W hat revelry and science begin, the arts (and food, sport and more revelry) finish this week in New Haven.
Monday, May 29 – Memorial Day
Happy holiday. Going out to a party? Keep your rain gear handy, since forecasts say there’s a good chance of extended rain.
Tuesday, May 30
At 7 and 8 p.m., Yale’s Leitner Observatory (355 Prospect St, New Haven; 203-432-3000) screens the planetarium show Incoming. Narrated by George Takei of Star Trek fame and illustrated via CGI, the half-hour film illuminates “asteroids, comets and the hard-hitting stories of our cosmic origins.” Free.
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Wednesday, May 31
As local guitar maestro Tim Palmieri strums and sings a dizzying array of “thoughtful originals, classic covers and unexpected rarities” in the front room, the free 9:30 show at BAR (254 Crown St, New Haven) happens in back. The headliner is Ruby the RabbitFoot, whose electropop involves “unusual percussion, shimmering synth licks and ethereal orchestration.” The middle act is the local-heavy Jose Oyola & The Astronauts, whose oddity-filled repertoire is most quickly explained as “experimental indie rock.” The opener is Ashley Hamel, an “emotionally honest” singer-songwriter from Hartford.
Thursday, June 1
Offering an unbelievable range of compelling topics across features, shorts and workshops that are almost always free to attend, the 11-day New Haven Documentary Film Festival kicks off tonight at 7 with I Am Shakespeare: The Henry Green Story. Directed by Stephen Dest and starring a young local man with an extraordinary life story he’s barely survived to tell, the venue is the Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St, New Haven), where Dest and Green are participating in a post-screening Q&A. Check out the full festival schedule here.
Friday, June 2
Compared to Yale Cabaret, its school-year persona, Summer Cabaret (217 Park St, New Haven; 203-432-1566) spends more days on fewer productions, which leaves time for a unifying theme. This summer’s is “Canon Balle,” which “revives and interrogates the theatrical ‘canon’ through performances of radically adapted classics.” The first of the season, opening tonight at 8, is Antony and Cleopatra, which examines traditional masculinity through an all-male cast and the “playful and anarchic lens of drag.” $30, or $25 for Yale faculty/staff and $15 for students.
Saturday, June 3
The New Haven Food Truck Festival happens from noon to 7 p.m. along Long Wharf’s waterfront, with 16 vendors serving pizza, Latin food, barbecue, seafood, baked goods and more, plus a couple of beer tents. Of the non-food-and-drink activities, the “main event” is the New Haven Wheelie Battle, “a competition to see who can ride the longest wheelie on their bicycles”—which promises each of the top three finishers a $500 prize—at 2 p.m. Happening nearby, centered around the Long Wharf Pier, is the concurrent Canal Dock/New Haven Dragon Boat Regatta. Scheduled to last from about 3:30 to 7:30 p.m., teams of about 20 people are set to race each other in long canoe-like boats, with a DJ to keep the crowd entertained between bouts. Free.
Over in Fair Haven, the International Festival of Arts & Ideas presents a neighborhoody Pop-Up Festival from 2 to 6:30 p.m. Happening at the Christopher Columbus Family Academy (255 Blatchley Ave, New Haven), organizers promise “rich multicultural cuisine, music, dance and activities” including yoga, zumba and programming from organizations like the New Haven Museum.
Sunday, June 4
The Pardee-Morris House (325 Lighthouse Rd, New Haven), now owned and maintained by the New Haven Museum, was constructed around 1750 and rebuilt after the pyromaniacal redcoat raid of 1779. Today from noon to 4, it’s celebrating the start of the summer season with colonial era-inspired games, tours, crafts and “an opening ceremony with a flag-raising and performance by Lancraft Fife & Drum Corps,” plus “a reading of the names of the patriots who fell during the 1779 invasion.” Free.
Inspired by “a shared trip to India,” A Passage to India, featuring Stephanie Joyce’s and Susan Newbold’s “rubbings, collages, drawings and paintings, some done individually and others collaboratively” (an example of which is pictured above), gets an opening reception at City Gallery (994 State St, New Haven; 203-782-2489) from 3 to 5 p.m.
Written by Dan Mims. Image provided courtesy of City Gallery. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
