No organization embodies Providence’s moniker, “The Creative Capital”, more than AS220. Founded in 1985, this organization supports artists by providing housing, studio, exhibit, and performance space in downtown Providence. AS220 began in one room above the Providence Performing Arts Center at 220 Weybosset Street, when Umberto Crenca and friends decided Providence needed a space dedicated to supporting artists and artistic expression. “AS” stands for artists space or alternative space and 220 honors the room at PPAC where it all began.

Today, AS220 houses four rotating gallery spaces, a performance stage, a black box theater, a print shop, a darkroom and media arts lab, a fabrication and electronics lab, a dance studio, a youth program, 47 affordable live/work studios for artists, a bar and restaurant, and is a destination for over 51,000 people each year.

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Canonicus was the Narragansett sachem who offered refuge to Roger Williams and his party in 1636, but before this place was named that in a fit of Colonial Revival fervor, it was popularly called Hoyle Square. In 1953, Rhody Photo News said the district was “our 20^th century version of the Streets of Bagdad,” where you could find “a derelict headed for a mission soup kitchen brushing up against a well-to-do housewife on a bargain hunt.” Cranston and Westminster were both busy highways in the early 18^th century, providing access to western towns and Connecticut. Rochambeau marched his armies down Cranston Street in June 1781 to meet Washington and defeat Cornwallis at Yorktown. Back then, those soldiers marched past the Hoyle Tavern, where the Citizens Bank stands now. The tavern, built in 1739, became a focal point for gatherings and entertainment as the city grew. The tavern was demolished in the late 19^th century and the bank constructed in 1921. Redevelopment projects of the 1960s have drastically altered the life of the square. The north side of Westminster suggests the busy commercial area that once thrived here. 

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Since 1999, MacFarlane has capitalized on Rhode Island’s quirks in his adult, animated sitcom Family Guy. Always irreverent, and often raunchy, the show is not for everyone.With more than 225 episodes and three primetime Emmys under its belt. Family Guy airs on the Fox Network to approximately seven million weekly viewers—six million of whom might have to watch when mom’s not in the room.  Filled with inside jokes, Family Guy is set in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. The show follows the weird escapades of the Griffin family including Peter, the classic dimwitted TV father; Lois, the long-suffering mother; two moody teenagers, Meg and Chris; Stewie, an evil-genius baby; and Brian, a walking, talking, car-driving dog who is the sanest, classiest one in the family.  Part lampoon, part celebration, McFarlane captures all that Rhode Islanders hold dear, and he showcases hometown favorites on the small screen. The Big Blue Bug, Del’s Lemonade, Wes’ Rib House, Brown University’s Van Wickle Gates, the Breakers mansion in Newport, and the Pawtucket Red Sox’s McCoy Stadium are all real Rhode Island highlights appearing in Family Guy.  Many recurring locations in the series have their real-life equivalent in Rhode Island like the series’ favorite bar, “The Drunken Clam” in Johnston; “Happy Go Lucky Toys,” an unmistakable nod to Hasbro; and Buddy Cianci Junior High School, a tribute to a long-time Providence mayor who spent some time behind bars.

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The film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby,directed by Jack Clayton, starred Robert Redford as the newly wealthy businessman Jay Gatsby trying to win the affection of his former love Daisy Buchanan, played by Mia Farrow. Set against the rich social landscape of the Roaring Twenties, the film explores the decadence of the American dream and the nature of wealth and class division. The actors, draped in pastel seersucker, fine speckled cashmere, and silk ties and scarves in every color, played their roles against the backdrop of the gleaming white terracotta Rosecliff, standing in as Gatsby’s grand Long Island estate.  Rosecliff played its role perfectly. Theresa Fair Oelrich, a silver heiress from Nevada, commissioned the mansion in 1909, as a place for summer entertaining on a grand scale. Stanford White, the principal architect, modeled the estate after the Grand Trianon retreat of Versailles, with a classical arcade of arched windows and paired columns. The mansion offers unexpected views of the surrounding area through an en filade special arrangement; the doors dividing rooms are aligned on a single axis with those of connecting rooms, providing vistas from one end of the house to the other. The house includes a grand ballroom and a swooping limestone “sweetheart staircase” that greets guests when they enter. The back lawn, ideal for a leisurely roam, overlooks the Newport Cliff Walk and the Atlantic Ocean. In 1902, at the time of its completion, Rosecliff cost $2.5 million, the equivalent of about $65.5 million today. During the residency of the Oelrichs, servants kept Rosecliff in notoriously clean condition, with Theresa Oelrich conducting an inspection of the house every morning and instructing her domestic staff to change the beds daily regardless of whether or not guests had used them. Mrs. Oelrich was known to engage in the maintenance herself, taking a mop and a pail to any marble floor that fell short of her standards. “When I die, bury me with a cake of sapolio [soap] in one hand and a scrubbing-brush in the other; they are my symbols,” Mrs. Oelrich once said. The last private resident of Rosecliff, J. Edgar Monroe, became known for lavish parties, often with a Mardi Gras theme and involving fancy costumes. In contrast to the formal dinners thrown by the Oelrichs, the Monroes’ parties were notable for being relaxed and easygoing, with an air of conviviality uncommon in the social scene of the time, but perhaps more recognizable to Jay Gatsby. 

