Slope Weekday Events Spotlight: February 22-25

You may not use the term “winter doldrums,” because we have a bevy of offerings, including love-ologists, weird history, book readings, and more. Below are some of our favorite events from around the area.

For even more things to do around Brooklyn, and to add your own upcoming events (some of which we’ll feature in this roundup in the future!), check out our calendar.

Night Train with Wyatt Cenac
When: Monday, February 22, 7:30pm (door), 8:00pm (show)
Where: Littlefield, 622 Degraw Street (between 3rd and 4th Avenues)
What: With Brooke Van Poppelen, Liz Miele, Lukas Kaiser, Tanael Joachim, and more.
How much: $5-$8 in advance.

Yuki Shibata Quartet + Noah MacNeil Quartet
When: Tuesday, February 23. Doors: 6:30pm / Show: 7pm
Where: ShapeShifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Place (between 1st and Carroll Streets)
What: Yuki Shibata and Noah MacNeil are both jazz pianists and composers.
How much: $10.

Wedding Crashers Live
When: Monday, February 22, Doors: 6:30pm / Show: 7pm
Where: The Bell House, 149 7th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues)
What: For years the creators of Brooklyn’s best wedding fair, Wedding Crashers, have produced an annual wedding band showcase that brings together the city’s best musicians to soundtrack your wedding. This year, Wedding Crashers Live on Feb. 22 will feature the same awesome bands, plus creative wedding performers who will make a lasting impression on your guests.
How much: $10 in advance; $12 at the door.

Secret Science Club presents Biological Anthropologist, Love-ologist & Author Helen Fisher on the “Anatomy of Love”
When: Tuesday, February 23, Doors: 7:30pm, Show: 8pm
Where: The Bell House, 149 7th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues)
What: Love … it’s the source of rollercoaster highs and lows … the rhyme and reason for googly-eyed hand-holding, drunk texting, and drive-through wedding chapels. So what does science say about love? At the next Secret Science Club, we’re about to find out. Biological anthropologist Helen Fisher has written (and re-written) the book on love. She asks: Does romantic love have evolutionary roots? Can love be detected in a brain scan? How often do hookups turn into relationships? What are the signs of love addiction? Is Tinder a source of love at first sight—or cognitive overload?
How much: Free.

Slavic Soul Party
When: Tuesday, February 23, 9:00pm
Where: Barbes, 376 9th Street near 6th Avenue.
What: If you’re looking for “fiery Balkan brass, throbbing funk grooves, Gypsy accordion wizardry, and virtuoso jazz chops,” don’t miss Slavic Soul Party, hitting the Barbes stage on Tuesday night. 7pm show by Shankar.
How much: $10 (strongly) suggested donation.

How I Learned to Eat Cake: Stories About Birthdays
When: Wednesday, February 24, 7:30pm (door), 8:00pm (show)
Where: Union Hall, 702 Union Street and 5th Avenue
What: HOW I LEARNED features writers, storytellers, comedians, and other raconteurs holding forth on a rotating theme. It’s been named one of “Five Best NYC Storytelling Series” by Time Out New York, and CBS New York calls it one of the “Best Comedy Shows Hosted by Funny Women.” It should be added that they also said, “host Blaise Allysen Kearsley keeps it AWKWARDLY funny.” The series has also been featured in the New York Times, the Observer, Electric Literature, Brooklyn Magazine, Tin House, Village Voice, The L Magazine, Splitsider, and elsewhere. Born on the Lower East Side in 2009, the show now takes place in Brooklyn every last Wednesday of the month, and sometimes more than that, which basically means you’ll have the best night of your life on those nights, repeatedly.
How Much: $6, tickets available in advance. $10 at the door. 21 and over. This event will be mixed seated/standing. Arrive early for best seat selection.

Paul Goldberg presents The Yid
When: Wednesday, February 24, 7:00pm
Where: Community Bookstore, 143 7th Avenue, between Garfield Place and Carroll Street
What: By equal turns Koestler and Tarantino, Paul Goldberg’s debut novel, The Yid, turns history into tragicomic vaudeville. It’s 1953 and the Great Patriotic War has ended but the Jewish Question looms. In the dead of night, Stalin’s goons begin disappearing their Jewish compatriots: war heroes, artists, actors, widows, sons and daughters. But then, just like that, the purge ends, with the tyrant dead and buried. The days and nights that led to Stalin’s death—or assassination—is the subject of Paul Goldberg’s wildly audacious book.
How much: Free.

Morbid Academy Presents: Stalking Weird History: a conversation with Robert Damon Schneck and Mitch Horowitz
When: Thursday, February 25, 7pm-9pm
Where: Morbid Anatomy Museum, 424 3rd Avenue (at 7th Street)
What: A monthly series of provocative and useful dialogues with artists, writers, filmmakers, and scholars who broaden our understanding of the ill-considered and the unknown, hosted by PEN Award-winning historian Mitch Horowitz.
How much: $10. Tickets available here.

New Members’ Show at 440 Gallery
When: Thursday, February 18, 6-9pm. Regular hours: Thursdays and Fridays, 4:00-7:00pm; Saturdays and Sundays, 11:00am-7:00pm. Exhibit through March 20.
Where: 440 Gallery, 440 6th Avenue, between 9th and 10th Streets
What: 440 Gallery presents the work of six new members of the Gallery. The exhibit is curated by veteran 440 Gallery artist Karen Gibbons. Works by new members Jo-Ann Acey, Eric Banks, Richard Barnet, Leigh Blanchard, Joy Makon, and Amy Weil.
How much: Free.

Prosjektrom Normanns: Transcendental Tactility
When: Thursdays-Saturdays, 2pm-6pm. Through February 27.
Where: Open Source Gallery, (306 17th Street at 6th Avenue)
What: Transcendental Tactility is a group exhibition curated by Norwegian artist-run space Prosjektrom Normanns that will explore abstract, poetic, and lyric expressions of existence and presence. Showcasing works by Norwegian contemporary artists Per Christian Brown, Benedicte Clementsen, Elin Melberg, Margrethe Aanestad, and Kristin Velle-George, Transcendental Tactility will utilize a variety of media, such as film, painting, textile, sculpture, and drawing. Working with a shared interest in materiality and techniques, artists included in this exhibit will explore personal and universal experience through abstraction. Underlining sensibilities, tactility, and fragility inherent in materials, work included in this exhibit excavates timeless and subjective forms. Transcendental Tactility invites the audience to explore the subjective history within objects, their own subjective perceptions, and larger themes of time and presence.
How much: Free.