On Saturday, March 30, the Asian American Cultural Center is hosting a cultural show to celebrate Pan-Asian American Heritage Month. Started last year, the showcase has become an annual event set to take place each spring. This year, the show’s theme is “Nostalgia and the Path Forward.”

“There is such a wide variety of acts beautifully representing this year’s theme for Pan Asian American Heritage Month, and I can’t wait to see our planning come to fruition,” said Thomas Kannam ’26, who organized the event in coordination with the AACC’s Assistant Director Sheraz Iqbal. 

Kannam said that they reserved the auditorium in the fall and worked on promotional content, scheduling and logistics over the past few months.

After advertising the show through entries in the AACC’s newsletter, posts on social media, physical fliers and personal outreach, Kannam finalized a lineup of thirteen performers from various affinity groups on campus. The showcase includes solo acts along with group performances from students affiliated with the AACC.

Showcase participant and an AACC First-Year Coordinator Marissa Halagao ’27 said shows like the one planned for Saturday exemplify the strength of the Asian community at Yale. 

Halagao, along with other members of Yale’s Filipinx student association, Kasama, will dance the Tinikling, a traditional Filipino dance that mimics the movements of the small “tikling” rail bird present across the Pacific. The dance form is known for its incorporation of bamboo poles. 

The group will dance to choreography by Resty Fufunan ’24, Ava Estacio-Touhey ’25 and Mark Chung ’25. Their performance will include traditional Filipino Tinikling and modernized components, which Halagao said represent the diaspora’s reclamation and adaptation of the dance style.

According to Halagao, Tinikling is thought to have originated during the period of Spanish colonization, when Filipinos forced to work on plantain farms were beaten with bamboo poles. Halagao said the dance evolved into a symbol of resilience and cultural reclamation over generations, ultimately becoming the national dance of the Philippines.

“Dancing Tinikling as a Filipino American has been so empowering for me,” she said, expressing her anticipation for the upcoming show. 

Along with providing Tinikling choreography, Chung is performing with UNITY —- Yale’s only student group dedicated to traditional Korean drumming. On Saturday, the group will play a style of drumming called “samul nori” that includes percussion instruments commonly used in Korean folk music. “Samul” means “four things,” while “nori,” means to play, and the genre’s name refers to four musicians and their respective instruments. 

Chung said UNITY, which was originally founded in 1991, was revitalized this spring after becoming inactive during the COVID-19 pandemic. The group has been rehearsing for the show since its revival. According to Chung, efforts by KASY — Korean American Students at Yale — and opportunities like the PAAHM Cultural Show have helped facilitate UNITY’s return.

“This has definitely been a learning process,” said Chung. “Many of us have played music before but are new to traditional music.”

The group’s efforts will culminate this Saturday along with the other performers including Stella Choi ’26 Sunehra Subah ’24, Annabelle Huang ’26, Valentina Pham ’24, Linh Buu ’26, Kelly Tran ’27, Linda Do ’27, Jana Nguyenová MED ’25, Eunice Kiang ’24 and Patricia Joseph ’26.

Kannam said the most rewarding aspect of planning the showcase is celebrating Asian creativity on campus. Noting the diversity of this year’s acts, he underscored the honored cultural traditions and innovative techniques that both make up the showcase’s performances. 

“I think art and performance has a unique ability to bring people together,” they said. “It’s one of the most effective paths forward.”

The Whitney Humanities Center’s Auditorium is located at 53 Wall St.

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Dhamaal is one of two major cultural shows that Yale’s South Asian Society, or SAS, hosts each year, accompanied by Roshni in the fall. While Roshni traditionally only features Yale-affiliated groups, Dhamaal includes student groups from other universities. 

This year, the intercollegiate spring showcase will feature six Yale teams and seven outside teams from Duke University; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Rutgers University; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Harvard University; the University of Connecticut and Carnegie Mellon University. The event will take place this Saturday, March 2, from 4 to 6 p.m.

“The day of Dhamaal in itself is also so much fun,” said Maanasi Nair ’25, who is co-captain of both classical dance team Kalaa and Bollywood fusion group Rangeela. “It can be insanely busy and everyone tends to be in a frenzy, but it brings us all so much closer together. I love the energy and excitement of the hours leading to the show.”

Tarun Kota ’26, another member of Rangeela, shared similar sentiments about Dhamaal — particularly noting how rewarding it is to see his team’s rehearsals come together for the final performance.

Rangeela has weekly practices every Saturday morning, and throughout the week, subgroups of the team have additional practices together. During tech week, which is the week before the show, the team practices every day for two hours. 

Nair said that Kalaa schedules their practices with flexibility for dancers who can choose how many hours to commit each week. The team starts with choreography, welcoming any dancer with an interest in exploring that element of the process. 

