Coming Attractions: June 21 Through July 6 — What Will Light Your Fire
Compiled by Arts Fuse Editor
Our expert critics supply a guide to film, visual art, theater, author readings, television, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Boston area theaters have decided to pretty much ignore what is happening in America and beyond — mounting threats to democracy, the country’s slide toward authoritarianism, the climate crisis, growing economic inequality, ICE’s violent roundup of immigrants, the expansion of internment camps, ongoing genocide in Gaza, transphobia, the grueling war in Ukraine, etc. I have decided to point out a production in Coming Attractions — staged in America or elsewhere — that grapples with today’s alarming realities. Sometimes the stagings will be available via Zoom, sometimes not. It is important to present evidence that theater artists — maybe not here, but elsewhere — are reflecting, and reflecting on, the world around us.
Icelandic Glaciological Society member, Árni Kjartansson, sits overlooking a glacier in Iceland in a scene from Time and Water. (Archival Materials Courtesy of Andri Snær Magnason)
I can’t find a theater performance with sufficient political resonance to point out this week. Instead, check out the Sara Dosa’s new documentary Time and Water. Here is a quick summary: “Facing the death of his country’s glaciers and the loss of his beloved grandparents, Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason turns his archives into a time capsule to hold what is slipping away — family, memory, time, and water.”
Murtada Elfadl of Variety wrote, “With Time and Water, Dosa turns the climate crisis into something heartbreakingly tangible. She and her collaborators create not just an urgent documentary, but a profoundly beautiful elegy for a world slipping away before our eyes.”
The film is screening in selected independent cinemas around the country. Trailer
— Bill Marx
Film
The 28th Roxbury International Film Festival
Through June 26
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Hibernian Hall, Mass College of Art and Just-Bookish in Dorchester
Full Schedule of Events and Films
Over the course of nine days, New England’s largest film festival will celebrate people of color. Screenings will include 100 narrative, documentary, animated, experimental, and student films, along with Q&As with filmmakers, panel discussions, networking opportunities, and filmmaker hangouts.
Some selections include:
She Dared to Dream – A profile of Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley as well as a statement about the leadership we need right now.
June 22 at 7 p.m. at JustBook-ish on 1463 Dorchester Ave
Finding Your Laughter: This year’s signature screening follows Chicago comedian Arlieta Hall, who is learning to use stand-up comedy and improvisation as tools for both her own mental health and to be a caregiver for her father. The showing will be followed by a panel discussion.
June 25 at 7 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Montmartre: The closing night film is a romantic drama that explores Black history and love in Paris. The film stars Ito Aghayere (Picard) and Jesse Williams (Grey’s Anatomy).
June 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
In addition to films there will be a “Senior Lunch,” a free daytime event for seniors that includes a film, a boxed lunch, and a post-screening Q&A. The film is Pursuing Light: The Bill Strickland Story, with lunch catered by NECAT (New England Culinary Arts Training). At Hibernian Hall at 12:30 p.m. on June 23
The “Daily Script Read” is a program where local screenwriters’ work is read by local actors, followed by a discussion or Q&A. It’s meant to support new writing and give audiences a chance to hear scripts in progress; through June 30 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. — online via Zoom or in one of the Festival’s venues.
A scene from Unidentified. Photo: Sony Pictures Classics, Al Mansour Establishment
Unidentified
through June 25
Capitol Theatre, Arlington
In Saudi director Haifaa Al-Mansour’s 2025 thriller, 29-year old Noelle Al Saffan moves to the city to start a new life after her divorce. She’s obsessed with “true crime” podcasts and takes a mundane clerical job in a police station digitizing their old files. When a teenage girl’s body is discovered in the desert, the officers require a female present when they investigate the body. Noelle jumps at the chance. Using her knowledge about the hidden world of Saudi women, she pieces together a profile of the girl. Despite repeated warnings from the police chief to stay off the case, Noelle pursues the mystery, putting herself in danger and challenging preconceived notions about women, the threats they face, and even the motivations that connect her to the victim.
George MacKay and Callum Turner in a scene from Rose of Nevada. Photo: Venice Film Festival
Rose of Nevada
June 23 at 7:15 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theatre
When the Rose of Nevada—a fishing boat lost with all hands 30 years earlier—mysteriously reappears in the harbor of a forgotten Cornish village, those who remember take it as a sign. If the boat returns to sea, perhaps the village’s long run of misfortune will finally be broken. Young father Nick (George MacKay) and enigmatic newcomer Liam (Callum Turner) join Captain Murgey (Francis Magee) and set out aboard the vessel. But when they come back, something is wrong: they have slipped back in time, and the villagers greet them as if they are the original crew.
A post-film discussion with filmmaker Mark Jenkin will follow, moderated by author Paul Tremblay. Arts Fuse review
Wicked Queer Presents Pride Celebration
June 23 –June 25
Brattle Theatre
In celebration of Pride Month, Wicked Queer presents four gay themed classics
Desert Hearts: June 23 at 6 p.m.
