Culture FIX: July 15-21

If you’re not acclimated to the heat yet, the weather gurus say weekend rain may temper things. Well, OK … if it actually happens. If not, there’s at least as much to do inside as outside this week. So no excuses for not enjoying some mid-July culture.

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Wednesday, July 15

“David Hockney at the Royal Academy of Arts” | 2 p.m. Esquire Theatre, 320 Ludlow Ave., Clifton. 513-281-8750. DETAILS: David Hockney was one of the most important British artists of the last half century. To mark his death last month at age 88, the Esquire is squeezing in a few showings of this 2017 documentary. It offers an intimate look at two exhibitions – both hugely popular – at London’s Royal Academy of Art: “A Bigger Picture” (2012) and “82 Portraits and One Still-Life” (2016). If you don’t quite know what all the fuss is about, here’s a chance to be introduced. Additional screening at 5:20 Thursday.

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Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, “Much Ado About Nothing” | 7 p.m. Multiple venues. 513-381-2273. DETAILS: We’ve told you about the outdoor musical options the region has to offer in the summer. How about theater? The “curtain” goes up this week on the annual touring production from Cincy Shakes. Between now and Labor Day, the company will bring its take on “Much Ado About Nothing” – a rom-com that has a rollicking good time getting from “I would my horse had the speed of your tongue” to “I do love nothing in the world so well as you” – to every corner of the Tristate. All performances at 7 p.m. Up this week are:

• Wednesday: Bluegrass Barn, 144 S. Main St., Crittenden
• Thursday: Cottell Park, 5847 Irwin Simpson Road, Mason
• Friday: Outdoor Pit at Third Place, 734 Main St., Brookville
• Saturday: Rhinegeist Taproom, 1910 Elm, St., Over-the-Rhine
• Sunday: Devou Park Bandshell, 1 Bandshell Blvd., Covington
• Tuesday: Civic Park, 111 E. High St., Lawrenceburg

Thursday, July 16

Cincinnati Lab Theatre, New Works Festival | 7:30 p.m., Bell Tower Arts Pavilion, 3270 Glendale Milford Road, Evendale. DETAILS: It might surprise you to hear that Cincinnati Lab is already presenting its 13th season. This week, the company’s annual New Works Festival hits the boards with three fully staged plays and three readings. Kicking things off is “Little Boxes” by Emily Turner. It comprises four vignettes exploring the symbolic boxes we find ourselves in and the enduring beauty of family. Repeats July 25. The other staged plays are Fred Rothzeid’s “Enemy of the Good” (7:30 p.m. Friday and July 23) and F.J. Hartland’s “Waiting for Fair” (7:30 Saturday and July 24). The readings are at 1, 4 and 6 p.m. Sunday.

Friday, July 17

Cincinnati Art Museum, “All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins” | 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 935 Eden Park Drive, Mount Adams. 513-771-2787. DETAILS: Pumpkin season seems to creep earlier and earlier each year. Yayoi Kusama has described the pumpkin as a form of self-portraiture. Her “All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins,” from 2016, allows visitor to immerse themselves in the artwork as they seemingly enter an infinite field of glowing pumpkins. It features various-sized yellow gourds adorned with black polka dots, surrounded by mirrors. The show also includes a dozen, rare pumpkin acrylic paintings on canvas made between 1990 and 2004. Through Oct. 18.

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The Annex, “Thresholds” | Wed-Sat., 11:30-4 p.m. Annex Gallery, 1310 Pendleton St., Pendleton. 513-407-7077. DETAILS: Liudmila Velasco was born in Moscow (back in the U.S.S.R., as the Beatles would say), but she’s spent most of her life in Havana. This exhibition looks at more than 30 years of her photography, which layers images of monuments and the everyday city into meditations on time, utopia and revolution. Through June 27.

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Wash Park Art, twin exhibitions | 5-8 p.m., Wash Park Art, 1215 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. 513-291-3626. DETAILS: The latest show at this Washington Park-adjacent gallery contrasts the work of Cynthia Kukla and Joeliene Magoto. Kukla explores the paradox of elusive beauty in revered ruins, while Magoto highlights the seasonality of life through botanical cycles. Through Aug. 15.

