Thursday, Oct. 30
Moon Over Bow from 4 to 9 p.m. at Bow Market, 1 Bow Market Way, Union Square, Somerville. Free entry. Shop small batch crafts, tarot readings, aura photography, experiential jewelry and DIY workshops.
Harvard Art Museums at Night from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., near Harvard Square, Cambridge (and the last Thursday of every month). Free. During this recurring event, wander exhibits, make art, catch spotlight tours, browse the shop, enjoy sounds from DJ C-Zone and buy refreshments from local breweries.
Pamela S. Nadell reads from “Antisemitism, an American Tradition” at 7 p.m. at the Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free. Jews have experienced antisemitism since landing in America in 1654. Nadell explores this history and its recent manifestations: white nationalists chanting “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, Virginia, and a gunman murdering 11 worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue building. Dartmouth College’s Susannah Heschel joins.
Arts at the Armory presents “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” 50th Anniversary at 7 p.m. at the Performance Hall at Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Spring Hill, Somerville. $25. The Teseracte Players of Boston and audience members bring an interactive screening of the 1975 musical comedy horror cult classic. Costumes and call backs are highly encouraged.
Poets Judith Goldman, Karla Kelsey and Sarah Riggs from 7 to 8 p.m. at Grolier Poetry Book Shop on 6 Plympton St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. $5 to $10, but register. With an introduction by Michael McCarthy.
Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys Halloween Happening at 7:30 p.m. at Charles Hayden Planetarium, Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston, on the Cambridge border. $20 to $25 and 18-plus. This live planetarium performance blends music, art and theatrical chaos in a surreal voyage through sound and space. Costumes encouraged – and rewarded.
Comedian Byron Bertram at 8 p.m. at The Comedy Studio, 5 John F. Kennedy St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. $20 to $25. Sets featuring voices and accents has garnered Bertram numerous TV appearances, including “Britain’s Got Talent,” “Supernatural” and “Riverdale.”
Lamplighter Sessions at 8 p.m. at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square, Cambridge (and continuing through Nov. 3). $33 to $35. Presented by the singer-songwriter-iconoclast Peter Mulvey, this multinight mini festival of improvisational art – music, spoken word, visual art and theater – always includes Halloween. Mulvey, Sean Staples and Red Sox organist Josh Kantor performs a repertoire of baseball songs such as “The Knuckleball Suite” and a cover of Nina Simone’s version of Chuck Berry’s “Brown Eyed Handsome Man.”
Meltt performs at 8 p.m. at The Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. $20 to $22. This alternative-indie psych rock band from Vancouver, Canada, blends psychedelic guitars and synth swells with Chris Smith (vocals, guitar, bass and keys), Jamie Turner (percussion), James Porter (guitar, keys, bass and vocals) and Ian Winkler (bass, keys and guitar).
Harvard Book Store After Dark from 8:30 to 10 p.m. at the Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free, but RSVP. A costume contest is judged by booksellers, and the winner gets a 20 percent-off coupon to use on Hallo-weekend. There’s a special pitch-a-book event for customers to share their favorite books, scary stories, old wives’ tales, urban legends and more.
Kind King plays Pink Floyd at 10 p.m. at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge. $15. The collective formed in 2011 takes on the entirety of “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” along with other classics from Floyd’s most celebrated era. For this performance, the otherwise-instrumental group features their voices for the first time, with drummer Mike Moschetto, guitarist Michael Thomas Doyle and keyboardist Amory Sivertson sharing vocal duties. The lineup is rounded out by Caleb Green on guitar, Tommy Mulcahy on bass and Jake Hirsch on saxophone.
Halloweek: “The Crow” at 10:30 p.m. at The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. $13 to $15. One year after young rock guitarist Eric Draven and his fiancée are killed by a ruthless gang of criminals, Draven, watched over by a hypnotic crow, returns from the grave to exact revenge.
Friday, Oct. 31
Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” at 3:30 p.m. at The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. $13. In the 1992 film by Francis Ford Coppola, Count Dracula travels to London to turn Mina Harker, a young woman who appears as the reincarnation of his lost love.
Halloween Bonanza from 7 to 11 p.m. at Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square, Somerville. Free entry and 21-plus. A costume contest, specialty seasonal beers on tap and spooky tunes from The Femmes.
