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.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Boston area theaters have decided to pretty much ignore what is happening in America and beyond — mounting threats to democracy, the country’s slide toward authoritarianism, the climate crisis, growing economic inequality, ICE’s violent roundup of immigrants, the expansion of internment camps, ongoing genocide in Gaza, transphobia, the grueling war in Ukraine, etc. I have decided to point out a production in Coming Attractions — staged in America or elsewhere — that grapples with today’s alarming realities. Sometimes the stagings will be available via Zoom, sometimes not. It is important to present evidence that theater artists — maybe not here, but elsewhere — are reflecting, and reflecting on, the world around us.

A look at the Metropolitan Opera production of Innocence. Photo: MET

I have mentioned Dan O’Brien‘s fine play Newtown, which examines the Sandy Hook shootings, but so far no theater companies in the Boston area have produced that script — or any drama that focuses on gun violence in schools. Kaajia Saariaho’s opera Innocence (through April 29 at the Metropolitan Opera, NYC) takes up the issue and, from what I can tell, does so with monumental power. An Arts Fuse critic who saw the MET production wrote to me that this “is challenging theater about the times we live in, presented on a major stage. Also, the music is brilliant.” It lives up to the NYTimes critic’s claim that it is “an early contender for one of this century’s great operas.”

— Bill Marx

Film

A scene from At the Place of Ghosts, screening at the Wicked Queer Film Festival.

Wicked Queer Film Festival
through April 16
Brattle Theatre and Coolidge Corner Theatre, Museum of Fine Arts

Now in its 42nd year, this is one of the longest-running Queer film festivals in the world, a celebration of Queer storytelling and filmmaking through the uplifting of voices and stories through features, documentaries, and short film programs. The event is put together by an all-volunteer organization. This year’s theme is Queer Audacity, a reminder that “we need to celebrate, uplift, and to own our collective and personal power as Queer people.” Schedules at each individual theater are linked above. Complete Schedule and descriptions

The National Center for Jewish Film Annual Film Festival
April 12-26
Coolidge Corner Theatre & The Museum of Fine Arts

The festival features screenings of film premieres and rare archive treasures from around the world, with visiting filmmakers and scholars. Arts Fuse review

Highlights include:

Ada – My Mother the Architect. Moshe Safdie in conversation with director Yael Melamede (April 19, Museum of Fine Arts)

Hey Alma. This is a feature about “I Have Sinned,” an early Yiddish film, a rare piece of Jewish cinematic history (April 13, Coolidge Corner Theatre)

Labors of Love: The Life and Legacy of Henrietta Szold includes a panel discussion with filmmaker Abby Ginzberg and Brandeis University Professors Emerita Shulamit Reinharz and Joyce Antler who are both interviewed as experts in the film, moderated by Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women’s Archive (April 12, Coolidge Corner Theatre).

List of Films

List of Guest Speakers

The Condor Daughter
April 13 at 7 p.m.
West Newton Cinema

A young woman lives in the community of Totorani, high in the Bolivian Andes. Her adoptive mother has dutifully taught her the ancient ways of midwifery, including the tender Quechua songs that are believed to help safely usher newborns into the world. But while she loves, respects, and is expected to continue this tradition, she dreams of discovering the wider world on her own and longs to become a folkloric music star in the city. There will be a post-film discussion with Susan Kalt, an award-winning linguistic researcher and language educator. This is the third installment of the Monday Belmont World Film Series, screening through June 15.

Dr. John C. Lilly at work in a scene from John Lilly And The Earth Coincidence Control Office.

John Lilly And The Earth Coincidence Control Office
April 13 at 8:15 p.m.
Brattle Theatre in Cambridge

The daring experimenter Dr. John C. Lilly dedicated his life to radical self-investigation and unlocking the mysteries of consciousness and communication. “My body is my laboratory” was his motto; his research on the language of dolphins and whales – as well as psychedelics and sensory deprivation – assured his own cult status in 20th-century pop culture as the basis for Ken Russell’s Altered States and Mike Nichols’s The Day of the Dolphin. Co-director Courtney Stephens will appear in person for a discussion following the screening of the documentary. Arts Fuse review

Sound of Falling
April 16-19
Brattle Theatre in Cambridge

Mascha Schilinski’s film, one of last year’s best, won the Special Jury Prize at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. She traces the lives of four adolescent girls who each spend their youth in the same farmhouse over the last century (1910s, ‘40s, ‘80s, and 2020s), weaving their stories into a fluid, dreamlike tapestry of images. Moving freely through time, the film connects private moments of fear and curiosity to the broader currents of German history. It is a hypnotic and haunting meditation on memory, inheritance, and the echoes of the past.

A scene from Dillon Bentlage’s Watching Mr. Pearson.

Watching Mr. Pearson
April 19 through 21 at 7 p.m.
Somerville Theatre

A Connecticut-filmed movie, written and directed by Dillon Bentlage, that centers on Robert Pearson (Hugo Armstrong), a once-legendary Hollywood actor now living in seclusion at his seaside Connecticut estate, battling dementia and struggling to distinguish past from present.

Spacewoman
April 22 at 7:30 pm
Regent Theater in Arlington

Astronaut Eileen Collins was the first woman to pilot and command an American spacecraft. She smashed many glass ceilings in the U.S. Air Force and at NASA during her career, culminating in four increasingly dramatic and dangerous space shuttle missions. The evening features a live Q&A with Astronaut Collins.

Independent Film Festival of Boston
April 22 – 19
Somerville Theatre & The Brattle Theatre

Dustin Hoffman and Leo Woodall in a scene from director Daniel Roher’s feature Tuner.

Boston’s premier independent festival includes 15 features, 22 documentaries, 16 programs of over 60 short films including Paper Trail, the latest animation from Don Hertzfeldt.

Among the features: Opening night: I Love Boosters (April 22 at the Somerville Theatre, director Boots Riley in attendance). Closing night: The Invite (April 29, at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, with director Olivia Wilde in attendance).

