Compiled by Arts Fuse Editor

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

Film

Belmont Film’s International Film Series

April 28 (West Newton Cinema) 7:30 p.m. – Manas (Brazil). Set in a remote riverside community in Brazil, this compelling drama follows a 13-year-old girl who becomes increasingly aware of the systemic violence and exploitation faced by the women in her village. Determined to change her destiny and protect her younger sister, she courageously challenges the oppressive structures governing their lives. Winner of the Venice Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori Director’s Award.

May 5 (West Newton Cinema) 7:30 p.m. – Sima’s Song (Netherlands/France/Spain, North American premiere). The bonds of friendship between a wealthy communist and a conservative Muslim singer are put to the test during Afghanistan’s turbulent history in the 1970s. Despite their differing political beliefs, they remain steadfast during their personal and societal upheavals, including the Soviet invasion and the rise of the mujahideen. The film highlights the resilience and courage of Afghan women amidst decades of conflict.

May 12 (West Newton Cinema) 7:30 p.m. – Shepherds (Canada/France, US premiere). A Montreal advertising executive abandons his urban life to become a shepherd in the French Alps in director Sophie Deraspe’s (Antigone, BWF 2021) latest film. Together with a civil servant who also leaves her former life behind, he navigates the challenges of rural existence and their new environment, to seek purpose and connection. Winner at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.

The Satyajit Ray Collection
April 18 – May 18
Harvard Film Archive

The series includes films from beautiful and newly acquired 35mm Satyajit Ray prints from the HFA collection.

Charluta (May 13 at 9:15 p.m.) and The Adversary  May 13 at 9:30 p.m.)

The Big City (May 18 at 7 p.m.)

Independent Film Festival Boston
Through April 30
Somerville Theatre in Davis Square, Brattle Theatre
Complete Schedule

The festival continues with a full roster of films on Sunday including the award-winning Linda (Argentina), Peacock (Austrian-German), Molokaʻi Bound (Hawaii). More screenings follow on Monday and Tuesday evenings, closing with Sorry, Baby at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.

Resistance of Vision Festival
May 3 at 3 p.m.
Brattle Theatre

Founded by former Bright Lights programmer Anna Feder and SF IndieFest director Jeff Ross, this touring festival focuses on premiering social justice-themed short films. The selections include Nomads in the City, Ancestral Call, and Roll Down the Window. Complete list of films

Blues Run the Game: The Strange Tale Of Jackson C. Frank
May 4 at at 7:30 p.m.
Regent Theater in Arlington

The Regent’s Doc & Roll series presents the story of Jackson C. Frank, who released a masterpiece album in 1965, produced by Paul Simon. Over time, Frank became a musical influence on many but, after the release of his recording (which sold poorly initially) he disappeared without a trace. Afflicted by physical disabilities and severe PTSD as a result of a childhood tragedy, Frank’s mental health deteriorated with the arrival of success. There will be a post-film discussion with the doc’s director and producer.

Millennium Actress
May 7 at 7 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theatre

The theater’s Ani-Mania Series presents Satoshi Kon’s follow-up to Perfect Blue. The narrative traces the career of a legendary actress, Chiyoko Fujiwara, as seen through the eyes of documentary filmmakers.  Though Chiyoko has withdrawn into retirement, filmmaker Genya Tachibana receives the rare opportunity to interview her about her life. When he gives the actress a token from her past, Tachibana and his cameraman Ida are thrust into Chiyoko’s memories, reliving the key moments of her life and uncovering the truth behind her fabled career.

Mother
May 10 at 9:15 p.m.
Harvard Film Archives

A neglected 2009 film by director Bong Joon-ho (The Host, Parasite); this is a noir with the sexual undertones of Michael Curtiz’s Mildred Pierce and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. When her developmentally disabled son Do-joon is arrested for the murder of a high school girl, the titular mother, who is only referred to throughout as “Do-joon’s mother,” sees  the task of proving his innocence to be a divine calling.

Pick of the Week

Lake George, streaming on Amazon, Hulu, and Apple TV

Director and writer Jeffrey Reiner (Friday Night Lights, The Affair, Blood and Concrete), inspired by noir films such as Point Blank and The Killing, developed this film during Covid. It was released to positive reviews but a limited theatrical run. Like other classic noirs, a semi-good guy crosses paths with a femme fatale and troubling outcomes follow. In this dark comedy Reiner veers from the standard formula by focusing on the fate of two grifters who are past their prime and in search of a little peace and quiet. The film has been characterized as “purposely hard-boiled, with just a dash of world-weary wisdom” by Ebert.com. Carrie Coon (White Lotus, Fargo) is the bleached-blonde seductress interacting with the hapless ex-con Don, played by Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire).

— Tim Jackson

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Theater

COVID PROTOCOLS: Check with specific theaters.

Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board Members by Mara Vélez Meléndez. Directed by Javier Antonio González. Staged by Yale Rep, 1120 Chapel Street, New Haven, through May 17.

This play sounds like a piece of mischievous political theater. In New England? At a major regional stage? Maybe, like courage, the production will be contagious. The Yale Rep description: “Early one morning, Lolita, a young Boricua trans woman, arrives at a suspicious (let’s say evil) Wall Street office with a mission: to take down all seven members of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Board. Much to her surprise, the receptionist who welcomes her has, more than a story to tell, a show to put on. A revenge saga/existential drag extravaganza, Mara Vélez Meléndez’s subversively funny play takes aim at the unelected officials who think they know what’s best for the people — and for our own bodies — and the elected ones who appoint them.”

