Compiled by Arts Fuse Editor

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

Film

A scene from Naruse Mikio’s 1955 film Floating Clouds. Photo: HFA

Floating Clouds… The Cinema of Naruse Mikio screening at the Harvard Film Archive, through November 3.

A generous retrospective of the films made by a Japanese filmmaker Harvard Film Archive calls “still underrated and underappreciated.” Here is what The Arts Fuse‘s Betsy Sherman wrote about the HFA’s 2005 Centennial Tribute to a “Japanese master” who spotlit “the plight of women on the margins of society”: “Was he a precursor to Lars Von Trier, who seems to take sadistic delight in putting his female protagonists through the wringer? Or was Naruse an artist of rare courage, who could depict the pitfalls of desire while retaining a respect for those who fall prey to it?” Arts Fuse preview

— Bill Marx

A scene from Hong Sangsoo’s 2010 film Hahaha.

The Seasons of Hong Sangsoo at the Harvard Film Archive, through November 9

Hong Sangsoo has directed 27 features over 26, a feat accomplished through a radical reduction of means. “He funds each movie with the proceeds of his previous films, and he makes his films as he goes. After selecting actors and locations, he enters production without a script; every morning, he writes the scenes on the docket for that day or the next. Since he uses much of what he shoots, he can edit an entire feature in as little as a day or two. This modest and pragmatic approach produces works of paradoxical complexity, notable for their breezy irreverence and their emotional and philosophical depth.” (Dennis Lim in The New Yorker) Read the HFA’s Haden Guest’s profile of Hong Sangsoo here.

Upcoming screenings include: Walk Up on August 17 at 7 p.m; In Our Day on August 22 at 9:15 p.m.; Night and Day on August 24 at 7 p.m.; The Power of Kangwon Province on August 29 at 7 p.m.; Grass on August 20 at 9:15 p.m.; Hill of Freedom August 30 at 7 p.m., and Hahaha at 8:30 p.m.

The Great Remakes
Through September 1
Somerville Theatre in Davis Square

The cleverly curated series screens double features that pair films in which both the original and the remake are solid movies. “The Great Remakes series celebrates films where both versions are terrific movies that complement each other in a variety of ways.” Double Features include: The Thing, The Fly, 3:10 to Yuma, The Parent Trap, The Departed & Internal Affairs, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Airplane & Zero Hour, Cat People, Cape Fear, and A Star Is Born (1954 & 2018) Complete details and times

Outdoor Screenings

The Coolidge Corner Theatre “En Plein Air” screenings will take place at the Kennedy Greenway, the Charles River Speedway, Mt. Auburn Cemetery, the Rocky Woods, and more!

All shows begin at sunset. All films are linked with details and locations.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (Wednesday, August 20)

Cemetery Cinema: The Sweet Hereafter and Gates of Heaven (August 26)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) (September 17)

I Know What You Did Last Summer (October 15)

A scene from The Count of Monte Cristo. Screening at the Boston French Film Festival

The Boston French Film Festival
through August 24
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

A terrific line-up of films this year with all titles linked to descriptions. Arts Fuse review here and here.

The Art of Nothing on August 17 at 2:30 p.m. Directed by Stefan Liberski

A Missing Part on August 22 at 7 p.m. and August 24 at 2:30 p.m. Directed by Guillaume Senez

Bonnard, Pierre and Marthe on August 23 at 2:30 p.m. and August 24 at 11 a.m. Directed by Martin Provost

Women in the Waves 
Brattle Theatre in Cambridge on Aug 21
The Girls at 3:45 p.m. & 8:30 p.m.
Loving Couples at 6 p.m.

The films in this Mai Zetterling double-feature are the perhaps the least known of the director’s accomplishments. The work of the feminist Swedish filmmaker, who was born 100 years ago, is aptly described by one of her own characters: “Is it possible to change people and the world we live in? You tell me. Can we change ourselves? That’s why Aristophanes wrote [Lysistrata]. To get things moving, to make people care… to stop us sitting around, believing we can do nothing… We have to talk! Stop being so embarrassed and critical. People have to be able to talk. Don’t you understand that it’s we who make the world what it is?” – Flickorna on 1968’s The Girls.

Pick of the Week

Barbarian, streaming on Amazon Prime and AppleTV

Bill Skarsgård in Barbarian.

