weekend event planner

Here are the top 12 things to do in Houston this weekend

Celebrate Earth Day at Discovery Green.

While it's looking to be a bit soggy this weekend, plenty of activities vie for your attention. Grab some mimosas and check out some art or hit an outdoor concert series.

Shoppers can jump on the Nutcracker Market offerings, animal lovers can meet some wolves, and those with a green thumb can nab a free tree. Speaking of green, Sunday is Earth Day—perfect timing to celebrate our planet downtown.

Here are your best bets for the weekend.

Thursday, April 15

Mimosas & Art Show at Modern INK
Head over to Modern INK, a woman-owned art gallery at River Oaks, to experience bottomless mimosas, snack on brunch bites and meet with powerful, highly motivated women. This show features a variety of media, techniques, and intentions in art. The artwork exemplifies some of the ways that art can be used as a tool to increase self-awareness, relieve stress, solve problems, communicate with self and others, process constructs and experiences, and understand ourselves. 4 pm.

Market Street presents Spring Concert Series
Market Street’s Spring Concert Series (which kicked off last week) will feature artists performing Top 40, jazz, Latin, country, cover favorites, and more. This week's performer is Gary Kyle, a Texas singer/songwriter who has released several albums & EPs and even provided the theme song for the syndicated TV show Lone Star Roads. Guests are invited to bring blankets and lawn chairs and sit back, relax, and enjoy the performances. Admission is free. 6 pm.

Friday, April 16

Cafe Leonelli at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
If you ever felt like getting some fine food while checking out some priceless art, you're in for a treat this weekend: Cafe Leonelli at MFAH will be opening in the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building on Friday. Enjoy traditional Italian cuisine in a friendly and relaxed environment. The convenient, attended counter service features menu items such as sandwiches, soups, salads, meat and seafood dishes, baked pastas and house-made focaccia with a variety of toppings. 8 am.

Houston Ballet Nutcracker Market
Over at NRG Center, the Houston Ballet's Spring Nutcracker Market will make its return as an in-person event. The three-day shopping experience will welcome approximately 150 merchants from across the country, bringing with them a full assortment of seasonal items, apparel, accessories, gourmet food and cheerful home décor to welcome the warmer weather and celebrate the upcoming spring and summer holidays. 9 am (10 am Saturday and Sunday).

Theatre Under The Stars presents Leading Ladies Luncheon
Theatre Under The Stars will host this annual event, honoring Houstonians who champion the performing arts and arts education. Honorees will include Carrie Woliver, Shirley Stein Outstanding Champion of the Arts and Education Award, Kristina Sullivan, Arts Educator of the Year and Volunteers of the Year Anneliese Kelly, Gia Ochsenbein, and Alyssa Sunew. There will be performances by Simone Gundy with Dr. John Cornelius and students from TUTS Humphreys School of Musical Theatre and The River. 11 am.

Houston Symphony presents Hollywood Serenade: The Artistry of Caroline Campbell
The incredible Caroline Campbell joins Steven Reineke and the Houston Symphony for a fun-filled program of violin magic. The audience will hear silver-screen favorites like “Love Theme” from The Godfather, the popular tango “Por una Cabeza” (as heard in Scent of a Woman), “America” from West Side Story, the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean and more, all performed with Campbell’s signature show-stopping flair. 8 pm (2:30 pm Sunday).

Saturday, April 17

1980 Something Co and The Vintage Wiz presents BRRRtual Flea
Going down at Sawyer Yards, the BRRRtual Flea is an in-person, open-air market event where guests and vendors will come together for a fun and unique shopping experience. Vendors from all over the country will be showcasing their unique, vintage finds of all different genres and styles. It is an all-day event, with the option to purchase a limited, early-bird ticket (which begins at 7 am) to access the event before everyone else. 9 am.

Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary presents Birthday Party for the Wolves
Located in Navasota, Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary will celebrate their pack at the annual Birthday Party for the Wolves. There will be keeper chats featuring enrichment activities for our animals, a silent auction, food trucks, local vendors, kids' activities, and live music. Of course, you can always take a guided walking tour of the sanctuary, where you will learn lots of fascinating information on wolves and wolf dogs and learn their stories. 10 am.

Trees for Houston Tree Giveaway Event at Garden Oaks
This weekend, non-profit organization Trees for Houston will collaborate with Linde and the Arbor Day Foundation to distribute 1,000 free trees to the community, during this contactless, drive-through, tree distribution event. The organizations will be giving away American Sycamore, Arrowwood Viburnium, Crape Myrtle, Red Maple, Redbud and White Oak. All trees will be 3-4 feet and fit in most vehicles. 10 am.

