Get set for showdowns, galas, apple festivals and a Saturday so extensive we’re giving it its own edition.
Tuesday, September 24
A plane pull competition to benefit Special Olympics Connecticut, in which teams of 20 try to pull an Avelo airplane 20 feet, lasts from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Tweed-New Haven Airport. Spectators who met an RSVP deadline last week will be allowed to watch from a “secure spectator viewing area” closer to the action, but “additional spectator viewing will be available outside… in Parking Lot C,” presumably on a come-and-go basis.
Wednesday, September 25
Following a 4:30 p.m. lecture to put things in context, historically informed orchestra Yale Collegium Musicum and special guests resurrect “Dance Music of the Italian Renaissance” inside the Beinecke Library at 5:15.
“Tapestry,” a gala to benefit Elm Shakespeare Company, begins at 5:30 (and continues with an 8:30 karaoke after-party) at Amarante’s Sea Cliff. “Experience the rich tapestry of Elm Shakespeare through captivating performances, gourmet delights, and immersive storytelling.”
Thursday, September 26
Did you know there used to be an Academy Award for Best Unique and Artistic Picture? Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), the very first winner of that award (at the very first Oscars), gets a 7 p.m. screening tonight at Yale’s Humanities Quadrangle, with live musical accompaniment.
Also at 7, at Cafe Nine, a Crash the Decks competition promises a “drummer vs. DJ battle” featuring four pairings—though a (super entertaining) sample video and other clues indicate each DJ/drummer pair is actually a team competing against the other duos, which makes more sense.
Friday, September 27
From 9:20 to 4:15 at the Yale School of Architecture, the Yale Center for British Art builds a symposium, titled “A Puritan Picture: Vanity, Morality, and Race in Seventeenth-Century Britain,” around a single—and singular—painting: Two Women Wearing Cosmetic Patches. Dated to roughly 1655 and hanging in the Yale University Art Gallery through September 30, the work, whose painter is unknown, prompts discussions about the “painting’s provenance, attribution, and future display; the cloth trade in seventeenth-century England, Africa, and India; and evolving perceptions of beauty standards, including a keynote conversation focusing on cosmetic patches.”
Details are thin, but a weekend-long Apple Festival on the West Haven Green opens at 5 p.m.
“Refreshing mocktails, light appetizers, dancing, and reflections on the ‘Q’ House’s profound influence on the community” are on the docket for tonight’s Q House Centennial Gala, which starts at 7—or 5:30 if you spring for VIP reception access—at the House.
At 7:30, the next Freakout Friday cult film screening at the Strand Theater in Seymour features Class of 1984 (1982), an amusingly dystopic entrant into that subgenre of films where a teacher takes on the Herculean task of reforming a dysfunctional school.
The original lineup of the “legendary NYC band” Pilfers, innovators of the “raggacore” genre blending “pop, reggae, hardcore, dub, punk, and ska,” bring their “infectious” and danceable sound to Hamden’s Space Ballroom for an 8 p.m. show.
Saturday, September 28
Check back tomorrow!
Sunday, September 29
Following an afternoon of as-yet unannounced programming yesterday at Junta for Progressive Action, the second day of a ¡Fiesta Latina! happens at the Peabody Museum. “The festivities will begin at noon with a performance by Proyecto Cimarron, a Puerto Rican Bomba performance group. The Spanish Community of Wallingford’s youth mariachi band and dance troupe, committed to preserving the cultural heritage of Mexico, will take the stage at 1:30 pm. Tere Luna, a singer who specializes in the romantic genre of bolero music, will perform at 2:30 pm. The show will conclude with Orquesta Afinke, a salsa band based in Stratford, CT.”
From 1 to 3, MakeHaven hosts a “Fall Wreath Making and Apple Fest”—a casual celebration of fall offering the chance to press cider from fresh apples and build wreaths from dehydrated ones.
Written by Dan Mims. Image, sourced from @yalebritishart, features Jessica David, senior conservator of paintings at the YCBA, cleaning Two Women Wearing Cosmetic Patches (c. 1655). Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
