Cardona and federal and local elected officials spoke at Fair Haven School. The grant was awarded to the Clifford Beers Community Care Center in November. Over the next five years, it will be used to implement a “Full-Service Community Schools” model in two New Haven schools — Fair Haven School and Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration, which are located in the same neighborhood. 

“This grant builds on work that’s already on the way,” Cardona said. “You are building on strong foundations that will continue to transform the system. And systems should be responsive to the community’s needs, not the other way around. That’s why in the Biden administration, we’re proud of pushing to expand full-service community schools to levels never seen before in our country.”

The program in the two schools will be led by the Clifford Beers Community Care Center in partnership with New Haven Public Schools, city departments and several local organizations, including Dwight Hall at Yale. 

The full-service community schools model aims to turn schools into community hubs and bring engagement from parents and local leaders.

“What the Community Schools model does is it creates a framework for doing the work,” Sarah Miller, director of strategy at Clifford Beers and Fair Haven Alder, told the News. “It’s not about any one thing in particular, but creating a more intentional strategy around coordination and collaboration in support of children and families among all of the different partners that are party to that work.” 

At the press conference, Miller said that the organization will not “reinvent anything” but will focus on what is working. She told the News that the grant will be used primarily for staffing. Each school will hire a full-time Community School coordinator who will lead the various programming supported by the grant. 

According to Miller’s press release, the programming will offer school spaces for the community after the school day, bring additional extracurricular activities during and after the school day, provide families with leadership development opportunities and enhance academic support for students.

“We know we don’t have all the answers in D.C.,” Cardona said. “We’re gonna get a community assessment because what worked 30 years ago may not work today. Let’s talk to the community because who knows students better than their parents.”

As of now, there are no further details on what exactly the program will look like. 

In the coming months, the partnering organizations will continue planning and will begin implementing the programming in August 2024 at Fair Haven School and in August 2025 at the Family Academy. 

“I’m really excited about the new projects, and I like how the adults are paying attention to the students and they’re showing that they care for us and they want … the best for us,” Nathalia Marcano, an eighth grader at Fair Haven School, told the News after the press conference. 

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker and NHPS Superintendent Madeline Negrón also spoke at the event. 

Fair Haven School has over 700 students, and Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration has over 400 students enrolled. 

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The News spoke with both candidates about their proposals for New Haven Public Schools ahead of Tuesday’s election. 

With another term, Elicker said that his biggest focus in terms of education would be improving literacy rates and tackling absenteeism. The absentee rate in the 2022-2023 school year was 36.6 percent in New Haven. He also said that the challenges New Haven faces are part of a structural, historical issue of being underfunded, which he said complicates efforts to support New Haven schools that might need more support than their suburban counterparts. 

“Our long-term vision needs to be that New Haven Public Schools is a place where every child has every opportunity to thrive,” Elicker said. “Like any parent, I want my kids to have every opportunity to succeed, to feel safe and embraced in the public school system.”

Elicker said that he sees the unanimous approval of Superintendent Madeline Negrón as a significant step toward this improved reality of working to address literacy and absenteeism. He said that the city has brought on more “dropout prevention specialists” to investigate the causes and ways to engage absent students. 

He also said there have been efforts from the superintendent’s team to communicate with families directly about the importance of student attendance. According to Elicker, absenteeism in the city is also impacted by vaccination requirements. To address this concern, he said that there is a partnership with the city’s health department to eliminate any vaccine-related barriers that might be contributing to students’ absences. 

Candidate Tom Goldenberg spoke primarily about his goals to decrease absenteeism rates in public schools. He said that officials often blame the COVID-19 pandemic for the high number of dropouts. Although he said he does not discredit the role COVID-19 played in the issue, he thinks that other aspects that are within the school system’s control might influence the absenteeism numbers.  

Alder Eli Sabin, who represents Ward 7 in downtown New Haven and previously served as alder for Ward 1, added that officials should look at the budget for the school system, which he said will define the success of initiatives to address issues like absenteeism and literacy. 

“Our literacy and math scores have been down the last couple of years, and we’ve been investing a lot in tutoring and just improving our curriculum to try to make sure our kids can catch up to where they were before the pandemic,” Alder Eli Sabin ’22 said. “And obviously, we want them to be doing even better than that.”

Improving literacy rates is another focus for Elicker. He mentioned that besides the $8 million investment in the the school system’s literacy programs, there is also a tutoring initiative that partners with The Boys and Girls Club, Leap, New Haven Reads and other organizations to make literacy development a priority. According to Elicker, over the summer, these programs tutored more than 400 students, and students are showing promising improvement. 

