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 round-up of immigrants, the expansion of internment camps, ongoing genocide in Gaza, transphobia, the grueling war in Ukraine, etc. I have decided to point out a production in Coming Attractions — staged in America or elsewhere — that grapples with today’s alarming realities. Sometimes the stagings will be available via Zoom, sometimes not. It is important to present evidence that theater artists — maybe not here but elsewhere — are reflecting, and reflecting on, the world around us.

(L to R) Jamila Turner, Kenedi Deal, and Makallen Kelley as washerwomen striking against unfair wages in Synchronicity Theatre’s 2024 production of The Wash. Photo: Casey Gardner Ford

A full production would have been nice, but kudos for this staged reading of Kelundra Smith’s The Wash. Tasia A. Jones directs the Front Porch Arts Collective presentation.

Theater that deals with America’s labor history are few and far between. This script was “inspired by the 1881 Atlanta Washerwomen’s Strike, one of the first major labor actions led by Black women in the United States. Inside a shared laundry co-op, a group of Black washerwomen organize for fair wages and respect, transforming everyday work into collective resistance.” The reading will take place at the Jean Appolon Expressions Dance Center, 2153 Washington St, Boston, on April 11 and 12.

— Bill Marx

Film

A scene from Apollon By Day/Athena By Night Photo: courtesy of the MFA

25th Boston Turkish Film Festival
April 3
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston

The 25th anniversary of the festival, presented in collaboration with the MFA Film Program, continues the tradition of highlighting emerging and established Turkish filmmakers, including several appearances by guest directors.

Apollon By Day/Athena By Night (April 3 at 7 p.m.)

The East Coast premiere of this feature, written and directed by Emine Yildirim. The plot: “Raised as an orphan, Defne, a cranky newbie psychic, finds herself in the ancient town of Side (Antalya), accompanied by the ghosts of a Marxist revolutionary, a prostitute, and a primeval priestess; as she searches for her long lost mother.”

A scene from Christian Petzold’s Mirrors No. 3. Photo: Christian Schulz/Schramm-Film

Mirrors No. 3
March 27 through April 2
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline

During a weekend trip to the countryside, Laura, a young piano student from Berlin, miraculously survives a shocking car crash. Director Christian Petzold (Phoenix, Transit)’s narrative spins a modern gothic fairy tale about the lies we tell ourselves and the strange ways that grief, connection, and humanity bind and sustain us. Arts Fuse review

Color of Time
March 30 at 7 p.m.
West Newton Cinema

This French comedy finds 30 individuals learn unexpectedly linked by one shared ancestor who discover they own a countryside home in Normandy abandoned for decades and (magically) suspended in time. Four of them are sent to survey the estate where they discover a trove of documentation with echoes of the past. The story moves between 2025 and 1895, letting the past mirror the present. This dialogue across time challenges the relatives’ certainties, inviting them to rethink identity, legacy, and the future they carry. This is the first offering of the Monday Belmont World Film Series screenings playing through June 15. There will be a post-film discussion led by this writer.

The Tony Millionaire Show
March 30 & 31 at 7:30 p.m.
Somerville Theater in Davis Square

Alternative cartoonist and provocateur Tony Millionaire — he didn’t want a film made about himself. At the producer’s insistence, Millionaire finally agreed to be interviewed. But, in the middle of the first filming session, he walked out. Filmed over a decade, this doc is the story of a loud giant of a man, chasing people around with his false teeth, performing drunk on stage, and being the worst party guest. This is the guy who did that thing last weekend that everyone is talking about. He is also the artist behind Maakies, a weekly comic strip featuring a drunk bird (Drinky Crow) and a foul-mouthed sailor monkey (Uncle Gabby). Along with the strip, Millionaire also makes beautifully rendered drawings in pen and ink.

The Mountain
Through April 2
Capital Theater in Arlington

Taika Waititi (JoJo Rabbit) produced this story of three young friends who embark on an adventure across New Zealand to find healing under the watchful eye of the dormant volcano Mount Taranaki. Directed by Rachel House. In English & Māori.

