Wherever you want to go, this eclectic week can probably take you.
Monday, April 20
At 6:30 p.m., New England Brewing in Woodbridge hosts a stoner movie trivia night for 4/20.
At 7, RJ Julia presents a book talk with venerable celebrity chef Jacques Pépin at Madison’s First Congregational Church. The book? A revised 50th anniversary edition of his Complete Techniques.
Tuesday, April 21
In Yale’s Humanities Quadrangle, a 7 p.m. screening of shorts “selected, inspected, researched, repaired, and introduced by students in FILM 6040: The Film Archive… will be full of surprises, providing a fascinating glimpse into a great trove of little-known oddities made throughout the 20th century. You never know what you’ll see, but you’ll only see it here!”
Wednesday, April 22 - Earth Day
At 12:30 p.m. in the Yale University Art Gallery, Lily Waterton leads “a poetry-writing workshop inspired by works of art in the collection,” employing “a series of exercises designed to generate new poems.”
At 8 p.m., the East Rock Brass Band, a New Orleans-style outfit nearing a dozen members, performs “Mardi Gras classics” and beyond at Cafe Nine, though you have to wonder how they’ll fit onto the stage.
Thursday, April 23
Juvenile, the multi-platinum hip hop recording artist behind such fine vintages as “Set It Off” and “Back That Azz Up,” comes to Toad’s Place at 8 p.m.
As of this writing, tickets still remain for four two-hour sessions of a four-night Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy popup at Lyric Hall: 8 and 10 p.m. tonight and 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. “This time, the Poe Historians bring four new tales from Poe's dark imagination to life, each paired with a fresh selection of classic cocktails.”
Friday, April 24
Starting at 5 p.m. today, an 11-day Coleman Brothers carnival at Milford’s Connecticut Post Mall promises “carnival rides, classic games, delicious food wagons, and more.”
A three-week run of Furlough’s Paradise, “a lyrical meditation on grief, home, kinship, and a utopia yet to be realized,” opens for previews at 8 at Yale Repertory Theatre.
Saturday, April 25
The 2026 Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride, a fundraiser for local nonprofits whose efforts aim to better the environment, starts as early as 7 a.m. for those doing the “metric century” (68-mile) cycling route. Times start commensurately later for the 40-, 20-, 12-, 5- and 1-mile rides, with all beginning and finishing at College Woods in East Rock Park, where a post-pedaling party from 11 to 1 convenes “a food truck rodeo, great live music, and a green fair.”
This weekend, Branford’s Blackstone Library “transform[s] into an 18-hole indoor mini golf course… culminating in a thrilling 18th hole which travels down the spiral staircase.” Family-friendly golfing hours run from 10 to 4 today and 1 to 3:30 tomorrow, while a 21+ “After Hours” session with “wine, beer, and spirit tastings” alongside appetizers and prize drawings swings from 7 to 9:30 tonight.
From 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Orange’s St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church hosts A Taste of Greece, featuring “authentic homemade delicacies from appetizers to desserts: souvlaki, spanakopita, pastitsio, baklava, koulourakia, and more,” with authentic Greek dancing from 7 to 10.
Meantime, from noon to 8, Milford hippie/head shop Bohemian High holds its next Goodlife Festival. “Bring your lawn chair, pack a cooler, and get ready to relax and enjoy a day filled with great music, unique vendors, and good vibes.”
At 2 p.m. at the New Haven Museum, Elm Shakespeare Company presents a moderated panel discussion “of how humoral theory, healing practices, and the mix of medicine and magic shaped Shakespeare’s plays—from love potions to fatal cures—and what these imaginative remedies reveal about health, knowledge, and humanity.”
At 7, the Ely Center of Contemporary Art hosts its next Weird Music Night, “an evening of experimental sound and performance.”
“K-goth” band Past Self headlines an 8 p.m. bill at Hamden’s Cellar on Treadwell, bringing Konglish lyrics and a glitteringly depressed ’80s goth/new wave sound all the way from Las Vegas.
Sunday, April 26
A 2 p.m. reception at Kehler Liddell Gallery opens two exhibitions: Sheldon Krevit’s Mystic-Heated Wine: Selections from the Vault and Dganit Zauberman’s Land Emerges. Krevit’s “rarely accessible” paintings and drawings are “contemplative, textural, material essences” evoking both the “the microscopic and the cosmic.” Zauberman’s paintings also zoom both out and in, “evoking the land, the earth, and the human condition.”
At 3 in Woolsey Hall, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra presents a concert of iconic songs from sci-fi and space fantasy cinema, including Dune, E.T., Interstellar, Star Trek, Star Wars and Tron. “Costumes are encouraged!”
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Image features the Spaceship Exodus ride during a past Coleman Brothers carnival. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
