We got drenched on Sunday running into our meeting to plan the future of ORB and all the good things we’ve got coming your way in 2026, but we hope you were reading a good book and resting up because here comes a storm of culture. In the West Bay and Oakland, the double-coloned 3rd Annual Enero Zapatista Bay Area: El Común Zapatista in the Face of the Storm: Reweaving Relations & Regenerating Lands Across Borders starts Thursday and goes through the end of the month. The deadline for applying to Present Company is January 15th -- for Bay Area artists looking to collectively learn together and hang out at Headlands Center for the Art for free this summer is what I am getting from it. The San Francisco Tape Music Festival gives you all kinds of analog sound art starting Friday Jan 9th in the West Bay, and while you’re over there, go see The Voice of Hind Rajab at the Roxie (not the Saturday afternoon showing, that's sold out) because Israel has killed more than 400 Palestinian people even since the ceasefire in October 2025. If you plan ahead, you might be able to get that one last spot on the Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour on January 25th and help the New Parkway start planning ahead via their kickstarter: they’re halfway there already! Keep them in chickpeas for the foreseeable future! Plus all the fun mushrooms are popping up and so is rooreh so go pick your salad ingredients in the hills and rhyme about it at an open mic. -MS & XL
Tuesday, January 6
The Black Studies Collective Community Reading and Discussion Series, 6:00pm, West Oakland Branch Library (DeFremery). Grounded in the book Our History Has Always Been Contraband: In Defense of Black Studies, an anthology of writing by Black scholars and activists, this series -- on the first Tuesday of the month through April 2026 -- invites community members to reflect on the ongoing importance of Black Studies as a living, community-centered tradition. [OPL]
Wednesday, January 7
Claire Kahane, 6:00pm, North Branch BPL (North Berkeley). Author Claire Kahane visits the North Branch to discuss her tell-all memoir Nine Lives, a story of intimate self-transformations in the course of nine decades by a motorcycle-riding feminist literary scholar. I like that this is an 80-year-long “coming-of-age story.” [BPL]
Beautiful and Ugly Too, 7pm, EastSide Arts Alliance (San Antonio). Spoken word poet Chuck Perkins’ firsthand account of life in the Crescent City told through poetry and essays, published by UL Lafayette Press. Born in New Orleans, Perkins came up on the slam scene in Chicago, and now’s back in NoLa running Cafe Istanbul -- except for tonight only when he brings Louisiana flavor to East Oakland, along that old migration route. [instagram]
Live Interactive Storytelling Event with Corey Rosen, 7pm, Mrs. Dalloway's Literary & Garden Arts (College Ave). Longtime Berkeley host of “The Moth” & author Corey Rosen returns to Mrs. Dalloway’s for live storytelling and interactive inspiration -- after you buy his book. Walk-ins and lookyloos will not be accommodated. [Mrs D’s]
AI: Can We Control What We Create?, 7pm, The New Parkway (Uptown). The Merritt Dialogues by the Bay Area Book Festival present the zoom avatars of Roman Yampolskiy and Rumman Chowdhur, two people who know a lot about AI, and talking to them live from Oakland, journalist and Bruce Lee fan, Jeff Chang. We’re pretty sure Yampolskiy and Chowdhur are real and not bots, but you better go and suss it all out just to be sure. [eventbrite]
The Moth StorySLAM (First-Timer's Night), 7:00pm, Freight & Salvage (Berkeley). It’s extremely funny to me that erstwhile host Chris Rosen has scheduled himself to speak elsewhere in Berkeley at this exact same date and time. Go pop your slam cherry and shaggy-dog it like no one is listening. [The Freight]
Also: January Mending Circle at OACC (Chinatown) / David R. Ayón on Forging Latino Power at Book Passage (Ferry Building)
Thursday, January 8
