November 1

  • “Livable Communities at All Ages”: Coralette Hannon from AARP will be the keynote speaker at this event; panelist speakers include Jim Finley of CT Conference of Municipalities, Julia Evans Starr of CT Commission on Aging, Nancy Roberts of CT Council for Philanthropy, and Dawn Lambert of Department of Social Services. This will take place from 9am-12:30pm in the Legislative Office Building.
  • The Wadsworth Atheneum’s First Thursday party, Art After Hours, has a Moulin Rouge theme this month. After touring the Medieval to Monet exhibit, you can watch the Connecticut Ballet give a can-can demonstration. Bated Breath Theatre will perform, and, visitors can make their own tarot cards. The event goes from 5-8pm; $5 admission for those who are not museum members.

November 1-4

Free French Film Weekend: The Well Digger’s Daughter (La Fille du Puisatier), Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis), The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (La Passion de Jeanne D’Arc), The Princess Of Montpensier (La Princesse de Montpensier), Cyrano De Bergerac, Perfume: Story Of A Murderer, and Farewell, My Queen (Adieux à la Reine). These range from PG to R to NR and include films with subtitles, that are in English, and are silent. These are showing at the Wadsworth Atheneum.

November 2

RIDE: The Dirt Salon celebrates its one year anniversary with a group exhibition of contemporary art. Sculpture, video, painting, and yarn bombing to be displayed at 50 Bartholomew Avenue, 7:30pm.

November 3

  • Free admission to museum galleries at the Connecticut Historical Society from 9-5. There will also be family programming and a gallery talk for the Tiny Art: Connecticut Poster Stamps exhibit.
  • “Walk of Light” at Cedar Hill Cemetery. This is a sunset candlelight vigil for lost loved ones. There will be poetry and music. This starts at 5pm. Free.
  • Echo & Drake will give a benefit show in Wilde Auditorium on the University of Hartford campus. Proceeds will go to the Hartford/Ocotal Sister City Project. The show starts at 7pm. Tickets can be obtained in advance.
  • Día de los Muertos acoustic celebration at La Paloma Sabanera. Donna Gentile, “Rob the Drummer,” Justin Migliorisi, Angela Luna, and Dave Giardina will be performing. The audience is asked to dress festively and is invited to bring a candle or photos of ancestors for the altar. Suggested donation: $10; music starts at 7:30pm.

November 3 and 4

There will be high fashion in Parkville.

Fashion is wearable art, and you can come browse this exhibit of vintage and high end textile and jewelry for free. Pieces designed by Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, and Schiaparelli, among others, will be on display at 1429 Park Street, in the Design Center. This art can be bought; proceeds support the Wadsworth Atheneum. Saturday, 10-5. Sunday, 12-5.

November 4

The Connecticut Veterans Parade will take place in Downtown on Trinity, Pearl, and Main. It is due to start at 12:30. There will be a moment of silence at 1:30pm. A wreath-laying ceremony at the Arch precedes the parade– 11:30am.

November 5

Real Art Ways has an ongoing Monday Matinée. Today’s film is Himalaya, from 1999. RAW describes the film: “In a remote village in the Dolpo in the northwestern Himalayas of Nepal, Tinle, a charismatic old chief, has just lost his eldest son. He refuses to allow his son’s friend Karma, whom he holds responsible for his son’s death, to lead a caravan of yaks. Karma defies the old man’s anger and the shaman’s advice and moves the caravan, with the help of other village youtha, before the date set by the ritual. On the day indicated by the gods, Tinle gets together the village elderly and sets out on the same journey with his second son and his grandson, who is destined to be the next chief.” Refreshments are available at 1pm; the film starts at 1:30. General admission, $8. Members, $5.

November 6

Look, you could sit in front of the television at home, in sad isolation, while the election results come in, or, you could find a place to be around others where your cursing out the results will at least be heard. WNPR’s John Dankosky and Colin McEnroe will broadcast live from the Real Art Ways cinema. Things will get started around 6pm. It’s free. Remember: real life support group!

November 8

Other People’s Stories: Get up on stage and tell a story that was told to you by someone else. It can’t be about something you’ve witnessed and you can’t use notes. Too much? Sit and listen to others. This begins at 7:30pm at La Paloma Sabanera.

November 9

  • Rafael Angel Carrasco-Vazquez’s paintings of Puerto Rico will be on display at the Park Street branch of the Hartford Public Library; tonight is the opening reception from 5-7pm.
  • The Nat Reeves Quartet will be performing at the Polish National Home (60 Charter Oak Ave). The show begins at 8pm. There is free parking. General admission is $15; Students and Hartford residents, $10.

November 9 and 10

Going Green the Wong Way: Kabbalah Arts and Cultural Cafe (1023 Albany Ave.) will host . Ticket prices vary; nobody will be turned away for lack of funds. Reservations required for groups (860-548-9144 ) otherwise, this is first come, first seated. 7:30pm.

November 10 and 11

The 23rd annual Open Studio takes place from 11-5 on both days. For this, have comfortable shoes and a strategy, or else you’ll likely find yourself overwhelmed in a crowded space. If you like the mall experience of many stores in one place, then ArtSpace is a natural choice, but be warned — you won’t be the first or even 100th person to have that idea. You might try starting at other studios in Hartford and working your way into that frenzy. Studios at 56 Arbor Street have handbags, jewelry, hand-bound journals, creative journaling experiences, paintings and mixed media. They also have art by people with Alzheimers and creations by those in a vocational program. Hartford Prints! and Scapegoat Garden are also housed at 56 Arbor Street. While here, you might as well walk across the parking lot and visit 30 Arbor Street where there are watercolors, photography, multimedia, and more, including the Arbor Street Potters whose work has a Burtonesque quality to it. Within walking distance is the Dirt Salon, at 50 Bartholomew Avenue: interior gardens, masks, india ink, digital photomontage, paintings, and gluten-free & vegan cakes and pastries. Heading out of Parkville, you might stop at the Studio at Billings Forge on Broad Street in Frog Hollow where the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts will give readings and performances.

