Compiled by Arts Fuse Editor

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

Film

Belmont World Film 22nd Family Festival
At the Regent Theatre in Arlington
January 19: 10:30 a.m. through 5:45 p.m.

Children’s films from around the world, all inspired by books. Films and descriptions

Tiddler with The Snail and The Whale at 10:30 a.m.
Robin and The Hoods 11:45 a.m. North American premiere (Age 8+)
Hitpig! At 1:45 p.m. (Age 10+) Followed by a Q&A with director David Feiss
Tartini’s Key at 4 p.m.

At the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge
January 20: 10:30 a.m. through 5 p.m.

Toopy and Binoo The Movie at 10:30 a.m.
Teca & Tuti: A Night at the Library 12:15 p.m.
The Flying Classroom at 1:45 p.m.
Lars is LOL at 3:30 p.m.

At the Regent Theatre
January 26, 12:15 through 5:15 p.m.

The focus is on films about reclaiming green spaces.

Sauvages (Switzerland, France, Belgium) at 12:15 p.m.
Curious Tobi and the Treasure Hunt to the Three Rivers (German) at 2 p.m.
Block 5 (Slovenia) at 3:45 p.m.

Boston Festival of Films from Iran
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, through February 7

New and restored gems from a country that has consistently produced some of the world’s most compelling cinema, in spite of stringent artistic censorship. Arts Fuse review

My Favorite Cake – January 24 at 7 p.m.

The Stranger and the Fog – January 25 at 2:30 p.m.

Universal Language – January 31 at 7 p.m.

My Stolen Planet – February 1 at 2:30 p.m.

Dead End – February 2 at 2:30 p.m.

76 Days Adrift
January 23 at 7 p.m.
Regent Theater in Arlington

Adapted from his book Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea, Steve Callahan himself recounts who he survived for 76 days at sea alone on a small life raft. His knowledge of the ocean and calm resourcefulness allowed him to endure what for many would be unendurable. After his hand-built ship had been destroyed by a collision with a whale, Callahan managed to salvage just enough material to keep alive and stay afloat. There are remarkably convincing recreations of what life was like for Callahan, including scenes among the schools of fish he bonded with in the ocean. They followed him on his journey; he caught some of them for food. Callahan supplies illuminating details about how he kept alive, interlaced with meditations on nature, mortality, and human frailty. The film is accompanied by a nearly subliminal score by Patrick Stump of the band Fall Out Boy. It is performed by the Royal Scottish Orchestra. Here is a Cruising World article about the making of Adrift.

The Optical Tricks of a Cinemagician
Harvard Film Archives, Cambridge
February 1 at 7 p.m.

This rare program includes twenty-three very short films directed by magician, showman, and filmmaker Georges Méliès. The movies are shot from a single camera position — usually from the perspective of an audience member. As an actor, Méliès took the approach that he was performing before live viewers, drawing on theatrical gestures and playful facial expressions. These classic ‘stage’ illusion films were inspired by the magic shows that Méliès was presenting at the time. With live musical accompaniment by Martin Marks. Program of films

From Hilde, With Love (In Liebe, Eure Hilde)
February 9 at 11 a.m.
Coolidge Corner Theatre

The latest film from award-winning director Andreas Dresen: “Berlin, 1942: it was the most beautiful summer for Hilde Coppi – madly in love with Hans and joyfully pregnant. But amid the passion there is grave danger. Hans becomes involved in the anti-Nazi resistance, with a group of young people who will later be called the “Red Orchestra”.

Despite the huge risks, Hilde decides to get involved herself, but is arrested by the Gestapo and gives birth to her son in prison. Now, in a desperate situation, Hilde develops a quiet inspirational strength, but she only has a few months left with her son.”

Picks of the Week

The late David Lynch would have been 79 on January 20. Here are two documentaries about the late director and one lesser-seen (and bizarre) short film by Lynch.

David Lynch – Meditation, Creativity, Peace; Documentary of a 16 Country Tour (linked here on YouTube) follows the director on tour as he discusses creativity, film, and meditation often among students and theater audiences.

David Lynch: The Art Life (Criterion Channel, Max, and Amazon Prime) Lynch’s life and career are explored through more than 20 conversations recorded with him at his home.