Bound: June 23 at 8:15 p.m.
Beautiful Thing: June 24 at 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Macho Dancer: June 24 at 8:30 p.m.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch: June 25 at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
A scene from Mare’s Nest. Photo: Ben Rivers
Mare’s Nest
June 26 through July 2
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge
The American premiere of Ben Rivers’ film, which is based on Don DeLillo’s one-act play The Word for Snow. Moon is a girl who moves through a strange post-apocalyptic world with no adults. She encounters other children, a sage, and a translator, while trying to make sense of what happened to her and and what comes next. The film is told in vignettes and blends fable, philosophy, documentary, and speculative ideas. Traditionally, a mare’s nest means imagining that one has found something remarkable when, in fact, one has found nothing.
Disasterpiece Theatre
June 29 – Pre show tape swap at 6:30 p.m. Screening at 7 p.m.
Capital Theatre in Arlington
This is a monthly “Z-movie night” where weirdos gather to make fun of the worst films ever found on VHS, MST3K style. Come early for the pre-show tape swap, or just bring your friends (or enemies!) with you to eviscerate trash tapes over cold brews in a real live movie theatre! Held the last Monday in the next three months at the Capitol Theatre in Arlington, and it’s totally free! 18+
Robert Mitchum in 1973’s The Friends of Eddie Coyle.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Opens on June 30
Brattle Theater in Cambridge
Elements of Cinema presents Robert Mitchum in a Boston-set classic, adapted from George V. Higgins’s novel. Mitchum plays Eddie, a low-level gangster forced to choose between informing and returning to prison for another long stretch. As Eddie turns “songbird,” he struggles to protect himself without implicating the higher-ups.
This free screening is first-come, first-served and begins at 5:30 p.m. on the day of the show. An introduction will be given by Peter Horgan, Associate Professor of Film at Emerson College, followed by an informal discussion.
Down By The Riverside
July 1 and 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Somerville Theatre, Somerville
In the 1960s, the iconic American folk singer Pete Seeger devised an audacious plan—to build a sailboat as part of a campaign to save the polluted Hudson River. The Clearwater was not just a beautiful wooden vessel; it also sparked a movement that intersected environmentalism, civil rights, and antiwar activism. The documentary takes the audience on a musical and nautical odyssey, chronicling an unconventional campaign to care for a beloved American waterway, a effort that prompted a green revolution.
Pick of the Week
Close, streaming on Amazon Prime ($3.99) Hoopla & Kanopy (free)
A scene from Close.
One way to celebrate Pride Month and anticipate the upcoming French Film Festival—view this 2022 film from young Belgian director Lucas Dhont. Winner of the Grand Prix at the 75th Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award nominee, Close is a deeply felt coming-of-age story about two 13-year-old boys, Rémi and Léo, whose bond is as intimate as that of brothers. They move through the world together with ease, free of judgment or self-consciousness—until classmates question the nature of their relationship. A group of girls asks if they are a couple: Léo quickly denies it, but Rémi remains silent. Soon, whispers and insinuations from other boys unsettle Léo, straining and ultimately fracturing their once-effortless connection.
Easy moral binaries are resisted; the boys are surrounded by figures capable of empathy and support, which adds welcome nuance to the story. Young actors Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele deliver pitch-perfect performances. As I wrote back in 2023, Close reveals “an impressive understanding of human frailty and the power of forgiveness.” (Arts Fuse Review)
— Tim Jackson
Theater
Next to Normal Book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey. Music by Tom Kitt. Directed by Amanda Dehnert. Staged by Trinity Repertory Company at the Dowling Theatre, 201 Washington Street, Providence, through June 28.
The plot of this Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize–winning rock musical: “Diana is a suburban mom struggling with bipolar disorder. Her daughter, Natalie, is a stressed-out overachiever about to snap, and her exhausted architect husband, Dan, is determined to keep everything ‘normal.’ As Diana’s symptoms worsen, the Goodmans must learn to see each other for who they truly are and discover what it means to be family.” Named one of the 50 Most Influential Plays of the 21st Century by American Theatre.
Paul Melendy & Gabriel Graetz in the Central Square Theater production of The Mystery of Irma Vep. Photo: Maggie Hall Photography.
The Mystery of Irma Vep — A Penny Dreadful by Charles Ludlam. Directed by David R. Gammons. Staged by Central Square Theater, through June 28.
