Storytelling, a Book Trail, Markets, and More Arts Events

Storytelling and Fantasy Worlds: Ehigbor Okosun With Ali Hazelwood

Thursday 25, Central Library

Hello lit lovers: Ali Hazelwood, known for her scientists-in-love stories like The Love Hypothesis, comes straight off her new paranormal paramours piece Bride to talk with debut author Ehigbor Okosun. Pulling from Nigerian mythology, Okosun’s novel Forged by Blood starts a duology “set in a highly atmospheric, complex world in which a young woman fights to survive a tyrannical society, having everything stripped away from her, and seeks vengeance for her mother’s murder and the spilled blood of her people.” Trust, this author conversation will have you saying “Talk fantasy to me” during all your daily social interactions.   – James Scott

Vikingum: The Rune-Walker

Friday 26, Elysium

Burlesque meets Norse mythology in this themed show from the Jewel Box Dancers. Dame Dynamite brings the warmth with her rites of spring as Lilith Allure picks the worthy fallen as the night’s Valkyrie, while Miss Mara Lee Karupt and Foxxy Lane le Fevre are the most unlikely father and son in a duet as Loki and Fenrir. All transpires under the watchful eye of Devin Allfather, to a musical backing provided by Scandinavian folk revivalists Nordanfolk.   – Richard Whittaker

Open House feat. AAPI Artists

Friday 26, the Cathedral

Kicking off Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month a few days early, local collective atxGALS rounds up a roster of women and nonbinary artists. Abstract, figurative, landscape, collage, watercolor, and more are promised among the visual works of Ahn Hee Strain, Neena Buxani, Tsz Kam, Umbreen Ahmad, Yasmin Youssef, and Ziesook You – not to mention groove-focused R&B-pop provided by soundtracking local duo Rococo Disco (see latest “Green Man”). The open house benefits Asian Family Support Services of Austin, which provides free support to survivors of domestic violence.   – Rachel Rascoe

Every Brilliant Thing

Through May 19, Austin Playhouse

It all began with a list of those little moments and wonders in life, created by writer Duncan Macmillan as a short play called Sleeve Notes. But over time that list evolved through multiple iterations until it finally became Every Brilliant Thing, a one-man play based around the list of everything best in life delivered by a 6-year-old boy to his mother as he tries to understand this thing called depression. Joseph Garlock takes on the part originated by Jonny Donahue, all with the assistance of the audience. Post-show talkbacks with representatives from the National Alliance on Mental Illness Central Texas and Integral Care take place May 3 and 17.   – Richard Whittaker

Put Baby in the Corner: A Dirty Dancing Drive-In

Friday 26, Museum of Human Achievement

As someone who was in elementary school when Dirty Dancing came out, I did not quite pick up on what was happening when Penny needs medical attention from Baby’s dad. It all seemed a bit much for a stomachache. But it turns out that scene makes the film a perfect backdrop for a fundraiser for Lilith Fund, which supports reproductive care and abortion access. Come on down for a screening plus finger foods, a costume contest, “very sensual dancing of which your father would not approve,” and even a watermelon!   – Kat McNevins

Austin Texas Book Trail

Saturday 27, indie bookstores

To help celebrate Independent Bookstore Day, the Austin Texas Book Trail has prepared a path winding through 25 area bookstores stretching from Lockhart to Georgetown. A kickoff breakfast at Mañana Dos sets the pace toward the happy hour close and pop-up at Better Half Coffee & Cocktails. Along the way, discounts and freebies treat trailers, along with raffle entries for each shop visited. From independent standard bearers like BookPeople, Monkeywrench, and BookWoman to specialty stores like Black Pearl, Tribe Comics, and the Little Gay Shop, you can stock up on your summer reading list and maybe find your favorite new third space.   – Doug Freeman

SPARK’s “Raw” Book Release Gala

Saturday 27, RichesArt Gallery

Print media solidarity, always, but tbh, we’re a little intimidated by the extremely cool kids at UT putting out SPARK, an experimental/art/fashion magazine that comes out twice a year with cryptic themes like “Cicada,” “Lux Eterna,” and “Amuse-Bouche.” Celebrate issue No. 22 (“Raw”) at this launch party, featuring custom cocktails, hand poke tattoos, a DJ set by BabiBoi, and cover reveal at midnight. Word to the wise: If you were planning on slouching up in your weekend sweats, take a cue from the dress code – “VERY.IMPORTANT.PERSON.” – and dress for the job you want, not the job you have.   – Kimberley Jones

Black Makers Market

Saturday 27, Black Pearl Books

Few acts are as direct a show of support as putting cash money in another person’s hands, and lucky you, Reader, this local Black-owned bookstore is giving you the chance to support Austin’s Black creator community in such a way. Partnered with the pop-up organizers, attendees can shop not only Black artisans’ unique crafts but also celebrate Independent Bookstore Day by snagging tomes off Black Pearl’s shelves. There’s also delicious eats, prize giveaways, and tunes spun by DJ Bloom – so bring the whole family, even the kiddos. Everyone’ll find something to make ’em happy.   – James Scott

Banff Mountain Film Festival

Saturday 27 - Sunday 28, Paramount Theatre

The Banff Mountain Film Festival comes to the Paramount all the way from Canada for two nights featuring short documentaries screened at their festival last year. Highlights include “Range Rider,” a portrait of a rancher in Northeastern Washington using nonlethal methods to keep wolves away from livestock, but alive, and “Chronoception,” which follows a group of snowboarders and skiers to the Tian Shan mountains on the border of Kyrgyzstan and China. Proceeds will benefit Texas State Parks.   – Lina Fisher

