Arts

    This year’s Black Film Festival opens tonight at 6:30 with a screening of “The Central Park Five,” a 119-minute documentary by Ken Burns, David McMahon, and Sarah Burns about the five young black and Latino men convicted of raping a jogger in Central Park in 1989 and exonerated 13 years later.

    The East Hampton Library is offering a free four-session workshop called “Meandering in the Mind of Vladimir Nabokov,” beginning next Thursday. The 5:30 to 7 p.m. workshop, conducted by Kara Westerman, a writer and editor, will focus on Nabokov’s “Lolita,” considering language, point of view, and the book’s transition from text to film.

    The third session will feature a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation. Those interested in participating may sign up at the adult reference desk or by calling the library.

    A screening of “Ocean Keeper,” a documentary about the Amagansett Life-Saving Station, will be held at LTV Studios in Wainscott tomorrow at 6 p.m. Produced and directed by Eileen Olivieri Torpey, the film blends archival and contemporary footage to detail the station’s 110-year history, during which it was moved away from and back to its location on Atlantic Avenue.

From East Hampton to Paris

    East Hampton will be represented at Paris Photo 2013, an art fair held at the Grand Palais from next Thursday to Nov. 17 that hosts 136 galleries and 28 publishers specializing in photography books. Harper’s Books will be exhibiting for its ninth year, bringing more than 30 books and photo albums, including several albums from the Vietnam War, as well as a deluxe edition of its own publication, “Yea Yea Yea” by Stuart Sutcliffe and Richard Prince.

    Lois Bender, an artist and educator, will conduct a watercolor workshop from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 16 at Bridge Gardens, 36 Mitchell Lane, Bridgehampton. The class, which will focus on fall foliage and holiday floral bouquet, is open to beginners and experienced artists. Students may bring their own art supplies or purchase them from Ms. Bender. The class is $45 plus materials, and prepaid registration is required.

    Debra McCall will discuss her reconstruction of the 1920s Bauhaus dances of Oskar Schlemmer, explain the philosophy and work of Bauhaus artists, and screen a film of her reconstructions on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., at the Watermill Center.

    The Bauhaus, a school of art, crafts, and technology founded in 1919 by the architect Walter Gropius, had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography. Its faculty included Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, and Wassily Kandinsky.

     Neo-Political Cowgirls, a dance theater company dedicated to works that explore the female voice, is presenting a dance and choreography workshop titled Be a Cowgirl for a Day, on Nov. 9, from 12 to 4 p.m., at Guild Hall.

    Participants will create, design, and direct a personalized dance theater piece, telling their stories through gesture, movement, and text put to music. Dance experience is not a requirement for the workshop, which costs $40.

    Bay Street Theatre’s Literature Live! series will present “The Diary of Anne Frank” from Friday, Nov. 8, through Nov. 26. The play, written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, is an adaptation from the book about eight people hiding from the Nazis during World War II. It won the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award for best play in 1956. The Bay Street production will be directed by Joe Minutillo and is suggested for ages 13 and up. Tickets are $12 for students and $25 for adults, with special pricing for schools and other groups.

    The American premiere of “Lost Childhood,” a concert opera based on the award-winning memoir of Dr. Yehuda Nir, will be performed by the National Philharmonic on Nov. 9 at 8 p.m. at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Md.

    Dr. Nir, who has a house in Springs, is a Holocaust survivor whose father was killed by German soldiers in 1941. His memoir details his survival, along with his mother and sister, and their return to Poland in 1945.

    The Friends of the Montauk Library movie series begins next Thursday at 7 p.m. with “The Way, Way Back,” a coming-of-age story about a 14-year-old boy’s summer vacation with his mother and her overbearing boyfriend. Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, and Liam James star in the film, which the Philadelphia Inquirer called “sly, richly modulated, emotionally engaging, and brutally honest.”

    A search, via its Web site, of the John Jermain Memorial Library’s catalog will yield a wealth of media, from literature to periodicals to DVDs.

    A search of the Sag Harbor library’s Web site will also reveal a collection, now numbering approximately 100, of CDs produced by local artists. Recently added titles include “Go West” by Inda Eaton, “Time Bomb Love” by the Glazzies, “Smoke and Mirrors” by Joe Delia and Thieves, and a CD compilation of live recordings of the Thursday Night Live Band from the weekly jam sessions at Bay Burger, also in Sag Harbor.

    Autumn seems to be film festival season on the South Fork. This weekend, the World Peace Initiative Hamptons debuts at Guild Hall. As a satellite of Artisan Festival International, its mission is to promote peace and cultural diversity by showcasing both the work of artists and over 25 films from around the globe. The community has been invited to attend along with international guests including environmental engineers, diplomats for peace, filmmakers, fine artists, and fashion designers.

    The Hampton Theatre Company, which has been bringing drama to the people since the mid-’80s, opened its 2013-14 season last week with Jon Robin Baitz’s “Other Desert Cities,” a meaty choice and hopefully the beginning of a winning season for the Quogue group.

Abstraction at Ashawagh

     “Life in the Abstract,” a group show of paintings by John Haubrich, Fulvio Massi, Barbara Groot, and Dru Frederick, will be on view tomorrow through Sunday at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. Ms. Groot, who organized the exhibition, has pointed out that all four artists have design backgrounds — Mr. Haubrich as an art director, Mr. Massi as an architect, Ms. Frederick as an art restorer, and Ms. Groot as a textile designer. “Elements of mass, geometry, line, color, and balance are clearly informed by each artist’s background,” according to Ms. Groot.