What You Are Now by Sam Chanse. Directed by Steve Cosson. Staged by the Merrimack Repertory Theatre at the Nancy L. Donahue Theatre at Liberty Hall, 50 E. Merrimack St., Lowell, through May 11.

The MRT summary of this intriguing-sounding new drama: “Set in Lowell, What You Are Now follows Pia, a passionate young researcher investigating new ideas about how to heal the mind from traumatic memories. Her interest is deeply intertwined with her family’s history. When a figure from the past shows up, urging Pia’s mother to testify about her experiences during the violence of 1970s Cambodia, unresolved histories are brought to the surface.” The drama “is one of the performance activities connected to Proleung Khmer (Khmer Soul): A 50-year Journey of Remembrance and Resilience.”

“In an effort to care for our community, we’re sharing details about this production that may be sensitive for members of our audience. The following information may reveal plot points. What You Are Now engages with the subject of deportation and the historical events surrounding the invasion of the Khmer Rouge. The production contains loud sounds, adult language, and is recommended for ages 12+.”

Jaja’s African Hair Braiding by Jocelyn Bioh. Directed by Summer L.Williams. Staged by SpeakEasy Stage Company at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, May 2 through 31

Here is what the SpeakEasy Stage Company site has to say about this 2024 Tony nominee play: “It’s a hot summer day in 2019, and in Harlem, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding salon is open for business, even though its eponymous owner is hours away from getting married. Presiding over the shop’s team of talented, high-spirited West African designers is Jaja’s daughter Marie, a DREAMer who has set her sights on college. When shocking news disrupts the day’s festivities, the women must grapple with what it means to be outsiders in the place they call home.”

Tony Montanaro: A Love Story, written and performed by Karen Montanaro. Presented by Eggtooth Productions at Shea Theatre, 71 Avenue A, Turners Falls, MA, May 3 at 7:30 p.m.

According to the website: The multimedia show is inspired by “the creative relationship Karen had with her husband Tony, perhaps the most famous American Mime performer in our history. When Tony and Karen met in 1987, Tony was a world-renowned mime artist and Karen was a professional ballet dancer. Tony was 60 years old and freshly divorced. Karen was 27 years old and the only “relationship” she had ever had was with ballet. Tony was ready to leave his former life, buy an Airstream and hit the road. Karen was at a dead end, suffering from anxiety attacks and a life-threatening malaise. Thus began a relationship that Karen credits with saving her life; imparting grand lessons in vulnerability, artistry, playfulness and more playfulness.” Special guest Jack Golden will perform ‘The Last Hurrah-Ha,’ a look back and a look ahead in the life and times of an actor, clown and active septuagenarian. Melding the base elements of clown, story, and movement, he transforms his vast collection of experiences into surprising inventions that will bring laughter, tears, and recognition.”

Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Directed by Tony Estrella. Staged by Gamm Theatre at 245 Jefferson Blvd, Warwick, RI, through May 4.

W.H. Auden on Shakespeare’s towering tragedy: “The plays of the period in which Shakespeare wrote Hamlet have a great richness, but one is not sure that at this point he even wants to be a dramatist. Hamlet offers strong evidence of this indecision, because it indicates what Shakespeare might have done if he had had an absolutely free hand: he might well have confined himself to dramatic monologue.”

Boston Theater Marathon XXVII, featuring 50 10-minute plays written by 50 New England playwrights and presented by 50 New England theater companies at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 949 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, May 4, 11 a.m. through 10 p.m.

“Inspired by the iconic Boston Marathon, the BTM is a theater endurance event designed to make connections between local playwrights and local theatres —seeding new collaborations and strengthening existing ones, and encouraging more companies to consider producing new plays by local writers! — and to introduce audiences to the breadth and depth of the Boston playwriting and theatre scene. The yearly event provides a showcase — and a connecting point — for the entire theatre community.”

Note: “Net proceeds from the Boston Theater Marathon benefit the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund (TCBF), which provides financial relief in a confidential, respectful manner to individual theatre practitioners of Greater Boston and the surrounding areas. The organization makes it possible for theatre artists to offer support to one another and deepen the sense of community in Boston.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. Directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent. Staged by the Actors’ Shakespeare Project at the Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts, 1321 Arsenal St., Watertown, MA, through May 4.

This version of Shakespeare’s most popular romantic comedy was “inspired by the club culture of late ’90s and early ’00s New York City.” W.H. Auden on the play: “In A Midsummer Night’s Dream Shakespeare mythologically anthropomorphizes nature, making nature like man, and reducing the figurants of nature in size in comic situations. In the tragedies, however, Shakespeare does not anthropomorphize nature. Storms and shipwrecks in the tragedies are represented as the will of God, and they either reflect or contrast with human emotion.”

Crowns by Regina Taylor, adapted from the book by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry. Directed by Regine Vital. Music director David Coleman. Staged by Moonbox Productions at 2 Arrow Street, Cambridge, through May 4.

According to the Arrow Street Arts website: “A musical play in which hats become a springboard for an exploration of Black history and identity as seen through the eyes of a young Black woman who has come down South to stay with her aunt after her brother is killed in Brooklyn. Hats are everywhere, in exquisite variety, and the characters use the hats to tell tales concerning everything from the etiquette of hats to their historical and contemporary social function. There is a hat for every occasion, from flirting to churchgoing to funerals to baptisms, and the tradition of hats is traced back to African rituals and slavery and forward to the New Testament and current fashion. Some rap but predominantly gospel music and dance underscore and support the narratives.”

