Oakland Review of Books calendar of (not just) literary events, July 29 – August 3
The Oakland-based artist known as Sun Ra keeps being celebrated in the West Bay. Tunnel and bridge it all weekend if you want to know what the past visions of the future can still foretell. On the Oakland side of things, new movies by Black filmmakers are being shown, alongside panels, discussions, and celebrations all weekend as well at BAMFF (the Black Arts Movement Film Festival, not the Canadian ski town). Check out all the films here. And look, bright flowers are still blooming even in the dry meadows of the hills, plus if you picked up a marigold seedling from your library, now is the week to bring it back and get measured. Go do things with each other, tell us all about it. -MS & AB
Tuesday, July 29
The Asphalt Jungle, 1 PM, Orinda Theater (Hot Side of the Hills). What if Tarantino but 1950. Inventing the gangster caper film in one the great screenplays of all time. (Also a great “LA plays New York City” flick). [OrindaTheater]
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee Community Listening Session, 4 pm, Oakland Asian Cultural Center (Chinatown). One of a series of city-wide listening sessions held by the Mayor for communities to learn about the City’s efforts around public safety and to connect and hear directly from community members and leaders, public safety teams, and service providers about our concerns and priorities. [instagram]
The Swan’s Rag issue 6 Release Reading, 7pm, Bathers Library (Telegraph). Sloane/Evan/Noah are hosting a release reading for The Swan’s Rag issue 6 with contributors Ivan Sokolov (not the chess player, probably), Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Jocelyn Saidenberg, and Peach Kander (diorama-making poet, poems-as-dioramas even). Queer, daring, surprising, and in person. [instagram]
Angels and Demons: Resistance to ICE in Los Angeles Since June 5, 7 pm, Tamarack (downtown). Fuck ICE, but tactically. Time to learn from the struggle in Los Angeles, so that the robust strategies for resistance there that are working against Trump’s secret police can be deployed the moment ICE arrives anywhere. Specific emphasis will be placed on “Community Defense Centers,” which tenants’ organizers and autonomous community members set up to counterpatrol ICE’s movements throughout the city. [instagram]
Also: Co-Op Job Fair by CALLI and NoBAWC (Temescal)
Wednesday, July 30
(Another) Fundraising Preview and Party for the Wood St Doc, 6 pm, Tamarack (Downtown). Powerful storytelling about unhoused people in our community trying to hold on here in Oakland. Get this movie made. [instagram]
WHB July Book Club, 6:30 pm, Womb House Books (Temescal Alley). Book under discussion is Rachel Aviv’s incisive Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories that Make Us. How maddening this world, other people, our own minds are. [eventbrite]
Berkeley Poetry Slam, 8 pm, Starry Plough (Berkeley). Featured poet is Zara Jamshed. Fact: best poem takes home $200. There’s winners and losers in poetry and don’t you forget it. [eventbrite]
Travelogues: Underground and Undersea with MUDEC United, 6:30pm, Clio’s (The Lake). Italians go underground and undersea. Find hidden depths in the oceans and in the mind in this third issue of creative exploration. Maybe they came by submarine and floated into the Bay -- better go and investigate. [eventbrite]
Also: Zine Workshop at Rock Paper Scissors Collective (Downtown) / What You Need To Know About AI with AI Safety Awareness Project at OPL (Rockridge) / Forrest Gander and Supper at Headlands Center for the Arts (Marin) / Luis Buñuel’s Él (This Strange Passion) at BAMPFA (Berkeley)
Thursday, July 31
Repulsive Reads: Goddess of Filth by V. Castro, 6 pm, North Branch Berkeley LIbrary. Get your horror on in enthusiastic company. Limited free copies available for pickup, or borrow a copy. It is a library after all. [BPL]
[Bonus West Bay Event] Black San Francisco Dockside Labor History, 6 PM (SF Maritime National Historical Park, seems pretty near Fort Mason?). Join renowned historian Albert Broussard and others for an educational workshop and special preview of the SF Maritime Museum’s collection on Black longshoremen and dockworkers of San Francisco and Bay Area. With food! [instagram]
Queering the Canon Book Club 6:30PM Bather’s Library (Telegraph). Book to be discussed: Metal From Heaven by August Clarke. Visceral prose, dangerous lesbians, and anti-capitalist revolution. Be gay, do crime, and read books that plot revenge. Can you even wait til Thursday to talk about it? [instagram]
[Bonus West Bay Event The Second] The Butch Manual, 7pm, Green Apple Books on the Park (The Sunset). With poets, writers, and queer icons Brendan McHugh, Julian Carter, Eric Sneathen, and Zoe Williams. Now back in print after 40 years, this tongue-in-cheek manual by Clark Henley advises gay men on how to appear more "butch." Pump it up (in pumps). [GAB]
Oh, Hi!, 9:20 pm, The New Parkway (downtown). A first romantic weekend getaway goes awry in a most unexpected way, and IMDB says the plot keywords for this dark comedy are “female rear nudity,” “female topless nudity,” “cowgirl sex position,” and “sex scene.” The plot, it thiccens. [The New Parkway]
Also: Mikio Naruse’s Untamed at BAMPFA (Berkeley) / Lew Welch celebration with Alta Journal and City Lights (Kerouac Alley)
Friday, August 1
[Bonus West Bay Event] First Friday in the Alley, 4:45ish pm, Kerouac Alley (North Beach). Bring poems on your notes app, in your pocket, in the book you just bought at City Lights. Read em with us around a table, then keep listening all night long at Golden Sardine and then at Coit Tower. For inspiration, go here first.
