On the “Weekend Update” satirical news segment on Saturday Night Live. anchor Colin Jost displayed a snapshot of an unhinged rant laced with profanity in the form of a Donald Trump post to Truth Social,...
Wednesday, May 276 - 10pmMyrtle, East Providence Join us for the 4th annual Motif Spoken Awards! We are excited to be returning to Myrtle to celebrate RI’s spoken word community. Want to see your favorite Rhode Island...
By Lillian MK Photography By Olivia Lunger By Izzy Cooke ...
The Music Awards went off without a hitch this year, and over the course of the evening more than 400 local music lovers dropped by to dance, listen, and cheer on fellow musicians. We'll have...
It’s often said (well, I definitely say this), that some of the deepest conversations and connected moments can happen while one is sitting in a car. This is certainly true for the duo, band, sisterhood...
Image: Olivia Lunger. Local Civil War re-enactor Bill Sherman was having trouble recruiting young people into the hobby, so he hit on a novel idea that is perfectly suited to Gen Z. He immediately telephoned his...
The Continental Congress, befooled. April Fool’s Day originated among the French a few years into the Revolutionary War. Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin had been pleading with them for any sort of assistance. The brand...
If you have been a craft beer lover over this past decade, you may remember when the first Rhode Island Brewery Passport was released. It was changed to an app in 2020. Six years later,...
No Kings 3, Mar 28, 2026 No Kings – nokings.org – is a non-violent protest movement responding to the monarchy-like concentration of power in the hands of the president, to the exclusion of Congress and the...
After attending Chalumeau’s release party for their album BLUE at The Met in Pawtucket last August, I wrote that if you ever got the chance to see them perform live, you should jump on it....
On February 28, after 20 years of being a community staple for first dates, Super Tuesday regulars, and movie fanatics alike, CWTheaters (previously called CinemaWorld) was forced to shut its doors for good. The decline...
Last year, I had a blast and a half working on a fun commercial shoot. I landed the gig because the fella producing, Josh Kirk, asked around to find an actor to portray the client’s...
Photo: Jenn Lombari. @jennlombariphotography ssa lin has been making a local splash like a rockin’ rainstorm after a record-setting blizzard, since releasing her first single, “tallboys,” at the end of 2025. The feedback has been good,...
Here are some hot new local tracks to finish melting the ice. The Hopeless Romantics – “Quiet Kind” The third and final single from The Hopeless Romantics’ upcoming debut album, “Quiet Kind” is also a reworked...
Okee dokee folks… PLEASE stop using AI. The more it knows, the more it grows. We are feeding a beast that will someday destroy us. AI is not your friend, though it may pretend to...
Graphic by Olivia Lunger. ...
Hey idiot, why are you and your friends getting high indoors? Don't you know? We have a planet, a whole, big planet filled with trees, rivers, and critters. The outside world doesn't have to start...
Medical marijuana was legalized in Rhode Island in January 2006, and by May 2022 even recreational sales became legal through state-licensed dispensaries and authorized retailers. Yet it still isn’t safe for medical users to come out of the closet....
Cover artist Elliott Italiano of Jamestown is a self-made glass artist. As a young adult, Italiano's interests centered on fashion, inspiring thoughts of pursuing a degree in luxury marketing and design. He relates to his past...
MAD Magazine cover, Feb 2016: Donald Trump and Alfred E. Neuman We fought a military war; our opponents fought a political one. We sought physical attrition; our opponents aimed for our psychological exhaustion. In the process...
Cover artist Mina Miki of Providence calls her baby blanket her longest friend. “His name is Blankie, but now he looks less like a blanket and more like a piece of tangled silk,” she says....
McKee’s Budget Includes Rollbacks for State’s Renewable Energy Programs PROVIDENCE — Five years after lawmakers passed the state’s first firm climate mandates, the historic Act on Climate law is in danger of getting rolled back by...
The closure of the westbound section of the Washington Bridge that occurred in December of 2023 has inspired major grievances within the greater Providence metropolitan area. Traffic within the city limits has become unbearable, especially...
Graphic by Eric Barao When the US Congress allowed the Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire on Dec. 31, 2025, they created a health insurance crisis that could have inspired a plot line for “American Horror...