The Embodied Study for Our Collective Liberation Free School, 10 AM, Dimond Library (The Dimond). If anyone here doesn’t already fiercely adore Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the radiating scholar of love and nonhuman appreciation and poetry and joyful survival and Black Feminism, Dr Miyuki Baker would like to see you in their office (the library). They’ll be sharing their practices of collective learning for liberation freely, publicly, and in Oakland through discussing APG’s work all month long. [Miyuki Baker]
Leamos autoras, 4:30pm, Central Library (Berkeley). En Zoom o en persona, este grupo hablará sobre autoras en español (en español) y puedes unirte si tu español es mejor que el mío. En enero, se presentará la novela Balún Canán de Rosario Castellanos, que se ha traducido al italiano, pero no al inglés. [Berkeley Public Library]
Low- and No-Alcohol Cocktail Magic with Jennifer Newens, 6pm, Book Society (College Ave). Learn how to make very very very dry martinis. [Book Society]
Queer Open Mic Night, 6pm, Nomadic Bookstore (Uptown). ORB has poked our head into the newest bookstore in town: the opening may be soft but the books here already go hard. Poets, storytellers, and musicians are explicitly invited tonight, comedians are explicitly banned. Right around the corner from Low Bar, on 23rd. [insta]
Krik? Krak!, 6:30pm, 13 Orphans Lounge (Downtown). An evening of stories, live music, poetry, burlesque, soul, and community. Featuring performers Deidra Knight, Naira Dee, Tajinder Virdee, Arthur Kao, Simba La Siren, ranna, and honoring the (West Bay) debut next week of Fated Emergence, a solo show by KD, a queer Haitian storyteller exploring family, home, and belonging (now I get the event title!). [insta]
[West Bay Bonus Event] Bay Area Chapbook Suite, 7:00pm, Green Apple Books on the Park (The Sunset). Come listen in on a suite of four poetry chapbooks by poets collectively titled "Bay Area Suite” who straddle the bay -- East Bay reps Randy Prunty, & Elizabeth Robinson, and West Bay denizens Denise Newman, and George Albon. [Green Apple Books on the Park]
The Dreams We Share. 7:00 pm, Eastside Arts Alliance (San Antonio). Valentina Leduc Navarro's documentary follows groups from Mexico, Spain, and Germany in their anti-capitalist land struggles and work to build a global network of resistance aligned with the Zapatistas. One review on letterboxd gives it 4.5 stars and an “ACAB!!!!!” just to make the politics real clear. [insta]
black hole cinematheque, 7:30 pm at Bathers Library (Telegraph). Too Early, Too Late. This movie by Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub from the early ‘80s looks at rural places in France and Egypt through the lens of labor, history, and communist revolution. What they find is countrysides emptied of people (reminding me of my favorite Marxist thinker of place, Raymond Williams, on the countryside moving from a site of labor to leisure under industrial capitalism). Looks both beautiful and haunted, like everything good. [insta]
Also: Drag bingo at Eli’s (Grove/Shafter)
Friday, January 9
J.K. Fowler, 8:30am, Ground Floor Club (Temescal). For true morning freaks, the executive director of the Bay Area Book Festival and East Bay bookslinger of note will be greeting the dawn as a speaker in the international Koor·Soo lecture series, centered around hope in dark times. [CreativeMornings]
Making Stories, 3:30pm, Rockridge Branch Library (Lower Rockridge). Children ages 8-12 are invited to an ongoing collaborative space for writing stories, poetry, comics, or stageplays for Depression-era Japanese street theater (yes, really). [OPL]
Tamarack NOT AT TAMARACK Poetry, 6pm, UPDATE: NOT AT TAMARACK MOVED TO BATHERS (Downtown). Amy Berkowitz (lover of collaborative poetry, organizer of the West Bay’s Light Jacket Reading Series, author of two books of poetry, TWO), alex cruse who did a very cool Solstice thing, and Maw Shein Win, Omnidawn author and poetic elder: the first readers of 2026 at Oakland’s best community space with a liquor license. [updated info at instagram]
Julia Park Tracey, 6:30pm, Books Inc. Alameda (The Island). The former Poet Laureate of Alameda left us for Grass Valley years ago, but we will swallow our pride and welcome her back to sea level because she brings her new novel as an offering: a revisionist deconstruction of Little House on the Prairie, which deserves it. [Books Inc.]