Kalaa ensures their choreography reflects the various types of classical dance before they move on to begin rehearsing. Depending on how many pieces a dancer is in, that rehearsal time could range from two to five hours per week.

According to Amadie Gajanaike ’26, communications chair for SAS, preparations for Dhamaal include booking venues, gathering sponsors, editing promotional videos and coordinating with groups from other schools. The organization began planning the showcase in December, with meetings and discussions held during the Asian American Cultural Center’s after-hours meetings. 

“We send out Dhamaal information to around 50 South Asian performing arts groups at universities across the US and they submit an audition,” said Gajanaike of SAS’s efforts to select guest teams. “By January, we choose 7-8 of those groups and contact presidents.”

Kota said that the showcase fosters community between students from different institutions, noting that members of SAS host students from other universities during the weekend of the event. Last year, Rangeela had a post-Dhamaal mixer with Dartmouth Raas.

Gajanaike said she worked with Zahra Virani ’26 and Sheel Trivedi ’26 of SAS’s Cultural Committee to assign housing, plan photo-booth decorations and decide what causes donations should be sent to. 

Kavya Gupta ’27, who dances for Yale Jashan Bhangra, a group dedicated to the Punjabi dance form bhangra, expressed her gratitude for her team and excitement to see other groups perform this weekend. 

“It feels like we have come closer as a team, learning to communicate and apply all our hard work from the past few months,” she said. “We are all so excited to see the other Yale groups and teams from other schools perform.”

Kota and Nair shared Gupta’s excitement about being able to perform for her community. Kota said sharing his cultural heritage with friends is his favorite part of Dhamaal, and Nair said that her team feels like a family.

“Our shared love for art and performance is so special,” said Nair. “It’s something I cherish immensely and will forever continue to value.”

Registration for Dhamaal is available on Yale Connect.

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For many students, formals are a memorable part of the Yale experience — but it is unusual for every class to have one. This year’s formals have had their fair share of firsts, including subsidized ticket prices.

An integral part of the planning is the creative decision-making process. 

“I think the most difficult aspect of formal planning is finding a theme that not only everyone will love, but also fits the venue,” said Karen Yang ’26, the Sophomore Class Council’s vice president of creativity and concepts. 

According to Jalen Bradley ’27, the First-Year Class Council’s board discussed themes before voting for their favorite. Once they had decided on the theme, they began searching for student DJs and a string quartet. 

This year, “Celestial Garden” won the FCC board’s vote. According to Bradley, the committee tried not to reuse themes or choose ones that were similar to other classes’ or residential colleges’ formal themes. The current theme combines the ideas of “Enchanted Garden” and “Celestial Bodies.”

“We all want to make the First Year Formal memorable,” said Carrie Lange ’27, who is responsible for organizing the decorations for the event.

While Lange said she would like to keep the specifics of the decor a surprise, she encouraged attendees to interpret the formal however they wished. Noting that guests should wear whatever they like, she said that the theme “Celestial Garden” is intentionally open-ended.

On Friday, Jan. 26, the Sophomore Class Council hosted its first formal since 2022, changing the trend of sophomores not having a formal.

According to Sophomore Class President and YCC Health and Accessibility Director Mimi Papathanasopoulos ’26, SoCo wanted to host a formal because the class does not have many opportunities to convene in its entirety. She also said that planning a formal is a significant undertaking.

SoCo planned the formals over months, negotiating with contractors, searching for performers and sorting out safety issues. Ultimately, the committee planned an event that included drinks and desserts, live music and photo booths.

The Sophomore Formal theme, “Rhapsody in Blue,” was chosen through a Google Form sent to the class in early November. The survey collected theme ideas, music suggestions and refreshment preferences. 

Joana De La Torre ’26, vice president of operations for SoCo, said that deciding on a theme meant balancing creativity and feasibility. Deliberating on unique themes that would be realistic to plan, Vice President of Marketing and Communications Avery Dewitt ’26, said the council debated four or five different themes before settling on “Rhapsody in Blue,” a piece by George Gershwin. This year marks the piece’s centennial anniversary.

“Our goal is to ensure our capacity is as large as it can be,” said Olivia Lombardo ’25 of events hosted by YCC.

The Omni Hotel is the only venue in New Haven with a capacity of 1,000, and SoCo aimed to guarantee that all interested sophomores were able to attend. SoCo also chose the hotel because the First Year Formal is always held in Schwarzman Center. Thus, they felt a new location would be a refreshing change. The junior class formal will also be held in the Omni Hotel with a “Bridgerton Ball” theme.

In an effort to appreciate student groups on campus, SoCo chose The Yale Undergraduate Jazz Collective and the band Public Discourse to perform at the event. DJ Chris Rush also had a set at the Sophomore Formal.

The junior formal will also showcase performances by members of groups such as the Berkeley College Orchestra, Davenport Pops and the Yale Ballroom Dance Team.

