Motif’s 5 Event Picks of the Week: November 2 – November 9
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You've Still Got a Friend: Theater by the Sea presents a rousing world premiere tribute
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...
They didn’t strike, they picketed: Local librarians find a new way to educate the public.
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...
Flickers 44: Celebrating film from around the world and right here in the Ocean State
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...
Welcome to the Neighborhood: RI’s Newest Black-Operated Museum
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...
Lawn Beers to Harvest Cheers: Summer's Last Pours to Autumn's Fresh Taps
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...
Fall Happenings Map
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...
Roots Report
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...
YourFriendM00n Wants You to Know You’re Not Alone
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...
Art Focused Forum
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...
In Their Own Words: 2026
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...
ecoRI News Roundup
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...
ON THE COVER: Nicholas "Niko" Tolentino
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...
No Concert is an Island
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...
Tatting at the Convention Center
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,...
Arts Focus Forum
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...
MEOWS, MALTS, DOGS AND DRAFTS: Have a pint to rescue a paw
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!...
NOW IT’S OUR TURN: Local team seeks to keep up positive momentum from World Cup
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...
Boatload of music: Titanic drama
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...
2026 Tattoo Awards Gallery Wall
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...
BTS with DMK: Lily Spencer
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...
2026 Tattoo Award Winners
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...
The Long Game: River Shook Arrives Home
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...
Roots Report
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...
The Butterfly’s Shadow
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...
A Flicker of Flame
“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...
American Caesar Salad
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...
ON THE COVER: Bob Eggleton
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...
GREASE
Skyler Shields (Kenickie) and the cast of the Theatre By The Sea (Wakefield, RI) production of “Grease” running thru July 18, 2026. Photo by Mark Turek. “A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop! A-wop-bam-boom!” BY ALISON O’DONNELL ON JUNE 27, 2026 Grease is the...
Between Worlds with Sheila Isham: Resurrecting the American abstract expressionist at the Newport Art Museum
Isham, Sheila. Teth (#8 Creation Series). 1972. Acrylic spray on canvas. Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI. (Image courtesy of the Newport Art Museum.) Quite some time ago, I read a quip that the art of diplomacy...
Rhode's Clothes: Part 3 - A Strut Down Memory Lane
As an international student a year into Rhode Island, yet still only a breath into America, I finally found a question that I might be able to answer – this is my continued exploration of: What...
Stuff to Do
Donald Trump: At Long Last, Have You No Sense of Decency?
I never expected to live in a fascist state. I’m old enough to have grown up in the United States acquainted with people who escaped real fascists. One of my elementary school teachers in her late teens and early 20s fought with the anti-Nazi resistance in Germany during the war. I knew people who survived […]
Album Of The Week: Vanishing Life’s Surveillance
Walter Schreifels has had an eclectic career. He’s been straying from his hardcore punk roots from his time as the bassist for Youth Of Today, and frontman for Gorilla Biscuits and Quicksand, with the results being pure original material. In the past few years he’s been doing stuff with the bluesy alt-rock act Dead Heavens […]
Mike D’s Top 5 Can’t Miss Shows of November
1.Friday, November 4: Doomsday Student, Math The Band, Microwaves, Sensitive Hearts; 9pm; $?; All ages?; Aurora, 276 Westminster St, PVD. A local night (and a band from PA) featuring two of Providence’s best live acts. Doomsday Student just released their second LP, A Self-Help Tragedy. The band sounds like a horror soundtrack, guitar assault on top […]
Phillipe and Jorge’s Cool, Cool World: Vote!, Gigi and Too Much Promotion
Early and Often Phillipe and Jorge would be remiss if we did not offer one more encouragement cum demand that everyone get out and vote on election day. It’s a right, it’s a privilege, and it is what any upstanding American should do. We have seen our friends from other countries break down and cry […]
7 Referendum Questions
What should you do about the referendum questions on this year’s ballot? Rhode Island voters have a history of approving bonds because they seem like free money: buy now, pay later – with interest, from future tax revenue. They often may be for a good cause, but they run the state further into debt. We […]
Roots Report: Darkness Is Coming
Okee dokee folks … Daylight Savings Time will end in a few days. I heard a lot of jokes that involve Daylight Savings and politics, most involving setting the country back in time to the 1950s. I am sure we are all tired of politics now, and I don’t have very high hopes for this […]
Alt-Nation: November Happenings
The Upper Crust What better way to shake off the post-Halloween blues than a rock show where the band dresses up like 18th century aristocrats? That is what The Upper Crust, a band composed of Boston music scene veterans, give you with loud rock ‘n’ roll in the vein of AC/DC. The Upper Crust provide […]
The Hummel Report: A Metal Muddle
The four-story brick building has been a fixture between Allens Avenue and the Providence waterfront since 1899. Patrick Conley bought the turn-of-the-century building more than a decade ago, and later envisioned Conley’s Wharf as part of a plan to transform the north end of the waterfront into a mixed use area with restaurants, hotels and […]
The Great International Beer Fest Celebrates Brewing History
In 2008, Smithsonian Magazine surprised its readers with the following declaration: “The best beers in the world today are being made in the US.” That may have been a shock to those who believed Europe was still the home of quality beer. But the folks behind The Great International Beer Festival (GIBF) have known the […]