MUSIC

‘MEAT’ THE BAND Brooklyn welcomes Dark Meat, a 17-piece psychedelic rock collective from Athens, Ga., for a two-night stay. The giant ensemble mixes elements of blues, punk rock, psychedelic jams, and jazz, and employs a plethora of instruments from the flute to the sitar. Dark Meat’s past and current lineups include members from bands Of Montreal, Gnarls Barkley, Elf Power, the Instruments, and more. The indie band is on a tour that will take it to more than 50 cities; the set list at two Brooklyn venues features songs from the latest album, “Universal Indians.” Tonight, 7:30 p.m., Union Hall, 702 Union St. at Fifth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, 718-638-4400, $10; tomorrow, 8 p.m., Union Pool, 484 Union Ave., between Skillman and Conselyea streets, 718-609-0484, $10.

ART

PHOTO FINISH The Association of International Photography Art Dealers presents the AIPAD Photography Show in New York. More than 75 of the world’s leading national and international fine art galleries exhibit works from the 19th century to the present. The show is well known among photography buffs as one of the best places to find work on the market. The highlights of this year’s show include the Laurence Miller Gallery’s focus on Helen Levitt and the Pace/MacGill Gallery’s spotlight on John Szarkowski. Thursday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m., Friday–Saturday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Sunday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Ave. at 67th Street, 202-367-1158, $25 daily, $35 for the entire show.

DROWNED WORLD Geishas and courtesans who lived and worked in Japan’s Yoshiwara district during the Edo period were complex figures who tended to carnal desires but also spiritual needs. Whereas today’s politicians jeopardize the elective office and risk losing the public trust if they are found to have frequented the city’s illegal pleasure palaces, the samurai, governing shogunate, and elite men of Edo (present-day Tokyo) enjoyed unfettered access to beautiful courtesans. Their exploits are captured in “Designed for Pleasure: The World of Edo Japan in Prints and Paintings, 1680–1860” at the Asia Society. The sublime exhibit features about 150 works.

Through Sunday, May 4, Tuesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Asia Society and Museum, 725 Park Ave. at 70th Street, 212-288-6400, $10 general, $7 seniors, $5 students, free for members, children under 16, and for all Friday 6–9 p.m.

COMEDY

CELEBRITY SKIN After a four-month hiatus, comedian Joan Rivers reprises her live stand-up act at the Cutting Room. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Ms. Rivers made the rounds in New York during the 1950s, appearing in a few off-off-Broadway plays before scoring her big break on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. She presents her newest material, riffing on Hollywood celebrities, pop culture, and her ongoing turn as a merciless critic of award-show fashions. Consecutive Wednesdays through Wednesday, June 4, 8 p.m., the Cutting Room, 19 W. 24th St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues, 212-352-3101, $30.

FILM

STREET SCENE The Film Society at Lincoln Center presents a sneak peek at John Spello’s new documentary “On the Street” (2008), about New York-based photographer Amy Arbus, who followed in the footsteps of her mother, Diane. Mr. Spello focuses on Ms. Arbus’s work behind the lens, beginning with her tenure as a fashion photographer for the Village Voice in the 1980s. He examines the impact her portraits have had on questions of identity and the Greenwich Village scene. Many of her sitters, including actors Ethan Hawke and Liev Schrieber, have achieved fame in music, art, and design. Ms. Arbus and Mr. Spello are on hand to answer questions following the screening, which coincides with an ongoing exhibit at the Film Society’s Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery, “Amy Arbus: The Fourth Wall.” Tonight, 8 p.m., Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater, 165 W. 65th St., between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, 212-875-5600, $11 general, $7 members and students.

GALLIC SHORTS The French Institute Alliance Française presents a screening of the best French-language short films culled from the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival. Created in 1978, the festival is known for its commitment to preserving the short-film industry, and has become the largest internationally recognized showcase of its kind. The program includes a screening of the Grand Prix winner of the 2005 festival, Laurent Achard’s “Fear, Little Hunter” (2004). All films are introduced in English and screened with English subtitles. Wednesday, 7 p.m., French Institute Alliance Française, Tinker Auditorium, 55 E. 59th St., between Park and Madison avenues, 212-355-6160, $10 general, $7 students.

