Oakland Review of Books calendar of (not just) literary events, August 19 – August 24
Talking with another calendar compiler today and she said she’s learned people don’t go out sometimes because they JUST CAN’T DECIDE – or because they don’t have a buddy to go with. Oakland has solutions: 1) go to everything, 2) know you’ll see your people there. Also, come out to Bather’s Library’s Summer Symposium 8/20-24 and get to know all your fellow art/writing weirdos over the course of an epicly extended weekend, ending at a bay-side sauna. We’ve highlighted some ORB faves below but go to the website to see the whole list of talks, workshops, screenings, and happenings. Buy single workshop passes or the golden key for the whole weekend.
After you’ve recovered, write about it all next Monday at When the Smoke Comes, or cross the bay for Queer Theory 101’s showing of Hackers, aka the reason I have been falling for men who write elegant code since 1996 and how we all first fell in love with Angelina. OR time travel to Oakland in 1987 via Freaky Tales on the internet, OR make your own tiny movie this weekend and show it on Sunday in the 15th Annual BCM Summer Shorts Movie Jam: 48 Hour Filmmaker Challenge. And every Tuesday and Friday, protest ICE denying immigrants due process at the courts in the West Bay.-MS
Tuesday, August 19
Fox Oakland Tour: Inside and Out, 1:30 pm & 3:30 pm, Guess Where (Uptown). Take a tour of the fabulous Oakland Fox Theater with Scooter, who will share what he knows about art deco architecture, which is a lot. Will he hold a candle to the Paramount’s David, though, and is there an Oakland theatre guide rivalry? Make a reservation and report back. [1:30 humanitix & 3:30 humanitix]
Artist Talk: State of the Union, 6:30 PM, Grand Gallery (Jack London Square). Talk with artists Paulette Traverso and Diane Komater about creativity in turbulent times. Also joining the discussion is Nancy Latham from Indivisible East Bay. In times of upheaval, art becomes both mirror and megaphone. [instagram]
Oakland Poetry Slam, 6:30 pm Tamarack (Downtown). Stomp the boards and shake the windows with words and FEELINGS. [eventbrite]
And Then They Came for Us, 7 pm, La Peña (Berkeley). Immigrant Voices film series & benefit for Tsuru for Solidarity. And Then They Came for Us features George Takei and other Japanese-Americans who were incarcerated unjustly and unconstitutionally during WWII. After the screening, stay for a moderated community discussion. [La Peña]
Sistah SciFi & West Oakland Library Book Club, 6 pm, West Oakland branch OPL (West Oakland). Read Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark and discuss! [eventbrite]
Searching for Sex, Finding Connection 9 pm, Clio's (The Lake). Myisha Battle (This Is Supposed To Be Fun) and Carol Queen (Exhibitionism for the Shy, The Sex & Pleasure Book) talk about how we seek pleasure and connection, clarity, and companionship. [eventbrite]
Also: Charlie Jane Anders’s Lessons in Magic and Disaster with Daniel M. Lavery at Green Apple Books on the Park [West Bay] / Kiss & Tell Literary Salon with Sheryl Lister at Books Inc [Alameda]
Wednesday, August 20
Oakland Privacy: Fighting Against the Surveillance State, 6:30 PM, in Oakland, probably. Sometimes it pays to be paranoid, because yes, everyone’s watching, and not in a sexy way like at Clio’s last night. [Indybay]
Persona 7pm, BAMPFA (Berkeley). Ebert, for example, called it "a difficult, frustrating film” and championed it; it’s one of those movies that when people who love it describe it they sound like they hate it. [BAMPFA]
**~~BATHERS~~** Alexis Madrigal in conversation with Rita Bullwinkel, 7 pm, Moonglow (Uptown). Wouldn’t you much rather read about running and boxing than do either? Come through to the speakeasy to hear two local literary heavyweights duke it out and launch the Summer Symposium with a lot of heavy breathing. [Bather’s Library Symposium]
Also: Dimond Book Club reads The Fraud by Zadie Smith [OPL]
Thursday, August 21
Lotería Night – Chinga La Migra Edition, 5 pm, Understory (Fruitvale). Play Lotería, win prizes, and help raise critical funds for a queer x immigrant family directly impacted by I.C.E. FUCK ICE, and put your money where your mouth is. [instagram]
Soul Space Presents Rhyme, Rhythm, and Restorations, 6 pm, Soul Space Berkeley (South Berkeley). Poetry open mic hosted by author, poet, and educator, JR Rice with poetry performances by Oakland's Youth Poet Laureate, Cael Dueñas-Lara, and author and slam poet Papi Grande (PG), and then a musical performance by R&B singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Wanda Gonzalez, followed by a panel discussion on creativity and mental health. [eventbrite]
