Best Video Film & Cultural Center
Hamden Connecticut
Local writers and peace activists will present “Words Against The Whirlwind: A Benefit for Ukraine” on Wed., Mar. 9, at 7 PM at Best Video Film & Cultural Center.
The event is a benefit for the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee.
Organizers will read from poetry and prose by Ukrainian and Ukrainian-American writers including Lyuba Yakimchuk, Semyon Olender, and Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach.
The work will be read by by Allan Appel, Stephen Kobasa and Michelle Zacks.
SONGS + STORIES returns to live performance (but outdoors, with masks + social distance), Saturday, April 17th from 4:30 to 6:00 PM. There is a suggested $5 donation to the tip jar for the performers.
The event is hosted by Saul Fussiner and this edition’s theme: is “Friendship Stories.” Paticipating storytellers are Laconia Therrio, Wendy Dalton Marans, Val McKee, and Saul Fussiner. Singer-songwriter Brian Larney will provide the songs this evening.
Beer, wine, and coffee are available at the Best Video Cafe Window.
We ask respect for social distancing, please, and masks are mandatory. (Yes, you can lower them to take a drink but please raise them up again.)
Parking available behind Best Video and on Thornton Street.
The Connecticut Poetry Society presents a reading by poets Kathleen McIntosh and Peter Ulisse at Best Video Film & Cultural Center on Tuesday, Sept. 24. The event starts at 7 PM. Admission is free but donations to support BVFCC’s programming are encouraged.
The Connecticut Poetry Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion and enjoyment of poetry. Its mission is to encourage a community devoted to poetry through chapter meetings, education and events. Laura and Victor Altshul co-Chair the New Haven branch of the CPS, which meets monthly to workshop poems and to encourage programs in the area.
Kathleen McIntosh grew up in various parts of the Midwest as well as Texas and California. Following this peripatetic childhood, she attended college in Massachusetts and then remained in the Northeast, anchored by graduate school, work and family, as three siblings also migrated to New England. In 1980 she received a Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and thereafter was a professor of Hispanic Studies for over thirty years at Westfield State University. Beginning in the early 1980’s, she also helped to establish and taught in a Women’s Studies program. She began to write poetry when retirement opened up a space for this dormant passion, and has been pleased to discover on her Connecticut doorstep a large and welcoming community of lovers and writers of poetry.
Peter Ulisse has been writing poetry for over 40 years and has published over a hundred poems in literary magazines, journals, and books throughout out the country. He has read many of them in libraries, schools, and in the media, both radio and public television. In addition, he has turned out several chapbooks and the Edwin Mellen Press published hardcovers of his Memory Is An Illusive State and the very well reviewed Vietnam Voices.
Peter is a former President of the Connecticut Poetry Society and editor of the Connecticut River Review as well as having reviewed poetry for Small Pond of Literature. A retired English professor at Housatonic Community College, he also chaired the Humanities Department there for 20 years twice serving as Acting Academic Dean. He is married to former colleague Sheila Anderson and has three adult children-Chris, Rebecca, and Justin—as well as three grandchildren—Tyler, Austin, and Naomi. He practices daily meditation and enjoys tai chi, yoga, pickle ball, painting, movies, and just about anything to do with nature.
The Connecticut Poetry Society presents a reading by poets Patricia Mottola and Tony Fusco at Best Video Film & Cultural Center on Tuesday, June 25. The event starts at 7 PM. Admission is free but donations to support BVFCC’s programming are encouraged.
The Connecticut Poetry Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion and enjoyment of poetry. Its mission is to encourage a community devoted to poetry through chapter meetings, education and events. Laura and Victor Altshul co-Chair the New Haven branch of the CPS, which meets monthly to workshop poems and to encourage programs in the area.
Award-winning poet and Pushcart Prize nominee Pat Mottola teaches Creative Writing at Southern Connecticut State University, where she earned both an M.S. in Art Education and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing. In addition to working with students at S.C.S.U., she is thrilled to teach both art and poetry to senior citizens throughout Connecticut. Her work is published in journals across the country. On a global scale, she has mentored Afghan women writers living in Afghanistan through the Afghan Women’s Writing Project. Pat served as editor of Connecticut River Review from 2012-2017, and is currently Co-President of the Connecticut Poetry Society. Pat was recently awarded the CT Board of Regents Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Teaching Award. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Under the Red Dress (Five Oaks Press) and After Hours (Five Oaks Press).