Narrative Centerpiece: Tuner (April 24, 7:30 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre)
Documentary Centerpiece: Remake (April 25, 7:30 at the Somerville Theatre. Director Ross McElwee will be attendance)

New documentaries by New England filmmakers:

Bestor Cram (Tiananmen Tonight 4/27 at 7:45 p.m.), Tim Jackson (Marblehead Morning 4/26 at 12 p.m.), Tim O’Donnell (The Last Yztari 4/23 at 8:30 p.m.), Sara Robin (Your Attention Please 4/25 at 4:30 p.m.), and Amy Jenkins (Adam’s Apple 4/27 at 5 p.m.).

Everyone Is Lying to You for Money with Filmmaker Ben McKenzie
April 24 at 7 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theatre

Actor and author Ben McKenzie turns investigator, pulling back the curtain on the cryptocurrency industry and the culture of hype, misinformation, and speculation that fueled its explosive rise. The film asks a sobering question: who benefits from the chaos, and who is left to clean up the damage? Accessible, urgent, and often darkly ironic, the film is both a cautionary tale and a call for accountability—cutting through the noise to expose a system built on speculation, influence, and belief rather than truth. After the screening, there will be a discussion with filmmaker Ben McKenzie.

Pick of the Week

A Tale of Springtime (1990), streaming on Amazon Prime

A scene from 1990’s A Tale of Springtime.

This is the first of Eric Rohmer’s “Tales of the Four Seasons.” Jeanne, a young philosophy teacher, meets Natacha, a pianist, at a party and accepts an invitation to stay at her home while she is between apartments. But Natacha lives with her father, Igor, and resents his new lover, Ève. She conceives a plan to match Jeanne with him—a subtle scheme to draw Jeanne into her father’s orbit. The film unfolds with Rohmer’s characteristic ease; romantic boundaries blur, and intentions remain delicately ambiguous. Rohmer’s use of natural light, precise compositions, and his conversational cadence feel both effortless and exacting. Less of a conventional narrative than a finely tuned meditation on jealousy, ethics, and the shifting boundaries between reason and desire, he captures the quiet drama of moral choice embedded in everyday gestures. With an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, A Tale of Springtime is an ideal companion for the coming of spring—an antidote to the current state of global chaos

— Tim Jackson

Television

Michelle Pfeiffer and Elle Fanning in Margo’s Got Money Troubles. Photo: Apple TV

Margo’s Got Money Troubles (April 12, HBO) David E. Kelley has had some monumental TV successes over the years. Shows like Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal, The Practice, and Boston Legal won audiences with their sharp dialogue and rosters of relatable and outrageous characters. Recent shows like Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers have featured stellar casts and criminal intrigue. His newest series seems like a return to his earlier patented style, somewhat more sassy and trashy. Elle Fanning stars as a single mom whose pro-wrestler dad (Nick Offerman) convinces her to create a persona on OnlyFans as a way to make money. Oddly enough, the owner of the hugely successful online adult entertainment platform, Leonid Radvinsky, died suddenly in late March at the relatively young age of 43. The red-hot cast also includes Michelle Pfeiffer and Nicole Kidman, with cameos from luminaries like Marcia Gay Harden, Laura San Giacomo, and Greg Kinnear.

Unchosen (April 21, Netflix) This new UK-based series stars Molly Windsor (She Said) as a young wife and mother in a rigid Christian cult who becomes involved with an escaped convict (Fra Fee). Directed by veteran TV directors Jim Loach and Philippa Langdale, this limited series written by Julie Gearey (Intergalactic) also stars Asa Butterfield (Sex Education, Flux Gourmet) and the always excellent Christopher Eccleston. I’m looking forward to this one: its trailers have an intense, visually compelling look, and it’s also unusual to see a traditional Christian cult story set in England.

Erika Toda in Straight to Hell. Photo: Netflix

Straight to Hell (April 27, Netflix) This new Japanese series looks glossy, thrilling, and fascinating. It is the story of Kazuko Hosoki (Erika Toda), a woman whose youth in Japan was a series of struggles until she decided to become a fortune-teller—a path that brought her fame, fortune, and notoriety. The series melds different genre approaches—part period piece, part biopic, part docudrama. Hosoki was widely known and loved in Japan as a media personality, but she also had a reputation for tempestuous relationships and dramatic behavior. The series also stars Tôko Miura (Drive My Car) and Ayumu Nakajima (April, Come She Will).

— Peg Aloi

Theater

A scene from Bread & Puppet Theater’s The End of the World Never Minding Show. Photo: courtesy of the artist

The End of the World Never Minding Show, written and performed by Bread & Puppet Theater. Staged at various venues, check the website for days and times, through April 26. (Peforming at Somerville’s Arts at the Armory on April 22 and 23.)

Bread & Puppet Theater is kicking off its 63rd year with this traversal of the Northeast and Eastern Seaboard with its spring show. “Join Bread & Puppet Theater for an urgently-needed new puppet show featuring our upside-down situation, a revolt orchestra, screaming choirs, and a reckoning with the catastrophe of logic.” Of The End of the World Never Minding Show, director Peter Schumann tells us that, “The sitting mind realizes the predicament of the rats, assigned to spread the plague which opens the gates of darkness as fears chase the populations across the face of the earth. Humanity’s humdrum is now outrageous and no longer composed of beloved details. The rats in charge of spreading the plague are ordered to repurpose human freedom and democracy into guns, bombs, and starvation. Our own futuristic Not-Yet is impatient and unready. We must take our cardboard provocations into the revolting streets of life, with help from our paper-maché divinities, to succeed.”

Mariette in Ecstasy, adapted by Christina Calvit from Ron Hansen’s novel. Directed by Katie Swimm. Staged by The Treehouse Collective at the BCA Plaza Black Box Theatre, 529 Tremont Street, Boston, through April 19.

The Boston premiere of a script that “explores questions of faith, fear, and sexuality against the backdrop of a convent in the early 20th century. When a young postulant, Mariette, enters The Sisters of the Crucifixion, she arrives with a fierce commitment to God that manifests in divine visitations and visions. Her presence destabilizes the quiet life of her fellow sisters and religious leaders and inspires a crisis of belief and identity that leaves no one in the community untouched.”

The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh. Directed by Donnla Hughes. Staged by Gamm Theatre, 1245 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick, RI, through May 3.

