This Week in New Haven (March 4 - 10)

Chances for education and amusement, sometimes both, fall as steadily as the snow at week’s beginning and the feet at week’s end.

Monday, March 4
As a preamble to its annual marquee event in April, the Environmental Film Festival at Yale is showing the movie Beaver Believers (2018), which tells “the urgent yet whimsical story of an unlikely cadre of activists—a biologist, a hydrologist, a botanist, an ecologist, a psychologist, and a hairdresser—who share a common goal: restoring the North American Beaver, that most industrious, ingenious, furry little bucktoothed engineer, to the watersheds of the American West.” The free screening starts at 7 p.m. in Kroon Hall (195 Prospect St, New Haven).

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Tuesday, March 5
The New Haven Free Public Library’s annual Mardi Gras party and fundraiser returns to Mitchell Branch Library (37 Harrison St, New Haven; 203-946-8117), where “an evening full of delicious food and drink, live music and entertainment and a Mardi Gras parade” will unfold between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. Guests dressed in cocktail attire, many wearing masks and other Mardi Gras accoutrements, are set to experience “tastings from some of the area’s most popular restaurants” and “signature cocktails from local bars and mixologists”; “a silent auction featuring exclusive and one-of-a-kind experiences”; a decked-out photo booth courtesy of Lotta Studio; and a dance floor pumped up by the Funky Dawgz Brass Band. Tickets cost $80, with discounts for groups of four.

Wednesday, March 6
“What Are Intellectuals For?” asks a panel moderated by Anastasia Berg, editor of The Point, a publication that says it aims to foster “dialogue between diverse intellectual traditions, personalities and points of view” in order to help create “a society where the examined life is not an abstract ideal but an everyday practice.” Starting at 4:30 p.m. in room 208 of the Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St, New Haven), panelists include writer Natasha Lennard, professor Jesse McCarthy and historian Ben Wurgaft.

Later in the Whitney Humanities Center, a screening of the film 120 Years (2018) hits close to home. Named for the length of the sentence meted out to its wrongfully convicted main subject, the documentary highlights the literal and figurative trials of New Havener Scott Lewis, who was framed for a double homicide by a legendarily corrupt local police officer and spent the next 20 years working to prove it. “… a glimpse into the lives of the individuals our criminal justice system leaves behind—and the extraordinary fight it takes to reverse their fates,” 120 Years screens at 6 p.m. and is followed by a panel that includes Lewis and his co-defendant, Stefon Morant.

Single and ready to mingle? At 7 p.m., Elm City Speed Dating is putting on an event, capped at 40 people, at East Rock Brewing (285 Nicoll St, New Haven; 475-234-6176), where “beer on tap” and “Whole G pretzels provided by the host.” As for structure, organizers say “the night will consist of a series of brief dates that each begin with a prompt”—such as speaking only in rhyme or divulging a recent dream for the other person to interpret—followed by “schmooze time for you to continue conversations with whomever you’d like.” RSVP required. Free to attend.

Thursday, March 7
Yale Cabaret’s latest three-day, five-show whirlwind of dinner theater is dubbed AVITAL, after the first name of a prominent accused academic who doesn’t fit the assumed #MeToo mold. To quote the play’s producers, “On August 13, 2018, the front page of the New York Times made a splash: ‘What Happens to #MeToo When a Feminist Is the Accused?’ This question doesn’t even begin to cover the strange entanglement between Nimrod Reitman, a gay graduate student, and Avital Ronell, his queer dissertation advisor and academia’s reigning queen of deconstructionist theory. Part lecture, part dazzling spectacle, AVITAL dives headfirst into problematic questions about abuse of power, queer desire and grad school.” Tickets to tonight’s 8 p.m. performance (or tomorrow and Saturday’s 8 and 11 p.m. shows) cost $25, or $15 for Yale faculty/staff and $12 for students.

Friday, March 8
The opening reception for Complicit: Erasure of the Body, Nasty Women Connecticut’s latest group exhibition, happens from 6 to 8 p.m. at Yale Divinity School (409 Prospect St, New Haven), whose “entire first floor,” as well as Marquand Chapel and an outdoor courtyard, feature artworks tasked with “express how acts of complicity remove one’s voice, erase the body and sense of self from the emotional, the spiritual and the physical.” Free.

Also starting at 6, MakeHaven (770 Chapel St, New Haven) is holding a free and public Retro Video Game Social Night, using emulators—you can learn more about them during the event, if you like—to host console classics including Super Mario Kart, Street Fighter and Bomberman. Snacks are promised, but otherwise it’s BYOB.

Saturday, March 9
Junk Fed’s Pop Culture Bazaar—curated by Junk Fed, a seller of vintage toys, collectibles, DVDs and art who will be present along with 10 other vendors—runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The State House (310 State St, New Haven). “The first in a series of afternoon markets,” other items for sale include vintage records, clothing and “oddities.” $5 admission.

Sunday, March 10
In New Haven, the Sunday before St. Patrick’s Day can only mean one thing: the annual Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Stepping off at 1:30 p.m., paraders march, dance and cruise down Chapel Street from Sherman Avenue, eventually turning left on Church and right on Grove before finishing up at Orange. Watchers can pick a spot anywhere along the route, though they’ll want to arrive early to get a coveted parade-side position in the heart of downtown. Free to attend, with plenty of opportunities to buy green and orange tchotchkes from sidewalk vendors.

Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.