Saturday, Nov. 2: Are you a vegan or vegetarian who feels a little left out of the fun this time of year? Is your favorite part of Thanksgiving the presidential pardon for a couple of turkeys? The Catskill Animal Sanctuary is planning some festivities this weekend that will help get you into the holiday mood.
Sunday, Nov. 3: Even if Frances Perkins hadn’t been the first woman ever to serve in a US presidential cabinet, or the longest-serving Secretary of Labor ever (12 years), she would still deserve a shining place in 20th-century history. She was a suffragist, worked with Jane Addams as a Hull House volunteer, advocated passionately for female workers after witnessing the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, became the highest-paid woman in New York State government as Industrial Commissioner, taught Sociology at Adelphi University, fought against child labor and for unemployment and a minimum wage – all before she even joined the FDR administration.
Burns and Allen, Gypsy Rose Lee and Cary Grant, when his name was still Archibald Leach, were among the showbiz luminaries on record as having performed live at the Orpheum.
Saturday, Nov. 2: When Colony opens its woody, elegant and historic space to the surging popularity of the drag and cabaret arts this weekend, that’ll be my child – Strawberry, six-foot-seven in heels – commanding the stage on which they still occasionally let me play guitar, a six-string fretted instrument popular in the Renaissance. As I have watched Strawberry’s bookings rise in the last few years, taking them to Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Calgary and filling their pockets with bills, I can’t help but notice that locally, they play all the same rooms I do, or used to. From the New Paltz bars to BSP and now to Woodstock’s elegant and historic room, I struggle to find gigs, while my child and their ilk are “killing it.” Circle of Life stuff, I guess.
Friday, Nov. 8: Born in Barbados, the Bronx-raised Flash pioneered deejaying, cutting, scratching and mixing with the Furious Five. He will present a deep audio and visual dive into the history of an artform he helped create.
Wednesday, Nov. 6: Best known for his three Netflix specials, Disgraceful (2018), Mostly Stories (2016) and Completely Normal (2014), the red-hot comedian will be coming to UPAC.
Wednesday, Nov. 6: Recent studies show that almost 90 percent of the bee population has disappeared in the last few years. And 70 percent of the world’s agriculture depends exclusively on bees.
Thursday, Nov. 6: The daughter of actress Uma Thurman and actor Ethan Hawke made her screen debut as Jo March in the 2017 BBC adaptation of Little Women and starred as Robin in the third season of the Netflix series Stranger Things. As a musician, she works frequently with the Grammy-winning writer and producer Jesse Harris, who is well-known in this area, particularly for his work with Norah Jones, Madeleine Peyroux and others.
Critics are calling Pain and Glory, the Spanish auteur’s crowning semiautobiographical work, comparing it to Fellini’s 81/2. Pedro Almodóvar’s film is also being lauded, justly, as a career high for Antonio Banderas.
Thursday, Nov. 7: Fall for Art features 28 gifted Hudson Valley artists working in a wide variety of media. Proceeds from the annual event support the Hudson Valley Food Bank, Family of Woodstock, Court-Appointed Special Advocates, People’s Place, Angel Food East and Jewish Family Services, among others.