This week blends great aspects of small-city living. There’s diverse music inside and out, a probing film screened at a central civic resource and a fun museum event for the kids, even as a couple of farms give New Haveners tastes of the pastoral life.
Monday, August 4
Pie—this time, in stone fruit varieties—is nigh this evening behind the Mitchell Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library (37 Harrison St, New Haven). Starting at 6:30 p.m., it’s the third of five weekly gatherings in the 2014 Beecher Park Summer Concert Series and Hi-Fi Pie Fest. The band is Profile, which keeps a distinctly tropical profile with its light and jaunty reggae. Those looking to enter the pie contest should show up early, between 5:30 and 6, with two “ready-to-eat” pies in tow.
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Tuesday, August 5
The day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, the FBI arrested the ailing father of a young Japanese-American woman named Yuri Kochiyama, suspecting he was a party to the plot. Despite having no hard evidence, the FBI held the elder Kochiyama for six weeks under stressful conditions; the day after his release, he died. Soon, daughter Yuri and the rest of her family were interned in concentration camps, first in California, then in Arkansas, where they stayed for the remainder of World War II.
The FBI caught black civil rights activist Angela Davis after a two-month nationwide manhunt in October 1970. In June, governor of California Ronald Reagan had fired her from a UCLA professorship for being an avowed Communist. Then, in August, after a third party killed a judge using a gun Davis had purchased, law enforcement issued a warrant for Davis’s arrest, despite having no other evidence of her involvement. Perhaps believing she couldn’t get a fair trial, she fled. In response, the FBI gave her a place on its “most wanted” list, making her just the third woman to achieve that dubious distinction. In 1972, she was tried and acquitted of all charges.
Both women endured, becoming important voices in various social justice movements. Tonight, the Ives Branch of the NHFPL (133 Elm St, New Haven; 203-946-8835) screens Mountains That Take Wing: Angela Davis & Yuri Kochiyama, capturing a thirteen-year dialogue between the two and weaving together some of modern America’s most formative moments. 5:30 p.m. Free.
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Wednesday, August 6
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station at Lockwood Farm (890 Evergreen Ave, Hamden) is hosting its 104th Plant Science Day today between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. A main tent hosts lectures on topics like “Climate Change and Agriculture: No Longer Business as Usual,” “Nanoparticles in Agriculture” and “Honey Bees and Bumble Bees—Their Problems, and What You Can Do to Help.” A technical demonstration tent, tours of the farm, barn exhibits, activities tailored to kids and a midday visit from Governor Malloy round out a vast and thoughtful program. Free and open to the public.
Thursday, August 7
It just wouldn’t be summer in New Haven without a slew of free outdoor concert series. Starting last week, the “Music in the Park” series joined the fray, with the next one tonight on Roberto Clemente Field (360 Columbus Ave, New Haven) featuring the boisterous, multigenerational, New Orleans-style brass band Kings of Harmony (pictured above in bundles during a winter 2013 appearance downtown). Based in town, the group features lots of trombone, a little French horn and marching band-like percussion split between snare drum, hi-hat, freestanding bass drum and tambourine.
Friday, August 8
At the Yale Farm (345 Edwards St, New Haven) summer Fridays are all about working, but they still offer a vacation from the normal grind by getting us outside and active. Through August 16, the farm, which is run by the Yale Sustainable Food Project, invites the public to come between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Fridays (and 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturdays) to help tend to “dozens of varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers,” plus chickens and honeybees. Don’t forget to “bring a water bottle and wear work- and weather-appropriate clothing.”
Saturday, August 9
Today, in addition to the normal fun stuff families can do at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History—like “dig for fossils and touch real dinosaur bones,” or get a good look at Apatosaurus (a.k.a. Brontosaurus) and Stegosaurus skeletons—there’s a special treat. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., a “Radio Disney Dino Dance Party,” helmed by “the Radio Disney Crew,” is entertaining the kids with “great music, dinosaur games, trivia and Disney-themed handouts and prizes.” This is also a good time to check out the limited-time exhibit Tiny Titans, which is showing off actual dinosaur eggs until September 1. All of it, including the dino dance party, roll up into the regular price of admission—$9 for adults, $8 for seniors (65+) and $5 for those aged 3-18. 170 Whitney Ave, New Haven; (203) 432-8987.
Sunday, August 10
An early music show can be a nice thing—the artist tends to be hungry, and there’s still daylight when the show lets out. DIY alt-folk singer/guitarist Darrin Bradbury is still going following seven years “dragging himself across America… to play in living rooms, basements, concert halls and colleges,” waxing and rasping about death as if it’s incidental and love as if it’s monumental. This afternoon at The Outer Space (295 Treadwell St, Hamden; 203-288-6400), Bradbury’s playing a 3 p.m. show for the amenable cover charge of $0.
Written and photographed by Dan Mims.