Some thoughts on The Mystery of Irma Vep by the late Arts Fuse critic Caldwell Titcomb, who saw a production of this “silly but sublime farce” in Washington, DC in 2008:
Charles Ludlam (1943-1987), founder of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company in 1967, author of 29 plays, flamboyant actor of both male and female roles, and an early victim of AIDS. In Irma Vep Ludlam combined the tradition of the 19th-century penny-dreadful with a desire to exploit the actors’ ability to change costumes and characters within seconds. Although the play employs only two actors, they have to portray seven people of both genders. There is above the mantel a portrait of the deceased Irma Vep with eyes that mysteriously move, and in Act II even an Egyptian mummy. In the original mounting, Ludlam and his longtime partner Everett Quinton played all the roles.
In the CST production, Paul Melendy and Gabriel Graetz tackle the multiple roles. Arts Fuse review
Melanie Moore in the American Repertory Theater production of Black Swan. Photo: Hawver and Hall
Black Swan. Book by Jen Silverman. Music, lyrics, and orchestrations by Dave Malloy. Music supervision and direction by Or Matias, with additional arrangements by Matias. Directed and choreographed by Sonya Tayeh. Based on the Searchlight Pictures film Black Swan, story by Andrés Heinz. Staged by the American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, through July 12.
A world premiere of a Broadway-bound musical that brings the cinematic psychological thriller Black Swan to the stage. “Pressure builds, boundaries blur, and reality begins to slip as Nina strives to rise from the ballet corps to the lead role in Swan Lake.” This adaptation is billed as “a haunting exploration of ambition, power, and the cost of perfection.” Arts Fuse review
The cast of ¡Que Diablos! Fausto, 2025. Photo: Susanna Jackson.
La Broa’ en tu barrio (La Broa’ in Your Neighborhood) by Orlando Hernández. Directed by Lorraine Guerra. A summer touring theatrical partnership between Rhode Island Latino Arts and Trinity Repertory Company. The production plays in parks across the state of Rhode Island, including Payne Park, Roger Williams Park, and more. Starting times and locations for this outdoor production change from date to date — please check the website. July 3 through August 2. Free
The show is a new adaptation of an earlier production. It draws from the true tales of Latino/a Rhode Islanders who have made Rhode Island their home, as documented by oral historianMarta V. Martínez in her book Nuestras Raíces (Our Roots). This staging will present “stories
Delirium, Igor Golyak’s adaptation of Eugène Ionesco’s Frenzy for Two. Staged by Arlekin at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, through July 2.
Delirium brings together Andrey Burkovskiy and Chulpan Khamatova in what the show’s press calls “a darkly comic, deeply human piece about survival, love, and the fragile architecture of reality.” The world premiere of Golyak’s version of the script follows a middle-aged couple bickering over trivialities as the world collapses into war, chaos, and social breakdown — updated here, no doubt, with a nod to climate catastrophe.
Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune by Terrence McNally. Directed by Julia Murney. Staged by the Psych Drama Company at the BCA Plaza Black Box Theatre, 539 Tremont Street, through June 28.
A revival of a much-produced romantic comedy. According to the Psych Drama Company website: “A story of hope and love as two characters, over the course of one night, find their way past the challenges that have blocked them from experiencing connection. Johnny, a short-order cook, and Frankie, a waitress, spend the night together in Frankie’s apartment. Johnny is certain he has found his soul mate, but Frankie is more cautious and at first writes the encounter off as a one-night stand. Over one long night, the two debate whether to take a chance on love.”
Sasha Diamond, Nancy Lemenager, Ken Cheeseman, and Eunice Woods in the Huntington Theatre Company production of Eureka Day. Photo: Liza Voll
Eureka Day by Jonathan Spector. Directed by Margot Bordelon. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company, The Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, through June 28.
A Tony-winning satire which asks if parents at a progressive, welcoming private school can uphold their harmonious shared values when Eureka Day faces an outbreak of the mumps. The cast includes Ken Cheeseman and Nancy Lemenager. Arts Fuse review
Fireflies by Matthew Barber. Directed by Daniela Varon. Staged by Shakespeare & Co in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, Lenox, through July 19.
The play that centers on an (unlikely?) love story in a small town. Here is how Shakespeare & Co sums things up: “Retired schoolteacher Eleanor Bannister lives alone in tiny Groverdell, Texas, settled into her routines and secure in her standing as the town’s most respected woman. When a hole in her roof brings Abel Brown—a charming, smooth-talking drifter—onto her doorstep, he offers to repair the house and quietly begins to upend her carefully ordered life. As an unexpected late-life romance flickers to life, gossip spreads and doubts surface. Can Abel be trusted, or is he not quite who he seems? Either way, the whole town is watching.”
Jim Petosa performing Fragments. Photo: Lauren Jacobbe
Fragments by Jim Petosa. Directed by Judy Braha. Staged by Great Barrington Public Theater, through July 5.
According to the Great Barrington Public Theater, this “piece is a memoir of a very specific time and place that shines a light on the turbulent years from 1985-90 when the world was overtaken by the eruption of the AIDS crisis … moments of life for one couple navigating their mystical, transformative, and harrowing journey through the AIDS pandemic. In a world where it has become more and more common for history to be eroded, rewritten or erased entirely.”