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

Wicked Queer Film Festival
April 3-16
Brattle Theater and Coolidge Corner Theater, Museum of Fine Arts

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

Granite Rapids Moon
April 4 at 6:30 p.m.
West Newton Cinema

This independent film, written and directed by Kenneth Cran, follows a happily married father of two who abruptly leaves his family for a week-long trek through the Grand Canyon. It is billed as “the first feature film ever shot in the Grand Canyon.” Reaching the bottom of the canyon is tough: rim to river drops more than 5,200 feet over 20-plus miles of knee‑pounding switchbacks, usually a full day’s descent. The return hike—an ascent of more than a mile—is grueling. Amidst the canyon’s geological formations, the cast and crew of eight carried only the equipment they could manage over 41 miles of trails.

A scene from Cecil B. DeMille’s silent epic, King of Kings.

King of Kings
April 4 at 7 p.m.
Regent Theater in Arlington

Cecil B. DeMille’s 1927 silent Biblical epic depicts events in the life of Jesus, from the exorcism of Mary Magdalene to the crucifixion and resurrection. The film features a cast of thousands, plus a giant earthquake! There will be live accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis.

La Strada
April 6 at 7 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theater

Frederico Fellini’s masterpiece of postwar Italian cinema fuses neorealism with a poetic, spiritual vision. The story follows Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina), a wide-eyed, childlike young woman sold by her impoverished mother to Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), a brutish itinerant strongman who earns coins by snapping chains across his chest. Their path intersects with “the Fool” (Richard Basehart), a playful tightrope walker. The film is alive with Masina’s Chaplinesque performance and Fellini’s lyrical humanism.

André Holland and Kate Mara in a scene from The Dutchman. Photo: HFA

The Dutchman
April 9 at 6 p.m.
Harvard Film Archive

The Film Study Center at Harvard, ArtsThursdays and the Black Film Project of the Hutchins Center for African American Research present this special screening of a 2025 adaptation of Amiri Baraka’s Obie award-winning 1964 play. At the event: actor André Holland and Andre Gaines, director, producer, and co-writer of The Dutchman. Free of charge.

Pick of the Week

Curated Short Films

At this year’s Academy Awards, the Oscar for Best Live Action Short went to Two People Exchanging Saliva, a 35-minute film that was featured in The New Yorker’s Screening Room. While theatrical shorts programs are screened in the lead-up to the Oscars, many of these films remain difficult to find. Fortunately, both The New Yorker and The Atlantic curate an impressive range of short films across genres and styles.

It’s a welcome alternative to mindless scrolling and an easy way to dip into concise, well-crafted cinema from around the world. Best of all, these selections are free and readily accessible. Links to both sites: Atlantic Selects and New Yorker Video

— Tim Jackson

Television

Okay, we’re down to the wire on the films leaving the Criterion Channel at the end of the month. So, if you don’t have time to watch all my suggested titles, you should at the very least prioritize these, if you’ve never seen them: Bright Star (Jane Campion, 2009), Boogie Nights (P. T. Anderson, 1997), Ganja and Hess (Bill Gunn, 1973), and Velvet Goldmine (Todd Haynes, 1998).

Daguerreotype portrait of Henry David Thoreau circa 1856. Photo: National Portrait Gallery

There’s also plenty of good TV on tap, including a new documentary miniseries premiering March 30 on PBS about your favorite nature freak and mine, Henry David Thoreau, executive produced by Ken Burns and narrated by George Clooney.

Your Friends and Neighbors (April 3, Apple TV) — This was one of my favorite new series of 2025. Jon Hamm stars in a tailor-made role as a divorced hedge fund manager who suddenly finds himself out of work and decides to start stealing from his neighbors in a wealthy village in Westchester to make ends meet. The nearly obscene levels of conspicuous consumption on display are both fascinating and kind of sickening (a Maserati in every driveway! bespoke spa treatments! high-priced athleisure wear! crushed oyster shells delivered by the truckload for a backyard pétanque court!). Hamm’s character offers an arch voiceover that suitably impugns the excesses of late-stage capitalism. I’ve dipped into the new season, and so far it seems primed to continue the first season’s rich mix of well-acted drama and comedy.

