEGAL NOTICE INVITATION TO BID
LEGAL NOTICE INVITATION TO BID: CONTINUUM OF CARE, NEW HAVEN is requesting licensed and insured general contractor bids for their property located at 133 Maple Street, New Haven. Scope to include Main furnace replacement, installation of central ac system, chimney replacement, garage roof replacement. Environmental testing reports will be provided. Further information and details of scope will be reviewed by the owner on the scheduled site visit. GC price should include dumpster and permit feeds. The project is tax-exempt. Minority/women’s business enterprises are encouraged to apply. A bidding site meeting will be held at 133 Maple Street, New Haven on 4/10/2025 at 12pm. All bids are due by 4/21/2025 at 10 am. All bids, questions, W9, work scope/project timeline, COI should be submitted in writing to Monica O’Connor via email moconnor@continuumct.org or delivered to 285 State Street, Unit 13 North Haven.
Listing: Commercial Driver
Immediate opening for a Class A full time driver for petroleum/asphalt/like products deliveries for nights and weekends. Previous experience required. Send resume to: HR Manager, P. O. Box 388, Guilford, CT 06437 or email: hrdept@eastriverenergy.com
***An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer, Including Disabled & Veterans***
241 Quinnipiac Avenue, New Haven
Spacious 2 bedroom townhouse with hardwood floors. Private entrance. Appliances. 1.5 baths with basement and washer/dryer hookups. On-site laundry facility. Off street parking. Close proximity to restaurants, shopping centers and bus line. No pets. Security deposit varies. $1,850-$1,950 including heat, hot water and cooking gas. Section 8 welcomed. Call Christine 860-231-8080, Ext. 161.
Please bill 241 Quinnipiac Avenue, LLC, c/o White & Katzman, 111 Roberts Street, Suite G1, East Hartford, CT 06108.
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING FOR
Elm City Communities, the Housing Authority of the City of New Haven (ECC/ HANH) is proposing to amend sections of its Low-Income Public Housing Admissions and Continued Occupancy Policy (ACOP) and the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Administrative Plan (Admin Plan).
Copies of the amendment to the ACOP and the Administrative Plan will be made available on Thursday, May 1, 2025, to May 30, 2025, on the agency website www.elmcitycommunities.org or via Facebook www.facebook.com/ElmCityCommunities or Instagram @elmcitycommunities_hanh.
You are invited to provide written comments addressed to: ECC/HANH, ACOP & Admin Plan Revisions; Attn: Evelise Ribeiro, 360 Orange Street, New Haven, CT 06511 or via email to: eribeiro@elmcitycommunities.org.
A public hearing where public comments will be accepted and recorded is scheduled for Thursday, May 29, 2025, at 3:00pm via Teams Meeting ID: 278 411 499 507 Passcode: rT7y4fN2
Any individual requiring a Reasonable Accommodation to participate in the hearing may call the Reasonable Accommodation Manager (203) 498-8800, ext. 1507 or at the TDD Number (203) 497-8434.
AVISO DE AUDIENCIA PÚBLICA PARA
Elm City Communities, la Autoridad de Vivienda de la Ciudad de New Haven (ECC/HANH), propone enmendar secciones de su Política de Admisión y Ocupación Continua de Vivienda Pública para Personas de Bajos Ingresos (ACOP) y del Plan Administrativo de Vales de Elección de Vivienda (HCV) (Plan Administrativo).
Las copias de la enmienda al ACOP y al Plan Administrativo estarán disponibles del jueves 1 al 30 de mayo de 2025 en el sitio web de la agencia, www.elmcitycommunities.org, en Facebook, www.facebook.com/ElmCityCommunities, o en Instagram @elmcitycommunities_hanh.
Le invitamos a enviar sus comentarios por escrito a: ECC/HANH, ACOP y Revisiones del Plan Administrativo; Attn: Evelise Ribeiro, 360 Orange Street, New Haven, CT 06511, o por correo electrónico a: eribeiro@elmcitycommunities.org.
Se ha programado una audiencia pública, donde se aceptarán y grabarán los comentarios del público, para el jueves 29 de mayo de 2025 a las 15:00 h a través de Teams.
ID de la reunión: 278 411 499 507 Contraseña: rT7y4fN2
Cualquier persona que necesite una adaptación razonable para participar en la audiencia puede llamar al Gerente de Adaptaciones Razonables al (203) 4988800, ext. 1507, o al número TDD (203) 497-8434.
