FILM

THE BAND PLAYED ON The story of Joy Division is one of pop music lore: The English post-punk band was buoyed by lead singer Ian Curtis’s spastic, melancholy songs and performances, until he hanged himself at 23. Director Grant Gee’s documentary “Joy Division” — its opening this May follows a limited release in 2007 — probes Curtis’s death in 1980, which was the subject of much rumor, and only accelerated interest in his work. The biopic focuses not only on Curtis, but also on the lives of the surviving band members. The director places the rest of the members, who are living stable, middle-age existences, in direct contrast with Curtis’s unpredictable bleakness. The screening is featured as part of this month’s Film Comment Selects series. Saturday, 7:30 p.m., Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza at 65th Street, 212-875-5600, $11 general, $7 students, seniors, and members.

ART

THE BEAT GOES ON “Rub Out The Word,” an exhibit of artwork by beat writer William Burroughs, has its opening on Friday. In addition to writing, Burroughs was a prolific visual artist. Between 1982 and 1995, he spent hours each day drawing and painting. The canvasses of his “shotgun paintings,” which are among the pieces on show, bear actual bullet hole markings — the result of Burroughs’s wielding a shotgun to give the artworks that indescribable raw texture. Opening reception Friday, 6 p.m., exhibit through Saturday, March 29, Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Stellan Holm Gallery, 524 W. 24th St., between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, 212-627-7444, free.

MUSIC

FROM BACH TO BEYONCÉ The Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts presents “3 Mo’ Divas,” a concert inspired by writer/director Marion Caffey’s Broadway production “Three Mo’ Tenors.” The trio of female vocalists is cast from a revolving group of performers. A wide-ranging program covers gospel, R&B, show tunes, and opera. The event (and its still-running, all-male predecessor) is a soulful take on the “Three Tenors” series of concerts held in the 1990s and early 2000s that featured opera superstars Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, and José Carreras playing concerts for the masses. Saturday, 8 p.m., Brooklyn College, Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Walt Whitman Theatre, 2900 Campus Rd. at Hillel Place, Brooklyn, 718-951-4500, $25–$70.

TRASHY FASHION “Eco-designer” Nina Valenti constructed an evening gown made entirely of scraps from the trash bin after being commissioned by Terra-Cycle and the Honest Tea beverage company to create a fashion statement about environmental responsibility. Ms. Valenti’s frock, made from thousands of recycled juice drink pouches, will be worn by pianist Soyeon Lee during Ms. Lee’s Carnegie Hall performance, “ReInvented.” The concert program is equally mindful of the sustainability cause and features musical pieces by Prokofiev, Ravel, and others, that have been reworked in some way from the original. Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., Carnegie Hall, 57th Street at Seventh Avenue, 212-247-7800, $75–$100.

ICELANDIC IMPORT Soprano Dísella Làrusdóttir makes her New York debut with a recital at the Kaufman Center. The program includes works by Purcell and Rachmaninoff, as well as Icelandic composers Jorunn Vidar and Jon Asgeirsson. Pianist Debra Scurto-Davis accompanies. Although Ms. Làrusdóttir did not begin her classical vocal training until her early 20s, she has proved an artist to watch: She was a national finalist at the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions. Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., Kaufman Center, Merkin Concert Hall, 129 W. 67th St., between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, 212-501-3330, $25 general, $15 students and seniors.

PHOTOGRAPHY

HUGS JUST WON’T DO The City Reliquary presents “76 Kisses: Snapshots From the Collection of Lori Baker and David E. Brown,” an exhibit of found photographs. The Brooklyn-based couple (also artists) searched high and low for images spanning the last century that feature twosomes caught in passionate embrace — from long lip locks to saucy smooches. The pair, who scoured eBay, yard sales, and flea markets, compiled the collection after meeting — rather appropriately — on a popular photo sharing Web site, Flickr. Through Sunday, March 30, Saturday and Sunday, noon–6 p.m., or by appointment, City Reliquary, 370 Metropolitan Ave. at Havemeyer Street, 718-782-4842, donations welcome.

WHO’S THE BOSS? An artist based in Hangzhou, China, Chen Xiaoyun, presents “Love You, Big Boss,” his first New York exhibit. The show comprises three videos and four large-scale photographs depicting staged scenes of everyday life. The allegorical images seem at once familiar and peculiar, but all are meant to confront America’s role as superpower and how the country is perceived abroad. Through Sunday, March 30, Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., the Project Gallery, 37 W. 57th St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues, 3rd floor, 212-688-1585, free.

TALKS

FURNITURE FOR THE FUTURE

Scandinavia House presents “Scandinavian Design: New Classics for the 21st Century,” a lecture given by a professor at the New York School of Interior Design, Judith Gura. The modern look of Nordic furniture design first gained international popularity after World War II; the approach employed an emphasis on craft, nature, and humanism. Ms. Gura discusses recent developments and radical changes put forth by a young generation of designers and how those have retained a connection to mid-century Scandinavian design. Tuesday, 6:30 p.m., Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave., between 37th and 38th streets, 212-879-9779, $10 general, $8 members, free for students.

THEATER

VONNEGUT ONSTAGE The Godlight Theatre Company stages “Slaughterhouse-Five or: The Children’s Crusade” at 59E59 Theaters. The play is adapted from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel by Eric Simonson. In this anti-war, science-fiction tale, a former American prisoner of war and alien abductee time-travels through various stages of his life, including a tragic childhood and the bombing of Dresden during World War II. Friday, 8:30 p.m., Saturday, 2:30 and 8:30 p.m., and Sunday,3:30p.m.,59E59Theaters, 59 E. 59th St., between Madison and Park avenues, 212-753-5959, $25, $17.50 members.

PHOTOGRAPHY

SEE YOU AT THE CROSSROADS Ian Wallace’s eponymous exhibit at the Yvon Lambert Gallery consists of two series. In one, four selections from Mr. Wallace’s untitled, Paris-based collection of works depict an intersection directly below the former studio of Louis Daguerre. Daguerre is considered one of the inventors of photography, and captured the same intersection. In the other series, “Masculin/Féminin,” Mr. Wallace appropriates scenes from avant-garde European films of the 1950s and ’60s. He re-creates montages with the film stills that invite the viewer to contemplate the relationship between the sexes. Selections from the exhibit include “Untitled (At the Crosswalk ll)” (2007), above. Through Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Yvon Lambert Gallery, 550 W. 21st St., between Tenth Avenue and the West Side Highway, 212-242-3611, free.

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