Looking for Something to Do? Free Events October 1 to 7

Here are free events scheduled from Saturday, Oct. 1, to Friday, Oct. 7.

All events are free, so take a look -- and don't you dare say there's nothing to do in Pasadena!

KPCC Radio will host a community open house Saturday, Oct. 1, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Meet your favorite Southern California Public Radio hosts, tour the broadcast studios, enjoy plenty of activities, partake in free food and beverages, enter to win special prizes, and much more.

Attend the opening reception for "Harry Dodge: The Inner Reality of Ultra-Intelligent Life" Saturday, Oct. 1, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Armory Center for the Arts and enjoy the exhibition, which will include premieres of two new video works as well as sculptures and drawings. The exhibition will continue through Jan. 8.

"Radio Imagination: Artists in the Archive of Octavia E. Butler" is a group exhibition* debuting six new, contemporary commissions inspired by the Octavia E. Butler papers at the Huntington Library. Attend the opening reception Saturday, Oct. 1, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Armory Center for the Arts and enjoy the exhibition, which will continue through Jan. 8.

Following the opening reception for "Radio Imagination: Artists in the Archive of Octavia E. Butler" at Armory Center for the Arts, Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade will collaborate with local singers for "Star Choir," a multimedia musical performance Saturday, Oct. 1, from 8 to 9 p.m.* at Memorial Park (across the street) based on texts drawn from Butler's novels and archive.

Get up and moving Sunday, Oct. 2, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. beginning with a warmup led by Basecamp Fitness in front of the Rose Bowl Stadium, then walk one lap around the Rose Bowl Loop (the red line on this map) with firefighters and other Pasadena Fire Department personnel, all of whom will be wearing pink shirts in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (you can purchase one in front of the stadium if you want; proceeds will help support Huntington Hospital's Jim and Eleanor Randall Breast Center), followed by the Health and Fitness Fair at Brookside Park. 

The first Tuesday of every month is Free Family Night at Kidspace Children's Museum. On Tuesday, Oct. 4, from 4 to 8 p.m. children will celebrate animals by meeting some of the Kidspace Critters, learning what kinds of animals make good family pets, creating toys and treats to take home to pets, enjoying a 6 p.m. parrot show and much more. 

Preschool-aged children are invited to Sunny Tales: Fall Fun Time Wednesday, Oct. 5, from 11 a.m. to noon at the Finnish Folk Art Museum on the grounds of the Pasadena Museum of History. Each child will create a fun autumn craft following the stories.

Bring your young child(ren) to the courtyard at One Colorado for a Mommy & Me morning with a performance of Luce Puppet Co.'s "The Reluctant Dragon" Thursday, Oct. 6, from 10 to 11 a.m. A boy befriends a peaceful, poetry-loving dragon, but when townspeople hire a knight to slay it, the boy comes up with a plan.

"Leave Her to Heaven" (1945, NR) starring Cornell Wilde and Gene Tierney will be shown Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 1 p.m. in the Donald R. Wright Auditorium at Central Library. A writer meets a socialite on a train and the two marry soon after, but her obsessive love for him threatens to be the undoing of them and everyone around them.

A series of kids' craft afternoons begins Thursday, Oct. 6, from 4 to 5 p.m. in the courtyard at One Colorado where children will use geometric wooden shapes to create patterns on fabric and learn about the history of this ancient textile form. The workshop will be led by Purple Twig.

The next supply of garden-ready mulch from Pasadena Public Works Department street tree trimmings will be available Friday, Oct. 7, at the southeast corner of the parking lot at Victory Park. Bring your own shovel, container and gloves between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The mulch supply is replenished once a month from February to November and is available to Pasadena residents only. Mulch is also available at Robinson Park every fourth Friday from February to November in the south parking lot.

The first Friday (and third Thursday) of every month is Free Admission Day at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. On Friday, Oct. 7, from noon to 5 p.m . enjoy the new exhibitions "In the Land of Sunshine: Imaging the California Coast Culture" and "Lloyd Hamrol/Joan Perlman: 'a sky in the palm of a hand'" and everything else the museum has to offer.

"Porgy and Bess" (1959, NR) starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge will be shown Friday, Oct. 7, at 1 p.m. in the Scott Pavilion at the Pasadena Senior Center. In this legendary Gershwin opera set in 1912 in a South Carolina tenement, a disabled man overlooks the past of a woman trying to break free from her brutish lover. You do not have to be a member of the Pasadena Senior Center to attend.

The first Friday of every month is Free Visitors Night at the Norton Simon Museum. On Friday, Oct. 7, from 5 to 8 p.m. enjoy the current exhibition "Dark Visions: Mid-Century Macabre" and everything else the museum has to offer.

Learn about the observations of ancient astronomers who were the first to record spectacular supernovas and ponder their significance Friday, Oct. 7, at 8 p.m. at Caltech's Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (south side of California Boulevard -- #17 on this map), and then stargaze through powerful telescopes.

Find your own voice as author Esther Bradley-DeTally walks you through the process of writing during the hands-on, six-week "The Courage to Write" workshop Fridays, Oct. 7 to Nov. 18, from 1 to 3 p.m. at La Pintoresca Branch Library. No prior experience is necessary. Reserve your spot by calling 626-744-7268. There will be no class on Nov. 11, the Veterans Day holiday.


*Layla Ali, Malik Gaines, Alexandro Segade, Lauren Halsey, Mendi + Keith Obadike, Connie Samaras and Cauleen Smith.

**There will be two performances, each 20 minutes in length -- the first at 8 p.m. and the second at 8:40 p.m.

Photo credits: Southern California Public Radio, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena Now, Happy Birds, Annandale United Methodist, Luce Puppet Co., One Colorado, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Samuel Goldwyn Company, InnerSelf, Supernovae, The Storytelling Center Inc. of New York City.