Color:Story 2021
Held over at Spring Street Studios, this dynamic community event/art opening/reading/poetry slam for a visual art and poetry exhibition will feature collaborative work of 20 Houston-area artists with local, national and international poets. Poets will be reading their work live at the opening. Each piece of visual art in the exhibit is inspired by and contains words of the poetry of a single writer. The exhibition will continue through Saturday, May 8. 6 pm.

Sunday, April 18

Braid Boss Competition
Houston Braids presents the inaugural Braid Boss Competition, where you'll be able to watch he most iconic and reputable braiders —with skills! — as they compete for over $5,000 in cash and prizes. First-place prize includes a $1,000 grand prize, a trophy and the title of 2021 Braid Boss, while second place is a $500 prize and third is a $250 prize. A mask must be worn at all times. Sanitizer stations will be set up throughout the event. Noon.

Discovery Green presents Earth Day
Earth Day at Discovery Green will feature a variety of environmentally-themed activities. There will be a series of short films about Houston’s environment; a panel discussion on The Nexus of Energy, Climate, and Equity in Houston; and live painting by Houston artists completing murals that celebrate the richness and diversity of the community, culture, and natural environment. Urban Harvest and Churrascos food trucks will be on-site serving healthy snacks and meals. Noon.

event-planner

Movie Review

Cookie Queens goes behind the scenes of Girl Scout Cookie season

Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions

Girl Scouts in Cookie Queens.

Few people are strong enough to resist the lure of Girl Scout cookie season every year, with the cookies’ limited availability and unique flavors a strong incentive to indulge. But only the girls and their families who have sold the cookies know the joys and stresses of trying to get people to buy them, a process that is detailed in the new documentary, Cookie Queens.

The film by documentarian Alysa Nahmias uses the stories of four different girls to represent the nationwide ritual for the Girl Scouts. They include 12-year-old Olive in Charlotte, North Carolina, a longtime top seller; 8-year-old Shannon Elizabeth in El Paso, Texas, who wants to earn the reward of going to camp; 5-year-old Ara in San Diego, California, whose goal is modest compared to most other girls; and 9-year-old Nikki in Chino, California, who has to compete with her older sisters in the cookie-selling bonanza.

The girls represent a cross-section of both ages and backgrounds, with some girls coming from wealthy families and some girls dealing with more limited means. And how much money your family has makes a big difference, as not only does someone richer have more freedom with their time and supplies, but all scouts are required to reimburse the organization for every box they take in, regardless of whether they’re able to sell it or not.

That caveat makes the journeys of the four featured girls feel wildly different. It’s clear from the start that Olive and Nikki’s families don’t give a second thought to the personal economics of selling cookies, with each girl taking in thousands of boxes at the beginning of the six-week selling season. With both Olive and Nikki rightfully confident that they’ll have no problem offloading their supply, their stories turn to how selling is personally affecting them, with each trying to reconcile the fun of doing it with the pressure they feel from their family members.

Shannon Elizabeth’s story is more harrowing, as her parents feel a strong desire to help her accomplish her lofty goal, but worry that the cost might literally be too high for the family as a whole. More than once, the parents are shown fretting that they won’t have the money to pay back what they owe should they fall significantly short in their sales. Their selling approach, which includes walking through an empty swap meet and standing outside a chain restaurant at night, only adds to their stress.

The most fun story to watch is that of Ara, whose innocence is matched by her confidence. Her parents teach her how much money they’ll owe with her small goal of 55 boxes, but right away she takes on more responsibility than expected. She’s shown making sales pitches and tallying the total number of boxes she’s sold with little-to-no help from either her mom or dad. With her high voice, glasses, and a monitor on her arm to manage her diabetes, she becomes the cute and sympathetic part of the film.

There are times that the film starts to feel more than a little manipulative, however. While many of the moments documented come off as organic, some of them seem like Nahmias is actively guiding the participants in order to get a better story. This is especially evident with Shannon Elizabeth and her family, whose early struggles turn into a miraculous feel-good story by the end, a turnaround that seems implausible at best. Everything with them might have been aboveboard, but Nahmias and her team edit the family’s journey in a way that pushes a bit too hard for emotion.

Cookie Queens, which was produced by a company owned by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, helps to give insight into the business of selling Girl Scout cookies for those who’ve only been on the purchasing end of the transaction. The dedication of each girl toward selling their allotted supply proves fun and interesting, even if the filmmaker tries to gild the lily on occasion.

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Cookie Queens is now playing in theaters,

movies girl scout cookie film

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