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Middletown Arts Center, two exhibitions | 6-8 p.m. Middletown Arts Center, 130 N. Verity Parkway, Middletown. 513-424-2417. DETAILS: Two shows open Friday, but the day is actually a triple treat. The visual art is covered by the center’s annual photography and digital art exhibition, with work by regional photographers and digital artists, plus “Resist & Reveal,” contemporary batik paintings by Deb Jo Jones in the Lobby Gallery. As a bonus, author Geoff Williams (a fellow Cincinnati Post alumnus), will be on hand to sign his latest book, “The Summer of Death,” about the brutal heat wave of 1936. Through Aug. 20.

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“Apollo 11: First Steps Edition” | 7:30 p.m. Lindner Omnimax Theater, Cincinnati Museum Center, 1301 Western Ave., Queensgate. 513-287-7000. DETAILS: It was this week in 1969 that the entire planet held its breath as Ohioan Neil Armstrong hopped down the ladder of Eagle, the lunar module of the Apollo 11 mission to take a giant leap for mankind. The Museum Center has teamed up with Ohio Goes to the Movies for a short run of a special edition of “Apollo 11,” the riveting film assembled from a trove of archival footage of the mission. The “First Steps Edition” includes previously unseen footage, some in 70mm. Special guests include director Todd Douglas Miller, Apollo Mission Control engineer Frances “Poppy” Northcutt, Apollo launch team member Roy Tharpe and Matt Morton, who composed the film’s score. Three additional showings Saturday.

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Caffè Vivace, Virginia MacDonald Quartet | 7 p.m. Caffè Vivace, 975 E. McMillan St., Walnut Hills. 513-601-9897. DETAILS: Jazz clarinetists are relatively rare, and women jazz clarinetists even more so. Canada-born Virginia MacDonald shows there’s no good reason for that. (Her father, saxophonist Kirk MacDonald, provided plenty of inspiration – see the video above.) Now based in New York City and with a Juno Award – Canada’s equivalent of a Grammy – under her belt, she brings her namesake combo to Walnut Hills. Joining MacDonald are Alex Goodman on guitar, Mark Lewandowski on bass and drummer Maria Marmarou. Second show at 9 p.m.

Saturday, July 18

City Flea | 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Washington Park, 1230 Elm St, Over-the-Rhine. DETAILS: You know the scene by now: The Flea offers hip arts, crafts, tasty treats and sundry other treasures. This month’s edition is special: It includes the annual Kids Market, a chance for young people to showcase their wares and get an sense of what running a small business is like. See what the next generation has in store for us.

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AfriFest Cincy | 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Sawyer Point Park, 705 E. Pete Rose Way, downtown. DETAILS: It’s a summer weekend, so we know what that means in these parts: a cultural festival. This week it’s AfriFest, a celebration of African arts, culture, cuisine, fashion and traditions. The main event is Saturday’s Taste of Africa. There’ll be live entertainment, and more than 70 art, craft and food vendors. 

AfriFest events kick off 10 a.m. Wednesday with a guided tour of “Voices from Kenya,” an exhibition organized by SOS Art of 154 prints by contemporary Kenyan artists and accompanied by Kenyan cultural and movie mini-festivals. At the Kennedy Heights Arts Center, 6546 Montgomery Road.

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Cincinnati World Cinema, “Steal This Story, Please” | 4 & 7 p.m., Garfield Theatre, 719 Race St., downtown. 859-957-3456. DETAILS: One often gets the impression that reality doesn’t matter much in today’s media landscape. As corporate-owned news organizations with proud traditions lean on bended knee to avoid conflict with the people they’re supposed to challenge, the work of independent journalist Amy Goodman is all the more remarkable. Cincinnati World Cinema follows last week’s screening of the Walter Cronkite documentary “Eye on the World” with “Steal This Story, Please,” a gripping, tense (but also funny) look at Goodman’s work in the era of “alternative facts” (you know, what we used to call “lies”). A Q&A session with Goodman via Zoom will follow.

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Findlay Market Night Market | 5-9 p.m. 1801 Race St, Over-the-Rhine. DETAILS: At least once every year, Findlay Market stays open late to give folks a chance to shop, eat and drink until the sun goes down. This year, the Night Market also includes a poetry slam (with actual cash prizes!) and other art-focused programming. There will of course be music, and the market’s vendors will offer a veritable buffet of food options. (Note that, if you come early, you’l have just enough time to stroll the market and then head a block up Elm Street to catch the Shakespeare performance at Rhinegeist.)