Hip-hop artist Talib Kweli will be showcased at the Pearl Street nightclub this Thursday night. Returning students may remember him from last year's spring weekend when he gave an amazingly upbeat performance here at the College. Renowned for his energy and fast-paced hip-hop beats, Kweli is one performer you don't want to miss. (Thurs., Sept. 23 at 8:30 p.m, Pearl Street Nightclub, Northampton. Tickets $20 in advance, $23 at the door.)

Nationally renowned folk poet and gay rights activist Alix Olsen will perform this Friday at Mount Holyoke College. Popular for her quick wit and satirical attitude, Olson is famous for her part-poetry slam, part-political rally performance. She brings political issues to head in myriad novel ways, so be sure to check her out. (Fri., Sept. 24 at 8 p.m., Chapin Auditorium, Mount Holyoke College. Tickets $7 at the door.)

Nicholas Basbanes, author of "A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World," will speak at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst library's annual donor appreciation reception. A Renowned investigative reporter during the early 1970s, Basbanes was a literary editor of the Worcester Sunday Telegram from 1978 to 1991 and also wrote a nationally syndicated column on books and authors. (Sun., Sept. 26 at 2 p.m., Memorial Hall, UMass. No admission charge.)

Novelist May-lee Chai, the Creative Writing Center's visiting writer, will read from her upcoming release "Glamorous Asians" this Monday. Nominated for a National Book Award in 2001, Chai is the author of "My Lucky Face" and has co-authored a memoir entitled "The Girl from Purple Mountain" with her father. Regarding "Glamorous Asians," critic Marilyn Krysl has remarked, "We're in the hands of a sophisticate with a piercing eye, a nuanced intelligence and a sprightly sense of irony." Light refreshments will be served. (Mon., Sept. 27 at 8 p.m., Pruyne Lector Hall, Fayerweather 115. No admission charge.)

Editors' Movie Pick of the Week

Don't miss "Wimbledon" starring the up-and-coming actors Paul Bettany ("A Beautiful Mind") and Kirsten Dunst ("Bring it On"). Set on the grassy courts of -where else?- Wimbledon, this movie is basically a boy-meet-girl with a tennis background. The plot is relatively simple: Bettany plays Peter, a tennis pro who loses his ambition and falls in rank to 157. Fortunately for him, he meets and falls for the rising star Lizzie (Dunst), the "bad girl of tennis," who helps him recapture his focus for Wimbledon. Forced to hide their relationship from Lizzie's furious father, the couple finds that the demanding tennis life makes their relationship virtually impossible. "Wimbledon" may be a chick flick but it has just enough tennis to be compared to the sports romantic-comedy classic "Love and Basketball."