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.

Gregg Weiner as David confesses a secret to Jaime Ann Romero as Maria in The Zionists, produced by Miami New Drama. Photo: Morgan Sophia

In Boston, theatrical faint-heartedness predominates: virtually nothing on our stages has directly addressed Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. Out in the Berkshires, however, Barrington Stage Company is taking on the politically fraught subject. The Zionists: A Family Storm (running June 16 through July 3) explores the fault lines opened by the ongoing tragedy, particularly how shifting generational loyalties are tearing a Jewish-American family apart. I will be heading out to review the drama.

Asher Gelman’s script already stirred controversy during its world premiere in Miami in May. Writing for Artburst, critic Mary Damiano noted that the Colony Theatre had installed metal detectors and additional security, including bag checks, and that, following a Sunday matinee, protesters from Jewish Voice for Peace distributed leaflets disguised as Playbills, “sparking some heated confrontations on Lincoln Road.” A production that provokes passionate debate? No danger of that here — Boston stages would never be so reckless.

A scene from ITA’s production of The Architect. Photo: ITA

The Architect packs considerable political punch — oligarchic economic and creative hubris takes a nasty fall — and it is, to boot, a woman-centric version of Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder. The plot: “Sela is an architect at the peak of her career. When the young and ambitious Hilde enters her world, Sela’s carefully constructed success begins to unravel. What begins as admiration slowly shifts into a subtle yet destabilizing power play.”

The much-praised Rebecca Frecknall, who directed the 2021 West End revival of Cabaret starring Eddie Redmayne and Jessie Buckley, is at the helm of this ferocious adaptation. The Internationaal Theater Amsterdam production will be streamed through June 14, with English subtitles provided on Thursday (June 11) and Saturday (June 13).

— Bill Marx

Film

A scene from The Last One for the Road. Photo: Music Box Films

The Last One for the Road
Through June 8
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge

Director Francesco Sossai’s dazzling sophomore feature is many things at once: a road movie, a casual caper, a tribute to a vanishing industrial Italy, and a scruffy, intergenerational odyssey. The story follows two charming, washed-up, small-time Italian crooks on what feels like a never-ending, free-flowing bender through time and space. A rambling, shaggy-dog road movie that boasts a soundtrack of Italian indie rock and clear echoes of efforts from Wenders, Jarmusch, and Kaurismäki. — adapted from notes by Music Box. Arts Fuse review

Lost Land
June 8, 7 p.m.
West Newton Cinema

In the hope of reuniting with their scattered family, four-year-old Shafi and his nine-year-old sister Somira leave a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh on a perilous journey to reach Malaysia. The first-ever Rohingya-language film that features an all-Rohingya cast. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival.

There will be a post-film discussion with Jacqueline Bhabha, a human rights lawyer who has long worked with refugees. Part of Belmont World Film’s 24th International Film Series.

A scene from Fugs Film!

Fugs Film!
June 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Regent Theatre in Arlington

The Fugs were formed by Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg and drummer Ken Weaver in late 1964. Their first album was recorded by the legendary Harry Smith (Anthology of American Folk Music) on Folkways Records. A fierce stance against the Vietnam War and a punk sensibility produced songs such as “Kill For Peace” and “Boobs a Lot.” An FBI file references them as “the filthiest and most vulgar thing the human mind could possibly conceive” (John Waters might disagree). Interviews feature Sanders, Aline & R. Crumb, Lenny Kaye, Penny Arcade, Jeffrey Lewis ,and more, who tell the story of NYC’s original punks. There will be a post-film conversation with director Chuck Smith, moderated by the Arts Fuse‘s Tim Jackson.

Director John Waters and the cast of Desperate Living, which will be screening at the Provincetown International Film Festival

The Provincetown International Film Festival
June 10 – 14
Provincetown

One of the state’s friendliest festivals is now in its 27th year with more than 150 feature-length and short-film screenings, parties, panel discussions, and events.

This year’s honorees include:

Marco Calvani of the Netflix hit show The Four Seasons, who wrote, directed, and produced his first feature film High Tide, which was filmed in Provincetown.

Filmmaker on the Edge Conversation — Ryan Murphy

The Filmmaker on the Edge award will be handed to Murphy, one the most prolific and most successful creators of his generation. Among his efforts as a writer, director and producer — the shows Popular, Nip/Tuck, and Glee.

Honoree Tribute with Adam Shankman, the choreographer and director of the PIFF 2026 opening night film Stop! That! Train! starring RuPaul.

Desperate Living June 11 at 1:30 p.m. screening. This is the twisted, 1977 antifascist fairy tale directed by the saint of the festival, John Waters. Mink Stole and Jean Hill star in a story set in the bizarro shantytown of Mortville, a depraved penal colony presided over by a despotic queen, played by Edith Massey. One of Waters’s most outrageous films.  Complete Film schedule

Peter Lorre and Broderick Crawford in a scene from Black Angel.

Black Angel
June 12 at 6 p.m.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge

This lesser known 1946 noir, featuring Broderick Crawford, June Vincent, Peter Lorre, and  Dan Duryea, is about a man wrongly convicted of murdering a nightclub singer, and his wife’s attempt to clear his name with help from the singer’s ex-husband. The investigation leads them through a nightclub, a suspected blackmailer, and a tangle of jealousy, alcohol, and mistaken identity before the real killer is revealed. The first entry in a double feature evening. The second film is 1941’s Blues in the Night, a musical noir about a struggling jazz band’s quest for an authentic blues sound, which collapses under jealousy, betrayal, alcoholism, and murder after they’re hired by a gangster. The band’s leader, pianist Jigger Pine, falls for a manipulative femme fatale, Kay, who destroys the group’s unity and leads the story into a dark, tragic climax. Both movies are part of the Brattle Noir City Boston Series. Author Foster Hirsch will be on hand for special introductions all weekend long.

