A week of events in Cambridge, Somerville: ‘Lonely Palette’ talk, T.C. Boyle, dance, more
Monday
Iguana Fund concert from 7 to 10 p.m. at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square. Free. The Discovery Series presents Iguana Fund grant recipients Corey Laitman, Hawthorn Music, Oompa (pictured), Arc Iris and The Winter Walk – just some of the New England-based musicians benefiting from the 24 grants for the past year, totaling $40,000 awarded. Information is here
“Weed the People” documentary screening at 7 p.m. Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Kendall Square. Executive producer Ricki Lake (Tracy Turnblad in John Waters’ “Hairspray”) and director Abby Epstein made this documentary (with scenes filmed in Boston) that follows five families looking for alternatives to treat their children’s cancer. A Q&A with Lake and Epstein follows. Information is here.
Tuesday
Free Cone Day from noon to 8 p.m. at Ben & Jerry’s, 36 JFK St., Harvard Square. There’s been one day a year since 1979 for a free cup or cone at the local outpost of Vermont ice cream makers Ben & Jerry’s. Today is that day. (A dose of free calories isn’t the only callback to the company’s hippie roots – there’s also an ostensible good cause: It’s a fundraiser for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, so consider a donation.) Information is here.
Story Club Boston from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Cambridge Community Television, 438 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. There is a $5 suggested donation. A long-running show at the Milky Way Lounge in Jamaica Plain has moved to the CCTV studio. Tonight brings Neill Lynskey, Jon Papernick, Chloé Cunha, Marvin Wells, Brett Johnson, Stephen Mc Connon and more. Information is here.
Bill T’s Jazzy Open Mic & Vocal Showcase from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at La Fabrica Central, 450 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Free, with donation asked for the Musicians Economic Recovery Program. Singers and instrumentalists can come perform classic jazz, swing, funk and a bit of R&B with a versatile house trio. Information is here.
Wednesday
Poet Fred Moten reads from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Edison Newman Room at Houghton Library, at Quincy and Harvard streets in Harvard Yard. Free. Moten, author of “consent not to be a single being” (2018) and “The Service Porch” (2016) rings in the T. S. Eliot Memorial Reading, co-founded with the T. S. Eliot Foundation, with an introduction by Teju Cole. A reception follows. Information is here.
“Ask a Spaceman” Live from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston, on the Cambridge border. Free. Astrophysicist Paul Sutter does a live show of his podcast, “Ask a Spaceman!” during a tour for the release of his book “Your Place in the Universe: Understanding our Big, Messy Existence.” A signing follows. Information is here.
Look with Your Ears: An Evening with Tamar Avishai from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at Vernon Street Studios, 6 & 20 Vernon St., Somerville. Free. Somerville’s Avishai (photographed by Adrianne Mathiowetz), whose podcast “The Lonely Palette” take the snootiness out of art history one piece of art at a time, talks about her show, how scared people are to talk about art, the daily hustle of the creative small-business owner, the “empowered loneliness of going it alone” and finding (and redefining) success in unexpected places. Information is here.
Thursday
“Extremities” from 8 to 10 p.m. (and repeating Friday and Saturday) at First Church in Cambridge, 11 Garden St., Harvard Square. General admission is $22. The Also Known As Theatre company and director Alexandra Smith stage William Mastrosimone’s play and find it just as relevant as it was 40 years ago, centered around the capture of a home invader and attempted rapist by women forced to consider the lengths they must go to feel safe. Information is here.
“Filibus: The Mysterious Sky Pirate” and “Confidence Confidant” live radio plays from 8 to 10 p.m. (and repeating Friday and Saturday) at Boston Brunch Church, 204 Elm St., near Davis Square, Somerville. General admission is $15 (with fees, $16.52). Original adaptations of adventure stories featuring daring women of disguise and intrigue – one from a 1915 silent film and the other based on Kate Warne, the first female Pinkerton detective. Information is here.
Rock & Roll Rumble preliminary from 8 p.m. to midnight at Once Lounge + Ballroom, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville. Tickets are $10 in advance, or $15 day of show. Radio Compass (pictured), Test Meat, Motel Black and Lonely Leesa & the Lost Cowboys compete. This is the second and final week of prelims, with semifinals April 19-20 and finals April 26. Information is here.
Friday
T.C. Boyle reads from “Outside Looking In: A Novel” at 6 p.m. at The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square. Tickets start at $6. The author of “Greasy Lake,” “The Road to Wellville” and much more – “Outside Looking In” is his 17th published novel – comes to read, talk and sign. Information is here.
Prelude to “Ministry of ♀” dance from 8 to 9:30 p.m. at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Tickets are $13. A a sneak peek into an evening-length performance by Kairos exploring aspects of gender and femininity, featuring recently integrated design elements such as film by Lindsay Lapointe, a visual art installation by Corinne Chase and costume prototypes by Carlos Villamil. A conversation with dancers and collaborators follows. Information is here.
Du Bois Orchestra Spring Concert from 8 to 10 p.m. at First Church in Cambridge, 11 Garden St., Harvard Square. Free. Conducted by Nathaniel Meyer, the orchestra (with the help of the Lyricora choir and soprano soloist Sarah Joyce Cooper) premieres Florence Price’s “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight,” called “a lost treasure that we are honored to share with the world,” as well as works by Verdi and Beethoven. Information is here.
