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.

Summer is nearing its end, and the theater season is thinning out. So, instead of noting a performance, here is an invitation to attend a virtual training session designed for artists and cultural workers who are looking for ways to strengthen resistance to growing authoritarianism. This call for direct action emphasizes what creatives and their work can do to spur crucial collective action. Scheduled for August 18, those who care about the future of a free imagination — for artists and the rest of us — should become part of the dialogue.

Participants will explore how mass noncooperation can block encroaching fascism, study global resistance examples, and consider how their creative practices can help build anti-authoritarian movements as we approach the midterm elections. Framing artists, aptly, as a “vital cultural frontline,” the sponsoring organizations calls on them to “refuse compliance” and make culture that “blocks, bridges, and builds.”

The event is co-hosted by Beautiful Trouble and the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture. It will be offered in English with Spanish and ASL interpretation, and is free with optional donations to sustain the work.

— Bill Marx

Film

The Boston French Film Festival
Museum of Fine Art Boston, through August 23

A scene from Colors of Time, screening at the Boston French Film Festival. Photo: courtesy of the MFA

Films added to the venerable festival were recently announced — check the website.

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (Amélie et la métaphysique des tubes) on August 16 at 11 a.m.
Whatever it Takes (Ceux qui comptent) on August 16 at 2 p.m.
Comédie-Française (De la Comédie-Française) on August 21 at 7 p.m.
Leave One Day (Partir un jour) on August 22 at 11 a.m.
Colors of Time (La venue de l’avenir) on August 22 at 2 p.m.
Comédie-Française (De la Comédie-Française) on August 23 at 11 a.m.
Guess Who’s Calling! (Le répondeur) on August 23 at 2 p.m.

The Last Picture Shows
August 16 at 5 p.m.
Somerville Theatre, Davis Square

Filmmaker Rustin Thompson journeys into the American West on a search for traces of what was once a center of small-town life: the movie theater. On the trip, he finds long abandoned and forgotten cinemas; movie houses that have fallen into disrepair; cinemas recently closed or struggling to hold on, and theaters that—thanks to their thoughtful caretakers—are not only surviving but thriving. Between the stops along the way, Rustin poetically intersperses excerpts from Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 classic film The Last Picture Show, as well as reflections on past and present hardships facing the film exhibition industry.

A scene featuring Agnes Ayres and Rudolph Valentino in The Son of the Sheik. Photo: Somerville Theatre

The Son of the Sheik (1926)
August 16 at 2 p.m.
Somerville Theatre

This screening is a homage to Rudolph Valentino on the 100th anniversary of his death on August 23, 1926. This desert romance-adventure is a sequel to Valentino’s earlier The Sheik. The archetypal screen heartthrob plays both the elder Sheik and his son, Ahmed, in what became the actor’s final film. Live music will be provided by Jeff Rapsis.

A scene from Late Fame. Photo: Killer Films

Late Fame
August 21–27
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge

Willem Dafoe plays forgotten New York poet Ed Saxberger, who finds himself rediscovered by a small circle of enthusiastic young artists steeped in nostalgia for a time they never knew. Their adoration of his past reputation lures Ed into believing he deserves more attention than he ever received in his heyday. He is also seduced by an alluring young actress, played by Greta Lee, who is part of the circle. Arts Fuse review

Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival
August 26–30
Middlebury, Vermont

MNFF12 is a showcase of films from emerging voices in independent film, dedicated to the work of first- and second-time directors taking initial steps into the world of independent cinema. This year’s honoree is folk singer and film composer Mason Daring, who will conduct a composer’s workshop and perform with Jeanie Stahl, along with a screening of their film Marblehead Morning, directed by this writer. Sunday will include a conversation with Jane Fonda along with screenings of Klute and t Gaslit. Film Guide and Schedule

Lonely Seal International Film Festival
August 27 through 30
Regent Theatre, Arlington

The festival returns for its 9th go-around. There will be screenings of independent film, special events, and filmmaker programming, including a book signing and discussion with Oscar-winning screenwriter Ernest Thompson — he will discuss his new book, Out Clause — and the return of Boston’s own Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation to the Greater Boston area.

A scene from Dreams in Nighmares. Photo: courtesy of Shatara Michelle Ford

Dreams in Nightmares
August 28–30
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge

A new take on the American road movie follows a group of queer friends in their mid-30s navigating love, identity, and belonging. The nominal leader of this group of queer Black college friends is Z (Denée Benton), a writer who has a seemingly idyllic life. But when she is laid off from a teaching job, she finds she still has some soul-searching to do. The group leaves to track down the most free-spirited member of their clique, who has dropped off the map—perhaps somewhere in the Midwest.