Stop! That! Train!
June 12 – 14
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline

A campy disaster-comedy directed by Adam Shankman in which RuPaul plays President Gagwell. The story follows two best friends and train attendants, Tess and DeeDee, who leave a dreary rail line for the glamorous Glamazonian Express. When a massive storm threatens to send the high-speed train hurtling toward catastrophe, the crew must work together to save the passengers and prevent disaster. Trailer

A scene from The Adventures of Prince Achmed.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed
June 24 at 2 p.m.
Somerville Theatre

Created by pioneering animator Lotte Reiniger, critics have hailed this as the first feature-length animated film. The story of Prince Achmed’s magical adventures is drawn from The Arabian Nights and it is the story of a wicked sorcerer who tricks the Prince into mounting a magical flying horse, which sends him off on a series of wondrous and romantic adventures. A masterful example of silhouette-style animation. The screening features a score by Jeff Rapsis, who will be performing on a digital synthesizer that will create the texture of a full orchestra. Trailer

Promised Sky
June 15 at 7 p.m.
West Newton Cinema

Three women from Côte d’Ivoire, living together in Tunisia without legal status, take in a young girl who washes ashore after a shipwreck. As this fragile, makeshift family begins to take shape, mounting pressures force each woman to confront where she belongs, and what she’s willing to risk. Post-film discussion with Haleigh Burgon, a PhD candidate in French and Francophone Studies at Boston University. Part of Pride & World Refugee Awareness Month Screenings

The 28^th Roxbury International Film Festival
June 18 – 26
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Hibernian Hall, Mass College of Art and Just-Bookish in Dorchester

Full Schedule of Events and Films

Over the course of nine days, New England’s largest film festival will celebrate people of color. Screenings will include 100 narrative, documentary, animated, experimental, and student films, along with Q&As with filmmakers, panel discussions, networking opportunities, and filmmaker hangouts.

Some selections include:

Dreamers
(Shorts program) June 21, at 2:30 p.m. at Museum of Fine Arts

Transforming the Beautiful Game: The Clyde Best: The opening night documentary is a first-hand look at the groundbreaking journey of Clyde Best, the first Black football superstar in England of The North American Soccer League. Clyde Best will be attendance for a post-screening Q&A. June 18 at 7 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

She Dared to Dream – A profile of Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley as well as a statement about the leadership we need right now.
June 22 at 7 p.m. at JustBook-ish on 1463 Dorchester Ave

Finding Your Laughter: This year’s signature screening follows Chicago comedian Arlieta Hall, who is learning to use stand-up comedy and improvisation as tools for both her own mental health and to be a caregiver for her father. The showing will be followed by a panel discussion.
June 25 at 7 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Montmartre: The closing night film is a romantic drama that explores Black history and love in Paris. The film stars Ito Aghayere (Picard) and Jesse Williams (Grey’s Anatomy).
June 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

In addition to films there will be  a “Senior Lunch,” a free daytime event for seniors that includes a film, a boxed lunch, and a post-screening Q&A. The film is Pursuing Light: The Bill Strickland Story, with lunch catered by NECAT (New England Culinary Arts Training). At Hibernian Hall at 12:30 p.m. on June 23

The “Daily Script Read” is a program where local screenwriters’ work is read by local actors, followed by a discussion or Q&A. It’s meant to support new writing and give audiences a chance to hear scripts in progress; June 18–30 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. — online via Zoom or in one of the Festival’s venues.

A scene from Unidentified. Photo: Sony Pictures Classics, Al Mansour Establishment

Unidentified
Opens June 19
Capitol Theatre, Arlington

In Saudi director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s 2025 thriller, 29-year old Noelle Al Saffan moves to the city to start a new life after her divorce. She’s obsessed with “true crime” podcasts and takes a mundane clerical job in a police station digitizing their old files. When a teenage girl’s body is discovered in the desert, the officers require a female present when they investigate the body. Noelle jumps at the chance. Using her knowledge about the hidden world of Saudi women, she pieces together a profile of the girl. Despite repeated warnings from the police chief to stay off the case, Noelle pursues the mystery, putting herself in danger and challenging preconceived notions about women, the threats they face, and even the motivations that connect her to the victim.

Linda Perry: Let It Die Here 
June 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Regent Theatre, Arlington

In celebration of Pride Month, a special screening honoring Linda Perry, who has been one of the most outspoken and recognizable artists of the past 30 years. In the decades since her single “What’s Up” with her band 4 Non-Blondes topped the charts, Perry has reinvented herself as a songwriter and producer penning hit-after-hit for artists like Dolly Parton, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, Pink, and others. This Boston Premiere screening will include a live Q&A with filmmaker Don Hardy.

Pick of the Week

Virginie Efira in Madeleine Collins. Photo: IFC Center

Virginie Efira stars as Judith, who also goes by Margot, leading a double life between two households in two countries. In Switzerland, she lives with Abdel, raising a young daughter. In France, she lives with Melvil, with whom she has two older sons. Gradually, the fragile balance of lies and constant travel begins to veer dangerously off the rails, and the deception grows increasingly tense as we continue to hope she can somehow hold everything together.

On one level, director Antoine Barraud’s Madeleine Collins is a psychological drama about a woman trapped by her own choices. On another, it offers a subversive commentary on the multiple, often contradictory roles women are expected to perform — caretaker, provider, protector, partner — and the impossible burden of keeping everyone else’s lives intact while her own slowly unravels.

— Tim Jackson

Theater

Juan Arturo and Melisa Pereyra in HTC’s Oedipus El Rey. Photo by Marc J. Franklin

Oedipus El Rey by Luis Alfaro. Directed by Loretta Greco. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company in The Roberts Theatre in The Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont St. Boston, through June 14.

