COVID-19 Resources
Motif is working to bring you the most up-to-date information in resources, closures and community outreach to help you through this challenging time. State Resources Feeding Kids Community Help Support for Artists Fun from Afar
Artistic Expression: This pandemic is hitting artists where it hurts
Performance cancellations, while necessary, are having a very real impact on the income of local artists. On this page, we’ll compile a list of resources and fun stuff to help artists connect, support each other and express themselves. To add to this list, email news@motifri.com Find a list of free resources, opportunities and financial relief […]
Come Together: Local community members reach out to fellow Rhode Islanders
RI’s small size and interconnectedness puts local businesses and community members in a unique position to make a real impact during this challenging time. You can help by checking on elderly neighbors and running errands for them so they can stay home. If you have tickets to a show that got cancelled, consider not asking […]
Mouths to Feed: With schools closed, local restaurants help fulfill a need
Many Rhode Island children receive a bulk of their daily calories from free and reduced-price breakfasts and lunches they receive at school. One of the challenges of closing schools for an extended period of time is making sure kids are fed. School districts across the state have planned grab-and-go meals for students to pick up […]
Write This Way: Readers, writers, story-lovers — you’ve come to the right place
I think the assumption is that to make it as a writer, you have to live in New York or Los Angeles or some old Victorian mansion in Maine where you write about killer clowns. You don’t really think about Rhode Island — but you really should. Rhode Island is experiencing an explosion of writing […]
Breaking it Down: A model for composting in Providence
Twenty-five years ago, when he was a gardener in Providence, Michael Bradlee, the founder of Earth Appliance, asked composting questions of clients, friends and his professional colleagues. He discovered there was a disconnect between the general public’s perception and what people were actually doing. He would hear people say things like, “Oh yeah, I compost […]
Almond Milk Is Bad: But the real problem is us
Almond milk is the latest food product to come under scrutiny as a destroyer of the environment and killer of honeybees. But the reality is that almond milk is just one of many manmade food crises decaying the planet’s ecology and eradicating populations of wild pollinators across the globe. The scrutiny surrounding almond milk began […]
Rising with Elizabeth Rush: Celebrating Rhode Island’s one-state, one-book selection
Since growing up in Beverly, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Rush’s journeys have carried her far and wide — college in Oregon, a solo cycling trek to Alaska, a book project in Myanmar, an art gallery in Vietnam, a teaching fellowship in Maine, a research expedition to Antarctica and uncounted environmental reporting trips in between. Now a resident […]
Total Speculation: An entirely hypothetical and unverified look at 2022 RI lieutenant gubernatorial potentials
The Boston Globe’s Ed Fitzpatrick recently published his list of 2022 Rhode Island gubernatorial potentials, so naturally, I wanted to follow-up with a list of my own of who to watch for, even this early on, for the number two executive role in the state, Lieutenant Governor. Totally speculative, and for … “fun”? Here’s the […]
100% That Witch: These voices will be silenced no longer
Witch. While I’m sure there are plenty of generations who hear that word and immediately start grabbing bottles of holy water and clutching their rosaries, witches are back — witchier than ever — and they’re taking a new stance on just what it means to harness power, cast spells and identify as a magical being. […]