Coming Attractions: April 1 through 10 — What Will Light Your Fire

Arts Fuse critics select the best in film, dance, visual arts, theater, music, and author events for the coming weeks.

By The Arts Fuse Staff

Film

A scene from “All the Dreams in the World.”

Belmont World Film (BWF)
All screenings are on Mondays at 7:30 p.m.
Studio Cinema, 376 Trapelo Road, Belmont, MA

This 17th Annual International Film Series promotes cross-cultural cultural performances as well as ethnic cuisine via Monday screenings of international feature films, documentaries, animation, and shorts. The line-up features mostly premieres of some of the best in international film. Check the schedule for further dining and cultural opportunities brought to you by this unique organization. Schedule of films and events

April 2: All The Dreams in The World Belmont World Film Series presents a North American premiere. The film portrays a teen living with her first-generation Portuguese parents in France, a woman who deeply loves her family but is caught up in a life of contradictions and failures. After reconnecting with a childhood friend during her annual summer holiday in Portugal, she finds the courage to choose the path of freedom and the unknown.

“The Fabulous Allan Carr ” screens on April 1 as part of the Wicked Queer Film Festival

Wicked Queer: The Boston LGBT Film Festival
through April 8 throughout Boston
through April 8 at Brattle Theatre in Cambridge

The Thirty-Fourth LGBT Film Festival entertains, enriches and enlightens all audiences in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and allied communities. But these are films for everybody, quality films by independent filmmakers. The opening film, Bixa Travesty (Friday, March 30) is a US Premiere from Brazil. The Bright Lights Screenings of Professor Marston and The Wonder Women and BPM (Beats Per Minute) are free of charge. The nearly 50 films are too long to list here, so check out the full schedule for some terrific movies you will not get in the commercial cinemas.

Speedy
April 5 at 7 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theater

Sound of Silents presents Speedy, the last silent feature to star Harold Lloyd — and one of his very best — as a good-natured but scatterbrained New Yorker who can’t keep a job. From its joyous visit to Coney Island to its incredible Babe Ruth cameo to its hair-raising climactic stunts on the city’s streets, Speedy is an out-of-control love letter to New York that will have you grinning from ear to ear. Award winning musicologist Marty Marks will accompany the film with his score, performed live on the piano.

Harry Dean Stanton in a scene from “Paris, Texas.”

Paris, Texas
April 7 at 7 p.m.
Harvard Film Archive

This Wenders classic is one of the director’s films screening in conjunction with his visit to Harvard University and his Norton lectures at Sanders Theater. Wenders will be present for this special screening. Paris, Texas, is an Antonioni-esque neo-Western in which the hero’s meandering passage from Texas to California in search of an estranged family stands in for the filmmaker’s quest for transcendence. Complete Wenders Schedule.

— Tim Jackson

A scene from Hong Sansoo’s “The Day After,” screening at the HFA on April 14.

The Moral Tales of Hong Sansoo at the Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge, MA through April 14

Check out this remarkable seven-film series featuring the work of  the South Korean master, Hong Sansoo. His heart-breaking love stories, sometimes about a young woman hopelessly enmeshed with an older married man, combine the cerebral talk of Eric Rohmer with the Chekhovian melancholy of lost opportunities, life passing us by. Lots of Ninas from the Seagull! And his long takes, sometimes lasting twenty minutes,  are there to spotlight remarkable acting! Is there a better young thespian in the world than Hong’s favorite, Kim Min-hee?

— Gerald Peary


Dance

Misa Kuranaga and Nelson Madrigal in John Cranko’s “Romeo & Juliet.” Photo: Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy of Boston Ballet.

Romeo & Juliet
Now through April 8
Boston Opera House
Boston, MA

Boston Ballet presents John Cranko’s Romeo & Juliet, which is inspired by William Shakespeare’s celebrated tale of love and rivalry. Internationally-acclaimed German stage designer Jürgen Rose brings lavish sets to the stage. Sergei Prokofiev’s triumphant score and will be performed by the Boston Ballet Orchestra, led by guest conductors Gavriel Heine (March 15-25) and Mischa Santora (March 29-Apr 8).

