Browse Items (27 total)

“The world’s in flames a little bit,” Marcela Betancur acknowledged at the outset of our conversation.

Marcela is executive director of the Latino Policy Institute. Preliminary data suggest that 45% of Rhode Islanders who have tested positive for…

Jodie Vinson is program manager at What Cheer Writers Club, a nonprofit that connects and supports “Rhode Island’s makers of the written, spoken, and illustrated word.”

(Side note: it’s really challenging for me to say What Cheer Writers…

The coronavirus crisis has reinforced the crucial role of local news outlets, and Rhode Island’s press corps has responded with robust reporting.

Ian Donnis is a long-time local reporter who has dug into many meaty Rhode Island stories. Way back…

I had the good fortune of talking with self-described sentimental guy Adam Greenman, CEO of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, on his birthday.

The “how are you?” question is a struggle for everyone these days, and Adam coined a new…

Max Grinnell is a professor, speaker, artist, and former baker’s assistant, among other callings — all of which give him a unique perspective on what this moment might mean for cities. He goes by The Urbanologist on Twitter and Periscope.

“People…

Hi Neighbor! David Dadekian is Rhode Island’s food laureate (credit to Phil Eil for that title).

“There’s connectivity everywhere,” David points out. He talked with me about the value of silly conversations, kindness, and takeout.

(And he knows…

Toby Shepherd is executive director of the Nowell Leadership Academy, a public charter high school founded to serve pregnant and parenting young adults.

He talked with me, still early in the COVID-19 crisis, about how his staff and students were…

“Place really connects me to history,” said Brent Runyon. “It helps me understand historical timelines and events in ways that learning dates and names never did. I feel like it’s a really powerful tool for connecting us to our past, the good and the…

“In public policy there is this notion of the policy window, and things that are in the policy window are things that are in the realm of possibility,” Ross Cheit said. “And I think that what’s happened in the last few months is the policy window has…