Tony Fusco is the new and first Poet Laureate of West Haven, Connecticut, Co-President of the Connecticut Poetry Society. He has a Master Degree in Creative Writing from Southern Connecticut State University. He was the editor of Caduceus, the anthology of the “Yale Medical Group Art Place” and past editor of the Connecticut River Review, Long River Run. His work has appeared in many publications including the Connecticut Review, Louisiana Literature, the Red Rock Review, The South Carolina Review, Lips, and The Paterson Review.
He has published four books of poetry and three chap books, Extinction 2018, Java Scripture 2014, Droplines 2010, and Jessie’s Garden 2003. His poetry has won prizes in many contests including the Sunken Garden Poetry Prize. Tony is a life long resident of West Haven, Connecticut; his writing is infused with the local flavor of growing up a Catholic Italian, and with memories of the now defunct Savin Rock Amusement Park and working at the Yale School of Medicine. He is married to Patricia White Fusco, has two daughters, Emily and Cyndi, and four grandsons.
On the anniversary of the 2007 bombing of the booksellers’ market in Baghdad, and in defiance of the ongoing attacks throughout the world against reading and readers, excerpts from the anthology “Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here” will be read by Daisy C. Abreu and Stephen Vincent Kobasa.
The event starts at 7 PM and donations towards the al-Mutanabbi Street Project will be welcomed.
On March 5th 2007, a car bomb was exploded on al-Mutanabbi Street, the historic center of Baghdad bookselling. More than 30 people were killed and over 100 were wounded. In response to this attack upon a cultural treasure of the Iraqi people, the San Francisco poet and bookseller Beau Beausoleil founded the al-Mutanabbi Street Project which to date has assembled 130 broadsides by letterpress artists, 260 artist books, and a literary anthology “Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here” with contributions by over 125 writers from around the world.
UPCOMING EVENTS (Music events start at 8 PM unless otherwise noted; screenings start at 7 PM unless otherwise noted):
• Friday, Feb. 23. AVANT-GARDE: LIGHT UPON BLIGHT, AVMUS
• Tuesday, Feb. 27, 7:30 PM. BLUEGRASS: STACY PHILLIPS & HIS BLUEGRASS CHARACTERS
• Wednesday, Feb. 28. PSYCHEDELIC INDIE: WITCH HAIR; INDIE ROCK: LEA
• Thursday, MAR. 1, 7 PM. ABIOSEH JOSEPH COLE: POETRY FOR THE LIVING; DAVID BRENSILVER: MUSIC FOR THE DOOMED
• Friday, Mar. 2. ACOUSTIC ROCK: RICHARD NEAL & THE BIRDMEN
• Sunday, Mar. 4, 10 AM-NOON. OSCARS BRUNCH
• Sunday, Mar. 4, 2-5 PM. FREE MONTHLY SUNDAY GUITARTOWNCT BLUEGRASS JAM
• Monday, Mar. 5, 7 PM. LITERARY: A READING FOR AL-MUTANABBI STREET—DAISY C. ABREU & STEPHEN VINCENT KOBASA
• Wednesday, Mar. 7. JAZZ/FUSION/CHAPMAN STICK: TOM GRIESGRABER; BRETT BOTTOMLEY
• Thursday, Mar. 8. SONGWRITERS IN THE ROUND: SHAWN TAYLOR, KRISTEN GRAVES
• Friday, Mar. 9. POWER POP: THE GRAND PAR; LAINI
• Sunday, Mar. 11, 7 PM. SINGER-SONGWRITER/FREAK FOLK: KATH BLOOM, DAN GREENE (RESCHEDULED FROM FEB. 17)