Luminarium Dance & Painter Adria Arch
April 7 & 8 from 3-4 p.m.
217 California StreetNewton, MA

The public is invited to venture inside a living, breathing painting in this collaboration between Luminarium Dance Company and acclaimed artist Adria Arch during Newton Open Studios. Company member Jennifer Roberts will perform a series of improvisational solos, dancing among the segments of Arch’s new work “Dept. of the Interior,” a “hybrid painting” on paper comprised of abstract cut-outs suspended from the ceiling and walls. Performances will be held at Arch’s studio from 3-4 p.m., accompanied by musician Alexander Matheson. Viewers may enter and leave at any time during the hour.

— Merli V. Guerra


Visual Arts

William Kentridge: Triumphs and Laments
Through April 14
Emerson Urban Arts: Media Art Gallery, 120 Boylston Street, Boston, MA

“Every victory has a [corresponding] defeat; therefore, for every person riding in triumph, there will always be someone following behind with a lament.” – states William Kentridge, an internationally revered South African artist, who lives and works in Johannesburg. His 550-meter-long frieze created on the banks of the Tiber River in Rome depicts a procession of ninety figures; a broad sweep of Italian history stenciled on the walls between Ponte Sisto and Ponte Mazzini. Created via process described as “reverse graffiti,” the work contains portions of the grime that has accumulated on the travertine over the centuries. This exhibit includes the complete set of aquatint etchings and woodcuts used in the frieze, two long maquettes that diagram the processional, a set of monumental stencils, and a video showcasing its opening performance.

Before Projection: Video Sculpture 1974 – 1995
Through April 15
MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA

This brilliant exhibition of monitor based sculpture reclaims relevancy for a body of work created an overlooked historical moment. This video sculpture investigates the “connections between our current moment and the point at which video art was transformed dramatically with the entry of large-scale, cinematic installation into the gallery space.” Some of the featured artists include Dara Birnbaum, Ernst Caramelle, Takahiko Iimura, Shigeko Kubota, Mary Lucier, Muntadas, Tony Oursler, Nam June Paik, Friederike Pezold, Adrian Piper, Diana Thater, and Maria Vedder.

John O’Reilly: New Territory
Howard Yezerski Gallery, 460 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA
Through April 10

This highly respected artist is best known for his sophisticated and mysterious photomontages that daringly intertwine Italian Renaissance masterpieces with pornographic imagery. But this showcase of his newest work takes up new territory – formal collages — made with found coloring books — ponder mortality through visualizations of innocence and anxiety.

Now You See It…
Boston Cyberarts, 141 Green Street, Jamaica Plain, MA
Through May 13

George Fifield presents Boston with his second ground-breaking exhibition exploring augmented reality (AR).The five featured artists are all pioneers in the field. A work of special interest — Claudia Hart’s selections from The Flower Matrix: disturbing yet fantastical spaces, decorated with toxically sweet fake imagery, replace Nature’s beauty with an Alice in Wonderland type of delirium.

Klimt and Schiele: Drawn
Lois B. and Michael K. Torf Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Through May 28

This thoughtful exhibit highlights masterful drawings of the human form. The work revolves around two historically renowned artists, each with their own uniquely recognizable style. Klimt’s delicately rendered figures reveal his sensual preparatory markings behind the genius of his lavish painting. Schiele’s raw and gutsy work, enlivened with gestural applications of watercolor, spotlight psychologically intense characters.

Sarah Braman, “In Bed (how do we sleep when the planet is melting?),” 2016. Photo: courtesy of MASS MoCA.

