Monday
Dance for World Community Film Festival begins, with showings at 5 and 7 p.m. daily through Wednesday at The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square. Admission to each film is $10.
Harvard Square’s José Mateo Ballet Theatre presents a three-day film festival exploring the intersection of dance and social change around the globe – part of the 10th annual Dance for World Community Festival week. Information is here.
Tuesday
Weekly Summer Concert Series with Club Passim begins, with concerts Tuesdays from noon to 1 p.m. at Kendall Center, 90 Broadway, Kendall Square. Free.
Lunchtime acoustic music concerts programmed by the Harvard Square folk music institution run through Sept. 4. Information is here.
Dance for World Community Film Festival continues, with showings at 5 and 7 p.m. through Wednesday at The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square. Admission to each film is $10. Information is here.
Romance novel talk with “The Wedding Date” author Jasmine Guillory from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at Oberon, 2 Arrow St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $8 (for standing room) or $10, and add a dollar for online service fees for this 18-plus show.
The Harvard Book Store presents not just the fan favorite debut novelist, but Boston Globe “Love Letters” columnist Meredith Goldstein, author of “Can’t Help Myself: Lessons & Confessions from a Modern Advice Columnist,” for an opening reading. Even better, the conversation with Guillory will be with podcaster and librarian Margaret H. Willison (“Pop Culture Happy Hour,” “Two Bossy Dames”). There will be a cash bar with a signature cocktail, a book swap and a Q&A and signings with the speakers. Information is here.
Wednesday
Day de Dada Art Nurses from noon to 2 p.m. at the Davis Square Farmers Market. Free.
Art Nurses Viv de Dada, Mary Campbell and Barbara Lubliner – members of the Day de Dada Performance Art Collective based in Staten Island, New York, but hosted by the Mobius art collective that once made its home in Central Square – will do art checkups in a dada fashion, interacting with voluntary patients to take their souls’ temperature, measure their third eye and hand out non-ephemeral art after a diagnosis. Other clinics will be held in Boston; the final clinic is Saturday in Union Square. Information is here.
Dance for World Community Film Festival continues, with showings at 5 and 7 p.m. ending at The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square. Admission to each film is $10. Information is here.
World Qualifier Finals at the Boston Poetry Slam from 7:15 p.m. to midnight at The Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Free.
A four-round elimination slam features eight top performers of fierce, funny spoken word, narrowing the field to see who’ll be entered into a national competition taking place in October. The show is 18-plus. Information is here.
Comedian Johnny Pemberton at 8@730 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at 730 Tavern, 730 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Tickets are $10 (or $11.42 with the online service fee).
Comedian and actor Johnny Pemberton lurks in a ton of stuff, from the “Jump Street” movies, “Neighbors 2” and “Ant-Man” to television shows “Superstore,” “You’re the Worst,” “Son of Zorn” and Disney’s “Pickle and Peanut” – and he hosts the Feral Audio podcast “Live to Tape.” Rob Crean and Liam McGurk open and host. Information is here.
Tracy Bonham & Blake Morgan from 8 to 10:30 p.m. at Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $20.
While the wrong turns of Liz Phair are sold out at The Sinclair, consistently solid critical darling Tracy Bonham is at Passim, continuing to show how much more she is than the chart-topping “Mother Mother” from her 1996 gold record “The Burdens of Being Upright.” Her work since has been called “smart, assured and distinctive” and “unfalteringly charming,” and singer/songwriter Blake Morgan isn’t far behind on the adulation. Information is here.
Thursday
Local Women Authors in Conversation from 6:30 to 9 p.m. (with doors at 6 p.m.) in the lecture hall of the Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge. Free.
When the library canceled its May 16 summer reading kickoff with Junot Diaz, after the acclaimed author was accused of mistreating women, similarly acclaimed local author Celeste Ng (“Little Fires Everywhere”) suggested they rethink the cancellation: “Wait, wait,” Ng said via Twitter. “What about instead turning this into an opportunity for discussion and learning, and featuring a panel of women writers? There are plenty in Cambridge.” And the library acted, bringing together Susan Tan (above, with a “Cilla Lee-Jenkins: Future Author Extraordinaire” cardboard standup), Mackenzi Lee (the upcoming “The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy”), poet January Gill O’Neil (the upcoming “Rewilding”) and Sara Farizan (“If You Could Be Mine”).
Friday
Fifth Annual Dance Now Boston at 8 tonight and Sunday, and at 7 p.m. Saturday at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. General admission tickets are $25.
