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...
NecronomiCon Comes to Providence
The NecronomiCon is a biennial celebration of the works of HP Lovecraft and beyond, and throughout the genre of “weird fiction.” Centered in downtown Providence, it boasts four days of literary panels, readings from various...
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...
Discover Providence's Hidden Gem: Siren Spirits in Olneyville
Tucked inside the historic Harrison Steam Complex in Providence's Olneyville neighborhood, Siren Spirits is redefining what a visit to a distillery can be. Equal parts neighborhood gathering place, cocktail destination, and craft spirits experience, this...
Crank Up The Music -- It Makes Me Hoppy
Music makes beer taste better? In 2016, Vrije University in Brussels, Belgium, conducted a study that showed scientific evidence that music has an impact on our taste of beer. This study concluded that lower audible...
Roots Report
Cold Chocolate. Okee dokee folks… Well, summer is here and for me, summer is HELL! A few years back I wrote a song about my disdain of Summer for the Empire Revue’s “Cool” show. Here are...
Small Habits That Can Lead to Big Financial Rewards
America, the focus of this issue, runs on wealth. So here’s how to get yourself some. It’s the perfect opportunity to launch a new column aimed at helping non-one-percenters with financial matters. Feel free to...
Liberty Trees Map
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Corralled at the Blood Farm: The rise of the uniquely American plasma industry
“Foreigner.” I find it a harsh word that I hate seeing applied to others. Yet applied to myself, it’s the only word that half conveys how baffling I find this country at times. I’d like...
On the Cover: William Schaff
In his final year at college, cover artist William Schaff truly learned what it was like to work in a studio. “I developed a course of study in general fine arts with one of my...
Next to Normal at Trinity Rep: Intensity shines
Rachael Warren as Diana. Photo by Mark Turek. The Next to Normal audience is exposed to waves of raw emotions drowning your soul and dampening your eyes. You may wish you had premedicated with any of...
Spoken Award Winner Writeups
Blaq Sav. Photos by Lillian MK Photography. Favorite Free Verse Spoken Word 2026 Ashley Hosa Sending out a big congrats to Ashley Hosa, who came to the Spoken Awards with a multitude of wonderful supporters (shoutout to Ryan!)....
Obituary: Julian Forgue
The founder of the long-standing hipster-ish West Side restaurant Julians hadn’t been involved directly with the restaurant in quite some time. But his legacy persisted. A larger-than-life personality, you never knew at what event Julian...
Obituary: Lisa Gourley
Renowned supporter of local music and arts Lisa Gourley (Sometimes Lisa Gourleyx) passed away on June 15. Reading reactions on social media, you can’t help but notice how often the words “nice,” “kind,” and “photography”...
Summer Solstice
This beautiful Solstice moment, June 21, 2026 brings the winds of change into our lives. The pivotal points among the planetary movers and shakers of the Zodiac find Gemini, with Uranus and Ceres, reaching across...
2026 Tattoo Awards Photos
By Olivia Lunger By Lillian MK Photography ...
2026 Tattoo Awards Winners
Favorite Color Tattoo Evan Olin, Powerline Tattoo Runner-up: Luis Bold, Unicorn Ink Favorite Black & Gray Ryan Dowden, Dark Ritual Runner-up: Luis Bold, Unicorn Ink Favorite Black & Gray with Color Steven McDonough, Secret Safe Tattoo Runner-up: Rachel WS, Rachel WS Fine Art...
2026 Spoken Awards Photos
By Lillian MK Photography By Olivia Lunger ...
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Jenn Lombari Email: jennmotifri@gmail.com Mike Ryan Cell: 401.641.1235Office: 401.312.3305
Cannabis – Another Shot at Legalization
Rep Scott Slater Truck tolling got all the attention this week at the statehouse, but stalwart efforts to introduce a legislative change that would likely have 1000 times the financial impact on daily lives in RI also took a small step forward, if mostly under the radar. Tax and Regulate legislation was proposed and will […]
Film Review: Southbound
Southbound is a horror anthology that gives us five interconnected stories that focus on people traveling through an unnamed stretch of desolate desert road in the southwest. The multiple stories are linked by characters or specific locations and encompass a wide range of horrors from the nightmarish supernatural to real life tragedy and unfortunately for […]
A Zany Hunchback Takes Up Residence at Trinity
The Hunchback of Seville is a semi-satirical look at life in Spain in the early 16th century. It was a time of religious persecution, as anyone who was not Spanish or Catholic found themselves tortured and murdered in the name of Catholic fundamentalism overseen by the ruling classes. Maxima (Phyllis Kay), the hunchback, is living […]
Rob’s Album Of The Week: Moon Tooth’s Chromaparagon
Metal is a wildly diverse style of music, but there’s also redundancy — fans are tired of the same old black metal band or stoner fuzz act playing tiring songs with no substance. There’s an explosive act from Long Island that’s been shaking things up lately that you have to check out. They go by […]
Film Review: How To Be Single
Alice is a recent college graduate who decides to take a temporary break from her longtime boyfriend Josh before moving to New York so that she can “find herself.” Once in New York, Alice is surrounded by a party girl, a playboy bartender, a girl intent on finding Mr. Right, and her own sister who […]
Medical Marijuana in the State Budget
The Rhode Island medical marijuana law has been on the books since 2006 but still remains controversial. As part of the fiscal year ending 2017 state budget proposed by Governor Gina Raimondo on Feb. 3, although structured as a budget bill, H. 7454 Article 14 (pages 194 through 229) makes numerous substantive changes to the […]
Lunar Notes: New Moon – New Beginnings
Wednesday, February 10, 2016, with waxing Moon in Pisces and Venus rolling in the hay with Jupiter, we are not much concerned with the material world. We receive psychic impressions and sense intangible forces at work. In the night sky the Moon is a fingernail that will continue to expand until it reaches fullness on […]
Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage – Boldly Going Where No Orchestra Has Gone Before
Callling “Star Trek” a successful television and film franchise is a grave understatement. People are addicted to it. They watch every episode of every incarnation, dress up as characters and flock to conventions. On Valentine’s Day at the Providence Performing Arts Center, fans will find one more thing to flock to. There’s going to be […]