The Squirrels by Robert Askins. Directed by Brooks Reeves. Movement choreography by Audrey Johnson. Staged by the Apollinaire Theatre Company at Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea, MA, through May 18.

This satire of prejudice and greed, says the Apollinaire Theatre Company website, revolves around “a bitter struggle for love, power, and the almighty acorn” that “divides a once-peaceful tree.”

Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Directed by Bryn Boice. Staged by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company at The Strand Theatre, 543 Columbia Road, Boston, May 8 through 16. (CSC will also welcome students from 40+ local schools at seven student matinee performances, May 8 through 16).

Well, this version of what wicked thing is coming our way sounds intriguing. “In this timely reimagining of Shakespeare’s twisted tragedy, technology takes center stage, driving a tale of jealousy, ambition, and ruin. This bold new interpretation re-envisions the Witches as sinister algorithms — artificial forces that manipulate Macbeth toward his tragic fate.” W.H. Auden points to this politically relevant line from Lady Macduff as the tragedy’s motto: “All is the fear, and nothing is the love.”

The Boston Fringe Festival, 20 “one-of-a-kind” shows featuring over 45 performers. Produced by Anton Monteleone and Deby Xiadani at the Rockwell, Davis Square, Somerville, May 5 through 11.

The event bills itself as the first “fringe festival in Massachusetts” and says it is dedicated to celebrating “independent and experimental works in theater, dance, music, comedy, and multimedia.” The festival’s mission is “to provide a space for work that is unconstrained by curation, judgment, or the status quo. To inspire Boston artists to dream, create, and be a “Fringe BOS.” There was no selection criteria to apply or be selected to perform. Fifty percent of the acts were selected via first-come-first-serve, which were filled within 15 minutes of opening the application process, and 50 percent were selected by random lottery. This removes any bias or expectation from the festival, allowing any artist with a vision to put up their show.”

The Light in the Piazza Book by Craig Lucas. Music & Lyrics by Adam Guettel. Based on the novel by Elizabeth Spencer. Directed by Loretta Greco. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company at 264 Huntington Ave., Boston, May 8 through June 15.

This 2005 musical won six Tony Awards, including Best Original Score. It is, according to the HTC website, “the story of a mother, a daughter, and the many meanings of love. Florence, summer 1953. Protective American mother Margaret Johnson brings her daughter Clara abroad for a glimpse of Italy’s romantic history. But when a real-life attraction sparks between Clara and a local boy, Margaret must ask: can she reconcile her own hopes with her daughter’s future?”

— Bill Marx

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Visual Art

At the climax of The Custom of the Country, Edith Wharton’s 1913 novel of Gilded Age ambition and folly, a splendid new Paris ballroom opens to reveal a set of famous antique Gobelin tapestries hung along the walls. After years of arm-twisting, the American Railroad King and rapacious art collector Elmer Moffat, owner of the Paris mansion, has finally wrested the family heirlooms from a financially embarrassed Marquise de Chelles, who happens also to be his beautiful, social-climbing new wife, Undine’s, previous husband. Here the trophies, human and artistic, are laid out for guests at a glittering reception to admire and to see their new owner gloat.

Wharton captures one of the presiding symbols of the Gilded Age. Tapestries, along with suits of armor, Persian carpets, period furniture, and baronial, oak-paneled homes, had become an emblem of the rise of new American money over European tradition. Tapestries, in particular, fascinated the ultra rich. They hung their paneled drawing rooms with them and art museums, like Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, built grand tapestry halls to display them.

More than a century on, the Gilded Age is long gone, most of the tapestry halls are hung with paintings, and the tapestries themselves are rolled up in storage, waiting for another turn in fashion. Only a handful — like the famous unicorn cycle at New York’s Cloisters — are on permanent display.

The Worcester Art Museum will be dusting off its long out-of-view tapestry collection for its spring exhibition From the Vault: Collecting Tapestries at the Worcester Art Museum , opening May 3. The nearly 30 examples, from antiquity to the present include the Elmer Moffat-worthy Last Judgment, a rich 16th-century Flemish tapestry that measures over 12 by 26 feet, on view for the first time in almost a decade. French modernist Jean Lurcat’s 1937 work Harvest Time represents the medium’s revival in the 20th century. The new acquisition dream disk (2024) debuts in the show. It is by the Los Angeles artist Dedrick Brackens, known, the museum says, “for his intricate textile art that explores themes of identity, race, and queerness through the narratives he weaves.”

In 1898, white supremacists in the port city of Wilmington, North Carolina, staged a violent overthrow of the city’s elected, racially mixed government. Dozens were killed and Black residents fled into the nearby forests; a reporter described their faces peering out from the trees and foliage. The haunting image figures in the complex work of American artist Minnie Evans, who was born in 1892 and grew up in the Jim Crow era American South amid memories of slavery and the 1898 insurrection.

A gatekeeper at Wilmington’s Airlie Gardens for some 26 years, Evans was inspired by Airlie’s lush, formal plantings and used the gatehouse as her studio. Over a career of 50 years, Evans’s intricate drawings and paintings “merged her own inner world — her religious beliefs, interest in mythology, and study of history — with the natural environment that surrounded her.” The Visionary Art of Minnie Evans, which includes 16 multimedia works along with a selection of her letters, postcards, and other ephemera, opens at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, on May 10.

