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, war crimes in the West Bank,  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.

ReproEco: Tomorrow Is Now, directed by Lorca Peress, is a evening made up of six short plays by women that explore the intersection of reproductive health and environmental justice.  These multicultural narratives, drawing on  humor, mythology, Afro-futurism, drama, and dance, “examine the impact of toxins, plastics, and ecological hurdles on our physiology, communities, and collective future.” This MultiStages and ReproFreedomArts Co-Production for Femme Collective is being staged at the Theatre at The 14th St Y (344 E. 14th St, NYC) through October 4.  The title of the presentation comes from Eleanor Roosevelt: “Tomorrow Is Now” — “It is today that we must create the world of the future.” I would add that theater artists should be creating the drama of the future.

— Bill Marx

Film

Robert Stephens and Maggie Smith in Travels With My Aunt. Photo: MGM / The Kobal Collection

The Cold Heart is More Precious than Diamonds. The Cinema of Graham Greene
Through October 19
Harvard Film Archives, 24 Quincy St, Cambridge

The newly opened HFA continues their series of film adaptations from the novels of Graham Greene by great directors. Read editor Bill Marx’s thoughts on Greene as a film critic, Purged by Laughter. From 1935 to 1940, he was the film critic for The Spectator and, for a short period, Night and Day, eventually publishing over 400 reviews

The Third Man, directed by Carol Reed, 1949
September 19 at 7 p.m.

Travels With My Aunt, directed by George Cukor, 1972
September 19 at 9 p.m.

A scene from Filipiñana. Photo: Potocol, Ossian International, Epicmedia, Easy Riders, Idle Eye

Filipiñana
through September 16
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge

Filipiñana explores themes of class, power, historical memory, and Filipino identity. The story revolves around Isabel, a teenage golf caddy working inside an elite country club. Fascinated by the club’s president, Dr. Palanca, she finds herself initially drawn to a man of privilege and power — until she uncovers disturbing realities hidden beneath the antiseptic surfaces of this upper-class institution. She is forced to confront a past shaped by violence and social divisions. The film interweaves a psychological mystery with a commentary on post-colonial society. Arts Fuse review

Taiwan Film Festival
September 10 through 19
Virtual screenings,  through October 11
At the MFA, Coolidge Brattle, and Somerville Theatres
Tickets and Schedule

The Taiwan Film Festival promotes Taiwanese cinema, highlighting the country’s rich storytelling tradition.

Before the Bright Day, September 14 at 7 p.m. Chou, a sensitive teen craving independence, struggles as the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis hits his family’s finances and worsens tensions at home. He secretly works at a billiard hall, forming a bond with a gang leader named Button.

Vive Le Punk
September 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Regent Theater In Arlington

Five decades after the explosive birth of British Punk, which shook the foundations of music and culture, Vive Le Punk dives headfirst in its examination of the raw, undying spirit of the movement that changed music—and society—forever…or did it? Featuring Sham 69, 999, Ruts DC, and The Boys, the film chronicles th enduring legacy of these musicians while showcasing their ongoing journeys in the modern era. Boston Film Premiere from filmmaker Danny Garcia.

Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston in the 1926 silent comedy, For Heaven’s Sake.

For Heaven’s Sake
September 20 at 2 p.m.
Somerville Theatre

Wealthy ladies’ man J. Harold Manners (Harold Lloyd) enjoys a privileged, sheltered life. When he finds out his name is being used to bring people into a mission in the poorer part of town, he sets out to get his moniker removed from the project. Instead, he meets the priest’s daughter, Hope (Jobyna Ralston), and is smitten. The question is whether this uptown boy can win over a downtown girl. This was one of Harold Lloyd’s most successful films and the 12th-highest-grossing film of the silent era. Live score performed silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis.

Behind the Screen: Baby Doe
September 23 at 6:30 p.m.
West Newton Cinema

Thirty years ago, Gail Ritchey, a young woman from a conservative Christian community in rural Ohio, gave birth to a stillborn baby alone and left the remains in the woods. Now a devoted mother of three, she sees her quiet suburban life shattered when DNA evidence links her to the notorious cold case of “Geauga’s Child,” resulting in her arrest for murder.

Baby Doe’s impact campaign brings together legal, healthcare, policy, academic, advocacy, and faith communities to examine the intersection of pregnancy criminalization and mental health. Following the screening, director Jessica Earnshaw will join WBUR host Deborah Becker for a conversation.

Clara Bow and Frederic March in a scene from 1930’s True to the Navy.

True to the Navy
September 23 at 8 p.m.
Somerville Theatre

Channel Zero presents Clara Bow (The It Girl) as Ruby Nolan, a soda jerk in Solomon Bimberg’s San Diego drugstore who has a boyfriend on every ship. Frederic March is Bull’s Eye McCoy, the only Gunner’s Mate in the US Navy who can seemingly resist her! Hear Clara Bow actually speak! The screening in the downstairs micro-cinema, tickets go on sale thirty minutes before showtime, cash only.

Manhattan Short Film Festival
September 24 at 7:30 p.m.
September 27 at 3 p.m.
October at 7:30 p.m.
Regent Theatre, Arlington

Film lovers worldwide will gather at more than 500 venues to vote on the ten finalist films, selected through audience balloting at participating locations. Each short is automatically Oscar-qualified. 2026 finalists: Small Talk (USA); Mary Is Missing (Ireland); Candy Bar (Australia); Vultures (South Africa); Life Goes On (United Kingdom); Hai Davai (Moldova); Pickup (Russia); Norheimsund (Cuba); When the Sea Was Calm (Georgia); and Never Give Up (Mexico).

Pick of the Week

Democracy Under Siege streaming on Kinema

A cartoon by Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes in Democracy Under Siege.