Young Americans Losing Faith in the System
By Stacy M. Brown BlackPressUSA.com l Correspondent
A new national survey from the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School finds young Americans facing financial uncertainty, deteriorating mental health, and a growing lack of trust in institutions. The 50th edition of the Harvard Youth Poll offers a comprehensive look at the attitudes of Americans aged 18 to 29—particularly young Black individuals—who feel increasingly left out of national conversations and underserved by political leadership. Conducted March 14–25, 2025, the poll surveyed 2,096 respondents across the country. More than four in 10 say they are “barely getting by” financially. Young Black Americans continue to face deep financial stress, with 45% reporting hardship. Many express concern about limited opportunities, stagnant wages, and the rising cost of education and housing. Among those struggling, 51% believe President Trump’s policies will worsen their finances in the coming years.
Only 15% of all respondents say the country is headed in the right direction. Just 16% report doing well financially, while economic hardship is more severe for women, young Hispanics, and those without a college degree. Nearly half of young women (47%) report limited financial security, while 52% of young Hispanics say they are struggling or just getting by. Half of respondents without a degree report hardship, compared to 29% of college graduates. Approval ratings among young Americans continue to decline. President Trump’s approval stands at 31%, virtually unchanged from earlier years. Approval of Democrats in Congress has dropped to 23%, down from 42% in 2017. Congressional Republicans remain essentially unchanged at 29%. Among young Black Americans, Trump’s approval has risen to 16%—up from just 6% in 2017—but a strong majority still disapprove. Social connection has also weakened. Only 17% of young people report feeling deeply connected to any community, and 18% say they feel no strong sense of belonging. For Black youth, the sense of isolation inter-
sects with political disengagement and mental health struggles. Those without strong community ties are more likely to report symptoms of depression, with 59% saying they felt down or hopeless for several days in the past two weeks. The long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic remain evident. Isolation during formative years—especially among those who were entering high school or college in 2020—continues to shape mental health outcomes. Individuals aged 19 and 23 report the highest levels of lasting social isolation, with 38% and 40%, respectively, saying they lost connection with friends and have not reestablished those relationships.
Among those who lost friendships and failed to reconnect, 55% reported depressive symptoms. Views on traditional life milestones are shifting. Just 48%
say having children is important, and 57% say the same about getting married. While 86% say financial security is a top goal, only 56% are confident they’ll achieve it. Confidence in reaching life goals is higher among Republicans, who are more likely than Democrats to say marriage, children, and homeownership are important—and achievable. Distrust in major institutions is widespread. Only 19% of young Americans trust the federal government to do the right thing most or all of the time. Trust in Congress stands at 18%, the presidency at 23%, and the Supreme Court at 29%. The survey also found that young Black Americans are more likely to say they feel excluded from decisions that affect their lives and communities.
The debate over Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) remains divisive. Just
9% of young Americans say DEI initiatives have helped them personally, while 11% say they have been harmed. Among Democrats, 22% report positive experiences with DEI, compared to only 3% of Republicans. Conversely, 21% of young Republicans believe DEI harmed them. Young people of color are more likely than white youth to view DEI as promoting fairness. Foreign policy views also reveal generational differences. Young Republicans are less likely to support global alliances than Democrats. Only 13% of young Republicans say the U.S. should maintain current NATO obligations, compared to 46% of Democrats. When asked about reasons for U.S. involvement abroad, respondents most often cited protecting allies, defending national security, and addressing human rights violations—but fewer than one in
five supported interventions to promote democracy or counter foreign influence. Concerns about immigration have shifted over the past year. Forty-two percent of young Americans now say there is a crisis at the Southern border—down from 53% in 2024. Among Democrats, belief in a border crisis dropped 17 points, from 43% to 26%. Democratic respondents are also more likely to say that recent immigration has done more good than harm.
