Arts & Culture

This is the 18th interview in a weekly series presenting highlights of conversations between leading Black visual artists in New England. In this week’s installment, artist James Perry talks to artist Cagen Luse at the Boston Comics in Color Festival, held last Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center.

Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” is one of the classic operas that stirs the hearts of music lovers from the first notes. This month, Boston Baroque presents a contemporary spin on the timeless tale of seduction and betrayal, starring award-winning baritone Sidney Outlaw.

The first Black doll Debra Britt ever received was not, in fact, Black. Dolls with skin tones akin to hers were rare at the time, so her grandmother improvised, submerging a white vinyl doll in black dye to darken its pale exterior.

This is the 17th interview in a weekly series presenting highlights of conversations between leading Black visual artists in New England. In this week’s installment, artist L’Merchie Frazier talks to artist Napoleon Jones-Henderson.

On a recent evening, the jolting sounds of string instruments filled a room that was half dance studio, half gym. A quartet stood in the center of a mat-covered section of the space, each member stationed behind a music stand. Three dancers circled the ensemble, cycling through a series of turns and leaps and kicks.

This weekend, visitors to the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Roxbury might spot some unusual characters. The center’s typical runners and basketball players will be replaced with superheroes, steampunk warriors and anime adventurers during the annual Boston Comics in Color Festival celebrating stories by and about people of color. and about people of color.

This is the 16th interview in a weekly series presenting highlights of conversations between leading Black visual artists in New England. In this week’s installment, artist James Perry talks to artist Amber Torres.

“Poetry vs. Hip-Hop” brings to the stage an array of local artists specializing in spoken word, music and comedy before turning over the mic for the headlining performance: a cordial battle between poets and emcees.

Painter Josué Bessiake is obsessed with the dynamics of the ordinary. In his current show at Gallery NAGA, “Josué Bessiake: A Bird’s Last Look,” the ordinary takes the form of chairs.

“Firelei Báez,” the spellbinding exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston through Sept. 2, is the first U.S. survey of this Dominican American artist, whose works are often described as history paintings for our time.

This is the 15th interview in a weekly series presenting highlights of conversations between leading Black visual artists in New England. In this week’s installment, artist Paul Goodnight talks to artist Gale Fulton Ross.

Stephen Sondheim’s 1970s comedic musical “Company” gets a modern upgrade in the Broadway tour production in Boston this month.