In the Abstract
MASS MoCA, 1040 MASS MoCA WAY, North Adams, MA
Through April 9

Abstract painting merges with everyday objects in this contemporary exhibition that features strong colors, muscular gestures, and glowing forms as metaphors for the spiritual. The show is coming down soon, and it’s a must see: “Sawdust-encrusted canvases, clothes, and blankets strung across a gallery appearing like fields of color, geometric stacks of bunk beds aglow in the pink light of colorful glass panels.”

– Aimee Cotnoir

“Iceberg Rodebay 2, 07/2003, 69°22’16’’ N, 50°54’08’’ W.” Image: Courtesy of Olaf Otto Becker.

33° at Bell Gallery, List Art Building, Brown University, 64 College Street, Providence, RI, through May 27.

A series of exhibitions and public artworks exploring ice melt and climate change featuring the work of a group of international artists including sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard and photographers Olaf Otto Becker, Camille Seaman, James Balog, Jean de Pomereu, and Iain Brownlie Roy. Visitors can encounter Kirkegaard’s forty-minute soundspace “Isfald” (Icefall), a recording made at the Illulisat ice fjord in Greenland that will allow visitors to hear the variety of sounds produced by melting, cracking glaciers. Photomurals by Becker, Seaman, Balog, de Pomereu, and Roy will be displayed on the exterior of buildings across Brown’s campus.

— Bill Marx


Theater

Daniel Gerroll, Patricia Kalember, and Karen Pittman in the American Repertory Theater staging of “The White Card.” Photo: Gretjen Helene Photography

The White Card by Claudia Rankine. Directed by Diane Paulus. ArtsEmerson presents the American Repertory Theater staging at the Emerson Paramount Center, the Robert J. Orchard Stage, Boston, MA, through April 1

“At a dinner party thrown by an influential Manhattan couple for an up-and-coming artist, questions arise about what—and who—is actually on display. Claudia Rankine’s 2014 New York Times best-selling book, Citizen: An American Lyric, unpacked the insidious ways in which racism manifests itself in everyday situations. Now, this world premiere play poses the question, ‘Can American society progress if whiteness stays invisible?'” Art Fuse review

The Bakelite Masterpiece by Kate Cayley. Directed by Jim Petosa. Staged by New Repertory Theatre on the MainStage at the Mosesian Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown, MA, through April 8.

At the end of World War II, artist Han van Meegeren sits in a prison cell accused of selling a long-lost Vermeer to the Nazis, a crime tantamount to treason. Van Meegeren contends that the painting was a forgery, which he skillfully produced and aged with a special treatment of the plastic known as Bakelite. Now he must create another masterpiece in front of his jailer, art historian Geert Piller, to save his life.

Little Orphan Danny Book, Lyrics & Music by Dan Finnerty, Created by Dan Finnerty & Sean Daniels. Additional music by Dan Lipton. Directed by Sean Daniels. Staged by Merrimack Repertory Theatre at 50 East Merrimack Street, Lowell, MA, through April 15.

“The musical memoir of The Dan Band’s brilliant frontman Dan Finnerty: Growing up a small town altar boy in a nice conservative family doesn’t always suit our adopted protagonist. Childhood outbursts of blasphemy in church only lead to pathetic adolescent attempts at playing sports. But of the many lessons he’ll learn, none could prepare him for the fateful day he and his mother meet the woman who gave birth to him. An irreverent-yet-tender story of a boy and the women who made him.”

A scene from the Yale Rep production of Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3.”

Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 by Suzan-Lori Parks. Directed by Liz Diamond. Staged by Yale Rep with American Conservatory Theater at the University Theatre, 222 York Street, New Haven, CT, through April 7.

A revival of the first installment of Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks’s new American Odyssey. Arts Fuse review of the American Repertory Theater’s 2015 production.

Native Gardens by Karen Zacarías. Directed by Christie Vela. Staged by Trinity Repertory Company at 201 Washington St. in Providence, RI, April 5 through May 6.

