| Born again and again
Downtown Providence still seems to be struggling to realize the renaissance it pledged a few years ago. Caught between promise and decay, the small city 50 miles to the south of Boston has new restaurants, hip bars, and fancy condos sharing blocks with vacant buildings punctuated by cardboard-covered windows. Eagerly watching the city's transition is poet Forrest Gander, 49, director of the literary arts program at Brown University and a Rhode Islander for almost 20 years. Gander leads me through the area that Vincent "Buddy" Cianci Jr., onetime mayor and now prison inmate, called "downcity." As we pass the historic Biltmore Hotel, Gander recalls the last time he saw Cianci before he went to jail: "He was down at the bar, all alone, eating dinner. It was the epitome of loneliness."
Gander takes me by the legendary music club Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (79 Washington Street, 401-272-5876). Nearby is the Cuban Revolution (149 Washington Street, 401-331-8829), an ethnic eatery with a 1960s counterculture feel that Gander frequents before taking in shows at one of the area's coolest performance spaces, Trinity Repertory Company (201 Washington Street, 401-351-4242). We cut over to Westminster Street, the main drag of downcity, where grand department store buildings of the early 1900s are occupied by newer tenants like Urban Kitchen Cafe (217 Westminster Street, 401-273-8885), whose huge windows, when lit up, remind Gander of the Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks. He points to three businesses responsible in part for the city's new vibrancy: Symposium Books (240 Westminster Street, 401-273-7900) - "for serious readers," he says - carries scholarly works and an extensive selection on art and literature. "That it's doing well down here seems like a good testament to a part of Providence that not many people know about." Next door is Tazza (250 Westminster Street, 401-421-3300), a bar-cafe whose creative energy has made it a worthy location for many of the poetry readings that Gander organizes. Providence Black Repertory Company (276 Westminster Street, 401-351-0353), a few doors down, is a draw not only because of its culturally diverse productions and affordable ticket prices but because of the swank live music lounge Xxodus in the front of the building. Gander reflects on the city's renaissance, saying it is "still happening," then adds, "It's got its heart in the right place." Patrick Gerard HealyBack |
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