We’ve got your weekend: Music, memories, and museums

Wednesday, May 8/Lafayette Square: You know one of the best parts about living in New Orleans? When Jazz Fest ends, we know the festivities are just beginning. To satiate our love of outdoor air, dancing with loved ones (or strangers), and music, we have Wednesdays in the square. This Wednesday is Cyril Neville’s Swampfunk with Miss Mojo. The headliner performs from 6:30 – 8 PM, and the opening act from 5:00 – 6:00 PM. As always, this is free and open to the public. 

Thursday, May 9/New Orleans African American Museum of Art, Culture and History (1418 Governor Nicholls St, New Orleans):  Paper Monuments has been holding workshops and working with the community to imagine new monuments for New Orleans. Pairing artists and writers, this organization prints posters every month that tell about history and truth. Now you can see all of those posters in one spot. “Paper Monuments Claiming Space” is an exhibition by Colloqate Design that chronicles its 40 commissioned posters and public art pieces that examine contemporary monuments, memory, social justice, art and design as well as storytelling hosted by the newly reopened New Orleans African American Museum in Tremé. This exhibition begins at 6:00 PM and goes until 9:00 PM. You can find out full details here. 

Friday, May 10/New Orleans African American Museum of Art, Culture and History (1418 Governor Nicholls St, New Orleans): Once you’ve moved through the “Paper Monuments Claiming Space” exhibition, you can get ready to talk babies on Friday night. Birthmark Doulas is partnering with local storytelling series Bring Your Own and the New Orleans African American Museum to host Babies: Stories about having (and not having) one, being one, and everything in between. Bring Your Own is live storytelling event, so you can sit back, relax, and listen or join in the storytelling fun. It all begins at 7:00 PM, with stories beginning at 7:30 PM. For full details on the event, you can check it out here. 

Friday, May 10/Marigny Opera House (725 Saint Ferdinand Street): The Polymnia Quartet are making quite the name for themselves in the New Orleans classical music world. The quartet has performed for New Orleans Opera Association’s productions of Maria de Buenos Aires and As One, and their educational collaborations have included masterclasses for the Birdfoot Festival in New Orleans and a side-by-side with the Magnolia Concert Society Chamber Orchestra in Gulfport, MS. They currently serve as Ensemble-in-Residence for the New Orleans Friends of Music’s Open Your Ears educational initiative, but on Friday, you can hear the beauty of their music. They will be performing String Quartet in G major, Op. 76, No. 1  by Franz Joseph Haydn and String Quartet No. 1, “Kreutzer Sonata” by Leoš Janáček. The concert begins at 7:30, and there is a $20 suggested donation. For full details on the event, you can check it out here. 

Saturday, May 11/Newcomb Art Museum (Woldenberg Art Center #202, Newcomb Circle): In conjunction with their current exhibition “Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana,”
Newcomb Art Museum is hosting  a variety of free activities designed to celebrate motherhood and
raise awareness of the challenges facing formerly and currently incarcerated women in Louisiana. On Saturday, from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM, Artist jackie summell, creator of “A Solitary Garden for Incarcerated Moms,” will lead a flower-focused crafting afternoon (including a Mother’s Day card making workshop) for participants of all-ages. From 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM there will be an in-depth tour of the current exhibition. And, there are musical performances to follow that and finish out the day. 

Saturday, May 11/Staple Goods (1340 St Roch Avenue): If you have not been out to see local artist, Norah Lovell’s, work then this weekend is your chance. Her exhibit Everything is Unknown,  presents two large scale, multi-component paintings comprised of fragmented narratives from unexpected sources. Her series is informed in part by map-making, stargazing, soothsaying, and detective fiction and represents an attempt to make an adequate blueprint at complex, personal life crossroads. See why we’re sending you here this weekend? The series references ancient Etruscan augury maps that mysteriously conflate bodily and celestial systems. Also, laser cutting is involved! Opening reception will take place from 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM. 

Saturday, May 11/Second Story Gallery (2372 St. Claude Avenue):  The Second Story Gallery is opening their newest exhibit, Memento Mori, a group invitational exhibition presenting the work of more than 30 New Orleans-area artists. The exhibition will open Saturday, May 11, with a reception to meet the artists, open to the public, from 6:00 to 9:30 PM. If you can’t make the opening, the exhibit is open daily from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM, and the show will run through June 27. Admission is free.