The documentary, directed by Laura Nix and made in collaboration with Pulitzer Prize–winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes, investigates whether the United States can preserve its democratic ideals or will slide into authoritarianism. It explores the historical roots of contemporary political crises and examines such issues as constitutional gridlock, executive overreach, and judicial ethics. The film highlights the tension between the promise of multiracial democracy and the renewed backlash against it, making many of its satiric points via Telnaes’s political cartoons. It has been described by viewers as a “bombshell” because of how well it mixes humor and serious political commentary.

The film played recently as an event at the Boston Public Library. It is available for individual purchase for a low fee; it is also available for screenings that will inspire organizing. The platform Kinema is a non‑theatrical, global film distribution platform that hosts offerings designed to help independent filmmakers share their work directly with audiences.

— Tim Jackson

Theater

Eleanor by Mark St. Germain. Directed by Bryn Boice. Staged by Central Square Theater at 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, through October 11.

The script is an “intimate portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt, the most consequential First Lady in American history. ” She “offers her reflections on love, loss, politics, and purpose as she revisits her marriage to Franklin, her activism, and her role in shaping modern human rights.” Multiple Elliot Norton Award winner Paula Plum stars. The Arts Fuse review of the 2025 Portland Stage production of the one-person show.

Paul Giamatti (Jean) and John Turturro (Berenger) in the American Repertory Theater production of Rhinoceros. Photo: Hawver and Hall

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? Arts Fuse review (My review of a production of the script earlier this year at the Yale Repertory Theatre.)

Steeped(品) by Yide Cai. Directed by Skye Xiaotian Lu. Presented by the Studio 170 Artist Residency at the Goethe-Institut Boston,  through September 20.

A very imaginative scenario from poet and dramatist Yide Cai. A workshop production of “a metatheatrical play that reimagines the Boston Tea Party from the perspective of the tea itself — a leaf that refuses to be a lifeless symbol but rather faces its death. It is set on the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, where two actors are rehearsing a new Boston production about the Tea Party written by a playwright based in New York. One night, the tea puppet they are playing as a prop speaks to them, and tells them that it is the tea lying at the bottom of Boston Harbor for the past 250 years, plucked from a tree in China, processed, shipped, commodified, and ultimately dumped into the sea.”

“Encouraged by the tea, the actors begin staging a revolution of their own—questioning their playwright, resisting the regional-to-Broadway development pipeline, and demanding independence from the theater industry apparatus that profits from their labor. Yet their ambition for recognition threatens to sabotage the very freedom they seek. Amid this unraveling, Tea pushes for the control of its own fate, not to win an ideological battle, but to escape eternal symbolism and finally live, and die, as something human rather than a prop in someone else’s myth.”

The artists involved include scenographer Qingan Zhang, designer Xinyue Zhang, and actors Naomi Kim and Jaime José Hernández. A panel discussion will follow the show.

Purpose by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Directed by Josiah Davis. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont St. Boston, September 10 through October 11.

Winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for Best Play, this script by one of America’s leading playwrights centers on the politically prominent Jasper family, whose public image of moral leadership is strained during a family gathering. It examines generational conflict, inherited expectations, faith, political identity, private betrayals, and the burden of a celebrated family legacy. “I’m gesturing at the romanticization of the Civil Rights Movement,” Jacobs-Jenkins has said about his drama, “and, let’s say, the commodification of it, or the kind of distilling it into its symbols.”

The Climate Crisis Cabaret will be performing Battle for the Future of the Earth. Photo: courtesy of CCC

A Theatrical Equinox Celebration, a performance by the Climate Crisis Cabaret at the Somerville Community Growing Center, 22 Vinal Ave, Somerville, September 22, 6

Join us (and me, this is the group I am part of) for a lively evening of theater that will celebrate the Autumnal Equinox. The Climate Crisis Cabaret will premiere several new short works, including Battle for the Future of the Earth and Cacophony/Harmony. Expect some rabble-rousing as well as a vision of possibility in this era of climate crisis.

Moon Man Walk by James Ijames. Directed by Lyndsay Allyn Cox. Staged by Gloucester Stage at the Natti-Willsky Performance Center, Gloucester, September 10 through 26.

The plot: “Following the death of his mother, Spencer returns to his childhood home in Philadelphia and finds himself confronting far more than the practicalities of loss. With the free-spirited Petrushka beside him and the haunting memory of his mother pulling him through the past, Spencer begins to unravel the mystery surrounding the father he never knew.” The regional premiere of a script that explores “grief, family, identity, and the stories we inherit” by the Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award-nominated playwright.

Same Difference, written and directed by Don Mays. Staged by the Wilbury Theatre Group at the WaterFire Arts Center, 475 Valley Street Providence, R.I., September 24 through October 11.

The setup of this world premiere production: “Providence, 1993. A gang leader from Harlem arrives at his ex-girlfriend’s apartment in the middle of the night — wounded, on the run, with nowhere else to go. What he doesn’t know is that her roommate is gay, grieving, and not about to back down. Set against the twin epidemics of AIDS and drug violence, this play ” is about two men the world treated as disposable, who are certain they have nothing in common, and the woman standing between them who can see exactly who they both are.”

Realm of Illusion / 《太虚幻境》, created by Shalun Li. Staged by Mt. Far Ensemble at the at BCA Plaza Theatre, Boston, on September 26 and 27

Sounds like an intriguing evening of out-of-the-ordinary drama. “Inspired by the Chinese classic novel Dream of the Red Chamber 《红楼梦》, the work uses contemporary chamber music, live electronics, theatrical lighting, and visual projection to explore impermanence, perception, and the shifting boundary between reality and illusion. Sound begins to disappear as it arises; images and light dissolve as they take form. Rather than simply retelling the novel, the performance creates a temporary realm in which the audience experiences a continuous process of emergence and disappearance, moving between chamber concert, sound theatre, and immersive staged experience.”

