Community Calendar

Join Mecklenburg County to discover ways to protect yourself and the seniors in your life from scammers, as well as how to safeguard older adults against fraud, abuse, and exploitation.

Free live music, food trucks and drinks, and hands-on art experiences are coming to Symphony Park six times this spring at SouthPark After 5, a weekly free entertainment and happy hour series happening every Thursday from April 17-May 22, 2025.

SEE THE LINEUP:

APRIL 17:
🎵 Southside Station
🎨 Free face painting 

APRIL 24:
🎵 The Breakfast Club
🎨 Free community mural

MAY 1:
🎵 The Voltage Brothers
🎨 Free flowers to the first 1000 attendees

MAY 8:
🎵 Bourbon Sons
🎨 Free face painting

MAY 15:
🎵 On the Border and Landslide
🎨 Free photobooth

MAY 22:
🎵 Gump Fiction
🎨 Free children's music activities 

Celebrate the season with wine, shopping, and exclusive in-store specials at Waverly's annual Spring Wine Walk. Attendees will enjoy wine pours and curated experiences at participating boutiques, plus a swag bag with their ticket. Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the Go Jen Go Foundation, supporting families in the Charlotte area affected by breast cancer.

Participating merchants include Athleta, offering 10% off; Urbane South with 20% off regular-priced merchandise (excluding eNewton and Brighton), plus charm necklaces and permanent jewelry; Ivy & Leo with 20% off; fab'rik with 20% off one item and $10 jewelry; Mainstream Boutique with 20% off; Scout & Molly's with 20% off; and CycleBar offering 3 free rides and discounted memberships.

Don't miss this fun night out in support of a great cause!

During this session we will discuss:
• Homeownership
• Power of Life Insurance
• Legal Protection Mechanisms (estate planning and heirs property)

The 39 Steps
Adapted by Patrick Barlow
From the novel by John Buchan

Directed by Eric Seale

Performance Dates:
Fridays - Sundays
April 18 - May 3, 2025
7:30pm Fridays and Saturdays
2:30pm Sunday (April 27)

SYNOPSIS
Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have The 39 Steps, a fast-paced whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theatre! This two-time Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning treat is packed with nonstop laughs, over 150 zany characters (played by a ridiculously talented cast of four), an onstage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers, and some good old-fashioned romance!

Photo & Description by Lee Street Theatre

…what the end will be
Written by Mansa Ra

Directed by James Webb
https://www.threebonetheatre.com/season13/...what-the-end-will-be

Starring
Marvin King as Maxwell
Tim Bradley* as Bartholomew
Dionte Darko as Tony
Steven Longayo* as Antoine
Victor Kuchmaner* as Charles
Mariana Corrales as Chloe
*indicates Three Bone Theatre debut

May 2-18, 2025
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8 p.m.
Sundays at 2 p.m.​

Performances will be held at
The Arts Factory at West End Studios
1545 W. Trade St

New York Times Critics Pick

Under one roof lives 3 generations of men that grapple with their intersecting identities. Playwright Mansa Ra returns with a brand new play about Blackness, queerness, and the challenges that come along with uncovering your identity. The story is set on three generations of men living under one roof and is told through the unflinching eyes of fathers and sons. A New York Times Critics’ Pick, reviewers hail …what the end will be as everything that is meant when we say that Black lives matter.”
…what the end will be contains adult language, sexual content and discussion of end-of-life decisions. Recommended for ages 14+.

Community Partner Organization: Charlotte Black Pride

“In …what the end will be, facing death really means reckoning with life—what makes it worth living despite its impermanence—and learning how to seize some measure of joy for yourself. It’s everything that is meant when we say that Black lives matter.” - THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Ra turns this standoff between generations into 90 minutes of provocative (and hilarious) theater...it gets to the heart of some shared human experiences that have little to do with race, sexuality, and gender, such as what it takes to let go of your own pain, and what it means to let someone you love let go of theirs — rules be damned." - THEATRE MANIA

"...there is an undeniable pleasure in watching the tensions in this unusual family surge and subside." - THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Meet outstanding artists and find one-of-a-kind pieces at this exhibition-style sale! Starworks’ 2nd Annual Craft Invitational will feature some of the region's most talented artists in ceramic, glass, wood, metal, and fiber with an emphasis on functional craft of the highest quality. Can't make it on May 3, 9am-4pm? Shop early, meet the artists, and enjoy delicious snacks at our Preview Reception on May 2 at 6pm.

“Decomposers Glow,” an art installation with larger-than-life glowing snails and mushrooms, is the centerpiece for the museum’s summer programming and events

ROCK HILL, S.C. - Nature, art, and technology come together for “Decomposers Glow,” an awe-inspiring larger-than-life landscape of illuminated snails and mushrooms. Created by Meredith Connelly, a Charlotte, N.C. based and award-winning multidisciplinary artist, the site-specific installation portrays the agents of decomposition through an interplay of light and technology. A curving path leads visitors through a soft glowing, otherworldly environment to observe over one hundred hand-constructed and 3D printed sculptures. Decomposers Glow is open from May 10 – Nov. 10, 2024.
Leading viewers into Connelly’s “Decomposers Glow,” a concurrent exhibit highlights the variety and importance of nature’s agents of decomposition. “Return to Earth” features photographs of actual fungi by Mike Hammer, painted mushroom models, a Carolina Piedmont snail shell collection, and two-dimensional cut paper works by Meredith Connelly that reference nature’s microscopic structures. “Return to Earth” on exhibit at Museum of York County from May 4 – Dec. 15, 2024.
More of Mike Hammer’s photography is on exhibit in the museum’s Nature Nook Gallery. “Endless Trail” features the natural settings of the Carolina Piedmont and beyond, capturing the uniquely beautiful moments of each season. “Endless Trail” opens at Museum of York County on May 18, 2024.

Local high school students are designing avant-garde outfits made from at least 85% recyclable materials like cardboard, aluminum cans, newspaper, rigid foam and books. They'll model the outfits during the fashion show for a chance to win a cash prize for their school: https://meck.co/3YliLlu

Two original dance works:

Alexander Winder Lieberman presents "Wirelessly Transmitted Diseases", an interdisciplinary performance supported by an ASC Artist Support Grant. The piece explores surveillance culture and media addiction in the digital age, integrating choreography, immersive projection, set, and costume design. Real-time video is projected onto set pieces, creating a layered dynamic between observer and observed. Lieberman is joined by musician Ryan Persaud, who provides an original score, and fashion designer Will White, who is designing the costumes. Together, they create a provocative, sensory-rich experience that invites reflection on identity, privacy, and digital overstimulation.

Elijah Motley premieres "I'm going to say this once, one more time", a street dance-based work exploring the emotional weight of prolonged frustration. The piece investigates how frustration lives within the body and surfaces when least expected, offering a raw and expressive movement journey. Motley is joined by composer Henry Cole, whose music deepens the emotional terrain of the work.