Zack Cregger has gone from journeyman actor to successful director with two hit TV series and two recent features. His current film, Weapons, which was secured after a bidding war for $38 million by New Line Features, confirms him as a unique stylist of horror. Barbarian has many of the same stylistic devices as his latest effort: an episodic plot, solid performances, déjà vu scenes from other films of the genre, silhouettes against long hallways, spooky reverse tracking shots, and scenes of everyday life that drift into dark uncertainty and are climaxed by over-the-top mayhem. Weapons centers on the disappearance on one night of 17 children in Maybrook, Pennsylvania. Similarly, Barbarian is set in a seemingly ordinary Airbnb in a broken down Detroit neighborhood. The two make for a great combo, guaranteed to send chills down your spine on hot summer nights. (Arts Fuse reviews of Barbarian and Weapons)

— Tim Jackson

Theater

A scene from the Bread & Puppet’s Domestic Resurrection Revolution in Progress Circus!

Our Domestic Resurrection Revolution in Progress Circus!, performed, written, and staged by Bread & Puppet in partnership with Cambridge Arts on the Cambridge Common. Sept. 13 at 4 p.m.

A “serious and silly circus.” “Ladles and Jellyspoons! The one and only Bread & Puppet Circus is back with Anti-Empire Art that acknowledges our beloved Mother Dirt, who makes us and unmakes us, and who presents urgently needed domestic resurrection services for the victims of this latest genocide. We are joined by Palestinian cranes on their way to Washington to replace the excrement in the White House with organic bird droppings, green frogs who teach the art of hopping over seemingly insurmountable problems, and gaggles of kindergarten butterflies who frolic to their hearts’ desire.”

Dying Is No Excuse, written by and featuring Renée Taylor. Directed by Elaine May. Presented by the Berkshire Theatre Group on the Larry Vaber Stage at the Unicorn Theatre, Stockbridge, through August 30.

Here is the build-up on the BTG website: From the legendary Renée Taylor — Emmy winner, Academy Award nominee, and one of comedy’s most beloved voices — comes the World Premiere of Dying Is No Excuse, a hilarious and heartfelt new play shaped with Elaine May and with thoughtful staging by Greg Santos.

The Piano Lesson by August Wilson. Directed by Christopher V. Edwards. A Shakespeare and Company co-production with Actors’ Shakespeare Project at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, Lenox, through August 24.

Right up there with Fences as one of August Wilson’s most-produced plays. The Actors’ Shakespeare Project staged the show, which won the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, earlier this season. Here is the setup on the ASP’s website: “Tensions are crackling under the floorboards of Doaker Charles’ household when his fast-talking nephew Boy Willie blows in from Mississippi with a scheme to set their descendants up for generations. The plan: sell the family’s ornate antique piano carved by an enslaved ancestor and use it to buy the land where his ancestors were enslaved. But half of the piano also belongs to Berniece, who refuses to let her brother pawn off the heirloom. As the siblings dig in their heels, they will search deeper into their lineage and uncover shocking revelations.” 

Come From Away, book, music, and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein. Directed and choreographed by Kelly Devine. Staged at the Cape Playhouse, Dennis, through August 30.

The acclaimed musical is “based on the true story of the time when the isolated community of Gander, Newfoundland, played host to the world. What started as an average day in a small town turned into an international sleepover, when 38 planes, carrying thousands of people from around the globe, were diverted to Gander’s airstrip on September 11, 2001. Undaunted by culture clashes and language barriers, the people of Gander cheered the stranded travelers with music, an open bar, and the recognition that we’re all part of a global family.”

Festival@First 13: Superstitious. Directed by Renée Walsh. At Unity Somerville, 6 William Street, Somerville, through August 21.

Featuring the contributions of nine local playwrights, this festival of one-acts “includes 8 original works, and a cast of 25 actors from all over the Boston area, each providing a different look at the topic of superstition. ‘We’ve got ghosts, seances, zany bad luck, a bit of bureaucracy, and a lot of humor. These plays offer a really thoughtful look at what it means to be a very small human in a very big world, and the way we choose to make sense of it all,’ said Festival director Renee Walsh.”

Idle Hands Fest, written and performed by participating artists, presented in collaboration with the Cambridge Community Center for the Arts (CCCA) at the Foundry, 101 Rogers Street, Cambridge, on August 30.

This is a “new Boston-based performance festival designed to meet a critical need in the local arts community by providing space for performers to stretch, risk, experiment, and connect.” The ambitious pitch: “A high-energy, one-night-only variety show packed with bold, original performances you won’t see anywhere else. Here’s the twist: Every act you’ll see was created in just three days.”

Valyn Lyric Turner in No Child … at Gloucester Stage Company. Photo: Jason Grow/Jason Grow Photography

NO CHILD… by Nilaja Sun. Directed by Pascale Florestal. At Gloucester Stage, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, through August 23.

The plot: “At Malcolm X High School, situated in the poorest congressional district in the U.S., every morning students are greeted with metal detectors and security guards. When enthused teaching artist Ms. Sun enters Ms. Tam’s 10th Grade class, she hopes to inspire students through a six-week workshop of Our Country’s Good, a play about convicts putting on a play. The room of rowdy teens do not don the ‘thespian’ title as proudly as Ms. Sun had hoped as she muses on her choice of play. Through theatrical techniques and classroom connections, the students and Ms. Sun discover how one determined individual can make a difference in the lives of many.” The 16 different characters are played by Valyn Lyric Turner.