In Old Age by Mfoniso Udofia. Directed by Dawn M. Simmons. Produced by ArtsEmerson and Front Porch Arts Collective at the Emerson Paramount Center Jackie Liebergott Black Box Theatre, 559 Washington Street, Boston, through June 28.
A staging of the penultimate piece of Mfoniso Udofia’s nine-part play Ufot Family Cycle. The plot, according to the ArtsEmerson website: “Abasiama Ufot, still living in the house of her deceased husband, forms an unexpected spiritual bond with Azell Abernathy, a soft-spoken, church-going carpenter. As their connection deepens, and Abasiama’s house — and soul — become clearer, she comes to understand the true nature of love, sending her off on one last journey through life.”
Twelfth Night By William Shakespeare. Directed by Kate Kohler Amory. Staged by Shakespeare & Co at the Arthur S. Waldstein Amphitheater, Lenox, July 4 through 26.
An observation from Tony Tanner in his Prefaces to Shakespeare.
“Viola’s words in Twelfth Night on learning of the possible salvation of her brother determine the atmosphere at the end of the play:
O, if it prove,
Tempests are kind, and salt waves fresh in love!
(III, iv, 395-6)
That is probably the most defining sentence in Shakespearian comedy: salt becomes fresh; wreckage generates love; the world turns kind.”
The cast of Barrington Stage Company’s 2026 production of S. Asher Gelman’s The Zionists: A Family Storm. Photo: Daniel Rader
The Zionists: A Family Storm by S. Asher Gelman. Directed by Chloe Treat. Staged by Barrington Stage Company, 36 Linden Street, Pittsfield, through July 3.
The script explores the fault lines opened by the ongoing tragedy in Gaza, focusing on how shifting generational loyalties are tearing a Jewish-American family apart. This rare effort to look at the conflict on stage stirred controversy during its world premiere in Miami in May. Writing for Artburst, critic Mary Damiano noted that the Colony Theatre had installed metal detectors and additional security, including bag checks, and that, following a Sunday matinee, protesters from Jewish Voice for Peace distributed leaflets disguised as Playbills, “sparking some heated confrontations on Lincoln Road.” A production that provokes passionate debate? No danger of that here — Boston stages would never be so reckless.
Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe by D.W. Jacobs. Directed by Barbara Karger. Staged by the Chester Theatre Company at the Chester Town Hall Theatre, 15 Middlefield Road, Chester, through June 28.
From my review of the American Repertory Theater production of this script in 2011:
Playwright D.W. Jacobs calls this rousing one-man talk-a-thon dedicated to the futuristic imagination of American visionary R. Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) a “pileup of ideas.” And that is how the evening comes off, a whole kit-and-kaboodle journey through the capacious life and quirky mind of the inventor of the geodesic dome. At first, the script’s brusque zigzagging from subject to subject doesn’t seem right for Fuller’s lifelong dedication to the majesty, beauty, and flabbergasting flexibility of structure: hymns to the magic of synergy jump to family tragedy, paranoid meditations on worldwide capitalist conspiracies give way to smiley paeans to mankind’s chances for survival by making more out of less.
Aimee Doherty and Therese Plaehn in the Gloucester Stage production of Bad Books. Photo: Jeff Bousquet photography
Bad Books by Sharyn Rothstein. Directed by M. Bevin O’Gara. Staged by the Gloucester Stage Company at the Natti-Willsky Performance Center, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, through June 27.
The plot of this no doubt sympathetic look at the issue of American libraries under attack: “When a concerned mother finds her son with an ‘inappropriate’ book, an attempt to reason with the local librarian erupts into an explosive, town-wide confrontation. As tensions rise and consequences escalate, we learn that these women have more that connects them than what meets the eye.” The script, according to GSC, “explores the first impressions and raucous debates that divide us while forcing audiences to consider what it really means to care for our children.” Arts Fuse review
— Bill Marx
Television
Let’s start with the films leaving the Criterion Channel by the end of the month. The most significant loss here is pretty much every film Maya Deren has ever made. This is just sad. What better place for the catalog of one of history’s most iconic experimental filmmakers than this indie streaming channel? I’m hoping the reason has to do with Criterion issuing a collected physical DVD set of her works. Start with Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) and go from there.
Many other classic and excellent films are also leaving, so watch them while you can: including A Bigger Splash, the innovative documentary about legendary British painter David Hockney, who died last week (Jack Hazan, 1973); Hal Ashby’s unforgettably original Harold and Maude (1971); Bob Rafelson’s steamy thriller The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981); a few Buster Keaton films (sob!); and Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break (1991), as well as several films by Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan, including Family Viewing (1987), Speaking Parts (1989), Felicia’s Journey (1999), and Where the Truth Lies (2005).
