Check out these events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area this weekend— as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
Friday, Jan. 27
Converge
McColl Center for Visual Arts
Lovers of art come together at McColl Center for Visual Art's new exhibition, aptly titled Converge. Featuring new works — created by Quisqueya Henriquez and Sonya Clark while serving as Knight Artists-in-Residence — the exhibit explores themes of identity and inclusion. Henriquez distorts computerized collages, while Clark uses fiber art (like the pictured construct, "Afro Abe II") to entwine common ... and hairy ... objects with aspects of history. Works by other artists-in-residence can be viewed on the 2nd and 3rd floor galleries.
• Theater Depending on how you look at it, clothes do more than just covering bodies. They actually help us to preserve memories about ourselves, which we may have otherwise forgotten. That’s the concept behind Love, Loss, and What I Wore. The intimate collection of stories by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron gives a new perspective to the stuff stored away in your closet. Cowboy boots are a reminder of a once toxic relationship, while a new bra conjures the harsh diagnosis of breast cancer. More...
• Comedy Mon Frere (French for "my brother"), the Greensboro-based comedy troupe who filled The Mill (now Roux at Boudreaux's) last year during its Harry Potter-inspired sketch shows Hufflepuffed is back — but this time without the brooms and snide comments about Dumbledore. Instead, the troupe has magically maneuvered new material into its act, which is also slated to feature Thunderstood, a one-man multimedia comedy by founding member AJ Schraeder. The show is raising money for travel expenses for Schraeder, who was chosen to attend the San Francisco Sketchfest. Sean Keenan's foul-mouther Talking Baby opens. More...
Saturday, Jan. 28
Melancholia
Carolina Cinemas Crownpoint
Winner of the Best Actress Prize at the Cannes Film Festival — and the movie that writer-director Lars von Trier was promoting when he got banned from the fest for his eyebrow-raising comments involving Adolph Hitler — the visually stimulating Melancholia is landing in Charlotte via a special four-day run presented by the Back Alley Film Series. Kirsten Dunst delivers a quietly powerful performance as Justine, a newly hitched bride whose depression finds a symbolic outlet in Melancholia, a planet that’s heading directly toward Earth. Charlotte Gainsbourg, herself a Cannes prize winner for a von Trier film (Antichrist), co-stars as Justine’s put-upon sister, while Kiefer Sutherland appears as Gainsbourg’s rational husband.
• Benefit An evening of food, drinks and art sounds like a good time to me. At the upcoming Art Auction at Tilt, folks can enjoy grub from Brio Tuscan Grille, drinks (in whatever spirit you fancy: liquor, drafts, wine, etc.) and a silent auction with featured works by artists Matthew Winston Moore, Jamie Lampien and Cheryl Davison. Benefits Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International. More...
• Special Event The GayCharlotte Film Series presents a screening of Hollywood to Dollywood at Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte tonight. Produced by brothers Gary and Larry Lane of Goldsboro, NC, the documentary is described as being a “civil rights odyssey.” Talk back with the Lane’s after the screening. Dolly Parton look-a-like contest too. More...
Sunday, Jan. 29
Earth Exchange
The Light Factory
Garinger, Olympic and Hough high school students recently visited The Light Factory to learn how to use photography and art as a means of expressing their relationship with the environment. As a result, the exhibit Earth Exchange is an outlet of works inspired by the project (including a piece by Hough High School's Graham Merrifield, shown in the pic).
• Nightlife The 2012 Miss Scorpio Pageant has a special masked theme — and no, that's not because anyone has Phantom of the Opera type issues. The show features some of the loveliest drag queens in and around the Q.C., competing for the title. Guest appearances by former winners, too. More...
• Theater Relationships can be complicated and disappointing. Opera Carolinas’ Madama Butterfly is proof of that. It tells the tragic love story of a beautiful geisha who marries an American naval lieutenant that leaves for her for three years. When he finally returns — and after she’s been patiently waiting - he’s got a new wife by his side. So much for a happy ending, right? More...