Luis Alfaro reimagines the Sophocles classic in Oedipus El Rey, which is set in the heart of Los Angeles. Oedipus dreams of rewriting his own story — but liberation comes at a price: can he truly escape the destiny laid out before him? What’s fate, and what’s just the system? A searing tale of love, family, and prophecy, Oedipus El Rey, the HTC website tells us, “blends ancient myth with modern urgency and Chicano swagger with swaths of sly humor.” Arts Fuse review

Next to Normal Book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey. Music by Tom Kitt. Directed by Amanda Dehnert. Staged by Trinity Repertory Company at the Dowling Theatre, 201 Washington Street, Providence,  through June 28.

The plot of this Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize–winning rock musical: “Diana is a suburban mom struggling with bipolar disorder. Her daughter, Natalie, is a stressed-out overachiever about to snap, and her exhausted architect husband, Dan, is determined to keep everything ‘normal.’ As Diana’s symptoms worsen, the Goodmans must learn to see each other for who they truly are and discover what it means to be family.” Named one of the 50 Most Influential Plays of the 21st Century by American Theatre.

Bad Books by Sharyn Rothstein. Directed by M. Bevin O’Gara. Staged by the Gloucester Stage Company at the Natti-Willsky Performance Center, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, through June 27.

The plot of this no doubt sympathetic look at the issue of American libraries under attack: “When a concerned mother finds her son with an ‘inappropriate’ book, an attempt to reason with the local librarian erupts into an explosive, town-wide confrontation. As tensions rise and consequences escalate, we learn that these women have more that connects them than what meets the eye.” The script, according to GSC, “explores the first impressions and raucous debates that divide us while forcing audiences to consider what it really means to care for our children.”

Paul Melendy & Gabriel Graetz in the Central Square Theater production of The Mystery of Irma Vep. Photo: Maggie Hall Photography.

The Mystery of Irma Vep — A Penny Dreadful by Charles Ludlam. Directed by David R. Gammons. Staged by Central Square Theater, May 28 through June 28.

Some thoughts on The Mystery of Irma Vep by the late Arts Fuse critic Caldwell Titcomb, who saw a production of this “silly but sublime farce” in Washington, DC in 2008:

Charles Ludlam (1943-1987), founder of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company in 1967, author of 29 plays, flamboyant actor of both male and female roles, and an early victim of AIDS. In Irma Vep Ludlam combined the tradition of the 19th-century penny-dreadful with a desire to exploit the actors’ ability to change costumes and characters within seconds. Although the play employs only two actors, they have to portray seven people of both genders. There is above the mantel a portrait of the deceased Irma Vep with eyes that mysteriously move, and in Act II even an Egyptian mummy. In the original mounting, Ludlam and his longtime partner Everett Quinton played all the roles.

In the CST production, Paul Melendy and Gabriel Graetz tackle the multiple roles. Arts Fuse review

Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector. Directed by Margot Bordelon. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company, The Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, through June 28.

A Tony-winning satire which asks if parents at a progressive, welcoming private school can uphold their harmonious shared values when Eureka Day faces an outbreak of the mumps. The cast includes Ken Cheeseman and Nancy Lemenager. Arts Fuse review

Black Swan. Book by Jen Silverman. Music, lyrics, and orchestrations by Dave Malloy. Music supervision and direction by Or Matias, with additional arrangements by Matias. Directed and choreographed by Sonya Tayeh. Based on the Searchlight Pictures film Black Swan, story by Andrés Heinz. Staged by the American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, through July 12.

A world premiere of a Broadway-bound musical that brings the cinematic psychological thriller Black Swan to the stage. “Pressure builds, boundaries blur, and reality begins to slip as Nina strives to rise from the ballet corps to the lead role in Swan Lake.” This adaptation is billed as “a haunting exploration of ambition, power, and the cost of perfection.”

Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe by D.W. Jacobs. Directed by Barbara Karger. Staged by the Chester Theatre Company at the Chester Town Hall Theatre, 15 Middlefield Road, Chester, June 19 through 28.

From my review of the American Repertory Theater production of this script in 2011:

Playwright D.W. Jacobs calls this rousing one-man talk-a-thon dedicated to the futuristic imagination of American visionary R. Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) a “pileup of ideas.” And that is how the evening comes off, a whole kit-and-kaboodle journey through the capacious life and quirky mind of the inventor of the geodesic dome. At first, the script’s brusque zigzagging from subject to subject doesn’t seem right for Fuller’s lifelong dedication to the majesty, beauty, and flabbergasting flexibility of structure: hymns to the magic of synergy jump to family tragedy, paranoid meditations on worldwide capitalist conspiracies give way to smiley paeans to mankind’s chances for survival by making more out of less.

Like Walt Whitman, another American genius powered by an expansionist imagination, Fuller contains multitudes, and Jacobs stuffs a lot of them into R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe. Even though there is an effective use of multimedia to jazz things up, and the play’s Fuller dances, sings, and even strolls up the aisles from time to time to instruct us on, for example, the fine art of syncing with the earth’s rotation, at times it feels as if you are sliding at supersonic speed around the points of a dodecahedron. At worst, and that isn’t too often, the script feels like a version of the preachy, pick-me-up programming dredged up by PBS during pledge time, with Dr. Wayne Dyer or some other guru of self-improvement pitching the audience, via books, tapes, and videos, a happier sense of self. But the play’s Fuller isn’t selling anything but his ideas, which remain fascinating though head-scratching.

Delirium, Igor Golyak’s adaptation of Eugène Ionesco’s Frenzy for Two. Staged by Arlekin at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, June 18 through July 2.