    The first WPPB Harvest Costume Ball and Art Auction will be held Saturday from 8 to 11 p.m. at the South Street Gallery in Greenport. Organized by Joyce deCordova, Alex Ferrone, and Amy Worth, the event will benefit 88.3 FM Peconic Public Broadcasting. The evening will include music from a D.J., dancing, hors d’oeuvres from Noah’s Restaurant, wines from Lieb Cellars, and a silent art auction with works by more than 40 artists selected by Arlene Bujese, curator at the Southampton Cultural Center.

    Artists’ books have taken many forms. The ’70s were a sort of golden age, when boundaries between mediums had dissolved and so many artists were creating books and other ephemera that Martha Wilson founded Franklin Furnace in Tribeca as a repository for such work. In 1993, the Museum of Modern Art purchased the Furnace’s collection, which had become the largest of its kind in the United States.

     “Music, Milestones, and Remembrances,” a concert at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church, will celebrate the rebuilding of the church’s Steinway piano, the 50th anniversary of the Austin pipe organ in the sanctuary, and present reflections on the church’s history on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Miller at Four Seasons

    Steve Miller, an artist who divides his time between New York City and a renovated potato barn in Wainscott, created an installation at the Four Seasons one night last week. The “one-night stand with Philip Johnson,” the architect who designed the restaurant, consisted of work from his series about the Amazon entitled “Health of the Planet.”

    The Parrish Art Museum’s Salon Series of classical music concerts continues tomorrow at 6 p.m. with a performance by Inna Faliks, a pianist. Her program will include works by Chopin, Schumann, and Zhurbin.

    Guild Hall will open two exhibitions this week to inaugurate the museum’s fall season, each lively and provocative in its own way. In one gallery, Thomas Moran’s stylistic legacy and his preoccupation with European art movements will be examined in “Tracing Moran’s Romanticism and Symbolism.” In the other, Christa Maiwald will offer “Short Stories and Other Embroideries.” Ms. Maiwald was the winner of the 2011 members exhibition.

     “Aging Magician,” a new multimedia theater work about the journey of an elderly man to a Coney Island magic show, will be presented at the Watermill Center on Saturday at 4 p.m. With music composed by Paola Prestini, libretto and performance by Rinde Eckert, and design and direction by Julian Crouch, the production combines music, theater, puppetry, instrument making, and scenic design.

    The Hampton Theatre Company in Quogue opens its 29th season tonight at 7 with Jon Robin Baitz’s “Other Desert Cities,” a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and winner of the Outer Critics Circle Award for outstanding new Off Broadway play.

    Capt. Dan King, a former president of the East Hampton Town Baymen’s Association and a former town trustee, and Marsha King, his wife, have begun a Kickstarter.com campaign in support of a historical novel they are putting together, “A Fine Day for Fishing,” documenting “the death of a centuries-old way of life played out on a sandy beach,” according to a release. That is, “the ban on hauling a seine to catch striped bass.”

    Scott Schwartz, Bay Street Theatre’s new artistic director, was given a welcome party, hosted by Bonnie Comley and Stewart Lane, at a private club in New York City last Thursday. The event was organized by the veteran producers to celebrate Mr. Schwartz’s appointment and to introduce him to Bay Street Theatre patrons and members of the Broadway theater community. Jeff Blumenkrantz, an actor and Tony-nominated composer and lyricist, performed two original songs.

    The Hamptons International Film Festival’s Audience Awards went to Stephen Frears’s “Philomena,” a drama starring Dame Judi Dench, and set in 1950s Ireland, and “Desert Runners,” Jennifer Steinman’s documentary about the 4 Deserts Race Series of 150-mile ultramarathons. Irene Taylor Brodsky’s “One Last Hug (. . . And a Few Smooches): Three Days at Grief Camp” won the Audience Award for best short.

    The Hamptons International Film Festival’s Rowdy Talks series kicked off Friday morning at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton with a conversation between Barbara Kopple, a two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker, and Julie Anderson, executive producer of documentaries and development for WNET/Thirteen. Perhaps best known for “Harlan County USA” and “American Dream,” which earned Oscars for best documentary feature in 1977 and 1991, Ms.

    With her new album, “I Love Being Here With You,” Judy Carmichael has taken her career in a new, yet familiar, direction.

    Corky Laing, a longtime drummer for the rock band Mountain and the blues-rock supergroup West, Bruce and Laing, will conduct a drum workshop at Crossroads Music in Amagansett Sunday at 5 p.m. Mr. Laing will share both stories and his expertise. Michael Clark of Crossroads advises attendees to take their own sticks but also stresses that one does not have to be a drummer to enjoy the event. Tickets are $60. Seating is limited and the program will be interactive.

    A new production of Shakespeare’s “Othello” from London’s National Theatre will be screened at Guild Hall on Saturday at 7 p.m. Directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear, both Olivier Award-winning actors, the production transposes the action from 16th-century Venice to a contemporary military installation. Tickets to this encore presentation of National Theatre Live are $18, $16 for Guild Hall members.

    The award-winning pianist Liza Stepanova will perform at the Parrish Art Museum tomorrow at 6 p.m. as part of the ongoing Salon Series of classical music concerts. Ms. Stepanova has twice been a soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra led by James DePreist and Nicholas McGegan and was a top prizewinner at the Liszt-Garrison, Juilliard Concerto, Steinway, and Ettlingen competitions. She began her position as the Iva Dee Hiatt visiting artist and lecturer at Smith College this fall. Ms. Stepanova’s program will include works by Liszt, Wagner, Debussy, Scarlatti, Mendelssohn, and Ligeti.