Agave Heritage Festival
With everything else going on in the Agave Heritage Festival, it would be easy to overlook this unique, fascinating and family-friendly event about why we are celebrating agave in the first place. For weeks, Mission Garden has solicited Tucsonans for agave from their own gardens. This Saturday, volunteers create and fire (to harden) a pit to roast the community’s agave in the ancient way of civilizations here before us. We can also watch artisans make twine and weave objects with agave fibers. Saturday, April 29, after the agave has roasted for two days, we can see if we like eating it. We can also learn about Hohokam agave cultivation and important Mescalero traditions around the agave. Exhibitors will include Desert Forager, Billion Agave Agroforestry Project and Bat Conservation International.
9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, April 29, Mission Garden, 946 W. Mission Lane, missiongarden.org/events, $5 suggested donation
Invisible Theatre: “Small Mouth Sounds”
“Small Mouth Sounds” traces the experiences of six highly dissimilar personalities at a woodsy retreat from the bustle and noise of their city lives. Humor and compassion lace the scenes as characters face down demons and strive against inward challenges. Tucson playwright, author and poet Susan Cummings Miller shares her own experiences with “Silent Retreat,” and discusses how the practice’s methods can inform a theatrical production after the performance on Thursday, April 27.
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 26, to Friday, April 28, and 2 p.m. Saturday, April 29. Various dates and times through Sunday, April 30, Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Avenue, invisibletheatre.com, $40
“Israel at 75” Festival
Celebrate Israel’s statehood with a festival of fun and cultural experiences. Ya’acov’s Tent in the Desert approximates a Bedouin tent for lounging and enjoying mint tea, strong coffee, sweets, Mizrahi music and sheshbesh boards. There’s also a Kosher pizza truck, shave ice and an Israeli-style birthday party with Israeli games. The Israeli band, Yemen Blues, blends traditional Yemenite music with jazz and funk. Kids will enjoy bounce houses, Dunk Tank Trivia, and arts and crafts. There’s lots more, including lectures.
Noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 30, Tucson Jewish Community Campus, 3800 E. River Road, tucsonjcc.org/israel75, free
Desert Museum Gala
The museum’s annual Desert Gala helps fund conservation and education work to protect the natural systems of the Sonoran Desert region. The guests’ experience alone could be worth the price of admission. They promised “culinary delicacies, craft libations and up-close visits with some famous animal residents.”
4 p.m. Sunday, April 30, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 N. Kinney Road, desertmuseum.org, tickets start at $350 for individuals.
Arts Express: “Ragtime”
The celebrated musical based on E.L. Doctorow’s “Ragtime” tells a timeless story of cultural collisions and their damage to our fragile social fabric. Set in New York City, it portrays intersections among the lives of an immigrant family, a wealthy uptown family and a family in Harlem at the turn of the last century. The depth of the characters sustain the intricate weave of the story. The improbability of their connections makes the intensity of the outcomes all the more powerful.
Various times, Friday through Sunday, through Sunday, May 7, Arts Express, Park Place Mall, 5870 E. Broadway Boulevard, Suite 214, arts-express.org, tickets start at $35
“Tucson Opry” Featuring Teodoro “Ted” Ramirez
The “Agave Edition” of the popular “Tucson Opry” series features long-time Tucson balladeer Ted Ramirez and The Ronstadt trio (Johnny, Jeanne and Bill), hosted by local folk music heroes Chris Brashear and Peter McLaughlin. Ramirez’s sets mix original songs with Mexican and American folk songs. He weaves them together with stories from history and the heart. Ramirez is the Southwestern heir to the troubadour tradition of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
6:30 p.m. Sunday, April 30, Hotel Congress Plaza, 311 E. Congress Street, hotelcongress.com, $15 advance, $20 day of the show
Pima County Fair: Laberinto (Labyrinth)
Sunday’s your last chance to experience the 60 carnival rides on the midway, the pens full of award-winning livestock, the buildings full of commercial exhibits, handmade items, collectibles and festive baked goods. Sunday’s concert puts a bow on it all with the corridos, rancheras, boleros and cumbia of Ciudad Obregón favorites, Grupo Laberinto. Admission’s free with your fair ticket if you’re good with festival standing or bleacher seating, if available. Better seats are guaranteed with a $20 upgrade.
7:30 p.m. concert, 11 a.m. fairgrounds, Sunday, April 30, Pima County Fair, 11300 S. Houghton Road, pimacountyfair.com, fair entry $11 or, Sunday only, free until noon with three cans of food, parking $7.
Madaras Gallery: “The Sculpture Show”
An exhibit of metal and wood sculptures continues through May 10. Featured artists are Brian Bystedt, Al Glann, Dan Rehurek, Mark Boskovich, Matthew Barany and Jammey Huggins. The gallery is offering 10% off on selected items. Boskovich is known for his work with old-growth wood downed by environmental factors. Bystedt’s work features archaeological designs on rock. Glann creates small-scale abstract metal sculptures.
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday, through Wednesday, May 10, Madaras Gallery, 3035 N. Swan Road, madaras.com, free
Women’s Fast Pitch Softball
Women ages 15 and older may register for fast-pitch softball either with a team or as free agents. There is a competitive league and a recreational league. League play is from 6 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays from May 30 to July 25. A team coach or manager can register online at ezeereg.com. Individuals can find a link to a free agent list at tucsonaz.gov.
Registration through Monday, May 15, ezeereg.com, $400 per team, play 6 p.m. Tuesdays, May 30 to July 5, Lincoln Regional Park, 4325 S. Pantano Road
Na Mira: “Subrosa”
Na Mira’s immersive moving-image installations emerge from intuitive processes no one learns in art school. MOCA commissioned this installation, part of a series Mira is creating to revitalize and carry forward an interpretation of mid-century Korean history first explored by the murdered Korean artist, author and visionary Theresa Hak Kyung Cha. Mira integrates films, radio transmissions and the color red to interpret her own Korean ancestry.
11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, through Sunday, Oct. 22, Museum of Contemporary Art, 265 S. Church Avenue, moca-tucson.org, $7, free third Thursdays