L-R: Lucy Halliday and Chase Infiniti in The Testaments. Photo: Disney

The Testaments (April 8, Hulu/Disney+) — Although the first season of The Handmaid’s Tale ends exactly where Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel ends, the show continued for five more seasons. The ongoing story was dramatic and timely—it was the story of women imprisoned and forced to bear children for the Republic of Gilead, a misogynistic society that has taken over the United States by force. Sound familiar? Dystopian fiction has become all too real today. There is now a follow-on limited series based on Atwood’s later novel, The Testaments, also helmed by showrunner Bruce Miller. The drama’s artful approach, along with a stellar cast, makes the effort into very watchable television. This ten-episode prequel focuses on younger women training to become handmaids. It is being billed as a “coming-of-age” drama—which sounds rather chilling, to say the least.

Euphoria, Season 3 (April 12, HBO) — The third and (possibly) final season of this acclaimed series has been eagerly awaited for what feels like far too long. Major cast members have died in the interim: Eric Dane, who played Cal Jacobs, died in 2026 from complications of ALS, and Angus Cloud, who played Fezco, died of an accidental overdose in 2023. Creator Sam Levinson’s adaptation of a 2012 Israeli miniseries of the same name follows a group of Southern California teenagers struggling with substance addiction, sexual identity, family dysfunction, social media pressure, and general existential angst. These themes were also expressed in Levinson’s controversial feature Assassination Nation (2018), along with his signature dreamy, colorful cinematography. Euphoria stars some of the hottest young actors working today, including Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, and Sydney Sweeney. I’ll be writing longer reviews of all three of these new or ongoing series in April.

— Peg Aloi

Theater

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

The End of the World Never Minding Show, written and performed by Bread & Puppet Theater. Staged at various venues, check the website for days and times, March 26 through April 26.

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

The Comeuppance by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Directed by Don Mays. Staged by the Wilbury Theatre Group, 475 Valley Street, Providence, through April 12.

A dark social satire from one of America’s leading playwrights: “When a group of former high school friends gathers on a suburban porch to pregame their twentieth reunion, the night begins with nervous jokes, familiar rituals, and the brittle comfort of shared memory. As alcohol and weed loosen tongues, the self-described ‘Multi-Ethnic Reject Group’ slides quickly from nostalgia into confrontation, reckoning with who they were, who they’ve become, and what the last two decades of American life have done to them. Old hierarchies resurface, buried resentments break open, and the promise of the future they once imagined feels suddenly, and painfully, out of reach.”

Mariette in Ecstasy, adapted by Christina Calvit from Ron Hansen’s novel, Mariette. Directed by Katie Swimm. Staged by The Treehouse Collective at the BCA Plaza Black Box Theatre, 529 Tremont Street, Boston, April 3 through 19.

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

Charlotte’s Web, adapted by Joseph Robinette. Based on the book by E.B. White. Directed by Ilyse Robbins. Staged by the Wheelock Family Theatre, 200 The Riverway, Boston, April 3 through 26.

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

When Playwrights Kill by Matthew Lombardo. Noah Himmelstein directs. Staged at the Huntington Avenue Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, April 3 through 18.

This backstage comedy, receiving its world premiere, focuses on the quandary of Jack Hawkins, “an aspiring playwright on the verge of Broadway glory. But his dreams are soon dashed after being forced to hire Brooke Remington, a notoriously difficult diva who derails his play’s out-of-town tryout in Boston. Desperately not wanting to bring the production to Broadway and being unable to convince the producer to fire her, there is only one thing left he can do to save his play and career: Brooke Remington must be stopped!”