What Did Jack Do? (Netflix) is as 17-minute film noir, filmed in black & white, starring Lynch as a detective drilling a real monkey who’s suspected of murder. Both monkey and Lynch converse via human-like voices. During a 2014 exhibition of his paintings and drawings at England’s Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Lynch said: “Right now I’m mostly writing. I’ve got a painting going and I’m building a chair. I love to build things and this is for a monkey film. I’m working with a monkey named Jack and that’ll come out sometime. It is not a chimpanzee, the monkey came from South America.” Um, of course it did! Here is a sample of a song from the film: True Love’s Flame AKA Toototabon Love Song Arts Fuse review

— Tim Jackson

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Visual Arts

The bolo tie dates from the mid-20th century and has always been associated with a kind of emphatically Western rural male dress, deliberately calculated to be out of place in the citified East. It is the official neckwear of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas and has been briefly popular elsewhere, including the 1950s United Kingdom, where bolos were worn by Teddy Boys with their Edwardian suits, and in the 1980s, when they were fashionable with new wave rockers and Hollywood stars before losing their cool again. The tie’s design: a cord with an ornamental slide, lends itself to a rich variety of designs, from the simple to the opulent. The Fuller Craft Museum’s Everybody’s Bolos, opening January 25, takes a different tact on the tradition. Featuring bolos by thirty contemporary artists, the show “examines the cultural history and significance of the bolo tie in marginalized communities as well as its expressive potential and relevance as a gender-neutral form of personal adornment.” Not your cowboy’s neckware any more.

Joana Choumali is a photographer born and raised in Abidjan, the largest city in Ivory Coast and the largest French-speaking city in Africa. Her work grows out of her exposure to the cultural diversity of her continent, where European language and culture linger long after colonial control has ended, where different influences can divide families, and where native African traditions are often fading. Her exhibition, Joana Choumali: Languages of West African Marketplaces, opening at the Harvard Art Museums on January 25, explores the surprising role discarded clothing from the United States and Europe plays in the local economies of her native Ivory Coast and neighboring Ghana. The show includes a dozen life-sized quilted collages made up of her printed photographs of the marketplaces of those two countries. There she became fascinated by the bold, English-language slogans on second-hand t-shirts and their dissonance with the people who wear them in Africa, who often speak different languages and lead very different lives from their original owners. The series, called Yougou-Yougou, a name in a local language for second hand clothing, includes the artist’s notes from conversations with the people in her photographs. The exhibition was jointly organized by staff from the Harvard Art Museums and Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Donna Bassin’s landscapes are responses to the environmental crisis and its psychological impacts. Inspired by Western landscape traditions, her photo-based compositions at first appear conventional and serene. On closer inspection, though, they reveal that they are constructed from layered images from two different locations, woven together to suggest the human disruptions of the natural world. Bassin’s exhibition at the Newport Art Museum, Donna Bassin: Portraits of the Precarious World, will be accompanied by her selections from the museum’s permanent collection of 19th-century landscape paintings, including important works by George Inness and William Trost Richards. The show opens January 29.

When the first large scale exhibition of French Impressionism opened in New York in 1886, The New-York Tribune reported that, although Impressionist paintings had been criticized for their “blue grass, violently green skies, and water the coloring of a rainbow,” Americans would nevertheless benefit from studying the works’ “vitality and beauty.” Study them they did. By the end of the century, Impressionism became the preferred style for both American collectors and painters, eclipsing the native-grown Hudson River School. Blue Grass, Green Skies: American Impressionism and Realism from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, opening at the New Britain Museum of American Art on January 24, brings together works from the LACMA collection that highlight the translation from French to American. The “Realists” in the show, who favor an earthier palette and subject matter, are apparently a late addition to the exhibition’s lineup, extending the survey into the 20th century and Impressionism’s American successor.

Leonora Carrington was born in 1917 to a wealthy Catholic textile manufacturing family in Lancashire, England. As a child, she lived in a massive Victorian manor, known as Crookhey Hall, which architectural historian John Martin Robinson has described as “Grimly Gothic’, and it apparently greatly influenced her later life as a painter. The structure (built by the son of an expatriate Bostonian) appears in several of her works. A rebellious student who always rejected social constraints on her as a female, Carrington was expelled from two schools until she began to attend art school as a teenager. She saw her first surrealist painting at the age of ten and it, too, made an impression. She soon began to meet members of the movement. Carrington lived in Mexico City for most of her adult life and, when she died there in 2011, she was one of the last survivors of the original surrealists of the ’30s.

