M usic, dancing and games are some of the diversions mankind’s pursued for thousands of years, and which New Haven pursues with more or less modernity this week.
Monday, July 18
Filling the green slope behind Mitchell Branch Library with things that waft—in this case, live music, food truck cuisine and homemade pie—the free annual Beecher Park Summer Concert Series and Hi-Fi Pie Contest begins a five-Monday cascade tonight at 6 o’clock. The band this time is klezmer act Nu Haven Kepelye; the food truck is The Farm Belly; and the category for the pie contest—whose submissions attendees can buy, eat and vote for—is “cream/freestyle.” 37 Harrison Street, New Haven.
Tuesday, July 19
Another annual outdoor concert series kicks off this week, and this one’s got a bar selling beer and wine. Neighborhood Music School’s first Twilight Tuesdays concert, staged in the Park of the Arts behind the school (100 Audubon St, New Haven; 203-624-5189), opens its doors at 6:30 tonight with the music starting an hour later. The featured act for this one is pan-Latin band Goza, specializing in heritage styles like “cha-cha, samba, flamenco and tango,” with dancing among the crowd very encouraged. In addition to the cash bar, food trucks will be selling chow, though you’re also welcome to bring your own food and drink. $10-30.
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Wednesday, July 20
Today from 4 to 6 p.m., Yale’s William L. Harkness Hall hosts a duo of specialists for a talk with a title that may require taking a deep breath: “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Fakes and Forgeries) & Understanding the Role of the FBI Art Crime Team in the Context of Global Cultural Heritage Preservation.” Vernon Rapley, former cop and current security director for the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, will “describe how fakes and forgeries corrupt our understanding of history and destabilize the art market.” Jake Archer, an agent on the FBI’s Art Crime Team, will explain “the role and capabilities of the Art Crime Team” when it comes to enforcing the law and preserving recovered objects. Free. 100 Wall Street, New Haven.
Thursday, July 21
The Kitchen at CitySeed’s Get Fermented! workshop series has touched on how to make kimchi, sauerkraut, yogurt, kefir and kombucha. Today’s installment focuses on making dilly beans, plus fermenting “other delicious veggies from the summer harvest.” Welcome to bring their own vegetables if they like, attendees led by instructor Ann Mione will both learn and do, leaving the session with jars of preserved goodies to take home. Tickets cost $45, with a discount available for lower-income New Haveners. 817 Grand Avenue, New Haven. (203) 773-3736.
Friday, July 22
From 10 a.m. to noon, Leadership, Education & Athletics in Partnership (LEAP) is hosting its annual Read-In on the New Haven Green, wherein volunteers—among them “city librarians, community leaders, employees of local corporations… LEAP staff and board members” and, possibly, you—promote reading by doing so for groups of kids. To throw your hat into the ring, contact Ronetta Holmes at (203) 773-0770 or [email protected].
Advancing its season-long “Seven Deadly Sins” theme, Yale Summer Cabaret (217 Park St, New Haven; 203-432-1567) explores a new immorality—wrath—with the North American premiere of Adam Geist by German playwright Dea Loher. “Orphaned by his mother’s death, betrayed by his family and cast aside by society, Adam is a young man who desperately wants to be good, but finds himself constantly at war with the world”—and increasingly angry as a result. Involving “adult language, nudity, graphic violence and violence of a sexual nature,” the show’s not for everyone—specifically, children. Tickets cost $30, or $25 for Yale faculty/staff and $15 for college students.
Saturday, July 23
From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Whitneyville Cultural Commons (1253 Whitney Ave, Hamden) hosts the second annual Compassionfest, an all-ages, “all-welcoming” gathering built around the values of “[justice], kindness, equity and compassion.” Catering to cruelty-free and eco-friendly impulses, its impressively humongous roll call includes nine speakers, nine vegan food vendors, 12 nonprofit booths, seven “healing/workshop” vendors, eight demonstrations, five bands and 39 goods and arts vendors. Free to attend.
Music on the Green returns with the first of two free 7:30 concerts on the New Haven Green. Tonight’s performer, En Vogue (pictured above), is still in vogue with fans of the 1990s, when the group frequently dominated the pop and R&B charts. Like so many legacy acts, its 2016 lineup is a mix of originals and substitutes, with two of the group’s initial members, Terry Ellis and Cindy Herron, joined by longtime off-and-on addition Rhona Bennett.
Sunday, July 24
12 days before the 2016 Summer Olympics, the New Haven Museum’s Pardee-Morris House (325 Lighthouse Point Rd, New Haven) is hosting the Colonial Olympics, a day of “good, clean, colonial fun” in which “13 teams named for the original American colonies will compete in a friendly tournament of colonial-era games.” Contests, held from 2 to 4 p.m. with spectators welcome, include the “Game of Graces,” involving hoop-throwing and -catching; a “Colonial Fun Course;” and a “Hoop-Rolling Relay.” Prospective teams of two to four players can register here, at least until all spots are filled.
Written by Dan Mims. Photo provided courtesy of En Vogue.