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Si tuviéramos que buscar a una candidata que represente a los Dominicanos de Rhode Island, tendría que ser Josefina Rosario. “Doña Fefa” es querida, respetada y honrada como “La Madre de la Comunidad Dominicana.” 

Los Dominicanos son ahora el grupo Latino más grande en Rhode Island. Pero, en el 1955 cuando llegó Doña Fefa a este estado,ella estaba convencida que ella fue la primera dominicana. Después de su llegada, muchos siguieron su camino.

 Rosario abrió una tienda pequeña conocida como Fefa’s Market en el 1959, cerca de la entrada hacia el parque de Roger Williams. Vendía las comidas que ella alguna vez extraño de casa, incluyendo plátanos, yuca, café y cilantro; también ordenaba periódicos Dominicanos, y daba consejos a los recién llegados para conseguir empleo, una licencia de conducir, y como registrar a sus hijos en la escuela. Ella era como un comité de una sola mujer y su bodega se convirtió en un centro de comunidad que proveía comodidad y consejos para empezar en un mundo nuevo y extraño. 

Fefa y su esposo Tony, de la herencia puertorriqueña, frequentemente apoyaban a los inmigrantes dominicanos y les daban un hogar en su casa de siete dormitorios en la 145 de la calle Chester, en la esquina de la calle Broad, hasta que ellos conseguían su propio apartamento. Sus hijas, quienes hablaban el inglés con fluidez, servían de traductoras cuando los recién llegados necesitaban ayuda con los detalles infinitos de la vida en Rhode Island.

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If we had to find one person who represents Dominicans in Rhode Island, it would have to be Josefina Rosario. “Doña Fefa” is loved, respected and celebrated as the "Mother of the Dominican Community."

Dominicans are now the largest group of Latinos in Rhode Island. But in 1955, when Doña Fefa arrived in the state, she was convinced she was the first. Others soon followed.

Rosario opened a little store known as Fefa's Market in 1959, near the entrance to Roger Williams Park. She sold the foods she missed from home, including plátanos, yuca, coffee and cilantro, stocked Dominican newspapers, and gave the newcomers advice on finding a job, getting a driving license, and registering their children for school. She was a one-woman welcoming committee, and her store became a community center providing familiar comforts and advice in a new and strange world.

She and her Puerto Rican husband, Tony, often sponsored Dominican immigrants and housed them in their seven-room house at 145 Chester Street, on the corner of Broad Street, until they could find an apartment. Their daughters, fluent in English, served as translators when the newcomers needed help with myriad details of life in Rhode Island.

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Walking down Resevoir Avenue today, the sweet fragrance of Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits mixes with the aroma of traffic. Strolling through Reservoir Triangle and the surrounding neighborhoods, the scent of Cambodian and Spanish food wafts out of kitchen windows. Buckets filled with garden soil, sprouting chili peppers, lemongrass, cucumbers, and squash serve as makeshift gardens of fresh produce.

Every community has its own food culture, history, and traditions – its own foodways. Over the past half-century, the foodways in the neighborhoods surrounding Mashapaug Pond have changed dramatically, reflecting the community’s shifting demographics and the influx of new ethnic groups. Nonetheless, foodways continue to be an important part of life in these close-knit neighborhoods.

In the 1950s, the Hide-Away Diner occupied the site where Popeye’s now stands near the southeast corner of the pond. Built from an old Pullman railroad car, the twenty-four hour diner was a popular local haunt. As the noontime sun sparkled off of Mashapaug Pond, workers at the Gorham Manufacturing Company slipped out to spend their lunch breaks at the diner. Sounds of sizzling hamburgers, clanging pinball machines and chatting workers filled the cozy restaurant. Nearby, children beamed over mountains of ice cream swirling with flavored syrups, seltzer, strawberries, and bananas – the signature “Bumper” dish of the The Hut, a popular ice cream parlor.

But on the opposite side of the pond, in the neighborhood of West Elmwood – now the Huntington Expressway Industrial Park – paved streets gave way to dirt roads. Backyards bustled with chickens, cows, goats and ducks. Neighbors walked door-to-door selling surplus garden vegetables. Vendors sold fish and crabs out of trucks. Kids collected turtles and crawfish from bubbling brooks, picked huckleberries and wild strawberries to make rich jams and jellies, and pilfered ripe peaches, apples, and plums from neighborhood trees. Chewing on sassafras roots dug from the shores of Mashapaug Pond, the taste of root beer filled their mouths.

Demolition crews have long since torn down Reservoir Triangle’s diners and ice cream shops. The fruit trees and lush gardens of West Elmwood have been flattened to make way for the industrial park. Today, area residents have different shopping and dining haunts.

At Sunny’s Market on the pond’s southeast shore, for example, residents and visitors can find food products from countries around the world, reflecting the neighborhood’s growing immigrant population. Delicacies favored in neighborhood homes range from Cambodian style fish poached in coconut milk to Arepa, a Dominican cornmeal cake served as a dessert.

“Walking down the street, I can smell Asian food, Cambodian food, Spanish food…I love the smell of food,” said Sokeo Ros, a Cambodian resident of the Reservoir Triangle neighborhood. Ros appreciates the rich diversity of foodways shared by his neighbors today.

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