**~~BATHERS~~** Unity Newspaper 1985 jump cut to 2025, 6 pm, Bather’s LIbrary (Uptown). Maggie Wong, Eddie Wong, Carrie Mar, and Teri Wing discuss the publishing history, organizational operations, care work, and political legacy of Oakland’s League of Revolutionary Struggle. Archives, ephemera, oral histories, and the children of the movement: what a treasure! [Bathers]
Poetry Circle: a friendly reading circle, 6 pm, Claremont Branch BPL (Berkeley). Because all the poets outside the circle are vicious as vipers, watch yr back. [BPL]
Novelist Peter Mann in conversation with Aaron Lammer, 7 pm, Pegasus Books (Downtown Berkeley). Mann’s new book World Pacific is a historical novel full of “wry, macabre humor—following three hugely different, yet brilliantly developed characters,” says Booklist. [Pegasus]
Friday, August 22
Sistah Scifi Fulfillment Party, 12 noon, Oakstop 17 (Downtown but not the main Oakstop location, I know, it’s confusing). Books are little bricks that need to be flung into the world to break it down. Distribution is the key! (also happening a few other days if your Friday is not your own) [eventbrite]
**~~BATHERS~~** iPhone Notes Reading, 6 pm, BL (Telegraph). A reading from the collection “iPHONE NOTES VOL. 1,” the first collection from Conventional Projects. We don't know which readers will show up but wave at the ones who do. [Bathers]
Poetry! 6:30pm, Tamarack (Downtown). What a line up, this goes SO deep. Tonya Foster, listen here -- Ariel Resnikoff’s "ghost canto” my GOD -- Angel Dominguez writing love letters to historical enemies -- Ken Walker, “Even for a burrito, the credit card / gets denied.”
**~~BATHERS~~** Collectively Writing & Dreaming into Futures We Love WORKSHOP, 7 pm, BL (Telegraph). Through writing and collaging with Avery Staton and Grace Anderson, participants will illustrate aspirational futures and conceive experiments that turn vision into action. The session will conclude with creating a community asset map -- this is an opportunity to write the future we want into existence. [Bathers]
**~~BATHERS~~** Wade in the Water: A Cinematic Offering Reflecting Black Girlhood, 8:15 pm, BL (Telegraph). Short films exploring the depths of Black girlhood through the metaphor and memory of water. In these films, water acts as a storyteller providing sanctuary for some, a mirror for others, or even a source of haunting. [Bathers]
Also: OPL Staff Art Show at the Rockridge Branch OPL (Rockridge, obv) / Dani Burlison and Beatrice Camacho discuss Red Flag Warning: Mutual Aid and Survival in California’s Fire Country at Copperfield’s (Santa Rosa)
Saturday, August 23
Plant Sale for Palestine, 10 AM, Eastshore Park (The Lake). What it says on the tin: share your seeds and cuttings, give whatever you can. [indybay]
Celebrate Farm Work! 11:30am, West Branch Library (Berkeley). A children’s storytime about the labor that goes into growing the food we eat. Red diaper that baby. [BPL]
**~~BATHERS~~** Art Sharks: Art Making while Parenting, 11:15am BL (Telegraph). Mad geniuses Liat Berdugo, Christie George, Margaret McCarthy, Phoebe Kuo navigate the intersections of creation and caregiving, grappling with parental constraints and artistic production. [Bathers]
**~~BATHERS~~** Read (something radical) to a baby with Beatriz Escobar, 12:15pm, Bather’s Library (Telegraph). What is something you wish someone had read to you when you were really young? Participants are invited to bring a short piece of radical text to read out loud to a baby (one page maximum). Critical theory, poetry, manifestos. Please reach out to the artist if you also want bring a baby to be read to (babies in arms). [Bathers]
**~~BATHERS~~** Writing Collaborative Poetry for Two Hours and Forever, 12:30pm, Outdoors at Bathers (Telegraph). Our brains operate best when they meet others. Amy Berkowitz teaches a workshop on writing collaboratively as resisting alienation, embracing interdependence, and reconnecting with the pure pleasure of writing. (No poetry or collaboration experience necessary.) [Bathers]
**~~BATHERS~~** The Anatomy of a Bookshop, 1pm, Bather’s Library (Telegraph). Venture into Bathers Library and discover your browsing persona and get inspired to explore bookstores differently. [Bathers]
Commemorate Black August, 1-5pm, Bandung Books (San Antonio). “Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here.” As Black August comes to a close, gather in community to commemorate the living legacy of the Black Panther Party. Prison letter writing, altar building, zine making, educational workshops, free food, and a community free store, raising funds and awareness for families in Gaza, Congo, Sudan, and Haiti. [instagram]
