Friday and Saturday
Institute of Contemporary Art
100 Northern Ave., Boston
$15-$35, 617-478-3103
www.icaboston.org
Friday through Sunday
Brattle Theater
40 Brattle St., Cambridge
$9-$11, 617-876-6837
www.brattlefilm.org
Through March 6
Loeb Drama Center
64 Brattle St., Cambridge
$60-$75, 617-547-8300
www.americanrepetorytheater.org
Thursday through February 27
Tufts University
40 Talbot Ave., Medford
$1-$15, 617-627-3493
dramadance.tufts.edu
Tuesday, 8 p.m.
Hong Kong
1238 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
$16, 617-661-6507
thecomedystudio.eventbrite.com
Friday through April 17
MIT List Visual Arts Center
20 Ames St., Bldg. E15, Cambridge
Free, 617-253-4680
listart.mit.edu
Through March 5
VanDernoot Gallery, Lesley University
1815 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
Free, 617-349-8800
www.lesley.edu/exhibit/black-history-matters-365/
Sunday, 10 p.m.
ZuZu
474 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
Free, courtstenographers@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/CourtStenographersofComedy/
Thursday, 5:30 p.m.
Ned Divine’s
1 Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston
$22, 21+, 617-248-8800
www.neddivinesboston.com
Friday, 7 p.m.
The Burren
247 Elm. St., Somerville
$15-$18, tom@24hourtom.com
www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2495627
Brighton Music Hall
158 Brighton Ave., Allston
$12, 18+, 800-745-3000
www.ticketmaster.com
Friday, 9 p.m.
The Sinclair
52 Church St., Cambridge
$15, 18+, 800-745-3000
www.ticketmaster.com
Sunday, 9:30 p.m.
Great Scott
1222 Comm. Ave., Allston
$10-$12, 18+, 800-745-3000
www.ticketmaster.com
Saturday, 4:30 p.m.
Villa Victoria Center for the Arts
85 W. Newton St., Boston
$7, 617-927-1717
www.ibaboston.org
Check out Kid Koala’s robot-human love story at the ICA Boston
Jorn Mulder
MOVIES
“Nufonia Must Fall”
DJ and producer Kid Koala presents this puppet adaptation of his graphic novel, directed by K.K. Barret, designer for Spike Jonze’s film “Her” — a film whose theme is echoed here in the cute story of a robot who falls for its human co-worker. Koala and Afiara Quartet will provide live electro-acoustic musical accompaniment.
“Eisenstein in Gaunajuato”
The Brattle screens the area premiere of this new film from Peter Greenaway, which dramatizes the journey of Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein to Mexico in 1931, ostensibly to make a film called “Que Viva Mexico”. Instead, he ends up falling in love in a rather unexpected way. Self-discovery always comes at the akwardest times, doesn’t it?
THEATER
“1984”
The American Repertory Theater presents a new adaptation of George Orwell’s classic dystopian vision, perhaps the novel most referenced in discussions over contemporary encroachments on civil liberties. Talk of “Big Brother” can be so ubiquitous, in fact, that it can feel meaningless. Consider this a chance to return to the source material — it just might make you a better citizen.
“Next to Normal”
Tufts University students perform this celebrated rock musical about a suburban family struggling with its mother’s mental illness. That’s never a comfortable subject, but it was just this seriousness, and the way the writers treated the complexity of the situation in its joys and pains, which made “Next to Normal” stand out, ultimately winning a Pulitzer for drama.
MAGIC
Mystery Lounge Magic
The Comedy Studio at Harvard Square’s Hong Kong gets magical on Tuesday nights with this showcase, featuring a couple illusionists and a comedian for dessert. “Boston’s best-est and only-est regular magic show,” goes the tag line. There’s no word on who’ll perform from week to week, but whoever they are, you’ll be wondering how they did that. The answer: skill, friends.
ART
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige: I Must First Apologize…
Supposedly, we live in one of the most ideologically divided eras in history, but there’s at least one thing everyone hates: spam. And yet, somehow, it’s a successful trick—otherwise spammers wouldn’t keep trying. This multimedia show explores the history of spam through film, sculpture, photography, and installation, focusing in particular on money transfer scams and their wider sociopolitical resonances.
Black History Matters 365
Why have a Black History Month? Isn’t black history, like all history, relevant all year long? This show takes up that question, featuring artists Paul Goodnight, Lawrence Pierce, Destiny Palmer, Cedric Douglas, L’Merchie Frazier, Shea Justice and Percy Fortini-Wright, each addressing black history and the ongoing struggle for racial justice in his or her own unique way.
COMEDY
The Court Stenographers of Comedy
This local sketch group presents a jam-packed nightcap for your weekend, with stand-up from Nick Chambers, Maya Manion, Zack Norton, Andrea Hogan-McAlpin, Jere Pilapil, Ryan Donahue and headliner Emily Ruskowski, as well as their own brand of sketch comedy. Support local comedy! There’s no cover, so you have nothing to lose, except that I-have-to-go-back-to-work-tomorrow frown.
FOOD
7th Annual Boston Chili Cup
You, dear reader, will get to vote for your favorite chili among the many different entries cooked by over a dozen local restaurants at this event, which benefits Community Work Services, a non-profit working to end homelessness. So just to recap, you can help a bit towards ending homelessness by eating chil — sounds like a no-brainer.
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MUSIC
Adrianna Ciccone Trio/Hannah Christianson Band
Adrianna Ciccone is a Canadian fiddler who integrates the wide variety of North American fiddling idioms into her own style, from Cape Breton to Quebec to Appalachia. She shares the bill at the Burren with singer-songwriter Hannah Christianson, also of Canadian extraction, who describes her genre in more detail as “Folk-pop + Indie + Fairy dust.”
Peking Duk
Thursday, 9 p.m.
This Australian electronic music duo has a monster sound with a significant rock influence. Their tunes are so infectiously grandiose, they seem to be composed with fireworks instead of samplers. They got their big break with a Passion Pit remix in 2012, and in 2014 they scored an ARIA (that’s an Australian Grammy) for Best Dance Release. Nice job, boys.
Pimps of Joytime
This band, with members from both Brooklyn and New Orleans, has a classic soul/funk groove at the core of their sound, but they takes on a number of eccentricities from song to song, drawing in some Caribbean energy here, adding a sitar or an analog synth there, making for a new style all its own, and a damn good party band.
Audio Social Dissent 2016
Jack White’s Third Man Records rolls into town with this showcase of noisy punk bliss—just as you’d expect their chief curator to like—from Timmy’s Organism, VIDEO and Regression 696. Texan post-punkers VIDEO are the standout band to our ears, projecting the personal/political revolutionary spirit of early punk like the 80’s never ended—well, maybe they didn’t.
DANCE
Chinese New Year Celebration
The Chinese Folk Art Workshop, an organization founded to showcase young Chinese-Americans practicing the arts of their ancestral culture, will perform a traditional Chinese dance between the dragon and the phoenix, symbolizing the concepts of yin and yang, respectively, and together, they symbolize an ideal marriage. Note: the ticket price listed above is a suggested donation.
