SEPTEMBER 5 - THURSDAY
The ever-popular Yiasou Greek Festival takes place today through Sunday at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral on East Boulevard. Featured are food, crafts, original art, wine, film, dancing, several Greek cultural exhibits, and more. There will be a one-mile Fun Run on Saturday at 8:45am, and a 5K race at 8am. In addition, Mayor Pat McCrory will be on hand Saturday at 11am as part of a September 11 ceremony. Festival hours are 11am until 10pm Thursday through Saturday, and noon until 8pm on Sunday. For more information, call 704-334-4771.
The McColl Center for Visual Arts (formerly Tryon Center, formerly The Old Burned Out Church) opens its Art Talks series today with artist and Professor of Art at the University of California-San Diego, Faith Ringgold. Ringgold will speak at 7pm at The McColl Center. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 704-332-5535.
Metropolitan Opera star Denyce Graves will appear tonight at 7:30pm at the Belk Theatre of the Performing Arts Center. Graves will be joined by an 80-member chorus, comprised of the Opera Carolina chorus, the Charlotte Contemporary Ensemble, and the Choir of Gethsemane A.M.E. Zion Church. Tickets are $15-100, available by calling 704-372-1000.
Heisman, The Musical continues at Queens University's Dana Auditorium tonight through September 7. Showtime is at 7:30pm. Tickets are $15/adults, $10/children and are on sale one hour prior to showtime only. For more information, call 704-868-0033 or visit online at www.heisman.homestead.com.
Center City After Five continues today at the Wachovia Plaza with music provided by the Dave Matthews Cover Band. It begins at (you guessed it) 5pm, and admission is free. Call 704-374-3500.
Independence Boulevard will be transformed to the home of Oscar and Big Bird as Sesame Street Live rolls into town, playing shows at 10:30am and 7:30pm today and tomorrow, 10:30am and 2pm on Saturday, and 1pm and 4:30pm on Sunday. Tickets range from $12-19 for adults, and $10-19 for children. Call 704-522-6500 for more information or to order.
SEPTEMBER 6 - FRIDAY
Discovery Place will erupt in joy as they begin screening a volcanic new movie in its OMNIMAX Theatre tonight, Ring Of Fire. For more information, log on to www.discoveryplace.org.
Factory Films presents the documentary War: In the Land of the Mujaheddin tonight beginning at 6:15 at the Visulite Theatre. Tickets are on sale at the door for $7. For more information, call 704-333-9755.
SEPTEMBER 7 - SATURDAY
The Charlotte Philharmonic Orchestra opens their season with An American Salute tonight at 8pm in the Performing Arts Center. The production will feature guest artist Daniel Rodriguez, the Singing New York Policeman who was present at ground zero and who must have sung "God Bless America" a couple of hundred times during the baseball playoffs last year. Tickets are $15-$35. For more information, call 704-846-2788 or 704-372-1000.
Charlotte Repertory Theatre starts their 26th season with one of the great American plays of the 20th century, Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. The play will run September 7-29 at Booth Playhouse in the Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $24-$31.50. For more information or a complete showtime schedule call 704-372-1000 or visit online at www.charlotterep.org.
Coming of Age, an overview of the 65 year growth of the Mint Museum of Craft + Design's permanent collection, opens today. The collection ranges from 19th century utilitarian pottery and crafts of the Carolinas to today's artworks created by studio artists and designers throughout the world. The exhibit will run through April 6, 2003. Museum hours are Tuesday-Saturday from 10am-5pm and Sunday from 12-5pm. Admission is $6/adults, $5/seniors, $3/students ages 6-17 and free for ages 5 and under. For more information, call 704-337-2000 or visit online at www.mintmuseum.org.
The Igunnuko African Heritage Festival will be held today in Frazier Park in uptown Charlotte from 11am until 9pm, featuring family-oriented displays of traditional dance, music, food and more. For more information, call 704-921-5800.
