The Best Events to Wrap Up Your September in Los Angeles

September is winding down and Los Angeles’s month-long festivities for Halloween are already beginning, but there’s still a few special events that should be on your radar this week.

Monday, September 26 – Butterfly Pavilion at the Natural History Museum, Natural History Museum – Experience the brand new Butterfly Pavilion! The permanent structure — located outside the Natural History Museum on the south side — features more flight space, more resting spots, and more natural light. There will be hundreds of free-flying butterflies inside, and the awesome Gallery Interpreters who can explain why these animals are so special.

Tuesday, September 27 – Gershwin and the Jazz Age, Walt Disney Concert Hall – It’s LAPhil’s opening night at the Concert Hall! Don’t miss Gustavo and the LA Phil as they revel in the unforgettable melodies that sprang from the great Jazz Age composers. Broadway superstars Brian Stokes Mitchell and Megan Hilty will join in to bring timeless standards from the Great American Songbook to life.

Wednesday, September 28 – Dark Visions: Mid-Century Macabre, Norton Simon Museum – Lurking on the fringes of the 20th-century art world was something sinister, something not necessarily identifiable or easy to fit into a specific movement such as Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art or Minimalism. The exhibition Dark Visions: Mid-Century Macabre looks to mine the dark recesses of the mid-20th century and explore the creations made to exorcise the demons that plagued artists.

Thursday, September 29 – Jonathan Safran Foer reads from his new novel, Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School – Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Everything is Illuminated, will read from his monumental new novel, Here I Am. Showcasing the same high-energy inventiveness, hilarious irreverence, and emotional urgency that readers and critics loved in his earlier work, Here I Am is Foer’s most searching, hard-hitting, and grandly entertaining novel yet. It not only confirms Foer’s stature as a dazzling literary talent but reveals a mature novelist who has fully come into his own as one of the most important writers of his generation.

Friday, September 30 – “Do Libraries Have a Future?,” West Hollywood City Council Chambers – Libraries have long stood as society’s democratic temples of knowledge. Throughout time they have helped enlighten generations with their impassioned custodians, their meticulously compiled card catalogues, and their lovingly curated shelves and stacks of books begging to be devoured. Yet we now live in a time when all the world’s information is seemingly a click away—often on a small device in our pocket. This ubiquity of information raises the existential question—what purpose are libraries to serve in this new age?

Friday, September 30 – Angel City Jazz Festival featuring The LA/Chicago Project with Guitarist Larry Koonse, LACMA – The annual Angel City Jazz Festival returns to LACMA with a double bill, featuring the winning ensemble of its Young Artists Competition. The second set features the LA/Chicago Project. Both natives of Los Angeles, Josh Nelson and Dave Robaire have worked together in various settings including Nelson’s past two recordings, Discoveries (2009) and Exploring Mars (2015). Josh Johnson and Christian Euman both moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in the last five years. These multi-talented musicians have all worked together in various combinations and are finally coming together to form The LA/Chicago Project, which will feature all of their compositions. Johnson, Nelson, Robaire, and Euman all share a passion for pushing music forward without neglecting its tradition. And it’s FREE and open to the public!

Until October 2 – “Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life,” The Broad – The Broad’s first special exhibition is a comprehensive survey of the work of artist Cindy Sherman. Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life is the first major museum show of Sherman’s work in Los Angeles in nearly 20 years, and the exhibition fills The Broad’s first-floor galleries with 120 works drawn primarily from the Broad collection with key loans from other institutions. Most well-known for photographs that feature the artist as her own model playing out media-influenced female stereotypes in a range of personas, environments, and guises, Sherman shoots alone in her studio, serving as director, photographer, make-up artist, hairstylist, and subject.

Thursday and Friday, September 29 & 30 – Creep Los Angeles, Secret Location – Start your Halloween early with Creep. The story goes: In the 1970s, a controversial artist named Erebus Burwyck set out to explore the dark side of humanity and express it through his art, in the process unlocking something much deeper and more terrifying than he ever could have imagined. In 1974, Erebus disappeared from public view, spawning a cult-like following in his absence… a following intent on spreading his legacy and sharing what he found in the dark. This Fall, CreepLA invites guests to enter the mind of this tormented artist. Get lost inside a world of twisted art and intimate terror, and uncover the darkness that CREEPs within us all.

Enjoy!

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