For a searchable calendar of events with your choice of list or map view, or to submit an event of your own, go to the main calendar.
Thursday, Oct. 8
5 p.m.
Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St., near Harvard Square.
Hutchins Center Honors presents The W. E. B. Du Bois Medal Ceremony
Free. The W. E. B. Du Bois Medal is Harvard’s highest honor in the field of African and African American studies, awarded to individuals in the U.S. and across the globe in recognition of their contributions to African and African American culture. Honorees this year include Angela Bassett, actress; Didier Drogba, professional soccer player; Theaster Gates, visual artist; Reed Hastings, business executive and philanthropist; James Manyika, technologist; Mavis Staples, singer and Civil Rights activist; Lena Waithe, writer, actor and producer; and Fletcher Wiley, attorney and civic leader (awarded posthumously).
Friday, Oct. 9
7:15 p.m.
The Comedy Studio, 5 John F. Kennedy St., Harvard Square.
Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait
$39. Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait first appeared on the David Letterman Show at the age of 20 and has an ongoing career as a writer, director, actor, voice actor and stand-up. He has starred in numerous HBO/Showtime specials and is well-known for his roles in “Scrooged” with Bill Murray and as Zed in the “Police Academy” franchise. Also performing on Saturday, Oct. 10.
8 p.m.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Thomas Tull Concert Hall, 201 Amherst St.
Stone and Earth: Edward Cohen Memorial Concert
Free but register. The Edward Cohen Memorial concert celebrates the music of the distinguished MIT composer with a performance of his “Stone and Earth” for mezzo-soprano and string orchestra.
Saturday, Oct. 10
1 to 5 p.m.
Davis Square, Somerville.
ArtHONK!
Free. Part of HonkFest, Elm Street will be closed to cars and will be turned into a dynamic arena for interactive art making and activism.
3 to 8 p.m.
Somerville High School, 81 Highland Ave., Central Hill.
Arabic Heritage Celebration
Free. The Center for Arabic Culture and Somerville’s Office of Immigrant Affairs hosts CAC’s 12th annual festival and book fair featuring readings from Arabic authors while enjoying Arabic food, music and art.
Sunday, Oct. 11
Noon to 6 p.m.
2 Brattle Square.
Annual Oktoberfest & Honk Festival
Free. Harvard Square’s Oktoberfest features food from all over the world, arts, crafts, vintage goods, free samples as well as 25 HONK! bands from around the country will march from Davis Square to Harvard Square. New this year, Oktoberfest boasts beer gardens hosted by Alden & Harlow, El Jefe’s Taqueria, Charlie’s Kitchen, and a wine garden presented by Commonwealth Wine School and Schmitt Sohne & Relax.
Noon to 6 p.m.
Remnant Satellite, 877 Cambridge St., Wellington-Harrington.
Portico Brewing, 101 South St., Boynton Yards, Ward 2.
BREWgrass: A Music Fest!
Free. This family-friendly day of music features hour-long sets at Satellite and Portico. Bands include New Grownups, The Splinters, Royer Family Band, Sam Reid & The Riot Act and Jason Oberstein & Evan Couture.
Monday, Oct. 12
Noon
Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St., near Harvard Square.
Half-Earth at Ten: Honoring a Legacy of Hope
$20. On Indigenous Peoples Day, the theme of “Half-Earth at Ten: Honoring a Legacy of Hope,” explores works of naturalists past and present and insights from art, literature, the humanities and Indigenous communities.
7 to 9 p.m.
Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square in Ward 2.
Millennial Speed-Dating (Monogamous)
$65. This event is centered on people ages 30-45 who want to get off the dating apps and meet someone in real life. There will be “big talk” conversation prompts to get you started and structure to make sure that you talk to people and that it’s not awkward.
Tuesday, Oct. 13
6 p.m.
Museum of Natural History’s Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Baldwin neighborhood.
The Tobacco Takers: Puritans, Pipes, and Bodily Care
Free. Diana DiPaolo Loren, deputy director for Curatorial Affairs and senior curator of Harvard’s Peabody Museum, discusses archaeological, archival and visual evidence that recasts tobacco and tobacco pipes, thought to be sinful in Puritan New England, as tools of bodily care for both physical and metaphysical ailments. Archaeologist Stephen W. Silliman joins.
6 p.m.
Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square.
Anand Giridharadas and Junot Díaz talk about “Man in the Mirror: Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City”
$45. Anand Giridharadas, New York Times bestselling author and a former foreign correspondent and columnist for The New York Times, discusses his story of two men: Jordan Neely, a homeless man known in better days for his Michael Jackson impersonations, and Daniel Penny, an ex-Marine who had moved to the big city seeking more than Long Island could offer. They collided in a New York subway car. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz joins.
Wednesday, Oct. 14
7 p.m.
Lou’s, 13 Brattle St.
Latin Dance Night
$15 to $20. Start the night with a beginner-friendly salsa dance lesson, then stick around for an evening of social dancing with DJ Condori. No partner required.
Thursday, Oct. 15
7 p.m.
Bonde Wine Shop & Wine Tasting Bar, 54 Church St.
Oktoberfest: Choucroute & American Wines – Wine Tasting & Class
$85. Explore how different styles of American wine interact with the richness of sausages and pork, the acidity of sauerkraut, mustard, spices and all the savory complexity of this classic dish, choucroute.
7 p.m.
Regattabar, 1 Bennett St., Harvard Square.
Vanessa Collier performs
$31 to $42. Vanessa Collier is an American blues, funk and soul saxophonist, singer and songwriter. She has won Horn Player of the Year in 2019, 2020 and 2024 and Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year in 2022.
Friday, Oct. 16
6 to 10 p.m.
Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Spring Hill.
