Rachel Iacovone

Poderosa: LGBTQ coffee entrepreneur Evelyn Ruiz leads by centering community The Puerto Rican coffee business owner from Hartford runs Hasta Luego Friend out of a vintage trailer and founded a queer collective at bars around town.

I went into this interview with Hasta Luego Friend owner Evy Ruiz thinking that business (and its addictive coquito lattes) would be the focus for @ctpublic.bsky.social’s Poderosas series on Latina leaders. Instead, I heard just as much about Tia’s Roommate, by and for queer women of color.

This dark academia novel set in CT is an inclusive twist on the genre Kamilah Cole’s “An Arcane Inheritance” is told through the lens of a female lead, who is Black, queer and an immigrant, on the campus of a fictional Ivy League school in Hartford.

Dark academia’s seminal titles like “Ninth House,” based at Yale, typically focus on an outsider thrown into elite academic circles and the secrets that come with them. @wordsiren.bsky.social takes that a step further in “An Arcane Inheritance,” also based in Connecticut.

Meet the Puerto Rican dance organization keeping Bomba alive in Connecticut In Connecticut, where 8% of the population is Puerto Rican, Afro-Caribbean folk traditions found a home following the rise of the Loíza Festival in New Haven in the 1970s.

The Afroboricua dance style of Bomba was once at risk of being lost to history. But Movimiento Cultural in Connecticut is one of the groups keeping the Puerto Rican tradition alive stateside.

Text from @elnuevodia.bsky.social and audio from @ctpublic.bsky.social at the class I took:

Red Sísmica de Puerto RicoRed Sísmica de Puerto Rico

There was a 5.1 magnitude earthquake about 100 miles north of Puerto Rico this morning. There’s always a lot of seismic activity near the archipelago, but this is the first to reach above 5 in 2026. There’s no reported damage or tsunami threat, thankfully. redsismica.uprm.edu/spanish/info...

In Hartford, CT clergy tell ICE: ‘Lay down your arms’ The faith leaders said they had “heard God’s call.”

"We have heard God's call, and so we are here now to shout out with one unified voice: stop the cruelty and the inhumanity,” said Rev. Allie Perry. “Love is the only way."

In Hartford, CT clergy tell ICE: ‘Lay down your arms’

www.ctpublic.org/news/2026-02...

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¿Sabías que Somos Connecticut de @ctpublic.bsky.social tiene un boletín bilingüe? Suscríbete (¡gratis!) aquí: www.ctpublic.org/newsletters

Did you know @ctpublic.bsky.social’s Somos Connecticut team has a bilingual newsletter? Subscribe (for free!) here: www.ctpublic.org/newsletters

Author Kamilah Cole explores Hartford and Jamaican-American experience in latest novel “An Arcane Inheritance," weaves dark academia with occult secrets at a fictional Ivy League school based in Hartford.

Today, @ctpublic.bsky.social’s Where We Live dives into dark academia with author Kamilah Cole (@wordsiren.bsky.social), whose adult debut, “An Arcane Inheritance,” is based right here in Hartford, Connecticut. It’s romantasy, academic rivals, enemies to lovers, AND unapologetically BIPOC and queer.

CT has the most vibrant arts communities in New England, according to latest index Six CT communities made the rankings by Southern Methodist University. It’s part of the annual Arts Vibrancy Index, which also ranked the state No. 3 in the nation ahead of MA.

Connecticut has the most vibrant arts communities in New England, according to the latest index from Southern Methodist University.

The state is now No. 3 in the nation, and six Connecticut cities made the list of the top 100 communities in the U.S. as well.

The Pats are headed to the Super Bowl, but here’s where to watch 'Bad Bunny Bowl' in CT The Puerto Rican superstar is headlining Super Bowl LX's halftime show, and these Connecticut establishments are offering a place to watch, dance and sing along.

Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny is headlining Super Bowl LX's halftime show, and these Connecticut establishments are offering a place to watch, dance and sing along. www.ctpublic.org/news/2026-01...

Passing down Puerto Rican history and culture to the next generation Nearly 300,000 Connecticut residents are of Puerto Rican heritage. Today, we take a look at what’s being done to raise the next generation of Puerto Ricans here in the diaspora.

I just made my @ctpublic.bsky.social’s Where We Live hosting debut for today’s episode about raising the next generation of Puerto Ricans in the diaspora. You can give it a listen here: www.ctpublic.org/show/where-w...

