PVD World Music Opens for Eighth Season, Despite Federal Policy on Arts Funding and Immigration

by Eric Halvarson

Beginning this year, the Trump Administration fully or partially suspended issuing visas to 40 countries and territories, with 26 of them located in Africa. At the same time, Trump’s federal government is slashing federal arts programs or redirecting funding towards a conservative agenda. One of [...]

The Wilbury’s “The Comeuppance” Delivers Meaningful, Urgent Theatre

by Judith Clinton

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “The Comeuppance” is a darkly comic, post-pandemic reunion drama that cuts with the precision of a scalpel and the force of a gut punch. In The Wilbury Theatre Group’s riveting production, five former high school outsiders gather on a front porch in suburban [...]

Watching Controversy from the Other Wall: Providence Mural Community Reflects on Role of Public Art

by Eric Halvarson

A 43-foot tall, 38-foot wide mural on the side of Downtown bar The Dark Lady shows an outline of a blond woman framed by blue geometric shapes. Just one eye is finished—the rest of the face remains a beige and blue outline. The bottom of [...]

In Twice Born, Hester Kaplan Merges Biography and Memoir to Understand Her Elusive Father

by Alizah Holstein

The opening entry in the magisterial compendium begun in 1855 and now known as Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is an excerpt from “The Song of the Harper,” a poem found in the tomb of the Egyptian king Intef. Dating to around 2600 BCE, the poem speaks [...]

Happy Land : The Historical Novel Being Read Across Rhode Island

by Diane Josefowicz

Approaching 40 with a surly teenager, an estranged mother, and an imperious grandmother with an urgent problem, Nikki Lovejoy-Berry, the burdened protagonist of Happy Land, is—in a word—unsettled. What she learns over the course of this graceful novel is that she’s never going to feel [...]

When the Lights Go Out: Reverie Theatre’s Dystopian Thriller Hits Close to Home

by Judith Clinton

Reverie Theatre Company’s new production of A Girl in School Uniform (Walks Into A Bar) lands with a jolt of eerie timeliness. Written in 2016, Lulu Raczka’s dystopian thriller imagines a society plagued by unexplained blackouts—moments when the lights fail, systems collapse, and women vanish. [...]

Telling on Herself: Kate Colby’s Paradoxx

by Diane Josefowicz

“A certain unpleasant episode has taken dominion of my life,” declares the Providence writer Kate Colby in her new essay collection, “but I’m leaving it to a few light references in my life on paper.” Over the course of a year beset with difficulties, Colby [...]

The Roommate — A Sharp, Funny, and Unexpectedly Tender Study of Reinvention

by Judith Clinton

Trinity Rep’s latest production, The Roommate, offers a sharply observed portrait of two women whose unlikely connection becomes a catalyst for reinvention. The play’s humor and heart lands with precision, thanks to two exceptional performances and Curt Columbus’s deft direction in his first outing as [...]

“Innocent Knowledge,” An Exhibition of Artwork by Israeli and Palestinian Children

by Lynn Holstein

Providence lies more than 5,500 miles away from the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. Despite this geographic distance, images from civilians suffering from the conflict are now on display at Brown University’s Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice, documenting the experiences of [...]

Celebrating “The Great Connector” at VegFest

by Margaret Rizzuto

Founded by longtime vegan and communications professional Robin Dionne, VegFest grew out of years of attending plant-based food festivals around the country and wondering why Rhode Island didn’t have one of its own. After years of  planning, research, and development, Rhode Island VegFest was ready [...]