Compiled by Angel Feliciano, News Staff
FEATURE: Saturday, Oct. 27
Calling all readers, writers and book lovers. The Boston Book Festival on Saturday, Oct. 27 is the largest annual literary event in New England and features 100 renowned authors and thought leaders. Aspiring to be an author yourself? Want to be in the publishing industry? Come hear speakers and listen to what they have to say about getting your foot in the door. Participate in over a dozen workshops and book signings, see exhibits, listen to outdoor music and eat delicious street food. From genres such as fiction, history, science, fantasy, food writing, sports writing, crime fiction and environmental science, the festival will have it all. Come and experience this once-a-year bustling street fair. Copley Square, Boston; 11 a.m.; Free; www.bostonbookfest.org
Thursday, Oct. 25
As part of The Dean’s Lecture Series, “Encountering the Humanities,” Junot Diaz will be doing a reading, conversation and Q&A for Northeastern students. A critically acclaimed author, he is best known for his New York Times bestseller, “This is How You Lose Her,” and National Book Award finalist “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” which earned him a 2008 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Diaz currently works as the fiction editor at Boston Review and is a professor of writing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Blackman Auditorium, Ell Hall, 346 Huntington Ave.; 5 p.m.; Free.
Friday, Oct. 26
Sixty movies. 15 countries. 14 local, national and international attending directors. The 11th Annual Boston Latino International Film Festival is coming to Northeastern for its opening day. This festival will be a combination of short films and documentaries from around the globe. All films are subtitled in English. Sponsored by Heineken, Jose’s Mexican Restaurant and John O’Bryant African-American Institute at Northeastern University. John O’Bryant African-American Institute, 40 Leon St. Boston; 5:30 p.m.; $10; www.bliff.org
Sunday, Oct. 28
Whether you’ve been a vegetarian your whole life or are simply looking for ways to make your diet healthier and greener, check out the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. Discover a variety of vegetarian natural food providers and watch and learn from speakers and cooking demos spotlighting helpful kitchen tips on smart veg life. Want to find out how you can incorporate more greens to your meals? This is a chance to talk directly to food producers, learn where vegetarian foods are available and how to buy produce in the marketplace. There will also be free food samples and special discounts. Presented by Boston Vegetarian Society. Reggie Lewis State Track Athletic Center, 1350 Tremont St. Roxbury Crossing; 11 a.m.; Free; www.bostonveg.org/foodfest
Monday, Oct. 29
Calling all Tim Burton fans. You don’t want to miss this screening of the 1990 film “Edward Scissorhands.” Burton’s dark and quirky film stars a young Johnny Depp as a man assembled by an inventor, Vincent Price, who dies before he could finish his creation, leaving Depp with scissors for hands. A fun fact about this film is that Depp speaks only 169 words throughout the entire movie and primarily uses only his body language for means of communication as he tries to fit into a world he is still trying to understand. After the movie screening, assistant professor of biological anthropology at Boston University, Jeremy DeSilva, will be talking about the “strange conglomeration” that were found on mosaic structures such as having odd legs and feet, brain and hands. Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St. Brookline; 7 p.m.; $7.75 – $9.75; www.coolidge.org
Tuesday, Oct. 30
From Beacon Hill to the North End, Boston is a city filled with haunted historic sites, scary myths and stories. Journalist Sam Baltrusis educates his readers about more than 300 years of the hub’s haunted history and reveals a few secrets in the closet. Tales of colonial-era spirits roaming around the Boston Commons and soldiers standing in the middle of the tracks at the Boylston T station are just some of the untold stories you can hear directly from Baltrusis. Hear where the haunted dorms are and wonder no more about why your room has unexplained sounds, flickering lights or moving objects. Join Baltrusis for a reading of his book, “Ghosts of Boston: Haunts of the Hub” and hear him discuss more about the ghosts of Boston’s past. Trident Booksellers & Cafe, 338 Newbury St. Boston; 7 p.m.; Free; www.tridentbookscafe.com
Wednesday, Oct. 31
For many years, the movie Dracula has been revived by books and has been put on screen many times by different directors and their own interpretations. The theme of vampires touches on a variety of topics such as psychoanalysis, geopolitics, animality, as well as blood and other diseases of autoimmunity like AIDS. After film screenings of different vampire movies, Professor Dragan Kujundžić from the University of Florida will give a lecture on this tradition of vampire narratives. He will also reflect on global politics and economy relating to vampires (“blood for oil”). Egan Research Center, Raytheon Amphitheater, 120 Forsyth St. Boston; 6 p.m. Free.
