To borrow from an esteemed guest appearing here Saturday: The rhythm this week is gonna get you.
Monday, April 22 – Earth Day
It’s also the start of Passover this year, with Orchard Street Shul hosting a community seder featuring four courses, four glasses of wine and handmade matzah at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, April 23
The next installment of Open Mic Surgery, a poetry reading series at Never Ending Books, starts at 7 p.m. and welcomes New Haven’s first poet laureate, Sharmont (Influence) Little.
Wednesday, April 24
Sadako Ohki, curator of the Yale University Art Gallery exhibit Year of the Dragon, leads “a close examination” of “two works… made centuries apart” starting at 12:30 p.m. at the Yale University Art Gallery. The talk, in part, “explores how artists engage with the dragon’s celebrated role”—in the East—“as the god of water as well as how this theme takes on a sorrowful quality with regard to today’s environmental crisis.”
At 7, Best Video in Hamden hosts pianist T.J. Thompson and five musician friends for a show of “jazz, New Orleans R&B, and Thompson’s original tunes.”
At 7:30 at the New Haven Lawn Club, it’s the final performance of the season for the Kallos Chamber Music Series, with an impressive quintet of musicians performing “hidden gem masterpieces” from the turn of the 20th century—“a period of boundless creativity and ingenuity.”
Thursday, April 25
In conjunction with its exhibition LOOK BOOK (“a visual celebration of Women’s History Month exploring how we express ourselves through fashion and adornment”), the Institute Library hosts An Evening of Fashion & Fascism—a 6 p.m. discussion of “the kind of hidden history where we think we know what we’re looking at, but the true story is more weird and complex than we can guess at.” The three panelists are authors Debby Applegate, Becky Conekin and Gioia Diliberto, who “collectively know more about brazen women in the 20th century than most of us can imagine.”
Also at 6, the New Haven Museum hosts “Birdman of the Senate: Senator George P. McLean and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act,” a virtual lecture about the “landmark environmental protection legislation” that “ushered in the watchdog role of the federal government over the environment”—and the man who helped usher in the law. The speaker is McLean’s great-great-nephew and biographer, Will McLean Greeley.
Starting at 7:30, SCSU’s Lyman Center hosts A Festival of One-Act Plays produced and performed by members of the college’s theater department and the student-run Crescent Players.
Friday, April 26
A summer-style carnival promising “rides, games, food wagons and more” comes to the rear lot of Milford’s Connecticut Post Mall from 5 to 11 p.m.—and stays, with extended weekend hours, until Sunday, May 5.
Saturday, April 27
This year’s Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride, a bike ride fundraiser for local environmental organizations, offers ride routes from one to 66 miles long—all starting and finishing in East Rock’s College Woods section and some incorporating West Rock—with staggered start times as early as 7 a.m. A Green Fair from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. near the finish line serves as a kind of post-ride celebration, offering “food trucks, live music…
Ahead of the annual Daffodil Festival next weekend, Hubbard Park in Meriden hosts “Connecticut’s largest tag sale” from 9 to 2. “Refreshments will be available for purchase. Amusement rides will be open (weather-dependent).”
Meanwhile, from 10 to 3, Hamden holds a belated Earth Day Celebration promising “educational and interactive… themed events, exhibitors and plenty of fun!” in Town Center Park.
Presented by Strange Ways, a Flair Fair from noon to 5 in Pitkin Plaza convenes “independent artists making pins, patches, buttons, stickers, and more unique and affordable items. Come shop and support underground culture in New Haven, and the general Northeast.”
A Hidden Relics Fair picks up at 5 at Armada Brewing. “Discover treasures, indulge in delectable food, savor craft beers
At 7, “legendary singer, songwriter, and cultural icon” Gloria Estefan comes to the Lyman Center, not to sing but to speak. “Hear firsthand from the seven-time Grammy Award winner about her life, career, and cultural impact. Estefan rose to international fame as the lead vocalist of the Miami Sound Machine, with hits like ‘Conga,’ ‘Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,’ and ‘Anything for You.’ The moderated discussion will offer insights into her remarkable journey from Cuban immigrant to international superstar.”
Sunday, April 28
At 4, a “classic roots rock, Americana, rhythm & blues bar band” with an interesting local history returns to the stage where they started, at Cafe Nine. “The Crown Street Orchestra started taking pickup gigs way back in the days when original owner Mike Reichbart ran Cafe Nine. All the guys played (and drank) there regularly in several different bands and sometimes he’d hastily put together a group of them to go fill late cancellations for other bars and clubs. In those days, the lineup changed almost every night and the band got to play the hell out of whatever the hell they felt like playin’ with all those other great local Blues/Roots/R&B musicians. They’re all set to do it again with an all-star line-up of musicians who’ve been playing together at Cafe Nine and all around the greater New Haven area and parts well beyond for decades.”
Later, at 8, aughts indie rock royalty Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, a.k.a. Alec Ounsworth, comes to Hamden’s Space Ballroom. Opening the show are Similar Kind, an indie pop band based in Norwalk.
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