Over his four years in office, Elicker said he believes his administration made a lot of progress in education but that he believes there is still a lot to come. 

Goldenberg disagreed with Elicker’s assessment of his administration work. 

“For us to be worse in the state [in the number of absenteeism] is a real accomplishment in the wrong direction,” Goldenberg said.

In the 2021-2022 school year, New Haven had the highest rate of absenteeism, 58.1 percent, but the rate has fallen to 36.6 percent, which is lower than Hartford’s.

Goldenberg said his two primary focuses are to develop career pathways and parent engagement programs. He said that out of 44 schools, eight have parent engagement programs and said that is crucial to expand this number to every one of the schools. 

He also would create a liaison in the mayor’s office to establish a “parent university” to provide parents with the resources they need to support their children’s journey in public school. He said that he believes one of the biggest issues today in terms of education is that parents feel unsupported.

“I want to be a mayor who is hands-on and engages with the school system, who utilizes the influence the mayor has in making appointments on the Board of Ed and sitting on the Board of Ed to make sure that we are living up to the high standards of rigor, transparency and accountability,” he said. 

According to Goldenberg, the career pathway proposal comes from his own personal experience as he said that some of the jobs he has worked were not related to the formal education he had received. He said he wants a system that exposes students to various career options and opportunities from a young age. Goldenberg said that he envisions schools that give students more internships, apprenticeships and certifications for skills that they can directly use in the workforce as soon as they graduate from high school. He said that he believes this would make people more engaged in education since pursuing a college degree is still not accessible for a large proportion of people. 

Elicker also spoke about establishing a career-driven program, saying that $8 million was dedicated to creating a Career Pathways High School for students who choose not to go to a typical four-year college program. 

“It’s very important to make sure that we make a promise to every New Haven child, those that are intending to go to college and those that choose not to,” he said. “And this initiative is part of fulfilling that promise to all New Haven youth.”

The mayoral election will be held Nov. 7.

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The funding is part of the $53 million dollar in American Rescue Plan Act funding — federal COVID-19 relief funds — that the Board of Alders approved in August 2022. The money will be managed by two organizations, United Way of Greater New Haven and CERCLE, a local early childhood education nonprofit. 

Elicker touted the funds as the largest investment in early childhood education in Connecticut. 

“We believe that this will help families and ultimately our children to create more, better articulated opportunities in this cooperative framework that is being built through this early childhood initiative,” Madeline Negrón, superintendent of New Haven Public Schools, said at the event. 

Both Elicker and Negrón spoke about the importance of access to quality early childhood education during the press conference, discussing how research shows that it is one of the best ways to ensure success throughout the rest of a child’s education.

Elicker also said that early childhood education is important because the development of childrens’ brain until age five dramatically affects their development as learners. Elicker said that there are issues with the way the childcare system is set up now, highlighting that there are currently 2,200 infants and children that are not receiving the proper childcare in the city. Negrón said that families are facing issues finding care centers, particularly infant care. 

Elicker also said that there are workforce shortages in the childcare industry as he said providers are underpaid.

He added that he is optimistic that the new funding will create a healthier landscape for early childhood education in New Haven.

The funding is being split into three different categories.

$1.4 million is being allocated to improve existing educational programs and is being managed by United Way of Greater New Haven. This portion is dedicated to help licensed family childcare programs, small groups and centers committed to providing childcare in New Haven. The initial grant will open for childcare centers to apply at 9 a.m. on Nov. 6.

These groups, programs and centers will be able to use the funds for materials, translation services and health and safety upgrades. Organizations serving low-income New Haven residents are especially encouraged to apply, Jennifer Heath — the CEO of United Way of Greater New Haven — told the News. Two other grants will open in early January and will be focused on supporting expansion efforts for childcare groups. 

“United Way works to improve people’s lives in our community and we do that by focusing on priority issues primarily in the areas of education and financial stability and basic needs,” Heath told the News. “We do our work by bringing people and organizations together to come up with solutions to community problems and then work on those together.” 

$1.6 million of the funding is being directed to educational workforce development, particularly for early childhood educators. Led by CERCLE and Hope Development Center, the grant, which is already open, can be used to support teaching staff to get more training, including attending conferences or workshops, providing technical assistance to educators and developing early care apprentice programs. 

To be eligible for a grant, organizations applying have to be either an early childhood education provider or a business that trains early childhood educators. Another requirement for the grant is that the provider needs to either be located in New Haven or must have at least 50 percent of the children they serve be living in New Haven. 

