We’ve got your weekend: Retreat, dance, bingo, and fest! Sounds about right!

Event pick of the week: Abundance Fall Fest, hosted by LynHaven Retreat

Lynhaven Retreat — a place to support women and create a memory. (Photo: Lynhaven)

When: Saturday, November 16 from 11:00 AM until 5:00 PM

Where: 21669 Old Covington Hwy in Hammond, hosted on an 18-acre property

Why: Because we love any organization that helps women, and Lynhaven Retreat helps to provide women in need with vocational training that will help them find purpose. Through the New Orleans Mission’s Women’s Discipleship Program at Lynhaven, hurting women can escape the distractions of the city and focus on their physical, emotional and spiritual recovery while learning valuable skills that will help them become independent. Currently, there are more than 30 women in the program who live on site, and this Abudance Fall Fest will mark the official grand opening of Lynhaven as an events center under the umbrella of the New Orleans Mission. The fest will include live music, a chili
cook-off, local food vendors, arts and craft vendors, and a kids’ zone with face-painting, games and
activities; and an outdoor big-screen display of the LSU game. This event is free and open to the public. 

And now for the rest of the WEEK(end)

Goat in the Road is holding their Bingo Night fundraising on Friday, November 15. (Photo: Goat in the Road Productions)

Wednesday, November 13/The Cove at UNO (Founders Road, 2000 Lakeshore Drive): Jazz at the Sandbar is in full speed, and they are continuing their UNO series with trombonist Jon Ramm on Wednesday. Jazz at the Sandbar, held at UNO’s the Cove, is designed to provide UNO Jazz Studies students an opportunity to get real life experience performing with respected professional musicians in front of a live audience. The series is presented on Wednesday nights during the fall and spring semesters and features a different respected jazz artist each week. The concert is free for the UNO community, and there is a suggested donation of $10 to the general public. The concert begins at 7:00 PM.

Wednesday, November 13/The ALLways Lounge (2240 Saint Claude Avenue): There are a few ways to keep warm during a cold front, and this one we can tell you about — it’s blues dancing at The ALLways Lounge with The Bryce Eastwood Band. No dance partner needed and no experience needed; although you might find both during the evening. There’s no cover charge for this night of dancing and music, but they do ask for a band donation between $5-20 because we all love our musicians. No one is turned away (they love you too!)for lack of funds. The dancing begins at 7:00 PM, and you can find out full details here. 

Friday, November 15/Catapult (609 Saint Ferdinand Street): It’s time to show your smarts and support the arts because Goat in the Road is having their Fourth Annual Bingo Night. Hosted by Ian Hoch, Bingo Night will have free food, a cash bar,  prizes, acerbic wit, and Bingo rounds (over 30!) all night long. Proceeds from the event will support GRP’s 2019 – 20 season and beyond, which includes: Play/Write, Goat in the Schools, Gallier House Project, and KindHumanKind. Bingo night starts at 5:00 PM and goes until 10:00 PM. It’s $10 – $30 online or at the door, and you can find out full details on their event page. 

Friday, November 15/Vintage Rock Club (1007 Poydras Street): You ready for a throwback on a Friday? Good, because Vintage Rock Club, New Orleans’ first throwback bar and video music experience venue, is having the final event of its four-part series, “Rock of Ages,” celebrating Rock & Roll of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. On Friday, November 15, you can travel back to the 80s with food, drinks, dancing and hair bands! A $20 ticket gets guests early entry from 7:00 -10:00 PM with food and a Vintage Rock Club guitar pick good for one free drink! The club will be open to the public from 10:00 PM – 2:00 AM. You can get your tickets and learn more about the event here. All proceeds from the event’s ticket sales will benefit Wishes, Wonders & Who Dats, a regional affiliate of the Make a Wish Foundation, a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) charity and with the mission to grant wishes that change the lives of critically ill children.

Saturday, November 16/New Orleans Museum of Art (1 Collins Diboll Circle): The New Orleans Museum of Art is opening the exhibit Inventing Acadia: Painting and Place in Louisiana, the first major exhibition on Louisiana landscape painting in more than 40 years. On view at NOMA November 16, 2019 through January 26, 2020, the exhibition explores the rise of landscape painting in Louisiana during the 19th century, revealing its role in creating—and exporting—a new vision for American landscape art that was vastly different than that to be found in the rest of the United States. From the early 19^th century onwards, Louisiana’s dense forests and tangled, impenetrable swamplands—branded as Acadie, or Acadia—came to represent America’s fascination with untamed wilderness. This exhibit show the different depictions and interpretations. And, remember, Wednesdays are free for LA residents! 

Saturday, November 16-Sunday, November 17 (Armstrong Park): You’re about to get a double dip of pleasure because the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation will be holding two of its popular festivals on one weekend – Treme Creole Gumbo Festival and Congo Square Rhythms Festival. The festivals will take place Saturday, November 16 and Sunday, November 17 in Congo Square and Louis Armstrong Park. There will be two stages of music celebrating the New Orleans traditions that spring from the African diaspora: jazz, funk, contemporary and traditional brass band, gospel and rhythm & blues, and there will be gumbo. Lots and lots of gumbo. This event is free and open to the public (you have to buy the gumbo, though, of course). It all begins at 11:00 AM, and for more details you can check out their event page here.