A scene from Not Suitable for Work. Photo: Disney/Cara Howe
Not Suitable for Work (June 23, Hulu) — This comedy series from writer-producer Mindy Kaling (The Office, Never Have I Ever, The Sex Lives of College Girls), deals with twenty-somethings in NYC working in various high-pressure jobs. It promises to be lightweight but fun. Set across diverse industries, including advertising, media, medicine, and catering, the show taps into a number of issues: determination versus youthful indiscretion and inexperience; the struggle to keep things professional at work; obligatory references to half-hearted sexual harassment training. In the trailers, the humor comes off as a bit forced and sitcom-y at times, but cast’s energy and the topical vibe might charm audiences who are in the mood for optimism. The performers look fresh and somewhat quirky (a good thing): the line-up includes Ella Hunt (Dickinson), Constance Wu (Elsbeth), Jay Ellis (All Her Fault), nd Harry Richardson (The Gilded Age) along with veterans like Victor Garber and Greg Germann.
The American Experiment (June 24, Netflix) — This documentary miniseries, debuting as we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, is produced by Tom Hanks and directed by Brian Knappenberger (The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz). The trailer for this five-part series makes it look glossy and ambitious, with an impressive roster of talking heads from across the political spectrum. It’s a bit unsettling, perhaps, to ponder the decision to let hearing from Ted Cruz and Mike Pence carry equal weight alongside commentary from Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris. But there’s also Martin Sheen voicing George Washington. The program’s central theme: it is crucial to explore the history and evolution of our government. Understanding America’s past struggles and triumphs is essential in upholding democracy and preserving our nation. May we be worthy of this challenge.
— Peg Aloi
Visual Art
Winslow Homer, Mending the Nets, 1882. Photo: courtesy of the Portland Museum of Art
Winslow Homer lived and worked at his oceanside studio on Prout’s Neck, Scarborough, ME, from 1884 until his death in 1910. There he painted a series of dramatic scenes of the surging sea, including Eight Bells (1886) and Cannon Rock (1895), and began a series of technically virtuosic etchings with the help of New York printer George W. H. Ritchie. It was a return to printmaking for an artist known for oil paintings and watercolors, after twenty years of his early career working in
Winslow Homer lived and worked at his oceanside studio on Prout’s Neck, Scarborough, ME, from 1884 until his death in 1910. There he painted a series of dramatic scenes of the surging sea, including Eight Bells (1886) and Cannon Rock (1895), and began a series of technically virtuosic etchings with the help of New York printer George W. H. Ritchie. It was a return to printmaking for an artist known for oil paintings and watercolors, after twenty years of his early career working in lithography as a commercial illustrator. Of these etchings, Homer commented “As good work… as I ever did.”
Winslow Homer: Painter, Etcher opens July 2 at the Portland Museum of Art. As the present steward of Homer’s Prout’s Neck property, now restored as a museum, and with an important collection of the artist’s work, the PMA has organized the exhibition from a special vantage point, arranging the prints with artists’ proofs, drawings, and related paintings to evoke the natural environment where they were created.
The Cape Ann Museum reveals its newly renovated downtown Gloucester campus on June 30. Opening at the same time, the inaugural exhibition, Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea, explores three decades of shared Gloucester working summers, from the 1920s to the mid-1940s, by three major American modernists: Milton Avery (1885–1965), Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974), and Mark Rothko (1903-1970). Organized in close collaboration with all three artists’ estates, By the Sea features over eighty works, many never before exhibited, including ten Rothkos on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington. A major step up in ambition for the 150-year-old CAM, the exhibition will travel to the Phillips Collection, the CAM’s co-organizer, in October.
On June 26 at 6:00 pm the Provincetown Art Association and Museum holds an opening reception for the exhibition Avital Sagalyn: Mid-Century Provincetown. Sagalyn, who was born in 1925 and fled the Nazi invasion of Belgium with her family, was an art student at the Cooper Union in New York when she spent the summers of 1945 and ’46 at the tip of Cape Cod. Later she received an early Fulbright Fellowship to study in Paris, where she met Picasso. Although her work was seen and praised by important modern artists and critics, she turned down gallery representation and exhibitions until shortly before her death in 2020, when her work began to make a stir as the art of a “forgotten modernist.” This show of Cape Cod-themed drawings and paintings, paired with later work, is another step in this purported rediscovery.
W. Eugene Smith, The Spinner, 1951. Gelatin silver print mounted on board. Photo: Yale University Art Gallery
The Yale University Art Gallery opens Print Catalyst @ 30 and W. Eugene Smith and the Art of Witnessing on July 2. The Print Catalyst Program at Yale, which turns 30 this year, brings an artist to the Yale School of Art to create a work in a print medium of the artist’s choosing. The residency often includes collaboration with master printers and meetings with students. The Gallery acquires an example of the final print. The 35 prints in this show are products of the program and are displayed along with studies, intermediate states, and the artists’ recorded memories.