The plot of this dark comedy, set in 1934 on the remote Aran island of Inishmaan, off the west coast of Ireland: “Billy Claven, a disabled orphan nicknamed ‘Cripple Billy,’ longs to escape his stifling, gossip‑ridden, isolated community. He dreams of escaping his bleak life and earning a role in a Hollywood film. When a movie crew arrives on a neighboring island, Billy sees his chance — but at what cost?”

Anna Slate as Charlotte in the Wheelock Family Theatre production of Charlotte’s Web. Photo: Benjamin Rose

Charlotte’s Web, adapted by Joseph Robinette. Based on the book by E.B. White. Directed by Ilyse Robbins. Staged by the Wheelock Family Theatre, 200 The Riverway, Boston, through April 26.

E.B. White’s classic story of “friendship, loyalty, and the cycle of life on a family farm. When Fern Arable saves the runt of the litter, a pig named Wilbur, he begins a new life in the barnyard, where he meets a host of colorful animals. Despite his friendly nature, Wilbur soon learns that his future is grim — until he befriends Charlotte, a wise and kindhearted spider. Determined to save Wilbur from the butcher, Charlotte spins miraculous messages in her web that proclaim his greatness, capturing the attention of the humans and turning Wilbur into a local celebrity.” (Arts Fuse review)

When Playwrights Kill by Matthew Lombardo. Noah Himmelstein directs. Staged at the Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, through April 18.

This backstage comedy, receiving its world premiere, focuses on the quandary of Jack Hawkins, “an aspiring playwright on the verge of Broadway glory. But his dreams are soon dashed after being forced to hire Brooke Remington, a notoriously difficult diva who derails his play’s out-of-town tryout in Boston. Desperately wanting to bring the production to Broadway and being unable to convince the producer to fire her, there is only one thing left he can do to save his play and career: Brooke Remington must be stopped!”

The impressive cast includes Tony Award winners Beth Leavel, Matt Doyle, Marissa Jaret Winokur, and three-time Tony Award nominee Kevin Chamberlin.

Primary Trust by Eboni Booth. Directed by Tatyana-Marie Carlo. Staged by Trinity Rep at the Lederer Theater Center’s Dowling Theater, 201 Washington Street in Providence, through May 10.

The plot of this 2024 Pulitzer Prize–winning comedy: “Kenneth has lived his entire life in the same sleepy town. Every day he works at the bookstore, then shares a happy‑hour Mai Tai with his best friend. When a sudden layoff rockets Kenneth out of his comfort zone, he is forced to confront his biggest fear: change.”

Laura Houck and Bill Underwood in the Good Theater production of Grand Horizons. Photo: Kat Moraros Photography

Grand Horizons by Bess Wohl. Directed by Nathan Gregory. Staged at Good Theater at 631 Stevens Avenue, Portland, ME, through April 19.

The plot of what the NYTimes called “a clever truth bomb of a play”: “Fifty years into her marriage, Nancy French has decided she wants a divorce. While her husband Bill appears largely unfazed, their two adult sons are blindsided, forcing the entire family to confront long-held assumptions about love, marriage, and what it means to build a life together. As the family reckons with this unexpected shift, each member must grapple with their own imperfect past and discover new, and often surprising, ways of connecting.” (Arts Fuse review)

Dido of Idaho by Abby Rosebrock. Directed by Brooks Reeves & Danielle Fauteux Jacques. Staged by Apollinaire Theatre Company at Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet Street, Chelsea, April 17 through May 10.

Described by ATC as “a modern, dark comedy that loosely re-imagines the ancient myth of Dido and Aeneas.” The plot: “When a love affair goes brutally awry, a hard-drinking musicologist seeks asylum with her estranged evangelical mother.” Winner of the 2025 LA Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Original Writing, Best Direction, and Best Featured Performance.

Breaking the Code by Hugh Whitemore. Directed by Scott Edmiston. Based on the book Alan Turing, The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. With a new epilogue by Neil Bartlett. A Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Production staged at Central Square Theatre, through May 3.

A revival of the 1986 drama about Alan Turing, who “was hailed by Winston Churchill as having made the single biggest contribution to Allied victory in the war against Nazi Germany for breaking the Enigma code. By 1952 the eccentric British mathematician’s security clearance was revoked and he was barred from British intelligence work after being convicted for ‘gross indecency” – homosexual acts’. The cast includes Eddie Shields and Paula Plum.

Eartha Kitt took over the role of Catwoman for the third and final season of Batman.

Who Is Eartha Mae?, written and performed by Jade Wheeler. Staged by the Hanover Theater Rep at the BrickBox Theater in Jean McDonough Arts Center, Worcester, through April 19.

An up-close look — told through both story and song, and featuring live piano accompaniment — at the life and legacy of Eartha Kitt, the legendary performer best known for her iconic roles in Batman, The Emperor’s New Groove, Holes, and more.

Furlough’s Paradise by a.k. payne. Directed by abigail jean-baptiste. Staged at Yale Rep, 1120 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT, April 24 through May 16.

According to the Yale Rep site, here’s the set-up for this new play: “There’s been a drought on their childhood’s road and two cousins come home dry-eyed and grieving. Sade, on a three-day furlough from prison. Mina, departing a strangely idyllic west coast. As all time ticks towards the correctional officer’s arrival, these two wrestle with all they have never said, with the fallibility of memory itself, and with visions of a future they are bound to create. Winner of the 2025 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

Swept Away, book by John Logan. Music & Lyrics by the Avett Brothers. Directed by Jeremy Johnson. With assistance from Music Director Paul S. Katz and Choreographer Ilyse Robbins. Staged by Speakeasy Stage at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, April 24 through May 23.

The New England premiere of this Broadway musical. The plot: “A storm. A shipwreck. Four survivors. As they fight to stay alive, these New Bedford whalers must confront who they are, what they’ve done, and whether forgiveness is possible.” The cast of eleven features Christopher Chew, Max Connor, Peter DiMaggio, Bishop Levesque, and Anthony Pires Jr.

Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson. Directed by Monica White Ndounou. Staged by Actors’ Shakespeare Project at Hibernian Hall, Roxbury, April 16 through May 17.

