I recently read an article online that posed the question, “Can’t Broadway just be for fun?” The article stepped into the debate on perhaps the biggest existential question at the heart of theatre: should theatre be a means of escapism or an instrument for social change? The Prom is a show that demonstrates it does […]
The Gem of the Ocean was a slave ship, but the gem of Trinity Repertory Company is the searing emotion conjured as part of a riveting retelling of August Wilson’s play by the same name. Chronologically, Gem of the Ocean is the first in Wilson’s Century Cycle plays relaying the 20th-century Black experience. It is […]
As late January’s nor’easter dropped nearly two feet of snow in Tiverton, Will Mason prepared for his students’ return to in-person classes following extra Omicron precautions. After a week of slow snowmelt, heavy rains gave way to a flash freeze. When Mason stepped outside on Saturday morning for a walk with his dog, he described […]
Examiner, the debut release from local guitarist and songwriter Nick Politelli, is a well-crafted rock record that mixes tight hooks with experimental grooves. Politelli started playing music around age 20 while studying abroad in London, initially fashioning himself as a folkster “hybrid between Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie.” Back in his native RI, he picked […]
As the weather gets warmer, people will be making their way to the great hiking trails that RI has to offer. According to Alltrails.com, there are 386 to choose from in our state, and they vary in both the style of terrain and the activities they support. Here are just a few: With over 14,000 […]
With hopes that March melts February’s freeze and April’s showers again bring May flowers, Motif’s Sean Carlson interviewed Connor Burbridge of Nuts & Bolts Nursery (374 Farnum Pike, Smithfield), a cooperative housed at the permaculture nonprofit Revive the Roots. Opened in 2021 as a worker-owned nursery specializing in edible perennial plants, Nuts & Bolts is […]
At Zero Waste PVD, volunteers collaborate to reduce excess waste by focusing on activism, policy development, and legislative work. They host reusable bag giveaways, and recruit handy volunteers to sew reusable bags, and advocated for PVD’s plastic bag ban. Deborah Schimberg, chairperson of the organization, explained that the group strives to minimize the problems of […]
Shortly after graduating college, I got an invite from an old roommate to visit a piece of land he and some friends had acquired to begin working on an agricultural venture, which he called Revive the Roots. After driving up the dirt road to an old farmhouse, I met a handful of people brimming with […]
“The Great Resignation” is a phrase coined by Texas A+M professor Anthony Klotz in the spring of 2021 to describe the higher-than-normal quit rate in the American workforce. This has sent a ripple effect through the economy, dividing Americans over whether citizens have become empowered or lazy. Motif talked to some RIers on both sides […]
Whether it’s the approved sale of Narragansett Electric/National Grid to PPL or the disallowed merger of Lifespan/Care New England (Spanker), corporate acquisition is in the news. Our research-bots found a few other changes on the horizon… · The Rhode Island General Assembly was for sale, but was taken off the market. The asking price per […]