A excursion into feuding next-door-neighbor genre comedy: “Pablo and Tania are new to the neighborhood. Virginia and Frank have been fixtures in the area for decades. They all agree that the chain link fence separating their yards has got to go! A quick replacement with a stately wooden fence will arrive just in time to impress both Pablo’s bosses and the judges viewing Frank’s elaborate English garden. Everyone starts off on the right foot, but [then] the truth about that old fence is revealed and Tania’s vision of native plants and wild flowers doesn’t align with Frank’s pesticide-dependent masterpiece.”

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. Directed by Christopher V. Edwards. Staged by the Actors’ Shakespeare Project at the Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge, MA, April 11 through May 6.

Another outing for one of the Bard’s most popular romantic comedies. “Benedick is never getting married. Not ever. And Beatrice can’t imagine loving a man she can’t tolerate! They might just be the perfect couple. While the villain Don Jon sows seeds of rumor and discord, the success of two noble marriages hinges on the hilarious efforts of local constables.”

Ngoc-Tran Vu: Made Elsewhere at the Boston Center for the Arts, Black Box Theatre, April 10. Free.

An interactive project created by Visual Artist Resident Ngoc-Tran Vu that “involves constructing a new vision of the Statue of Liberty using recycled and found materials. Made Elsewhere explores issues of migration and displacement—particularly of refugees and immigrants—through cultural exchange and storytelling, and it is being developed through the artist’s active collaboration with local groups and organizations advocating for refugees and immigrants’ rights.”

The Age of Innocence, adapted from the Edith Wharton novel by Douglas McGrath. Directed by Doug Hughes. Staged by Hartford Stage Company at 50 Church Street, Hartford CT, April 5 through May 6.

The world premiere of a stage version of Wharton’s classic, somewhat nostalgic, yarn about a not-to-be romance. Franky, given the rise of #MeToo, the writer’s House of Mirth, her story of a gifted young woman’s downwardly mobile journey through Gilded Age corruption, abuse, and indifference would be more appropriate.

A scene from Arlekin Players production of “Dead Man’s Diary: A Theatrical Novel.” Photo: courtesy of Arlekin Players.

Dead Man’s Diary: A Theatrical Novel by Mikhail Bulgakov. Directed by Igor Golyak. Adapted and staged by Arlekin Players ​Theatre at the Emerson Paramount Center’s Jackie Liebergott Black Box, Boston, MA, through April 1

A revival of a play and production, filled with boldness and imaginative panache, that offers a powerfully dream-like adaptation of Bulgakov’s satiric novel about working with the Moscow Art Theatre. Arts Fuse review

— Bill Marx


Jazz

Dave Bryant Quartet
April 2 at 8:30 p.m.
Outpost 186, Cambridge, MA.

Indefatigable keyboardist, composer, and free improviser Dave Bryant (formerly of Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time) convenes another enticing ensemble for one of his regular Outpost 186 gigs: Neil Leonard on saxophones and electronics, Eric Hofbauer on guitar, and Gabriel Solomon on violin.

Allan Chase of “Your Neighborhood Saxophone,” which is performing at the Lilypad in Cambridge.

Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet
April 3 at 8:30 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge, MA.

Doing business since the ’80s with varying degrees of frequency, YNSQ has mixed originals with compelling arrangements of other music to their liking, including Mingus, Sun Ra, and James Brown. Tonight’s show is called, simply, “Improvisations.” The players are Allan Chase and Cercie Miller on alto and soprano; Joel Springer on tenor and sopranino, and Tom Hall on tenor and baritone.

Laszlo Gardony
April 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

Pianist and composer Laszlo Gardony — whose solo album Serious Play was one of the best of 2017 — had to reschedule this show from March 2 because of that nasty nor’easter. So you get another chance.

Christian Scott ATunde Adjuah
April 4 at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA.

Trumpeter and composer Christian Scott ATunde Adjuah’s last Scullers show was explosive — rich in conception and execution. The power of that music easily contains the social messaging from this New Orleans-born, Berklee educated young master.

