This weekend is jam packed with great local events to enjoy!
We told you about:
- Local Tree Lighting Ceremonies
- Intergenerational Conversations: Race, Culture and Beyond in Montclair
- The Real Talk, Real Consequences, Real Solutions Public Forum
- The Montclair Arts Advisory Committee Forum
- The Annual Essex County Historic Holiday House Tour
Here’s what else is happening:
Enjoy a night out at the Montclair Art Museum (MAM) with free gallery admission, live music, art activities and tours, dynamic seasonal programming, and a full-service bar at Free First Thursday Night tonight. Try new signature cocktails, sip wine, or enjoy a beer at the bar. Parents can drop off kids at the Kids’ Creativity Center (hourly fee). Live music by the Silver Fox Songs Series will entertain guests all evening. Grab a bite from the Empanada Guy, November’s featured food truck, and taste free samples of seasonal flavors from Cha Ma Gu Dao tea. And, of course, enjoy art!
Free First Thursday Nights at MAM
Thursday, December 1 from 5 pm – 9 pm
Montclair Art Center, 3 South Mountain Avenue, Montclair, NJ, 07042
Free
Also tonight is the Upper Montclair Business District’s Late Night Shopping Event to kick off your holiday gift shopping. There will be great bargains and festivities to enjoy.
Shop Uptown Late Night
Thursday, December 1 from 6 pm – 9 pm
Upper Montclair Business District, Montclair, NJ, 07043
Go out to Tierney’s Tavern on Friday for a benefit concert for The Anxiety & Depression Initiative (ADI), a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and support the use of physical activity as a means to reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression. The Pine Sap Kings will join forces with the 4th Street NiteOwls to support the ADI and its mission with a great night of music.
Pine Sap Kings & 4th Street NiteOwls Benefit Concert for the ADI
Friday, December 2 at 8 pm
Tierney’s Tavern, 136 Valley Road, Montclair, NJ, 07042
$10 Donation or more
The MSU Opera Workshop and Cali School of Music will perform a pre-production concert staging of Ravel’s magical one-act opera L’Enfant et les sortilèges at Peak Performances on Friday night. Sung in English with piano accompaniment.
Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges
Friday, December 2 at 7:30 pm
Alexander Kasser Theater, 1 Normal Ave, Montclair, NJ 07043
Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online here
Bnai Keshet in Montclair will host a screening of Strange Fruit, a documentary film exploring the rich history of collaboration between blacks and Jews through the prism of the eponymous protest song covered by Billie Holiday in 1939. Filmmaker Joel Katz will visit to speak. Though many assume Holiday wrote the song, the story of its authorship is more complicated and surprising. The film tells that story, and more. It conveys the terror of lynching, its civil rights legacy and continued relevance, especially now that America has elected a president who promises to deliver state repression of disfavored minorities. It depicts the struggles of black performers like Holiday to infuse her art with rage and grief and urban Jewish protest artists like Bronx schoolteacher Abel Meeropol who wrote “Strange Fruit” as a poem, then set it to music later.
Strange Fruit screening and discussion
Saturday, December 3 at 7 pm
Bnai Keshet, 99 So. Fullerton Avenue, Montclair, NJ, 07042
Free
Michael C. Gabriele will discuss and sign copies of his his new book New Jersey Folk Revival Music: History and Tradition at Watchung Booksellers on Saturday. New Jersey shaped folk revival music into an art form. The saga began with the bawdy tunes sung in colonial-era taverns and continued with the folk songs that echoed through the Pine Barrens. Guitar Mania became a phenomenon in the 1800s, and twentieth-century studio recordings in Camden were monumental. Performances by legendary artists like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan spotlighted the state’s folk revival movement and led to a flourishing community of folk organizations, festivals and open-mic nights at village coffeehouses. Author Michael Gabriele traces the evolution and living history of folk revival music in the Garden State and how it has changed the lives of people on stage and in the audience.
Michael C. Gabriele, New Jersey Folk Revival Music: History and Tradition
Saturday, December 3 at 1 pm
Watchung Booksellers, 54 Fairfield Street, Montclair, NJ, 07042
Free
Go “Shimmy & Shop” at 73See Gallery this Saturday. Bring the whole family and enjoy a healthy, fit, fun start to the holiday season with vendors for shopping, fitness classes, music and dance performers, refreshments, and more.
Shimmy & Shop
Saturday, December 3 from 12 pm – 6 pm
73See Gallery, 73 Pine Street, Montclair, NJ, 07042
General Admission is $5. Sample classes and entertainment is no extra charge.
Kevin James brings his side-splitting stand-up comedy to NJPAC on Saturday night. James, the producer, co-writer and star of the hit comedies Paul Blart: Mall Cop (1&2) and Zookeeper, can also be seen in the ensemble sci-fi comedy Pixels. He began his career as a stand-up on the Long Island comedy scene and later created his sitcom The King of Queens, which premiered in 1998 and ran for nine seasons on CBS, earning James an Emmy nomination. James made his feature film debut in Hitch, opposite Will Smith, and has headlined in Here Comes the Boom, Grown Ups (1&2) and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. In addition to his on-camera work, his voice has been featured in the animated films Barnyard, Monster House and Hotel Transylvania (1&2)
Kevin James
Saturday, December 3 at 8 pm
NJPAC, 1 Center Street, Newark, NJ
Tickets are $49.50 – $89.50 and can be purchased online here
Swing right in to this holiday season with the John Pizzarelli Quartet at SOPAC on Sunday. Pizzarelli, the world-renowned guitarist and singer-songwriter, has been hailed by the Boston Globe for “reinvigorating the Great American Songbook and re-popularizing Jazz.” The Toronto Starpegged Pizzarelli as “the genial genius of the guitar” and the Seattle Times saluted him as “a rare entertainer of the old school.”
John Pizzarelli Quartet – Holiday Hits and More
Sunday, December 4 at 7:30 pm
SOPAC, One SOPAC Way, South Orange, NJ
Tickets are $49-$59 and can be purchased online here
This weekend is a Museums On Us weekend, which means that any Bank of America or Merrill Lynch cardholder will receive free museum admission to the following area museums:
- Montclair Art Museum (MAM), 3 South Mountain Avenue, Montclair, NJ.
- Newark Museum, 49 Washington Street, Newark, NJ.
- Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art, 591 Broad Street, Newark, NJ.
- Morris Museum, 6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown, NJ.
- Liberty Science Center, 222 Jersey City Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art – The Met Cloisters, 99 Margaret Corbin Drive, Fort Tryon Park New York, NY
- Whitney Museum of Art, 945 Madison Avenue, New York, NY.
- Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont Street, New York, NY
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2 East 91st Street (between 5th and Madison Avenues)
- Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Ave, Astoria, NY
Museums on Us
Saturday, December 3 and Sunday, December 4
Free admission for each cardholder (debit or credit) at participating museums
Check our Calendar for more happenings this holiday weekend and enjoy!