Mark(her): Artist Talk with Gericault De La Rose, 7pm, Junior Center of Art and Science (The Lake). Trans people are often left vulnerable by state bureaucracy, and Gericault De La Rose’s work asks how trans people navigate the resultant risks. Hear from the artist herself, as part of her ongoing tapestry and painting exhibition with Angel Anjos. [Junior Center]
Paula Lafferty: The Once And Future Queen, 7pm, A Great Good Place for Books (The Hills). Ooh, so this is one of those self pubbed author goes viral on tiktok and then a commercial romance publisher picks up her story and shines up the package and prints a lot more of them books that keeps the whole corporate publishing industry rolling along! Oakland contains multitudes, and today it contains a sexy(?) time travel book by a white Christian mom and pastor from the midwest. The hills are hilling. [GGP]
Get-Hype Open-Mic, 7:00pm, Discover Community Cafe (West Oakland). Comedians aren’t banned at this one, though they should be. Features a singer and a slam poetry workshop. Hosted by JR Rice. [insta]
Also: A Lineage of Form at Lucky Break Studios (Deep East Oakland) / Gen Blend at Ruth’s Table (West Bay) / Mapping Time opening at Mercury 20 Gallery (Uptown) / Local History and Storytelling with the Sausalito Project at the Sausalito Public Library (North Bay) / Monarch Stewards: Art, Film & Conservation Hour at Rivian (West Bay) / The Future is Collective with Niloufar Khonsari, Sholeh Asgary, and Sharmi Basu at Southern Exposure (The Mission)
Saturday, January 10
Basketry Demonstration & Conversation with Jennifer Bates, 10:30am, OMCA (The Lake). An invitation into the traditional California Native artform from no less than the former chair of the California Indian Basketweavers Association, Jennifer Bates (Northern Sierra Mewuk). Learn in particular why good fire is essential for basket makers to have access to the plants they need in the right condition. [OMCA]
Club de Lectura en Español / Spanish Book Club, 11am, César E. Chávez Branch Library (Fruitvale). The club’s book selection for January is Corazon tan blanco by the late Javier Marías -- get the first edition, read it in a bar, enjoy the attention that results. ¿No hablas español, chica? Get the English translation by Margaret Jull Costa; she’s incredible. [OPL]
Nature Walk with OMCA’s Curator of Natural Science, Ryder Diaz, 12noon, OMCA (The Lake). Members Only! Doesn’t come with a jacket, but you do get a plant education. [OMCA]
“Am I an American or Am I Not?,” 2pm, San Leandro Main Library (Deep Deep East Oakland, Keep Going). “Kavanaugh Stops” are now precedent, and ICE thugs keep sneaking around Oakland: now’s the time to steel yourself by connecting with the legacy of legendary Oaklander Fred Korematsu, who spent a lifetime calling the US government out on its racism and blatantly unconstitutional actions against its own people. Keynote address by Fred’s daughter, civil rights advocate Dr. Karen Korematsu. [SLPL]
[West Bay Bonus Event] San Francisco Bay Area: An Environmental History with David D. Schmidt, 3pm, SF Botanical Garden (Golden Gate Park). Schmidt has been working the green beat in the Bay Area for decades, and he’s distilled that to 600 pages and a one hour talk. (h/t to Christina at Same Page SF for surfacing!) [GGGP]
Bloom. Wilt. Bloom. 3pm, 2727 California (Berkeley). An afternoon of poetry rooted in decay and becoming. Damn if that ain’t the mood of the times. With Alie Jones, Justin Demeter, Amber Allen-Peirson, Jelal Huyler, and The MoonDrop Poets, which is a whole bunch more poets. [insta]