A Steady Rain by Keith Huff. Directed by Steven Maler. Presented by Royal Nonesuch at Boston Lyric Opera’s Community Studios, 15 Channel Center Street, Boston, September 16 and 17.

A Script-in-Hand performance of an “intense, adult drama containing strong/coarse language.” The plot: “set against the rough streets of Chicago, the play follows Joey and Denny, lifelong friends and police partners whose loyalty to one another is tested when a routine call spirals into tragedy. As the consequences close in, friendship, duty, violence, and complicity collide. The cast includes Jeffrey Donovan and Jonathan Tucker.

Covenant by York Walker. Directed by Dawn M. Simmons. Staged by SpeakEasy Stage at Boston Center for the Arts, at 527 Tremont Street, Boston, September 25 through October 17.

The SpeakEasy Stage company describes this drama, centered on Black and queer characters, as a  “Southern Gothic thriller about myth-making, moral panic, and the stories people choose when the truth is too inconvenient.” The plot: “Johnny ‘Honeycomb’ James comes back home famous, changed, and impossible to explain. The voice is real, but the rumors are loud. In a town that remembers everything and forgives nothing, his return cracks open old stories and new accusations. Soon no one can agree on what’s true, only on what feels true enough to believe.”

The Smuggler, written and directed by Ronán Noone. Staged by The Gamm Theatre, 1245 Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick, RI, September 17 through October 11.

“A lone Irishman takes the stage and begins to spin a tale that’s equal parts confession, comedy, and cautionary tale. Recently arrived on the fictional island of Amity, Massachusetts, Tim Finnegan shares the winding path that brought him here—through heartbreak, bad decisions, and a few too many pints. What begins as a charming yarn slowly deepens into something far more dangerous.” A one-person drama starring Tony Estrella.

Principle cast members of the Lyric Stage Company production of All My Sons. L to R: Bill Mootos, Laura Marie Duncan, Josephine Moshiri Elwood Mark Souza.Photo: Nile Hawver

All My Sons by Arthur Miller. Directed by Scott Edmiston. Staged by Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon Street, 2nd floor, Boston, September 18 through October 18

Arthur Miller’s post-war drama and first Broadway success premiered in 1947—before Death of a Salesman or The Crucible or A View from the Bridge. It is one of the most revered and consistently revived of Miller’s plays (see the Arts Fuse review of the 2009 Huntington Theatre Company production); adapted for radio, film, and television; studied and performed in high schools and universities around the world. For some, the play “more timely than ever.”

For those of you who’ve forgotten or never knew the story, All My Sons is based on a newspaper account of an Ohio manufacturer who, during the Second World War, chose personal gain for himself and his family over responsibility to his country, and shipped defective military equipment to American forces abroad instead of taking a loss by correcting the flaws. His war-time crime was reported to authorities by his own daughter. Miller turned the daughter of this Ohio newspaper into Ann, a prospective daughter-in-law, and imagined a drama, based on Greek tragedy, that centers around willful blindness, loyalty, and betrayal. Miller’s father is driven to suicide by the revelation of his wartime perfidy and his son’s demand that he be “better.”

— Bill Marx

Television

A scene from The Face of Horror. Photo: TIFF

Yes—the film-festival FOMO still looms large across social media. Find some cinematic television to take your mind off those folks who’ve been living large in Telluride and Toronto, and try to ignore the spoilers in breathless reviews, if you can. My most anticipated 2026 festival film so far: The Face of Horror, directed by Anna Biller (The Love Witch).

Be sure to catch some of the great films leaving the Criterion Channel on September 30. These include The Beguiled (1971), directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood and Colleen Dewhurst, and The Beguiled (2017), directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman. Also: Oliver Stone’s biopic The Doors (1991); Robert Altman’s quirky noir The Long Goodbye (1973); Jayro Bustamante’s haunting La Llorona (2019); Jonathan Demme’s sexy comedy-thriller Something Wild (1986); Vincente Minnelli’s juicy CinemaScope melodrama Some Came Running (1958); and Nicolas Roeg’s visionary The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), starring David Bowie.

For awards-show fans: The Primetime Emmy Awards are on Monday, September 14. A few awards have already been bestowed on excellent limited series—including DTF St. Louis (for David Harbour and Linda Cardellini)—and for guest appearances, including Betty Gilpin’s work in Widow’s Bay. There are lots of nominations for deserving shows such as The Pitt (25!), Plur1bus (18!), Hacks (24!), Widow’s Bay (19!), and Beef (16!). But I gotta say, I’m always mystified when great series such as HBO’s Industry seem to be all but ignored.

Slow Horses, Season 6 (September 16, Apple TV): This excellent British espionage-thriller series—with plenty of humorous moments—is based on Mick Herron’s Slough House novels. Slough House—the phrase on which “slow horses” plays—refers to the office where disgraced MI5 agents serve out assignments of drudgery after poor job performance. The popular series was created by Will Smith, who also produced the political satires The Thick of It, Veep, and In the Loop. It is now in its sixth season after only four years: way to keep up the pace! (Waiting three or four years for a new season of Euphoria has worn me down.) The superb cast includes Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jack Lowden, Rosalind Eleazar, and Hugo Weaving.

— Peg Aloi

Visual Art

Isamu Noguchi, Akari (model 1A), designed 1951–1954, this example fabricated ca. 1954. Photo: Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Isamu Noguchi remains one of my favorite sculptors partly because he and his work are woven through so much of 20th-century avant-garde culture. His mentors and collaborators included Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, in whose Paris studio he worked in 1927 on a Guggenheim Fellowship; the composer John Cage; choreographers Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, and George Balanchine; the famed modern furniture-design company Herman Miller; the leading American architects Louis Kahn and R. Buckminster Fuller; and the stone carver Masatoshi Isumi, with whom he worked on the island of Shikoku in Japan from the 1960s until his death in 1988.