Friday’s Comedy Gold: Halloween Edition at 7:30 p.m. at The Comedy Studio, 5 John F. Kennedy St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. $20 to $26. Dress up for a night with seasoned stand-up comedians.
Calling All Zombies Halloween Dance from 7:30 to 11:45 p.m. at Epic Ballroom, 26 New St., Suite 3, Fresh Pond, Cambridge. $15 to $22. Come in costume, if you’d like, to this annual event by Boston Swing Central. Kicks off with an all-level “Thriller” line dance lesson. No partner required; no street shoes.
Lamplighter Sessions (continued) at 8 p.m. at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square, Cambridge (and continuing through Nov. 3). $33 to $35.
Couples Art Halloween Paint Night: Graveyard Romance at 8 p.m. at Muse Paintbar, 461 Artisan Way, Assembly Square, Somerville. $55. Create a part of the painting for a finished product that hangs together. No art experience required.
Cirque of the Dead at 8 p.m. at Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Spring Hill, Somerville. $38 to $65 and 18-plus. Boston Circus Guild’s show blends aerials, acrobatics and contortion with creepy camp and humorous horror; this year’s story pulls from the shadows of film noir, creature features and ’50s-era sci-fi.
Harvard Bands’ annual Montage Concert from 8 to 10 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St., near Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free. Alumni from every decade from the 1950s through the 2020s join the Harvard University Band to commemorate its 105th anniversary, followed by the band’s wind ensemble joining in to perform Harvard football songs.
ManRay Halloween from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at ManRay, 40 Prospect St., Central Square, Cambridge. $20 to $25 and 19-plus. Dance all night with DJs Andre Obin and Static and a costume contest with a $1,000 first prize! Dress to impress in costumes or creative attire.
Wolf’s Pumpkin Bash ’25 at 9:30 p.m. at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge. $15. For more than 30 years, the Legendary Vudu Krewe has been Boston’s staunchest torchbearer for New Orleans-style R&B.
Mikayla Shirley jazz from midnight to 1 a.m. at The Mad Monkfish, 524 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square, Cambridge. Free to enter. Late-night entertainment from a Berklee College of Music student.
Saturday, Nov. 1
Cambridge 5K at 10 a.m. at CambridgeSide, 100 CambridgeSide Place, East Cambridge. Free to watch. Cheer while runners zip through this scenic, USA Track & Field certified course alongside the Charles River. The half marathon takes place Sunday.
26th Annual Family Literacy Fun Day from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Cambridge City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Free. Free books in English and 26 other languages, children’s activities, performers and a light lunch. For ages infant through third grade.
Tour of the Secret Quarries of Somerville from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Somerville Museum, 1 Westwood Road, in the Spring Hill neighborhood. $15 to $25. Somerville resident Robin Hazard Ray walks through Somerville’s deep past, beginning and ending at the Somerville Museum. The rocks underlying Somerville date to a time before the dinosaurs. Wear walking shoes and bring some water.
Boston Anarchist Bookfair from noon to 6 p.m. at Cambridge Community Center, 5 Callender St., Riverside (and continues Sunday). Free. More than 30 groups offer literature, artwork and workshops on ideas of contemporary anarchism.
Gallery Talk: Activation of Moholy-Nagy’s “Light Prop for an Electric Stage” from 1 to 1:30 p.m. at the Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., near Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free. New works on view are highlighted, in this case looking at old favorites to investigate the use of materials and techniques – as in László Moholy-Nagy’s 1930 exhibit using aluminum, steel, nickel-plated brass, other metals, plastic, wood and an electric motor.
Discover Mount Auburn Introductory Walking Tour from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mount Auburn St., West Cambridge. Free, but registration required. This 1.5-mile walking tour focuses on stories of history, monuments and the lives of those buried at this National Historic Landmark.
Day of the Dead Celebration from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, 11 Divinity Ave., in the Baldwin neighborhood near Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free with museum admission. Write a message to deceased loved ones for the museum altar and learn about this joyful and colorful Mexican holiday through craft making, live mariachis and folkloric dance and some additional-cost activities: customizing a sugar skull, tasting traditional bread of the dead and buying Oaxacan wood carvings and chocolate drinks.
