Arts roundup: Live performances boot up as pandemic restrictions loosen in Sacramento
The Sacramento area is rife with arts opportunities in April. Whether you enjoy books, theater, music, or art, there is something for everyone.
April 1: The Crocker Art Museum hosts “Spring Break Fun at Home: Create Your Own Picture Book.” In this Zoom session, kids will start by looking at stories in the art at the Crocker, then use new stories to make their own picture books. More information at crockerart.org.
April 2-11: Sacramento Theatre Company presents “The Very Thought of You: The Songbook of Billie Holiday.” This cabaret stars Miranda D. Lawson in a one-woman show recounting the incredible life of Billie Holiday through song and story. Tickets are available at sactheatre.org.
April 7: The Manetti Shrem Museum will host another visiting artist lecture, this time featuring Andrea Bowers. Through documenting contemporary activists focused on women’s rights, migrant justice, workers’ rights and climate justice, Bowers is committed to an intersectional feminism that dismantles gender privilege and builds community that collectively cares for one another. Bowers lives and works in Los Angeles. Bowers’ work is currently included in two exhibitions at the Manetti Shrem Museum. Those interested can register at manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu.
April 8: The Crocker will host a special program via Zoom, “Regional Native American Artists Showcase.” The event will feature Meyo Marrufo, Melissa Melero-Moose and Shelly Covert, and highlight five regional Native and California Indian artists. Each artist will share their stories, process, and imagery in a rich visual presentation. Register at crockerart.org.
April 9-18: Sacramento Theatre Company will present “The Addams Family: Quarantined Concert Version.” This show is a comical feast that embraces the wackiness in every family, features an original story and it’s every father’s nightmare: Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family – a man her parents have never met. Performed by students, this show will be recorded and streamed to you. The show has two different casts, and tickets are available at sactheatre.org.
April 14: the Mondavi Center presents The Fry Street Quartet as part of their “Homestage” series. The performance is in conjunction with Professors Elizabeth Miller and Andrew Latimer’s SHAPE course, “Envisioning Climate Futures.” SHAPE (Science, Humanities and Arts: Process and Engagement) is a special project, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which links science and engineering, together with the arts and humanities in a new set of undergraduate courses. A link to the concert will be available at www.mondaviarts.org.
April 15: UC Davis Humanities Institute will host the second event in its “Reframing Sacramento: A Dialogue between Artists, Humanists and Community Advocates” series, this one entitled “Black Sacramento.” These online discussions are free and open to the public. This month, Milmon Harrison, a UC Davis professor of African American and African studies and Center for Sacramento History community advisory committee member, will lead a discussion of his Black California oral history project and the significance of the Black presence in Sacramento. Harrison will be joined by a group of his students, along with UC Davis alumnus Clarence Caesar, retired historian for the California State Office of Historic Preservation; filmmaker Susheel Bibbs; and Ron Kelley, owner of R. Kelley Farms. Register for this event at the UC Davis website.
April 15: The Crocker will present film series “The (Un) Expected City.” Curated by local filmmaker Dan Janos, “The (un) Expected City” presents five short films by local creatives on the 916 they inhabit. From April 15 to 18, visit the Crocker’s blog, The Oculus, each day for a new film that winds its way through parts familiar and hidden in Sacramento. For more information go to crockerart.org.
April 21: The Mondavi Center Homestage concert will be a virtual open mic night. Expect music, poetry, dance, spoken word, comedy and storytelling. It will be hosted by Denisha “Coco Blossom” Bland. It is presented in partnership with ASUCD Entertainment Council and Sacramento Area Youth Speaks. Performances must be submitted for consideration by April 2. The event can be seen at www.mondaviarts.org and on Mondavi Arts’ Facebook page.
April 22: The Crocker will host “Three Women, One Story, and the Generational Power of Native American Art” in a livestream format. Author and editor Kate Nelson discusses the life and work of Pablita Velarde, Helen Hardin and Margaret Bagshaw (mother, daughter and granddaughter, respectively), through an insightful journalistic lens. Nelson has documented colorful and varied stories of New Mexico from her base in the Sandía Mountain foothills, near Albuquerque. Nelson’s book, “Helen Hardin: A Straight Line Curved,” is on sale in the Museum Store. For more information on this event and to register, go to crockerart.org.
April 22: The Manetti Shrem Museum will host visiting artist lecture “Arnold Joseph Kemp in Conversation with Sampada Aranke.” Arnold J. Kemp has made and exhibited critically engaging art for 25 years. The materials employed in his interdisciplinary practice absorb or reflect light while mirroring likeness, becoming haunted and ghostly metaphors for absented and obfuscated Black bodies. Kemp lives and works in Chicago, where he is professor and dean of graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kemp will give a reading of his poetry, then discuss the relationship between language and the aesthetics presented in his paintings, photographs and sculpture with the exhibit’s curator, Manetti Shrem Museum scholar-in-residence Sampada Aranke. Register at manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu.
April 24: The STC School of the Arts will present “Curtains Up 2021: Stages, Screens, and Stars.” The Sacramento Theatre Company’s mission is to be the leader in integrating professional theater with theater arts education. This is a student-organized event and performance. Curtains Up will feature several performance options including an outdoor performance, a limited performance on the main stage and a virtual option. More information is available at sactheatre.org.
April 25: The Mondavi Center Homestage concert is the Alexander String Quartet. The quartet is focusing on the work of Mozart for their 2021 concerts. The San Francisco group considers the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre to be their second home. This event is available at www.mondaviarts.org.
Ongoing: B Street Theatre is offering many online entertainment options on a weekly basis. From music to social justice to improv, there’s something for everyone. They are also offering virtual acting classes for adults and children. Learn more about how to take advantage of these opportunities at bstreattheatre.org.