Monday, April 10

Monica Brashears. (Photo: Beowulf Sheehan)

Monica Brashears reads from “House of Cotton” at 7 p.m. at Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. Free. A down-on-her-luck orphan ventures into an increasingly weird job opportunity in a debut novel called “mystical, carnal and written in fire.” Well-fitting masks are required. Information is here.

Blacksmith House Poetry Series at 8 p.m. at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, 56 Brattle St., Harvard Square. $3. Henri Cole reads from “Gravity and Center: Selected Sonnets, 1994-2022” with Rosanna Warren, author of “So Forth.” Information is here.

The Fringe Ensemble jazz and contemporary music at 8 p.m. at the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden St., Harvard Square. Free, with registration required and donations of $10 or up welcomed. John Lockwood leads a nine-piece band of students. Information is here.

Tuesday, April 11

A red-winged blackbird sings at Alewife Reservation. (Photo: Ann Schlesinger)

Bird watching walk from 3 to 4 p.m. at Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mount Auburn St., West Cambridge. Free, but registration is required. Identify birds, learn tips and tricks to watching and familiarize yourself with spring migrators as well as birds that can be spotted year-round. A limited supply of binoculars will be available. The event meets in the courtyard of the Cambridge Public Library Collins Branch, 64 Aberdeen Ave., West Cambridge. Information is here.

Susan Crawford reads from “Charleston: Race, Water and the Coming Storm” at 7 p.m. at Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. Free. An incisive look at where climate crisis and race meet  – in Charleston, South Carolina, a tourist city with no plan to protect its most vulnerable residents from rising sea levels. The author will be in conversation with fellow Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy. Well-fitting masks are required. Information is here.

Free Music Ensemble jazz and contemporary music at 8 p.m. at the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden St., Harvard Square. Free, with registration required. Peter Evans leads a group whose music aims to answer everything from “What is noise?” to “What does it mean to be free?” The questions may be rhetorical. Information is here.

Wednesday, April 12

Books and Brews from 6:15 to 7:30 p.m. at Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square, Somerville. Free, but 21-plus. A collaboration with the Somerville Public Library that this month explores “Bunny” by Mona Awad. 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, this month “The Wolf House” (2018), an unrated stop-motion-animated Chilean horror film about a young woman finding refuge after escaping from religious fanatics. Directed by Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña. Information is here.

Poets Jennifer Franklin, Jennifer Jean, Dzvinia Orlowsky and Anne Elezabeth Pluto read at 7 p.m. at the Grolier Poetry Book Shop on 6 Plympton St., Harvard Square. $5. The readers are introduced by Fred Marchant. Proof of vaccination is asked at the door and masks are required. Information is here.

Poets Richard Hoffman and DeWitt Henry read at 7 p.m. at Porter Square Books, 25 White St., Porter Square. Free. Expect works from “People Once Real” by Hoffman, nonfiction editor at Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices, and “Restless for Words” by Henry, founding editor of the Ploughshares literary journal. Information is here.

The Language of Flowers: Understanding Pollination Ecology from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge. Free, but registration is required. Rebecca McMackin talks the birds and the bees – and butterflies, bats and other pollinator partners that have shaped the evolution of flowers in a history fraught with trickery, bribery, thievery and wild sexual acrobatics. By the end of the lecture, you will be able to “read” flowers and know their desires. Information is here.

Go to Your Womb! from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. $20. Toni Nagy and daughter Adelia Aldrich perform “a family-friendly acid trip” of comedy, dance and storytelling with guest Bridget Barkan. Information is here.

Thursday, April 13

A comic performs during The Comedy Studio’s residency at Vera’s in Union Square, Somerville. (Photo: Marc Levy)

MIT Museum After Dark: The Science of Comedy from 6 to 9 p.m. at The MIT Museum, 314 Main St., Kendall Square. $20 and 21-plus. The monthly event adds demonstrations, tastings and interactive play to access to galleries, live music, a cash bar and food and drink, this time with insights into what happens when comedians take the stage at open-mic nights and about daring pranks pulled by some of MIT’s most creative hackers. Information is here.

Tongue & Cheek: Original sex storytelling and history from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at The Burren, 247 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. $16. Enthusiasts and amateurs speak on historical, artistic, cultural and educational topics focused on the sex-queer lifestyle in an event once called “a one-night stand with The Moth, Ted Talks and our neighbors the Smut Slam.” Information is here.

British poets Martin Figura, Helen Ivory and Marc Vincenz read at 7 p.m. at the Grolier Poetry Book Shop on 6 Plympton St., Harvard Square. $5. The readers are introduced by Vinay Arun. Proof of vaccination is asked at the door and masks are required. Information is here.

Klezmer Extravaganza from 7 to 11 p.m. at Warehouse XI, 11 Sanborn Court, Union Square, Somerville. A concert and dance party featuring the bands Ezekiel’s Wheels, Mamaliga, Levyosn, the Shtetl Trio, Diva Nigun and Chaia. Information is here.

Mobius Live Series! Movement from 8 to 10 p.m. at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square. $15. Monthly experimental performances, this time curated by Heather Kapplow and Thomas Mackey. Information is here.

New Gallery concert at 8 p.m. at the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden St., Harvard Square. $23. New commissioned music by Beth Denisch, Anthony R. Green, Elena Ruehr and Michael J. Veloso and visual art by Cicely Carew and Mary Ince come together in a series by founding artistic director Sarah Bob. Information is here.

