Oakland Review of Books calendar of (not just) literary events, June 24 – 29
The spring wind has died down and it’s officially hot new little publication summer (HNLPS!), so read your magazine and scroll your phone outside and enjoy long warm evenings while they’re here. If you want to be inside, most of Frameline49 (the oldest and longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival in the world) is in the West Bay, but there’ll be a few showings at the New Parkway—we’ve solved the garbanzo bean conundrum but more can be discovered every day there, that’s why they call it the NEW Parkway—and if you make a major life error and end up in Palo Alto, watch old Hitchcocks until the end of July. In grudging acknowledgement of Mondays, please note that the one happening on the 30th is looking all nice and glittery thanks to Real Talks! by Nicole Shaffer and tamara suarez porras at Real Time and Space, and The Approach’s Issue One release party will be lighting things up at Clio’s.
Tuesday, June 24
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. 1 pm, Orinda Theatre (The Very Hot Side of the Hills). We used to make movies in this country, or, more specifically, we used to let literally Dr. Seuss write disturbing and surreal musical fantasies and film them. In this one from 1953, our hero dreams he is trapped by his piano teacher, a madman dictator who has imprisoned non-piano-playing musicians and built a piano so large that it requires Bart and 499 other boys (hence, 5,000 fingers) to play it. Watch the trailer, and tell me you think a free country would allow this. Or stop by the Orinda Theatre; Matias Bombal will introduce the film and hopefully explain just what the absolute hell all of these people were thinking. [Orinda Theatre]
Darning Lab, 2PM, Blue Willow Tea (Berkeley). Learn repair techniques for tears and rips. Tiny holes only. In your garments! [Instagram]
Realistic Fiction, 7pm, The Rockridge Improvement Club (College Ave). Is this the first event from Brad and Liz and the EBB gang since the move? From the trans-led small press LittlePuss, a collection of short stories by Anton Solomonik that might be engaged in dissident metaphysical investigation of the normative tenets of gender in our society. As if Charlie Chaplin re-wrote the works of Kafka while being a Russian trans man, according to the marketing copy, which definitely doesn’t seem like it's hyperbolic. [Eventbrite]
The Girls Who Grew Big, 7pm, Mrs Dalloway’s (Berkeley). Former Oakland Youth Poet Laureate and current Big Fucking Deal Oakland Novelist Leila Mottley's new novel comes out into the world! Teen pregnancy and birth in the Florida panhandle. Also, fuck the Dobbs decision. [Mrs Dalloway’s]
I Trust Her Completely, 7pm, Pegasus Books (Berkeley). Christine Henneberg is the local self-published author of the memoir Boundless: An Abortion Doctor Becomes a Mother and has now self-published a novel on similar themes. (See also her essay “Why I Provide Abortions”). I like California, where we have DIY authors, not DIY abortions [though to be nerdy about it, Oakland’s been a center for those too, and there’s a good history of the activism around democratizing gynecological care written by local author Angela Hume]. Again, fuck Dobbs and especially Amy Coney Barrett. Mothers need abortions too. [Pegasus]
First Impressions, Lasting Connections: Date Night Shorts, 8:30 pm, The New Parkway (Uptown). This program brings the romance with stories of queer angels coaxing together the perfect match and awkward first dates that bloom into relationships. This shorts program comes with an optional speed friending event (don’t worry, you get to keep friends you came with too, this is a “yes and” situation), guided by drag queen Ms. Sweet Nothing in between some of the short films. [Frameline]
Also Rae Shaw’s new book on short film at Clio’s (Grand Lake)
Wednesday, June 25
All this Safety is Killing Us: Health Justice Beyond Prisons, Police, and Borders, 6 pm, A.B.O. Comix (Telegraph). Join editors Ronica Mukerjee and Carlos Martinez as well as Clio Reese Sady in conversation about the grassroots work to create health and resist/dismantle systems of punishment that undermine it. [instagram]
Sultry Sessions: Open Mic, 6:30 pm, Zanzi (Uptown). Let’s talk about sex, baby. This is the place to share your X-rated fanfic of all the 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. Last month’s vibe report got a little faint in the heat thanks to the hosts and performers’ commitment to consensual, mutual pleasure. More, more, please, please, please.
