A week of events in Cambridge and Somerville, from a new market in Harvard to SomerPride
Sunday
Harvard Square Open Market from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Church Street between Massachusetts Avenue and Brattle Street. Free. This new weekly arts and vintage market opens today and runs every Sunday through Oct. 30, boasting more than 50 local artists, makers, vintage vendors as well as live music. Information is here. (The one-day Floralia Spring Market has the same hours at Warehouse XI, 11 Sanborn Court, Union Square, Somerville, is free and features dozens of local she/her/they-identifying artisans, small businesses and vintage vendors, as well as a photo booth area, tarot readers and free flowers to guests. Information is here.)
Drop-in art project crafting sessions from 1 to 4 p.m. at the powder magazine of Magazine Beach, at the river end of Magazine Street in the Cambridgeport neighborhood. Free, but an RSVP is requested. Fiber artist Michelle Lougee and arts organizer Cecily Miller – Cambridgeport residents – invite help creating a Magazine Beach Tapestry warning of the environmental dangers of single-use plastic that will go in the newly opened Mass Audubon Nature Center in the beach’s powder magazine building. Volunteers of all ages are invited to participate, looping small plastic trash items such as bottle tops, packaging and discarded toys (all cleaned and safe to handle) to a mesh background. The work will be outside under a shady tree if the weather is good, inside the powder magazine if it is too hot or rainy. Information is here.
Carnaval Somerstreets festival from 2 to 6 p.m. on Lower Broadway in East Somerville (from McGrath Highway to Pennsylvania Avenue, by the Sullivan Square T stop). Free, but registration is requested. The street closes to cars and opens to some 6,000 people enjoying music, dance performances, interactive activities, a craft fair and food from all over the world. Information is here.
Longfellow Student Poetry Awards and reading from 3 to 4 p.m. at Longfellow House and the Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site, 105 Brattle St., West Cambridge. Free. The New England Poetry Club sponsors this reading with Logan Klutse, an undergrad at Yale University and winner of the Victor Howes Prize, as well as prize-winning works by students in grades 3-12. A celebration follows. Information is here.
Monday
Bill McKibben reads from “The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened” at 6 p.m. at The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $29.75 with a copy of the book, or $6 for admission only. Author and environmentalist McKibben digs into history and the latest scholarship on race and inequality in America, the rise of the religious right and climate change to explain how we got here. A Harvard Book Store event. Information is here.
A work by Gigi Bennett.
Gigi Bennett art opening at 7 p.m. at Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square, Somerville. Free. This Lesley-graduated artist uses the imagery of architecture and household items to explore themes of beauty and fragility in video, colored pencil drawings and water-soluble sculpture. Also, there’s beer. Information is here.
Tuesday
Edward of Mouth, aka Edward Alexander Jr.
Lunch Break: A HipStoric Concert Series from 12:15 to 1 p.m. at the Kendall/MIT Open Space at 292 Main St., Kendall Square. Free. Use your lunch break to hear Indiana spoken word artist Edward of Mouth (aka Edward Alexander Jr.) – host of the podcast “The Spoken Word with Edward” – tell stories with the rhythms of hip-hop. Information is here.
Somerville “Pub” Sing from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Somerville Community Growing Center, 22 Vinal Ave., near Union Square, Somerville. Free. The songs may be pub-worthy, often leaning toward drinking songs and sea chanteys, but this free-flowing group sing takes place outdoors around a propane fire pit, with marshmallows to toast. (Other snacks are welcome.) Because singing together is high-risk for spreading Covid, this is for fully vaccinated and boosted participants. Information is here.
Smut Slam from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. There’s $10 suggested donation at the door for this 18-plus show. Real-life, first-person sex stories from eight to 10 tellers drawn at random, competing for the best five-minute tale of debauchery before a panel of local celebrities. They can’t use notes, props or hate speech – although pretty much anything else goes. “Stories are often funny and/or epic wins, but we want to encourage people to consider sharing their sad, disturbing, poignant, serious, simple and/or ‘fail’ experiences too,” organizers say. Lucas Brooks hosts. Information is here.
