Earth Days, birthdays and mirth days lie ahead.
Monday, April 21
Urban Resources Initiative, a “community forestry” program straddling town and gown, has 10 volunteer opportunities listed this week, from a 5:15 de-vining session this evening at SCSU to a midday Mill River tree planting tomorrow to a pollinator garden tuneup bright and early on Friday.
Tuesday, April 22 - Earth Day
Speaking of which, “gardens and pollinators” are the subject of an Earth Day celebration at Wilson Branch Library featuring a “milkweed seedling giveaway,” a “garden swap” and a “model beehive” alongside “crafts, community garden representatives, live music with guitarist Cliff Schloss and more.”
Wednesday, April 23
At 4 p.m., award-winning local children’s author and illustrator Deborah Freedman appears at Mitchell Branch Library to read her book Carl and the Meaning of Life (2019), about an earthworm who “spends his days happily tunneling in the soil until a field mouse asks him a simple question that stops him short: ‘Why?’” Attendees will then “create our own undergrounds with found objects.”
At 5:30 at the Yale Center for British Art, an official opening lecture by curator Lucinda Lax for the exhibition J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality promises a “lively and accessible talk… reveal[ing] how the Center’s collection offers a full view of [Turner’s] creative evolution, allowing us to gain vivid insights into his unique and uncompromising vision.”
At 6, wine bar Barcelona hosts its next “UNCORKED” soiree, a ticketed “walk-around tasting party where we open 30 different bottles from our bottle list” while also offering “seasonal paella and passed tapas.” The theme this time is “Old World,” meaning “wines that come from European regions with long, established winemaking traditions”—i.e. “from the islands, coasts, and mainlands of Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France.”
At 6:30, East Rock Brewing holds a “Breaking Bad Universe”-themed trivia night drawing from Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and El Camino.
Thursday, April 24
On the more-or-less consensus anniversary of New Haven’s founding, an A-list historic New Havener stars in a 6 p.m. talk at the New Haven Museum. Drawing from his book The Battle of Ridgefield: Benedict Arnold, the Patriot Militia, and the Surprising 1777 Battle that Galvanized Revolutionary Connecticut, Keith Marshall Jones III “will share a new and definitive account of inland Connecticut’s only Revolutionary War engagement, on April 27, 1777.”
At 7:30 in Morse Recital Hall, the latest “New Music New Haven” showcase at the Yale School of Music features works by faculty composers Aaron Jay Kernis and Christopher Theofanidis as well as students Diallo Banks, Maya Miro Johnson, Lily Koslow, Kacper Madejek and Jaebong Rho.
Friday, April 25
At 7 p.m., Yale’s Humanities Quadrangle hosts a screening of That Whole “Yale Thing” (2025), a “must-see movie montage for Yalies and cinephiles alike” compiled by the Yale Film Archive’s own Brian Meacham. “Celebrating nearly a hundred years of Yale in cinema,” the film “collects Yale references, images, and songs from more than 200 feature films, from the silent era to the latest Netflix rom-com.”
Also at 7, East Haven theater Cabaret on Main opens a three-weekend run of Shrek: The Musical. Adapted from the first Shrek movie, the production conjures “a world where fairy tales collide” and “an unlikely hero proves that happily ever after comes in all shapes and sizes.”
At 7:30 at Woolsey Hall, the Yale Glee Club takes on Mozart’s “monumental” Requiem with support from a “professional orchestra.”
Also at 7:30, over at Bill Miller’s Castle in Branford, a Forbidden Masquerade Ball thrown by Bookmarked Events, a kind of literary LARPing community, invites “book lovers”—and people who don’t mind paying $160 to attend a party with a cash bar—to “indulge in delicious appetizers, sway to music that sets the mood, and dive into an interactive storyline filled with twists, turns, and a thrilling mystery to solve.”
Saturday, April 26
With cycling routes from five to 68 miles long, the annual Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride begins, as early as 7 a.m., and ends, as early as 11 a.m., in East Rock Park—the College Woods area, if I’m reading the maps right. A Green Fair capper from 11 to 2 convenes food trucks, live music and “partner tables with information about ways to get further involved with our 20+ partners and the environmental and community resources that they offer.”
At 9 a.m. at Hammonasset Beach State Park, an Earth Day group cleanup couldn’t offer a prettier place to get your hands dirty.
Starting at 10, which is when the store opens, RJ Julia is celebrating both its 35th anniversary and Independent Bookstore Day with limited-edition books and merch, cafe specials, scratch ticket promotions, a book drive with an ice cream reward and a golden ticket prize of a year’s worth of free audio books.
From noon to 3, it’s the first of three Appetizer and Dessert Crawls at The Shops at Yale. Ticket holders can enjoy “12 appetizer and dessert tastings from some of Downtown New Haven’s most popular restaurants” plus “two-day exclusive offers at locally-owned boutiques and national retailers, a cotton tote bag, and free all-day parking at the 150 York Street Garage!”
From 5 to 8 at CitySeed’s new James Street locale (with an after-party from 8 to 10), the Ely Center of Contemporary Art holds a 10th Anniversary Benefit Gala where guests can “bid on works by local artists while enjoying drinks and hors d’oeuvres, live music [and] a photo booth… Put on your festive, sparkling, and metallic attire”—tin is the traditional 10th-anniversary material, after all—“and come celebrate with us!”
A 6 p.m. garden party organized by Little Lion Collective and hosted by Fairy Meadow Flowers offers “floral-themed cocktails, mocktails, and refreshing spring wines” as well as “charcuterie and soulful spring music.”
Sunday, April 27
Creative Arts Workshop’s 22nd Annual Edible Book Tea “invites cooks and bakers to craft edible ‘books’—delicious creations that look like books, reference literature, or play on book titles with clever (and often punny) designs”—and visitors to enjoy them, both visually and gastronomically. “From sweet to savory, these masterpieces will be on display at 2 p.m. and then—true to tradition—devoured at 3 p.m.!”
From 2 to 5, Kehler Liddell Gallery holds an opening reception for dual solo exhibitions: Drawing Conclusions, featuring drawings by Brian Flinn, and Light, featuring “large-scale and high-contrast” photos by R. F. Wilton.
Written by Dan Mims. Image features J. M. W. Turner’s painting Dort, or Dordrecht: The Dort Packet-Boat from Rotterdam Becalmed (1818) (source). Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
