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International Blacksmith Day
Sat., May 26, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.Miscellaneous Fun, Other Art Happenings, Special Events
The Metal Museum marks International Blacksmith Day with blacksmithing demos and an aluminum pour. There will be hot dogs and kettle corn for sale, and guests can check out the museum’s current exhibits “Alchemy” and “Tributaries: Lauren Kalman.”
Free
774-6380Children's Workshop: Mural Painting
Sat., May 26, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.Kids
A workshop for ages 10 to 15, covering the techniques and history of mural painting. Participants will then work together to create their own mural.
Reservations required: 761-5250.
Memphis in May Sunset Symphony
Sat., May 26, 2 p.m.Classical/Jazz/World/Gospel, Classical, Gospel, Other/Misc.
Memphis In May closes with this annual concert by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. This year’s featured band is the Bar-Kays, and the fireworks get fired up starting at 9 p.m.
$8 in advance, $9 at the gate, free for children
Mummies in May
Sat., May 26, 2 p.m.Miscellaneous Fun
The Memphis Mummies motorcycle club hosts this Poker Run. Participants pick a card at five locations (to be announced during the event), and whoever has best the best poker hand at the end wins.
For more information, go to memphismummies.com. $10
Jimbo Mathus and the Tri-State Coalition
Sat., May 26, 7:30 p.m.Rock/Blues/Rap/Country, Other/Misc.
Outside of Mississippi, Jimbo Mathus may be best known as a founding member of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, the North Carolina-based outfit. Unfairly lumped in with the superficial swing revival of that decade, the Zippers were actually sophisticated stylists, blending hot jazz, ragtime, string-band, and any number of other styles. But over the past decade, via a variety of projects -- including the Knockdown Society, the South Memphis String Band (with Luther Dickinson and Alvin Youngblood Hart), and his current band, the Tri-State Coalition -- Mathus has devoted himself to the roots music of his home state, whether it's blues, country, folk, jazz, or anything in between. Mathus' most recent album, 2011's Confederate Buddha, was directly inspired by the Alan Lomax Mississippi field recordings in the 1950s. It's a collection of postmillennial country blues and Southern honkey-tonk so deliriously slack it sounds like it was recorded in one take with no rehearsals. Jimbo Mathus & the Tri-State Coalition play the Levitt Shell on Saturday, May 26th. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. Free.
Free
Memphis Children's Theatre Festival
Fri. and Sat., May 25-26Theater
Virginia Ralph, a longtime member of the Voices of the South theater company relaxes with a tall glass of iced tea and casually, almost sweetly confesses that she’s about to lose her mind. She’s got that oh-my-god-we-open-in-a-week feeling theater people know all too well. Only for Ralph the sensation is cranked up since she’s not only acting in An Old Forest Fairy Tale, an original work and the centerpiece for Voices of the South's annual Children’s Theatre Festival, she’s also the show’s principal writer.
Ralph, who wrote An Old Forest Fairy Tale with her daughter Janie, describes the play as being autobiographically inspired. “It’s about a little girl who lives near the old forest and who really likes fairies,” she says.
The little girl is eventually sucked into the fairy world only to discover it’s nothing like the images she’s seen in illustrations of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She finds herself on the road with a troupe of traveling actors including a planet (Pluto, the smallest), a whale, and a polar bear. One of the stock plays the company performs is called The Saving of the Old Forest, about how a group of “old women in tennis shoes” stopped a bulldozer from knocking down the trees to make way for an interstate.
“It’s performed as an operetta,” says Ralph, an accomplished musician and composer. “The little girl doesn’t know the story, but the fairies all do.”
Voices of the South’s Children’s Theatre Festival also features performances by several companies including Theatre Memphis’ ShoWagon, Cazateatro, Delta Arts, Germantown Community Theatre, the Wood and Strings Theatre, and the Incredible String Puppet Theatre. $5 children, $10 adults, Friday; Pay what you can, Saturday
Metalworking Workshop at the Botanic Gardens
Sat., May 26, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.Conferences/Workshops
Brandy Boyd leads a one-day workshop on metalworking. For a list of supplies, email Brandy Boyd $80 members, $95 nonmembers
Reel McCoy
Sat., May 26, 12-3 p.m.Rock/Blues/Rap/Country, Other/Misc.
Live Celtic music. For more information, call 876-5770.
Ernani from Bologna
Sat., May 26, 1 p.m.Film
Screening of Verdi's four-act opera about Ernani the infamous bandit. $12 members, $15 nonmembers
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