This is a week for brainy appreciation of brawny and agile engagement with the arts.
Monday, August 22
The Connecticut Open pro women’s tennis tournament, happening at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale (45 Yale Ave, New Haven; 877-896-2908), hits its stride this week, featuring “legendary” men’s competition, too. The action picks up today with a 12 p.m. day session, including a match with annual crowd favorite and former world’s top-ranked player Caroline Wozniacki, and a 7 p.m. night session, in which another perennial favorite, Petra Kvitova, fights to advance. Today’s stadium box seats cost $32 or $16 for children under age 14, with discounts for double-session tickets and premiums for courtside tickets. To catch both sexes in action, Thursday’s and Friday’s evening sessions present a “Men’s Legends” mini-draw featuring heavy hitters from tennis history: John McEnroe, Andy Roddick, James Blake and Mark Philippoussis.
Tuesday, August 23
The Wilson Branch Library (303 Washington Ave, New Haven; 203-946-2228) invites kids to get a small taste of the 1950s—“by playing games.” Instruments of this education include hula hoops, hopscotch arrays “and more!” 4 p.m. Free.
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Wednesday, August 24
Each free Wednesday show at BAR is markedly different from the last, but this week’s ranges further thanks to “indie-folk” headliner Pigpen Theatre Co.’s “unique brand of music, film and theatre.” Opening the show is local “chamber-folk” band Kindred Queer, with New York-based “alt-folk” band Morningsiders in the middle. 9:30 p.m. 254 Crown Street, New Haven.
Thursday, August 25
Yale’s been getting an infusion of brains since yesterday, when its upperclassmen dorms reopened for a new semester. But some of Yale’s brains never leave—particularly the ones inside the medical school’s Cushing Center, where they rest in amber liquid and glass. “Named for Yale College graduate Dr. Harvey Cushing, regarded as the father of modern neurosugery, the Center includes more than 400 specimen jars of patients’ brains and tumors,” for starters, and it’s yours for the touring today at 2 p.m. inside Sterling Hall of Medicine. Free. 333 Cedar Street, New Haven.
Friday, August 26
The New Haven Jazz Festival’s big tentpole concert—headlined by the acclaimed Christian Sands Quartet (whose leader grew up in New Haven) tomorrow on the New Haven Green (where the first act hits the stage at 6 p.m.)—is part of a whole week of worthy shows, most at intimate venues. Jazz Week, as it’s called, starts tonight with a solo performance from pianist Helen Sung at Lyric Hall (827 Whalley Ave, New Haven; 203-389-8885), where tickets cost $10 in advance or $15 at the door.
Saturday, August 27
Over the course of a mere six days, the U.S. Peace Council’s “peace and fact-finding delegation” to war-torn Syria somehow met with “a wide-ranging number of civil society organizations, non-violent opposition forces and parties, Muslim and Christian religious leaders, students, business leaders, victims of war and violence, members of the Syrian Bar Association, women’s rights activists, parliamentarians from different political parties and high-level government officials”—including “a nearly two-hour meeting with President Bashar Al-Assad.” Even more surprising, perhaps, is the conclusion that the conflict in Syria “is not a civil war but a foreign-imposed invasion,” and that “what we saw goes against everything we read in the United States.” Evaluate their findings for yourself today at Mitchell Library (67 Harrison St, New Haven; 203-946-8117), where the USPC’s local chapter presents the commission’s report at 2 p.m. Free.
Sunday, August 28
Subversive, heavy fringe-rock legends and self-described “ceaseless idiots” The Melvins (pictured above) bring their often sludgy, sometimes playful sound to the Ballroom at The Outer Space tonight for a two-act bill starting at 9 p.m. The opener, Helms Alee, also lays claim to the fringe mantle, with a brain-tickling balance of elongated grooves, head-banging riffs and extravagant moments. $20. 295 Treadwell Street, Hamden. (203) 288-6400.
Written by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