Vintage After Dark: a Halloween Social & Market
Free entry. This night of vintage includes Y2K finds, local vendors, music, dancing, handmade art, a costume contest and live DJ.
7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, 1 Bennett St., Harvard Square.
Listen To This: Celebrating 100 Years of Miles Davis
$31 to $42. Performing classics from jazz great Miles Davis are Jerome Deupree on drums; Dave Bryant on keyboards; Russ Gershon, woodwinds and organ; Rick Barry, percussion; Bryan Murphy, trumpet; Rick McLaughlin, bass; J. Johnson, guitar and Todd Brunel, bass clarinet
Saturday, Oct. 17
1 to 5 p.m.
Sennott Park, Broadway at Norfolk Street, near Central Square.
Arts in the Park 2026
Free. Enjoy live music by DJ Vyper and food by Everybody Gotta Eat’s curated chefs, sponsored by The Cambridge Department of Public Works with The Adius Arts Initiative.
2 to 5 p.m.
Kendall/MIT Open Space at 292 Main St., Kendall Square.
Fall Party
Free. Celebrate fall with music by Jazz World Trio, decoupage pumpkin decorations with Alex Makes Art, face painting, mobile bookstore by More Than Words and food for purchase from Moyzilla.
Sunday, Oct. 18
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Mount Auburn Cemetery, Story Chapel, 580 Mount Auburn St., West Cambridge.
“Worthy to be Any Man’s Friend”: Lecture on Henry David Thoreau
$10 to $15. Join historian Richard Smith for a lecture in Story Chapel on Henry David Thoreau and notable figures in Mount Auburn. Following the lecture, Smith leads a walk to see some of the graves of notable figures.
6:30 to 7:45 p.m.
Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square.
Charlie Kohlhase’s (Expanded) Explorers Club Plays the Music of John Tchicai
$20. The Explorers Club will record John Tchicai compositions from his days in the 60’s with the New York Contemporary Five and the New York Art Quartet, from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s in December and January. The expanded lineup includes: Charlie Kohlhase: alto, tenor and baritone saxophones; Seth Meicht: soprano, alto and tenor saxophones; Brian Price: clarinet, bass clarinet and tenor saxophone; Dan Rosenthal: trumpet and flugelhorn; Bill Lowe: bass trombone and tuba; Aslan Islamov and Josiah Reibstein: tubas; Eric Hofbauer: guitar; Dylan Jack: vibraphone and percussion; Tony Leva: bass and sinter; Curt Newton: drums; and Jerry Sabatini: trumpet and flugelhorn.
Monday, Oct. 19
6 p.m.
Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Square.
Kerry Kennedy discusses “Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy”
$48, includes book. Human rights lawyer, activist, New York Times bestselling author and daughter of Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy reflects on her mother’s legacy beginning with her roots in Chicago to her commitment to human rights in the years after her husband’s death. With Mark D. Gearan, president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, who currently serves on the board of directors of the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center.
7 p.m.
Lamplighter Brewing, 284 Broadway, The Port.
Indie Movie Monday: “Get Out”
RSVP. This 2017 American psychological horror film was written, co-produced and directed by Jordan Peele in his directorial debut. The plot follows a young Black man who uncovers shocking secrets when he meets the family of his White girlfriend.
Tuesday, Oct. 20
6 to 8 p.m.
Lamplighter CX, 110 N. First St., North Point.
Pottery with a Purpose: Halloween Edition
$75. You’ll learn the pottery basics and leave with a one-of-a-kind piece (or two) you built by hand. Costumes and experience optional.
7 p.m.
Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston, on the Cambridge border.
Special Screening and Filmmaker Conversation: “The Lost Cache”
$10. In 1937, legendary mountaineer, photographer and cartographer Bradford Washburn made the first ascent of Mount Lucania, one of the great feats of early North American mountaineering. Forced to abandon a cache of equipment on the Walsh Glacier, Washburn always hoped to return. In this film and more than 80 years later, skier Griffin Post, glaciologist Dora Medrzycka, and a team of skiers, scientists and explorers venture deep into the remote Yukon to find out whether Washburn’s lost treasures might still be there.
Wednesday, Oct. 21
Credit: Courtesy of Harvard Art Museums
12:30 p.m.
Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., near Harvard Square.
Gallery Talk: Charlotte Moorman, Nam June Paik, and Their Avant-Garde Circle
Free. Join Ken Hakuta, nephew of renowned experimental artist Nam June Paik, as he shares memories of the history-defining, avant-garde multimedia performances of Nam June Paik and Charlotte Moorman.
6 to 7:30 p.m.
Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge.
Fuchsia Dunlop presents: Five Tastes: Delicious Recipes for Chinese Flavors
RSVP. Fuchsia Dunlop, James Beard Award–winning author “The Food of Sichuan,” discusses her new cookbook.
8:30 p.m.
The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Harvard Square.
Hank Azaria & The EZ Street Band
$40. Actor Hank Azaria, known for voice acting in The Simpsons and movie roles in “The Birdcage” and others, performs live on stage in “A Springsteen Celebration.”
Thursday, Oct. 22
5:30 p.m.
List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames St., Kendall Square.
Opening Reception and Artist Talk: Hao Jingban
Free. Hao Jingban’s “I Witness” is a moving-image installation that is historically incisive. This is a three-channel installation that looks at the COVID-19 pandemic: four participants move slowly through a well-lit apartment, their images punctuated by stories of loss; an older woman who sleeps alone and rises to clean her refrigerator, a group of young people pacing an open field.
8 p.m.
Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave., Spring Hill.
Boston Circus Guild Presents: Cirque of the Dead
$40 and 18-plus. Join Cirque of the Dead as they go deep in the forest for a night of stories around the campfire, where flickering shadows can make you wonder what might be watching from beyond the firelight.
A stronger
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