Photojournalist and LIFE magazine photographer W. Eugene Smith has been called “perhaps the single most important American photographer in the development of the editorial photo essay.” The Yale show includes selections from throughout his career, from his coverage of World War II through the devastating images of environmental mercury poisoning in his final 1975 series, Minamata.
The march of 250th-anniversary exhibitions continues with USA @ 250, opening at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art on June 27. The exhibition, drawn entirely from the museum’s collection, explores the history of the United States through works created since 1776.
In Vermont, the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center opens Migration/Home, a public artwork organized to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Local artist Jonathan Gitelson commissioned artists from the mural collective ArtLords, founded in 2014 in Kabul and now part of Brattleboro’s resettled Afghan refugee community. Their seven-panel work connects themes of “displacement, migration, and home.”
On June 27 at 11:00 am the Clark Art Institute will hold an opening reception for the exhibition Giorgio Griffa: Paths in the Forest. The show is the Zen-influenced, Turin, Italy-based artist’s first solo exhibition in North America. Over his sixty-year career, Griffa has created thirteen cycles, or connected bodies of art, which he calls “different pathways through the same dark forest.”
The Colby College Museum of Art joins forces with Waterville Creates and the Waterville Public Library to offer Art in the Park | Dream Butterfly + Bee Gardens in Castonguay Square in downtown Waterville, ME, on July 2, 3 p.m. through 5 p.m. Participants will hear a reading of Lily Williams’ If Bees Disappear and create a pollinator garden design using markers, pens, natural materials, and collage. Free to all ages; all materials supplied.
— Peter Walsh
Jazz
Elan Mehler Trio
June 22 at 7 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge, Mass.
The probing and lyrical pianist, composer, and record label empresario (Newvelle), Elan Mehler holds down his Monday residency at the Lilypad with the adept rhythm team of bassist Max Ridley and drummer Dor Herskovits. Mehler’s sets have served as a curtain raiser to the Jerry Bergonzi Quartet (8:30) and the Fringe (10) for a very long evening of exciting music.
Vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant. Photo: Ebru Yildiz
Montreal Jazz Festival
June 25-July 4
Montreal, Quebec
A lovely five-and-a-half-hour drive from Boston (on a nice summer day, that is), you’ll find the 10-day Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (FIJM), one of the biggest music festivals in the world, with over 350 shows, more than two-thirds of which are free. This year some of the players are Christian McBride (w/Julian Lage), Cécile McLorin Salvant, Charles Lloyd, the Bad Plus, Kamasi Washington, Nichoals Payton, John Pizzarelli, Marcus Gilmore, Diana Krall, Joshua Redman, Brandee Younger, Orrin Evans, Avishai Cohen (the trumpet-playing one), David Binney and . . . you get the idea. And that’s just a sliver of the jazzy jazz acts. There’s also a lot of cool pop (St. Vincent!) and Canadian acts that probably dare not cross our border. And if that isn’t enough, you can always book a Jet Boat ride on the Lachine Rapids of the St. Lawrence (highly recommended!).
Taylor Eigsti
June 25 at 7 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.
Taylor Eigsti, 41, came on the scene as a prodigy (joining the faculty of the Stanford Jazz Workshop at Stanford University at 15), but you could argue that his writing chops are at least as compelling as his virtuoso pianism — he has composer credits hither and yon, and he won the Grammy for best contemporary instrumental album for Tree Falls in 2023 and Plot Armor in 2025. No, those were not “jazz” awards, but Eigsti’s tasty writing belongs in a pop-adjacent category with the likes of Aaron Parks’s Little Big, and that ain’t bad. As of deadline, no idea whether he’ll be playing with a band or solo, but he will surely be worth checking out.
Pianist, composer, and bandleader Emmet Cohen. Photo: Gabriela Gabrielaa
Emmet Cohen Trio
June 26-27 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston
The ebullient host of Live from Emmet’s Place (one of the few good things to come out of COVID) returns to Scullers for two nights with the equally genial Joe Farnsworth (drums) and master bassist Reuben Rogers.
Alex Gao
June 26 at 7:30 pm.
Regattabar, Cambridge, Mass.
The assured young singer singer-songwriter Alex Gao leans pop, but she’s including drummer Francisco Mela as a special guest on this gig, so we’ll give her the jazz benefit of the doubt. The band also includes drummer Carter Hadcock, guitarist Gabriel Jonas, bass guitarist Koji Muraishi, and keyboardist Abraham Aruna .
Gargonz
June 27 at 7 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.
Mad Monkfish Restaurant, Cambridge, Mass.
Gargonz has been a decades-long occasional project by a couple of players generally considered two of the best jazz tenor saxophonists alive, George Garzone and Jerry Bergonzi. And they have a more than capable rhythm team in bassist Sean Farias and drummer Luther Gray.
