Jackie Downing of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven discusses the Great Give 2026! The Great Give, now in its 17th year, raises over $4.4 million annually for more than 500 local nonprofits. The fundraiser also offers over $200K in matching funds.

The Great Give takes place Wednesday, May 6th and Thursday May 7th.

Advance gifts can be made for The Great Give beginning at 8:00 a.m. on Friday, May 1.

Donation pages will remain open until 8:00 a.m. on Monday, May 11.

The Great Give
Donate to WPKN on the Great Give

WPKN radio host Joseph Celli interviews guitarist/composer Julian Lage as he discusses his early training, guitarists that influenced him and that he admires as well as several of his Blue Note releases. Lage, a child prodigy, presents several cuts of his music including the solo Day & Age, his quartet recording with Bill Frisell and a cut from his newest release Scenes From Above.

“Mr. Lage sounded almost miraculous …. A guitarist of extravagant technique, he made each solo feel like an onrushing discovery, reeling off lines and phrases while neatly sidestepping cliché. And for all the self-possession in his playing, it felt tempered by an introspective humility, ….” Nate Chinen (NY Times, 4/18/12)

For the first edition of “Rockers Arena” of the new year, the Night Nurse, Amy Wachtel, invited her long-time friend, Jamaican percussionist Larry McDonald to sit in with her and shoot the breeze.

They spent much of the time reviewing Larry’s long and illustrious career, including time with Taj Mahal and his almost 30 years with Gil Scot-Heron.

The loquacious octogenarian is currently a member of the Legendary/Legacy JA ska band, the Skatalites, touring regularly world-wide. Larry Mac, as he is affectionately called, is also a part of the NYC Ska Orchestra, Dave Hillyard & the Rocksteady Seven, Sub-Atomic Sound System, and an on-going project he co-leads with sax player Anant Pradhan.

Rockers Arena with the Night Nurse can be heard first and third Fridays, 12noon-3pm on WPKN.

WPKN is a media partner for Parranda y Salsa at the Downtown Cabaret Theatre in Bridgeport on Thursday, December 18th, running from 5 to 10 pm. Now in its third year, this holiday celebration brings the Parranda traditions of the Caribbean together with live salsa music for a night of dancing, community, and culture. The Downtown Cabaret Theatre is located at 263 Golden Hill Street in Bridgeport, Connecticut. This event is sponsored by: City of Bridgeport, Greater Bridgeport Latino Network (GBLN), Puerto Rican Day Parade of Fairfield County, Bridgeport Caribe Youth League (BCYL), and WPKN.

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/parranda-y-salsa-at-the-downtown-cabaret-bridgeport-ct-tickets-1976784458529

Joseph Celli WPKN's host of My Other Music (MOM) and SoundPrintAsia interviews composer/guitarist Nels Cline (WILCO) about his inspiration to devote his life to ‘sound’ with his wide range of music making groups ranging from progressive rock to free improvisation. Nels talks about the differences between recording and live performance and his love of improvisation and live audiences. During the course of the interview we hear three cuts of his music and discuss his various bands.

Atelier Cue is a collaborative design and fabrication studio specializing in place-making, community engagement, and the creation of architectural works of art. Partners Ioana Barac and Marissa Dionne Mead founded the Atelier as a stage for connecting the art of design and the craft of making. Essential to our method is a process of experimentation, prototyping, and fabrication which ensures a sense of both high-design and hand-craft in their work.

Each of their installations is influenced by the unique community, site, and architectural background in which it will come to life. Similarly, the design team is a creative collaboration led by Atelier Cue between client, community, and Cue's network of fabricators curated specifically for each project.

The Cue: from curlicue, a prevalent graphic in the visual and decorative arts which can be both precise and unpredictable.

Cathode ray televisions, LED monitors, digital scanners, laptops, desktop tower computers, digital photo frames, cell phone and smartphones: these are among many of the pieces of technology that Paul modifies and deploy in my practice as a new media artist. Most of these devices are used once they’ve become so ubiquitous in public life, that they are either offered up with deep discounts, passed along for free, or found curbside. These objects typically go through some form of physical intervention and manipulation, by way of the application of paint or adhering of a clamp in the minimal side, to stripping a device down to its bare bones electrical components, all the while allowing the devices to still be fully functional.

For the past three decades, Paul has worked on electronic, time-based media that avoid technology-heavy processes like coding and digital editing, and rely on basic computer / electronic components to exist in a minimal capacity.

I make work out of unconventional materials such as tarpaper, string, vinyl, foam and pom poms often combining them with paint. My work combines the handmade with industrial, and organic with geometric.. I explore how memories can be suggested, using form, color and pattern that incorporate nature, landscape, science, culture and more.

My work has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally and nationally and can be found in corporate and public collections including Log-Me-In Headquarters in Boston, MA and Sloan Kettering Hospital in NYC.