Like a restored classic car, even the familiar delights feel shiny and new this week in New Haven.
Monday, April 24
On the 379th anniversary of the city’s founding, Beinecke Library’s communications officer Michael Morand communicates some local history in the library’s main space. At 4 p.m., he’s leading this week’s Mondays at Beinecke event—“a weekly gallery talk and tea, during the academic term, highlighting objects from the exhibitions and collections”—whose object this time is a 1748 map of New Haven, with which Morand seeks to navigate “traces… of African American history and culture in colonial New Haven.” 121 Wall Street, New Haven. (203) 432-2977. Free.
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Tuesday, April 25
One of America’s most principled and competent journalists comes to Yale Law School (127 Wall St, New Haven) today. Amy Goodman, longtime anchor of the nonprofit news and interview program Democracy Now!—who’s currently touring around to promote a recent book she co-authored, Democracy Now!: Covering the Movements Changing America—is set to “speak about increased threats to freedom of the press and the importance of truly independent media to hold those in power accountable.” 3:30 p.m. Free.
Wednesday, April 26
Starring nostalgic food, music and most of all vehicles (like the vintage Ford Galaxie 406 pictured above, seen last season), the first Cruise Night of the season—a weekly April-to-October gathering subject to decent weather, since the cars have to stay outside—rolls into the lot at Glenwood Drive-In and Kelly’s Cone Connection (2538 Whitney Ave, Hamden) tonight from 6 to 10. Free to attend.
Thursday, April 27
The Eli Whitney Museum’s 23rd annual Leonardo Challenge fundraiser—in which organizers let the works and ideas of Leonardo da Vinci inspire a creative provocation to local artists, whose resulting pieces are then displayed in the museum and silently auctioned—happens from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Titled “Leonardo in Bloom,” this year’s challenge has the timely theme of flowers, while the benefit, whose tickets start at $75, has the perennial features of tasty food and abundant good cheer. 915 Whitney Avenue, Hamden. (203) 777-1833.
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Friday, April 28
New Haven’s theater scene offers something known and something new tonight. At the Shubert (247 College St, New Haven; 203-562-5666; $39-101), a weekend run of the blockbuster musical Rent (1996) opens at 8 p.m. That’s also the curtain time at Yale Rep (1120 Chapel St, New Haven; 203-432-1234; $44, with discounts for students and Yale employees), where previews begin for the world premiere of Mary Jane. Named for its central character, the play follows a woman who “navigates both the mundane and the unfathomable realities of caring for Alex, her chronically ill young son,” and “finds herself building a community of women from many walks of life” along the way.
Saturday, April 29
Punctuating its final day, the splashy exhibit Dialectical Praxis gets an artist talk at 2 p.m. inside Giampietro Gallery (1064 Chapel St, New Haven; 203-777-7760). The artist-speakers are Celia Johnson, who “enjoys persuading liquid paints, inks and hot glowing wax into counterintuitively distinct, bound or embedded fields of pure saturated color,” and Donald Martiny, who’s worked to “discard the ground (canvas) and literally allow the brush strokes or gestures themselves to be the painting.” Free.
Artspace’s 2017 fundraising gala, titled Paris, Texas, goes from 5 to 9 p.m. The occasion starts at Artspace itself (50 Orange St, New Haven; 203-772-2709), with cocktails, “Tapas for Texas” appetizers and a silent auction. Then, at 7, it moves a block up Crown Street to the marble former bank building at 45 Church, where Sotheby’s auctioneer Kevin Doyle will lead a very non-silent bidding process followed by dessert and a photo booth. $125.
Sunday, April 30
At 1 p.m., Lyric Hall (827 Whalley Ave, New Haven; 203-389-8885) screens Breakfast with Curtis (2012), a small indie described as “82 minutes of pure filmic joy that reminds us what it means to be free, creative, friends and neighbors.” Featuring Syd, a “garrulous bookseller with delusions of grandeur fueled by red wine,” and Curtis, an awkward neighboring teen the bookseller once spurned but now seeks to enlist in a project, both the director, Laura Colella, and “several cast members” will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A. Free.
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.