The Luminal Theater presents a drive-in screening of “The Preacher’s Wife” this week.
FILM
Columbia Drive-In Movies
The Luminal Theater, a nomadic cinema organization that splits time between New York and Columbia, made noise last week when it revealed that it had secured our city’s Spotlight Cinemas Capitol 8 as one of the 25 satellite screening locations for this year’s COVID-adjusted Sundance Film Festival (read more about that at free-times.com). This week, Luminal returns to the theater’s parking lot for another drive-in screening, again fulfilling its mission of celebrating Black cinema. The move this time out is the Denzel Washington- and Whitney Huston-starring 1996 comedy-drama “The Preacher’s Wife,” which focuses on a holiday visit from an angel. The 6:30 p.m. event is free (but you must RSVP). Find out more details via facebook.com/LuminalTheater. JORDAN LAWRENCE
BEER/MUSIC
Steel Hands Brewing 2nd Anniversary
The Cayce operation celebrates its second anniversary as the largest production brewery in the Midlands. The big draw is 10 musical acts on two stages in Steel Hands’ outdoor beer garden — skewing toward country and Americana with the likes of Mel Washington, Lewis Brice & John Wesley Satterfield, and Drew Dixon, while Cravin’ Melon’s Doug Jones brings the expected ’90s nostalgia. There will also be two special beer releases, City of Cayce fire trucks on site and more. All guests and staff must wear face masks, employees’ temperatures will be taken prior to every shift and sanitizing stations will be set up indoors and outdoors. Entry costs $60. The party gets started at 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 12. Find out more at facebook.com/steelhandsbrewing. PAT MORAN
JAZZ
Jazz on the River
The weekly Jazz on the River takes advantage of the trendy upcoming Riverfront Park Esplanade setting to offer live jazz ensembles and local food trucks alongside various other sundry vendors. This Thursday’s edition features bassist/guitarist Rodney Foster Jr., who when not leading his own band holds it down for Marcus Gullen and the Cottontown Soul Society, among others. The Front Coffee & Tap provides beer, wine and cups of joe, as usual. The free concert on Dec. 10 starts at 5 p.m. head to facebook.com/jazzontheriversc for more info. KYLE PETERSEN
BOOK
Author Talk: Claudia Smith Brinson
The description for Claudia Smith Brinson’s new book, “Stories of Struggle: The Clash Over Civil Rights in South Carolina” doesn’t beat around the bush. The stalwart Palmetto State journalist, it reads, “details the lynchings, beatings, bombings, cross burnings, death threats, arson, and venomous hatred that black South Carolinians endured — as well as the astonishing courage, devotion, dignity, and compassion of those who risked their lives for equality. Hard to think of a better year than 2020 to dig into the past of this state’s racial conflicts for context about the ones right in front of us. On Dec. 10 at 6:30 p.m., you can join a free online discussion between Brinson and The Jasper Project’s Cindi Boiter (a frequent Post and Courier Columbia columnist) hosted by the Lexington County Library. Find out more info at facebook.com/LexCoLibrary. JORDAN LAWRENCE
FILM
Movies in the Garden: “Christmas Vacation”
Getting into the spirit is pretty easy for any given holiday edition of Historic Columbia’s Movies in the Garden series in the Hampton-Preston Gardens, even in a socially distanced pod. But when the movie is “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” with all of its built-in outdoor hijinks and 2020-like sense of disaster, it’s a foregone conclusion. That’s even before you calculate in the drinks from Craft & Draft and the bites from Mary’s Arepas. KYLE PETERSEN
FAMILY
Carolina Lights
Another big holiday lights display opened for 2020 last week. The drive-through Carolina Lights at the State Fairgrounds is doing its twinkly thing Sunday through Thursday (6 to 9 p.m.) and Friday through Saturday (6 to 10 p.m.), with a scavenger hunt available in addition to the glittering decorations. The processions will continue through Dec. 27 (but will be closed on Christmas Day). Entry fees range from $20 to $70 depending on the number of people in your vehicle. Head to scstatefair.org for more info. JORDAN LAWRENCE
FILM
”Elf”
We need things that just make us giddy right now. I won’t rehash all the reasons that 2020 has been a bad, awful, no-good year, but I will tell you that I am clinging to all the joy I think I can (safely) glean from this holiday season. And watching Will Ferrel’s actually not an ”Elf” leave the North Pole on an ice block as a Rankin/Bass-inspired claymation narwhal calls out, “Bye, Buddy, I hope you find your dad,” fits the bill. Postponed from last week due to inclement weather, the modern holiday classic screens on Dec. 11 at Segra Park, with gates opening at 6 p.m. before the movie at 7:15 p.m. Purchase tickets and find out more info at columbiafireflies.com. JORDAN LAWRENCE
VISUAL ART
Icons for a New Generation
Kerry Lucinda Brown, a South Asian and Himalayan art specialist and a professor of art history at Savannah College of Art and Design, delivers this virtual lecture on the future evolution of Indian art. As industrialization, globalization, and social mobility challenge traditional notions of identity, Indian artists grapple with a culture in transition, grounding their work in classic iconography, while using those symbols of veneration and ritual to illustrate change. Watch it for free on Dec. 10 at noon via columbiamuseum.org. PAT MORAN
