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.

Back to Our Regular Programming.

Episode 5: Introducing Katro Storm from BooSlick Show on Vimeo.

You can actually learn about African American history during any month of the year.  But since this is a special year (New Haven's 375th), we thought we'd take you to the studio of Katro Storm, a local artist who also curates shows at the gallery inside of  the Arts Council on Audubon Street.

Stay up to date on the latest works of Katro by viewing the Artists' Page he updates regularly.

Learn more about Jahmal Henderson by staying tuned to the Boo Slick Show, where he introduces the audience to various members of the African American community and talks about folk lore and personal history: Emphasizm is complicated (@1:45).

Art by Renaldo Davidson

There is always the possibility that you could also view the gallery of artwork in tribute to poet Langston Hughes, which is available at the Sumner Gallery, which is located in the Arts Council, at 70 Audubon St. on the 2nd floor.  It will be on display until the 22nd of March.

Don't forget to also watch the video!  Katro speaks to Jahmal Henderson (Boo Slick) about personal stories including ones about Gil Scott Heron, as well as pitchers like Satchel Paige, a MLB Pitcher who also played in the Negro Leagues.

There will also be a bonus video to be released by the end of the month about Katro's experience witnessing the growth in success of Harold Hunter at the time of his peak, which will air on Townie Music Scene, which is a sub-part of the Nhv.Org local network.

Oscars Tie-In
It should also be noted that Beasts of the Southern Wild director Benh Zeitlin's folks are folklore archivists who started the organization City Lore in New York City.  Does this qualify as folk lore?

Here's a link to the story that Katro is referring to @1:28 in the video.

Public Art Response #1

Photo: Townie Blog

Original Article:  [here]

Video:  http://vimeo.com/59150319

Audio:  https://soundcloud.com/booslick

Recently noticed something said "Supa-Thug" on a wall the other day.  So I asked some of the crew from the Boo Slick Show what the definition of a "Super Thug" really is.  Maybe you will want to talk to Darius James.  As a young man in the 1970's, he applied to be in the Black Panther Party, but was denied on account that they had frozen the registration (watch the interview).  He winds a story from "Thug Life" as a tattoo to Tupac's mother Afeni's connection with the Panthers, and then connects it into New Haven in a way that very few storytellers really could.  He also explains the root of it is from the name of a tribe in India. 
More Information about Darius James
Darius, AKA Dr. Snakeskin is a documentary film-maker and an author.  Watch or listen to learn more about his projects.  His most recent project in the works will be about VooDoo in America and it will be available on Netflix in the upcoming months.

The interview with Darius, referred to in this article, is available on Vimeo and Soundcloud.