Ticket prices for this year’s FCC formal have been reduced from the regular price of $15 to $5. 

“The subsidization is from the Dean’s Office, which was 22k dollars that went to the formal,” said Andrew Boanoh ’27, current FCC President.  “People have reached out personally to say that 5 dollars was financially troublesome as well, and we provided aid to anyone with that need.”

Echoing that sentiment, Papathanasopoulos said that the community’s response to the subsidization of ticket prices was overwhelmingly positive, noting that tickets for the formal sold out.

Lombardo, the YCC events director and former beat reporter for the News, said that the council’s events board is very collaborative in budget planning. She said that advocating for subsidized pricing has been a years-long process, giving particular mention to each class’s president and council for working together to make the change happen.

“It was so exciting to be able to showcase our amazing student groups,” said Papathanasopoulos. “We loved seeing our class rocking it on the dance floor.”

The First Year Formal will be held on Feb. 23.

The post Class formals to highlight student performers appeared first on Yale Daily News.

From 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. last Saturday, Feb. 10, a zine fair took place at the community center. Organized by members of the local zine Connectic*nt, the event featured 14 art vendors. These vendors sold zines ranging in content from visual art and creative writing to political advocacy.

“In 2021, we were invited to a zine fair in New York to sell our third issue of Connectic*nt,” Jensen said. “We wished there was something like this in New Haven, so we were like ‘let’s just freaking do it.’”

Since then, they’ve been hosting fairs in Connecticut, bringing together a community of local artists and creators.

At Saturday’s event, Jensen and Pelaez sold the latest edition of Connectic*nt, a Valentine’s Day-themed issue including poems, essays, photographs and sketches focused on love.

“The magazine was created during quarantine when we couldn’t really go to events in person,” Jensen said. “So it was born of that desire to look at people’s art and connect with people outside of just doom-scrolling.”

Today, Connectic*nt’s Instagram presence has grown to around 5,000 followers. Jensen uses the platform to advertise events like Saturday’s zine fair, which was the fifth of its kind that she helped organize.

Zine creators interested in seeking their goods at the fair apply through a Google Form, and Jensen works to ensure that each fair includes vendors she hasn’t worked with before.

On Saturday, that included Jasmine Jones, the founder of Aislin Magazine, a publication highlighting emerging artists.

“I started my magazine because I wanted a publication that focused on new artists, and underground artists — not necessarily people who are already big names,” Jones said.

Jones published the first issue of Aislin Magazine in 2018 and has steadily expanded its reach since then. She said that working on the magazine alone in addition to having a full-time job is difficult, but she ultimately finds the experience rewarding. In fact, Jones said that she credits her current job at a publication to her zine.

Aislin Magazine’s scope extends beyond printed issues: the magazine also includes online elements like curated lists of creative opportunities and video interviews with local artists. Jones said she has not attended many zine fairs, but she hopes that more start happening in Connecticut.

“It’s very much a magazine for the artists,” Jones said. “So I would love to make sure I’m benefiting them.”

Saturday’s zine fair itself was an event by artists, for artists. Growing up in the state, Pelaez said that she often felt she was missing a creative community. 

That changed when she matriculated to the University of Connecticut, or UConn, where she said she felt like her artistic inclinations were met by a diverse collective of artists. When she graduated in 2021, she feared losing that artistic community once again. That desire to find and facilitate a creative community galvanized her to join Connectic*nt. 

“We love collaborating with other creative powerhouses in the state,” Pelaez said. “There’s some really cool shit going on and we’ve been able to build an even wider audience and connect a lot of creatives that may have never interacted with each other.”

One manifestation of that collaboration came when Connectic*nt hosted a craft night at Bradley Street Bicycle Co-Op. They have also held pop-ups at Atticus Market and Orange St. Art Market and clubbing nights at Diesel Lounge and Cafe Nine.

According to Jensen, Connectic*nt transcends its role as a printed magazine. By hosting events in physical spaces, Jensen and other members of the zine facilitate a physical, tangible space for creatives to connect with each other.

“It’s just so cool that there’s so many people that want to celebrate this stuff and come out and show support for it,” she said.

The bicycle co-op is located at 138 Bradley St.

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The a cappella group Mixed Company, or Mixed Co., took the stage at SSS, blending music and sketch comedy. The group’s concert marked their 42nd Snow Job, their annual winter concert.

“Saturday’s performance was not only a product of hours of hard work and rehearsals, but also an illustration of friendship and admiration for one another truly coming to life through music,” said Ayannah Obas ’27. 

Along with six others, Obas was tapped to join Mixed Co. in the fall. She said a highlight of the night was hearing everyone showcase both their individual skills and collaborative talent.

