The owners of Nolo Pizza in New Haven let artists of all types take over their 4,500-square-foot space in a December 16 fundraising event that will ultimately serve people experiencing homelessness.
It was a black-tie affair benefiting Newhallville Fresh Starts, which provides meals to homeless and domestic violence shelters. The ticketed event, titled “Re-Imagine,” was described as “an interactive (and contemporary) art exhibit pairing system-surviving (and thriving) artists with system-surviving artists (rappers with painters, poets with photographers, etc.”).
It also garnered major free coverage in the New Haven Independent, which published a lengthy article on the event and interviewed various participating artists.
“This is about reimagining a world where everyone has enough to thrive instead of just survive,” Marcus Harvin, president and CEO of Newhallville Fresh Starts said, addressing the splendidly attired crowd that piled into the restaurant for wood-fired pizza, appetizers and specialty drinks.
Harvin employed Nolo Pizza as a stage—and a new launchpad—for artists and creatives from disadvantaged communities. “When you walk in your path, some stumbling blocks get thrown that way,” he said in a promotional interview on The Jose Candelario Show. “We’re clearing stumbling blocks out of the way so people can actualize their destinies.”
Two hulking Stefano Ferrara ovens loom over the 4,500-square-foot space that is Nolo Pizza, firing up pies with dough boasting organic, non-GMO flours. Daniel Parillo and Derek Bacon opened the restaurant in late 2018 as a reimagined variation of their earlier pizzeria, Da Legna.
Parillo learned to love wood-fired cooking from his nonna, as he told the Independent in September 2016. “My grandmother would use the wood-fire stove, and I would hang around with her,” he said. “There’s something about an open fire. When you see a flame, it’s very comforting.”
He also believes the difference between the flavors of wood-fired cuisine and food cooked on a gas or electric stove is “like night and day.”
