Our expert critics supply a guide to film, dance, visual art, theater, author readings, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.

Film

Noirvember
November 22, 27, 29
Coolidge Corner Theatre

Coolidge Corner Theatre is screening — in 35mm — three sterling examples of of film noir, movies that took a hard-edged look at the moral complexities and shattered dreams of postwar life in America and Japan.

Brick (2005) – November 22. Rian Johnson wrote and directed this clever, twist-filled neo-noir about a teenage loner who pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

The Night of the Hunter (1955) – November 27. Charles Laughton’s masterpiece and sole directorial effort (screenplay by film critic and novelist James Agee) is powerful commentary on the vulnerability of children. The cast includes Robert Mitchum as a devilish preacher, Shelley Winters as his hapless wife, and Lillian Gish as Ms. Cooper, a figure of maternal goodness in a very nasty world.

Blood Simple (1984)  – November 29. Joel and Ethan Coen’s hard-boiled neo-noir about a sleazy bar owner who suspects his wife of having an affair. He hires a private detective to confirm his suspicions — only to have the crosshairs turned back on himself.

Wicked Queer: Docs
through November 20
At the Brattle Theatre

Now in its second year, this gathering of documentaries  celebrate the rich and vibrant true stories of the LGBTQ+ community. Doc Talk reviews. The films to come include:

Truth Be Told — November 19 at 2 p.m.

AKOE/AMFI: The Story of a Revolution  — November 19 at 5 p.m.

A Big Gay Hairy Hit! Where the Bears Are — November 19 w/ Actor Rick Copp in person

Orlando, My Political Biography — November 20 at 7 p.m.

Break the Game: November  20 at  9 p.m. Director Jane M. Wagner will attend in person.

Turkish Festival’s Documentary and Short Film Competition
through December 3
Streamed Online

The first of its kind organized in North America, this Annual Festival explores the work of emerging filmmakers through a lineup that includes 26 films, 12 documentaries, and 14 shorts. Complete Schedule. Event Tickets

RPM Festival presents Recent Works by Douglas Urbank
December 3 at 2 p.m.
Brattle Theatre in Cambridge

The Revolutions per Minute Festival (RPM Fest) is dedicated to short-form poetic, personal, experimental film, essay film, animation, documentary, video, and audiovisual performance. Urbank, a founding member of the AgX Film Collective, is also a member of Fort Point Theatre Channel, an independent theater company which brings together an ensemble of artists from the worlds of theater, music, and visual arts. His films are a cross-pollination among art forms on the fringes of alternative culture — experimental music, cinema, and theater.

Cat-Women of the Moon and Missile to the Moon
November 21 at 7 p.m.
Somerville Theater in Davis Square

Another Attack Of The B-Movies! $5 Double Feature. In Cat-Women, astronauts on the moon encounter a race of females dressed in stockings and leotards. Via their telepathic powers they are going to conquer earth. Along with the feline aliens, the guys have to contend with a big spider and rock men. This effort stars Marie “The Queen of the Bs” Windsor. In the second film, two escaped convicts land on the moon and encounter an underground kingdom of beautiful females and their sinister female ruler, The Lido, as well as giant lunar spiders and mysterious surface-dwelling, slow-moving, bipedal rock creatures.

Rise (En corps)
December 1 at 7 p.m.
Museum of Fine Arts Boston

An entry in the Encore! Favorites from the Boston French Film Festival series. It is the film debut of Marion Barbeau, a Paris Opera dancer, who plays Elise, a classical ballet prima donna who struggles to reclaim her place in the dance world after breaking her ankle on stage. The dancer is told that she might never perform again. Elise is ready to accept her fate, but finds her way to both physical and spiritual healing through her encounter with a contemporary dance group.

Picks of the Week

Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House
Netflix

This streaming series is made up of nine short episodes directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters, Monster). The director’s unconventional cinematic approach — particularly his preference for slightly off-kilter naturalistic acting and gentle dramatic rhythms — is evident in this adaptation of a popular manga about a school for maiko (apprentice geisha) in modern-day Kyoto. The storyline follows two 16-year-old friends who move to the city to pursue their dreams of becoming a maiko. One girl, Sumire, proves to have a natural talent for the traditional craft, but the other girl, Kiyo, is far less gifted. Fate leads the latter to a position as a Makanai-san, or head chef for the geisha house. Each episode is set out like an elegant meal — replete with fabulous dishes. This overlooked series has been playing since early this year and it is well worth checking out.