Despite political upheaval, rebellions, civil wars, revolutions, invasions, and the mass slaughter of Chinese citizens, traditional Chinese brush painting, historically the pursuit of the cosseted elite, persisted and even flourished during China’s unsettled period between the last years of the Qing Dynasty in the late 19th century and the Communist triumph in 1948. Artists of the period — which corresponds to the rise of modernism in the West — are among the most honored in the history of Chinese art, valued for their innovations within established forms. One such artist is Qi Baishi (1864-1957), renowned for his modernization of Chinese ink painting, adding brilliant color, expressionistic brush strokes, and new subject matter to the medium. Qi Baishi: Inspiration in Ink, opening at the MFA on May 3, honors the 160th anniversary of the artist’s birth with almost 40 examples of his transformative work.

The Newport Art Museum’s Sean Landers: Lost at Sea, opening May 10, pairs seafaring works by the Massachusetts artist Sean Landers with maritime paintings by Winslow Homer, which Landers has selected from the museum’s collection. But the highlight of the show will undoubtedly be Landers’s Moby Dick: The Whale, a 28-foot painting of Herman Melville’s legendary literary creation, the white whale called Moby Dick.

Hans Holbein the Younger’s arresting Portrait of Henry VIII (1540), painted when the sitter was 49 years old, is an indelible image of a reigning European monarch flaunting his wealth and power. This famous portrait is currently visiting Hartford at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, a loan from the Galleria Nazionale, Palazzo Barberini, Rome, in exchange for the Wadsworth’s loan of Caravaggio’s St. Francis in Ecstasy for the Barberini’s exhibition Caravaggio 2025.

For those who want to learn more about this celebrated painting while it is still in Connecticut, Wadsworth director Matthew Hargraves and Morse Curator of European Art Oliver Tostman will offer a special gallery talk on May 3 at 1 p.m., repeating at 3 p.m. Free with admission but registration is required. Meet outside the Museum Shop.

The Harvard Art Museums will present the Annual Henri Zerner Lecture on April 29 at 6:00 pm. Caroline Fowler, Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Art Institute, “will narrate a history of Dutch art through beavers and bovines, fences and dams, forestry, potsherds, and land deeds.” Fowler’s lecture, “Dutch Art and Rewilding Art History,” draws on the environmental concept of “rewilding” to imagine a natural world “distinct from the commodification of nature that began with 17th-century Dutch landscape painting.” Free with limited seating; registration recommended

— Peter Walsh

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Television

With the imminent debut of several new “reality” cooking series, including Yes, Chef! (NBC, April 28), Chef’s Table (Netflix, April 28), and Cutthroat Kitchen: Knives Out (Food Network, May 15), a genre of foodie pleasure-seeking has become, well, a bit overstuffed. Some are competitions, some are documentaries, but many of them are merely trying to imitate successful iterations that came before (such as the bland American version of The Great British Baking Show).

Enter Carême, a new French historical drama from Apple TV, premiering on April 30, purporting to be about the world’s first celebrity chef, Marie Antoine (Antonin) Carême. Often referred to as the father of French cuisine, he was also a prolific food writer as well as a spy in the aftermath of the French Revolution. This entertaining series tells the story of Carême’s rise from poverty and obscurity in the era of Napoleon (yes, we’re waiting for that pastry to make an appearance) in his quest to become a famous chef. The narrative begins with a steamy scene: two young lovers are enjoying each other. Antonin (Benjamin Voisin, Summer of 85) tempts Henriette (Lyna Khoudri, The French Dispatch) with two kinds of pastry cream, asking if she can tell the difference (she cannot). Antonin, who works with his adoptive father in a respected patisserie, places his trust in others based on their appreciation of the finer points of gastronomy — that group includes paramours, co-workers, and powerful courtiers. When his guardian is suddenly arrested, Antonin turns for help to Talleyrand (Belgian actor Jérémie Renier), an ambitious diplomat, who secures a position for the cook in the kitchens of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte. The powerbroker is scheming to utilize Antonin’s masterful powers of cookery and seduction in his planned web of espionage.

Despite a few moments of anachronistic slippage, when costumes, hairstyles, and sets appear a bit too modern, Carême is visually gorgeous, serving up savory sensory delights in kitchens, boudoirs, and dining rooms. The cast is impressive, the cinematography and music thrilling, and the story chock full of intrigue and plot twists. Carême may not be a perfect historical portrait, but it’s a delicious distraction.

— Peg Aloi

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Jazz

JCA Orchestra
April 30, 7 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge

The venerable and always surprising Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra (founded 1985) usually shows up in the Boston area’s concerts halls. This is their first club gig — or at least Regattabar gig — in recent memory. Expect new music and “music from JCA’s historical repertoire” by the group’s skilled and adventurous resident composers David Harris, Darrell Katz, Bob Pilkington, and Mimi Rabson, as well as guest composer Phil Scarff.  Featured performers with the 21-piece band will be saxophonist Scarff, flutist Hiro Honshuku, bassist Jesse Williams, trumpeter/flugelhornist Dan Rosenthal, guitarist Norm Zocher, and singer Rebecca Shrimpton, “as well as surprise guest artists.”

