'Congo Square' dance
The lowdown -- For New Orleans' African slaves, Congo Square represented both repression and freedom. The area in Louisiana, now known as Louis Armstrong Park, simultaneously hosted auctions selling newly arrived Africans, meetings of slaves in which secret messages were passed and leisurely picnics for their masters. Sankofa Dance Company tells the story of this historical site through its dance theater production Congo Square ... a New Orleans Tale on Saturday at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
If you go -- Shows start at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. The museum is at 10 Art Museum Drive. Tickets are $25. Call 410-669-3786 or go to brownpapertickets.com.
'Sanctuary'
The lowdown -- A Summer in Sanctuary makes its world premiere at 8 p.m. today at Theatre Project. Performance poet and playwright Al Letson's biographical piece is about his work as a counselor at Sanctuary, a community center in a poor neighborhood in Florida. Letson uses monologue, song, multimedia and poetry to portray his attempt to bond with the children of the community. The lines within race and social class are blurred in this dramatic and comedic piece. This marks Letson's fourth Theatre Project production.
If you go -- Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and at 3 p.m. Sundays, tonight-March 2. Theatre Project is at 45 W. Preston St. Tickets are $10-$20. Call 410-752-8558 or go to theatreproject.org.
[AARON CHESTER]
Messiaen's works
The lowdown -- This year marks the centennial of the birth of Olivier Messiaen, the brilliant French composer who died in 1992. His music, steeped in symbolic references to his Catholic faith and inventively colored with myriad sounds he derived from birdsong, remains in an inimitable class by itself. Some of Messiaen's greatest works were written for the organ, and, starting off a recital series that will eventually survey all of the composer's organ music, Jonathan Moyer will perform a program Sunday that includes Apparition de l'Eglise eternelle and L'Ascension.
If you go -- The recital is at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, 5200 N. Charles St. Admission is free. Call 410-464-4020.
[TIM SMITH]