Post-Labor Day, autumnal impulses to reflect and contemplate gain serious ground on summer’s easy-breezy feelings. But there’s still plenty of visceral fun to be had this week, and it’s got a great soundtrack.
Monday, September 7 – Labor Day
The 20-kilometer course at this morning’s Faxon Law New Haven Road Race has people running westerly to start—from the New Haven Green to Broadway Triangle to SCSU to Edgewood Park—and easterly to finish—from Wooster Square to Fair Haven to East Rock Park and back to the Green. Organizers say “approximately” 14 musical acts, “including bag pipes and DJs,” are expected to dot the course, as are “large crowds” of spectators. Whichever side of the barricades you’re on, the Green is the place to be—it’s not only the site of the starting and finishing lines of both the 20k and the 5k races, it’s also the midpoint of the former. Both runs get started at 8:40 a.m., after a “Kids Fun Run” at 8:15.
Tuesday, September 8
Visiting Yale today is Robert Frost, not the dead poet but the notable academic, who teaches at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and is “the most important historian of early modern Poland outside of Poland itself,” according to organizers. At 5 p.m. in Luce Hall (34 Hillhouse Ave, New Haven), Frost speaks about “The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385-1569,” charting the underpinnings of an odd historical phenomenon in which two nations elected to become one, and an even rarer phenomenon in which a third nation forced the first two to walk it back.
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Wednesday, September 9
600 kilometers south of Poland is the northern border of the Balkan Peninsula, channeled today in Hamden for a purpose that’s considerably less cerebral than a history talk. 1253 Whitney, a community space named after its street address, hosts a $12 “Balkan Dance Blowout!” featuring fresh takes on the music and dance of the region. Headlined by the West Philadelphia Orchestra, which aims to “inspire audiences to hold hands, gyrate, howl and otherwise slip the yoke of their inhibitions,” and featuring local acts Harris Brothers Balkan Band and Orkestar BAM!, there’s a dance lesson at 7 p.m., with the main-event dance party kicking off at 7:30. By the way, 1253 Whitney is also hosting the Whitneyville Fall Festival, “celebrating everything
Thursday, September 10
Professional magician-turned-paranormal investigator William Hall, who lives in Plainville, is giving a talk tonight at R.J. Julia (768 Boston Post Rd, Madison; 203-245-3959) to discuss his new book, The Haunted House Diaries: The True Story of a Quiet Connecticut Town in the Center of a Paranormal Mystery. Its front cover plays the part, with a washed-out black-and-white photo of an old house and bright red splatter around the title. But it’s the cover’s tag line that pushes things into really far-out territory, promising talk of “ghosts, aliens and holes in space and time” within the state’s seemingly sleepy Litchfield Hills area—which, as the event description puts it, “may also be the site of a secret military base.” 7 p.m. Free.
Friday, September 11
Female artists headline a big stage and a small stage tonight and you can probably catch both. First up is Cat Power, a.k.a. Chan Marshall, whose powerful, crystalline pipes bounce sound around College Street Music Hall (238 College St, New Haven; 877-987-6487; $40) atop an 8 p.m. bill, with Willy Mason opening. A few blocks away and a couple hours later at Cafe Nine (250 State St, New Haven; 203-789-8281), quirky indie trio And The Kids (pictured above) finishes a lineup starting at 10 p.m. with “orchestral folk” act Olive Tiger, and prolific local favorite Ports of Spain anchoring the middle. $10, or $8 in advance.
Saturday, September 12
Put on by CT Folk, the free-to-attend 2015 Connecticut Folk Festival and concurrent Green Expo plunk down in Edgerton Park (75 Cliff St, New Haven) today, with the festival lasting from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and the expo from 11 to 5. 13 eclectic acts—among them a Grammy-nominated bluegrass quartet, a pair of celebrity ukulelists and a soulful 18-year-old singer-songwriter who was named “Bostonian of the Year” by The Boston Globe Magazine a few years back—are scheduled for the main stage, in addition to a contra dance called by Bill Fischer and soundtracked by The Fiddleheads. On the expo side, gobs of vendors include “more than 75 ‘green living’ exhibitors” and several sellers of food and drink, like Thai Spice, Lalibela, Libby’s and Ashley’s. You can also BYO foodstuffs, FYI.
Sunday, September 13
Capping off its Arresting Patterns exhibit, which strives to “uncover the often-overlooked patterns” of racism in America’s justice system—and which ends its 2-month run today—Artspace is partnering with Yale University Art Gallery to present a free two-day conference focused on “the interplay between race, artistic expression, mass incarceration and varying perspectives on justice.” Nearly all of the program’s events—from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. yesterday and 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. today—are hosted by YUAG (1111 Chapel Street, New Haven; 203-432-0600), with a closing reception taking things over to Artspace (50 Orange St, New Haven; 203-772-2709) from 5 to 7 this evening.
Written by Dan Mims. Photographed by Joanna Chattman. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.