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

Ines de la Cruz in a scene from the Lyric Stage production of Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous. Photo: Nile Hawver

Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous by Pearl Cleage. Directed by Jacqui Parker. Staged by the Lyric Stage Company at 140 Clarendon St., 2nd floor, Boston, through April 12.

The plot has faint echoes of All About Eve: “As a young artist in the 1990s, actress Anna Campbell sparked a theatrical firestorm with a staging of August Wilson monologues spoken from a female perspective performed entirely in the nude. Decades later, her provocative performance that changed the trajectory of her career rises like a ghost, when it is to be included at a woman’s theater festival. But there’s a catch. A much younger and inexperienced actress whose credits are less than desirable has been asked to perform, causing Anna to spiral in a whirlwind of insecurity and hesitancy. With support from her manager and longtime friend Betty, Anna grapples with the choice to step aside on a road she helped to pave so that a new generation can continue the journey.” Cast includes Patrice Jean-Baptiste, Deannah “Dripp” Blemur, Inés De La Cruz, and Yasmeen Duncan.

Primary Trust by Eboni Booth. Directed by Tatyana-Marie Carlo. Staged by Trinity Rep at the Lederer Theater Center’s Dowling Theater, 201 Washington Street in Providence, RI, April 9 through May 10.

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

The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh. Directed by Donnla Hughes. Staged by Gamm Theatre, 1245 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick, RI, April 9 through May 3.

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

— Bill Marx

Visual Art

Hank WIllis Thomas, Two Dancers, 2018 Multimedia quilt including sports jerseys. Photo: courtesy of Hank Willis Thomas

On April 10, in the beachfront art colony of Ogunquit, Maine, the Ogunquit Museum of American Art opens its 73rd season with the exhibition Looking for America, a group show of artists associated with Brooklyn-based conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas through a shared studio and artist collaborations. The show, intended as a somewhat skeptical response to the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, includes subthemes such as “Freedom Rings,” “At Home and Abroad,” “Black Righteous Space,” and “Material Memory.” Objects on view include quilts made from prison uniforms and “works that repurpose everyday materials.”

Long an outpost for cutting-edge contemporary art in Greater Boston, MIT’s List Visual Arts Center celebrates its 40th anniversary on April 10 with a Kick-Off and Opening Reception of Performing Conditions at 7 p.m. Other festivities include a 1 p.m. performance by Gordon Hall, Spotlight Talks at 2 p.m., a 3 p.m. performance by Autumn Knight, and a “Special Reception” at 4:30 p.m. Admission is free; registration is required, as space is limited. Participants may attend as much or as little of the day’s events as they wish.

The related exhibition Performing Conditions: Artistic Labor and Dependency as Forms opens to the general public on April 11. It’s a large group exhibition examining “the vexed relationships between art, labor, debt, and dependency.” The theme concerns the tendency of art to appropriate and adapt the creations of others—both artists and non-artists. Many of the artworks in the show, the museum says, “are incomplete on their own. They lean on something else or someone else” and thus “owe a debt to the world—as incalculable and unpayable as our debts to each other, or to our mothers.”

Linda Infante Lyons, Isuwiq, Guardian of the Sea, 2025. Alaska Native Museum Sovereignty Collection. © Linda Infante Lyons. Photo: courtesy of the artist

The emotional and symbolic relationships between coastal Indigenous peoples (and perhaps people in general) and the animals in their environment are deep and ancient. NATCHIQ | ONLKEEHQI | ISUWIQ: Indigenous Artists Honor the Seal, opening April 4 at the RISD Museum, focuses on a particularly strong one. Organized by a trio of curators from three different Indigenous tribes, the show features works from the early 20th century to the present, including Inuit prints, drawings, and carvings along with contemporary textiles, photographs, and installations by Alaska Native and Inuit artists.