Wednesday
The Old Burying Ground near Harvard Square. (Photo: Marc Levy)
Reading the Gravestones of Old Cambridge from noon to 1 p.m. online. Free. John Hanson, an expert on early New England epitaphs, shares some outstanding verses found on stones in Cambridge’s Old Burying Ground near Harvard Square, revealing their sources of inspiration and considering what the choices tell us about early New Englanders’ attitudes toward life, death and eternity. Information is here.
Dance show by Art Assembled AiR Artists at 7 p.m. at The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. Free, but donations are accepted. It’s hard to imagine a more confusingly promoted or poorly explained series of shows, but that doesn’t mean the dance won’t be interesting. Performers include Claire Lane and Caroline Bradburry of the Detrius company exploring the effect of their Roman Catholic upbringing; Rebecca McGowan and Jackie O’Reilly “blurring music and dance”; and Brandy White performing “Once Upon A Dream.” Information is here.
Pride Drag Night from 8 to 10 p.m. at Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square, Somerville. Tickets are $10. Local Queens Coleslaw and Severity Stone and drag king Travis Tí perform at this 21-plus show. Masks are required when not actively eating or drinking. Information is here.
Thursday
Hannah Altman’s “Shabbos Candles” from her “With Rifts and Collapses” exhibit.
“With Rifts and Collapses” photo exhibition by Hannah Altman from 4 to 7 p.m. through July 9 at Gallery 263, 263 Pearl St., Cambridgeport. Free. Altman, an artist from New Jersey who lives in Somerville, begins her first solo show in New England with these images “that consider Jewish storytelling and image making.” Information is here.
“Born in Cambridge: 400 Year of Ideas and Innovators” from 6 to 7 p.m. online or at the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston St., Boston. The talk is free online, or $10 in person. Authors Karen Weintraub of USA Today and Michael Kuchta chronicle the cultural icons, influential ideas and world-changing innovations from our little city, showing how Cambridge is a place of firsts – from the first college in the English colonies to the first two-way long-distance call to the first legal same-sex marriage – and draws people from W.E.B. Du Bois and Julia Child to Yo-Yo Ma and Noam Chomsky. Information is here.
Boston Book Festival Lit Crawl from 6 to 9 p.m. at Starlight Square, 84 Bishop Allen Drive, Central Square. Free. An evening of literary programming including games, performances and readings split into three sessions (walk-ins are welcome, but register separately, please). The first is a game of romance novel “Jeopardy” hosted by Andrea Martucci of the podcast “Shelf Love.” At 7 p.m. comes “Mistaken Identities: An Illuminating Evening,” with authors Neema Avashia, Ani Gjika, Theresa Okokon, Sara Petersen and emcee Dorian Fox exploring what it means to not fit in – when who you are doesn’t align with where you live or the name you’re called. At 8 p.m. comes “Our Bodies, Ourselves: Visions for Reproductive Justice,” featuring activists on birthing justice, menstrual equity and access to abortion services at a fraught time for health care rights. It’s moderated by Our Bodies Ourselves co-founder and board chair Judy Norsigian. Information is here.
Sloane Crosley.
Sloane Crosley reads from “Cult Classic: A Novel” at 7 p.m. at Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. Free. The New York Times bestselling author of “I Was Told There’d Be Cake” and “How Did You Get This Number” is back with a tale of a woman at a dinner with former coworkers who excuses herself to buy a pack of cigarettes and runs into an ex-boyfriend. And then another. And then another. Well-fitting masks must be worn to attend. Information is here.
Friday
Kenia Arbaiza’s work in the “Through These Realities” exhibition translates the poem “Black Mirror.”
“Through These Realities” exhibition from 2 to 6 p.m. at The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. Free. This launches a show up through July 22 in which six photographers of color creating a series of images inspired by work from six poets of color, all prompted by a James Baldwin quote. Information is here.
“With Rifts and Collapses” photo exhibition by Hannah Altman continued from 4 to 7 p.m. and through July 9 at Gallery 263, 263 Pearl St., Cambridgeport. Free. Information is here.