Southern Harmony: A Murder Ballad. Book, music, & lyrics by Kevin Fogarty, Direction & musical staging by Sam Scalamoni, and music direction by Nevada Lozanoby. Staged by the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater at the Outermost Performing Arts Center, 2357 State Highway Route 6, Wellfleet, through September 6.

A world premiere production of a musical that is based on a real-life homicide. The plot: “he was a friendly mortician. She was a wealthy widow. They were an unlikely pair. The murder was just the beginning. Now, a community has to rethink everything they know about right and wrong to try to make sense of it all. The line between good and evil runs right through the heart of Texas” in this show,”inspired by the true story of Marjorie Nugent and Bernie Tiede, and the murder that shocked the close knit community of Carthage, Texas.”

Voices from Ukraine: Stories of War and Hope, written and performed by the Children of Ukraine, co-produced by nonprofits Common Man for Ukraine and Arts & Big Hearts. All proceeds for this event go directly to support Common Man for Ukraine’s humanitarian work, delivering food, warmth, and trauma counseling services to Ukrainian youth. At the St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 24 Orchard Hill Rd, Jamaica Plain, on August 24.

“The original production will share the words of ordinary Ukrainian children and young people, who tell the riveting human stories of the toll of the war in Ukraine and the heroic acts of its citizens. But wait! Your experience will only be complete when you get to meet these brave performers in person after the performance and share some Kyiv Cake and lemonade. Be prepared for your heart to break and be warmed all at once.”

Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker. Directed by Jonathan Fielding. Staged by the Harbor Stage Company at 15 Kendrick Avenue, Wellfleet Harbor, through August 31.

According to the HSC website: “Five New England neighbors. Six weeks of theater games at the community center. One disarming meditation on small towns, big feelings, and the transformative power of art.” When the play debuted, in 2009, it received the Obie Award for Best New American Play. About the script, the dramatist has said she “wanted the audience to learn about the characters through formal theater exercises. I knew I wanted there to be excruciating silences. I knew I wanted a doomed class romance that left one character embarrassed and the other heartbroken. I knew I wanted the characters to deliver monologues as each other…. Eventually I realized that the fun of the play is the fact that it’s confined to this dull, windowless little space.”

NOTE: Boston area theaters have pretty much decided to ignore what is happening in America and beyond — threats to democracy, the approach of authoritarianism, the climate crisis, growing economic inequality, the round-up of immigrants and the expansion of prison camps, genocide in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, etc. The American Repertory Theater claims that it is time to put “a Spotlight on Wonder.” In Coming Attractions, I have decided to spotlight stage productions, in America and elsewhere, that grapple with today’s alarming realities. Sometimes the productions will be available via Zoom, sometimes not. It is important to present evidence that theater artists are reflecting, and reflecting on, the world around us.

Actress Chris Nietvelt in a scene from The Wall. Photo: ITA Ensemble

The Wall by Marlen Haushofer. Directed by Eline Arbo. Staged by the ITA Ensemble in Dutch. A version with English subtitles will be available via Zoom on August 21 and 28.

A revival of a critically acclaimed Dutch production. “In this intense solo performance, based on the 1963 novel by Marlen Haushofer, a woman becomes isolated from the world by a mysterious invisible wall. What follows is a raw struggle for survival in which caring for animals and nature takes center stage.” I have read this stringently fascinating dystopian novel about survival. Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux summed it up well: “The story of a woman who lives in a mountain valley with only animals for company: an anti-Robinson Crusoe.”

— Bill Marx

Visual Art

Now is the time when art museums — especially those on college campuses — begin their fall season, so there is plenty to see.

Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum, after a long summer hiatus, opens three shows on August 20. Fred Wilson: Reflections features “the debut of the artist’s immersive installation ‘Black Now!’— challenging perceptions of identity, memory, and the shifting of cultural attitudes that shape our understanding of the past,” along with his black-and-white Murano glassworks and his flag-inspired paintings. Danielle McKinney: Tell Me More is the artist’s American solo museum debut. Her portraits of Black women “illuminate resilience, beauty, and autonomy.” Finally, the group show Fabricating Imaginaries: Crafting Art focuses on contemporary artists working in textile craft traditions — sewing, weaving, and fashion — and unconventional techniques and materials.

