MATT EICHELDINGER >> Launches “Matt Sprouts and the Day Nora Ate the Sun,” second in his Matt Sprouts series in which Matt has to babysit Nora the goat. 6 p.m. Thursday, Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul.

AISHA M. BELISO-DE JESUS >> Discusses “Excited Delirium,” about a now-denounced syndrome used by medical examiners to describe the deaths of Black men and women during interactions with police, claiming that Black people with so-called excited delirium exhibited superhuman strength induced by narcotics abuse. It was heart failure that killed them, they said, not forceful police restraints. The author, a cultural and social anthropologist, examines this fabricated medical diagnosis and its use to justify and erase police violence against Black and Brown communities. In conversation with Michael L. Walker, University of Minnesota Beverly and Richard Fink professor in liberal arts in the sociology department. 7 p.m. Thursday, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls. Registration required: magersandquinn.com/events.

LITERARY BRIDGES >> Celebrates its seventh birthday by hosting a program featuring host/curators of other Twin Cities reading series, including Douglas Green, Becky Boling. Rick Hilber, Frances Jams, George Colburn, River Maria Urke, Julie Martin, Tim Nolan, Dralandra Larkins, Ronal J. Palmer, Jeanne Lutz, Haley Lasche, Ted King and others. 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, Next Chapter Booksellers, 38 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.

MULTI-MYSTERY AUTHORS >> Wendy Webb, Catriona McPherson, Sarah Stonich, Jess Lourey, Kristi Belcamino and Joshua Moehling sign copies of their books. 1-4 p.m. Thursday, Open Book at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Terminal 1.

POETRY AND MUSIC >> St. Paul Almanac and Walker/West Music Academy collaborate on “Listen! An Evening of Prose and Poetry” at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts featuring Twin Cities poets and spoken-word artists whose work has been published in the almanac during the past 20 years, and Walker/West music instructor and band leader Kevin Washington leading an ensemble of Walker/West faculty. “It’s a historic moment for St. Paul Almanac poets and Walker/West musicians to collaborate on the Ordway stage,” writes Pamela Fletcher Bush, Almanac CEO/publisher. “It is also a historic moment for the Ordway to feature poets. To build on this occasion the almanac is launching a yearlong celebration of its 20th anniversary until fall, 2025. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, 345 Washington St., St. Paul. Tickets from $67 to $39 available through the Ordway ticket office, 651-224-4222, or boxoffice.ordway.org.

POLING/MICHELL >> Writer Chan Poling and illustrator Lucy Michell present a musical story time celebrating their picture book “The Moons,” which reminds us that friendships can be treasured through song. 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul.

MARCIE RENDON >> Author of the popular Cash Blackbear series launches her new stand-alone novel “Where They Last Saw Her,” about missing Native women on a reservation near where workers are laying a pipeline, and a woman who brings other women on the reservation together to show solidary. 6 p.m. Tuesday, Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th St., Mpls.

— Mary Ann Grossmann