— Tim Jackson

---

Roots and World Music

Hello Stranger: The Songs of Hazel & Alice
November 20
Club Passim, Cambridge

The songs of the pioneering bluegrass duo Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard continue to resonate with Generation Z folk musicians. That current interest no doubt explains why Hazel Royer, Rachel Sumner, and Maxfield Anderson’s tribute to Hazel & Alice sold out Club Passim last year. The trio is returning for another round, and the set list isn’t restricted to songs that Hazel and Alice made a half-century ago. Expect at least one recent song by surviving member Gerrard, who at 89 is still recording and performing.

The Mountains Remember – A benefit concert for Artsakh refugees
November 22
Square Root, Roslindale

Although it has received scant attention in the US, a large-scale ethnic cleansing recently took place. Nearly 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan seized full control of the territory. Now a group of Armenian-American musicians are banding together to play a benefit for the refugees from what was called the Republic of Artsakh. Organizer Laura Zarougian will play what she calls Armenian cowgirl music as part of the duo Yalla Hilda. There will also be sets from jazz guitarist John Baboian, guitarist Raffi Semerdjian, oudist Armadi Tsayn Duo, and The Tony Donatalle Jazz Quartet.

Klass and Bedjine
November 23
Oceanside Ballroom, Revere

While musicians in most genres take Thanksgiving off, it’s traditionally been a busy weekend for the Haitian kompas concert scene. This year is no exception, and one of the season’s biggest shows will be at Oceanside when the soulful band Klass joins forces with songbird Bedjine. Kompas returns to the same venue on November 25 when Vayb and Kresyol-La share a bill.

Mighty Crown
November 25
Florian Hall, Dorchester (to be confirmed)
December 1
West Indian Social Club, Hartford

Despite being based thousands of miles from Jamaica, Japan’s Mighty Crown have, for years, been the rulers of dancehall sound system culture. The DJ duo draw huge crowds whenever they play venues in the Caribbean and the diaspora, and the perennial sound clash winners have long been a major attraction in Dorchester and Hartford. They’re on their farewell tour. Flyers that circulated around Boston this fall promoted a November 25 date at Florian Hall, but there’s no mention of it on Mighty Crown’s social media. A better bet may be the last of their many visits to Hartford’s West Indian Social Club, whose late curfew has often drawn reggae fans in Boston eager for a late night vibe that is unobtainable in our city. In keeping with the international theme, South Sudanese champion dancehall sound Dynamq Sounds will also be on the bill.

Martha Burns
December 3, 3 p.m.
Folk Song Society of Greater Boston house concert

Martha Burns calls her music “old-time American folk songs the old-time way.” After growing up in the heyday of New York’s Washington Square folk boom, Burns became the duo partner of fiddler (and leather craftsman) Allan Block when he established his base in New Hampshire. Now living in the DC area, Burns returns for a house concert of traditional folk songs. Reservations can be made by emailing the FSSGB at HouseConcerts@fssgb.org

— Noah Schaffer

---

Theater

COVID PROTOCOLS: Check with specific theaters.

Don’t Make Me Get Dressed, written and performed by The Gottabees. Presented by the Puppet Showplace Theater, 32 Station St, Brookline, through November  26.

A world premiere from local favorites The Gottabees — creators of Squirrel Stole My Underpants and Go Home Tiny Monster. The troupe’s latest show comes from the Puppet Showplace Theater’s new works Incubator program. It is the fourth show from The Gottabees to premiere on the PST stage. “For every child who has struggled to get into their clothes first thing in the morning (and for every parent who has fought valiantly in the battleground of the morning routine), comes Don’t Make Me Get Dressed — a gloriously silly and inventive ode to the feelings we have when we choose our clothes… and to what happens when our clothes come to life and choose us.” All ages welcome, recommended for ages 3+. Puppets galore: object puppetry, hand puppetry, materials manipulation, and full-body puppetry.

