Thursday 29
LAST CHANCE. With the women's funding organization, Amazon Foundation, closing up shop, the final exhibit at the Women's Gallery is a sweet farewell.
Photographers in the show encompass Tucson's finest: Linda Cooley, Nancy Dobbs, Katherine Walsh, Marcia Gold, Cynthia Chavez Wahl and others. There's an artist's reception from 5 to 7 p.m. today and the show continues through September 27. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The gallery is located in the offices of the Women's Foundation of Southern Arizona and the soon-to-be-closed Amazon Foundation at 3610 N. Prince Village Place, Suite 100. If you see photographs you like, 20 percent of the sale will be donated to the Women's Foundation and, of course, 80 percent goes to supporting more work by a woman artist. Call 795-5288 for details.
LABOR OF LOVE. Feature This premiers three videos made by local producers about local labor struggles--certainly a labor of love. The Heart and the Monster: A Journey to Cananea, follows producer Daniela Ontiveros as she returns to her birthplace in Sonora, Mexico to reconnect with her family. What a contrast she discovers as her childhood memories of the prosperous mining community she left at age 3 are replaced with the harsh realities of recent economic ruin, environmental devastation and horrific living conditions of the people who've struggled there.
San Manuel: Shutting Down the Stacks investigates what has happened since the 1999 closing of the BHP Copper Mining Company, laying off 2,200 people and changing the small town of San Manuel forever.
Poisoned! The Workers of Brush Wellman, produced by Heather Lares and Linda Bohike, documents the stories of dozens of Tucsonans, especially women, who may been poisoned by their employer and looks at the attempts at worker health and safety.
The screening starts at 7 p.m. at the El Casino Ballroom, 437 E. 26th St., and is followed by a celebration with music by Mankind. Pan Left Production hosts the Labor Day celebration. Tickets cost $10 general and $5 low-income. Questions? Call 792-9171.
Friday 30
FREE TIBET. It's unfathomable to most of us that someone could endure 33 years of torture and their will to live would still survive.
Palden Gyatso, Tibetan Buddhist monk, ex-political prisoner, did survive. He was first jailed by the invading Communist Chinese forces in 1959 for being a "reactionary element." He spent the majority of the next three decades in jail, withstanding brutal physical and psychological abuse and torture, including (and I think we need to hear this in spite of its graphic detail) being beaten, kicked, suspended from the ceiling above burning fire and shocked with electric cattle prods. In 1992 he finished serving his prison sentence and escaped from Tibet to India. He even smuggled out some instruments of torture that were used on him in jail.
In the meantime, Gyatso has traveled extensively to tell his story, testifying before Congress and the United Nations. His Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk was recently translated and published here in the States.
Palden Gyatso talks about his experiences at 7 p.m. at the UA Center for English as a Second Language, Room 103. Enter through Main Gate on Park Avenue off University Boulevard and head towards the Communications Building. For more information, call 622-6155.
WILDER FLICKS. Film director Billy Wilder died at the ripe age of 95 this spring. In his honor, the International Arts Society Film Series shows films that reflect his savage wit and zany humor, for he was a master of both.
The series is showing one Wilder film this semester--Sunset Boulevard, his 1950 classic (I can see both Gloria Swanson and Carol Burnett spoofing that famous staircase scene when I think of this film). You'll have to wait until next week to view that one.
All the films have some Wilderish tone to them. The series begins tonight with Pedro Almadovar's All About My Mother, a dark quest for desire à la Streetcar Named Desire. Almadovar won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1999 for this film about a mother's attempts to find her estranged ex-husband after their 17-year-old son is killed suddenly. On her trip from Madrid to Barcelona, she meets a gallery of soap-opera characters that could easily belong in a picaresque novel.
The free screening begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Modern Languages Auditorium just off Second Street and east of Mountain Avenue. For details, call 621-1836.
Saturday 31
CPR TO GO. Did you play doctor when you were a kid? Maybe you even had one of those "little black bags" full of fake (but, no they were really real!) instruments and a stethoscope. Pack up the kid (or kids) and take them to the Tucson Children's Museum for a morning of first-aid instruction. They'll get to make a mini first-aid kit to take with them--strapped to their belt, in their backpack, wherever. And perhaps you'll have momentary peace of mind knowing that they were at least instructed on what to do if you drop to the floor with a heart attack.
The session starts at 11:30 a.m. and goes until 1 p.m. at the museum, located at 200 S. Sixth Ave. near Broadway Boulevard, and is free with admission to the museum, which is $3.50 for kids, $5.50 for adults and $4.50 for seniors. Throughout August, if you bring two non-perishable items for the annual food drive, you'll receive $1 off the regular admission. Questions? Call 792-9985.
THE '50s RETURN. Scary for us, that might be true, politically. But I was referring to something more innocuous like the Classic Car Show at Little Anthony's Diner. From 5 to 10 p.m., you've got your Jumping Castle for the kids, your trophies and prizes, your giveaways and your DJ spinning '50s tunes. Oh, and don't miss be-bopping and sock-hopping (we young'uns can only imagine what significance these words have). Free registration lasts from 5 to 7 p.m. and dash plaques are donned upon the first 50 cars that show up. All this to raise funds for local charities.
The whole shebang is free. But they're counting on your wanting a bite to eat at the Diner at 7010 E. Broadway Blvd. Call for reservations or details at 296-0456.
