• A visit to the ‘seamy’ side of town with mystery author Laura Lippman, who’s just edited a collection of crime stories called Baltimore Noir
• Keetowah Cherokee storyteller Joseph Stands with Many shares his thoughts on tradition, family, and the history of immigration in America, as his tribe has experienced it
• And a conversation with Transmodern Age Collective members Bonnie Jones, Jackie Milad, Melissa Moore, Ric Royer, and performance artist Mark Greenwood as they prepare for this weekend’s Transmodern Age Festival of performance, dance, sound and action

Tonight, the Roots Café combines a rock n’ roll show and the great Baltimore tradition of duckpin bowling. This evening’s show kicks off at 9 and features local band The Jennifers and the country-fried rock of Kentucky’s The Anomoanon, featuring lead singer Ned Oldham. It’s happening at the historic Siedel’s Bowling Center, located at 4443 Belair Road. For more information, visit www.rootscafe.org or call 410-880-3883.

This Saturday afternoon, The Canton Gallery presents Happy Hours, an exhibit by painter Susan Webster. You can drop by the gallery from 2-5 P.M and meet Webster, who’s quickly becoming a much sought-after artist in the mid-Atlantic region. Happy Hours runs through May 6th, and Canton Gallery is located at 2935 O’Donnell Street. They’re on the web at www.cantongallery.com, and you can also reach them by phone at 410-342-6176.

This weekend the Creative Alliance opens its doors to an uncommon blend of live music, political discourse, and huge paper mache puppets. Tonight at 8 o’clock, New York City’s acclaimed activist street theater company Bread and Puppet Theater presents a morality play for our times: How to Turn Distress into Success: A Parable of War and Its Making. And tomorrow at 5:30 at Pagoda Hill in Patterson Park, you’ll have an opportunity to bring your kids out for Bread and Puppet’s Of the Correct Moment, a special outdoor children’s show featuring music, clowns, and socially aware stories. For more information, call 410-276-1651 or visit www.creativealliance.org.