IN THESE TIMES The New York African Film Festival celebrates its 15th anniversary with a lineup of 40 films from 22 countries of Africa and the African diaspora. Highlights include Nigerian director Newton Aduaka’s “Ezra” (2007), about a 7-year-old who is kidnapped by rebels and taken into a Sierra Leone jungle, where he is trained as a child soldier (Wednesday, 5:15 p.m.). Filmmaker Charles Burnett also presents the highly anticipated New York premiere of his latest effort, “Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation,” starring Danny Glover (Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.). Elsewhere, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka gives a talk during the American premiere of “The African Slave Trades: Across the Indian Ocean,” a film that he also narrates (Saturday, 5:30 p.m.). Wednesday through Tuesday, April 15, times vary, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, between 64th and 65th streets, 212-875-5601, $11 general, $7 members and students, $7 seniors for weekday matinee screenings only. For complete information, go to filmlinc.com.

MUSIC

BEHIND THE SCENES Fans of the New York Philarmonic can drop in on the orchestra as they rehearse a Wednesday evening performance of Stravinsky’s “Firebird,” created in 1910 for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes piece of the same name. Conductor Leonard Slatkin leads and Chinese pianist Lang Lang performs the world premiere of composer Tan Dun’s Piano Concerto. The program promises a unique opportunity to see the work that goes into shaping and polishing a composition for the concert stage. Lang Lang, who was born in China in 1982, has said he was first inspired at age 2 by a performance of Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody” by the feline Tom of the popular “Tom and Jerry” cartoon series. Wednesday, 9:45 a.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, 132 W. 65th St. at Columbus Avenue, 212-875-5030, $16.

HIDDEN CHAMBERS It’s a little-known fact that some of Igor Stravinsky’s greatest works were chamber compositions. Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, led by executive director George Steel, has assembled a five-concert series to celebrate the influential Russian composer’s chamber works. In the first installment, the International Contemporary Ensemble plays more than a dozen unsung gems, including “Dumbarton Oaks” (1937), “Ragtime” (1917), “Double Canon” (1959), and “Fanfare for a New Theatre” (1964). Jayce Ogren conducts. Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., Morgan Library, Gilder Lehrman Hall, 225 Madison Ave. at 36th Street, 212-854-7799, $45.

READINGS

HAVING HER CAKE A book publicist turned author, Sloane Crosley, reads from her debut collection of essays, “I Was Told There’d Be Cake” (Riverhead Books). Ms. Crosley brings wit to the gamut of concerns facing a young, urbane woman. From lost friendships to the unexpected moral quandary presented by a volunteer job at the American Museum of Natural History, the author delivers unpredictable endings. Tonight, 7 p.m., Barnes & Noble, 97 Warren Street at Greenwich Street, 212-587-5389, free.

THERE WILL BE VERSE The 92nd Street Y hosts an evening of readings by two poets. English Poet Laureate Andrew Motion is the author of more than a dozen collections of poetry, four biographies, and, most recently, a memoir titled “In the Blood” (David R. Godine), about his coming of age as a provincial boy who grew to love poetry. Wendy Salinger’s memoir “Listen” (Bloomsbury) retraces her tenuous relationship with her father, an eminent professor. Ms. Salinger is the coordinator of the Unterberg Poetry Center Schools Project. Tonight, 8:15 p.m., 92nd Street Y, Unterberg Poetry Center, Buttenwieser Hall, 1395 Lexington Ave. at 92nd Street, 212-415-5760, $18 general, $10 for age 35 and under.