Chinese Couplets: A Film, 4pm, Oakland Asian Cultural Center (Chinatown). Part memoir, part history, part investigation, Chinese Couplets spans two centuries, three countries and four generations of women to show the impact of America’s Chinese Exclusion Acts on filmmaker Felicia Lowe’s family. After the screening, Lowe will moderate a discussion between Grant Din (genealogist), and Sandy Jiang (West Bay Chinatown based community organizer supporting SRO residents) on inheritance and identity. [OACC]
Closing Reception: Each One Teach One, 6pm, Black Panther Party Museum (Downtown). Mark the closing of the museum’s inaugural exhibit, all about the History of the Oakland Community School, the Black Panther model school that created joy in learning in Deep East Oakland -- with drinks, discussion, and music. [eventbrite]
As Tears Go By, 6:30pm, BAMPFA (Berkeley).“A tragic study of little people in a big city” as the filmmaker Wong Kar Wai himself described it, filmed furtively amidst Mong Kok’s “life in the raw.” Featuring Maggie Cheung and Andy Lau, who has to decide if it’s hoes before bros or the other way around. [BAMPFA]
Also: Salt of the Earth opening at Strikeslip Gallery (West Bay) / Mother opening at 120710 (West Berkeley) / Cafecito & Crafts at café con cariño (Old Oakland) / Hemming & Mending Clothes By Hand at Golden Gate Branch OPL (Golden Gate) / January Death Cafe at West Branch BPL (West Berkeley) / Rockridge Book Club reads Three Days in June by Anne Tyler Rockridge Branch OPL (Guess Where) / Oakland Junk Journal Club and then Waste Futures at Local Economy (The Neighborhood Formerly Known as Shafter) / Tierra y Libertad at Canticle Farm (Harrington)
Sunday, January 11
Build Your Own Crankie Workshop with Risa Lenore, 12noon, Shapeshifters Cinema (Jack London Sq). A society with nineteenth-century levels of wealth inequality deserves to at least enjoy a revival of nineteenth-century artforms. I know you are desperate to know what a “crankie” is but I won’t spoil the surprise: click the link to find out. (The formal ORB position is that crankies are GOOD). [insta]
From Ally to Activated: Breaking Barriers to Community Action with Kim Tran, 1pm, Oakland Asian Cultural Center (Chinatown). A workshop on how to take practical action against injustice in the face of our personal doubts and anxiety. Tran has been a sympathetic but vocal critic of the commodification of DEI initiatives, so this is bound to be more than just another HR training seminar. [OACC]
The Hidden Fortress, 1:30pm, BAMPFA (Berkeley). Kurosawa’s most successful and approachable film, The Hidden Fortress is often known to Americans as the movie that inspired many of the characters in Star Wars. But don’t let that stop you! Toshiro Mifune’s bombastic performance as a cunning general in disguise defies comparison. See it again on the 20th. [BAMPFA]
Cairo Station, 4:30pm, BAMPFA (Berkeley). Stay at the movies for this street-level exposé of sexual obsession and working-class madness in Egypt that’s as grimy and claustrophobic as its setting. “The fifties” meant something different in Cairo. [BAMPFA]
Days of Being Wild, 7pm, BAMPFA (Berkeley). OK, get up now. Stretch your legs, discuss the phantasmagoric charisma of Toshiro Mifune and Chahine’s shocking 1958 masterpiece over an early dinner, then head back to BAMPFA for a chaser by master of mood Wong Kar Wai. Get your ticket, sit back down. Days of Being Wild is the first part of the trilogy that includes his better-known films In The Mood For Love (2000) and 2046 (2004), but this 1990 production is special because it represents his departure from conventional crime cinema and his first decisive entry in the style he is best known for today. [BAMPFA]
Also: Freedom Rising: A benefit event for Abortion Freedom Fund at the Ivy Room (The Oakland part of Albany) / Plant Sale at Free Oakland UP (Dimond District)
