This Week in New Haven (April 4 – 10)

D on’t space out, or you’ll miss some great chances to space out this week, from a big show at The Space to a visit with a spaceman. 

Monday, April 4
With the benefit of a couple extra decades’ worth of innovations and influences, female-fronted British band Wolf Alice is an outrageously pleasing revival of the 1990s American rock-scape. Dark and brooding, the track “Moaning Lisa Smile” is a patient but pounding ode to grunge and shoegaze. “Bros,” a song of soaring guitars and longing, is the aural equivalent of a Dawson’s Creek episode, minus the interminable introspection. “Your Loves Whore” choruses like a happier version of The Smashing Pumpkins. After just one LP, Wolf Alice is already pretty huge, with tens of millions of plays on Spotify and a handful of industry awards, so it’s amazing that you can see the band tonight in the relatively intimate, all-ages environs of The Space (295 Treadwell St, Hamden; 203-288-6400). Opening the 8:30 show is the comparatively raw and rebellious Slaves, which looks like it’s where Wolf Alice was a year or two ago: on the cusp of breaking out. $16.

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Mission of Faith at Knights of Columbus Museum
Tuesday, April 5
After decades of increasing wealth concentration and decreasing real wages and a post-crash recovery that’s been going almost entirely to the top 1%, knowing your rights when it comes to debt might make the difference in keeping a roof over your head. To that end, lawyer Stacie Zimmerman is discussing “5 Things Everyone Should Know about Debt” at 6:30 p.m. inside the Wilson Branch Library (303 Washington Ave, New Haven), covering topics like “tax debt, foreclosure, judgments and more.” To register for a seat, call (203) 903-4070.

Wednesday, April 6
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, whom you probably know as the second person to walk on the moon, lands at the First Congregational Church of Madison (26 Meetinghouse Ln, Madison) tonight for a 7 o’clock talk and book signing organized by R.J. Julia Booksellers. One thing Aldrin’s likely to discuss is his brand-new book No Dream Is Too High, which includes some of the “wisdom, guiding principles and irreverent anecdotes he’s gathered through his event-filled life.” Another is his youth-oriented book Welcome to Mars: Making a Home on the Red Planet, which “challenges curious kids to think about Mars as not just a faraway red planet but as a possible future home for Earthlings!” Call (203) 245-3959 to inquire about tickets, which cost either $25 (admission for one plus one signed book) or $30 (admission for two plus one signed book).

Thursday, April 7
If inner space is more your speed, the education and outreach group Yale Science Diplomats has got just the thing: part one of MADArt Creative’s Inner Reaches, a series of performance art pieces created to convey the history of quantum physics research. Staging today at 11 a.m. in Yale’s Watson Center (60 Sachem St, #A30, New Haven), this first work in the still-developing series is called “An Early Understanding,” expressing “discoveries in quantum theory before the year 1930… through original modern choreography and musical composition.” Free; register here.

Friday, April 8
Yesterday through tomorrow, Yale Cabaret boomerangs us back to outer space—metaphorically, anyway—as it puts on a new event called The Satellite Festival. “Exploring new territory at Yale Cabaret and beyond,” the festival, which involves 45 total performances of 10 different pieces, orbits around a cluster of three venues: the Afro-American Cultural Center (211 Park St, New Haven), “the annex” (205 Park St, New Haven) and, of course, the Cabaret (217 Park St, New Haven), which is offering pre-show dinner and drinks as usual. Tickets to the “main events” at 217 Park cost $20 (with discounts for faculty, staff and students), while festival wristbands—good for access to as many of the other shows as you can make—are just $5. Click here for the full schedule.

Saturday, April 9
The annual Rock to Rock bike ride fundraiser for local environmental groups is still weeks away, but the ride’s annual Day of Service is today, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Volunteers can sign up to do some good, feel-good work—like cleaning, weeding, mulching and sign-making—at one of eight locations—like Common Ground High School, the Farmington Canal Trail, Massaro Community Farm or the West River.

Over in Westville, the second-ever Second Saturday, a walk-around, open studios-style affair, features a bunch of free goings-on, from artist talks at Lotta Studio to an opening reception at DaSilva Gallery to live chalk art at the Strange Ways apparel shop. See the full schedule, which lasts from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., here.

From 3 to 6 p.m. on the other side of town, City Gallery (994 State St, New Haven; 203-782-2489) holds an opening reception for member artist Amy Arledge’s Surroundings, which officially opened on Thursday. “Interpreting bodies of water, atmospheres and our natural surroundings” through encaustic (wax) and oil paintings, the exhibit’s works range from cloudy oceanic landscapes (like the one pictured partially above) to zoomed-in watery reflections, with textures often genuinely 3D thanks to the wax.

Sunday, April 10
Each year for the past seven, the United Nations Global Colloquium of University Presidents has called together college administrators and faculty from around the world to address a topic of pressing importance. The eighth annual gathering, hosted by Yale and commencing in earnest next Tuesday, is themed around “Preservation of Cultural Heritage”—which organizers point out is “under threat like never before from global challenges including climate change, terrorism and mass tourism”—and is currently gearing up with a series of public events. The first, a talk by Yale alumna and “space archaeologist” Sarah Parcak—who innovated the use of satellite imagery to identify ancient archaeological sites—happened this past Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St, New Haven). The 12th happens today at 4:30 p.m., offering a tour of Connecticut Hall within Yale’s Old Campus. Old indeed, the hall dates to 1750, making it the most aged building Yale’s got. To join the tour, simply show up at Phelps Gate (344 College St, New Haven) at 2 p.m. [Ed. Note: a tour of the not-yet-reopened Yale Center for British Art, which we originally highlighted here, has been removed. Though we’d originally found it listed among a calendar of “Public Events” related to the colloquium, we’ve since been informed that the tour is private.]

Written by Dan Mims. Image provided courtesy of Amy Arledge. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.

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Dan has worked for a couple of major media companies, but he likes Daily Nutmeg best. As DN’s editor, he writes, photographs, edits and otherwise shepherds ideas into fully realized feature stories.

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