From left: Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura and Cailee Spaeny in "Civil War." (Courtesy A24)

'Civil War' is a hackneyed portrait of war correspondents in the thick of it

Directed by Alex Garland, the film is about an ideological conflict in which ideologies are never discussed. "The movie manages to be exploitative while lacking the nerve of an exploitation...

Arts & Culture

Apr 11, 2024

Martin Parr, "Dakar," 2001. (Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

5 things to do this weekend, including Boston Marathon activities and 'Dress Up' at the MFA

Plus, Wicked Queer’s 40th anniversary and Taiko drumming in the Arnold Arboretum.

Arts & Culture

Apr 11, 2024

Boston's Ethiopian groove master delves into electronic soundscapes

D.A. Mekonnen, who led the long-running Ethiopian funk outfit Debo Band, has a new project called dragonchild. His debut album of the same name will be celebrated with a local...

Arts & Culture

Apr 10, 2024

Charles Daniels with his trove of unprocessed film. (Courtesy Susan Berstler)

A tribute for Charles Daniels, a.k.a the Master Blaster, and the 90,000 photographs he left behind

When he died on January 22, Charles Daniels left behind a trove of 90,000 images. For decades they sat undeveloped, inside canisters that were stored in zip lock bags at...

Arts & Culture

Apr 6, 2024

David Socolar and Britney Coleman in the North American tour of "Company." (Courtesy Matthew Murphy/MurphyMade)

'Company' is about the connections we keep

Critic Jacquinn Sinclair writes “Company” boasts a lot of great music and stresses that it’s the true connections—where one can laugh on the stoop with a friend, spill the relationship...

Arts & Culture

Apr 5, 2024

From left, Peter Tantsits as Edgar Allan Poe, conductor Gil Rose and Tom Meglioranza as Griswold during a performance of "The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe." (Courtesy Kathy Wittman/Ball Square Films)

Edgar Allan Poe's final woes revived in a forgotten opera

The horror writer was born in Boston in 1809, then died 40 years later — destitute and delirious — in Baltimore. Poe’s final days are being conjured by the Boston...

Arts & Culture

04:59Apr 5, 2024

Firelei Báez, "Untitled (Les tables de géographie réduites en un jeu de cartes)," 2022. (Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, New York; photo by Jackie Furtado)

Artist Firelei Báez returns to the ICA with sweeping mid-career survey

Much of her work deals with the troubled historical narratives of the Caribbean. Often, it takes the form of an imagined or mythological intervention with received knowledge from the region’s...

Arts & Culture

Apr 4, 2024

Firelei Báez, "A Drexcyen chronocommons (To win the war you fought it sideways)," 2019. (Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, New York; photo by Phoebe d’Heurle.)

5 things to do this weekend, including Firelei Báez at the ICA and nasturtiums at the Gardner

Plus, a film series all about keeping "score" and one of the actors of "Rent" tells his story.

Arts & Culture

Apr 4, 2024

Olivia Coleman in "Wicked Little Letters." (Courtesy Parisa Taghizadeh/Sony Pictures Classics)

'Wicked Little Letters' is a quirky British comedy about small-town scandal

Starring Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley, the film is based on a true story about a series of obscene missives that scandalized a small Sussex town in the early 1920s,...

Arts & Culture

Apr 4, 2024

Nine artists will take the stage on April 8 at #hellablack. From top left: Isaura Oliveira, D Ruff, Letta Neely, Ky, Joline, Capella, Killah Croc, TiElla, DayDadon (Courtesy Colgan B. Johnson/ 1981andCo)

At the BCA, #HellaBlack returns and is bigger than ever

The annual event centering Black artistry is now at the Cyclorama, doubling its capacity since last year.

Arts & Culture

Apr 4, 2024

Singer-songwriter Ava Della Pietra says "new experiences" key to overcoming writer's block

Singer-songwriter Ava Della Pietra is making waves in the pop music world. She talks about her writing process and says overcoming writer's block requires having new experiences.

Arts & Culture

13:12Mar 29, 2024

Cover of Jean Trounsine's "Motherlove." Available for free through Concord Free Press. (Courtesy Concord Free Press)

Book highlights stories of mothers caught up in the criminal legal system

New book tells stories of women whose children were charged with murder. We talk about the experiences of women in the Massachusetts criminal legal system.

Arts & Culture

19:14Mar 29, 2024

Violinist Clara Kim plays a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin made in Turin in 1783, at Reuning & Son Violins, as she make her selection of a fine violin for A Far Cry's "Stradivari Serenade." (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

For one night only, a $100 million orchestra takes the stage

In a special concert, A Far Cry chamber orchestra teams up with Reuning & Son Violins to perform an entire program on rare instruments by legendary luthiers like Stradavarius, Amati...

Arts & Culture

04:25Mar 29, 2024

A production image from "Mrs. Krishnan's Party." (Courtesy Indian Ink Theatre Company)

At ArtsEmerson, 'Mrs. Krishnan's Party' is hard to resist

New Zealand's Indian Ink Theatre Company puts on a revelry-centered show that begs audiences to forget their troubles at the door and uses storytelling and cooking to entice. Theater critic...

Arts & Culture

Mar 29, 2024

Virginia L. Molyneaux Hewlett Douglass (Courtesy of the Boston Athenaeum)

5 things to do this weekend, including 'Framing Freedom' at Boston Athenaeum and an ICA play date

Plus, "Buttons On!" at Fuller Craft Museum and "WomAnimation!" at MassArt.

Arts & Culture

Mar 28, 2024

Eric LaRocca's new book is "This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances." (Courtesy Titan)

For author Eric LaRocca, horror is a form of healing

You can try reading Eric LaRocca's new collection “This Skin Was Once Mine and Other Disturbances” in the daylight. But even sunshine won’t be able to banish the deep-body chills...

Arts & Culture

Mar 28, 2024

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. (Jill Kaufman/NEPM)

MASS MoCA union employees end strike after contract agreement reached

Unionized employees of MASS MoCA, the contemporary art museum in North Adams, voted Tuesday to ratify an agreement on wages, ending a three-week strike that began March 6.

Arts & Culture

Mar 27, 2024

A still from director Edward Yang's 2000 film "Yi Yi." (Courtesy Harvard Film Archive)

Harvard Film Archive celebrates the cinema of Edward Yang

The director was a key figure of the New Taiwan Cinema, a nascent movement emerging from decades of state censorship and marital law. The retrospective “Chronicles of Changing Times: The...

Arts & Culture

Mar 27, 2024

Stephanie Clayman as Irene Pepperberg and Jon Vellante as Alex in "Beyond Words" at Central Square Theater. (Courtesy Maggie Hall)

Central Square Theater's 'Beyond Words' captures the bond between a researcher and parrot

Written by Laura Maria Censabella, the play is inspired by Irene Pepperberg, who taught an African grey parrot named Alex to communicate and solve problems for more than 30 years....

Arts & Culture

Mar 26, 2024

Daniel Callahan performs an early iteration of "Come On In - Live" at Emerson College's Liebergott Black Box Theatre. (Courtesy Anawan Productions)

An artist invites audiences to 'Come On In' to his psyche

Playing at the Strand Theatre March 28-30, the autobiographical one-man play follows writer-actor Daniel Callahan as he navigates mental health and religion as a Black man.

Arts & Culture

Mar 26, 2024