The Best Things to Do in Dallas, Sept. 20–26

Wednesday, Sept. 20

Arts & Letters Live with King: A Life author Jonathan Eig at the Dallas Museum of Art
The stirring and passionate words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. may still be in our collective consciousness, but the lessons he tried to teach and dreams he hoped to achieve still seem to elude our grasp. Wall Street Journal writer Jonathan Eig has written a new, in-depth biography about the man called King: A Life, in which he explores how King tirelessly dedicated his life to achieving racial and economic justice. Eig also incorporates newly declassified FBI files of investigations into King’s life showing how the operations to subvert King affected his work and legacy. Eig will be at the Dallas Museum of Art (1717 N. Harwood St.) for a live conversation with Big Thought President and CEO Byron Sanders as part of the DMA’s Arts & Letters Live series. The conversation starts at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 20. Tickets are $35 per person, $30 for DMA members and educators and $10 for students. Virtual access tickets are $15 per person or $12 for DMA members. Tickets can be purchased online at etix.com.

Thursday, Sept. 21

North Texas Giving Day
There's a lot more to do on North Texas Giving Day than just make a monetary donation to your favorite local charity. This annual fundraising day involves more than 3,300 nonprofit groups that provide help and comfort for people in need in thousands of different ways during this important fundraising drive. The official website for North Texas Giving Day offers a list of local charities and groups that need your help. If making a monetary donation to a nonprofit effort isn't possible, you could also give your time by volunteering with one of them. The Levitt Pavilion (100 W. Abram St.) in Arlington is holding an outdoor gathering and concert starting at 2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, that comes with a donation to the nonprofit concert venue. Simply scan the QR code on the venue's website to make your donation and obtain your pass. The show will feature live performances by singers Billie Jo Jones and Jessee Lee. Donations must be made between 2 and 7 p.m. and be at least $25.

Deep Ellum Wine Walk: Sip Sip Hooray!
This tasting tour of Dallas' historic music district has been taking crowds on wine tours for the last nine years. So this time, the Deep Ellum Wine Walk is celebrating this momentous achievement with a special tour of Deep Ellum restaurants, concert halls and unique street art. Artists Mark Shane Nelson and Richard Ross have created a commemorative wine-tasting glass for its Sip! Sip! Hooray! tasting tour, 6–9 p.m., on Thursday, Sept. 21, starting with a meetup at 2650 Main St. Tickets are $15 per person in advance or $20 the day of the event. You can get your passes online at deep-ellum-wine-walk.square.site.

Friday, Sept. 22

Great American Songbook Selections at the Meyerson Symphony Center
What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of American songs? Your brain is probably throwing up imagines of "God Bless America" and "The Star-Spangled Banner," but America's musical history goes much deeper than its patriotic tunes. The American songbook has jazz standards, heartfelt love songs and even pop tunes that make up a rich tapestry of music. The Dallas Symphony Center is celebrating these tunes with three live concerts at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 22, and Saturday, Sept. 23, and 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 24, at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center (2301 Flora St.). Music Director Fabio Luisi, soprano Karen Slack and tenor Issachah Savage will perform with the DSO each night. Tickets start at $42 for the Friday and Saturday performances and $46 for the Sunday performance and can be purchased at the box office or online at dallasymphony.org.

Fashion Week Stockyards Style at the Fort Worth Stockyards
We know why you're making that face. Why would the Fort Worth Stockyards (131 Exchange Ave., Fort Worth), a place usually associated with livestock, host something like a fashion show? The annual Fashion Week Stockyards Style offers more than just oversized cowboy hats and chaps. Some of the best brands in Western apparel, from Ariat to Wrangler, will show off their latest styles and newest looks for the season. Duke Spirits will also offer some special bourbon and tequila cocktail tastings from its new book John Wayne: The Official Cocktail Book. Fashion Week Stockyards Style runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday, Sept. 22 through Monday, Sept. 25. Admission is free and open to the public. Visit FortWorthStockyards.org to learn more.

