2026 PVDFest is the can’t-miss local event this weekend; one of the biggest fests of the year for our city-state. This year reprises last year’s footprint, encompassing Kennedy Plaza with three stages and reaching out...
Crook Point Brewing Company, 65 Massasoit Ave., East Providence; photo credit: Sean Carlson Over the past year, The Grind has gleamed as one of Rhode Island’s coffee gems. Set up at Crook Point Brewing Company (65...
Natasha Hodgson in the Broadway Company of Operation Mincemeat. Photo by Matt Crockett. The Tony Award® and Olivier Award®-winning musical launches the North American leg of its world tour at the Providence Performing Arts Center September...
Hunter Brown, Allie Seibold, and Seth Eliser in You've Still Got a Friend, playing at Bill Hanney's Theatre By The Sea from August 20 - September 13, 2026. Photo by Michael Derr Okee dokee folks… Tonight, at Theatre By The...
Photo by Steve Ahlquist. The unionized workers of the Community Libraries of Providence have been without a contract for two years now. Their patience, which had been wearing thin, was stretched to the breaking point by...
Photo: L-R: Pénélope Rose, Manya Glassman, Emeline Easton, and K. Elisa Garcia. by Mike Ryan. The Rhode Island International Film Festival, also known as Flickers, took place August 4 through August 9, bringing filmmakers, actors, industry...
I think museums and the culture around them have historically gotten a bad rap. When you think of museums, you might associate them with classism, inaccessibility, and wealthy donors and patrons. There’s also the issue...
As the leaves change to amber hues, so do fall beers. Our local brewers are excited about the opportunity to offer these loved styles of craft beer. If you are looking forward to cozy sweaters...
Illustration by Sadie Levine. 1. Adams Farm (pumpkins, hay rides, corn mazes) Plus: Variety fall farm stand 158 Burnt Swamp Road, Cumberland 401-714-4425 2. Appleland Orchard (apples) Plus: Cider, wine, and donuts 135 Smith Avenue, Greenville 401-949-3690 3. Barden Family Orchard (apples, pumpkins) Plus: Farmers...
Okee dokee folks… I just realized that I have been attending concerts for 50 years now. In that span of time I have seen countless shows. I honestly have no idea how many I have...
Moon Leone didn’t set out to make your run-of-the-mill pop songs. They build whole worlds, embodying different characters and using visuals to tell stories that ultimately help people heal from trauma. Performing as YourFriendM00n, they...
On August 12, Motif cohosted a forum on the Arts in Providence featuring Democratic Primary Mayoral candidates Brett Smiley and David Morales. In Providence, the real election typically happens in the primary. The winner will go...
Every election cycle, Motif brings you the candidates in their own words so you can try to compare apples to apples. It’s our way of contributing to the political process while not having the fact-checking...
Environmental Organizations Endorse Foulkes for Governor PROVIDENCE — The Providence Streets Coalition, a grassroots activist organization devoted to increasing funding, safety, and reliability in the state’s transit network, announced July 21 that it is backing former...
For the cover of Motif’s Fall Guide, painter and muralist Nicholas “Niko” Tolentino of Cranston drew inspiration from his childhood days, he relates in an interview at White Electric Coffee Co-Op in Providence. Roger Williams Park...
Centerville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket hosted its first live music event in August. It started big with the Island Roads Fest, featuring popular reggae/ rock bands including Sublime, Slightly Stoopid, Iration, Action Bronson, DENM, Bumpin...
Stepping into a tattoo convention without a tattoo or an array of piercings can be intimidating, like stepping into a gallery show without reading the title first. Aside from a pair of basic ear studs,...
August 12, 6:30 - 8:30 PM Southside Cultural Center - 393 Broad Street, Providence What do the candidates for Mayor of Providence have in mind for the future of arts engagement in the “Creative Capital”? Find...
Can art by Joey Visco Dogs and drafts? Is there any better way to celebrate yappy hour? If you are an animal and craft beer lover, this is an event you do not want to miss!...
Photo by Sindayiganza Photography. The FIFA World Cup tournament was full of thrills, drama, chaos, unity, and live television shots of devastated children in tears after their team lost a heartbreaking match. The final whistle brought...
Matthew Provençal as Thomas Andrews in ‘Titanic: The Broadway Musical’ at Bill Hanney's Theatre By The Sea July 23 – August 15, 2026. Photo by Mark Turek. The challenge to staging a production of “Titanic: The...