Opening August 30 at the Harvard Art Museums, Edna Andrade: Imagination Is Never Static presents a series of abstract drawings recently given to the museum by the artist’s estate. Edna Andrade (1917-2008) taught courses in color and design at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art and was a member of Form Forum, a salon that brought together mathematicians, artists, architects, and philosophers. Her teaching was influenced by the principles and approaches of the prewar Bauhaus School and her drawings grew out of her interests in structures in nature, architecture, astronomy, mathematics, and art history.

Visual Kinship, opening August 30 at Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum, “explores how photography defines, challenges, and reimagines the concept of family.” Suggesting a recast of the Museum of Modern Art’s famous 1955 photography show, The Family of Man, from a very different era, Visual Kinship uses historical and contemporary works to consider “how images reflect and disrupt family structures shaped by colonialism, migration, transnational adoption, and queer intimacies.”

A detail from Portia Zvavahera’s Ndirikukuona (I can see you), 2021. Oil-based printing ink and oil bar on linen. Photo: courtesy Stevenson and David Zwirner

Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art opens two fall exhibitions on August 28. The 2025 James and Audrey Foster Prize exhibition, the 10th in the series, introduces four “exceptional” and diverse Boston-area artists who won the award this year: Alison Croney Moses, Yorgos Efthymiadas, Damien Hoar de Galvan, and Sneha Shrestha (aka IMAGINE). Portia Zvavahera: Hidden Battles/ Hondo dzakavanizika is another first American solo museum exhibition. The Zimbabwean-born artist, whose complex cultural background includes African Pentecostal and Indigenous Shona traditions, conjures “dreams, ancestors, and revelation” in her work. For her ICA show, the artist has chosen a group of recent paintings featuring animals — recurring presences in her practice and cultural background.

The MFA’s Rachel Ruysch: Artist, Naturalist, and Pioneer is the first comprehensive solo exhibition of this this Dutch still-life painter, active during the twilight years of the Dutch Golden Age. Celebrated during her career, Ruysch (1664-1750) was among the first artists to incorporate the vast number of new botanical species, from passionflowers to cacti, introduced to Europe through overseas trade and colonization. The show includes 35 of her finest paintings, along with plant and insect specimens, in which the museum finds a number of subtexts: “these painting are far  from just decorative…. They speak of survival and loss, the delicate balance between beauty and violence, and the deeper narratives of colonial expansion unfolding beneath the surface.”

Craig Childs, Farmer’s Boots. Photo: courtesy of Griffin Museum of Photography

Finally, two shows open August 21 at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester. Photography Atelier 39 introduces the portfolios created by students of Emily Benz and Jennifer McClure — about 10 emerging and advanced artists each. Francisco Gonzalez Camacho| Reverting merges photography and printmaking as a way of finding alternative ways to engage with the landscape. The work was developed in Reykjavik with the SIM artist-in-residence program.

— Peter Walsh

Television

DRIVER‘s protagonist, Desiree Wood, walking on the road in front of two 18-wheelers, yelling with exasperation at a honking automobile, off to the side. Photo: Joel Van Haren

DRIVER will make its national broadcast premiere on POV on September 1 at 10 p.m. (check local listings) on PBS Television. It will then be available to stream until November 30, 2025 at pbs.org, and the PBS App. A rare mainstream look at working class life on the road, this documentary about the fight for equity and fairness follows “the journey of Desiree Wood, who takes a second lease on life as a long-haul trucker. Over the course of three years the protagonist brings together her fellow truck drivers to demand respect in an industry that sees them as anonymous and disposable. In a rapidly changing labor landscape, Desiree and her community of drivers band together against the crushing forces of an industry indifferent to their survival.”

— Bill Marx

Suranne Jones and Julie Delpy in Hostage. Photo: Netflix

Hostage  (August 21, Netflix): This new miniseries portrays a high stakes terrorism situation in Europe.Two women are at the helm: UK Prime Minister Abigail Dalton (Suranne Jones) hosts a summit with right-wing French president Vivienne Toussaint. Played by Julie Delpy (the excellent French actress whom I spoke with when she appeared in The Lesson), Toussaint is obviously modeled on former presidential contender Marine LePen. Amidst tense discussions of healthcare access and immigration, tragedy strikes when Dalton’s husband Alex (Ashley Thomas, aka the rapper Bashy), a renowned doctor, is kidnapped in French Guiana. Simultaneously, Toussaint is targeted with blackmail. The two leaders must negotiate to avert tragedy. Increasingly, their political and personal lives are held up to scrutiny in the midst of crisis. Written by Matt Charman (Bridge of Spies) and directed by Isabelle Sieb (Vigil, The Devil’s Hour) and Amy Neil (Hollyoaks), this fast-paced series unfolds in real time to underscore the fragility of international security.

