5 Things to Do This Weekend – The New York Times

Throughout a multidecade career that lifted her to international acclaim, Anglique Kidjo has kept one foot planted in her native Benin, making border-crossing music rooted in West African sounds and rhythms. Last year, she was set to celebrate her homelands 60th birthday (and her own) at Carnegie Hall with a program of African music from the 1960s, a decade in which independence swept the continent.

Those plans were foiled by the pandemic, and the anniversaries have come and gone. In the meantime, Kidjo made a new album that looks to Africas future, rather than its past. Mother Nature, released in June, showcases a new generation of African talent, with contributions from the Nigerian pop giants Burna Boy and Mr. Eazi, the Zambian rapper Sampa the Great and more.

On Friday, Kidjo returns to Carnegie Hall to perform songs from Mother Nature, with help from special guests, including Josh Groban, Andra Day, Cyndi Lauper and Philip Glass. Tickets for the 8 p.m. concert start at $17 and are available at carnegiehall.org.OLIVIA HORN

The tumultuous events of the past couple of years have stirred up many emotions in New York City teenagers. Now some of them will share those feelings on a New York City stage.

That opportunity comes from the New Victory Theater, which is opening its first season of live productions since the Covid-19 lockdown with Generation Rise. Presented by Ping Chong and Company, the show is part of Undesirable Elements, a dramatic series based on interviews conducted in a specific location with residents who are often left out of the mainstream cultural discourse in this case, Black, Latino and Asian American young people.

Running Fridays through Sundays through Nov. 14 (opening night is sold out), Generation Rise features the words of six contributors describing life during a pandemic and a racial reckoning. (Three of them also perform, while actors portray the others.) Sara Zatz and Kirya Traber, the professionals who compiled the script, direct the 75-minute production.

Developed in collaboration with Urban Word NYC and recommended for theatergoers 11 and older, Generation Rise is currently streaming on the New Victorys website through Nov. 28. For $25, both live and virtual audiences can hear tales of coming of age, coming to terms and, in some instances, coming out.LAUREL GRAEBER

Classical Music

Fans of orchestral music the world over have a reason to celebrate now that the visionary conductor Michael Tilson Thomas is back on the podium (after needing to cancel some dates to receive treatment for a brain tumor). And local audiences can double their gratitude this weekend, since the maestro is scheduled to make his first appearance with the New York Philharmonic in a decade.

The presence of Ruth Crawford Seegers Andante for Strings will ensure that these programs make use of Thomass penchant for compositions by American mavericks. But the concerts will also draw from his other enthusiasms: Beethovens Symphony No. 3 is a place for Thomas to display elegance (as well as brashness); Bergs Violin Concerto, which Thomas recently recorded, shows his feeling for the works lyricism (as well as for its Second Viennese School bite). In that piece, hell be joined by Gil Shaham, the same soloist heard on the album. Performances are at Alice Tully Hall on Thursday at 7:30 p.m., and Friday and Sunday at 2; tickets start at $48 and are available at nyphil.org.SETH COLTER WALLS

Theater

With the return of live theater, many artists have found themselves wondering how they can change the system they work in to make it more sustainable. Enter Kate Cortesi, Brenda Withers and Emily Zemba, the writers behind the 2021 edition of the Pool, a pop-up theater company for which playwrights self-produce their shows.

Through Nov. 20 (for dates and times, go to thepoolplays.org), the playwrights will present their works in repertory at the New Ohio Theater. Cortesis zany Is Edward Snowden Single? features two actors playing 19 characters and an American Girl doll starring as Snowden. In Zembas dark comedy Superstitions, the state of America is examined through the metaphysical beliefs its citizens carry. And in Witherss The Ding Dongs, a strange home invasion gives way to a surreal exploration of displacement and real estate.

To expand the publics access to the theater, the company is offering tickets on a sliding scale, from $5 to $50, or you can see all three plays for $75. The proceeds go to the artists.JOSE SOLS

In the film Guess Whos Coming to Dinner, from 1967, the table is a political place where a liberal white couple (Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn) struggle to embrace a Black man (Sidney Poitier) who is engaged to their daughter.

In Stefanie Batten Blands 2019 dance-theater sequel, Look Whos Coming to Dinner, part of Peak Performances at Montclair State University in New Jersey, a table again becomes a space where identity is confronted, and the altered title pointedly suggests theres no need to guess we know whos coming, and the discomfort of difference hasnt gone away.

Batten Bland has danced with Bill T. Jones and Pina Bausch, and those influences are apparent in her sense of character and drama, which she channels through evocative gestures and vivid tableaus in this hourlong work. Tickets to the shows, which will be at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, 8 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday, are $40 and available at peakperfs.org.BRIAN SCHAEFER

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5 Things to Do This Weekend - The New York Times