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...
Photo: Jackie Davis as Robyn and Kortney Adams as Sharon, by Mark Turek. Not since Oscar and Felix – or Laverne and Shirley – have we cackled so hard at the antics of mismatched roommates bumbling...
Dear Nick, Spring certainly took its slow sweet time strolling into the city, but when the sun slinks away to escape each evening, shivers streak through any bare skin. As the days get longer and warmer, my social calendar becomes chock full with cool events for the hot summer. Even the events that ramp up […]
Okay ladies and gents, it’s American Craft Beer Week, and as such, it’s basically the week that every beer nerd needs to get out and attempt to have a social life. There’re happenings everywhere from Providence to Westerly, and many places in between. I’m happy to present you with the list of events, day by […]
Malyssa & The Liberators – Self-Titled EP Malyssa BellaRosa wasn’t interested in wasting light after resigning from lead vocals duties in Fall & Bounce. In just two months, BellaRosa formed the new band Malyssa & The Liberators and recorded their debut self-titled EP. The new band includes Nick Iddon (Viking Jesus & Kanerko) on drums […]
Vudu Sister – Household Items (Columbus Recording Company) Last year Vudu Sister’s debut, Bastard Children, garnered considerable praise as a mostly folk/ Americana release. I remember seeing them at one 990WBOB’s Mondays on Blast and thinking it wasn’t really my bag, hope Fuzek likes them. Flash forward to this past January when I caught them […]
It is anyone’s guess how much of The King and I is based on a truthful or, at least, objective account. Anna Leonowens, the real life English governess, was accused of embellishing and sensationalizing her story when she first published it in 1869. Rodgers and Hammerstein, finding Margaret Landon’s 1944 book on the subject was […]
This is an interesting time for Rhode Island theater, as the seemingly isolated and disparate companies proliferating the Ocean State are beginning to form some interesting collaborative partnerships. Aside from the Rhode Island Performance Exchange (an informal communal gathering of the state’s performing entities, pro and amateur alike) there is the newly formed Rhode Island […]
On Saturday night, April 27, the Rock & Reel music video competition came to a conclusion with a screening and awards ceremony. In its inaugural year, the grassroots Providence-based project pairs local musicians with independent filmmakers for one weekend only to conceive, write, shoot and edit a music video. The 9 teams of musicians and filmmakers revealed their narrative […]
If you travel in certain circles of bitter musicians who nightly lose a piece of their soul toiling at dives and bars for what often amounts to little more than gas money, you’re likely to hear a few groans when the topic of Berklee trained musicians is broached. Sure, I’ll confess that I might have […]
Motif’s very own Nick and Iandolo and Rosemary Pacheco duke it out monthly over a movie in theaters. This month’s feature film: Beyond the Pines
Occupation: Freelance illustrator/designer Favorite Book: I don’t have a favorite book, but Jeff Loeb & Tim Sale’s Batman in the ’90s was pretty formative. Favorite Movie: It’s a tie between Sense & Sensibility and 300. Biggest Pet Peeve: Tough guys on the internet What do you never leave home without? Somewhere to go What’s your dream job? I […]