Born in 1904 in Los Angeles to an Irish-American mother and a Japanese father, Noguchi grew up in Japan and Indiana and moved between Japan and the United States throughout much of his life. A collaborator with so many artists and designers, he was a member of no artistic school or movement, though his quiet, slightly mysterious, somewhat whimsical work, subtly suggesting both outer and inner landscapes, probably comes closest to surrealism.

Noguchi’s creativity, too, knew no particular boundaries: he created sculpture, playgrounds, furniture, stage sets, costumes, or “wearable sculpture,” landscapes, gardens, plazas, ceramics, lighting designs, and architecture. “Everything is sculpture,” he said. “Any material, any idea without hindrance born into space, I consider sculpture.”

The major Noguchi retrospective opening September 19 at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem thus has its work cut out for it. Isamu Noguchi: I Am Not a Designer will have to navigate a rich career and a vast legacy that moved in so many different directions yet always remained coherent and distinct. I have great hopes for its success.

Banu Cennetoğlu. “right?,” 2022-ongoing. Installation view: 58th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. Courtesy of the artist and Sylvia Kouvali, London/Piraeus. Photo: Sean Eaton.

The MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), the teaching museum of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, bills itself as “Boston’s only free contemporary art museum.” MAAM opens three exhibitions on September 30. Banu Cennetoğlu: Right? features an evolving installation by the Turkish artist, a project that has been ongoing since 2022. The installation consists of gold Mylar balloons whose letter shapes are taken from the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in December 1948. The MAAM installation is based on Articles 25 and 26, which affirm the rights to an adequate standard of living and an education. The balloons will gradually deflate over the course of the show, asking viewers “to consider not only whether these rights endure, but also whether societies continue to believe in and uphold them.”

Indian-American artist Baseera Kahn’s MAAM lobby installation, Baseera Kahn: Where We Come From, includes a segment from a monumental, fluted column wrapped in Kashmiri silk and six handmade prayer rugs “that merge devotional imagery with the visual language of protest.”

Robert Lazzarini, American Flag, 2022. Photo: MAAM

Robert Lazzarini is known for his computer-generated distortions of familiar objects into new, semi-abstract, and rather surrealist works. The third MAAM exhibition, Robert Lazzarini: Metes and Bounds, offers a potentially fascinating chance to see works Lazzarini originally conceived for his exhibition in the United States Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale, one of the world’s most prestigious art venues. Lazzarini’s solo show was well underway when it collapsed because of changes in governing authorities and funding issues. The works that will never appear where intended include distorted American flags and other patriotic imagery meant to reflect on the 250th anniversary of American independence. Instead, they now reveal what might have been but wasn’t, featuring objects that “collectively evoke histories of governance, nationalism, and representation, offering a timely reflection on the construction of national mythologies.”

Gemstone Station: A Town That Rocks is the theme for this year’s Wee Faerie Village at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme. Each fall, the annual exhibition presents a miniature community of tiny houses built across the Griswold’s extensive campus from natural and found materials by local artists. In the 2026 edition, which opens on September 28, “everything is made from precious gifts of the earth: twinkling gemstones, sparkling rare minerals, and shimmering shiny metals.”

Opening on September 27 at the Duxbury Art Complex Museum, Interpreting the Natural: Contemporary Visions of Scholars’ Rocks presents new takes on the Asian tradition of scholars’ rocks, or viewing stones: the presentation of natural stones that evoke classical landscapes and views and are viewed as an art form. The Duxbury show includes ten contemporary artists with ties to South Korea, China, Taiwan, Japan, and the United States.

Remittances are payments sent by migrant or guest workers to relatives back in their home countries. Collectively, these private aid packages can be considerable, even significant components of the economies of some poorer nations. Remittance, opening at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College on September 15, aims to explore some of the many economic and cultural implications of the practice. The multimedia show includes installations, video, and mixed-media works by more than a dozen artists that invite viewers to “reflect on themes of resilience, displacement, and interdependence, while considering their global implications.”

Vincent van Gogh, The Blue Cart, 1888. Graphite, black chalk, oil pastel(?), brown ink, and transparent and opaque watercolor on tan laid paper. Photo: Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum

On Location: Drawing the Outdoors, opening at the Harvard Art Museums on September 18, features some 140 sketches, watercolors, and pastels made outdoors by 19th-century artists seeking new freedoms made possible by new artists’ materials and changing attitudes toward nature and the landscape. Organized in ten themes, the show includes examples by some of the most celebrated artists of the period, including J. M. W. Turner, John Constable, Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, Paul Cézanne, and Vincent van Gogh.

The evidence clearly suggests that the ancient world was every bit as fashion-conscious as we are. What Did They Wear?: The Art of Personal Adornment in the Ancient Mediterranean, opening at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art on September 19, makes the point with objects spanning a thousand years of Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Middle Eastern history, including burial attire for Egyptian mummies and vivid depictions of clothing on Greek painted ceramics, Cypriot sculpture, Roman coins, textiles, jewelry, and other accessories. The show explores how these ancient societies used their clothes “to represent ethnicity, signify social standing, identify deities, and equip an individual for special occasions and specific roles,” not unlike what we do today.

— Peter Walsh

Demonstrators at the International Women’s Day march on March 8, 1970. Photo: Liane Brandon.

Still Marching 1970-2017 at the Walter Grossmann Memorial Gallery, Joseph P. Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston, through December 18.

An exhibition featuring filmmaker and photographer Liane Brandon’s pictorial documentation of two landmark Boston women’s marches held nearly 50 years apart.

“On March 8, 1970, Brandon, then a member of Bread and Roses of Cambridge – one of the nation’s earliest women’s liberation organizations – photographed the International Women’s Day march. It was the largest demonstration for women’s equality in Massachusetts since the Boston Suffrage March of 1914. Her photographs are believed to be the only existing color images of that historic event.