Blanton Live: How Edo-Era Art Inspires Anime, Manga, and Contemporary Art

Sunday 28, Blanton Museum of Art Auditorium

Wondering about the connective tissue between Hokusai’s iconic 19th-century woodblock prints and Gajin Fujita’s celebrated East L.A. graffiti art? The latter will make that connection explicit in a broader conversation with scholar and anime author Susan Napier about the impact of Edo-era art on contemporary pop culture from Pokémon to Miyazaki and Fujita’s own work. Prep for the chat by spending some time with the Blanton’s current exhibit, “The Floating World: Masterpieces of Edo Japan” (running through June 30), featuring more than 130 woodblock prints and painted scrolls from the Edo period (1603-1868).   – Kimberley Jones

Monty Python and the Holy Grail Quote-Along Movie Party

Sunday 28 and Wednesday 1, Alamo Slaughter Lane & Mueller

Normally, talking in a Drafthouse would result in the Black Knight trying to bite your legs off. But at this special quote-along you’re actively encouraged to join in with all the great one-liners from Monty Python’s deeply deranged retelling of the legend of Arthur, King of the Britons. So grab your shell steed and inflatable sword (both provided), and ponder aloud with friends how a five-ounce bird could possibly carry a one-pound coconut.   – Richard Whittaker

Modern Times Lecture Series: Elisabet Ney

Sunday 28, Neill-Cochran House Museum

Perhaps you’re familiar with Elisabet Ney due to her historic home and studio located in Hyde Park. But did you know what a cool person Ney was? Learn more about the artist who was a German political refugee arriving in Texas in the 1870s, whose salons became an intellectual and political nexus for a growing Austin, whose independent and artistic spirit stays alive through the Elisabet Ney Museum. Who better to expound on that than the museum’s director, Jade Walker, also a sculptor and active member of the arts community, who’ll speak about Ney’s influence and how it resounds today.   – Kat McNevins

Wealth Is Where History Shows Up in Your Wallet

Monday 29, Carver Museum

Black Americans built much of this country’s wealth, and that’s true in a literal sense – before 1860, enslaved Africans physically built our nation’s cities, roads, railroads, and ports. Their free labor on cotton, sugar, and rice plantations made white landowners enormously wealthy. The exploitation did not stop after the Civil War. A century and a half later, a wealth gap persists between Black and white Americans. Learn more at this panel featuring Louise Story and Ebony Reed, the authors of Fifteen Cents on the Dollar, a new book following the lives of seven Black Americans at different economic levels, ages, and professions from 2020-23.   – Brant Bingamon

Book Spine Poetry

Monday 29, Spicewood Springs Branch Library

To the creative mind, poetry is everywhere – especially in a place as rife with inspiration as your local library. Join APL in creating freeform verses via book titles emblazoned on the spines at this workshop. Should be easy enough once you’re in the stacks, where literary vertebrae expound like so many cloth-and-cardboard skeletons. Here’s a book-spine poem to get you in the mood: To Kill a Mockingbird / You Must Not Miss / The Metamorphosis / In Cold Blood / Of Mice and Men. Now it’s your turn!   – James Scott

Exploraphoria With Garrett Buss

Tuesday 30, Fallout Theater

Hosted by a man who, according to his website, is by all legal definitions a “comedian,” this showcase pushes comedy boundaries every first and third Tuesday. Yes, that’s right: You come to Exploraphoria and you’ll get experimental comedy – the kind of goofy galaxy-brained biz that’ll be like nothing you’ve seen before. Buss promises his curated collection of acts is a show “you can’t find anywhere else.” So if you’ve been snoozing through whatever the ol’ Comedy Mothership’s been oozing from its Sixth Street site, consider this an alarm clock waking you from your comedy coma. Beep, beep, babe.   – James Scott

Doc Days 2024

Wednesday 1 - Sunday 5, AFS Cinema

The first night of the annual documentary mini-festival happens to coincide with International Workers Day, and so the programming begins with Union, Martin Dicicco’s reporting on the rise of the Amazon Labor Union. The long weekend’s lineup also features unusual detective work in Seeking Mavis Bacon, musical mayhem in Devo, and comedic innovation in Thank You Very Much, the new biography of Andy Kaufman. Look for several familiar names from the Austin film scene with the local premiere of Time Passages, the newest film from Kyle Henry (Fourplay), edited by Karen Skloss (The Honor Farm) and produced by Jason Wehling (Saturday Morning Massacre).   – Richard Whittaker

Downpour ATX Presents Lilas Taha, KB Brookins, and Wajiha Rizvi

Thursday 2, Alienated Majesty Books

Returning after a long winter’s rest is local reading series Downpour ATX, whose mission is to build a community for writers and readers from marginalized communities. “Beckoning to our own fondness for place-based writing,” they say, “we take inspiration from the sudden deluges of rainfall in Texas – which can both serve as balms after a drought and formidable events of nature – and celebrate the newness, abundance, and energy that a downpour ushers in.” This week they’ll host three talented wordsmiths: poet KB Brookins (Freedom House), novelist Lilas Taha (Lost and Found in Thyme series), and attorney/writer Wajiha Rizvi.   – James Scott

The Rainbow Fish Musical

Through May 12, Austin Scottish Rite Theater

Many among us remember the iridescent colors within beloved children’s book The Rainbow Fish, so why not give the young’uns of today a chance to enjoy that beauty in a new way. This musical extravaganza brings the story of sharing and belonging to the stage with costumes, songs, and sets as mesmerizing as the titular fish’s sparkling scales. Led by Austin Scottish Rite Theater’s own Artistic Director Deanna Belardinelli, “this school of fish moves as a unit and have their fins, pincers and tentacles outreached, beckoning you to join!” Go ahead, Reader: Dive in.   – James Scott