Arts & Culture

Cirque du Soleil gets into the festive spirit this year with “’Twas the Night Before… ,” the company’s first-ever holiday show, playing at the Boch Center Wang Theatre through Dec. 11.

The world premiere recording of the revised version of “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X,” was released in October by BMOP/Sound. Recorded at Dorchester’s Strand Theatre, where the opera was performed for one night only on June 17, the album has been nominated for a 2023 Grammy Award. 

Kelli Morgan is on a mission to break down exclusionary and racist practices in cultural institutions once and for all. Morgan is a professor of the practice and the inaugural director of curatorial studies at Tufts University, where she’s pioneering the Anti-Racist Curatorial Practice certificate program.

Art historian, Flamenco dancer and cinematographer María Aliaga fell in love with the painter Remedios Varo 10 years ago. After a decade of research and creative devotion, she has channeled her feelings into a performative letter to the artist. “Querida Remedios” is a love letter written in Flamenco dance from Aliaga to Varo, and on Dec. 1, audiences can experience it on film at the Dance Complex in Cambridge.

A trio of talented musicians with Boston and Berklee College of Music roots bring a reimagined arrangement of African American spirituals to the African Meeting House on Dec. 1. Danny Rivera, Gavin Rushing and Matt Savage created the concert “Songs of Free Men” to celebrate the rich history of Black music and to unite everyone still searching for freedom.

Every December, the Boston Holiday Pops concerts ring in the festive season with carols, holiday stories and an appearance by Santa Claus. But in addition to the traditions that symphony-goers cherish, conductor Keith Lockhart brings in new, diverse components to the program every year.

Vibraphonist Warren Wolf will be performing two shows at Scullers Jazz Club on Friday, Nov. 18. This is his return, finally, after having his performance there canceled in March 2020 when the club closed due to the COVID pandemic.

“Charles Gate” by muralist and graffiti artist Percy Fortini-Wright visually connects the tech-centric neighborhood to Greater Cambridge and the Charles River with a particular focus on aquatic ecology.

Though there’s still the Thanksgiving meal to prepare and fall foliage lingering around Boston, it’s officially November, which means holiday shopping season has begun. Get a head start on your loved ones’ wish lists with these products from local Black-owned businesses. 

Groundbreaking choreographer Kyle Abraham and his company A.I.M by Kyle Abraham present a new composition, “Requiem: Fire in the Air of the Earth” Nov. 18-19 at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre.

Ray Angry, pianist and composer in The Roots, the house band on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” will have the world premiere of his symphony “Black Athena-Power” with the Lexington Symphony on Saturday, Nov. 19.

Henry VIII’s six wives are tired of his nonsense. A beheading can really drain a girl’s energy. In “Six,” headed to the Emerson Colonial Theatre Nov. 9–Dec. 31, the wives take the stage as diva performers in a show that’s part concert, part history lesson and part Bravo TV special.