I t’s starting to feel like spring, and hardly a moment too soon. A garden party and roving beer tasting on Friday; a music festival with an outdoor stage on Saturday; and landed and waterborne tours over the course of the weekend make fair weather a true friend this week in New Haven.
Monday, April 28
After spending a year in Hong Kong, Michael Sloan brought lots of memories back with him, including sixteen in the form of painted “portraits, scenes of street markets and social crossroads” of that strange and wondrous place. Those memories are now hanging in the Yale-China Association building (442 Temple St, New Haven; 203-432-0884) under the banner Paintings of Hong Kong Street Markets, with public viewing hours from 2 to 5 p.m. today—and every other weekday until the exhibit’s close on June 30. According to the Yale-China website, it’s best to call ahead before visiting to make sure the room hasn’t been closed off for a special event. Free.
Tuesday, April 29
Comedy Magic Monthly goes for laughs and awe each last Tuesday of the month at BAR (254 Crown St, New Haven; 203-495-8924). The 8 p.m., 21+ show tonight, emceed by CMM co-producer Jim Spinnato and featuring performers Adam Parisi, Justin Mazz and Bob Carroll, is in the sit-down restaurant-style part of BAR, a.k.a. the Brü Room. $8, $2 for students.
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Wednesday, April 30
Tonight from 5 to 8 p.m., the New Haven Museum (114 Whitney Ave, New Haven; 203-562-4183) hosts an opening reception for Nothing is Set in Stone: The Lincoln Oak and the New Haven Green. The exhibition features works of art made from pieces of the Lincoln Oak, which famously brought up human remains on the Green when it was toppled by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The exhibit also details archaeological findings about the bones that had become entangled in the tree’s subsequently exposed roots. Free.
With a name derived “from the Japanese term for the sound of ‘chit chat,’” PechaKucha is a decentralized idea-sharing movement with chapters in nearly 700 cities around the world, New Haven among them. During the course of a PechaKucha night, several individuals with interesting things to say take turns in front of a projection screen, offering knowledge and insights via a peculiar “20×20” format: 20-slide presentations with each slide displayed for just 20 seconds, meant to keep presenters brief and on-point. Tonight at 7 p.m., the New Haven chapter is putting on its 20th event—“The Amazing 20x20x20 PechaKucha”—at Bentara (76 Orange St, New Haven). Seats usually fill up quickly, so get there a little early. Free.
Thursday, May 1
UC-Santa Cruz professor Jenny Reardon has been thinking about civil and social concerns in light of advances in genetic understanding for at least a decade; her book Race to the Finish: Identity and Governance in an Age of Genomics was published in 2004. Today at 4 p.m. at the Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St, New Haven; 203-432-0670), she’s giving us a preview of her next book in a lecture titled “The Postgenomic Condition: Ethics, Justice, Knowledge After the Genome,” which is also the working title of the forthcoming volume.
Friday, May 2
The sublime indoor/outdoor Marsh Botanical Gardens (227 Mansfield St, New Haven; 203-432-6320) hosts its annual spring open house tonight from 5 to 7:30 p.m. “Light refreshments, live music, tours of the greenhouses and gardens (weather permitting) and general joie de vivre” are promised during the free family-friendly event.
Somehow it’s already time for the next On9 first Friday event, not that anyone’s likely to complain. In April it was Cocktails On9, a mixed drink tasting held in a single location; tonight it’s Brew On9, a tasting of regional beers being poured in “over a dozen businesses and restaurants” throughout the 9th Square. Ticket holders get a “signature beer mug,” provided during registration, to hold their brew at each spot. 6 to 8 p.m. $15.
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Saturday, May 3
The nearly 220-year-old Grove Street Cemetery (227 Grove St, New Haven; 203-787-1443), pictured above, opens its 2014 tour season today. Now through November, guided walkabouts at 11 a.m. on Saturdays and noon on Sundays take you around the hallowed, well-manicured grounds. Free.
Fauxchella, “CT’s indie music and art festival,” takes over the entire Space complex (295 Treadwell St, Hamden) today from 2 p.m. until… well, your guess is as good as ours. 30+ bands, including top-billed Kung Fu—an exciting, polished quintet characterizing its style as “new-funk,” which unintuitively reduces to “electro-fusion” with “EDM” sensibilities—and Pissed Jeans—offering an engrossing mix of punk and grunge, with industrial undertones befitting their formative working-class, factory town roots—are scheduled to perform across four stages. $18 21+ passes are good for access to any of the stages, while $16 all-ages passes are good for admission to The Space stage only.
Sunday, May 4
Today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the currents of the Quinnipiac River pull New Haveners toward Fair Haven—specifically, 307 Front Street—for Quinnipiac Riverfest, a late-morning/early-afternoon celebration of the river and the surrounding Fair Haven neighborhood. For entertainment, there are $5 canoe tours, plus live music from Fair Haven-dwelling folkers Goodnight Blue Moon, roots rock band The Backyard Committee and Latin group The Jean Sandoval Quartet. For food and drink, there are meals from Anastasio’s Boat House Café, located on-site, and beer tastings courtesy of local and regional makers Thimble Island Brewing Company, Two Roads, Thomas Hooker and Shebeen. And for the kids, there are magic shows by local magician/educator C.J. May the Resourcerer. Free.
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
