O ctober is here with plenty of tricks and treats, especially over the weekend.
Monday, October 2
At 4 p.m., during the next Mondays at Beinecke online talk, Charles Warner, Jr., illuminates the life of John McLinn Ross, “the first Black person to earn an MFA from the Yale School of Drama” and the son of Charles McLinn, “New Haven’s first Black member of the Board of Alders.”
Tuesday, October 3
While the Yale Center for British Art remains closed for conservation purposes, its satellite exhibition Isaac Julien: Lina Bo Bardi—A Marvellous Entanglement, a joint effort with and at the Yale School of Architecture, enjoys an in-person Art in Context talk today at 12:30 p.m. The talk, titled “Lina Bo Bardi: Designing Display,” highlights architect Bardi’s lesser-known work as “an important designer of exhibitions and a provocative thinker about the meaning and methods of displaying cultural artifacts.”
Starting October off right, Best Video in Hamden screens the critically acclaimed horror movie Drag Me to Hell (2009) at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, October 4
In Sterling Memorial Library, Yale’s Poynter Fellowship hosts a noontime talk by photojournalist Ashley Glibertson, whose “work [is] focused on refugees and conflict, an interest that, in 2002, led him to Iraq. Post-Iraq, Gilbertson shifted his focus to veterans, drawing public attention to post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide.” Today, it seems he’ll be discussing his work with Puppies Behind Bars, “an organization that trains incarcerated individuals to raise service dogs for wounded war veterans and first responders, facility dogs for police departments, and explosive-detection canines for law enforcement.”
At 6:30, East Rock Brewing hosts an “All Things Fall” trivia night, where wearing your “finest flannel” is encouraged. “We will be asking questions about fall trends, facts, and more!”
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Thursday, October 5
Joseph Keckler, “a musician, writer, songwriter, and creator whose affecting—and at times absurdist—stories and songs balance everyday episodes with otherworldly sounds,” comes to Yale’s Schwarzman Center for a 7:30 p.m. performance in The Dome followed by a conversation with drama professor Tom Sellar.
Meanwhile, at 8, Yale Cabaret kicks off a three-night, five-show stand for MFA candidate Shyama Iyer’s The Rasa Jar, “a performance cycle that explores human emotion [t]hrough a unique blend of Indian and American music theater.”
Friday, October 6
Blood, but hopefully not beer, is spilled at Stratford’s Two Roads Brewing Company during “Til Death Do Us Part,” a murder mystery dinner starting at 6:30 p.m. “The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, but the wedding bells aren’t ringing for this not-so-happy couple when a member of the wedding party is murdered! With a raging bridezilla and an unenthused groom on the scene, it may be happily never after in this nuptial nightmare. Trade clues with your guests and help the hapless couple figure out whodunnit so they can say ‘I do’ before the wedding hour passes them by!”
Back in New Haven, starting at 7, Volume Two (a.k.a. Never Ending Books) becomes Volume Boo! with a collaborative art show featuring “spooky, scary, and bone-chilling works” by 17 local artists.
A decidedly different vibe is the goal during a 7 p.m. gathering at 285 Nicoll Street, where a nonsexual Cuddle Party led by Amanda Ananda promises “an EMPOWERING communication workshop, cleverly disguised as a pajama party… In our cozy, safe space, we will start with icebreakers and the rules of cuddling for the evening. You will gain practice in setting boundaries, expressing your NO and delivering it with compassion. Simultaneously, you will be encouraged to navigate our space with fearlessness and fun to ultimately discover your HEAVENS YES!”
At 8, the Shubert Theater presents Festival of Laughs—“an uproarious evening” of standup by four comics you may recognize, at least once you see them, from any of their many film and TV credits: Sommore, Lavell Crawford, Guy Torry and Don “DC” Curry.
Saturday, October 7
The Big Sit! is back. Lasting all weekend and organized by the New Haven Bird Club, the international “semi-competitive birding event” timed for the fall migration season asks, “How many birds can you identify in one day while staying within a 17-foot-diameter circle?”
From 10:30 a.m. to 1, a “We Bean Business!” introductory coffee roasting and tasting workshop fills MakeHaven with the best part of waking up.
East Rock Brewing, Connecticut’s “only German-inspired brewery,” celebrates Oktoberfest this weekend. Across three sessions—from noon to 4 and 5 to 9 today as well as noon to 4 tomorrow—the brewery promises “live music, German-inspired food, games, and prizes.”
Organized by the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, an Audubon Street Arts Festival from noon to 6 “celebrate[s] our vibrant arts community with live music, dance, face painting, local vendors, and food trucks,” plus a live art class, a photo booth and free ice cream for the first 150 attendees.
Up in Hamden, the first Best Fest, a “pop culture celebration and market” at Best Video, gathers “vendors of VHS, vinyl, vintage video games and consoles, vintage clothing, action figures [and] food” from 1 to 6, followed by a 7 o’clock show by hard-charging local rock band Killer Kin.
October is good timing for an appearance by “black metal masters” Wolves in the Throne Room, headlining a 7 p.m. bill at Space Ballroom. Their “melancholic atmospheres… are an ode to rain storms, wood smoke and the wild energies of the Pacific Northwest,” aiming to conjure “the spirits of nature” and “a lush and ethereal landscape dripping with rain-soaked moss and lichen.” But if their music, which sounds like it’s bouncing off subterranean stone, plunges you into a torch-lit catacomb or candle-lit tomb instead, you aren’t going crazy.
Also at 7, it’s back to the Shubert for Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation, a “satirical roast of Broadway’s biggest shows and brightest stars featur[ing] outrageous costumes, silly spoofs of the songs you know by heart and madcap impressions by a stellar cast.”
Last but not least on this epic Saturday, College Street Music Hall at 8:30 p.m. hosts “one of the most influential and impactful hip-hop collectives of all time”: The Roots.
Sunday, October 8
“Antiques, oddities, curiosities, and vintage anomalies” are the stars of a New England Antiques & Oddities Exhibition at the Annex YMA Club. Starting at 1 p.m. (or noon if you pay an early-entry premium), “shop through rows of funeral antiques, apothecary, grave rubbings, bone jewelry, taxidermy, wet specimens, lithographs, religious depictions, esoteric imagery, fraternal memorabilia, original paintings, mid-century collectibles, and everything else your weird little hearts could ever ask for.”
From 4 to 7, a brighter vibe colors Hindinger Farm in Hamden, where a Fall Festival promises food, drinks, live music, a bit of shopping, balloon animals and “our fuzzy farm friends.”
Written by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
