New Haven, Conn. (May 9, 2022) – Greater New Haven once again showed its spirit of generosity during The Great Give 2022, raising $3.46 million for local nonprofit organizations. The 36-hour online giving event created by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven (The Foundation) also featured its highest ever number of sponsors.

By the close of the event on Thursday, May 5, a total of more than 13,700 donors and multiple sponsors raised $3,461,949 for a record number of 501 nonprofits. Continue to full release and complete results.

No, it’s not your imagination — New Haven really does make it harder than most cities do to let the public know basic information about crime and policing.

At least that’s what the Vera Institute concluded in an in-depth study that produced a ​“Police Data Transparency Index.”

The institute, which performs research about the criminal justice system, dived deep into the policies and performance of 94 local police departments representing over 25 percent of the nation’s population...

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/new_havens_pd_among_nations_least_transparent

Updated at 6:00 p.m. ET on April 29, 2022.

Development projects in the United States are subject to a process I like to call “whoever yells the loudest and longest wins.” Some refer to this as participatory democracy...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/local-government-community-input-housing-public-transportation/629625/

On April 6th, Dr. Peter Kalmus, NASA climate scientist and author, walked up to the JP Morgan Chase bank building in Los Angeles, pulled a pair of handcuffs out of a cloth bag and chained himself to the front door. With tears in his eyes, he spoke about the climate crisis to a group of supporters. ..

https://www.salon.com/2022/05/08/prognostic-myopia/

In the best creative scenarios, the mind and hand engage in a back-and-forth of impulse and revision, allowing the artist to step back metaphorically and watch, remaining open to the surprise of what unfolds. You can see the results of this process yourself at the City Gallery exhibit IN MIND AND HAND featuring new fiber work by Jennifer Davies, on view May 6 - May 29. There will be an Opening Reception on Saturday, May 7 from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Davies is an accomplished and admired fiber artist who has exhibited her work across the country in galleries and museums. What sets her work apart is her ongoing inquisitive nature and her willingness to be the observer, to translate what she sees into both the making of paper and the creation of art.

She makes her own Japanese paper from mulberry branches which she cooks, cleans, and beats into a fluffy pulp. She then fashions this into artwork using techniques such as pulp painting, direct casting, and indigo dyeing. “Collage is another technique I use to build up layers of paper that have been painted or dyed with either indigo or persimmon. The impetus can be scraps and leftovers from other projects that beg to be assembled,” explains Davies, who also incorporates translucent sheets of kozo fiber, printed calligraphic shapes, and woven and sewn materials.

“Much of my work refers to natural forms, the surfaces of bark, boulders, or water,” says Davies. “Living by Long Island Sound, I see waves sliding onto the beach almost daily. I have tried to capture that feeling by pouring and splashing translucent pulp in layers over black paper. The smooth river rocks, long my companions for holding paper down in the breeze, I have honored by pouring pulp around them to suggest their silhouettes.”

Davies’ work was most recently featured at the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society, Lexington, MA, and at the Mosesian Center for the Arts, Watertown, MA. In 2019, she was awarded Best in Show at the Surface Design Association’s exhibit Context: Language, Media, and Meaning at the Fuller Craft Museum (Brockton, MA). She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design and the Rome Honors Program, has studied and taught papermaking at Women’s Studio Workshop and Creative Arts Workshop, and has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows at museums and galleries including Hygienic Gallery (New London), Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (Gatlinburg, TN), Artspace (New Haven), Center for Contemporary Printmaking (Norwalk), Hockaday Museum of Art (Kalispell, MT), Morgan Conservatory (Cleveland, OH), and the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking (Atlanta, GA). Davies’ work is included in numerous corporate and private collections. She is a long-standing member of the City Galley.

IN MIND AND HAND is free and open to the public, and runs May 6 - 29, 2022. City Gallery is located at 994 State Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Gallery hours are Friday - Sunday, 1 p.m. - 4 p.m., or by appointment (203-645-1404). City Gallery follows New Haven City’s mask mandate policy. For further information please contact City Gallery, info@city-gallery.org, www.city-gallery.org.

Design for sales and/or educators with a dedicated page.

