Five things to do in Brooklyn this week!

Friday

Feb. 15

Behold her

Get in on the ground floor of “The Eye of the Beholder,” an interactive work-in-progress that uses music, projections, and a lecture to examine the life of 19th-century Mexican opera singer Julia Pastrana, who was billed as “The Ugliest Woman in the World” and displayed in freak shows because of her rare genetic condition.

7 pm at Bric House [647 Fulton St. at Rockwell Place in Fort Greene, (718) 683–5621, www.bricartsmedia.org]. $12.

Saturday

Feb.16

Short stuff

The small categories can make a real difference on your Oscar ballot, so get a leg up by checking out all of the Oscar-nominated animated short films. You can catch all five nominees (and two runners-up) at theater-and-eatery Nitehawk Prospect Park, which will screen them three times today.

12:20, 5, and 6:50 pm at Nitehawk Prospect Park (188 Prospect Park West at 14th Street in Park Slope, nitehawkcinema.com/prospectpark). $13 ($10 seniors and students).

Sunday

Feb. 17

V can do it!

Valentine’s is over, but you can still celebrate V-Day! The all-volunteer women’s group VDay Bay Ridge will perform a staged reading of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,” to raise money for Steps to End Family Violence. The third-annual reading will be followed by a talk with reps from local anti-violence groups.

5 pm at Bay Ridge United Methodist Church (7420 Fourth Ave. at 74th Street in Bay Ridge). $10.

Tuesday

Feb. 19

Ben gone

Indie rocker Ben Kweller, formerly the wunderkind head of the band Radish, and then a Brooklyn solo musician, recently took five years off after a near-death brush with carbon-monoxide poisoning. But now he is back with a new album, “Circuit Boredom,” and will play Brooklyn Steel tonight in support of headlining blues band Houndmouth.

8 pm at Brooklyn Steel (319 Frost St. at Debevoise Avenue in Williamsburg, www.bowerypresents.com/brooklyn-steel). $40.

Thursday

Feb. 21

Face to fish

The New York Aquarium in Coney Island is open year-round, and it recently got some new visitors — five Atlantic sturgeons, five-foot-long fishes that were once ubiquitous along the Hudson River, but are now almost extinct. Take a day and visit the boney-plated fellows while they still exist — and drop in on the adorable sea otters while you’re there!

10 am–3:30 pm at New York Aquarium [602 Surf Ave. at W. 8 Street in Coney Island, (718) 265–3474, www.nyaquarium.com]. $25 ($20 kids).

Ugly truths: The new show “Eye of the Beholder,” at Bric Arts Media in Fort Greene on Feb. 15, explores the life of of 19th-century indigenous Mexican performer Julia Pastrana (pictured), who was billed as “The Ugliest Woman in the World.”