Nearly five decades later, on January 21, 2017, Brandon returned with her camera to document the Women’s March for America. An estimated 175,000 people gathered on Boston Common the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, joining similar marches in more than 600 cities nationwide where nearly six million Americans demonstrated for women’s rights, healthcare reform, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and racial equality.”

An opening reception with a presentation by the photographer will be held on September 22 from 3-5 p.m..

— Bill Marx

Jazz

Greg Loughman Trio
September 13 at 4 p.m.
QArts Gallery, Quincy, Mass.
With Kenny Werner and Mark Walker

You’ve probably caught bassist Greg Loughman, pianist Kenny Werner, and drummer Mark Walker individually in any number of bands on the Boston scene — each is a highly esteemed player in his own right. For this show, presented my Mandorla Music and the New England Jazz Connection, they come together under Loughman’s banner, playing original compositions by he and Werner “alongside inventive, fresh arrangements of jazz standards, blending lyrical expression with adventurous improvisation.”

Pianist Jason Moran. Photo: Patrick McBride.

Jason Moran and the Bandwagon (featuring Tarus Mateen and Nasheet Waits)
September 16 at 6 p.m.
Jazz Urbane Café, Boston

The new Jazz Urbane Café in Nubian Square isn’t messing around. For the first show in their “pre-opening summer series” they bring in pianist/composer/conceptualist Jason Moran with his longtime trio the Bandwagon (bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits).

New England Jazz Collaborative Orchestra
September 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Arrow Street Arts, Cambridge, Mass.

The NEJC celebrates the release of its vibrant and critically acclaimed debut album, Tributaries, with this performance by its heavy-cat orchestra. The album “showcases the panoramic spectrum of approaches to composition represented by its diverse membership, from classic New Orleans swing and elegant balladry to Third Stream fusion and West African highlife.” Featured composers at the concert will be Jason Robinson, Darryl Harper, Eric Hofbauer, Sam Spear, Jeremy Cohen, Bob Nieske, Matan Rubinstein, Randy Pingrey, and Philip Ryan Goss.

Tenor saxphonist George Coleman. Photo: courtesy of the artist

George Coleman
September 18-19 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

Legendary Memphis tenorman George Coleman, now 91, returns to the Regattabar for four shows, with his son George Coleman Jr. on drums, pianist Steve Myerson, guitarist Leo Larratt, and bassist John Webber. Coleman is calling this show: “From Master to Master: Honoring Miles Davis,” in whose band Coleman worked in 1963 and ’64, cutting some classic albums, including Seven Steps to Heaven.

Michael Prentky
September 19 at 7 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

Trombonist, composer, and conceptual polymath Michael Prentky describes the music on his sad boy:ADD:apocalypse (2025) as combining “dreamy Beach House guitar riffs, avant-pop orchestral strings, breakbeat klezmer, pacific brass chorales, confessional poetry, and raucous instrumental frenzies.” The samples we’ve heard so far sound pretty cool, and it’s not all frenzy — a lovely minor key waltz is part of the fabric as well. Prentky will be leading a 12-piece orchestra of strings and brass, with rhythm section.

Kris Davis Trio
September 19 at 6 p.m.
Jazz Urbane Café, Boston

The Jazz Urbane Café “pre-opening summer series” (see September 16) continues with Kris Davis fronting a band slightly different from her regular touring band, but no less intriguing or accomplished: saxophonist Tony Malaby and drummer Nasheet Waits (also playing the show on the 16^th as part of Jason Moran’s Bandwagon).

Bassist Dave Holland. Photo: courtesy of NEC

Dave Holland
September 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Jordan Hall, Boston
FREE

How often do you get a chance to hear one of the great players in the history of jazz perform for free? Here, as part of his New England Conservatory residency, bassist and composer Dave Holland (who turns 80 on October 1) presents his music with a small ensemble of New England Conservatory students as part of his NEC residency. It’s free, but recommended that you register at the NEC site, linked above. (You can also find an open Holland masterclass on the NEC schedule.)

Warren Wolf
September 25 at 7 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

Dynamo vibist and composer Warren Wolf does his thing with pianist Lucas LaBeau, bassist Ron Mahdi, and drummer Charles Haynes.

McCoy Tyner Legacy Band: Blues on the Corner
September 26 at 7 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

The McCoy Tyner Legacy Band’s “Blues on the Corner” sold-out event last year was a corker. The McCoy devotee Benito Gonzalez ably fills the piano chair, with drummer Francisco Mela (a longtime member of Tyner’s band) and bassist Santi Debriano. Mela’s partner in the Fringe, George Garzone, provides the tenor sax heft as a “special guest.”

Guitar god Pat Metheny. Photo: Cora Wagoner

Pat Metheny’s Side-Eye III +
September 27 at 7 p.m.
Chevalier Theatre, Medford, Mass.

The latest iteration of guitar god Pat Metheny’s next-generation incubator project, Side-Eye, is said to be “his largest ensemble in over a decade.” Side-Eye III+ features drummer Joe Dyson, keyboardist Chris Fishman, bassist Jermaine Paul , and Leonard Patton on percussion and vocals.

— Jon Garelick

Blues

Carolyn Wonderland
Sept. 26 at 7 p.m.
Fallout Shelter, Norwood, Mass.

This Texas singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist is a demon on six-string and lap steel guitars, and her singing and songwriting are of a par. The last time I saw her, she tore up the crowd in the Blues Tent of the New Orlean Jazz & Heritage Festival. The Fallout Shelter will provide an unusually intimate space for her big sound.

