From April 25 through May 4, the German-Australian collaboration, “Lore,” will be showing at Sundance Theater. Directed and co-written by Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland (“Flower Girl,” “Joy,” “Somersault”), “Lore” takes place in post-Nazi Germany as the Allied Forces are busy sweeping up S.S. officials. Five children of high-ranking Nazis must flee their home following the arrest of their parents. The eldest child, Lore (Saskia Rosendahl), is instructed by her mother, just before she’s hauled off to an interment camp, to lead her four siblings five hundred miles through the Black Woods to their grandmother’s house in Hamberg. As Lore and ... Read More »

It’s time for the annual Texas Crawfish and Music Festival!  Held in Old Town Spring each year in April, the festival runs for two weekends and features dozens of food vendors, three stages of live music, a carnival, and of course, all the crawfish you can eat. More than twenty five tons of live mudbugs are delivered and boiled on site for your tasting pleasure. As the largest and longest running crawfish celebration in the South (take that Louisiana!), The Texas Crawfish and Music Festival is a staple event in the Lone Star State. This year will mark the festival’s ... Read More »

On April 30, Word Around Town (WAT?!), Rebel Crew, and Nuestra Palabra will present the second ever Poet Draft at Taft Street Coffee. Poet Draft participants will compete for seven spots in the eighth annual Word Around Town Tour. The Word Around Town Tour is a spoken word competition that will take place from August 4 to August 10 at a different location every night. The event was introduced in 2006 with the intent to expose both audiences and poets to cool Houston hang-outs, and of course bring together great poets. Poets competing in Poet Draft for a spot in ... Read More »

On Saturday, April 20, Inprint will put on the 2013 Houston Indie Book Festival, which will take place alongside the Menil Community Art Festival. The Houston Indie Book Festival brings together an eclectic bunch of prose writers, poets, performers, editors, and entrepreneurs for a fun and stimulating literary experience. Come learn about the industry of publication, hear emerging authors talk about craft, listen to readings, and get exposed to hard-to-find literature. The event is free and celebrates Houston’s vibrant writing community. For an hour, beginning at one, Austin Tremblay, Sophie Klahr, and Adam Peterson will discuss their time spent as ... Read More »

As a part of their ongoing series, Science On Screen, 14 Pews presents the film Away From Her, coupled with a lecture by Dr. Stephen Wong. Introduced by 14 Pews’s founder, Cressandra Thibodeaux, Science on Screen brings to the community professional talks relevant to featured films. The upcoming topic of discussion is degenerative neurological disorders, specifically Dementia and Alzheimer’s. Dr. Wong (Ph.D., P.E.) is an esteemed researcher and founder of the department of Systems Medicine and Bioengineering at Methodist Hospital Research Institute. He is author of more than 300 peer reviewed essays, and currently teaches at the University of Houston.Prior to the showing of Away From ... Read More »

April 13 and 14 the annual Japanese Festival will be held in Hermann Park. The festival offers Houstonians the opportunity to experience the unique culture of Japan through food, art, entertainment, and more. Established 20 years ago by the Japan-America Society, the Japanese Festival has hosted more than 20,000 attendees each year. Free of charge, the Japanese Festival invites everyone, both familiar and unfamiliar with Japanese culture, to come out and have a good time. Some of the activities that one may find any given year at the Japanese Festival are Taikos, tea ceremonies, dance performances,  and martial arts demonstrations. ... Read More »

  April 5, April 19, and April 20, East End Gallery will host the 8th Annual Frida Festival celebrating the life and art of Magdalena Carmen Frieda y Calderon, better known as Frieda Kahlo. Kahlo was born in Mexico City in 1907. As a young woman, Kahlo aspired to become a doctor; however, after being severely injured in a bus accident and thereby confined to a body cast for three months, she developed an interest in painting. Once doctors removed the body cast Kahlo started her career as a painter by doing self portraits.  After being released from the hospital, ... Read More »

Bluebonnets are blooming and the wine is flowing! Over the next two weekends (April 6-7 and April 13-14) Houstonians will have the opportunity to participate in the Texas Bluebonnet Wine Trail. Texas Bluebonnet Wine Trail holds five events each year with the current being their eponymous festival. The organization helps promote ten local wine vendors,which are all present at this year’s Texas Bluebonnet Wine Trail. Along with drinking award winning wine, ticket holders will also enjoy fine cheeses and blue spreads of Texas’s beautiful state flower at each vineyard. The Texas Bluebonnet Wine Trail stretches from I-45 to highway 290. ... Read More »

Next Friday, April 5, the Patriots and Peace: Arab Americans in Service to Our Country will close at the University of Houston. Funded by the Arab American National Museum (the only museum in the country committed to preserving Arab American history), Patriots and Peace honors more than a century of Arab American service by focusing on three areas of service: the US Armed Forces, diplomatic service, and the Peace Corps. Exhibiting photographs, military awards, and personal stories of sacrifice and dedication, Patriots and Peace offers general audiences an opportunity to expand, not only their understanding of Arab American national service, but also their knowledge of Arab culture ... Read More »

On March 27, at 7pm, 14 Pews will screen Compliance. Compliance first appeared at the Sundance Film Festival last year in January. Before the movie concluded a number of audience members had left the theater, utterly appalled. After the credits rolled, the remaining critics hammered the film’s cast and crew with indignant questions, accusing them of being unethical by making a film like Compliance. Cast and crew defended the extreme content of their work on the premise that the film clearly claimed to be “Inspired by True Events.” They had sought to bring attention to a disgusting series of crimes that occurred ... Read More »