Ever heard the word “florilegium”? It's Latin for “a gathering of flowers,” but it's also a rather poetic (and spring- appropriate) term for a collection of works from different writers on the same theme. This week, Culture to Go lives up to its name with a solid six-day run of cultural events; if we were to consider it a florilegium, the theme would be community engagement. From local photogs' images of the Florida landscape at Orlando Museum of Art to another 15 views of Orlando gathered by Burrow Press to a panel discussion/project at Urban ReThink regarding Orlando's mushrooming Main Street neighborhood initiatives, there's plenty to keep you going and culturally engaged.
Burrow Press throws a 15 Views of Orlando Reading and Signing Party 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 5, at Sip (724 Virginia Drive; free). Contributors to the 2011 anthology Mark Pursell and Jay Haffner – and a promised clutch of “real” drag queens – will read/sign/hang out to promote round two of the 15 Views series.
Winners of OMA's Picturing My Florida photo contest will be announced at their 1st Thursday party on April 5 (see Selections, page 34). Submissions in response to the museum's statewide call for entries were winnowed down via the modern version of gladiatorial combat: Facebook likes. The public has spoken – or the savvy artists have campaigned among their friends – and the show opens April 21.
Dirty-mouthed cabaret diva Janine Klein sings the songs of Adele at Fringe First Friday, 6-9 p.m. April 6 (Studio Theatre, 398 W. Amelia St.; $10 cash; email [email protected] for reservations). The show is a fundraiser for the rapidly approaching 21st edition of the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival; Klein's choice of material is solace to fans bummed by the many-Grammied Adele's Orlando concert cancellation last October. If Klein's ecstatically received show “Gay Bar Star” gives us anything to judge by, she'll be rolling in the bleep.
The Alternative Currents Collaborative presents Hypnotic Suggestion , a film- and video-oriented art exhibition, at the UCF Center for Emerging Media 3-10 p.m. Saturday, April 7. Multimedia installations in the show touch on themes of privacy and identity in the age of social networking.
Parcels: MFAs in Progress is a monthly reading by UCF creative writing masters' candidates. Go cheer them on; they're working really hard. (7-9 p.m. Sunday, April 8, at Urban ReThink, 625 E. Central Blvd.; free)
Collide.scope is a new bimonthly discussion series curated by Anna McCambridge-Thomas that promises “interesting minds colliding to discuss creative solutions to our community's unsolved challenges.” This second edition (6:30-8 p.m. Monday, April 9, at Urban ReThink, urbanrethink.com; $5) turns loose Kat Quast (Audubon Park Garden District), Scottie Campbell (Ivanhoe Village), Klaus Heesch (creative director, Valencia College) and Janessa Gursky (creative director, Evolve Design Group) on a team challenge regarding Orlando's diverse Main Street programs.
The 11th edition of the literary cage match known as There Will Be Words throws down 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, at Urban ReThink with combatants Vanessa Blakeslee, Hunter Choate, Jason Eaton and J. Christopher Silvia. It's a free-for-all free-for-all, unless you want to buy a chapbook ($5).
