The Sketchbook art show opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday (with the exhibit up through March 3 from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday and from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays) at The Nave Gallery Annex, 53 Chester St., Davis Square, Somerville. Free.

Artists open up their sketchbooks – filled with practice drawings, planning, random notes and remembered dreams – for this show curated by Ellie Laramee-Byers and Rachel Mello, whose notebook pages are included in the show along with a couple of dozen other area artists. “What distinguishes sketchbook work from other artist works is the sense of a thought being puzzled out, a problem being explored,” the curators say. “There’s an openness to leaving the thought incomplete.” (The work of Liz Helfer is seen above.) Information is here.

National Choreography Month Boston ‘Shorts’ at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 6 p.m. Sunday at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Free.

There are three to four short dances a night – making for three consecutive 45-minute shows – for these National Choreography Month peeks into the creative process. They’re the middle step, and the last the public gets to see before the final Feb. 7-8 performances. On Friday, check out the work of Juliana Utz, Josie Bray, Lily Cryan and Cupcake/Muffin; on Saturday it’s Deadfall, Meghan Carmichael and Carlee Travis; and on Sunday, see what Heather Brown, Jordan Jamil, Claire Johannes and Penumbra are up to. Information is here.

Super Hunger Brunch on Saturday or Sunday at various locations. The fundraising brunches are $35 or $50.

If you can afford an excellent brunch at one of these Cambridge or Somerville restaurants, consider that having that brunch provides three nutritious (if probably less-excellent) meals to people in need for every dollar spent. That’s the pitch by the Greater Boston Food Bank, which has arranged these prix-fixe meals for which it gets every dollar at the places you’d want to be eating anyway: Harvest Restaurant, 44 Brattle St., Harvard Square ($35, call (617) 868-2255 for reservations Saturday); Kirkland Tap & Trotter, 425 Washington St., Somerville ($35, call (857) 259-6585 for reservations Saturday); Craigie on Main, 853 Main St., near Central Square ($50, call (617) 497-5511 for reservations Sunday); or Rialto, 1 Bennett St., Harvard Square, ($35, call (617) 661-5050 for reservations Sunday). There are other locations in Greater Boston. Information is here.

Loose Canon poetry fundraiser from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Danger!Awesome, 10 Prospect St., Central Square. Tickets are $20 (or $21.69 with the online service fee).

The Loose Canon showcase brings nationally renowned poets, organizers and essayists Danez Smith and Eve Ewing to this cool maker space for a reading and Q&A. Ewing – a doctoral candidate at Harvard University with research focused on education, racism, social inequality and urban policy – is co-chairwoman of the Harvard Educational Review, an editor at Seven Scribes and an organizer of the Louder Than A Bomb Massachusetts youth poetry slam. Smith, visiting from the Midwest, is a two-time Individual World Poetry Slam finalist who sounds the themes of race, class, sexuality, faith and social justice (and whose second collection, “Don’t Call Us Dead” comes out next year). Expect a powerful night, with all ticket sales support the MassLEAP youth poetry program. Information is here.

Heroes’ “Ashes to Ashes” David Bowie tribute night from 10 p.m. Saturday to 2 a.m. Sunday at The Middle East Downstairs, 480 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Tickets are $10.

Did you want to hear MIT Music and Theater Arts’ area premieres of Philip Glass’ Bowie-inspired Symphonies No. 1 (“Low”) and No. 4 (“Heroes”) on Friday at MIT? You can’t. It’s sold out. Did you want to honor Bowie on Sunday at Oberon by seeing “As the World Falls Down,” the tribute to “Labyrinth” by Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys and burlesque troupe the Slaughterhouse Sweethearts? You can’t. It’s sold out. And that means the only way left to pay homage to the Thin White Duke and all the rest of Bowie with fellow worshipers is to sweat out your grief at the venerable but ageless Heroes dance night – whose name and attitude, after all, did come from Bowie. DJ Chris Ewen mixes the Bowie tunes, bartendrix Terri mixes the drinks at the Mezzanine Bar and hostess Xtine mixes among the 18-plus crowd. Information is here.

Update on Jan. 30, 2016: At about 5:30 p.m., Ewen reported on Facebook that the dance night also sold out – about five hours ahead of the event. “We will be letting more people in when/if others decide to leave early,” he said. “I would suggest arriving as early as possible if you already have tickets.”