Sunday, Oct. 9

Honk! bands perform Sundays at Oktoberfest in Harvard Square. (Photo: Harvard Square Business Association)

Forty-third Annual Oktoberfest from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Harvard Square. Free. Food from all over the world, arts, crafts, vintage goods, free samples, sidewalk sales and one-of-a-kind gifts are packed in with beer gardens, the “Chalk on the Walk” art installation, music and dancing in the street. New this year is a wine garden hosted by the Commonwealth Wine School and complementary events: The Filipino American Festival and Grolier Poetry Book Shop’s 95th Anniversary Festival. The event has been known to draw as many as 200,000 people. Information is here.

Honk! Festival of Activist Street Bands parade from noon to 2 p.m. from Davis Square, Somerville, to Harvard Square. The Honk! bands march, followed by performances on the main stage and other venues at Oktoberfest until 6 p.m. Information is here.

Cambridge Science Festival Carnival from noon to 4 p.m. adds to the festival’s all-day events, free in the festival zone around 292 Main St. There are more than 75 individual activities with hundreds of presenting partners, shows and events at a family-friendly extravaganza celebrating curiosity, diversity, ingenuity and innovation. Events include robot demonstrations, liquid nitrogen ice cream freeze-off competition, science improv with Harvard’s Hasty Pudding troupe, physics-themed circus shows, slime-making, solar-powered vehicles, giveaways, book readings, food trucks and more. Carnival information is here; overall festival information is here.

Bridgeside Cypher from 3 to 6 p.m. at Starlight Square, 84 Bishop Allen Drive, Central Square. Free. Artists and musicians – rappers, singers and a band – perform in an often improvised format; expect an open mic part of this season finale too. Information is here.

“Borealis” installation (continued) from 8 to 11 p.m. by The MIT Museum, 314 Main St., Kendall Square. Free. Information is here.

The Runway Witch Fashion Show at 8 p.m. at Somerville Theatre’s Crystal Ballroom, 55 Davis Square. Tickets are $40. A drag fashion show with looks made and designed by Binx, who will also offer 13 ways to camp up Halloween wardrobes, then offer tunes to dance the night away under the blood moon. Information is here.

Grolier 95th Anniversary Festival from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in front of Toscano, 52 Brattle St., Harvard Square. Free. Taking place as part of the square’s 43rd Annual Oktoberfest, this event features readings from Peter Balakian; Jennifer Barber; Stephanie Burt; Chen Chen; Martha Collins; Steven Cramer; Christina Davis; Richard Fein; Danielle Legros Georges; George Kalogeris; Joan Naviyuk Kane; Sandra Lim; Los Lorcas; Fred Marchant; Gail Mazur; Gloria Mindock; Porsha Olayiwola; Robert Pinsky; Anna Ross and Lloyd Schwartz. Information is here.

Tuesday, Oct. 11

Poet Aaron Ceycado-Kimura.

Poets Susana H. Case, Aaron Ceycado-Kimura, Margo Stever and Mervyn Taylor read at 7 p.m. at the Grolier Poetry Book Shop, 6 Plympton St., Harvard Square. Admission is $10, and registration is required. The readings are introduced by Mark Pawlak. Proof of vaccination is required at the door, and masks for the duration of the event. Information is here.

“City as Canvas” movie screening 7 to 9 p.m. at Starlight Square, 84 Bishop Allen Drive, Central Square. Free. This award-winning documentary highlights street artists from all over Boston, including Central Square’s own “Graffiti Alley.” Information is here.

Robert Pinsky reads from “Jersey Breaks: Becoming an American Poet” at 7 p.m. at Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. Free. The famed poet writes about his upbringing by a bootlegger grandfather, athletic father and rebellious, tomboy mother in a neighborhood of Italian, Black and Jewish families in late-1940s Long Branch, a run-down resort town. Pinsky will be in conversation with Orlando Patterson, professor of sociology at Harvard University. Well-fitting masks are required. Information is here.

Wednesday, Oct. 12

Jack Nance in David Lynch’s “Eraserhead.”

