Nature Explorers, Elvis Lives, From New London To Rome

With the arrival of spring, more people are thinking about getting outdoors again. And the events coming up this week on the New London Main Street calendar certainly reflect that. 

It starts this afternoon with Nature Explorers, a six-week series running at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Public Library of New London. Nature programs from the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center will explore various facets of our world, and the program is most suitable for children and families. The Field of Greens Farmers Market holds a fundraiser of wine and chocolate from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday at Union Station; tickets give you a discount on the Paula Poundstone show coming up at the Garde Arts Center and are $20 or $35 per couple in advance and $25 or $40 per couple at the door, with tickets available at Bean and Leaf, Spindrift Guitars, or Smith Acres in Niantic. Switch, a documentary on energy policy, airs at 8 p.m. on Friday at Connecticut College’s Crozier-Williams College Center. And volunteers are needed for a spring cleaning of Fort Trumbull State Park starting at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday.

There’s also a vibrant music scene, with Christine Lavin as the guest at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Congregation’s Friday Night Folk series. Carole Carpen Kargher opens the show, which starts at 7:30 p.m.; tickets are $20 at the door, $17 in advance, and $10 for students with ID. At 8 p.m. that day, the Alfredo Rodriguez Trio will perform at Evans Hall at Connecticut College; tickets are $22 for general admission, $20 for seniors, and $11 for students. At 2 p.m. on Sunday, the Voices on the Thames choir will put on a free spring concert at Second Congregational Church. An hour later, the Broadway series at the Garde Arts Center welcomes Elvis Lives to the stage; tickets for this journey through Elvis’s life are $53.

In art events, the second to last guided discussion in the Provenance Center’s “In the 21st Century” starts at 6:30 p.m. tonight. The topic is art and craftsmanship, and registration is $15. Studio 33 has opened “From New London to Rome,” a collaboration of Italian scenes from Marlene McLoughlin and Martha Wakeman. Ongoing exhibits include Travis Gibbs’ “The Ant1-Her0 Project Vol. 1” at Hygienic Art, Bryan Gorneau’s “Prize Inside” at the Provenance Center, Katherine Larocca’s “Carved and Colored” at Spirit Gallery, and Victoria Gonzalez Vega’s “Second Stanza” at Expressiones.

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