Delirium brings together Andrey Burkovskiy and Chulpan Khamatova in what the show’s press calls “a darkly comic, deeply human piece about survival, love, and the fragile architecture of reality.” The world premiere of Golyak’s version of the script follows a middle-aged couple bickering over trivialities as the world collapses into war, chaos, and social breakdown — updated here, no doubt, with a nod to climate catastrophe.

Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune by Terrence McNally. Directed by Julia Murney. Staged by the Psych Drama Company at the BCA Plaza Black Box Theatre, 539 Tremont Street, June 18 through 28.

A revival of a much-produced romantic comedy. According to the Psych Drama Company website: “A story of hope and love as two characters, over the course of one night, find their way past the challenges that have blocked them from experiencing connection. Johnny, a short-order cook, and Frankie, a waitress, spend the night together in Frankie’s apartment. Johnny is certain he has found his soul mate, but Frankie is more cautious and at first writes the encounter off as a one-night stand. Over one long night, the two debate whether to take a chance on love.”

Fragments by Jim Petosa. Directed by Judy Braha. Staged by Great Barrington Public Theater, June 18 through July 5.

According to the Great Barrington Public Theater, this “piece is a memoir of a very specific time and place that shines a light on the turbulent years from 1985-90 when the world was overtaken by the eruption of the AIDS crisis … moments of life for one couple navigating their mystical, transformative, and harrowing journey through the AIDS pandemic. In a world where it has become more and more common for history to be eroded, rewritten or erased entirely.”

In Old Age by Mfoniso Udofia. Directed by Dawn M. Simmons. Produced by ArtsEmerson and Front Porch Arts Collective at the Emerson Paramount Center Jackie Liebergott Black Box Theatre, 559 Washington Street, Boston, June 13 through 28.

A staging of the penultimate piece of Mfoniso Udofia’s nine-part play Ufot Family Cycle. The plot, according to the ArtsEmerson website: “Abasiama Ufot, still living in the house of her deceased husband, forms an unexpected spiritual bond with Azell Abernathy, a soft-spoken, church-going carpenter. As their connection deepens, and Abasiama’s house — and soul — become clearer, she comes to understand the true nature of love, sending her off on one last journey through life.”

— Bill Marx

Television

Sam Reid in The Vampire Lestat Photo: Sophie Giraud/AMC Networks

We’ve already had some very hot days in June, and meteorological summer is off to a steamy start. So what better way to ride the heat wave and, ahem, avoid the sun than with the new season of Interview with the Vampire? The third installment of this AMC series (premiering June 7) has now been christened Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat. Confession: this has been on my “to watch” list for ages because my friends who love it are so passionately devoted. I’ve been saving it for a time when I really need a juicy horror series to binge. Given how things are going in the world, there’s no time like the present to lose oneself in a sexy, smart vampire series.

I will NOT be watching Alice and Steve (June 8, Hulu). Ugh. Read the room, people.

Masterpiece: Grantchester (June 14, PBS). This well-loved series, part period drama, part police procedural, is set in an English village in the 1950s. It is now in its eleventh and final season. I’ve had the privilege of visiting the bucolic location where much of the show is filmed.

Grantchester (near the famous Grantchester Meadows, the title of an old Pink Floyd song) is a lovely village in Cambridgeshire, and you guys, believe me, it really does look just like that. The meandering canal has lovely ducks and swans; there are huge willow trees, fields of cows, rural walking paths, and charming old pubs and churches—it’s one of my favorite parts of England. I will be watching with excitement tinged with sadness. Also a bit annoyed they did not cast my godson (an aspiring actor who lives nearby) as an extra.

On June 15, MS Now (formerly MSNBC) is introducing four new or rebranded shows. Just in time for the outrageous shake-ups in TV news—including the dismantling of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the chaos at CBS (60 Minutes possibly going away? Say it isn’t so!)—the network is debuting two retitled programs and two brand-new ones: The Moment with Katy Tur (retitled), Money, Power, Politics with Stephanie Ruhle (new), On the Line with Alicia Menendez (new), and The 11th Hour with Ali Velshi (retitled, previously hosted by Stephanie Ruhle). So, take that, Bari Weiss (and all who aid and abet her).

— Peg Aloi

Visual Art

For Homecoming at Mass Moca, Amanda Lovelee is organizing an elaborate ceremony for the opening, including regional marching bands and kid-friendly art-making. Photo: Mass MoCA

On June 13, Mass MoCA welcomes two new beings-in-residence to North Adams, both of them deliberately taken well out of their comfort zone. As part of her “immersive, outdoor installation,” Homecoming, Amanda Lovelee is organizing an elaborate ceremony for the occasion, with regional marching bands and kid-friendly art-making. The project features custom-designed bleachers so Mass MoCA visitors can watch the new residents settling in and, the organizers hope, learning to thrive in their new home.

The beings are not human and not even animals. They are trees, and they will be participating in an “assisted plant migration” — technologies designed to introduce trees to new ways to live and prosper in a warming climate. From those special bleachers, visitors will be able to watch the trees as they grow and adapt on a nonhuman timescale. The project, conceived in collaboration with plant scientist, artist, and educator Jess Gersony and the PLACE (Plant Physiology, Art, and Community Engagement) Lab at Smith College, is designed to “remember a deeper connection between humans and nature, while playfully addressing the urgency of climate change that is causing plants to migrate.”

The Colby Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, is one of three museums (the others are the Farnsworth in Rockland and the Brandywine Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania) collaborating on By Design: The Worlds of Betsy James Wyeth, the first exhibition to examine Betsy James Wyeth’s “wide-ranging practice as a designer of complex environments.” The three locations present their separate chapters almost simultaneously; the Colby exhibition opens on June 12.

