Events are stacking up: call a friend and ask them to come with you (or be the friend who says yes!). There’s a call for art about dogs that ends on Feb 27th, so get on it. At the library, Black American Sound System (BASS), centers intentional listening as a cultural, historical, and communal practice rooted in Black American sound starting nowish. Thursday and Friday there’s a conference at Cal on women of the right wing because women uphold the patriarchy too when it benefits them, and you can pick up the new Bather’s mini mag and submit to the next one. Lots of the best short films are on at The New Parkway if your attention span is shot these days. And you can join your neighbors to clean up trash and do our collective stewardship part wherever you are. The sun is coming, Black Joy lit up the weekend, and "Pondering My ORB" (the ORB literary trivia team) came in a proud silvery second at the Litquake pub trivia night: we will have a Jeopardy ringer on board for July so watch out, the team is assembling, we’re aiming for full employment. In the meantime, get your plants in the soft, saturated ground and get to the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha exhibition at BAMPFA to make language do new things in your brain. -XL, MS, TC
Tuesday, February 24
Nicola Griffith in conversation with Nisi Shawl, 6pm, Zoom (The internet). If you're taking an inside day after a busy weekend of literary galas, tabling, and getting silver at the Litquake literary trivia, listen in to Griffith (author of the most wonderful, immersive book of historical fiction, Hild, among others) and Shawl discuss Nicola Griffith's new book She Is Here, collecting her essays and poems, pubbed by PM Press. That press always catches my interest (I subscribed to their onslaught of books for a few years after signing up at their table at The Fox after a Jenny Lewis concert, until my shelves couldn't handle it any more), and this series, Outspoken Authors, featuring a stellar line up of spec and SF/F authors intrigues me. Big big names, little little books. [City Lights]
[West Bay Bonus Event] Mission Cuentistas, 6pm, CCSF (The Mission). How better to celebrate The Mission than with poems and stories about the neighborhood. Featuring West Bay past Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguía and his new book The Other Barrio: New and Selected Stories. Also featuring readings by Norman Zelaya (Gente, Folks) and Cathy Arellano (Salvation on Mission Street). [insta]
[North Bay Bonus Event] Supper at Headlands, 6pm, Headlands Center for the Arts (The Headlands). Drive through a tunnel into the wild, foggy parkland to eat a hearty, delicious meal, cooked by Chef Damon Little, with a table full of the most fascinating art appreciators. Then stay for an artist talk with 2025 Artist in Residence Hong Hong, in whose paintings "passing weather registers as folds and textures across its surface," followed by a performance by Josephine Devanbu, who draws from ancestral Tamil literary and artistic traditions to create her sculptures and performances. Everything I love about the Bay Area is happening here. [headlandsarts]
Reading by Kitty Stryker, 6:30pm, Pegasus Books Downtown (Berkeley). Bay Area author and activist Kitty Stryker on her new book LOVE REBELS: How I Learned to Burn It Down Without Burning Out in conversation with the blue-haired fabulosa Sezin Devi Koehler, author of “Much Ado About Keanu: A Critical Reeves Theory.” Love hard, Keanu-style. [insta]
Poetry for the People: The June Jordan Experience, 7pm, The Freight (Berkeley). The Los Angeles production about one of the East Bay's most beloved poets makes a rare, one-night appearance in the town where she established one of her most enduring legacies: the Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley. Far from a bog-standard biographical play, this is a choreopoem that presents Jordan's life as a multimedia collage à la Ntozake Shange, including writing prompts for the audience. [The Freight]
Why Fly, 7pm, Clio’s Books (The Lake). When your marriage goes splat, get into aeronautics, advises Caroline Paul, who will be in conversation with Courtney Martin about everything that flies in the sky and which name Paul Simon could rhyme with "gyrocopter" for a new verse of "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover." [Eventbrite]
Rachel Rueckert's THE DETERMINED Book Launch, 7pm, Mrs. Dalloway's (Oakland). Local award-winning author Rachel Rueckert (who has been obsessed with pirates for what sounds like decades) launches her latest historical novel: The Determined, based on the real experiences of two of the Golden Age of Pirates’ most reckless and renowned women, swashbucklers Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Swag and booty are on offer, especially if you come in costume: "All pirates are welcome!" [Mrs. D's]