Emphasizing that sense of community, Isaac Yu ’24, also a former managing editor of the News, said that preparing for the show was particularly enjoyable because he was able to spend so much time with the group. After rehearsals, he said that members would often stay to study or make food together.

“I love hanging out with my a cappella group, and tech week is just an excuse to hang out, like, [for] four hours a day,” he said. “It definitely brings us closer as a group.”

During tech week, the group spent three hours rehearsing each night, coupled with additional time devoted to solos and performance details. Before that week, they spent four to five hours rehearsing as a group with another hour dedicated to their vocal section. 

Preparing to perform 20 songs, Mixed Co. began rehearsing in the fall, continuing throughout their winter tour in Florida and during the first few weeks of this semester. 

Yu said that he was particularly excited to arrange music for “Flowers,” a song from “Hadestown.” 

Praising Ian Berlin ’24 and Dania Baig’s ’24 rendition of the song, Eden Feiler ’27 said the two singers “really did it justice.”

Like other a cappella groups on campus, various members of Mixed Co. arrange music to perform instead of using pre-composed songs. Songs the group sings are arranged by members or alumni, and the group performs music across all genres. Once a song is arranged for the group, it becomes part of their repertoire, a diverse setlist from which they can draw songs in the future.

Each year, Mixed Co. selects songs from their repertoire along with new arrangements from current members to perform. According to assistant musical director of the group Everett Tolbert-Schwartz ’26, members fill out a form ranking their top choices for songs they would like to sing. Then, Tolbert-Schwartz works in collaboration with Emily Patrick ’26, the group’s pitch — or musical director, to make sure everyone gets their first or second choice.

“We find that when people are singing the song they really want to sing, everyone sounds better,” Tolbert-Schwartz said of the process.

Once songs are selected, every member of the group learns the background parts, known as “shoes.” Then, members of Mixed Co. who are interested in singing solos practice those parts in their free time. The group’s musical directors work to ensure that all members who would like to perform solos are able to do so at shows.

Along with the music, members of Mixed Co. also collaborate to imbue their concerts with comedic asides, engaging the audience with lighthearted deviations from their music. Michael Cheng ’26 is this year’s “shticktator,” the affectionate term the group uses for the member primarily responsible for planning “shticks.”

On Saturday, Cheng emceed the show and facilitated various bits. The shticks included a time-honored tradition: humorous introductions that set the scene and tone for the rest of the night. Obas jokingly introduced herself as a “public speaking major,” delivering the line in a barely audible whisper.

Another bit later played out with Kenneth Shui ’27 and Kenneth Vo ’27, who both go by “Kenny.” At one point during the concert, they staged a fake fight over whose turn it was to sing. 

Mixed Co. plans special skits for larger concerts like Snow Job, according to Aviv Pinker ’25. While other bits are recurring, the group collaborates to create novel segments for these shows. 

Yu served as the group’s “shticktator” last year. “Most of that is thrown together last minute,” he said. “And I think it makes it funnier because it’s so haphazard.”

For Tolbert-Schwartz, watching alumni in the audience react to the group’s bits is one of his favorite aspects of performing. Tolbert-Schwartz said alumni who are still on campus come to all the group’s shows.

Even former members who have graduated often stay involved with the group, he said, mentioning connecting with alumni in Florida during Mixed Co.’s recent tour. Pinker agreed, lauding the enthusiastic seniors who sat in the front row during Saturday’s concert.

“What makes Snow Job truly special is the support from friends and family in the crowd,” Pinker said. “Performing with them in the crowd is my favorite part of Snow Job.”

Mixed Co. was founded in 1981.

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The Jim Vlock First Year Building Project was founded in 1967 and is mandatory for all students in the Master of Architecture I program. During the second semester of their first year, students work with a local organization to design housing that they later help build. 

“I think it was the main reason I came to Yale to study architecture,” said Tara Vasanth ARC ’26, a first-year student currently working on the project. “Being a non-background architecture student, I really love the idea of just being thrust into a project and working with all these different people.”

Started by Charles W. Moore and Kent Bloomer, the project was renamed after Jim Vlock in 2009, after his family endowed it.

In founding the project, Moore hoped to familiarize architecture students with the logistics of actually building the works they designed. 

Given widespread student unrest on college campuses in the 1960s, he was eager to create a project encouraging students to create positive change through their architectural pursuits. 

According to Adam Hopfner, the program’s project director, “Students engage with a real client to develop conceptual designs for a building, which will ultimately be built by those same students.”

For the last two years, that client has been Friends Center for Children, a New Haven-based daycare center. Envisioning housing for the school’s teachers, students spend the spring semester designing homes in small groups before sending their proposals to the center, which ultimately decides which submission they like most. From there, the entire cohort of students collaborates to build the housing throughout the summer, ultimately finishing in the fall.