Let the Devil In (August 31, MGM+) This new four-episode docuseries portrays a disturbing series of events in New Jersey in 1988, starting with the murder of a devout Catholic woman in her home. When occult symbols are found in the residence  — and the victim’s son is discovered to be missing and possibly involved in the killing — an investigation turns up rumors of devil worship and leads to suspicion of other nefarious activities occurring in this small town. Of course, that was the year of the height of the Satanic Panic in the United States: any crime with even a whisper of occult overtones was sucked into the spiraling cauldron of conspiracy that culminated in numerous histrionic accusations and wrongful convictions across the nation. Directed by seasoned documentary producer Danielle Franco, Let the Devil In explores one story from this dark chapter in American history. The period has received renewed interest as fictional television series (like Stranger Things and Hysteria!) have revisited the era in all its cultural complexity.

— Peg Aloi

Roots and World Music

Fandango
August 20, 7:30 p.m.
The Natural Wonders
August 17 at 4:30 p.m.
Sally O’Brien’s

The first couple of the Cambridgeville scene, Fred Griffeth and Gail Nickse, are moving to Mexico after decades making music on local stages. Their band the Natural Wonders is wrapping up its Sunday afternoon residency at Sally O’Brien’s, while Griffeth’s soul-country unit Fandango has a few more Wednesday nights left.

Singer Martha Wash. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Martha Wash
August 20, 7:30 pm
City Winery

Even those who don’t know Martha Wash’s name likely know her gospel-rooted voice. As the real lead singer of the Weather Girls, C&C Music Factory, and Black Box, the performer has been warbling dance music anthems for decades. In recent years, Wash — who in multiple instances wasn’t shown on the videos for the hits she sang — has been claiming her legacy, stepping into the spotlight as a fierce live performer. Among her recent achievements: A stirring cover of Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” which becomes a showstopper when she sings it live along with her other dance classics. And, unlike many of her fellow disco divas, Wash performs with a full band and singers, not a backing track.

Pan on the Plaza
August 20, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
City Hall Plaza

Boston’s Caribbean Carnival is slated for August 23. As always there will be both an early morning jou’vet parade as well as an afternoon parade. But years of calls by many of the participants and community members for fresh leadership have remained unheeded. On top of that, the parade suffered a major blow when Socaholics, often one of the event’s largest and most colorful organizations, announced that they were bowing out of the 2025 edition. (Socaholics continued its Kiddies Carnival, which occurred on August 16.) The turmoil over the Carnival has added importance to other Caribbean events this weekend. One of the newer traditions: Pan on the Plaza, a gathering of steel pan soloists and bands who display the instrument’s great versatility.

Barrington Levy, Flying Vipers, and Junior Rodigan
August 24
Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge

Carnival weekend usually brings the stars of soca to town, but alongside comes one of the hottest reggae shows of the year. Barrington Levy helped usher in the modern dance hall era when his “Under Me Sensi” became the basis of Wayne Smith’s digital “Sleng Teng.” His bold delivery also created such hits as “Too Experienced” and “Here I Come.” A famously electric live performer, he’s appearing in Boston for the first time in over a decade courtesy of Tha Reggae Takeova. Opening up are the Flying Vipers, the dubwise outfit whose new LP Off World is their best to date, and legendary Boston reggae selector Junior Rodigan.

KC and the Sunshine Band
August 30, 1 p.m.
Indian Ranch, Webster

After years of critical and commercial ups and downs, disco is finally getting the respect it deserves. While many of its pioneers are gone, Harry Wayne Casey, aka KC, is still touring the world with his 15-piece band and his unbeatable catalog of dance floor fillers from the heyday of TK Records, “Get Down Tonight,” “That’s the Way,” and “Boogie Shoes,” among them. Some jokes from the days when Catskill comedians worked Miami hotels might make their way into the lakeside afternoon as well.

— Noah Schaffer

Jazz

Rio-born singer, guitarist, and songwriter Teresa Inês. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Teresa Inês Quartet
August 21 at 6 p.m.
Long Live Roxbury Brewery & Taproom, Boston
FREE

Fans of Brazilian music have in the past few years welcomed the return to performing of the Rio-born singer, guitarist, and songwriter Teresa Inês. She returns to the Long Live Brewery & Taproom free Thursday night series with a superb band: pianist Nando Michelin, bassist Oscar Stagnaro, and drummer Steve Langone.

Club d’Elf
August 22 at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Lizard Lounge, Cambridge

Club d’Elf return to their longtime haunt as part of a summer of extensive touring. Main man Mike Rivard (bass, sinter) leads a band that includes guitarist Lyle Brewer, keyboardist Amy Bellamy, turntablist Mister Rourke, and drummer Dean Johnston. As of this writing, the first show was sold out and tickets were going fast for the 10 p.m. But you can always stand on the sidewalk and hold up a finger. Or jump on the tickets for their October 31 show at the palatial Groton Hill Music Center (slightly different personnel, seats still available).

