Night & Day Events

8 Thursday
Kansas Citians have one more chance to see the exhibit of traditional Saudi Arabian and Islamic Art now on display at the UMKC University Center Art Gallery (50th Street and Rockhill Road). Included are 400-year-old relics of a coffee ceremony, something the caffeine addicts who frequent Kansas City’s numerous coffeehouses should be able to appreciate. Other items on display had similar everyday uses. Jack Nance, who owns the collection, spent more than thirty years in Saudi Arabia acquiring art and artifacts. The show closes tomorrow. For more information, call 816-235-2264.

9 Friday
Unbeknownst to many people, Kansas City is full of aspiring and innovative choreographers. Attending tonight’s New Dance Series, a choreographers’ showcase, should provide a crash course on who’s doing what on the local dance circuit. Highlights include the always in-your-face aha! dancers (who have been known to stop traffic) presenting two original pieces and Jo Anne Hargis performing excerpts from her concert Cairo on the Caw Meets the Retro Cocktail Hour, a collaboration between a Lawrence radio station and Hargis’ traditional Middle Eastern dance company. The show starts at 8 p.m. at Penn Valley Community College, 3201 Southwest Trafficway. For more information, call 913-967-7080.

10 Saturday
For a night of local down-home laughs, it might be fun to try out Full Frontal Comedy’s new show, Tastes Like Chicken. Full Frontal Comedy isn’t safe for the whole family. The group gives fair warning that its shows are intended for mature audiences and generally contain adult language and content. (The group’s logo depicts the back view of a man opening his trench coat.) The show starts at 8 p.m. at the Chestnut Fine Arts Center, 234 North Chestnut in Olathe. Tickets cost $10. For more information, call 816-753-6946.

11 Sunday
When a sentence begins, “So a rabbi and a Presbyterian reverend are watching a movie,” the immediate assumption is that a punch line will soon follow. But the matter that brings together Rabbi Gilbert Shoham (who currently teaches at UMKC) and the Reverend Scott Myers today is no joke. Reverend Myers has invited the rabbi to this week’s Cinema ‘N Soul screening of Austeria, a film set in 1914 Galatia, where the empires of Russia and Austria-Hungary clashed. In the movie, a group of Polish Jews flees from invading Cossacks, taking refuge in a remote country inn. But when romances develop (and what else could be expected at a remote country inn?), everyone — including the Orthodox and Hassidic Jews and a Catholic priest (faced not only with the old outside-the-faith problem but the vow-to-keep dilemma as well) — begins to question his or her faith. After the movie, which starts at 6:30 p.m. at Westport Presbyterian Church (201 Westport Road), Rabbi Shoham and Revered Myers will discuss the film’s historical background and religious implications. For more information, call 816-931-1032.

12 Monday
Slim Goodbody, who had to wear his organs on a unitard in order to make a point to junk food junkies, is still around, but technology has surpassed the need for costumes. Now, health-conscious parents can take kids to see The Human Body, a large-screen movie that uses thermal imagery and X-ray exposures to show, for example, a tomato on its journey to the stomach’s biological blender. Viewers get to travel through a maze of lungs and the pumping chambers of the heart. It may be a little detailed for the easily queasy, but it beats the unitard approach. The Human Body is showing at Union Station, 30 West Pershing Road. For more information (including show times), call 816-460-2020.

13 Tuesday
In the beginning, there was The Word, and The Word was getting high in a tour van. The seeds for this unlikely gospel collaboration of John Medeski, the North Mississippi Allstars and steel-guitar prodigy Robert Randolph were sown when the blues-rock Allstars opened for Medeski Martin and Wood three years ago. While on the road, members of both bands discovered they shared an enthusiasm for an obscure record called Sacred Steel. After the tour, Medeski kept in close touch with Allstars Luther Dickinson, Cody Dickinson and Chris Chew. The musicians exchanged hallelujahs when they discovered the steel-guitar sounds of Randolph, who opened for the Allstars at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom in the late ’90s. There, the reaction of an audience awed by the guitarist’s sincerity encouraged the Allstars to invite Randolph to collaborate on a gospel recording that would replace the organ with his steel guitar, infusing the music with a bluesy sound. The result is The Word, which shall be revealed at the Grand Emporium, 3832 Main, at 9 p.m. For more information, call 816-531-1504.

14 Wednesday
The authors of Game Face: What Does a Female Athlete Look Like? probably aren’t out to answer the question with Anna Kournikova screen-savers that emphasize her flat stomach more than her tennis game. In fact, the variety of women interviewed about the impact of sports on their lives implies that there is no one answer. Sports journalist Jane Gottesman responded to female athletes’ need for appealing and authentic reflections of their athleticism — ones that lend acceptance to the idea that maybe it’s whether you win or lose, and maybe it’s how you play the game, but it’s probably not the inseam of your shorts that matters. Gottesman and coauthor Geoffrey Biddle speak at Unity Temple on the Plaza, 707 West 47th Street, at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call 816-474-4652, Ext. 227.