Monday, June 17
Getting a jump on this week’s Arts & Ideas events is the String Quartet Truck, a flatbed conveyance which transports live, performing classical musicians, the Haven String Quartet from Music Haven (pictured above), to various New Haven neighborhoods, today through Friday between noon and 2 p.m. You can follow the ensemble’s route here. There will also be Twitter and Facebook updates, with videos.

The monthly Fistful of Jokes comedy show convulses Cafe Nine at 7:30 p.m. $3. 250 State Street, New Haven. (203) 789-8281.

sponsored by

Tuesday, June 18
Yale’s Beinecke Library has a new exhibition, Permanent Markers: Aspects of the History of Printing, and the British scholar David Shaw will be there today to deliver the keynote lecture for that exhibition. His talk is titled “Revived, Kidnapped, Rescued and Rebuilt: Canterbury Cathedral Library in the Seventeenth Century.” 5:15 p.m. 121 Wall Street, New Haven. (203) 432-2977.

The Beinecke, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, is also the location for the Arts & Ideas theater event The Quiet Volume by Ant Hampton and Tim Etchells. Each one-hour performance is attended by just two audience members. It’s meant to conjure up the conflicted emotions of excitement and solace one feels when reading in a quiet library. Shows are Tuesday through Thursday between 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. and Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. $25; reservations required.

Wednesday, June 19
Arts & Ideas is offering a preview of a new chamber opera by Yale profs Martin Bresnick (composer), J.D. McClatchy (librettist) and David Chambers (director), based on a Chekhov short story. It’s called My Friend’s Story and has just two performances, tonight and Thursday at 8 p.m. in Yale’s Iseman Theater (1156 Chapel Street, New Haven). $35 & $45.

Further cerebral sounds emanate from BAR (254 Crown Street, New Haven) tonight. The band A Great Big Pile of Leaves has an EP called The Fiery Works and is working on a full-length album called Have You Seen My Prefrontal Cortex? The Kansas-based act Hospital Ships writes smart songs shaped by modern sounds and traditional folk. The indie folk band Hanging Hills, from Willimantic, opens the 9 p.m. show. Free.

Thursday, June 20
A definite Latin music vibe at Arts & Ideas today, with Goza Latin Jazz, Ginga Brasileira and Sambeleza all performing for free on New Haven Green at noon, 1:15 and 6 p.m. respectively. Goza and Sambeleza are part of the Noon to Night series, while Ginga Brasileira is on the Family Stage. Prepare to dance and sway all day.

An American performer who’s dabbled repeatedly with world rhythms is David Byrne. He had a big hit record last year with the multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/composer St. Vincent, which caused the duo’s tour to be extended. They play the Shubert (247 College Street, New Haven) tonight at 7:30 p.m. $58-$78.

Friday, June 21
Plumber/novelist Sarah Pemberton Strong can fix your pipes with a wrench or wrench your heart with her poetry. She is widely published in poetry journals and has published two novels, The Fainting Room and Burning the Sea, as well as a poetry collection, Tour of the Breath Gallery. Strong signs and discusses her work tonight from 5 to 8 p.m. tonight at The Outer Space (295 Treadwell Street, Hamden; 203-288-6400). Free.

Stuck Elevator is a new musical by Aaron Jafferis and Byron Au Yong about an Asian immigrant’s life in the U.S., loosely inspired by the real-life story of a take-out deliveryman who was trapped in an apartment building elevator for a weekend. The show was done by ACT in San Francisco earlier this year, and is now being brought to the Long Wharf Theatre mainstage courtesy of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. It’s performed June 20-29 at 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on Wednesday and Sunday, and both Saturdays.

Saturday, June 22
A lot of libraries now offer e-books, but borrowing them may require a few tricky clicks. The Mitchell branch of New Haven Free Public Library offers an “e-book downloading demo” today at 3 p.m. to help you stick books into your Kindle or Nook or iPad or whatever electronic device you stick books into. (203) 946-6514.

The Kronos Quartet has been around for 40 years. Based solely on the works they’ve commissioned and the extant compositions they’ve saved from obscurity, they’re one of the most important classical ensembles of the last century. But they can also play! And play anything, it seems. In a real coup for the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, the Kronos Quartet plays live tonight for free on the New Haven Green, with special guest pipa player Wu Man. They’ll be playing works by everyone from Bryce Dessner to Richard Wagner to Terry Riley to Liu Xue’an and others. 7 p.m.

Sunday, June 23
You probably know if you live in an old house. But how old? New Haven Museum is partnering with New Haven Preservation Trust and Historic New England for a workshop on “Reading Your Old House.” Joseph Cornish will alert you to tell-tale architectural signs that your domicile dates from a certain era, takes place at 1:30 p.m. in a verified, well-documented, honest-to-goodness historic house, the Pardee-Morris House (325 Lighthouse Rd., New Haven). For details, contact New Haven Museum at (203) 562-4183.

The 5 p.m. Arts & Ideas presentation of composer John Luther Adams’s nature-themed songbirdsongs is site-specific and flight-specific. The chirping, flitting bird-themed piece is played inside Yale’s Marsh Botanical Garden (227 Mansfield Street, New Haven) by Le Train Bleu, featuring flautist Ransom Wilson. 5 p.m. $45 with chair included, $35 to “stand & roam.”

Written by Christopher Arnott. Photographed by Kathleen Cei.

Monday, June 10
Los Straitjackets are a dynamic multi-guitar attack unit ornamented with Mexican wrestling masks. They have a new album out, Jet Set, and have welcomed back a former member, Danny Amis, who was sidelined with illness for a while. Some New Haveners will know Los Straitjackets as “the band on the beach” in the film spoof Psycho Beach Party, starring New Haven-born starlet Lauren Ambrose and released in 2000. Yes, Los Straitjackets aren’t just brilliant garage-rock instrumentalists; they’re also thuggishly photogenic. Connecticut’s own ultimate original rock & roll bar band, Big Fat Combo, opens the 8 p.m. show at Cafe Nine, 250 State Street, New Haven. $15. (203) 789-8281.

Tuesday, June 11
Make your midweek entertainment an open mic. Stella Blues (204 Crown Street, New Haven; 203-752-9764) offers an open mic music show every Tuesday, hosted by Mike Knobloch. Signup is at 8 p.m., and Stella Blues is a very comfortable place to just hang out and watch others play until it’s your turn.

sponsored by

Wednesday, June 12
Those mics are still open. Wednesday is Open Mic Night at Joker’s Wild, the comedy club at 232 Wooster Street, New Haven. The show, hosted by Daniel Kalwhite, now starts earlier, at 8 p.m. Doors open 6:30 p.m. for brave young comics to sign up for their five minutes in the spotlight, and the $5 cover charge is waived if you have a student ID. (203) 773-0733.

