Thursday, Feb. 15
Alexi Murdoch
Rolling Stone recently listed Scottish singer-songwriter Alexi Murdoch as an artist to watch. His heartfelt and at times heartbreaking delivery has earned him comparisons with Nick Drake, and his independently released single, “Orange Sky,” has been used in films. Truly, thus far Murdoch has enjoyed a cult following for his low-key, pop-flavored folk music. But with the release of his first full-length album, Time Without Consequence, Murdoch is no longer just for the cool kids. Listeners worldwide have come to appreciate his understated genius. Watch Murdoch Thursday at Headliners. Midnight Movies opens. —Kevin M. Wilson
Headliners Music Hall
1386 Lexington Road
584-8088
$12; 9 p.m.
18+
Feb. 15-24
‘What My Hands Have Touched’
I am Woman hear me roar: Looking For Lilith Theatre Company presents “What My Hands Have Touched,” a play set during World War II that explores the lives of women who have been shaped by or shaped the war themselves. The play is based on real “warrior” women’s stories — our grandmothers. Shannon Woolley, Trina Fischer and Kelly McNerney weave a tapestry of women’s voices by taking on different roles that thread the play together — factory workers, nurses, pilots, USO performers and homemakers.
The company, birthed in 2001 in New York City by Louisville natives Woolley and Fischer, explores history by looking at it through a female lens, a perspective utterly lacking in HIStory. —Claudia Olea
The Rudyard Kipling
422 W. Oak St.
638-2559
www.lookingforlilith.org
$10-$12; 7:30 p.m. (2 p.m. on Sun.)
Friday, Feb. 16
Honeychild Coleman
VIBE calls Honeychild “Bjork meets Miriam Makeba in the Sex Pistols’ basement.” Hailing from Brooklyn, N.Y., by way of, um, here, Coleman has performed under a variety of monikers and has shared bills with such artists as Cibo Matto and Rasputina, and fronted the rock group Audio Dyslexia, which includes ex-members of Cop Shoot Cop. —Mat Herron
Pour Haus
1481 S. Shelby St.
637-9611
$6; 9 p.m.
21+
Feb. 16-17
‘The Tempest’
It’s not the tale that’s told, but the telling of the tale that makes the Youth Performing Arts School’s new production of “The Tempest” such fun. Shakespeare’s romantic comedy of shipwrecked survivors and self-motivated nymphs and spirits — all cast together on an enchanted island — has no plausible plot. But it does have a happy ending. And along the way the youthful cast seems to pick up steam as the audience buys into the romping choreography of the thing. “It’s more Cirque du Soleil than ‘Survivor,’” says YPAS administrator J.C. Reedy. “Director Gail Benedict’s concept is to take the normal Shakespeare and add dance and music — and a little vaudeville —” plus costumes, sound and lighting to create an entire theatrical shebang. Matinees of the play are being performed for area theater and art students. —Bill Doolittle
Robert W. West Experimental Theater
1517 S. Second St.
485-8355
$8; 8 p.m.
Feb. 16-April 1
Artists Stephanie Potter and J.P. Begley
Artists Stephanie Potter and J.P. Begley will exhibit new work from their ongoing projects at Zephyr Gallery. Potter will show new prints and drawings from her series “Note Cards on Society,” which she says consists of large linoleum block prints that explore the disenfranchised, the alienated, the invisible and the ignored in American society. Potter painstakingly carves and prints each block by hand.
Begley says his new show, “cURation,” continues his exploration of the process of looking at, defining and making art. The Dada-influenced show provides viewers the opportunity to begin their own original curatorial process. —Gina Moeller
Zephyr Gallery
610 E. Market St.
585-5646
Free; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. (Wed.-Sat.)
Saturday, Feb. 17
‘Art from the Heart’ dinner and auction
This is art for a good cause. The Citizen Advocacy Program at the Council on Mental Retardation presents “Art from the Heart,” with glass artist Stephen Rolfe Powell being honored as the council’s 2007 Artist of Distinction. The event includes silent and live auctions, dinner and live music by The Mike Tracy Jazz Quartet. Powell’s “Voracious Craning Vortex,” as well as works by other artists, are included in the auctions.
If art’s not your thing, how about bidding on a Valhalla golf package, or spending the day at Churchill Downs with none other than Pat Day? There are also vacation homes, restaurant gift certificates, even a private plane that will take you to Keeneland. —Jo Anne Triplett
Seelbach Hilton Hotel
500 S. Fourth St.
584-1239
www.councilonmr.org
$100 each, $800 table for 10; 7 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 17
New Edition
Cool it now, oooh watch out, you’re gonna lose control … when you find out New Edition is coming to the Gardens on Saturday! Yep — the famous ’80s boy band that scored such hits as “Cool It Now” and “Mr. Telephone Man,” but more importantly launched the career of bad boy Bobby Brown, is regrouping for this national tour. Unfortunately, Mr. Brown will not be with his former band members on this tour, but who needs him anyway? We’ve got Michael Bivins, Ricky Bell and Ronnie Devoe (Bell Biv Devoe … now you know) along with Ralph Tresvant and Johnny Gill to serenade us with their hits of the past and, most likely, new material. To make you even more weak in the knees, Keith “Nobody” Sweat is slated to open the show.
Don’t pass up the opportunity to hear BVD’s “Poison.” Just remember, never trust a big butt and a smile. —Sara Havens
Louisville Gardens
525 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd.
361-3100
$39.50-$47.50; 8 p.m.
Feb. 18-March 1
Jewish Film Festival
The Louisville Jewish Film Festival, now in its ninth season, has cemented itself as the most complete film festival that the ’Ville can boast. Documentaries, comedies and dramas come in English, German, Hebrew, Spanish and French. Films about current strains of anti-Semitism play along Holocaust films and movies critical of contemporary Israeli politics. And if you end a movie with a virtual question mark above your head, there is sometimes even a rabbi on hand to help you through a discussion.
This year’s festival will kick off at the Jewish Community Center Sunday, continuing through March 1 at the Village 8. Highlights include “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days” an Oscar-nominated drama about resistance during the Holocaust, and “Protocols of Zion,” a sort of primer on anti-Jewish movements since 9/11. —Alan Abbott
Village 8
4014 Dutchmans Lane
459-0660
www.jccoflouisville.org
$8 (adults), $6 (students)
Feb. 20-25
‘25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’
With this current Broadway musical, audiences can witness the drama of the competition and increase their vocabulary. In “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” six outsiders in the throes of puberty experience the delights and despairs of winning and losing in a spelling contest — and selected audience members get to participate. This city should have some good spellers on hand, given that in 1925 The Courier-Journal first organized the contest that became the Scripps National Spelling Bee (a backdrop to the Academy Award-nominated “Spellbound”) and that today the city’s Pour Haus hosts a spelling bee every other week (the next one is Feb. 21 at 1481 S. Shelby St.). —Elizabeth Kramer
Kentucky Center
584-7777
www.kentuckycenter.org
$22-$58; various times