— Jon Garelick
Classical Music
Violinist Anna Stube will perform at the Shalin Liu Performance Center. Photo: courtesy of the artist
Nightingale’s Sonata
Presented by Rockport Music
June 27, 11 a.m.
Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport
Violinist Anna Stube anchors a multimedia performance (narrated by Thomas Wolf, who wrote the eponymous book) about the life and work of violinist Lea Luboshutz. Jeanie Chung is the pianist.
Augustin Hadelich & Friends
Presented by Rockport Music
June 28, 5 p.m.
Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport
Violinist Hadelich showcases his solo chops in music by Telemann, Perkinson, Ysaÿe, and Paganini. He’s then joined by five all-star colleagues for a performance of Tchaikovsky’s effervescent Souvenir de Florence.
— Jonathan Blumhofer
Roots and World Music
FIFA Fan Fest featuring Borga’s Band and Safiya
City Hall Plaza
June 23
The Scottish Tartan Army, which has been delighting Boston all month. has moved on, but many of the other countries represented in upcoming World Cup games have significant populations right here in New England. The best opportunity for hearing contest-inspired live music: the free FIFA Fan Fest at City Hall Plaza on Tuesday. Afro-Caribbean chanteuse Safiya will appear at noon before the Portugal vs Uzbekistan game, and the Ghanian sounds of Borga’s Band, a favorite among Worcester’s vibrant Ghanian community, are also on tap – presumably before Ghana takes on the UK.
Martha Wash and Martha Warfield: It’s Raining Queens
Regent Theater
June 26, 7 p.m.
Even those who don’t know Martha Wash’s name will likely recognize her gospel-rooted voice. As the lead singer for the Weather Girls, C&C Music Factory, and Black Box, she has been belting out dance music anthems for decades. In recent years, Wash — who, in multiple instances, was not featured in the videos for songs on which she sang — has been claiming her legacy, stepping into the spotlight as a fierce live performer. Among her recent achievements is a stirring cover of Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” which becomes a showstopper when she performs it live alongside her other dance classics. And, unlike many of her fellow disco divas, Wash performs with a full band and live singers rather than a backing track. For this Pride Month “Raining Queens” show, she is joined by pioneering LGBTQ comedian and former Night Court star Marsha Warfield for the kind of music-and-comedy bill that used to be a nightlife staple.
Vapors of Morphine. Photo: courtesy of the artist.
Vapors of Morphine with Le Prestige
Regattabar
June 27, 7:30 p.m.
July 3 will mark 27 years since Morphine frontman Mark Sandman died while on tour in Italy. But the creative spark that he lit has stayed strong thanks to Vapors of Morphine, a successor group that features Morphine baritone saxophonist Dana Colley along with singer/multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Lyons and drummer Tom Arey. Their repertoire includes both Morphine favorites and their own originals. Opening the night is Le Prestige, an instrumental combo that Colley often plays with. Their dark, late-night lounge grooves will likely appeal to Morphine fans.
— Noah Schaffer
Author Events
Stephen O’Connor at Harvard Book Store
We Want So Much to Be Ourselves: A Novel
June 22 from 7- 8 p.m.
Free
“A heartrending story of love in a time of hatred, an absorbing investigation into the Nazis’ exploitation of psychoanalysis, and a cautionary tale about self-deception and the failures of a people to recognize the lies of their charismatic leader, We Want So Much to Be Ourselves examines the ways science can be corrupted and one’s very identity transformed by historical circumstance.”
Joshua Kendall with Bruce Schulman at Brookline Booksmith
Trudeau & Doonesbury
June 22 at 7 p.m.
Free
“Biographer Joshua Kendall tells the story of the cartoonist and what drove him to put pen to paper. He traces Trudeau’s boyhood in the Adirondack Mountains, his teenage angst in prep school, and his formative years at Yale, where he began drawing his iconic strip. And he shows the changing world it reflected; Doonesbury began appearing in papers nationwide in 1970, and big events, from Watergate to the the war in Vietnam, fueled its popularity and its significance.
“For more than 50 years, Doonesbury has helped drive the national conversation. The first comic strip to win a Pulitzer Prize, Garry Trudeau’s sprawling narrative featuring a host of beloved characters has reflected America back to itself, capturing the highlights and lowlights of American politics and culture with wit and penetrating insight. And as Doonesbury’s characters aged alongside their creator, Trudeau became one of the preeminent chroniclers of the Baby Boom generation.”
Stephen O’Connor at Harvard Book Store
We Want So Much To Be Ourselves
June 22 from 7- 8 p.m.