Leonora Carrington: Dream Weaver, opening at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University on January 22, is the first New England exhibition of the artist. Included are over thirty examples of Carrington’s work, spanning her prolific, 60-year career and a wide variety of media. The show, says the museum, “reveals the complexities of an artist whose compositions — inspired by biography, folklore, mysticism, and the occult — reflect the unbridled imagination of a woman on a profound journey to unravel the world’s mysteries.”

The Rose has organized a companion show, also opening January 22, titled Surrealism(s) – Then & Now. Drawn from the museum’s permanent collections, the exhibition celebrates the centennial of the Surrealist movement, which has never entirely disappeared, tracing it from its beginnings to its lasting influence today.

The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard opens Janiva Ellis: Fear Corroded on January 31. Ellis, an African-American painter based in Los Angeles and Brooklyn, NY, known for her blending of classic Western images with mythology and episodes of violence, has chosen to focus on what she calls her “dust bunny ideas” or “hard-to-resolve paintings that settle into corners of her studio to be continuously reworked, with long breaks in between.” The show is billed as an exploration of “unresolvable” images and their meaning in an artist’s career.

Two photography shows are set to open on February 1. The Fitchburg Art Museum’s Stephen DiRado, Better Together: Four Decades of Photographs is a career retrospective of the artist and photographer, who has taught at Worcester’s Clark University since 1982. DiRado, who carries a camera everywhere and takes photographs every day, has often worked in series, photographing communities in Worcester and Martha’s Vineyard thousands of times over many years. This retrospective includes seventy-five black-and-white prints, over a thousand projected color images, and three videos about the artist and his work process.

At the RISD Museum in Providence, Process Work: Intersections of Photography and Print, 1925 to Today, explores the complex and varied ways photographs have been duplicated and reproduced since the invention of the medium. Over 40 historic and contemporary photogravures, collotypes, photolithographs, and relief prints focus on photographic technologies and the many aesthetic and cultural possibilities that emerge in the marriage of the photograph and the print.

— Peter Walsh

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Theater

COVID PROTOCOLS: Check with specific theaters.

Crumbs From the Table of Joy , by Lynn Nottage. Directed by Tasia A. Jones. Staged by the Lyric Stage at 140 Clarendon St, Boston, through February 2.

Here is how the Lyric Stage sums up Lynn Nottage’s 1995 drama: “Adrift in Brooklyn during the racially charged 1950s, two teenage sisters Ernestine and Ermina live with their devout, recently widowed father, Godfrey, who follows the teachings of spiritual leader Father Divine. Almost to the point of obsession, Godfrey’s staunch beliefs cause his girls to heal their wounds with Hollywood films, daydreams, and lots of cookies. Their humdrum lives are turned upside down with the arrival of their vivacious Aunt Lily, who brings with her a few bad habits and a taste for rebellion. When Godfrey makes a shocking decision that involves a German woman named Gerte, can the family find new meaning in what makes a home?” The NYTimes review of a 2023 revival describes it a “bittersweet memory play”. Arts Fuse review

Kilele: Una Epopeya Artesanal by Felipe Vergara Lombana. Translated by Juliana Morales Carreño and A.B. Orme. Directed by Juliana Morales Carreño. Staged by the David Geffen School of Drama at the University Theatre, 222 York Street, New Haven, January 25 through 31.

The plot: “Viajero, a riverine peasant, undertakes a journey to the land from which he was displaced by the war of the new gods. He must confront the horror of the past to bury his dead with ¡Kilele!, the chant of rebellion, jolgorio, and joy. Based on the story of the resilient Bojayá community in Colombia, Kilele is our conversation with the land, the water, y nuestros muertos after the war renders all unrecognizable.” Content Guidance: Kilele contains profanity, depictions of war, and references to the death of children.

The Father: A Tragic Farce by Florian Zeller. Translated by Christopher Hampton. Directed by Josh Short. Staged by Wilbury Theater Group at 475 Valley Street, Providence, RI, January 23 through February 9.