International Uilleann Piping Day from 1 to 4 p.m. at Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Spring Hill, Somerville. Free. This global celebration of the unique Irish “uilleann pipes” takes place around the world and is aimed at raising awareness of this iconic Irish instrument. Join the Boston Uilleann Pipers Club and try the pipes from 1 to 1:50 p.m. and then join a traditional Irish session (open to all, not just pipers) from 2 to 4 p.m.
Halloween Party and media night at the New England Science Fiction Association from 1 to 10:30 p.m. at the group’s clubhouse at 504 Medford St., Magoun Square, Somerville. Free. A party with costumes welcomed followed by a special Halloween edition of watches starting at 7 p.m.
Exhibition tour of “American Artist: To Acorn” and “Goldin+Senneby: Flare-Up” at 2 p.m. at the List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames St., Kendall Square, Cambridge. Free. This guided walkthrough explores the recently opened “Acorn” exhibit inspired by the speculative fiction of Octavia Butler and “Flare-Up,” exploring issues of autoimmunity, accessibility and ecology.
Dia de los Muertos Festival at 2 p.m. at the Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second St., East Cambridge. Free to $120. A cultural festival featuring artisan vendors, live traditional music, a commemorative ofrenda (altar) and a procession of Catrinas, symbolizing the beauty and continuity of life and death in Mexican tradition. Marissa Molinar offers a traditional Mexican folkloric dance workshop. Zaira Meneses curates live music for the festivities and evening performance.
Lamplighter’s “Beer School” tour and tasting from 4 to 5 p.m. at Lamplighter Brewing, 284 Broadway, The Port, Cambridge. $34, but 21-plus. For this monthly event, each ticket includes one 6-ounce welcome beer and a flight of samples, a guided tasting and behind-the-scenes brewery tour, a beer school “quiz” (with an answer key) and a Lamplighter Beer School diploma.
Vive10 performance at 7 p.m. at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square, Cambridge (and continuing on Sunday). $15 to $30. A contemporary dance concert, celebrating 10 years of the troupe Evolve Dynamicz, made up of Evolve Repertoire and Improv Dynamicz.
Grammy-winning pianist Bill Charlap at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. at Regattabar, 1 Bennett St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. $35 to $48. An evening of jazz mastery, Charlap brings decades of celebrated performances and recordings to the Cambridge stage.
Lamplighter Sessions (continued) at 8 p.m. at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square, Cambridge (and continuing through Nov. 3). $33 to $35.
Le Vent du Nord performs at 8 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre’s Crystal Ballroom, 55 Davis Square. $38 to $55. The award-winning five-piece band from Québec plays its rhythmic and soulful music rooted in the Celtic diaspora and enhanced by global influences.
Harvard Jazz Orchestra in concert with Aaron Goldberg at 8 p.m. at Harvard’s Lowell Lecture Hall, 17 Kirkland St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. $15. Goldberg, American jazz pianist and Harvard alum, guests with the orchestra as conducted by Yosvany Terry.
The Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum & The Radcliffe Choral Society present “What Endures: Voices Through Time” at 8 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St., near Harvard Square, Cambridge. $10. This collaborative concert features Windborne, a vocal quartet known for engagement with global folk traditions of resistance. With guest artist Elitsa Stoyneva, a Bulgarian folk singer, the program draws inspiration from the Day of the National Awakeners, a Bulgarian holiday honoring those who preserve culture and awaken the spirit through music, education and collective memory.
Sunday, Nov. 2
Cambridge Half Marathon at 7 a.m. at CambridgeSide, 100 CambridgeSide Place, East Cambridge. Free to watch. Cheer on while runners zip through this scenic USA Track & Field certified course alongside the Charles River.
Autumn Id0l Jam from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Spring Hill, Somerville. Free. An “Idol” cosplay event serves as a showcase for area talents with a related contest, trivia event and market put on by the New England Idol Cosplay Community organization and Metam0re, a cosplay and dance duo specializing in the Vocaloid singing synthesizer.
Boston Anarchist Bookfair (continued) from noon to 5 p.m. at Cambridge Community Center, 5 Callender St., Riverside. Free.
Near East Tours led by Harvard students at 1 p.m. at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, 6 Divinity Ave., in the Baldwin neighborhood near Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free. Explore the “Mediterranean Marketplaces: Connecting the Ancient World” exhibition and how the movement of goods, peoples and ideas around the ancient Mediterranean transformed the lives and livelihoods of people at all levels of society. Touch replicas and smell “ancient” scents as the students bring the past alive.
