The week ahead isn’t all fun and games, but it’s pretty close.
Monday, November 17
At 10:30 a.m. at Wilson Library, Prabha Makayee leads “Mindfulness Matters: Make a Change in One Second, One Thought, One Breath.” The workshop offers a chance to “practice dropping the labels and tuning into yourself,” which could prove helpful in the weeks to come.
Tuesday, November 18
Cafe Nine hosts Emo Prom powered by DJ Zombii. “Get ready to relive the glory days of black eyeliner, broken hearts, and slow dances under the dim lights… Dress up, dance it out, and maybe even cry a little.”
Wednesday, November 19
You may know the adventure stories of Robert Louis Stevenson, but do you know the adventurer himself? At 4 p.m. at Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library, Harvard literature professor Leo Damrosch offers a preview of the man during a discussion of his new book, Storyteller: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson.
At 7:30 in Yale’s 53 Wall Street Auditorium, an advance screening of Oh. What. Fun., a Christmas comedy featuring a star-studded ensemble, precedes a Q&A with co-producer Keelin Ryan.
Thursday, November 20
Organized by the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, the free-to-attend 2025 Big Connect, “Connecticut’s premier business expo,” features several dozen exhibitors and as much networking opportunity as you can handle from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Omni New Haven. In the middle, from 11:30 to 1, is the 2025 Big Taste, a ticketed event featuring food and refreshments from nearly 20 local establishments all in one room.
From 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., Flights of Fancy, “New Haven’s premier shopping, wine and food crawl,” returns with a holiday theme. A ticket, which must be purchased in advance, gets you access to “20+ sipping, tasting and shopping stops, souvenir wine glasses and event bags, shopping discounts and promotions, raffle prizes, giveaways and more!”
Trinity Church on the Green’s annual Christmas Market, a fundraiser and “labor of love by the parish,” features “handmade crafts, plants, bulbs, cookies, jams and preserves, soups to-go, a tag sale, jewelry, and more” and opens for three days to the general public tomorrow. Meanwhile, ticket holders for a Champagne Preview Party tonight get first pop, from 6 to 8.
From 6 to 9 p.m., East Rock Brewing, not a Scottish castle, is the site of what “may or may not” be a local riff on reality competition show The Traitors. “Join us for a night where you’ll be pitted against your fellow attendees in a competition of deceit, challenges [and] murders... in an event that (according to our lawyers) is in no way inspired by the copywritten material of the hit Peacock TV show.”
At 7:30 in Woolsey Hall, the Yale Symphony Orchestra presents “Nature and Humanity in 1904,” a concert of works by Ives, Sibelius, Puccini and Debussy led by longtime New Haven Symphony conductor William Boughton and featuring violinist Brandon Du.
Friday, November 21
Before the Yale-Harvard game tomorrow, a connected, more collegial, annual tradition returns: the Yale-Harvard Joint Glee Club Concert. Starting at 7:30 p.m. in Woolsey Hall, the program spans “motets, newly commissioned works, folk music, and college songs.”
Starting at 8 at Stella Blues, it’s a new edition of Beats, Bits & Bytes promising DJs, gaming consoles and “bite-sized snacks.” Daily Nutmeg Members: Don’t forget your Chaser!
Heaven, “New Haven’s post-disco dance night,” opens its pearly gates at 9 p.m. “Expect to hear Italo, electro, hi-NRG, synth-funk, alternative pop, and disco-infused electronics of all kinds!”
Saturday, November 22
The 141st edition of The Game kicks off at noon at the Yale Bowl, and the stakes go way beyond the usual bragging rights. Harvard is undefeated this season, while Yale has just one conference loss—meaning a Yale victory would spoil Harvard’s perfect season, secure a share of this year’s Ivy League title and, having won head-to-head, snatch the conference’s first-ever insta-berth to the FCS Playoffs in one fell swoop.
Between noon and 4, a popup exhibit in the New Haven Museum’s Whitney Library features “an up-close examination of New Haven’s medical history,” with topics “from indigenous medicine and colonial treatments” to “mental health, eugenics, cancer and birth control.”
“Strings, horns, woodwinds and a pianist” join with “a soul songstress, a party-rocking DJ and a fire-breathing MC” for a 7 o’clock performance by Thee Phantom & The Illharmonic Orchestra at the Shubert.
At 7:30 at St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church, the New Haven Oratorio Choir—“a community-based, auditioned chamber choir whose mission is to provide the New Haven region with unique and intimate choral performances”—presents Heavenly Harmony, “a concert honoring St. Cecilia, the Patron Saint of Music, on her feast day.” Represented are Handel, Schubert, Billings, Morley “and many others” as well as “many centuries and languages.”
At 9 back at Cafe Nine, a Catsgiving edition of the gothy Sanctuary dance party series doubles as a cat food drive “to help stray and feral cats in New Haven.”
Also at 9, 168 York Street Cafe tries to capture the glamor and excess of Studio 54 with Studio 168, a ’70s and ’80s dance party with themed cocktails offered and themed dress encouraged.
Sunday, November 23
A pie-making class at Katalina’s Bakery aims to help you “wow your Thanksgiving guests,” though you’ll have to contact the bakery to check exact timing (and to register).
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