The first chronological play in his acclaimed Pittsburgh Cycle (also known as the Century Cycle), a series of ten works chronicling the African American experience across each decade of the 20th century. The setup for this play, which is set in 1904: “Citizen Barlow thinks his journey is at an end when he arrives in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, but it has only just begun. Having fled from Alabama and desperate for redemption, he finds himself on the doorstep of Aunt Ester, a 285-year-old “soul cleanser” whose parlor is filled with history, music, and a lively cast of characters with plenty of stories to tell. As tensions flare between Pittsburgh’s Black community and the local steel mill, Ester sends Citizen on a fantastical journey to the City of Bones – where he must seek spiritual truth, and the key to liberation that his new city so urgently seeks.”

A scene from DNAWORKS’ The Secret Sharer. Photo: Diego Alejandro Gonzalez

The Secret Sharer, written and performed by DNAWORKS. Directed by Daniel Banks, co-creator, and central adapter. Presented by Arts Emerson at the Jackie Liebergott Black Box Theatre, Emerson Paramount Center, 559 Washington St, Boston, April 24 through May 3.

The world premiere adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s 1909 novella The Secret Sharer — the show “transforms the text into a powerful multimedia performance blending dance, music, sound, text, and art installation. Often considered an early Queer text, The Secret Sharer tells the story of two men—a ship’s Captain and a stowaway accused of murder—and the bond the two develop as the stowaway is secretly sheltered in the Captain’s quarters.

An admired passage from Conrad’s story: “Walking to the taffrail, I was in time to make out, on the very edge of a darkness thrown by a towering black mass like the very gateway of Erebus—yes, I was in time to catch an evanescent glimpse of my white hat left behind to mark the spot where the secret sharer of my cabin and of my thoughts, as though he were my second self, had lowered himself into the water to take his punishment: a free man, a proud swimmer striking out for a new destiny.”

My Suitcase of Fragments, written and performed by Marta Gosovska. Presented by Dream Stack Productions in partnership with the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard (HURI) and Harvard Square Business Association at First Parish Church, The Barn Room, 3 Church Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge, April 23 at 7 p.m.

“A reading with projections and original music from Ukrainian refugee and Fulbright Scholar Marta Gosovka and award-winning pianist and composer Uriel Pascucci. A portrait of exile. A fragile tapestry of longing, resilience, and love for Ukraine, a homeland left behind.” Post-show discussion moderated by Bobbie Steinbach. Reception with the artists to follow.

— Bill Marx

Visual Art

As the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence quickly approaches, museums throughout New England are opening exhibitions, particularly of American art, reexamining that 250-year legacy from a contemporary point of view and assessing, for good or ill, the present status of American democracy. Framing American Democracy: Radical Roots, the contribution of the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art in Hartford, opens April 23.

Frederic Edwin Church, Hooker and Company Journeying through the Wilderness from Plymouth to Hartford, in 1636, 1846. Oil on canvas. Photo: courtesy of the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art

The Wadsworth show, which manages to add to the mix the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of Connecticut’s most celebrated native-born artists, Frederic Church (born in Hartford in 1826), features a selection of objects in all media to “reframe Connecticut as a hotbed of radical thought” during the Revolutionary period. What have freedom and liberty meant to the American people over the last two and a half centuries? The exhibition offers — museum says — with “powerful lessons on the interplay between myth, memory, and history.”

Coming at the looming semiquincentennial celebrations from another angle, the Worcester Art Museum will open “reimagined” galleries for its important collections of American art, from the colonial period through the 19th century, on April 25. Organized thematically, the objects on view will explore “wide-ranging visions of nature, the ways art has been used to construct identities, the stories of New England makers, the global influences on American art, and more.”

Derrick Adams, View-Master, 2025. Photo: courtesy of the ICA

“What can I reveal that has not been shown?” asks New York-based artist Derrick Adams. “Black people — not entertaining, just being, living. Letting people deal with that as reality.” In his first mid-career survey, Derrick Adams: View Master, opening at the ICA Boston on April 16, Adams “celebrates contemporary Black life and culture through a distinct representational language.” His paintings, sculptures, collages, performance pieces, video, and public projects celebrate the ordinary, the everyday, and the pursuit of happiness as they reveal “the richness and complexity of Black culture in our time.”

Inspired by the Derrick Adams show, the ICA’s interactive Extra/Ordinary, opening April 16, invites visitors to view scenes of everyday life through an old-school View Master toy and then receive a drawing prompt from a vending machine suggesting how the scene might be turned into something new and unexpected. The playful installation was created in collaboration with members of the ICA’s Teen Exhibition Program.

A sample of Forest of Here: Jelia Gueramian. Photo: Fuller Craft Museum

Jeila Gueramian worked as a costume designer and made custom props, plush sculptures, and puppets before creating immersive installations, known for their whimsy and boundary-bending, at art institutions like the eminent Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart and the well-heeled Chrystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas. For her show at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Forest of Here: Jeila Gueramian, she has composed a “symphony of materials” and experiences, including light, sound, fiber, found objects, and “up-cycled” pieces, to create an environment that blurs “the line between the organic and the technological, the familiar and the fantastical.” The show opens April 18.

The Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis opens Cape Cod Open Sculpture Invitational Outside 2026 (CCOSI) on its 22-acre campus of the Cape Cod on April 14. The third edition of the juried exhibition, jointly organized with the New England Sculpture Association (NESA), places works on more than 35 outdoor sites around the museum. A companion indoor sculpture exhibition opens in July.

— Peter Walsh

Jazz

Singer, songwriter, and arranger Camila Quintero will perform at Mad Monkfish this week. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Camila Quintero
April 15 at 7 p.m.
The Mad Monkfish, Cambridge, Mass.

The uncommonly gifted young Caracas-born singer, songwriter, and arranger Camila Quintero has been turning a lot of heads in her first few semesters at Berklee. Fluent in jazz standards, she she’s calling this show “Raíces,” and will, like the word says, being digging into her roots —Venezuelan folk music and salsa as well as modern jazz. The band also includes trumpeter Noah Allen (another young talent to watch), pianist Lucas Labeau, bassist Greg Tan, drummer Hassan Sabree, and singers Ale Fonseca, Nova Jimenez, Julie Flores.