Also: Spirits of San Francisco Evening with Gary Kamiya & Paul Madonna at SLAKE San Francisco Bottle & Sundry (West Bay)
Wednesday, February 25
[West Bay Bonus Event] Public Vigil of Prayer, Song, and Testimony, 11am, ICE Field Office (FiDi). Never Again means now, means never, means for everyone. This public vigil of prayer, song, and testimony marks the day that began the unconstitutional incarceration of Japanese Americans, and is for all the people being treated the same way now in the US of A because of their national origin, race, and melanation. Churches and temples and all people who know right from wrong are gathering to protest a government that can't seem to remember history or learn from it. [insta]
[West Bay Bonus Event the Second] An Afternoon with Dorsey Nunn, 12:15pm, SFSU Student Center (Way West Bay). I Love SFSU Africana Studies hosts the Bay Area author of What Kind of Bird Can't Fly, Dorsey Nunn. At nineteen, Dorsey Nunn entered California's prison system barely able to read. Inside, he saw guards fuel racial conflict, and found solace, education, and political education among his community of Black inmates (everyone from his little league team was in prison with him except the one white kid). Ten years later, Nunn left San Quentin determined to help others and fight for justice for those impacted by the system, and dedicated the next fifty years to becoming an asset to his community. Come listen and learn. [facebook]
“My Work Is My Autobiography”: Shamlou at 100, 4pm, Center for Middle Eastern Studies (Cal). Translation, when not done by all the bots, is a form of cultural mediation and even historical recovery. Hear about Ahmad Shamlou (1925–2000), a foundational Iranian modernist who helped usher free verse into Persian poetry while bearing witness to Iran’s turbulent twentieth century. Talebi will share bilingual readings and explorations of archival material, as well as her ongoing relationship with Shamlou's work. [UC B]
The Cultural Infrastructure of Oil in Iran and Iraq, 4pm, Sutardja Dai Hall (Cal). OK, the choice is poetry or movies, which filter do you want on the underlying question of the Middle East, which comes down to oil in any case, at least from a USian war-machine perspective. UCSB's Dr. Mona Damluji will talk to you about “The Cultural Infrastructure of Oil in Iran and Iraq" if you pick movies: her book points out that oil pumping is basically (we knew it but it's good to be reminded) a result of British imperialism, AND she's a poet so she probably would support you going to the Shamlou talk instead. [UC B]
This Unruly Witness: June Jordan's Legacy, 4pm, BAMPFA (Downtown Berkeley). Every writer stands with and among the tongues and choruses of a library of mentors, chosen and accidental. Honor those who influenced you, as the folks here, today, and in the book honor June Jordan's powerful shaping force, the foot on the pedals and the hands in the clay of the future. Stand up and listen to the legacy and reverberation of a writer who also stood for what art could do for the people. [UC B]
Criminal Justice Community Listening Session, 5pm, Cal Alumni Association (Berkeley). Dr Tanisha Cannon from Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and former West Bay PD and DA Chesa Boudin will open the session, which will center the voices of local people impacted by the criminal justice system as part of the Alameda County Reparations Commission's review of anti-Black policy throughout Alameda County’s history. Trying to create solutions to generational harm takes time and listening, but also requires action. Hopefully we’re getting closer? [Berkeley Law]
What It Takes to Deliver Climate Progress and Shared Prosperity, 5:30pm, Local Economy (Oakland). Is this abundance politics coming to Oakland to be all pissy about regulations or an actual path forward for environmental policy that doesn’t compromise long term well being for short term gain? And if some "just asking questions about capitalism" from a degrowth perspective enter the conversation, we'd love to get the vibe report. [luma]
all about love, 5:30 pm, nomadic book club (uptown). the bell hooks books club is reading all about love by bell hooks! it's not on the nomadic website, but a coyote told us about it. [partiful]
