Thursday 17
HATBOX HISTORY. Memories of the Old South come alive in Aunt Del's Hatbox, a one-woman show starring Kala Lynn Moses.
The UA office of African American Student Affairs celebrates Black History Month with this interactive, poignant story of an older woman from the South and her hatbox full of bittersweet memories. From the box pour letters, pictures and keepsakes that weave together the story of her life. Moses won the Best Supporting Actress Award at The Arizona Repertory Theatre for the work.
Show opens at 5 p.m. with a performance by UA dancer Anton Smith in the UA Student Union Cellar, on campus north of the main Mall and east of Old Main. Admission is free. For details, call 621-3419.
SOUL OF THE SERI. Join photographer David Burckhalter for a book signing at the Tucson Botanical Gardens.
The longtime Tucson lensman discusses and signs copies of his latest book, Among Turtle Hunters and Basket Makers: Adventures with the Seri Indians. This tough tribe in Mexico constitutes North America's last, true hunter-gatherers, who have steadily resisted destruction of their culture along the rugged, northern Gulf of California.
Burckhalter recounts his experience among the distinctive people at 7 p.m. in the Tucson Botanical Gardens, 2150 N. Alvernon Way. Admission to the gardens is $4, $3 for seniors. Call 326-9686 for information.
Friday 18
BIG LIFT. Let your spirits soar when Orts Theatre of Dance presents Millennium Opener.
The showcase of fine choreography includes "Bridging Worlds," a collaborative work by Capoeira professor Dondi Marble, Anne Bunker and Chuck Koesters; "Window in the Woods" by Bunker and Melissa Lowe, a work inspired by the Scottish Highlands; and Bunker's "Toilet Trees," "possibly inspired" by Orts' new studio next door to a plumbing supply store.
Rounding out the evening are a classic work of modern dance by Rodney Griffin, a new dance/music collaboration based on images of a brass quintet; and a powerful excerpt from Robert Davidson's Rapture Rumi. (See this week's Arts section for details.)
Show times are 8 tonight and tomorrow, and 2 p.m. Sunday, in the PCC Proscenium Theatre, 2202 W. Anklam Road. Advance tickets are available for $8 and $10 at Bentley's, Antigone Books, Silverbell Trading, the PCC Center for Fine Arts box office, and by calling 624-3799. Tickets cost $2 more at the door. Call 624-3799 for details.
PILOT PROGRAM. Men who piloted the strategic Blackbird spy planes will describe their risky missions at the Pima Air and Space Museum.
The Lockheed SR-71 was once a top secret reconnaissance aircraft, able to fly faster than three times the speed of sound, at altitudes greater than 80,000 feet. Today, the pilots describe the tension of cruising on secret missions over "denied" territory. Among them is retired Air Force colonel Richard Graham, author of SR-71 Revealed: The Inside Story.
Discussions begin at 10:30 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. today and tomorrow in the Pima Air and Space Museum, 6000 E. Valencia Road. Museum admission is $7.50, $6.50 for military and seniors, $4 for children ages 7 to 13, and free for children under age 7. Call 574-0462 for details.
Saturday 19
NEW WORK. Turning the mirror of portraiture on physically and mentally disabled children is the focus of a striking new exhibit at the Tucson Museum of Art.
Directions: The Lost Portraits features drawings by local artist Chris Rush. Rush upends the tradition of children's portraiture, turning the typical portrayal of physical perfection into an "examination of bodies often feared, often turned away from."
Through 16 drawings, the children's luminous faces engage the viewer with a singular sense of knowing and experience. "In rendering these children, my view is without judgment; I am seeking to portray these young individuals and their existence as natural, rather than pathological," Rush says. "I am looking at these children as more than their illness, more than simply victims in need of a cure or miracle."
The subjects come from the artist's volunteer work with Third Street Kids, a local group serving disabled children.
Directions: The Lost Portraits continues through April 2 at the TMA, 140 N. Main Ave. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. Call 624-2333 for details.
