This Week in New Haven (August 15 – 21)

O utdoor performances and a dance party in a park loudly silence premature whispers of summer’s demise.

Monday, August 15
Starting at 6 behind Mitchell Library, the Beecher Park Summer Concert Series and Hi Fi Pie Contest finish up with live music from Carlos y Su Momento Musical and pies filled with apple, pear and quince.

Tuesday, August 16
From 6 to 9 at Stetson Library, Jelly Roll’s Jam, “a one-night-only jazz concert… inspired by Jelly Roll Morton’s music”—and by Long Wharf Theatre’s “concert reading” of the musical Jelly’s Last Jam in September—features singers Maysa and Dawn Tallman, keyboardist Chris Davis, horn player Harold Zinno, Jr., bassist Ace Livingston and drummer Dexter Petteway.

Meanwhile, upper-register vocals and hypercreative bass work come with Grammy-winning progressive R&B artist Thundercat to College Street Music Hall for an 8 p.m. bill.

sponsored by

Summer Music & Murals Series presented by The Shops at Yale

Wednesday, August 17
Hailing from Colombia, the Meridian Brothers “reinterpret all manners of Latin Tropical styles” using “sampling techniques, elaborate effect processing and… quirky and theatrical vocals, which channel imaginary characters with both pathos and humor.” They aren’t the kind of act you can experience every day, but you can see them tonight at Cafe Nine, headlining an 8 o’clock bill opened by DJs Leon City Sounds and Shaki.

Thursday, August 18
The first of Arts & Ideas’s biweekly lunchtime Rhythm Exchange concerts on the Green features Indian classical music with Renendra Das and Rania Das.

Presented by New Haven Public Schools and 94.3 WYBC, a Back to School Rally from 3 to 6 on Hillhouse High’s Bowens Field aims to “promot[e] school attendance and reading” by offering a “limited supply” of free first-come-first-served backpacks, books and other school supplies. Other attractions include “refreshments and giveaways” plus “entertainment, arts & crafts, games and community resource tables.”

At The Gallery at The Blake Hotel, curated by Kehler Liddell Gallery on the hotel’s sixth floor, an artists’ talk and closing reception from 4 to 6 mark the final two weeks of esc, an exhibition in which “three photographers”—Roy Money, R. F. Wilton and Marjorie Wolfe—“give the means for escape; permission to plunge into their visual worlds.”

“Grab a picnic and a friend and get ready for an evening of delight under the stars” as Elm Shakespeare Company’s annual 2.5-week production in Edgerton Park returns from pandemic hiatus with The Tempest. “A powerful—and much wronged—magician must find forgiveness for the sake of his daughter and the future… but the taste of power is sweet and revenge is at hand. Will love prevail?” The show starts tonight (and every non-Monday night through September 4) at 7:30.

Friday, August 19
The city’s roving Movies in the Park sunset screening series heads to Lincoln-Bassett Community School to show the scary-good 1991 classic The Addams Family.

Saturday, August 20
Hours of daytime dancing are on the docket at the New Haven House Music Experience, with DJs Stealth, Cocomotion and Mr. Realistic trading house sets from noon to dusk in Goffe Street Park. “Pack your coolers, lawn chairs, masks, sanitizer and be ready to sweat CT!”

The next Art in the Back opening reception at Three Sheets features work by local artists Enjoli Raymond, Linda Raskauskas Blaszka and Lipgloss Crisis as well as the artists themselves, who should be in attendance.

Written by Dan Mims. Image 1, featuring a moment from a past Elm Shakespeare Company production, photographed by Dan Mims. Image 2 features Thundercat. Image 3 features a moment from The Addams Family. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.

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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.

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