• Wednesday, Mar. 14, 7 PM. SECOND WEDNESDAY OPEN MIC
• Thursday, Mar. 15. VIDEO GAME MUSIC: DISCOCACTUS
• Friday, Mar. 16. BLUEGRASS: ZOE & CLOYD (A GUITARTOWNCT CONCERT)
• Sunday, Mar. 18, 6 PM. NIGHT OF IRISH SONGS: CHARLIE KING, ANNIE PATTERSON & PETER BLOOD (TIX: https://www.riseupandsing.org/events/rising-moon-new-haven)
• Monday, Mar. 19, 6:30-9 PM. GUITARTOWNCT THIRD MONDAY BLUEGRASS JAM
• Thursday, Mar. 22. INDIE ROCK: TREADWELL
• Friday, Mar. 23. SOLO GUITAR: GLENN ROTH; SOLO DOUBLE BASS: CHARLES BERTHOUD
• Saturday, Mar. 24. INDIE ROCK: THE SAWTELLES; AUDIO JANE
• Tuesday, Mar. 27, 7:30 PM. BLUEGRASS: STACY PHILLIPS & HIS BLUEGRASS CHARACTERS
• Thursday, Mar. 29. SINGER-SONGWRITER: TERRI & ROB DUO, R/S EQUINOX
• Friday, Mar. 30. BLUES ROCK: VANGE DURST; JAZZ/FOLK/ROCK: SEMAPHORA
• Sunday, Apr. 2, 2-5 PM. FREE MONTHLY SUNDAY GUITARTOWNCT BLUEGRASS JAM
• Wednesday, Apr. 4. JAZZ: CHARTER OAK JAZZ
• Thursday, Apr. 5. POWER POP: THE MOLD MONKIES
• Tuesday, Apr. 10, 7 PM. BLUEGRASS/FOLK: ELM CITY RAMBLERS
• Wednesday, Apr. 11, 7 PM. SECOND WEDNESDAY OPEN MIC
• Thursday, Apr. 12. FOLK: FLINT LADDER
• Sunday, Apr. 15. STAND UP FOR STEVE SUNDAY
• Friday, Apr. 6. INDIE ROCK: MERCY CHOIR, LITTLE SILVER
• Friday, Apr. 13. BLUEGRASS/AMERICANA: RIVER RUN
• Monday, Apr. 16, 6:30-9 PM. GUITARTOWNCT THIRD MONDAY BLUEGRASS JAM
• Friday, Apr. 20. BLUEGRASS: MATT FLINNER TRIO (A GUITARTOWNCT CONCERT)
• Saturday, Apr. 21. FOLK/BLUES: WASHBOARD SLIM & THE BLUE LIGHTS PRESENTS AN EVENING WITH 4 CT BLUES/ROOTS DIVAS—LAUREN AGNELLI, SANDY CONNELLY, JILLIAN GREY & LYNN MALAVOLTI
• Tuesday, Apr. 24, 7:30 PM. BLUEGRASS: STACY PHILLIPS & HIS BLUEGRASS CHARACTERS
• Friday, Apr. 27. JAZZ: JEFF FULLER & FRIENDS w/ TONY PURRONE
• Thursday, May 3. BLUES ROCK: PARKER’S TANGENT
• Sunday, May 6, 2-5 PM. FREE MONTHLY SUNDAY GUITARTOWNCT BLUEGRASS JAM
• Wednesday, May 9, 7 PM. SECOND WEDNESDAY OPEN MIC
• Friday, May 11, 7 PM. STATE OF THE NATION: PROTEST MUSIC CABARET
• Saturday, May 12. SINGER-SONGWRITER: THE ANNE MARIE MENTA BAND
• Friday, May 18. JAZZ: BADSLAX
• Sunday, May 20, 6 PM. INDIE ROCK: FUTURE TEENS, more TBA
• Monday, May 21, 6:30-9 PM. GUITARTOWNCT THIRD MONDAY BLUEGRASS JAM
• Tuesday, May 29, 7:30 PM. BLUEGRASS: STACY PHILLIPS & HIS BLUEGRASS CHARACTERS
• Sunday, June 3, 2-5 PM. FREE MONTHLY SUNDAY GUITARTOWNCT BLUEGRASS JAM
• Friday, June 8, 7:30 PM. BLUEGRASS: THE PAGE TURNERS (A GUITARTOWNCT CONCERT)
• Thursday, June 28, 7:30 PM. BLUEGRASS: JACOB JOHNSON (A GUITARTOWNCT CONCERT)
• Thursday, July 25, 7:30 PM. BLUEGRASS: TOWN MOUNTAIN (A GUITARTOWNCT CONCERT)
• Friday, Aug. 31, 7:30 PM. BLUEGRASS: DALE ANN BRADLEY (A GUITARTOWNCT CONCERT)
• Friday, Nov. 9, 7:30 PM. BLUEGRASS: KENNY & AMANDA SMITH (A GUITARTOWNCT CONCERT)
• Friday, Dec. 7, 7:30 PM. BLUEGRASS: HONEY DEWDROPS (A GUITARTOWNCT CONCERT)
Writer Alice Mattison returns to Best Video Film & Cultural Center on Thursday, Nov. 17, to read from and discuss her new book, “The Kite and the String.” The event begins at 7:30. It is free but donations to support the programming at BVFCC will be gratefully appreciated.