Saturday, Sept. 23

The Found Footage Festival at the Texas Theatre
Comedians Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett love weird videos. The only thing they love more is the weird looks and faces people make when they watch them. So the founders of the long-running video comedy series The Found Footage Festival started making their own by scamming their way onto local TV morning news shows as a pair of "health gurus" named Chop and Steele who told people they could tone muscles by doing bicep curls with gallons of milk and stepping on wicker baskets. The joke worked so well that they became a viral hit and the subject of a tedious lawsuit, both of which were chronicled in the 2022 documentary Chop & Steele. Fortunately, they were able to eventually shake the lawsuit and do what they do best: finding weird, obscure videotapes and showing them to packed crowds of fans. The Found Footage Festival returns with its "Popcorn Classics" video series at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23, at the Texas Theatre (231 W. Jefferson Blvd.) in Oak Cliff. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $28 for the upstairs mezzanine seats and can be purchased on prekindle.com or at the box office.

Groundswell: Women of Land Art at Nasher Sculpture Center and Fair Park
Some of the most splendid and beautiful works of art come from nature. Land art is a medium that utilizes this natural beauty to create thought-provoking art that works with natural landscapes. The Nasher Sculpture Center (2001 Flora St.) will host a two-day symposium about this artistic medium curated by Nasher Associate Curator Dr. Leigh A. Arnold and presenting the themes in works by women land artists such as Patricia Johanson, Beverly Buchanan and Agnes Denes, 1–4 p.m., at the Nasher Sculpture Center. The second day runs 1–4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 24, at Fair Park (3809 Grand Ave.) with a live conversation about the legacy of land art with Johanson and a walking tour of her Fair Park Lagoon landscape. Both events are free and open to the public. Visit NasherSculptureCenter.org to learn more about these events and the history and legacy of the land art movement.  Manual Cinema's Frankenstein at the Eisemann Center
Halloween is just around the corner, and that means you're bound to see a couple of people dressed up as Frankenstein's monster, dreamed up by Gothic novelist Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Shelley's story of science bringing the dead back to life has been remade countless times in different artistic media, but chances are that you've never seen it quite the same way as by the renowned Manual Cinema. The Chicago-based theater troupe uses a variety of performance and visual artforms to tell its stories — including shadow puppets, cinematic video and unique sounds and music. They did the chilling shadow puppet animations in the 2021 remake of the horror classic Candyman. Now you can see what they do with the haunting story of Frankenstein's (ahem) monster at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23, at the Charles W. Eisemann Center (2351 Performance Drive, Richardson). Tickets are $47–$57 and can be purchased online at eisemanncenter.com.

Sunday, Sept. 24

Harwood Park Grand Opening Festival at Harwood Park
Believe it or not, kids still like to play outside and not in a "virtual reality" kind of way. They actually enjoy going outside and playing. Just bring a kid, any kid, within a mile of a slide and they'll run to it at top speed with the biggest smile on their face. The new Harwood Park (408 S. Harwood St.) in the Harwood Historic District is finally opening to the public, and the city of Dallas is kicking it off with a grand opening festival from noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 24. The new 4-acre park houses a huge playground with two mammoth elephant slides, a splash zone, a pickleball court and a beautiful lawn and garden with native and adaptive species of plants. The Sunday grand opening celebration will also have live music, food trucks, a photo booth and pickleball clinics conducted by Chicken N Pickle. This event is free.

Monday, Sept. 25

Mommy and Me Mondays with the Country Critters Petting Zoo at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden
There are two things in this world that just get cuter when they go together: precocious children and animals that won't harm you when you try to pet them. The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden (8525 Garland Road) is bringing back the Country Critters Petting Zoo and its menagerie of friendly animals, so you and your little ones can get up close with an adorable goat or rabbit and take some pictures for relatives to put up on their fridges (if they're the kind who still get photos developed at Walgreens). Mommy and Me events run every Monday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission to the petting zoo is free with the purchase of any admission pass to the arboretum. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for seniors 65 and older, and $12 for children 2–12. Members get in for free. Visit dallasarboretum.org to reserve your admission pass.

Tuesday, Sept. 26

Arts & Letters Live with Ben Fountain at the Dallas Museum of Art
Dallas writer and author Ben Fountain's newest novel, Devil Makes Three, tells the gripping story of a Haitian treasure hunt that turns into something dangerous, but it's not just an Indiana Jones-esque adventure of fortune and glory. It exposes the very real conflict of Haiti's blood politics and the constant upheaval of violence, power and control. Fountain will be at the Dallas Museum of Art (1717 N. Harwood St.) for its Arts & Letters conversation series to discuss his latest book. The conversation starts at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 26. Tickets are $35 for general admission, $30 for museum members and educators and $10 for students. Virtual tickets are also available for $15 or $12 for museum members and can be purchased at etix.com.