T alks and parties, music and musicals, dramatic and visual art and not one but two harvest festivals entail several firsts—and one last.
Monday, October 17
The latest New Haven Restaurant Week, running for two weeks through the 29th, has been live since yesterday, while Hamden Restaurant Week, which finishes up this Saturday, begins today.
The New Haven Documentary Film Festival, a.k.a. NHDocs, is also live this week, with screenings and events every day through Sunday.
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Tuesday, October 18
At 4 p.m. inside Yale’s Humanities Quadrangle, Pulitzer-winning investigative reporter Azmat Khan discusses her work “investigating America’s air wars and [their] human toll.”
Wednesday, October 19
The Institute Library celebrates a state bond-funded gift of $1.725 million, “earmarked for much needed repairs and improvements to our historic 1875 building,” and the state senator who secured it, Martin Looney, with a “Raise the Roof” reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
At 6 at the New Haven Museum, Gregory Nobles, professor emeritus of history at Georgia Tech, discusses 19th-century figure Betsey Stockton and her “remarkable story of a Black woman’s journey from slavery to emancipation, and from her own self-education to a lifetime of teaching others”—including as a missionary who traveled from New Haven to Hawaii.
On the same stage where it premiered 66 years ago, My Fair Lady, in a touring Lincoln Center Theater production, begins a five-performance, four-day stand starting at 8 tonight at the Shubert Theatre. The legendary show follows “Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower seller, and Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a ‘proper lady.’ But who is really being transformed?”
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Thursday, October 20
A very successful act plays a very intimate room when Echosmith, who released megahit “Cool Kids” nearly a decade ago and have accrued over a billion Spotify streams since, lead an 8 p.m. bill at Hamden’s Space Ballroom.
Friday, October 21
“The first-ever public performance in The Dome,” a unique performance and event space inside Yale’s remade Schwarzman Center, features S P A C E, “an immersive, in-the-round music experience developed and performed by genre-defying performer-flutist-composer Nathalie Joachim and Grammy Award-winning violinist Yvonne Lam.” Free shows at 1, 4 and 7 today and 4 and 7 tomorrow are all down to the waitlist, but organizers still say “you’re highly likely to get a spot.”
Artspace’s Open Source (née City-Wide Open Studios) festival, whose theme this year is “In Common Spaces,” officially commences, lasting from this weekend through next. The schedule includes various “kickoffs,” including one at 6 tonight at East Rock Brewing and another at 5 tomorrow at Armada Brewing, and, as is the custom, art studios and galleries specially opened to the public on Saturdays and Sundays. This weekend’s openings span Erector Square and the Marlinworks building, while next weekend’s span Westville and the Eli Whitney Barn, with hours between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Click here for a full list of participating artists.
From 6 to 8, NXTHVN’s “inaugural NXTHVN After Dark—our first installment in a series of evening programs highlighting current exhibitions”—presents “i am you: i am dixwell,” a “fun evening of food, music, and of course art” focused on the gallery’s current exhibition, the truth is i am you.
Another first happens at Woolsey Hall at 7:30, as Yale Philharmonia principal conductor Peter Oundjian “leads the Yale Philharmonia in the world orchestral premiere of the Piano Concerto in C minor by Helen Hagan, the first Black woman to graduate, in 1912, from the Yale School of Music.”
Saturday, October 22
During the latest New Haven Chalk Art Festival from noon to 4, “view and vote on elaborate chalk art designs by more than 75 talented artists” located on Broadway Island and outside the Yale University Art Gallery. Also “enjoy a Family Fun Zone with free chalk, exclusive offers to retailers and restaurants, a raffle and more!”
An International Harvest Festival from 1 to 4 at Woodbridge’s Massaro Community Farm promises “cooking demos, a harvest mandala, eco-friendly arts & crafts, a wellness tent, food tastings, farm games and a scavenger hunt.”
The final performances at Long Wharf Theatre’s historic home on Sargent Drive happen at 2 and 8 today and 2 tomorrow. The show entails a professional reading of new play Flying Bird’s Diary, about the true story of a Connecticut Mohegan woman who struggled to preserve her tribe’s “language and culture against all odds.”
At Madison Lyric Stage, Lost in the Stars—“an intimate evening of music by Kurt Weill” named after the composer’s final staged musical in 1949— features tenor Marc Deaton and pianist Kelly Horsted with special guests Susan Kulp and John Johmann at 7:30 tonight and 5 p.m. tomorrow.
Supporting their new album Aboogi, which was recorded in a professional studio they built—the first of its kind in their home region—the Algerian Tuareg “desert rock” quintet Imarhan come to Cafe Nine for a 9 p.m. bill opened by New York-based Colombian underground tropical music artist Dilemastronauta.
Sunday, October 23
“A beautiful fall day on the beach,” assuming the weather cooperates, is the promise of an Annual Fall Harvest Festival at the Madison Beach Hotel. The beach bar opens at 11 a.m., followed by the grill at 11:30; meantime, from 11 to 3, other attractions include 15 local artisans, crafters and producers as well as live music and kids’ activities.
Written by Dan Mims. Image 1, featuring Imarhan, photographed by Fehti Sahraoui. Image 2, featuring the Institute Library study room, photographed by Dan Mims. Image 3, featuring Nathalie Joachim and Yvonne Lam, provided courtesy of the Yale Schwarzman Center. Image 4, featuring Long Wharf Theatre’s longtime home, provided courtesy of @longwharftheatre. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
