Connecticut
CT artists and scholars win prestigious Guggenheim awards
Of the 188 people chosen to be Guggenheim Fellows in 2024, quite a few have ties to Connecticut. The awards have been given annually since 1925 and are considered among the most prestigious honors given to leading figures in arts, sciences and humanities.
Most of the Connecticut-related names on this year’s list are affiliated with Yale University. Yale is second only to Harvard in the number of faculty members that have received Guggenheim fellowships over the years.
The Yale-based 2024 fellows are: Elizabeth Hinton, a professor of History, African American Studies, and Law at both Yale University and Yale Law School; Douglas Rogers, professor and chair of the Yale Department of Anthropology; Marta Figlerowicz, associate professor of Comparative Literature and of English; Ned Blackhawk, professor of History and American Studies; Tavia Nyong’o, chair and professor of Theater & Performance Studies, as well as professor of American Studies and professor of African-American Studies; Travis Zadeh, professor of Religious Studies and the program in Medieval Studies who is also on the Council of Middle East Studies and the director of the Yale Program in Iranian Studies; and Ben Hagari, a lecturer at the Yale School of Art.
Other Connecticut Guggenheim fellows include:
- Playwright Martyna Majok, a 2012 graduate of the Yale School of Drama (now the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale). Majok’s play “Sanctuary City” is currently playing at TheaterWorks Hartford on Pearl Street through April 25.
- legendary jazz guitarist and composer Rodney Jones, a New Haven native and longtime Connecticut resident.
- Julia Wolfe, who co-founded the eminent neoclassical music ensemble Bang on a Can with two Yale School of Music graduates and who has been in Connecticut many times as a member of the group (including for performances at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas).
- Multi-faceted dancer and scholar Hari Krishnan, a Wesleyan University professor who has taught in the dance department as well as in Global South Asian Studies and Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies programs. Krishnan is currently developing a new dance piece that will premiere at Wesleyan in December.
Among the many other 2024 Guggenheim awardees are Pulitzer-winning poet (and former U.S. poet laureate) Tracy K. Smith, political journalist Jonathan Alter, photographer Sara Bennett (known for her studies of incarcerated women), social activist Jessica Blinkhorn, indigenous artist Nicholas Galanin and octogenarian multi-disciplinary Boston artist Lorraine O’Grady.
The prestigious awards awards include monetary stipends. The exact amounts given to the awardees these year have not been disclosed, but are said to average between $40,000 and $50,000. Over the 99 years it has existed the Guggenheim Foundation has bestowed over $400,000,000 on thousands of artists, scholars, historians, writers and scientists. Major 20th century figures who received Guggenheim fellowships include environmentalist Rachel Carson, Black literary icon James Baldwin, modern dance innovator Martha Graham, poet e.e. cummings and chemist/activist Linus Pauling.
Even as a born-and-raised New Yorker, I have a relatively open mind when it comes to pizza. When I’m out on the road, I’ll eat at any pizzeria as long as I can see the oven from the counter and buy pizza by the slice. However, the idea of any place outside the Big Apple proclaiming itself “the Pizza Capital of the United States” is just sacrilege. Connecticut doubled down on its ludicrous claim last weekend by approving the rollout of a special “Pizza State” license plate. This is the worst affront to the craft since Chicagoans started shilling their crust-bowl casserole as pizza.
Connecticut Foodshare
Let’s actually take a look at this license plate. One peek, we all know the rules. “The Pizza State” plate features a similar blue-to-white gradient as on the standard Connecticut license plate. The aforementioned self-proclaimed moniker replaces the state’s official nickname, “The Constitution State,” beneath the plate number. To the right of the number is an image of a pizza slice ripped straight from Microsoft’s ClipArt library. It’s a flat image that looks nothing like what’s served in New Haven. Connecticut drivers will be able to pick up a “Pizza State” plate for $65.
This is a pizza war for good
The only undisputedly good aspect of the “Pizza State” license plate is that its introduction will help feed Connecticut’s hungry. According to CT Insider, the $28.6 billion budget bill approved by the Connecticut General Assembly last weekend, which authorized the plate, also directly appropriated funding to Connecticut Foodshare. The sitewide food bank will also receive $50 from each $65 license plate fee, as it continues to provide millions of free meals to food-insecure people.