Lightworkers
August 20 at 5 p.m.
Lower Level, Rabb Hall
Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St., Boston

This free screening of Bobby Roth’s 2026 documentary Lightworkers asks a diverse group of Americans, “What can we do?” in the face of a democracy that is being taken over by a powerful, aggressive few—an oligarchy that is fostering polarization and powerlessness. Through individual stories, the film explores civic engagement, social responsibility, and personal agency, creating a portrait of activism, community, and collective hope.

A panel discussion will follow, with Roth joining virtually. In-person panelists include Peyton Fleming of the De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition and Rebecca Riccio of the Boston Trainers Collective. Free registration(opens in new tab)

Pick of the Week

Valensole 1965 streaming on Amazon Prime

A scene from Valensole 1965. Photo: Amazon Prime

What hath Spielberg wrought? In his film Disclosure, the government, after much huffing and puffing, comes clean about the existence of little green men. Scienist Neil deGrasse Tyson’s latest tome, Take Me to Your Leader, and Adam Kirsch’s upcoming We Want to Believe: How Aliens Went Mainstream and Why It Matters are the latest additions to a growing shelf of books about “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.”  Or UAPs – the more serious term adopted by the U.S. Department of Defense in 2022. I recommended a documentary on the topic here a few weeks ago. Under the radar — so to speak — is a small French film, Valensole 1965, which is based on the true story of a lavender farmer, Maurice Masse, who experienced an extraterrestrial event on his property in 1965.

The result was considerably more earthbound than what Hollywood would like: cynical remarks from fellow villagers, scientific investigations of the landing site, and busloads of tourists trampling over Masse’s property. This modest human-interest story, directed by Dominique Filhol, offers a low-key variation on the genre. For whose who want a more spectacular look at UAPs, check out the Brattle Theatre’s current series of invasion films, titled Keep Watching the Skies: Aliens in the 1950s!

— Tim Jackson

Theater

David Garrison and Karen Allen in Berkshire Theatre Group’s production of Lovesong. Photo: Caelan Carlough

Lovesong by Abi Morgan. Directed by David Auburn. Staged by Berkshire Theatre Group at The Unicorn Theatre 6 East Street, Stockbridge, through August 29.

Morgan’s play, according to the BTG website, “traces a marriage across decades, revealing how love evolves, deepens and endures over time. Moving fluidly between youth and later years, the play places two versions of a couple side by side, allowing past and present to unfold simultaneously on stage. Through their shared memories and lived experiences, the story explores love, aging and the ways in which memory shapes identity. As time moves forward, the impact of early choices reverberates across a lifetime, illuminating the fragility of happiness, the resilience of partnership and the inevitability of change.” The cast features Karen Allen, David Garrison, Rebecca Brooksher, and Shawn Fagan.

The Realistic Joneses by Will Eno. Directed by Alison Greene. Staged by Harbor Stage Company, 15 Kendrick Ave, Wellfleet, through September 5

This 2012 dark comedy, which ran on Broadway, is”an offbeat meditation on common names and uncommon connections.” The script focuses on “two neighboring couples—both named Jones—whose awkward small talk gradually gives way to illness, marital strain, infidelity, and fears of mortality. Its dialogue is intentionally elliptical and off-kilter: a suburban relationship drama filtered through absurdism, where people struggle to say what they mean just as their lives become harder to manage.”

[title of show], Music and lyrics by Jeff Bowen and a book by Hunter Bell. Directed by Lisa Tierney. Music direction by Robert Draper. Staged by The Treehouse Collective at Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet Street, Chelsea, August 28 through September 13.

The summary of the musical on the Treehouse Collective website: “Jeff and Hunter, two self-confessed nobodies in New York, make a pact: They will write an original musical and submit it to a festival. The only catch? The deadline is in three weeks! With nothing to lose, they decide to try to create something new with the help of their friends Susan, Heidi, and Larry on the eighty-eights. With the full team assembled, Jeff and Hunter hit another roadblock – what should they write about? They decide to follow the old adage “write what you know,” and set off on a unique adventure: writing a musical about writing a musical. As the deadline looms, insecurities creep in and jealousies flare. Will the team succeed with their musical? Could it even win a Tony?!”

Playwright Eugène Ionesco. Photo: Wikimedia

Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco. Translated by Derek Prouse. Directed by Diane Paulus. At the Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge, through September 27.