Thursday, June 13
In a couple of weeks, on June 26, New Haven Museum will host a presentation of “Crossing the BLVD,” Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan’s multi-media program about immigrants in the New York City borough of Queens. In preparation for that event, the museum is hosting a panel discussion on immigration here in New Haven as well as in Connecticut at large. Titled “Together or Torn: A Community Conversation on Immigration and Families,” the discussion features IRIS director Chris George; Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission director Mui Mui Hin-McCormick; Kica Matos, director of Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice at the Center for Community Change; and revered Yale/New Haven archivist/historian Judith Schiff. 7 p.m. 114 Whitney Avenue, New Haven. (203) 562-4183.

Dan Greene’s everywhere these days. The painter and musician was a featured act at “Arts On9” last weekend, he has his artwork on display at Cafe Nine all month and his main band The Mountain Movers is playing tonight at 8 p.m. in the Best Video Performance Space (1842 Whitney Avenue, Hamden; 203-287-9286). $5.

Friday, June 14
Two Finnish folk dance teachers, Jari Haavisto and Mari Solja of Helsinki, discuss and demonstrate their distinctive art form, replete with live music, in a special “History of Finnish Folk Dancing” presentation from 4 to 7 p.m. in room 203 of Yale’s Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven.

The International Festival of Arts & Ideas, which has its main kick-off event tomorrow on New Haven Green, gets off to an early start at 7 p.m. tonight at Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall Street, New Haven) with a screening of 4 Little Girls, Spike Lee’s 1997 documentary about the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama. The film’s producer Sam Pollard will be around for a Q&A session following the screening, while Lee himself will speak following an advance showing of his new Michael Jackson doc Bad 25 at the WHC at noon on Sunday, June 16. And that’s not all: a panel discussion has been convened for a 4:15 p.m. Saturday, June 15, screening of Lee’s post-Katrina doc If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise. Pollard will again do the Q&A honors when a documentary he directed, Slavery by Another Name, is shown Sunday at 5 p.m.

Saturday, June 15
The International Festival of Arts & Ideas begins in earnest today. The splashy first-night concert features Aaron Neville, preceded by Connecticut-based jazz saxophonist Jimmy Greene. It’s the first time Greene will have played live since the death of his daughter in the Newtown tragedy on December 14. Greene is also the recipient of a Governor’s Arts Award for 2013. He and the other honorees will be recognized in an awards ceremony at the start of the 6:30 p.m. concert, and will also speak at a festival symposium this afternoon at 1 p.m. in the Yale University Art Gallery (1111 Chapel Street, New Haven).

The three churches on New Haven Green—from left to right, Trinity, Center and United—are joining together for a divine cause today: giving out cookies! The free refreshments acknowledge the opening day of Arts & Ideas in the churches’ shared front yard (i.e. the New Haven Green), as well as celebrate the fact that all three of these church buildings were constructed around 200 years ago. There’ll be lots of folks on the Green for the festivities outlined above, but we assume it’ll be hard to miss ministers passing out cookies.

An Arts & Ideas-related event happening indoors is the annual Children’s Film Festival at the Yale Center for British Art (1080 Chapel Street, New Haven). An hourlong program of short, artistic, family-friendly films is screened twice, at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. The museum, which says the films are good for kids aged 3-10, also promises post-screening refreshments and live entertainment.

Sunday, June 16
Today also belongs to the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, whose jam-packed schedule we’ll be elaborating upon later this week in a full Daily Nutmeg article. There are numerous acts playing on New Haven Green: Little Ugly at 2:30 p.m., The Coombs Quintet at 3 p.m., Tusuykusun at 3:30 p.m., Sound Proof at 4:30 p.m. and Like Violet at 5:30 p.m. A Broken Umbrella theatre company’s new show Freewheelers, about the history of bicycling in New Haven, has two performances at 3 & 7 p.m. The two-man circus troupe The Red Trouser Show is live on the Green at 2, 4 & 6 p.m., and a grander, tent-bound (and ticketed; $35) circus event on the Green, L’homme Cirque, occurs at 1 & 5 p.m.

New Haven Green’s not the only multi-act venue today. Lyric Hall (827 Whalley Avenue, New Haven; 203-389-8885) has two performances of Cyril the Sorcerer’s climate-change-themed magic show Magitricity at noon and 5 p.m., as well as the Lyric Hall Theater Orchestra providing a live soundtrack to the Josef Von Sternberg silent drama The Docks of New York at 4 p.m. ($10).

Written by Christopher Arnott.

Sounds like this week in New Haven.

Monday, June 3
The sound of pinging metal isn’t uncommon at the corner of Edgewood Avenue and Ella Grasso Boulevard. There’s a big noisy playground there, and it’s also a busy corner for car traffic. But the metal mélange on this Monday afternoon is more melodic and mellifluous. It’s a free concert by the Pantastic Steel Orchestra and Pans in the ’Hood, featuring players from Neighborhood Music School. Picknicking is encouraged at the 6 p.m. show. So is dancing.

Tuesday, June 4
It’s a Board-swayed melody! The New Haven Board of Aldermen is sponsoring a “Broadway Night at the Shubert” benefit for Talent Haven, a new fund distributed through the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven that offers scholarships for arts programs at Music Haven, Coop High School and Neighborhood Music School. Local performers will entertain and fundraise at what is hoped will become an annual tradition. All tickets are $25. 7 p.m. 247 College Street, New Haven. (203) 562-5666.

sponsored by

Wednesday, June 5
New Haven Free Public Library offers another invaluable session of “Ask a Lawyer” from 5:30-7:30 p.m. An attorney offers general legal help, in short private meetings, for free. 133 Elm Street, New Haven. (203) 946-7001.

Save your receipts. New Haven Museum hosts a “Numismatic Stroll Through American History, 1700-2000,” exploring significant times in the city through day-to-day documents such as bank notes, stock certificates and financial statements. The event is free, which robs the museum of a chance to leave a stack of paper for future historians. 6 p.m. 114 Whitney Avenue, New Haven. (203) 562-4183.

Thursday, June 6
Artist and puppeteer Don Wunderlee, who ran a storefront gallery in Westville for 14 years, has shifted his Wunderlee Arts operation to a studio space in Erector Square. Don’s got a new series of paintings to show off, plus some older ones he’s proud of, and is holding his first solo exhibition in years. The reception for Don Wunderlee’s Looking Back Looking Forward exhibit is tonight from 5 to 7 p.m. at 360 State Street, New Haven.

The New Haven Oratorio Choir marks its 50th anniversary with a fundraising party 6 p.m. at the John Slade Ely House (51 Trumbull Street, New Haven; 203-248-4416). Dr. Caterwaul’s Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps will perform. Appetizers, wine and champagne will be served. A silent auction will be held. $40.

