On the road: Bluegrass festival up north
Chicago
Art dish
On the last Monday of every month, three Chicago artists, inventors or entrepreneurs are invited to a dinner by a celebrity chef that is filmed before a live audience at Chicago's Mayne Stage Theatre. Audience members partake in the food and Internet viewers tweet in questions for the interactive, multidisciplinary show. This month Fear No Art Presents The Dinner Party with Kevin Coval, Spoken Word poet and artistic director of Louder Than a Bomb, Museum of Contemporary Art curator Naomi Beckwith and chef Matt Troost of Three Aces. The opening act is performance painter Stacy Bowie.
6:30 p.m. Monday, March 26, at Mayne Stage, 1330 W. Morse Ave., Chicago. Admission is $18 (including food) and $10 (without food). (312) 391-2883 or fearnoartchicago.com.
Theatrical make up
Be a part of the 50th Annual World Theatre Day celebrations as local, national and international theater makers meet with Chicago's theater patrons and friends. Afternoon and evening events include theater artists talking about their work, what it means to them and how they create and maintain connections across borders. Meet Jaroslaw Fret of Teatr Zar and listen to Kwei-Armah, playwright, actor, director, broadcaster and artistic director of Baltimore's CenterStage Theatre. There also is a post-lecture reception.
4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, March 27, at the Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph St., Chicago. Free admission. For a complete schedule, go to chicagoplays.com/world-theatre-day.html.
Life is a Carnivale
If you can't afford a spring break getaway, why not hop on a train into the city and take the kids to Carnivale's annual Family Spring Break event to celebrate the season. Kids will be thrilled by face painters, balloon artists, jugglers, magicians, fire breathers and a stilt walker. There's also a special kids' menu in honor of Family Day.
5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday, April 1, at 702 W. Fulton Market, Chicago. Free admission. (312) 850-5005 or carnivalechicago.com.
Midwest
True bluegrass
Everyone will be pickin' and grinnin' at the Second Annual Roots and Bluegrass Festival in River Falls, Wis. Three days of live bluegrass, roots, Cajun and Americana music will include headliners Dr. Ralph Stanley and His Clinch Mountain Boys and Pert' Near Sandstone as well as opening acts Becky Schlegel and Josh Williams. Get in on banjo, guitar and fiddle workshops and jam sessions. The Upper Midwest Flatpick Guitar Championship is new this year and prizes will be awarded for the top five artists.
4 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, March 23; 8:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday, March 24; and 9 to 11 a.m. Sunday, March 25, in downtown River Falls, Wis. Tickets cost $20-$35 per day or a two-day pass costs $45. Stay for the weekend in select hotels and receive discount admission to all music events. (715) 425-2533 or RiverFallsBluegrass.com.
Raptor rapture
The National Eagle Center holds live bird programs and nature presentations throughout each day of Soar With the Eagles Festival, a celebration honoring the spring migration. Visit the eagle education ambassadors of the National Eagle Center and enjoy special weekend events such as bird of prey education programs, area naturalist talks, nature photographers' and authors' presentations and more. Naturalists will talk about all 12 species of hawks, owls, eagles and ospreys found in the region.
11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturdays, March 24 and 31, and noon and 2 p.m. Sundays, March 25 and April 1, at the National Eagle Center, 50 Pembroke Ave., Wabasha, Minn. (651) 565-4989 or nationaleaglecenter.org.
The crack of the bat
While Major League Baseball teams warm up for a new season, the Kenosha Public Museum unveils a new baseball exhibit honoring the legends of the game. #8220;Home Run! Reggie Jackson the Original 500 Club#8221; features memorabilia from legendary players from the golden years of professional baseball. Private collection items include game jerseys, bats, gear, photographs and documents highlighting the career of Jackson from his first season through his final game as well as bats from 12 members of the Original 500 Club including Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle and others.
Noon to 5 p.m. Sunday and Monday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, March 24 to Oct. 21, at the Kenosha Public Museum, 5500 First Ave., Kenosha, Wis. Free general admission. (262) 653-4140 or kenoshapublicmuseum.org.