Georgia Goldburn, the co-founder of CERCLE, spoke with the News about her vision for the grant. 

“There are conferences that I think would serve many providers well that are very limited because providers don’t necessarily have those extra funds,” Goldburn said. “Those extra things are needed for providers to go out and to interact and engage with other folks not just locally or statewide, but also nationally.”

The remaining $500,000 of the funding is reserved for “strategic planning” processes supporting efforts to build a better educational system for parents, providers and educators in New Haven. United Way is leading the project. 

Vanessa Diaz-Valencia, head of early childhood education for New Haven Public Schools said that the school district is excited to participate in the city’s strategic planning on early childhood education.

“Another thing that we know and we hear from the community is that when there’s too many things happening, there’s too many initiatives, there’s too many resources and they’re not all gelled and nothing works right,” Diaz-Valenica said. “So everybody’s kind of in a competitive nature versus in a collaborative and cohesive nature.”

New Haven received $115.8 million total in ARPA funding.

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The protest was led by the New Haven Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, one of the largest Jewish anti-Zionist organizations in the world, and the Mending Minyan Solidarity Committee, a local Jewish community organization. During the hour-long rally, speakers read letters directed to New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro urging them to call for a cease-fire and send humanitarian aid to Gaza. Protestors also marched to DeLauro’s office at the corner of Elm Street and Orange Street. 

“It is our sacred task as Jews in the U.S. to fight for the humanity of all, to not let rage set it’s  blindfold upon us,” Mikveh Warshaw, a co-founder of Mending Minyan, said in her speech. “We demand that the U.S. does not fuel this fire with more violent rhetoric, more guns, more bombs, and more dollars for blood. No one is safe under apartheid, under colonization. Genocide saves no one. Zionism does not protect Jewish people. Israel does not defend Judaism. If we want to protect Jews, then we need to create intersectional communities everywhere that we are.” 

Violence in Israel and Gaza began when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and killed at least 1,400 Israelis, according to reporting by the Associated Press that cites Israeli officials. Israel responded with airstrikes on Gaza and a formal declaration of war against Hamas. The Associated Press reported Tuesday evening that the Hamas-run Health Ministry has said that Israel’s attacks have killed at least 5,791 Palestinians in Gaza. United Nations officials have called these attacks an “unprecedented catastrophe” and “collective punishment” in violation of international law.

After Hamas launched its attack earlier this month, Israel responded with a “complete siege” of Gaza. According to the Associated Press, the 2.3 million residents of Gaza are running out of basic supplies — including food, water and medicine — due to the blockade. 

Participants chanted throughout the protest and were greeted with occasional honks from passing cars. They carried signs reading “Jews say: Stop the Genocide,” “Stop killing the Palestinians: cut the billion to Israel,” “End the occupation” and “Free Palestine.”

Shelly Altman, a leader with Jewish Voice for Peace, gave a speech in front of City Hall and called out Elicker’s Oct. 11 letter, in which the Mayor grieved the lost life of Israelis murdered in Hamas’ attack. Altman criticized Elicker for not mentioning Palestinian deaths.

In the letter, Elicker wrote that he “unequivocally condemn[ed] terrorism” against both Israelis and Palestinians.

“So what now?” Altman asked rally attendees. “If the murder of Palestinians that happened over and over again in Gaza, in the West Bank and in Jerusalem, if it was going to make Jews safe in Israel and around the world then they would already be safe. So what they are doing now is not going to make Jews safe.”

Altman then led a call-and-response chat with the crowd of: “What do we want?” “Cease-fire!” “When do we want it?” “Now!” 

In an interview on Tuesday, Elicker told the News that he is proud of the many historical instances in which city leadership has called out injustices, and that he believes he was doing so by addressing the tragedy of the Hamas attack. 

“A war is an awful, awful thing, and while Israel has the right to defend itself, it also has the responsibility to do everything possible to minimize any civilian casualties,” Elicker said. ”We’re all praying and hoping for the safety of every civilian, whether Palestinian or Israeli, in this tragic conflict.” 

Katherine Breer told the News that she drove an hour from her home to participate in the rally. She said that she is neither Jewish nor Palestinian but that the issue feels personal for her because she has lived in the West Bank twice for six weeks at a time while visiting her son.

Breer said that Americans should read more and travel more to better understand the conflict.

“It’s humiliating to see injustice on a daily basis at checkpoints, to see what it actually looks like to have illegal settlements in the West Bank, so I’m talking about the occupation,” Breer said. “I don’t think we have a good concept in the United States that the two-state solution concept is disappearing as settlers take more and more land.”

