Guide to what’s happening in Boston this week
Shopping
Holiday Sip and Shop
Today, 4-8 p.m.
Smudge Ink, 50 Terminal St., Building 2, Charlestown
Free, 617-242-8228
www.smudgeink.com
Smudge Ink, a local independent stationary and gift shop, in partnership with Crash, Stella Marie Soaps and 2 Fresh Threads, is offering free Pretty Things beer and snacks from Boston Organics and Food Should Taste Good to entice you to get to your Holiday shopping with overachieving earliness. A portion of your purchase goes to the Greater Boston Food Bank.
25th Annual Christmas Festival
Friday through Sunday
Seaport World Trade Center
200 Seaport Blvd., Boston
$9-$10, 617-742-3973
www.bostonchristmasfestival.com
Perhaps it’s too early to be holding something like this, but then again, why not beat the crowds? This craft fair features non-Christmas work from over 300 American craft artists, plus everything you need to decorate your home for the season, and a gingerbread house competition featuring top chefs. Proceeds from the sale of the houses will benefit homeless families.
Theater
Moby Dick
Monday through Nov. 12
Paramount Center
559
Washington St., Boston, $25-$49,
617-824-8400
www.artsemerson.org
This is a
one-man adaptation of Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” by Gare St. Lazare
Players Ireland, featuring Conor Lovett as Ishmael. The immortal story
of one man’s singular obsession is perfect for this format — it’s like
you’re hearing the tale in the dimmed corner of some bygone seaside
tavern, too overwhelmed by its immensity to dare be incredulous.
Culture
Anonymous: Shadow, Dance, and Music
Through Friday
Voltage Coffee and Art
295 Third St., Cambridge
$7-$15,
www.whennotesfly.com
Cambridge-based chamber music organization When Notes Fly presents this evening of music and dance, all performed behind a screen, so you can only see the silhouettes of the players and dancers. The music has been especially commissioned for it, so you’ll get to hear some fresh chamber music in a presentation that’s as intriguing to the eyes as to the ears.
Art
One Man’s Trash
Opening Reception
Saturday, 5-9 p.m.
Gallery at the Piano Factory
791 Tremont St., Boston, Free,
www.traditionsremixed.com
This new exhibition from Traditions Remixed, a local collective formed by MassArt grads, features paintings, installation and sculpture from Destiny Palmer, Stephen Hamilton and Adam Bullock, all integrating found materials (the “trash” hinted at in the title).
Sand Mandala Dismantling Ceremony
Friday, 12:30 p.m.
Brant Gallery, MassArt
621 Huntington Ave., Boston
Free, 617-879-7000
www.massart.edu
Tenzin Yignyen, Tibetan Bud-dhist monk and master of sand mandalas, has been visiting at MassArt since Halloween, creating one of his beautiful works. At this ceremony, get a good last look, because he will des-troy it in a ritual meant symbolize impermanence of all things and purge the area of evil energy, making room for good.
Dance
Aszure Barton and Artists
Friday and Saturday
Tsai Performance Center
685 Comm. Ave., Boston
$50-$60, 617-482-6661
www.celebrityseries.org
This Canadian choreographer’s company will perform two pieces. The first, called “Busk,” starts off, as its title suggests, with a guy putting down a hat for spare change. The control her dancers have is striking — they are puppeteers of their own bodies, manipulating themselves in unexpected ways that resonate with psychological power.
Y.E.S.: A Year End Show
Friday and Saturday
Green Street Studios
185 Green St., Cambridge
$10-$15, 617-477-4494
www.luminariumdance.org
The Luminarium Dance Company, a local contemporary dance troupe, rounds off its season with works by Merli V. Guerra, Kimberleigh A. Holman and more.
Readings
Free Will: Shakespeare
Story Slam
Saturday, 4-7 p.m.
The Burren, 247 Elm St., Somerville, Free, 617-776-6896
massmouth.ning.com
Story slams are like poetry slams but with prose instead, and so considerably less annoying. You may enter this one with your own Shakespeare-related story, spoken word piece, or 10-minute play or sketch.
