Monday
Spring Auction Exhibition from 1 to 7 p.m. (and extending through Friday, when bidding takes place) at Gallery 263, 263 Pearl St., Cambridgeport. Come see work to bid on – all donated by creators to benefit the gallery. Information is here.
Tuesday
Four Way Books Reading from 7 to 9 p.m. at Grolier Poetry Book Shop on 6 Plympton St., Harvard Square. Free, but register here. Hear new works published by New York-based Four Way Books by poets Cynthia Cruz (“Dregs”), Kate Colby (“The Arrangements”), Lesley University’s Joan Houlihan (“Shadow-feast”) and Dan Tobin (“Blood Labors”). Information is here.
Wednesday
The Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge Photo Project reception from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Karen Aqua Gallery at Cambridge Community Television, 438 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Free. Photographer John Heymann has years worth of images to share in this exhibit that shows through July 3. “About 10 years ago, a friend suggested that I take photographs along the entire length of Massachusetts Avenue, from Dorchester to Lexington, but that seemed too daunting, so I decided to focus on capturing scenes from Mass. Ave. in Cambridge,” Heymann said. Reasonable! (There’s an artist’s talk coming June 18.) Information is here.
Taste of Somerville from 5 to 8 p.m. at Assembly Row, 330 Great River Road, Somerville. General admission is $50. More than 50 city eateries are taking part in this grand sampling event. Information is here.
Magnus Johnstone “Rapture” art reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second St., East Cambridge. Free, but register here. The exhibit celebrating the art and music of trailblazing local radio DJ and visual artist Magnus Johnstone is up through June 28; the reception includes music by Julia Mongo, of WMBR-FM; DJ Cruz; and sampling from listening stations by Pacey Foster of the University of Massachusetts at Boston Hip-Hop Archive and Brian Coleman of the Good Roads record label. Information is here.
Spoken word in Somerville: Open mic featuring the Books of Hope slam team from 6 to 9 p.m. at The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. Free. Ekaterina “Kat” Hicks-Magana, Ruby Russell, Lydia Debenedictis, Kanilla Charles and Smirline Jacques take over this open mic before it goes on summer break. Food provided. Information is here.
Spoken word in Cambridge: 4×4 Team Slam at the Boston Poetry Slam, from 7:15 p.m. to midnight at The Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. There’s a $5 cover for this 18-plus show. After a slightly shortened open mic starting at 8 p.m. comes a virtual cage match of a four-round slam with teams from Game Over Books in Boston; Pizza Pi Press in Boston; Slam Free or Die in Manchester, New Hampshire; and the Boston Poetry Slam’s own 2019 team. Information is here.
Thursday
Janaka Stucky reads from “Ascend Ascend” from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square. General admission is $6 (with fees, $7.29), or $19.25 with a copy of the book from the Harvard Book Store (with fees, $21.73). Mystic poet, performer and publisher Stucky wrote this long-form poem while coming in and out of trance states while secluded in the tower of a 100-year-old church; it’s equal parts Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain.” Information is here.
Second Thursdays from 6 to 10 p.m. in Inman Square. Businesses are banding together to make sure they survive the square’s months of reconstruction – literally, since the events include a band performing for free in the East Cambridge Savings Bank parking lot from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.: The Hard Clean, made up of employees from local firm Datawheel. Businesses around the square are offering free or discounted goods, activities, and food and drink deals. Information is here.
Murder Mystery improv from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at at Vox Pop, 431 Artisan Way, Assembly Square, Somerville. Free. Find out how mystery writers craft a story – live, on stage and using audience suggestions. The authors are Sisters in Crime Elisabeth Elo, Frances McNamara, Dale T. Phillips and Somerville’s own Clea Simon. Presented by the Somerville Public Library and Somerville Media Center. Information is here.
Union Sound & Nightworks music night from 8 p.m. to midnight in the Canopy Room of Bow Market, 1 Bow Market Way, Union Square, Somerville. Tickets are $15 (with fees, $17.55) for this 21-plus show. This new, intimate show – running every second Thursday – is inspired by the “sit-in” culture of old jazz clubs. Each night features a different artist, and they bring guest performers with them. The first event celebrates the release of Loman’s instrumental project, “Spotta-Fi.” Information is here.
Friday
Greek Festival from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. (and continuing Saturday and Sunday), at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church, 14 Magazine St., Cambridgeport. Entry is a $2 donation. Three days of Greek food, music and dancing. Information is here.
Raphael Bob-Waksberg reads from “Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory: Stories” from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square. General admission is $6 (with fees, $7.29), or $27.75 with a copy of the book from the Harvard Book Store (with fees, $30.13). The creator of Netflix’s “BoJack Horseman” presents his debut collection of tales – like the show, awash in humor, romance, whimsy, cultural commentary and crushing emotional vulnerability – and is joined in conversation by Jonny Sun, a best-selling author, illustrator and writer for the show. Information is here.
Jennifer Weiner reads from “Mrs. Everything: A Novel” from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at First Parish Cambridge Unitarian Universalist, 3 Church St./1446 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. General admission is $29.75 with a copy of the book from the Harvard Book Store (with fees, $32.23). Weiner – you know her from “Little Earthquakes,” “In Her Shoes” and much more – tells the story of two sisters growing up in 1950s Detroit and taking different paths through the next decades, examining the question, “How should a woman be in the world?” She is joined in conversation by Meredith Goldstein, the “Love Letters” advice columnist for The Boston Globe and an author. Information is here.
