A&E

Goings on around town this week and next, from May Day to the latest Raven Players production.

The Grand Tasting, most popular event of the Healdsburg Food & Wine Experience, is held on Saturday from 12:30 to 4:30pm, as 100 vendors of food, wine and lifestyle share their wares under the big canopy erected over the West Plaza parking lot. The location is transformed into a showcase of what Healdsburg does best: eat, drink and be merry!

The Healdsburg Museum reopens Saturday after an interior remodel with a new exhibit, “Pomo Weavers Society,” which includes baskets, artwork, dresses and regalia by local Indigenous artists. Through Nov. 2, open Wednesdays through Sundays, 11am-4pm, 221 Matheson St. healdsburgmuseum.org. 

The Rotary Club of Healdsburg invites everyone to join its annual free Easter Egg Scramble on Saturday, April 19, 9am at the Fitch Mountain School (565 Sanns Lane). Designed to be inclusive, accessible and open. Due to the shortage, however, plastic eggs will be used.

Words like “visionary,” “electrifying,” “exhilarating,” “transcendent” and “breathtaking” get thrown around with abandon (by myself included) to describe much lesser films than Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. So I will try not to be overly precious in relating to you how special this movie is.

Playwright Laura Wade’s "Home, I'm Honey" considers what happens to a contemporary young married couple when they embark on a lifestyle change that revolves around immersion into the world of 1950s Britain. See the Raven Players work it out on stage until May 25...

Jendala Day and Other Events: On behalf of the Utsch family and her friends, celebrate the life, art and positivity of Jen “Jendala” Utsch, long an energy force in Healdsburg. Includes a ceremony at 1pm in the garden and performances by Todd Bugbee’s Dead Roses. From noon to 3:30pm at Villa Chanticleer.

But scratch the surface, and there’s something else going on. The main character, Judy, fills the role of what has become known as the “tradwife,” the traditional image of the woman at home. Of late, such idealized roles have become the fodder of social media “influencers,” pointed out director Caroline Clark. “Especially on Instagram, it’s these very alluring videos of people doing performative cooking and cleaning and preparing of their house..."

It ain’t BottleRock, and that’s a good thing. Although the Napa-based music festival shares the same initials as Healdsburg’s BloodRoot, one won’t find miles-long traffic jams, $250 tickets or caviar corndogs here—nor is one likely to find stars like Justin Timberlake, Green Day or Public Enemy. But BloodRoot has plenty of talent taking the stage: four bands over an eight-hour day of music, including one certified international star, Ziggy Marley.

The Healdsburg Jazz Festival seems as if it must be modeled after a film festival, with multiple venues offering different artists throughout the day. There are the featured events, sure–a Juneteenth Celebration, a Father’s Day Concert, headline shows at Bacchus Landing – but it’s the little gigs that count.