Benefit Street’s “Enchanted Garden”

by Levi Lionel Leland

It was a sultry July night in 1845 when Edgar Allan Poe, the world-famous American author and poet, walked north on Providence’s Benefit Street. During this visit to the city, he became aware of a local poet named Sarah Helen Whitman, who lived in a [...]

The Lonely Road of Monsters: A review of Selene Shade, Resurrectionist for Hire

by Diane Josefowicz

Selene Shade runs a successful small business in Goat Hill, a quirky little city that will strike  readers who know Providence as distinctly familiar. Which is good, because Shade’s line of work is distinctly strange. Shade’s a resurrectionist: She raises the dead for a living. [...]

Seeing Providence’s History in the Story of a Very Old Church

by Peter Laarman

Situated across the street from the Hope Club, a private social club on College Hill, and outfitted with the biggest bell ever cast by Paul Revere & Sons, the First Unitarian Church looks like an imposing historical institution. It is that, but it’s not solely [...]

How Ingrid Neuman Conserves Sculptures at the RISD Museum

by Kristine Yang

This past November, Ingrid Neuman, senior conservator at the RISD Museum, wheeled a twelfth-century Japanese wooden Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara into Hasbro Children’s Hospital for a CAT scan. Conservators have repaired the ancient figure, a revered Buddhist symbol, over centuries — Neuman’s examination would reveal exactly where [...]

The Failures (and Wonders) of Fatherhood: Lucas Mann’s Latest Book Explores Being a Dad Through an Innovative Lens

by Diane Josefowicz

In his 2009 essay “The Losers’ Club,” the Pulitzer-winning novelist Michael Chabon made a surprising connection: Writers’ careers are full of failure. So is fatherhood. “A father,” Chabon wrote, “is a man who fails every day.” Chabon’s insight came back to me while I was [...]

“No Tariffs on Sharing”: Tool Libraries Offer Resilience Amid Federal Chaos

por Ella Fassler

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Truthout. Copyright, Truthout.org. Reprinted with permission. As a handy person, Devon Curtin spends a lot of time helping people enrich their living spaces. Recently, while working with a friend to remodel their floor, Curtin noticed that the [...]

Kirstin Allio Wants You to Wake Up

by Diane Josefowicz

Double-Check for Sleeping Children is Providence writer Kirstin Allio’s second volume of short stories and her fourth book. It might also be her best. In twenty lyrical short stories of everyday life, Allio delicately reckons with the ways in which adults reveal themselves to be [...]

The Once and Future Thing

by Mark Binder

What do a junkman from Coney Island and a retired dentist on the East Side have to do with Art? Both were integral to the creation of Providence’s newest art locale, The Angell Street Galleries. Located at 324 Angell Street on Providence’s East Side, in [...]

“Why I March” — Rhode Islanders Share Personal Stakes at PVD’s Hands Off! Protest

by Maya Davis

Thousands gathered in downtown Providence on April 5, joining the Hands Off! protest, a coordinated day of demonstrations held across all 50 states in response to early policy actions under the new Trump administration. Community members gathered at Hope High School before marching to the [...]

Shakespeare in Providence: Tradition and Innovation on the Stage

por Judith Clinton

For hundreds of years, William Shakespeare’s plays have been performed, interpreted, and re-interpreted for audiences of all sorts.  And this spring, members of the Creative Capital are taking on the mantle of keeping Shakespeare’s work alive, as both The Tempest and Hamlet are featured on [...]