Rock & Roll Rumble preliminaries from 9 p.m. to midnight at The Middle East Upstairs, 472 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. $12 and 18-plus. Anngelle Wood’s Rumble institution, begun in 1979, continues in its second week with a four-band faceoff of Ruin the Nite, Tysk Tysk Task, The Endorphins and The Freqs. Information is here.

Friday, April 14

Threshold 51: Heat launch at 5:30 p.m. at The MIT Museum, 314 Main St., Kendall Square. Free. A party greets a new peer-reviewed journal by the MIT Department of Architecture and distributed by the MIT Press. There will be discussions on the issue’s themes and interactive sessions that engage the subject of “heat” as well as food and drink. Information is here.

Mary Louise Kelly reads from “It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs” at 6 p.m. at The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square. $6, or $28.75 with a copy of the book. The co-host of “All Things Considered” on NPR discusses a memoir of balancing parenting and work until circumstances become wildly unsettled. Kelly will be in conversation with Meghna Chakrabarti, host of NPR’s “On Point,” in a Harvard Book Store event. Information is here.

United Dance presents “Joy” at 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second St., East Cambridge. General admission is $40. Dancers of all abilities perform pieces with the common thread of joy and passion. Information is here.

American Classics presents “Cartoon Tunes” from 7:30 to 10 p.m. at First Church in Cambridge, 11 Garden St., Harvard Square. $25. Famous songs from cartoons and animated films performed by a Boston group devoted to “forgotten gems and newly discovered musical treasures.” Information is here.

ImprovBoston comedy from 8 to 10 p.m. at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. $25 for a 21-plus show. Comics take audience suggestions to craft scenes on the spot. Information is here.

The Horszowski Trio in concert at 8 p.m. at the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden St., Harvard Square. Free, with registration required and donations of $10 or up welcomed. The ensemble-in-residence performs Howard Swanson’s “Cuckoo” for solo piano (1948) and Franz Schubert’s Trio No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op.100. Information is here.

Meg Remy performs as U.S. Girls. (Photo: 4ad)

U.S. Girls performs at 8 p.m. at The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Harvard Square. $22. Meg Remy’s ever-changing musical experiences now have a mixtape feel, thanks to eclectic collaborations following the birth of her twins. Expect a fusing of funk, motherhood, Greek myth, slow jams “and the radical disorientation of joy into an electric tapestry of anthems, aches and awakenings.” Jane Inc. opens. Information is here.

Rock & Roll Rumble preliminaries (continued) from 9 p.m. to midnight at The Middle East Upstairs, 472 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. $12 and 18-plus. A faceoff between Parts Per Million, Kid Disaster, The Chelsea Curve and Luxury Deathtrap. Information is here.

Saturday, April 15

New Music by Longy composers at 3 p.m. at the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden St., Harvard Square. Free, with registration required and donations of $10 or up welcomed. Information is here.

Nature in the City Festival 4 to 6 p.m. at the Mass Audubon Nature Center at Magazine Beach, 668 Memorial Drive, Cambridgeport. Free. Play lawn games, relax outdoors and learn about wildlife and climate action initiatives in the city. A sunset dance party follows. Information is here.

Down Home Up Here Bluegrass Festival at Club Passim from 4 to 11 p.m. at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square (and continuing through April 17). $15 for a day pass. The 11h annual festival features three days of bluegrass and old-time acts, with some workshops mixed in among the concerns and jams. Information is here.

Art and Music Festival from 4 to 11 p.m. at Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville. $20. A mini indoor festival to show off local artists, crafters, musicians and other performers complemented by food trucks, games, a raffle and a community mural. Information is here.

Ballpit Comedy from 6 to 8 p.m. at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. $15. A night of stand-up dedicated to showcasing and uplifting comedians who are typically the “first, only or different” on lineups – often female, queer and people of color. Information is here.

“Taking the Long View” dance at 8 to 9:30 p.m. at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square (and repeating Sunday). $25. Pat Catterson and Molissa Fenley present works reflecting on their influential careers in modern dance. Information is here.

Wildcat Slim, a Rock & Roll Rumble band. (Photo: Wildcat Slim via Facebook)

Rock & Roll Rumble preliminaries (continued) from 9 p.m. to midnight at The Middle East Upstairs, 472 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. $12 and 18-plus. A faceoff between Donaher, Michael Kane & The Morning Afters, Devil Love and Wildcat Slim. 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. $28 and 21-plus. Vaudeville, music and comedy studded with rhinestones in a monthly show that defies decade and genre, each time offering a mix of performers from near and far – this time including Maine Anders, known as “The Maine Attraction”; Boo Boo Darlin’; Evil Hate Monkey; and Pepper Grinds, “the Coarsest Broad in Burlesque,” hosted by Madge of Honor. Masks are required. Information is here.

Sunday, April 16

Down Home Up Here Bluegrass Festival (continued) at Club Passim from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square (and continuing through April 17). $15 for a day pass. Information is here.

Musicians from Marlboro at 3 p.m. at the Longy School of Music, 27 Garden St., Harvard Square. $30. Mendelssohn, Wiancko, Kurtág, Kirsten and Beethoven from the traveling group with violin, viola, cello, double bass and soprano. Information is here.

“Taking the Long View” dance (continued) at 7 to 8:30 p.m. at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. $25. Information is here.