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Friday, March 29, 2024

Sunday, Sept. 11

Annual Italian Feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian (continued) from 1:30 to 10 p.m. at Warren and Cambridge streets, in the Wellington-Harrington neighborhood. Free. Information is here.

Screens for Teens: “Clueless” from 2 to 5 p.m. in Menschel Hall at the Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., near Harvard Square. Free. The museums curate films for teens, starting with this classic 1995 take on Jane Austen’s 1816 novel “Emma” with Alicia Silverstone and Paul Rudd. Screenings may be followed by conversation with faculty from the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. Information is here.

A Cambridge Carnival dancer in 2017. (Photo: Greg Cook via Cambridge Carnival)

Cambridge Carnival Festival from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the University Park Commons, in Cambridgeport near Central Square. Free. The Afro-Caribbean-themed carnival celebrating emancipation, freedom and expression returns to where it began in 1992, with 35,000 people expected to take part. This 28th celebration includes the traditional parade, now starting at River and Blackstone streets near the Charles River at 12:30 p.m. and winding up at University Park for music, food and a hands-on KidsFest with face painting, arts and crafts, stilt walking, train rides and other activities. Masks are asked of unvaccinated guests and recommended in crowds for all. Information is here.


Monday, Sept. 12

Linda Kinstler reads from “Come to This Court and Cry: How the Holocaust Ends” at 7 p.m. at Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. Free. The University of California, Berkeley, academic explores a mystery that takes her from a murder in Uruguay to World War II Europe “to unravel a family secret about her late grandfather – and in the process unearths vexing questions about the past and how we understand it,” as author Patrick Radden Keefe explains. It’s “part detective story, part family history, part probing inquiry into how best to reckon with the horrors of a previous century … [and it’s] original, beautifully written and haunting.” Well-fitting masks are required. Information is here.

Comedian Joe DeRosa with Caitlin Reese at 7:30 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre’s Crystal Ballroom, 55 Davis Square. General admission is $25. The crooked veterinarian from “Better Call Saul” (and host of the podcasts “We’ll See You In Hell” about movies and the food debate show “Taste Buds”) is also a stand-up comedian with six albums and a Comedy Central special. He’s traveling with Queens-based comedian and writer Caitlin Reese. Information is here.


Tuesday, Sept. 13

I_Butterfly Pollinator Walk from noon to 1:30 p.m. at Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mount Auburn St., West Cambridge. No price is given This nationwide festival following the migration path of the monarch butterfly takes a pit stop so cemetery director of horticulture Steph Almasi and I_Butterfly founder Cory Mcabee can lead a walking tour of the grounds, revealing native pollinator plants that provide food and shelter for the creatures. Information is here.  

Randall Munroe reads from “What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions” at 7 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St., near Harvard Square. Tickets range from $34 to $44, all with a copy of the book. The cartoonist behind the popular webcomic “xkcd” and author of the funny-science series will be in conversation with Jonathan Zittrain of Harvard Law School. Information is here.


Wednesday, Sept. 14

A Wednesday neighborhood bird-watching might help you identify this species. (Photo: City of Cambridge)

Neighborhood Bird Watching from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Danehy Park, 99 Sherman St., in Neighborhood 9 just east of Fresh Pond. Free, but registration is encouraged. Learn about the urban outdoors and its birds and get birdwatching tips, including how to identify an unfamiliar species. A limited supply of binoculars will be available. The event meets at Cambridge library’s O’Neill Branch, 70 Rindge Ave., North Cambridge, before heading to the park. Information is here.

CPL Park Sounds: HobArt Goulart and Albino Mbie Trio from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Joan Lorentz Park at 457 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge (in front of the Cambridge Main Library). Free. A concert with Goulart, a Brazilian singer-songwriter and comedian, and a band led by Mbie, musician, guitarist, singer, composer and sound and mixing engineer from Mozambique. Information is here.

Rumba y Timbal Dance Party (rescheduled) from 6 to 9 p.m. at Starlight Square, 84 Bishop Allen Drive, Central Square. A community salsa and bachata dance party with instructor Lili Jimenez and friends. Information is here.

Cinema Strange from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Somerville Public Library, 79 Highland Ave., in the Winter Hill neighborhood. Free. Somerville High School junior Chris Hopkin curates bizarre and beautiful cinema, ending this month with “House,” a 1977 film that’s equal parts horror, comedy, martial arts film and ghost story. Information is here.


Thursday, Sept. 15

The Ig Nobel Prizes are online Thursday.

32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Ceremony at 6 p.m. online. 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 a mini-opera called “The Know-It-All Club” and plenty more. Information is here.