Friday, June 7
What’s On9 this month? Arts. The monthly first-Friday series of open houses and special events in New Haven’s Ninth Square will have a few distinctive gallery exhibits (including the first-ever “official” art show at Cafe Nine, 250 State Street, where famed local artist/musician Dan Greene’s work will be on the walls for a month) but also live music (Kristen Graves at green well Organic Tea & Coffee, 44 Crown Street, and jazz guitarist Joe Morris at Project Storefronts, 756 Chapel Street, to name two), an “art of sampling” smorgasbord at Elm City Market (777 Chapel Street) and a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Sweet Mary’s cupcake shop at 129 Court Street. On9 events generally happen between 6 and 8 p.m., but the area keeps hopping after that.

The Mountain Goats are a sensational, hyperemotional band from California propelled by the lyrical, intelligent and wistful songwriting of John Darnielle. One Mountain Goats album, The Life of the World to Come, had each one of its songs titled with a different scriptural verse (“Philippians 3:20-21,” “Deuteronomy 2:10,” etc.). So it’s fitting that Darnielle and his band are playing tonight at Center Church on the Green. 7 p.m. $20.

Saturday, June 8
Arts on the Edge, the annual “arts district” street festival organized by the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and its neighbors (a scene from last year’s is pictured above), takes over Audubon Street between Whitney and Orange from noon to 5 p.m. The block will be closed to cars so that people can draw on the sidewalks, dance, do crafts and just enjoy a lovely afternoon in June. (203) 772-2788.

While Arts on the Edge takes Audubon, Arts & Ideas holds forth in Fair Haven, holding the second of two “Pop-Up Festivals” the fest is offering prior to the main A&I events happening June 15-29. “Celebrate Our Fair Haven” happens June 8 from 2 to 8 p.m. outside Columbus Academy at 255 Blatchley Street, New Haven. Aaron Jafferis, the playwright whose new musical Stuck Elevator is a highlight of A&I’s 2013 schedule, is overseeing a presentation by poets and writers from The Forum Theatre, and there will be lots of other performances, info booths and attractions. Each of the Pop-Up fests is marked by a special “domed structure” designed by Yale School of Architecture students.

After those outdoor community celebrations, it just seems right to take in the Greater New Haven Community Chorus Spring Concert at 8 p.m. in New Haven’s Battell Chapel, at the corner of College and Elm Streets. The concert’s titled “Transformations,” and the Community Chorus will sing Mozart’s “Coronation Mass” as well as works by Bela Bartok, Zoltan Kodaly, Jonathan Santore, Randall Thompson and more. $20, $15 in advance. (203) 303-4642.

Sunday, June 9
City Gallery has an opening every month. An exhibit of paintings by Susan Newbold opened Thursday, with a reception today from 2 to 5 p.m. 994 State Street, New Haven.

Fifty years or so ago, the celebrated and prolific composer Hugo Kauder wrote a “fantastical opera” called Merlin, about a quest for peace, truth and enlightenment. The opera, created in collaboration with the German philosopher/poet Rudolf Pannwitz, has never been performed—until now. The Hugo Kauder Society has arranged a world-premiere production 5 p.m. today at Trinity Lutheran Church (292 Orange Street, New Haven; 203-444-4716). $15, $10 for students and seniors. Get there early to hear Music Director Adrian Slywotzky’s “pre-show talk,” which starts at 4:15 p.m.

The Queen Killing Kings began in New Haven as a keyboard/drums duo. The band’s disarming power pop had an immediate impact on the local music scene, and when they disappeared for a while at what seemed like the peak of their local success in 2008 or so, it turned out it wasn’t a break-up or hiatus; QKK had signed a record deal. That debut CD, Tidal Eyes, came out in 2009. A newer disk is apparently nigh, and Queen Killing Kings—now a four-piece band which continues to duck out of sight for months at a time—resurfaces tonight at the Spaceland Ballroom (295 Treadwell Street, Hamden. The 8 p.m. show costs $12, $10 in advance.

Written by Christopher Arnott.

Somewhere, a place for us.

Monday, May 27
Kindly observe Memorial Day. There are parades this morning in East Haven, West Haven and elsewhere.

Starting this afternoon at Cafe Nine (250 State Street, New Haven; 203-789-8981), there’s a seven-hour All-Star Rhythm & Blues Memorial Day Barbecue event from 4-11 p.m., which seems just the right mix of respectful (since blues music often reflects on mortality and grief) and celebratory (since to many people Memorial Day marks the onset of summer, and is the last public holiday before the end of the school year). Bands featured include The Strangers, The Langley Brothers, The George Baker Experience, The Convertibles and the Cafe Nine All Stars. $10 admission includes music and food.

sponsored by

Tuesday, May 28
You might have already suspected this, but “Mind Reading” is the topic at the latest Science in the News discussion at New Haven Free Public Library. Some of the Yale Science Diplomats (namely grad students Benjamin van Buren and Becky van den Honert, both from the Psychology department, and Emily Finn, who’s studying biomedical science) ask these brain-probing questions about telepathy: “Can we do it? Should we?” 6:25 p.m. 133 Elm Street, New Haven. (203) 946-8835. Also, for those who can’t see into the future, know this: the library is closed all day tomorrow, Wednesday May 29, for special training.

Wednesday, May 29
This week’s free show at BAR (254 Crown Street, New Haven), brought to you by Manic Productions, features the eclectic pop-history-driven band Decades (three guys from Lansing, Michigan, who give a punk edge to songs and sounds torn from old-school AM radio hits) and the Connecticut-based Americana band The Moving Company, one of whose members is in fact moving away (to Boston) shortly after this show. 9 p.m. Free.

Thursday, May 30
When the folks at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (170 Whitney Avenue, New Haven; 203-432-5050) plan a field trip, they literally go to a field! “Spring Grasses of New England” is the title for a stroll where you can discover “beautiful and important plants all around us.” The two-session course, co-sponsored by the New England Wild Flower Society, meets today from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and Saturday, June 1, from 9 to 11 a.m. $49.

The Yale Summer Cabaret opens its jam-packed classic-studded 2013 season tonight with Molière’s controversial 17th century comedy Tartuffe. This scathing social satire is about a con man who’s wormed his way into a wealthy man’s house, where he plans to take the gullible old coot for everything he’s got—including his wife. Performances are Wednesdays through Sundays at 8 p.m., through June 15. Tickets are $25-$40, with season subscription deals available. The Yale Summer Cabaret also serves food, and this summer there are special “Late Night Friday” events from 10:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. 217 Park Street, New Haven. (203) 432-1567.

sponsored by

Friday, May 31
Various tours of West Side Story have been coming to the Shubert in New Haven since the show first became a Broadway sensation in the early 1960s. This latest go-round is based on the recent 50th anniversary Broadway revival, which upped the Spanish-language content of the racially charged musical (based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet) and was the last production to be graced by the personal involvement of the show’s fabled librettist, Arthur Laurents. $15-$125. Performances are Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 & 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 & 6:30 p.m. 247 College Street, New Haven. (203) 562-5666.

