Theodore “Teddy” Jennings lived to the remarkable age of ninety-eight. For the entire second half of that, he resided in the same Victorian-style home nestled in the West Elmwood neighborhood of Providence. He married three times, outliving each magnificent woman and madly in love every time. He was even-keeled, kind and energetic to the end, […]
Semi-camouflaged along the banks of the Providence River, yet nestled neatly at a main hub of Wickenden Street is a newcomer to the PVD literary scene. The Creative Capital has had a longstanding love affair with indie bookstores. Many of us still remember when Cellar Stories downtown was the go-to for used selections galore. College […]
Hate laced lead projectiles pierce through a peaceful Providence. A rush to usher innocents towards shuttered confinements that smell of fear. Ivy League opulence left tarnished by trauma. A city in mourning. A community canvassed. A campus locked down. An inexhaustible entourage of law enforcement enveloping the East Side. A grisly demise for a miniscule […]
Recent news has been grim about the future of medical care in our capital city. Dire finances have essentially endangered two of our local institutions: Roger Williams Medical Center and Fatima Hospital, threatening the closure of both. It is important to note that this would effectively halve the number of hospitals in Providence for general […]
Providence 2045: Over the last twenty years only one company has emerged as the leader in self-driving taxis; Cab-E. Traditional taxicabs have long-since gone extinct. Tesla has recently crumbled under the weight of its founder’s sheer lunacy. Amazon has focused all of its attention on colonizing Mars. Even Uber and Lyft have faded from the […]
“The indigenous Taino were ill-prepared for the arrival of Spanish settlers. There were not war-like people; they were welcoming and trusting. Many were eradicated and most survivors simply cowered before the advanced weaponry of the Conquistadors. A few brave warriors dared to defy the occupation, however. Guarionex was a cacique, a trusted leader in his […]
Detective Amaral had never seen anything quite like it, even after fifteen years in the Providence Police Department. He knew that his recent promotion from patrol would come with consequences, and visceral displays of vivid violence put on full display by the sickest of minds, but this was next level. The victim had apparently been […]
In 1908, a vicious tropical storm ravaged the San Juan de la Maguana region of the Dominican Republic. Crops, livestock, homes, and people were wiped out on a record scale. There was an eccentric old man living in the area at the time, Olivorio Mateo. He had no family, no home, and slept in the […]
It should be abundantly clear to anybody who has read my work over the last years of published pieces here at Motif: I love the city of Providence. Everything about it to me exudes quiet charm, limitless narratives, and alluring architecture, all set to the soundtrack of an artsy yet brutalistic urban landscape. This admiration […]
In my recent article, “Foreign Flavor,” I got to explore some of the major immigrant groups of PVD, and where they hailed from. This gave me a vehicle where I could explore my own heritage a bit and give proper homage to my DominicanAmerican mother. For this French American heritage month, I want to shift […]