Book Talk: Huey P. Newton’s Family: Roots of A Revolutionary Suicide, 6pm, Oakland Main Public Library (The Lake-ish). Per the book and library descriptions: “This book puts Huey P. Newton’s experiences and those of his family into historical context. The talk today aims to shed light on how the Newton family’s ancestry and interrelationships helped shape Black Panther Party co-founder Huey Newton’s thinking and life trajectory. Melvin Newton, Prof. Emeritus of Merritt College and Huey Newton’s older brother, will be joining the discussion.” [instagram]
[West Bay Bonus Event the Third] Whole Earth Redux Book Launch, 6pm, Gray Area (The Mission). HEY now, this is the kind of intergenerational, regional, cultural legacy [expletive deleted] publication we need to ALL be turning out for. A new book that collects essays by Ana Tuazon and others offering new perspectives on the legacy of the Whole Earth Catalog, the publication that defined California’s counterculture. Speakers at the launch include academics who are probably also cool: Greg Castillo, Padma Maitland, and Kola Heyward-Rotimi. [Gray Area]
Myrl Beam: The Long Fire: Sexual Policing, Settler Colonialism, and the Minneapolis Uprising | Arcus/Places Prize Lecture, 6:30pm, Bauer Wurster Hall (Berkeley). Macalester College's Myrl Beam examines the overlapping phenomena of anti-trans violence, racist policing, and houselessness among Native Americans in the streets of the Minneapolis Police Department's third precinct. You remember the third precinct, don’t you? Its police station was burned down in May 2020, an act of revolution that really did happen, right there before God and Trump and Jacob Frey, even if every day since then has been an exercise in pretending it did not. Beam’s whole project, which is centered on a community oral history, sounds rad. [UC B]
WHB February Book Club: Orlando by Virginia Woolf, 6:30pm, Womb House Books (Temescal Alley). Join the WHB Book Club for for a discussion of Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel, Orlando, inspired by her love affair with Vita Sackville West. V+V=O but also makes modernist literature that explores sexuality, history, and narrative that transcends the time-boundedness of the traditional novel. [eventbrite]
Sultry Sessions: Many Loves, 6:30pm, Zanzi Oakland (Uptown). OK, finally, a more Oakland kind of abundance – after dark. Ada and Melanie invite us all: "Tell us about the times you were provided an abundance of love (ooh was it a group thing?) or found yourself loving many people, toys, kinks or positions simultaneously. Both delightful and non-traditional endings welcome!" It's a warm, supportive erotic space, a queer BIPOC-centering very open, mic. Plus, new in 2026, movement artists are bringing their performance skills to spice things UP. [eventbrite]
Book Club: Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless by Maria Pinto, 7pm, Clio's Bar and Bookstore (The Lake). The Bay Area Mycological Society discusses naturalist, forager, and educator Maria Pinto's book Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless: What Fungi Taught Me about Nourishment, Poison, Ecology, Hidden Histories, Zombies and Black Survival, which brings Black history into our understanding of ecological connection with the mushrooms and mycelial networks that intertwine us all. [insta]
Love is in the Air: February Lyrics & Dirges, 7pm, Pegasus Books (Downtown Berkeley). Four poets read: Ana Varela Tafur (Peruvian poet in whose writing are three recurring plants — the rubber tree, the Ayahuasca vine, and the shihuahuaco tree), Yaccaira Salvatierra (working in a concrete poetry tradition, look at this beauty of bodies and crows on the page), Darius Simpson ("the ax forgets but the tree keeps detailed notes in an organized address book" and SO MUCH MORE), and Luiza Flynn-Goodlett (poetry editor for fab local journal/press Foglifter, gardener, writer). [facebook]
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, 7pm, BAMPFA (Downtown Berkeley). April 2024: Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi and poet Fatma Hassona began filming their video chats. These conversations and photos sent by Hassona are the heart of this remarkably intimate account of increasingly impossible life in Gaza during the genocidal war mounted by Israel. Like so many witnesses who tried to share what was really happening, Hassona was killed by airstrike, as was her family. [BAMPFA]
Also: Queer and Trans Perspectives on Labor Organizing at UC Berkeley Labor Center (Cal) / Virtual Realism and Individualist Anxiety in Tomas Tranströmer’s ”Schubertiana” at Dwinelle (Cal) / Annual Diller Lecture | “Philip Roth: Stung by Life” - A Conversation between Steven J. Zipperstein and Scott Saul at The Magnes (Berkeley)