Here is our 1st exploration of the interactive video apps use for #TheGreatGive. #ThegreatGive06492

https://wpaa.tv/promo/

We don’t know where in Africa Lucretia was born. We don’t know where she’s buried. We do know where she lived in New Haven — and Ann Garrett Robinson and Steven Winter are working, four centuries later, to make sure her name lives on there...

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/drive_begins_to_recognize_citys_first_black_settler

By: Kayla Giordano

With spring bringing warmer weather, households across Connecticut rejoice as temperatures rise and home heating season comes to an end. A recent survey found that the average monthly energy bill for Connecticut consumers is $411 the highest in the nation. Together with the threat of climate change, international conflict, and disrupted supply chains, increasing the energy efficiency of households is front of mind. This is doubly true for the state’s low- and moderate- income residents who bear an increased burden of high energy costs. A 2020 report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient EconomyDownload PDF found that low-income households faced the greatest energy burden of all income types, meaning they spent the largest percentage of their income on energy costs. Furthermore, low-income renters, who have limited ability to increase the energy efficiency of their homes, face a greater energy burden than those who own their homes. Low-income renters living in multifamily buildings spent 5% of their income on energy costs, compared to non-low-income renters who spent just 1.5% of their income on utilities. Given that one third of Connecticut residents are renters and over 300,000 of them make under 80% of the area median income, it is critical to consider energy efficiency in the construction and preservation of affordable housing...

https://www.chfa.org/the-intersect/energy-efficiency-as-a-tool-for-developing-and-preserving-affordable-housing/

You can’t hear or read the news without people screaming they don’t want Critical Race Theory (CRT) in their schools. This is not a problem because no one is interested in teaching legal theory in our K-12 schools...

https://carolynedwardsphd.medium.com/critical-race-theory-the-term-appropriated-by-white-supremacists-29d1347dea07

Many people in Puerto Rico consider Harvard-educated Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos the father of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement.  Following the conclusion of the Spanish American War (1898) Puerto Rico became a territory of the United States. Albizu Campos spent most of his life, from 1924 to his death in 1965, fighting to make Puerto Rico an independent nation. For his activities he spent much of this life in prison, both in the United State and Puerto Rico...

http://latinopia.com/latino-history/biography-pedro-albizu-campos/

You may be hearing a lot about community land trusts right now. They’ve become a popular answer to the question “How will we prevent displacement?” or “How do we keep housing permanently affordable?” But what are community land trusts, and how do they work? This page will give you a quick introduction to the topic, with lots of links to further reading from Shelterforce and advocacy organizations...

https://shelterforce.org/2021/07/12/understanding-community-land-trusts/amp/ ;

Millions of Americans count right-leaning Fox News as their primary source of information about politics and current events. A new working paper co-authored by Yale political scientist Joshua Kalla presents evidence of the influence such partisan media outlets wield over people’s attitudes on the major issues of the day...

https://news.yale.edu/2022/04/13/partisan-media-cable-viewers-shift-attitudes-after-changing-channel

Leaders in America’s cities and regions are grappling with the fallout of a severe pandemic, historic economic crisis, and social and racial reckoning. In this post-crisis moment, a wide range of local government, business, civic, and community organizations—which in the past tended to operate in isolation, if not at cross purposes—are navigating their disparate narratives and goals, rethinking their missions to drive economic and racial inclusion, and forming new systemic alliances that will enable them to improve and scale their efforts. Drawing inspiration from case studies profiling efforts to “rewire systems” in five older industrial cities (Akron, Ohio; Birmingham, Ala.; Cincinnati, Ohio; St. Paul, Minn., and Syracuse, N.Y.), this report provides a framework and practical examples that can guide local action and state, federal, corporate, and philanthropic investment in cities across the nation. 

Which people and professions rake in the most income year after year? Which are most adept at shielding that money from the taxman? And what does this tell you about America?

The top earners, of course, are often fodder for lists — but those are usually based on estimates or even speculation...
https://projects.propublica.org/americas-highest-incomes-and-taxes-revealed/

A few years ago, hospital workers tried to confiscate the purple-gray backpack that Christine carries with her everywhere, she said. At the time, the bag was her only possession; it doubled as a pillow when she slept on the streets.

Rather than sacrifice the bag, Christine refused health care. She has avoided medical centers ever since...

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/swan_study_supports_harm_reduction_model ;