Allan Bryson, a former alder for East Rock and member of the Green Party also told the News that he wants to urge the U.S. to stop funding Israel, saying DeLauro’s support for the funding was “terrible.” He was holding a sign that said “shame” with pictures of DeLauro and Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy. 

The U.S. sends $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel every year. 

Unison Kelner, another rally attendee, also expressed frustration with DeLauro’s response to the conflict.

“I came out to basically tell Rosa DeLauro that we need her to listen to us.”  Kelner said. “I feel like the most important thing for all of us in the U.S. to do is to let our voices be heard about what we think about what our government is doing by providing arms and money to the Israeli military.” 

In an email to the News, DeLauro restated her support for Israel. 

She also said that she is working to ensure that Palestinians in Gaza receive humanitarian aid and that her “ultimate goal” is for peace and a two-state solution to end the conflict.

“Israel has our unequivocal support as they seek to defeat Hamas,” DeLauro wrote. “While they engage in that effort, they should take every precaution to protect innocent lives. Palestinians have also lost communities and even loved ones because of Hamas’s atrocities. That Hamas militias were firing rockets right by a hospital, which confirms that the status quo is not tenable. Everyone will be hurt if Hamas remains in control of Gaza.” 

City Hall is located at 165 College St.

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This year’s competition — back in-person after four years online — drew teams from all across New Haven, including Yale, New Haven Public Schools and local businesses. The teams included participants representing the Yale British Art Center, Yale African American affinity groups, the Yale University Department of Linguistics, The Study at Yale, Quinnipiac University, Omega Pi Beta Sorority, two teams from St. Martin de Porres Academy, Hopkins School and Wilbur Cross High School. 

“We love that a Spelling Bee speaks to our mission and gives people a chance to move on from their grade school spelling bee memories and have a great time with family and friends,” Fiona Bradford, Development and Communications Director of New Haven Reads wrote to the News. “It has become a fixture on the community calendar, and we love to see the creativity and the competition among our teams every year.”

Since 2001, New Haven Reads has tutored 7,000 students and distributed more than 2.5 million books around the Greater New Haven area. The organization is currently working with 350 students in individual tutoring. Their literacy activities include playing educational games, explaining new vocabulary, discussing books and practicing the sound of words. New Haven Reads has locations on Dixwell Avenue, in Science Park, on Willow Street and Bristol Street. 

All of their activities are free to students and made possible by the contribution of donors and volunteers. The audience cheered while hearing New Haven Reads leaders share emotional stories about the organization’s impact at the spelling bee event. 

“Just last week I asked [one of the kids] how long she wanted to continue coming to New Haven Reads, and she looked up and said ‘until I can come back as a teacher,’” Kristen Levinsoh, spoke at her initial speech. 

The competition had teams of three adults who compete in five rounds of spelling challenges each. The team had 20 seconds to write their given word correctly on the whiteboard and present it to the judges. 

The winning team from each of the five proceeding rounds then advanced onto the championship competition, where one team earned “the glory of being the Spelling Bee Champions!”

Bradford wrote that she often meets people who have told her they are still impacted by doing poorly in their grade school spelling bee. 

“I love that they can come to our Bee and have fun and perhaps banish those demons!” she said. 

The event was hosted by Christine Huber and Ray Andrewsen, who engaged with the audience while leading the six rounds of competition. All of the teams had creative names, such as “Irish we could spell,” “Beauty and the Bee-sts” and “Zombies” and were dressed in coordinated costumes. In addition to the winning spots for the spelling bee champions, New Haven Reads offers prizes for “best costume,” “best team name” and “most spirit” to keep the community engaged and the energy high.

Audience members attended the spelling bee with a suggested $10 donation and had the option to enter an “audience-based version of the bee” for a prize of their own. Organizers told the News that many of the audience members played along with the spelling bee. 

The proceeds from the event including registration fees, audience donations and raffle tickets, all has gone toward New Haven Read’s literacy programs.

“The spelling bee is a great way to engage our supporters and hopefully share our mission and work with some new people,” Bradford wrote. “We could not achieve the success that we have without our students without our community, so it is great to bring the people together in a fun way for a serious purpose.”

With 32 competing teams, The Linguinis, a team representing the Yale Department of Linguistics, won the competition with the word “stromuhr”. The competitors on the team, Jem Burch ’25, Conan Thibodeau ’27 and Jessica Brown, a Fulbright student from Switzerland, told the News that they had a great time participating and getting to learn more about New Haven Reads. 