A central fixture of art since the very beginning of art-making, the nude, or at least the female variety, has, in recent years, undergone withering accusations of sexism, misogyny, male supremacy, and worse. Subvert, Repair, Reclaim: Contemporary Artists Take Back the Nude, opening at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, on April 4, seeks, if not to rehabilitate the nude, at least to move it onto new platforms. The group show features works made since 2012 and uses nudity to critique contemporary narratives and established traditions alike to create “a tool for refusal, self-fashioning, and redefinition.” Media include video, painting, performance, sculpture, sound, and collage.

Rosângela Rennó, Operação A3-2/Operation A3-2 (detail), 2014. Three inkjet prints, silk paper, Plexiglas, bolts and old lenses. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Rosângela Rennó

Also opening at the MFA on April 4, Fazendo a America: Rosangela Renno and Histories of Memories and Migration in Brazil is the Brazilian artist’s first solo show in a US museum, in almost 30 years. Renno’s installations mix anonymous photographs with images from institutional and private archives to evoke the evasive nature of memory, history, and meaning. The MFA show includes six installations, created over the past 25 years, concluding with the newest, commissioned by the MFA for this exhibition. The latter looks at Brazilian immigration to the United States through 48 portraits, more than half of which depict Brazilians living in Greater Boston.

The Portland, OR–born photographer and multimedia artist Carrie Mae Weems has centered her career on “serious issues facing African Americans today, including racism, sexism, politics, and personal identity.” Part of a series of small exhibitions highlighting the ICA’s still relatively young permanent collection, Collection Spotlight: Carrie Mae Weems, opens April 7. It consists of a single installation, Blues and Pinks 3 (2020), in which the artist assembles, crops, tints, and reframes Civil Rights documentarian Charles Moore’s photographs of the 1963 “Children’s Crusade” in Birmingham, Alabama — a key moment in the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

— Peter Walsh

Jazz

Sheryl Bailey Quartet
April 2 at 6 p.m.
Love Live Roxbury Brewery & Taproom, Boston
FREE

The fine guitarist Sheryl Bailey does her inimitable straightahead thing as part of the free Thursday-night music series as Long Live Roxbury, with a band that includes Kevin Harris on keyboards, bassist Ian Ashby, and drummer Neal Smith.

TRIAD+
April 3 at 7 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

The Boston-based power-jazz trio TRIAD — pianist Maxim Lubarsky, bassist Oscar Stagnaro, and drummer Mark Walker — added next-generation saxophone virtuoso Edmar Colón for a tribute to the mold-breaking Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal, captured live at GBH studios in March 2025, months before Pascoal’s death, at 89. Now the band, as TRIAD+ are preparing the release of Hermetic: The Music of Hermeto Pascoal with this show at Scullers.

Saxophonist and composer Walter Smith III will be performing at the Regatabar. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Walter Smith III
April 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

The 45-year-old saxophonist and composer is something like a stealth-genius on my internal algorithm-playlist. I have not followed him closely, but his songs keep coming up on random shuffle, and I always like them. When I dig in more intentionally, I find there’s more to like. To to wit: the current Twio, Vol. 2 (Blue Note), a follow-up to the first volume in 2018. That one featured fellow tenorman Joshua Redman on a couple of cuts; this one has Branford Marsalis. As with the previous, when you’re not playing the tenor-madness blindfold test, you can savor every beautifully deliberated note, the deathless grooves, and the choice of originals and covers. For this show, the estimable saxist Bill Pierce joins the leader and his trio, with bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Kendrick Scott.

Hey Rim Jeon
April 4 at 7 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

The uncommonly graceful pianist (and Berklee professor, natch) Hey Rim Jeon has all the requisite digital dexterity along with a knack for ear-pleasing, songful narrative development. She leads a trio with drummer Mark Walker and “rising star bassist” Leo Luna.

David Rivera y La Bambula
April 4 at 7 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

Puerto Rican bandleader/singer/composer/drummer David Rivera has reportedly been whipping up a Caribbean storm with La Bambula at Long Live Roxbury. He brings the ensemble to Cambridge with his plentifully staffed ensemble: singer Tanicha Lopez, trumpeter Jhon Martez, saxophonist Jonathan Suazo, trombonist Ben Romanow, guitarist Dariel Peniazek, keyboardist Anibal Cruz, bassist Same Harris, and percussionist Marcos Lopez.

