Take flight this week in New Haven with flamenco dancing, a documentary about singing doves and superheroes reading books to kids. Oh, and a time machine. Bon voyage!
Monday, October 15
The annual Post-It exhibit of the Student Arts League at Southern Connecticut State University is up for just a week. It opens today, hosts a reception tomorrow (Tuesday the 16th) at 7 p.m. and closes on Friday. What’s a Post-It show? It’s where the work of student artists is assessed directly by having the gallery goers jot comments on Post-It notes. The art, and the Post-Its, hang in the gallery space on the second floor of Earl Hall, on the SCSU campus (501 Crescent Street, New Haven).
Tuesday, October 16
The Haven String Quartet, the ensemble that fuels the Music Haven music instruction program in the public schools, performs “Immigrant Voices: South of the Border,” which was developed via an exploration of music from Argentina, Peru, Mexico and Cuba and funded by a grant from the International Association of New Haven. 7 p.m. at Southern Connecticut State University’s Charles Garner Recital Hall, 501 Crescent Street, New Haven. $20, $10 students, $5 for SCSU students & staff.
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Wednesday, October 17
Is the third monthly Amateur Hour event at the Institute Library (847 Chapel Street, New Haven; 203-562-4045) happening tonight—or sometime in the future? Ronald Mallett, a theoretical physicist who has invented a time machine, is the special guest. He’ll be interviewed tonight at 7 p.m. by celebrated journalist Jack Hitt, who co-founded the Amateur Hour series to spotlight “the passions and pursuits of America’s most inspiring fanatics, obsessives, tinkerers, and collectors.” $10, $5 Institute Library members.
The Yale Jazz Ensemble swings its first concert of its fall semester tonight, and the set jumps from standards such as “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” (arranged for a lead guitar solo performed by student Dominic Coles) and “Send in the Clowns” to be-bop (Thelonius Monk’s “Ruby, My Dear”) to works by contemporary composers such as Toshiko Akiyoshi and Greg Hopkins. 7:30 p.m. in Morse Recital Hall (inside Sprague Memorial Hall), 470 College St., New Haven. (203) 432-4113.
Thursday, October 18
Filmmakers Jim de Seve and Kian Tjong have flown in for a Yale screening of their unusual documentary ManDove, about Indonesian “singing dove” contests, in which caged birds are hoisted in colorful cages (as pictured above) and judged for their distinctive cooing. A discussion with the dovey documentarians follows the screening. 6:30 p.m. in Luce Hall Auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven.
Today’s other cool film event, also with a special guest, is over at Artspace (50 Orange Street, New Haven; 203-772-2709), where the Crystal Palace Experimental Film Festival is projected over and over on the gallery walls through October 22, and even outside on the building’s walls at night. Tonight at 7 p.m. there’s a special screening of the festival, made of 21 short films sharing a loose “crystal” concept, with a talk by curator Liena Vayzman and some of the participating artists. The festival fits the “crystal” theme taken on by this year’s City-Wide Open Studios, celebrating its 15th anniversary. (See the Sunday item below.)
Friday, October 19
Melinda Marquez Flamenco Dance Center’s terpsichorean revue Flamenco: Made in the USA is a tribute to influential dancer/choreographer Roberto Lorca, and features a slew of flamenco dancers, guitarists and vocalists performing music by Machito, Rahsaan Roland-Kirk, Henry Mancini, poetry by Pablo Neruda and company leader Melinda Marquez’s own new piece Freedom Sweet. 8 p.m. at Cooperative Arts High School Theater, corner of Crown and College streets, New Haven. $45, $35 in advance. (203) 361-1210.
Saturday, October 20
It’s Superhero Saturday at Wilson Branch Library (303 Washington Avenue, New Haven; 203-946-2228), which means costumed crimefighters are taking time out from fighting supervillains to read books to children. How heroic of them. 1 p.m.
Aaron Caruso’s got the surname of a legendary vocalist, but he’s singing the songs of a different one in Lanza! A Musical Tribute, 8 p.m. at the Shubert (247 College Street, New Haven; 203-562-5666; $22-$37). Caruso originally hails from Detroit, and performs regularly in New York, Las Vegas and on tour. But he’s had a home in Connecticut for over a decade now, and has sung locally at the Long Wharf Theatre and at Antonio’s in East Haven.
Sunday, October 21
Joy Gordon, who teaches at Fairfield University and wrote the book Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions, speaks on “The Human Damage of Economic Sanctions on Iraq and Iran” at 4 p.m. in Room 211 of Yale’s Hall of Graduate Studies, 320 York Street, New Haven.
City-Wide Open Studios closes today. The final weekend—Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.—turns the venerable New Haven Register building at 40 Sargent Drive into CWOS’ latest Alternative Space. Art fills office spaces, press rooms and even one of the Register delivery vans. Ninety-seven artists are scheduled to take part, transforming the Register from Fourth Estate to art gallery in one fell swoop. The exhibition is free, organized through Artspace.
Written by Christopher Arnott.
