The latest from artist Mark Hogancamp in the fictional town of Marwencol, a book and literary fair, Chinese acrobats, and more in this week's round-up Hudson Valley events.
Woodstock Bookfest
March 21-24 at the Bearsville Theater
Join local literary lions including, but not limited to, Masha Gessen (Surviving Autocracy), Mark Whitaker (Smoketown), Sophie Strand (The Madonna Secret), Lucy Sante (I Heard Her Call My Name), Elissa Altman (Motherland: A Memoir of Love, Loathing and Longing), and Nick Flynn (Low) for a three-day celebration of the art of story. The Woodstock Bookfest weekend includes the annual Story Slam, lively panel discussions like “The Cult and Cost of Confession” and the climactic “Memoir-A-Go-Go” workshop. $23.18-$49.87, full festival pass $268.61. Woodstock.
Peking Acrobats
March 22 at Paramount Hudson Valley
The legendary Peking Acrobats push the limits of human ability with precise and amazing displays of flexibility and control: tumbling, juggling, trick-cycling and seemingly defying gravity as they demonstrate the possibilities of human flexibility and contortion on the cutting edge of extreme. They’ll be accompanied by live musicians on traditional Chinese instruments for this performance, bringing ancient tradition into the modern age with unprecedented physical mastery and high-tech special effects for a vibrant spectacle evocative of a Chinese carnival. 7:30pm. $37.50-$52.50. Peekskill.
Lady Moon and the Eclipse
March 23 at Hudson Hall
Here’s a Hudson homecoming if ever there was. Now based in Brooklyn and the San Francisco area, multicultural musical ensemble Lady Moon and the Eclipse features Ngonda Badila (whose name means “moon” in Lingala) and her sister, artist and vocalist Ntangou Badila, both of whom were raised locally. The collective layers its soaring vocals atop contemporary R&B and Afrobeat rhythms to make their “inspirational music with an emphasis on inclusivity and spiritual unity.” (The Sean Jones Quartet gets jazzy March 2; the Shanghai Quartet strings along April 6.) 7pm. $18-$28. Hudson.
South Street Jazz Festival Kickoff
March 24 at the Artist Spot
Returning to northwestern Westchester County for its second season is the South Street Jazz Festival. The series is curated by musician Kristina Koller and begins its three-show run with this date by New York’s intriguing, Grammy-nominated House of Waters, a unique duo comprised of hammered dulcimer player Max ZT and six-string bassist Moto Fukushima. The pop-up Artist Spot is an intimate, 70-seat listening room that serves wine and other beverages. (Jonathan Blake drums April 21; Arturo O’Farrill swings May 19.) 7pm. $28.52 (discounted season passes available). Peekskill.
Hot Club of Cowtown
March 24 at the Towne Crier Cafe
Texas’s Hot Club of Cowtown has been rootin’ and tootin’ for nearly 30 years, bringing their ebullient Western swing and gypsy jazz to elated audiences as headliners and with Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music, Gatemouth Brown, the Avett Brothers, the Mavericks, and many others. The trio of guitarist and singer Whit Smith, fiddler and singer Elena James, and bassist Zack Supunor is, according to the New York Times, “conscious always that, above all else, music is for dancing and an old-fashioned good time.” (Richard Thompson returns March 2; Tom Chapin celebrates his birthday March 9.) 7pm. $30 advance, $35 door. Beacon.
"Mark Hogancamp: Resilience"
March 23-April 9 at One Mile Gallery in Kingston
Thanks to an award-winning 2010 documentary and a later feature film starring Steve Carrell, the miniature-scale, World War II-era Belgian village constructed by Navy veteran Mark Hogancamp in his backyard is a global sensation. This latest exhibition of photos of the village offers an update on goings on amid the fictional town of Marwencol's ongoing fight against the Nazis.
