In the mid-1960s, poet/critic Frank O'Hara and Dutch artist Jan Cremer collaborated on a series of prints that have never been shown in the U.S., until this evening, when Load of Fun opens a month-long show and hosts a reading of O'Hara's poems by Michael Ball, Chris Mason, Chris Toll, David Beaudouin, and Megan McShea. Load of Fun proprietor Sherwin Mark made the original prints for Cremer in Amsterdam back in the day, so that's how this work found its way to Baltimore. The readings begin at 7:30 pm.

Later tonight, Current Gallery hosts a party for the release of Proliferate, the tri-annual zine of new poetry.

Tomorrow, Soulful Symphony, after a year-long hiatus, kicks off its residency at the Hippodrome with a show that includes tributes to Motown and Michael Jackson; the Baltimore Playwrights...

It hasn't taken new Centerstage artistic director Kwame Kweh-Armah long to make good on promises to A) partner with other theater groups and B) make theater more available to the community at large. For evidence of all this, check out Sunday night's pub reading at Liam Flynn's Ale House in Station North. It features actors from Single Carrot and Everyman reading Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane. It starts at 8 pm, and it's free. And there will be another free reading of a McDonagh play at the pub next Sunday.

Local metal/hardcore label A389 celebrates its eighth anniversary with a huge show at Sonar on Saturday night. Featuring 16 bands on two stages, the night will be a blitz of punk, thrash, death metal, and doom from a label that has released more than 100 albums—as in vinyl records!—since 2004. I'm partial to a shoegaze band, Anne, that records for A389. They won...

"The Dog Whisperer," Cesar Millan, gives a talk at the Lyric tonight, Itzhak Perlman performs with the BSO at Strathmore, and local metal heroes Charm City Devils play Baltimore Soundstage.

Tomorrow, a memorial service for legendary restaurateur Morris Martick will be held at the Charles Theatre, Perlman and the BSO are at the Meyerhoff, and you might think that just about everything comes to a halt when the Ravens play the Texans. But it's also a great time to visit the BMA, the Walters, or AVAM.

And don't forget that Gleam, based on Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, just opened at Centerstage!

Annapolis-based Severn Records has signed the Nighthawks, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Mud Morganfield, Muddy Waters's oldest son. Morganfield's CD, Son of the Seventh Son, comes out in March, and new discs by the Hawks and the T-Birds are expected later this year. It's easy to see why Severn will be receiving a "Keeping the Blues Alive Award" from the Blues Music Association. The awards ceremony will be held in Memphis on May 10th. And the Nighthawks play the Creative Alliance on February 24th.