SEPTEMBER 8 - SUNDAY
The Carolina Panthers take on the Baltimore Ravens at 1pm today at Ericsson Stadium, with John Fox making his NFL head coaching debut. Fox inherited many members of last year's miserable 1-15 squad, but has a clean slate and number one draft pick in Julius Peppers to ease his pain. Tickets are $40-54, available by calling 704-522-6500.
Celebrate the legacy of Charlotte-born artist Romare Bearden and African American heritage with a day of hands-on activities, performances and food for the whole family at The Mint Museum of Art. Celebrating the Legacy Community Day will feature folk tales, gospel music, jazz music, and a tour of several special exhibitions. Admission for a family of four is $10. For more information, call 704-337-2000 or visit online at www.mintmuseum.org.
Country honker Toby Keith will bring his hat and a hatful of patriotic feelings to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at 7:30pm tonight, along with Rascal Flatts and Paul Thorn. Tickets are $18, $25, and $35, available by calling 704-522-6500.
SEPTEMBER 9 - MONDAY
John Mayer, who has featured his Dave Matthews-like warble to the delight of girls nationwide, will appear at Davidson College's Belk Arena tonight, along with special guests Charlie Hunter and Guster. Tickets for the show are $27.50 for general admission, available by calling 704-522-6500.
PBS' POV documentary series will show the film Afghanistan Year 1380 tonight at 10pm (check local listings). The film concerns the effect of global political forces on the land and its people.
SEPTEMBER 10 - TUESDAY
West Side Story, one of the most compelling musicals of all time, comes to the Performing Arts Center September 10-15. The musical take off on Romeo & Juliet, with music by Leonard Bernstein, will run Tuesday-Thursday at 8pm, Friday and Saturday at 8:15pm, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2pm, and Sunday night at 7:30pm. Tickets range from $20-$58. For more information, call 704-372-1000 or visit online at www.blumenthalcenter.org.
A Dusk to Dawn Vigil will be held at Independence Park (7th St. at Hawthorne Lane) beginning at 7pm and ending September 11 at 10am. The vigil will honor the lives of the people who died on September 11, 2001 and the victims of violence all over the world, and is sponsored by the Charlotte Chapter of the Fellowship Of Reconciliation, an international, interfaith group dedicated to nonviolent social change. There'll be music, speakers and more from 7-10pm, then a candlelight vigil from 10pm-7am, followed by more speakers and music from 7-10am. The vigil was organized in response to a plea from The September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows (family members of victims of Sept 11, 2001) to commemorate September 11, 2002 with peaceful events. For more info, call 704-449-6925.
SEPTEMBER 11 - WEDNESDAY
Together We Remember is the uninspired name chosen for the city-county's "official" commemoration of September 11 in Marshall Park, from 8:46am to 10:10am. Events will include bells tolling at the different times planes crashed on September 11, 2001; processions of various groups such as firefighters, police, Red Cross and others to the park; a 9:30am ceremony, held "under heightened security" (ooooh), unveiling a steel girder from the World Trade Center, and featuring a military jet flyover.
September 10, 2001, Uno Nunca Muere La Vispera, a short film by Colombian artist Monika Bravo, will be shown every 10 minutes at the McColl Center for Visual Arts from 11am-4pm. Bravo made this film while she was an Artist-In-Residence on the 92nd floor of the World Trade Center; it's described as a "piece of art depicting a violent and prophetic thunderstorm deluging the World Trade Center...just hours before the attacks." The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 704-332-5355.
The Charlotte Museum of History will feature A Day to Commemorate Freedom. Guests can tour the grounds, visit The American Freedom Bell, explore documents proclaiming the country's freedom, and view video presentations. Regular museum admission applies and no reservations are required. For more information, call 704-568-1774 or visit online at www.charlottemuseum.org.
In observance and commemoration of the lives lost on September 11, 2001, the Mint Museum of Art and the Mint Museum of Craft + Design invite the public to express their feelings in places of beauty, peace and refuge. At both locations, visitors may write and place notes, comments, poems, songs or drawings on display. Notepaper, pens and pencils will be available or visitors may bring their own from home to be pinned on boards. The Museums will be open without charge throughout the day. For more information, call 704-337-2000.