The American Repertory Theater adapts Ionesco’s absurdist 1959 comedy about authoritarian creep, though in this case it is a thunderous stampede. Earlier productions of the play included Orson Welles directing Laurence Olivier in London and a 1961 Broadway staging featuring Zero Mostel, Eli Wallach, and Jean Stapleton. The A.R.T cast is led by Paul Giamatti and  John Turturro. Is this the year of the rhino? My review of an excellent production of the script earlier this year at the Yale Repertory Theatre.

Dear Alien by Liz Duffy Adams. Directed by Michelle Ong Hendrick. Staged by the Chester Theatre Company at the Chester Town Hall Theatre, Chester, through August 23.

The East Coast premiere of a comedy by a Northampton-based playwright. The off-kilter comedy “follows a reclusive advice columnist known as “Dear Alien” as they attempt to finish a book, respond to their readers, help the lovelorn, enlighten the confused, avoid financial ruin, hide from online trolls, escape desolation and explain the nature of human existence. All under a deadline.” The recipient of a 2025-2026 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, the play premiered in May 2026 at the Alley Theatre in Houston, TX.

Dalloway, First Love by Lindsay Joelle. Directed by Rebecca Bradshaw. Staged by the Gloucester Stage Company at the Natti-Willsky Performance Center, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester,  through August 29.

The world premiere of a script inspired by the imagination of Virginia Woolf. The plot: “Before there was Clarissa Dalloway, there was Clarissa Parry. A spirited, tree-climbing Victorian teenager, Clarissa has little interest in the parade of suitors her money-strapped father insists she entertain in hopes of saving the family’s estate. But when an unapologetically independent suffragette enters her life, Clarissa begins to question the expectations placed upon her and imagines a different future—one she can choose for herself.”

A glimpse of Midsummer (ish), a 6 actor, 60 minute Dream. Photo: courtesy of the Apollinaire Theatre Company

Apollinaire in the Park Festival 2026: Apollinaire Theatre Company presents Midsummer (ish), a 6 actor, 60 minute Dream & Teatro Chelsea presents La Mancha. At Chelsea Theatre Works and Chelsea Square, Chelsea on August 29 at 3 to 9 p.m.

The entire Chelsea Theatre Works building, “along with the surrounding street and park, will come alive with Free Performances, a Beer Garden with Local Food and Craft Vendors, Live Music, Art Exhibitions, Youth Activities, Bilingual Programming, Workshops, and a Costume Conversion Fashion Show.” The marquee events of this festival will be Teatro Chelsea’s performance of La Mancha at 5 p.m. and Apollinaire’s Midsummer (ish): a 6 actor, 60 minute Dream at 7:30 p.m.

Magnificent Monster Circus by CactusHead Puppets. Presented by Puppet Showplace Theater as part of its Summer Outdoor Series at Emerson College’s Stage at UnCommon Corner, Boston Common (corner of Boylston and Tremont Streets), Boston, August 22 at 12 p.m. Free; no tickets necessary

The plot: “Come one, come all, to a circus like no other! Encounter magnificent creatures from the wilds of your imagination as their quirky human caretaker tries to teach them new tricks. Kids can lend a hand to Eustace the Unicycling Unimonster, make friends with a Fiery Fanged Worm, cheer for Agnes the many-legged Acropod, and more. This colorful, silly, multi-sensory show is a perfect match for the youngest audiences. All ages are welcome; especially recommended for ages 3–7.”

Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Directed by Ariel Bock. Staged by Shakespeare and Company at the Tina Packer Playhouse, Lenox, through August 30.

George Bernard Shaw on the Bard’s tragedy, first performed in 1600 or 1601: “The one play, Hamlet, in which Shakespeare made an attempt to give as a hero one who was dissatisfied with the ready-made morality, is the one which has given the highest impression of his genius.” David Gow is cast as Hamlet, with a supporting cast that includes Jonathan Epstein, Yaala Muller, Kristen Wold, and A.J. Baldwin.

A glimpse of Harry LaCoste’s The Loose Caboose. Photo: courtesy of the Puppet Showplace Theater

The Loose Caboose by Harry LaCoste. Presented by Puppet Showplace Theater as part of its Summer Outdoor Series at Emerson College’s Stage at UnCommon Corner, Boston Common (corner of Boylston and Tremont Streets), Boston, August 29 at 12 p.m. Free; no tickets necessary.

The setup for this puppet show: “A train engineer discovers that his caboose has disconnected and is stranded without an engine. While waiting for its return, he looks through abandoned suitcases and encounters puppet characters and musical stories. Puppeteer and ukulele player Harry LaCoste presents this interactive, family-friendly show. All ages welcome; especially recommended for children ages 3 to 7.