President Trump’s policy proposals continue to meet resistance among young Americans. None of the eight tested initiatives—ranging from tariffs to eliminating federal departments—received majority support. Tariffs were backed by just 19% overall, and only 5% of Democrats. A proposal to create a Department of Government Efficiency received 35% support, the highest among those tested. One of the least supported policies—redeveloping Gaza by displacing Palestinians—was opposed by a majority, including 77% of Democrats. “These findings are a stark reality check,” said Setti Warren, director of the Institute of Politics. “And leaders across the country would be wise to pay close attention.” “This is a generation that’s weathered pandemic isolation during formative years, entered an unstable economy, and faced skyrocketing housing and education costs—all while being told they’re not resilient enough,” said John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Institute of Politics. “What Gen Z needs isn’t another lecture, but genuine recognition of their struggles and leaders willing to listen before they speak.”
“Amid financial hardship and a devastating crisis of community, young Americans are increasingly disillusioned with the world as they struggle to find their place in it,” said Jordan Schwartz, student chair of the Harvard Public Opinion Project. “This generation doesn’t expect politics to solve their problems, but as young Americans continue to lose faith in government institutions, the need for politicians to listen to and learn from young people has never been greater.” Call today and receive a
Networking, tablet and business people with a handshake at a seminar meeting and discussion. Smile, office and employees shaking hands with technology and speaking while waiting for an interview (Photo by Jacob Wackerhausen)
April Ryan, Black Press Saluted at 2025 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner
By Stacy M. Brown Senior National BlackPressUSA.com
This year, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner looked much different. Without the presence of the President of the United States, an accomplished comedian, or the traditional crowd of politicians and celebrities, the evening instead became a nationally televised celebration of free speech. The black-tie event was also a recognition of the benefit of diversity, a tribute to trailblazing journalists, and a major shout-out and acknowledgment to Black Press USA’s Washington Bureau Chief and White House Senior Correspondent, April Ryan. The event took place under the shadow of a second Trump administration that has launched fresh attacks on press freedom, barring the Associated Press from the presidential pool and moving to shut down the Voice of America broadcaster. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly branded the media “the enemy of the people,” stayed away from the dinner, just as he did during his first term. Political figures, including Republican former House Speaker Paul Ryan and Maryland Democratic Governor Wes Moore, attended. In a typical
stitutional protections of freedom of the press. “We journalists are a lot of things. We are competitive and pushy. We are impatient, and sometimes we think we know everything,” said WHCA President Eugene Daniels. “What we are not is the opposition. What we are not is the enemy of people. What we are not is the enemy of the state.”
The dinner also honored the contributions of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), with students recognized during the evening for achievements in journalism and public service. The event made clear the association’s continuing commitment to diversity. Daniels, the first openly gay person of color and the second Black president of the WHCA, officially passed the baton to CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Weijia Jiang, who will become the first woman of color to lead the organization. A highlight of the evening was the tribute to April Ryan, who received recognition as the longest-serving African American White House correspondent in history. Daniels chose to salute Ryan’s groundbreaking career during the presentation of an award named for Alice Dunnigan and Ethel Payne—the first Black women to serve in the White House press corps. “Many of us are here because they kicked down some doors for us, including Black Press USA’s April Ryan,” Daniels declared. “This year, April has officially become the longest-serving African American White House Correspondent in history. April—Ms. Dunnigan and Ms. Payne would have been so proud of you, and so are we.” Ryan shared her gratitude. “It’s an honor to be the longest serving Black White House correspondent in history with Black Press USA, the company that started everything with pioneers like Harry McAlpin, Ethel Payne, and Alice Dunnigan,” Ryan remarked. “We’ve done groundbreaking work in the past, and we’re forging a new path to keep that legacy of groundbreaking work that informs the public, particularly Black Americans who still have the highest negatives in almost any category in America.” Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., president and CEO of the 198-year-old Black Press of America, called Ryan’s recognition a proud moment for the organization. “This recognition as being the longest serving White House correspondent is a tribute and an attribute to the Black Press of America,” Chavis said. “April Ryan is an icon of journalism.”
The Strategic Resistance: Why Black America Is Playing the Long Game
By LaTosha Brown
Muhammad Ali's famous "rope-a-dope" strategy — allowing his opponent to exhaust themselves while conserving energy, then striking with precision when they were depleted — wasn't surrender but calculated patience. Today, Black America is employing its version of a rope-a-dope in response to the current political climate. Black people are resolved in this moment. While many in America seem shocked by what this administration is doing, we have always understood the fragility of democracy – how constitutional rights have been perpetually framed to us as rewards rather than rights. We've grown familiar with watching higher courts strip away civil rights protections. Though today's assault is more aggressive, we've experienced aspects of this rollback of rights in each generation.