The spelling bee fundraiser originally began in 2012. 

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Negrón was 10, and she had just moved with her family from rural Puerto Rico to Willimantic, Connecticut.

Her first day at school was an unfamiliar experience. She rode a school bus for the first time and arrived at school lost, getting directions from someone who spoke Spanish to help her find her classroom. When she walked in, Negrón said she sat in the back row and prayed she would not be called on to read or speak, worried that others would make fun of her.

“Coming over to the mainland and walking to this very different culture, that was the very first time I felt, ‘Oh, I am different,’ but not only did I realize that, I was also treated differently,” Negrón said.  ”That event has been deeply rooted in who I am today.”

In July, Negrón was named superintendent of New Haven Public Schools, the first Latina to be in charge of the second largest school district in the state.

Negrón has taken over NHPS at a difficult moment for the district. As of mid-August, the district had 84 unfilled teacher vacancies. Test scores in New Haven are low, with 87 percent of third graders reading below grade level. 

“My vision is that we are working together to make sure that all of our kids, all 19,000 plus, are able to get the same quality education that will result in that preparation and that readiness for success,’ Negrón said. “I think it’s doable.” 

So far she has joined forces with teacher’s union leaders in a push for more staff to adequately maintain buildings. 

Negrón described feeling pressure for her to achieve more in life, both for herself and for her family. Her parents dropped out of school in middle school, and she dreamed of attending college. The environment she said she first encountered with teachers and administrators in school was one of resistance and  hostility.

“They could not see past the fact that I was limited in the English language, and for some, that equated to limited intelligence, limited potential, and it became the pattern of the low expectations,” Negrón said. 

From college dreamer to aspiring to teacher

Negrón said she knew she wanted to go to college from a young age but struggled to figure out how to both attend and afford it. 

Due to her initial language difficulties she felt she was left  behind by her own teachers and received fewer resources in her education than she should have.

“When I finally went to college, it was actually my dream to be a prosecutor,” Negrón said. “I wanted to practice law. I wanted to lock up criminals.”

But her parents were already borrowing money to pay for her college education, and going to law school seemed financially unrealistic for her. Beyond money for tuition, it would require her  being dependent on her family for several more years, which did not seem possible for her. 

Negrón said that she resented the fact that she could not pursue law school. The resentment led her to study education, saying that she hoped to break the cycle of poverty and ensure that future students will not be forced to turn away from their dreams as she had to. 

According to her NHPS biography, Negrón obtained a B.S. degree in Spanish from Central Connecticut State University. She then received a Masters in Education and a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Connecticut.

Back in the classroom 

Negrón’s first experience as an educator was teaching in a transitional bilingual program in the same middle school in Willimantic that she had once attended.

“Going back to that building, I remember sitting in faculty meetings where I could actually see my former teachers. And now here I am; I’m your colleague,” Negrón said. “The treatment of some of them in the past was that I couldn’t do it, so for me, it was about proving them wrong”. 

She said she loved her time in the classroom. Her vision, she said, was always to make the classroom an environment where students were seen, heard and welcomed — something she did not feel growing up.  

Negrón described her first time teaching in New Haven — at Hill Regional Career Magnet High School — as “magical.” The diversity and celebration of difference, how so many different groups were respected and appreciated in New Haven, she said, was what made her enjoy the job the most. She said that she could not have asked for a better city to live in.

“I felt like I was in a district that was investing in my own growth as a professional,” she said.

Every step of the way, Negrón said she aimed to show that she would dedicate the most amount of time to her students as possible. By breaking cycles of poverty and proving those who doubted her wrong, including former teachers, wrong, she was having the last laugh, she said. 

Negron’s drive for change did not stop in the classroom. After holding several teaching positions, she said that she still felt many doors continued to be closed for students of color, and she could not accept this reality. She said that she realized her position as a teacher limited her impact to just the kids in her classroom. 

Negrón told the News that she wanted to go beyond making change in one classroom and felt like it was the right time to advance her career. 

Working as a school administrator, Negrón said she has had the “ability to get in front of an entire faculty, share my story, and continue to tell folks we are going to set high expectations for kids.”

As Negrón began to have a larger impact on the education of the students around her, she said she began to feel more accomplished.  She served as principal at Hill Regional Career Magnet School, then director of early childhood for the NHPS. Negrón also worked as chief of academics, teaching, learning and student support in New Haven. Before her appointment to superintendent, she served as the acting deputy superintendent of academics and school leadership for Hartford Public Schools. 

