Artist and musician Chief Muraina Oyelami will give a performance on drums next week at Amherst college. Oyelami was a Copeland Fellow here last year. His performances at the College are in conjunction with "Cloth Only Wears to Shreds: Yobuba Textiles and Photographs from the Beier Collection," an exhibition at the Mead Art Museum on display until May 16. Oyelami has written, lectured and conducted workshops throughout the world on Yoruba music, art and religion. In 1993, he was installed as the eesa-the second-in-command to the king-of his hometown, Iragbiji in Yorubaland in southwestern Nigeria. Oyelami is known and praised for his poetic approach to both visual and performing art. (Wed., March 24 at 3 p.m., Thurs., March 25, at 4:30 p.m. and Fri., March 26 at 3 p.m., Mead Art Museum, free.)

Queen of the Food Network's show "30-Minute Meals" Rachael Ray will face off against valley chefs in Friends of Children's second Annual Iron Cook Benefit at the Calvin Theater in Northampton this weekend. Ray has written a series of successful cookbooks all based on the 30-Minute Meals concept, including "Rachel Ray's 30-Minute Meals," "The Open House Cookbook," "Comfort Foods" and "Veggie Meals." (Sat., March 27, 7:30 p.m., Calvin Theater. Prices range from $25 to $75 and can be purchased at the Northampton Box Office at 800-843-8425.)

Don't miss out on the opportunity to listen to Blues Traveler, the New York blues-rock quartet led by singer and harmonica player John Popper. Popper's deft harmonica-playing sets the band apart from other, more mainstream rock musicians. (Sat., March 27, 8:30 p.m., Pearl Street Night Club. Tickets are $28 at the door or $25 in advance at 413-584-7771.)

In appreciation of Emily Dickinson, poet laureate Louise Gluck will read from her own poetry. Gluck's reading is co-sponsored by the Emily Dickinson Museum, the Amherst College Creative Writing Center and the Amherst College English Department, and is the first in a series entitled "A little Madness in the Spring: Celebrating History and Poetry at the Emily Dickinson Museum." Gluck is the author of nine books of poetry, including "Wild Iris," which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Poetry Society of Amherst's William Carlos Williams Award in 1992. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations and the National Endowment for the Arts. (Sun., March 28, 4 p.m., Johnson Chapel, free.)

Getting a second chance to start one's life is a classic American dream, but it's remarkably hard to do, as Irish immigrants Johnny (Paddy Considine) and Sarah (Samantha Morton) discover in "In America" when they leave Ireland and hit the streets of modern-day Manhattan, their two spunky young daughters in tow. The family faces a dizzying new future but first they must face down a past that haunts every single one of them. This is a rich and moving story about an immigrant family adjusting to life in New York. Master storyteller Jim Sheridan tells this deeply personal and emotionally raw tale through the wide-open eyes of two young heroines, transforming a devastating human tragedy into a riveting, humor-tinged story.