March Into the Past
Take a Step into 1846 Tucson History
11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, June 8
Fort Lowell Museum
2900 N. Craycroft Road
885-3832; arizonahistoricalsociety.org
Step back into the past and march with the Mormon Battalion this Saturday. It will be your chance to experience what happened as the Mormon Battalion infantry unit of Gen. Stephen Kearny's Army of the West came through Tucson in December 1846. The Mormon Battalion was formed in Illinois and marched to San Diego. It was the longest overland march in U.S. military history.
The event includes uniformed docent re-enactors who will display 1846 U.S. Army accoutrements, maps, reference books and various equipment used during that time.
Bette Richards, the curator aide at the Fort Lowell Museum, says the museum has annual re-enactments of historical events related to the Spanish Army in 1700s, the Indian Wars, the Civil War, World War I and World War II. An Indian Wars re-enactor is there every weekend, but this will be the first time the Mormon Battalion has been highlighted.
"I have been trying to for years to get someone that could portray the Mormon Battalion march," Richards said.
Richards recently discovered Randy Madsen, a Mormon Battalion re-enactor, who moved to Tucson from San Diego recently.
Madsen will show visitors how his musket is loaded and fired, and will discuss the battalion's long march.
The event is designed to appeal to families as well as history buffs. Admission is free.
—N.H-G.
Better Late Than Never
'An Evening with Edmund White'
7 p.m. Wednesday, June 12
The Loft Cinema
3233 E Speedway Blvd.
795-7777
Edmund White, author of many novels, memoirs, essays and plays, will be featured in the Pima County Public Library's Annual GLBT Author Talk this month, a year later than originally planned.
White had been scheduled to do last year's author talk, but he had a stroke a couple of months before the event. He has since recovered.
White will read from his newest book, Jack Holmes and His Friend. Antigone Books will be selling copies of the book at the event. After White reads, there will be a Q&A.
White's nonfiction titles include: The Joy of Gay Sex (with Charles Silverstein), States of Desire, Genet: A Biography, and the memoir My Lives. He initially became well known in gay literature after his 1982 novel, A Boy's Own Life, was published.
Pima County Public Library's GLBT Services Committee puts on this event annually. The group will be rearranging the letters in their title to "LGBT" later this summer to fall in line with other groups nationwide.
Toby Whener, who works on the committee and helps organize the event, thinks it's important to keep the local gay community active.
"GLBT issues have changed throughout the years, but with current debate over marriage equality, awareness and visibility is key," Whener said.
The Main library Downtown will feature a display honoring the GLBT committee through the month of June. Whener mentioned concerns that people might be offended by the display, but feels that the committee should still get recognition.
"The library represents the entire community," Whener said.
The event, which is funded by the Friends of the Pima County Public Library, is free and open to the public.
– C.G.
Taste the Food of Love
The Art of the Plucked String
3 p.m., Sunday, June 9
Grace St. Paul's Episcopal Church
2331 E. Adams St.
628-8119; musicasonora.org
Calling all music enthusiasts: Catch the last concert of the 2012-13 season for Musica Sonora, a professional early music ensemble with instrumentalist and singers, co-directed by Christina Jarvis and Jeffri Sanders.
Musica Sonora will be performing baroque works by Monteverdi, Lawes, de Visée, Purcell, Handel and others.
Jarvis says the group is bringing in an early-plucked-instrument player, Dieter Hennings, who received his bachelor's degree at the University of Arizona and recently completed residency for his doctoral degree in both guitar performance and early plucked instruments at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. He will join Musica Sonora's core ensemble and perform on the lute and theorbo.
For each concert, Jarvis and Sanders try to highlight interesting early instruments. This time they are bringing in the theorbo, a type of lute, which was developed in Florence, Italy, during the 1580s.
"There is a very dedicated early music audience in Tucson, which makes concerts like this possible," Jarvis said.
Tickets are $15 general; $12 for groups of 10 or more; and $5 for students. It will be Musica Sonora's last concert until September, when its new season starts.
—N.H-G.
Celebrating the Smelly
Fifth Annual Garlic, Onion and Music Festival
4 to 10 p.m., Friday, June 7, through Sunday, June 9
Agua Linda Farm
2643 E. Frontage Road, Amado
398-3218;
A festival started as an attempt to bring people to their farm to buy produce is celebrating its fifth year this weekend in Amado, about 45 miles south of Tucson off I-19.
"We were trying to grow produce and get customers to buy, and we were frustrated with the farmers' markets," said Agua Linda Farms' Stewart Loew, "so when we heard about the Gilroy (California) garlic festival, we streamlined what we grow to celebrate that."
And while you certainly can purchase garlic and onions while on the farm for the festival, the menu at the farm's Garden Grill kitchen will be putting those items on nearly everything for sale, so you might want to stock up on breath mints before leaving town. "We'll have onion rings, garlic hamburgers, caramelized onions on Philly cheesesteaks and garlic shrimp," listed Loew in a partial cataloging of the food options available.
This year, you're welcome to bring your own alcoholic beverages to the three day event, but the farm's snowcone machine will also be running providing family-friendly frozen booze-free versions of popular cocktails such as margaritas, strawberry daiquiris and piña coladas.
Bands will be performing all three nights, including Tucson's Tracy Shedd on Saturday night June 8. While the event begins at 4 p.m., Loew suggests people show up a bit later, allowing for the farm to cool down a bit.
Admission is $8 per night or $20 for all three nights. Children 12 and younger are free.
—D.G.
Far left: Edmund WhiteLeft: Dieter Hennings
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