Thursday, January 28
From a framed, coveted auction highlight to a particularly juicy or thought-provoking character scrawled on a concrete wall, "art" comes in many wonderful and varied forms. So goes the theme of this year's first art walk in Boynton Beach's Art District when the focus will be on what makes the genre of street art so loved. Starting at 6 p.m., guests can take a tour of the ActivistArtistsA Bay Gates murals and then settle in for a short presentation and discussion on the impact of street art on the community. (Spoiler alert: It's a positive and lasting impact.) After the street-art schooling, there will be live music and an open mic from 7 to 10 p.m., open studios to take a tour through featured works by Michael Kupillas, Dianett Doyle, Thomas McAvoy, and Travis Martin, art and craft vendors set up, and a food truck offering pizza and vegan treats.
The night also doubles as a reception for "Snapshots! The Artist Gaze Exhibition," featuring works by Allison Kotzig, Rolando Chang Barrero, Candy Childrey, Laura Tan, and others. The bays are located at and around 410 W. Industrial Ave. in Boynton Beach. The monthly walk is free, but bring cash for the crafts and food vendors. Visit Facebook.com/boyntonbeach.artdistrict.
Friday, January 29
Humans have a strange relationship with odoriferous foods. We eat rotten (yes, literally rotten!) shark. We add umami to salty, spicy dishes with a hearty dose of stinky fish sauce. Walk by any Asian market anywhere in the world and you'll find crinkly skinned bulbous durian, fondly referred to as stink fruit — durian ice cream is also pretty popular. Many of these noxious edibles are cultural. Some are universal. Garlic is the latter. It's incorporated into dishes and celebrated around the globe. In South Florida, the acrid bulb is the centerpiece of one of the region's most popular food events. On Friday night, the Delray Beach Garlic Fest is bringing the "Best stinking party in town" back to Old School Square for the 17th year in a row. The three-day party features live music, more than 180 artists and crafters, kids' activities and rides, cooking competitions, and plenty of garlic-infused fare (think everything from garlic-coated corn to garlic ice cream). On Friday night, reggae-, dub-, and rock-influenced Iration takes the stage. On Saturday, Taking Back Sunday headlines. On Saturday and Sunday, at Garlic Chef Stadium, chefs from some of the hottest restaurants in Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami-Dade counties are sharpening their knives in an attempt to overthrow the reigning garlic chef champion, Bruce Feingold of Dada. But it's not just a good time; last year, the event raised $560,000 in charitable contributions for local organizations.
It takes place Friday from 5 to 11 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets start at $12. Old School Square is located at 51 N. Swinton Ave. in Delray. Call 561-279-0907, or visit dbgarlicfest.com.
Who is chef Won Kim? If you don't know, maybe a little TV will ring a bell. In July 2012, Kim was a runner-up on Chef Wanted With Anne Burrell. Last year, Kim earned his celebrity-chef status after winning Cutthroat Kitchen on the Food Network as well as making an appearance on season six, episode 12, of Who Tarted? In the meantime, Kim's been making a name for himself as a chef in the Midwest. He's collaborated with restaurants and food trucks and devised beer dinners. Not only is Kim a chef but he's an artist who has been known to attend Art Basel in Miami. To understand Won Kim's background, one must first know what surrounds him. As a chef in his hometown of Chicago, Kim grew up exposed to one of the most diverse culinary scenes in the country. Of Korean ethnicity, Kim is known for his fusion of Korean-Polish barbecue, which he refers to as "Ko Po BBQ" and which includes the marriage of sausages topped with kimchi.
Dishes like this are what one should expect from a five-course pop-up dinner of Korean-Polish cuisine paired with craft cocktails. You can get a seat at the dinner table at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Top Hat Deli, located at 415 NE Third St. in Fort Lauderdale. All-inclusive tickets to the dinner run $75 per person. Call 954-900-3896.