Legendary folk and jug band revivalist Jim Kweskin will perform at the Bay State Jazz Festival. Photo: Irene Young

Bay State Jazz Festival
August 23 and 24, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Condon Shell, Medford
FREE

For its third year, the event formerly known known as the Medford Trad Jazz Festival offers two days of free music — “prewar” jazz and folk, New Orleans trad, “Gypsy jazz,” jug band music, western swing, and the regular kind. Saturday’s lineup: the Django-inclined 440; the Busted Jug Band; the impressive standards-loving singer Rahsaan Cruse Jr.; and the Whoozit/Whatzit All Star Band. Sunday: the all-women SheBop Swing Orchestra (Ellington, Basie, Goodman, and “modern”); the Orleans Kids (Armstrong, Oliver, Morton, Beiderbecke); the legendary folk and jug band revivalist Jim Kweskin and the Saturday Night Berlin Hall Revue (coming off their very tasty new album, Doing Things Right); and headliners Annie and the Fur Trappers (“classic trad jazz, blues, and swing music”), led by trumpeter and festival founder Annie Linders. Arts Fuse preview

Hot Sardines
August 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, MA

If you haven’t had enough “hot” jazz at the Bay State fest (see August 23-24), head to Rockport for this show by the French-leaning (via Brooklyn) Hot Sardines, who are no less entertaining than the Bay State bunch and no less serious.

Sofia Almeida
August 27 at 6 p.m.
One Reason Garden Bar, Charles Hotel, Cambridge

The Berklee Global Jazz Institute student Sofia Almeida leads a quartet for this free outdoor summer series in at the Charles Hotel’s One Reason Garden Bar. Almeida, born in Madeira, Portugal, has impressive vocal range and power, and an adept command of a good variety of pop, American jazz standards, and Brazilian classics from Jobim to Nascimento and Abbey Lincoln.

Tenor Saxophonist Temidayo Balogun will perform with guitarist Eric Hofbauer. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Eric Hofbauer
August 28 at 7 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Lou’s, Harvard Square, Cambridge

In case you missed him in his last cycle, the adventurous guitarist and composer Eric Hofbauer (Prehistoric Jazz, American Vanities) returns to Lou’s — the swank new Harvard Square supper club — with an expanded group: singer Hayley Thompson-King, tenor saxophonist Temidayo Balogun, cellist Ana Ospina, bassist Tony Leva, and drummer Kyle Aronson. Hofbauer says to expect his arrangements to cover “an eclectic collection of jazz and pop tunes.” Last time out, that included Björk, Sigur Rós, Radiohead, the Beatles, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Jim Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Abbey Lincoln, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Wayne Shorter. The club itself has a beautiful menu; thus far there’s no cover and no minimum.

Wes Wirth Global Ensemble
August 28 at 6 p.m.
Long Live Roxbury Brewery & Taproom, Boston

Bassist, composer, and singer Wes Wirth fronts his Global Ensemble, with guitar wizard Dave “Fuze” Fiuczynski, Cuban musicians Harold Charon (piano) and Francisco Mela (drums), and Malian drummer/dancer/choreographer Joh Camara.

— Jon Garelick

Classical

This week, composer and “sound chemist” Val Jeanty will be performing with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Eroica: Beethoven and Revolution
Presented by Boston Landmarks Orchestra
August 20, 7 p.m.
DCR Hatch Shell, Boston

Composer and “sound chemist” Val Jeanty, violinist Adrian Anantawan, and guest conductor Damali Willingham join BLO and music director Christopher Wilkins for a program that pairs Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 with works by Val and Occidente Jeanty as well as Buyu Ambroise.

Yamada conducts Poulenc & Holst
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
August 23, 8 p.m.
Koussevitzky Shed, Lenox

Kazuki Yamada lead the BSO in a pair of favorites: Gustav Holst’s The Planets and Francis Poulenc’s Gloria. Soprano Raquel González and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus are featured in the last.

Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall — Earl Lee conducting, Eric Lu at the piano. Photo: Winslow Townson

Lee conducts Simon & Beethoven
Presented by Boston Symphony Orchestra
August 24, 2:30 p.m.
Koussevitzky Shed, Lenox

Regrettably, guest conductor Zubin Mehta has had to withdraw for personal reasons from the BSO Open Rehearsal on Saturday, August 23 and performance on Sunday, August 24. He is especially saddened to miss his return to Tanglewood, where he has fond memories from his early days as a Conducting Fellow during the summer of 1958. We are grateful that former BSO Assistant Conductor Earl Lee is able to conduct on short notice. The repertoire will remain unchanged.