Yellow Wallpaper 2.0-2020 by Jennifer Maisel. Directed by Judy Braha. Staged by Great Barrington Public Theatre in the Great Hall at Saint James Place, 352 Main Street, Great Barrington, August 20 through September 6

An adaptation/update of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” written in 1892, that is set in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. “An overwhelmed adjunct professor, newly a mother, struggles to make sense of their suddenly chaotic reality, her postpartum depression and the mysteries hidden inside their inherited ‘prewar-6’ apartment on the Upper West Side.” The cast features Cloteal Horne as the play’s heroine, T., and Matt Neely as her husband, John. “There will be a series of 5 post-show conversations focused on subjects like mothering during the pandemic, Postpartum Depression, and the historic diagnosis of Hysteria as a woman’s illness. Each will have a special guest speaker who is an expert in the subject of discussion.”

— Bill Marx

Television

Kyle Chandler in the new HBO series, Lanterns. Photo: HBO

August! Month of hot weather and frantic excursions to scenic places before summer ends (relax—there’s another month to go). Gotta say: the world is literally burning, and it’s horrifying. Finding ways to soothe our anxiety now (including watching TV) is key to helping us cope and stay focused on what’s ahead. I hope you’re all okay out there.

Be sure to check out Criterion’s films that are leaving at the end of the month: so many great classics and newer indies are worth seeing. I love that this streamer also issues DVDs, but why can’t we have both? Speaking of which, support your local libraries and bookstores and folks who sell used DVDs, VHS, and CDs: physical media rules!

Lanterns (August 16, HBO): I’m not all that interested in superhero franchises, but this new series based on DC Comics’ Green Lantern looks amazing. Set in an unnamed rural U.S. town with a bit of a Western genre vibe, Lanterns stars Kyle Chandler as a cynical, cocky mentor to Aaron Pierre, a new acolyte. The two butt heads with the local sheriff (Kelly Macdonald), who’s not having any of their mercenary shenanigans. The fabulous cast also includes Garret Dillahunt, Nathan Fillion, and Laura Linney. Helmed by Chris Mundy (Ozark), Damon Lindelof (The Leftovers), and James Gunn, this looks to be a sharply produced, high-end, character-driven show that might be an instant hit.

Blood Sacrifice (August 20, Netflix): I tend to really enjoy contemporary Scandinavian television: recent faves have included The Investigation, The Killing (which spawned a fantastic American version on AMC), Katla, Borgen, and Trapped. They excel at crime thrillers, and this new Swedish series looks intriguing. Peter Berg (Jakob Oftebro) is a Stockholm detective investigating a case that hits close to home: a serial killer is targeting police officers. He winds up having to enlist the help of his estranged father, Alfred, a former cop with a problematic past (played by Peter Andersson of the Swedish film trilogy based on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). This looks dark, polished, and suspenseful.

Dalliance (August 27, Paramount+): This Australian miniseries has an uncommon premise: a group of friends in their 60s have their comfortable lives upended when one of them decides to embark on a life-changing romance. After a chance meeting on a harbor ferry in Sydney, career cameraman Billy (Hugo Weaving) finds himself strongly attracted to Dani (Heather Mitchell), and the situation catalyzes changes and revelations in his marriage and other relationships. The focus on older folks is a welcome change, and the cast looks terrific, including David Wenham, who gave a chilling performance in the Jane Campion series Top of the Lake.

— Peg Aloi

Visual Art

Harvard University still offers its venerable Art 10, Introduction to the History of Art, though other schools have dropped, split up, expanded, renumbered, or revamped similar surveys, which traditionally focused on an established canon of Western art. Taught for decades in a gloomy, rundown lecture hall in the basement of the Fogg Art Museum, Art 10 was the bugbear of late 20th-century faculty and teaching fellows alike. The vast and dimly lit venue made for the perfect resort for all kinds of undergraduate misbehavior. Bad acoustics and the constant chatter of the audience rendered the lectures, at times, inaudible, even to the lecturer. Students came and left at will, blocking slides from view. The unrestrained shouts and catcalls were notorious: “Speak English!” was one, infamously hurled at a professor with a strong Austrian accent.

That professor, and the lecture hall, are both long gone. These days, Art 10 is team taught in three mini-courses or “blocks”: Time, Self & Subjectivity, and The Future of the Past, each of which is taught in three lectures by a different instructor. Whether or not the refurbished intellectual foundations of Art 10 have matured its audience, the course’s annual related exhibition Introduction to the History of Art offers an excellent overview of the breadth of Harvard’s art collections, among the most important ever assembled to serve university teaching, along with a taste of what the current generation of Harvard instructors is thinking about them. This year’s edition opens August 29 in the University Teaching Gallery, Harvard Art Museums.