Blueswoman Danielle Nicole Photo: Rick Witt

Danielle Nicole
Sept. 27 at 7:30 p.m.
City Winery, Boston

Coming out of Kansas City, Mo., Danielle Nicole made a name for herself as the frontwoman for Trampled Under Foot, a band with her brothers Nick and Kris. Her half-dozen solo albums have included collaborators like Luther Dickinson (who appears on the new Fireflies), Anders Osborne, and Galactic’s Stanton Moore. The new album is an appealing mix of emotional vocal prowess and songwriterly craft. And hey, no less an authority than the late Koko Taylor said, “That girl gets down to the nitty gritty.”

— Jon Garelick

Classical Music

Opening Night
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
September 17, 7:30 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

Fresh off Tanglewood and successfully negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement, the BSO returns to action for Andris Nelsons’ final season as music director. Yo-Yo Ma is the soloist in Elgar’s Cello Concerto, while conductor and orchestra assay additional music by Artur Maskats and Brahms.

Emanuel Ax at the piano for a 2025 Vivo Performing Arts concert at NEC Jordan Hall. Photo: Robert Torres

Ax plays Mozart
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
September 18 at 1:30 p.m. & 19 at 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

Emanuel Ax returns to join the BSO in music of Mozart: the luminous Piano Concerto No. 22. Berlioz’s phantasmagoric Symphonie fantastique fills out the program.

Goldberg Variations
Presented by A Far Cry
September 19, 7:30 p.m.
Jordan Hall, Boston

The Criers team up with Simone Dinnerstein for a performance of a new version of Bach’s beloved variations for piano and string orchestra.

Haydn’s The Seasons
Presented by Boston Baroque
September 20, 2 p.m.
Jordan Hall, Boston

Mark Minkowski takes up the reins of Boston Baroque, leading Haydn’s infrequently performed late masterpiece. Soprano Lauren Snouffer, tenor Andrew Turner, and bass-baritone Brandon Cedel are the soloists.

The late Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina in 2021. Photo: Peter Hundert/Deutsche Grammophon

Gubaidulina & Mahler
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
September 24 at 7:30, 25 at 1:30, and 26 at 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston

Andris Nelsons leads the BSO in the posthumous premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Prologue for orchestra. Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 is also on the docket.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

Roots and World Music

L. Shankar
Sept. 17 at 7 p.m.
Arts at the Armory, Somerville

One of the highlights of last spring’s Big Ears festival was a set of Indian ragas by L. Shankar, the pioneering double electric violinist who is both a master of traditional music and a fusion trailblazer — thanks to his work with Shakti. Now he’s coming here, accompanied by estimable percussionist Selvaganesh Vinayakram and Boston’s own tabla player Amit Kavthekar.

Soul Singer Bettye LaVette. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Bettye LaVette
Sept. 18 at 7 p.m.
Arrow Street Arts, Cambridge

The great lady of soul Bettye LaVette recently turned 80, and she’s started yet another new chapter in her career by moving her live performing focus away from band shows. Instead, she’s on tour with just a piano player, a format that encourages her to dig deep into her decades-long repertoire, finding the heart of each song. It’s the kind of show meant for a small theater like Arrow Street Arts, where she is being presented by Club Passim.

The debut album from the Womack Sisters is turning a lot of heads.

Thee Sacred Souls, La Lom, and the Womack Sisters
Sept. 18 at 7 p.m.
Leader Bank Pavilion, Boston

The sounds of sweet soul are hitting the big tent for this package show, which features the creamy balladeers Thee Sacred Souls, the twangy instrumental trio La Lom, and the red-hot Womack Sisters. The self-titled debut album of the daughters of Bobby Womack are turning a lot of heads. The Daptone release conjures up the girl-group era, when sassy harmonies ruled the charts.

Bala-Bila
Sept. 19 at 3 p.m.
Bethel AME Church, Boston

Boston’s own Malian balafon virtuoso and National Heritage Fellow Balla Kouyaté has an ongoing musical partnership with Mozambique’s Matchume Zango, who also plays a mallet instrument, the timbila. This unique East/West African pairing is part of a free concert presented by Vivo Performing Arts.

Colin Stetson and Brìghde Chaimbeul
Sept. 20 at 8 p.m.
ICA Boston

Two of the great mavericks in modern creative music, saxophonist Colin Stetson and Scottish piper Brìghde Chaimbeul, come together for a rare and intriguing duo show is sure to be fill of new sounds, meaningful pauses, and silences.

One of the greatest practitioners of the Afro-Cuban musical tradition, Dayme Arocena, is coming to town. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Daymé Arocena with Blue Island Project
Sept. 24 at 7 p.m.
Supper Club at Capo South Boston

The extraordinary singer Daymé Arocena is one of the greatest practitioners of the Afro-Cuban musical tradition. She’s in town for this benefit for the nascent ArtPoint Artist Fund, which describes itself as a “grant initiative created to support artists and their creative work.”

Punk-cumbia band Son Rompe Pera. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Son Rompe Pera
Sept. 25
Middle East Club, Cambridge

One of the great breakthrough stories of recent years has been the growing popularity of Son Rompe Pera. This Mexican family took up the marimba in honor of their musician father but didn’t jettison the energy and edge of punk rock. Their latest installment of punk-cumbia finds them collaborating with the sonic visions of Black Pumas’ Adrian Quesada on the LP Marimbazos de Oro, which will be out a week before this show.

Seldom Scene
Sept. 27
Arrow Street Arts, Cambridge

The Boston Bluegrass Union is wrapping up its 50th-anniversary celebration and paying tribute to its late, longtime president Stan Zdonik by returning to Harvard Square, where it held concerts for many years. Headlining the night is Seldom Scene, who, despite the inevitable lineup changes of such a long-running group, still maintain their gorgeous harmonies, impeccable song choices, and virtuoso playing. The show starts at 7:00 p.m., with a picking-party jam at 4:00 p.m.