Tyler and the Names perform at 2:30 p.m. at Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square, Somerville. Free. A Cambridge band with Tyler Bejoian (guitar, vocals), Tim Wolf (percussion), Bennett Kealey (guitar), Stirling Taylor (organ) and Frank McNeighbor (bass). It released “Paycheck” in February.
The Joy of Rediscovering Tagore festival and performances from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second St., East Cambridge. $25. East meets West brings to life creations of Rabindranath Tagore – a Bengali poet and playwright in the Bengal Renaissance of the early 20th century – through songs, dances, short plays, srutinataks (narrated dramas) and a panel discussion.
Día de los Muertos at Bow from 4 to 9 p.m. at Bow Market, 1 Bow Market Way, Union Square, Somerville. Free entry. The shop Amantolli hosts an evening with a traditional altar, Mexican chocolate and bread (pan de muertos), food from Taquísimo, cultural vendors and music from DJs and a mariachi band. Across-the-market food and drinks specials too.
Foraged Banquet Fundraiser from 5 to 9 p.m. at Gallery 263, 263 Pearl St., Cambridgeport. $100 to $150. Enjoy drinks, conversation and local autumnal flavors and foraged delicacies collected by gallery co-founder and foraging expert David Craft to benefit this nonprofit art gallery.
Vive10 performance (continued) at 5:30 p.m. at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square, Cambridge. $15 to $30.
Avalon Dance Productions’ fall showcase at 6 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre’s Crystal Ballroom, 55 Davis Square. $36. Studios from Canada and Connecticut join to bring iconic film moments to life on stage. Feel the thrill of live music by Brent Mills; Elisa Fiorillo, legendary longtime vocalist for Prince; and acclaimed jazz violinist Tomoko Iwamoto.
Juliana de Groot reads from “Elegy of the Stars” from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Pandemonium Books & Games, 4 Pleasant St., Central Square, Cambridge. $5. In this young adult novel, 15-year-old Balmung is a necromancer in an apocalyptic medieval world, negotiating with malevolent ghosts and helping lost souls pass on. He wants to join the Necromancy Guild – trusted by Brevaria’s high astrologers to protect their kingdom from the Horsemen – and repay Guild leader Magdalene for saving his life.
Lamplighter Sessions (continued) at 7 p.m. at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square, Cambridge (and continuing through Nov. 3). $33 to $35.
An All Ireland Affair: The Music of The Famous Flanagan Brothers from 7 to 9 p.m. at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge. $28. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Flanagan Brothers were one of Irish music’s most successful acts. The group’s high-spirited energy is celebrated by Dan Neely (banjo), Diarmuid Ó Meachair (melodeon) and Matt Mulqueen (piano) explore these recordings.
Monday, Nov. 3
Tina Chang poetry at 6 p.m. at Harvard University’s Barker Center, 12 Quincy St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free. A reading from the forthcoming collection, “Lion,” followed by a discussion with artist Hồng-Ân Trương. Harvard’s Tracy K. Smith moderates for the Morris Gray Poetry Reading series.
Water treatment plant tour from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Water Department facility at 250 Fresh Pond Parkway, in West Cambridge at Fresh Pond, Cambridge. Free. Get to know where your water comes from, chat with water treatment staff and see the equipment in action, including the water-quality lab.
Steve Ramirez reads from “How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist’s Quest to Alter the Past” at 6:30 p.m. at the Harvard Science Center, 1 Oxford St., near Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free, or $32 with book. As a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ramirez created false memories in the lab. As a neuroscientist working at the frontiers of brain science, he foresees a future where we can replace our negative memories with positive ones.
Irin Carmon reads from “Unbearable: Five Women and the Perils of Pregnancy in America” at 7 p.m. at the Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free. The journalist and author introduces readers to five women navigating pregnancy care from that first positive pregnancy test through joy, loss and the unforeseen, and to the outnumbered people fighting for reproductive health care. Boston University’s Aziza Ahmed joins.
