A week of events in Cambridge and Somerville, from ‘Obitchuary’ pod to true tales of the bizarre
Sunday, Feb. 26
Lizzo drag brunch at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at Summer Shack, 149 Alewife Brook Parkway, North Cambridge. Neon Calypso leads a cast that’ll spice up your oysters and lobster rolls with the music of our era’s power flutist. Information is here.
“Descendant” screens from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., near Harvard Square. Free. Filmmaker Margaret Brown returned to her hometown of Mobile, Alabama, to document the search for and historic discovery in 2019 of The Clotilda, which in 1860 become the last known ship to arrive in the United States carrying enslaved Africans – illegally. Information is here.
Be the Change with Dr. Michael Fine, author of “On Medicine as Colonialism” from 3 to 5 p.m. at Porter Square Books, 25 White St., Porter Square. Free. Fine, in conversation with Lown Institute president Vikas Saini and other health policy experts, talks about the Covid pandemic and other costly failures of a health care system in which hospitals, insurance companies, Big Pharma, specialists and even primary care doctors have become tools of profiteers. Information is here.
Ice Party from 6 to 9 p.m. at Harvest, 44 Brattle St., Harvard Square. $60. Usher out the last of the slush and freezing temperatures with a 1980s après-ski-themed party with shotskis, ice-luged cocktails and Lamplighter brews, tunes from DJ Ryan Brown and “elevated lodge eats” from chefs Nicholas Deutmeyer and Tab Volpe. It benefits Furnishing Hope, a homelessness charity. Information is here.
Love & Happiness dance from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. $25. A celebration of hip-hop with Billy and Bobby McClain, the dancing duo known as the Wondertwins. Information is here.
“Waiting for Godot” from 7 to 10 p.m. at at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville (with showings through Wednesday). $15. The Deadword theater company presents its inaugural production: Samuel Beckett’s existentialist two-hander of poetry, dreamscapes and comical nonsense. Information is here.
Monday, Feb. 27
A scene from “Stormy Weather” (1943).
Elements of Cinema series: “Stormy Weather” at 6 p.m. at The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square. Free. “Boston’s unofficial film school” brings back a monthly series of movies presented by guest speakers. This time it’s Andrew L. Stone’s 1943 musical drama starring Bill Robinson, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Katherine Dunham and Lena Horne, with Emerson College associate professor Shaun Clarke educating on film history and – schedule permitting – holding an after-film conversation with the audience. Masks and vaccinations are recommended but not required. Information is here.
Rupert Holmes reads from “Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide” at 7 p.m. at Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. Free. The writer of the Tony Award–winning Best Musical “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” returns with a droll novel about a mysterious school where students are admitted if they have an ethical reason to commit murder. The author will be in conversation with Amory Sivertson, of “Modern Love: The Podcast” and WBUR’s “Endless Thread.” Well-fitting masks are required. Information is here.
Tuesday, Feb. 28
The Moth Story Slam from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at The Center for Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. $15. This open-mic storytelling competition on the fourth Tuesday of each month is open to anyone who can share a five-minute true story on the night’s theme – this time, “bizarre,” in which participants are asked to tell of “things that are strange and peculiar. Oddities, anomalies and concepts that don’t at first compute. Strange images on the horizon, mysterious neighbors, distant family members, green ketchup, real estate tycoons (with strange hairpieces) turned politicians and everything in between.” Information is here.
Daisy Alpert Florin. (Photo: Sylvie Rosokoff)
Daisy Alpert Florin reads from “My Last Innocent Year” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Porter Square Books, 25 White St., Porter Square. Free. A debut novel about a nonconsensual sexual encounter that brings controversy, chaos and an ill-advised affair with a married professor to a final semester at an elite New England college, all set against the backdrop of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. The author will be in conversation with Joanna Rakoff, author of “My Salinger Year” and “A Fortunate Age.” Information is here.
“Waiting for Godot” (continued) from 7 to 10 p.m. at at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville (with one more staging Wednesday). $15. Information is here.
Wednesday, March 1
A Book Club Walks Into a Bar from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Lamplighter Brewing, 284 Broadway, The Port. Free. Lamplighter and the Cambridge Public Library team up to highlight contemporary works from marginalized voices in this series taking place in the brewery’s back taproom. This time the book is “Easy Beauty: A Memoir” by Chloé Cooper Jones, which interrogates our standards of beauty and desirability from the perspective of someone born with a disability and pain. Information is here.
“Waiting for Godot” (continued) from 7 to 10 p.m. at at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. $15. Information is here.