According to a press release from Friends Center, 20 percent of its teachers live in housing it has provided. A document shared by Samantha Kupferman, the communications lead for Friends Center, listed their Teacher Housing Initiative as a means of supporting educators without “burdening families with increased tuition.”

Hofner added that the housing is provided to the teachers free of charge as part of their compensation package. He emphasized that M.Arch I students begin their spring semester by listening to the needs of their client, prioritizing their understanding of these needs before they embark on the designing process.

Gaining insight into their client’s needs and hands-on experience in the field, the students learn about the practical application of architectural principles.

“The building project is a unique vehicle for learning whereby the learning is experiential,” Hopfner said. “Both because it’s a collaborative endeavor and also because architecture at its best is a service, and that requires a willing client.”

Owen Wang ARC ’25, who undertook the endeavor last year, said that the Building Project is what makes the M.Arch I program so important. Noting its applied approach to architecture, he said that Yale’s program is distinct from those offered at other architecture schools he considered.

Vasanth, expressing her admiration for teachers in early childhood care, said that speaking with teachers about their experiences has been a valuable part of the project.

“We wanted to be really mindful and create a space that was a little bit of a sanctuary to return to at the end of a very long day,” Vasanth said.

In the project’s initial years, architecture students worked across the U.S. on projects like a medical building in West Virginia for people who suffered from black lung disease. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, though, the program’s focus shifted to Connecticut, with an emphasis on housing. In Connecticut, there is a shortage of 89,000 houses for people with low incomes.

The project has also experienced several other changes since its genesis. This semester, students are dedicating time to work exclusively on the project. In previous years, students have had the challenge of simultaneously focusing on the Building Project and studio work.

Yale’s Architecture School has tools available on-site, but it also has a facility on West Campus that students use for prefabrication components of the project. Wang said that a key element of designing the housing is prioritizing pragmatism.

Last year, Wang and his group worked to design and build housing for two single mothers and their children.

 “It had to be a single house, with a shared element to fulfill zoning requirements,” Wang said. “So the challenge we had was ‘How do we leave the private and public together?’”

Ultimately, Wang’s group decided to design a shared kitchen for the space. Striving to create a space that catered to both a sense of familial responsibility and shared community, his group’s design was selected to be built.

Elucidating challenges her group has been facing, Vasanth mentioned that the site has lots of foliage they don’t want to disturb. In trying to find a practical solution, they decided to design a cluster of rooms that are aligned along one axis with a clear corridor running through them.

“If you look at the plan,” she said. “It looks like two fish lightly touching.”

That synthesis of utility and creativity has fueled a sense of purpose in students like Wang and Vasanth. Combining functionality and innovation, students work together to overcome obstacles and create their designs.

Wang said that addressing difficulties in making the design a reality often facilitated debate among his peers, and Vasanth noted that she and her teammates’ desks are littered with sketches and traces. Both students emphasized their appreciation for being able to participate in a building project so early in their graduate education.

“I’m very grateful for the experience of working on my first house,” Vasanth said. “It’s been a formative and beautiful project. We’re going to haul the wood and we’re going to lay the foundations and we’re going to select the landscaping and all of that will come into fruition during the summer. I really love its mission.”

The School of Architecture is located at 180 York St.

Correction: Feb. 5: A previous version of this article stated that students finished the project in August. The center aims to finish the project by the fall. A previous version of the article also stated that 20 percent of its teachers live in housing built by Yale students. The housing is a combination of student-built and donated housing. The article has been corrected accordingly.

Correction, Feb. 6: This article has been amended to consistently refer to “Friends Center,” which is the organization’s correct name, and not “the Friends Center.”

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Since September 2022, the store has been invigorating the Audubon Arts district, attracting locals, highschool students and Yalies alike. Founded by Eiress Hammond, the store is the only Black-owned business currently located on Audubon Street. The name MINIPNG is a combination of Hammond’s nickname, “mini,” with that of the file-type she first saved her artwork as, “png.”  

“My favorite thing about having a store is just the community that we’ve built,” said the store’s founder Eiress Hammond. “People just come in just to say hi, or they’ll come in to sit around or read a book.”

Hammond has strived to make the store a community hub. Her vision for MINIPNG, as not just a store but also a place for shoppers to socialize and unwind, has come to fruition in the past year. For her 24th birthday, she served up a 15 percent-off sale along with an ornate cake decorated by local baker Anna Levinson. In October, she held a belated celebration for the store’s one-year anniversary combined with a Halloween Costume contest. 

In collaboration with Matteo Feliz, who runs the vintage market Forgotten Flea, Hammond has hosted two bazaars outside her store on Audubon street. These outdoors markets, called “Offline on Audubon,” featured vendors from all over Greater New Haven.

Lelah Shapiro ’27 discovered the store last fall when she was helping her older sister move back onto campus and said she now frequents MINIPNG. 