This three-day collaboration with New York dance troupes focuses on creating works for smaller, cabaret spaces before taking them to those smaller spaces on tour. Works are with Chavi Bansal, Alexander Davis, Bill Evans, Paula Josa Jones and Riley Watts on the opening and closing nights; and with LMnO3 on Saturday. Information is here.
Todd Barry’s Crowd Work Tour at 9 p.m. (doors at 8 p.m.) at Once Lounge + Ballroom, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville. Tickets are $25, with minors under 18 allowed with a parent or guardian. (Physical tickets are available at A Curated World by Kay McGowan, 160 Highland Ave., Somerville.)
Maybe you’ve never considered going to see a comedian not tell jokes, but Barry (“Bob’s Burgers,” “Master of None,” “Louie”) has been telling jokes for three decades and can assure you they’re a bit of a crutch; instead, he’ll be riffing and bantering with the audience, a skill at which he’s equally as accomplished. Information is here.
Saturday
39th Annual Boston Dragon Boat Festival from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday (all racing) and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday (racing and cultural festival) around the Weeks Footbridge, 948 Memorial Drive, in the Riverside neighborhood. Free.
Nearly 20,000 spectators gather each year to watch up to 40 teams from the United States and Canada compete in 500-meter races in sleek, colorful 39-foot-Hong Kong-style dragon boats and take advantage of Asian cultural performances, food and arts and crafts. Started in 1979, this is the oldest such festival in North America. Information is here and the event schedule is here.
Day de Dada Art Nurses from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Union Square Farmers Market. Free. Information is here.
Fresh Pond Day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday around the Water Treatment Facility, 250 Fresh Pond Parkway, Fresh Pond. Free.
The annual Fresh Pond Day celebrates Fresh Pond Reservation – the urban wild that protects Cambridge’s drinking water reservoir – with wildlife presentations, a wildlife and bike parade, live music, face painting, truck climb-aboards, tours and more. Rain or extreme weather cancels this event, the Cambridge Water Department warns. Information is here.
Tenth Dance for World Community Festival from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday at Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, Massachusetts Avenue from Bow Street to Putnam Avenue, Harvard Square. Free.
The Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre’s indoor-outdoor festival encompasses more than 90 performances in pretty much every dance style imaginable from noon to 6 p.m. (introductory classes are thrown in) and an “Advocacy Way” stretch of tables staffed by local nonprofits eager to share their messages. The final two hours of the event becomes a dance party. Information is here.
Fifth Annual Dance Now Boston at 7 tonight and 8 p.m. Sunday at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. General admission tickets are $25. Information is here.
“Here to be Heard: The Story of the Slits” with Q&A from 7:30 to 10 p.m. at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square. There’s a $15 cover at the door.
Slits founder and drummer Palmolive and music journalist, author and longtime contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine Rob Sheffield sit for a Q&A (chaired by Jenn Pelly, author of “The Raincoats”) after a screening of “Here to Be Heard” – the story of The Slits, the world’s first all-girl punk rock group, from the pioneering days in mid-1970s London through their individual stories of struggle, the reformation of the band in 2005 and the death of singer Ari Updied in 2010. Information is here.
Sunday
39th Annual Boston Dragon Boat Festival from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday around the Weeks Footbridge, 948 Memorial Drive, in the Riverside neighborhood. Free. Information is here and the event schedule is here.
12th Annual Family Music Festival from noon to 3 p.m. at the New School of Music, 25 Lowell St., West Cambridge. Free.
Lowell School Park fills with musical fun and activities, including family picnic games, face painting, crafts, a bake sale, concerts and a musical instrument “petting zoo” courtesy of New School students and faculty. Information is here.
Drum Fest V from 6 to 10 p.m. at The Burren, 247 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. Tickets in advance are $12 standing and at the bar; $14 general seating; and $16 off the stage, but $20 at the door, with $3 of every ticket sold going to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
How much drumming can you stand? The Joey Scrima Power Trio and some 40 drummers soloing on two kits (and brace yourselves: “Rudimental drummers and percussionists welcome,” organizers say) might be about as much as anyone can take, except that this event benefits Dana-Farber pediatrics. Guests include recording touring Montreal drummer Elie Bertrand and comedienne Niki Luparelli. Information is here.
Fifth Annual Dance Now Boston at 8 p.m. at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. General admission tickets are $25. Information is here.
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