Radical She

FRI 9/19

Remember the good old days when our greatest fear was not terrorists but communists? Compared with what’s gone on in the world lately, domestic agitators like the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers seem almost innocuous these days. Our preferred kick-ass activist of the past? Angela Davis. She of the gap-toothed smile and mega Afro has a résumé that includes being on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list in 1970, a 16-month jail stint, a “free Angela Davis” movement that arose around her troubles, and a controversial 1972 trial where she was acquitted. These days Davis teaches at the University of California, Santa Cruz. At 6:30 tonight at FIU’s Wertheim Performing Arts Center (11200 SW 8th St.), she’ll deliver the annual Eric E. Williams Memorial Lecture focusing on slavery and the prison industrial complex. Admission is free. Call 305-271-7246. — By Nina Korman

THUR 9/18

Semitic Songsters

The frightful sight of former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth leaping around the stage in Spandex pants is enough to give anyone a case of agita. Now visualize him sporting a yarmulke and growling in Hebrew during his bar mitzvah. Oy vey! But Roth — like his many musical cohorts Gene Simmons (above), Perry Farrell, Lenny Kravitz, Billy Joel, and Slash — is Jewish. And nice Jewish boy that he is, Diamond Dave did a mitzvah (good deed) when he recounted his religious coming of age to author Scott R. Bernarde. That tale inspired Bernarde to write Stars of David: Rock n’ Roll Jewish Stories, which explores the Jewish contribution to rock music from 1953 to now. Tonight at 8:00 Bernarde comes to Books & Books (265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables) to chat about his tome. His mother must be so proud. — By Nina Korman

SUN 9/21

Nostalgia Rewinding Miami

The members of the Miami Memorabilia Club have fond memories of your neighborhood. Sure, you may see nothing but new strip malls and big-box department stores, but chances are your hood once had a funky drive-in theater, bowling alley, or strawberry patch. If you’re curious join the MMC for its Home Movie Night. There you’ll see in beautiful 16mm Kodachrome what a down-home patch of swamp Miami once was. The event begins at 7:00 p.m. at the Central Christian Church, 222 Menores Ave., Coral Gables. Admission is free. Call 305-757-1016. — By Juan Carlos Rodriguez