Oakland Heritage Chinatown Walking Tour, 2pm, Pacific Renaissance Plaza (Chinatown). We love an OHA walking tour. Japanese American, Chinese American, and Southeast Asian communities immigrant refugee stories the beauty diverse cultural fabric sojourned Oakland etc, things of that nature. [OHA]
**~~BATHERS~~** Blueprinting Chinatown with Tiny Lei, 2:15pm, Bather’s Library (Telegraph). The history of Chinatown through the lens of architecture and worldbuilding. Bring pen and paper for notes, and leave with a deep understanding of your local Chinatown(s). [Bathers]
Comedy Shorts 3pm, Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum (Fremont). Student projectionists hone their craft in this free show, showing you whatever they feel like. [NESFM]
**~~BATHERS~~** For the Record: Building a Living Community Archive with Cynthia Phươnganh Lê, 3:30 pm, Bather’s Library (Telegraph). Who decides what is worth remembering, and what fades away? An exploration of the living practice of community archiving through the lens of Sea 2 Sea, an evolving cultural preservation project rooted in food, music, and memory work. [Bathers]**~~BATHERS~~** “We were about liberation”: A History of Central American Solidarity on 1970’s Lesbian Valencia Street, 6pm, Bather’s Library (Telegraph). Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta on the history of gay and lesbian solidarity with the Sandinista revolution in the Mission District in the 1970s & 80s. [Bathers]
Agnès Varda’s 1968 Black Panther film! 7pm, Lil’ Bobby Hutton Memorial Park (De Fremery Park) Shot in the summer of 1968 in Oakland, about the “Free Huey” campaign. Free! [instagram]
**~~BATHERS~~** Poetry Reading 7:15pm, Bather’s Library (Telegraph). Brian Ang (The Totality Cantos), Addy Malinowski, and Zoe Goldstein [Bathers]
Woolsey poetry nighttime nite, wherever it is (the air of mysteriousness on Woolsey). kit schluter jack nancy jeremie known & violet spurlock reading dm for address as usual. [instagram]
Also: National Book Lovers Day at AAMLO (Downtown) / California Writers Club at OPL (Rockridge) / Seeds of Resistance: A Fundraiser to Feed Gaza at the UU (Berkeley) / August Death Cafe at Central Library (Berkeley) / Montaigne Mornings: Strange Encounters at Clio's (The Lake) / Guy Colwell: Go Figure Book Launch at Central BPL (Berkeley) / Zine Fest with Oakland Creates at South Berkeley Public Library (Berkeley) / Puppet Fair Weekend at Fairyland (The Lake) / Cat Video Fest Encore showings Rialto Cinemas Elmwood (College Ave)
Sunday, Aug 24
**~~BATHERS~~** Nightliness, 11am, Bather’s Library (Telegraph). Join poet, dancer, and dreamers Kelly Egan and Emily Hippert in conversation about their longstanding dreamwork. [Bathers]
**~~BATHERS~~** Waffle Swapple 11am-2pm (outdoors, Bathers, we guess?) Waffle-fueled clothing swap with the Makeshift Center. Bring your unwanted clothes with light to minimal wear, all shapes, sizes and genders! [Bathers]
UnCommon Law Short Films Screening, 12:30 PM, The New Parkway (Uptown). Watch I Do, Finding Má, and Unhoused and Unseen, short films by formerly incarcerated filmmakers whose work challenges dominant narratives and centers love, healing, and resilience behind and beyond the prison walls. Then hear from directors Rahsaan Thomas, Thanh Tran, and Dante D. Jones in a panel discussion about the power of storytelling to disrupt systems, reconnect families, and humanize people impacted by incarceration. [instagram]
**~~BATHERS~~** What Can Technology Be? 1pm, Bather’s Library (Telegraph). Technology is often a tool of domination and capitalist extraction but what Jacob Sujin Kuppermann, Jessica Dai, Humphrey Obuobi presuppose is: what if it wasn’t? [Bathers]
**~~BATHERS~~** Heteropessimism 2:15pm, Bather’s Library (Telegraph). Only queers can save the straights, with Adora Svitak. [Bathers]
**~~BATHERS~~** On Memory 3:30pm, Bather’s Library (Telegraph). Bhu Kongtaveelert and Anna Zheng explore how memory is molded by the political, the cultural, and the nonhuman. [Bathers]
Nostalghia 7pm BAMPFA (Berkeley). Tarkovsky in Tuscany. [BAMPFA]
**~~BATHERS~~** SAUNA CLOSE OUT at Good Hot? In Richmond? We don’t know, these are too many events, find out your own goddamn self, we are so tired, our crops are dying. [Bathers]
