Event:  Interwoven Tradition-The Spiritual Journey from African to African American
Date: 6/10- 9/28
Time: See Heritage Society Website
Cost: Free- $6.00
Location: The Heritage Society
1100 Bagby @ Allen Parkway
Houston, TX
Details: Despite enslavement and oppression, Africans were able to use their spiritual beliefs, and merged, over time, with Christian traditions, to both survive and create their own unique culture. Interwoven Traditions features many objects which reflect these beliefs, found during archeological excavations of plantations in Texas, Louisiana, and South Carolina.
Web: www.heritagesociety.org

Event: African American Battlefields of the Civil War
Date: 8/1- 9/14
Time: See Museum of Fine Arts web site
Cost: Free- $7.00
Location: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
1001 Bissonnet Street
Houston, TX
Details: In 1995, American photographer William Earle Williams set out to celebrate these unsung heroes by creating a comprehensive pictorial record of important sites where black troops fought. This exhibition presents a selection of prints from a larger series, which is published in a book available in the museum´s Hirsh Library.
Web: www.mfah.org

Event: The Black List Project:  Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and Elvis Mitchell
Date: 8/3- 10/26
Time: See Museum of Fine Arts web site
Cost: Free- $7.00
Location: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
1001 Bissonnet Street
Houston, TX
Details: The traditional definition of the word blacklist is rendered obsolete by the new documentary The Black List: Volume One, which seeks to bury the negative weight of the term by allowing African Americans to provide an up-to-the-minute response to the word´s grim origins. In a film that works as a series of living portraits, 21 prominent African Americas offer their own stories and insights on the struggles, triumphs, and joys of black life in the United States. In the process, they manage to redefine blacklist for a new century. The film is presented as a series of vignettes—a kind of living portrait—in which the subjects address the camera directly as they tell their stories.
Web: www.mfah.org

Event: Houston Black Professionals August Community Block Party Mixer
Date: 8/7
Time: 6:30- 9:30 P.M.
Cost: Free (with paid member and donation)- $10.00
Location: See web site
Details: Join Houston Black Professionals for their monthly networking mixer.  This month, members will hear from area business owners.  Members will also participate in a clothing/ hygiene drive for the Star of Hope Shelter.
Web: http://blackbiz.meetup.com/178

Event:  Rev. Run Book Signing
Date: 8/9
Time: 2:00 P.M.
Cost: Free
Location: Shrine of the Black Madonna
Details: Rev. Run, aka Joseph Simmons, is the younger brother of Def Jam Records founder, Russell Simmons. He is currently the star of the blockbuster MTV reality show Run's House. His wife, Justine Simmons, is the designer of the Brown Sugar Jewelry Collection for Simmons Jewelry. In today's world of cell phones, iPods and online networking, it is harder than ever for parents to keep in tune with what is going on with their children. In Take Back Your Family, the duo share their advice for raising successful and happy children. They also challenge today's parents to take charge of their home and connect with their children.
Web: http://www.shrinebookstore.com/events.aspx?cid=14#RevRun

Event:  Houston Restaurant Week
Date: 8/11- 8/17
Time: See Website
Cost: $35.00 (not including tax or gratuity)
Location: Participating Restuarants
Details: A week of dining in great Houston restaurants! Benefiting End Hunger Network. (www.EndHungerNetwork.org).  Participating restaurants will donate $5 from every HRW meal sold to Houston's End Hunger Network. Reservations are required for the special HRW $35 dinner and availability is limited. When making your reservation, please make sure to let the restaurant know that you want the "Houston Restaurant Week Special Dinner." This will ensure that $5 from the cost of your meal will be donated to End Hunger. (Restaurants may seat walk-ins at their discretion.) Bon Appétit! Menus and reservation info will be posted starting July 18th. Participating restaurants are being added daily.
Web: http://www.houstonrestaurantweek.com

Event:  Ain’t Misbehavin’ 
Date: 8/16 & 17
Time: 8:00 P.M.
Cost: Free
Location: Miller Outdoor Theatre
100 Concert Drive
Houston, TX 77030
Details: Exhilarating musical revue of songs by the legendary Fats Waller, a major figure in the “Harlem Renaissance” of the 1920s and 1930s.  Hear favorites such as “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Mean to Me,” “Your Feet’s Too Big,” and, of course, the great title tune.  Produced by The Ensemble Theatre.
Web: http://www.milleroutdoortheatre.com

Event: Jazz- A Tribute to the Big Band Era 
Date: 8/22
Time: 8:00 P.M.
Cost: Free
Location: Miller Outdoor Theatre
100 Concert Drive
Houston, TX 77030
Details: Featuring original works by the late Conrad Johnson and other big band greats such as Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington, performed by the Conrad Johnson Youth Orchestra, the Young Adult Orchestra and the Conrad Johnson Jazz Heritage Orchestra.  Produced by the Conrad Johnson Music and Fine Arts Foundation.
Web: http://www.milleroutdoortheatre.com

Event: Women in Jazz
Date: 8/24
Time: 7:30 P.M.
Cost: Free
Location: Miller Outdoor Theatre
100 Concert Drive
Houston, TX 77030
Details: Jazz and r&b great Freda Payne performs her acclaimed  “Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald.”  Also on the bill will be vocalist Carolyn Blanchard in a salute to Dinah Washington.  Produced by the Community Music Center Music Center .  Produced by the Community Music Center Music Center Community Music Center .
Web: http://www.milleroutdoortheatre.com

Event: Opera Preview- An Inside View of Porgy and Bess
Date: 8/21
Time: 6:30 P.M.
Cost: Free
Location: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Brown Auditorium)
1001 Bissonnet
Houston, TX 77005
Details: As a part of the Artful Thursday series at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston Ebony Opera will offer a stimulating discussion by a celebrity panel and a musical preview of its upcoming concert presentation of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (at Miller Outdoor Theatre on 8/29 & 8/30).
Web: http://www.houstonebonymusic.org

Event:  Mixers, Elixers & IMAX- Music Guest Lady D and the Zydeco Tornadoes
Date: 8/22
Time: 6:00 P.M.
Cost: $13- $30
Location: Museum of Natural Science
One Hermann Circle Drive
Houston, TX 77030
Details: Where the science club meets the social set.The Houston Museum of Natural Science revs up the summer with their fabulous parties and music every Friday night. Music guest Lady D and the Zydeco Tornadoes will perform August 22
Start the evening out right in the Grand Entry Hall at 6 p.m. with a live DJ or an IMAX® show. Doors open at 7 p.m. for the live band, dancing under the dinosaurs, cash bar and complimentary appetizers. 
Web: http://www.hmns.org

Event:  Rock the Bayou
Date: 8/28- 9/1
Time: All Day
Cost: Free
Location: Old Astroworld Location
Details: Rock the Bayou 4 day music bash with legendary performances by AliceCooper, Sammy Hagar, Queensryche, Twisted Sister, Ratt, LA Guns, Skid Row, Ynqwie Malmsteen, Dokken and many others. 
Contact:  Freda Graves
Phone:  713-551-6975
Email: gravesfreda@youthreadiness.org

Event: Porgy and Bess
Date: 8/29-30
Time: 8:00 P.M.
Cost: Free
Location: Miller Outdoor Theatre
100 Concert Drive
Houston, TX 77030
Details: A concert version of excerpts from the great George Gershwin opera, which features such classics as “Summertime,” “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” and “Bess, You Is My Woman Now.” Produced by HoustonHouston Ebony Opera Guild.
Web: http://www.milleroutdoortheatre.com