“The East Side” new musical from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. (and repeating Saturday and Sunday) at Harvard University’s Farkas Hall Studio, 10-12 Holyoke St., Harvard Square. Free, but register here. A new coming-of-age musical comedy, set in a gentrifying New York City Chinatown, that explores themes of authenticity, identity, acceptance and love of all kinds. Information is here.
Rock & Roll Rumble preliminary from 8 p.m. to midnight at Once Lounge + Ballroom, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville. Tickets are $10 in advance, or $15 day of show. Love Love, Phenomenal Sun, As The Sparrow and Skytigers compete. Information is here.
“Extremities” from 8 to 10 p.m. (and repeating Saturday) at First Church in Cambridge, 11 Garden St., Harvard Square. General admission is $22. Information is here.
“Filibus: The Mysterious Sky Pirate” and “Confidence Confidant” live radio plays from 8 to 10 p.m. (and repeating Saturday) at Boston Brunch Church, 204 Elm St., near Davis Square, Somerville. General admission is $15 (with fees, $16.52). Information is here.
Saturday
Science Carnival & Robot Zoo from noon to 4 p.m. at the Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge. Free. A family-friendly expo held as part of the Cambridge Science Festival promises more than 100 ways to explore, build, learn and have fun, including opportunities to hold a real brain, drive an underwater robot, make liquid nitrogen ice cream, tour a lab built into a bus and go inside a massive camera obscura. Information is here.
Down Home Up Here Bluegrass Festival at Club Passim from 2 p.m. to midnight (with more Sunday) at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square. The eighth annual festival features 21 hours of bluegrass and old-time acts. General admission is $15. Information is here.
World Dance Day from 3 to 4:30 p.m. starting on Cambridge Common, near Harvard Square. Registration is $5 to have a playlist emailed to you for download. Bring a phone loaded with the playlist and headphones so you can dance through Harvard Square and up Cambridge Street as part of this silent disco worldwide celebration. Footage from events will be combined into a music video to spread the message that “we all speak the same language of dance.” Information is here.
Dance Saturdays: Horos from 7 to 10 p.m. at José Mateo Ballet Theatre, 400 Harvard St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $35. Boston Lykeion Ellinidon’s troupe performs dance in costume as part of an evening of Greek food, drink and other culture, including a photographic exhibit by Robert McCabe. There’s participatory dance too. Information is here.
“An Animated Edition of the Dictionary of Negative Space” dance from 8 to 10 p.m. at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Tickets are $13. Karen Krolak, artistic director and co-founder of the Monkeyhouse troupe, performs a work inspired by the car accident that killed her mother, father and older brother in 2012, examining “the lacy spaces within the English language, the vast chasms of unnamed ideas related to mourning, trauma and repair” in collaboration with choreographers, poets, storytellers and visual artists. Information is here.
Rock & Roll Rumble preliminary from 8 p.m. to midnight at Once Lounge + Ballroom, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville. Tickets are $10 in advance, or $15 day of show. Baabes, Jakals, Set Fire and Birnam Wood compete. Information is here.
“The East Side” new musical from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. (and repeating Sunday) at Harvard University’s Farkas Hall Studio, 10-12 Holyoke St., Harvard Square. Free, but register here. Information is here.
“Extremities” from 8 to 10 p.m. at First Church in Cambridge, 11 Garden St., Harvard Square. General admission is $22. Information is here.
“Filibus: The Mysterious Sky Pirate” and “Confidence Confidant” live radio plays from 8 to 10 p.m. at Boston Brunch Church, 204 Elm St., near Davis Square, Somerville. General admission is $15 (with fees, $16.52). Information is here.
Sunday
Tufts Wind Ensemble: Pops! from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Granoff Music Center at Tufts University, 20 Talbot Ave., Somerville. Free. The ensemble performs music from “Princess Mononoke,” Ravel’s “Bolero,” “Harry Potter” music by John Williams, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” arranged by Philip Sparke, “Overture to Beauty and the Beast” by Alan Menken, and the premier of “Ring Tone Variations” by Tufts student George Behrakis. Information is here.
Down Home Up Here Bluegrass Festival at Club Passim from 4 p.m. to midnight (with more Sunday) at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square. General admission is $15. Information is here.
Cafe Zing Poetry Open Mic from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Porter Square Books, 25 White St., Porter Square. Free. Sign-ups begin at 5:15 for three-minute time slots. Information is here.
Science Game Night from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at The MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Ave., in The Port neighborhood. An evening of science-themed games to play with friends and family as part of the Cambridge Science Festival. Tickets are $6 per person, or $20 for a group of up to 4 people ages 10-plus. Information is here.
AFTer Hours April: “Fools as Heroes” from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. Free. Adult Folktale Telling features Alan White and invites all to bring “lascivious legends, fractured folktales, F-ed up fairytales and mordant myths,” with personal stories and children under 18 left at home. Information is here.
Boston Chamber Music Society’s “Bax, Harbison, Brahms” from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St., near Harvard Square. Tickets start at $9. Bax’s “Fantasy Sonata for Viola and Harp” from 1927 opens, followed by Harbison’s “String Trio” from 2013 and Brahms’ String Quintet No. 1 in F major, Op. 88, from 1882. Information is here.
“The East Side” new musical from 2 to 4 p.m. at Harvard University’s Farkas Hall Studio, 10-12 Holyoke St., Harvard Square. Free, but register here. Information is here.