“My sister’s a junior here, and she told me about it,” said Shapiro. “She absolutely loved how a lot of the outfits were actually created or designed by Mini.”

Shapiro often returns to the store, drawn in by Hammond’s creative designs and commitment to sustainability. She mentioned the success of  December’s “Offline on Audubon,” highlighting the event’s DJ and gushing over the wide variety of items there.

That day, vendors sold curated clothing, customized hair clips and antiques. Inside the store, cases for lighters ornamented with glass eyeballs rested on a shelf and people lined up by the door’s entrance for stick-and-poke tattoos by bamboo.pokes. 

“I’m an avid fan,” said Shapiro. “This is like my entire wardrobe.”

Mentioning MINIPNG’s  proximity to Koffee?, Shapiro said she often browses the shop after a trip to the cafe. But MINIPNG’s convenient location was serendipitous rather than calculated. Hammond actually stumbled upon the vacant storefront by accident, while she was on a trip to Good Nature Market’s Whitney Avenue location. Realizing the space could be the ideal place for her store, she decided to seize the opportunity. 

Hammond, whose family has roots in New Haven, said opening the store on Audubon felt like coming full-circle.

“My grandmother actually went to ECA [Educational Center for the Arts],” she said. “It was a wholesome moment when I opened the store there. She went to school, like literally on the same street.”

ECA is adjacent to MINIPNG. Hammond noted that when she first opened, it was students at ECA who most often visited her store, coming in during their lunch breaks or when they got out of class for the day.

Hammond described her grandmother as a “very artistic child” growing up, something she has inherited. Her grandmother’s family immigrated from Puerto Rico before moving to Brooklyn and ultimately settling in New Haven.

Today, Hammond often travels between New York and Connecticut, organizing pop-up events at flea markets and running her storefront. She said she hopes to open another MINIPNG in New York, preferably on the Lower East Side. 

Right now, Hammond said she is focused on discovering more ways to bring the local community together. For her, that means organizing more events in Connecticut, collaborating with other designers and working to make prices more affordable. 

“I feel like whenever we want to experience something, we always leave Connecticut,” said Hammond. “I want to bring the stuff that people leave the state for here.”

This March, Hammond plans to do just that. Thrift2Death, an NYC-based pop-up market, is coming to Audubon on Jan. 30 to run a fair with Hammond. The event will be sponsored by Yerba Mate, and Hammond said that the popular teas will be available throughout the event.

In regards to affordability, she said, “We try to keep our prices in a range that is accessible to everyone.” 

For one shopper, Hammond’s compassionate business model is admirable. Sarah Michelle Elanaya said Hammond has held pieces for them when they were short on money and given them the opportunity to sell their zines in the store. 

Elanaya first discovered MINIPNG after reading about a Black-owned business opening in the district. They noted that MINIPNG’s markets draw a more diverse crowd than they’ve seen at other flea events in Connecticut.

“I feel like in the era of social media, it’s rare to find someone in the community that is as welcoming in person as they are online,” said Elanaya. 

Hammond sells clothing both at her store and on her website. While she advertises most of her events on Instagram, she also posts physical flyers to attract other members of the community. MINIPNG’s layout facilitates an experience-based shopping experience, contributing to the store’s inviting nature, but Hammond’s warmth truly makes customers feel at home.

Both Elaneya and Shapiro emphasized her amiability, saying they became friendly with Hammond after chatting with her inside the store. 

“It really is more than a storefront,” Elanaya added. “It’s a place for folks to express themselves uniquely.”

MINIPNG is located at 77 Audubon St.

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Located at 821-825 Chapel St., the store is part of a national chain headquartered in Maine. On Jan. 8, the New Haven branch announced its imminent closure on Facebook and Instagram. The announcement was immediately met with dismay from the arts community in New Haven.

“The loss of Artist and Craftsman leaves a hole in the New Haven arts community without a doubt,” said New Haven-based multimedia artist Susan Clinard. “There is nothing like it in this region.”

Clinard told the News that the store satisfied her needs as an artist who works with multiple mediums, from wood to paint to clay. She noted that she has been able to find both essential items and obscure supplies at the store, making it particularly convenient.

Jisu Sheen ’20, an artist and an associate at Artist & Craftsman Supply, has worked at the store since 2021. Sheen said her favorite part of working at Artist & Craftsman Supply is connecting with her coworkers. Mentioning their shared humor and camaraderie, she spoke about how her coworkers have helped each other through difficult times.

“We understood each other deeply and supported each other as artists,” she said. 

According to Katro Storm, a portraitist based in Connecticut, the store stands out because of its employees’ dedication and warmth. Storm recounted a recent trip to the store he made in search of large canvases. The store only had two canvases left in stock, so the employees ordered the remaining 13 for him.

Clinard shared Storm’s admiration for the store’s associates. 

