Monday
NoCA’s Exhibit Opening and Poetry Reading from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the O’Neill Library, 70 Rindge Ave., North Cambridge. Free. North Cambridge Arts members show their stuff and honor poet Philip Burnham, who died June 13, by reading his works along with their own works. Information is here.
Welcome back the Mystery Lounge from 8 to 10 p.m. at The Comedy Studio, 1 Bow Market Way, Union Square, Somerville. Tickets are $20 (or $21.60 with the online service fee). Boston’s longest-running magic show picks up its 22nd year at this relocated and therefore brand-new comedy club – still in a soft opening through Sept. 20 – with Jon Stetson; Steve Kradolfer (pictured); Mike Bent; Bob Riordan; Joe Howard; and guests. Information is here.
Tuesday
Puppet Palooza New Works Showcase from 6 to 7 p.m. in Chuckie Harris Park, 15 Cross St., East Somerville. Free. (Rain date is Wednesday; a different two puppet plays show Thursday.) Check out two new works of puppetry: Sarah Nolen’s “Judy Punches Back,” a feisty, feminist adaptation of the traditional “Punch and Judy” show; and Honey Goodenough’s “The Swishy Fishies,” a spectacular aquatic pageant. (Nolen is pictured.) Information is here.
Literary Death Match from 8 to 9:45 p.m. at The Comedy Studio, 1 Bow Market Way, Union Square, Somerville. Tickets are $12. After a 3.5-year hiatus, the Death Match – part literary event, part comedy show, part game show – picks up with writer matchups Rachel Klein vs. Serina Gousby and Nina MacLaughlin vs. Jonathan Escoffery, decided by celebrity judges Min Jin Lee, Bethany Van Delft and Sean Sullivan. Information is here.
Wednesday
Charles River Herb Walk from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. starting at the Weld Boathouse, 971 Memorial Drive, Riverside. There’s a $5 fee. There are more than 40 species of medicinal plants growing along the river between Harvard Square and Central Square. These walks, scheduled through early fall to show them in all of stages of growth, are meant to restore the once commonplace ability to identify and use them. Information is here.
Skip the Small Talk from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square, Somerville. There’s a suggested donation of $10 for this 21-plus event. It’s back: the chance to forget the dumb small talk that comes from meeting new people and – thanks to provided cards with “big talk” conversational questions – get right to the kinds of conversations you have late at night where for some reason, you feel safe talking about the things you actually care about. There’s a discounted cash pizza delivery planned for early in the evening. Information is here.
Sestina-Sonnet-Ode Slam at the Boston Poetry Slam from 7:15 to 11:55 p.m. at The Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Admission is $3 and requires an ID; the event is 18-plus. Something different in poetry slam: The first round of competition will be sestinas; the second round, sonnets; the third round, odes. Tiebreakers will be decided via haiku. The winner gets $25. Information is here.
Thursday
Puppet Palooza New Works Showcase from 6 to 7 p.m. in Chuckie Harris Park, 15 Cross St., East Somerville. Free. (Rain date is Friday.) Check out two new works of puppetry: CactusHead Puppets’ “The Magnificent Monster Circus”; and Faye Dupras’ “Mama Light Fisher,” weaving together fantastical stories about love and loss as Mama Light Fisher fishes objects out of a magical stream. Information is here.
28th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony from 6 to 8 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St., near Harvard Square. Tickets are $35 to $157. Ten scientific breakthroughs will get Ig Nobel Prize honors for achievements that make people laugh, then think, in a Cambridge funny-science tradition watched internationally. Nobel laureates will hand out the prizes, and the ceremony includes the premiere of “The Broken Heart Opera.” (A pre-ceremony concert, and an event webcast, begins at 5:35 p.m.) Information is here.
Friday
Living in the Future: Brains! from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at The MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Ave., in The Port neighborhood. Tickets are $12 in advance; limited tickets may be available at the door for $15, with both prices including pizza, soda and popcorn. Watch a clip from a science fiction movie, then hear from Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists and inventors Andrei Barbu, Andres Salazar Gomez, Michael Halassa, Nataliya Kosmyna and Hossein Rahnama how close Hollywood is to reality on issues such as bringing back the dead, controlling machines with the mind or creating humanlike robots. Information is here.
New England Review 40th Anniversary Reading from 7 to 8 p.m. at Porter Square Books, 25 White St., Porter Square. Free. The journal celebrates 40 years in print with readings by recent contributors Steve Almond, Mary Clark, Oliver de la Paz and Kim McLarin. Information is here.
