T wo beachside fireworks shows can’t wait for the Fourth, while a ren faire offers a different kind of fire work.
Monday, June 27
In a 7 p.m. virtual event presented by RJ Julia, Marcy Dermansky dishes on her new novel Hurricane Girl, which sounds like a hoot, following “a woman on the run from catastrophe, searching for love, home, a swimming pool, and for someone who can perhaps stop the bleeding from her head.”
Tuesday, June 28
In conjunction with the Yale Center for British Art’s exhibition Bridget Riley: Perceptual Abstraction, which showcases the almost machine-like precision of Riley’s optical painting, Lindsay Caplan, an art and architecture historian and professor at Brown, “discusses how the reception and display of Bridget Riley’s work in the 1960s put the artist in constant dialogue with computers.” Surrounded by Riley’s art on the Center’s third floor, the half-hour talk, which begins at 12:30, “will explore the intersections of, and anxieties about, art, science, and technology.”
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Wednesday, June 29
The Pardee-Morris House’s first Twilight Concert of the summer counts off at 7 p.m. and features the Cobalt Rhythm Kings, “one of CT’s longest-running blues bands,” organizers say alongside an encouragement to “bring blankets and chairs and enjoy a picnic on the lawn” starting at 6.
Thursday, June 30
Lost/Found, the sixth annual juried show at Kehler Liddell Gallery, opens with a reception from 4 to 8 p.m. and presents work by 65 artists, all responding to the prompt, “Let’s just say there’s a vast shelf somewhere, lined with lost and found boxes, one for each person in the world. What would be in yours?”
After the sun goes down, at 9, Stratford holds its sandy, picnicky Fourth of July fireworks show over Short Beach.
At the north end of Quinnipiac River Park, the New Haven Preservation Trust bestows its 2022 Awards on three Fair Haven preservation projects: “a 19th century shipbuilder’s house on Perkins Street, two houses reinvented and joined as classroom space for the Cold Spring School, and a gateway to Fair Haven, the Grand Avenue Bridge.”
Friday, July 1
Rosie Flores, “a cornerstone of American roots music for more than four decades, leaving her mark upon the intersecting worlds of rockabilly, blues, western swing, California country, jazz, and roadhouse rock & roll,” rolls through for a 9 p.m. show at Cafe Nine. The opener is On The Trail, “a modern acoustic quartet that explores everything from bluegrass to contemporary pop, from stunning instrumentals to beautiful traditional songs.”
Saturday, July 2
A fire swallower, an indestructible lady, a fiddling storyteller and a bubble magician are just a fraction of the acts wrangled by this year’s Midsummer Fantasy Renaissance Faire in Ansonia’s Warsaw Park, which lasts for two more weekends including this one. Purportedly “one of the only Festivals in the United States with a new storyline annually that takes place within an original Fantasy World created specifically for the Faire,” this year’s ’line invokes the intrigue of a royal succession.
The annual Fourth of July concert on the Madison Green, “a musical celebration of the human spirit” featuring the Wallingford Symphony Orchestra, starts at 6:15 p.m.
Sunday, July 3
The Madison Beach Hotel hosts Fireworks from the Wharf: An Americana Cookout, a first-come, first-seated way to enjoy Madison’s Fourth of July fireworks. The festivities start at 7, the fireworks at 9.
Back in New Haven, a free 8 p.m. Independance Day Party at The State House promises “the best of ’80s/’90s alternative, new wave and post-punk music” from DJs R.I.C.H.A.R.D. and Ralphie.
Written by Dan Mims. Images 1 (of a moment from last year’s New Haven fireworks) and 2 (of a Bridget Riley painting on view at the YCBA) photographed by Dan Mims. Image 3 courtesy of the Midsummer Fantasy Renaissance Faire. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