Thursday, February 26
Bordering on Indifference: Immigration Agents Negotiating Race and Morality, noon, Philosophy Hall (Cal). If you were befuddled by the abusive and murderous behavior of CBP officers with Spanish last names imported into the very non-border town of Minneapolis, Professor Irene I. Vega has interviewed lots of them and is here to shed some light. The dehumanization of others is key to the functioning of so many of our state institutions, and anyone can participate in that, no matter their heritage or skin color (just ask Clarence Thomas, if he's not on a yacht right now). [UC B]
Restorative Justice in Prisons and Communities Panel, 12:50pm, Berkeley Law (Cal). There is another way, beyond breaking up families, prioritizing punishment and suffering, and continuing cycles of violence and dehumanization. Panelists: Miguel Quezada, Co-Director of MEND Collaborative Darnell Washington, Former President of the San Quentin Coalition for Justice Leonard Rubio, Executive Director of Insight Prison Project Kari Malkki, Healing Justice Program Manager at Restore Oakland, and a survivor who will speak to their experience of repair. [Criminal Law & Justice Center (CLJC)]
The Politics of Abundance, 2:30pm, Eshleman Hall (Cal). Ah, shit, they're everywhere this week, springing up like sourgrass in the hellstrips. [UC B]
June Jordan’s Poetry for the People: Legacies and Futures, 3:30pm, Arts Research Center (Cal). Featuring former student-teacher poets who worked directly with Jordan and instructors who continue her legacy, the discussion will delve into the creation of the original June Jordan’s Poetry for the People at UC Berkeley, subsequent models and iterations, and the future of the pedagogy for instructors, poets, and activists alike. Featuring Poet + teacher Marcos Ramírez, Lawyer + writer + former leader of PftP Junichi P. Semitsu; poet + teacher Xochiquetzal Candelaria, and Aya de León (poet laureate of Berkeley) [UC B]
Poet's Bookshelf: Round 2, 5pm, Nomadic Bookshop (Uptown). Come together to discuss Bluff by Danez Smith, published by Graywolf. I've read this excellent book: it's a self-excoriation, it's a demand to witness, it's a cry for remembering the George Floyd protests of Minneapolis that Smith witnessed, and do some goddmaned thing about it all – can art offer only catharsis within the experience of the art, or can it spur the reader to action? [Insta]
Black History Month Kiki Ball, 5pm, Humanist Hall (Uptown). "Bring it in Red, Green and Black" and by it we mean vogue, style, sashay and strike your best pose to celebrate the culmination of Black History Month. [insta]
ThursDates at OMCA with Watermelon Couch Pop-Up Talk & Art Making w/ That Art Party, 5pm, OMCA (The Lake). So much at OMCA. Take a date to The Watermelon Couch, which transforms lived experience into shared knowledge. Join creator James Shields alongside cooperative development leader Adrionna Fike inside Black Spaces:Reclaim & Remain for a discussion that draws on years of stories gathered from Black farmers and communities across the country to explore themes of local agriculture, collective power, and sustainable futures. Make art, look at art, remember histories, make your own. [OMCA]
Nina Serrano, 5:30pm, Books Inc. (Alameda). Legendary local author, activist, feminist, and community leader in Latinx arts, a writer not stopping even though she's past 90 years old, Nina Serrano will read from her new book of selected poems: Out of the Blue, which presents poems from her most recent decade, written when she moved, as she puts it, "from old age to ancient." [eventbrite]
Center for the Art of Translation Presents the Work of Korean Poet Kim Hyesoon, 6pm, Local Economy (Rockridge). The blues by way of postwar Korea: “Inside the head there lives a lonely dog / It is drooling spit / digging through a mountain pile of garbage / opening and closing an empty house’s windows / overturning footprints in the sand / and going into the fog.” Kim Hyesoon’s poetry is surreal, grotesque, splattered in viscera, haunted by war and Japanese and U.S. colonial rule over her country, not to mention patriarchal rule over its women. It’s also full of bangers like “I’m a soldier of goodbye / I’m a body that produced a dead infant / I’m a minus producing machine.” Listen to Cindy Juyoung Ok read from her translation of The Hell of That Star, and Jack Saebyok Jung read from his translation of Lady No. R. O. Kwon will moderate a conversation afterward. [Local Economy]