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, this month offering David Lynch’s “Eraserhead” (1977) – a early nightmare on film by David Lynch about parenting a mutated and eternally yowling baby. Information is here.

Temple Grandin reads from “Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns and Abstractions” at 7 p.m. at Harvard’s Science Center Plaza between Harvard Yard at Kirkland and Oxford streets, near Harvard Square. Tickets are $29.75, which includes a hardcover copy of the book. The famed science writer and animal-psychology expert – also a guiding light in the study of autism – looks at the different ways our brains are wired. Well-fitting masks and an assurance of vaccinations are required at this Harvard Book Store event. Information is here.

The Lilypad Variety Show from 10 p.m. to midnight at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square. There’s a $5 cover. Music, comedy, dance, poetry, art and film may make its way to the stage. Information is here.

Thursday, Oct. 13

Toni Bee at an event in a community garden in The Port neighborhood. (Photo: Marc Levy)

Our History: Poetry & the Personal Past from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Longfellow House and the Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site, 105 Brattle St., West Cambridge. Free, but space is limited and registration required. Former Cambridge Poet Populist Toni Bee brings together poets Chad Parenteau, Justice, Jean Dany Joachim and Heather Nelson for short readings and invites audience members to create their own works reflecting on how the past shapes our individuality and connects us with others. Information is here.

We See You! multidisciplinary art event from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Starlight Square, 84 Bishop Allen Drive, Central Square. Free. Catherine Nakato curates an event with musicians and poets. Information is here.

Arianna Warsaw-Fan Rauch reads from “Declassified: A Low-Key Guide to the High-Strung World of Classical Music” at 7 p.m. at Porter Square Books, 25 White St., Porter Square. Free, but registration is recommended. A violinist who’s toured internationally and played at high-profile venues including Carnegie Hall and the Boston Symphony gives a backstage tour that “blows through the cobwebs of elitism and exclusion and invites everyone to love and hate this music as much as she does.” She’ll be in conversation with violinist Lynn Chang. Masks are required. 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.

Edgar Allan Poe Grown-Up Story Time from 7 to 9 p.m. at Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square, Somerville. Free, but registration is recommended. Volunteers will be selected beforehand to read some classic Poe short stories and poems. Information is here.

“Risks and Rewards” faculty recital by Matthew Savage at 8 p.m. at the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden St., Harvard Square. Free, with donations welcome and registration required. A jazz and fusion recital from the pianist and his bands, the Matt Savage Quartet and Matt Savage Groove Experiment. Information is here.

Glow Boston: Squid Game Party from 10 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. at The Middle East Downstairs, 480 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Admission is $30 for this 18-plus event. DJs spin EDM, hip-hop and Top 40 remixes for a younger crowd – but anyone might be tempted to see the live games (with cash prizes) organizers have come up with inspired by the popular Netflix drama out of Korea. Information is here.

Friday, Oct. 14

Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe reads from “When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm” at 7 p.m. at Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. Free. The New York Times investigative reporters talk about how McKinsey & Co. has earned billions in fees from major corporations and governments in shocking but secretive ways, including using U.S. government contacts to let Wall Street firms evade scrutiny, enabling corruption in developing countries and undermining health care programs across the United States. Well-fitting masks are required. Information is here.

“Small Mouth Sounds” at 8 p.m. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kresge Little Theater in Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Ave. (and continuing through Sunday). Free, but people with reservations will get priority in being seated. Six runaways from city life embark on a silent retreat in the woods and experience an aching need to connect. “Filled with awkward humor, this strange and compassionate new play asks how we address life’s biggest questions when words fail us,” the MIT LOSTheatre says. Information is here.

Details from “Earthen Baby” and “Awake My Soul” by April Clay. (Image: Longy)

“Begin Here” recital at 8 p.m. at the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden St., Harvard Square. Free, but registration is required. Music and visual art come together in the New Gallery Concert Series with Sarah Bob as founding artistic director. Mixed media artist April Clay joins with violist Alexander Vavilov, bassist Anthony Leva, drummer Dylan Jack, Bob on piano and the Sheffield Chamber Players to premiere work by composer Singer Mali; other works will be heard from composers Michael Fiday and Kevin Day, as well as Ukrainian composers Zoltan Almashi, Bohdan Kryvopust, Valentin Slivestrov and Yavhen Stankovych. Information is here.

