Weekly Culture Round-Up: 9/27 – 10/3
Autumn is upon us, but it sure doesn’t feel like summer’s over just yet, with temperatures going well into the 80s and still so much to see and do. Put on your shorts and buckle-up for one last jaunt in the sun, because we’ve got you covered with the best in culture for this upcoming week.
The Golden Age of Apocalypse — Stephen Bruner is a Grammy award-winning bassist, producer, and singer perhaps best known for his collaborations with Flying Lotus, thrash band Suicidal tendencies, and Kendrick Lamar, appearing on the lattermost’s extraordinary, much beloved hit album, To Pimp a Butterfly. Assuming the moniker of Thundercat, affectionately taken from the cartoon of the same name, Bruner, in addition to collaborating with countless artists, has three critically acclaimed solo albums under his belt, including 2017’s Drunk, a multi-genre masterpiece that’s by turns somber and capricious—a spirited departure from his morbid prior work, influenced by the passing of friend and collaborator Austin Peralta in 2012. Thundercat brings his unique fusion of punk, jazz, and soul to Brooklyn Steel, September 30 and October 1.
Brooklyn Steel 9/30 & 10/1
Tickets
You Enjoy Life — French electropop trio Yelle sprang onto the international scene in the mid-2000s, first taking their native France by storm with their debut album Pop Up, a swanky mix of glitz and gloom, followed by Safari Disco Club, polishing the rough edges of their previous record and focusing more on lead vocalist and fashionista Julie Budet’s lyrical playfulness—en français, of course. While their most recent album was 2014’s Complètement fou, they released a single earlier this year, “Interpassion,” that anticipates another frolicsome, dance floor-friendly record on the horizon. See what the hype from overseas is all about when they perform at Rough Trade NYC this weekend.
Rough Trade NYC 9/29, 9/30, & 10/1
Tickets
Meditation on an Atrocity — Sơn Mỹ village, South Vietnam, March 16, 1968: a date that would truly live in infamy. The Mỹ Lai Massacre is one of the single largest mass killings of non-combatants by US military forces in the 20th century and considered by historians to be the most shockingly violent episode of the Vietnam War. US Army helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson Jr. risked his life in an effort to mitigate the massacre and save numerous victims in the process, later becoming a key witness in testifying against the war criminals responsible, members of the US Army Americal Division. Composer Jonathan Berger and the phenomenal Kronos Quartet have come together to create a challenging and unforgettable musical theater experience that reflects on Thompson’s sacrifice of duty as a soldier in the face of absolute inhumanity. BAM hosts the New York premiere of My Lai, September 27 through September 30.
BAM 9/27-9/30
Tickets
A Murder of Crows — Brooklyn Museum and the French Institute Alliance Française present the New York premiere of dance performance art piece Corbeaux (Crows) from Moroccan choreographer Bouchra Ouizguen as part of the “Crossing the Line” festival an initiative to provide exposure for renowned international artists looking to make a splash across the pond in New York City. A locative artwork and sculpture-come-alive that swirls an accomplished company of costumed dancers around and around, forming hypnotic patterns through silent repetition before erupting into a cacophony of primal exertions, Corbeaux is a sui generis performance piece that entrances viewers and doesn’t let them go even as they’re standing right out in the open city air.
Brooklyn Museum 9/30 & 10/1
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Shorts at the Stoop — Join BRIC for a celebration of important contemporary films from women of color, hosted by Reel Sisters, the first Brooklyn-based festival responsible for showcasing more than 1,200 films by female filmmakers from over the last two decades. Five shorts will be screened, ranging from kitchen-sink, social realist dramas concerned with the traumatizing and even fatal effects of police brutality to moody melodramas exploring gender roles and race in the modern age. Kim Singleton, part of the Reel Sisters Advisory Board and host of the Consider it Blacklit television and film review web series, will be moderating a conversation on race, justice, and politics with a variety of local filmmakers, such as Michael A. Pinckney.
BRIC 10/3
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