[Bonus West Bay Event] Wood Street, 7pm, KALW (Downtown West Bay). A work-in-progress screening and also a fundraiser-for-the-completion-of Wood Street, a documentary that was “following members of Oakland’s largest homeless encampment as they fight the city and state against eviction from their long-term community” and which is, presumably, a little different now that they have largely been evicted. [eventbrite]
Megan Greenwell's Bad Company, 7 pm, Mrs. Dalloway’s (Berkeley). The acclaimed journalist presents a damning indictment of the private equity industry told through the stories of four American workers, in conversation with tech reporter Mike Isaac. The bad kind of getting fucked. [eventbrite]
Also: Living Boldly: A Queer Story in Wine & Words at Book Society (Berkeley), Detour at BAMPFA (Berkeley), Indian Classical Sessions featuring RAAGI at Medicine for Nightmares (West Bay)
Thursday, June 26
[Bonus North Bay Event] Archiving, Marin City, and the Second Great Migration West: A Poetry Reading and Conversation, 6pm, Sausalito Books by the Bay. Poet/scholar Wendy M. Thompson and community historian and activist Ms. Felecia Gaston in conversation, focusing on the breadth of experiences of black Southerners who came West during the Second Great Migration. Thompson explores the archival process through a reading from her debut poetry collection Black California Gold while Ms. Gaston will discuss the current work of archiving objects, stories, and mementos of a community presently undergoing change. I love this—poetry as archive, research as art. [instagram]
Katharine Coldiron in Conversation with Anita Felicelli, 6:30 pm, Womb House Books (Temescal Alley). Coldiron (JFC now that’s the name of a critic) has published a new collection of essays that blends film criticism with memoir and fiction, as well as lists, visual diagrams, and Wikipedia collaging. Delightful. She should review ORB next. [eventbrite]
Ocean Hoptimism, 7 pm, Faction Brewing (Alameda Which Used To Be A Peninsula Not An Island). Debut series on trying to think positively about the rising ocean on a very low lying island. Dr. Rachel Carlson, Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for Ocean Futures, will explore how local actions reduce climate stress, and how even in a time of immense change, hope is still very much alive and well for our ocean—and why that matters more than ever. Psst – Heyday has a book on that. [eventbrite]
Adam Becker and More Everything Forever, 7pm, Mrs Dalloway’s (Berkeley). After writing a book about quantum physics, Adam Becker wrote a book about how you’re not going to Mars. His new book is about Silicon Valley’s dangerous fools and their hunger for power cloaked under pipe dreams of space colonies and digital immortality. Don’t believe ‘em: put cone hats on the robotaxis and lie to the internet for the sake of humanity. [Mrs. Dalloway’s]
Also: Protest Palantir (Palo Alto), Their Accomplices Wore Robes: The Supreme Court vs. Black America at KALW (West Bay), Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev at BAMPFA (Berkeley), The Book of Light Poetry Series at Books Inc (Alameda Which Used To Be A Peninsula Not An Island)
Friday, June 27
"I Can't Go On, I'll Go On" Preview Dinner Fundraiser, 6 pm, 120710 Gallery (West Berkeley). $125 will get you a dinner from chef Mushi Wooseong James and the joy of supporting a show curated by the amazing Rena Tom featuring local faves Reo Eveleth, Michelle Wilson, Alice Wu, and honorary East-Bayer until she moves to Iowa and even then she can still wear the (paper) crown Steph Rue . [Eventbrite]
Poetry! 6:30pm, Tamarack (Downtown). What a lineup! Featuring Sara Larsen (books blurbed by Juliana Spahr and Lyn Hejinian), Evan Kennedy (books pubbed by City Lights and Roof, lives in the West Bay), Brian Ang (books that include everything).
