Time to play the ponies! Racing season may have officially started in November, but the Fair Ground Race Course (1751 Gentilly Blvd.) is — in addition to its regular schedule — is featuring enticing special events.
Jan. 17: Road to Derby Day: Features six major races with promising three-year-old horses on their journey to bigger races.
Jan. 31: Exotic Animal Races / College Day: Camels, ostriches and zonkeys (zebra/donkey hybrid) race on this day that welcomes college students, families and those just curious to see these animals race.
Feb. 14: Louisiana Derby Preview Day + Breast Cancer Event: Among the races are two prep races for spring classic races (including the track’s Louisiana Derby, March 21), along with a Breast Cancer Awareness event.
Feb. 28: Weiner Dog Races: It’s dachshund vs. dachshund when these small dogs with big attitude race for a share of $1,000 in cash and prizes.
fairgroundsracecourse.com; @fairgroundsnola
Epic Encounters
Fan Expo returns to New Orleans Jan. 9-11 featuring some of pop culture’s favorite stars of fantasy, anime, animation, gaming and comics.
Among the featured celebrities are John Cena, Josh Holloway, Helen Hunt, James Marsters and the Hobbits from “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy: Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan and Elijah Wood, who will reunite for “An Evening with the Hobbits: In Celebration of 25 Years,” on Jan. 10. The expo is at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center (Halls I, J; 901 Convention Center Blvd.)
fanexponeworleans.com, @fanexponeworleans
Framing Jazz
Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Sonny Stitt and Quincy Jones are among the 30 subjects of black-and-white photographs featured in “Herman Leonard Images of Jazz,” opening at Ogden Museum of Southern Art (925 Camp St.) on Jan. 29.
On view through July 12, this exhibition focuses on Leonard, who immortalized these jazz greats during the emerging Bebop and Cool Jazz movements while he lived in New York City during the mid-20th century, and who after living in Paris, Ibiza and San Francisco, landed in New Orleans, where the museum honored his work with a book and exhibition in 2006. The photography prints are a donation to the museum by Stacey and Michael Burke.
ogdenmuseum.org; @ogdenmuseum
Operatic Maneuvers
In 2021, New Orleans native and Grammy-award winning Terence Blanchard became the first black composer to have an opera, “Fire Shut Up In My Bones,” performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. This “opera in jazz,” says Blanchard, is based on Charles Blow’s memoir of his journey from a childhood in rural Louisiana to becoming an acclaimed journalist.
A suite of arias from the opera featuring New Orleans Opera principal artists with Blanchard performing the score will be at the Civic Theatre (510 O’Keefe Ave.) on Feb. 22.
neworleansopera.org; @neworleansopera; @terence_blanchard
Alpert’s Beats
Herb Alpert’s music dominated the air waves during the 1960s and ‘70s, and with his Tijuana Brass Band created a bright, melodic and instantly recognizable fusion of jazz, pop, Latin and big band.
On Jan. 16, to celebrate the landmark “Whipped Cream and Other Delights,” Alpert (at age 90!) brings his Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass & Other Delights Show to the Orpheum Theater (129 Roosevelt Way).
orpheumnola.com; @orpheumnola
