Long before skateboarders and curators repurposed an unassuming brick building at the foot of New Haven’s Criscuolo Park, 26 Mill Street was home to a swimsuit manufacturer, then telemarketers, then a studio for Unidad Latina en Acción’s life-sized puppets shaped from paper and paint. New Haven’s annual Día de los Muertos celebration begins and ends here each fall, but its lifecycle lingers beyond each parade through collective artmaking sessions.

A more recent activation of the space—gone digital during COVID-19—features ambitiously scaled works by Connecticut artists and former residents returned. Installations in the MILL ST. exhibition fill floors in the spirit of industrial space turned art house (think MASS MoCA and DIA Beacon). The theme is monumentality, and dialogues between art, building, and locale intermittently surface. Towering in one gallery, Howard el-Yasin’s Grey Matter (2020) is a fluffy shrine to labor through laundry—his monolith is assembled with lint collected from regional laundromats. Personal histories are embedded in a softspun tornado that emits buttons, receipts, plastic nails, and loose change from its standstill whirl.

Through another Instagram slideshow, see patterns stenciled on the floor in cornmeal—in person, they refract light just enough to halt an unwise step. Megan Craig’s site-specific dusting begs to be swept up in other conversations, instead, the work tastefully references a staple ingredient from the neighborhood’s Meso-American kitchens. 

A few blocks away, and now clicks away, Grand Avenue boasts its own impressive food culture. Cositas Deliciosas feeds its patrons central Mexican cuisine. Business and life partners Miguel Xicohtencatl and Cecilia Serrano transformed a former grocery store into this counter-service eatery. A rainbow glows behind your screen: green apple, banana, pineapple, cantaloupe, mango, papaya, strawberry, and watermelon are the base elements in aquas frescas (fruit waters), batidos (milkshakes), and smoothies. Mango ice is drizzled with savory Chamoy and spicy Valentina sauce, sprinkled with sour Tajín, and speared with fruit—a dynamic dessert that makes your heart race with memories of sun and salt.

A small window behind their rear counter is the portal where cooked-to-order meals are delivered for takeout, like a triptych of picaditas served Veracruz-style with avocado, onion, red and green salsas, and queso fresco. They share the warmth of breakfast pancakes, crisp surfaces with a mashed potato softness at the core. Toothsome lengua (tongue), fiery red tinga de pollo (pulled chicken), and al pastor (spit-grilled pork) grace each fried disc, while brilliant heat and citrus sear the richness from your palette. 

Enjoy this meal while you tour from home the works in MILL ST., their scale condensed into uniform squares on a screen. And chew on the ways monuments are being reckoned with in this time of reclaiming and reimagining homage.

7/10/2020