Here, We Speak _____: A Writing Workshop, 6pm, Tarea Pittman South Branch Library (Berkeley). Wendy M. Thompson, Oakland poet and African American Studies Professor at SJSU, reads poems about mother/language and identity and then facilitates a mini writing session. Come through to write about what and who makes home for you. [insta]
[West Bay Bonus Event] School Books: Legacies of Publishing and Library Interventions at SFAI, 6pm, SFMOMA (SoMa). Librarians David Senior and Becky Alexander explore the archival books and ephemera featured in the exhibition "People Make This Place: SFAI Stories." They are the paper trail of experimental exhibition making and community building at the iconic local and defunct art school. [SFMOMA]
My Undesirable Friends: Part 1—Last Air in Moscow: Crackdown Chapters 1–3, 7pm, BAMPFA (Downtown Berkeley). Stephen from Screen Slate reported that he found these very long movies attention dilating and immersive. One guy who was there last weekend saw both parts and asked if there would be a third. So go lose yourself in the drama of Russian journalism, which might be even worse off than American efforts, but not by much. Then maybe check out the shorts at The New Parkway to recover. [BAMPFA]
The Return of Ancient Epic: Gilgamesh, 7pm, Clio’s Books (The Lake). I like the reading of Gilgamesh as the first narrative of environmental degradation and deforestation, and there's an extra pretty version of this doom and gloom story translated by David Ferry and set in a monstrously expensive book if you're looking for a present for a monster and epic lover: or you could come talk about your Penguin Classics version with Niek Veldhuis, PhDizzle. [Clio's Books]
Spring Workshop Performance: “Adaptation” By Elaine May, 8pm, Zellerbach Hall (Cal). In addition to being one of the most successful plays written by renowned actress, comedian, director, and frequent Mike Nichols collaborator Elaine May, Adaptation is probably the only mid-century American play based on the game of Parcheesi. If you're busy on Thursday, a second and final performance will happen on Friday the 27th, same time and place. [UCB]
Also: Personal Emergency Preparedness Class at East Oakland Senior Center (Deep East) / Repulsive Reads @North at North Branch (Berkeley) / Indigenous Eco-cultural Revitalization by the Amah Mutsun at Environmental Center Exhibit Space - 5th Fl, Main Library (WEst Bay) / Crime Anthology Presentation - The Savage Waves of Spring at Ferry Building Store (Embarcadero) / The Art of Repair: a conversation with local shopkeepers at Problemlibrary (The Outer Richmond) / SOLD OUT We Want The Funk — Black History Month Celebration at Grand Lake Theatre (The Lake) / Geraldine Connolly and Laurel Benjamin at Books Inc. (Alameda) / David Oppenheimer's The Diversity Principle at Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore (College Ave) / Restoring Abundance: Oysters Return to SF Bay at Faction Brewing (Alameda) / The Eyes & The Impossible at Z Space's Steindler Stage (West Bay)
Friday, February 27
Finance, technology, and fascism today, 12 noon, Social Sciences Building (Cal). Sociologist Fabian Muniesa decodes the radical fantasies of financial and technological “reset” seen in contemporary conspiratorialist culture and the extremist imaginaries of currency, information, energy, value, and intelligence detected in dominant innovation milieus (e.g., Silicon Valley ideology, “deep tech” venture capital, Peter Thiel’s eschatology). Liberty versus authority – it all comes down to what makes them the most unfettered money, innit. [Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative]
Dreamgirls, 2pm, Main Library TeenZone (The Lake-ish). Get a snapshot of Oakland School for the Arts' Dreamgirls production – 30 minutes of talent and ambition! The ORB opera critic may be on scene to report on the torch songs/arias, if the stars and schedules align. [OPL]
Black History & Heritage Gathering, 2pm, Richard C. Trudeau Training Center (The Hills). East Bay Parks and the Urban League of the Greater San Francisco Bay Area invites you to a gathering celebrating Black History Month, with a chance to learn about the Dunn Trail and Oakland park history. [EBRPD]
Poetry! 6pm, Tamarack (Downtown). The legend continues! Wendy Xu (poetry books from Fence and Wesleyan, “Something like a fond electricity was happening inside of me / I felt I could lie there forever on the tarmac by the sea”), Jonathan Larson (poet, translator, Brooklynite), Alan Bernheimer (Language poet, host of In the American Tree, towering oak of the Bay Area innovative poetry scene that figured out language always points to other language, can we ever get back to the real when we fling words made of other words to our word-sculpted minds?)
