Points of Departure

A group of Connecticut motorcyclists is spreading the Gospel on wheels.

Photo by Robbie Short. Trinity sits with her manicured hands folded neatly, flanked by her fellow Christian motorcyclists on a black leather couch. Mary Magdalene, Zephaniah, and II Timothy sit to her left; Sheba and Eve to her right. “I like to wear pumps when I ride,” Trinity says. “My husband doesn’t like it, but I like the look.” Sheba, whose name appears on a black, diamond-bedazzled headband and in a tattoo in Gothic lettering on her right arm, laughs in agreement. “I wear a. . . Read more

Each fall, twenty-five New Haveners get an inside look at how their city operates.

Photo by Carina Gormley. One evening in late September, I walked into the Aldermanic Hearing Room on the lower level of the New Haven Hall of Records. The room’s walls were lined with maps, planners, and varnished wood trim. Michael Harris leaned against a table as he chatted with the people gathered at the front of the room. When all twenty-six students had arrived, Harris pointed to a city map and requested that we each find our ward. Then, he thanked us for coming, and. . . Read more

A new church on College Street is attempting to convert the masses with guitar riffs and blowtorches.

Design by Meher Hans. Every Sunday morning around 6:00 a.m., the interior of College Street Music Hall undergoes a subtle metamorphosis. The bar is shuttered, coffee urns appear in the front lobby, and rows of chairs replace the Saturday-night concert detritus strewn about the 2,000-person venue. The concert lights and an earplug dispenser stay in place. Church starts at 8:30. As congregants meander into the building under a marquee advertising this season’s concert lineup, which features Dirty Heads and Lil Yachty, volunteers clad in black. . . Read more

As expenses pile up, low-income art students at Yale are forced to curtail their creativity.

Photo by Robbie Short. This fall, Adam Moftah’s expenses added up quickly. He spent $15 Xeroxing old graphic designs to make new compositions for a project. Then, after he turned the project in, he learned from his professor that he’d approached the assignment incorrectly, and would have to start anew. Meanwhile, he had two credit card bills due soon — nearly $200 for books, school supplies, and other expenses from the start of the semester. For Moftah, a senior from New York City, majoring in. . . Read more

In the world of the “ghetto potter,” it takes a mess to make art.

Spectators in the luminous gallery room of Artspace press up against one another, wary of bumping into the artwork on display. Detailed portraits, written messages, penciled outlines, and colorful decals cover the walls. Music commences, and the attendees part, making way for 15-year-old Jordan Walker. He struts in time with a pulsating house beat. When he reaches the other side of the room, a grand-finale backbend provokes wild applause. The music ends, and Walker poses in front of his portrait: Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, her. . . Read more

In Yale’s archives, digital records provide a new portal to the past.

“Can you imagine what it might be like for a child whose parents are not allowed to be married?” The day was March 26, 2007. Anna Heller, a 39-year-old social worker from Willimantic, Connecticut, testified during a twelve-hour hearing before the Connecticut legislature on H.B. 7395, which would grant same-sex couples in the state the right to marriage. She spoke on behalf of Love Makes a Family, an organization that lobbied for the bill. Heller’s testimony, and the rest Love Makes a Family’s records, are. . . Read more

Connecticut’s roller derby community bashes heads and bucks gender norms.

  Illustration by Julia Hedges. Krazy Legz Nikki is barreling down a flat track in quad skates, looking for Your Mom. Your Mom, a blocker, has a decision to make: she can either help Legz, her jammer, carve through a glut of skate-wearing women, or she can get in the way of the opposing jammer, Sass Squash. To make it through unscathed, Legz will have to “dance by” Lehigh Valley’s blockers using the precise footwork she’s been practicing since 2012. Or she can just barrel. . . Read more

A private organization rebrands the center of New Haven.

  Illustration by Julia Hedges. “Welcome to the Town Green District!” says Win Davis, Town Green Services’ Executive Director, sitting against an office wall branded with the organization’s logo as he smiles mildly at the camera. “Let’s look at some of the meaningful ways that we make downtown New Haven a better place for everybody.” Shifting images fill the screen: a lamp-lit thoroughfare, a crowd gathered to watch a broadcast of the World Cup. Scenes of hardworking “downtown ambassadors” hanging potted plants and sweeping sidewalks. . . Read more

Meet the people performing pain to teach doctors to listen.

Illustration by Meher Hans. Aryan Patel, a 30-year-old therapist, sits before a fidgeting first-year medical student. Aryan needs medical attention: He has a fever, severe nasal congesion, and a sharp constant pain in his right cheek bone. He anxiously kneads his knee with his hand, unable to stop thinking about his blood tests: are his blood sugar levels too high? The medical student clasps his hands together and nods nervously. “Oh, I see. Okay,” he says. He runs through the script in his mind: Elicit. . . Read more

Yale researchers compute for the future of quantum computing

There are twelve half-a-million dollar refrigerators on the fourth floor of Yale’s Becton Center for Engineering and Applied Science. Cooled by liquid helium, they maintain a temperature of less than a hundredth of a degree Celsius above absolute zero. The refrigerators, which resemble industrial pipes, hiss in unison like a den of snakes. Inside each is a tangle of cords, wires, tubes, and copper plates inscribed with handwritten alphanumeric symbols: a primitive quantum computer. Scientists and investors envision quantum computing as a technology exponentially more. . . Read more