T: An MBTA Musical, written by Mike Manship (book) and Melissa Carubia (music and lyrics). At the Rockwell, Davis Square, 255 Elm Street, Somerville, November 3 and 17, and December 1.

The show “chronicles the journey of three struggling Bostonians whose lives have been derailed by the MBTA’s incompetency. When they discover a secret map that will enable them to overthrow the transit system’s inefficiency, they set forth on a colorful journey that is part love story, part melodrama, part scavenger hunt, all one big transportation nightmare.” The script and score are updated seasonally to reflect current events and the latest MBTA struggles. Note: Limited on-the-train tickets are also available for each performance, where audience members can join an eccentric cast of T riders and personnel on stage as part of the action.

The Rocky Horror Show, Book, music, & lyrics by Richard O’Brien. Directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner & Jo Michael Rezes. Staged at the Central Square Theatre, 450 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, through December 3.

According to the Theatre Communications Group, this musical, based on the 1975 cult film, is one of the most produced shows of the 2023-2024 American season. “On a dark and stormy night, sweethearts Brad and Janet suffer a blowout. Dammit (Janet). Without a spare they enter (at their own risk) the eerie mansion of the dangerously charming Dr. Frank-N-Furter who seduces them with his B-movie horror film wonderland complete with a motley crew. Do the time warp (again). Be hypnotized by this hedonistic rock-n-roll promenade through gender, sexuality, and identity, and learn what it means to be from the planet Transsexual.”

The Game’s Afoot by Ken Ludwig. Directed by Fred Sullivan Jr. Staged by the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon Street, 2nd Floor, Boston, through December 17.

A whodunit farce that promises plenty of “slapstick and hilarity” with its “murder and mayhem.” “It’s a blustery December night in 1936 at the Connecticut mansion of actor William Gillette, whose life was recently threatened by a rogue gunshot while he was onstage performing his most celebrated role, Sherlock Holmes. A cavalcade of quirky friends arrive upon his request for a weekend of revelry all with the intent of finding out who pulled the trigger. But when one of Gillette’s glitzy and glamorous guests is stabbed to death, the survivors are trapped inside a fun house of hidden passageways and trick mirrors where any of them could be the killer.”

The Band’s Visit, music and lyrics by David Yazbek, book by Itamar Moses. Based on the screenplay by Eran Kolirin. Choreography by Daniel Pelzig. Music direction by José Delgado. Directed by Paul Daigneault. A Huntington Theatre Company and SpeakEasy Stage co-production at the Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston, through December 17.

“In this Tony Award-winning, feel-good musical (based on the acclaimed 2007 film), an Egyptian band of musicians is stranded in a small Israeli town after a transportation mix up, and with no lodgings available, the locals take them in for the night. By morning, surprising connections have been made and friendships forged over moments of shared humanity and love of music.” Arts Fuse review.

God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza. Directed, translated, and adapted by Yuning Su. Staged by Vermilion Theater at the Plaza Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont St, Boston, December 1 through 3.

Well, some bracing counter-programming to the tidal wave of holiday fare. This promises to be a cross-cultural version of Reza’s acidic drama of parental fisticuffs; the staging will be an exercise in “Bilingual Storytelling” that reflects “the intricate experiences of Chinese immigrants, enriching the narrative with layers of cultural depth.”

The Salvagers by Harrison David Rivers. Directed by Mikael Burke. Staged by Yale Rep (with production support provided by the Binger Center for New Theatre) at the Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel Street, New Haven, November 24 through December 16.

The world premiere of a new drama, commissioned by Yale Rep: “Meet the Bosemans Salvage: 37-year-old Senior and 23-year-old Junior, at odds under the same roof during a snowy Chicago winter. Their icy relationship is further strained as potential romances for both father and son compel them to reckon with the past.”

Play By Play: A Festival of New Play Readings, produced by the Northampton Playwrights Lab at the APE Gallery Space, 126 Main Street, Northampton, November 30 through December 3.

The Play by Play Festival features local professional actors and directors. It is a celebration of local talent as well as an effective way to introduce theater audiences to the innovative work that is being created by playwrights in the Valley. This year’s dramatists  include Talya Kingston, Meryl Cohn, Betel Arnold, Peter Kennedy, Stephanie Carlson, and Harley Erdman.

