Dig into dance. Hang jazz adjacent. Plan potluck with poets.
Maura's Three for the Week in Charleston, 10/7- 10/13
This one goes to the true believers, those Charleston artists who forever find new ways to make and show their art. Annex Dance Company, which has popped up everywhere from art museums to distilleries, this week takes the stage of Cannon Street Arts Center for its annual fundraiser. Jazz musician and composer extraordinaire Lee Barbour lands a new gig at The Dewberry. The ever-agile Marcus Amaker is all over town for this year’s Free Verse Poetry Festival.
And, yes, there are some big events this week, too, like A Conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates at Charleston Gaillard Center and there may be a few tickets left for Darius Rucker’s Riverfront Revival. But as the cityscape continues to moprh, the intrepid play on. And for that we should show up, and applaud them.
Leap at the chance to see Annex Dance Company
Cannon Street Arts Center, 134 Cannon St., downtown Charleston, Tues. Oct. 8, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Yes, we could use more contemporary dance in Charleston. But thanks to the ever-inventive Annex Dance Company, for years we’ve enjoyed a steady stream of probing new works. Here’s the time to support their ongoing success by way of the Season 18 Opening Fundraiser Event. Meet and mingle with the company while enjoying light refreshments. At 6:15 p.m. there will be short performance of company repertory and works in progress. Tickets are $25/$12 (student and senior).
To purchase tickets, click here.
Cozy up to The Dewberry’s ‘Jazz Adjacent’
The Living Room at The Dewberry, 334 Meeting St. in downtown Charleston, Tuesdays starting Oct. 8, 6 - 9 p.m.
Starting this Tuesday, jazz phenom Lee Barbour launches the new Jazz Adjacent series he is curating, set up in a corner of The Living Room at The Dewberry. Barbour shared on Instagram to listen up for some standards, some surf tunes, some funk, R&B and improvisational work, along with instrumental country arrangements and “pop tunes with weird chords.” Look for food and drink specials, too, and never a cover fee.
For information on The Dewberry, click here.
Use your words at the 2024 Free Verse Poetry Festival’s first event
Local Works, 1859 Summerville Ave, Ste. 800, Charleston, Sun., Oct. 13, 6 p.m.
Free Verse Poetry Festival, poet Marcus Amaker’s annual celebration of local expression, is up and versing with its first event on Sunday. At AMASS, a potluck of film and fellowship amongst poets, artists are encouraged to bring a dish and gather for an evening to relax and break bread before settling in to screen a selection of poetic films curated by Charleston poet laureate A$iahMae. The lineup for this excellent meeting of poetic minds continues next week, too, so get parsing.
For more information on Free Verse Poetry Festival, click here.
Bonus: Pay-As-You-Please at ‘Purlie Victorious’
Dock Street Theatre, 135 Church St., downtown Charleston; Pay-As-You-Please performance is Wed., Oct. 9 at 7:30 p.m. and the production runs through Oct. 27 at various times
Charleston Stage’s Purlie Victorious — the Tony Award-winning comedy by Ossie Davis about a charismatic traveling preacher navigating the Jim Crow era — opens this week, with a Pay-As-You-Please night. Presented by PNC, this select evening of Charleston Stage's six MainStage productions offers patrons a chance to pay as little as $25 (or as much as they wish) to see a fully-staged, all professional production.
Ticket sales for this open online on Oct. 8 night at 7:30 p.m. (24 hours prior to the performance), available by clicking here. (General performances continue playing Oct. 11th - Oct. 27th and those ticket sales are now available.)