Conversations with Candidates

Toni Harp speaks to Steve, a resident of East Rock on his front porch.


Justin Elicker speaks to Jahmal Henderson on a bench in Newhallville.

From CWOS Alternative Space Last Week

With so much news pertaining to the mayoral race this year, it's difficult to determine the position of the candidates.  Wouldn't it be great if you could just sit with each one for ten minutes and discuss the issues of the day? These were filmed over the summer.  It was part of a series, with a theme.  Community members were paired up with different candidates and asked to have a conversation. The result was something that might be considered more organic and authentic than traditional news; something insightful and helpful to those who are still determining which candidate they would like to vote for;  everyone is hoping for one of the biggest turnouts in #nhv voting history.  Voting day is November 5th.  If you are looking for your polling location, try here.

Click here for Nhv.Org's full video coverage of important mayoral race events this year in 2013.

Honorable mention to Henry Fernandez who participated in the project.  Here is the audio of his interview with Ibrahim Abdul Qawiyy on the New Haven Green.

NhvMayor2013 Interview Series - 1 Left!

Video StillFrame:  Harp and Poland (E.Rock)

As part of our "Get To Know #Nhv" Theme, this website has been approaching candidates with the interest of conducting one-on-one interviews with community members.  Toni Harp spoke to Steve, a resident of East Rock. Justin Elicker had a conversation with Jahmal Henderson, a resident of the neighborhood of Newhallville.  Each conversation is from 10-15 minutes in length, none of the content is rehearsed or recited.

Many of the match-ups are selected with the intent of drawing from contrast, and the conversations themselves hold to the interests of the community at the present time.  The full run time of the completed project should be approximately 30-45 minutes.  We're reaching out to the Fernandez and Carolina campaigns to participate in the two remaining sections which have yet to be filmed.

Video StillFrame:  Elicker and Henderson (Newhallville)

While these interviews may not have an impact on the outcome of the election, they might encourage the community to become more actively engaged in the voting process.  To whomever wins the election, this video might be a worthwhile piece to watch, because all of the points being discussed throughout this project will probably be relevant throughout his or her time as mayor and reflect the current climate, relating the problems posed by citizens and the solutions proposed by the candidates who seek to represent them at mayor.

The tone of the discussion is more like a conversation than a debate. These are conversations between candidates and individual community members in outdoor spaces as the mayoral race heads into the Autumn.  We'd like to release the footage in October in segments online as well as in one full-length documentary due out to be aired just weeks before the election.

If successful, we hope to make this into a tradition of support and work with the museum in preserving these conversations as a part of history.  This in particular is an historic race for mayor, with John DeStefano announcing earlier this year that he would not be seeking re-election.  2014 will be the first year that New Haven will have a different mayor other than DeStefano since 1994.  Stay Tuned for more and click *Like* to the left on home version to get Nhv.Org updates.

Justin Elicker Running for Mayor

Important points made by the announcement were:

• Justin prides himself on attending community meetings as much as possible (0:27)
• Accumulating ideas from local citizens by asking people about their hopes and visions
• Interested in a "government that listens, and doesn't only talk to you."

1. Schools:  "Our children deserve a public education that shows them the potential in life ... that they could be.  And gives them the tools to approach that.  Over the last 20 years we spent 1.5 billion dollars on our schools, yet inside of our schools we have so much more that we need to do.  Every child deserves that education.  Good schools attract people to New Haven.  Good schools keep people in New Haven.  We need to fix the inside of our schools in this city."
2. Developers don't need to be political contributors to be contenders in bids for contracts.
3. Neighborhood Support  "Our government needs to respond directly to what so many people are calling for."

• Also he called for a hybrid Board of Education, partially elected and partially appointed.
  "We can not have true school reform until we have a new independent-minded and reform-minded superintendent.  Schools must engage, actively engage the parents in their child's education."  (4:25)
• "We have to stop making decisions based on 2-year political cycles."

Here's just the audio version of the speech.  The campaign site is Elicker2013.Com