The Heart Sellers by Lloyd Suh. Directed by May Adrales. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion/Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, November 21 through December 23.

A New England debut: “Jane and Luna run into each other in the grocery store on Thanksgiving in 1973 and find they have much in common: each are recent Asian immigrants, a bit homesick and lonely with hardworking absentee husbands, and adjusting to a new country filled with new opportunities. Over sips of wine and a questionable frozen turkey, they dream of disco dancing, learning to drive, and even a visit to Disneyland, and share their hopes and challenges for making a new home in a new land with grace and dignity. ”

— Bill Marx

---

Visual Arts

During a legendary run run as head of Fidelity’s Magellan Fund from 1977 to 1990, when he resigned, Newton-born Peter Lynch averaged a record-breaking 29.2 percent annual return on fund investments. Since then he has worked part time at Fidelity and, along with his late wife, Carolyn, devoted the rest of his energies to philanthropy (with emphasis on education, art museums, and Catholic institutions), good works, and collecting art. In September, Lynch’s alma mater, Boston College, already beneficiary of millions in Lynch gifts, announced the donation of the Carolyn A. and Peter S. Lynch Collection to the school’s McMullen Museum of Art.

Some 27 paintings and three drawings by 20 noted artists in the collection are currently on public display on the first floor of the University Conference Center at 2101 Commonwealth Avenue on B.C.’s Brighton campus. The group has a distinctly American, New England, and 19th-century focus. Landscapes predominate with four Bierstadts, two Fitz Henry Lane landscapes, one of them of Gloucester Harbor, two bird studies by Martin Johnson Heade, and two oils by Childe Hassam, as well as paintings by Mary Cassatt, Frederic Edwin Church, Winslow Homer, George Inness, John Frederick Kensett, Sanford Gifford, and other American landscapists. There are drawings by Pablo Picasso and Diego Rivera and a group of three works by the prominent Irish painter Jack Butler Yeats, brother of the Nobel Prize-winning poet and Irish Free State senator, William.

Like many of the first generation of abstract artists, Dutch painter Piet Mondrian came to abstraction via a series of steps, from landscapes and images from nature that he gradually stripped of superfluous details. He thought of it as an approach to essential truth and it led to the great geometric abstractions he painted in the early 20th century, with their precise black lines, right angles, and bright, primary colors. The Museum of Fine Arts has just opened Mondrian: Foundations, an exhibition devoted to Mondrian’s early, preabstraction work. The 28 paintings and works on view include the artist’s earliest known painting, The Large Ponds in the Hague Forest (1887), along with other landscapes, flower studies, and compositions in line that marked his steady progress to his mature style.

John Singer Sargent’s most notorious portrait, Madame X, on view in the current MFA exhibition Fashioned by Sargent, was a calculated bid for fame for both the young artist and his sitter, American socialite Virginie Avegno Gautreau. The edgy work went a bit too far, though: when it was first exhibited in Paris in 1884, it created a famous scandal so severe that Sargent briefly considered giving up his career. Stephanie Herdrich, associate curator of American Painting and Sculpture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, considers the artist-model relationship and the social and artistic milieu that led to the uproar in a lecture, Madame X: Fashioning Celebrity in Sargent’s Paris, on November 29 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.. Tickets: in person $35 ($28 for members); livestream $20 ($16 for members).

Rotterdam’s celebrated Museum Boijmans Van Beuningin has been closed for renovations since 2019 and isn’t scheduled to reopen until 2026. In the meantime, New England audiences will have a chance to see an important segment of the museum’s collections in the exhibition Rembrandt: Etchings from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, which opens this weekend at the Worcester Art Museum. The show, one of the largest exhibitions of Rembrandt’s etchings ever to be seen in the United States, includes over 80 works, 70 (of the over 300 etchings produced) by the artist himself and the rest by artists who inspired him or were inspired by him. Rembrandt aspired to be among the great printmakers in the history of art and succeeded with the endless experiments that transformed the medium and brought him great fame and record prices for his graphic work.