“The employees are artists and makers which makes a huge difference in many ways,” she said. “They’re always kind and knowledgeable about materials.”

But for Storm, the employees’ congeniality is particularly special because of the suspicion he is often met with in other art stores. He emphasized that as a Black artist, Artist & Craftsman Supply has always been a welcoming environment.

“When I walk into art stores, employees tend to follow me around and ask if I need help every few minutes, but at Artist & Craftsman, they make me feel like they know me,” he said.

Artist & Craftsman Supply sells materials for experienced artists and beginners alike. They also sell Crayola-brand clay and other products geared towards children, fostering creativity for artists of various skill levels and ages. 

Highlighting the store’s universal appeal, New Haven-based artist Raheem Nelson said the store will be missed because of its “support for artists of all ages.”

Kai Chen ’26 conveyed similar feelings of disappointment about the store’s closing.  

“I’m really sad to see Artist & Craftsman Supply go,” he said. “There’s been multiple times when I’ve asked the staff for their assistance or advice on a project I’m doing, and the staff has always been friendly.” 

News of the store’s forthcoming closure has created a wave of new business that leaves Sheen conflicted, she said. While she is glad to see young artists taking advantage of the store’s closing sale, she is disheartened by the customers with significant buying power, who she wished had been shopping there all along.

Mentioning how some customers have cleared out sections at a time, she said that her workload has grown to several times what it was before the branch announced its closing. She said that shoppers can be impatient because of the store’s recent busyness, but she loves seeing her regular customers.

“If I could tell anything to customers, new and old, it would be, ‘Please be nice to us! We are going through a lot,’” she said. 

Without Artist & Craftsman Supply, Hull’s will be the only remaining art store in the downtown area. While also located on Chapel Street, Hull’s tends to draw more Yale students because of its proximity to campus. 

Sheen said that Pike International, a rental company in New Haven, recently tripled rent for Artist & Craftsman Supply. Sheen speculated that the increase in rent was triggered by the development of luxury apartments across the street. Pike International did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Sheen mentioned that the Dollar General on Chapel Street is also closing which an employee confirmed to the News when reached by phone on Monday. The New Haven Independent reported that the nearby Rite-Aid on Church Street closed down just last month after the company filed for bankruptcy earlier in the fall.

“Some people have told me this is just the start, that the whole block is in trouble now,” she said. 

Sheen said that she and her coworkers are already nostalgic about their time working at the store, especially with the recent influx of customers. Still, she said she has let go of the sadness she initially felt about Artist & Craftsman Supply’s closure, instead choosing to look forward.

“Nothing is permanent, and I think we all have bright futures ahead,” Sheen said of her and her coworkers. “I’m a bit worried about where the people of New Haven will get certain art supplies, but I think we’ll find ways to fill in the gaps.”

Through January, all products at Artist & Craftsman Supply are discounted by 30 percent, which will be increased to 40 percent in February. 

The post Local art store Artist & Craftsman Supply to close appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Titled “With D’Love, From DPops,” the performance rang in the holiday season with a vibrant array of love-themed music. 

“I think this concert was really thought out,” said Helen Zhou ’25, the orchestra’s co-president. “Some of the pieces have been in the works since last year, and everything just fell together.”

The orchestra had six total rehearsals in preparation for this performance, and each concert cycle usually involves 12 to 15 hours of rehearsal time with the entire orchestra. Aside from that, the orchestra’s musicians practice alone and in sectionals, working on distinct portions of each song. During board meetings, involved members discuss logistics and thematic ideas before finding ways to incorporate creative elements into the show.

According to the orchestra’s other co-president, Eric Gan ’25, “Theatrics have been a big part of DPops since we joined. We occupy a very particular niche in the musical community here.”

On Friday night, theatrics were on full display. When the orchestra played music from the video game Stardew Valley, members held up placards with emotes from the game. During their section of Taylor Swift’s music, the orchestra’s conductor, Elias Gilbert ’24, dressed in an outfit resembling the one she wears on the album cover of ‘Folklore.’ Posters mimicking those featured in Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” music video were used. Adam McPhail ’25, who is the principal percussionist and also a SciTech editor for the News, donned a red jersey in his impression of Kansas City Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce, who is dating Swift.

The music for the show was chosen from work arranged by students in the orchestra. Usually, the leaders take music arranged from the past year for concerts, identifying potential themes as they sort through their peers’ arrangements. They find this method preferable to identifying a theme early on because they want to encourage students to have full creative liberty in their arrangements.

For Gan and Zhou, the bulk of preparations involve ensuring that the concerts run smoothly. While the composers make up the musical side of leadership, they focus on administration. This includes securing funding, reserving venues, liaising with undergraduate production and set breakdown. The two co-presidents became close during their sophomore year at Yale, and they said they enjoy working together to organize concerts. These efforts, which they affectionately referred to as “grunt work,” made for a seamless performance on Friday.