Miles Ahead: Miles Davis at 100
April 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Jordan Hall, Boston
FREE

Some of the best deals in town are the free shows provided by our various music schools. Tonight, the action is at New England Conservatory, where the NEC Jazz Orchestra, conducted by Ken Schaphorsts, welcomes NEC faculty member Billy Hart as guest drummer in a 100^th birthday celebration of the music of Miles Davis. The program includes “Blues for Pablo,” “Boplicity,” “Miles Ahead,” “Moon Dreams,” “My Ship,” “Petit Machins,” “ ’Round Midnight,” “Summertime,”and “The Duke.” Admission is, free but tickets are required. Go to necmusic.edu.

Aaron Goldberg Trio
April 16 at 7:30
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

Pianist Aaron Goldberg came to the fore with Joshua Redman and, later, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and has followed with one sterling piano trio album after another. He comes to the Regattabar with bassist Ben Williams and drummer Kush Abadey.

Dave Bryant’s Third Thursdays
April 16 at 8 p.m.
Harvard-Epworth Church, Cambridge, Mass.

Harmolodic keyboard master Dave Bryant this month welcomes back longtime compatriots Tom Hall (saxophones) and Rick McLaughlin (bass) plus first-time Third Thursday-nighter Dylan Jack, a drummer with his own impressive resume as bandleader and composer.

Steve Davis, right, with saxophonist Ralph Moore and trumpeter Eddie Henderson, plays Scullers as part of Davis’s We See All Stars. Photo: Jon Hammond.

Steve Davis and the We See All Stars
April 17 at 7 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

Hard bop heaven at Scullers tonight: trombonist bandleader Steve Davis holding down the front line with trumpeter Eddie Henderson and tenor saxophonist Ralph Moore and a rhythm section of pianist Rick Germanson, bassist Essiet Essiet, and drummer Lewis Nash.

Pianist Yoko Miiwa. Photo: courtesy of the Regattabar

Yoko Miwa Trio
April 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

The virtuoso pianist and composer Yoko Miwa can assay driving bebop swing, fluent Latin dance rhythms, and evocative Bill Evans-like impressionism or recast an unlikely cover such as Richie Havens’s “Freedom” (from Woodstock, remember?) with Tyner-esque fury. She makes one of her regular stops at the Regattabar with her trio of bassist Brad Barrett and drummer Scott Goulding.

Makanda Project
April 18 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Shaw-Roxbury Library, Roxbury
FREE

The 13-piece Makanda Project returns to the BPL’s Shaw-Roxbury Library for their second free spring 2026 concert. The program will include old and new arrangements by musical director John Kordalewski of the music of the late Boston-born composer and saxophonist Makanda Ken McIntyre. The abundantly talented band includes reeds Kurtis Rivers, Seth Meicht, Sean Berry, Temidayo Balogun, and Charlie Kohlhase; trumpets Jerry Sabatini and Haneef Nelson; trombones Alfred Patterson, Richard Harper, and Bill Lowe; bassist Avery Sharpe; and drummer Yoron Israel, with Kordalewski on piano;

Billy Hart Quartet
April 23 at 7 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

Speaking of Billy Hart (see April 16), the great drummer leads his outstanding quartet with tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover, pianist Ethan Iverson, and bassist Ben Street.

Bill Charlap and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Photo: courtesy of the Regattabar

Bill Charlap and Dee Dee Bridgewater
April 24 at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

Pianist Bill Charlap and singer Dee Dee Bridgewater know the deep American songbook catalogue inside out — blues, standards, what-have-you — and they know how to push it with risk-taking, thrilling performances that don’t forsake nuance for flash. (Fond memory: a lickety-split “Cottontail” at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival that never quite went off the rails with exuberance.)

Waterworks 2026
April 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m.
Metropolitan Waterworks Museum, Boston

The Non-Event series is presenting this two-day “Festival of Experimental Sound,” featuring several players familiar to the Boston scene from the overlaps of “new music,” jazz, and free improvisation. A highlight will surely be trumpeter Greg Kelley’s Saturday night “Fanfare for Non-Event,” featuring Kelly Bray, Eric Dahlman, Ellwood Epps, Forbes Graham, Lemuel Marc, and Kimmie Sabio. Other performers include the trio Jesse Kenas Collins, Michael Rosenstein, and Yoona Kim as well as the duo of guitarist Bill Nace and multi-instrumentalist David Watson.

The Hot Sardines. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Hot Sardines
April 25 at 8 p.m.
Berklee Performance Center, Boston

New York’s Hot Sardines do their appealing mashup of old-school speakeasy blues, Paris cabaret, and traditional New Orleans jazz with some swing-era swing. (Yes, they do “Bei Mir Bist du Schoen.”)

Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra
Apil 26 at 3 p.m.
Mosesian Center for the Arts, Watertown, Mass.

The venerable and invaluable Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra does one of their programs of new music by their resident composers, including “Mimi Rabson’s ode to the sounds of the MBTA (particularly the screeching of the Green Line) and a setting by Darrell Katz of a poem by the late Boston poet Charles Coe about wanting to invite Duke Ellington to dinner.” The 21-piece orchestra includes stellar soloists like saxophonist Phil Scarff, trumpeters Mike Peipman and Dan Rosenthal, flutist Hiro Honshuku, trombonist David Harris, and singer Rebecca Shrimpton.

Jacob William’s Trio Spanning
April 26 at 5 p.m.
QArts Gallery, Quincy, Mass.

The fine, broadly traveled bassist Jacob William has performed separately with alto saxophonist Jim Hobbs and drummer Francisco Mela. This will be there first time as a trio. The group comes together for this show “with no compositions, no arrangements, and no map but with a shared commitment to deep listening, spontaneous creation, and newfound understanding.”