Pushes for inclusivity and collaboration

As an administrator, Negrón touted her mission of boosting inclusiveness and openness as a necessary value for educators. She said she thinks about this every time she is creating a new team or hiring for the NHPS. 

“We have to make sure that we’re not only hiring that the person has a skill set to do that particular role, but we also have to do a good job in trying to get a good sense of their mindset,” she said.

When asked about prejudice in education today, she said that she hopes to see a more fair future, but said that she still sees a lot of resistance to minority voices today in education. She said that people often see certain assets in some groups of people and deficiencies in others because of “their color, their language [or] their gender.”

Two educational leaders praised Negrón, who has served as superintendent for four months, for her work, saying that she was the right choice for the job in interviews with the News. 

“I am looking forward to her attention, to detail, her clarity and her work ethic. I think those three things are really going to help New Haven Public Schools move in a direction that we need to go,” Leslie Blatteau, president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, said.

Darnell Goldson, a member of the city’s Board of Education, shared his satisfaction with the beginning of her term, citing her use of concise, data-driven reports as useful for understanding the district’s challenges, as well as her vision for it.

Negrón told the News that she still misses teaching sometimes, but that she is fulfilled with the amount of connection she has with schools, kids and teachers as superintendent. Her vision is to ensure that every one of the nearly 20,000 kids enrolled in New Haven public schools have access to “the same quality education” that will set them up for success in life.

Matt Wilcox, vice president of the city’s Board of Education, told the News that he is also satisfied with Negrón’s work over the past four months. 

“I’m quite impressed with her in her first few months working with the district,” Wilcox said. “I’m looking forward to her continuing that work. I think she’s doing a great job.”

As she looks to the future, Negrón said that she approaches every child she meets with a great sense of respect and belief in their potential because she never knows if they will become her boss, just as she did.

There are currently 44 schools in New Haven Public Schools.

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The book talk was hosted for prospective students and their families who were staying at the hotel for Bulldogs Days. The News spoke with Manning about being back on campus, her latest novel and her process for research and character building. Manning highlighted her passion for storytelling, which she said comes as an impulse. Driven by her passion for storytelling, she has navigated through various industries, working in documentary television and journalism. Manning has won two Emmy Awards and has published pieces in The New York Times and The Washington Post. 

“Sometimes you just have this powerful feeling, you see something a certain way and you feel this emotion of ‘I have to tell it. I have to show it,” Manning said. “People see something and they have this human wish to capture what it was like.” 

“Gilded Mountain,” which was published in November, is a historical novel set in a small marble-mining town called Moonstone, Colorado. The story tracks the life of a character named Sylvie Pelletier, and involves themes of wealth, poverty, immigration and freedom of expression. 

At the event, Manning presented a slideshow in which she showed the pictures that inspired the novel. The photos prompted her to pursue research into Colorado history, which she said allowed her to zoom in on little details, looking for the stories of those that have not been told. With research, Manning said she was more able to put herself in the shoes of those in the pictures. 

“Kate is one of those rare writers who sees, hears and loves her characters in all their individuality even as she understands keenly the political and social challenges of their world, ” author Lucy Ferriss wrote to the News. 

Manning said that while researching, she found more information about men and had to dig further to learn about the women who fell more “in the shadows.” She cited a quote by Virginia Woolf saying that “I would as soon have her true history as the hundred and fiftieth life of Napoleon.”

“You have to read between the lines because history has been told as a story of a great man,” Manning said. “You see the world depending on who is telling you the story.”

After researching and analyzing visual stimuli such as the historical photos, Manning said her creative writing flows. She spins stories from these observations and ideas, she said, as if she were having a conversation and making history come alive.

She also shared how happy she was to be back on Yale’s campus, stating that she still knew her way around by instinct. 

Manning transferred from Middlebury College to Yale for her undergraduate degree. She said that while she found the professors at Middlebury more accessible, the students at Yale were what shaped her experience. Her time at Yale even inspired her later creative work, as she said she became interested in labor movements after seeing workers at Yale go on strike in 1977.

The Study hosts regular events in partnership with the Yale Alumni Magazine, showcasing academic and creative pursuits of alumni. Heather Gayatgay, who represents Study Hotels, said that the hotel chain aims to highlight the “personality and heritage” of each University they are located near. The event on Tuesday had around 15 people in attendance. 

“Events like these are inherent within The Study brand,” Gayatgay wrote to the News.“The Study is constantly seeking ways to highlight the accomplishments of the Yale community.  Through continuous dialogue with our University partners, we are always exploring new opportunities.” 