Back to the pizza debate at the heart of the matter. Governor Ned Lamont declared Connecticut the country’s pizza capital back in 2024 as part of a marketing campaign to promote the state. That declaration could have grounds for war in a different century, but individual states apparently don’t fight wars against each other anymore. Connecticut had better go back to being a UConn Husky-obsessed suburb before New York makes Greenwich the next Toledo.
Connecticut
Suspect in preppy booze-fueled Connecticut party stabbing death asks court to drop charges: ‘Double jeopardy’
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The attorney for a Connecticut man who was recently acquitted of first-degree murder charges stemming from a booze-fueled brawl between prep school students is making another move to ensure his client’s freedom.
Last July, a jury found Raul Valle, now 19, not guilty of murder and intentional manslaughter in the May 14, 2022 stabbing death of James “Jimmy” McGrath. Valle was 16 at the time of the incident, and McGrath was 17.
The jury was deadlocked on lesser charges of reckless manslaughter in that trial, leading to a partial mistrial.
Valle attended St. Joseph High School in Trumbull, near Fairfield Prep, where McGrath was a junior and star lacrosse player. Prior to the stabbing that evening, both had been at a house party that involved underage drinking and a fight.
DEADLOCKED JURORS IN PREP SCHOOL LACROSSE PLAYER’S KILLING A ‘GREAT SIGN’ FOR DEFENSE: EXPERT
Split image of Jimmy McGrath showing him in a collared shirt and tie and in his Fairfield College Preparatory School lacrosse uniform. (The McGrath Family)
After heading to another location to continue partying, tempers flared again and about 25 people engaged in another brawl on the front lawn of the second home, whose owners were present at the time, witnesses told police. It was during that fight that the stabbing death occurred.
Valle admitted to the stabbing, but said it was committed in self-defense and in defense of a friend.
The day after Valle’s July 9, 2025, acquittal on the most serious charges, the state filed new reckless manslaughter and reckless assault charges.
Raul Valle speaks during his second day of testimony at his murder trial in state Superior Court in Milford, Conn., on July 1, 2025. (Ned Gerard/Connecticut Post)
TEXAS JURY RETURNS VERDICT IN 2022 STABBING DEATH OF HIGH SCHOOL CLASSMATE: REPORT
Now, Valle’s attorney, Darnell Crosland, has filed a motion claiming that the reckless manslaughter and reckless assault charges constitute double jeopardy, which is unconstitutional, according to The Connecticut Post.
Crosland’s motion says the only explanation for the initial jury’s decision to acquit on the first-degree murder charge was that his client acted in self-defense.
“No other theory explains the acquittals,” he wrote in the motion.
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Defense attorney Kevin Smith delivers his closing arguments to the jury during Raul Valle’s murder trial in state Superior Court in Milford, Conn., on July 3, 2025. (Ned Gerard/Connecticut Post)
“The jury has spoken,” he continued. “The law is clear. The court must dismiss these charges with prejudice — immediately.”
The Connecticut Post reported that in an interview after Valle’s acquittal, the jury foreperson said self-defense was not discussed.
In their own filing, prosecutors disagreed with Crosland’s reasoning, according to the report.
ACCUSED AUSTIN METCALF KILLER WON’T FACE DEATH PENALTY OR LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE: DA
They described self-defense as a “justification defense,” not one that is central to the elements of the charges Valle still faces, and thus, cannot be used as an argument to have the current charges dismissed.
Kevin McGrath, father of slain prep school lacrosse player Jimmy McGrath, speaks to reporters outside the state Superior Court in Milford, Connecticut, following Raul Valle’s acquittal on July 9, 2025. He is accompanied by family attorney Michael Rosnick. (Fox News)
“The fact that the jury acquitted the defendant of murder, intentional manslaughter and intentional assaults, but could not reach a unanimous verdict as to the reckless charges, demonstrates only that the jury must have reached the conclusion that the defendant lacked the specific intent to either kill or to cause serious physical injury,” the filing reportedly said.
McGrath’s family was shocked by the results of the 2025 trial.
“I’m astonished at the results, but, you know, it’s due process,” a stoic Kevin McGrath said outside the state Superior Court in Milford, Connecticut, later describing his son as a “wonderful person.”
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“He’s entitled to it,” said McGrath. “And at the end of the day, the jury made their verdict. I’m not sure if, you know, they were in the same courtroom as we all were together, but that’s the verdict. And we’ll live with it.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Crosland for comment.
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