weekend event planner

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

Celebrate Loro's one-year birthday with $5 rice bowls.

Courtesy of Loro

This weekend, food fans can toast the one-year anniversary of one of the most eagerly anticipated restaurants in the Heights. Speaking of the Heights, a pop powerhouse hits White Oak Music Hall for a good-hearted charity concert.

A local restaurant puts a spin on Taco Tuesday (Thursday!), Asia Society showcases Indian cinema, and a Broadway and film star puts on a greatest hits show with Houston Symphony. And a local brewery gives a lotta love to beards.

Enjoy; here are your best bets for the weekend.

Thursday, February 23

LORO Houston’s First Anniversary

LORO Houston, that Asian/Texas cuisine whatzit over in the Heights, is celebrating its first anniversary with a range of fun birthday specials and offerings all day long. Enjoy all day $5 rice bowls (Crispy Szechuan tofu! Malaysian curry chicken! Char Siew pork belly!) and the first 100 people will receive custom LORO Yetis. Local brews such as Eureka Heights Brewery, Bishop Cider, RIDE and Solidcore will also be making an appearance at LORO throughout the day, offering fun giveaways and beer samples. 11 am.

Asia Society Texas Center presents 15th Indian Film Festival of Houston

The Indian Film Festival of Houston and Asia Society Texas will celebrate the cinematic voices of India and the Diaspora with a fresh lineup of feature films, documentaries, and shorts. Films will screen with a food reception and a music performance included in the Thursday program. The must-see selection is All That Breathes, the recently Oscar-nominated documentary about two New Delhi brothers protecting a majestic bird of prey, on Friday night. A closing awards ceremony and dinner will take place on Saturday. 4 pm (6 pm Saturday).

Taco Thursdays at Thirteen

James Harden’s Midtown restaurant Thirteen is starting Taco Thursdays this week. Three of the spot’s delicious, signature soft-shelled tacos will be $10 all evening. There will also be happy hour pricing on a host of signature handcrafted cocktails, along with lite-bite offerings like the smokey three-cheese salmon dip, served with tortilla chips, and burger sliders topped with caramelized onions and chive aioli. Live DJs will also be spinning at 7. (This week is DJ Glass.) 5 pm.

Friday, February 24

The Fields Companies presents The Beat Goes On

Pop powerhouse Grace Potter (read our interview here) headlines this charity show (100 percent of proceeds benefiting the American Heart Association) going down at White Oak Music Hall. The concert is being put on by the Fields Companies as a tribute to CEO Jay Fields’s good friend Michael Carroll, the prominent, young founder of Foxgate Capital who tragically and suddenly passed away from complications of the heart. Look for the sultry vocal stylings of Mississippi-born country- and folk-inflected pop artist Charlie Mars and headlined by legendary live performer Potter. 7 pm.

Houston Symphony presents The Best of Broadway with Jeremy Jordan

The Houston Symphony will take an exhilarating, decade-spanning journey through Broadway’s greatest hits. Tony and Grammy nominee Jeremy Jordan (who, if you haven’t guessed from the photo, did a movie with Anna Kendrick years ago) performs songs from his signature Broadway roles in Newsies and Waitress, and showcases selections from favorite musicals like West Side Story, Carousel, Oklahoma!, Rock of Ages, and Les Misérables. 8 pm (2:30 pm Sunday).

High Traits presents UNFAZED

This high-energy concert, hosted by artist management/creative firm Free Traits, will feature five musical acts with some of Houston's top underground rappers. Spotify calls it the “Internet rap” or “cloud rap” genre, based on the futuristic styles of their music. The five-act show will feature Houston artists Riven, Jiffy Rockets, Saint Raphael, Lix, and Madz. This is the first of five underground concerts Free Traits plans on throwing, going genre by genre, highlighting the many talented artists in Houston. 9 pm.

Saturday, February 25

Paperbag presents "Free Man"

Paperbag will host this special Black History Month show, highlighting the Black experience through Paperbag’s eyes, walking through life as a Black man. This is about embracing the negative and positive experiences of being Black in America, whether it is injustice, trauma, love, resilience, community, or togetherness. The production will raise money for Community Artists’ Collective and feature other prominent, African-American Houston artists. 10 am (11 am Sunday).

Southern Star Brewery presents “Beards for B.I.G. Love”

Local pediatric cancer dads and supporters will be sporting big beards and big hearts in Conroe this weekend. The event will feature a beard contest, a cornhole tournament, and fun for the entire family. Proceeds from the event benefit B.I.G. Love Cancer Care, in their mission to ease the childhood cancer journey for families across Texas. Beard categories include: Freestyle, Whiskerina, Mega Beard (over 12"), Power Beard (over 6"), Respectable Beard (under 6"), Partial Beard, and Texas Tickler/Best Mustache. 10:30 am.

