Brain food comes from talks, films and symposia—and from weird music, live wrestling and a “freakshow.”
Tuesday, April 2
Yale alum John Walsh, director emeritus of L.A.’s J. Paul Getty Museum, returns to New Haven for a four-part lecture series on Henri Matisse. The first, titled “Matisse Liberates Color”—referring to when “36-year-old Henri Matisse made a scandal in Paris exhibiting paintings with bright colors that no longer corresponded to the things they depicted”—starts at 1:30 p.m. in the Yale University Art Gallery.
Wednesday, April 3
At 4 p.m. in Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library, Richard Deming, head of Yale’s creative writing program, discusses his new book This Exquisite Loneliness: What Loners, Outcasts, and The Misunderstood Can Teach Us About Creativity. The book “explores how loneliness has served as fuel for an intense creative desire that has forged some of the most original and innovative art and writing of the twentieth century.”
At the Yale School of Architecture, University of London art history professor Lynda Nead presents “Pauline Boty: Women, Desire, and the Image in Sixties Britain.” Here’s the primer: “In the 1960s a new kind of blonde femininity emerged in Britain. Part of a new regional and class configuration and a changing moral and sexual environment, Sixties Blonde was described as natural, energetic, impulsive, and self-sufficient, an urban figure who embodied modernity and was a staple of fashion photography and sixties cinema. The work of British pop artist Pauline Boty expresses many of the tensions for young women in Britain in the 1960s: possibilities and constraints, liberation and collusion. This lecture considers Boty’s work and image in the context of shifts in morality and sexuality in the period and within the broader social and political environment of these years.”
Remember that 1990/91 hit “Right Here, Right Now” by Jesus Jones? The band’ll be here and now tonight at Hamden’s Space Ballroom for an 8 p.m. show.
Thursday, April 4
The 16th annual Environmental Film Festival at Yale (EFFY) kicks off a three-night schedule with a 6 p.m. gala in the Yale Science Building. “Enjoy food and discussion with friends before joining our first films screening and panel discussion,” which carry a theme of “Working for Tomorrow: Communities Navigating Climate Challenges.”
At 7, ECOCA hosts a Weird Music Night curated by John O’Donnell featuring—with original punctuation—“live performances of experimental drone devotional darkwave slippery synth soundscape strange and slanted compositions” by Night Farmer, Zach Rowden, Revenge Body and Pervert Savant.
Friday, April 5
Two symposia started last night but get deeper into it today. Picking up at 8 a.m. at the Hotel Marcel, Startup Yale promises “an incredible lineup of presenters, speakers, and workshops” including new business pitches and, indeed, “pitchoffs.”
Meanwhile, Yale’s Center for Collaborative Arts and Media—which aims to “activate<> creative research and practice” across “arts, architecture, engineering, the sciences, and more” in order “to advance the cultural landscape of our time”—picks up with its Ultra Space Symposium. The agenda can come across as wonky and opaque, but an apparent performance by automated guitars (last night) and a demo of “the latest VFX techniques and processes” (today, by a visual effects artist who’s worked on major motion pictures including Blade Runner 2049) suggest levity and accessibility.
Saturday, April 6
At 6 p.m., The Lab at ConnCorp in Hamden hosts The Montey Cafe Experience. “Named after Dixwell’s Monterery Cafe, where legendary jazz performers including Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Charles Parker and John Coltrane graced the stage alongside local giants, this first installment of the Renaissance Rhythms series brings together live music, discussion, and refined revelry to honor the captivating history of the Harlem Renaissance and the thriving jazz scene of New Haven. … Come dressed in your style and glamour of the Harlem Renaissance, and enjoy complimentary food and drinks alongside community and live music,” the latter courtesy of “Cliff & Friends Trio and members of The Monk Family.”
Also at 6, The Beeracks collaborative brewery in East Haven hosts Hotties & Hellions, a “burlesque, drag and freakshow… followed by live music, vendors and… FREE cotton candy.”
At 8, Armada Brewing hosts its next Bash at the Brewery, promising “live wrestling action” outside on the brewery’s patio.
Sunday, April 7
At 1 p.m., the Yale University Art Gallery “invite families to join us for folktales, myths, and exciting stories from around the world that highlight unique features of objects in the collection and inspire children of all ages to view art in new ways. No registration required; meet by the couches in the Gallery lobby. ”
Best Video hosts a 3 o’clock screening of the award-winning 16mm documentary James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket (1989)—“an emotional portrait, a social critique, and a passionate plea for human equality” that “allows Baldwin to tell his own story: exploring what it means to be born black, impoverished, gay and gifted—in a world that has yet to understand that ‘all men are brothers.’ … Intercutting rarely-seen archival footage from over one hundred sources and nine different countries, the film melds intimate interviews and eloquent public speeches with astounding private glimpses of Baldwin.” Impressively, a post-screening discussion features the film’s maker, Karen Thorsen.
Written by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