Tiny & Short: A Drop in the Bucket dance from 8 to 9:30 p.m. (and continuing Saturday and Sunday) at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Tickets are $21 (or $24.23 with the online service fee). The Dance Complex returns with its challenge to performers to do either “tiny dances,” taking place within five minutes on a four-foot-square space, or “short dances,” limited to three minutes or less but on a bigger stage. Each audience member gets a ticket to vote with at the end of the show, with a portion of the ticket revenue going to the artist they vote for. Information is here.
“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” from 8 to 10 p.m. (and continuing Saturday and Sunday) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kresge Little Theater in Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Ave. General admission is $15. Why would you want to pay the MIT Musical Theatre Guild this much when you can just wait to see your kids do it in middle school? We don’t know either. Information is here.
Saturday
Danehy Park Family Day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Danehy Park, 99 Sherman St., in Neighborhood 9 just east of Fresh Pond. Free. (Rain date is Sunday.) This 23rd annual celebration includes music and other performances, children’s amusement rides and arts and crafts, as well as free hot dogs, chips, sodas, T-shirts and kites while supplies last. The event, sponsored by the city, attracts more than 4,000 people annually. The 55-acre Danehy Park can be reached by the 74 or 78 bus from Harvard Square; the 83 bus from Central Square; or by shuttle bus from the Alewife MBTA Station. Picnics and lawn chairs are encouraged, and the rain date is Sunday. Information is here.
SerbFest from noon to 10 p.m. (with Sunday hours too) at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church of Boston, 41 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge. Free. There’s live music, ethnic homemade foods, U.S. and Canadian folk dancing troupes, activities for children and stands with souvenirs, books and arts and crafts for sale – and a large dancing party. Information is here.
Ig Informal Lectures from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Building 10-250, also known as Huntington Hall, at 77 Massachusetts Ave.. Free. Ig Nobel-winning scientists give five-minute master classes to explain what they did and why they did it in improbably funny, informative, informal, brief public lectures and demonstrations. Information is here.
Victorian-era mystery game “Doublebottom House” from 3 to 5:30 p.m. at The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. Tickets are $30 (or $33.72 with the online service fee). A Questime game master leads players through live-action explorations of an abandoned house, auction of rare Indian jewels and detective mystery inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie that needs observation and logic to solve. Information is here.
Boston Comedy Festival Finale Gala at 7 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square. Tickets are $30 (or $38.45 with the online service fee). Eight comedians compete for $10,000 in prize money, and awards are presented to Boston’s own Gary Gulman and Jennifer Coolidge. Information is here.
Porter Square Books After Hours: Blind Book Swap from 8 to 10 p.m. at Porter Square Books, 25 White St., Porter Square. Tickets are $20, benefiting the store and Miranda’s Hearth arts community. Bring a book, wrap it in decorated brown craft paper and swap it for another mystery book whose wrapping you like – and get a half-hour presentation on tiny living from Hearth founder Miranda Aisling. Information is here.
Tiny & Short: A Drop in the Bucket dance from 8 to 9:30 p.m. (and continuing Sunday) at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Tickets are $21 (or $24.23 with the online service fee). Information is here.
“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” from 8 to 10 p.m. (and continuing Sunday) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kresge Little Theater in Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Ave. General admission is $15. Information is here.
Sunday
SomerStreets: Strike up the Bands from 2 to 6 p.m. on Highland Avenue (between School and Lowell streets). Free. There’s live music on two stages, a flea and artisan craft market, aerial performances and stilt-walking classes, a beer garden, games and amusements and more – including a music photography sale chronicling four decades of Boston rock history. Information is here.
Songwriter Tribute Night: The Cars from 7 to 10 p.m. at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $15. The new wave Boston hitmakers of the 1980s are covered by local artists including Shecky & The Pimp Monkeys; Mark Stepakoff; Seamus Galligan; Prateek Poddar; Bob Bradshaw; Rachel Marie; Rob Laurens; Rob Siegel; and Dave Richardson. Information is here.
SerbFest from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church of Boston, 41 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge. Free. There’s live music, ethnic homemade foods, U.S. and Canadian folk dancing troupes, activities for children and stands with souvenirs, books and arts and crafts for sale – and a large dancing party. Information is here.
“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kresge Little Theater in Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Ave. General admission is $15. Information is here.
Tiny & Short: A Drop in the Bucket dance from 7 to 8:30 p.m. (and continuing Sunday) at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Tickets are $21 (or $24.23 with the online service fee). Information is here.
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