Thursday Happenings

Music

-- Hip-hop fundamentalist KRS-One is given to pronouncement and ranting about aesthetics, which can be as entertaining as his rap performances. Let's hope he brought enough material for both. Harper's Ferry, 158 Brighton Ave., Allston, 8:00pm. $25.

-- Erykah Badu and ?uestlove, of the hip-hop band the Roots, will do battle using only their hair. Orpheum Theatre, 1 Hamilton Place, 8:00pm. $45-$55.

Comedy

-- You know that watching Lewis Black's stand-up is like enduring the country's most left-wing radio shock jock. Did you know he has an MFA from Yale? Boston Opera House, 539 Washington, 8:00pm. Extremely expensive.

Outdoor Rallies

-- It's worth getting a little damp to support the right to unionize. Dropkick Murphys headlines a rally for hospital workers who are trying to force free and fair union elections. Avenue Louis Pasteur, Longwood Medical Area, 4:00pm. Free. (More information about the cause; spotted on Cheap Thrills Boston.)

Chimp Wisdom

-- Chimp scientist and humanitarian Jane Goodall offers a public lecture suggesting that we shouldn't just pack it all in. Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston St., 8:00pm.

Dancing Hipsters

-- Todo Mundo is the showcase for DJ Lone Wolf, who spins everything from hip-hop to dancehall. Joining him tonight is NYC DJ Kingdom, whose remixes are sure to keep the people in the tapered jeans moving. Milky Way, 403 Center St., Jamaica Plain, 9:00pm. Free.

-- Banger is a monthly event where the dance music is electroggressive and the dancers wear ironic pink. We're not sure how we would dance to tonight's headliner XO Skeletons, a band that found the obscure niche between LCD Soundsystem and the Amphetamine Reptile bands of the 90s, but surely somebody has figured it out. Middle East Downstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, 8:00pm. $10.

Movies

-- Sidney Lumet squeezed more tension out of Henry Fonda and a jury box than you can guess. Twelve Angry Men (1957) still plays as a powerful parable of morality and decision. Screening with In the Heat of the Night (1967). Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge. Tickets and showtimes.

Books

-- Newsweek's international editor Fareed Zakaria has the sorts of people who talk about the post-American world talking about his book The Post-American World. First Parish Meeting House, 3 Church St., Harvard Square, Cambridge, 7:00pm. $5. (Presented by Harvard Book Store.)