New beginnings and annual special occasions embody both singularity and pluralism this week in New Haven.
Monday, April 2
Understanding history is its own kind of medicine, and a new exhibition at Yale’s Cushing/Whitney Medical Library (333 Cedar St, New Haven; 203-785-5352) offers a strong dosage at 5:15 p.m., when The Early Modern Pharmacy: Drugs, Recipes and Apothecaries, 1500-1800 gets an opening reception. Free.
Tuesday, April 3
From 6:30 to 9:30, local artist Michael Angelis is leading a woodcut printmaking class at MakeHaven (770 Chapel St, New Haven). For $40 (or $35 for MakeHaven members), attendees will learn how to carve and print their own woodblock design, “[taking] home multiple prints, your block and a resource guide with instructions and a shopping list so that you can continue to practice on your own.”
Local Lit @ Lotta is pretty much what it sounds like: local writers sharing selections of their work at Lotta Studio (911 Whalley Ave, New Haven; 475-355-7654). The first installment of the planned bimonthly series happens from 7 to 9 p.m. and, in addition to “beverages and light snacks,” features flash fiction by Charles Rafferty, memoir by Annita Sawyer and short fiction by Robert Beech. $5 suggested donation.
Wednesday, April 4
EFFY, a.k.a. the Environmental Film Festival at Yale, is celebrating 10 years of existence with an opening night gala in Kroon Hall (195 Prospect St, New Haven; $12) from 5:30 to 8, immediately followed by a director-attended screening of An Inconvenient Sequel (2017), which is in turn the follow-up to Al Gore’s highly influential climate change doc An Inconvenient Truth (2006). Naturally, that’s just the beginning, with three more days of feature and short films concluding with an awards and closing ceremony Saturday night.
Thursday, April 5
This year’s Africa Salon festival—“an exciting celebration of African arts and culture through unique discussions, screenings, fashion shows, parties and performances,” all of which are free to attend—commences at 5 p.m. at La Casa (301 Crown St, New Haven), Yale’s Latino cultural center, with “an intimate poetry, live music and dialogue set” titled “Healing Across Identities.” That’s the first of a dozen events including live shows, a food festival, an art exhibition and various political and philosophical conversations, culminating in a dance party Saturday night.
Friday, April 6
Starting today, Artspace (50 Orange St, New Haven; 203-772-2709) gets extra spatial thanks to Present Phase, a solo show of brain-bending surrealist landscapes by local painter Rachel Hellerich. An opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m. is an especially good time to view Hellerich’s extra-dimensional mashups of cosmic schmears, shimmering metallic effects and fine textile-like geometries (like the example pictured above). Free.
Saturday, April 7
Over at City Gallery (994 State St, New Haven; 203-782-2489), three local artists who’ve separately traveled to Cuba—painter Roberta Friedman, quilter Sue Millen and photographer Hank Paper—are coming together to display “images, colors and motifs reflecting its vibrancy, contrasts and complexities caught in a world adrift with political and social contradictions.” Fittingly, their show is called Cuba Adrift, with an opening reception today from 3 to 6 p.m.
Sunday, April 8
Creative Arts Workshop’s 2018 Edible Book Tea invites attendees to make literary food—“something you can eat, savory or sweet… [that] looks like a book and/or makes reference to a book title, content or binding structure”—show it off, then eat it together. 2 p.m. is when the family-friendly show officially begins, with the eating happening at 3 p.m. Free. 80 Audubon Street, New Haven. (203) 562 4927.
Also, New Haven Restaurant Week is back. Today through next Friday, 30 of the city’s favorite restaurants, like Caseus, Harvest, Olea and Zinc, offer $17 two-course lunches or $34 three-course dinners from special prix fixe menus. Bon appétit.
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Image depicts detail of Rachel Hellerich’s painting Phantoms from Heaven (2017). Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