My Undesirable Friends: Part 1—Last Air in Moscow: First Week of War Chapters 4–5, 7pm, BAMPFA (Berkeley). More of just part one! I knew Russian novels were long, but didn't realize Russians aimed for overwhelming girth and length in all mediums. [BAMPFA]
Repurpose II : Heart Arts for those in Healing, 7pm, EastSide Arts Alliance (Deep East). How can incantations, chants, performance, stories and poems move us toward healing and each other? Come into the cracked spaces of your broken heart and fill them with sounds and vibrations to reconnect spirit, heart, mind, body, and earth. [EastSide Arts Alliance]
Pinko Issue 4 Launch Party, 8pm, Tamarack (Downtown). Celebrate the fourth release of "the only print magazine of gay communism in English." Issue #4 is sold out online (and at every bookstore I've asked so far), so this could be your (my) last chance to snag a copy and read their new interview with a radical trans furry hacker. [insta]
Also: BHM: Black Banjo Reclamation Project - 2026 at Main Library (Alameda) / KITTY CATERPILLAR - Story Time with Authors Annabeth Bondor-Stone and Connor White at A Great Good Place for Books (The Hills) / Donna Summer Book Club at Books Inc. (Alameda) / Queer Night Mic at Nomadic Bookshop (Uptown) / Hotties Melt The ICE: Concert Fundraiser at Decentered Studio (West Bay)
Saturday, February 28
67th Annual White Elephant Sale Clearance Weekend, 10am, White Elephant Sale (Jingletown). Do you even live in Oakland if you haven't purchased a wall-mounted mako shark, a life-sized Jar Jar Binks statue, and Robocop 3 on lazerdisc at the White Elephant Sale? Check out Coyote Media's coverage of the strangest things they've ever found in the Town's personal junk drawer and join the gold rush. Proceeds support to the Oakland Museum of California. [OMCA]
Real Life Pokémon, 10am, Del Valle Visitor Center (Livermore). Start with pokemon, end up seeking out nudibranchs, calochortus, and ringtails. Good trajectory. Pokémon may seem like totally made-up creatures, but if you ask junior ORB Arun, he will explain for the next several days how most of them are based off real-life animals, plants, and other life forms, and specifically which of the thousands are most relevant to the creatures and plants you might see on this walk. [East Bay Regional Park District]
Snail & Slug Search, 11am, Tilden Nature Area (Berkeley). Did you know that California is home to seventeen native (and at least eighteen introduced) slug species? Learn the fine art of gastropodcasting on this outdoor survey of the world of slugs and snails, snapping photos that will help conservationists map the ooey-gooey biodiversity of the East Bay. [East Bay Regional Park District]
[West Bay Bonus Event] Collecting Queer & Trans: An Inside Look at the World of LGBTQ+ Rare Books, Archives & Ephemera, noon, Pier 27 (Embarcadero). Join this discussion on #LGBTQ+ archives, books, periodicals, posters and #ephemera. Learn about the importance of such materials in advancing understanding of queer and trans history—and hear stories about each speaker’s remarkable finds, view materials from their personal holdings, and get tips for starting or enriching your own personal or institutional collection. [Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America]
Emeryville International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, 12 noon, AMC Bay Street 16 (Emeryville). The annual Drag Me to the Cinema festival death drops back into Emeryville under a new name. The event goes from noon till 10pm, with nine shorts running during each themed two-hour block and drag routines from Amoura Teese and Bonita Rose. Final block is SOLD OUT! Check out the site for details. [Fishnets & Film Inc]
California Writers Club, 12:30pm, Rockridge Branch Library (Used to be Shafter). The California Writer's Club, founded by the East Oakland Marxist translator and labor lawyer Austin Lewis in 1909, has burgeoned into a sprawling network of twenty one chapters from Chico to Anaheim. Writers of all experience levels are invited to workshop your work with the OG chapter. As Marx himself wrote in Capital, "Mere social contact begins in most industries a rivalry and a stimulation of the 'animal spirits', which heightens the efficiency of each individual worker." I think he meant that in a positive way. [OPL]
The Movement Book Club, 1pm, North Branch Library (Berkeley). February's book club selection is Rest is Resistance by poet, performance artist, and naptivist Tricia Hersey. Don't sleep on it! Or do. [BPL]