Saturday, Oct. 15

Fall Fest shopping from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at shops from 2255-2265 Massachusetts Ave., North Cambridge. Tastings, crafts and discounts from a cluster of creative restaurants, food and candy retailers and other specialty shops: Curio Spice Co.; The Little Details; Nussli 118; Spindler Confections; Urban Hearth; and Yummy Thai. Information is here.

Discover Mount Auburn walking tour from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mount Auburn St., West Cambridge. Tickets are $10. Mount Auburn is a National Historic Landmark and certainly one of the most famous cemeteries in the country, the final resting place of nearly 100,000 people – including famous ones such as poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and cookbook author Fannie Farmer – 700 species and varieties of trees, beautiful sculpture and landscaping and gloriously gloomy tombs and mausoleums. This 1.5-mile walking tour focuses on history, monuments and the lives of the buried. Information is here.

Dzvinia Orlowsky. (Photo: Dzvinia Orlowsky)

Voices of Poetry in Cambridge from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at the Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge. Free, but registration is encouraged. An afternoon of poetry from Jennifer Jean, Steve Kuusisto, Jennifer Martelli, Ukrainian author and translator Dzvinia Orlowsky and Anne Pluto. Information is here.

The Great Lilypad Yard Sale from 2 to 7 p.m. at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square. Free. The performance venue hosts a sale of musical instruments; vinyl records, CDs, DVDs and cassettes; electronics and amplifiers; as well as books, art, furniture, vintage clothes, shoes and more. Information is here.

Steel Pan Music and Dance Celebration at 4 p.m. at Old Morse Park, 249 Brookline St., Cambridgeport. Free, but donations are welcome (to the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association, 202 Hamilton St, Cambridge, MA 02139). The Cambridge Youth Steel Orchestra steel pan band, Dorchester’s Tempo International Rhythm & Steel band and Step Into Culture dance group performs to celebrate progress on restoration of historic St. Augustine’s African-Orthodox Church (across from the park at 137 Allston St.) and the start of Black History in Action for Cambridgeport programming for 2022-2023.

“Small Mouth Sounds” (continued) at 4 and 8 p.m. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kresge Little Theater in Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Ave. (and continuing through Sunday). Free, but people with reservations will get priority in being seated. 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 $28 for this 21-plus show. 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.

Sunday, Oct. 16

Artist Kate Bresnahan at a Flea held Oct. 13, 2019, at the Cambridge Community Center in Riverside. (Photo: Marc Levy)

Hassle Flea from 12:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Cambridge Community Center, 5 Callender St., Riverside. Admission is $1. Cider, coffee and live music are the backdrop to a flea market featuring handmade artwork, prints, patches, records, tees, pins, ceramics, jewelry, zines, body care, tea, fiber art, vintage clothing, accessories, books as well as tarot readings, haircuts, live drawings and more. Masks are requested. Information is here.

Pumpkin carving in hourlong slots from 1 to 5 p.m. at Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square, Somerville. Admission is $15. A pumpkin from Wilson Farm and access to tools are included in the entry price. (The brewery’s craft beer is not.) Information is here.

Harvest festival from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Somerville Community Growing Center, 22 Vinal Ave., near Union Square, Somerville. Free. There will be harvest activities and games, pumpkin decorating and a “celebration of the bounty nature shares with us” at this event called a “gathering in gratitude.” Information is here.

“Small Mouth Sounds” (continued) at 2 and 6 p.m. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kresge Little Theater in Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Ave. Free, but people with reservations will get priority in being seated. Information is here.

Regie Gibson & Atlas Soul Trio at 3 p.m. at the Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second St., East Cambridge. Free. Poet and musicians team up for covers and originals with Gibson’s resonant, dazzling and thought-provoking wordplay. Information is here.