Leo Blanco: Music Aid 4 Venezuela
April 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

The subtitle of this program by the Boston-based Venezuelan composer and pianist Leo Blanco is “Fighting Childhood Hunger.” Working with various musical friends in this show, Blanco is hoping to offset some of the calamity currently besetting his home country, and perhaps raise a bit of consciousness. The program will feature Blanco originals and his arrangements of traditional Venezuelan songs.

Steve Langone/Jim Repa Quintet
April 5 at 8 p.m.
Outpost 186, Cambridge, MA.

Drummer Steve Langone and saxophonist/flutist Jim Repa front this band with tenor saxophonist Rick DiMuzio, pianist Doug Johnson, and bassist Keala Kaumeheiwa. The program includes originals from the leaders as well as standards. Some pieces, we’re told, “have been inspired by the rhythmic explorations in Steve’s two-volume book series ‘Advanced Rhythmic Concepts for the Modern Drummer.’  Other works draw on the ‘world music’ experience of the group’s members.”

Stanley Sagov will perform at the Regattabar on April 7. Photo: Eric Antoniou.

Stanley Sagov
April 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA

The pianist and composer Stanley Sagov convenes his Remembering the Future Band for a program called “Lifting Each Other Up.” The South African-born Sagov, who came of age in the ’60 and ’70s, was early on inspired to think of jazz as “a theme music for the aspirations for liberation.” The musical axis for Sagov’s spirited originals is McCoy/Herbie/Miles. The band features singer Wanetta Jackson, saxophonist/flutist Stan Strickland, bassist John Lockwood, and drummer Bob Gullotti. Arts Fuse feature

Aardvark Jazz Orchestra
April 7 at 8 p.m.
Kresge Auditorium, MIT, Cambridge, MA.

The magnificent Aardvark Jazz Orchestra continues its 45th season with a program of works by band founder and artistic director Mark Harvey, including a premiere of his new “Faces of Souls” — “inspired by the Charles Ives composition ‘Boston Common’ and the Augustus Saint-Gaudens statue commemorating Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, heroes of the Civil War,” which is installed on the Common. Other pieces include “The Journey,” dedicated to the memory of Martin Luther King Jr.; “Blue Butterfly,” for the late performer and storyteller Brother Blue; and “No Walls,” Aardvark’s “anthem of hope and inclusivity.” Harvey’s music is inspired by, among others, Ellington, Mingus, and Sun Ra, and performed by some of the best players in town, including its peerless vocalists, Jerry Edwards and Grace Hughes. Presented by MIT Music & Theater Arts, the show is free and open to the public.

Bob Nieske Quartet
April 7 at 8 p.m.
Third Life Studio, Cambridge, MA.

A longtime member of the Jimmy Giuffre Quartet, bassist and composer Bob Nieske has been a mainstay of the Boston music scene for decades. Tonight he fronts a formidable quartet: trumpeter Phil Grenadier, guitarist Randy Roos, and drummer Jon Hazilla.

Composer/performer Maria Finkelmeier in action on the marimba. She teams up with saxophonist Tim Hall at the Boiler Room. Photo: Kris Snibbe

Maria Finkelmeier/Tim Hall Duo
April 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Charles River Museum of Industry, Waltham, MA.

Composer/performers Maria Finkelmeier and Tim Hall work in all manner of multi-media contexts — Finkelmeier’s primary musical instrument is the marimba, Hall’s the saxophone. (As part of the collective trio Masary Studio, Finkelmeirer and her cohort turned Fenway Park’s Green Monster into a musical instrument and worked similar magic on City Hall Plaza, as part of HubWeek.) This show is part of the new Boiler House Jazz Series at the Charles River Museum of Industry, curated by musical polymaths Ken Field and John Bechard.

Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra will perform at Lilypad on April 10.

Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra
April 10 at 8 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge, MA.