This is not a revival of August Strindberg’s masterpiece. The plot: “Now 80 years old, André was once a tap dancer. He lives with his daughter, Anne, and her husband, Antoine. Or was André an engineer, whose daughter Anne lives in London with her new lover, Pierre? The thing is, he is still wearing his pajamas, and he can’t find his watch. He is starting to wonder if he’s losing control.” The 2014 winner of France’s Molière award for best play, this is a Rhode Island premiere.

Ain’t No Mo by Jordan E. Cooper. Directed by Dawn M. Simmons. A co-production of Front Porch Collective and Speakeasy Stage Company at the Roberts Studio Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, through February 8.

The script was a 2023 Tony Nominee for Best Play. The Guardian review describes the script, which is made up of interwoven vignettes, as an “absurdist satire about race in America.” Arts Fuse review

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson. Directed by Christopher V. Edwards. Staged by Actors’ Shakespeare Project at Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley St. Roxbury, January 23 through February 23.

Here is Fuse critic Robert Israel’s synopsis of August Wilson’s Pulitzer prize-winning script lifted from his review of the recent Netflix film version of the script: “The play centers on the history, and quarrels over the fate, of a carved spinet piano that has gone largely unused for years. It sits in the parlor of Bernie Charles’s Pittsburgh home, circa 1930s. Boy Willie, her brother, has come to sell the valuable piano so he can afford to buy farm land down South. There are backstories aplenty in this play, and they revolve around slavery, the endurance of racism, and a Black family’s quest for the American dream.”

Eden by Steve Carter. Directed by Brandon J. Dirden. Staged by Yale Rep at Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St, New Haven, CT, through February 8.

The plot: “1927, San Juan Hill, a six-block stretch of Manhattan where tensions run deep between its populations of Black Americans and Caribbean immigrants. Eustace, recently transplanted from the South, falls in love with the girl next door, Annetta. But her ironfisted father, Joseph, an ardent Garveyite, has arranged for her to marry another man from the West Indies to protect his bloodline.” The resulting clash between “ideologies and youthful passions threaten dangerous consequences for two families and their community.”

Elephant & Piggie’s “We Are in a Play!” Book and Lyrics by Mo Willems. Music by Deb Wicks La Puma. Staged by the Merrimack Repertory Theatre, in partnership with UMass Lowell and Middlesex Community College at the Richard & Nancy Donahue Family Academic Arts Center at Middlesex Community College, 240 Central Street, Lowell, through January 25. (School performances through Jan 24. Public performance on Jan 25).

MRT’s description of this children’s show: “A elephant named Gerald, and a pig named Piggie are best, best, “bestus” (a word Gerald and Piggie made up that means “very best”) friends, but Gerald worries something could go wrong to end their friendship. Piggie is not worried at all. She’s even happier and more excited than usual. She and Gerald have just been invited to a party hosted by the Squirrelles, three singing squirrels who love to have a good time. And so begins a day where anything is possible. These two pals and their devotion to each other will remind you of how good it feels to celebrate friendship. This performance is recommended for ages 3 and older.”

Life & Times of Michael K, J.M. Coetzee’s novel of the same name, adapted and directed by Lara Foot. Staged by South Africa’s Baxter Theater and Handspring Puppet Company presented by ArtsEmerson at the Robert J. Orchard Stage, 559 Washington Street, Boston, Jan 31 through 9.

A theatricalization (including puppets) of the Booker Prize-winning novel by J. M. Coetzee. According to ArtsEmerson’s publicity: “the hauntingly beautiful story follows Michael K, a simple man who embarks on a journey through South Africa, ravaged by civil war, to return his mother to die on the farm where she was born. He finds strength in his own humanity, his profound connection to the earth, and his unique path, which, as it unfolds, reveals to him his reason for living.”

Someone Will Remember Us by Deborah Salem Smith and Charlie Thurston. Created by Dr. Michelle Cruz, Deborah Salem Smith, and Charlie Thurston. Directed by Christopher Windom. Staged by Trinity Rep at the Dowling Theatre, 201 Washington St., Rhode Island, January 23 through February 23.

The world premiere of a play that, according to “interlaces the real-life testimonies of U.S. military veterans, a Gold Star family, Iraqi civilians, and refugees living in Rhode Island. As military conflict wages on multiple fronts across the world, this production paints a moving portrait of the innumerable tolls of war, and how we find connection through it all.”