Mahler & Ravel
Presented by Boston Landmarks Orchestra
August 27, 7 p.m.
DCR Hatch Shell, Boston

BCR wraps its summer season with the Hatch Shell premieres of both Ravel’s Daphnis & Chloe Suite No. 2 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. Also on the docket is Zhou Tian’s Broken Ink: The Mighty River Runs Eastward.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

Popular Music

Al Olender with James Felice
August 21 (doors at 7/show at 8)
Warehouse XI, Somerville

Al Olender categorizes her music as “bisexual folk.” How exactly that would sound might not be obvious to all, but it might help to know that the Baltimore native and erstwhile Nashville dweller turned Kingston, NY inhabitant aspires to sing like Linda Ronstadt and write lyrics like Adrienne Lenker. That said, she describes James Felice – of the band of same-named brothers – as her “musical hero and life hero” and “favorite writer I’ve ever met.” Felice will open Olender’s upcoming Warehouse XI show, where she will draw heavily from her 2022 debut LP, Easy Crier (on which James and his brother Ian appear), and presumably include her two newest singles, “Almost Famous” and “Runner Up.”

RiverFest Music Festival
August 23 (12 p.m. to 6 p.m.)
Salisbury Beach Boardwalk, Salisbury

92.5 hit the jackpot this year with its booking of local legends as headliners.

OG fans and possibly their children and even (yikes!) grandchildren will enthusiastically brave crowded parking lots and limited picnic blanket space to enjoy a one-hour set by Belly and a 1.5 hour performance by fellow New England legends Buffalo Tom. While Belly will have no difficulty assembling a crowd-pleasing setlist despite a lack of new material, Buffalo Tom returned last year with Jump Rope, which I interviewed singer, songwriter, and guitarist Bill Janovitz about. (Janovitz is also an author whose new book, The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told, is slated for publications by Hachette/Da Capo on September 30.)

Salisbury’s own Gavin Merengi, an 18-year-old country singer who released Northwinds last year, will kick off what is forecast to be a sunny and reasonably mild Saturday at 12:15, followed by the soul/funk stylings of Ipswich’s The Far Out at 1:30.

Portraits of the Past with Kathryn Mohr and Spirit Hotel
August 24 (doors at 7)
The Sinclair, Cambridge

Their time together was brief (1993-1995) and their output limited (one LP and two EPs, collected it their entirety on Discography 1994-1995). However, Portraits of the Past’s signature sound proved influential in establishing the emo subcategory later known as screamo (“scream-emo”). The San Francisco quintet reunited for a handful of shows in 2008, but has been inactive as a unit since a new EP – Cypress Dust Witch – appeared in 2009. Now the band is back with a new single and an 11-date summer tour that wraps up at The Sinclair on August 24

Very much worth of mention are the two openers at this gig. Salem, Massachusetts’s Spirit Hotel is the musical project of singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Leila May Hauck. Self-described as “indie gloom” with influences that range from “shoegaze and psych to post-punk and dream pop,” Spirit Hotel is currently recording its first LP, selections from which they will perform along with their already released handful of songs when the kick off the evening. Moreover, Pitchfork’s Sue Park awarded Kathryn Mohr’s debut LP, Waiting Room, a “best new music” designation in her January review. She will include selections herefrom as well as the two EPs that she has recorded since 2020.

Hotline TNT with Sour Widows and Pet Fox
August 28 (doors at 7:30)
The Sinclair, Cambridge

Brooklyn quartet Hotline TNT winning streak heated up in June with Raspberry Moon. Its fourth LP and second for Third Man Records, bandleader Will Anderson continues to impress with his ever-effective fusion of – to cite the two most apparent influences – shoegaze and power pop. Raspberry Moon is at least as great as its predecessor, Cartwheel, in overall musical quality. However, it is as great in different ways. Where the latter’s ambitions were admirably more modest, the former’s are larger-scale but not suffocatingly or pretentiously so. It would not be perfectly accurate to call these differences improvements, but they are certainly demonstrative of Anderson’s ability and desire challenge rather than merely please listeners. Oakland quartet Sour Widows and Boston trio Pet Fox will whip up Hotline TNT’s Sinclair crowd on August 28.

— Blake Maddux

Author Events

Scott McGill and Susannah Wright at Harvard Book Store
The Aeneid
August 18 at 7 p.m.
Free

“This exciting new edition of the Aeneid, the first collaborative translation of the poem in English, is rendered in unrhymed iambic pentameter, the English meter that corresponds best, in its history and cultural standing, to Virgil’s dactylic hexameter. Scott McGill and Susannah Wright achieve an ideal middle ground between readability and elevation, engaging modern readers with fresh, contemporary language in a heart-pounding, propulsive rhythm, while also preserving the epic dignity of the original.