Ingrid Laubrock and Ikue Mori
April 30 at 8 p.m. and May 1
New England Conservatory, Boston
FREE

The composer and saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock keeps putting out exciting music year after year (these days mostly on Kris Davis’s Pyroclastic label) but rarely performs in the Boston area. The New England Conservatory is remedying this with two concerts featuring Laubrock and Ikue Mori — a founding member of the downtown NYC no wave band DNA and a protean artist ever since, working as a drummer, electronic musician, and composer (Mori was awarded a MacArthur “genius” fellowship in 2022). On April 30, Laubrock and Mori play with Ted Reichman and Lautaro Mantilla as part of Chirp, NEC’s Music Technology Showcase, in NEC’s Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre. On May 1 performers for the Malcolm Peyton Residency Concert include Mori, Laubrock, singer Sara Serpa with aforementioned pianist Kris Davis; violinist Lilit Hartunian, cellist Steve Marotto, and pianist Yukiko Takagi. The program includes selections from Peyton’s “Suite Nocturnale” for solo viola performed by NEC student Philip Rawlinson, a solo laptop performance by Mori, and a duo improvisation featuring Laubrock and Mori, as well as Laubrock’s “Fight, Flight, Freeze” and “Koans” from Laubrock’s new double album Purposing the Air, a collection of 60 miniatures setting the words of poet Erica Hunt’s “Mood Librarian — a poem in koan.” That concert is in Jordan Hall. Admission to both events is free, but tickets are required for the Jordan Hall event.

Monty Alexander
May 2 and 3, 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge

Kingston, Jamaica-born pianist Monty Alexander, now 80 — with a long history of jazz mastery and the occasional fetching strains from his hometown — fronts a trio with bassist Luke Sellick and drummer Jason Brown in four shows over two nights.

Makanda Project
May 3 7:00 p.m.
Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, Roxbury, MA
FREE

John Kordalewski, founder and musical director of the 20-year-old Makanda Project, has a knack for bringing in guest artists whom Boston audiences have heard too little of in recent years. In this case it’s the exceptional composer and vibraphonist Jay Hoggard. The band will be playing one of Hoggard’s pieces, newly arranged for the 14-piece ensemble, as well as pieces by the band’s namesake, Makanda Ken McIntyre (1931-2001). For all pieces, the band will include Hoggard, reed players Kurtis Rivers, Seith Meicht, Sean Barry, Temidayo Balogun, and Charlie Kohlhase; trumpets Jerry Sabatini and Franz Hackl; trombones Alfred Patterson, Richard Harper, and Bill Lowe; bassist Avery Sharpe; drummer Yoron Israel; and Kordalewski on piano. And it’s free.

Shawnn Monteiro
May 3 at 7:00 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

Veteran singer Shawnn Monteiro’s sense of swing and attention to lyrics, as well as the warm grain of her voice, might remind you of Carmen McRae and Monteiro’s late friend, Rebecca Parris. And she knows firsthand whereof she sings — her father was Ellington bassist Jimmy Woode and her godfather was Clark Terry. Her trio will include pianist Matt Champlain.

Jonathan Suazo
May 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge

Boston Jazz Foundation is presenting this show by the exciting alto saxophonist and composer Jonathan Suazo, who made a splash in 2023 with Ricano (Ropeadope), which featured his intoxicating blend of Puerto Rican and Dominican traditions, abetted by group vocalists and a hefty percussion section.

Nnenna Freelon
May 9 at 7:30
Regattabar, Cambridge

The charismatic singer Nnenna Freelon, after a long career and more than a dozen albums, had an artistic breakthrough in 2025 with the release of Beneath the Skin (Origin), possibly her most personal and affecting project. She should be in fine form in this visit to her hometown of Cambridge.

Zahili Zamora/Claudio Ragazzi
May 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Peabody Hall, Parish of All Saints, Dorchester, MA

The exciting Cuban pianist Zahili Zamora, an assistant professor at Berklee, trades ideas with her faculty colleague, Buenos Aires-born guitarist and composer Claudio Ragazzi, long one of Boston’s most valuable musical resources as well as being a Grammy- and Emmy-winning film and television composer.

Immanuel Wilkins
May 11 at 7 p.m.
Groton Hill Music Center, Groton, MA

Is Immanuel Wilkins the foremost alto saxophonist of his generation (age 27)? Well, we’ll figure that out later. Just know that his performance at the Regattabar last December, playing his own compositions with his quintet, was spellbinding — vamps that were deep and exploratory, delivered with patience, uncommon group interplay, and warmth. He returns for this show with two players from that show: pianist Micah Thomas (himself an inventive composer and band leader) and drummer Kweku Sumbry, a master of clarity and dynamics as well as beats. Ryoma Takenaga is the bassist.

— Jon Garelick

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Roots and World Music

New England Ukulele Festival
May 4
American Legion Post 440, Newton

The ukulele is having a moment: There are touring orchestras, viral YouTube and TikTok stars, and many community organizations dedicated to spotlighting the humble but endearing and enduring instrument. This first edition of the New England Ukulele Festival is a gathering open to any strummer; it will mix performing artists with local community groups. The event is free, but donations are requested for the Ukulele Kids Club, a music therapy program.

Bobby Bare Jr. and Lou Barlow
May 4
The Rockwell, Somerville

Country legend Bobby Bare just turned 90, and at the center of the celebrations was his son, Bobby Jr, himself a stellar songwriter who has long straddled the worlds of country and unvarnished rock — he’s even been a member of Guided By Voices. This sleeper show finds him doing an acoustic song swag with Lou Barlow of Sebadoh.

Martin and Eliza Carthy
May 5 & 6
Club Passim, Cambridge

It’s a rare visit from the first family of British folk. Martin, 83, was a pivotal figure in the early ’60s London folk scene. (Among his fans were Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, who blatantly swiped “Scarborough Fair” from Carthy’s arrangement of the traditional tune.) His daughter Eliza is one of the leading lights of the English folk circuit.

Hilken Mancini Band with The Cujo and Mary Lou Lord
May 10
Sonia, Cambridge

Last fall Hilken Mancini, a longtime presence on the Boston scene through her work with Fuzzy, among others, released a fantastic self-titled album of poppy, assertive rock. Now she’s celebrating with a belated release party which includes two other local legends: The Cujo with Jen Trynin, and Mary Lou Lord, who is expected to be joined by her daughter Annabelle Lord-Patey.

