VISUAL ART
Look and Listen
60 Objects/Countless Stories, the Baltimore Museum of Art's new, free 90-minute audio tour, features informal commentary from the the museum's curators plus art-inspired stories and poems from such Baltimore literati as Laura Lippman and Michael Kimball. Available from the BMA box office beginning Jan 16; free, open-to-the-public launch party also on Jan 16.
Also at the BMA is the African Spirit Series, which includes African and African American art and writing workshops, a lecture on black aesthetics, and the African Film Festival National Traveling Series, featuring critically acclaimed movies by African directors, screened for free. Series begins Jan 17; film festival Jan 31 and Feb 1. (10 Art Museum Dr.; 443-573-1832; www.artbma.org)

Also at the BMA is the African Spirit Series, which includes African and African American art and writing workshops, a lecture on black aesthetics, and the African Film Festival National Traveling Series, featuring critically acclaimed movies by African directors, screened for free. Series begins Jan 17; film festival Jan 31 and Feb 1. (10 Art Museum Dr.; 443-573-1832; www.artbma.org)

Science Fare
The American Center for Physics at the University of Maryland, College Park, exhibits the work of three artists inspired by subatomic particles, quantum physics, and chaos theory in a show called In formation. Through Apr 17. (1 Physics Ellipse, College Park; 301-209-3125; www.acp.org)


FILM
Life and Times
In 1977, Harvey Milk—currently the subject of the Sean Penn biopic Milk—became the first openly gay man elected to political office in California. On Jan 3, the main branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library hosts a free screening of The Times of Harvey Milk, the Academy-Award-winning 1984 doc about his groundbreaking career and assassination. (400 Cathedral St.; 410-396-5430; www.prattlibrary.org)


CLASSICAL MUSIC
Club Hit
Peabody composer-in-residence Christopher Rouse once said that the title of his 1985 work Bump came from "dance floor bumping with the hips or buttocks." It's a dark, syncopated piece, and the Peabody Symphony Orchestra performs it Jan 31, along with Ernest Bloch's 1916 cello and orchestra piece Schelomo and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Op. 93. (1 E. Mount Vernon Pl.; 410-659-8100 ext. 2; www.peabody.jhu.edu)


NEW MUSIC
Hearing Is Believing
In its second season, the Mobtown Modern series continues to expose Baltimore to innovative, contemporary classical new music. Jan 28's performance, called "More Than Words," features five pieces that stretch the voice's capabilities. Presented and hosted by the Contemporary Museum. (100 W. Centre St.; 410-783-5720; www.mobtownmodern.com)


INDIE MUSIC
Listening Party
To celebrate its one-year anniversary, Baltimore-based music website Aural States is throwing a two-night party. Local bands Arbouretum, Wye Oak, Small Sur, and more play the Talking Head (203 Davis St.) and Sonar (407 E. Saratoga St.) on Jan 30, followed by a dance party DJ'ed by locals Cex and Craig Sopo at the Hexagon at 1825 N. Charles St. on Jan 31. (www.auralstates.com)


COMEDY/VARIETY
Stagecraft
Local composer Lorraine Whittlesey and her co-conspirator, artist Joyce Scott, take to the stage of An Die Musik on Jan 10 to perform their latest installment of Ebony & Irony, a comedy and music show that tackles issues of race, gender, and politics. This one's subtitled "Barack the Casbah" and promises to include a rendition of "Rock the Casbah" and other famous songs with new original lyrics. (409 N. Charles St.; 410-385-2638; www.andiemusiklive.com)


BOOK TALK
Line of Fire
After Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal's brother's was killed at a U.S. checkpoint, he launched a performance called Domestic Tension: For a month, he lived alone in a prison-cell-sized room in the line of fire of a remote-controlled paintball gun; visitors to the gallery and a virtual Internet audience could shoot at him whenever they liked. On Jan 23, Bilal stops by 2640 to talk about his new City Lights book, Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun, which details this project and his life story. Free. (2640 St. Paul St.; www.redemmas.org/2640/upcoming)

Rain or Shine
Local performance artist Ric Royer, known for his macabre yet humorous narrative performances, heralds the release of his new book-length poem, The Weather not the Weather, at Load of Fun on Jan 4. (120 W. North Ave.; www.loadoffun.net)


THEATER
Double Standard
I Am My Own Wife is a one-person show about real-life transvestite Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf, who lived through the Nazi and East German Communist regimes. The Pulitzer-Prize-winning show is at Everyman Theatre, Jan 14–Feb 22. (1727 N. Charles St.; 410-752-2208; everymantheatre.org)


EXHIBIT
One-Man Show
The exhibit One Night in '64: African-American Voices and Television in the Civil Rights Era centers on 75-year-old retired African American truck driver James Emory Bond, who in 1964 walked into the WBAL studios on Television Hill and ended up commenting on Baltimore's crime problem and sharing his life story on prime time TV. The video and accompanying exhibit are up through Jan 20; Bond's son, Frank, speaks after the movie on Jan 10 at 2 p.m. (830 E. Pratt St.; 443-263-1800; www.africanamericanculture.org)


PHOTOGRAPHY
Yearbook
While an artist-in-residence at the Walters Art Museum, photographer Dawoud Bey worked with Baltimore teens to challenge youth stereotypes through portrait photography. See the fruits of their labors, interspersed with paintings and portrait miniatures from the Walters' collection, in Portraits Re/Examined through Feb 16. Held in conjunction with the Contemporary Museum's exhibit Class Pictures, featuring Bey's portraits of young people from various American cities, through Feb 16. Bey and fellow photographer Carrie Mae Weems discuss their craft on Jan 19 in the Walters Graham Auditorium. (The Walters: 600 N. Charles St.; 410-547-9000; www.thewalters.org; Contemporary Museum: 100 W. Centre St.; 410-783-5720; www.contemporary.org)




Local artist Stephen Parlato's dazzling collages, such as Flag Horse (pictured at left), grace the walls of Baltimore Pho in Sowebo until Feb 4. The revised first edition of his PBS-recommended children's book, The World that Loved Books, is filled with more astounding creations. (1116 Hollins St.; www.soweboarts.org)