Picture + Panel: Cats with Tana Ford and Colleen AF Venable at 7 p.m. at the Boston Figurative Arts Center, 285 Washington St., Ward 2, Somerville. Free to $5 and 21-plus. Ford, who has illustrated comics for Marvel, Dark Horse, Vertigo and IDW, and Venable, author of “Kiss Number 8,” a graphic novel created with Ellen T. Crenshaw, are at this monthly confab of graphic-novel creators sponsored by the Boston Figurative Arts Center, Porter Square Books and the Boston Comic Arts Foundation. This month, pounce into the world of space-traveling super cats to mysterious apartment dwellers.
The Tall Trio from 7 to 8 p.m. at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge. $10 to $15. The Lilypad’s Tall Trio warms up the stage Mondays for a night full of jazz legends. Usually led by Elan Mehler with Max Ridley and Dor Herskovits.
Pitch a Friend from 7 to 9 p.m. at Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square in Ward 2, Somerville. Free. Prepare a three- to five-minute slide presentation to pitch your single pal to a room full of other singles and onlookers. “Like Shark Tank, but for love and friendship.”
Lamplighter Sessions (continued) at 8 p.m. at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square, Cambridge (and continuing through Nov. 3). $33 to $35.
A Woman’s Place (Onna no za) film showing at 8:15 p.m. at the Harvard Film Archive at The Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. $10. A tragicomedy of a widow’s relationship with her troubled junior high school-age son; a matriarch’s regret over having abandoned her infant son to join a second family; and a woman at the outer limit of what is considered prime marriage age falling in love with a handsome man who may or may not be a scoundrel. The 1962 film with English subtitles is directed by Naruse Mikio.
Jerry Bergonzi Quartet from 8:30 to 10 p.m. at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge (and continuing most Mondays). $10 to $15. Bergonzi brings his tenor sax to this seated show with bandmates Phil Grenadier on trumpet and Luther Gray on drums.
The Fringe performs at 10 p.m. at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge (and every Monday) $15. Remaining members of The Fringe (formed in 1971), tenor-saxophonist George Garzone, bassist John Lockwood and drummer Francisco Mela perform contemporary jazz.
Tuesday, Nov. 4
Gallery Talk: Gray Area – German Expressionism, German Colonialism from 12:30 to 1 p.m. at the Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., near Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free. In 1913 – the same year Emil Nolde painted “Woman of Mixed Race” – legislation was passed in Germany that made “German blood” the sole criterion for citizenship. This made it legal to exclude Germans of African descent, including the unnamed stage performer in Nolde’s painting. Focusing on the representation of race and gender in Nolde’s work, this talk by curatorial fellow Peter Murphy draws connections between Germany’s colonial project and avant-garde art.
Andrew Zimmern reads from “The Blue Food Cookbook: Delicious Seafood Recipes for a Sustainable Future” at 6 p.m. at The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. $12, or $50 with book. In collaboration with the PBS docuseries “Hope in the Water,” TV host Zimmern explores blue food from water to plate – how to best buy, prepare and cook from our oceans and waterways sustainably. Co-author Barton Seaver joins.
Amy Erdman Farrell reads from “Intrepid Girls: The Complicated History of the Girl Scouts of the USA” at 7 p.m. at the Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free. A former Girl Scout discusses the complicated and surprising history of the organization. Harvard University’s Tiya Miles joins.
Chloe Gong reads from “Coldwire” at 7 p.m. at Porter Square Books, 1815 Massachusetts Ave., Porter Square, Cambridge. $24 with book. To flee a deteriorating world, most of society lives “upcountry” in virtual reality, while those who can’t afford the subscription are forced to remain in crumbling “downcountry.” When Lia, a student of the military academy in upcountry, is paired with her academic nemesis, Eirale, the two start to suspect they are puzzle pieces in a larger conspiracy. The closer they get to the truth, the closer their worlds come to a shattering collision.
Romance book group from 7:15 to 8:15 p.m. in the teen room at the Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge. Free. A book discussion group for teens and adults. This month: “Reforged” by Seth Haddon.
Smut Slam from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville (and the first Tuesday of every month). $10 suggested donation. An open mic invites participants to tell five-minute, real-life dirty stories. Kat Sistare hosts.
Bluesy Tuesy Social Dance from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at New England Science Fiction Association clubhouse at 504 Medford St., Magoun Square, Somerville (and every Tuesday). $5 to $25. DJs play at this weekly partner blues dance event that includes a lesson for beginners in the first hour.