— Jon Garelick

Rock, Indie, and Alternative

The Chameleons with The Veldt and Lovina Falls
April 14, doors at 7/show at 8
Crystal Ballroom, Somerville

Forty-two years after their debut and a quarter-century since their last LP, The Chameleons returned last year with Arctic Moon. This seven-track, 43-minute collection comes on the heels of the 2024 EPs “Where Are You?” and “Tomorrow Remember Yesterday.” Armed with more than a dozen new songs and a never-aging collection of classic material, The Chameleons’ April 14 show at Crystal Ballroom is sure to delight the ever-faithful original fans and the ones whom they have picked up along the way. Preceding The Chameleons will be shoegaze pioneers The Veldt, whom Boston music scene mainstay Lovina Falls (née Valerie Forgione, formerly of Mistle Thrush) will in turn precede.

— Blake Maddux

Classical Music

Susanna Mälkki will conduct the BSO this week. Photo: Sakari Viika

Andrew Norman’s Split
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
April 16 at 7:30 p.m., 17 at 1:30 p.m., and 18 at 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall

Conductor Susanna Mälkki returns to Boston to lead the world premiere of Andrew Norman’s double-piano concerto Split, which features brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen as soloists. Also on tap are Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances.

Alexandre Kantorow in recital
Presented by Music Worcester
April 17, 8 p.m.
Mechanics Hall, Worcester

The crackerjack French pianist makes his Worcester debut with a meaty recital of music by Liszt, Medtner, Chopin, Alkan, Scriabin, and Beethoven.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard in recital
Presented by Vivo Performing Arts
April 17, 8 p.m.
Jordan Hall, Boston

Pianist Aimard returns to Boston to perform the complete second book from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.

Paul Lewis in recital
Presented by Vivo Performing Arts
April 18, 8 p.m.
Jordan Hall, Boston

Pianist Lewis keeps a great week for keyboardists going with a recital featuring music by Mozart, Poulenc, and Debussy.

Pianist Evgeny Kissin will perform Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Evgeny Kissin plays Scriabin
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
April 23 at 7:30 p.m. and 25 at 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

Pianist Kissin joins the BSO for a rare performance of Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Concerto. He also performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12. The program is filled out with additional works by Anatol Liadov and Rimsky-Korsakov. Andrey Boreyko conducts.

Tony Siqi Yun in recital
Presented by Vivo Performing Arts
April 23, 7:30 p.m.
Groton Hill Music, Groton

The Canadian pianist makes his Vivo debut with a lineup of showpieces by Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Berio, and Brahms.

Stravinsky’s L’histoire du soldat
Presented by Boston Symphony Chamber Players
April 24, 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall

Samy Rachid leads the Chamber Players in Stravinsky’s austere, post-World War 1 fable. Caleb Mayer, Daniel Berger-Jones, and Karen MacDonald tell the tale.

Idomeneo
Presented by Boston Baroque
April 24 at 7:30 p.m. and 26 at 3 p.m.
Emerson Paramount Theatre, Boston

Boston Baroque wraps its main-stage season with Mozart’s 1781 opera seria. David Portillo sings the title role, and Valerie Eickhoff is Idamante. David Bates conducts.

Anna Handler conducting violinist Joshua Bell in a 2025 performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall. Photo: Winslow Townson

Joshua Bell & Shai Wosner in recital
Presented by Vivo Performing Arts
April 26, 3 p.m.
Symphony Hall

Violinist Bell and pianist Wosner team up for an afternoon concert of sonatas by Schubert, Grieg, Prokofiev, and Ravel. In all likelihood, there will be some lively encores, too.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

Roots and World Music

Point 01 Percent
April 14, 7:30 pm
The Lilypad, Cambridge

The ajaeng is a bowed zither instrument usually used to play traditional Korean music. But, in the hands of the remarkable Boston-based musician Yoona Kim, it becomes a vessel for everything from country blues to experimental music. The experimental side of kim will be on full display during this edition of the ongoing Point 01 Percent series. She will open with a solo set and close as part of a quartet with pianist Anthony Coleman, guitarist Gabe Boyarin, and drummer Eric Rosenthal. In between, the trio of Jorrit Dijkstra (sax), Pandelis Karayorgis (piano) and Miki Matsuki (drums) will perform.

Mark Rubin — he records and tours as Jew of Oklahoma. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Mark Rubin – Jew of Oklahoma
April 15, 7 p.m.
The Boston Synagogue

Fans of what was once called cow-punk might remember The Bad Livers, a string band that was punk enough to play The Rat. After the band split member Mark Rubin popped up at several Lowell Folk Festivals playing tuba and bass with Texas Polish and Czech bands as well as klezmer units. These days he’s focused on solo songwriter work which he records and tours as Jew of Oklahoma, a project of topical, personal, and sometimes painfully funny songs that carry on the tradition of his fellow Okie Woody Guthrie. He’s making a very rare Boston appearance for the Boston Festival of New Jewish Music.

Mercedes Escobar presents Latin Americana
April 16, 7 p.m.
CROMA, Boston

For the past few years Guatemalan-born singer/songwriter Mercedes Escobar has been an especially refreshing part of the Boston scene, thanks to her mix of Latin, country, and blues styles, skilled songwriting, and vibrant live performances. Now Escobar, a protege of folk legends and current Guatemalan residents the Kossoy Sisters, is moving to the U.S. but, like many artists, she is looking for less-expensive places to live. So this might be her last Boston show for a while.

Mighty Mystic
April 18
Brighton Music Hall

The ganja holiday week of 4/20 can be as busy for roots reggae bands as March is for Irish musicians. It’s a nice excuse for a hometown show from Boston’s always-inspiring Mighty Mystic, who is usually on the road, touring his relentlessly energetic roots-rock-reggae live show to every corner of the country.

Yagódy
April 19
Crystal Ballroom at the Somerville Theatre

One of the most fun and uplifting sets I saw at the recent Big Ears Festival was Yagódy, a Ukrainian folk-rock (or perhaps folk-disco) band that features four female voices and one muscular male drummer. The group makes a sound that’s both ethereal and danceable – not to mention urgent, considering the ongoing war in their homeland. This Global Arts Live concert is their Boston debut.