AJF headliner, star guitarist Stanley Jordan. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Arlington Jazz Festival
April 8-12
Various locations, Arlington, Mass.

There are too many artists in the four-day 15^th annual Arlington Jazz Festival for me to list all of them as well as the multiple venues. So I’ll just start with headliner star guitarist Stanley Jordan and his trio (with drummer Kenwood Denard and bassist Wes Wirth) closing things out on April 12 at the Regent Theatre. In the preceding days, players include a quartet with Debby Larkin, Jeff Stout, Dan Fox, and Gray Sargent; Duke Robillard; Annie and the Fur Trappers; the Fully Celebrated Orchestra; guitar duo John Wheatley and Sheryl Bailey (see April 2), and many more.

Guitarist and composer Eric Hofbauer in the snow. Photo: courtesy of the artist.

Eric Hofbauer and EHX
April 9 at 7 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

Guitarist and composer Eric Hofbauer celebrates the release of Tongues/Hope Language, a concept double album from his new ensemble EHX. Hofbauer — whose solo-guitar trilogy on American themes and a “prehistoric jazz” series with a quintet are among his many projects that have grabbed my ear — calls this his “most personal project to date.” The arrangements, ranging from string trio to full band, draw from what he calls a “Gen X post-style” repertoire: Björk, Radiohead, Sigur Rós, Joni Mitchell, the Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix, “connected to deeper jazz cuts by Abbey Lincoln and Eddie Harris.” The band will include Hofbauer on archtop guitar, nylon string guitar, tenor banjo, and electronics; Temidayo Balogun, tenor saxophone; Ana Ospina, cello; Tony Leva, double-bass; and Miki Matsuki, drums. Guests include singer Hayley Thompson-King, tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger, and drummer Kyle Aronson.

Saxophonist and composer Javon Jackson. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Javon Jackson
April 10 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

Saxophonist and composer Javon Jackson, a former Jazz Messenger, did some beautiful work in two recorded volumes dedicated to the poet Nikki Giovanni (featuring the poet herself). Now he has turned to Bob Dylan with Jackson Plays Dylan (Solid Jackson Records). He comes to Scullers with the band from that album: keyboardist Jeremy Manasia, bassist Isaac Levien, and drummer Ryan Sands. In his Arts Fuse review, Michael Ullman says, “Jackson’s Dylan collection is well thought out and beautifully rendered.”

Laszlo Gardony
April 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

Laszlo Gardony’s long-running trio with bassist John Lockwood and drummer Yoron Israel is always worth catching. Tonight, one of their regular collaborators, the fine saxophonist Don Braden, sweetens the deal.

Singer, songwriter, and violinist Yilian Cañizares. Photo: courtesy of Global Arts Live

Yilian Cañizares
April 10 at 8 p.m.
Crystal Ballroom, Somerville Theatre, Somerville, Mass.

No less an authority than Chucho Valdés has called Yilian Cañizares “one of the most incredible talents of the new generation of Cuban musicians,” extolling the virtuosity, expression, spontaneity, and grace that make her “the favorite of all of us.” OK, then. I do like what I’ve seen and heard online from this singer, songwriter, and violinist, who matches compositional skill with great chops.

Green Sky
April 11 at 8 p.m.
Peabody Hall, Parish of All Saints, Dorchester, Mass.

Green Sky (CD Baby) co-led by pianist Mark Shilansky and vibraphonist Rich Greenblatt, was one of the sweet keepers of 2022, a disc of mostly originals (plus “Body and Soul” and Horace Silver’s “Opus de Funk”) that painted every corner of straight-ahead post-bop jazz with consummate skill and ebullient joy. The two longtime Berklee teachers (each with long resumes as sidemen and leaders) bring the project to the Mandorla Music/Dot Jazz series with bassist Greg Loughman, drummer Mike Connors, plus guitarist Caio Afiune augmenting the original quartet format.