LUNAR ECLIPSE. Journey into fantasy land with the wizard's apprentice and other odd pilgrims on a Quest for the Golden Key of Happiness.
It's the latest adventure at the Valley of the Moon, an eccentric little outpost created by the late visionary George Phar Legler, and maintained by a small army of volunteers dedicated to "keeping the enchantment alive."
Fantasy tours leave the gate every 30 minutes from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Valley of the Moon, 2544 E. Allen Road, north of Prince Road and east of Tucson Boulevard. Admission is free; donations are requested. Call 323-1331 for details.
DARK PROFILE. America's most public secret is finally out: Every law enforcer from beat cops to the greenest Border Patrol agents uses racial profiling on the job. In other words, these officers routinely pick out potential quarry based solely on the way they look -- i.e., their ethnic characteristics.
After years of denying a practice we all know exists (if you're not convinced, take a Hispanic pal along on your next trip to Nogales), the truth's been let loose. Today, the discussion goes a step further when the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom hosts Racial Profiling: An Overview of its Impact on Victims and Society. The discussion features attorney Pam Sutherland, a board member of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The free meeting gathers at 2 p.m. in the Northwest Neighborhood Center, 2160 N. Sixth Ave. For information, call 622-5743.
Sunday 20
WALKUP WALKS. Our new mayor and his wife take a hike with the fourth annual Walk for the Animals.
Sponsored by the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, the stroll raises much-needed cash to help the group find homes for wayward creatures. "Our goal is to raise $50,000 at this year's walk, with every dollar going to support homeless animals residing at the Humane Society here in Tucson," says spokeswoman Cathy Morrison.
Participants can choose from a one- or three-mile trek, with a plethora of prizes available to keep the walkers motivated. Registration begins at noon at the Reid Park Ramada 31, on the west end of the Hi Corbett Field parking lot. For details, call 321-3704.
SQUEEZE PLAY. Accordion-meisters of all shapes and sizes hit the keys at The Big Squeeze. This jamboree showcases "button boxes and piano accordions, swing tunes and old favorites, toe tappers, knee slappers and bouncy heart warmers."
High-spirited action includes music by Jack Tobac and the Blue Diamonds from El Paso; San Diego's Gordon Kohl; bayan accordion whiz Samuil Shaferman; the Polka Buddies from Mesa; and the Accordion Club of Tucson Ensemble. Joining the festivities is a slew of local favorites from Bill Dickerson to Roxanna Baker. Great European chow will be dished up all day.
The party runs from noon to 10 p.m. at Little Bohemia Restaurant, 1535 N. Stone Ave. A $5 donation is requested. For details, call 882-9107.
Monday 21
OL' DIX. Old time jazz takes center stage with a performance by Rob Wright's Dixeland Showband.
Originally assembled for the 1996 Oro Valley Jazz Festival, the band has drawn a growing fan club throughout Tucson. They serve up a joyous repertoire of traditional and standard Dixieland songs, typically encouraging families to sing along, dance, or just listen and tap their feet. The band features banjo, bass, drum, trumpet, trombone and clarinet.
Show time is 7 p.m. at The Gaslight Theatre, 7010 E. Broadway Blvd. Tickets are $8, $6 for students, and available by calling 886-9428.
FUTURE SHOCK TALK. Ever wonder just where we're heading in these heady times? UA Political Science Professor Allen Whiting shares his take with America in the World of the 21st Century.
The lecture focuses on the advancement of human rights and democracy, and whether they're primary or secondary to our economic interests both domestically and abroad. Under that umbrella, he'll touch on political and economic intervention in other countries, as well as ways to "disentangle domestic politics from foreign policy to achieve national consensus."
Prior to his stint at the UA, Whiting served as an advisor to presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon during and after his tenure at the State Department. The discussion is part of the Political Science Salon Series, sponsored by the UA College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Advisory Board.
Alan Whiting lectures at 7 p.m. in the Hacienda del Sol Resort, 5601 N. Hacienda del Sol Road. Admission with advance registration is $10. For registration and other information, call 621-3938.
