This Week in New Haven (July 8 – 14)

G o with the flow in a river and a gallery, even as you challenge status quos and inflated opponents elsewhere. 

Monday, July 8
At 6:30 p.m. behind Mitchell Library (37 Harrison St, New Haven; 203-946-8117), the Beecher Park Summer Concert Series and Hi-Fi Pie Contest, where “you’re encouraged to bring a blanket and a picnic and enjoy a diversity of sound and performances with a beautiful West Rock backdrop”—and to eat and/or submit homemade pie—strikes up for another summer. The band tonight is Zikina, a trio that takes guitar, drums and self-constructed East African instruments and makes “something completely new and unique.” The pie category, meanwhile, is “stone fruit,” covering peaches, cherries, mangoes and so forth. Free to attend.

sponsored by

2019 Twilight Concert Series at the Pardee-Morris House

Tuesday, July 9
In Room 201 of William L. Harkness Hall (100 Wall St, New Haven), as part of the Yale Summer Lecture Series, Yuan Yuan, a graduate student in Philosophy, is discussing “The Right to Go to War”—whether anyone actually has it; why international consensus recognizes it for certain entities; and the conditions that might give rise to such a right among “non-state actors… as in revolutions and secessionist movements.” Free.

Wednesday, July 10
Launching from the spot where the Mill River crosses Orange Street (between Cold Spring Street and Farnham Drive), the city’s department of Parks, Recreation and Trees is leading two canoe trips, lasting about 45 minutes apiece, at 4 and 5 p.m. Registration—which is required and can be done by calling (203) 946-8020 or (203) 946-8027—costs $15 for city residents ($25 non-).

Thursday, July 11
Nodding to the Stony Creek Quarry, which (spoiler alert) supplied granite for the base of the Statue of Liberty, the Smithsonian and much more, the Legacy Theatre troupe presents Stars, Stripes and Quarries at the Stony Creek Museum (84 Thimble Island Rd, Branford). During 7 p.m. performances today, tomorrow and Saturday, the idea is to “celebrat[e] through stories and song the vast impact Stony Creek has had on the great American landscape!” $15.

Friday, July 12
Meigs Point Nature Center (1288 Boston Post Rd, Madison) is a natural satellite of RJ Julia Booksellers for compelling author events today and tomorrow. First, at 5:30 this evening, William McKeever discusses “magnificent creatures who play an integral part in maintaining the health of the world’s oceans and ultimately the planet,” a conclusion he draws in his new book, Emperors of the Deep: Sharks—The Ocean’s Most Mysterious, Most Misunderstood, and Most Important Guardians. Tomorrow afternoon at 4:30, Bren Smith, a “former commercial fisherman turned ocean farmer who pioneered the development of restorative 3D ocean farming,” discusses “how we can transform our food system while enjoying delicious, nutritious, locally grown food” among other topics in his new book, Eat Like a Fish. Free to attend.

Saturday, July 13
At 1 p.m., No Worries Brewing Co. (2520 State St, Hamden; 203-691-6662) hosts SumoSlam 2019—an apparently annual “intergender inflatable sumo wrestling tournament.” The sumo suits are provided, as is a free beer for all combatants in the single-elimination competition.

Sunday, July 14
At 2 p.m. in the Yale Bookstore (77 Broadway, New Haven; 203-777-8440), West Haven native, Yale graduate, employee at local literacy group LEAP and newly published children’s author Abdul-Razak Zachariah discusses his first book, The Night Is Yours. Illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo, the book follows young Amani as she “plays an evening game of hide-and-seek with friends at her apartment complex,” gaining help and encouragement from the moon. “Celebrat[ing] blackness and self-confidence,” the book, organizers say, is ultimately about “joy and family love and community, and most of all about feeling great in your own skin.” Free to attend.

From 5 to 7 p.m., City Gallery (994 State St, New Haven; 203-782-2489) hosts the opening reception for Four Beats, a show featuring artists working four different beats: experimental photographer Phyllis Crowley, nature-inspired ceramic artist Sheila Kaczmarek, abstract painter Kathy Kane and photographer Tom Peterson, who’s “recently explored photographing… minimalistic images to create short journeys into inner spaces of peace and tranquility,” including the image at the top of this article.

Written by Dan Mims. Image, titled Beach 1, photographed by Tom Peterson. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

Leave a Reply