For this show, the venerable JCA Orchestra (b. 1985) presents music by resident composers David Harris, Darrel Katz, and Bob Pilkington as well as Mimi Rabson. The JCA’s music is always ear stretching and exciting.

— Jon Garelick


Roots and World Music

Sam Bush will perform newgrass at City Winery.

Sam Bush Band
April 4
City Winery, Boston, MA

You’d be hard pressed to find a young bluegrass or string band that hasn’t in somehow influenced by mandolinst Sam Bush. But, far from resting on his laurels, the father of newgrass continues to offer his friendly bluegrass/rock hybrid that showcases his soulful singing and dazzling virtuosity.

Welcome the Stranger
April 8
Berklee Performance Center, Boston, MA

Seeing the rise in hate crimes targeted at both Muslim and Sikh communities, Indian singer Kiran Ahluwalia decided to fight back with this pan-cultural project, which is known as LOVEFest. Ahluwalia will be joined by Algerian songwriter Souad Mass — along with Egyptian sufi dancers — in what is billed as one of the first-ever concert performances by traditional Sikh temple singers.

— Noah Schaffer

 

Ana Moura will perform at the Berklee Performance Center on April 6.

Ana Moura
April 6
Presented by World Music/CRASHarts at Berklee Performance Center, Boston, MA

What is the word for when Ana Moura’s voice first gets inside you – seduction? intoxication? enchantment? A complete takeover, at any rate. She’s ostensibly a Portuguese fado singer, but she’s on her own path and you will follow her anywhere. She’s done a knockout duet with Mick Jagger on “No Expectations.” On her latest album, Moura (2016) she makes “Lilac Wine” sound as dangerous and irresistible as it was meant to be and turns “Agora E Que E” into a party inside the soul. I believe part of her is like Rima, the magical spirit of the forest in W.H. Hudson’s Green Mansions, she’s that verdant and natural. You will want to be in the audience for this one.

— Milo Miles


Classical Music

First Monday
April 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Jordan Hall/New England Conservatory
30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, MA

On the program: selections from Preludes and Fugues for String Trio (after J.S. and W.F. Bach) K. 404a; Bach’s Ciaconna for Violin and Voices, from Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor BWV 1004; Mozart’s String Quintet in D Major, K.593 and Preludes and Fugues (6) for Violin, Viola and Cello, K 404a.

— Susan Miron


Rock, Pop, and Folk

Pretenders with Lowlight
April 1 (doors oat 7:30)
Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA

Which band is more appropriate to see live on April Fools’ Day than the Pretenders? Luckily, Boston-area residents will have just such an opportunity this year. 2016’s Alone, the most recent Pretenders release, was produced by Chrissie Hynde’s fellow Akron, OH, native Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. With or without new material, it is always refreshing to know that Hynde is still out there delivering her reliable brand of rock ‘n’ roll to exalting audiences. Lowlight, a self-described “roadhouse chic” band from the storied rock ‘n’ roll city of Asbury Park, NJ, will open the show.

Albert Hammond, Jr. with The Marias
April 1 (doors at 7)
Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge, MA

The fact that Albert Hammond, Jr. is best known as the guitarist for The Strokes should not prejudice–for better or worse–one’s expectations of his own sound. Granted, his brand new solo album, Francis Trouble, bares more than mere traces of the unmistakable style that he brought to The Strokes. However, Hammond is clearly talented enough to justify the four full-length efforts that he has released since 2006 (two of which have appeared since his band’s last album in 2013).

Juliana Hatfield with Abbie Barrett
April 6 (doors at 8, show at 9)
ONCE Ballroom, Somerville, MA

Whether it is a collaboration with Paul Westerberg (The I Don’t Cares) or Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws (Minor Alps), a reunion with The Juliana Hatfield Three, or a new solo album, fans can always expect something fresh and interesting from Duxbury-raised Juliana Hatfield. In 2017, Hatfield issued Pussycat, on which songs like “When You’re a Star,” “Short-Fingered Man,” and “Kelleyanne” did nothing to conceal the identity of the album’s target. This year will include the 25th anniversary vinyl reissue of her debut, Hey Babe, and the release of a covers collection called Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John. Hatfield will give a week-in-advance preview of the latter at ONCE on April 6.

