Celebrate the country’s Semiquincentennial with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s “America 250” program, or check out photography of Pittsburgh steelworkers from the camera of Lewis Hines at the Frick Pittsburgh — here’s what to do this weekend.

Theater
Tensions between a Black family and their new white neighbors in 1955 Louisiana drive “Meet Me At the Oak,” the new production from New Horizon Theater. The tree, formerly a site of lynchings, means very different things to the two families. The show is the East Coast premiere of this early play by Layon Gray, whose plays exploring Black history include “Black Angels Over Tuskeegee.” It opens Thu., Feb. 19, at the Helen Wayne Rauh Rehearsal Hall of Downtown’s O’Reilly Theater, and runs through March 1.

Dance
Nostalgic touchstones are the stuff of America 250, this weekend’s program from Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. Choreographer Lisa de Ribere’s “The Mighty Casey,” set to music by John Philip Sousa and Stephen Foster, takes its cue from the famous 1888 baseball poem. Sousa’s oeuvre also scores George Balanchine’s “Stars & Stripes Pas de deux,” while Ben Stevenson’s “Three Preludes” is set to Rachmaninoff, and Paul Taylor’s “Company B” to the World War II-era harmonies of The Andrews Sisters. The Benedum Center hosts four performances, Fri., Feb. 20, through Sun., Feb. 22.

Visual Art
New arrivals at Ellis Island, child laborers in Southern cotton mills, immigrant Pittsburgh steelworkers — so much of our image of the early 20th century came from the camera of Lewis Wickes Hine. Hine is considered the father of modern documentary photography, and more than 70 of his black-and-white photos are featured in “Lewis Hine Pictures America,” a new exhibit at the Frick Pittsburgh including images from 1907’s famous Pittsburgh survey, which exposed inhumane working conditions here. It opens Sat., Feb. 21.

Event
After a big snowstorm and weeks of frigid temperatures, some folks will say they’ve had about enough of winter. But starting at 5:30 p.m. Sat., Feb. 21, with just a month officially left in the season, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh finds reason to celebrate. GLOW is the museum’s one-night, light-themed festival, with outdoor events including an LED obstacle course and giant black-light spin art, and indoor attractions including neon glow art-making, storytelling and a black-light dance party. Tickets are $8 per person with discounts available, and children under 2 admitted free.

Words
Four writers from the region share published and in-progress work at this month’s installment of the long-running Free Association Reading Series. Taking the podium at Alphabet City will be Wheeling-based environmental and science writer and humorist Laura Jackson; artist and memoirist Dani Lamorte; poet and Carnegie Mellon professor Lauren Shapiro; and poet and essayist James Tasillo. The event takes place the afternoon of Sun., Feb. 22, and admission is free.

Music
“Lisette quitté la plaine,” dating from 1757, is the oldest known song text in early Haitian Creole. On Sun., Feb. 22, the touring Lisette Project builds a program around this story song that weaves together Creole and European elements. Baritone Jean-Bernard Cerin, soprano Michele Kennedy, fortepianist Nicholas Mathew and Chatham Baroque’s own Scott Pauley (on baroque guitar) perform more than a dozen songs tracing the tune’s arc over two centuries across Haiti, France, Cuba and New Orleans. The afternoon concert is at Shadyside Presbyterian Church.