Saturday, January 30
No matter where you go in the Caribbean, there will always be rum. It's practically a staple in the diets of some people there. With most of the world's rum produced in this region, you'd be hard-pressed to not find some sort of rum distillery in the Caribbean. Whether South Florida should be included in this list is a conversation for another time; however, you can't deny the region's influence on a couple of distillers from Broward County. When South Florida Distillers' Avi Aisenberg and Joe Durkin brought the art of rum-making to Fort Lauderdale, it gave local mixologists a whole new reason to celebrate. Now Aisenberg and Durkin bring the Art of Rum, a celebration of local art and cocktail creations, to January's FAT Village Artwalk. The event will feature local artists as well as local mixologists, who'll whip up boozy concoctions made with South Florida Distiller's signature Fwaygo rum. Of course, attendees will be able to sample these creations while moving through the art walk, which also features live art, music, cocktail demos, and a chance to meet Durkin and Aisenberg.
The Art of Rum event goes down from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday at the FAT Village Artwalk, located at 529 NW First Ave. in Fort Lauderdale. Tickets start at $25 for general admission and $75 for VIP. Call 954-541-2868, or visit facebook.com/sofladistillers.
Like Bill Hicks and Bill Maher before him, Australia's Jim Jefferies is fundamentally a provocateur first and a comedian second, and if you're bothered by the provocation, chances are you won't appreciate the joke. As a case in point, Jefferies was virtually unknown internationally until a 2007 gig at the Manchester Comedy Store, when an audience member, riled after Jefferies put down a heckler, leaped onstage and battered him, leaving him with a black eye and more than a million YouTube views. Jefferies still played a second set that night and become an overnight cult celebrity and a darling of atheists and the left. His best jokes remain pungent jaw-droppers; he's invoked the Sandy Hook massacre for a scathing riff about gun control, imagined a heaven overrun with dead babies, and hilariously conjured God as a power-mad buzzkill at a keg party. He even makes air-travel material seem fresh. Of course, half the population still takes issue with what he says; earlier this month, a follower tweeted, "You make me laugh and make me wanna punch you in the throat at the same time" — a badge of honor Jefferies promptly retweeted.
See him, hopefully sans fisticuffs, at 8 p.m. Saturday at Hard Rock Live, located at 1 Seminole Way in Hollywood. Tickets cost $35 to $65. Call 800-745-3000, or visit seminolehardrockhollywood.com.
Children's books do not get the credit they deserve as frequently as they should outside of their immediate literary circles. And that is a shame, because these creations for beginning and young readers are often works of absolute beauty on top of the educational subjects they tackle. Inspired by a "rainbow watercolor meadow daydream," according to cocreator Cari Corene, Floral Frolic is a new entry in the world of children's books and the first venture into children's lit by this team. Corene and her accomplice, Amanda Coronado, current residents of Baltimore, are graduates of the Savannah College of Art and Design and have worked as illustrative freelancers and in the comics industry. Their book is a tale of competition between a pair of baby foxes, Dawning and Queenie, who lose the footing of their friendship while picking flowers in their happy meadow. Their antagonism is mellowed by new discoveries among the flower beds and through gorgeous watercolor spreads that remind of the vibrancy of Paul Klee and the gaiety of fun Shojo manga.
This work will be on display at 3 p.m. at Bear and Bird Boutique + Gallery, upstairs at Tate's Comics, 4566 N. University Drive in Lauderhill and will remain on display until March 19. To help celebrate the book reading, there will be a Q&A session with Corene and Coronado, balloons, snacks, a flower craft, coloring activities, and a children's vintage record-listening party.
Sunday, January 31
You don't have to travel to Texas or the real "Southern" states to get good chili. Instead, try some in your own backyard as the Riverwalk Chili Cook Off comes to Esplanade Park on Sunday. If you think your chili palate is evolved enough, you needn't stick to just tasting. Attendees can be judges as well, with the chili with the most votes winning the day. The categories, however, will be wide open, as all types of chili are welcome, from vegetarian to con carne or any other concoction. Other forms of entertainment include live rock music from Bernie C. and outdoor activities. Beer will be provided by local brewery Concrete Beach. This event is family-friendly as well as pet-friendly, so bring the whole gang — maybe don't feed the dogs or babies chili, though. For reasons.
The Riverwalk Chili Cook Off is from noon to 4 p.m. in Esplanade Park, located at 400 SW Second St. in Fort Lauderdale. Tickets cost $10 or $20. The latter includes three craft beers from Concrete Beach. Visit goriverwalk.com.
For more events, visit our online calendar or pick up the print edition of the New Times Broward-Palm Beach every Thursday. To submit an event, use our online form.
