VENUE INFO

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• Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center
• President Benjamin Harrison Home
• Harrison Center for the Art
• Indianapolis Art Center
• Hedback Community Theater

The Ice cream social will be at the President Benjamin Harrison Homeon July 4th. (Photo by Meredith Goldberg)

Tim Brickley will be performing at the Teen Arts and Music Festival at the Harrison Center on July 4th.

1. Ice cream social

11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., $10 adults; $4 students (free to children 4 and younger), President Benjamin Harrison Home, 1230 N. Delaware St., www.pbhh.org

Set the Wayback Machine for 1888, Sherman. We're paying a Fourth of July visit to the home of the one Hoosier to make it all the way to the White House. Join in the Victorian-era entertainment: croquet, a Punch-and-Judy puppet show, juggling and magic. It's corny and cheesy, but it's the Fourth, so you are permitted to add some corn and cheese to your diet (along with hand-cranked ice cream).

2. Teen Arts and Music Festival at the Harrison Center

July 4 (all day), free, Harrison Center for the Arts, 1505 N. Delaware St., www.teenartsandmusicfest.com

Think of the Teen Arts and Music Festival as the Harrison Center's youthful sequel to its very successful Independent Music and Art Festival of June. For 15 bands and a dozen artists, this could be the Big Break they have been promising their parents for years. Stick around to hear local favorite Tim Brickley and the Bleeding Hearts. Maybe none of the young performers will be the next Coldplay, but if they manage to be the next Tim Brickley, they (and their parents) should be proud.

3. Independence Day Bash

4:30-9:30 p.m., free, Canal Plaza, Indiana History Center, 450 W. Ohio St., www.indianahistory.org

No better place to stroll away the Fourth of July than the Canal. Government offices are closed, so you won't bother bureaucrats sneaking a smoke break. From Buggs Temple to the Indianapolis Zoo, just about every organization puts on a special Independence Day show. Conclude your Canal walk at the Indiana History Center, where the high-energy band the Impalas promises to make you forget the fireworks that will start when it gets dark.

4. 'Raise the Red Lantern'

6:30 p.m. July 8, free, Indianapolis Art Center, 820 E. 67th St., www.indplsartcenter.org

Released in 1991, "Raise the Red Lantern" is one of China's most acclaimed films. Beijing authorities permitted production of this tale of a powerful warlord's young concubine in the precommunist 1920s, but government censors refused to allow the movie to screen in China after it was finished, fearing it was an analogy for the brutality let loose on protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989. They need not have worried. The lushly gorgeous visuals and tragic romance of "Raise the Red Lantern" helped draw many tourists to China through the 1990s.

5. 'Once on This Island'

8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays through July 20, $17 adults, Hedback Community Theatre, 1847 N. Alabama Ave., www.footlite.org

It wouldn't be summer at Footlite Musicals without a Young Adults production for performers 18 to 25. This year's show, "Once on This Island," is a Caribbean stage adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid." It tells the story of Ti Moune, a peasant who rescues and falls in love with a guy named Daniel. Once Daniel is reunited with his megabucks family, Ti must cope with prejudice and more.