The RESET, created and performed by singer and sound healing artist Davin Young. The community is invited to bring their yoga mat and join us on stage, in the orchestra, or in the seats of the Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston, at either 12 p.m. or 4 p.m. on January 25.

This is more of a concert than a theater piece, but I couldn’t resist listing this installment of the Huntington Selects series. It sounds like a theatrical variation on the (profit-orientated) research done by Spotify: it turns out listeners are attracted to music because it nurtures their moods. Do you want inner peace? Put down your headphones and head down to the local theater.

You don’t believe me? Here is the HTC’s description: “journey beyond the traditional concert experience into a space of profound transformation and healing … this immersive take on a “sound bath” will elevate your mind, body and spirit. Davin Young masterfully weaves a tapestry of sound using improvisational singing, looping devices, crystal-singing bowls, tuning forks, and other overtone-emitting instruments. Layer upon improvised layer will guide you through a sonic landscape into the far reaches of your mind. As we said in the ’60s, tune in and bliss out.

ENDSIEG: THE SECOND COMING, a response to the re-election of Donald Trump by Elfriede Jelinek. Directed by Milo Rau. Live Streamed by HowlRound on January 20 at 1 p.m. (EST)

The lowdown: parallel readings (English and German) of a new play by 2004 Nobel Laureate Elfriede Jelinek. The director is Swiss theatrical firebrand Milo Rau.

“Democracy is in a serious crisis and people are confused. Jelinek has responded to Donald Trump’s second election victory with an important text: Endsieg: The Second Coming, a grim sequel to Am Königsweg / The Royal Road, her 2017 play about the US election.

Jelinek shows how his followers see the ‘new old king’ as a divinely chosen redeemer. But the king is not alone. There are shadows behind him, his political and economic cliques, fighting for his attention and with each other. And the resistance is collapsing: “I say there is nothing more, there is nothing else, the other no longer exists, there is nothing to see, there is only the one left,” states the blind seer. The German version will be read by Ursina Lardi in Mosul, Iraq; American version by Nicole Ansari-Cox in New York.”

— Bill Marx

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World Music and Roots

Chuck Prophet and His Cumbia Shoes
January 28, City Winery, Boston
January 29, 3S Artspace, Portsmouth

Throughout his lengthy career, Chuck Prophet has been one of the greatest musical chronicles of the grit and glory of Bay Area life. When he was sidelined with stage four lymphoma he found himself doing more listening than singing, and he became enthralled with the sound of today’s California: the always infectious and surprisingly malleable Latin dance rhythms of cumbia. Extended writing and jamming with the Bay Area cumbia band ¿Qiensave? yielded Prophet’s new album, Wake the Dead, which is one of his best recordings to date. He’s touring with a band that includes members of both ¿Qiensave? and his longtime Mission Express.

Tami-Fest IV
January 21
Lizard Lounge, Cambridge

The Cambridgeville musical community has been rallying around beloved music venue bartender Tami Lee as she faces medical challenges. This fundraiser includes the cream of the Boston crop: Dub Apocalypse, Abbie Barrett, Jesse Dee and Lyle Brewer. Considering how many of those acts could fill the Lizard Lounge on their own, an early arrival is suggested.

Rakish
January 22
Club Passim, Cambridge

Just this weekend, the Boston duo Rakish were announced as one of the inaugural recipients to receive touring support from the Brian O’Donovan Legacy Fund. Fiddler Maura Shawn Scanlin and guitarist Conor Hearn are a most worthy choice. Like the late WGBH host, they take an excitingly expansive view of Celtic music as well as the American string band sound it gave birth to. Their enchanting new LP, Now, O Now, does more than highlight the duo’s riveting Celtic instrumentals — it also spotlights the power of Scanlin’s clawhammer banjo. There’s everything on the disc from musical adaptations of James Joyce verse to some effective infusions of electronic sounds.

