The cultural treasures of scores of nations will be on display, and the sounds of their music and the flavors of their cuisines will be available to every tourist wandering through. Assuming the pirates don’t loot all the goodies, that is. The source of this wealth? The 26th annual Mobile International Festival, taking place over the next few days... Full story »

Mobile Opera celebrates National Opera Week through Nov. 22 with these special events: • "Night of Song," 6:30-9:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16, at The Wine Loft, 9 Du Rhu Drive, Mobile. Everyone is invited to attend this monthly, free, event celebrating opera at one of the city’s most popular night spots. Featuring a cabaret of favorites from opera and... Full story »

The walls of Serda’s Coffee Company are alive with tango dancers, young musicians, shrimp boats and a profusion of Technicolor flora and fauna. Beneath these images sit an assortment of preoccupied coffee-house regulars: a klatch of young professionals in conference; students on laptops; out-of-towners on cell phones; a respected playwright busily at work on her next project; perhaps an... Full story »

Seven decades have passed since Dorothy, Toto, Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion danced along the Yellow Brick Road toward the Emerald City. Even now it seems astounding that "The Wizard of Oz" was released in 1939 — so was "Gone with the Wind," which makes ’39 an astonishing movie year by any standard. Want proof? Visit this... Full story »

PENSACOLA, Fla. — The Arts Council of Northwest Florida will present a sneak preview of the new Escambia County Arts and Culture Information Center on the final 2009 Gallery Night, 5-9 p.m. Nov. 20 in downtown Pensacola. The Center, in the old Escambia County Courthouse at Palafox and Government streets, has undergone a $1.12 million restoration and renovation. Along... Full story »

Friends of Spring Hill College Library will host a reading of Danielle Juzan’s soon-to-be-produced comedy, "Artbruted," at 7 p.m. Nov. 19 at Stewartfield on the Spring Hill College campus. The play, which had its first reading in August, takes a blackly humorous look at the intrinsic value of art vs. its perceived value, and art’s place in our lives.... Full story »

SPECIAL EVENTS   LIU INTERNATIONAL SHAOLIN INSTITUTE an authentic Shaolin school teaching Shaolin Kungfu, Tai Chi and Sanshou Kickboxing, will represent China at the Mobile International Festival Nov. 19, 20 and 21 at the Mobile Civic Center. Demonstrations will be led by Grandmaster Shi Deru. Stop by the exhibit and register to win free classes. The school is located... Full story »

All it took was a bit of exposed flesh to heighten anticipation for next weekend’s LoDa Artwalk.  Well, Hello-Da. Downtown visitors who prefer something bold and new over the tried and true should have no complaints when Blue Velvet Studio opens "Nudes in November," a show of painting, photography, mosaic, sculpture and sketches that interpret the human figure. Karen... Full story »

Alpin Hong is a very cool guy and a joy to chat with, as ArtBeat learned during a recent long-distance conversation with the concert pianist. In addition to his musical gifts, Hong likes to kick up the excitement level a few notches with a little skateboard action, and he knows his way around a skate park. Before he takes... Full story »

Rasta Thomas and his Bad Boys of Dance hit the stage with a flourish Saturday night. They leapt, wiggled and somersaulted — and they showed no small measure of musical talent as well. They certainly played the Mobile Civic Center crowd like a fiddle, and not a pricey one.      On the opening night of the Mobile Ballet season,... Full story »

Comprehensive weekly calendar events listing of events, meetings and other activities in southwest Alabama. Full story »

Sharon has it easy. She’s the dead one. She’s still kept up with her friends, though, as they’ve suffered the trials of adulthood and middle age. And in “Girls Night: The Musical,” a production that comes to the Mobile Saenger Theatre this Saturday, she accompanies them as they go out on the town, serving as something of a narrator... Full story »

Mobile Opera hopeful Marshall Richards, a lyric tenor, makes his lunch money by singing downtown in Cathedral Square. Full story »

FAIRHOPE, Ala. ---- Viewed from behind, the solitary woman in white walks a narrow, curving street in Havana, her ensemble and matching white umbrella in startling contrast to the graffiti mural on the green wall to her left. The painting resembles a still-angry scar and suggests chaos and upheaval, says photographer Chip Cooper. The image is one of two... Full story »

These Bad Boys are the rock stars of the dance world, kinetic masters of time and space who can hit their marks with balletic precision or hang suspended in midair like Peter Pan. Classically trained, they prefer choreography set to contemporary music, although they can shift gears when they hear Tchaikovsky and they do wondrous things with a grand... Full story »