The Tattoo Awards featured a gallery wall populated by local artists. Here is a selection of the artwork on display! By Brianne Elizabeth @foxhallowart By Victori Leo Riel Grab Your Heart & Go by Allie Boyer @peaceflowercreations MONSTROELIZASUE by...
Photo by Jess Lee Images. I met Lily Spencer in an acting class taught by Eric Lutes, whom many television fans will remember from the 1990s sitcom “Caroline in the City.” Eric, who now lives in...
Rachel WS. Favorite Animal/ Favorite Floral Tara D’Agostino – Iron Lion Tattoo By the numbers, Tara D’Agostino got her first tattoo at the age of 15, picked up her own tattoo machine at the age of 19, opened...
Photo by Jillian Clark. There’s no feeling quite like finally being able to fully step into your own, to truly embrace your whole self and carry yourself through the world with that mentality. Not an identity...
Kai Nanfelt. Okee dokee folks… Last weekend I went on a ten-hour, each way, road trip to play a show. The drive wasn’t so bad, but the music was horrible. As I have mentioned before, I...
Photo by Isaac Laliberte Wards 2, 9 and 12 all report the same. Mendez wins in each! It appeared that Providence was perfectly poised to usher-in its first female mayor in history. The polls were closed and...
“You’re late, Brother,” she said, hovering outside the weathered cottage near a pebbly beach, indistinguishable from the shadows cast by moonlight that hit the thick hydrangeas. It was late in the evening of a seawind-chilled...
It’s almost Cthulhu – pardon my hiccup, I meant, “election” – season again. And if the tactics of these times don’t make your head swim and your bowls ache, as if you were being eviscerated...
When cover artist Bob Eggleton of Warwick first got interested in art and started sketching nightmarish creatures, he recalls, an aunt asked him, “What’s drawing a monster gonna get you in life?” He’s spent the last...
As an eight year old, I loved to play with toy guns. I never saw them as instruments of real death. At eight I had very little experience with real death. I knew Robocop, Commando, and Murder She Wrote. A big question of the time was “Who shot J.R.?” I knew of cowboys and quickdraws. […]
Kids used to do that with their fingers. Nowadays they use video games to mock shoot each other. In San Antonio, Texas, an armed security guard stopped a mass killing when she shot and wounded a disgruntled employee who opened fire in the Chinese restaurant where he worked. A would-be murderer recently broke into a […]
The Cable Car Cinema and Café was opened in 1976 by Ray Bilodeau and has been providing Rhode Island with high quality, independent films since. In 2008, the theater changed ownership. Daniel Kamil and Emily Steffian have owned and operated the Cable Car since then, and they have maintained the uniqueness that has made Cable […]
It began with a simple coincidence and an off-color joke, as all good love stories do. As fate would have it, we were seated side-by-side in the exit row of an airplane. While the flight attendants prepared the cabin for takeoff, I gestured toward the window with my thumb. “If we crash, it’s all you.” […]
It’s Tuesday night at Blue State Café on Thayer. Like any night, the staff is serving specialty drinks and pastries in a brightly lit room surrounded by the décor of a local artist, which expels the classroom-like feel created by the standardized tables and chairs. But tonight is different. It’s Tuesday night, which means it’s […]
The RISD museum furnished a soft light which set a relaxing tone for the “Ways of Seeing: American Art” workshop, on Thursday. Attendees, from varying backgrounds gazed into the neoclassical artworks of Thomas Cole and other American landscape painters on display. Workshop facilitators, Horace Ballard and Deb Clemons, led an interactive forum that captivated the […]
Welcome to the new Motif Magazine Website. If you’re seeing this message on the first page, then we’ve just recently launched our new, interactive Motif site. It’s not everything we want it to be yet – far from it – but we just couldn’t hold out any longer. It’s a first step in bringing the […]
by Rosemary Pacheco It may be cold outside, but things are heating up in Rhode Island. Those of us in the film world are very excited as the industry is booming right now – great things are happening all around us. Short film/TV pilot Half Pint, produced by Original Concept & Development Associates (Andre Stark […]
Bob Cowsill, of Rhode Island’s legendary band The Cowsills, comes full circle in his 40-year musical career. Now living on the West Coast, the nationally-acclaimed musician and his band member siblings are planning a trip back home. He (along with other Rhode Island musicians) will be honored on Sunday, April 28 at the Hope Artiste Village, to be recognized by […]
By Pete Larrivee Hello and welcome to the first “Got Beer” column of the new online version of Motif! We’ve finally moved into the 21st century, and it’s about time because my leeches and electro-shock health care plan is expensive! Here you’ll see beer reviews and craft beer news before they hit the paper every month. We’re […]