In 1979 and 1990, Betsy Wyeth, whose husband, Andrew, was one of the most famous artists of their generation, purchased Allen Island and later the adjacent Brenner Island in the Gulf of Maine, south of Rockland. The two islands, the Colby Museum claims, are “the most fully realized expressions of Wyeth’s aesthetic sensibilities.” There she adapted existing structures, brought historic buildings from the mainland, built new houses from salvaged materials, constructed roads, dug ponds, cleared meadows, commissioned archaeological excavations, and established the infrastructure for farming and fishing. After decades of work, Wyeth said she had “created my own world on my islands.”

For their part in the By Design project, the Colby Museum commissioned four artists who “share resonant approaches to place, materials, ecology, and the emotional lives of objects” to take part in a residency on the islands. Mandy Lamb, Linda Nguyen Lopez, Elaine K. Ng, and Claire Pentecost each translated their experiences of these Wyeth-haunted places into artwork of their own, in their chosen media, including photography, ceramics, and textile arts.

Phyllis Graber Jensen, Little Karin, 1975. Gelatin silver print. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Photographer Phyllis Graber Jensen has worked as a photojournalist for the Maine Times, The Boston Herald, The Associated Press, and the City of Boston. She is now Director of Photography and Video for the Office of Communications and Marketing at Bates College, where she has spent decades documenting life on campus.

Phyllis Graber Jensen: Picture Stories, opening June 12 at the Bates College Museum of Art, begins with Jensen’s documentation of the women’s liberation movement in Denmark in the 1970s and covers her time as a staff photographer at The Boston Herald and her work in Maine. The show presents Jensen’s work through both newly printed and archival photographs, magazines, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera that explore “the nuances of visual storytelling.”

In Japanese culture, flowers are never just something to enjoy in a vase. The chrysanthemum, for example, imported from China in the 5th century, has become a powerful Japanese cultural and political symbol, representing longevity, rejuvenation, and nobility. It is the personal crest of the Emperor, whose monarchy is popularly known as “the Chrysanthemum Throne.” It appears on official documents, passports, and the 50-yen coin. The Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum is the nation’s highest and most prestigious government award.

Utagawa Hiroshige, Uoya Eikichi, publisher, Horikiri Iris Garden, from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1857.

The RISD Museum’s A Medley of Irises, which opens on June 13, features the Japanese cultural life of another honored bloom. Irises play a role in Japanese visual and literary arts parallel to the chrysanthemum’s in political symbolism. This exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints, books, and ceramics explores the art of the iris from the 1700s to the 1900s, including its importance as a design motif and as a symbol in classical literature. Illustrations of famous iris-viewing sites and floral arrangements “provide glimpses of how these blooms were appreciated and enjoyed across Japanese society.”

The old spring tradition of museum exhibitions of local or regional artists has had something of a revival of late. Local examples opening this month include the Danforth Art Museum’s Danforth Annual Juried Exhibition 2026, opening June 13, selected from a record 1,350 submissions by more than 450 New England artists. The Danforth, officially the Danforth Art Museum and Art School at Framingham State University since 2018, is located in the Jonathan Maynard Building on the historic Framingham Centre Common.

The Fitchburg Art Museum was itself founded by a local artist (though she spent much of her professional life in Paris). The museum claims The 90th Regional Exhibition of Art & Craft, opening June 20, is one of the longest-running juried exhibitions in New England. In addition to participating in the main exhibition, the first-prize winner will return in 2027 for a solo show.

At the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, the 16th Annual Photobook Exhibition opens on June 12. Dedicated to the particular aesthetics of the handmade photobook, distinct from the gallery exhibit, the show this year features more than 50 artists chosen by a panel that includes a photographer-teacher and the Griffin’s executive director.

Finally, the American Craft Fair, presented by the Fuller Craft Museum and the Worcester Center for Crafts, takes place at the Fuller Museum in Brockton on June 13 and 14, both indoors in the galleries and outdoors in the surrounding park on the shores of Upper Porter Pond. The program includes work by craft artists from across the region, food trucks, music, live demonstrations of glassmaking (June 13) and ceramic wheel throwing (June 14), and workshops in “Play with Clay” (June 13), “Botanical Foil Embossing” (June 14), and “All Ages Craft” (June 13).

— Peter Walsh

Jazz

Guitar master Bill Frisell. Photo: Marko Mijailovic

Bill Frisell
June 11 at 7 p.m. and June 12 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge

Perhaps the most poetic and intellectually probing of current guitar masters — and a towering American musician by any measure — Bill Frisell comes to the Regattabar for two nights in what is being billed as part of a “75th-birthday celebration” tour (b. March 18), with bassist Luke Bergman and drummer Tim Angulo. The Thursday night show is officially sold out.

Saxophonist Sarah Hanahan. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Gregory Porter
June 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, MA

Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Gregory Porter — whose insightful jazz singing is informed by a healthy dose of gospel — brings his wondrous baritone to Rockport Music.

Sarah Hanahan
June 12 at 7 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

The powerful young alto saxophonist Sarah Hanahan drew acclaim for her solo debut, Among Giants (with Marc Cary, Nat Reeves, and Jeff “Tain” Watts). She comes to Scullers with pianist Zaccai Curtis, bassist Matt Dwonszyk, and drummer Samuel Bolduc.

Stanley Sagov
June 13 at 7 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge

The pianist and composer Dr. Stanley Sagov’s show at the Regattabar in December 2023 was expected to be his last as a bandleader — he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma in both lungs. But after three years of treatment, the South African-born Brookline physician’s vitality appears undiminished, with an exuberant new self-produced album, Coming Back to Life in 2026, and this live show, with saxophonist Tucker Antell, bassist John Lockwood, drummer Yoron Israel, and percussionist Marcus Santos.

Vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant. Photo: Mark Fitton

Cécile McLorin Salvant
June 13 at 8 p.m.
Groton Hill Music Center, Groton, MA

In a concert at Big Ears last March, Cécile McLorin Salvant reportedly sang Jelly Roll Morton’s scandalous “Murder Ballad,” unexpurgated, at a half-hour plus. We’re guessing that one won’t be on offer at the well-comported Groton Hill Concert Hall — but we can dream. She’s joined by pianist Glenn Zaleski. But, oh, how we would like to hear Salvant sing, “I’ll cut your fucking throat and drink your blood like wine.”

The Ize Trio. Photo: Carolina Perez

Ize Trio
June 14 at 6 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge

The understated swing and transparent textures purveyed by the Ize Trio make their synthesis of varied sounds immediately appealing. San Diego-born pianist Chase Morrin, Cypriot percussionist George Lernis, and Palestinian cellist Naseem Alatrash came together in Berklee’s Global Jazz Institute and began working on a weave of “traditions from jazz, Western classical music, and maqam — the microtonal music that takes on various forms in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Palestine, and other Arab countries across the Middle East.” To these ears, the result is a true musical fusion, and true jazz. The Ize Trio celebrate their new Global Prayer album with guest Gregory Groover Jr. on tenor sax.

The Bad Plus. Photo: Evelyn Freja

The Bad Plus
June 18 at 8 p.m.
Groton Hill Music Center, Groton, MA

The Bad Plus started out 26 years ago as a piano trio with pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer David King mixing in Black Sabbath, Nirvana, and, eventually Stravinsky, with a goodly number of singular originals. They wrap it up for this farewell tour in their final iteration, as a quartet, with reedman Chris Speed and guitarist Ben Monder joining Anderson and King.

Greg Abate Quartet
June 20 at 7 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

The reliably robust Rhode Island alto saxophonist and flutist Greg Abate has bona fides that go back to his years with Ray Charles and with the Artie Shaw Orchestra led by Dick Johnson (not easy gigs). Abate plays Scullers with the primo rhythm section of pianist Tim Ray, bassist John Lockwood, and drummer Mark Walker.

— Jon Garelick

Rock, Indie, and Alternative

Futurebirds with Joelton Mayfield
June 11 (doors at 7/show at 8)
Arts at the Armory, Somerville

The latest offering by Futurebirds is a generous double LP featuring the intentionally distinct Far Out Country I & Far Out Country II. In the words of one of the band’s three songwriters, Carter King, “Our three different songwriting perspectives speaking with each other about a shared life, experienced unbelievably close together, and also far apart. It’s a daytime talk, and another one deeper in the night.” Those unfamiliar with the band can get an idea of what to expect by virtue of the album’s featuring the vocal talents of Maggie Atone and Katie Crutchfield – bka Waxahatchee – and the production of Grammy nominee Brad Cook, whose recent credits include Bon Iver, MJ Lenderman, Mavis Staples, Snail Mail, Ani DiFranco, and dozens of others.

Gracie and Rachel with Beccs
June 11 (doors at 7/show at 8)
The Rockwell, Somerville

Comprising a keyboardist and a violinist, Gracie Coates and Rachel Ruggles released If We Could, Would We on April 10. This collection of 12 sparse, hauntingly atmospheric tracks continues the duo’s ongoing association with the Ani DiFranco-founded Righteous Babe Records, which also distributed their 2020 sophomore LP Hello Weakness, You Make Me Strong and the 2023 EP Nowhere Now Here. The extractions “WTF” and “Leaving Home is Going Home” preceded the LP’s unveiling, which was in turn followed by “Myself  Again.”

Robyn Hitchcock with Emma Swift
June 14 (doors at 7/show at 8)
Brighton Music Hall, Allston

The Confuser is Robyn Hitchcock’s first album of new material in four years (which is hardly an eternity), but his 2024 covers album, 1967: Vacations in the Past, is far from an inconsequential effort. Serving as a companion to his memoir, 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left (here is my interview with him about the book), his versions of songs by relatively obscure bands, such as Small Faces, The Move, Tomorrow, and The Incredible String Band, revealed facets of his own musical personality. The Confuser (street date July 26) serves up another 10 more unmistakably Hitchcock-ian compositions. The singles “I Am This Thing,” “My Dead Astronaut,” and “How To Feel Alright,” will surely be welcome at his upcoming Brighton Music Hall show, and I would love to hear “Yesterday’s Rain,” “Breathless,” “Building From the Ruins,” and “Monday To Me” were I in attendance. I recommend – nay, insist – that you arrive in time for the opening set by Emma Swift, who is partners in life and music with Hitchcock.

(On a related note, Akashic Books will publish Hitchcock’s second book, Stranded In the Future, on July 7.)

— Blake Maddux

The Disco Biscuits at Roadrunner in 2025. Photo: Paul Robicheau

Northlands Music and Arts Festival
June 19 through 21, Swanzey, NH

Northlands Music and Arts Festival has become a preeminent destination for seekers of the jam as it attracts top-tier bands to a right-sized, camping-friendly event set up at the Cheshire Fairgrounds in New Hampshire’s bucolic Monadnock region. The headliners this year are The Dirty Heads on June 19, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead on June 20, and The Disco Biscuits on June 21.

— Scott McLennan

Green River Festival
June 19 through 21
Franklin County Fairgrounds, Greenfield

This longtime Western Mass. music festival crosses into today’s rock zeitgeist in a big way this year, booking genre-mashing Gen Z phenom Geese to close its three-day bash on the same day as the likewise critically acclaimed Wednesday (and an undercard including Lucius and J Mascis). Prior days also boast the worthy Texas-bred headliners “Gulf & Western,” country upstart Charlie Crockett, and Austin indie-rockers Spoon, while the War and Treaty, Kurt Vile & the Violators, and Ratboys help boost the lineup as well.