Current political discourse suggests that America was “great” sometime in the decades between the Great Depression and the early sixties, when everyone got along, lived in single-family homes equipped with all the latest gadgets and appliances, had jobs (men only) that led to a comfortable pension and retirement, and grew more prosperous every year. But what if it all was a fabrication, a 20th-century Potemkin Village, erected to conceal a far more diverse, unequal, and restive nation? The Harvard Art Museums suggest as much in the title of its exhibition The Way We Never Were: The American Professional Photographers Collection, opening August 29.

Joseph Janney Steinmetz, Untitled (Family picnic on beach), Longboat Key, Florida, 1958, printed later. Gelatin silver print. Photo: Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum

Selected from a collection of 20,000 photographs from commercial studios assembled by curator and sociologist Barbara P. Norfleet, the images in The Way We Never Were depict weddings, school programs, suburban gatherings, corporate events, and other social rituals of the postwar era. The exhibition, according to the museum, “traces how these commissioned photographs helped create a shared visual understanding of mid-century American culture, pointing not only to what was included, but also to what was left out of the photographic record.”

Asian Americans have been part of the American art world for decades, though, like other hyphenated Americans, they not always been noticed as such. An exhibition at Dartmouth’s Hood Museum, Shared Ground: Asian-American Art in Conversation, drawn from the Hood collections, moves its subject into the current trend of linking art with the identity or identities of its makers. The show focuses on “cultural, social, and intellectual dialogues with broader American art,” concluding that Asian-American art forms “an active, participatory element in the contemporary American art scene.” The show opens August 22.

In 1980s South Africa, the segregated community of “Alexandra Township” (or Alex), adjacent to the wealthy suburbs of Johannesburg, was one of many South African Black urban centers in open revolt against the country’s racist apartheid system. The community’s Alex Health Clinic, supported by an international group of donors, hired photographer Michael Goldblatt to photograph and help publicize the clinic’s operations.

Michael Goldblatt, Alexandra Township, South Africa Polio Vaccination Campaign during Anti-Apartheid Rebellion (detail), 1986, silver gelatin print on paper, 20 x 26 in. Photo: courtesy of David Gordon

Healing in Apartheid South Africa: Michael Goldblatt’s Photographs of the Alex Clinic, opening at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art on August 27, brings Goldblatt’s images into a museum context for the first time, documenting the clinic’s work during the turmoil of activism and revolt. The show, the museum says, goes beyond that specific moment to explore such broader issues as “access to health care, navigating political conflict, providing aid, confronting inequality, and the power of photography as activism.”

Printmakers of Cape Cod was organized in 1976 “to encourage, assist, and promote printmaking on Cape Cod as well as to provide educational opportunities for new printmakers, collectors, and others interested in original prints.” Its members celebrate the organization’s fifty years with The Printmakers of Cape Cod, opening at the Cape Cod Museum of Art on August 20. The group show of almost forty printmakers encompasses the range of print media available to contemporary artists, including “intaglio, relief, lithography, woodcut, collagraph, monotype, etching, experimental surfaces, digital imagery, serigraphy, and 3D work.”

Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art opens two exhibitions on August 27.

Leilah Babirye, a sculpture in Embaga ya Naki ne Naki (Wedding of Naki and Naki). Photo: ICA Boston

In Leilah Babirye: Embaga ya Naki ne Naki (Wedding of Naki and Naki), sculptor Leilah Babirye, who was forced to flee the anti-gay laws of her native Uganda, premieres a group of ceramic and mixed-media sculptures “inspired by the idea of a queer wedding.” Each of the abstract works, built with materials such as metal gears, bicycle chains, and the rubber inner tubes of bicycle tires over brightly glazed ceramic shapes, suggests a role in a joyful ceremony—bride, groom, ring bearer, bridesmaid, groomsman, flower girl. Monumental figures in charred wood represent the aunties, uncles, and ancestors who have long populated the artist’s work.

In Cynthia Daignault: Valley, Baltimore native Cynthia Daignault returns to the image of the Merced River in Yosemite Valley, famous since Hudson River School artist Albert Bierstadt painted it in the 19th century, with her own monumental, multi-panel installation representing the scene. Described by Daignault as “long-form landscape,” the artist’s work aims “to capture what it means to be alive at a specific moment in time” and, according to the museum, “to meditate on our urgent and evolving relationship with the American landscape.”