Singer/songwriter Mary Gauthier. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Mary Gauthier with Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light
April 23, 7 p.m.
Arrow Street Arts

Once upon a time, Mary Gauthier ran the popular Dixie Kitchen in the Back Bay. She quit to become a singer/songwriter, and after years in the folk trenches it seems like audiences are starting to discover the honesty and depth that have long made her a favorite among her peers. Gauthier recently released a very timely single called “Soldier of Fortune,” and if it seems unusually empathetic for a song by a left-wing folkie, that might be because Gauthier has spent a number of years helping veterans write songs through an organization called SongwritingWith: Soldiers. A favorite of Club Passim since the get-go, she’s playing a Passim-sponsored show down the street at Arrow Street Arts. Opening the evening: Rachel Sumner and Traveling Light, the excellent Boston band who took home first place at the most recent Telluride Bluegrass Festival band competition.

Sound Clash Day Party
April 26, 2 to 6 p.m.
Warehouse XI, Cambridge

The Riddim4Relief Collective continues its run of charity events with this benefit for those impacted by the recent flooding in Hawaii. The format is an old-fashioned sound clash, a mainstay of reggae culture where multiple sound systems battle it out to see who can generate the highest audience response. DJ Rozey will be taking on DJ Deaf Tunez.

— Noah Schaffer

Brazilian 10-string bandolim (Brazilian mandolin) virtuoso Ian Coury will play in Roxbury this week.

Ian Coury Quartet, with Ebinho Cardoso
Presented by Feldman Geospatial
Long Live Roxbury Brewery & Taproom
April 16, 6 p.m.

Brazilian 10-string bandolim (Brazilian mandolin) virtuoso Ian Coury is back in Boston for this free show in Long Live Roxbury’s Thursday night jazz series. On tap (yeah, went there) is a stellar cast of Brazilian music experts: Maxim Lubarsky on keys, Bertram Lehmann on drums/percussion, and singer/piccolo bassist Ebinho Cardoso. Though the show was originally planned as part of a tour with Coury’s 7-string guitar partner Igor Souza in celebration of the duo’s new album Novos Caminhos, the US government had other plans, denying Souza a visa. But as somebody once said (in fact, a 1980 film about the current regime head’s favorite band, The Village People), you can’t stop the music!

Anna Borges & Receita de Samba
Presented by Feldman Geospatial
Long Live Roxbury Brewery & Taproom
April 23, 6 p.m.

The next entry in this free Thursday night series finds yet another dazzling group of musicians bringing another night of Brazilian sounds. Singer Anna Borges has been a mainstay of the Brazilian scene here for many years, performing with her pianist husband Bill Ward and promoting the shows of of other local and visiting artists in the genre. Accompanying her rich, warm voice will be the excellent Ward, along with bass ace Greg Toro and the master Brazilian drummer Rafael Barata.

— Evelyn Rosenthal

Author Events

Vicky Osterweil at Harvard Book Store
The Extended Universe: How Disney Killed the Movies and Took Over the World
April 13 at 7 p.m.
Free

“In The Extended Universe, Vicky Osterweil takes us on a quest to discover how Disney’s ‘imagineers’ have made it impossible to reflect on the wonders of growing up without thinking of Disney’s movies, amusement parks, and merchandising. Drawing on extensive interviews with filmmakers, screenwriters, union organizers, and Disney ‘adults’ alike, Osterweil unearths reactionary political commitments and maleficent legal maneuvers so cartoonishly evil they would make one of Walt’s own animated villains blush.

“Along the way, Osterweil braids together corporate skullduggery with a not entirely unsympathetic analysis of some of Disney’s most famous movies. The result is an entertaining and convincing case that Disney’s entire business model has been built upon a ruthless and fanatical insistence on intellectual property rights — from Steamboat Willie to Avengers: Infinity War and beyond!” (Arts Fuse review of The Extended Universe.)

Brian Barth in conversation with Henry Grabar – Porter Square Books
Front Street
April 14 at 7 p.m.
Free

“As Brian Barth demonstrates, the missing element in debates about homelessness is input from the homeless themselves. [ . . . ] With Front Street, Barth not only widens the aperture, he alters the nature of the conversation. The question is whether or not society is willing to listen.” —Brian Tanguay, California Review of Books

Caroline Maguire at Harvard Book Store
Friendship Skills for Neurodivergent Adults: A Guide for the Anxious, Uniquely Wired, and Easily Distracted
April 14 at 7 p.m.
Free

“This is the kind of book that meets you where you are. Caroline Maguire breaks down social concepts with clarity, compassion, and metaphor in a way that feels genuinely respectful to neurodivergent experience. Nothing here is patronizing or prescriptive — it’s practical, hopeful, and deeply human. She names the realities so many of us carry while offering clear paths toward friendship that don’t ask you to mask or contort yourself. A needed and affirming guide for our community. — Megan Anna Neff, PsyD, clinical psychologist; author of Self-Care for Autistic People; and founder of Neurodivergent Insights.

Kellie Carter Jackson at Brookline Booksmith
We Refuse: A Force History of Black Resistance
April 15 at 7 p.m.
Free or $23.49 with book

“The dismissal of ‘Black violence’ as an illegitimate form of resistance is itself a manifestation of white supremacy, a distraction from the insidious, unrelenting violence of structural racism. Force—from work stoppages and property destruction to armed revolt—has played a pivotal part in securing freedom and justice for Black people since the days of the American and Haitian Revolutions. But violence is only one tool among many. Carter Jackson examines other, no less vital tactics that have shaped the Black struggle, from the restorative power of finding joy in the face of suffering to the quiet strength of simply walking away.”

Clark Event: Attention and Distraction, Then and Now
April 16 at 6 p.m.
Free, registration required

“’Distraction’ is a buzzword in modern culture, and rightly so: focus becomes so difficult when we’re bombarded from all sides with notifications, updates, and pings. But was it so different in the age before Google and TikTok? In this three-way conversation, Gage McWeeny, Professor and Chair in the English Department at Williams College; Debra Gettelman, Associate Professor of English at College of the Holy Cross; and Anne Leonard, Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at the Clark, draw on examples from visual art and literature to show that attention, distraction, and daydreaming were already hot-button topics in the nineteenth century.

Gage McWeeny’s course, Attention / Distraction, is being offered at Williams College in spring 2026. Debra Gettelman is the author of Imagining Otherwise: How Readers Help to Write Nineteenth-Century Novels (Princeton, 2024). Anne Leonard has published on the topic of looking and listening in nineteenth-century France.”

