Welcome to the one and only time I’ll ever be able to describe an event as “Kafkaesque” and actually mean it as a compliment. Tonight, Stranger Genius Rebecca Brown leads Blueprints of the Afterlife author Ryan Boudinot and a young up-and-coming writer named Eric McMillan in a celebration of everything Kafka. They’ll read Kafka’s writing, show off some “Kafka paraphernalia”—is it too much to hope for a sex toy?—and explore exactly why we’re all so enamored with the man whose name has become synonymous with existential dread and boundless despair. (Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, hugohouse.org, 7 pm, free)