Poet Robert Pinsky performing at the Regattabar in 2025. Photo: Eric Antoniou

Robert Pinsky PoemJazz
April 12 at 6 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.

The title for Robert Pinsky’s latest PoemJazz event is “Misrule Music,” from the title of a new poem published in the April edition of the Atlantic. I hope that means the new poem will be part of the night’s music — impossible to excerpt without ruining it, but suffice to say that anger, antic humor, and easily worn erudition rule the day. Pinsky, a twice former US Poet Laureate, has described himself as a frustrated jazz musician (he did study saxophone as a kid), and he always makes PoemJazz special — both real poetry and real jazz. He’s joined this time out by the saxophonist, flutist, percussionist, and singer Stand Strickland (perhaps Pinsky’s most constant musical collaborator) as well as multi-instrumentalist (and Klezmer Conservatory Band founder) Hankus Netsky, cellist Catherine Bent, and bassist John Lockwood.

— Jon Garelick

Roots and World Music

Bassist Richard Bona. Photo: courtesy of the artist

Richard Bona Meets Berklee
March 30
Berklee Performance Center

Cameroonian bassist Richard Bona has long been one of the most important bridges between African music and jazz, thanks to his work with Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones. For this event, his original material and formidable playing chops will propel a performance with an ensemble of Berklee students and staff.

The Night James Brown Saved Boston
April 5, 7 p.m.
Russell Auditorium, 70 Talbot Ave., Dorchester

Over the years, Dorchester’s Russell Auditorium (part of the George Washington Carver Lodge) has hosted such soul luminaries as Clarence Carter, Tyrone Davis, and Bobby “Blue” Bland. This event pays tribute to the famous televised 1968 concert that James Brown performed at the Boston Garden right after the assisination of Martin Luther King Jr. Tony “Young James Brown” Wilson will handle the JB parts with appearances from Boston’s blues queen Toni Lynn Washington and many others. Tickets are available: call 774-244-7015.

TAKAAT with Major Stars and KO Queen
April 10
Deep Cuts, Medford

One of this winter’s concert highlights was a solo show by Saharan blues master Mdou Moctar. His regular touring band have found their own way to keep busy. Without Mdou, they’re known as TAKAAT, a uniquely commanding project that combines noise music with African sounds. They are nicely paired here with Boston’s own experimental greats, Major Stars and KO Queen.

— Noah Schaffer

Rock, Indie, and Alternative

zzzahara
March 31, doors at 7/show at 8
The Rockwell, Somerville

Musically atmospheric, rhythmically dynamic, lyrically thoughtful, and vocally androgynous, zzzahara’s Distant Lands builds substantially on the solid foundation they laid with their previous LPs, including last year’s Spiral Your Way Out. In combination, its 13 songs challenge and entrance, thereby encouraging – if not requiring – an uninterrupted listen. Zahara Jaime captures their emotions with pinpoint accuracy, sharply expressing regret, anguish, despair, anger, and resentfulness. The more I listen to it, the more certain I am that Distant Lands is one of this young year’s best records.

— Blake Maddux

Author Events

Ticketed Event: Ibram X. Kendi in conversation with Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley – Porter Square Books
Chain of Ideas
At the First Parish in Cambridge, 1446 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, on March 31.
Doors open at 6 p.m; talk begins at 7 p.m
Tickets are $46 with signed copy of book

“In Chain of Ideas, internationally bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi offers an unsettling but indispensable global history of how great replacement theory brought humanity into this authoritarian age—and how we can free ourselves from it.”

An Evening with Black Seed Writers: Out Here 9 – Brookline Booksmith
April 1 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Since 2011 the Black Seed Writers Group has been making a space in downtown Boston for homeless, transitional and recently housed writers. Its weekly sessions have produced an unstoppable stream of poetry, protest, prayer, reportage, memoir and prophetic insight.

