A great soundtrack elevates the action this week.
Monday, April 4
From 6 to 7 p.m. at Mitchell Library (37 Harrison St, New Haven; 203-946-8117), artist Anna Ramirez leads a “Storytelling Through Art” workshop for adults, with “collage, zinemaking, and other media techniques” on the table.
Tuesday, April 5
A monthlong Spring Into Music film series at Best Video (1842 Whitney Ave, Hamden; 203-287-9286) starts at 7 p.m. with a screening of the freshly crowned Oscar-winning documentary Summer of Soul (2021), which tracks the previously little-remembered Harlem Cultural Festival that took place in 1969, “just one hundred miles south of Woodstock.” The evening begins with “an introduction by New Haven-based singer-songwriter Paul Bryant Hudson, who will also lead a post-film discussion.”
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Wednesday, April 6
The 12th Annual Visionary Leadership Award Luncheon organized by the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, which raises funds to support its increasingly year-round programming, kicks off at noon at the Omni Hotel (155 Temple St, New Haven). In-person attendees, for whom tickets, which can be purchased through Monday, start at $175—there’s also a virtual option starting at $75—“will enjoy a plated lunch while hearing
Thursday, April 7
From 4 to 6 p.m. at Wilson Library (303 Washington Ave, New Haven; 203-946-2228), Gloria Horbaty, president of the Connecticut Ukrainian American Historical Society, aims to help us “explore Ukraine beyond the headlines” with “a demonstration of Pysanka—Ukrainian Easter egg painting”—and “a listening session of vinyl records spanning the centuries from Ukraine and its diaspora.”
Friday, April 8
Cure Rare Disease, a nontraditional, nonprofit biotechnology firm specializing, of course, in the treatment of rare diseases, is holding a “Casino Night & Cocktails at the Speakeasy” fundraising party at banquet hall The Woodwinds (29 Schoolground Rd, Branford; $100.74 with fees). Starting at 6:30 p.m., guests in cocktail or Prohibition-themed attire can enjoy a “full open bar, passed gourmet bites, pasta/salad/carving station, Venetian table and live band,” plus casino-style gaming, though the chips are extra, with “all dollars won by the house… donated to Cure Rare Disease.”
At 7:30 in the Shubert Theatre (247 College St, New Haven; $15-74), the New Haven Symphony Orchestra takes on “some of the most iconic music in all orchestral repertoire”: the film scores of John Williams. Songs from “Star Wars, Harry Potter, Superman
Saturday, April 9
A “spring park cleanup” from 10 a.m. to 2 is sure to vitalize both Fort Wooster Park (located along Townsend Ave south of Frost St, New Haven) and any volunteers willing to help the Friends of Fort Wooster “clean up the trails from the winter and begin spring plantings.”
Today and tomorrow from noon to 6, the Yale School of Art’s annual Open Studios event showcasing work by—and workspaces of—graduate art students is back in full swing. Rounded out by “screenings, performances and workshops,” the weekend “marks the first time that the doors of the School of Art buildings will be open to the public since the beginning of the COVID pandemic in March 2020.” For those who can’t attend in person, “virtual studios are also being created.”
Especially after a day immersed in nature and visual art, the gleefully weird yet meticulously shined sonic art of Guerilla Toss promises a potent psychedelic night cap at Space Ballroom (295 Treadwell St, Hamden; $20.26 in advance with fees). Also on the 8 p.m. bill are high-energy dance punks Perennial and Connecticut “shoegaze to slowcore to emo” band Pulsr.
Written by Dan Mims. Image, of Guerilla Toss, photographed by Ebru Yildiz. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
