I t’s the summer solstice, the year’s longest stretch of daylight. Two seconds longer than yesterday’s, today’s light is a second longer than tomorrow’s and 63 seconds longer than Sunday’s. But the more noticeable countdown this week belongs to the International Festival of Ideas, in whose light we get to bask for only two weeks out of the year, and which comes to a fiery close this Saturday.
Monday, June 20
Now hanging in the New Haven Free Public Library’s Ives Gallery (133 Elm St, New Haven; 203-946-8130) is local painter Abbie Rabinowitz’s series Ageless Beloved, featuring her nonagenarian parents and their caregiver circa 2015. Expressing “the experience of intimacy in old age, the acceptance of being cared for and the vulnerability in losing one’s independence,” the expressing gets a little more literal during a free artist talk today at 6 p.m.
Tuesday, June 21
Well-timed for the city’s lunch break, a “Gardens and Gargoyles” tour leaves from Yale’s Mead Visitor Center (149 Elm St, New Haven; 203-432-2300) at noon today. Held in conjunction with Arts & Ideas, organizers say the courtyards the tour traverses, not usually accessed by the public, “are some of the finest examples of Collegiate Gothic architecture in the country and are unique in their blending of different forms of decoration, ornamentation and design.” Free. Registration required.
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Wednesday, June 22
This week’s free 9:30 show at BAR features The So So Glos, a Brooklyn-based indie band with a DIY punk aesthetic and energy despite a few big notches on its belt; Big Ups, “a punk rock band from New York City” that got its start playing DIY shows; and Honduras, a veteran of the Brooklyn DIY-scene “inspired by late-’70s punk, but mixing in aspects of garage and indie”—and, more recently, “elements of krautrock and psych.” Think of it like a great DIY show in NYC, in New Haven. 254 Crown Street, New Haven.
Thursday, June 23
“I’m deciding who I want to dance with. I’m deciding what I want to do each day. It’s not a place I’ve been at in my career before this. It’s daunting and scary, and it’s so beautiful. I honestly feel like I’m bursting with something,” Wendy Whelan said in 2014 as she prepared to leave the New York City Ballet, where she’d spent 23 years as a principal dancer. The latest result of that leaving is Some of a Thousand Words, “an evening of intimate solos and duets” that takes “creative risks in unfamiliar territory.” A collaboration with contemporary choreographer/dancer Brian Brooks and globetrotting string quartet Brooklyn Rider, the performance, part of Arts & Ideas, gets its world premiere tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. in the Shubert Theater. 247 College Street, New Haven. $25-100.
Friday, June 24
At a time of great vibrance and color, alt-gallery No Pop (130 Park St, New Haven) is going black and white: with its new zine, PANTSDESTROYER, and with a party celebrating that new zine, “Black and White Mass.” Uncolored “attire, ceremonial makeup and costumes” are encouraged along the lines of “Björk, KISS, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Swedish death metal.” The party is also a reception for No Pop’s fourth group exhibition, Conversation IV, whose three contributors—Eben King, Gordon Romstar and Samantha Robinson—“offer a look into a possible (or impossible) future.”
Saturday, June 25
From 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., “Slide the City” restores summery vibes with “a record-breaking water slide”—as in, a really lengthy one—along the foot of Prospect Street downtown. It’s not inexpensive to slide—between $18 for a single run and $99 for an all-day unlimited pass, with extra swag thrown in at each new price tier—but you will get at least one souvenir image file out of it, as long as you save your wristband for the online photo dump a few days later.
The International Festival of Arts & Ideas ends today, and it goes out with a bang. Instead of the usual music-only headliner gracing the mainstage on the New Haven Green, tonight the festival gives us a free show by Cirque Mechanics (pictured above)—offering “a dazzling whirl of acrobats, cyclists and one-of-a-kind machines”—and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, which is providing a live soundtrack. 7 p.m.
Sunday, June 26
Thursday through today, the Saint Andrew the Apostle Society (515 Chapel St, New Haven) is hosting the “116th Annual Italian Festa,” where the food—“fried dough, pizza, subs, sandwiches, seafood, Italian ice and pastry and more!”—gets top billing. Ramping up at 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 4 p.m. yesterday and today, there’s also live music Saturday night, featuring old-school rock act The Wango Tango Band.
Written by Dan Mims. Photo, of Cirque Mechanics, provided courtesy of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