Opening Night Celebration of the Black Arts Movement Film Fest, 5:30 pm, BAM House (Downtown). Uplift African ancestors with Omnira Institute and other special guests to celebrate the beginning of Black August and the continuation of Black culture. [eventbrite]
Unnamed weekly reading series reading #29, 6:30 pm, Tamarack (Downtown). Featuring Aja Couchois Duncan (Debra Miranda and Renee Gladman are fans!), Julian Talamantez Brolaski (double down or just show up if you missed Tuesday at Bathers), Paul S Ukrainets, and randii. [instagram]
[Bonus West Bay Film part deux] Argentina 1985, 8PM, ATA Gallery (West Bay). Up there with No! in the genre of scripted drama recreation of southern cone post-dictatorship films, this on asks: How do you prosecute an authoritarian regime that disappears its opponents? (Asking for a friend). [ATA]
Also: Mending Circle at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center (Chinatown) / CosmoCon at Chabot Space and Science Center
Saturday, August 2
The Origin Story of “The Laurel.” 10 AM, Laurel Art Garden (The Laurel). Learn how the neighborhood developed, got its name, and how it was impacted by Interstate 580. A good use of twenty bucks and two hours. [humanitix]
End of Summer Celebration, 10:30 AM, Oakland Main (Downtown). Giant possums, airborne dancers, BBQ, and books! Also, fair warning: clowns and zumba. [OPL]
Reading and Open Mic, 2 pm, Parker Electric (Jack London Square). Celebrate stories and local talent in this fundraiser for Pieces: a night of literary and circus arts by Bay Area performers. Bring your best words and loudest voice! [instagram]
2001, 3:15 PM, New Parkway (Downtown). Look, you know what this movie is (always worth seeing it on a big ass screen). DUMMMMM [NewParkway]
Taking Root, 3 pm, Asian Cultural Center (Chinatown). A community-produced documentary series to tell the stories of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugee Philadelphians who resettled in the city after the U.S. Wars in Southeast Asia (commonly known as the “Vietnam War"). [OACC]
BBQ Without Borders, 3 pm, OMCA (The Lake). No Immigrants No Spice's summer benefit, to provide direct financial support to East Bay residents who are excluded from government relief due to their immigration status. Featuring Oakland local food glamorpusses Chef Tu David Phu, Preeti Mistry, and Rocky Rivera. [humanitix]
Meet Lio Min, 3:30pm, Asian Branch (Chinatown). Come out to talk with the Oakland author of the queer YA romance novel Beating Heart Baby. For anyone who loves music and finding that one friend who is maybe more. [OPL]
Summer with Monika, 7 pm, BAMPFA (Berkeley). Swedish teenagers dance, steal vegetables, get naked on an island, and drama results. Fogust has everyone dripping on screen in the East Bay this week. [BAMPFA]
Films Being Seen and Not Heard, 7:30PM, Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum (Fremont). A bunch of moving pictures from before sound was invented: A Fool There Was (1915), preceded by shorts Fools Of Fate (1909) and D. W. Griffith Past Redemption (1913). Watch out for that train, it’s coming right at you. Are You Not Yet a Member? [NESFM]
Also: Community clothing swap at Tamarack (Downtown) / Blk Girls Green House 5 year anniversary party (West Oakland) / Oakland Vintage Market (Jack London Square)
Sunday, Aug 3
Wild Oyster Project Volunteer Work Day, 10 AM, Alameda (Oakland). Build oyster reefs from discarded shells, and help filter feeders take root in the Bay. Then in the afternoon, eat oysters on the other side of the bay. [eventbrite]
Free Sundays, 11 AM, OMCA (The Lake). You can go to the museum for free on the first Sunday of each month, which is good, go do that. [OMCA]
Oakland Municipal Band, 1 PM, Edoff Memorial Bandstand (The Lake). The Oakland Municipal Band has been presenting free concerts at Lakeside Park since 1912. Not… the whole time, just periodically. You know what I mean. These days, it’s a 35-piece conducted by Kaitlin Bove. Past programs here. [Oakland Band]
Golden State Valkyries Watch Party, 4:30 pm, Xingones Cantina (Jack London Square). Catch the Balhalla energy with Maya Goldberg-Safir (Rough Notes), Audacious IAM, and a whole lotta fans of women with game.
3 Women, 6:30PM BAMPFA (Berkeley). It took a genius like Altman to finally ask the question: what if there were three women? [BAMPFA]
Also: Ayo Brame at Sunday Summer Jazz at OPL’s Golden Gate Branch
