Jazz, African-Brazilian Dance/Music Show, Botánicas at Flushing Town Hall this Weekend

Food for thought, sounds for the spirit, and dancing for soul are part of a jam-packed weekend of entertainment at Flushing Town Hall. The fun starts on Friday night, when the Queens Jazz Orchestra (below) honors the music of Charlie “Bird” Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, who were known for their innovative contributions to the genre’s improvisation and vernacular. QJO Conductor Jimmy Heath will lead a discussion on these Jazz icons before the show. On Sunday afternoon, the group Ologunde will perform a mix of music, dance and martial arts inspired by the rich African-Brazilian culture of Salvador, a city in the Brazilian state of Bahia. The show will include rituals associated with candomblé, a synthesis of the Yoruba and Catholic religions; breathtaking capoeira martial arts dances; maculelê, a warrior dance with sticks and machetes created in the sugar cane fields by slaves; and the exhilarating samba de roda, which can be traced back to Angola. Later in the afternoon, Queens College Adjunct Professor Anahí Viladrich will deliver a paper on her work with Elmhurst, Corona, and Jackson Heights botánicas, which provide religious articles to practitioners of Santería, an African-Caribbean religion.

Details: To Bird and Dizzy with Love, Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Boulevard, Flushing, May 16th, 7:30 pm, $40/$20 for students.

Bonus details: Ologunde, May 18th, 2:15 pm, preceded by a drumming workshop at 1 pm, $12/$8 for children.

Extra bonus details: Invisible Pharmacies: Queens Botánicas and the Informal Economy of Healing, May 18th, 4 pm, free.

Photos: Flushing Town Hall