Dave Douglas (pictured above) is an extraordinary jazz trumpeter and bandleader who runs his own acclaimed record label, Greenleaf Music. Douglas has been a part of numerous distinctive bands (one of which, Keystone, improvised impressionistic scores for century-old silent film comedies). He brings his new quintet to Firehouse 12 (45 Crown Street, New Haven; 203-785-0468) tonight for two sets, at 8:30 p.m. ($18) and 10 p.m. ($12).

Saturday, June 1
The all-ages rock club and youth hang-out The Space (295 Treadwell Street, Hamden) is holding its first Flea Market of 2013. Flea markets in the parking lot are a tradition that goes back to the club’s beginnings a decade ago. The plethora of vendors will be augmented with live music, barbeque specialties from HanBones and the fact that the Space’s own thrift shop, arcade and Outer Space craft-beer bar will be open. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. All ages.

Making Light in Terezin is a new documentary by local playwright/filmmaker Richard Krevolin. It’s about Laugh With Us, a cabaret revue written during the Holocaust by prisoners at the Theresienstadt concentration camp (where many artists and composers were sent), which was recently revived and performed by a small theater troupe in Minnesota. Subtitled “A Documentary on Art vs. Death,” Making Light in Terezin has its New England premiere at Lyric Hall (827 Whalley Avenue, New Haven; 203-389-8885) with four screenings this weekend: today at noon, 3 and 7 p.m., and tomorrow at 3 p.m. $12, $18 for the Saturday evening show.

Sunday, June 2
Another sign of summer! The Pardee-Morris House, a landmark building overseen by the New Haven Museum, opens its doors today from 12:30-4 p.m. for its summer season of tours, lectures and other events. The house, at 325 Lighthouse Road in New Haven, is (according to the museum) “one of the oldest surviving historic structures in Connecticut.” It was first built in 1750, then rebuilt after being destroyed during the British raid in 1779. This afternoon’s season-opening events include colonial-era games for kids, guided tours and photo displays. For information, contact the New Haven Museum at (203) 562-4183 or info@newhavenmuseum.org.

Written by Christopher Arnott.

The earth is speaking this week in New Haven. Dig it.

Monday, May 20
Brace yourself for traffic—on the streets and on the sidewalks. Thousands will swarm downtown for the 312th Yale Commencement ceremonies, including the traditional march of the graduates across New Haven Green. The main event is held on Old Campus at 10:30 a.m.

sponsored by

Tuesday, May 21
In conjunction with its ’Toonskin exhibit on “blackness” in animated films and comics, Artspace is sponsoring an Artist Talks event with graphic novelist Mat Johnson 5:30 p.m. at the Institute Library (847 Chapel Street, New Haven). Tomorrow (Wednesday, May 22) at noon, Johnson will appear as part of a panel discussion at Artspace itself, 50 Orange Street, New Haven. (203) 772-2709.

Long Wharf Theatre has the race-themed hit Clybourne Park on its mainstage and now welcomes A Couple of Blaguards to its Stage II space. This feast of stories co-written by the famous memoir-writing brothers Frank and Malachy McCourt has been kicking around for decades. It’ll be performed at Long Wharf by Jarlath Conroy (who played the Gravedigger in the recent production of Hamlet at Yale Repertory Theatre) and Howard Platt (pictured above). The show runs Tuesdays through Sundays from now until June 2. Tickets are $42. 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven. (203) 787-4282.

Wednesday, May 22
Energy efficiency is hot stuff in this globally warmed, ecologically aware era. The Connecticut-based non-profit Housing Development Fund is sponsoring a free Home Energy Workshop tonight from 6 to 7:15 p.m. in Building #3 of Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven (333 Sherman Avenue). Neighbor to Neighbor Energy Challenge will be leading the workshop. For more info, contact cozy@hdf-ct.org.

The unwieldily titled, big-hearted foodie event known as Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation New Haven is nigh. Patrons eat well for hours at “the nation’s premier culinary benefit dedicated to ending childhood hunger in America.” Regular tickets are $85, which allows you to hang out on the 19th floor of the Omni Hotel (155 Temple Street, New Haven) eating scrumptious food from 6 to 9 p.m. VIP admission ($150) gets you into the event an hour earlier (at 5 p.m.), with some extra perks including “An Evening of Song” from vocalist Tanya Leonard and guitarist Derek Monahan.

Artist Frank Bruckmann has a reception for his “Paintings of Maine and Connecticut” at New Haven Lawn Club (193 Whitney Avenue, New Haven) from 5 to 7 p.m. The Lawn Club’s a cool place to see art, and it doesn’t cost anything to visit.

sponsored by

Thursday, May 23
When the New Haven Museum and New Haven Preservation Trust co-sponsor a talk by the Historic New England organization’s Preservation Services team on “Historic Interiors: Evolution and Preservation,” you can expect some passionate preservationists in the room. They’ll likely have you thumping the walls in your house trying to figure out what it looked like originally. 5:30 p.m. May 23 at the museum, 114 Whitney Ave., New Haven. (203) 562-4183.

The Zambonis play rock songs about hockey. They’ve been entertaining puck-and-stick enthusiasts longer than any professional athletes in the sport ever could, and play their guitars and drums as fast as hockey players skate. Tonight, the Zambonis skate into the Best Video Performance Space at 8 p.m. At Best, bands are invited to choose a video to screen behind them as they play. We wonder what cool flick the Zambonis might select. $5. 1842 Whitney Avenue, Hamden. (203) 287-9286.

Friday, May 24
The Don’t Spread Lead campaign alerts New Haven families and homeowners to the dangers of poisoning and other health risks caused by all the lead that can be found in the paint of old houses, not to mention in a lot of city soil. This enormously important and helpful info can be found in workshops today from 8 a.m. to noon at Grand Paint & Floor Covering (451 Grand Avenue, New Haven) and tomorrow (Saturday, May 25) from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Harbor Freight Tools (84 Whalley Avenue, New Haven).

Rapper Talib Kweli grew up in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, but later attended Cheshire Academy in Connecticut. His two-decade career in music has included such strong album-length statements as The Beautiful Struggle and the brand new Prisoner of Consciousness. Talib Kweli returns to Toad’s Place tonight. Cory Mo, Jus & Company (with Sotorios of Political Animals) and The Shift are also on the bill. $25, $20 in advance. 300 York Street, New Haven. (203) 624-TOAD.

There’s always space for a few punk-pop trios. The Thermals hail from Portland, Oregon. Chalk Talk is out of Amherst, Massachusetts (with roots along the Mass./Connecticut border). Earthquake Party comes from Boston. All converge on The Space (295 Treadwell Street, Hamden; 203-288-6400) for a 7 p.m. show tonight.

Saturday, May 25
Life Changing Outreach Ministries is declaring “Victory Over Violence” with a Summer Kick-Off Rally today from noon to 4 p.m. at 1435 State Street, New Haven. “Holy hip-hop gospel artists from all over the East Coast” are expected. Food and clothes will be given away, and admission to the event is free.