For anyone who is thinking about writing a novel, has written one novel or many, or enjoys reading novels but prefers to leave the writing to others, Alice Mattison will discuss what may go right and wrong when you are the lucky and cursed person with an impulse you can’t ignore to write a booklength work of fiction.
Alice Mattison’s new book, “The Kite and the String: How to Write with Spontaneity and Control—and Live to Tell the Tale,” was described as a “generous, empathetic writer’s companion” in a starred review in Kirkus and called “a booklength master class” by The Atlantic. Alice is also the author of six novels and four collections of short stories. Her website is www.alicemattison.com.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
• Thursday, Nov. 10. BEST VIDEO FILM & CULTURAL CENTER GALA FIRST ANNIVERSARY BENEFIT (at The Ballroom at The Outer Space) with JEFF FULLER & FRIENDS, THE BANDIDOS, MERCY CHOIR, THE RED HOTS
• Friday, Nov. 11. SINGER-SONGWRITERS: FERNANDO PINTO PRESENTS JESSE TERRY & CALLAGHAN
• Sunday, Nov. 13. MARK SCHENKER: HOW TO READ A FILM—JOHN HUSTON’S “THE AFRICAN QUEEN” (1 PM)
• Sunday, Nov. 13. KLEZMER JAM (6 PM)
• Wednesday, Nov. 16. IMPROVISATION/AVANT-GARDE: TOM BLANCARTE, CHRIS CRETELLA, ZACH ROWDEN
• Thursday, Nov. 17. LITERARY: ALICE MATTISON—”THE PLEASURES AND PERILS OF WRITING A NOVEL”
• Friday, Nov. 18. PARTY PUNK: TINY BOX BOOKING presents POSTURE & THE GRIZZLY, PRINCE DADDY & THE HYENA, MILKSHAKES, JUST FRIENDS (7 PM)
• Saturday, Nov. 19. JAZZ JAM with ALLEN LOWE, JEFF FULLER & ED CERCONE
• Monday, Nov. 21. MEMBER’S CHOICE FILM SCREENING: “RUNAWAY TRAIN”
• Wednesday, Nov. 23. AMERICAN PRIMITIVE GUITAR: DANIEL BACHMAN, ALEXANDER
• Friday, Nov. 25. BLUEGRASS/TRADITIONAL COUNTRY: DAVE PETERSON (A GUITARTOWNCT PRODUCTION)
• Saturday, Nov. 26. FILM SCREENING FOR KIDS: “THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY” (Sponsored by Pediatrics Plus of North Haven)
• Monday, Nov. 28. MEMBER’S CHOICE FILM SCREENING: “CHARADE”
• Wednesday, Nov. 30. JAZZ: URI SHAHAM TRIO
• Thursday, Dec. 1. ACOUSTIC GUITAR: GLENN ROTH, SINGER-SONGWRITER: KRISTEN GRAVES
• Friday, Dec. 2. INDIE ROCK: THE SAWTELLES CD RELEASE SHOW, HANK HOFFMAN (solo)
• Sunday, Dec. 4. FREE FIRST SUNDAY AFTERNOON BLUEGRASS JAM (PRESENTED BY GUITARTOWNCT)
• Monday, Dec. 5. MEMBER’S CHOICE FILM SCREENING: “PAT GARRETT & BILLY THE KID”
• Friday, Dec. 9. BLUEGRASS: DALE ANN BRADLEY BAND (A GUITARTOWNCT PRODUCTION)
• Monday, Dec. 12. MEMBER’S CHOICE FILM SCREENING: “WINTER’S BONE”
• Friday, Dec. 16. JAZZ: JEFF FULLER & FRIENDS
• Saturday, Dec. 17. FILM SCREENING FOR KIDS: “THE GOONIES” (Sponsored by Pediatrics Plus of North Haven)
• Monday, Dec. 19. MEMBER’S CHOICE FILM SCREENING: “CONTACT”
• Friday, Jan. 6. ACOUSTIC FOLK BLUES & MORE: VANGE DURST
• Friday, Jan. 13. BLUEGRASS: FIVE IN THE CHAMBER
• Friday, Jan. 27. JAZZ: BADSLAX
• Saturday, Jan. 28. FILM SCREENING FOR KIDS: “MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO” (Sponsored by Pediatrics Plus of North Haven)
“A new day in New Haven, and a tragic one for two families whose teenage daughters were brutally murdered last night in the Edgewood Heights…”
Beneath many a mildly fluttering surface, underground currents are spiraling out of control. Only Cozy Beach seems to harbor a solution to all this city’s problems.