Join the group’s co-founder, Atlantic staff writer James Parker, and the Black Seed writers as they celebrate their work. The latest issue of their magazine The Pilgrim will be available, as well as broadsheets by individual writers.”

Kirsten King at Harvard Book Store
A Good Person
April 3 at 7 p.m.
Free

“This book was incredible. Kirsten King’s love-to-hate narrator thinks she’s found the perfect man, at least until he dumps her unceremoniously then turns up dead the next day . . . Who is a good person? What treatment do they get that allows them to remain that way? While the unlikeable female narrator has had its day as a trend, A Good Person reinvigorates the trope for a new era of complicated antiheroes ready to rage against the patriarchy.” — CrimeReads

Suzanne Simard – Brookline Booksmith
When the Forest Breathes
April 6 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Drawing on decades of research in her native British Columbia and collaboration with Indigenous communities, Simard demonstrates how forests thrive through intricate networks of life—from elder trees passing on their genetic knowledge to mushrooms breaking down fallen logs. The book illuminates how thoughtful stewardship can restore balance to landscapes affected by logging, wildfire, and environmental pressures.

With warmth, wisdom, and a profound reverence for nature, Simard intertwines her scientific discoveries with reflections on life, loss, and renewal, showing how the rhythms of the forest mirror our own journeys. When the Forest Breathes is a hopeful call to action, proving that through care, insight, and community, reversing environmental decline is within our reach.”

Emily Franklin with Owen Egerton & Bride of Frankenstein – Brookline Booksmith
Love & Other Monsters
April 8 at 6 p.m.
Free

“In the stormy, scandalous summer of 1816, daring eighteen-year-old Claire Clairmont changed the course of literature forever. But then—unlike her stepsister Mary Shelley—she was forgotten, until now.

During the dangerous storms of The Year Without Summer, a group of famous young writers gathered at a mansion on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Brilliant Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, her fiery fiancee Percy Shelley, the famously promiscuous Lord Byron, and John Polidori, his sexually tormented personal physician. At the group’s center was Claire Clairmont, Mary’s impressionable, clever, and dangerously loyal stepsister. Those months of desire, betrayal, and creative passion gave the world the works of Frankenstein, the modern vampire, and the mythic image of these Romantic literary giants.”

Chris Wrenn at Harvard Book Store 
Fenway Punk: How a Boston Indie Label Scored Big on Baseball’s Greatest Rivalry
April 9 at 7 p.m.
Free

“Author Chris Wrenn, a member of the Boston hardcore punk scene, had a dream of his own—to start his own record label. Embracing the do-it-yourself ethos of the scene, Chris set out to make it happen, networking and forging relationships with local bands. But such an endeavor required money he didn’t have … until he and his friends heard a familiar phrase echo out of Fenway Park, the home field of the Red Sox. The phrase “Yankees Suck!” was chanted at every single Red Sox game.

Possessing the wherewithal to produce inexpensive merchandise and the free time to stake a claim to the sidewalks outside the baseball stadium, Chris and his crew of punks began a lucrative endeavor of selling “Yankees Suck” merchandise such as stickers and T-shirts to the fans. While navigating cops, competitors, a violent gang, and in-fighting within the crew, Wrenn and his friends turned Boston’s rivalry with New York into “six-figure summers,” affording him the capital to launch Bridge Nine Records and bring local Boston hardcore bands including American Nightmare and Have Heart to stages worldwide just as the Red Sox got closer than ever to finally winning the World Series again.”

John Chu in conversation with Max Gladstone – Porter Square Books
The Subtle Art of Folding Space
April 10 at 7 p.m.
Free

“The Subtle Art of Folding Space, is the exhilarating debut science fiction novel from Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author John Chu channels unhinged physics, generational trauma, and the comfort of really good dim sum. This isn’t your usual jaunt through quantum physics.”

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

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

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

— Matt Hanson