February 4
Dam Short Film Festival
Boulder Theater
Begun in 2005, this has become one of our mainstay film festivals. Bushels of short films — from drama to comedy, documentary to sci-fi, animation to underground — will be shown during the four-day festival, along with filmmaker meet-and-greets and an awards event. $9 per program, $30 for one-day pass, $100 for four-day pass, Boulder Theatre, Boulder City, damshortfilm.org
Manuel Gonzales
Greenspun Hall, UNLV
“We have been circling the city now at an altitude of between seven thousand and ten thousand feet for, according to our best estimates, around twenty years.” Go on. “I once asked the Pilot — this was early in the hijacking, maybe a week …” So begins Gonzales’ story “Pilot, Copilot, Writer.” Sample more of his sensibility at this Black Mountain Institute reading. 7 p.m., free,
blackmountaininstitute.org
Joe Lano and friends
Winchester Cultural Center
Jazz great Lano — a Las Vegan who’s locked in for a spot when they finally carve that Mount Rushmore of jazz guitarists — is joined by a swinging nine-piece band. Go. 2 p.m., $12 advance, $15 door, 702-455-7340
Tuskegee Love Letters
West Charleston Library
This play dramatizes the African American experience through the experiences of a World War II pilot and his wife as they “battle the loneliness of war, wrestle with racial segregation and triumph to pursue their dreams.” 7 p.m., W. Charleston Library, lvccld.org
Ongoing
Reflecting & Projecting
Barrick Museum
Subtitled “Twenty Years of Design Excellence,” this exhibit showcases award-winning architecture designs as selected by the Nevada chapter of the American Institute of Architects. It’s a nice window into our city’s built environment. Free, UNLV’s Barrick Museum, unlv.edu