Samba Night from 5 to 8 p.m. at Centanni Way, 82 Third St., East Cambridge. Free. The East Cambridge Business Association and Multicultural Arts Center join to offer a live music performance, samba dance lesson and then a music accompaniment for social dancing. Information is here.
Saturday
“Through These Realities” exhibition continued from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. Free. Information is here.
Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys headlines SomerPride.
SomerPride from noon to 10 p.m. at Once at Boynton Yards, Zero Windsor Place, near Union Square in Somerville. Admission is $20. Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys headline this music festival and have curated the entertainment – live music from local bands starting at noon with a Matt Heaton set for kids, followed by eight more bands including DJ WhySham, Muzzins and local legend Matisse Dupont returning to drag as her newest creation, Redd Haring. There’s also food and art vendors, games and more; attendees are advised to stock up on glitter and grab their rainbow boa. Information is here.
“With Rifts and Collapses” photo exhibition by Hannah Altman continued from 1 to 4 p.m. and through July 9 at Gallery 263, 263 Pearl St., Cambridgeport. Free. Information is here.
Grupo los Santos performs from 3 to 4 p.m. at Longfellow House and the Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site, 105 Brattle St., West Cambridge. Free. This New York City band formed in 1998 has a high-energy mix of jazz, rock, funk, Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian sounds that it’s brought to concerts throughout the United States, Cuba and Europe. Bring a picnic blanket or lawn chair to this Longfellow Summer Festival event. Information is here.
Big Gay Dance Party from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Union Square Plaza, 90 Union Square, Somerville. Free. Celebrate Pride Month at this annual city-sponsored LGBTQ+ dance party, with music from DJ Live, drag performances by Amanda Playwith and Karisma Geneva Jackson-Tae and tabling and resources provided by local service organizations. Information is here.
Zaira Meneses & Friends Latin American Music Fest from 7 to 9 p.m. at Starlight Square, 84 Bishop Allen Drive, Central Square. Free. Musician Zaira Meneses invites fellow Latin American artists and performers to the stage for an evening of cross-disciplinary performance, from classical music to traditional Latin American arts. Information is here.
Sunday
Forty-Third Annual Boston Dragon Boat Festival from noon to 5 p.m. around the Weeks Footbridge, 948 Memorial Drive, in the Riverside neighborhood. Free. Nearly 20,000 spectators gather yearly to watch up to more than 48 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.
Mozambican Music and Languages from 1 to 4 p.m. at Starlight Square, 84 Bishop Allen Drive, Central Square. Free. Albino Mbie fuses Mozambican rhythms, languages, traditions and culture with jazz and pop. Information is here.
Drop-in art project crafting sessions from 1 to 4 p.m. at the powder magazine of Magazine Beach, at the river end of Magazine Street in the Cambridgeport neighborhood. Free, but an RSVP is requested. Fiber artist Michelle Lougee and arts organizer Cecily Miller – Cambridgeport residents – invite help creating a Magazine Beach Tapestry warning of the environmental dangers of single-use plastic that will go in the newly opened Mass Audubon Nature Center in the beach’s powder magazine building. Volunteers of all ages are invited to participate, looping small plastic trash items such as bottle tops, packaging and discarded toys (all cleaned and safe to handle) to a mesh background. The work will be outside under a shady tree if the weather is good, inside the powder magazine if it is too hot or rainy. Information is here.
Poets Magdalena Gómez and Enzo Silon Surin read from 3 to 4 p.m. at Longfellow House and the Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site, 105 Brattle St., West Cambridge. Free. Gómez, the poet laureate of Springfield, and Surin, a Haitian-born, award-winning poet, educator, publisher and social advocate, take part in the the Longfellow Summer Festival. Information is here.
Some of the players in the Boston League of Wicked Wrestlers.
Boston League of Wicked Wrestlers Presents “Welcome to Pride Corp” from 7 to 10:30 p.m. at The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. Tickets are $25 to $40. Local wrestling with a kayfabe storyline of a forced corporate sellout. Timely. Valentine, The Bradlees Babes, Sheila: Attorney at Law, The Butcher, Shitty Wizard, Susie Newsie, Calypso Apocalypto, Rat King, Broox and more take to the ring to work through some stuff. Information is here.
