Opportunities to pray (or just be) with your extended family

The Hartford Seminary is hosting an Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Peace at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the seminary at 77 Sherman in Hartford. The program, organized by seminary students, should last about an hour, and will include speeches by several student leaders, readings from letters by family members of recent victims, interfaith prayer, song and …

They. Did it. And more.

The dedicated team that worked on the Greater Hartford 100-day challenge to reduce chronic homelessness moved heaven and earth and did some amazing things — but not just in Greater Hartford. There were similar efforts in Fairfield County, southeastern Connecticut and northeastern Connecticut. This in addition to the original effort in New Haven last year. …

If you’ve nothing better to do…

…there’s a wrap-up of the 100-day challenge to greatly reduce chronic homelessness in the state on WNPR‘s “Where We Live” at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. Better yet, the story will include Sal Pinna, who is making his radio debut. If you’ll remember, Sal [pictured at a recent performance at Charter Oak Cultural Center] was recently …

Sal Pinna is going to perform at an upcoming graduation

This is a long name, but here goes: Charter Oak Cultural Center’s Beat of the Street Center for Creative Learning is having their graduation on Thursday, and Sal Pinna, who recently got housed after 20 years of homelessness, is going to perform. The keynote and the benediction are being given by two of Hartford’s titans …

Come see The Naked Truth at Charter Oak Cultural Center

Hartford 2020 is proud to cosponsor The Naked Truth, a panel discussion on strip searches, airport Xrays, and the search for safety after 9/11/01. I hope you can come.

What if instead of planting flowers, cities planted vegetables?

And then people who needed to could take those veggies for free? Hartford’s Charter Oak Cultural Center‘s doing just that. The brainchild of 21-year old center intern, Ethan Burke, the idea is to fill planters with growing vegetables, train people to care for them, and then offer the veggies to people who need them. The …

And a good time was had by all

Our brand-new non-profit, Hartford 2020, along with Charter Oak Cultural Center and Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association, hosted a showing of the documentary, “Hot Coffee,” with a talk-back by the film’s producer/director, Susan Saladoff last night. (That’s her talking before the film.) If you came, you know what the night was like — a thought-provoking documentary, …

Will we see you at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Charter Oak Cultural Center?

I sure hope so. Hartford 2020 is co-hosting a showing of the documentary, “Hot Coffee,” with a talk-back afterward with the film’s director, Susan Saladoff. (And thanks, Charter Oak, and Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association, for doing the heavy lifting on this event.) Just to give you a taste, here‘s a review of the documentary from …

So we started a non-profit…

…”we” being my husband, Frank Schiavone, and I. In the last few months, we’ve organized Hartford2020 to help get community conversations going. We intend to host or co-host documentaries, art shows, and other events that explore issues of the day. In September, Frank will produce a play that looks at immigration, and was written by …