Celebrating Resilience
In connection with Black History Month, Hamptons Doc Fest and the Southampton Arts Center are co-hosting “Communities of Resilience” on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the arts center.
The evening will open with a keynote presentation by Georgette Grier-Key, director of the Eastville Community Historical Society, and Renee Simons, the president of SANS, the Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Ninevah Beach Subdivisions historic district. They will discuss the history of the three historic Black neighborhoods, which were placed on the National and New York State Registers of Historic Places in 2019.
Their talk will be followed by a screening of “San Juan Hill: Manhattan’s Lost Neighborhood,” a 2024 documentary by Stanley Nelson, a pre-eminent chronicler of the African-American experience. The film focuses on a West Side neighborhood in Manhattan from which, during the 1940s and ‘50s, thousands of residents were displaced to make way for Lincoln Center, the Amsterdam Houses, and a campus of Fordham University.
After the screening Mr. Nelson will join the audience for an online interview. Tickets are $15, $10 for members.
Oscar Wilde Onscreen
National Theatre Live will return to Guild Hall Saturday evening at 7 with an encore performance of Oscar Wilde’s comedy “The Importance of Being Earnest,” filmed as it was performed at London’s Lyttelton Theatre during a recent two-month run.
While assuming the role of a dutiful guardian in the country, Jack (Hugh Skinner) lets loose in town under a false identity. Meanwhile, his friend Algernon (Ncuti Gatwa) adopts a similar facade. Hoping to impress two eligible ladies, the gentlemen find themselves caught in a web of lies they must carefully navigate. Three-time Olivier Award-winner Sharon D. Clarke joins the fun as Lady Bracknell, Algernon’s aunt.
Max Webster directs the story of identity, impersonation, and romance, which The Guardian called “the most stylish festive show in town.” Tickets are $20, $18 for Guild Hall members.
LongHouse Lecture
LongHouse Reserve will host its first Larsen Salon Series of 2025 with Liz Collins, a textile artist, and Julia Bryan-Wilson, a curator and art historian, next Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Ligne Roset Showroom, at 250 Park Avenue South in Manhattan.
Named in honor of Jack Lenor Larsen, LongHouse’s founder, the series brings together designers, architects, and artists. Next Thursday’s conversation will focus on the intersections among art, craft, and design from a queer feminist perspective.
Ms. Collins is well known for pushing the boundaries of art and design in innovative and experimental work in fabric, yarn, and other materials. During the program she will introduce a special-edition scarf she designed while Artist in Residence at LongHouse last summer.
Ms. Bryan-Wilson is a professor of L.G.B.T.Q.+ art history and core faculty at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender.
Tickets for the talk and reception are $75. Artist and student tickets are $25.
Auditions at SAC
Ilene Beckerman wrote her first book, “Love, Loss, and What I Wore,” when she was 60 years old. Since then, she has written four more, and has collaborated with Michael Disher, the director of Center Stage at the Southampton Arts Center, on three plays.
Now on the cusp of 90, she and Mr. Disher are again joining forces, this time on “Gingy’s Diaries,” which illuminates the highlights of Gingy’s life — what she has seen, what she has lived, and what she has learned.
The nonunion show will be presented in workshop form at the arts center from May 2 through May 4. Auditions for the five-female cast, plus two alternates/understudies, will be held there on Sunday at noon. Women auditioning should be over the age of 35. Rehearsals will begin March 1, and most will happen Saturdays and Sundays between noon and 3:30.
More information is available from Mr. Disher, by email to [email protected].
Jazz and Pride
Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, in association with Hamptons Jazz Fest, will host a show by Cocomama, an all-female salsa band formed in 2005, on Saturday at 8 p.m.
Originally focused on Afro-Cuban dance music, the group has since evolved, incorporating influences from classical music, jazz, Latin American traditions, and soul. The band has performed at the United Nations, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Spoleto Music Festival.
Tickets are $42 to $54.
Next up in the Pride Film Series on Sunday at 4 p.m. is “Torch Song Trilogy” (1988), a comedy-drama adapted by Harvey Fierstein from his play of the same name, about a gay man who struggles to find love and respect in 1970s New York City. Directed by Paul Bogart, the film stars Mr. Fierstein, Anne Bancroft, and Matthew Broderick.
Tickets are $10.
Jam at the Temple
The Roses Grove Band, known for its improvisation of the Grateful Dead’s folk-rock and Americana sound, will bring extended jams, unique segues, and delicate transitions between songs to the temple on Saturday at 8 p.m. The $20 admission fee is partly donated to local charities.