On Sunday, August 23, at 2 p.m., the Worcester Art Museum offers a 45-minute Arms and Armor Demonstration: Secrets of Swordplay, part of the museum’s series of public programs exploring its extensive collections of historical arms and armor. This event will feature the art of swordplay in live action and will reveal some of the tricks and secrets swordfighters have used for centuries. Participants will also be able to heft a reproduction broadsword or rapier to get a sense of the action for themselves.

— Peter Walsh

Jazz

2-Bit Brass Band. Photo: Hot Jazz Festival

Bay State Hot Jazz Festival
August 29-30 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Condon Shell, Medford, Mass.
FREE

What began as the “Medford Trad Jazz Festival” is now celebrating its fourth anniversary as the Bay State Hot Jazz Festival, with a focus on all manner ’20s-’30s “hot” music, from jug band (Jim Kweskin’s venerable jug band was a headliner last year) to New Orleans early jazz, et al., and a dash of big-band swing. On Saturday, it’s the North Shore Big Band, Banjo Juice, the Smack Dabs, and Wolverine Jazz Band, with Summer Street Stompers hosting between-set open jams. On Sunday, it’s the Catnip Junkies, Josiah Reibstein and the Hubtones, Dixie Diehards Traditional Jazz Band, and festival hosts Annie and the Fur Trappers, with the 2-Bit Stompers hosting the open jams. And it’s all free.

Brian Friedland Sextet
August 23, 7 p.m.
Square Root, Roslindale, Mass.

Pianist Brian Friedland has gathered a kick-ass band to play his music at the Square Root coffee house: saxophonists Jerry Bergonzi and Allan Chase, trumpeter Jason Palmer, bassist Brad Barrett, and drummer Giuseppe Paradiso. It’s part of Friedland’s Sunday-night jazz series at the Square Root.

Tuba Skinny. Photo: Noé Cugny

Tuba Skinny
Sept. 1 at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, Mass.

One of my favorite current working bands makes one of its regular stops, for two shows, at Rockport Music. Led by cornet player Shaye Cohn, New Orleans’s Tuba Skinny focuses on the deepest of deep cuts from the early jazz and blues era: Armstrong, Oliver, Kid Ory, Jabbo Smith, early Ellington, Bo Carter, Blind Boy Fuller (“Oh Red”), Jimmie Rodgers, and oddities like the Nassau String Band’s 1935 “Belamina” (peerlessly sung by guitarist Greg Sherman).

— Jon Garelick

Classical Music

Violinst Ray Chen performs Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra Photo: Hilary Scott

Chen plays Bruch
Presented by Tanglewood Music Festival
August 16, 2:30 p.m.
Koussevitzky Shed, Lenox

This year’s Leonard Bernstein Memorial Concert features Ray Chen performing Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Marin Alsop leads the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in further works by Anna Clyne and Mahler.

Randall Goosby plays Price
Presented by Tanglewood Music Festival
August 22, 8 p.m.
Koussevitzky Shed, Lenox

The outstanding violinist Randall Goosby joins the BSO for performances of Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Saint-Saëns’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. Additional works by Leonard Bernstein and Dvorak fill out the evening. Thomas Wilkins conducts.

Conductor Gustavo Gimeno will close out the Tanglewood Music Festival season leading a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Photo: Marco Borggreve

Brahms & Beethoven
Presented by Tanglewood Music Festival
August 23, 2:30 p.m.
Koussevitzky Shed, Lenox;

The BSO closes the Tanglewood season with their annual performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Prefacing that monument, the Tanglewood Festival Chorus presents the opening movement of Brahms’s A German Requiem.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

Roots and World Music

Th Puerto Rican combo Chuwi will be performing this week for free in Cambridge. Phoot: courtesy of the artist

Chuwi
Aug. 19
Termeer Square, Cambridge

Last fall the, experimental Puerto Rican combo Chuwi were slated to play a show in Somerville for Global Arts Live. A few weeks before the event they released a collaboration with Bad Bunny, and the event quickly sold out. Those shut out of that event get another chance to see the group, as part of a series of free Kendall Square-area concerts presented by Global Arts Live and their new venue partner, The Platform, which will be opening nearby later in the fall. Kotoko Brass bring their Ghanaian grooves Aug. 26 and the lineup concludes with the Rebirth Brass Band on Sept. 2.

The Mavericks & Friends
Aug. 21, 8:00 p.m., The Cabot, Beverly
Aug. 22, 1:00 p.m., Indian Ranch, Webster

One might have thought that the glorious history of the Mavericks had concluded when lead singer Raul Malo passed away in December. But, in the wake of a well-received tribute to Malo at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, his bandmates have returned to the road. The group’s one-of-a-kind country/Latin/lounge songs will be sung by two artists who can tap into Malo’s essence without being a pale imitiation: James Otto and Emily West.

