Month: February 2022


Open and Closed: February 2022

Opened The Village Authentic Nigerian Restaurant, 100 Fountain St, PVD. The Village is a family business, with Toyin Wilcox opening a second location beyond their Pawtucket original.   Closed Brewed Awakenings: 100 Westminster St, PVD. It’s brewed sleeping time in PVD. David Levesque’s RI-based coffee chain is leaving the Creative Capital, but still operates four other […]

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Omarion Cometh

“I’m here!” Door banging, stomping sneakers,  Loud shouts, Not the Inside Voice. Be Quiet T-shirt flung into a dark corner, Towel airborne, dirty shoes kicked — one here, one there Soon to be hunted. Be Still Water running, splashing waves, air gushing, Window slamming, then Silence. Outside, heads hurting,  Sore throats, raspy coughs, night sweats, […]

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The Gems of August Wilson: A conversation with Michelle Cruz of Trinity Rep

In 1987, when August Wilson’s Fences received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Providence Journal’s arts critic William Gale hailed the Pittsburgh playwright: “His plays leap from his own gut. They’re about things that really count — family relationships, the Black experience in America — and they have many colors, a multitude of themes, great […]

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Peace is in the Air: 1,000 origami cranes empower Hope Artiste Village visitors

In December, The Empowerment Factory (TEF) debuted their latest art installation in Hope Artiste Village, located in Pawtucket, and it features 1,000 paper cranes – all in a flight pattern – flying as though they’re in a flock. The inspiration for the 1,000 Cranes was brought into the limelight when a two-year-old child survived the […]

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A Slice of Cannabis History: Earliest days of RI prohibition

On Friday, November 9, 1934, the Providence Police Department made what may have been their first arrests for illegal possession of cannabis. Unsurprisingly, for a state that currently arrests Black people at three times the rate of white people, the first three people arrested for cannabis possession in Rhode Island were three Black men; Charles […]

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