— Noah Schaffer

Author Events

Kerry Docherty in conversation with Cloe Axelson – Porter Square Books
Selfish
September 14 at 7 p.m.
Free

“With incisive observation, biting humor, and searing honesty, Selfish details Kerry’s twisting, sometimes conflicted journey to self-understanding. It chronicles her efforts to reconcile capitalism with her own heart’s desire, her complicated family dynamics, her struggles with motherhood, and her efforts to rediscover parts of herself buried under other people’s expectations.

Her example invites us to demand to be seen, do what we need to do, and dare to put ourselves first—and shows how doing so can actually be a gift to others. Selfish is both a love letter to the Self, and an unapologetic call to action for women everywhere to meet their own needs.”

Stephen Greenblatt at the Cambridge Public Library – Harvard Book Store
Christopher Marlowe & Sir Walter Raleigh
September 15 at 6 p.m.
Tickets are free, or $23–$25 with a copy of the book.

“Harvard Book Store and the Cambridge Public Library welcome Stephen Greenblatt—Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, a leading scholar of English Renaissance literature, and author of sixteen books, including the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winner The Swerve—to celebrate the paperback release of Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival. The book was released in hardcover in 2025 and received praise from The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and The Wall Street Journal. Greenblatt will be joined in conversation by Sebastian Smee, Pulitzer Prize–winning art critic, staff writer at The Atlantic, and author of Paris in Ruins and The Art of Rivalry.

In addition to the paperback release of Dark Renaissance, Greenblatt’s first work, Sir Walter Ralegh: The Renaissance Man and His Roles, originally published in 1973 and based on his dissertation, will be rereleased in paperback on September 1, 2026, with a new foreword by Greenblatt.”

Elizabeth Alexander at The Brattle Theatre – Harvard Book Store
Signals Across Vast Distances: Essays and Tales
September 16 at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $13.59, or $42.99 with a copy of the book.

“In this deeply personal book, Elizabeth Alexander offers profound and galvanizing lessons from culture and life for moving through challenging times. In close readings of visionary and beloved poets and writers—Muriel Rukeyser, Gwendolyn Brooks, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, and June Jordan, among others—Dr. Alexander meditates on how words and values can sustain and inspire us. She interweaves her voice with revelatory works by extraordinary visual artists, richly reproduced in the book’s pages.

Her stories of connection—as a daughter, wife, widow, and mother of two sons; reflecting at midlife on her younger days as an aspiring dancer; as a poet at President Obama’s inauguration, on the dais alongside her father, a civil-rights pioneer; and urging radical welcome in families, communities, and the country—are engaging and moving. Her reflections on the public project of acknowledging historical truths, a focus of her leadership at the Mellon Foundation, model courageous action.”

Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor in conversation with Aziz Rana – Brookline Booksmith
End Times Fascism
September 16 at 6:15 p.m.
Tickets are $7.63, or $42.77 with a copy of the book.

“End Times Fascism is the ideology of the actors who strive to make the world unlivable and then seek to protect themselves from the fallout—whether by repairing to luxurious private islands, rocketing off to Mars, or bunkering the nation to keep their enemies at bay. The new survivalists have accumulated power, but they are far from impregnable. As authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor show through original reporting and analysis, their internal conflicts, contradictions, and nihilistic inability to envision a shared future—even for their ostensible allies—leave them vulnerable to a new kind of “pro-life” politics, rooted in reverence for shared existence and regard for the Earth we inhabit and must protect.”

Nadia Murad at The Brattle Theatre – Harvard Book Store
I Choose My Beginning: A Story of Courage and Activism
September 17 at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $13.59, or $42.99 with a copy of the book.

“In 2014, Nadia Murad was living in northern Iraq when her world was shattered. Fighters from the so-called Islamic State attacked her village, massacring hundreds—including her mother and six of her brothers—and forcing her, along with thousands of Yazidi women and girls, into ISIS’s system of sexual slavery. Her life since then has been split in two. In one, she is a global symbol of courage: a survivor and activist who has stood before world leaders to demand justice. In the other, she is a woman learning how to be a friend, a student, and a wife; a woman rediscovering ordinary joy.

In I Choose My Beginning, Nadia brings these two selves together. With honesty and grace, she transforms the pain of her past into a life defined not by what was done to her, but by strength, perseverance, and the freedom to choose happiness. From reshaping international law to building a life filled with friendship and love, Nadia carries the memory of those she lost and those who survived. Their presence reminds her—and all of us—that she has always been more than a victim.”

Ke Huy Quan at First Parish Church – Harvard Book Store
Never Say Die: A Memoir
September 18 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $48.24.

Ke Huy Quan’s Hollywood adventure began when he was 12 years old, only five years after his family escaped Communist North Vietnam and settled into a relatively peaceful life in Los Angeles’s Chinatown. After attending an open-call audition on a whim, he was unexpectedly swept into the world of filmmaking: learning to swim from Harrison Ford on the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, receiving trucks full of toys from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas for his birthday, meeting Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker, and making lifelong friends on the set of The Goonies.

A star of two of the most beloved films of the 1980s, Ke’s rise appeared limitless. But just a few years later, the roles had dried up, and it seemed that Hollywood no longer had a place for him. He eventually left acting to work odd jobs behind the scenes for directors including Wong Kar Wai. His confidence was badly shaken, but his love of performing never abated. It was not until decades later, when he was 49, that he stepped back in front of the camera to star in a strange little independent film called Everything Everywhere All at Once, which surprised everyone with its box-office and awards-season success. To call Ke’s Oscar-winning performance a triumphant return would be an understatement.

Book Swap at PSB: Boston Edition – Porter Square Books
September 20, 2–3 p.m.

Do you have books you know you are not going to read again? Trade them with other readers for new books. Bring up to three books to Porter Square Books: Boston Edition and leave with the same number. Each attendee will receive one number for each book they bring, then will be able to choose a book from the table at the front of the store. Please note: You must leave with the same number of books you arrived with. Unwanted books may not be left at the store.