Sunday 1
THEY'RE BACK. You've been waiting since February for this local band to get back on stage.
The Carnivaleros are Gary Mackender on accordion, Chris Giambelluca on bass and Richard Medek on drums, and they're joined tonight by Teddy Morgan on guitars and the amazing Hurricane Carla Brownlee on saxes. Their music is described as a combo of Tex-Mex polkas, moody Eastern European western themes with strains of Zydeco rhythms and big backbeat swing numbers. In other words, eclectic.
Their early show gets going at 5:30 p.m. at The Boondocks at 3306 N. First Ave. Three bucks gets you in the door.
SOME LIKE IT HOT. Most people think I'm really weird. "What!? You live in the Southwest and you can't handle any spicy foods? Not even mild salsa?" I hear it all the time.
Here's your chance to not only sample the hot stuff, but to hear some Latin jazz and participate in a Salsa dance contest at St. Philip's Plaza at 4380 N. Campbell Ave.
The Salsa Cook-Off starts at 6 p.m. with two categories for professional and non-professional chefs. El Parador Restaurant offers traditional Sonoran and innovative Southwestern cooking beginning at 7 p.m. From 8 to 11 p.m., Rafael Moreno and Descarga provide the hot Latin music. But the centerpiece of the evening is the dance contest. Dance instructor Jeannie Tucker judges and hosts the competition with sign-ups for the contest beginning at 7:45 p.m. The first round of dancing starts at 9 p.m. Tickets cost $13 general admission and $8 for members of the Tucson Jazz Society.
Why wait? Call for reservations at 903-1265.
Monday 2
LABOR PAINS. A fitting alternative to the usual clueless Labor Day white sales and sports shows is to rally against the conglomerates--the fine folks who bring us forced economic restructuring, privatization and corporate exploitation over sustainable development and debt relief. These are the guys who cause the most suffering in the lives of workers worldwide.
The Road Show Against the IMF and the World Bank arrives in Tucson today with activists presenting workshops on the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas which will affect the economies, environments and people of the first and third world. These workshops are preparing activists all over the country for the protests of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank that will converge on Washington, D.C., on September 27.
At 6 p.m. at Las Sinfronteras, 137 E. Congress St., join other activists and peruse the available books and pamphlets that can guide you to the protests or just inform your local economic improvement efforts.
Call 623-8935 for more information.
Tuesday 3
OH, SAY CAN YOU SEE? The U.S. flag has found its way into the art and crafts of Native American tribes for a long time, particularly in Navajo rugs and Sioux beadwork.
Red, White and Blue, in part, commemorates the events of last September 11, celebrating the freedoms that are the strength of the United States. Throughout the month, opening today, this exhibit features a variety of flag motifs by Native artists including flag designs on folk art chickens and pictorial baskets.
Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays with extended hours from 5 to 7 p.m. on September 11. The Wells Fargo Foyer Gallery at Tohono Chul Park is located at 7366 N. Paseo Del Norte. For information, call 742-6455.
Wednesday 4
HISTORY COMES ALIVE. Go back a few years, a few hundred, to 1777. That's the year that Juan Bautista de Anza made his second expedition to California in service to the King.
National Park Service historian Don Garate portrays de Anza in full costume and in first person--a kind of channeling of a dead conquistador. Join him in rolling back the clock. A discussion, by both the audience and Garate, is presented relative to 1777, although there will be an out-of-character question and answer period at the end of the program.
The interactive living history program begins at noon at the Western National Parks Association Store in Oro Valley. Take Oracle Road to Rancho Vistoso. Go west to Innovation Park Drive and make a left and the Store is the round building on the left. It's free but reservations are required. Call 622-6014.
MUD SLINGING BEGINS NOW. Actually, this event seems to promise candidates on their best behavior--as best as you can get with partisan politics.
The Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs Program and UApresents host a free Congressional Forum for District 7 candidates. Singer/songwriter Lila Downs begins the forum with a brief performance of her Mexican and Mixtec Indian-infused songs. (Her full performance takes place at Centennial Hall on Friday, September 6).
The forum focuses on education issues affecting Arizona. It's also a time to increase voter registration and participation among students and the Hispanic community who are eligible to vote. Lots of folks make this forum possible: The League of Women Voters, UA Political Science Department and JUNTOS, the student advisory board for The Chicano/Hispano Student Affairs Program.
Formulate your questions now for the candidates to stumble over or wax poetic. You be the judge if their answers mean anything.
It all begins at 6:30 p.m. at Centennial Hall on the UA campus. Call 621-5627 with your candidate questions and 626-4425 for more information.
POETIC MUSINGS. The University of Arizona Poetry Center revs up its (believe it or not) 40-year-old reading series today. That's a lot of visiting writers who have graced us with their words.
Tonight it's Richard Shelton's turn. A long-time Tucsonan and UA professor, his poetry and prose have appeared in more than 200 magazines and journals including The New Yorker, The Atlantic and Paris Review. His first book, The Tattooed Desert, won the International Poetry Forum's United States Award. Bus to Veracruz was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Going Back to Bisbee won the Western States Book Award for Creative Nonfiction.
Thirty years ago Shelton established the Writer's Workshop at the Arizona State Prison where eight books of poetry and prose have emanated from its participants. He still directs workshops at prisons around the state.
Hear this prolific writer's words at 8 p.m. in the Modern Languages Auditorium just off Second Street and east of Mountain Avenue. The reading is free. Call 626-3765 for details.