University of New Haven’s Seton Gallery (in Dodds Hall, 300 Boston Post Road, West Haven; 203-931-6065) has hung works by local artists chronicling “the demise of local industry.” There’s an opening reception for the exhibition, titled “Local Industry: Reflections on Nearby,” tonight at 6 p.m. Some of the artists (view the full list here) are well known for their depictions of factories in disarray. Styles range from oil painting to photography to mixed media.

Joker’s Wild Comedy Club has a headliner who was born and raised in New Haven’s Newhallville section. Lue Avent—who has recently returned to comedy following several bouts of open-heart surgery—is concluding a two-night, three-show stand in the club tonight: Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 8 & 10:30 p.m. Greg Stone is also on the bill. 232 Wooster Street, New Haven. (203) 773-0733. $18.

Sunday, May 26
Every year, Orchestra New England—which knows something about memorials, thanks to their patriotic and traditional wintertime Colonial Concerts—holds an annual Memorial Day Concert at the Shubert (247 College Street, New Haven; 203-562-5666). The show is free; tickets can be picked up today at the box office, with a limit of four per person. The concert begins at 5 p.m.

Written by Christopher Arnott.

Monday, May 13
Two Bridgeport-based bands, the jazzy jam outfit Father Time and the eclectic Alpaca Gnomes, plug into Stella Blues (204 Crown Street, New Haven; 203-752-9764) tonight starting around 9:30 p.m.

Tuesday, May 14
There is some art which you might not want to have explained to you. Edwin Austin Abbey’s historical paintings are so rich and dramatic, however, that you crave insights and details spotted by others. Helen Cooper, the Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at Yale University Art Gallery, crosses Chapel Street (and an ocean) to the Yale Center for British Art, where she’ll discuss Abbey’s painting “Columbus in the New World” (pictured above) for the YCBA’s Art in Context series. 12:30 p.m., 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven. (203) 432-2800. Free.

sponsored by

Wednesday, May 15
Nick DiMaria, who spent his youth playing trumpet with the lively ska band The Flaming Tsunamis, has matured into leading his own jazz combo. The New Haven resident also writes his own music and teaches. The Nick DiMaria Quartet performs tonight at 8 p.m. at Best Video (1842 Whitney Avenue, Hamden; 203-287-9286). $5.

Thursday, May 16
A benefit at Common Ground High School (358 Springside Ave., New Haven) for the Working Lands Alliance is meant to draw attention to Connecticut’s dwindling amount of “productive farmland.” A featured attraction at the dinnertime event, 5:30-7:30 p.m., is the celebrated Big Green Pizza Truck. $25, $10 children.

Friday, May 17
Commencement concerts commence tonight at Yale with the Yale Symphony Orchestra playing Rossini’s William Tell Overture, Beethoven’s fifth symphony and Muggorsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” for its last show of the semester at 6 p.m. in Battell Chapel (corner of College and Elm streets, New Haven). It’s a free show, no tickets required.

Another commencement concert comes courtesy of the Yale Glee Club, at 8 p.m. Saturday at Sprague Memorial Hall (470 College Street, New Haven; 203-432-4136). Tickets to that one are $12 for the general public and $10 for students.

sponsored by

Saturday, May 18
The Citywide Youth Coalition is holding a Youth Summit from noon to 6 p.m. at Career High School (140 Legion Ave., New Haven). It’s a great time for such a gathering, with the city picking a new mayor and superintendent of schools this year, and talk of student representation on the Board of Education. The event isn’t just about issues affecting youth, however (slogan: “Life is What You[th] Make It!”). There’s free food, live entertainment, a talent show and other activities.

Two libraries—the New Haven public one and the one at Southern Connecticut State University—get together for a presentation using materials given to SCSU’s Buley Library through an American Library Association/National Endowment for the Humanities grant named “Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys.” A 2 p.m. presentation at the main NHFPL (133 Elm Street, New Haven) features a screening of the film Prince Among Slaves and a discussion with Imam Saiffuddin Hassaan.

The modern punk band New Found Glory found their greatest glory 10 years ago with their album Sticks and Stones. The band has mounted an anniversary tour and is performing the album, including hits “My Friends Over You” and “Head On Collision,” in its entirety tonight at Toad’s Place (300 York Street, New Haven; 203-624-TOAD). Cartel and Living With Lions are also playing. The show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $23 ($19 in advance).

Sunday, May 19
The Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven is an ideal venue for the Nu Haven Kapelye, “Southern New England’s largest group of Klezmer musicians.” The band fiddles and strums and stomps through Yiddish music from throughout Eastern Europe in a special free afternoon concert, which starts at 4 p.m. at the JCC (360 Amity Road, Woodbridge).

Written by Christopher Arnott.

Time to get schooled in culture this week in New Haven.

Monday, May 6
Yale School of Drama’s Carlotta Festival of New Plays takes full-length scripts by three graduating students in the school’s playwriting program and assigns them to directors, designers, crew and actors from other YSD programs. The results can be as impressive as anything else put on a Yale stage all year. This year’s shows are Sagittarius Ponderosa by MJ Kaugman (directed by Margot Bordelon), Lottie in the Late Afternoon by Amelia Roper (directed by Ethan Heard) and House Beast by Justin Taylor (directed by Jack Tamburri), which starts the festival off tonight at 8 p.m. Each play gets four performances at Yale’s Iseman Theater (1156 Chapel Street, New Haven) between tonight and May 14. $28; $15 students.

sponsored by

Tuesday, May 7
The winners of the Yale School of Music’s annual Chamber Music Competition reprise their award-winning performances tonight at 8 p.m. in Sprague Memorial Hall (470 College Street, New Haven; 203-432-4158). $10-$15; $5 students.

Wednesday, May 8
Clybourne Park is the most-produced new play of this theater season, taking common issues of urban renewal and gentrification (inspired by a minor character in the classic drama A Raisin in the Sun) and creating an outrageous, often hilarious and constantly thought-provoking argument about race, culture and property values. The Long Wharf Theatre’s new production of Bruce Norris’ Pulitzer-winning play, directed by Eric Ting, has its first preview performance tonight at 7 p.m. Opening night is next Wednesday, and the show runs through June 2 on the Long Wharf’s mainstage. 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven. (203) 787-4282.

Youth Lagoon is an intense hipster guy named Trevor Powers (pictured above), whose albums The Year of Hibernation and Wondrous Bughouse put the “psyche” into “psychedelia.” He brings his analytical mind-pop to The Space (295 Treadwell Street, Hamden) tonight for a space-between-the-ears sonic exploration. Majical Cloudz is also on the bill, which starts at 8 p.m. $15.

sponsored by

Thursday, May 9
Charles R. Knight, according to tonight’s Peabody Museum lecturer Richard Milner, is “The Artist Who Saw Through Time.” Milner has penned a new biography of Knight, whose murals of dinosaurs, primitive people and extinct species are displayed at New York’s American Museum of Natural History and elsewhere. Knight’s granddaughter Rhoda Knight Kalt will be in attendance at tonight’s free-of-charge talk, after which Milner will sign copies of his book. 5:30 p.m. at 170 Whitney Avenue, New Haven. (203) 432-3776.