AAQGO Black History Month Demonstration, 1pm, West Oakland Library (West Oakland). Guild members will teach quilting with prepared kits available for free to members of the public, in their annual tradition. Spend a few hours and learn a new quilt block before you go. [African American Quilt Guild of Oakland]
100 Years of Black History Commemorations: Lillian Black, 1:30pm, African American Museum and Library (Old Oakland). Ever since the Clark Doll Study, amateur doll makers have come to understand their craft as a deeply political activity with deep significance for Black children in particular. This Black History Month presentation celebrates the life of the late Lillian Black, a pillar in the East Bay doll maker community and a legacy member of Oakland's own American Black Beauty Doll Association. [OPL]
Collective marathon reading of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictée, 2pm, BAMPFA (Downtown Berkeley). If you have been reading the weekly ORB calendar recently, you already know that BAMPFA has been going absolutely hog wild with Theresa Hak Kyung Cha-related events lately. Show up in the first hour to sign up for a reading slot. The marathon is scheduled to run for three hours, but who knows, maybe you read fast. [BAMPFA]
Kingmakers of Oakland: Black Boys and Young Men Reparations Listening Session, 3pm, MetWest High School (Eastlake). Listening and speaking session, to hear more about the Alameda County Reparations Process that's been underway a while to look at historical oppression of Black people in Alameda County. Think historically, act locally. This event centers youth voices and experiences. [Alameda County Reparations Commission]
Reading: Alejandria Fights Back, 3:30pm, Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch Library (Berkeley). Oakland artist Rob Liu-Trujillo will read his new bilingual book Alejandria Fights Back,, a children's book about displacement and housing justice he illustrated. From Oakland-of -the-East-Coast Feminist Press! Liu-Trujillo will also share additional art that did not appear in the book -- ooooh. [BPL]
Conscientious Tax Refusal Introductory Workshop, 4pm, RSVP for address (Downtown). Not feeling thrilled about footing the bill for a federal assault on Palestine, Iran, Nigeria, Greenland, Minneapolis, etc.? Meet members of the Northern California War Tax Resistance to learn about your options. For the record, if any IRS agents are reading this we already filed ORB's taxes this year so don't @ us. [insta]
[North Bay Bonus Event About Oakland] Brian Barth - Front Street: Resistance and Rebirth in the Tent Cities of Techlandia, 4pm, Book Passage (Corte Madera). Hear investigative journalist and documentarian Brian Barth present on his new book about Wood Street Commons in West Oakland: Front Street: Resistance and Rebirth in the Tent Cities of Techlandia. His book tour does NOT include a stop in Oakland itself for reasons I cannot fathom, but this is as close as it gets.*
* West Oakland is technically closer to Green Apple Books, the first stop on his tour, but shockingly it takes less time to drive to Corte Madera [Book Passage]
The urge for phygital, ludic communities, 4pm, Dream Farm Commons (White Building). Closing conversation with Vanessa Chang and Cassie Thornton about how bodies, technologies, and nomadic social relations intertwine at the closing event for Judit Navratil's show. [insta]
Love Letter to Fat People, 5pm, Nomadic Bookshop (Downtown). "A juicy offering dedicated to fat, chubby, big, & thick QTs," with readings from local QTBIPOC artists Devon Devine, aja lenae, and Joanna, followed by an open mic. Masks required: cover your face, but if you're into it, reveal your belly. [Nomadic Bookshop]
Closing Party: Insulation, 6pm, Lucky Break Studios (Coliseum Industrial). A jubilant swan song for the solo show of brilliant eco-artist Alicia Escott, artist-in-residence at the increasingly peripatetic Your Mood Projects. Your Mood has already been uprooted twice this calendar year, which according to Escott rhymes with the larger theme of the show itself: loss and mourning amid an accelerating climate change crisis. [Your Mood Projects]
[West Bay Bonus Event] Book Blast: Xicanxfuturism:, 7pm, Medicine for Nightmares (The Mission). Join author and editor Scótt Russell Dúncan of the new anthology Xicanxfuturism: Gritos for Tomorrow, Codex I for live readings, demos from "an in-development xicanxfuturist video game," and visuals from Project:MASA [eventbrite]