–Paul Robicheau

Classical Music

A Brahms Celebration
Presented by Rockport Music
June 12, 7:30 p.m.
Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, MA

This year’s Rockport Chamber Music Festival opens with music by Brahms — the Op. 117 Intermezzi and C-minor Piano Quartet — framing Anton Arensky’s Quartet No. 2. Pianist Jon Kimura Parker is joined by violinist Chee-Yun Kim, violist Barry Shiffman, and cellists Colin Carr and Mira Kardan.

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein. Photo: Lisa Marie Mazzucco

Simone Dinnerstein in recital
Presented by Rockport Music
June 13, 7:30 p.m.
Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, MA

Pianist Dinnerstein offers a recital that pairs works by Rameau and Bach with contemporary efforts by Philip Lasser and Keith Jarrett.

Finkel, Han, and Beilman play Schubert
Presented by Rockport Music
June 14, 5 p.m.
Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, MA

Cellist David Finkel and pianist Wu Han are joined by violinist Benjamin Beilman for a late-afternoon concert of piano trios by Franz Schubert.

Pianist Jonathan Biss. Photo: Benjamin Ealovega

Brentano Quartet & Jonathan Biss
Presented by Rockport Music
June 18, 7:30 p.m.
Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, MA

Pianist Biss teams up with the Brentanos for a traversal of Dvorak’s luminous Piano Quintet in A. The Quartet also assays works by Haydn and Beethoven.

A Far Cry & Anthony McGill
Presented by Rockport Music
June 19, 7:30 p.m.
Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, MA

McGill, the principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic, joins A Far Cry for a performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto.

The string section of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra in action. Photo: Michael Dwyer

A Juneteenth Celebration
Presented by Boston Landmarks Orchestra
June 20, 3 p.m.
The Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Center, Boston

Christopher Wilkins and Landmarks Orchestra are joined by students from the Sphinx Performance Academy for a program of music by Scott Joplin, Carlos Gomes, Julia Perry, Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery, Michael Abels, and Tchaikovsky. The event is free but requires registration.

Piers Lane & Friends
Presented by Rockport Music
June 21, 5 p.m.
Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, MA

Pianist Lane curates an eclectic mix of instrumental and vocal works by Schubert, Holst, Britten, Vaughan Williams, Clarke, Hughes, and Elgar. He’s joined by violinists Danbi Um and Aaron Boyd, violist Barry Shiffman, cellist Nick Canellakis, and soprano Adrianne Pieczonka.

PREMIERE⁴
Presented by Boston Modern Orchestra Project
June 21, 7 p.m.
Jordan Hall, Boston

Gil Rose and BMOP mark Father’s Day with a set of premieres, world and/or regional, by John Aylward, Avner Dorman, Paul Moravec, and Bernard Rogers.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

Roots and World Music

Afro-Caribbean soul singer and cultural activist Safiya Leslie. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Sonic Passports: Caribbean Heritage Month
June 10, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Hatch Shell, Boston

The Esplanade Association and its partners have gifted the city Groundbeat, an eclectic, free multiweek series that showcases the many performing talents who call Boston home. On stage this week is a world music celebration curated by the stirring Afro-Caribbean soul singer and cultural activist Safiya Leslie and her Travel Through Music Journeys. She’s lined up an excellent bill that includes Haitian-American artist ZAMA and pan-Caribbean warriors Roots Alley Collective, who will be joined by the top-notch roots reggae artist MediSun. The event also includes food and a variety of cultural, wellness, and art activities.

Oudflections
June 11
Armenian Museum, Watertown

61 years after he recorded his Oud Artistry LP, Armenian music pioneer (and Arts Fuse interview subject) John Berberian is still performing. He’ll be joined by fellow oud master Antranig Kzirian for a night of improvisation and tradition.

Father’s Day Gospel Extravaganza
June 21, 4 p.m.
Charles Street AME Church, Boston

The traditional gospel season concludes, as always, with this Father’s Day program. The great Jay Caldwell will make an appearance with his fellow Delaware artists Preacher Man and Friends, and the current incarnation of the storied Brooklyn All-Stars are also slated to be guests. Boston’s own Spiritual Encourages, Bishop Harold Branch, and Blessed by God will sing, and Boston blues queen Toni Lynn Washington will offer a special performance of her spiritual material.

— Noah Schaffer

Author Events

Summer Virtual Warehouse Sale – Harvard Book Store
June 7 at 9 a.m.

“Finished with spring cleaning and now your bookshelves are bare? Sounds like it’s the perfect time to shop our Summer Virtual Warehouse Sale! From June 5-7, visit hbswarehousesale.com to shop the newest titles in stock. We’ve got thousands of new books for all ages and readers, including cookbooks, fiction, picture books, art, history, and more. Find viral faves, classic fiction, new nonfiction, New York Review titles, staff recommendations, and more! Our virtual doors open at 9AM.

“We ship orders across the country, but please allow up to 3 weeks processing time for each order. A reminder that Frequent Buyer discounts and coupons do not apply to Warehouse Sale purchases.

“Our virtual sales include order pick up at our Needham Warehouse or Cambridge locations! While the warehouse is closed for browsing, if you live nearby you can choose to pick up your order from the warehouse or our store in Harvard Square.”

Tom Lin at the Cambridge Public Library – Harvard Book Store
Babylon, South Dakota 
June 9 from 6-7 p.m.
Free

“I can’t remember the last time I felt so lit up by a novel. Lin has built this wildly ambitious, deeply strange world with its own ecology and physics and sociology that is also, importantly, our world in all times past, present, and future. I love these characters. I love this prose. Babylon, South Dakota is a chilling diorama of what and how and who empire steals from us. There’s also a dream-amplifying horn, light animal-whispering, and a perfect dog named Santui. It’s wonder-full, enchanted and enchanting. I’m getting goosebumps right now as I type. This is the most excited I’ve been about a new book in ages.”—Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr!

