Here is your curated Hartford event calendar for March 2022.

What makes this list? Events that I would either attend or recommend to a good friend. Check with each venue for information about Covid protection procedures and, you know, the regular stuff, like if the event is still happening or if it got canceled by a snow storm/heat wave/other climate disaster.

ADD TO CALENDAR

  • LETTERS, LEGACY, LORE: This virtual talk is a collaboration between the Neshama Center, Charter Oak Cultural Center, and Mark Twain House & Museum. They describe this as “Some of the most personal, poignant and powerful remembrances of the Holocaust can be found in the letters left behind. Director, actor and playwright Eleanor Reissa and composer and pianist Ted Rosenthal have both turned their parents’ World War II era letters respectively into a book and a jazz opera. The resulting works are both heartfelt and heartbreaking looks at the Holocaust and refugee life for the surviving Jews who fled their homes. Rabbi Debra Cantor joins Reissa and Rosenthal to discuss these deeply personal works.” Register here for the free event, scheduled for March 8, 2022 at 7PM.
  • SHORTBUS: If you’ve never seen or heard about Shortbus, remove any pearls you may be wearing to avoid garrotting yourself. This is not a new film. It’s from 2006. And it’s returning to Cinestudio for one night. I’m only even telling you this because I already secured my ticket. This is an uncomfortable film, with moments of comedy. Be ready to feel all your feelings. There’s an un-simulated orgy. A pre-orgasmic couples counselor. Depression. Sex workers. This screens at 7:30 PM on March 10, 2022.  I also recommend reading this interview with film director John Cameron Mitchell.
  • INVISIBLE SUFFERING: Artist Dr. Diana Alderete will be giving a talk at the opening for her work in the Charter Oak Cultural Center gallery, 5:30-7 PM on March 11, 2022. Of this project, Alderete says, “It fuses my artistic visual expression with my academic research and interests on border studies, gendered violence in Latin America, and environmental and social justice to examine how we can process the world. I invite the spectator to come closer and look beyond the layers of metaphorical suffering, to therefore ask how we can collectively build on a politics of healing. Through abstraction, this art project comments on how suffering can become invisible if we fail to pay attention to the patterns and refuse to take a deeper look at toxic systems affecting our society.” This is free to attend; the art will be on view through April 11, 2022, for those who prefer to view with fewer people in gallery.

  • DISHWASHER DREAMS: Through March 20, 2022, catch this performance at Hartford Stage, described as “hilarious, transformative monologues driven by a percussive heartbeat, this play brings to life the many different characters and immigration experiences from 1930s Bangladesh, to 1970s Spanish Harlem, and present-day Hollywood.” You can get tickets here or here.
  •  AIN’T READY: They Ain’t Ready For Me is a contemporary documentary film about Tamar Manasseh, “a Black rabbinical student. Both authentically Jewish and authentically Black, she brings an understanding of both of these communities, even as she struggles for acceptance in each one.” This streams March 26 – March 29, 2022; there is a live showing on March 28 at the JCC. Tickets are $12.      [Usually the Hartford Jewish Film Festival has a few in-person screenings withing city boundaries. This year, things are a little different, but most films can be streamed for those living in Connecticut, so I’m going ahead and including it.]
  • SAUL BELLOW: Film documentary about Saul Bellow.  Streaming March 27-30, 2022. Tickets are $12.     [Usually the Hartford Jewish Film Festival has a few in-person screenings withing city boundaries. This year, things are a little different, but most films can be streamed for those living in Connecticut, so I’m going ahead and including it.]
  • AUTOMAT: A film documentary about the automat? Indeed. The HJFF describes it: “Mel Brooks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elliot Gould, Colin Powell, and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz are just a few of the fans who talk about being dazzled by the Horn & Hardart experience: dining as entertainment. This winning documentary will put a smile on your face as you’re transported back to the good old days
    of nickel coffee, savory meatloaf, tapioca pudding, and lemon meringue pie.” This streams March 30 through April 2, 2022. Tickets are $12.     [Usually the Hartford Jewish Film Festival has a few in-person screenings withing city boundaries. This year, things are a little different, but most films can be streamed for those living in Connecticut, so I’m going ahead and including it.]

CULTURAL ASSETS

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