This week gives us music and Shakespeare under the stars, workshops, a hot dog celebration and more.
MONDAY, AUGUST 17
Stories of a City: New Haven’s Jewish Writers
5:30–6:30 p.m. | Mitchell Branch Library
Nicole Zador uses archival finds to explore Jewish writers who documented and imagined early New Haven.
Mahjong Monday
5–9 p.m. | NEBCO, Branford
The waterfront taproom turns its tables over to mahjong, with pickup games for experienced players and a lesson for beginners at 6:30 p.m.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 18
Avenue Groove
7–8:30 p.m. | North Haven Green
North Haven’s Music Under the Stars series closes with Avenue Groove and a danceable mix of R&B, funk, pop and soul.
Sideways
7–9 p.m. | Lyric Hall | $10
Best Video takes its screening series to Westville for Alexander Payne’s wine-soaked dark comedy that helped launch Paul Giamatti's career while also tanking merlot sales around the world.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19
Amy Gallatin & Stillwaters
5:30 p.m. | Pardee-Morris House
Close harmonies, acoustic picking and bluegrass fill the lawn for an easygoing summer concert under the trees.
Exotic Avian Portraiture
6:30 p.m. | Milford Photo | $35
Portrait photography gets considerably less predictable when live Blue-and-Gold Macaws and other exotic parrots have their say in front of the camera.
Poetry on the Rails
7–8:15 p.m. | Shore Line Trolley Museum
Poet and trolley motorman Fred Gerhard hosts a poetry reading/slam/open-mic aboard a moving vintage trolley promising that "the rhythm of the rails will set the perfect backdrop."
THURSDAY, AUGUST 20
Special EFX
6–8 p.m. | Branford Town Green
Guitarist Chieli Minucci and keyboardist Lao Tizer close Branford’s summer jazz season with a trip through jazz, funk, Latin and world music.
Take Two and Call Me in the Morning
7–8 p.m. | Guilford Free Library
A band made up of doctors and healthcare professionals prescribes Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, Tom Petty and other classic-rock remedies. If you miss them here, you can catch them again in Madison on Sunday.
Voices of Rock
7:30–9 p.m. | Madison Beach Hotel
The waterfront lawn becomes a yacht-rock time machine pumping out covers of Styx, Boston, Kansas, Toto and more.
Much Ado About Nothing
Music 7:30 p.m.; play 8 | Edgerton Park
Elm Shakespeare opens its annual free Shakespeare in the Park run with Much Ado About Nothing, performing outdoors in Edgerton Park through September 6.
Tea Eater / VVebs / Glambat
8 p.m. | Cafe Nine | $10
Brooklyn’s Tea Eater brings their gleefully strange strain of art punk to New Haven, joined by Connecticut rock bands VVebs and Glambat.
Wonderland
Aug. 20–22 | Yale Summer Cabaret | $10+
Yale Summer Cabaret heads back down the rabbit hole for the final performances of its theatrical riff on Lewis Carroll’s strange and enduring world.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 21
Fridays with Frank
5:15–7 p.m. | Institute Library
Frank Cochran spins selections from jazz LPs and leads the conversation in the Institute Library’s old-school upstairs rooms. BYOB.
Earlybirds Club
6–10 p.m. | Toad’s Place | $30 adv
A dance party for people who still like going out but now have a bedtime. They'll be playing ’80s-through-2000s pop, hip-hop, new wave and R&B before the yawning begins.
Loosey / Mala Vista / Kurt Baker & The 3 AMs / The Problem With Kids Today
8 p.m. | Space Ballroom | $27
Four bands take over Space Ballroom in Hamden for an evening of scruffy rock ’n’ roll and power pop.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22
Faster Things: Tribute to the Allman Brothers
7 p.m. | Small Batch Cellars | $20 adv
The Allman Brothers Southern-rock songbook meets a chance to taste some locally made wines in North Haven.
Rock of the 80’s
7 p.m. | College Street Music Hall | $25+
China Crisis, Big Country, The Vapors and The Icicle Works join forces downtown for a night of new wave, post-punk and songs you probably know better than you remember.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 23
Cold Brew Workshop: New Orleans Style
1:30–3 p.m. | One World Coffee Roasters, East Haven | $20
It isn't just yesterday's coffee poured over ice. Learn immersion brewing and extraction before making New Orleans-style cold brew with chicory.
Weiner Fest: Round 2
4–6 p.m. | Dockside Brewery
Dockside in Milford is devoting Sunday afternoon to the hot dog—promising attendees "outrageous hot dog specials" and, somehow, "hot dog-inspired cocktails."
