This week walks and talks, starting out with a gut- and myth-busting talk one day and a lecture from a literary luminary the next. Then it’s on to copious amounts of dancing, browsing, eating and drinking, including an 18-stop walkabout dedicated to the latter.
Monday, April 27
None of us ever really dines alone. Tonight at 7 inside pizza-and-beer hotspot BAR (254 Crown St, New Haven; 203-495-8924), Yale professor Andy Goodman introduces us to our ever-present dinner company during “Sharing a Pizza with Friends: Getting to Know Your Gut Bacteria,” which “determine how we digest our food
Tuesday, April 28
At 5 p.m. in the Whitney Humanities Center (53 Wall St, New Haven; 203-432-0670), National Book Award winner Maxine Hong Kingston delivers “From Woman Warrior to Book of Peace,” a lecture we expect will ping her unique life experiences. Among them is being the daughter of “Chinese immigrants who operated a gambling house in the 1940s, when Maxine was born, and then a laundry where Kingston and her brothers and sisters toiled long hours.” Also among them is winning a National Book Critics Circle Award for her first book, The Woman Warrior (1976), “making her a literary celebrity at age 36.” Free.
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Wednesday, April 29
Brooklyn-based breakout Dreamers tops the free 9 p.m. show at BAR tonight, bringing the upbeat, casually precise pop sound—like The Strokes’, but fuller—of the band’s six-month-old, self-titled debut EP. Second opener Gold Lake is also from Brooklyn, but where Dreamers songs can feel like all chorus, Gold Lake compositions offer the fruits of delayed gratification, with lots of feel changes and thoughtful stretches that exist for their own sake, not merely as on- or off-ramps. The show’s first opener is Ian Biggs, a soulful, musically curious artist from New Haven who’s on a solo singer/songwriter mission following years in bands like All in Blind and Lion’s Teeth and stints supporting touring artists like Jesse McCartney.
Thursday, April 30
Rod Cook’s theriomorphic photography blends human and non-human animal forms, with results that appear painted, not exposed (as in “Antelope,” pictured above). Gar Waterman’s stone carvings blur the line between the alive and the inanimate, fashioning strangely intimate biological moments out of high-polished rock. Today through May 21, the two come together at Kehler Liddell Gallery (873 Whalley Ave, New Haven; 203-389-9555) for Incipient Speciation, which asks: “Will nature survive the evolution of the human race?” Along with the gallery’s regular visiting hours—11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends—Speciation gets an official opening reception this Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m. Free.
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Friday, May 1
6 p.m. is party o’clock tonight. From 6 to 8, Brew On9 gathers attendees at Baobab Tree Studios (71 Orange St, New Haven), then gives them a glass and a list of 18 spots where they can go retrieve some suds. Meanwhile, from 6 to 9, Neighborhood Music School (100 Audubon St, New Haven; 203-624-5189) hosts its May Day Soirée fundraiser featuring food from city restaurants like Da Legna, Caseus, and Chao; beer and wine from local makers; and music and dancing, with tickets starting at $30. Finally, from 6 to 10, Belgian-style producer Overshores Brewing Company (250 Bradley St, East Haven; 203-909-6224) is hosting a one-year anniversary party with free live music, special small-batch varieties and a pair of food trucks.
If a party isn’t your pleasure, maybe a film festival is. Offbeat rabble-rouser Tony Juliano has curated tonight’s “A Dark Room Film Fest” at Best Video (1842 Whitney Ave, Hamden; 203-287-9286), showcasing “short films by more than a dozen local filmmakers.” 7 p.m. $5.
Saturday, May 2
At 9 a.m. today and 10 a.m. tomorrow, respectively, CitySeed moves back outside with its Wooster Square and Edgewood Park farmers’ markets.
In a twist on its usual “scenes” approach, where pieces of various operas are performed back-to-back, Yale Opera is putting on a “triple bill of one-acts” tonight at 8 in Morse Recital Hall (with an encore tomorrow afternoon at 2). It’s a rare chance to see three full (but relatively short) operas in a single sitting, and a good assortment at that: Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, based on a scene from Dante’s Inferno; Lee Holby’s Bon Appétit!, a humorous-sounding take on a moment in the life of Julia Child; and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Riders to the Sea, based on the somber, same-named play by John Millington Synge. Tickets start at $10, or $5 for students. 470 College Street, New Haven. (203) 432-4158.
Another unusual musical phenomenon is happening tonight, at Cafe Nine: two Brooklyn acts are coming to New Haven for a three-band show, and it’s the New Haven act that’s headlining. Local synthpop duo Mission Zero, starring sister and brother Chenot (vocals, keys, guitar) and David Keith (drums, vocals, and electronics), are looking to celebrate the release of new EP People in Glass Yachts with their characteristically big, boisterous live sound. Boy Girl Party and Teen Girl Scientist complete the 9 p.m., $7 bill. 250 State Street, New Haven. (203) 789-8281.
Sunday, May 3
From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Quinnipiac Marina (309 Front St, New Haven) hosts the sixth annual, family-friendly Quinnipiac Riverfest, where mouths get filled courtesy of the marina’s own restaurant, Anastasio’s Boat House Café, and local brewers Stony Creek, Two Roads and Overshores. Ears, meantime, are plied with nautical-friendly folk from Goodnight Blue Moon, mood-boosting roots rock from The Backyard Committee and smooth, urbane jazz-funk from the Jean Sandoval Quartet. And for the eyes, there are guided canoe rides along the Quinnipiac, for $5 a pop. Free to attend.
Written by Dan Mims. Image depicts detail of Antelope by Rod Cook (2015), courtesy of Kehler Liddell Gallery.
