Joe Wilson Jr. Takes Center Stage at ACT

by Judith Clinton

Joe Wilson’s vision for culture as community wealth blends history, activism, and infrastructure Providence has always lived on its cultural heartbeat. From the noise and ingenuity of the Industrial Era to the DIY brilliance of neighborhood festivals and avant-garde theater, this city thrives when its [...]

2nd Annual Mexican Independence Day Festival in Mount Pleasant

by Julia Yakirevich

On Saturday, September 14, George J. West Park on Chalkstone Ave in Providence was transformed into a lively hub of color, food, and sound, despite clouds overhead and. Families and friends gathered with folding chairs, umbrellas, and children in tow. For many, the occasion was [...]

The Art of Resistance: Providence Area Feminist Creators Are Building Power and Community

by Samantha Ho

Famously part of the “Blue Wall,” Rhode Island is known for its stalwart Democratic history. Now, along with most of the rest of New England, the Ocean State is experiencing the reverberations of Donald Trump’s second administration, including an assault on women’s rights. Access to [...]

No Shortcuts: ‘Ways Home: Stories’ by Karen Lee Boren

by Diane Josefowicz

Speaking with The Alembic after the publication of her first book, Girls in Peril (2006), the Providence writer Karen Lee Boren described adolescence “as a time when young people, often unwillingly, must recognize their separateness as individuals despite their intense connections to their friends.” In [...]

Home Is Where the Art Is: Go ‘Head, Fix You a Plate at AS220

by Carole Saltz

In the exhibition GO ‘HEAD, FIX YOU A PLATE, Jazzmen Lee-Johnson echoes and extends [the] concept [of home] by conjuring a spiritual geography…that binds the domestic, the external, and the ancestral. – Chris Roberts, from the guide to the exhibit, Go ‘Head, Fix You A [...]

Creating Space for Black Joy at This Year’s PVD Fest

by Christopher West

Recently, Downtown in Providence was converted to a festival showcasing the creative talents of the city. Or, as Joe Wilson, Jr. called PVD Fest a place of “radical joy.” Wilson, director of the Department of Art, Culture and Tourism, said the 10 year old event [...]

At PVD Fest, “Real Access Motivates Progress” Improves Accessibility for Wheelchair Users

by Andrea Gutierrez

Most days, Kennedy Plaza in downtown Providence is a bustling transportation hub, packed with commuters waiting at designated stops around the perimeter of the square to catch their bus out of the vehicular commotion, but at PVD Fest it transformed into a strictly pedestrian affair. [...]

West African Flavors Flourish in Providence

by Emily Bruck

It’s just before 11 a.m. on Central Street, and the smell of spices is already seeping out of the door of Toyin African Restaurant. Inside, Toyin Bankole, a chef, moves between pots in the kitchen and the fridge, preparing fufu, egusi soup, and jollof rice [...]

In “Eternity,” Providence-born author David Plante Captures the Ache of New England

by Diane Josefowicz

At just over two hundred pages, Eternity, the latest novel by Providence-born writer David Plante, is hardly an overstuffed book, but the world it depicts brims with disquiet. Ted Beauchemin, the novel’s middle-aged protagonist, is someone for whom home is always just hoving into view [...]

What We All Need Now is More Big Nazo

by Dana Schneider

“Oh my god, one more. Look at that bird again.”   Erminio Pinque, the founder and artistic director of Big Nazo Labs, leans forward in his chair to snap a picture on his phone as Yuranian alien Deddiboht (pronounced data-bow) and The Providence Eye’s photography [...]