Jim Kweskin and the Stomp Street Serenaders
January 30
The Burren Backroom, Somerville

One of the main players of the ’60s folk revival, Jim Kweskin, is 84 but he is showing no signs of heading for retirement or accepting complacency. Instead, he’s continually popping up with the young musicians who are keeping the flame of early 20th century rags, jazz, and blues alive. On this night he’ll join up with the Stomp Street Serenaders, the lively trio of 20-somethings featuring violinist Michele Zimmerman, guitarist Alma Vatiek, and clarinetist Itay Dayan. The Stompers will start the night with their own set before backing Kweskin in a multi-generational jamboree.

— Noah Schaffer

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Jazz

Robert Glasper
Through January 21
City Winery, Boston, Mass.

Jazz crossover superstar Robert Glasper (categorized as “R&B/Neo-Soul” on this date) does one of his regular six-shows-in-three-nights gigs at City Winery. No word on the band. Say what you will, I’m still trying to figure out those J Dilla rhythms. How do they do that?

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
January 22 at 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

Wynton and crew roll into town for their annual Celebrity Series of Boston gig at Symphony Hall. No word on the program.

Dafnis Prieto Sí o Sí Quartet
January 24 at 8 p.m.
Berklee Performance Center, Boston

Composer/percussionist Prieto hits town celebrating his 50^th birthday as well as 25 years since he moved from his native Cuba to New York and started winning Grammys as well as a MacArthur fellowship (2011). His stellar Sí o Sí quartet includes Peter Apfelbaum on woodwinds, pianist Martin Bejerano, and bassist Ricky Rodríguez.

Bill Charlap Trio
January 24 (7:30 p.m.) and 25 (9:30 p.m.)
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

Joining Charlap for this show are bassist David Wong and drummer Dennis Mackrel. In case you’ve been living in jazz-free zone, you should know that pianist Charlap is one of the living masters of the Great American Songbook and all manner of jazz standards. (Favorite between-song announcement from his last Regattabar appearance, after a performance of “Donna Lee”: “Charlie Parker. Genius of modern music.”) As I write this, the early Saturday show is sold out and the two others are going fast.

David Weiss Sextet
January 25 at 7 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

Trumpeter and composer David Weiss is probably best known as musical director of the collection of hard-bop vets the Cookers. He’s here supporting his latest solo disc, Auteur, “spotlighting original music [and ] never-before-recorded compositions from Freddie Hubbard and Slide Hampton.” He comes to Scullers with his latest iteration of the band from the album: alto saxophonist Myron Walden, tenor Craig Handy, bassist Eric Wheeler, pianist Victor Gould, and drummer E.J.Strickland.

esperanza spalding
January 25 at 8 p.m.
Cary Memorial Hall, Lexington, Mass.

“In this special configuration of 2 musicians and 2 dancers, esperanza performs songs from all 8 of her previous albums, songs from current releases, plus a special preview of her forthcoming project.”

Elan Mehler
January 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

Pianist, composer, and record company impresario Elan Mehlar has been working out his thing with a Monday-night trio residency at the Lilypad. Here he expands to a crazy-talented sextet with saxophonists George Garzone and Loren Stillman, guitarist Ben Monder, bassist Tony Scherr, and drummer Francisco Mela.

Yulia Musayelyan Quartet
January 31 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

The vibrant flutist and composer Yulia Musayelyan celebrates the release of Strange Times with the band from that album: pianist Maxim Lubarsky, bassist Fernando Huergo, and drummer Mark Walker.

Bruno Råberg Tentet
January 31 at 8 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge, Mass.

Bassist and composer Bruno Råberg’s Evolver was one of the highlights of 2024. He returns to the Lilypad with his tentet to play pieces from that album. The bandmembers include flutist Fernando Brandão, saxophonists Alan Chase and Rick DiMuzio, trumpeter/flugelhornist Peter Kenagy, trombonist Randy Pingrey, bass clarinetist Rinat Fishman, guitarist Nate Radley, keyboardist Anastassiya Petrova, and drummer Gen Yorhimura.

Tim Ray
February 1 at 7 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

Tim Ray’s most high-profile gig has been his tenure as Tony Bennett’s longtime pianist and musical director, but he’s been a valuable player on the Boston scene for decades. Here he’s joined by his regular trio mates John Lockwood (bass) and Mark Walker (drums), plus, as a special guest, the exciting young tenor saxophonist Edmar Colon.

