Monday Happenings

Image of Major Stars from Myspace.

NEC Artistic Director and longtime fixture in the NYC downtown jazz scene Anthony Coleman presents "The Barbaric Yawp," a performance inspired by Whitman's phrase. The concert explores the "yawp"—and its implications for the "primitive and direct poetics" that Coleman argues is distinctly American. The music will trace a line from Charles Ives and Conlon Nancarrow through John Cage, Albert Ayler, and the AACM. Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, 30 Gainsborough St., 8 p.m.

Hip Hop

Kid Cudi, from Cleveland, is a member of the crop of talented young MCs to emerge in the past two years from the midwest. His blunted and drawn out flow mixes local slang with tales of pot, poverty, and the neighborhood. Opening for Common, a somewhat better known rapper from the midwest. House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., 6 p.m. $29.50/$39.50.

Psychedelic Rock

Major Stars has long been Cambridge's leading purveyor of longform psychedelic jams punched, to top volume, through a fuzzbox. Performing with Black Clouds and Donna Parker. Charlie's Kitchen, 10 Eliot St., Cambridge, 9 p.m. $5.

Movies

The Coolidge is giving Howard Zinn the chance to screen his favorite movie. Burn! (1969) tells the story of an slave revolt on the fictional island of Queimada that was sparked, behind the scenes, by the British sugar industry. Starring Marlon Brando and directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, the man behind The Battle of Algiers, the film fictionalizes the history of Guadeloupe. Screening includes ruminations from Zinn about the movie. Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard Ave., Brookline, 7 p.m. $9/$6.