May Day !

Forget Loyalty Day, Health Day, Moving Day.  May 1st is a celebration for working people all around the world, and…

Wise Men and Macheteros

Three Kings Day is a time of gift-giving, celebrated on January 6th in Connecticut, across the nation, and throughout Spanish-speaking…

Rising Tide: Steamboat Workers

From the Mississippi River to the Connecticut River, steamboats played a major role in building 19th century America.  Hartford residents…

Propaganda: State-Sanctioned Lying

Fake News. Alternative facts. “Truthiness.”  These are new labels for an old enemy of democracy: propaganda.  Four years of Donald…

Two, Three, Many Labor Days

My grandmother Nellie Grace arrived in Boston from Ireland in 1909. On the ship manifest she was described as a…

A Tale of Two Protests

In June, 2020 two large #Black Lives Matter marches met in Hartford –one from the south end and one from…

Who’s Afraid of Socialism?

Who’s afraid of socialism? According to some pundits, everyone should be. Today’s adherents of democratic socialism have greatly increased over…

Beyond Thanksgiving

Recently, I attended a conference at the National Museum of the American Indian in lower Manhattan, close to Wall Street.…

When Sylvia Came to Town

 Sylvia Rivera was a Latinx gay and transgender rights activist. Her organizing work took place primarily in New York, where…

Oscar Wilde in Hartford

When the Irish playwright and poet Oscar Wilde visited Hartford on February 2, 1882, a local newspaper scornfully reported the…

GOOD TROUBLE: History and Handbook for Today’s Resistance

Good Trouble: A Shoeleather History of Nonviolent Direct Action is a riveting chronicle of stories that prove time and again the actions of thoughtful, committed people can change their country and the world. It is a brisk, inspiring primer for veteran activists and newcomers alike. (More)

The ABC of Freedom

After the American Civil War, a handful of courageous Hartford volunteers took part in a brief but critical moment that…

Upcoming Film: BISBEE ’17

BISBEE ’17 is a film by director Robert Greene set in Bisbee, Arizona, an eccentric old mining town just miles…

Introducing: WICKED HARTFORD

“Conniving bosses, predatory landlords, and political intrigue; every city has its wicked side, but not every city has a proper critic to chronicle it. In loving detail, Thornton remaps the city, locating its rollicking beer halls, crowded opium dens, and casinos of yesteryear as well as the notorious jails, poor houses, and smallpox quarantines which have long since