Arts & Ideas remains ubiquitous this week. But you’ll also find plenty to do at year-round institutions like the public library, Artspace and various rock clubs. It’s a festive time of year, with dance and music and circus acts, but this week is also tinged with social consciousness. There’s a poetry reading in honor of crime victims and a performance about immigration. It’s a balanced week of cultural betterment here in New Haven.
Monday, June 24
Eyal Sivan’s documentary Common State, documenting “a virtual meeting on film including more than 20 sons and daughter of the Land of Israel,” is screened at 6 p.m. in New Haven Free Public Library (main building, 133 Elm Street, New Haven; 203-946-7431). Hassan Jabareen, one of the participants in this filmed discussion “about hope, freedom, justice, equality and the possibility of a joint state,” will lead a discussion following the free screening.
Tuesday, June 25
The guitar/mandolin duo Prester John, featuring Shawn Persinger (profiled in Daily Nutmeg a few weeks ago), is the noontime act in the International Festival of Arts & Ideas’s “Noon to Night” series. 12 p.m., New Haven Green.
Stand Our Ground is a new book of poems published to benefit the families of the central figures in two famous Florida-based crime stories, Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander. The book’s editor, Ewuare X. Osayande, will read, along with Bolade Akintolayo, Shaunda Holloway (a.k.a. Sekai) and others. 6 p.m. at the main New Haven Free Public Library (133 Elm Street, New Haven).
BAR has a new Comedy Magic Monthly series, with live entertainment at 8 p.m. and beer tasting starting at 7 p.m. Magical! $7, $3 students. 254 Crown Street, New Haven. (203) 495-1111.
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Wednesday, June 26
“For the Sake of the Song” is a series in Boston where singer-songwriters play their own work while also acknowledging the artists who’ve influenced them. Several exemplary artists from that series—Patrick Coman, Jenee Halstead, Susan Cattaneo and Johnny Mainstream—are on tour, playing their own material plus songs by Gram Parsons, Bonnie Raitt and others. $8, $6 in advance. 8 p.m. at Cafe Nine, 250 State Street, New Haven. (203) 789-8281.
The immigrant experience in America fuels a multi-media theater show, Crossing the BLVD, performed tonight by its co-creators Judith Sloan and Warren Lehrer, 6:30 p.m. at New Haven Museum, 114 Whitney Avenue, New Haven. $10. (203) 562-4183.
Thursday, June 27
World-renowned Indian dancer Shantala Shivalingappa was classically trained, but her career has brought her in contact with some of the great avant-garde choreographers and directors of our time. She has turned her unusual life and works into the subject of her new performance, Akasha. The International Festival of Arts & Ideas presents the work’s world premiere performances June 26-28 at 8 p.m. in the dance-friendly theater space of Co-op Arts & Humanities High School (177 College Street, New Haven). Tickets are $35 or $55, with discounts available for students, seniors and kids.
The Carper Family is a trio of old-time country/bluegrass women who blend their acoustic guitar, stand-up bass and fiddle with neat three-part harmonies. They travel to The Outer Space (295 Treadwell Street, Hamden) tonight at 8 p.m., playing tracks from their new disc Back When. Opening acts include Lake Signs and Pamela Jones. $10.
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Friday, June 28
Les 7 Doigts de la Main (that’s “7 Fingers” in English) got a lot of attention this year for devising some magic tricks and other stunts for the hit Broadway revival of the musical Pippin. The Canadian troupe brings its own show Sequence 8 to the Shubert (247 College Street, New Haven) June 27-29 as part of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. The Thursday and Friday performances are at 8 p.m. and Saturday’s is at 2 p.m. $20-$55.
Manic indie rock assails the upstairs Lilly’s Pad at Toad’s Place tonight with the multi-personality performer Blake Schwarzenbach (of the important bands Jawbreakers and Jets to Brazil) unveiling his “2013 Mobile Disco Decathlon” event. Wolves at Bay and New Year’s Revolution are also on the bill. 8:30 p.m. $10. 300 York Street, New Haven. (203) 624-TOAD.
Saturday, June 29
The Caldwell Dance Center holds its fifth annual family-friendly “tribute performance,” in numerous traditional and modern dance styles, tonight at 7 p.m. in the Arts Hall of the Educational Center for the Arts (55 Audubon Street, New Haven; 203-675-6756). $22, $18 children.
The provocative ’Toonskin exhibit at Artspace (50 Orange Street, New Haven; 203-772-2709) is ending, but not without a final film screening to augment the gallery show’s theme of “blackness” in animated film. It’s the first showing in Connecticut of Terence Nance’s wild debut, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (a still from which is pictured above), which starts at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a director Q&A. $10, $5 for students and seniors.
Arts & Ideas ends its two-week reign over downtown tonight with two Ethiopian music/dance troupes, Debo Band and Fendika, live on New Haven Green. The rhythms commence at 7 p.m. Free.
Sunday June 30
The New Haven Century Ride isn’t 100 years old. The “century” refers to distance. Cyclists can ride 100 miles or 100 kilometers (roughly 64 miles), or choose non-hundred-themed routes of 30 or 45 miles. The event, organized by Elm City Cycling with help from The Devil’s Gear Bike Shop, is mostly about the pleasures of biking through diverse areas of the city. Fees for each ride are $35. There are rest stops and a “sag vehicle” if the ride proves exhausting. Registration closes Friday at 1 p.m.
It’s summer, the time of year for Reggae music and also for that Jamaican genre’s hard-rocking offshoot ska. Three bands representing the so-called “third wave” era of ska—punk-influenced, but still dependent on steady beats and honking horns—blow into The Space (295 Treadwell Street, Hamden) for a $10 ($8 in advance), 7 p.m. explosion. Skank righteously to Mrs. Skannotto, For Serious, Dented Personality and The Excitement Gang.
Written by Christoper Arnott.
