#WeeklyColumn | Jan. 12 – Jan. 18
BY Michael Gillen
Dance Theatre of Harlem commemorates MLK Day in Queens this week. Great one-act plays, peace readings, freestyle rhythm, sound experiments, and art in response to inhumanity add to the scene. Here’s the rundown.
Jan. 12, Live Jazz, 8 pm. The Nat Adderley Jr. Trio performs as part of an ongoing music series on the first Thursday of every month. $10 suggested donation. Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, 161-04 Jamaica Ave.
Jan. 12, Act One: One Act, Jan. 28. A festival of almost 30 one-act pieces by playwrights from across the country. Each world-premiering work shows six times. $15/$18 at the door. The Secret Theatre, 44-02 23rd St., LIC.
Jan. 14, Michel Lauzière: Science of Sound, 1 pm. Lauzière uses basic scientific laws regarding sound to build bizarre contraptions and original instruments to play. Through the host’s funny way of transforming noise into music, he explains what sound is, how it travels, and how it is amplified with visual examples and audience participation. Workshop at 1 pm; show at 2:15 pm. Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd.
Jan. 14, Book Signing and Lecture, 1 pm. Railroad historian David Morrison, a retired LIRR manager, discusses his book Sunnyside Yard & Hell Gate Bridge and signs copies. Opened in 1910, Sunnyside Yard is still the world’s largest railroad passenger car storage yard. Free Greater Astoria Historical Society, 35-20 Broadway, LIC.
Jan. 14, Freestyle Take Over, 9 pm. A dance party with TKA/K7, Noel, Coro, Soave, Safire, Judy Torres, Cynthia, and others. Resorts World Casino New York City, 110-00 Rockaway Blvd., South Jamaica.
Jan. 14, Karaoke at the Movies, 6:30 pm. Disney’s Tarzan screens with words, and the audience sings along. Trivia contest with prizes beforehand. Dressing up as Disney characters is encouraged. $5. Queensborough Performing Arts Center, 222-05 56th Ave., Bayside.
Jan. 15, Dance Theatre of Harlem, 4 pm. This world famous troupe brings new life to classical ballet as part of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemoration. $35. Colden Auditorium at Kupferberg Center for the Arts, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing.
Jan. 15, Peace Table Readings, 2 pm to 5 pm. To honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day, participants read texts about peace gathered from many sources, cultures, and languages. Queens Museum, NYC Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Jan. 15, An Afternoon with a Visual Effects Master, 1 pm. Rob Legato is a visual effects supervisor whose credits include Apollo 13, Titanic, and Avatar. Using film clips, he explains his creative journey, his use of computer graphics in visual effects, and the technical and artistic achievements that mark his work. $15. Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria’s Kaufman Arts District.
Jan. 15, Tinker Lab Open House, 2 pm to 4 pm. Learn about an eight-week course on making electro light instruments. (The first Sunday-only class is on Jan. 22.) Free. Lewis H. Latimer House Museum, 34-41 137th St., Flushing.
Jan. 15, Disarming Geometries, March 26. This show displays artists who apply abstraction and geometry as organizing or fragmenting tools for processing unsettling characteristics of modern life. Opening reception is on Jan. 15 at 2 pm. Free. Dorsky Gallery, 11-03 43rd Ave., LIC.
Jan. 16, Two Trains Running, 11 am. Brunch and a Black Spectrum Theatre production of August Wilson’s play on changing attitudes on race from the perspective of African-Americans in a black majority neighborhood in Pittsburgh in 1969. $30 suggested donation/$15 for children under age 12. The Greater Allen AME Cathedral of New York, 110-31 Merrick Blvd., Jamaica, 718.206.4600.
Jan. 18, Self-Interned, 1942: Noguchi in Poston War Relocation Center, Jan. 7, 2018. This show marks the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wartime directive authorizing the internment of Japanese and Japanese-American citizens. Though exempt, Isamu Noguchi voluntarily stayed at the Poston War Relocation Center in the Arizona Desert. Using the experience as inspiration, he created a series of pieces. Noguchi Museum, 32-37 Vernon Blvd., LIC.
Jan. 18, Saving Jamaica Bay, 8 pm. The Queens County Bird Club presents the award-winning documentary Saving Jamaica Bay. Plus, the filmmaker, Dan Hendrick, discusses the area’s natural challenges. Free. Alley Pond Environmental Center, 228-06 Northern Blvd., Douglaston.
Continuing from last week:
First Look Festival, through Jan. 16. This annual showcase promotes groundbreaking film from more than 20 countries. Movies include John Wilson’s New York with director John Wilson in person (Jan. 13, 7 pm); A program of short films introduced by guest curator Mónica Savirón (Jan. 13, 7:30 pm); Reichstag 9/11 and other new films by Ken Jacobs with Jacobs in person (Jan. 14, 2 pm); Havarie (Jan. 14, 4 pm); Helmut Berger, Actor with director Andreas Horvath (Jan. 14, 4:30 pm); Depth Two with director Ognjen Glavonic (Jan. 14, 6:30 pm); Silencio (Jan. 15, 2 pm); Between the Fences (Jan. 15, 4 pm); How Heavy This Hammer with director Kazik Radwanski (Jan. 15, 4:30 pm); How I Fell in Love with Eva Ras (Jan. 15, 6:30 pm) Film After Film Shorts Program I (Jan. 16, 2 pm); Strange But True: Shorts Program II (Jan. 16, 3:30 pm). Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria’s Kaufman Arts District.
GingerBread Lane, until Jan. 15. More than 1,000 houses and other structures made of gingerbread, royal icing, and candy. On final day, the public can get edible pieces of the creation. New York Hall of Science, 47-01 111th St., Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
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Top photo: François Rousseau; bottom photo: Flushing Town Hall