On January 30, 2026, an estimated 5,000 Rhode Islanders – including students and numerous local businesses – participated in a historic, nationwide strike in an effort to get the tyranny of Immigration and Customs Enforcement...
Okee dokee folks… “Art is fucking political. Always has been, always will be.” I looked for a source to attribute this to but there doesn’t seem to be a definitive person who said it. Doesn’t...
Gregory Alan Isakov and band, with support from the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra at PPAC on Thursday, January 29, 2026. Photo by Gregory Alan Isakov’s tour photographer, Kenzi Everitt, @kenzieveritt. As the house lights dimmed on...
From left to right: Brendan, Charles, Peter, Wil, John, Daniel, Patrick Kinnane, and Jeffrey Azize. I am a hopeful romantic and a huge fan of romcoms. The films often have a woman in the lead navigating...
I’ve never known much about growing flowers. The few gardens I’ve started in my life ended all too unceremoniously, in death. And I’ve never known much about 3-D printing, either. In fact, probably attributed to...
Snow accumulation at TF Green Airport reached 37.9 inches, shattering the all-time record of 28.6 inches set during the legendary Blizzard of 1978. 07:01 pm EST - 2/23/2026TF Green AP, RI37.903:10 pm EST - 2/23/20261 SE...
As we celebrate readers’ selections for the 2014 Motif Music Awards, I’d be remiss if I didn’t start with a few words on the sad news of Brown Bird’s Dave Lamb’s recent passing. It was just a year ago that I did an interview with Dave on the eve of the release of Brown Bird’s […]
Okee dokee folks … Thanks for coming out to support the Motif Music Awards. Here are a few other shows you should come out to support. The Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame (RIMHOF) has expanded its 3rd annual Hall of Fame Ceremony and Concerts to two days this year – Saturday, May 3 and Sunday, May […]
Many know the names Adolphus Busch and Eberhard Anheuser and the monumental role they had on beer in America, but few know the pivotal roles that women played over the years. It is a well accepted fact that since brewing started thousands of years ago, it was considered a domestic duty to be performed by […]
My mother is a foodie. Not a bad trait to inherit. She unknowingly plays Motif’s editorial consult on half of our Locale coverage. I’ve also inherited her organizational skills that border on neurotic. This was made clear after asking her to participate in a Mother’s Day-themed bar hop as I read her itinerary email the […]
Arthur “Pooch” Tavares, with nearly 60 years in the music business, continues to reach out to his old fans and to new generations as well. The 70- year-old Tavares is still performing about 75 concerts a year all over the world with three of the brothers (Perry “Tiny,” Antone “Chubby” and Feliciano “Butch”) who made […]
Every Thursday they converge, seemingly out of nowhere: a core group of volunteers who will unload two pallets of food in about 20 minutes. It is an efficient operation and this group has it down to a science. They are some of the nearly 100 people pitching in at Tap In, an all-volunteer outreach organization […]
Old Money Honeys #11 What do you never leave home without? Mascara and an attitude! What’s your favorite book? Anything by Anne Rice, totally disregarding all that S&M stuff she wrote under a pen name and those books about the life of Jesus. What’s your favorite movie? I say The Royal Tenenbaums, but my husband says […]
This is a growing list, so check back with each publication to see your local shop featured. Bellevue Wine & Spirits, 181 Bellevue Ave., Newport. 401- 846-7993, bellevuewinespirits.com Food & Wine pairing classes* every Sunday, now through Labor Day; $5 per class, the fee applies to purchases Brickyard Wine & Spirits, 1 Waseca Ave., Barrington. […]
Sick Pills — Sickening Earlier today I was blasting the new CD Sickening from the New Bedford-based band Sick Pills. With all that ground thumping new wave goodness pouring from my open window, my normally bucolic, suburban street was transformed into what the Bowery must have sounded like some 40 years ago when Television or […]
There’s no business like show business, as the old adage goes. When a glamorous diva takes a fall, a beautiful up and comer has to step in and save the show in 42nd Street. Warwick’s Ocean State Theatre Company dusted off the classic Broadway musical for a three-week run (April 23 through May 18). The […]