As a young woman living in post-revolutionary Iran, Arghavan Khosravi was arrested on the streets of Teheran because her hijab did not cover enough of her body. She came to New England in 2015 to pursue an MFA degree at RISD. Eight years later her first solo exhibition, Arghavan Khosravi, opens this weekend at the Newport Art Museum. Inspired by classical Persian miniature painting and Western surrealism, Khosravi’s paintings deal with the knotty subjects of freedom, agency, identity, and the role of women in both Iranian and American society. The show was previously on view in 2022 at the Currier Museum in Manchester, NH.

At least four New England art museums are planning family-friendly community days or open houses for the week after the Thanksgiving holiday. The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art opens its annual Festival of Trees and Traditions on November 30. The lavishly embellished trees, wreaths, and other holiday decorations adorning the galleries through December 10 are all for sale to benefit the museum (a $5 admission surcharge will apply). Elsewhere, a Family See & Sketch takes place at the RISD Museum in Providence on December 2 from 10:30-11:30 a.m., the Bowdoin College Art Museum’s Family Saturday and Community Open House starts at 10 a.m. on the same day and finally the New Britain Museum of American Art’s Free Community Day and Makers Market will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on December 3.

— Peter Walsh

---

Jazz

“From Ragtime to Early Jazz”
November 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Jordan Hall, Boston

The New England Conservatory’s (free!) faculty/student concerts tend to contain multitudes. The subtitle for this concert is “Celebrating NEC’s Ragtime Legacy,” but it’s also the annual “Gunther Schuller Legacy Concert.” That’s because two of composer, critic, scholar, musician (first chair horn, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and French horn with the Miles Davis nonet), and former NEC president Gunther Schuller’s singular achievements, his book Early Jazz (Oxford, 1968) and his Grammy-winning 1973 recording The Red Black Book, serve as the foundation for this show. The latter, now celebrating its 50th anniversary, “re-introduced chamber orchestra arrangements of Scott Joplin’s music originally published around 1912.” It was also in the Billboard Top 100 chart for 54 weeks — which has to be some kind of record, at least for a New England Conservatory student ensemble. The concert will feature “classic ragtime compositions by Joplin, James Scott, and Eubie Blake, along with [and here’s where the book comes in] early jazz classics originally recorded by Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington.” The concert will feature NEC’s Early Jazz Ensembles directed by Anthony Coleman, an NEC woodwind quintet, and a ragtime orchestra, and, as special guests, ragtime banjo revivalist Aaron Jonah Lewis and NEC alum, longtime NEC Ragtime Ensemble member, and legendary Boston-area bandleader and trumpeter Bo Winiker. NEC faculty member Hankus Netsky is director for the whole shebang. The concert is free, but tickets to the live event are required. Reserve them here, or register for the free livestream simulcast at the same place.

Immanuel Wilkins Quartet
December 1 at 7 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge

The exciting young alto saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins made big waves (i.e., multiple wins across the polling-verse) with his searing debut, Omega (2020), and its follow-up, The 7^th Hand (2022). He comes to the Regattabar for one show only, with pianist Michah Thomas, bassist Rick Rosato, and drummer Kweku Sumbry. Don’t sit on this: Wilkins’s young admirers in the music schools will probably fill the place early.

Steve Davis Quintet
December 1 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

The distinguished trombonist and composer Steve Davis — early in his career championed by his teacher Jackie McLean and thereby hired by Art Blakey for the Jazz Messengers — brings a latter-day hard-bop crew to Scullers: saxophonist Mike DiRubbo, pianist Rick Germanson, bassist Nat Reeves, and drummer Willie Jones III.  It won’t be an oldies show: Davis is a considerable writer, adding a few of his own appealing wrinkles to the tradition. (Check his “Optimism,” performed by Christian McBride’s big band, with Davis playing an eloquent trombone solo.)

The Bad Plus
December 1 at 8 p.m.
Groton Hill Music Center, Groton, MA

After two decades as a piano trio (for 17 years with Ethan Iverson, and then for three years with Orrin Evans), the Bad Plus expanded to a quartet, with reedman Chris Speed and guitarist Ben Monder joining original members Reid Anderson (bass) and David King (drums). The music is as unpredictable — a singular fusion of prog-pop and jazz — and beguiling as ever.

