It’s a new month, but if there’s one thing you can always count on, it’s the offerings from our local arts and culture organizations. This week, we’ve got a classic Spielberg film played with live orchestra, literally thousands of quilts, and fantastical creatures to capture your imagination. Keep reading for to learn more about these and our other best bets for the coming week.
If this past week’s tilt in weather has got the upcoming colder months on your mind, you may want to stop by 2023 International Quilt Festival, which will return to George R. Brown Convention Center from Thursday, November 2, to Sunday, November 5. In addition to more than 1,100 quilts displayed across over 30 exhibits, you will find more than 600 shopping booths with everything from books and patterns to tools and sewing machines and – of course – quilts for purchase. If you’re into more than just appreciating them as works of art and warmth, there are also hundreds of classes going on throughout the festival. Daily admission tickets range in cost from free for children 10 and under to $15 for adults, with full show passes available for $55.
On Thursday, November 2, at 7 p.m. the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will kick off their Korean Film Nights series with Cobweb, directed by Jee-woon Kim. The black comedy, “a tongue in cheek tribute to the Korean movies of the 1970s,” focuses on a director (played by Parasite star Song Kong-ho) determined to turn his film into a cinematic masterpiece during two days of reshoots in the face of a “confused and uncooperative cast and crew” and “interference from the then all-powerful censorship authorities.” The series will continue through Saturday with screenings of Joint Security Area, The Man Who Paints Water Drops, Walk Up, and Hunt, before wrapping up on Sunday, December 3, with Extreme Job and a post-screening discussion with actor Ryu Seung-ryong. Tickets to any of the screenings can be purchased here for $8 to $10.
Just a couple of weeks ago, the U.S. women’s sumo team medaled for the first time ever at the Sumo World Championships. If that’s whet your appetite for Japan’s national sport, you can catch a sumo wrestling demonstration during the Night Market at Asia Society Texas on Friday, November 3, from 6 to 10 p.m. Outdoors at the free, rain-or-shine market, you will find more than five dozen AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) vendors and artisans, a lantern display, Pakistani art truck, and an “Otaku Alley” for fans of manga, anime and cosplay. For $5, you can enjoy indoor activities like a Japanese-style carnival and after-hours access to exhibitions, and for another $5 you can watch one of the three scheduled sumo wrestling demonstrations. You can view the full festival schedule and map here, and you buy tickets here.
Yet another election day is right around the corner, and we’re just a year away from the next presidential election. If you need a reminder of how important your vote is, you may want to check out the Foundation for Modern Music’s latest program, On the Edge, which includes to Houston premiere of “Loser: The Wit and Wisdom of Donald J. Trump 45th President of the United States of America” by Arthur Gottschalk. The piece, made up of quotes straight from the horse’s mouth, will be performed alongside Kurt Weill’s “Seven Deadly Sins,” Edgard Varèse “Density 21.5” and Mario Lavista “Marsias” at The MATCH on Friday, November 3, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets to the show can be purchased here for $15 to $30.
One of China’s leading modern dance choreographers is Wang Yuanyuan, a co-founder of the Beijing Dance Theater and an artist known for “creating pieces informed by the distinctions between traditional Chinese ballet and Western modern and contemporary dance.” On Saturday, November 4, at 7 p.m. an example of Wang’s contemporary ballet work will come to Miller Outdoor Theatre during Beijing Dance Theater: Three Poems. You can reserve a ticket for the covered seating area beginning here at 10 a.m. on Friday, November 3, or you can grab a blanket or lawn chair and head for ticketless seating on the Hill. If you can’t make it, you can catch the concert on the Miller Outdoor Theatre website, YouTube channel or Facebook page.
In 1981, Vincent Canby called Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark “one of the most deliriously funny, ingenious and stylish American adventure movies ever made.” Part of the reason for that high praise was certainly the John Williams-composed score, which earned an Oscar nomination, with its “rousing and iconic Raiders March,” which has since “come to symbolize Indiana Jones” (and plague star Harrison Ford). On Saturday, November 4, at 7:30 p.m. you can experience the film on a big screen at Jones Hall while the Houston Symphony, under conductor Constantine Kitsopoulos, plays Williams’s classic score during Raiders of the Lost Ark in Concert. The concert will be performed a second time on Sunday, November 5, at 2:30 p.m. and tickets for either show can be purchased here for $59 to $165.
The fantastical creatures crafted out of cardboard, wheat flour and water by Mexican artist Pedro Linares known as alebrijes have been said to “bridge the worlds of fine art and folk art.” On Sunday, November 5, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, you can be among the first to view six new temporary sculptures inspired by this Mexican folk-art tradition during Dream with Alebrijes. Linares’s grandson, David, will be present at the family-friendly fall festival, which will not only include the art works, but live music and dance performances, art activities, and film screenings presented by the Houston Latino Film Festival. Admission to the festival is free, but if you can’t make it, the six sculptures will remain on view at the museum through November 12.
Since 2019, teenagers around the country have been tasked with writing short plays confronting the subject of gun violence, with the best selected to be performed on one night at theaters around the country. For the third time, Mildred’s Umbrella Theater Company is joining those theaters to perform the selected plays in a program called Enough! Plays to End Gun Violence, scheduled for Monday, November 6, at 7:30 p.m. in Studio 101 at Spring Street Studios. Joining Mildred’s Umbrella to present this year’s six selected plays are collaborators Firecracker Productions, who are bringing in student-actors to participate in the readings, and Esurient Arts, which will organize a post-show talkbalk with community members affected by gun violence. Tickets are pay-what-you-can and can be purchased here, with all proceeds going to Texas Gun Sense.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
