This Week in New Haven (November 13 – 19)

’Tis the season—or at least it feels like ’tis, with annual favorites invoking a spirit of giving and the weather finally nipping. 

Monday, November 13
Comedian Michael Ian Black is a headliner in his own right, but tonight at College Street Music Hall (238 College St, New Haven; 877-987-6487) he’s moderating for another top comic: Denis Leary. The famously pissed-off satirist’s new book, Why We Don’t Suck: And How All of Us Need to Stop Being Such Partisan Little Bitches—a new follow-up to 2009’s Why We Suck: A Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupidgets a live treatment starting at 8 p.m., with each $35 ticket conferring a general admission seat and a copy of the book.

sponsored by

G Cafe Bakery

Tuesday, November 14
At 5 p.m. in Kroon Hall’s Burke Auditorium (195 Prospect St, 3rd Fl, New Haven), various Yale student organizations present “The Bills are Too Damn High!,” a moderated panel discussion featuring professionals from Elevate Energy, Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, PosiGen and United Illuminating. With an eye toward factors that lead poorer households to pay higher energy bills, organizers say “panelists will review existing barriers, discuss their economic and social impacts and offer insights on how [to] craft an inclusive path forward,” with “an extended Q&A” to follow plus “snacks and refreshments.” Free.

Wednesday, November 15
Mental and artistic boundaries will be pushed tonight during an extraordinary “evening of experimental sacred music and new media” at Lyric Hall (827 Whalley Ave, New Haven; 203-389-8885), where the digital-age audiovisual duo Ariadne “explores the intersection of mysticism, dream analysis and the failure of digital systems”—or in more experiential terms, marries images and sounds from slow and dazzling to restive and glitchy to downright hellish. Teasing the possibility of “other surprises—8mm film projections? tattoo demos? choreographed dance numbers?”—organizers also highlight opening sets by area sound artists Krem ôn’ Wo͝ol (Meriden), Hedonist (Shelton) and Human Flourishing (New Haven). 7 p.m. $10.

Thursday, November 16
Unofficially marking the beginning of New Haven’s holiday season is Trinity Church on the Green’s 25th annual Holiday Bazaar sale and fundraiser, when church members create or donate thousands of gifts and other items—from homemade cookies and pies to winter knits and jewelry to books and handmade ornaments (like the one pictured above) to home decor and kitchen items—to be sold at reasonable and often more-than-reasonable prices. There’s also a many-splendored silent auction featuring bigger-ticket items you might get for a steal, including goods and services offered by local “restaurants, spas [and] wine stores,” among others. Located in the church’s finished basement at the northwest corner of Chapel and Temple Streets, the bazaar is open from noon to 8 p.m. today, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday.

sponsored by

The Chosen at Long Wharf Theatre

Friday, November 17
At 8 p.m. today, 8 p.m. tomorrow and 3 p.m. Sunday, Backyard Theater Ensemble, a troupe that’s just flown south from Thomaston, is putting on its first production in Whitneyville Cultural Commons (1253 Whitney Ave, Hamden). Performing “a staged reading” of Kasey Kurtti’s Catholic School Girls, “a cast of four women will portray four young girls, and the nuns that teach them, in this satirical memory play set at St. George’s School in Yonkers, NY.” $15, or $12 for students and seniors.

Saturday, November 18
Doors to the 2017 season finale and 134th football matchup between Yale (8-1) and Harvard (5-4)—a.k.a. “The Game”—open at 12:30 p.m. at the Yale Bowl (81 Central Ave, New Haven; 203-432-1400). Tickets cost between $15 and $125, with 5% of proceeds going to the Connecticut Food Bank—or 10% if you buy online and use the promo code “FOODBANK10.”

Held at The Ballroom at The Outer Space (295 Treadwell St, Hamden), the Best Video Film and Cultural Center’s second anniversary gala happens from 7 to 10 p.m. Featuring live local music from “bluegrass group Five in the Chamber, klezmer big band Nu Haven Kapelye, indie rock chamber group Olive Tiger and the string quartet rock band The Tet Offensive,” tickets cost $25, with donations at the $100 level and beyond encouraged.

Sunday, November 19
“Choose a beautiful handcrafted mug or bowl, fill it with hearty soup donated by local restaurants and support the New Haven Community Soup Kitchen.” So it goes during the 21st annual Bowl-A-Thon at Creative Arts Workshop (80 Audubon St, New Haven; 203-562-4927), where CAW’s studio, faculty and student potters contribute the “soup-sized bowls and mugs” and the rest of us contribute a suggested donation of $20 to the NHCSK before chowing down. 1 to 5 p.m.

Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Image depicts a handmade ornament for sale during the 2015 Trinity Holiday Bazaar. 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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