Shit-Faced Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville (and continuing Friday and Saturday). Tickets are $30. It’s the immortal tale of star-crossed lovers but with one actor selected at random every night to drink for the four hours before showtime, leaving the remaining sober cast to fight their way through the show while incorporating, rectifying, justifying and generally improvising around the drunkenness. Versions of this show have been running since 2010 using various Shakespearean works. Masks are required. Information is here.

Open Mic Poetry Under The Stars at Starlight from 7 to 9 p.m. at Starlight Square, 84 Bishop Allen Drive, Central Square. All art forms are actually welcome at this event – participants can bring a routine, an instrument, a poem or a song. Information is here.

Weird Local Film Festival No. 14 from 7 to 10:30 p.m. at Warehouse XI, 11 Sanborn Court, Union Square, Somerville. There’s a suggested donation of $5 for this 18-plus show. Works from “filmmakers in reasonable proximity to Somerville” make up this semi-regular screening event now five years old and reasonably subtitled “IT’S BEEN 5 YEARS WTF.”  Information is here.

Atlantic Connections from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Harvard University’s Farkas Hall Studio, 10-12 Holyoke St., Harvard Square (and continuing Friday). Free. A song cycle performance inspired by a selection of poets from the African diaspora including Maya Angelou. The performance explores the themes of land, homeland, motherhood, running, love, loss, distance, diasporic geographies and water as spiritual connecting elements. Information is here.

Joe Trohman’s “None Of This Rocks” book tour at 7:30 p.m. at The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. Tickets are $39. The co-founder of the band Fall Out Boy (at age 15!) and television writer – now developing an animated series with comedian Brian Posehn – talks about his memoir with music and politics journalist Luke O’Neil. Information is here.


Friday, Sept. 16

Jacques-Fabien Gautier “d’Agoty Muscles of the Back” from 1746. (Image: Harvard Art Museums)

“Dare to Know: Prints and Drawings in the Age of Enlightenment” art exhibition at 3 p.m. the Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., near Harvard Square. See how the graphic arts inspired, shaped and gave immediacy to ideas in the Enlightenment era from roughly 1720 to 1800, encouraging individuals to follow their own reason when seeking to know more. (It was German philosopher Immanuel Kant who argued that the Enlightenment’s main impulse was to “dare to know!”) The show will be up through Jan. 15. Information is here.

Atlantic Connections (continued) from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., near Harvard Square. Free. Information is here.

The “Sanctuary City” exhibit runs through Nov. 19. (Image: Somerville Museum)

Sanctuary City art from 2 to 5 p.m. at Somerville Museum, 1 Westwood Road, in the Spring Hill neighborhood. Admission is $5. A dozen artists curated by Julia Csekö address themes of immigration and community building in a variety of media. The show is up through Nov. 19. Information is here.

This Is How We Roll! rollerskating from 6 to 9 p.m. at Starlight Square, 84 Bishop Allen Drive, Central Square. Free. Laraland Roller Disco converts the outdoor Starlight space into a skating rink – though with no rental equipment on hand – and provides music by DJs Mo, Nomadik and Bruno. Information is here.

Shit-Faced Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” (continued) from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville (with another show Saturday). Tickets are $30. Masks are required. Information is here.

Bridgeside Super Cypher from 7 to 11 p.m. at the Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second St., East Cambridge. Free. Freestyle rappers, beatboxers, dancers and scratch DJs come together in a collaborative and improvisational live show in a grand venue. Featured artists include DJs SlipWax, Franky Language, Dom Nyce and Clue; freestyle rapper Seti Tzu; dancers Chad Shabazz and Aysha; and beatboxers Kyle Goldstein and Flowttiglio. Information is here.

“T: An MBTA Musical” from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. Tickets start at $22.50. There’s new relevancy for this snarky play by John Michael Manship (book) and Melissa Carubia (music and lyrics), in which three 20-somethings whose lives have been derailed by the MBTA’s incompetency discover a secret map that will enable them to overthrow the transit system’s corruption. Songs include “The Shuttle Bus Song (We Can’t Handle It),” “The People on the T” and “The Bro Song.” All aboard. Information is here.

Becky Robinson’s Heavy Pour Tour at 10 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre’s Crystal Ballroom, 55 Davis Square. General admission is $35.50. Tickets for this comedian, writer, actor and voice-over star’s early show sold out, but you can still get in for the late show. (There’s an “Entitled Housewife’s VIP Package” too.) Information is here.


Saturday, Sept. 17

Free Admission Day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., near Harvard Square. Take advantage of the Smithsonian magazine-sponsored Museum Day and reserve tickets for two. (Though there are a number of ways for Cantabrigians to get free access to the museums without this event.) Information is here. 

Rides for kids are part of Danehy Park Family Day. (Photo: City of Cambridge)

Danehy Park Family Day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Danehy Park, 99 Sherman St., in Neighborhood 9 just east of Fresh Pond. Free. This annual celebration includes music and other performances, children’s amusement rides and arts and crafts, as well as free food, 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. Information is here.