The travails of two Norwalk, Connecticut fifth-graders in the education reform era of No Child Left Behind forms the basis of Ron Berler’s new book Raising the Curve: A Year Inside One of America’s 45,000 Failing Public Schools. Berler appears tonight at the New Haven Free Public Library (133 Elm Street, New Haven) as part of the library’s “Democracy Forum” discussion series. 6 p.m.

The beginnings of the State of Israel, from the early 1940s into the 1970s, are brought home through home movies and other rare footage in the documentary Israel: A Home Movie. The Jewish Community Center of Greater New Haven and Yale’s Joseph Slifka Center are co-sponsoring the screening, 7:30 p.m. at the Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall Street, New Haven; 203-387-2522), part of the JCC’s Israeli Film Festival. $10.

Friday, May 10
New Haven Museum and the New Haven Preservation Trust are co-sponsoring a walking tour of “Court Street: The Model City’s Model Project,” led by preservationist and historian Douglas Royalty. The walk begins at the Columbus statue in Wooster Square Park at 12 p.m. Pre-registration is required; email info@nhpt.org or call (203) 562-5919.

Clear across town, a whole other kind of walk, the 16th annual Westville Village Artwalk, begins tonight with festivities from 5-10 p.m. and struts for another six hours tomorrow (11 a.m. to 5 p.m.). There are multiple live music stages, dozens of art vendors, special exhibitions at galleries in the neighborhood and lots of activities for artists and non-artists alike.

If you prefer your artists to be European, deceased, and hanging in museums rather than Westville storefronts, there’s an international symposium at Yale this weekend held in conjunction with the current Yale Center for British Art exhibit, Edwardian Opulence. The keynote speaker is Angus Trumble, the YCBA’s senior curator of Paintings & Sculpture, speaking on “The Rhythm of Time in the Arts of Edwardian Britain.” The symposium as a whole is titled with the provocative question “The End of an Era? New Perspectives on Edwardian Art,” and takes up most of Saturday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event is free, but advance registration is required. 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven. (203) 432-2800.

Vanessa Hollingshead is the daughter of Michael Hollingshead, the hallucinogens specialist who personally gave Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Keith Richards and many others their first doses of LSD. Vanessa has her own mode of mind expansion: stand-up comedy. She starts a two-night, three-show stand at the Joker’s Wild comedy club tonight. Performances are tonight at 8 pm. and Saturday at 8 & 10:30 p.m. Sean Morton is also on the bill. $18. 232 Wooster Street, New Haven. (203) 773-0733.

Saturday, May 11
You have to reside or go to school in Connecticut to enter the Renee B. Fisher Competition for Young Pianists. There are divisions for elementary and middle schools, high schools, and those who perform new works. The winners perform tonight for free, 7:30 p.m. at Neighborhood Music School (100 Audubon Street, New Haven; 203-624-5189).

Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, that versatile pop/rock/rockabilly/R&B/soul/harmony band from Anaheim, California, have been together 25 years, and are celebrating by… doing what they’d be doing anyway: touring and recording. The new album is an all-acoustic affair titled What a Dream It’s Been. Sandy and the boys fly rite into Cafe Nine tonight for a 9 p.m. show, with opening act Girls, Guns and Glory. $15, $12 in advance. 250 State Street, New Haven. (203) 789-8281.

Sunday, May 12
Neighborhood Music School, which hosted the winners recital for the Renee B. Fisher Competition for Young Pianists yesterday (May 11) at its own 100 Audubon Street headquarters, shifts locations today to Yale’s Battell Chapel (400 College Street, New Haven) for its Greater New Haven Youth Ensembles Spring Concert. The four audition-based NMS ensembles—the Concert Band, the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the Concert Orchestra and the Youth Orchestra—perform at Battell starting at 2 p.m.

Written by Christopher Arnott.

—from “May-Day,” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1867

For some, May Day is a time of spring festivals, a tradition which dates back four or five centuries through various names and cultures. In many places, Queens of the May are crowned. Flowers are sniffed. Sunscreen is applied.

Other folks acknowledge today as International Workers’ Day, a much more recent observance that grew out of a widespread labor strike in 1886, which led to the eight-hour workday.

For still others, it’s been a more general time to gather in pursuit of peace, social justice and civil rights.

sponsored by

May Day resonates with issues of uniting people. In Europe, May 1 is the anniversary of the Act of Union, which joined the kingdoms of Scotland and England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707.

May Day on New Haven Green became one of the cultural touchstones of social unrest in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was emblematic of both the demonstrations and political actions which had consumed college campuses in the late 1960s and the emergence of groups such as the Black Panthers. The May Day protests of 1970 stemmed from a murder trial being held in New Haven concerning the death of Black Panther member Alex Rackley.

As related in Michael Sletcher’s book New Haven: From Puritanism to the Age of Terrorism:

Bobby Seale, one of the co-founders of the national Black Panther Party, arrived in New Haven for a speaking engagement at Yale University. The police, suspecting his involvement, had him and eight other party members charged with the murder of Rackley. Many young New Haveners, including Yale students, thought that Bobby Seale and other party members would not receive a fair trial in New Haven. Yale President Kingman Brewster Jr. expressed “skepticism” that black radicals could receive a fair trial anywhere in the United States, prompting U.S. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew to demand his ouster from office. Tensions grew to a boiling point on the eve of the 1970 May Day weekend demonstration. Connecticut Governor John N. Dempsey called in the National Guard. … The New York Times reported on May 1 that “weekend violence in this tense city could not be contained by National Guard units and state and local police.” Mayor Bartholomew F. Guida, having succeeded [Mayor Richard] Lee,  remembered the city riots of 1967 and noted, “The eyes of the nation will be on New Haven this weekend.”

The nation seemed to agree that the weekend could have gone a lot worse, and that the demonstrations (which brought well over 12,000 people to the Green) were relatively peaceful. May Day 1970 remains one of the most remembered and talked about days in modern New Haven history. Whole books have been written about this period (notably Murder in the Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale and the Redemption of a Killer by New Haven Independent founder Paul Bass and Yale professor Douglas W. Rae), and an early edition of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas devoted a series of discussions and programs to it.

sponsored by

It’s to the city’s credit that people still come to New Haven Green not just to celebrate but to agitate. Tonight on the Green there are two hours of events centered around immigrants’ rights, with live music at 5 p.m., several guest speakers at 5:45 p.m. and a march around downtown at 6:30 p.m. It’s one of many immigration-themed marches which have been staged on or around the Green in recent years, in a city whose progressive policies have included a special ID card for city residents which are issued regardless of whether the holder is a documented U.S. citizen.