In Downtown, you’ll find it’s easy to spend hours between Union Station and ArtSpace, where all bases are covered: ceramics, contemporary folk art sculpture, scarves, beads, clocks, clay sculptures, dichroic glass, paintings, handbags, wood, leather, paintings, and yoga.

Just up the street from here, into Asylum Hill, is Maurice D. Robertson’s photography. He says, “working with light as an intimate partner in this voyage has increased my sensitivity and awareness of the constant unfoldment of life and its myriad plots in both performance and in nature.” Some say that you have not lived in Hartford unless you’ve rented a room from a certain individual in Frog Hollow. I think a better measure is whether or not you’ve met Maurice.

It looks like the Colt Building is trying to get back into the arts thing. This used to be the spot for artists until they were all evicted when the plan was to turn the studios into upscale units. This year there will be works by over thirty artists on display at Colt Gateway, including photography, photo grids on steel boxes, celebrity portraits in oil, cooking demonstrations, mobile sculptures, lithographs, and paintings.

Exhausted yet? Other participants in Open Studio include the Hartford Artisans Weaving Center (40 Woodland), Oak Hill Art Studio (120 Holcomb), Institute for Community Research (2 Hartford Square West, 146 Wyllys St.), Aquastone Graphic Arts & Print (75 Charter Oak Avenue), and the Hartford Bicycle Studio (89 Arch St.).

November 11

  • The Laramie Project will be shown at Cinestudio as part of the Eros Film Festival. 2:30pm.
  • The Whiskey Boys will play the Firebox at 5pm. Free admission.

November 12

Free performance by the Hartford Jazz Orchestra at the Arch Street Tavern, 8pm.

November 12-16

This is Shark Week at the Dwight Branch of the Hartford Public Library. From 3:30-4:30pm, youth ages 8+ can learn about different kinds of sharks. Call for details: (860) 695-7460

November 14

Katie Holloway (volleyball medalist) and Steve Serio (basketball medalist), two U.S. Paralympians, will be speaking at the Hartford Public Library from 6:30-8pm in the Center for Contemporary Culture.

November 15

  • The Farmers’ Market at Billings Forge does not stop just because we are wearing hats and glittens. To address issues of food access, vendors will be inside the Studio at Billings Forge (Broad St.) every Thursday, except major holidays, from 11-2.
  • “Firebox Gay (and those who love us) Happy Hour”: Every Thursday from 4-7pm.

November 16

Sea Tea Improv, Hartford’s improv comedy troupe, will perform at the Studio at Billings Forge, starting at 7:30pm.

November 17

  • Cranksgiving: An alleycat race to benefit the Grace Church Food Pantry. Registration ($20) is at 9am at the Trinity College Chapel. The race begins at 10am.
  • Harvest Market: Last year was the inaugural harvest market in a greenhouse at 75 Laurel Street. Knox Parks Foundation, Hartford Farmers’ Markets, and the City of Hartford are bringing it back. 10am-1pm. They will accept SNAP.
  • UPDATE: Due to theft, the light fantasia opening will be delayed by one week Holiday Light Fantasia, the drivethru holiday light experience, will open tonight in Goodwin Park. Friday and Saturday — 5-10pm; Sunday through Thursday, 5-9pm. The lights will be up through January 6, 2013. Admissions: $12 per vehicle (up to ten passengers).

November 18

  • Last HodgePodge Open Market on Pratt Street. 12-5pm.
  • Open House at the Artists Collective, 2pm. The Artists Collective is at 1200 Albany Avenue.
  • Sunday night bluegrass at the Firebox will feature Doug ‘n Telisha at 5pm. Free admission.

November 20

  • Today is your last chance to see the “Recovering Time” exhibit of works by the Chai Mitzvah artists at the Charter Oak Cultural Center.
  • Dr. Amrutur Venkatachar “Sheenu” Srinivasan, author of Hinduism for Dummies and The Vedic Wedding: Origins, Tradition and Practice, will be speaking at the Hartford Seminary on the topic: “Pantheism to Polytheism: From The One to The Many“. The talk begins at 7pm; $10.

November 23-29

Real Art Ways will be screening Knuckleball!, a documentary entirely about baseball players who are known for this method of pitching.

November 26

Free performance by the Hartford Jazz Orchestra at the Arch Street Tavern, 8pm.

November 27

How do Christians envision the future of interreligious relationships in the post-Assad Syria? That is the question focusing a free talk by Professor Najib Awad at the Hartford Seminary. The event begins at 7pm.


November 28

Every month writers gather at La Paloma Sabanera to share finished pieces related to the topic of the month. The theme of November’s SYLLABLE? Beginnings. Kind of strange for a month toward the end of the year, no? Regardless, if you have an item to read that will take no longer than ten minutes, check out the submission guidelines. Not interested in baring your soul? Come listen. This starts pretty close to 7pm, so don’t dawdle. Please order your espresso drinks before people get up on stage.

November 30

The 39th Annual Festival of Trees & Traditions opens today and runs through December 9, 2012. During this time, there will be various types of holiday programming. An extra $3 is tacked on to the price of admission

Is there anything else that should be on this list?