We’ve got your weekend: From Lunar Lagniappe to pizza poems

Lee Friedlander, New Orleans, Louisiana,1958, Gelatin silver print, Private Collection, San Francisco, EL.2018.7.1

Wednesday April 25/Contemporary Arts Center (900 Camp Street): With all this talk about Jazz Fest, many of you may be moved to dance. Well, this Wednesday isn’t actually an opportunity to dance at the CAC (we can all still the dream, though), but it is an opportunity to see the V4 Dance Festival, bringing together some of the boldest dance-makers from The Visegrád Group (V4), the cultural and political alliance of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Artists from these countries come together for this two-day festival of Central European contemporary dance, offering samples hypnotic, tongue-in-cheek humdrum of everyday. The festival will feature performances by Debris Company (Slovakia), Věra Ondrašíková (Czech Republic), Paweł Sakowicz (Poland) and Timothy and the Things (Hungary). It all happens April 25 through April 17 (7:00 PM and 8:30 PM shows). Tickets are and full details can be found here.

Thursday, April 26/Marigny Opera House (725 St. Ferdinand Street): Maybe this Thursday evening, you’re looking for something new set in some place old. Well, lucky for you, Versipel New Music will be featuring Boston’s Hub New Music in their New Orleans debut concert. The ensemble will perform works from its project Soul House by Robert Honstein and Anna Clyne along with music by Laura Kaminsky and the world premiere Looking-Glass Insects by Versipel’s Assistant Director Philip Schuessler. The show begins at 7:00 PM and tickets are donation-based. For more information about Versipel and the concert, check out their event here.

Thursday, April 26/TREO (3835 Tulane Avenue): There are many things we are awesome at in New Orleans, and one of them is partying for a cause. You can join Krewe de Lune for their annual Lunar Lagniappe, a benefit for the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice // Congress of Day Laborers/Congreso de Jornaleros. There will be salsa dancing, boiled crawfish, fried catfish and jambalaya from Clesi’s Restaurant & Catering, performances by The Star-Steppin’ Cosmonaughties, Nola Cherry Bombs & The Nola Petty Betties, and so much more. It all begins at 7:00 PM, and you can find out full details here.

Friday, April 27/So many pizza places: You know we just said that we are amazing at partying for a cause in New Orleans? Add “eating for a cause” to that list of our “greats” become on Friday, April 27, hot pizza comes with a fresh poem by New Orleans youth. Big Class is partnering with pizza delivery to bring you pizza and poems to help support their after school programs. Which pizza places on Friday? You can order pickup or delivery from any of these Pizza Partners to receive a poem:
Mid City Pizza
Pizza Delicious
Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza (all locations)
Reginelli’s Pizzeria (Elmwood, Garden District, Lakeview, and Uptown locations)
Homegrown Pizza
Midway Pizza

Friday, April 27/Kruttschnitt Place, Bayou Road and N. Dorgenois (across the street from King & Queen Emporium and Pagoda Cafe): If you haven’t been following all the work of Paper Monuments, take this moment to either give them a search or come out to their event on Friday. They will be holding their “Paper Monuments’ Stories at the Crossroads,” which is a community storytelling space held at key sites of symbolic power in New Orleans. This month at “Crossroads,” they will provide a platform for storytellers who will focus on narratives of education and criminal justice, in reflection of the long-reaching impact of Ernest Kruttschnitt (for whom the park in which they will gather is named) and the 1898 Jim Crow state constitution he helped pass. You can make history on the sites of history from 1:00 PM until 3:00 PM on Friday. For more details, check out their event page here.

Friday, April 27/New Orleans Museum of Art (1 Collins Diboll Circle): If you are feeling snappy on Friday, head over to The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) for their opening exhibition Lee Friedlander in Louisiana. Lee Friedlander (American, born 1934), is one of the most famous living American photographers, and in this exhibit he explores the ways in which Louisiana, and New Orleans in particular, have had a profound impact on his career. It will exhibit Friedlander’s significance as a documentarian of the local music community, just in time for Jazz Fest. Comprised of vintage prints and never before seen images, the photographs of jazz musicians, monuments, and street life demonstrate how Louisiana has been central to the development of one of the country’s most influential photographers.