So May Day in New Haven is a time to share concerns not just about when spring will finally feel like spring but about where the world is heading in general. The best New Haven May Days combine community and debate.

For close to three decades, a dedicated band of peace-lovers, music-lovers and outdoor-lovers have staged a May Day festival in which fanciful activities like teaching circus routines to children and adding doodles to a graffiti wall have shared the Green with information booths from a wide range of local organizations, guest speakers and activists, and actual soap boxes from which to freely espouse your own views.

This year, May Day itself is taken up with the immigration rally while the annual May Day festival will occur on May 4 from noon to 4:30 p.m. Saturday’s festivities, which include hours of live music and the perennial dance around the Maypole (as pictured first above), occur at the same time as a family-friendly concert happening inside United Church on the Green and benefitting United Community Nursery School, evoking the youthfulness and open exchange of ideas that have marked the greatest May Days ever.

But say you’re used to associating the actual day of May 1 with music and dancing, and need to feel the spirit of Terpsichore in the air.

Well, you’re covered, especially if you’re an early bird. Another great international, and local, May Day tradition concerns Morris Dancers. These are the kicky, frisky, distinctively dressed dancers who greet the spring by frolicking on lawns at dawn on May 1. They also dance at other times of year, naturally, but this is their moment to shine. In New Haven, the New Haven Morris & Sword troupe, which has been around for over 35 years, kicks up its collective heels at daybreak in New Haven’s Edgerton Park. (There’s an entrance at the corner of Whitney Avenue and Cliff Street, but the group warns that if that one is closed, “try the gate on Edgehill Road opposite Edgehill Terrace.”) A New Haven Morris & Sword spokesman says “we will be dancing at dawn—5:40 a.m., roughly—for about 45 minutes.”

“If I can’t dance,” goes the phrase attributed to political firebrand Emma Goldman, “I don’t want to be in your revolution.” New Haven lets you do both.

May Day 2013
The New Haven Green (map)
Tonight: May Day Action, 5-7pm. Saturday: May Day World Concert for Peace, 12-4:30pm.
committee@maydaynewhaven.org
www.maydaynewhaven.org

Written by Christopher Arnott. Photo #1 by Christopher Arnott; photo #2 by Carmen Vincent.

Feel a spring in your step? New Haven keeps you young.

Monday, April 29
There’s a Spring Poetry Reading this evening at 6:30 p.m. in the Mitchell Branch of New Haven Free Public Library (37 Harrison Street, New Haven; 203-946-8117). Poets include James Berger, Susan Holahan and Katie Yates.

sponsored by

Tuesday, April 30
This month’s audacious New Music New Haven concert, 8 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church (292 Orange Street, New Haven; 203-432-4158), features works by Aaron Jay Kernis, including the recent work da L’Arte della Danssar for flute, viola, harp and percussion. Kernis teaches at Yale (where he also studied), and has been in the pantheon of major American neo-classical composers for 30 years now. Tonight’s concert is free.

Wednesday, May 1
Rub your wings together! “Bug Music” is performed by David Rothenberg of the New Jersey Institute of Technology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History (70 Whitney Avenue, New Haven) at 5:15 p.m. The concert is preceded by a 4:00 lecture on “Marvelous Magicicada: The World of Our Most Enigmatic Insect” by John Cooley of the University of Connecticut. (203) 432-5050.

May Day always brings a gathering of folks on New Haven Green, promoting peace and social justice on a day which has become synonymous with political activism, labor issues and civil rights. This year, the celebratory and ongoing informational aspects of the event have been moved from May 1 to the nearest Saturday; see May 4 item below for details. But there’s still something to do consciousness-wise on the Green this evening: the May Day Action, Rally and March for Immigrant Rights and Peace, meeting at 5 p.m. on the Green and continuing (with a march and speeches) until 7 p.m. or so.

Thursday, May 2
Fresh from last week’s Meriden Daffodil Festival, young local psychedelic jam-pop band The Guru headlines a special “Pedal to Party” outdoor, bike-friendly gig. The event starts at 2 p.m. at The Devil’s Gear Bike Shop (151 Orange Street, New Haven) and then pedals over to Urban Outfitters (43 Broadway, New Haven) at 4 p.m. where The Guru, as well as High Pop and furnsss, are playing. Free beer, free bike tune-ups and discounts on Urban Outfitters merchandise are promised.

sponsored by

Friday, May 3
Another first Friday of the month, another On9 multi-venue event in the Ninth Square. Tomorrow is National Homebrew Day (followed by National Craft Beer Week); fittingly, the theme this time is Brew On9. Thirteen businesses, ranging from art galleries to a yoga studio to a creperie, will be serving samples of craft beers. It begins at The Grove on Orange Street, where tasting glasses are doled out (for $10, which covers the cost of the whole beer crawl). Some twenty different craft beers will be up for sampling. Meanwhile, an actual saloon, Olde School (418 State Street, New Haven) is offering a special price on Two Roads IPA, brewed in Stratford. Further brew-haha comes courtesy of English Building Market (839 Chapel Street, New Haven), which is discounting “all glassware and bar related stuff,” and artist/historian Robert Greenberg, who  will display art prints from “New Haven’s brewing and tobacco history” at  ACME Furniture  (33 Crown Street, New Haven). And those are just a few of the activities found in the neighborhood between 6 and 8 p.m.; some start even earlier, and some don’t even involve beer.

Tchaikovsky’s one-act lyric opera Iolanta—a fairy tale about a blind princess who doesn’t know that she’s blind or that she’s a princess—premiered in 1892 on a double bill with the same composer’s ballet The Nutcracker. Somehow the one fell by the wayside while the other became one of the most performed classical compositions ever. Yale Opera students revive Iolanta (which, by the way, has nothing in common with the similarly named Gilbert & Sullivan operetta Iolanthe) for performances tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. in Morse Recital Hall of Yale’s Sprague Hall (470 College Street, New Haven; 203-432-4158). Tickets cost $10-$15, $5 for students.

Saturday, May 4
The May Day World Concert for Peace starts at noon on the Green and features four-and-a-half hours of music, magic (from the Amazing Andy), amusing nutrition awareness routines (from Eric Triffin, “The Carrot Man”), face painting, a graffiti wall you can doodle on, information tables from a slew of local “labor, peace, social service and social justice groups,” free vegetarian food, circus tricks for kids (led by New Haven Community Circus) and a display of May Day history.

That same afternoon, just a few yards from the May Day festivities, indoors at the historic United Church on the Green, is a five-hour family-friendly musical extravaganza called Kidstock: A United Family Music Festival. Over a dozen local music acts (performers listed here) have banded together to benefit the United Community Nursery School, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. After each act does a short set, the show ends in a communal jam on a classic children’s tune. The event also includes a full-length Roxi Fox puppet show performed by Betty Baisden. A $5 ticket allows you to come and go freely during the fest, which lasts from noon to 5 p.m. A $5 ticket allows you to come and go freely during the fest, which lasts from noon to 5 p.m. United Church on the Green is at the corner of Elm and Temple.

