culture

LUAU 2003. Join the Harvard Hawaii Club, Holoimua O Hawaii, in celebrating its fourth annual Luau. In Hawaii, luaus are local-style parties held to celebrate special events, such as births or weddings. Here at Harvard, the luau is a time for Hawaii natives and enthusiasts to join with members of the commmunity in a celebration of Hawaiian culture. The evening includes an assortment of traditional Hawaiian food, island music, and a show featuring Polynesian song and dance. Saturday, March 15, at  8:00 p.m. Tickets $10, available at the Harvard Box Office or by phone at (617) 496-2222. Quincy House Dining Hall. (TIH)

THE MISS HARVARD PAGEANT. It’s what Miss America would be like if you were to upgrade brains and talent, and add a few men in drag. Presented by IMPACT to raise money for education and emergency relief in Kenya, Gambia, China and Nepal. Friday, March 14, at 9 p.m. Tickets $6, available at the Harvard Box Office or by phone at (617) 496-2222. Leverett House Dining Hall. (TIH)

readings

BLACK WRITERS READING. Maryse Conde (Segu), Darryl Pinckney (Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature) and Patricia Powell (The Pagoda) speak together next Wednesday, presented by the W.E.B du Bois Institute. The last event of the Black Writers Reading Series, the reading promises to be well-attended, interesting—and it’s your last chance. Wednesday, March 19 at 4 p.m. No tickets required. Barker Center, Thompson Room, 12 Quincy St. (LAA)

DEAN GRODZINS.  He may not have a namesake building in Harvard Yard, but Unitarian minister Theodore Parker was almost as influential as Ralph Waldo Emerson in shaping the Transcendentalist movement.  Grodzins, winner of the Society of American Historians’ Allan Nevins Prize, will engage in a discussion of his recent Parker biography “American Heretic:  Theodore Parker and Transcendentalism.”  Friday, March 14 at 3 p.m. Free. Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, (617) 661-1515. (TJC)

HAROLD BLOOM. This guru of literary theory and Sterling Professor of the Humanities and English at Yale University will make an appearance in Cambridge to speak about his new book Hamlet: Poem Unlimited. Having already produced a New York Times bestseller about Shakespeare, Bloom’s new book promises a closer analysis of the character we all love and know (for at least 25 lines or so) by heart. Thursday, March 20 at 6 p.m. Tickets available free of charge at the Harvard Book Store information desk. Sackler Museum, 485 Broadway. (LAA)

music

THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET. Legendary pianist Brubeck will stop by Sanders Theatre for two back-to-back concerts this weekend. Equally distinguished as a composer and a performer, Brubeck has maintained a reputation as a progressive, intellectual jazz musician throughout a career now half a century long. Put on your beret, buy some cigarettes, and have a night of guaranteed cutting-edge jazz. Saturday, March 15 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets $29.50 to $35.50, available through the Harvard Box Office or by phone (617) 496-2222. Sanders Theatre. (LAA)

O TRIUMPHALE DIAMANTE! The Harvard University Choral Fellows teams up with the Boston Camerata to sing Music for Ferrara, 1400-1500. Audience members will be granted a chance to hear twelve of the best singers on campus—whom you may have seen scrambling off to sing in Memorial Church early on weekday mornings—with a group of the best singers in the world. Sean Gallagher, assistant professor of music, will deliver a pre-concert lecture at 7 p.m., for the musicologically-inclined. Tickets are $20-$40; students receive a $10 discount. Friday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m. The Memorial Church. (LAA)

BERRY SAKHAROF. The biggest rock star in Israel leaves his enormous fanbase in the Middle East to try his hand at engaging an American audience at, appropriately enough, the Middle East Club. The show is sponsored by the Hillel Foundation of Cambridge. Sunday, March 16 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30, $20 students, available at the Middle East Box Office or by phone (617) 931-2000. Middle East Club, 472 Massachussetts Ave. (617) 864-3278. (BBC)

LES NUBIANS.  Born to a French father and a Cameroonian mother, sisters Hélène and Célia Faussart will bring their smooth mix of R&B, soul, African rhythms, and light hip-hop to Harvard Square for what promises to be a sultry, smoky late-night show.  Citing influences ranging from Ella Fitzgerald to De La Soul, the bilingual duo are touring in advance of their new album “One Step Forward.”  Friday, March 14 at 10 p.m.  21+ with ID required.  Tickets $20, available at the House of Blues, by phone (617) 497-2229, or through Ticketmaster.  House of Blues, 96 Winthrop Street, (617) 491-2583. (TJC)

MARYSE CONDÉ, DARRYL PINCKNEY, AND PATRICIA POWELL.  Hailing from Guadeloupe and considered one of the premier literary voices of the modern Francophone world, Condé will read from her 1996 tale Segu.  She will be joined by Darryl Pinckney, whose work Out There:  Mavericks of Black Literature is based on a recent series of lectures at Harvard. Briggs-Copeland Fellow Patricia Powell, who will present her novel The Pagoda.  The event is co-sponsored by Harvard’s W.E.B. DuBois Center and Harvard Book Store.  Wednesday, March 19 at 4 p.m.  Free.  Thompson Room, Barker Center, 24 Quincy Street. (TJC)

TELEMANNIA. The Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra (HBCO) performs an evening of G.P. Telemann’s colorful and brilliant multiple concerti for several instruments. One of America’s only undergraduate baroque orchestras, the HBCO brings these vivid works to life again, featuring Jon A. Daniels ’03, recorder, Na’ama Lion, baroque flute, Justin Haynes ‘03, viola da gamba, Brian K. Lee ’03, baroque violin and Seth Ament ’03, baroque cello. Directed by Robert Mealy ‘85. Tickets are $10, $5 for students. Saturday, March 15 at 8 p.m. Busch Hall. (TIH)

CLUB PASSIM BENEFIT CONCERT. 2003 Club Passim Benefit Concert featuring Odetta, Greg Brown and Garnet Rogers. Friday, March 14, 7:30 p.m. Tickets $45, $35, $25 and $15 for obstructed view; $100 VIP seats (includes post-concert reception with the artists) available only through Club Passim at 617-492-5300. Sanders Theater, Memorial Hall. (TIH)