The theme of this month’s “First Saturday” freebie at the Brooklyn Museum — the first of the fresh new year — is “transformations,” though the only thing that will be transforming is your dour winter spirits.
The indie rock band Cordero — a four-piece Spanglish outfit fronted by Ani Cordero — is the highlight of a full evening of free performances, screenings, lectures and art. Here is the complete rundown:
• 5-7 pm: The evening opens with Cordero’s mix of Southwestern ballads and straight ahead rock.
• 6 pm: Daphne Brooks, a professor of English and African-American studies at Princeton University, will discuss the women of funk rock and the aesthetics of James Brown.
• 6 pm: Stepping Out Studios gives group waltz lessons in preparation for the evening’s Masquerade Ball.
• 6:30-8:30 pm: A live (and quite possibly nude) model will be available to sketch.
• 6:30 pm: Screening of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” John Cameron Mitchell’s 2001 film about an East Berlin boy who undergoes a sex-change operation in order to marry and flee to the West. The “inch” of the title refers to something we can’t talk about in a family paper. After the screening, there’ll be a performance by the Midnight Checkout Queens.
• 7 pm: The Masquerade Ball.
• 7:30 pm: Gallery talk on the theme of transformation in Buddhist art.
• 9 pm: John Sellers discusses his book “Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life.”
• 9-10:30 pm: Karaoke.
• 9-11 pm: The evening ends with the traditional First Saturday Dance Party. This month, New York Night Train conductor Jonathan Toubin spins his “maximum rock and soul” sound.
That’s a full evening of fun — and the price is right.
First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum [200 Eastern Pkwy. at Washington Avenue in Prospect Heights, (718) 638-5000]. For info, visit www.brooklynmuseum.org.