At 8pm, The Big Room at Erector Square (319 Peck Street, New Haven) offers the latest episode of its avant-garde “Take Your Time” performance series, offering new works by trumpeter/composer Liz Allbee and the dance/art collaborations “Stack” and “Bound” by Rachel Bernsen and Megan Craig. $10.

Sunday, May 5
The national tour of the musical American Idiot, based on the hit Green Day album and directed by Michael Mayer (whose tour of the play Angels in America was at the Shubert two decades ago), opened at the Shubert Friday night at 8 p.m., had two performances Saturday at 2 & 8 p.m. and ends its local run with two final shows today at 1 & 6:30 p.m. The show has particular local relevance, since it was recently announced that Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong will be writing songs for These Paper Bullets, a modern version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, which will world-premiere at the Yale Repertory Theatre next March. $15-$100. 247 College Street, New Haven: (203) 562-5666.

Written by Christopher Arnott.

Monday, April 22
Willie Ruff, the legendary Yale music professor and jazz player, has created a documentary inspired by his years of exploring how the ancient art of “line-singing” traveled from Europe to the Southern United States. The 30-minute doc, A Conjoining of Ancient Song, will be screened for free tonight at 7 p.m. in Battell Chapel (corner of College and Elm streets, New Haven). A discussion with Ruff, sociologist Kai Erikson and Dr. Gretchen Berland follows. The event is sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (203-432-5062).

sponsored by

Tuesday, April 23
Richard Lalli’s Yale “Performance of Vocal Music Seminar” students sing selections by Wolf, Strauss and Mahler at “Fin de Siecle, Songs of Vienna, 1880-1910” 4:30 p.m. at the Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St., New Haven).

Julius Caesar rules Southern Connecticut State University. SCSU’s student drama troupe Crescent Players performs Shakespeare’s play tonight through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday the 28th at 5 p.m. Kendall Drama Lab at Lyman Center for the Performing Arts (501 Crescent Street, New Haven; 203-392-6154). $10, $5 students and SCSU staff.

Slobber Pup is an experimental jazz outfit featuring Joe Morris and Jamie Saft. Bassist Morris is based in Connecticut, where he’s worked and toured with the likes of Anthony Braxton and Matthew Shipp. Slobber Pup and opening act Subfloor lubricate Cafe Nine (250 State Street, New Haven; 203-789-8281) tonight starting at 8 p.m. $10.

Wednesday, April 24
April 24 is the actual date on which the city of New Haven was settled by Puritans in 1638. Celebratory events are happening Saturday on the Green, but take a moment today to wish the city a happy 375th birthday.

Extending that concept of civic duty out to the suburbs, there’s an intriguing gig at The Outer Space in Hamden today. It’s Hamden’s Mayor Scott D. Jackson holding a special “Mayor’s Office for a Day” event at the club from 2-5 p.m. Jackson will be on hand to discuss issues facing the town, and, as he always does at these events, will “conduct regular town business while he is on site.” If we could move our office anywhere, we’d probably choose a rock club too. Admission is free. 295 Treadwell Street, Hamden. (203) 288-6400.

At night, back in New Haven, Yvette Mattern’s new public artwork Night Rainbow/Global Rainbow New Haven, erected atop East Rock Park and presented by Site Projects, is having its laser lights switched on at dusk, illuminating the night sky for miles around and tying in to the city’s birthday celebration. (Think of it as a bunch of candles you don’t have to blow out). From 7 to 10 p.m. on the penthouse level of Crown Street Garage (use the College Street entrance), there’s a special $150 opening night gala with wine tastings, h’ors d’ouevres, “cool giveaways” and dancing. “Cocktail or rainbow attire” requested; find more details and purchase gala tickets here.

Night Rainbow will be switched on nightly from dusk to 1 a.m. through Saturday, April 27.

Thursday, April 25
Entertainment Weekly recently ran a list of the best “big-screen gems based on classic 20th-century novels.” Number two on that list is the 1992 film version of E.M. Forster’s novel Howards End. EW deems it “a career best for James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, the duo who practically filmed an entire library of Penguin Classics.” Howards End shows for free at 7 p.m. tonight on the big screen at the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street, New Haven. (203) 432-0670.

Richard Barone was the frontman for The Bongos, a New York New Wave combo that had a percussion-heavy hit with “In the Congo.” He mellowed intriguingly with the album cool blue halo, which marked its 25th anniversary this year with a live concert and CD. Barone’s also got a brand new disc out, Glow. He’s doing an intimate show tonight at Cafe Nine (250 State St., New Haven; 203-789-8281). The Mendition of the Quay opens the 8 p.m. show.

Friday, April 26
Wayne Escoffery cut his jazz teeth as a young man studying at New Haven’s Educational Center for the Arts and Hartford’s The Artists Collective and the Hartt School. For years, Escoffery’s combo played weekly at Rudy’s Bar & Grill in New Haven. Now he’s a New York-based sax sensation, having recorded half a dozen albums (including the new The Only Son of One) and playing with the Mingus Big Band, Lonnie Plaxico Group and others. Escoffery’s quintet does two sets tonight (8:30 for $18 and 10:00 for $12) at Firehouse 12, 45 Crown Street, New Haven. (203) 785-0468.

Saturday, April 27
It’s New Haven Day! The City’s Department of Arts, Culture & Tourism has arranged an afternoon full of celebratory events on New Haven Green from 1-4 p.m. Performers include the Elm City Dance Collective, St. Michael’s Ukrainian Ridna Skhola, Esther Golton, Music Haven, INTAKE Ensemble, Generacion Latina Virgen del Cisne, Kristen Graves, the Classical Contemporary Ballet Theatre, Kenneth Revelz, the Lancraft Fife and Drum Corps and student performers from New Haven Public Schools. There will also be a ceremonial replanting of the “Lincoln Tree” on the Green, addresses by Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, film screenings, offerings from Long Wharf Theatre and Alisa’s House of Salsa, horse & carriage rides, a Schooner Inc. Teach Tank and lots of activities for kids. Sounds like New Haven to us.

New Haven Ballet holds its annual spring dance performance today at noon and 3 p.m. on one of the most danceable stages in town, the Shubert (254 College Street, New Haven; 203-562-5666). $17, $12 children.

Sunday, April 28
New Haven witnessed the rise of New Jersey indie rock titans Titus Andronicus when they played memorable shows at Toad’s Place’s Lilly’s Pad. Tonight, the band brings its tough misfit anthems to The Space (295 Treadwell St., Hamden; 203-288-6400). The So So Glos and Chris Cappello and his band are also on the bill, which starts at 7 p.m. $15.

Written by Christopher Arnott.