The misconception that Black communities are inactive fundamentally misunderstands our sophisticated resistance strategies. Protesting must be strategic. Timing, context, and preparation matter. From Montgomery's carpool systems to Selma's tactical planning, preparation has always been the foundation of sustainable resistance. Protest is only one tool in our resistance fight. When we are under attack, we must use every form of power we have — economic, electoral, political, communicative, and protest — to build our resistance movement in ways that can neither
be ignored nor defeated. Right now, we are doing work that centers our needs. We are moving with purpose, organizing internally, and fortifying our communities. Make no mistake: Resistance is happening across multiple fronts. The Target boycott, led by Dr. Jamal Bryant, has demonstrated our collective economic power with a 43% drop in quarterly profits. Our $1.4 trillion in spending power represents a formidable force when strategically directed.
Black legal organizations are filing strategic lawsuits challenging voter suppression. Media platforms like the Black Star Network, Black Press USA, "Contraband Camp," and "Native Land Pod" are taking messages directly to Black audiences. The
Black church, historically a cornerstone of resistance movements, continues to serve as both a sanctuary and a strategic headquarters for movement-building. We are organizing rallies across the country through the State of the People Tour, using every tool at our disposal, including becoming ungovernable — but we determine the timeline. We continue to protest on our terms, in ways that feed and inspire our communities.
This is a moment where Black people expect white people who claim to want to save this country to do exactly that. Many of us have been on that mission for years; we have now turned our attention to saving ourselves. Like the fictional character in
Black Panther, who transformed blows into power, we are taking the betrayal of America and the capitulation of our allies as a vehicle that affirms a truth we've always known: Ain't nobody coming to save us. We will save ourselves. But there will come a time when we will pour into the streets in protest. We will not allow this regime to come for us while we sit dormant or paralyzed by fear. That is not our legacy. In this moment that feels quiet, we are taking careful note of those throwing us under the bus. They will all have to come Black around. Like Ali against the ropes, we're fighting back strategically. We're actively studying patterns, identifying vulnerabilities, and preparing for our moment to strike. The
appearance of disadvantages is part of the strategy itself.
The absence of visible protest isn't surrender; it's the disciplined patience of a community that has outlasted every attempt to destroy it. Sometimes, the most powerful resistance happens beyond the spotlight, where tomorrow's decisive action is being methodically prepared today.
Black people will survive. Our existence predates America, predates colonization, predates the very concept of whiteness itself. Black women are the original mothers of humanity. We have weathered the Middle Passage, survived slavery, outsmarted Jim Crow, endured mass incarceration, and continued to thrive despite systems designed for our destruction. Our survival has never been accidental – it has always been forged through strategic organizing and the fierce determination to build our power. We don't just endure; we transform our pain into purpose and our resistance into renaissance.
Black people will survive. But will America? That is the real question that hangs in the balance. Our opponents mistake our strategic patience for weakness — exactly as Ali's opponents once did. And like them, they'll discover their error only when it's too late. Because we are the writers of our own story. And we’re not done yet. Many of us are focusing on the nation that exists beyond the white gaze, beyond the nation state, to a Black nation -- a nation of people who throughout history have proven that when we work together, we win. LaTosha Brown is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter, which is dedicated to expanding Black voter engagement and increasing progressive power through grassroots movement-building.
Photo Caption: April Ryan, Black Press USA’s Washington Bureau Chief and White House Senior Correspondent
year, the president attends to congratulate journalists, deliver a lighthearted speech, and endure jokes at their expense. With
Trump absent, the night focused squarely on the critical role of the press in a democracy and the First Amendment con-
Black people aren't inactive; we are being strategic. We understand when to speak when to act, and when withdrawal itself becomes power.
The Hillhouse Band has accepted the invitation to represent the state of Connecticut in the official 2025 Memorial Day Parade in Washington, D.C. The trip features a tour of the memorials (MLK, Vietnam, WWII, etc.) and more, which would take place over the Memorial Day weekend. This trip will not only be for performing arts, but this trip will be educational for our students.
We are looking for sponsors and donors to help us reach our financial goal to cover the cost of transportation, lodging, food, the tour, and uniforms & equipment (including repairs), which totals about $45,000. We have hosted a few fundraisers since the start of the school year, but it is not enough to cover the cost of trip. We are calling out to the community for support.
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