“During a global pandemic I don’t think people should be kicked out on the street, and I don’t think people should have to pay rent debt,” says Olivia B., an organizer with Tenant Network Rhode Island (TNRI). This new community organization focuses on tenants’ rights and provides mutual aid for households struggling to pay housing […]
“The Newport Navy Scandal is something we stumbled on a couple years ago very randomly,” says Matthew Lawrence. He and his partner Jason Tranchida are creating an art project, Scandalous Conduct/Newport 1919, around this remarkable episode in Rhode Island history, which encompassed, as their website declares: “An Episcopal minister. 41 navalrecruits. A zealous newspaper editor. […]
“My mom happens to be an epidemiologist, and she sent me an N95 mask back in January, so I had an idea this might get bad,” recalls Matt Muller, co-founder of the inflatable art and design collective Pneuhaus. Pneuhaus creates installations for events, so once their schedule began to be cleared due to COVID-19 cancellations, […]
I am at DWRI Letterpress, and I am standing in front of a Linotype, the first automatic typesetting machine — a machine that Edison called the “Eighth Wonder of The World” — and over the whirring, clanking and spitting of its 3,000 moving parts, Dan Wood is explaining why it’s so wondrous, or in his […]
The URI Arts and Culture Program presents “We Shall Overcome!” an exhibit featuring both commissioned art and historical artifacts selected from Onna Moniz-John’s collection of Black Americana. The exhibit, which runs through February 27, is free and open to the public, and can be found on the first and second floors of the URI Feinstein […]
Funda Fest, the annual celebration of black storytelling presented by Rhode Island Black Storytellers (RIBS), will take place throughout the state from January 25 through February 2. The Festival is in its 22nd year. “‘Funda’ means ‘to teach and to learn’ in Zulu and Kiswahili,” explained RIBS co-founder and executive director Valerie Tutson. “We got […]
“I call it a curtain, but it’s, of course, a drop scene,” says Richard Ring, deputy executive director for collections and interpretation at the Rhode Island Historical Society, as he unveils the broad swath of fabric. “This would have been dropped onto the stage between acts.” The recently restored curtain shows a view of 1809 […]
It’s been 30 years since Shepard Fairey clipped a picture of Andre the Giant from the newspaper to show a fellow RISD student how to make a stencil. The resulting sticker spread across the country by way of the skateboarding community, and “Andre the Giant has a posse” mushroomed into an analog meme, years before […]
The Attleboro Community Theatre’s first offering of their 63rd season is Frederick Knott’s classic thriller Wait Until Dark. Movie buffs will recognize the title from the 1967 adaptation, starring Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin; the stage version debuted in 1966. Knott’s story follows Susy Hendrix, a blind woman who becomes the target of three con […]
If you’ve been out for drinks in RI, chances are you’ve seen Matt Eaton’s work. Eaton is the artist behind Hannison Woodworks, which produces custom beer and coffee taps. Over the past seven years Matt has earned a reputation for crafting these striking works of functional art from which various local liquids flow. “The Nitro […]