“The result is a brisk, eminently approachable translation that captures Virgil’s sensitive balance between celebrating the Roman Empire and dramatizing its human costs, for victors and vanquished alike. This Aeneid is a poem in English every bit as complex, inviting, and affecting as the Latin original.”

Doug Most with Steve Brown at Brookline Booksmith
Launching Liberty
August 19 at 7 p.m.
Tickets are free or $37.10 w/ in store pickup

“Launching Liberty tells the remarkable story of how FDR partnered with private businessmen to begin the production of cargo freighters longer than a football field — ships he affectionately dubbed “ugly ducklings.” These colossal Liberty Ships took over six months to build at the start of his $350 million emergency shipbuilding program, far too long.

“The government turned to Henry Kaiser, the man who had delivered the Boulder Dam ahead of schedule and under budget, but had never built a ship in his life. Kaiser established a network of shipyards from coast to coast and recruited tens of thousands of workers eager to contribute to the war effort. Many, particularly African Americans and women, traveled from some of the most downtrodden, rural parts of the nation to help their country and to find a better life of greater equality.”

Summer Warehouse Sale Opening Day – Harvard Book Store
August 23 at 9 a.m.
Harvard Bookstore Warehouse, 330 Reservoir St., Needham, MA
Free

“Cool off and find your next beach read with our Summer Harvard Book Store Warehouse Sale! Our Needham Warehouse Sales feature thousands of new books deeply discounted up to 40-80% off the list price. Shop thousands of books across genres, hardcover and paperback, adult and children’s literature. Browse fiction, history, award-winners, staff recommendations, sci-fi, fantasy, and a selection of New York Review books. For fans of our used books department, a featured selection is available at the sale to browse as well. The Warehouse Sale also features other bookish merchandise, including totes, stationery, and apparel.”

Michael Thomas at Harvard Book Store
The Broken King: A Memoir 
August 26 at 7 p.m.
Free

“In 2007, Michael Thomas launched into the literary world with his award-winning first novel Man Gone Down, a beautiful and devastating story of a Black father trying to claim a piece of the American Dream. Thomas’ debut introduced a writer of prodigious and rare talent. In his long-awaited encore and first work of nonfiction, The Broken King, Thomas explores fathers and sons, lovers and the beloved, trauma and recovery, success and failure in a unique, urgent, and timeless memoir.

“The title is borrowed from T.S. Eliot’s line in ‘Little Gidding’: ‘If you came at night like a broken king,’ and the work ponders the process of being broken. Akin to Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time or Nabokov’s Speak, Memory, Thomas’ memoir unfolds through six powerful, interlocking and overlaying parts focusing on the lives of five men: his father — a philosopher, Boston Red Sox fan, and absent parent; his estranged older brother; his two sons growing up in Brooklyn; and always, heartbreakingly, himself. At the center of The Broken King is the story of Thomas’ own breakdown, a result of inherited family history and his own experiences, from growing up Black in the Boston suburbs to publishing a prize-winning novel with ‘the house of Beckett.'”

Gloria Chao in conversation with Jilly Gagnon at Porter Square Books
The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club
August 26 at 7 p.m.
Free

“In this laugh-out-loud murder mystery, three women dating the same man band together to get revenge, but when they discover his body, they’ll need to solve his murder before they go down for it.”

Carolyn Marie Wilkins in conversation with Laura West at Porter Square Books
Murder at the Wham Bam Club
August 28 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Carolyn Marie Wilkins is a practicing psychic medium, a Santeria priestess, and a professor at Berklee College of Music Online. An accomplished jazz pianist and vocalist, she has toured South America as a Jazz Ambassador for the U.S. State Department.”

The setup for Murder at the Wham Bam Club: after the death of her brave Harlem Hellfighter husband during the First World War, young widow Nola Ann Jackson returned to her hometown of Agate, Illinois, to live with her Aunt Sarah, a known local psychic. Under her aunt’s care and tutelage, Nola has been learning how to tap into her own intuitive gifts and communicate with the spirits. And she will rely on their insightful guidance when she’s asked to help investigate a woman’s disappearance.”

Yasmin Khan with Marjan Kamali: Sabzi at Brookline Booksmith
Sabzi: Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes 
August 28 at 7 p.m.
Free or $41. 64 w/ in store pickup

“Irresistible vegetarian and vegan recipes inspired by award-winning food writer Yasmin Khan’s travels — and the cooking she does, at home, for family and friends.

“Lifting its name from the Persian word for ‘herbs,’ Sabzi is a collection of more than 80 accessible, plant-forward recipes that celebrate the best of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and South Asian flavors. From bountiful salads to fragrant soups, colorful mezze, and heart-warming mains, Yasmin invites home cooks to eat better for the health of people and the planet, while staying connected to the traditional food cultures that make us who we are.”

— Matt Hanson