Free
“In beautiful, unsentimental prose, this gripping novel asks, who is complicit in times of evil? Who resists? And how can ordinary life and love carry on in the face of madness? A fraught love affair and the omnipresent threat of violence make this a tense and propulsive story. Rich in fascinating historical detail, ideas, and psychological insight, O’Connor’s story brims with compassion, and sounds a warning siren.”—Kate Manning, author of My Notorious Life and Gilded Mountain
Meg Stone at Harvard Book Store
Don’t Fight Back– And Other Myths About Crime, Personal Safety, and Gender-Based Violence
June 24 from 7- 8 p.m.
Free
“Finally, a book that empowers rather than weakens, a book that tells women we can and should expect more. We no longer have to be eternal victims. Meg Stone has delivered.”—Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises and Women We Buried, Women We Burned
Michael Bronski at Harvard Book Store
A Queer History of the United States: Revised and Expanded
June 25 from 7- 8 p.m.
Free
“This book is a revelation. Its lively and engaging narrative peels back layers of cultural interconnection—from the creation of corn flakes to curb masturbation to Bette Midler’s rise to stardom that started at a gay bathhouse—and much more. Bronski has a Zinn-like grasp of the ties that bind us all together and how to illuminate them on the page.”—Jewelle Gomez, activist and author of The Gilda Stories
Phill Branch at Harvard Book Store
The Double Dutch Fuss: A Memoir
June 26 from 7- 8 p.m.
Free
“The Double Dutch Fuss recounts growing up under the heavy burden of expectation—to be a boy, to be Black, and to be queer in ways that conform to rigid, often unforgiving norms. It is about the knotted path of becoming, while navigating the always-present fear of emotional and physical violence, and the threat of isolation for simply being who you are. Branch explores the cosmic pull between fathers and sons, and how healing wounds can open a pathway toward freedom and wholeness. His is an insightful and surprisingly humorous reflection on identity, masculinity, and the quiet, radical act of choosing to exist on your own terms.”
Radhika Singh with Aba Taylor at Brookline Booksmith
Earthly Playing Field
June 29 at 7 p.m.
Free
“Roma has a steady job, a mortgage, and a surrogate family in Queens. But as she moves through her daily routines, the powerful Empire that rules her world bares its teeth elsewhere-crushing freedom movements across the planet, including the Punjabi farmers’ uprising where her younger brother struggles on the frontlines.
Roma’s life is upended when her older brother entrusts her with a strange gift: an ordinary-looking plant that manifests a sophisticated bioengineered technology. The “cell” opens a portal for an extraterrestrial spirit-body bearing news of a liberated future-and the potential to hack AI warfare—propelling Roma and her family into the core of a rising resistance.”
Loubna Mrie at Harvard Book Store
Defiance: A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival in Syria
June 30 from 7- 8 p.m.
Free
“Defiance is the unforgettable account of one woman’s fight for freedom—against a father, a dictator, and the weight of inherited belief. From the streets of Aleppo to exile in New York City, it offers an electrifying portrait of moral courage in the face of authoritarianism and violence. Told with clarity, fury, and grace, Defiance offers a rare ground-level portrait of what it means to wake up, to resist, and to become.”
Rachel TonThat and Tobias Bärtsch at Brookline Booksmith
Die Alp An Sich: Tales from the Sarganserland
July 1 at 7 p.m.
Free
“Die Alp an sich is a bilingual collection of literary translations of Swiss folklore from the Sarganserland region by Tobias Bärtsch and Rachel TonThat. Translated from Swiss German and High German into English for the first time, the book dwells on the lifespan of the stories through time with past versions paired with historical context, new retellings, and excerpts from 19th to 21st century folklorists, including an essay by folklorist Dr. Meret Fehlmann at the University of Zurich.”
Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer in conversation with Ambassador Samantha Power at Porter Square Books
On Courage
July 7 at 7 p.m.
Free
“The United States is only the latest country to face a leader who wields fear as a weapon, punishes political enemies, disappears people off the street, and undermines free and fair elections. Today nearly three out of four people on earth live under authoritarianism, the highest rate since the late 1970s.
But even under repressive conditions, each of us holds the power to help defeat autocrats. Based on their acclaimed The New Yorker essay “So You Want to Be a Dissident?,” veteran reporter Julia Angwin and political strategist Ami Fields-Meyer give us a captivating – and profoundly hopeful – guide to courage in an age of fear.”
Discussing 33 1/3: Kevin Dunn, Michael Stewart Foley, and Michael T. Fournier at Brookline Booksmith
July 7 at 7 p.m.
Free
“Join us at Brookline Booksmith for a discussion on music writing with authors from the series 33 1/3: Kevin Dunn who wrote about Stiff Little Fingers’ Flammable Material, Michael Stewart Foley who wrote about The Dead Kennedys’s Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, and Michael T. Fournier who wrote about The Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime, in conversation with Nancy Barile.”
— Matt Hanson
Tagged: Bill-Marx, Jon Garelick, Jonathan Blumhofer, Matt Hanson, Noah Schaffer, Peg Aloi, peter-Walsh
