This week, New Haven gets curious, with brilliant writing, artsy movies, intimate music and a Saturday designed to get out and meet your neighbors.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
Paraguay Perspectives
Noon–2 p.m. | Luce Hall | Free
Two historians teach us about Paraguay’s past: Mariana Katz looks at unfree labor and the development of the state, while Brian Owensby discusses encounters between Guaraní and Europeans. Lunch is provided.
The Passion of Joan of Arc
7 p.m. | Yale Divinity School | Free
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s silent film masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc is paired with composer Richard Einhorn’s oratorio Voices of Light and an introductory talk.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
Windham-Campbell Festival
Tuesday–Friday | Various Yale locations | Free
The four-day literary festival starts Tuesday at 5 with food and music featuring Big Green Truck Pizza, Pitaziki, Taqueria Tlaxcala and Sweet Cupcasions, plus DJ Edgewood at the College Street Tent. The festival runs through Friday including its prize ceremony, a look at Cormac McCarthy’s final author portrait, a conversation about The Velvet Underground, a walking-and-writing tour of the New Haven Green and readings by all eight prize winners.
Leigh Bardugo Talk
7–8 p.m. | Trinity on the Green | Ticketed
Bestselling Leigh Bardugo, will talk about Dead Beat, "the explosive conclusion to her darkly supernatural Ninth House series," with fellow fantasy heavyweights Holly Black and Kelly Link joining the conversation. A signing follows.
Minus the Bear
8 p.m. | College Street Music Hall | $54+
Seattle’s Minus the Bear will play its 2005 album Menos El Oso in order, reviving the sounds that made the record an indie-rock success. Keep will open for them.
Paris, Texas
7 p.m.; doors 6:30 | Lyric Hall | $10+
Harry Dean Stanton wanders out of the desert and into one of the great American road movies. Wim Wenders’ beautiful and lonely film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1984.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16
Trivia for Ronald McDonald House
6:30–9 p.m. | East Rock Brewing Company
East Rock Brewing’s Wednesday trivia night gets a charitable twist, with the evening supporting Ronald McDonald House and the families it serves.
Emanuel Ax Plays Chopin
7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall
Eight-time Grammy winner Emanuel Ax opens Yale’s Horowitz Piano Series with a program culminating in an all-Chopin second half.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
Pride Evensong
5:30–6:30 p.m. | Trinity on the Green | Free
Trinity’s choirs will sing an Anglican evening service marking 50 years since the Episcopal Church affirmed that LGBTQ+ people have a full and equal claim to its love and care. A reception follows.
PechaKucha: Nostalgia
7 p.m.; doors 6 | Lost in New Haven | Free
New Haveners get 20 images, 20 seconds per image and exactly 6 minutes, 40 seconds to tell us something about nostalgia. Farm Belly sells food, the historic Anchor Bar pours drinks and the museum provides an appropriately memory-soaked setting.
When the Earth Speaks
7:30 p.m. | Morse Recital Hall
The Vista Quartet pairs new music by composers Jaebong Rho and Forrest Eimold with images documenting climate change, asking a string quartet and a camera to describe the same changing planet.
Klezmer Night at The Cannon
8–10 p.m. | The Cannon, 135 Dwight St.
David Chevan hosts The Cannon’s first Klezmer Night, bringing musicians from Nu Haven Kapelye into the vegan soccer pub for an evening of Jewish music and more.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
CCAM Yard Sale
2–5 p.m. | Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media | Free
Yale’s arts-and-technology playground is cleaning out its equipment and supply rooms. That means you can find art supplies, gear and the sort of miscellaneous stuff at great prices. The event is open to the public and only credit cards will be accepted for payment.
Picnic in the Plaza
5–8 p.m. | Temple Plaza
New Haven Cocktail Week takes happy hour outside for drinks, snacks, music and games in Temple Plaza.
Mitch Marcus Quintet
8:30 & 10 p.m. | Firehouse 12
Tenor saxophonist Mitch Marcus brings a two-horn quintet into Firehouse 12 on the release date of InAround, its new record of "passionate... and unpredictable" 21st-century jazz.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
Honey Harvest Fest
10 a.m.–noon | Huneebee Project Honey House, 269 Peck St.
Huneebee opens its new Honey House for a sticky morning of extracting honey from New Haven hives, learning the tools and tricks of the harvest and, importantly, tasting the results. Everyone leaves with a small jar. Registration required; space is limited.
Sound Cleanup
10 a.m.–noon | Canal Dock Boathouse / Long Wharf
We should all try to leave Long Wharf cleaner than we found it. Volunteers are wanted to help pull litter from the shoreline as part of Save the Sound's regional coastal cleanups.
Cars & Commerce
10 a.m.–3 p.m. | Hamden Town Center Park | Free to attend
The first Cars & Commerce show parks the polished machinery beside a marketplace, trophies and a fleet of food trucks including Freskos, Cool Runnings, Spuds Your Way and Sweetheart Ice Cream. Showing a car costs $15; looking is free.
YCBA Story Time
10:30–11 a.m. | Yale Center for British Art | Free
Picture books meet pictures on the wall during the YCBA’s short Saturday-morning story program for kids and their grownups.
The Ford/Hill Project
Saturday & Sunday, 2 p.m. | Quinnipiac University Theatre Arts Center, Hamden | $55+
Long Wharf Theatre opens its season by putting two famous Senate testimonies in conversation. Created by Elizabeth Marvel and Lee Sunday Evans from the words of Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford, The Ford/Hill Project revisits two women, nearly three decades apart, facing power and public scrutiny of their stories.
East Rock PorchFest
11 a.m.–6 p.m. | Throughout East Rock | Free
For one day, the East Rock's porches, stoops, yards and driveways become a sprawling music venue. One of New Haven's very best events, it invites dozens of local acts to play within walking distance of one another; pick a few must-sees and let whatever you hear around the next corner change the plan. We'll be following up later in the week with our own suggested route.
Closer to Free Ride
All day | Yale Bowl
The 16th annual ride sends cyclists out on 10-, 25-, 40-, 65- and 100-mile routes, all in support of Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
Forging & Blacksmithing Basics
3–7:30 p.m. | MakeHaven | Ticketed
MakeHaven turns up the heat for an introductory blacksmithing class. Beginners heat and hammer steel into either a decorative wand or a barbecue fork—depending, perhaps, on whether dinner or wizarding is the higher priority.
Ali Wong Live
7 p.m. | Shubert Theatre | Sold out
Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning comedian Ali Wong—of Baby Cobra, Single Lady and Beef—lands at the Shubert. The box office is sold out, though secondary-market tickets have been circulating for anyone willing to pay the resale premium.
Cherokee Social / Always Morning / Internet Tears
8 p.m.; doors 7 | Cafe Nine | $10 | 21+
Denver indie-pop duo Cherokee Social brings its bright, reverb-heavy pop to State Street, joined by New Haven’s alt-rockers Always Morning and Connecticut synth-pop band Internet Tears.