— Noah Schaffer

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Popular Music

Deep Sea Diver with Byland
May 1 (doors at 7/show at 8)
Brighton Music Hall, Allston

The Jessica Dobson-led Deep Sea Diver had dependably released full-length sets of new material every four or five years since 2012’s History Speaks. True to form, this year’s Billboard Heart is the Seattle quintet’s first offering since 2020 and also its first on the storied indie label Sub Pop. Grammy-winning roots/American/folk artist Madison Cunningham features on “Let Me Go,” one of the many new tracks that Dobson and co. will treat a Brighton Music Hall audience to on May 1.

Bob Mould with J. Robbins
May 2 (doors at 7/show at 8)
Paradise Rock Club, Boston

Bob Mould always has another album up his sleeve that never fails to live up to the high standard that he has set for himself in his more than 40 years as a recording artist. In March, the 64-year-old served up Here We Go Crazy, a concise 31-minute collection of 11 songs that address aging, mental health, and mortality. With his ace rhythm section of Jon Wurster and Jason Narducy reliably at his back, the material is as good as fans have come to expect from one of punk/indie/alternative rock’s most influential and admired figures.

Love with Johnny Echols
May 7 (doors at 5:30/show at 7:30)
City Winery, Boston

If I had more space, I would go into detail about how Love could count The Doors, The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix among its admirers. Instead, I will let this article do that for me. Suffice it to say that Love’s first three records – Love, Da Capo, and the indisputable masterpiece Forever Changes – accounted for the band’s unmistakable presence on the late-60s Sunset Strip scene. Guitarist Johnny Echols, one of the two surviving members of the band’s original recording lineup, is currently on tour with Baby Lemonade, whom I saw perform the whole of Forever Changes with Love founder Arthur Lee at the Paradise in 2003. (The fifth and sixth pictures on the left side of this page feature me in close proximity to Mr. Lee.)

Cat Ridgeway & The Tourists with Friend of a Friend
May 9 (doors at 9/show at 9:30)
The 4th Wall (Capitol Theatre), Arlington

With this year’s Sprinter, singer-songwriter-musician Cat Ridgeway seems poised to make her presence fully known after a decade of singles, EP, and (two relatively brief) LPs. These dozen songs find the Orlando native operating on every musical wavelength imaginable without losing any sense of unity. The results are, to say the least, remarkable. The extractions “Epilogue,” “Sprinter,” and “What If?” barely scratch the surface of this album’s treasures.

This should be enough to get you to Arlington on May 9. The presence of Friend of a Friend on the bill should suffice to get you their “early.” Desire!, the duo’s latest LP, landed on April 25 and is arguably Sprinter’s equal in terms of quality and consistency. Come for “FTV” and “beautiful ppl” and stay for the rest.

Roger McGuinn
May 13 (doors at 7/show at 8)
The Cabot, Beverly

As be-Love-d as Johnny Nichols’s band was, it too had its influences. Chief among these was probably fellow Strip scenesters The Byrds. This quintet’s innovative fusion of folk-rock and psychedelia led Arthur Lee to form what would become Love, which included former Bryds roadie Bryan MacLean. As the lead Byrd, Roger McGuinn’s influence on a diverse array of artists (Big Star, Tom Petty, R.E.M., even The Beatles) across multiple genres (folk-rock, power pop, country rock, jangle pop) is comparable to that of Brian Wilson. Join him at The Cabot on May 13 for a mix of originals, trademark Dylan interpretations, and the stories behind at least most of them.

— Blake Maddux

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Classical Music

Evgeny Kissin in recital
Presented by Celebrity Series
April 29, 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

Pianist Kissin returns to the Celebrity Series with a program of favorites by Bach, Chopin, and Shostakovich.

Leland Ko plays Walton
Presented by Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra
May 1, 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

Benjamin Zander and the BPYO are joined by cellist Leland Ko for a rare performance of William Walton’s enchanting Cello Concerto. Additional works by Debussy (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) and Rachmaninoff (Symphony No. 2) fill out the program.

Decoding Shostakovich Finale
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
May 2 at 1:45 p.m. and 3 at 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

Baiba Skride joins Andris Nelsons and the BSO to perform Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Afterwards, conductor and orchestra wrap their month-long Shostakovich festival with that composer’s war-scarred Symphony No. 8.

Kristian Bezuidenhout plays Beethoven
Presented by Handel & Haydn Society
May 3 at 7:30 p.m. and 4 at 3 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

Pianist Bezuidenhout teams up with H&H for a performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. Also on the docket, Jonathan Cohen leads the ensemble in Mozart’s incidental music to Thanos, King of Egypt and Haydn’s Symphony No. 82.

Turning Point
Presented by Boston Modern Orchestra Project
May 4, 3 p.m.
Jordan Hall, Boston

Gil Rose and BMOP present a pair of world premieres — Han Lash’s Zero Turning Radius and Jeremy Gill’s Four Legends from the Silmarillion — as well as Christopher Theofanidis’s This dream, strange and moving.

Bloom
Presented by Radius Ensemble
May 8, 8 p.m.
Pickman Hall, Cambridge

Radius closes their 26th season with a program that features the world premiere of Liz Derstine’s Nest and Salina Fisher’s Unfinished Portrait alongside Franz Schubert’s glorious Octet in F.