Indie trivia at 8 p.m. at Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square in Ward 2, Somerville. Free. Test your knowledge every Tuesday. Aeronaut opens the taproom to players and hosts for this independent game of knowledge.
Dan Bern performs at 8 p.m. at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. $43 to $45. The folk and rock singer-songwriter has released more than 30 albums, the most recent being “Starting Over w/Jane’s Great Dane” in 2024.
After Hours Live: Glory Dogs, LYS, Kira Severy at 10:15 p.m. at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge. $12. A night with the country-rock of Glory Dogs, pop-rock with folk influences of LYS & Co. and vulnerable songs and powerful vocals of Kira Severy.
Wednesday, Nov. 5
Medicinal plant walk from 2:30 to 4 p.m. at the bike path near the Alewife Brook Pathway and DCR Wetland Boardwalk. Free, but registration required. Herbalist Mo Katz-Christy walks through Alewife Reservation to learn about the medicine, botany and magic of medicinal herbs. Bring a notebook to discuss medicinal plants in Cambridge and their specific properties.
“Queers at the Table”: book launch and fundraiser for Connexion Meal at 6:30 p.m. at Connexion, 149 Broadway, East Somerville. $5, $36 with book. This new anthology explores the ways queerness informs food production and restaurant culture and how food empowers, transforms and unites queer and trans folk. Features food and drink, as well as a panel with queer food historians Megan J. Elias and Alex D. Ketchum, joined by contributors Danielle Rousseau and Jo Michael Rezes. Ticket sales from this event are donated to the Connexion Meal.
Blues and roots music at 6:30 p.m. at The Sea Hag Restaurant & Bar, 49 Mount Auburn St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free. The Barrett Anderson Band performs every Wednesday. Joining Anderson (vocals and guitar) are Paul Loranger (upright and electric bass) and Joey Pafumi (drums and percussion).
Listening to Classical Music with Professional Violinist Joshua Peckins from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Somerville Public Library West Branch, 40 College Ave., near Davis Square. Peckins has appeared as violin soloist throughout North America, Europe and Asia, and has performed locally with the Boston Pops.
Louisa Solano Memorial Reading at 7 p.m. at the Grolier Poetry Book Shop on 6 Plympton St., Harvard Square. $5 to $10. Features Peter Balakian with an introduction by Susan Barba to honor the former owner of the bookshop, who died in 2022 at 80.
Amanda Foody and C.L. Herman read from “A Fate So Cold” at 7 p.m. at Porter Square Books, 1815 Massachusetts Ave., Porter Square, Cambridge. Free. For most of the year, summer reigns peacefully over Alderland. For six brutal weeks, winter rages, obliterating towns and wreaking casualties. Among magicians who bond with powerful wands to defend the nation are a Chosen Two who discover love but wonder if thwarting an oncoming cataclysm requires one to kill the other. Author Rory Power joins.
Bert Seager’s Heart of Hearing performs from 7 to 8 p.m. at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge. $5 to $15. The jazz quartet of piano, tenor-saxophone, upright-bass and drums brings listeners into improvised jazz.
Illustrator Charlie Mackesy at 7:30 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre’s Crystal Ballroom, 55 Davis Square. $48, includes book. His internationally bestselling “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” was published in October 2019 and is a New York Times bestseller.
Pine Tree Flyers at 8 p.m. at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. $30 to $33. Americana and Celtic musicians Katie McNally (fiddle), Emily Troll (accordion), Benjamin Foss (guitar) and Neil Pearlman (piano).
Gill Aharon Trio performs from 8:15 to 10 p.m. at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge (and every Wednesday). $10. A mix of influences inspires composer and pianist Aharon, founder of the Lilypad performance and event space. The trio includes bassist Jef Charland, guitarist Andrew Stern and drummer Randy Wooten.
Thursday, Nov. 6
The Norton Lectures with Steve McQueen: “Bass” at 6 p.m. at Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St., near Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free, but RSVP. The third in six Cambridge lectures by Steve McQueen, artist and director of “12 Years a Slave” (2013), received the Golden Globe, Oscar and Bafta awards for best picture in 2014. “Bass” is an immersive installation made up of the structural elements of film – light and sound – that is meant to upend our perception of space, time and ourselves. The work features sound created by an intergenerational group of Afrodiasporic musicians who worked together to bring this low-end frequency of the bass, typically in the background, to the foreground. Renowned bassist, singer-songwriter and poet Meshell Ndegeocello, one of the five contributors to the soundtrack for “Bass,” performs.
