5 things to do this weekend, including sonic Arbor Week experiences and Mother's Day celebrations

This weekend ushers in creativity in the outdoors. Attend an Arbor Week Celebration in Cambridge, reveling in the sounds of the natural world through a project generated by sound designer Skooby Laposky. With Mother’s Day on Sunday, there are opportunities to honor the multiple dimensions of what motherhood represents. Somerville’s PorchFest presents a sweeping city-wide festival of music, while you might also stop by the Center for Arts at the Armory to hear Yiddish songs for social change. See our picks below.

Cambridge sound artist and 2025 WBUR Maker Skooby Laposky celebrates Arbor Week with the Cambridge Department of Public Works at Joan Lorentz Park. Visitors are invited to participate in two sonic experiences in front of Cambridge’s Main Library. Through “Tree Hugging Studies,” they will be welcome to “listen deeply” to public interactions with the Copper Beech tree’s environment, tuning into the amplified sounds of contact with various parts of nature. Through the project “Verdant Ear,” Laposky has created a new mobile web app that allows participants to build their own soundscapes, generated with support from microphones placed in different spots around the park. The celebration, which lasts from 10 a.m.-5 p.m., offers other tree-centered activities, such as a tea tasting where birch bark tea and linden flower/leaf tea can be sampled, as well as an elm “cookie” display, which presents a glimpse at a cross-section of a 100-year-old elm tree.

This annual music festival gives neighbors, community members and travelers a chance to explore the city, wandering from house to house listening to concerts where the porches serve as the stages. A virtual map allows listeners to identify different bands they’d like to see live across Somerville. Who can you expect to hear from? Tiffy will bring “fuzz-tinged dream rock music” to Magoun Square 2-4 p.m., while all-woman and nonbinary wedding band The Femmes will take the stage near Davis Square noon-2 p.m. Indie rock group Otis Shanty will play 4-5:30 p.m. in the East Zone of the festival, as will folk rock group Mel Starr & the Astral Project 5-6 p.m. Block parties will happen during the festival, and of course, the event is entirely free. [Check out our guide to Somerville’s PorchFest for more musical highlights and transportation tips.]

Get ready to see how much spice you can handle at this year’s Boston Hot Sauce Festival: Rhythm N’ Spice. Held at The Foundry in Cambridge, the event takes place over the course of two sessions, 12-4 p.m. and 4:30-8:30 p.m. Small and local businesses — including Cay’ya Hot Sauce and That Sweet Southern Heat — will be selling their wares, and local chefs will do live demonstrations, including Chef Oli Prudent of Toasted Chef, who will make a Haitian gnocchi dish, and Chef Audrey Mills will prepare spicy sweet potato and black fritters. In addition, guests can experience challenges with prizes, a lounge with specialty cocktails, global rhythms to listen to, and a Kids & Culture zone with face painting, henna art and more. Advance general admission tickets cost $12, while VIP access costs $50. (The VIP option grants visitors a meal ticket, access to the VIP Lounge, a swag bag and more.)

If you can’t get enough of the music scene in Somerville, drop by the Center for Arts at the Armory to enjoy a concert that will inspire hope for social transformation in the world. A Besere Velt Yiddish Chorus, an intergenerational community chorus, “weaves the heartache and irrepressible idealism of Yiddish music into a vision of justice and humanity.” Meanwhile, Golden Thread Ensemble, a “pioneering new chamber-klezmer group,” activates the power of music to address “the important struggles for improvements in the living and working conditions for millions of people over the last 150 years.” The show runs from 2-4 p.m., and tickets cost $36, with young adult or limited income tickets priced at $18.

Celebrate Mother’s Day with the Museum of African American History. During this song circle, The Haus of Glitter, a queer and BIPOC affirming dance company and performance lab based in Rhode Island, will offer a joyful way of collectively honoring mothers, grandmothers, matriarchs and maternal figures from chosen families. All are invited to share stories and sing while thinking about “lineage, memory and the power of maternal love.” As a community, participants will also learn about a Cape Verdean heritage song passed down through the generations. The event runs from 1-2 p.m., and while tickets are free, it is recommended that guests reserve a spot in advance.