Zishi Liu 2025 Chinese New Year Concert
February 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

Tenor saxophonist Zishi Liu has put together an ambitious program celebrating the Lunar New Year with “a cohesive ensemble of talented Asian musicians, both emerging and established, from diverse countries and backgrounds,” and, it appears, a few non-Asian international representatives as well: Hui Weng on the Chinese zither, the guzheng; singer Alex Gao; background vocalists Ian M. Lim and Zhixing Fei; pianist Harold Charon; guitarist Eric Hofbaruer; bassist Benedict Koh; drummer Zongmou Jian; the GAIA (string) Quartet; and the Long Horns.

— Jon Garelick

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Classical

Beethoven & Romanticism: The Complete Symphonies
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
Though January 25, times vary
Symphony Hall, Boston

The Boston Symphony kicks off 2025 with performances of the complete Beethoven symphonies, presented chronologically, plus special events that highlight the German icon’s larger output and influence. Andris Nelsons conducts.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

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Author Events

Pagan Kennedy at Harvard Book Store 
The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story
January 21 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Pagan Kennedy’s book is astonishing in every way that matters. The Secret History of the Rape Kit is the story of hidden genius and the centuries-long fight for women to simply be recognized and heard. Marty Goddard as a footnote in history takes her rightful place as a visionary thanks to Kennedy’s relentless investigation. This book is gripping, vulnerable, assured and way overdue.” —Rachel Louise Snyder, author of Women We Buried, Women We Burned, and No Visible Bruises

Porter Square Books – Boston Edition: Christopher Kimball
Milk Street Bakes
January 23 at 6 p.m.
Free

“The American baking repertoire may be unparalleled in our claim to pies, biscuits, and cakes. But step off a plane in London, Mexico City, Istanbul, or Paris, and you realize how much more there we can learn about the art of simple, delicious baked goods.

We found a simple Spanish almond cake that uses no wheat flour. Loaf cakes that balance the sugar with slightly-bitter rye. Super-creamy Basque cheesecake that requires no water bath. Mexican sweet corn cake made in a blender. Or Catalan biscotti, sticky chocolate cake from Sweden, and crispy spinach and cheese borek from Türkiye. We also include forgotten American recipes such as maple-glazed hermits and new classics such as peanut butter banana cream pie. And we go beyond sweets to include yeasted breads, savory tarts, pizzas, and flatbreads (some made in a skillet in minutes).

Most of these recipes are easier than you’d think, from beer pretzels to Danish dream cake. But in baking, the little things count — so Milk Street Bakes is here to help you avoid pitfalls with recipes that you can count on. Our promise to you is that you will become the best baker you know!”

Porter Square Books – Boston Edition: Comedy Night: Laughing through the Pain!
January 24 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $10

Join us for a night of hilarious standup comedy at PSB: Boston Edition (50 Liberty Drive, Boston, MA). Get ready to laugh until your sides hurt as talented comedians take the stage to help you forget about your troubles. Come on down and enjoy some good company, great laughs, and maybe even a book. Don’t miss out on this evening of fun and laughter! Books and other items will be available for purchase. This month’s theme is MEDICAL. You ever been gaslit by a doctor? I’m pretty sure this entire lineup has!”

Story Time with Rhonda Roumani at Porter Square Books
Insha’Allah, No, Maybe So
January 25 at 11 a.m.
Free

“A sweet and playful picture book about a common Arabic word for life’s uncertainties that will ring true for all families. Ranya wants to go to the park. “Insha’Allah,” her mom tells her. But doesn’t that just mean no? Ranya’s mom says “Insha’Allah” when Ranya asks to make cookies. She says it when Ranya wants to sleep over at Jayda’s house. She says it when Ranya begs to go to Disneyland.

This might sound familiar to parents and caregivers . . . It’s hard to know what to say when you can’t promise anything! Sometimes grown-ups say “Maybe” or “We’ll see.” And in millions of Arab and Muslim homes around the world, families use the phrase “Insha’Allah” when talking about the future.

So, what does “Insha’Allah” really mean? In this warmly illustrated picture book, Ranya and her mom tackle the meaning of the powerful phrase and ponder the best way to talk about their hopes and dreams—and maybe, sometimes, the things they want to put off. (Like cleaning up toys!) Cozy art and joyful, loving characters make this a perfect family read aloud.”

