There’s a lot to believe in this week. Just trust us.

 

Cover of Daniel Clowes’s The Death Ray.

 

MONDAY

BOMB is celebrating Valentine’s Day early with its Powerhouse Reading tonight at 7PM. Come check out the readings from Tina Chang, Alexander Chee, Robin Beth Schaer, and Myla Goldberg, and a performance by Alina Simone. In addition, it will be Paul Morris’s last official night with the staff, so come by and join us in draining the Gatorade cooler on coach. The reading will be held at the Powerhouse Arena on 37 Main Street in DUMBO from 7–9PM.

TUESDAY

BAM Café, that live wire of all things cultural and spiritual, hosts philosophers Cornel West and Simon Critchley for a night of deep thought and even deeper conversation. Held in honor of Critchley’s just-published The Faith of the Faithless, the philosophy will be followed by a book-signing.

WEDNESDAY

Nathan Englander and playwright Sarah Jones take to the New York Public Library to discuss What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, Englander’s new collection of short fiction. Meet them in the stacks.

THURSDAY

Choreographers Amanda Loulaki and Levi Gonzalez share The Kitchen to cook up an evening of premiers: Loulaki’s latest solo work explores fragmented time, while Gonzalez’s unpacks the power structures of performance.

FRIDAY

BOMBlog’s Legacy Russell and Stina Puotinen of the creative collaborative LIMITED TIME ONLY (LTO) invite you to an evening riot of love letters and spiked tea. Readers will share radical texts about loss, lust, and adulation culled from the dead-letter offices and archives of history in a celebration and exploration of the ever-expanding definition of love. Bons-mots, bon-bons, booze, and belles-lettres will be served. We love you—we love you not.

SATURDAY

We’re ready to jump straight to mardi gras if you’ll jump with us. It’s all happening at the HIRO ballroom with the Rebirth Brass Band. Heralded as one of the best contemporary New Orleans vintage marching band ensembles, they promise an evening full of “booming uptempo tunes, spirituals, rags, marching numbers, and originals.” Who wants to wait until Tuesday, anyway?

SUNDAY

We all know Fred Armisen because of his side-splitting contributions to Saturday Night Live and Portlandia, but his alter-ego is lesser known: under the full moon, Armisen transforms into a one-man cover-band. He promises to howl in homage to his earliest influences (Devo, the Clash, the Stranglers, etc) and to bring many surprise guests to Union Pool’s stage this Sunday. It’s going to be a different kind of super bowl.