Boston Fuzzstival 2019 from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. (and continuing Saturday) at Once Lounge + Ballroom, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville. Two-day passes are $20; admission to the day is $15. The seventh annual Fuzzstival continues its loud and proud mission of showing off local and regional psychedelic, fuzz, garage and surf rock bands, with a full 22 bands of all-ages awesomeness. Performers today are Thalia Zedek Band, Nice Guys, Black Beach, Jaw Gems, Carinae, Rong, Beverly Tender, Landowner, Haasan Barclay (pictured), Blue Ray and Seed. Information is here.
Spring Art Auction from 7 to 10 p.m. (and extending through Friday, when bidding takes place) at Gallery 263, 263 Pearl St., Cambridgeport. Tickets are $25 in advance (with fees, $26.29), or $30 at the door, including two drinks. Artwork in an array of mediums – which can be viewed from 1 p.m. to the start of the event – have been donated by the creators to benefit the gallery. There are also four experiences that can be won: a private artist- and director-led tour of “The Pod” at the Peabody Essex Museum Art & Nature Center; a private tour with Andrew Janjigian of America’s Test Kitchen, in Boston’s Seaport District; a portrait painting by Catherine Graffam; and a retreat at the Cambridge Zen Center. Information is here.
Saturday
DayCon 2019: The Art of Science from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Harvard University building at 52 Oxford St., in the Agassiz neighborhood near Harvard Square. Free, but register here. This daylong science conference consists of talks and interactive demonstrations by graduate student scientists on such things as the science of color, how our brain perceives music and understanding the difference between music and noise. Information is here.
Joe’s Jazz and Blues Festival from noon to 6 p.m. in Nathan Tufts/Powder House Park, College Avenue and Broadway, Powder House Square, Somerville. Free. This brainchild of Mayor Joe Curtatone (who played trumpet in the Somerville High School Jazz Band) returns, starting with the Somerville High School Jazz Band. The lineup also includes Meridian 71, Joe Bargar & The Soul Providers, Ken Field Nonstandards, Shokazoba and BJ Magoon & Driving Sideways, playing everything from American jazz to Delta blues. It’s produced with the Somerville Arts Council. Information is here.
FutureFood: Tastings of Foods for Our Warmer Future from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge. Free. Sample honey toffee and a flight of honey waters prepared by chef Nate Phinisee while learning about bee health and honey DNA from Best Bees, a local research and beekeeping company – part of the “Untold Possibilities at the Last Minute” exhibition on climate change that’s up at the Cambridge Arts Council’s Gallery 344 through Oct. 4. Information is here.
QHS Poetry Club Celebration No. 3 featuring Brittle Brian from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at The Democracy Center, 45 Mount Auburn St., Harvard Square. Donations are encouraged for this all-ages show. Youth poets and local lo-fi singer-songwriter star Brittle Brian contributes the entertainment, and there’s refreshments as well. Information is here.
Boston Fuzzstival 2019 from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. at Once Lounge + Ballroom, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville. Admission to the day is $15. The bands today are Mini Dresses, Lady Pills (pictured), Bat House, Squirrel flower, Peel Dream Magazine, Patio, Boston Cream, Squitch, Jesus Vio, Kremlin Bats and Wild Painting. Information is here.
Reader Prom from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the George Dilboy VFW Post 529, 371 Summer St., Davis Square, Somerville. Tickets are $35 to $100. At this fundraiser for the Porter Square Books Foundation, attendees wear prom finery and bring a book as their date – then dump that date as a donation and hang around for snacks and soft drinks, a cash bar, music and dancing, “after-prom” style games and activities – and the crowning of a prom “author” and “illustrator” to replace the king and queen. Formal prom pictures will be available. The draw here may be the chaperones: Stephanie Gayle, author of “Idyll Threats” and “My Summer of Southern Discomfort,” and M.T. Anderson, author of “Feed,” “The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing” and more. Information is here.
Cambridge Symphony Orchestra’s “Dancing with Demons” from 8 to 10 p.m. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Ave. General admission is $25 (with fees, $27.28). The orchestra offers its first performance of the symphonic poem “The Oak” by Florence Price, an early 20th century African-American composer, and Max Levinson, on the piano faculty at the Boston and the New England conservatories, joins for Rachmaninoff’s devilish “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” Also on the bill: Berlioz’s hallucinatory 1830 “Symphonie fantastique,” about an obsessive love turned grotesque. Information is here.
Greek Festival from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (and continuing Sunday), at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church, 14 Magazine St., Cambridgeport. Free. Information is here.
Sunday
Contemporary African-American Heritage tour from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mt Auburn St., West Cambridge. General admission is $12. In honor of Juneteenth, volunteer docent Stephen Pinkerton leads a walking tour visiting African Americans buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in the past 50 years, including jazz clarinetist and band leader Edmond Hall; Linda Datcher Loury, a Tufts University professor and pioneering scholar of social economics; and Yvonne Gregory, poet and co-author of the 1951 We Charge Genocide petition to the United Nations. Information is here.
Somerville Festival of Dad Jokes from 2 to 4 p.m. at The Comedy Studio, 1 Bow Market Way, Union Square, Somerville. General admission is $10 (with fees, $11.30); contestants pay $20 (with fees, $21.60). It’s father’s day – if you think you’re funny, but your family doesn’t, or you’re not a dad but you tell jokes like one, this fundraiser for the Somerville Weekend Backpack Program is your bag, baby. Information is here.
Greek Festival from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church, 14 Magazine St., Cambridgeport. Free. Information is here.
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