Imani Perry at The Brattle Theatre – Harvard Book Store
Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People
January 28 at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $38 w book, $10 without

“Throughout history, Black life has been remarkably intertwined with another color: blue. In daily life, it is evoked in countless ways, from the hopefulness of a blue sky to the deep melancholy of Louis Armstrong’s question, “What did I do to be so Black and blue?” In this book, celebrated author Imani Perry uses the world’s favorite color as a springboard for a riveting emotional, cultural, and spiritual journey—an examination of race and Blackness that transcends politics or ideology.

In Black in Blues Perry traces both blue and Blackness from their earliest roots to their many embodiments of contemporary culture, drawing deeply from her own life as well as from art and history: the dyed indigo cloths of West Africa that were traded for human life in the sixteenth century; the fundamentally American art form of blues music, sitting at the crossroads of pain and pleasure; the blue flowers Perry plants to honor a loved one, gone too soon.”

Luke Leafgren with Ammiel Alcalay – Brookline Booksmith
The Tale of a Wall: Reflections on the Meaning of Hope and Freedom
January 28 from 7 – 8 p.m.
Free

“A passionate prison memoir from a Palestinian man incarcerated for over 30 years in an Israeli prison—equal parts metaphysical love story and cry for justice. One of more than 5,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons before October 7, 2023, Nasser Abu Srour was sentenced to life without parole in 1993 after a forced confession. His extraordinary writings delve into the history of the Nakba to the Intifada of the Stones, as he navigates life within the confines of an Israeli prison.

But it is within the walls of his cell that this exceptional memoir takes an unexpected direction — Abu Srour turns the very Wall that has deprived him of freedom into his companion, his interlocutor. It becomes the source of stability that allows him to endure a chaotic, hopeless existence. The limitations of this survival strategy — and singular literary device — become painfully evident when falling in love causes Abu Srour to lose his grip on the Wall.

Only by writing the story of his imprisonment and the story of his love does Abu Srour find his way back. In doing so, he has created a work of art that transcends his pain while shining a glaring light on the ongoing tragedy of the Palestinian situation.”

A Virtual Evening with Pico Iyer and Michael Shapiro — presented by Books & Books, Harvard Bookstore, Literati Bookstore, and Miami Book Fair
Aflame: Learning from Silence
January 30 at 7 p.m.
Tickets to this virtual event ($33.88) include one hardcover copy of Aflame shipped to your home (US mailing addresses only) and an access link to the virtual event on Zoom.

“Pico Iyer has made more than one hundred retreats over the past three decades to a small Benedictine hermitage high above the sea in Big Sur, California. He’s not a Christian — or a member of any religious group – but his life has been transformed by these periods of time spent in silence. That silence reminds him of what is essential and awakens a joy that nothing can efface. It’s not just freedom from distraction and noise and rush: it’s a reminder of some deeper truths he misplaced along the way.

In Aflame, Iyer connects with inner stillness and joy in his many seasons at the monastery, even as his life is going through constant change: a house burns down, a parent dies, a daughter is diagnosed with cancer.”

John Sayles – Porter Square Books
To Save The Man
January 31 at 7 p.m.

“In the vein of Never Let Me Go and Killers of the Flower Moon, the latest book from novelist and filmmaker John Sayles “sheds light on an American tragedy: the Wounded Knee Massacre, and the ‘cultural genocide’ experienced by the Native American children at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

In September of 1890, the academic year begins at the Carlisle School, a military-style boarding school for Indians in Pennsylvania, founded and run by Captain Richard Henry Pratt. Pratt considers himself a champion of Native Americans. His motto, “To save the man, we must kill the Indian,” is severely enforced in both classroom and dormitory: Speak only English, forget your own language and customs, learn to be white.”

Stuart Murdoch – Brookline Booksmith
Nobody’s Empire: A Novel 
At the Rockwell, Davis Square, Somerville
February 1 from 7:30- 9:30 p.m.
Advance tickets are $60 with book, $30 without

“One of the great lyricists of our time, the lead singer and songwriter for the iconic Glasgow-based band Belle and Sebastian, pens a sensitive and intimate account — his debut novel based on his own youthful experiences — of dark days leading to light and a coming of age through music.”

— Matt Hanson