INCENDIARY YOUTH. PCC salutes Black History Month with Youth Explosion Week, featuring performances from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the PCC West Campus cafeteria, 2202 W. Anklam Road.
Sharing the spotlight today are Santa Rita High School's Black Pearls and Black Diamonds step groups, poet and UA School of Music and Dance student Anton Smith, and the singing group Prophesy.
For details, call 206-6742.
Tuesday 22
BODY WORK. The human form and familial relations share turf in Anatomy of Desire: The Daughter/Mother Sessions, a powerful new exhibit in the UA Arizona Gallery.
Combining the paintings and drawings of Lucinda Bliss, and text by Tucson author Alison Deming, the show grew from their relationship as mother and daughter. This collaborative vision focuses on the challenges and contradictions faced by women artists trying to articulate their desires in a patriarchal culture.
Bliss has shown her work in venues ranging from the Firestone Art Space and Copeland-Rutherford Gallery in New Mexico to Gallery 312 and South of North in Chicago. She received an M.F.A. in visual art from Vermont College and a B.A. in art history from Skidmore College.
Deming teaches creative writing at the UA, and is former director of the Poetry Center. Her books include Science and Other Poems, The Monarchs: A Poem Sequence and The Edges of the Civilized World.
Anatomy of Desire: The Daughter/Mother Sessions runs through March 23 in the UA Arizona Gallery, on the second floor of the Memorial Student Union, north of the main Mall. Hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Call 621-6142 for information.
Wednesday 23
VOZ ALTA. It's been more than a year since Playwright-In-Residence Elaine Romero began mentoring local playwrights for Arizona Theatre Company's Latino/Native American Voices series, and the first of four new works hits the stage tonight in the Temple's upstairs Cabaret Theater.
The only full-length play in the series, Talking to Yellow Roses, by Arlissa Gorosave, follows the story of a young woman piecing together her family's past. The two-act drama creates a tapestry of loss and remembrance, as she comes to know the events surrounding her mother's death, and the separation from the grandmother who raised her. It debuts under the direction of William Alejandro Virchis, Artistic Director of San Diego's Teatro Máscara Mágica (which has built a name for itself in Tucson for its collaborations with Borderlands Theatre).
Yellow Roses hits the stage at 7:30 tonight only, at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. Like its one-act counterparts, it will be presented as a professional staged reading (i.e., actor intensive, with minimal sets and costumes). Tickets are $5 at the door.
The Voices series continues at 7:30 p.m. next week, on Sunday, February 27, with three one-act plays: "Daddy -- the Myth," by Carlota L. Wilson; "Psychic Fare," by Julieta González; and "Neon Lights and Red Seats," by Norma Medina. For information on any of the readings, call 884-8210, ext. 211.
GET A CLUE. Frances Fyfield details a madman's ability to manipulate his victims in her latest mystery, Staring at the Light.
A practicing criminal lawyer, Fyfield has worked as a prosecutor for London's Metropolitan Police and the Crime Prosecution Service. The author of 12 suspense novels, the Boston Globe calls her "the master of claustrophobic suspense," and draws comparisons to Elizabeth George, Minette Walthers and Ruth Rendell.
Fyfield signs copies of Staring at the Light from 3 to 5 p.m. at Clues Unlimited, 16 Broadway Village, on the corner of Broadway Boulevard and Country Club Road. For details, call 326-8533.
BACKWOODS BARRISTER. In 1891, a tragic accident propelled teacher Sarah Herring Sorin into a new life practicing law. After becoming the first woman admitted to the state bar in 1902, she specialized in mining law. Her cases took her from the Tombstone Courthouse to the U.S. Supreme Court, where she became the first woman to argue before that body.
Today Dr. Jacquelyn Kasper of the UA Law Library details Sorin's career in Standing for What is Right and Good: Arizona's First Woman Lawyer.
Lecture runs from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Arizona Historical Society, 949 E. Second St. Admission is $6, $5 for AHS members and $3 for students. Call 628-5774 for details.