Eclipse
Presented by A Far Cry
May 9, 7:30 p.m.
Jordan Hall, Boston

Pianist-composer Stewart Goodyear joins the Criers for a performance that pairs Mendelssohn’s early A-minor Concerto for Piano & Strings with his own Eclipse (in its US premiere), as well as selections by Franz Schrecker and Teresa Carreño.

Lark-Roman-Meyer Trio
Presented by Celebrity Series
May 9, 8 p.m.
Sanders Theatre, Cambridge

Bassist-composer Edgar Meyer teams up with violinist Tessa Lark and cellist Joshua Roman for a concert that features three of his own trios as well as J.S. Bach’s G-major Sonata for Viola da Gamba.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

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Author Events

Brandon L. Garrett in conversation with Matt Segal – Porter Square Books
Defending Due Process
April 27 at 5 p.m.
Free

“We all feel unfairness deeply when treated in rash ways. We expect, and the law requires, government officials to take fairness seriously, giving us notice and an opportunity to be heard before taking our rights away. That is why the U.S. Constitution commands, twice, that no one shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Yet, in overheated debates, people argue that others do not deserve any presumption of innocence. In courtrooms and colleges, police stations and jails, restaurants and libraries, print and online, the democratic value of due process is up for grabs.

“Why is due process under so much pressure? Brandon Garrett exposes widening fault lines. One division lies within our own attitudes, and he explores why we are tempted to put desired outcomes before fair process. Another lies in government, as judges adopt toothless due process rules. People are trapped in debt for unpaid traffic fines; sheriffs seize and forfeit belongings; algorithms suspend teachers’ employment; officials use flawed data to cancel healthcare; and magistrates order arrestees to be jailed because they cannot pay cash bail. Meanwhile, the rise of AI threatens what remains of due process with black-box technology.

“To fight against such unfairness, lawyers try to challenge unjust systems, researchers demonstrate why such processes are so counterproductive, and lawmakers try to enact new protections. Common ground matters now more than ever to mend political polarization, cool simmering distrust of government, prevent injudicious errors, and safeguard constitutional rights. A revival of due process is long overdue.”

Claire Hoffman at Harvard Book Store
Sister Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson
April 30 at 7 p.m.
Free

“The dramatic rise, disappearance, and near-fall of Aimee Semple McPherson, America’s most famous woman evangelist. A spring day in 1926: Aimee Semple McPherson goes for a swim in the Pacific Ocean and vanishes. She is presumed dead. Weeks later she reappears in the desert, claiming to have been kidnapped. A national media frenzy and months of investigation ensue. Who was this woman?

“America’s most famous evangelist, McPherson used spectacle, storytelling, and the newest technology — including her own radio station — to bring God’s message to the masses. Her innovations brought Pentecostalism into the mainstream, paved the way for televangelists, and shaped the future of American Christianity. Her Angelus Temple in Echo Park, Los Angeles, can be called the first megachurch. Her Foursquare Church continues, with more than eight million faithful around the world.

“But after her disappearance, as crowds gathered at the water’s edge, people asked: Was McPherson everybody’s saintly sister, or a con-artist sinner? This is the story of what happened next — sex scandals, religious persecution, legal shenanigans, the unshakable faith of thousands of followers, and the race to report it all. A riveting journey into the rise of popular religion in America and life in early Hollywood, told with the flavor of the period’s noir mysteries, Claire Hoffman’s Sister Sinner is the thrilling story of an iconic woman, largely overlooked, who changed the world.”

Hutker Architects – Evolving the Art of Dwelling – Boston Athenaeum
April 30 at 6 p.m.
Boston Athenaeum, Boston
Tickets are free for members and guests and $20 for visitors

“Every homeowner, and every project, brings a special set of circumstances to the design process. It is through truly understanding daily life patterns and movements, a home’s connection to its setting, and a sense of well-being and fulfillment, that we’re able to successfully translate organic ideas into beautifully illustrated stories.

“In this panel discussion, Mark Hutker, FAIA, Jim Cappuccino, AIA, Thomas McNeill, AIA, and Ryan Alcaidinho of Hutker Architects will present lessons learned as they’ve navigated the challenges and rewards of creating design narratives and addressing client requirements — all while artistically bringing to life a home and sanctuary that their clients fall in love with. As examples, they will each share a recent project, one in Connecticut, one in Rhode Island, and one on Cape Cod, that illustrates the evolution of dwelling.”

Shubha Sunder at Harvard Book Store
Optional Practical Training: A Novel
May 1 at 7 p.m.
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge
Free

“Told as a series of conversations, Optional Practical Training follows Pavitra, a young Indian woman who came to the US for college from Bangalore, India, and graduates in 2006 with a degree in physics. Her student visa grants her an extra 12 months in the country for work experience — a period known as Optional Practical Training — so she takes a position as a math and physics teacher at a private high school near Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“What Pavitra really wants, though, is the time and space to finish a novel — to diverge from what’s expected of her within her family of white-collar professionals and to build a life as a writer. Navigating her year of OPT — looking for a room to rent, starting her job — she finds that each person she encounters expects something from her too. As her landlord, colleagues, students, parents of her students, friends of her family, and neighbors talk to and at her, they shape her understanding of race, immigration, privilege, and herself.

“Throughout the book, Pavitra seems to speak very rarely; and yet, as she responds to the assumptions, insights, projections, and observations of those around her, a subtle and sophisticated portrait emerges of a young woman and aspiring artist defining a place for herself in the world.”

