The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
It’s birthday time for a literary oasis in New Haven
Twenty years ago this month, David Duda put into action his plan to operate a store selling used books and food in a longvacant space on Chapel Street in New Haven. Could this work?
The initial signs were not encouraging.
“During our first week, two kids emptied their pistols at each other within 100 feet of our front door,” Duda recalled.
“A TV news crew came by and a reporter asked me, ‘You’re a new business owner. What do you think of this?’ And I came up with one of my best lines ever: ‘We were going to have a grand opening but these guys supplied the fireworks, so we’ll just go with that!’”
However, Duda admitted he was then “questioning a little” what he had gotten into.
Nevertheless, he persevered, sensing the city was about to change for the better. He brought his newborn daughter to the store, set up a bouncy seat for her and got down to it, taking in and selling all manner of used books.
Duda remembered: “When I first stood behind the counter, I was thinking, ‘All right, this is where I’ll stay ‘til I die.’ I didn’t realize the stress of it might bring that about sooner than I’d planned!”
But he has survived, two decades down the road, and The Book Trader Cafe is a cultural touchstone near the corner of Chapel and York streets.
who sold The Grove a couple of months ago, was still involved there. The A Broken Umbrella Theatre Company asked the former owner about using it for a pop-up theater to present the play, “Freewheelers.”
“I stumbled across this space because I was in the building, “said Ballard, a native of Fayetteville, Ark., who lived in New Haven for year and now lives in Hamden. “So we started talking about it. Obviously, the building was not in good shape” so it couldn’t happen without some serious work being done.
Then the building changed hands and the idea was put on hold, but after the new owners got settled and Ballard established a relationship with them, “we started talking again,” said Ballard, who said he and Wells “are both longtime Ninth Square folks.”
This is Ballard’s first venture into arts and culture, but “I personally have a huge passion for the arts ... and what that does for the vibrancy” of a community. He said he was ready to move on from The Grove because “I had achieved my mission.
“I am a cultivator ... and it was time to do something else,” he said. “We’re just excited.”
While The State House’s role in Connecticut music is still unfolding, “What we wanted this to be was not just a set music venue but a multi-use event space,” said Wells.
“One of the appeals,” said Ballard, “is that there wasn’t anywhere else” doing what The State House is doing.
Acts so far have included Mokoomba from Zimbabwe, West African griot Cheick Hamala Diabate, 11-piece Puerto Rican salsa band Orchesta del Macabeo, Anbessa Orchestra, Ethers and Vapors of Morphine.
The State House generally is open Wednesday through Saturdays right now, “and sometimes Sundays if there’s shows,” said Wells, who grew up in Bridgeport, moved to New Haven in 1996 and ultimately moved to North Haven about two years ago.
Wells and Ballard are still doing work in areas of The State House that most audience members don’t see — setting up stockrooms and other out-ofthe-way space. This past week, a contractor came in to finally install some tap lines.
But with a great PA installed, complete with a 32-channel Midas digital soundboard capable of recording a live album, they’re all ready out front.
“The most important thing is, the doors are open, we’ve got drinks for you — and we’ve got working bathrooms,” said Wells.