The Study is located at 1157 Chapel Street in New Haven. 

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The exhibit, titled “The Practice of Democracy: a View from Connecticut,” encourages visitors to reflect on the meaning and importance of democracy in their own environments and communities. The exhibit was a collaboration between the Regional Plan Association, the Housing Collective and several Connecticut colleges and universities. It was first shown in Bridgeport during January and February, and is now on display in New Haven until April 17. In late April, it will be shown in the final city of Norwalk. 

“This is an opportunity to understand how we got here and to reflect on our role in the practice of democracy and what we can all do every day as individuals to address the inequities in our communities, to recognize the history and to make a change,” said William Terry Brown, CEO of Gateway Community College. 

The exhibit is open to the public and is being held in the New Alliance Foundation Art Gallery at Gateway Community College. 

The goal is to attract both visitors with a strong knowledge of democracy’s foundations and visitors who might just be starting to engage with the topic of democracy, according to Brown.

“The intended audience is the entire community; some folks have lived here and spent careers here and live in neighborhoods but don’t know why some things are the way they are. Some people do know and need an opportunity to have this conversation,” Brown said. “But at the end of the day, this is really about understanding what we are dealing with so that we can do things differently, so that everyone can participate in democracy and engage in the opportunities this vibrant region offers.”

Melissa Kaplan-Macey, vice president of state programs and Connecticut director for the Regional Plan Association, explained that the exhibition’s immersive and interdisciplinary approach also helps make the concept of democracy more tangible, rather than it being an abstract ideal. 

“One of the big ideas behind democracy is that everybody’s voice matters and is heard, and we know from the exhibition that this is not true,” she said.

With simple language, colorful content and different shapes and forms, the exhibit organizers explained they hope it provokes the audience to take action and create changes in their communities. With phrases posted around the exhibit including, “change the way we view each other” and “you too can become a practitioner of democracy,” the exhibit emphasizes an individual call to action to help shape democracy. 

“This exhibit is trying to not shame or blame but promotes the understanding that we are all responsible for becoming practitioners for making democracy a verb, not some rhetorical gesture or monumental symbol,” said April De Simone, a transdisciplinary design practitioner who was involved in creating the exhibit. “We hope to promote this consciousness in every one of us to assume responsibility for the gift of democracy.”

De Simone told the News that she hopes visitors are left with an impression that democracy is complex, not “black and white.”

The exhibition was framed as though the visitor is in a conversation with “democracy,” according to exhibit designers, in an effort to make connections between common knowledge and democratic concepts. 

De Simone added that she thinks the exhibition is a result of very personal and passionate work. 

“Growing up, it was very impressionable for me to see this reality of a mother telling you how great America is; despite the conditions we were living in, it has so much complexity,” she said. “I couldn’t understand what was equal about what I was experiencing compared to another person.” 

To achieve the ideal democratic dream, De Simone said that it would take several sectors working together to navigate the interdisciplinarity and lack of linearity of democracy.

The exhibition is open at 20 Church St. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. 

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Jiracek von Arnim was recently appointed visiting professor at the School of Music. The pianist is the youngest tenured professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He is an enthusiastic public figure and his passion for music matches his love of teaching. 

Jiracek von Arnim stressed the importance of balancing performing and teaching in his career as an international pianist.

“Both are extremely interconnected,” Jiracek von Arnim said. “It is very important for every musician to follow their heart and express something, but also to give your head a question. It is about the emotions you are transmitting but it is about your control. I want to be a storyteller as a musician, so I hope I can get my audience to forget that they live in 2022 and just connect”. 

Learning new piano repertoire is a regular part of Jiracek von Armin’s artistic practice, routine and life philosophy. He believes in the power of achieving deeper meaning behind the physical action of daily instrumental practice and performance. Helping other musicians is a form of doing just that on a daily basis, he explained, because he is able to pass down knowledge to the current generation as his mentors once did for him. 

This is equally inspiring for students who have the potential of both hearing and studying with him. 

“To me, Jiracek’s dedication to teaching makes him a complete artist. It’s such a blessing to be in a place where we have access to these opportunities,” said Gillian Mui ’26. 

Music-loving Yalies are looking forward to Jiracek von Arnim’s performance, which is part of the Horowitz Piano Series. 

“As a student who really enjoys music, it is wonderful to get an opportunity to hear excellent repertoire performed at such a high level on just a normal weeknight,” said Evan Daneker ’26.