The swap begins promptly at 2 p.m. and ends by 3 p.m. Originally part of the bookstore’s Winter Event Series, the swap proved popular enough to continue year-round and into a second winter season. Snacks and beverages will be available for purchase at Travelmug Cafe.

Ankur Thakkar in conversation with Meher Manda – Brookline Booksmith
Blow Yourself Up
September 21 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $7.18, or $31.43 with a copy of the book.

“In the halls of an elite East Coast high school, Arjun and Payal fall in love as the world begins to tilt toward the digital. Over the next eight years, their trajectories diverge as sharply as the fractured internet itself. Payal ascends to the dizzying, dopamine-fueled heights of New York’s influencer economy, finding fame on Boost, a looping-video app that is as rewarding as it is demanding.

Meanwhile, in a cavernous Chicago office, Arjun—a musician whose dreams have quieted—cleans up the same platform’s debris, moderating the internet’s darkest videos. When a brutal act of political violence against a beloved musician goes viral, the rip in reality forces the pair to confront the motivations of the platforms they inhabit. A sharp exploration of creative ambition and the multifarious nature of identity, Ankur Thakkar’s novel is a story of love in the time of infinite scroll and a look at what people sacrifice to be seen.”

Gish Jen in conversation with Elizabeth Gonzalez James – Porter Square Books
Bad Bad Girl
September 22 at 7 p.m.
Free.

Gish Jen’s mother, Loo Shu-hsin, was born in 1924 to a wealthy Shanghai family whose girls were expected to restrain themselves. Her beloved nursemaid—far closer to her than her real mother—is torn from her, even as she is constantly reprimanded: “Bad bad girl! You don’t know how to talk!” Sent to a modern Catholic school by her progressive father, she receives not only an English name—Agnes—but also a first-rate education. To his delight, she excels. But proud as he is, he can only sigh, “Too bad. If you were a boy, you could accomplish a lot.”

Agnes finds solace in books and, in 1947, announces her intention to pursue a Ph.D. in America. As the Communist revolution looms, she sets sail—never to return. Lonely and adrift in New York, she begins dating Jen Chao-pe, an engineering student. They do their best to block out the increasingly dire plight of their families back home and establish a new American life: marriage, a house in the suburbs, and a number-one son. By the time Gish is born, however, the news from China is proving inescapable, their marriage is foundering, and Agnes—confronted with a strong-willed, outspoken daughter distinctly reminiscent of herself—is repeating the refrain: “Bad bad girl!”

Alex Wagner at The Brattle Theatre – Harvard Book Store
The Steal: Four Right-Wing Hard-Liners, One Republican Presidency, and the Raid on America’s Courts
September 22 at 6 p.m.
Tickets are $13.59, or $42.99 with a copy of the book.

“The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 marked a sharp right turn in American governance. After decades on the fringes, the conservative right had its sights set on tax cuts, an aggressive foreign policy, and law and order. But one area of the federal government was less discussed at the time, though no less crucial: the courts. In her first narrative work of political history, Alex Wagner shows how a few devoted Reaganites kept their focus when no one else would—and how the country is still living with the effects.”

Kiran Desai in conversation with Maya Jasanoff – Porter Square Books
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
September 25, 7–8:30 p.m.
Tickets are $11, or $30 with a copy of the book.

“Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the sweeping tale of two young people navigating the many forces that shape their lives: country, class, race, history, and the complicated bonds that link one generation to the next. A love story, a family saga, and a rich novel of ideas, it is the most ambitious and accomplished work yet by one of the country’s greatest novelists.”

Nina MacLaughlin in conversation with Jessica Shearer – Brookline Booksmith
Burning in the Eyes of the Maker
September 28 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $7.18, or $69.99 with a copy of the book.

“With an unflinching eye and a painterly sensibility rooted in both the classical and the contemporary, acclaimed artist Celeste Dupuy-Spencer created tender yet charged portrayals of American life. Her arresting compositions grapple with memory, identity, politics, and faith through expressive brushwork and deeply personal scenes.

Burning in the Eyes of the Maker is Dupuy-Spencer’s first full-length publication. Spanning the last decade of her career before her death in 2026, the volume pairs 63 beautifully reproduced paintings—including new and never-before-published works—with urgent, layered prose by author Nina MacLaughlin.

Taking the paintings as a jumping-off point, MacLaughlin creates narrative impressions of the often riotous scenes depicted. She guides readers inside the thoughts of the figures on the canvas, through the histories of the rooms they occupy, and into Celeste’s mind, past, and creative ethos. Full-page details bring the intricacies of these canvases to life.”

Jill Lepore in conversation with James O’Donnell – Porter Square Books
The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State
September 29 at 7 p.m. at First Parish in Cambridge
Tickets are $11, or $39 with a copy of the book.

With Orwellian overtones, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State argues that technology has corroded global democracy, leading to the destruction of both human community and the capacity for self-government. It describes a new form of AI government: a digital citizens’ assembly in which artificial intelligence recommends courses of action in place of human-run legislatures. Especially sobering, amid a proliferation of “dizzying, ever-changing schemes, prophecies, and predictions,” is the book’s argument that the Artificial State has come at the expense of the natural world, contributing to catastrophic losses of wildlife habitat and biodiversity.

Deliberately alarming, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, despite its abundance of dire facts, is not a funeral dirge but an inspiring wake-up call. In Lepore’s typically elegiac prose, it demonstrates that nothing about the Artificial State was inevitable: it is “government without consent, even government without humans.” It can, Lepore argues, be dismantled. Other heinous systems—feudalism, fascism, and slavery—have also been dismantled, but disassembly requires identifying the parts and tracing the sources. It requires telling a new history. This is the purpose of The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State.

— Matt Hanson