“Feel free to get up and sing along if you’d like,” said Gilbert as he introduced the concert and emphasized DPops’ differences from traditional orchestra etiquette. 

Throughout the concert, the audience eagerly applauded, joined in with vocals and cheered for their friends.

During the orchestra’s delivery of the Eras Medley, particularly, attendees were zealous in their participation. The show ended with a surprise: following their performance of “Anti-Hero,” the group ended with Swift’s iconic country hit “Love Story,” prompting an ardent audience reaction within the first few notes.

One attendee, Keenan Mendoza ’27, said, “My heart was so warm because of the show. It was a great way to start the month of December.” 

Lauding the orchestra’s renditions of Taylor Swift songs, he joked that he started “levitating” when he heard their take on “Lover.” 

According to Gan and Zhou, what makes Dpops unique is the commitment of its composers, arrangers and musicians along with the board’s enthusiasm. 

“DPops as a whole is very laid back and really fun,” Zhou said. “I think the reason we’re able to work so well is because everyone’s so dedicated.” 

DPops was founded in 2005.

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On Thursday, Oct. 26, a cohort of visual artists came together to display their art in “Voir Dire: Truth in all Shades.” The exhibition took place at KNOWN Coworking, a space located in the Palladium Building at 139 Orange St. Curated by Kim Weston, a Black and Indigenous artist living in the New Haven area, she told the News the exhibition aimed to highlight local creatives who are Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, the breadth of talent they have to offer and the challenges they experience in the art world. 

“This show was actually inspired by my experiences trying to display Black art,” Weston said. “It’s still an issue for Black and Brown artists to share their work.”

Weston referred to the show as “gumbo,” alluding to her inclusion of such a wide array of artists. Featuring artists Greg Aimé, Kulimushi Barongozi, Cal Boccicault, Junior Charles, Dooley-O, Howard el-Yasin, Noè Jimenez, Jasmine Nikole, Sain’t and Remy Sosa, the exhibition spanned a wide range of art styles including traditional, post-modern and Afro-futurist works.

Emphasizing the necessity of centering racially marginalized artists, Weston recounted a recent incident where she said she was asked to remove a piece of artwork she had put up. Weston said that a white viewer expressed discomfort at the artist’s graphic critique of settler-colonialism in the United States. Weston took the piece down, but she said incidents like the one she described exemplify why artists of color need spaces of their own.

Weston told the News she hopes to create a gallery specifically for artists of color. Since 2021, she said she has been working to open a gallery called Wábi Gallery at a property she purchased on Court Street. In the space, she said she hopes to create workshops, offices and performance spaces.

“As long as these institutions can push us around, and tell us what we can show or what we can’t  show, we won’t have the freedom that we need to have,” she said.

Titled “Voir Dire,” French for “to speak the truth,” Thursday’s exhibition featured the works of 10 creators of color. Weston collaborated with the poet Lindsay Jean Philippe to come up with the installation’s title. Working backward from that, an atypical method for Weston, she said she contacted artists who she felt exemplified her goal.

One artist, Jasmine Nikole, displayed paintings of women musicians. In her piece, “My Lady,” a woman sings jubilantly, and in “Out Loud,” a woman plays the trumpet. 

“I wanted to portray female musicians because typically for a trumpet player, I just think of prominent men,” said Nikole. 

Uniting the two frames was an abstract painting called “Underneath it All,” composed of a juxtaposition of cool and warm tones. Nikole said she originally made the piece separately from the other works, but decided to place it between them once she noticed how it synthesized the two portraits’ respective color schemes.

Nikole said she usually listens to music while she works. She said her pieces can take anywhere from days to weeks to complete, mentioning that she often had to balance art with her parental duties. 

As for what inspires her work, she said, “I first use pictures or sometimes I see a dream of something and I’ll have to fulfill it.” 

Exhibition guests marveled at the works of each artist, praising their talents and asking them questions about their processes. Howard el-Yasin, an artist who often works with found materials — those usually not intended for art — made one piece entirely of blackened banana peels. Titled “Bananas, Bananas, Bananas,” the work piqued viewers’ interest.

Greg Aimé, a Bridgeport-based multidisciplinary artist, displayed an interactive digital collage. When viewers scanned a QR code, they could hold their phone up to the piece to reveal each element swing into motion.

In his piece, “It’s Gotta Be The Shoes,” Cal Bocicault portrayed two men holding shoe boxes. He described his artistic mission to “master language without words,” adding that he prioritizes “taking control of the narrative” when creating art. 

All the pieces displayed are available for purchase.

“It was important for me to do a show like this,” Weston said. “One that told the truth of these Black and Brown artists.”

The “Voir Dire: Truth in all Shades” installation will remain up until Dec. 29.

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