Provocations aplenty this week: politicians to vote for, a proposal about the nature of mankind to listen to, depictions of radical weather events to ponder, and risqué poses to put to paper.
Even the leaves still cling brightly colored to their trees, making us pause and wonder what’s up. Just don’t pause very long—you’ve got things to do this week in New Haven.
Monday, November 4
The first, free, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it exhibit in the lounge of the former New Haven YMCA Youth Center (50 Howe St, New Haven; 203-776-9622)—what co-organizer and local pot-stirrer Bill Saunders calls “the NEW New Haven Art Connection,” in “New Haven’s most under-looked” art gallery space—opened on Friday and continues through tomorrow. The show features work by surrealist painter and art activist Volonte Morceaux. Exhibition hours are 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tuesday, November 5
Justin Elicker or Toni Harp? Between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. today at polling places across the city, New Haveners decide who their next mayor, town clerk and alderpersons will be. Reports indicate that, for the first time, same-day voter registration will be possible at the office of the Registrar of Voters (200 Orange St, New Haven; 203-946-8035). There are minimum ID requirements both to register and to vote, so call ahead to make sure you have what you need. Other voters across the greater New Haven area and the state will also be making significant leadership choices in their cities and towns.
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Wednesday, November 6
Whether your candidates won or lost yesterday, a little relaxation today couldn’t hurt. The main branch of the New Haven Free Public Library (133 Elm St, New Haven; 203-946-8130) is hosting a “starter meditation” session from 6 to 7 p.m., for which you’ll want to “wear comfortable clothing.” Clare Vidich of Ashford’s Kirpal Meditation Retreat Center leads the way.
Thursday, November 7
Mahzarin Banaji, who was a professor of psychology at Yale from 1986 to 2002 and has been at Harvard ever since, comes back to the blue tonight for “Group Love,” a free public talk she’s giving at Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall (1 Prospect St, Rm 114, New Haven), a.k.a. SSS. The lecture’s flyer promises Banaji will make the case that humans are social not just by circumstance but by nature, and will demonstrate how, most of the time, even “very young children show love of the in-group.” 7 p.m.
Friday, November 8
Artspace’s new pre-apocalyptic exhibition, Futurecast, curated by Ihrie Means, has its opening reception tonight from 5 to 8 p.m. The show puts an artist’s eye—actually, 18 of them, with nine artists contributing—to the extreme weather events that have plagued the country in recent years, from “the coastal devastation in New Jersey and Connecticut” to the “relentless rain and forest fires on the West Coast” to the “droughts, tornados, fires and floods testing the middle of the country.” Despite the exhibition’s predictive-sounding title, the uncertainty inherent to this new paradigm wrought by climate change is actually part of the point. November 8-January 25. 50 Orange St, New Haven; (203) 772-2709.
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Saturday, November 9
As a member of the “post-hardcore” club, Polar Bear Club, The Space’s headliner tonight, proceeds with less abandon and more commercial polish than hardcore punk acts, and readily deviates from the touchstone formal elements—relentlessly fast beats, angry guitar riffs and defiant, against-the-world yelling—of that latter style. PBC even sounds downright happy at times. Whatever they’re doing, it’s clearly working: tonight’s gig is the second of their headlining tour following a monthlong supporting tour with a little old band called Taking Back Sunday. Opening the four-set bill tonight is the Long Island-based trio Sainthood Reps, which is satisfyingly, über heavy live. Then it’s Diamond Youth, followed by Citizen, followed by Polar Bear Club. 295 Treadwell St, Hamden; (203) 288-6400. $15, $13 in advance.
Sunday, November 10
In 2005 in New York City, two art school dropouts birthed Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, organizing irreverent events where amateur (and not-so-amateur) artists could try their hands at figure drawing. Since then, localized Dr. Sketchy’s branches have popped up in more than a hundred cities the world over, including in New Haven. Today at Cafe Nine (250 State St, New Haven; 203-789-8281), models wear little more than drawers as they stand and strut before a crowd of drawers, who need only pay $5 to reserve a seat. The first pose begins at 4 p.m.
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
