Tuesday, April 16, 2024

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Aggregation No. 1Fathers Day activities from 10:30 to 11 a.m. at The World’s Only Curious George Store, 1 JFK St., Harvard Square (free), and at 1 p.m. Sunday at Paint Corner Art Bar, 31 Belmont St. (tickets are $25).

The World’s Only Curious George Store will have readings of stories about awesome dads, including “Papa, Do You Love Me?,” “My Dad Thinks He’s Funny” and more, then set aside time and resources so kids can make a Fathers Day card.

The Paint Corner Art Bar’s inaugural “Art in the Afternoon” is for dads and kids to come paint together, following along as a teacher providing the tools and guides them step by step through painting “Up Up and Away” (or they can do their own thing) to be taken home as a souvenir. There are free cupcakes for painters, and other drinks and food are available for purchase.

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Aggregation No. 2Play Day: A Community Party from 1 to 4 p.m. at The Agassiz Baldwin Community at 20 Sacramento St. in the Agassiz neighborhood near Porter Square (free) or the sixth annual Sunday Parkland Games from 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday on the banks of the Charles River along Memorial Drive by the Weeks Footbridge (free).

There’s plenty of stuff going on at The Agassiz Baldwin Community’s Play Day Community Party: a family photo stage with costume items; balloon animals; a scavenger hunt with door prizes; bocce; face painting; live music and performance by the Agassiz Dance Crew; a pottery wheel demonstration and community arts project; closing reception of the Kid-Curated Art Show at the Chandler Gallery, with the elementary school-aged artists in attendance to talk about their drawings and sculptures; and a raffle to support scholarships for Agassiz Baldwin Afterschool students and win prizes from local restaurants, arts and crafts retailers, bookshops and clothing boutiques. There will also be watermelon, popcorn and lemonade provided, and adults can enjoy coffee at the community’s Living Well Network Café.

The Charles River Conservancy’s Sunday Parkland Games go every Sunday at 948 Memorial Drive through Sept. 28, with Knucklebones providing athletic equipment and instruction for people of all ages and abilities in games including everything from badminton to hula-hoop, parachutes, Gaga Pit, mini-basketball, bean-bag toss, Maypoles and tetherball. Karma Yoga offers sessions from 5 to 6 p.m.

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Aggregation No. 3“The Lego Movie” shows at 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Building 26-100, also known as the Compton Laboratories, at 60 Vassar St. Free.

Everyone loved this refreshingly funny animated film with the voices of Chris Pratt, Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks and others – and you might have just enough time to get to the early showing by leaving The Agassiz Baldwin Community Play Day Community Party a little early. The free summer showings are a gift of the MIT Lecture Series Committee.

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Aggregation No. 4Arts Against Aggression Street Festival at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the plaza in front of the Science Center at Harvard University. Free, but donations are appreciated. Organizers say money raised will support cultural initiatives in Ukraine and benefit people recovering from wounds sustained during the revolution and orphans left behind by members of the Heavenly Hundred.

Harvard is hosting concerts by supporters of Russia’s military actions in Ukraine (first was violinist and conductor Vladimir Spivakov, and Saturday brings pianist Denis Matsuev), but now the school plays host to a peaceful and fun protest by the group Music Lovers Against Putin’s Aggression and the Harvard Ukrainian Student Society, with support from the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.

Organizers call the festival “not just a fun event for the whole family, but also your opportunity to support independent Ukraine as opposed to Mr. Putin’s policy of aggression.” There will be face painting, traditional Ukrainian headband making, an interactive community mural and a scary drawing contest, as well as viewings of short documentaries by Ukraine’s Babylon’13 filmmaker initiative and a silent auction of works by local and international artists. There will also be “a surprise art contest” and two big attractions: an outdoor concert (classical music, Eastern European folk and more by New York-based pianist Pavel Gintov, shown above draped in the colors of Ukraine, with dancing encouraged) and a large and collaborative balloon art installation that will include the winner of the scary drawing contest and serve as a greeting to Matsuev.

Information is here.

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Aggregation No. 5“Minted & Muddled” new theatrical music series from 5 to 6 p.m. Saturday at The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. Free, but a $10 donation is suggested.

This series invites people to hear and critique new musical theater and art song by living composers while enjoying a light dinner, dessert, craft beer or wine. The focus is development of works in progress through performance and dialogue with the audience, and visitors will hear selections from “Jabberwocky” and “Songs of Love” by Paul Osterfield; “A Prayer for the Living” by Joe Zellnik and Victor Lodato; and excerpts from “Gascony Guards,” a musical play adapted by Sergei Noskov, Alan King, David Foss and Anthony Hall from Rostand’s “Cyrano de Bergerac.” Audience members will be asked questions by the creators and invited to give general feedback. The artists and composers will use the feedback to revise and further develop the piece and future performances. Information is here.

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Aggregation No. 6“Musical Chairs” screening at the sixth annual Dance for World Community Festival Weekend, from 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday at Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, 1151 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. Free.

The Dance on Film Festival, part of the sixth annual Dance for World Community Festival Weekend, features recent films by local and international filmmakers, and “Musical Chairs” is the entry of director Susan Seidelman of “Desperately Seeking Susan” fame.

Described as a unique blend of dance, drama and romance, “Musical Chairs” stars newcomers Leah Pipes and E.J. Bonilla as unlikely lovers in contemporary New York. (The movie also stars Tony-winner Priscilla Lopez and Laverne Cox of “Orange Is the New Black.”) The producers’ description:

Set against the exciting backdrop of competitive ballroom dancing, “Musical Chairs”  is about Armando (Bonilla) a Bronx-bred Latino who aspires to be a dancer but whose only way in is as a handyman at a Manhattan dance studio, and Mia (Pipes), an Upper East Side princess who is the studio’s star performer. Though worlds apart, their shared passion for dance promises to bring them together until a tragic accident changes Mia’s life forever, and she finds herself wheelchair-bound at a rehab facility, her dreams of a dance career shattered. Fortunately, Armando has enough dreams for both of them and, when he hears about a wheelchair ballroom dance competition that will be held in New York, he sees a way to return something to Mia that she thinks is lost forever. At first she is reluctant – wheelchair dancing, though popular overseas, is something she never even knew existed. But with the help of several other residents at the rehab center, Armando organizes an intense training program that will bring them all center stage and in the spotlight. The prize is irrelevant; what they really stand to win back is their zest for life.

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Aggregation No. 7Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras concert (with two Cambridge teens) at 3 p.m. Sunday at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St., near Harvard Square. Tickets are $25 and $30.

Two Cambridge 14-year-olds – cellist Ari Benkler and flutist Ina Suresh – are performing at the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras’ final concert of the 56th season, performing Wagner’s “Overture to Tannhäuser” and Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration.” The Repertory Orchestra will also perform Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 under conductor Mark Miller.