Hella Comix #5: A Comics Reading, 7:30 PM, 2727 California Street (Berkeley). Featuring a whole bunch of local BIPOC comics artists. Nico (skelehime), a horror cartoonist, is the headliner. [eventbrite]
[Bonus West Bay Event] MANIFESTO for [Concrete Poetry], 7:30pm, Gray Area (The Mission). I love that this experimental film/poetry/dance performance is for all ages. Bring all the children, we need to start the next gen of vibe reporters off right. Featuring the late Wayne Kaumualii Westlake’s 3-page poem and honors his life and work by juxtaposing concrete poetry, underwater text / images, choreography / movement, and some artificial intelligence sequences [blurgh] accentuated by an original soundscape of music, voices, and effects featuring poets Richard Hamasaki, Jocelyn Kapumealani Ng, Anjoli Roy, with voices in Cantonese, Mandarin, and Taiwanese Cantonese by avant-garde dancer/choreographer/teacher Pei-Ling Kao and renowned composer and musician JunYi Chow. [eventbrite]
[Bonus West Bay Event The Second] Anti-Fascist Film Series: April Captains, 8 pm, ATA Gallery (The Mission). Launching the series, April Captains tells the story of Portugal’s 1974 Carnation Revolution, when junior officers, tired of colonial wars and authoritarianism, led a coup that ended decades of fascist rule and restored democracy with massive popular support. [atasite]
Also: More Bruce Conner! at BAMPFA (Berkeley) / Drink Wine and Write at Vintage Berkeley on Vine (Berkeley)
Saturday, June 28
Lake Merritt Weed Warriors, 9am, The Lake. Weed the plantings and you might get to see some monarchs in the milkweed. [Lake Merritt]
Opening Reception for If Every Poster Was a Stone: Palestine Prints to Intervene, Disrupt, and Confront, 1pm, 2285 Gallery (San Antonio in Deep East Oakland). Posters are gathered from in-person protests and actions, as well as online printed posters generated internationally since Oct 7th 2023, and historical posters from archives such as the Palestine Poster Project. [Eastside Arts Alliance]
Geologist's Walk Around Oakland's Lake Merritt, 2pm, The Lake. Meet at Fairyland, walk through space and time. [eventbrite]
Rise Up and Call Their Names, 2-5pm, African American Museum and Library (Old Town Oakland). Screening of the final episode of PBS’s This Far By Faith, following sixty people retracing points along the Middle Passage in North America, the Caribbean, and ultimately back to Goree Island in Senegal, West Africa. [AAML]
I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On opening reception, 4 pm, 1207 10th st (Berkeley). Always go back to Beckett. Go enjoy the art and performances all evening if you couldn’t make the dinner on Friday! Artists needs patrons of all levels, go eat up the art and the free crackers. [instagram]
WET MATTER, 6 pm, Confloptus (Chinatown). An evening of residue and elemental gesture. Jordan Benton presents photographs from the project STACKS, depiction of prescribed burn piles, exploring the visual language of ecological intervention. Whitney Vangrin shares new sculptures and video, featuring footage from the kelp restoration project at Bodega Bay Marine Lab and fermentation processes at The Cultured Pickle Shop in Berkeley. An offering of fennel kombucha, barley tea, ice, stonefruit, and foraged seaweed will be available to accompany the evening. SQUISH. [instagram]
Amanda Hess on Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age in conversation with Mike Issac, 6:30pm, Womb House Books (Temescal Alley). I asked the ORB if anyone reviewed the internet a while back, and I learned that one person has that job (also there’s, unrelated, a phone book of the internet), and here she is, sharing her thoughts about having kids in the age of the internet on paper and in meatspace! With another internet reporter! [eventbrite]
Black Music Month: A Celebration of Hip Hop, 6pm, Bandung Books (San Antonio in Deep East Oakland). The evening features a break dance battle, vinyl and prints for sale, vendors, art, and food. Music performances by Shy’An G, Qskii, Jack Herrier, Madspill, Raushon VTP and Honey Gold Jasmine. Go east, young man. [instagram]
The White Hell of Pitz Palu, Two-Gun Gussie, and Mabel's Wilful Way, 7pm Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum ( Fremont). Did you know that Fremont has a silent film museum? Showing silent movies every Saturday? Movies so old you can watch them on youtube, but don’t do that, watch them in a 100-seat 1913 Nickelodeon-era theater, in the neighborhood that could have been Hollywood, but decidedly was not. [NESFM]
Also: Quilt Documentation Day at BAMPFA (Berkeley)
Sunday, June 29
Using Drip Irrigation for Water Scarcity, 10am, Bikini Bottom (North Oakland). Look ma, no hands! Learn the hardware, installation, trouble-shooting, and programming of a simple battery-operated irrigation system. The first class will be an overview of how drip systems are useful, and discussion of hardware and materials. The second class will be an installation demo and opportunity to play around with the supplies. [BAFS]
GLITCHCRAFT, 5 PM, Bather’s Library (Telegraph). Come spend an afternoon breaking digital files in all the wrong (but right) ways. Mess with audio in image editors, corrupt pictures in text apps, and flip bits to see what happens. No experience needed — just curiosity and a love for weird, glitchy art. You’ll learn a few simple techniques and leave with some digital chaos of your own making. Taught by Jenny and Kirk. [instagram]
SĪ思意YÌ: Sundays on the Farm / Earth Expressions Ancestral Healing Farm (1000 Fish Ranch Road, technically Orinda, but liminally). How to be a hippie now: use the words tender, sweet, nourish, collective, and presence just a little too much. I love it though, fr fr, from my acorn-grinding, sourdough-raising, sun-worshipping West Marin soul (I’ll be in the country on the coast eating local eggs and watching people get married on a beach so please go channel my ancestral hippiedom inland and listen to lovely music and eat delicious food with people going out of their way to do the same) [Google Docs]
Also: Snail Bar Turns Four (Temescal) / More movies on at BAMPFA. That’s what the F stands for (Berkeley – that’s what the B is for)
