On the agenda for this week are happenings that tickle the imagination, including an emerging designer's fashion showcase, a film fest brimming with local flavor, exotic music, creative dance, a shopping outing for the fellows and a gathering of all things veggie.
Click on the links below the event suggestions to access a page teeming with helpful features, like the ability to download the deets to your electronic calendar, in addition to curated information on places to shop, eat, drink and crash nearby your final destination.
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston's Teen Council presents the Annual Teen Fashion Show "2013 Fashion Meltdown"
You never know what the eccentric coterie of young designers will tailor for "Fashion Meltdown," an event hosted by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston's Teen Council. Elements along the likes of old newspaper, aluminum foil, balloons, plastic shopping bags, soda cans and electrical plates find themselves re-imagined as inventive couture that contends for prizes in four categories.
The event moves outside to CAMH's front lawn for this year's competition, which will be judged by Jon Chao, Selven O'Keef Jarmon and Trang Nguyen.
The skinny: Thursday, 6:30 p.m.; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; admission is free.
H-Town Multicultural Film Festival
14 Pews executive director Cressandra Thibodeaux has branded the former church as the go-to place to catch independent films, documentaries and video art. You can count on her encyclopedic knowledge of film to curate thought-provoking, avant-garde works that entertain, educate and blow your mind.
Thibodeaux partners with Bears Fonte, director of programming at the Austin Film Festival, for the inaugural H-Town Multicultural Film Festival, a three-day affair with 19 features and shorts, alongside social events, that portray a local hallmark Houstonians take pride in: Diversity.
Third Annual VegFest Houston
While it's true that Houstonians love meat as much as they treasure crude oil, there's nothing written in stone that says vegetable-loving folks can't co-exist in an otherwise steak-and-potatoes-plus-bacon-and-cheese kind of megalopolis. VegFest is more than a gathering of food vendors, it's an educational fair with speakers, film screenings, demos and live music.
Note the new location. VegFest is getting bigger and bigger every year — something we can all agree is a Long Star State thing to do.
The skinny: Saturday, 10-5 p.m.; Pershing Middle School; admission is free.
Mister Man: A Men's Pop Up Shop
Finally, as if the heavens heard my pleas for a dude-inspired fashion shopping fete. So here it is, "Mister Man: A Men's Pop Up Show," a one-day-only mart that promises to entice with everything from the rag trade. Vendors confirmed include Blue Crown Vintage, Geek Life, Height of Vintage, Jim Ferguson Art, Jolly Roger Jams, Manready Mercantile, MLeather, Tiny Deer Studio, The Billy Pilgrim Traveling Library, The Silver Acorn, Vida Antigua, Awesome Machine and Catfish.
Summer is almost upon us: Don't you need a style makeover?
The skinny: Saturday, 1-6 p.m.; Atticus in The Heights; admission is free.
Asia Society Texas Center presents Riyaaz Qawwali in Kashti
Riyaaz Qawwali isn't a person, it's an ensemble that formed in 2006 whose cornerstone is the performance of a lively, rhythmic genre dubbed as qawwali, a style of devotional music popular in South Asia for more than 700 years. Think tabla, percussion, fiddles and harmonium supporting ornate vocals that together portray the inner truth of the human experience. It's serious and fun.
The concert is a celebration of the group's first album, Kashti, which translates to "boat" or "ship" in Urdu and Hindi. But don't be intimidated by the language or the history. Vocalist and leader Sonny Mehta knows how to ensure everyone has a good time — regardless of cultural background.
The skinny: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Asia Society Texas Center; tickets start at $18.
Arts smarty pants and in-the-loop dance maven Nancy Wozny's pick: Suchu Dance presents Bosk
Nancy says: "It's the end of an era for Suchu Dance. With Jennifer Wood's newest opus, Bosk, she closes the Barnevelder chapter of her artistic life as this is the company's final performance in the space she called home for more than a decade. Wood is ready to dance in more non-traditional spaces and enjoy the freedom of venue-free dance making, while Barnevelder has been taken over by Dance Source Houston.
"Like most of Wood's work, don't try to find any meaning in the title, they are mostly one word poems that lend flavor to Wood's rich imagination."
The skinny: Through June 22; Barnevelder Arts/Movement Complex; tickets are pay-what-you-can.
Ethereal gown by Alan Gonzalez, one of the stand out designs at last year's CAMH Teen Council fashion show.
