Around Town

‘Through Your Looking Glass’ Student Social Justice Art Showcase Opens at Carriage Barn Arts Center

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The number of students contributing their work to an annual social justice art exhibition doubled in its second year, organizers say. Launched by Stand Together Against Racism or “S.T.A.R.,” in partnership with The Glass House and Carriage Barn Arts Center, the exhibition— titled “Through Your Looking Glass” —saw student contributors increase from 21 in its inaugural year to 45 this year, according to S.T.A.R. Founder Fatou Niang. “I’m amazed,” Niang told NewCanaanite.com amid the buzz of an opening reception held Saturday at the Carriage Barn, where crowds of people took in dozens of paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture, mixed-media pieces and other art work contributed by students and professional artists brought in as a special part of this year’s show. “I’m amazed because we all know art has a power of reflecting society,” Niang continued. “And the mirror that these kids have sent us through their art is just stunning.

Around Town

Hundreds Attend S.T.A.R. Celebration of Juneteenth in New Canaan

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The NewCanaanite.com Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Carriage Barn Arts Center. One hundred fifty eight years ago, Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas to enforce President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, marking the end of slavery in the United States. On Monday, New Canaan residents came together to celebrate the milestone, making this the first Juneteenth celebration in New Canaan since the federal government and state of Connecticut made it a legal holiday. “This is amazing, we have at this point, almost 400 people have signed up to come, and last year we were at 160, so more than double,” Fatou Niang, founder and chair of Stand Together Against Racism, or “S.T.A.R.,” which organized the “Hearts of Freedom” Juneteenth celebration, as hundreds of town and area residents gathered at the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society for live music, food and games on a hot summer day. “We are so blessed that the community is embracing it, and we hope every year to have more and more people to the point that we can move it to Waveny,” Niang said. 

Monday’s event was the second-ever Juneteenth celebration in town.

Around Town

Soul-Fête: An Immersive Dinner Party 

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We thought we knew about every kind of dinner you can have: dinner from scratch, dinner with friends, early, late, expense account, room service, over the sink, a dinner presented with a flourish from under a sterling silver cloche, or one pried from the viselike jaws of a steaming takeout box. And yet, one vibrant, generous group is bringing the town together for an elevated, illuminating take on what dinner can be. With their customary knack for creating connection, Stand Together Against Racism (S.T.A.R) is reimagining dinner as an immersive cultural celebration. Soul-Fête, which will explore the culinary journey from Africa to America, will welcome you to the Carriage Barn from 7 to 9 p.m. on March 2, wrapping up Black History Month in an unforgettable way. Music will be provided by local band The Misfits, and chef Damon Sawyer of Bridgeport’s 29 Markle Ct.

Around Town

‘Through Your Looking Glass’ Exhibition Opens at New Canaan Museum & Historical Society

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Jose “Joey” Diaz, a Norwalk resident and ninth-grader at the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering in Stamford, originally planned to portray a hand reaching out in his submission for an art exhibition that opened this weekend at the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society. But “I kind of messed it up,” Diaz said Saturday from a second-floor gallery at the Oenoke Ridge nonprofit organization, standing near his acrylics-and-markers work titled “We All Bleed Red.”

“And I turned it into something else, which was a fist,” Diaz said. “I did a lot of blood on the knuckles and everywhere. It kind of shows how much people suffer, from police brutality, hate crimes. All of that.

Board of Education

Board of Ed Poised To Remove ‘DEI’ from School District’s Goals and Objectives

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In a series of proposed changes that has generated wide community discussion, the Board of Education is poised this week to replace language around diversity, equity and inclusion or “DEI” in the school district’s goals. Board members agreed at their most recent meeting that the following sentences rightly should be added to a draft version of the goals that the elected body has been discussing since July:
NCPS [New Canaan Public Schools] will strive to deepen students’ understanding of a range of differences among people. NCPS will work to foster empathy and respect for all and to celebrate the unique and varied contributions each of us makes. Yet the Board of Ed is divided on a third proposed sentence for the goals:
In this regard, NCPS will seek independent expertise, research and develop next steps to advance this initiative. Four Board members—Secretary Dan Bennett, Julie Toal, Hugo Alves and Phil Hogan—objected to the word ‘expertise,’ saying they were against hiring an outside consultant to assess New Canaan Public Schools and make recommendations. 

They stopped short of saying that New Canaan’s lack of diversity is not a problem for the public schools.