Madison Reyes and Spencer Henry of the “Obitchuary” podcast. (Photo: Ticketmaster)
Obitchuary Podcast Live! at 7:30 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre’s Crystal Ballroom, 55 Davis Square. $35. Best friends Spencer Henry and Madison Reyes turned their habit of sending each other wild, absurd and sometimes scathing obituaries into a hit podcast in which they deep-dive into macabre history, funeral facts and of course some wild published remembrances. Information is here.
Thursday, March 2
A reading of “The One Day” by Donald Hall from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge. Free. The American poet’s masterwork gets the Major Poem Project treatment in a reading by poets Mary Buchinger, Kevin Gallagher and Steven Ratiner, edited and directed by Michael Todd Steffen. Information is here.
Kelly McMasters presents “Wanting: Women Writing About Desire” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Porter Square Books, 25 White St., Porter Square. Free. The editor of this anthology of essays exploring the changing face of female desire turns up the heat in the bookstore with contributors Joanna Rakoff and Jennifer De Leon (though essays don’t ignore nonsexual desires, such as for more time or a pair of $500 cowboy boots). Information is here.
Catherine J. Turco, author of “Harvard Square: A Love Story.” (Photo: Philip Borden)
Catherine J. Turco reads from “Harvard Square: A Love Story” at 7 p.m. at Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. Free. The economic sociologist and lifelong visitor to the square talks about how Cambridge’s sacred marketplace has had at least a century of hearing how it “isn’t what it used to be” – and explores why we love our marketplaces in the first place. Well-fitting masks are required. Information is here.
“Say Something” open-mic night from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. $10. Bring a guitar or a book of poetry – the hosts “just want you to feel free to ‘Say Something.’” Information is here.
Friday, March 3
Poets Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Jill McDonough and Keith Jones read at 7 p.m. at the Grolier Poetry Book Shop on 6 Plympton St., Harvard Square. $5. The poets read after an introduction by Janaka Stucky. Masks are required for the duration of the event. Proof of vaccination is asked at the door. Information is here.
Radius Ensemble’s “Flourishes” concert at 8 p.m. at the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden St., Harvard Square. $25. This ensemble-in-residence presents “The Stone and the Milkweed,” a new piece for horn, viola, piano and narrator by Jonathan Bailey Holland; “The Way of Ideas” (2007) for flute, clarinet, violin and cello by Alexandra Gardner, inspired by Phlip Pullman’s “The Golden Compass” novel; and more. Masks are required. Information is here.
“T: An MBTA Musical” from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. $29 for this 21-plus show. This snarky play by John Michael Manship (book) and Melissa Carubia (music and lyrics) pulls back into the station for a twice-monthly staging. 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, with masks. Information is here.
Saturday, March 4
Discover Mount Auburn walking tour from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mount Auburn St., West Cambridge. $10. Mount Auburn is a National Historic Landmark and 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 – along with home to 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.
Short films screening with director Raouf Zaki from 1 to 3 p.m. at Somerville Public Library, 79 Highland Ave., on Central Hill. Free. Zaki’s comedic “Just Your Average Arab,” beautiful “Santa Claus in Baghdad” and suspenseful “Fireflies” screen in an event sponsored with the Center for Arabic Culture. Zaki will be on hand for a Q&A and to share a trailer for his feature film, “Dreams.” Information is here.
New music marathon at 5 p.m. at the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden St., Harvard Square. Free, but registration is required. Works of Longy composers since 1965 are performed by faculty and students with a performance by the Interwoven ensemble (using erhu, koto, shamisen, violin, viola and cello) included at 8 p.m. Information is here.
Joke Sistas from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. $18 for a 21-plus show. Ballpit Comedy presents a lineup of comedians of color headlined by Reece Cotton with Awet Teame, Tooky Cavanaugh, Eryca Nolan, Emily Mu and Rachel Dunbar, hosted by Joanna Briley. Information is here.
Sunday, March 5
“Legally Blonde” drag brunch at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at Summer Shack, 149 Alewife Brook Parkway, North Cambridge. Neon Calypso hosts a show paying tribute to the 2001 movie and iconic Harvard student Elle Woods, with diners encouraged to also wear costumes inspired by “Legally Blonde.” Information is here.
“It Begins With Breath” faculty debut recital at 3 p.m. at the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden St., Harvard Square. Free, with donations up to $20 accepted. A chance to hear works by composer and improviser Matthew Evan Taylor, whose music has been performed across the United States and Europe by such ensembles as the Cleveland Orchestra and Detroit Symphony. Information is here.
Poets David Blair, Tanya Larkin, David Rivard, Sam Witt and Talia Adry Witt read from 3 to 5 p.m. at Gallery 263, 263 Pearl St., Cambridgeport. Information is here.