Ed Helms – Brookline Booksmith
SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups
May 4 at 6:30 p.m.
WBUR CitySpace 890 Commonwealth Ave, Boston
Tickets are $52 with signed book and general seating, $20 just seats, $15 for BU faculty $10 BU students

“Actor and comedian Ed Helms has penned a new book inspired by his hit podcast exploring the biggest blunders in history. In SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups, Helms takes a deep dive into half a century of screwups, from planting nukes on the moon to training felines as CIA spies.
Helms, who gained widespread fame for his portrayal of Andy Bernard in the hit NBC sitcom The Office and starred as Stuart Price in The Hangover trilogy, will sit down with WBUR Podcasts senior producer and host Amory Sivertson to discuss his favorite stories from the book and podcast and answer your questions. Copies of SNAFU will be available to purchase and Helms will sign following the conversation.”

Dave Eggers at Harvard Book Store
The Eyes and The Impossible 
May 6 at 4 p.m.
Tickets are $16 including copy of book

“Johannes, a free dog, lives in an urban park by the sea. His job is to be the Eyes — to see everything that happens within the park and report back to the park’s elders, three ancient Bison. His friends — a seagull, a raccoon, a squirrel, and a pelican — work with him as the Assistant Eyes, observing the humans and other animals who share the park and making sure the Equilibrium is in balance.

“But changes are afoot. More humans, including Trouble Travelers, arrive in the park. A new building, containing mysterious and hypnotic rectangles, goes up. And then there are the goats — an actual boatload of goats — who appear, along with a shocking revelation that changes Johannes’s view of the world.

“A story about friendship, beauty, liberation, and running very, very fast, The Eyes and the Impossible will make readers of all ages see the world around them in a wholly new way.”

Haleh Liza Gafori – Brookline Booksmith
Water by Rumi
May 6 from 7 to 8 p.m.
Free

In this ” follow-up to her ground-breaking translations of Rumi in Gold, poet and musician Haleh Liza Gafori translates a new selection of work by the great Persian mystic that will muster the soul and stir the spirit.

“Water expands on Gold, Haleh Liza Gafori’s inspired and widely praised translation of the lyric poetry of the Persian mystic Rumi. As in Gold, Gafori renders with fluid grace and moving immediacy these indisputable masterworks of world literature, drawing on the deep well of Rumi’s work to bring out the worldly wit and wisdom that accompany his otherworldly summons. Behold the divine within and without, he tells us. Question the gnawing hunger for material possessions, fame, and fortune, and the fear of emptiness that drives it. Muster the soul, and experience a more compassionate and liberated state of mind.

“An eco-poet before his time, Rumi celebrates the immensity and wonder of the natural world while warning us of the havoc that greed and the pursuit of power wreak upon us and our world. His flights of dazzling imagery open up heart-stopping glimpses of the divine, challenging readers to wake from oblivion, and above all, to surrender to the transformative power of Love.”

Grubbie Debut: Derek JG Williams in conversation with Angie Mazakis – Porter Square Books
Reading Water
May 7 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Reading Water is the winner of the Lightscatter Press Prize, chosen by Eduardo Corral (2024). The book considers the elements that make us who we are, and love that’s born then bound by the bonds of family and friends. Its poems undertake a restless search for a self under constant evolution, and are threaded together by images of water’s ephemerality — what happens above and below its surface.”

An Evening with Rachel Maddow
May 7 at 7 p.m.
Presented by Live Nation at Orpheum Theatre, Boston
Tickets are $200- $65

“Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it. It was a sophisticated and shockingly well-funded campaign to undermine democratic institutions, promote antisemitism, and destroy citizens’ confidence in their elected leaders, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing the U.S. government and installing authoritarian rule.”

An Evening of Poetry: Martín Espada with Luke Salisbury – Brookline Booksmith
Jailbreak of Sparrows
May 7 at 7 p.m.
Free

“The poems in Jailbreak of Sparrows reveal the ways in which the ordinary becomes monumental: family portraits, politically charged reports, and tributes to the unsung. Espada’s focus ranges from the bombardment of his family’s hometown in Puerto Rico amid an anti-colonial uprising to the murder of a Mexican man by police in California, from the poet’s adolescent brawl on a basketball court over martyred baseball hero Roberto Clemente to his unorthodox methods of representing undocumented migrants as a tenant lawyer. We also encounter “love songs” to the poet’s wife from a series of unexpected voices: a bat with vertigo, the polar bear mascot for a minor league ball club, a disembodied head in a jar.

Jailbreak of Sparrows is a collection of arresting poems that roots itself in the image, the musicality of language, and the depth of human experience. “Look at this was all he said, and all he had to say,” the poet says about his father, a photographer who documented his Puerto Rican community in Brooklyn and beyond. The poems of Martín Espada tell us: Look.”

The Cosmic Library at Harvard Book Store
The Brothers Karamazov 
May 9 at 7 p.m.
Free

“The Cosmic Library explores massive books in order to explore everything else. Seasons have considered Finnegans Wake, 1,001 Nights, the Bible, and Journey to the West. The show follows conversational tangents with a range of guests — such as New Yorker fiction editor Deborah Treisman, novelist Tayari Jones, Pulitzer-winning novelist Joshua Cohen, and theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili. In each season, books of dreams, infinity, and mysteries turn out to be intensely accessible, offering so many ways to read them and think with them.

The latest season takes on — and takes off from — The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Sigmund Freud called it “the most magnificent novel ever written,” and with guests including Dostoyevsky scholars and contemporary novelists, this five-episode miniseries explores the characters and ideas at the heart of that magnificence.

You can find The Cosmic Library wherever you go for podcasts and at LitHub.com.”

— Matt Hanson