Arts & Culture

Celebrations are set to take place throughout the Lehigh Valley while volunteer efforts focus on forming an ongoing connection with the community.

Nkasso, a West African family-owned eatery, held a ribbon-cutting and grand opening on Friday at 44 N. 8th Street in Allentown. It offers bissap, a drink made out of the flowers of the Roselle plant (a variety of Hibiscus), along with other cultural staples.

This week, the LehighValleyNews.com digital desk handpicked three events for you to enjoy, including Easton Restaurant Week, the 'Of Portraiture & Polio' exhibition and Positively Picturesque.

The symphony is asking composers in the Lehigh Valley and surrounding area to submit works for string quartet or any combination of traditional string quartet instruments.

Sit-down dining and over-the-counter food on the menu for Easton Restaurant Week, starting Jan. 15.

Third generation Lehigh Valley resident Ashley Coleman will lead the Bradbury-Sullivan Center as it expands its programming over the next few years.

Comedian Gabriel Iglesias, best known for his Comedy Central channel specials “I’m Not Fat … I’m Fluffy,” will headline the main stage at Bethlehem's Musikfest festival in August, it was announced Monday.

Maren Morris, who has topped the country charts but may be best known for her dance music collaboration "In the Middle" with Grey and Zedd, will headline the main stage at Bethlehem's Musikfest festival in August, it was announced Monday.

El Dia de los Reyes, known as Three Kings' Day is coming to the SteelStacks on Sunday

Dashboard Confessional will perform at Archer Music Hall in Allentown on Tuesday, April 14. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 13.

Black Stone Cherry, which is observing the 20th anniversary of its self-titled debut album and is best known for its hits "Lonely Train" and "White Trash Millionaire," will perform at 8 p.m. July 10 on the Univest stage, at 301 W. Mill St.

Box Fest XVII, a professional boxing card, will take over the new downtown arena at 8 p.m. April 3, it was announced.

Seth Witcher, 26, was shown for a total of 20 seconds of screen time in a montage of acts on which the judges disagreed during auditions for the show at Belmont University in Nashville.

Actor/comedian Patrick Roach, who plays the character Randy on “Trailer Park Boys,” will bring Randy's Cheeseburger Picnic to Signature Saloon in Stroudsburg on April 1 and to The Gin Mill and Grill in Northampton on April 4.

Colombian band Grupo Niche, whose album "Cielo De Tambores" hit No. 3 on that chart, will perform at 6 p.m. July 30, as a preview night for the festival, which will run July 31-Aug. 9.

Listen to the Dissonance will return for a third year Friday, Feb. 27, at Charles A. Brown Ice House at 56 River St., Bethlehem. Performers will be vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Judah Kim, singer-songwriter Clover, songwriter-producer Barney Cortez and Nashville-based songwriter Patty PerShayla.

John Melendez, who was known as "Stuttering John" on the Stern show, then spent years in the cast on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," will perform Friday, March 6, at Civic Theatre of Allentown's The Hub at Theatre514, it was announced.

Rapper Freddie Gibbs will perform at Allentown's Archer Music Hall at 7 p.m. June 4, it was announced. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 6.

Buckcherry, known best for its 2006 quadruple-platinum hit "Crazy Bitch" and 2007's double-platinum "Sorry," says on its website that it will perform at Allentown's Archer Music Hall on May 19.

Everclear, the Portland, Oregon, band best known for its Alt-chart-topping hits "Santa Monica" and "Everything to Everyone," will perform Thursday, June 18, in Musikfest Cafe.

Unlike last year, when she won Best Pop Solo Performance for "Espresso," and Best Pop Vocal Album for "Short n' Sweet," Sabrina Carpenter went home empty-handed on Sunday.