Party on! The annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade happens March 10, while we’re still playing catch-up with Mardi Gras, with the New Haven Free Public Library’s big postponed-by-snowstorm fundraising bash donning costumes on March 5. There are plenty of lower-key events to indulge in as well, from classical concerts to dance pieces to the refined 1920s British comedy of Noel Coward.
Monday, March 4
There’s a talk on “Shopaholics: Everything You Wanted to Know About Kleptocracy But Were Afraid to Ask” by journalist Patrick Alley, a founding director of Global Witness, 4 p.m. at Yale’s Harkness Hall (100 Wall Street, New Haven). The talk is part of the Mars Family Lectures in Business Ethics series sponsored by the Program in Ethics, Politics and Economics.
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Tuesday, March 5
Tonight is the rescheduled date of the awesome Mardi Gras fundraiser bash for New Haven Free Public Library. It’s held right in the main (Ives) branch, 133 Elm Street, New Haven at 5:30 p.m. (The building will be closed to the public all day in order to prepare for the party.) This is an event worth waiting for, and one that serves great causes—literacy and community. It’s a costume party and silent auction with cocktails, food from major local restaurants and bakeries, live music and more. Tickets range from $75 to $500. (203) 215-3943.
Wednesday, March 6
Reggie Wilson, founder and choreographer of the Fist and Heel Performance Group, has been reconstructing some of his dance pieces from the last 30 years with the Yale Dance Theater troupe, plus some new stuff. Wilson’s residency at Yale culminates in YDT performances tonight at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. in Morse College’s Crescent Theater, 302 York Street, New Haven. (203) 432-1308.
Thursday, March 7
“Ade” Anthony Thompson has brought his one-man stage tribute to the great African-American poet, playwright and short story writer Langston Hughes to New Haven before, but never to a space as lush and sweet as Lyric Hall. Thompson bases his show on Hughes’ amusing “Jesse B. Simple” stories. 827 Whalley Avenue, New Haven; (203) 389-8885. $10.
The Oregon-based electronic fusion band Organik Time Machine beams down to Stella Blues tonight. 204 Crown Street, New Haven. (203) 752-9764.
Friday, March 8
There are a number of wonderful plays about the antics of unlikely houseguests in big fancy houses in the English countryside, and Noel Coward’s Hay Fever is the most blissful of them all. It’s a burst of snappy mid-1920s society hijinks sure to brighten the winter doldrums. Performed by students in Southern Connecticut State University’s Crescent Players troupe, Hay Fever opened Tuesday, March 5, and plays through Sunday, March 10 at SCSU’s Lyman Center for the Performing Arts, 501 Crescent Street, New Haven. $10, $5 SCSU students/faculty/staff. (203) 392-6154.
Saturday, March 9
The Gallery at the Institute Library opens a new exhibit of collages by Iraqi artist Qasim Sabti, its materials drawn from the damaged insides of a bombed Baghdad Library. The gallery is open during library hours, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. 847 Chapel Street, New Haven. (203) 562-4045.
The New Haven Battle of the Bands is nearly a dozen strong in the Lilly’s Pad space at Toad’s Place (300 York Street, New Haven; 203-624-TOAD) with Factors, Delayed Awakening, Stamps the Goat, Hot Chaos, Lion’s Teeth, Destination Dimension, Kudra, Bellow, Dead and Gone, Skratch Happy and the amiably named Everybody Hates Me. The show starts way early, at 4 p.m., to fit in all that rock. $10, $8 in advance.
Sunday, March 10
Yale University Art Gallery is holding a family-friendly “Stories and Arts” program at 1 p.m., with YUAG staff telling folktales and myths and connecting those stories to artworks in the gallery. 1111 Chapel Street, New Haven. Free. (203) 432-0600.
Soprano Margaret Astrup and pianist Eric Trudel, billed as a “dynamic duo,” perform operatic arias and other offerings 4 p.m. at Bethesda Lutheran Church, 450 Whitney Avenue, New Haven. (203) 787-2346.
The annual Greater New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parade (a scene from last year’s is pictured above) begins on Chapel Street near Sherman Avenue at 1:30 p.m. and marches down to the Green, turning on Church Street and dispersing around Grove and Orange. It’s a sea of green humanity, punctuated with floats and bands and politicians and antique cars and beauty queens. You’ll find post-parade parties at bars throughout downtown, from Café Nine to Stella Blues to Sullivan’s.
Written by Christopher Arnott. Photographed by Uma Ramiah.