HOUSE OF SPIRITS Chilean novelist Isabel Allende reads from and signs copies of her second memoir, “The Sum of Our Days” (HarperCollins). Like her first memoir, “Paula” (HarperCollins), Ms. Allende writes in the form of a letter to her deceased daughter. In this volume, she updates her on what has happened within the family and in the world since the daughter’s death. The author works through her continuing grief with humor and wisdom. Tonight, 7 p.m., Barnes & Noble, 33 E. 17th St. at Broadway, 212-253-0810, free.

THE MAP OF LOVE The New York Public Library hosts a tribute to Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. The poet’s daughter, Aeronwy Thomas, reads from his works, as well as from her own. A poet and editor of the poetry magazine The Seventh Quarry, Peter Thabit Jones, accompanies Ms. Thomas in the reading and gives a talk on the Welsh landscape that figured so prominently in Thomas’s works. Thomas died at 39 after a particularly long drinking bout in 1953. The poet had struggled with alcoholism and nagging anxiety, but his Romantic approach to poetry captured the American imagination during a series of reading tours across the country in the early 1950s.

Wednesday, 6:30 p.m., NYPL, Mid-Manhattan branch, 455 Fifth Ave. at 40th Street, 212-340-0849, free.

SHOPPING

SPRING BEAUTY The spring season goes hand in hand with spring cleaning, but among beauty junkies, that goes for the skin, too. As part of the French Institute Alliance Française’s series L’Art de la Beauté, Clarins Skin Spa opens its doors for a special behindthe-scenes spa visit. Visitors are given a primer on the spa’s painless — sans lasers or surgery — approach to beauty. Also on offer are complimentary mini treatments, tips for achieving glowing summer skin, and discounts on future treatments. Sparkling water and fresh fruit are served throughout.

Thursday, 6:30 p.m., Clarins Spa, 1061 Madison Ave. at 80th Street, 212-307-4100, $35.

TALKS

GOTHAM’S MOBILE CUISINE Although many New Yorkers pass street vendors selling their goods from pushcarts daily, few perhaps know about the debates surrounding their existence. The Center for Urban Pedagogy hosts “Permitting Pushcarts,” a discussion with the founder and director of the Street Vendor Project, Sean Basinski, and a professor of urban design and planning theory at Harvard University, Margaret Crawford. Mr. Basinski and Ms. Crawford discuss the relationship between public space and commerce, as well as the legal frameworks governing the practice of street selling. Wednesday, 7 p.m., Housing Works Bookstore Café, 126 Crosby St., between Prince and Houston streets, 718-596-7721, free. RSVP to info@anothercupdevelopment.org.

THEATER

POLISH PRIDE The La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club and the Polish Cultural Institute present the “Sejny Chronicles,” about the teenage inhabitants of a small town in Poland who have discovered their unique cultural roots, from Jewish prayers to Slavic solstice customs. The characters deliver oral histories through song, dance, and monologue. The play addresses how traditions are passed down from one generation to the next. The young Sejny Theatre members perform in English.

Thursday through Sunday, April 20, Thursday–Saturday, 7:30 p.m., Sunday, 2:30 p.m., La MaMa ETC, the Annex, 74A E. 4th St., between the Bowery and Second Avenue, 212-475-7710, $25 general, $20 students and seniors.

PAINTINGS

TO THE MOON AND BACK Ann Craven has been making studies of the moon in her painting since 1996. She began her latest series, which makes up most of the exhibit “Moon Birds,” in 2001. Ms. Craven painted the moon from rooftops in Harlem, in Maine, and in France, where she completed a residency in 2007. “Moon Birds” also features bird studies, painted in bright pinks and whites. Selections from the exhibit include “Moon O-362 (Nov. 2, 2006)” (2006), top, and “Moon O-363 (Nov. 2, 2006)” (2006), above. Through Saturday, April 26, Tuesday–Friday, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m., Knoedler & Company, 19 E. 70th St., between Madison and Fifth avenues, 212-794-0550, free.

To submit an event for consideration for the Calendar, please wire the particulars to calendar@nysun.com, placing the date of the event in the subject line.