Rick Steves at Brookline Booksmith
On the Hippie Trail
April 21 at 5 p.m.
Tickets are $23.63 with book

“In the 1970s, the ultimate trip for any backpacker was the storied “Hippie Trail” from Istanbul to Kathmandu. A 23-year-old Rick Steves made the trek, and like a travel writer in training, he documented everything along the way: jumping off a moving train, making friends in Tehran, getting lost in Lahore, getting high for the first time in Herat, battling leeches in Pokhara, and much more. The experience ignited his love of travel and forever broadened his perspective on the world.

This book contains edited selections from Rick’s journal and travel photos with a 45-years-later preface and postscript reflecting on how the journey through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal changed his life.

You know Rick Steves. Now discover the adventure of a lifetime that made him the travel writer he is today.”

Omer Bartov at Harvard Book Store
Israel: What Went Wrong?
April 21 at 7 p.m.
Free

“In Israel: What Went Wrong?, Bartov sketches the tragic transformation of Zionism, a movement that sought to emancipate European Jewry from oppression, into a state ideology of ethno-nationalism. How is it possible, he asks, that a state founded in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust, an event that gave legitimacy to a national home for the Jews, stands credibly accused of perpetrating large-scale war crimes? How do we come to terms with the fact that Israel’s war of destruction is being conducted with the support, laced with denial and indifference, of so many of its Jewish citizens?

Tracing the roots of the violent events currently unfolding in Israel and the occupied territories, Bartov tracks his country’s moral tribulations and considers the origins of Zionism, the intertwining of Israel’s independence with Palestinian displacement, the politics of the Holocaust, controversies over the term “genocide,” and the uncertain future. The result is a searing and urgent critique that addresses today’s debates over Zionism and the future of Israel with rigor and depth.”

WBUR CitySpace: Patrick Radden Keefe – Brookline Booksmith
April 21 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $23.11

“Join award-winning New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe for a conversation on his newest book, London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth, a fascinating investigation into the death of 19-year-old Zac Brettler, who had been living a dangerous double life unbeknownst to his family. With Keefe’s usual bravura feat of reporting and brilliant writing, the book is also an intimate and deeply poignant inquiry into the nature of parental love and the challenges of being a parent today. Here & Now senior managing editor Todd Mundt moderates. Copies of the book will be available to purchase and Keefe will sign following the conversation.”

The Environment Forum with Terry Tempest Williams — Mahindra Humanities Center
The Glorians Are Among Us
At Boylston Hall, Boylston Hall, 5 Harvard Yard, Harvard University, Cambridge on April 22 from 6:30- 7:30 p.m.
Free

“We are all dreamers. What happens when a particular dream becomes a vow? The vow Terry Tempest Williams made became “The Epic Documentation of The Glorians.” When she awoke from this dream during the pandemic of 2020, she asked one question: “What is a Glorian?” In this conversation with Robin Kelsey, be prepared to hear stories about visitations from the holy ordinary. We can dream a new world into being.The Glorians are reaching out to us, inviting us to engage.

Join us for this conversation with Robin Kelsey and Terry Tempest Williams as we celebrate this 10-year anniversary of the Environmental Forum.”

Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff at Harvard Book Store
Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed
April 22 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Muskism cuts straight to the core of the man and the moment, explaining how a mercurial, conspiracy-prone, vicious bastard can inspire loyalty and billions in other peoples’ money, and the nightmare world he wants to build with those billions.” —Cory Doctorow, author of Enshittification and editor of Pluralistic.

Rebecca Mahoney at Porter Square Books
Thrall
April 24 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Thrall has all the beloved dread and darkness of classic vampire tales, but also breathes life into the undead genre with a fresh and fast-paced journey of empowerment. You haven’t read a vampire story like this before.” —Kylie Lee Baker, The Sunday Times bestselling author of Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng

Independent Bookstore Day 2026 – Harvard Book Store
April 25 from 9 a.m.- 10 p.m.

“The last Saturday of April marks the best day of the year, Independent Bookstore Day! Indie Bookstore Day began in 2013 by the American Booksellers Association to celebrate bookstores with exclusive books and literary items, contests, and everything in between. We celebrate Indie Bookstore Day every year with fun activities in-store and this year we are once again joining forces with our fellow siblings-in-books to be a part of the Metro Boston Indie Bookstore Crawl! Starting April 1, stop by any of the participating stores to pick up a Metro Boston Indie Bookstore Crawl passport booklet. Visit as many of the stores on the crawl as you can and collect stamps by Saturday, April 25.

On April 25, present your passport at each store and get a special prize depending on the number of stamps collected. If you collected all 25 stamps, present your completed passport at each store you visit on Independent Bookstore Day, to get entered into a grand prize raffle for that store. More details on the Metro Boston Indie Bookstore Crawl at Porter Square Books.”

Independent Bookstore Day 2026 – Brookline Booksmith
April 25 all day

“Join us on April 25 for Independent Bookstore Day! We love to welcome as many readers as we can for this annual bookstore holiday, and we have lots planned for you to check out while you’re traveling (we hope!) from store to store.”

Caroline Bicks with Elizabeth Graver at Brookline Booksmith
Monsters in the Archives
April 30 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Bicks focuses on five of Stephen King’s most iconic early works—The Shining, Carrie, Pet Sematary, ʼSalemʼs Lot, and Night Shift—to reveal how he crafted his language, story lines, and characters to cast his enduring literary spells. While tracking King’s margin notes and editorial changes, she discovered scenes and alternative endings that never made it to print but that King is allowing her to publish now. The book also includes interviews Bicks had with King along the way that reveal new insights into his writing process and personal history.

Part literary master class, part biography, part memoir and investigation into our deepest anxieties, Monsters in the Archives—authorized by King himself—is unlike anything ever published about the master of horror. It chronicles what Bicks found when she set out to unearth how the author crafted some of his scariest, most iconic moments. But it’s also a story about a grown-up English professor facing her childhood fears and getting to know the man whose monsters helped unleash them.”

— Matt Hanson