SerbFest from noon to 10 p.m. at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church of Boston, 41 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge (and continuing Sunday). Free. There’s live music, ethnic homemade foods, 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. 

Conclave on the Common celebrating the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote from 1 to 5 p.m. on Cambridge Common, near Harvard Square. Free. Civic, church, political, nonprofit and community organizations, as well as friends, family and allies are called to show up at 1 p.m. at City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square, for the march leading to the gathering. “Wear your white, make your signs and stand up for your rights and the rights of others,” organizers say. Information is here.

“Somerville Salon: Measure for Measure: The Music of Shakespeare’s Plays” from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Somerville Museum, 1 Westwood Road, in the Spring Hill neighborhood. Free. Ensemble Chaconne plays music by Thomas Morley, Robert Johnson, William Corkine, John Dowland and other leading composers of Shakespeare’s time and stays for questions and conversation afterward. Information is here.

The 17th annual “What the Fluff” Festival from 3 to 7 p.m. on Union Square Plaza, 90 Union Square, Somerville. Free. Delicious and horrible Marshmallow Fluff was invented in Somerville in 1917, when a local named Archibald Query made it in his kitchen and sold it door to door. The festival honors the concoction in most every way imaginable, drawing more than 12,000 people to its music, games and, of course, lots of Fluff-related foods. (The classic Fluffernutter is just the start.) Information is here.

Dancing on the Charles from 3 to 11 p.m. in the parking lot by the American Legion Marsh Post, 5 Greenough Blvd., West Cambridge. Admission is $30 to $35 (not including online fees), by reservation only for this 21-plus dance party. Expect five sets by DJs, including Hot Pot, Bruno, Adam Gibbons, GMGN and Joe Tagessian. Information is here.

Therapy Gecko: Gecking is Believing Tour at 6:30 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre’s Crystal Ballroom, 55 Davis Square. Tickets are $29. Lyle Drescher’s podcast – in which an unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely anything – takes on an added element when you get to see the lizard live (and in costume). Information is here.

Shit-Faced Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” (continued) from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. Tickets are $30. Masks are required. Information is here.

Smoke & Shadows: Burlesque and Variety Show from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. Tickets are $30. Vaudeville, music and comedy, all studded with rhinestones in a monthly show that defies decade and genre, each time offering a mix of performers from near and far. Masks are required. Information is here.

Late Night School: Stand-Up Comedy and $4 Drinks in a Speakeasy from 10 to 11:30 p.m. at  the Cambridge Community Center, 5 Callender St., Riverside. Raoul Biron hosts a late-night “secret stand-up comedy show hidden in an abandoned basement classroom” with comics who’ve appeared on Comedy Central, “Conan” and the like, as well as a musical guest. Information is here.


Sunday, Sept. 18

SerbFest (continued) from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church of Boston, 41 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge. Free. Information is here. 

Dance by Isaura Oliveira is part of the Dance Happens Here street party and performances Sunday. (Photo: saura Oliveria via Facebook)

Dance Happens Here: 2022 Street Party & Performances from 2 to 9 p.m. in Central Square. Free. This 30th anniversary celebration of Central Square’s Dance Complex of course emphasizes performances by troupes: African Brazilian cultural dance by Isaura Oliveria; SambaViva; Irish dancers Rising Step; Laura Sánchez Flamenco; hip-hop specialist Carl Alleyne; and Boston choreographer/dancer Junior Cius. There will be lessons from samba to swing and a street party with tunes spun by DJ InfraBos, and at the Central Square Theater there’s a 2 to 5 p.m. event called “Your Town: A Community Dance & Story Gathering Event” where a team member will listen to you tell the story of your neighborhood, offering food in return. There will also be food trucks to serve the hungry, and Ponnapa Prakkamakul will create visual art throughout the day on streets and building walls; there will be an illuminated window installation called “Dance Happens”; a drumming circle at the front door of the complex; and “30 Dialogues,” a video installation by Lindsay LaPointe that begins its yearlong residency in the complex’s windows after the day’s activities. Information is here.

Sofar Sounds Concert from 7:30 to 10 p.m. at Lamplighter Brewing, 284 Broadway, The Port. Tickets are $24. Expect two or three short sets by performers from all musical genres and sometimes even spoken word, comedy or dance. (The curators try to preserve an element of mystery to make each event feel like … an event.) Information is here.

The Dream Syndicate plays “plays The Days of Wine and Roses” at 8 p.m. at at the Somerville Theatre’s Crystal Ballroom, 55 Davis Square. Tickets are $30. On the 40th anniversary of this album, the great 1980s band is signed to a new label and has a new album, “Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions” that will get some time during the show. Information is here.


This post was updated Sept. 12, 2022, to correct the date for the “Dare to Know” exhibit at the Harvard Art Museums.