The Vermin Supreme Winter Showcase from 8 p.m. Friday to 1 a.m. Saturday at Out of the Blue Art Gallery Too, 541 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Admission is $8.

Perennial presidential candidate and hippie legend Vermin Supreme hosts this night of comedy, spoken word, art and music with his cabinet-in-waiting, including Earth Heart, Rob Potylo, Rod Webber (via Live remote from Standing Rock) and journalist, DigBoston news editor and author Chris Faraone. The crew’s stated goal: “Let’s make America again.” Information is here.

Poetry Book & Broadside Fair from noon to 4:30 p.m. at Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge. Free.

Poetry books and broadsides featuring the work of New England Poetry Club members will be on sale in the Main Library’s community room, with poetry readings throughout the afternoon. Information is here. (And book lovers shouldn’t miss the Harvard Book Store Winter Warehouse Sale taking place 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the store’s warehouse at 14 Park St., Spring Hill, Somerville, where books already marked down 40 percent to 80 percent are marked down an additional 15 percent – and an additional 70 percent if they’re used.)

Wrap Around Cupcake Reception from 1 to 5 p.m. at The Nave Gallery, 155 Powderhouse Blvd., near Teele Square, Somerville. Free.

If handmade knitted, crocheted and sewn goods being sold to benefit the Somerville Homeless Coalition isn’t enough to lure holiday shoppers, this reception features live music from 2 to 4 p.m. by Yani Batteau and cupcakes to be eaten guiltlessly (because every calorie consumed means money for the homeless). Information is here. (And there’s more art in a spectrum of styles, including furniture and photography, at the free Vernon Street Open Studios – which is asking for donations to benefit the same charity – from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at 6 and 20 Vernon St., Winter Hill, Somerville; and at the North Cambridge Arts Annual Holiday Crafts and Authors Showcase from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday at Cadbury Commons, 66 Sherman St., in Neighborhood 9 near Danehy Park. It features author readings in addition to art.)

“The Sound of Cracking Bones” staged reading from 8 to 10 p.m. Saturday at The Democracy Center, 45 Mount Auburn St., Harvard Square. This is a pay-what-you-can event with no minimum, but seats can be reserved here.

The Flat Earth theater company reads Suzanne Lebeau’s haunting drama of two child soldiers’ capture, escape and rescue, in the words of the girl who learned to see the gun as an extension of her arm. Lindsay Eagle directs Kathleen Lewis, Jake Mariño, and Juliet Bowler. Audience members are invited to stay afterward for a conversation about arts and activism. Information is here.

MIT Video Game Orchestra Winter Concert from 8 to 11 p.m. Sunday (doors at 7:30 p.m.; arrive before 7:45 p.m. to guarantee seating) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kresge Little Theater in Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Ave. Free, but registration is requested here.

This is the first concert for this new student group playing original arrangements of video game and anime music – from Pokemon, Zelda, “Steins;Gate,” Mega Man, Civilization, “Howl’s Moving Castle” and more. Information is here. (And there’s more free concerts by the Tufts Jazz Orchestra: “Splanky, The Blues and the Abstract Truth” from 8 to 10 p.m. Saturday at the Granoff Music Center at Tufts University, 20 Talbot Ave., technically in Medford, with a mix of straight-ahead jazz, selections from the American Songbook and Afro-Cuban music; and by more than 40 students at the Boston String Academy from 5 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden St., Harvard Square, with arrangements from the classical repertoire, Vivaldi’s “Concerto for Orchestra in D Major,” Bartok’s “Rumanian Folk Dances” and holiday favorites.)

Vintage Holiday Film Program from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the Harvard Film Archive at The Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Harvard Square. Free.

The archive offers this eighth annual free, two-hour break from the cold and stress of shopping. The show of holiday and winter-related short films comes from the Harvard Film Archive, but they have been gleaned mainly from the Boston Public Library’s ex-circulating collection – stuff shown at libraries in the area, but also available to the public: “The Great Toy Robbery” (1963); “Six Penguins” (1973); “Max’s Christmas” (1988); “The Cop and the Anthem” (1982); “The Cherry Tree Carol” (1968); “A Figgy Duff Christmas” (1978); “Animal’s Best Friend” (1973); “A Charles Dickens Christmas: From the Pickwick Papers” (1958); and “The Night Before Christmas” (1968). Information is here.