Here are the CT chefs and restaurants up for James Beard Awards Half a dozen Connecticut chefs and eateries are representing the state in this year’s James Beard Awards semifinals.

An impressive half-dozen chefs and establishments across Connecticut are up for the prestigious James Beard Awards this year. Hear from Community Table’s Bolivar Hilario, who’s in the running for Best Chef: Northeast, in his own words:

Sen. Blumenthal compares recent ICE tactics to the Gestapo Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s Jewish father escaped Nazi Germany before immigrating to the U.S.

“Those same Gestapo-type tactics in Germany”: One of Connecticut’s U.S. senators is comparing recent actions by ICE with his family’s personal experience in Nazi-era Europe.

Earlier this week, a different CT-based leader compared ICE to the KKK.

‘ICE reminds us of the Ku Klux Klan,’ says CT-based president of Black Baptist denomination The National Baptist Convention USA is calling for a nationwide ban on facial coverings for law enforcement, including immigration officials.

“ICE reminds us of the Ku Klux Klan,” said Rev. Boise Kimber, the Connecticut-based president of the National Baptist Convention USA, about agents covering their face. NBCUSA is calling for a national ban on coverings for law enforcement, like California’s.

using my first RAW photo (something you can apparently choose in the settings now!) on my iPhone 18 to capture my pernil, as Dios intended

Absolutely do it!! I did start branching off with bucatini to gain some confidence lol

Somehow my first pot of arroz con gandules this year?? Maybe because I can order it at 50% of the restaurants I go to in CT

I’ve just been searing all pasta in its tomato-based sauce since I tried spaghetti all’assassina last year. 10/10, highly recommend

Per my Connecticut Public Radio colleague Cassandra Basler, ICE made multiple arrests in New Haven today ahead of a demonstration there denouncing the ICE killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis.

👀

Which finally brings us to tonight, when I resisted the siren call of eating out and threw together this dumpling ramen. One bite in, I could not have been happier with my decision

Christmas drinks this year included coquito of course but also the best hot chocolate of my life, made with brandied chocolate I brought back from the Dominican Republic (the biggest organic cocoa producer in the world). That trip is why I’m so late to updating this thread lol

I love to make everything for Thanksgiving, but my specialties are green bean casserole from fresh beans and homemade cream of mushroom soup because the store was out of both one year, chestnut cornbread stuffing, apple pie sangria and apple crumble (picked the apples myself!)

I’ll eat any variation of the “marry me” trend, but I keep coming back to the chickpeas. This recipe is vegetarian, not vegan, so it’s still very rich with the heavy cream — in other words, perfect as the temperature started dropping below freezing www.liveeatlearn.com/marry-me-chi...

This miso chocolate chip banana bread combines my love of SO many things in one dessert (and happens to be vegan!). I even smuggled it across state lines as my big romantic gesture of 2025 wanderingchickpea.com/2021/11/17/m...

New Haven officials offer more details into missing cash, after police chief abruptly retired Former police chief Karl Jacobson says he took $10,000 from an account meant to compensate police informants, according to city officials.

New Haven’s former police chief abruptly retired Monday amid theft allegations. Karl Jacobson admitted to taking $10,000 on his way out.

Hartford’s Christian Latinos say it feels like ‘real Christmas’ with Three Kings Day Parade Hundreds came together in historically Puerto Rican neighborhood of Frog Hollow for Día de los Reyes.

Today is Día de los Reyes, the culmination of Christmastime in places like Puerto Rico. Here in Hartford, that meant a visit from the Three Kings — and their camels.

Regreso a la isla: puertorriqueños que residen en Connecticut aprovechan la Navidad para reconectar con sus raíces En algunos distritos escolares de este estado, donde el 8% de la población es boricua, se reconoce el Día de Reyes y se concede como un festivo en los planteles

The very meta story of how my family and I — @ctpublic.bsky.social’s Puerto Rican Communities Reporter in collaboration with @elnuevodia.bsky.social — visited the island this Christmas season ❤️💚

Abuela’s coquito in CT: How one Boricua is connecting with the diaspora Kayla Lalles tried the traditional Puerto Rican holiday drink for the first time at 25 years old. Now, the Hartford native sells hundreds of bottles every Christmas season.

Who makes the coquito in your family? Or if you’re not Puerto Rican, the more accurate question nowadays is: Who are you buying from? @elnuevodia.bsky.social’s Itzel Rivera spoke to one Boricua here in Connecticut who’s making hundreds of bottles based on her abuela’s recipe.