Culture / Entertainment

The Weekend Guru: 5 Under-the-Radar Events in Houston this Oscar Weekend

BY // 02.24.17

Editor’s Note: Houston’s weekends are packed full of events, but how many of them are truly worthy of your time? PaperCity’s Matthew Ramirez cuts through the clutter to give you the best options in this new regular weekly series.

An Artful Palace
Friday sees the grand unveiling of the Moody Center for the Arts, a staggering accomplishment of architecture and art at Rice University years in the making. Things kick off at the 52,000 square foot facility with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday at 4 pm with Mayor Sylvester Turner. An opening ceremony, premiere performances, and of course, a huge party at night follow. The opening events are free.

The Artists Are Present
Experimental Action is a three-day performance art festival that began Thursday. Descended from the Lone Star Explosion series, a biennial performance art fest, Experimental Action, headed by Evan McCarley, Julia Claire Wallace, Jonatan Lopez, and Jana Whatley sets up across several downtown locales including The Secret Group.

Intended as a publicity coup, the group has even attempted to reach out to child actor turned performance artist Shia LaBeouf in an attempt to get him to attend and perform. Hopefully there is more to the performance art here than a person giving themselves an enema onstage.

Tickets start at $15; Saturday is headlined by a symposium at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, at 2 pm, which is free.

No Limit
Chattanooga-based rapper Isaiah Rashad would seem to be the odd-man-out of the west coast-based Kendrick Lamar‘s Top Dawg Entertainment/Black Hippy crew (consisting of Lamar himself, plus Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, and SZA) due to his southern background and more introspective lyrics.

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However, Rashad is my favorite TDE member. He thoughtfully weaves generations of southern hip-hop into a modern tapestry with the Kendrick stamp of approval. His sleepy charisma guides him through his songs about self-harm, alcoholism, and depression with a touching humanity.

Touring behind 2016’s excellent The Sun’s Tirade, Rashad’s show Friday at Warehouse Live is sold out online, but tickets can be found at Sneaker Summit (off Shepherd and 59) and Premium Goods (in Rice Village). Lance Skiiiwalker and Jay IDK open. Doors open at 8 and the show begins at 8:30 pm.

Judge, Jury, and Gastrologer
The 2017 Casa de Esperanza Young Professionals Chili Cook-Off at Kirby Ice House boasts more than 40 teams readying the stuff for tasting (alongside ice-cold brews of course). PaperCity‘s own Jailyn Marcel will be a judge, hungry and ready to taste and rank her favorite chilis. General admission tickets will set you back $45. The cook-off runs 2 through 5 pm Saturday.

Magic Before Moonlight
Dubbed “a classic of post-colonial African cinema,” Black Girl is a patient, quietly moving character study about Diouana, who moves from Dakar to Antibes to work for a well-to-do French couple, but finds her life post-Senegal is not what she thought it would be. It possesses the same neo-realistic, dreamlike character of the American film Killer of Sheep.

Tickets are $9 and the last showing is Sunday at 2 pm at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

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