Ghosts of Jupiter with Matthew Stubbs and the Antiguas
April 7 (doors at 8)
Thunder Road, Somerville, MA

Ghosts of Jupiter are perhaps the proudest purveyors of prog in all of New England. As leader Nate Wilson once told me, “all the new stuff I’m into sounds like it was recorded in the 70s” [1971 and 1972, specifically]. That explains his admiration of 21st-century bands like Dungen, Tame Impala, and Midlake. GOJ have two LPs and one EP to their credit since forming in 2011. Their April 7 show at Thunder Road is sure to leave you hoping that there is more to come.

Carter Alan book reading/signing with musical guest Sarah Blacker & New England Groove Association
April 6 (doors at 6, event at 7)
9 Wallis, Beverly, MA

Beverly’s 9 Wallis has been hosting book readings by trusty Boston DJ Carter Alan for much of its nearly one year in business. He will be there again this Friday to read from and sign his latest work, The Decibel Diaries (click for Jason M. Rubin’s Arts Fuse review). Afterward, musician and Berklee-trained musical therapist Sarah Blacker will perform with her band New England Groove Association. Blacker’s work–which includes three LPs and one EP–has won her recognition from the New England Music Awards and the Boston Music Awards in addition to opening slots for Loudon Wainwright III, Suzanne Vega, and others. Her band includes drummer Aaron Z. Katz of Percy Hill and keyboardist Phil Selesnick.

— Blake Maddux


Author Events

Steve Almond and Alistair Moock
Bad Stories: What the Hell Just Happened to Our Country
April 2 at 7 p.m.
Porter Square Books, Cambridge MA
Free

The country is still reeling from the election of President Trump, and the question on every sentient person’s lips is — how did we get here? Veteran journalist and fiction writer Steve Almond has an answer; with his new volume of essays, he discusses the problems in the ways our culture has told stories to itself and about itself. Connecting Captain Ahab’s mad quest for the white whale with President Trump’s nihilistic speechifying, Almond tells us how the stories we tell ourselves brought us to this anxious point in history. To add to the subversive experience, he will be accompanied by Alistair Moock, who will sing songs of resistance and talk about their histories in American subversion.

Leslie Jamison
The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath
April 5 at 6:30 p.m.
Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge MA
Free

“With its deeply personal and seamless blend of memoir, cultural history, literary criticism, and reportage, The Recovering turns our understanding of the traditional addiction narrative on its head, demonstrating that the story of recovery can be every bit as electrifying as the train wreck itself. Leslie Jamison deftly excavates the stories we tell about addiction–both her own and others’–and examines what we want these stories to do and what happens when they fail us. All the while, she offers a fascinating look at the larger history of the recovery movement, and at the complicated bearing that race and class have on our understanding of who is criminal and who is ill.” Seating is limited to first come, first served.

An Evening with Michael Wolff
April 7 at 8:45 p.m.
The Boch Center Shubert Theatre, 270 Tremont St, Boston MA
Tickets begin at $45.50

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard about the fire and fury over Michael Wolff’s The Fire and the Fury, his scabrous account of the inner world of the Trump White House. Incredibly, Trump’s inner circle didn’t mind letting Wolff hang around and they spilled their guts to him about the Trump Administration’s operatic incompetence. Thrill to tales of relentless infighting, dysfunctional paranoia, and the near-universal disdain for the Commander in Chief, who comes off in Wolff’s pages as some kind of unholy combination of Homer Simpson and Tony Soprano. Wolff will discuss his massively bestselling book and take questions from the audience. The event will take place in April, but tickets went on sale last Friday.

— Matt Hanson

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