Mykki Blanco, ‘Mortified’ and more ways to get through the snowy weekend

TALKS

Demystifying Bitcoin

Upon Bitcoin’s debut in 2009, many analysts predicted that the entirely online currency would crash and burn. But eight years later, despite ups and downs, Bitcoin is starting to seem like more than novelty. So what is it, and what does it mean for the future of money? Michael Casey of MIT will set the record straight.

February 9, 6 p.m.
Workbar Boston, 711 Atlantic Ave., Boston
Free, http://bit.ly/2lgzsKJ

THEATER

The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Ireland’s Druid Theater Company drops in with Martin McDonagh’s 1996 black comedy about a rather dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship transpiring somewhere in county Connemara. The play, which won several Tony awards when it first ran on Broadway has been celebrated for knocking the audience’s expectations around like a ping-pong ball. Marie Mullen, who originally played the daughter, now plays the mother.

February 8 through 19
Paramount Center, 559 Washington St., Boston
$10-$90, http://bit.ly/2dNwdbq

Don’t Give Up the Ship

Fresh Ink Theater presents a “Quantum Leap”-style time travel tale from Laura Neill. One morning, average contemporary mom Diana wakes up to discover that she’s Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval hero of the War of 1812, and the other members of her family have now become, in different senses, her subordinates. Once the servant of all, now she’s master and commander.

February 10 through 25
Black Box, BCA Plaza, 539 Tremont St., Boston
$25, http://bit.ly/2j4OWEf

DANCE

Passage through Blue

The Continuum Dance Project, in collaboration with artist and writer Soyoung L Kim, presents this multimedia performance installation relying on sculpture and projections to complete the choreography. The pesky old “fourth wall” is dissolved here; the audience can walk around wherever they want. Of course, one wouldn’t want to disturb the performers very much, so maybe it’s just a more flexible fourth wall.

February 10 and 11
Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont St., Boston
$20, http://bit.ly/2jUGcB3

Our Story: A Celebration of the African and African American Experience through Spoken Word, Dance and Music

OrigiNation, a local organization working to empower African-American youth through the arts, presents this multi-genre performance, described on their website as “a compilation of poetry, dance, music and scenes from historical and current events significant to African and African-American history.” Think of it as your Black History Month mixtape. Performers include youth from OrigiNation’s dance programs as well as local adults and students.

February 10 and 11
Tower Auditorium, MassArt, 621 Huntington Ave., Boston
$20, http://bit.ly/2kJ3sBI

ART

Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present

The Cooper Gallery describes Juan Roberto Diago as Cuba’s most prominent artist, and a leading voice among Afro-Cuban artists speaking directly against the racism in Cuban society. His heritage is central to his art, in which he represents the African-descended view of his nation’s history, out of which his people are so often left in official narratives.

Through May 5
Ethelbert Cooper Gallery, 102 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge
Free, http://bit.ly/1JJNdMk

MUSIC

Dark Sister

Boston Conservatory students perform this 2011 opera by Nico Muhly, which delves into the mysterious world of “Fundamentalist” Mormons—considered heretics by the LDS Church—who defiantly cling to polygamy. Muhly condenses extensive research on these hermit communities into the story of one woman’s attempt to escape a world in which, we’re told, “personal identity is forbidden.”

February 9 through 12
Boston Conservatory Theater, 31 Hemenway St., Boston
$25-$30, http://bit.ly/2kzNuHC

The Stunt Queen Tour with Mykki Blanco and Cakes Da Killa

The stereotypical hip-hop/R&B aesthetic is hyper-macho and heteronormative, but Mykki Blanco, with his genderqueer glam style, seems to have not gotten the memo. His video for “Loner” is brain-scrambling bliss, so weird it’s almost revolutionary. He’s joined here by fellow gay MC Cakes da Killa, who’s a superior rapper, but both are going to bring one freaky party.

February 12, 8 p.m.
The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge
$15-$17, 18+, http://bit.ly/2jHWrfU

MOVIES

Boston Sci-fi Film Festival

This 10-day blowout is the oldest genre-based film festival in the United States. It culminates with a 24-hour marathon, which the organizers describe as an “orgiastic motion picture endurance test.” Many of the films, culled from across the Globe, are premieres for New England or the whole the U.S., and a few are being screened here for the first time anywhere.

February 10 through 20
Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville
$8-$130, http://bit.ly/2iL0LPO

COMEDY

Lewis Black

Lewis Black is the reigning king of the Pixies dynamic—quiet, quiet, LOUD—in standup comedy. Behind all the shouting is a mind that could’ve been a great political pundit, but punditry doesn’t deserve it. Black’s often pegged as a political comedian, he’s really just on a crusade against idiocy, and politics continues to be a particularly rich source.

February 10 and 11
Shubert Theater, 265 Tremont St., Boston
$60-$80, http://bit.ly/2gRVxfT

Mortified Boston: Doomed Valentine’s Day Extravaganza

Valentine’s Day is awkward by nature—remember filling out all those little Valentine’s cards for the kids in your class you didn’t even know, much less like? Then you grow up, and you’ve got all this pressure to have an especially romantic date, simply because it’s February 14. Yes, it seems like a holiday tailor-made for a round of “Mortified” stories.

February 12, 7 p.m.
Oberon, 2 Arrow St., Cambridge
$15, http://bit.ly/2kOPKfY

CONVENTIONS

New England Boat Show

Whether you use boats for work or recreation or you do neither, and you just want to get inside some cool boats, there’s a lot to explore at the boat show. There are seminars on fishing, maintenance and more, and some local school kids are actually going to be building their own seaworthy boat, which will be raffled off.

February 11 through 19
Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, 415 Summer St., Boston
$15, http://bit.ly/1yoCddY