SO MUCH GOOD STUFF, UPPER VALLEY!
Friday
Torchlit snowshoe at Billings Farm. Actually, you can also just stroll (though given the temps, you might want spikes) through the farm’s pasturelands. Along the way, National Park Service rangers and Billings staff will talk about local wildlife, the history of the land, and the people who lived there. Complimentary s'mores, hot cocoa, coffee, and tea. 4:30 to 6:30 pm. Link goes to ticket site, but walk-ins are welcome.
Fare Forward hosts Danielle Chapman. The “intentionally ecumenical Christian review of ideas” presents the award-winning poet and Yale lecturer for a reading from her collections Boxed Juice and Delinquent Palaces at The Wheelock House, 4 W. Wheelock Street in Hanover. 4:30 pm. Chapman will sign books afterward.
An opening reception for three exhibitions at AVA Gallery. There’s NOVEL FORMATS: ON-SITE | A project by Rachel Bernsen & Collaborators, a series of dance performances exploring “the phenomenal nature of dance in conversation with forms outside itself”; Eva Sturm-Gross’s Beasts of Eden exploring the animals around her childhood home in Hartland; and Juni Van Dyke’s multi-media These Beautiful Hands: A Tribute to Our Elders. Reception for all 5-7 pm.
Li Shen and Kay McCabe exhibition opening for Passing On and Beyond the Unknown: Two Explorations of Still Life Photography at KUA. McCabe “uses still life to examine her relationship to her ancestors through a rumination on the possessions they have passed down to her”; Shen “incorporates found and collected objects into miniature scenes or dioramas, focusing on table-top construction.” Opening reception runs from 5:30 to 7 pm in Kimball Union’s Taylor Gallery. The exhibition runs through Feb. 28.
At the Enfield Shaker Museum, “An Evening of Support with artist Gary Hamel.” Hamel is a widely respected, much-loved local artist whose Orange, NH home burned down recently. The event is a cocktail hour mixed with a pop-up exhibition of his work, available for sale. 6-7:30 pm in the Great Stone Dwelling dining room. And if you can’t make it but still want to help out, the GoFundMe organized on his behalf still has about $10K to go to meet its goal.
Knit along to Pride and Prejudice at Artistree. Part of the attraction is Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, and Brenda Blethyn in Joe Wright’s 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen. “Knightley’s performance is so light and yet fierce that she makes the story almost realistic; this is not a well-mannered ‘Masterpiece Theatre’ but a film where strong-willed young people enter life with their minds at war with their hearts,” Roger Ebert wrote. The other attraction: bring your knitting needles and yarn (or other craft projects) and chat up other knitters with tea and treats at hand. 6 pm.
In Sharon, Seven Stars Arts presents Colin McCaffrey's What Not String Band. It’s a heck of a pickup band, with multi-instrumentalist McCaffrey joined by Eric O’Hara on pedal steel and dobro, Jens Hybertson on fiddle, Tyler Bolles on bass, Matt Flinner on mandolin, and the redoubtable Jim Rooney pitching in from time to time for country, bluegrass, swing, and traditional tunes. 7 pm.
Hop Film screens Hedda. Tessa Thompson takes the title role in Nia DaCosta’s new take on Ibsen’s classic, transported to ‘50s England, where “Hedda ushers us headlong into a milieu of decadence and deception. At the center of it all is Thompson's magnetic performance as our single-minded, hedonistic heroine, a woman trapped within the confines of social decorum she cannot help but set fire to.” 7 pm in the Loew.
The Anonymous Coffeehouse returns. Things kick off at 7:30 pm with NH singer/songwriter and guitarist Rob LeBlanc; at 8 pm, Devan Tracy will perform material from her recently released album Human Doing—on both piano and ukulele, and with friends by her side for harmony. Then at at 9 pm Scott Heron (you may know him from Green Heron) returns to the Anonymous stage with his band The Any Which Way: old timey string band music, blues, and country harmony. At the First Congregational Church of Lebanon. As always, baked goods galore.
Saturday
Recycled Percussion at the Claremont Opera House. The antic NH-based “junk rockers” and drummers are doing two shows, one at 3 pm, one at 9 pm. “With a blank canvas to create, no two performances are the same — from interactive elements to jaw-dropping visual moments, it’s a playground of creativity you won’t find anywhere else.”
Billings Farm’s Woodstock Film Series screens Far Out: life on & after the commune. Charles Light’s 2024 film “traces fifty years in the lives of a group of radical journalists, writers, and artists who left New York City in 1968 to found two rural communes”—one in Guildford, VT, the other in Montague, MA. “What began as an experiment in communal living and organic farming became a catalyst for the back-to-the-land and anti-nuclear movements.” Both Saturday and Sunday at 3 pm, with Light on hand to talk about it all after the Saturday screening.
“Nocturnal Explorers” at VINS. “Explore the night through your senses and learn how our local wildlife experiences the dark a little bit differently. Play games, test your color vision, learn about different types of light after dark, and meet an owl ambassador!” Designed for families with kids aged 5-10. Dress warmly, and bring headlamps or flashlights. 5-6 pm.
Lost Nation at Thetford Academy. It’s the first event of the year organized by Thetford’s Sesquicentennial planning committee. Jay Craven’s Revolutionary War action drama featuring Ethan Allen and Lucy Terry Prince is set in the upstart Republic of Vermont. 7 pm in the Martha Rich Theater. Craven will be on hand afterward to talk about the film and its epic making.
Sunday
At the United Church of Strafford, Jeremiah and Annemieke McLane. The accordionist and pianist are presenting a program entitled "New Ways", with music from the Baroque and Romantic eras as well as contemporary music inspired by folk traditions. With works by Antonio Scarlatti, J. S. Bach, Béla Bartók, Anton Dvořák, and Jo Privat, as well as several recent compositions by Jeremiah. 4 pm, no link.
Low Lily at Roots & Wings. The coffeehouse at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Upper Valley on Route 5 in Norwich brings in the ace VT-based Americana trio of Liz Simmons, Flynn Cohen, and Natalie Padilla. This will be your last chance to see Padilla perform with the trio: After this, she’s leaving to have her first baby. 4 pm.
Diamond Centofanti at Eastman. Presented by Jazz on a Sunday Afternoon, the Rhode Island pianist and saxophonist (and flutist, and clarinetist) is joined by jazz and classical guitarist Jack McNamara and bassist Marty Ballou. 4 pm in the Draper Room at the Center at Eastman.
Hop Film screens Honeyjoon. Dartmouth grad Lilian T. Mehrel's debut feature has won multiple awards since it first screened at the Tribeca Film Festival. As the Hop describes it, “Lela (Amira Casar) and her sensual daughter June (Ayden Mayeri) take a trip to a romantic island in the Azores one year after their major loss — with opposite ideas about why they're there, how to grieve, and how tiny June's bikini should be. Between happy honeymooners, the Woman Life Freedom movement, and their hot philosophical-surfer tour guide João (José Condessa), they find each other… coming back to life.” 4 pm in the Loew Auditorium, with Mehrel there for a discussion afterward.
Upper Valley Music Center’s Children’s Chorus Celebration of Song. Director Allison Pollard and pianist Carol Cronce lead an ensemble with kids from all around the Upper Valley in a half-hour concert. First Congregational Church of Lebanon at…could it be? Yes it is!… 4 pm.
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