Meryl Branch-McTiernan in conversation with Kurtlan Massarsky at Porter Square Books
What You Should Worry About
June 11 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Meryl Branch-McTiernan’s What You Should Worry About is a wildly engaging debut that captures the spirit of a generation with fearless raunchiness and observational wit reminiscent of Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint.” — Maisy Card, author of These Ghosts Are Family

Chris Smalls with Katie Johnston at Brookline Booksmith
When the Revolution Comes
June 16 at 7 p.m.
Free or $35.97 with book

“The riveting inside story of how a young Black man from Hackensack, NJ with little-to-no resources led a scrappy band of Staten Island warehouse workers in an improbable fight against Amazon, the second largest private employer in the U.S., and won. This epic David-and-Goliath tale traces Smalls’ dramatic story, from a childhood spent navigating his dad’s stints in and out of prison to his early pursuits of a career in music; from his years of sacrifice and economic uncertainty as a father of three, fighting a miasma of warehouse managerial politics in an effort to make ends meet, to his ascension as the leader of a new generation’s labor movement.

“A deeply personal and eye-opening account of the creation of the Amazon Labor Union, When the Revolution Comes is both a searing exposé of what it’s like to be working class in America today as well as the empowering story of what is possible when the overworked, underpaid, and disempowered join together, a movement born in community.”

Liaquat Ahamed at Harvard Book Store
1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World
June 16 from 7-8 p.m.
Free

“With his readable prose and agile analysis, Liaquat Ahamed has a talent for telescoping huge financial fiascoes into compact and exciting books. 1873 describes how speculative mania and misguided monetary policy produced debt and deflation that shadowed the final decades of the 19th century. With its cast of colorful villains, this saga contains a wealth of sobering insights that ought to sound a warning in our own hyper-speculative era.” —Ron Chernow

Amitav Ghosh at the Cambridge Public Library – Harvard Book Store
Ghost-Eye: A Novel 
June 17 from 6-7 p.m.
Free or $33.34 with book

“Traveling between late 1960s Calcutta and present-day Brooklyn, Amitav Ghosh’s Ghost-Eye is an urgent and expansive novel from one of our greatest living storytellers, about family, fate, and our fragile planet.”

Judith Enck with David Abel at Brookline Booksmith
The Problem with Plastic
June 17 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Judith Enck’s The Problem with Plastic critically examines the paradox of this material, first celebrated for its innovations and now recognized for its devastating environmental and public health impacts. With clarity and urgency, the book reveals how plastic pollution contributes to poisoned oceans, polluted air, a warming planet, and overwhelming waste, disproportionately impacting marginalized communities who bear the brunt of petrochemical pollution.

“Revealing the alarming extent of microplastics infiltrating both the natural world and the human body, this compelling narrative challenges the illusion that recycling alone will save us. It unpacks the mechanisms of environmental racism and the deceptive greenwashing strategies used by the plastics industry to maintain the status quo.”

TICKETED: Ruth Ozeki in conversation with Julia Glass! – Porter Square Books
The Typing Lady
At St. James Episcopal Church in Cambridge.
June 18 at 7 p.m
Tickets are $10 or $40 with book

“In this spirited and emotionally resonant collection, award-winning novelist Ruth Ozeki turns her singular gaze to the short story, exploring childhood ambition, youthful desire, midlife reinvention, and the unsparing clarity of old age. With her distinctive blend of wit, warmth, and deep humanity, she brings us 11 richly imagined stories of characters standing at life’s thresholds  —grappling with faded ideals, evolving identities, and the inevitable compromises that shape a life.

“Spanning eras and geographies — from a New England college town in the 1970s to downtown Manhattan in the 1990s to a moss-covered Pacific Northwest island during the early pandemic — The Typing Lady is an electrifying meditation on the stories we tell ourselves, the stories we abandon, and the stories we become. Threaded with the tactile ephemera of writing — typewriters, letters, manuscripts, and disappearing ink — the book reveals how we record ourselves in language, and how language, over time, records us in return.”

Stephen O’Connor at Harvard Book Store
We Want So Much to Be Ourselves: A Novel 
June 22 from 7- 8 p.m.
Free

“A heartrending story of love in a time of hatred, an absorbing investigation into the Nazis’ exploitation of psychoanalysis, and a cautionary tale about self-deception and the failures of a people to recognize the lies of their charismatic leader, We Want So Much to Be Ourselves examines the ways science can be corrupted and one’s very identity transformed by historical circumstance.”

Joshua Kendall with Bruce Schulman at Brookline Booksmith
Trudeau & Doonesbury
June 22 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Biographer Joshua Kendall tells the story of the cartoonist and what drove him to put pen to paper. He traces Trudeau’s boyhood in the Adirondack Mountains, his teenage angst in prep school, and his formative years at Yale, where he began drawing his iconic strip. And he shows the changing world it reflected; Doonesbury began appearing in papers nationwide in 1970, and big events, from Watergate to the the war in Vietnam, fueled its popularity and its significance.

“For more than 50 years, Doonesbury has helped drive the national conversation. The first comic strip to win a Pulitzer Prize, Garry Trudeau’s sprawling narrative featuring a host of beloved characters has reflected America back to itself, capturing the highlights and lowlights of American politics and culture with wit and penetrating insight. And as Doonesbury’s characters aged alongside their creator, Trudeau became one of the preeminent chroniclers of the Baby Boom generation.”

— Matt Hanson