The Meditations
Aug. 29
The Cut, Gloucester

In 1974, a young reggae vocal trio went into the famed Channel One studio to cut “Woman is Like a Shadow.” Back-up work for Bob Marley and collaborations with Lee “Scratch” Perry soon followed. Today, the Meditations are one of the last of the great Jamaican harmony groups still actively recording and touring under the leadership of original member Ansel Cridland.

— Noah Schaffer

Rock, Indie, and Alternative

Americana quintet Fruition. Photo: Kaja Sigvald

Fruition with Farayi Malek
August 15 (doors at 7 / show at 8)
Brighton Music Hall, Allston

Longstanding Americana quintet Fruition will preview their forthcoming LP, Something More, when they take the stage at Brighton Music Hall on August 15. According to the band, “The truth of this album is found in kicking old habits, letting go of control, interrogating our motives, and approaching each session with fearless, open hearts.” Along with this “kicking old habits” comes a switch to Bloodshot Records and the employment of Tucker Martine. With a client list that includes The Decemberists, My Morning Jacket, and First Aid Kit, the Grammy-winning producer’s approach embraces the elements that make Fruition unique as well as its eagerness to break out of its shell.

Cimarron 615
August 16 (doors at 6 / show at 7:30)
Haymarket Lounge at City Winery, Boston

Taking its name from a 1976 Poco song called “Rose of Cimarron” and the area code of its headquarters, Nashville quintet Cimarron 615 unveiled a collection of fresh material, Same Sky, on August 7. And the choice of a song by that band is not a coincidence: two former members of Poco, percussionist Rick Lonow and bassit Jack Sundrud, comprise Cimarron 615’s rhythm section. In addition to Ronnie Guilbeau’s unmistakable vocals and guitar playing, the band’s sound is further enhanced by  Michael Webb’s Hammond B-3 and Farfisa organs. All of these elements do nothing to obscure what listeners are in for when they press play on this new LP and when they arrive at Brighton Music Hall on August 16.

Yard Act with The Armed
August 16 (doors at 7 / show at 8)
The Sinclair, Cambridge

Yard Act made a big splash with their 2024 debut, Where’s My Utopia?. Now, the Leeds UK quartet is back with its highly anticipated follow-up, You’re Gonna Need a Little Music. The album continues the band’s Sprechgesang post-punk approach, recalling genre forefathers Gang of Four, latter-day practitioners Sleaford Mods, and contemporary torchbearers such as Dry Cleaning. Official videos currently exist for “Empty Pledges” (which includes a clever name drop of The Wedding Present’s head honcho), “New Beginnings”, and “Redeemer”. As riveting as these are, my personal favorite is probably the rhythmically stunning, more properly sung, jagged guitar-laden “Thrill of the Chase”. The further presence of the Strokes-y “Cherophobe Rock”, the atmospheric “Janey Said”, and the somewhat uncharacteristically bouncy “Over the Barrel” make You’re Gonna Need… at least as good as its predecessor and will leave listeners wondering — even at this early stage — what the future holds for Yard Act.

— Blake Maddux

Author Events

Summer Grown Up Book Fair at Trillium Brewing!, presented by Porter Square Books(opens in new tab)
August 16 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Trillium Brewing~Fort Point Location, 50 Thompson Place, Boston, MA 02210
Free

“Join us on Sunday, August 16th from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Trillium Brewing’s Fort Point location for a Grown Up Book Fair! This Summer Grown Up Book Fair will have everything you love about school book fairs, including all of those fun gift-y items like stickers and funky pens, plus beer!”

Dr. David N. Hackney at Harvard Book Store
Impossible Choices: A Physician’s Guidance on High-Risk Pregnancy in a World Without Roe
August 18 at 7 p.m.
Free

“In a post-Roe world, it’s more important than ever to hear directly from physicians about how their work, and their patients’ lives, are being affected. Impossible Choices is for anyone who wants to better understand how laws shape the most complex moments in reproductive health care.” —Nicole Karlis, award-winning staff writer at Salon; author of Your Brain on Altruism

Peter Grinspoon with Jay Wexler at Brookline Booksmith
Aging Well with Cannabis
August 19 at 7 p.m.
Free

“With sixty million Americans over sixty-five and twice that number over fifty, many are seeking alternatives to often-harmful pharmaceuticals. Medical marijuana helps with multiple symptoms of aging, such as chronic pain, anxiety, and insomnia, with relatively low toxicity if used properly.

Aging Well with Cannabis is the essential guide for the “canna-curious” senior, family member, or caregiver, providing practical instructions, real-life case studies, and a balanced view of the benefits and risks of cannabis and CBD.

Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a primary care physician and cannabis specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Harvard Medical School instructor, addresses the “why” and “how” of cannabis use—from science and health benefits to potential risks, types and forms of cannabis, consumption methods, and appropriate dosages. He guides readers through the buying experience, legal considerations, and becoming a certified medical marijuana patient, emphasizing doctor-patient communication for safe and effective use.”

Transnational Series Book Club: Yu-Mei Balasingamchow at Brookline Booksmith
Names Have Been Changed
August 20 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Names Have Been Changed is a stylish, fast-paced debut novel that reveals the complicated paths we take to build a life and a home. Filled with danger and twists, it’s ultimately a story about immigration and belonging—one unlike any you’ve seen before.”

Joshua Jelly-Schapiro at Harvard Book Store 
Daylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He Made
August 20 at 7 p.m.
Free

“In this sparkling new biography, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro brings Belafonte’s personality and music vibrantly to life, following him from rags to riches and from Harlem to Jamaica to the March on Washington. Jelly-Schapiro takes us inside Belafonte’s lifelong brotherhood with Sidney Poitier, his friendship with Fidel Castro, his collaboration with Nelson Mandela, and the sometimes shocking therapeutic relationships his difficult upbringing necessitated. At the heart of the story is Belafonte’s bond with Martin Luther King Jr., whose cause Belafonte would champion for the rest of his life. That commitment to the greater good would sustain him and benefit untold numbers—and would come at a cost.

The indelible story of an American icon—and a provocative study of authenticity, fame, and conviction—Daylight Come is, like Harry Belafonte himself, brimming with style and consequence.”

Literary Gloucester, A Walking Tour — Gloucester Writers Center
August 22 from 10 a.m.–12 p.m.
Free; tips suggested

“Join raconteur Phil Storey, courtesy of the Gloucester Writers Center, on his famous literary walk through downtown Gloucester! Meet at 80 Main Antiques & Ephemera, Gloucester for a free two-hour tou. Held on multiple dates!”

Charles J. Whalen in conversation with Ken Richman at Porter Square Books
Fighting for the American Dream
August 26 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Worker insecurity, increasing inequality, and downward mobility in our current era contrast sharply with expanding prosperity and opportunity in the first three decades after World War II. What happened? And what can we do to revitalize the American Dream, reduce worker precarity, and foster broadly shared prosperity?

In this historical account of a protracted and expanding national crisis, intertwined with a personal story about growing up in a work-obsessed family and pursuing a career devoted to addressing that crisis, Charles J. Whalen grapples with the social forces that sever the link between hard work and employment success. He exposes the obstacles that mar the path of many people seeking job opportunities and traces the fading of the American Dream, ultimately encouraging readers to take a fresh look at the current economic situation and championing a more constructive set of public policies to shape the future.”

WBUR CitySpace: Jared Huffman presented by Brookline Booksmith
No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism
August 27 from 6:30–7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $12.45–$33.77

“The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’ The separation of church and state has long been considered part of the foundation of American democracy.

Rep. Jared Huffman of California’s 2nd congressional district argues in a newly penned book, No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism, that this bedrock principle and democracy itself are under threat by Christian nationalism. With 250th-anniversary celebrations underway and President Donald Trump’s emphasis on a Christian founding narrative, No Prophets lands at a particularly prescient time for Christian nationalists trying to advance their agenda across the U.S. government. Huffman will join environmental activist and author Bill McKibben to discuss the book. Copies will be available for purchase.”

Sam A. Miller at First Parish Church, presented by Harvard Book Store
Still Lost: Tales from the Year 2080
August 31 at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $37.74 with book; $16.74 without

“Sam A. Miller, the creator behind Sam O’Nella Academy, has spent ten years teaching his 4.8 million subscribers about the past and the present. Here, he turns toward fiction—and the future…

A hyper-advanced alien race seemingly solves all existential threats—no climate change, no nuclear weapons, no singularity crisis—and yet, in crisis we remain. Because humans are their own existential threat in the not dys- or utopian, but simply ‘topian’ world of this interconnected short story collection: In ‘Four Little Words,’ scientists discover the shocking truth about grass. In ‘Eggs for Roman,’ a baboon with human intelligence gets cyberbullied. And in ‘Beat,’ a young man must save his own life from the music that’s taken it hostage.

Often funny and always profound, Still Lost bends reality just enough for it to become a mirror and takes its readers on a daring and strange ride—an ultra-timely, sardonic collection that feasts on the follies and earnest absurdities of humanity.”

— Matt Hanson