Taylor Tomlinson: The Have It All Tour

Taylor Tomlinson is too funny to be in her 20s. Her perspective possesses a degree of wisdom that’s typically earned with age. Focusing exclusively on Taylor’s old-soul clarity is tempting, but what makes Taylor stand out isn’t just that she seems too young to understand youth so well. She combines that vision with on-the-nose immediacy that can only come with still living in the moments being lampooned. She has two stand-up specials on Netflix, and had a top-ten finish in season 9 of NBC’s Last Comic Standing. 7 and 9:30 pm (7 pm Sunday).

Sunday, February 26

Apache Corporation presents Tour De Houston

Now in its 18th year, the annual Tour de Houston bike ride offers Houstonians and visitors a unique way to view the city with routes winding through Houston’s historic neighborhoods, scenic districts, and parks, while raising funds for the city’s Re-Plant Houston program. Cyclists of all skill levels will find fully-stocked rest stops at Houston Botanic Gardens, Lone Star Flight Museum and Clear Lake Park, along with bike repair support, police and medical services. Mayor Sylvester Turner will be on hand to start and ride in the event. 6:30 am.

As One Foundation presents 13th Annual Darling Dash Sickle Cell Race

The 13th annual Sickle Cell 10K, 5K, and 1K race has returned. The Darling Dash is held in honor of As One Foundation founder/former Houston Texans player Devard Darling’s identical twin brother Devaughn, who died from complications of Sickle Cell Trait. The annual race helps to bring awareness to athlete deaths that plague the sickle cell community. Funds from the race also support monthly blood drives for sickle cell patients who need lifesaving blood transfusions once or twice a month. 8 am.

WindSync presents Musical Offerings

At this event, the audience will take in a private viewing of the James Turrell Skyspace before embarking on a never-before heard intimate program of reflective music for wind instruments, curated and performed by WindSync. The musical offerings include solos selected by each musician to pair with the experience of performing at dusk. The program title is borrowed from J. S. Bach’s keyboard collection A Musical Offering, from which WindSync will offer the groundbreaking Ricercar a 6 to close the program. 5:45 pm.

a beautiful mind

Houston Health Museum's new exhibit shines a light on dyslexia

Sarah Sudhoff created "The Reading Brain" in honor of her son.

Photo by Rose Tylinski

"The Reading Brain" replicates neuron activity in a dyslexic brian while reading

No, "The Reading Brain" isn't the title of a B-horror film from the 1960s. It's a brand new installation at the Houston Health Museum that explores dyslexia.

The piece was created by Houston-based artist Sarah Sudhoff, in partnership with Dr. Guinevere Eden, Director of the Center for the Study of Learning at Georgetown University. Hanging from the ceiling of the Health Museum, it uses light-up colored circles to represent the frontal lobe activity of a dyslexic person while reading. MRI scans of dyslexic brains formed the foundation of the light activity. Sudhoff's own son has dyslexia, and she had to adapt her homeschooling of him to account for his neurodivergence. As much as 20 percent of the American population is dyslexic.

"The Reading Brain" grew out of a similar exhibit at the DoSeum in San Antonio. "Beautiful Minds: Dyslexia and the Creative Advantage" challenged visitors to see dyslexia not as a learning disability but as simply a different way some human brains work. The exhibit featured videos, stories, and art work by dyslexic individuals that show how they succeed and create, as well as a selection of brain puzzles used to teach dyslexic people.

“Even though your brain works differently, it still lights up and is beautiful to watch, a wonderful machine you have. It just means you have to navigate and pivot a little differently,” Sudhoff said.

Sudhoff's innovative bridge between science and art is a permanent part of the Health Museum's MindWorks exhibit. Like "The Reading Brain," MindWorks maps out thinking processes through light and hands-on activities. The exhibit will close on January 5, meaning visitors have a very short time to see Sudhoff's piece.

The Health Museum is a hidden gem in Museum District located a block away from the Children's Museum. It houses a variety of exhibits about the human body, such as a giant plastic colon that kids love to run through. Since opening in 1969, the museum has helped Houstonians and visitors from around the world learn about the way the body works as well well as public health protocols. As the only Smithsonian Affiliate Museum in the Houston Museum District, it has a high educational pedigree despite it's colorful and often whimsical offerings.

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