Chloe Garcia Roberts and Brad Fox read from “Carne de Dios” and “Another Bone-Swapping Event” at 7 p.m. at the Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square, Cambridge. Free. Roberts, deputy editor of the Harvard Review, translates Homero Aridjis’ novel about a group of bohemians and researchers, real and imagined, who descend on the town of Huautla de Jiménez searching for salvation in the sacred mushrooms found there. Fox tells the story of a year spent stuck in the high jungles of Peru living with a family of Quechua-speaking curanderos, traditional medicine practitioners responsible for a 100-hectare stretch of jungle in the northeastern part of the country.
Harvard Ballet Co.’s “Nocturne” opening at 7 p.m. at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. $15 (continues through Nov. 8). The production features a new work choreographed by San Francisco Ballet’s Pemberley Ann Olson as well as Christopher Wheeldon’s “An American In Paris” staged by Abigail Simon. A new collaboration with Candela, A Harvard Latin dance troupe, is included.
Montaño Big Band at 7 p.m. at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge. $10 to $15. This 19-piece jazz ensemble led by pianist and composer Alan Montaño performs jazz, Latin music and a fusion of diverse cultural, musical influences.
Tom Piazza reads from “Living in the Present with John Prine” at 7 p.m. at Porter Square Books, 1815 Massachusetts Ave., Porter Square, Cambridge. $28 with book. Grammy-winning singer-songwriter John Prine, known for country folk songs, asked journalist Piazza to help write his memoirs. “For all of us who love and dearly miss John Prine, what a gift it is to be able to be with him again, both through his own words and in Tom Piazza’s wonderful recounting of their adventures forging their deep, late-life friendship,” singer Bonnie Raitt says of the book. Author Steve Yarbrough joins.
Brewery Book Club from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Lamplighter Brewing, 284 Broadway, The Port, Cambridge. Free, but RSVP and 21-plus. A collaboration with the Cambridge Public Library that this month discusses “We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People” by Nemonte Nenquimo.
The Music of composer Annea Lockwood from 7 to 9 p.m. at Harvard’s John Knowles Paine Concert Hall, 3 Oxford St., just north of Harvard Square, Cambridge, and Harvard Yard. Free. Lockwood, recently described by The New York Times as “a composer of insatiable curiosity and a singular ear for the music of the natural world,” brings a program of works from the past two decades with The Fromm Players at Harvard, curated by flutist and professor Claire Chase.
Buffalo Tom presents “Please Come to Boston” minifestival from 7 to 10 p.m. at Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Somerville (and continuing Nov. 7 and 8). $40 to $45. A weekend of music, arts, comedy, readings and film showings. It begins with Bill Janovitz reading and signing “The Cars: Let the Stories be Told” at 7 p.m. At 8 p.m., Buffalo Tom takes the stage.
“Summer, 1976” play at 7:30 p.m. at the Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square, Cambridge (and continuing through Nov. 30). $27 to $87. The second wave of feminism is cresting when two women form a friendship: Diana, a fiercely iconoclastic artist, and Alice, a free-spirited yet naive young housewife. Alice and Diana bring us directly into the small moments that change the course of their lives in this play The New York Times praises as “sharply observant … subtly, insistently feminist.”
The Adventure Time Trio at 7:30 p.m. at Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square, Somerville. Free. Modern jazz drawing from Brooke Sofferman’s extensive original material and some jazz standards reimagined.
Delaney Nolan reads from “Happy Bad” from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at All She Wrote Books, 75 Washington St., East Somerville. $28 with book. Beatrice works at Twin Bridge, a chronically underfunded residential treatment center in near-future East Texas, teeming with enraged teenage girls on either too many or not enough drugs. When a heat wave triggers a blackout, Beatrice and the other staff and residents must evacuate, leaving them to face police brutality, sweltering heat, panicked evacuees and the girls’ mounting withdrawal as they search for a route out of the blackout zone.
Country musician Kelsey Waldon at 8 p.m. at Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. $28 to $30. Waldon has earned wide praise for her “self-penned compositions [with] the patina of authenticity” (Rolling Stone). On her new album, “Every Ghost,” she confronts addiction, grief and generational trauma in her lyrics.
A stronger
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