Winter in America, 7pm, BAM House (Downtown). Traverse a veritable forest of laurels at this open mic hosted by Oakland's inaugural poet laureate, Dr. Ayodele "WordSlanger" Nzinga, alongside former Berkeley Poet Laureate Aya de León and Oakland Youth Laureate finalist Zouhair Mussa. [On The Stage]
[West Bay Bonus Event the Sacramentoest] Gavin Newsom with Kara Swisher - Young Man in a Hurry, 7pm, Golden Gate Theatre (Civic Center). Come learn about how Newsom overcame his adverse childhood as the son of a fabulously powerful oil lawyer to achieve widespread success and fame as a podcast host. [Book Passage]
Also: West Oakland Pop-Up at Proyecto Diaz Coffee (West Oakland) / Wildlife Volunteers: Shorebird Sanctuary at Martin Luther King Jr Shoreline (Deep East) / Oakland Lunar New Year Parade at Wilma Chan Park (Chinatown) / Lunar New Year Celebration at Main Library Children's Room and Bradley Walters Community Meeting Room (Lake-ish) / Lunar New Year Celebration at Central Berkeley Library (Berkeley) / Black History Month Celebration at Marcus Books (Longfellow) / Noname Book Club at 81st Avenue Branch (Fitchburg) / Picture Book Reading/Signing: Do I Love You? Yes I Do! at Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore (Elmwood) / ReLove 13th Anniversary Shopping Event at ReLove Oakland (Grand Lake) / An Evening With Sun Ra Arkestra at The Chapel (West Bay)
Sunday, March 1
Mini Miners, 10am, Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve (Antioch). The children yearn for the mines. Give the 2-5 year olds in your life what they crave, bring them to Antioch for a morning of play and learning about nature. [East Bay Regional Park District]
Coal Mine Experience, 11:30am, Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve (Antioch). Did you know that the East Bay was once the site of one of the most productive coal mines in California? Delve into the caverns that helped build the Bay Area (and the anthropocene in general) on a an extraordinarily cheap underground walking tour ($3!!!). Then make sure to read Jeopardy champion Megan Wachspress's recent mind-boggling ORB article about a coal terminal in Oakland. [Active Communities]
The Other, 12:30pm, New Parkway Theater (Uptown). Begun in 2017, this film focuses on Israeli & Palestinian peace-builders, anti-occupation activists, and others working to transcend narratives & belief systems, unlearning long-taught hatred and fear in the face of ongoing trauma. And in the midst of ongoing genocide, the documentary goes back to the folks trying to heal wounds to ask, what is the state of this work now. [insta]
Betty Reid Soskin Celebration Of Life, 2pm, Henry J Kaiser Center for the Arts (The Lake). This celebration of the life of the more than 100 year witness to Bay Area history Betty Reid Soskin is being held at one of the largest venues in Oakland for a reason. Come pay tribute to the legendary civil rights activist, musician, centenarian park ranger, gospel record store owner, and Castlemont High alum with everyone else in the East Bay. [ovationtix]
Oakland Lantern Festival, 3pm, Pacific Renaissance Plaza (Chinatown). The fourth annual Oakland Lantern Festival welcomes the first full moon of the Lunar New Year with music, dance, mahjong, poetry, acupuncture, games, a night market and more. Keep your eyes peeled for fire horses and steel yourself for the upcoming lunar eclipse on the 3rd. [OPL]
Installation and Performance: "till no till", 7pm, Confloptus (Chinatown). An open door event with Winslow House Project's February artist-in-residence: movement artist, sculptor, and avant-gardener Olivia Ronan. The artist statement asks, "as forms and ideas erode, compress, and become undefined and as the slippage of time, money, and earth cascade down who knows what will happen next ?" Imagine the possibilities with the weirdest, wonderfulest artists in town. [insta]
Altered States, 7pm, BAMPFA (Berkeley). Take something powerful and go see Ken Russell’s ridiculous head movie from 1980. The script is by Paddy Chayefsky, the Network guy, who so objected to Russell’s bughouse direction that he took his name off the movie. Willam Hurt, here in his film debut, shows dick and ass, auguring a career spent being one or the other. That guy sucked. In the movie he’s a psychopathologist studying schizophrenia. Blair Brown does a lot of handwringing as his wife. Bob Balaban is in this, too, being Bob Balaban all over the place. Weird stuff, even by Ken Russell’s standards. [BAMPFA]