Lakecia Benjamin
December 1 at 8 p.m.
Berklee Performance Center, Boston

Lakecia Benjamin — a charismatic alto saxophonist and daring conceptualist — just got a handful of Grammy nominations for her latest, Phoenix: Best Jazz Instrumental Album, and, from that album, Best Jazz Performance (instrumental solo), for her virtuosic, emotionally succinct work on “Basquiat,” and Best Instrumental Composition, for “Amerikkan Skin.” For this show, she’ll be joined by pianist Zaccai Curtis, bassist Ivan Taylor, and drummer E.J. Strickland. On the album cover of Phoenix, Benjamin is outfitted like a superhero, and she just might be.

Chris Botti
December 1 and 2, both at 8 p.m.
Wilbur Theatre, Boston

The official word on Chris Botti is that, after years of pop stardom, he’s crossed back over to jazz, playing with a small acoustic ensemble on Vol. 1, his Blue Note debut, a collection of jazz and American Songbook standards (OK, with some strings here and there). At the Wilbur for two nights, his band (subject to change) will include drummer Lee Pearson, bassist Daniel Chmielinski, guitarist Ben Butler, pianist Julian Pollack, saxophonist Sax, singers Sy Smith and Veronica Swift, and, on violin, either Anastasiia Mazurok or Caroline Campbell.

Bert Seager’s Heart of Hearing
December 6 at 7 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge

With a slightly revamped lineup, pianist and composer Bert Seager’s Heart of Hearing quartet returns to the Lilypad for its monthly residency, a showcase for their unique intimacy and sense of humor (as in, fellow feeling, but also the occasional ha-ha). Longtime Heart of Hearing regulars Dor Herskovits (drums) and Rick DiMuzio (tenor sax) are joined by bassist Andrew Schiller in delivering the cheering surprises.

— Jon Garelick

---

Classical Music

Earl Lee conducts Tchaikovsky
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
November 24 at 1:30 p.m. and 25 at 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

BSO assistant conductor Lee leads the orchestra in one bona-fide favorite — Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 — plus César Franck’s tone poem Le Chasseur maudit and Henri Tomasi’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra. Virtuoso Stephen Banks is soloist in the latter.

Messiah
Presented by Handel & Haydn Society
November 24 at 7:30 p.m., 25 & 26 at 3 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

H&H’s new artistic director Jonathan Cohen steps in to lead the ensemble’s annual performances of Handel’s holiday favorite. Joélle Harvey, John Holiday, Stuart Jackson, and José Coca Loza are the soloists.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

---

Author Events

Mark Kurlansky at Harvard Book Store
The Core of an Onion: Peeling the Rarest Common Food — Featuring More Than 100 Historical Recipes
November 28 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Featuring historical images and his own pen-and-ink drawings, Kurlansky begins with the science and history of the only sulfuric acid–spewing plant, then digs through its twenty varieties and the cultures built around them. Entering the kitchen, Kurlansky celebrates the raw, roasted, creamed, marinated, and pickled. Including a recipe section featuring more than one hundred dishes from around the world, The Core of an Onion shares the secrets to celebrate Parisian chef Alain Senderens’s onion soup eaten to cure late-night drunkenness; Hemingway’s raw onion and peanut butter sandwich; and the Gibson, a debonair gin martini garnished with a pickled onion.

“Just as the scent of sautéed onions will lure anyone to the kitchen, The Core of an Onion is sure to draw readers into their savory stories at first taste.”

Ben Austen at Harvard Book Store
Correction: Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change
November 30 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Through its portraits of two men, imprisoned for murder, and the parole board that holds their freedom in the balance, Correction offers a behind-the-curtain look at the process of parole. Austen’s engaging storytelling forces a reckoning with some of the most profound questions underlying the country’s values around crime and punishment: What must someone who commits a terrible act do to get a second chance? What does incarceration seek to accomplish? An illuminating work of narrative nonfiction, Correction challenges us to consider for ourselves why and who we punish — and how we might find a way out of an era of mass imprisonment.”

