Snapshots

A writer searches for radical knitting activists.

The yarn hung in purple skeins from the ceilings of small tents. It was wrapped into rainbow spirals inside plastic boxes, and interwoven with bright green feathers and small iridescent sequins. Yarn stared up at me from book covers, from brochures, from multicolored quilts stretched over tables, and from the hands of women clicking knitting needles. On a Saturday in October, I was at Stitches East, an annual “fiber experience” for knitters, crocheters, spinners, and dyers. The three-day-long event boasted a marketplace, a fashion show,. . . Read more

New Haven finds simple solutions to unfriendly roads.

On the morning of Sunday, May 1, 2011, residents of the Audubon district awoke to find a bold new crosswalk at the intersection of Whitney Avenue and Audubon Street. Spray-painted and slightly crooked, the rogue act made headlines around town. Opinions differed—officials said the sight lines weren’t clear enough for a crosswalk, business owners liked that it made it easier for people to get to their stores, and some just thought it looked a little funny. Useful or not, the crosswalk was illegal and officials had. . . Read more

Ray Dubuque thinks Jesus can turn America liberal

“How can the nation expect that the Republicans will solve the problem of the president not being able to drive the nation’s bus properly when they’re the ones who punctured the tires?” The voice coming from the stereo on the back of Reverend Ray Dubuque’s van lilts and breaks on “tires”—it sounds wise; a little paternal. Dubuque drives in circles, down College Street, right on Chapel, up High, and back around again. “That’s my voice you’re hearing,” he says. “I just recorded it this morning. . . Read more

Can hypnotherapy help Yale’s athletes master their minds—and their opponents?

The Yale men’s soccer team won only one of its seventeen games this season. Midway through the fall, it had become clear physical training was not leading to considerable improvement on the field. The coaches hoped to find another way to give their team an edge. They talked one-on-one with the players, learning what made each man tick, even administering personality tests. They were not looking for information about the players’ observable performances. Instead, they were interested in improving the team’s mental game; the players. . . Read more

A social organization helps ease the transition from the working world to Yale Divinity School.

Win Bassett transition from a career in law to the Yale Divinity School. Photo by Jennifer Lu. Win Bassett caught Father Tony Jarvis just as he was leaving his office at the Yale Divinity School last April. Jarvis was in a hurry, and Bassett asked for a second of his time. They went inside and sat down. After years of working in law, Bassett had been accepted into the Yale Divinity School, and he was visiting for the admitted students’ weekend. But he still didn’t. . . Read more

New Haven’s alternative to inner-city projects falls into dangerous disrepair.

Photo by Jennifer Lu. “I was born there,” said Damien Mabry, jabbing a finger at a plain cinderblock house. “And now I live there.” This time, he pointed at another residence nearby, nearly identical to the first. Mabry and I were standing in the neighborhood of Westville Manor, a public housing complex in the northwest corner of New Haven. It is only a fifteen-minute drive from downtown, but it feels much farther away. It is surrounded on three sides by the dense foliage of West. . . Read more

A journey into the wild west of electronic cigarettes.

Sammy Chamino, Max Young, and Sasha Zabar, co-owners of the White Buffalo. Photos by Jennifer Lu. I took a drag, and the vapor was thick and harsh. The nicotine of a cigarette; the flavor of a hookah. My first taste of #VapeLife left the lungs feeling clean. Inside the brick walls of Chapel Street’s White Buffalo Vapors, I sat at a hardwood counter known as the “juice bar.” Behind the counter, shelves held rows of brightly colored vials of “e-juice” — liquid nicotine mixed with. . . Read more

Elm City educators look for answers to their questions about the national reform movement.

Illustration by Hanh Nguyen. Exams were approaching, and Lauren Canalori, a literacy coach at Fair Haven School, was apprehensive. In a few weeks, her students would be taking a new round of standardized tests, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). It was April 2014, and the tests would measure how well the district’s Common Core curriculum, implemented over the past three years, was working. Canalori had helped develop the curriculum and train teachers to execute it; now, her efforts would be put to the test.. . . Read more

A Buddhist artistic practice develops a following in New Haven

Photo by Angelica Calabrese. Karen Burgess sits on the floor of her living room, a stretched canvas in her lap. Strings tied to the frame extend to a hook on the drywall behind her, holding her painting-in-progress upright. A loose gray braid drapes over her black sweatshirt. She leans carefully into the canvas and adds short, precise, sky-blue brush strokes. The sky surrounds her pencil sketch of the Eight Auspicious Symbols, a collection of Buddhist images that includes an umbrella, a conch shell, a wheel,. . . Read more

A Jamaican immigrant becomes the voice of some detained by the Department of Homeland Security

On a cool November evening in 2012, Mark Reid finished his final supper as Inmate Number 141754. After three years at the Brooklyn Correctional Institution in Connecticut, Reid was scheduled for release the following morning. The past three years had been some of the most trying of his life, but as he leafed through the small trove of letters and photographs beside his bed, the 48-year-old Reid was reminded of all that he had to look forward to. Before his most recent conviction, for the. . . Read more