Steve Bellwood, prolific New Haven playwright and free-form story-teller, introduces more workshop scenes from his live sidewalk-cracking theatrical drama series on Wed., Mar. 4. The program starts at 8 PM and admission is $5.
Originally inspired by Robert Altman’s interweaving movie meldings in “Short Cuts” and his (relatively late) introduction to the onslaught high literary and dramatic quality of various television series, Bellwood seeks to emulate such in live theatre. As the primary source of his exposure to these series, he found it appropriate to premiere an introductory program-presentation-reading of “Cozy Beach” at Best Video Performance Space back in January.
Set in New Haven and a neighboring shoreline community, involving multiple characters and interwoven stories, this work-in-development will be presented in an adaptive shape of excerpted scenes to introduce primary characters and themes, and hopefully provoke and inspire general discussion and involvement.
Actors Jessica Stern, Norman Allen and Jackie Sidle in a scene from “Cozy Beach,” Jan. 29, 2015.
Two prep-school senior girls are brutally murdered in a parents’ leafy suburban home, and the double homicide spins off an exploration of sex-drugs-organ trafficking, mercy-killing, PTSD, addiction, success and failure, justice, revenge, gender-identity, cultural identity, corruption and complicity by omission. When the underworld invades the over world….
UPCOMING EVENTS:
• Monday, Feb. 23. FILM SCREENING: “CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS”
• Thursday, Feb. 26. BLUEGRASS: CHURCH SECTS
• Friday, Feb. 27. FUNK/ROCK: HOLIDAY PING
• Monday, Mar. 2. FILM SCREENING: “THE SWIMMER”
• Wednesday, Mar. 4. THEATRICAL READING: “COZY BEACH” by STEVE BELLWOOD
• Thursday, Mar. 5. SINGER-SONGWRITER: THE ANNE MARIE MENTA BAND
• Friday, Mar. 6. JAZZ: NICK DiMARIA WiRED
• Monday, Mar. 9. FILM SCREENING: “GRAN TORINO”
• Monday, Mar. 16. FILM SCREENING: “NOW, VOYAGER”
• Wednesday, Mar. 18. MODERN ROCK SPOKEN WORD SONGSTRESS/INDIE FOLK ROCK: SHADOW & COMPANY
• Thursday, Mar. 19. RAGTIME/BLUES: THE RED HOTS
• Friday, Mar. 20. ALT-COUNTRY: MERCY MEADOWS
• Monday, Mar. 23. FILM SCREENING: “UP IN THE AIR”
• Monday. Mar. 30. FILM SCREENING: “A LATE QUARTET”
• Friday, April 3. AVANT-GARDE: ZERO DOLLAR
• Thursday, Apr. 9. 150th ANNIVERSARY OF APPOMATTOX/FOLK MUSIC: SHELDON CAMPBELL
• Friday, Apr. 10. ROCK: PARKER’S TANGENT
• Friday, April 17. WPKN BENEFIT
• Friday, May 1. FILM FEST: “A DARK ROOM”
• Wednesday, Aug. 26. BLUEGRASS: STACY PHILLIPS & HIS BLUEGRASS CHARACTERS