Jiracek von Arnim’s own artistic process involves asking existential questions in relation to the music he learns and interprets. His choice of repertory for the Wednesday night concert is personal.

“I chose to play Beethoven because it is extremely connected to Vienna and my origins but also [as I am coming to Yale as a teacher], I wanted to bring Liszt- to tell my students to make them look for connections,” Jiracek von Arnim said. “I want to find a way to bridge Beethoven to Liszt.” 

Paul Ji ’26, a Young Steinway Artist, said that he “especially liked how at the concert in France [von Arnim] gave the audience a spoken introduction to each piece by offering background information as well as his own insights and interpretative thoughts.

 “It is always a matter of trying again and getting better,” Jiracek von Arnim said. “You can’t say to an audience that you will simply repeat what you played the day before — there is no safety on the stages, never something stays the same … in music there is never an ending”. 

After all his international accomplishments, Jiracek von Arnim’s goal is to “always stay open” and that is why he looks forward to continuing teaching and connecting to the new generation of musicians.

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Latin America has a complicated relationship with democracy, filled with plot twists, unbelievable comebacks of dictatorships, and a lack of democratic political culture. Despite the chaotic reality, the region is generally regarded as the most promising democratizing region, a land of very hopeful tomorrows that unfortunately has not yet come. With a disturbing past, it seems that the region keeps repeating its history because it hasn’t learned from it. 

According to The Economist’s Democracy Index 2021 – Economist Intelligence Unit 59% of Latin America lives in a flawed democracy and 30% in hybrid regimes. But only 1.3% live in what is considered a “full democracy”(Uruguay and Costa Rica). The most concerning factor here is that this is not an isolated reality — there is a cycle of instability that pervades the region and repeats itself frequently. 

Until 1991, Latin America counted 253 Constitutions and 133 coups’ of State. Thus, instability is the norm. If you analyze 253 Constitutions, considering that Latin America has 33 countries, it is an average of 7.6 Constitutions per country, which shows a weakness in the respect of the institutions and legal uncertainty, besides the clear lack of judicial stability. The very unfortunate number of the 133 Coup of State also demonstrates how sadly Latin Americans are used to this reality of authoritarianism. Especially remembering the bloody dictatorships in the recent past is disheartening to observe how the cycle doesn’t seem to be over yet. This melancholic relationship to its past is seen in cultural expressions, raising the question of when this cycle will be over, as it is possible to see in Caetano Veloso’s song Podres Poderes, one of the greatest names of Brazilian music: “Won’t we ever do nothing but to confirm // The incompetence of catholic America // Which will always need ridiculous tyrants? // Will, will, will, will // Will this stupid rhetoric of mine // Need to sound, need to be heard for a thousand years more?” (Translated version).

The low marks on political culture in 2021’s Democracy Index materialize the issue of instability in the past. The ranking gave the mark of 4.53, which is lower than the Global average (5.36) and 2020’s Latin American average (5.18). But how could you blame Latin Americans for not trusting democracy when they never quite experienced a stable form of government? The lack of political culture is extremely connected to the troubled past and the only form for it to change is by rethinking education about Democracy to its citizens. 

It is worth noticing that most Latin American democracies emerged in the transition from the colonial past to the beginning of their own history. However, I am afraid this new chapter just reproduced several forms of exploitation from when they were colonies to their own people. Speaking in general terms, when the democratic transition occurred, they didn’t think about creating a system that would work for them; the general system of the United States Democracy was applied there, and so Latin American democracy didn’t start democratic at all.  This 1982 quote from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author of “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” reflects on this topic: “Latin America neither wants nor has any reason, to be a pawn without a will of its own; nor is it merely wishful thinking that its quest for independence and originality should become a Western aspiration.”

Therefore, thinking about the future, I would go even further by stating that Latin Americans need to have the chance to dictate their own story by rethinking and building their own democracy. A democracy that is thought for their own climate, their own people, and their own rules.  In honor of all that already died in Latin American dictatorships, I optimistically still see hope in the future because of my unquestionable faith in the resilience of the people that always come back ready to fight for another day. 

“So many times I was killed many times I died nonetheless, I’m still here coming back to life” (Como la Cigarra, Elena Walsh, translated version).

“In spite of you
Tomorrow will be
Another day
I ask you
Where you will hide
From our happiness
How will you ban
When a cock insists
To sing”
(Apesar de Você, Chico Buarque, translated version)

LUA PRADO is a freshman in Jonathan Edwards College from Aracaju, Brazil. She can be reached at luana.souza@yale.edu. 

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