An Evening of Poetry: Rachel DeWoskin, Robert Pinsky, & Kirun Kapur – brookline booksmith
November 30 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Rachel DeWoskin is the author of absolute animal: poems (The University of Chicago Press, forthcoming, 2023); is on the core Creative Writing Faculty at the University of Chicago, and affiliated faculty in the Centers for East Asian Studies and Jewish Studies.

Robert Pinsky’s recent autobiography is Jersey Breaks and his new PoemJazz album Proverbs of Limbo is available. His books of poetry include Gulf Music and his translation The Inferno of Dante.

Kirun Kapur is the author of three books of poetry, Women in the Waiting Room (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), a finalist for the National Poetry Series. Her work appears in AGNI, Poetry International, Prairie Schooner, Ploughshares, and many other journals. She serves as editor at the Beloit Poetry Journal and teaches at Amherst College, where she is director of the Creative Writing Program.”

Twelve Tomorrows: How Science Fiction uses Today’s Technology to Envision the Future
December 2 from 1-2:30 p.m.
At the MIT Museum, Gambrill Center, 314 Main St, Cambridge
Free with museum admission

“Since 2011, the MIT Press’s Twelve Tomorrows series of anthologies has brought together the day’s leading science fiction authors and tasked them with exploring the role and potential impact of developing technologies in the near, and not-so-near, future.

“How will technology impact the future of our emotional connections with one another? Can an imagined pandemic prepare us for the next real one? What does human flourishment look like in the Anthropocene? The stories of Twelve Tomorrows remind us that we can choose our future and show us how we might build it.

Join a panel of Hugo Award-winning authors as they discuss the value and utility of using science fiction and cutting-edge research to imagine the future and interrogate the present.” The panelists include Elizabeth Bear, James Patrick Kelly, Ken Liu, and Susanne Palmer.

Holiday Grown Up Book Fair at Aeronaut Brewing! – Porter Square Books
December 3 from 2-6 p.m.
Free

“Remember getting the book fair flyers at school? Seeing if the next book in your favorite series was coming out, comparing lists with your friends, checking off the books you want, and planning how you’ll totally convince your parents that yes, in fact, you definitely need all those books because don’t they want you to get into a good college or whatever? And then the thrill when the books arrive and you see a pencil set you absolutely need and stickers for your trapper keeper and one of those friendship necklaces? Think you would never get to experience that rush again? Think again!

Join us on Sunday, December 3 from 2-6 p.m. at Aeronaut Brewing for our Holiday Grown Up Book Fair. The Grown Up Book Fair will have everything you love about school book fairs, including all of those fun gift-y items you remember, plus beer! It’s the perfect time to get some holiday shopping done.”

Mark Chiusano at Harvard Book Store
The Fabulist: The Lying, Hustling, Grifting, Stealing, and Very American Legend of George Santos
December 4 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Newsday alum and PEN/Hemingway honoree Mark Chiusano tells the full (well, as full as can be given the subject) story of Santos here for the first time. From humble years spent in Brazil, to glamorous nights on the west side of Manhattan, to the stunning small-time scams employed to ease his slippery climb up the American society ladder, The Fabulist tells a story you’ll have to read for yourself to believe … and even then, it’s George Santos, so who’s to say for sure.

“Combining the very best of boots-on-the-ground journalism, dishy backroom dealings, and glittery details about Gold Coast mansions and bodice-baring drag shows that’d feel just as at home in your next summer beach read, The Fabulist is truly stranger than fiction.”

— Matt Hanson

Robert Glück in conversation with Aaron Lecklider at the Harvard Book Store
About Ed
November 29 at 7 p.m.
Free

This is poet, fiction writer, critic, and editor Robert Glück’s “portrait of the artist Ed Aulerich-Sugai, his sometime lover, met in the seventies in San Francisco, when gay life emerged unabashedly from the closet. ‘I wanted to find in Ed something to latch on to that was outside my egotism and fear, my threadbare relation to the world — a leap through Ed into lyric time,’ Glück has said, and in this book that is both ‘a novel and my version of an AIDS memoir’ he wanted to capture the full range of his feelings for Ed: ‘estranged from Ed, bored by him, moved by him.'”

— Bill Marx