As rains clear the skies, another storm washes in. Thicker light, an intensity of color every evening over the lake and the gingko leaves, greener greens and the clouds have subtleties I couldn’t see all summer long. Is the veil thinner? Just in flux in general? Either way, good bye to October, hello to cider and sweaters, and the brothy beans are finally BACK on the Friends and Family menu. Tues and Weds is the 2025 State of the San Francisco Estuary Conference with keynote speaker Diandra Marizet Esparza of Intersectional Environmentalist, if you’re into that kind of thing (we are). In El Cerrito, they’re going for long walks up and down the hills all weekend. Gold Palm is honoring the 90s all week, starting with Lilith Fair on Tuesday. The West Bay is convening artists twice this week and again next week, but will their voices count to the Instagram Mayor? Oakland library has Dia de los Muertos events, Berkeley Library has book clubs, and everywhere it’s the Week of Werth, so go hear about DJs and cars spinning in Oakland until he has to leave again.-MS
Tuesday, October 28
With Love From, The Blasian Bay Area, 12 noon, San Jose State University MLK Library, Room 225 (South Oakland). Design postcards inspired by intertwined artistic and political histories of Black, Asian, Blasian femme friendships, and write mash notes to your girlies. [insta]
Bell, Book and Candle 1pm, Orinda Theatre (The Burbs). A modern-day witch likes her neighbor but despises his fiancée, so she enchants him to love her instead. Honey, we’ve all been there, just stick with the cat. Hosted by film critic Matías Bombal. [OrindaTheatre]
Claude Cahun’s Curiosity, 5 pm, Dwinelle (Cal). In 1930, Cahun and their partner Marcel Moore published Cancelled Confessions (Aveux non avenus)—a genre-exploding anti-memoir, alt-Surrealist collage experiment, and visual-verbal remapping of the genderqueer body. Trans/queer curiosity is its edgy, wayward ethos. Hannah Freed-Thall will discuss how Cahun and Moore’s fierce defiance still speaks to us today. [UCB]
Poet in a New World, 5:30pm, Maude Fife Room, Wheeler Hall (Cal) Robert Hass, Karol Berger, and Peter Dale Scott read and discuss a new set of Czesław Miłosz translations. Miłosz was hella local and Bob worked closely with him on translations and wrote poems for him and generally is always a good art friend. [UCB]
Local Economy x East Bay Booksellers: Jeff Chang, 6:00 PM, Local Economy (College Ave). Y’all, as of an undisclosed nighttime hour, ONE SINGLE SPOT had opened up. Smash that button and go see Jeff on Oakland’s greatest martial artist. If you are too late, lurk in EBB next door and listen in while you buy the book. [Luma]
[Bonus West Bay Event] Tuesday Talks: Musical Reading w/ Jessamyn Violet, 6pm, CCA - Wattis (Design District). Novelist and drummer Jessamyn Violet, a CCA MFA Creative Writing graduate, combines her love for music and literature by backing up writers with her instrumental band Movie Club live. Three slots left to read over a band playing covers of movie soundtracks (“once onstage, you'll be reading with a live two-piece band backing you up, so projection is essential”) [Google Doc RSVP form]
Bay Area Get Free - Campaign Strategy Session, 6pm, rsvp for details (UC Berkeley). Community organizing for reparations in California. The youth are ready to make things right. [airtable]
[Bonus West Bay Event Part Deux] Elaine Castillo & Jason Bayani in Conversation, 7pm, Kearny Street Workshop (SOMA). Authors of Moderation and Everyone I Love, Alive in conversation, with costume party. Elaine told a roving ORB that she’ll be dressed as some kind of knight, and we’re counting on Jason diving in and going as the lady of the lake. [insta]
Third Ear, 7pm, Pegasus (Solano Ave). Local author Elizabeth Rosner, reflecting on the art and science of listening. In conversation with symphony cellist Barbara Bogatin, who knows a thing or two about that. [Pegasus]
Litquake Aftershocks: The Everlasting with Alix E. Harrow with Danielle DeVeaux (SOLD OUT), 7pm, Gilman Brewing (West Berkeley). Litquake is over but so NOT over that romantasy fans are packing out a brewery. [Litquake]
Francesca Wade: Gertrude Stein, 7pm, Womb House Books (Temescal Alley). Stein -- a genius to her admirers, a charlatan to her detractors, a god to ORB, who will be thinking about Stein (Oakland’s most important literary writer who never wrote about Oakland except that one devastating set of lines that’s been so misunderstood, you know the phrase) as we listen to Wade on Stein’s afterlives. Come say hi. [eventbrite]
Also: Tuesdays Together freelancer meetup at Local Economy (College Ave) / Watch Party for Listers at Buteo Books (North Bay) / Take Place reading with 14 Hills at SFSU (Very West Bay)
Wednesday, October 29
Cemeteries and More!, 12 noon, Earth Sciences & Map Library in McCone Hall (Cal). A special Halloween inspired Maps & More featuring the history and geographical peculiarities of Bay Area graveyards and cemeteries. [UCB]
Critical Foundations: Critical Race Theory, 12:45pm, Room 170 in Berkeley Law School (Cal). Prof. Osagie Obasogie and Prof. Savala Nolan on critical race theory. They'll discuss its basic tenets, its uses (and misuses) across the law, politics, and culture, and why thinking critically about race is a good thing, actually. Comes with lunch so you can feed mind and body. [eventbrite]
~~Week of Werth~~ Slaps and the City: Mixing Sound and Space in Oakland’s Black Geographies, 3:30pm, McCone Hall (Cal). Alex Werth comes home to talk about On Loop: Black Sonic Politics in Oakland which draws both from being an urban geographer and a DJ and makes an argument through funk, hip-hop, and hyphy. “Black dance music and everyday sonic practices are material forces that shape urban political economies and environments.” I am also very interested in the argument about the importance of looping and repetition in making Black spaces in Oakland. If your local nextdoor has ever complained about sideshows, just keep linkbombing with this book. Vibe: homecoming, inquisitive, academic (but not too academic). [UCB]
Christina Rivera: Reading and Conversation, 5 p.m. Arts Research Center (Cal). My Oceans: Essays of Water, Whales, and Women. Christina credits the fragmentation of her writing to her two young children. Bless this mess! so you don’t walk into the ocean, then find a way to make essays out of it. [UCB]
[West Bay Bonus Event] Brutalist BART: History of the Glen Park BART Station and the Site Where it Sits, 6:00pm, Glen Park Branch Library (West Bay). Join Evelyn Rose as she explores the 250+ years of transit history through Glen Park, revisits the neighborhood that once stood on the site, and hopes the governor will fund the system. [GPNHP]
Sultry Sessions: Spellbindingly Sexy Edition, 6:30pm, Zanzi (Downtown). An open-mic space to get explicit & naughty via story telling, poetry, music or burlesque, with clear guidelines for consent and you have to RSVP to get in. What does a slutty poet costume look like? It was hot when ORB went and not just because it was summer. [eventbrite]
BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions 7pm, BAMPFA (Berkeley). Free admission, Khalil Joseph presents his “distinctive cinematic experience that mirrors the sonic textures of a record album, weaving fiction and history in an immersive journey in which the fictionalized figures of W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey join artists, musicians, Kahlil Joseph’s family, and even Twitter chats in a vision for Black consciousness.” [BAMPFA]
Heyday Presents: John Freeman and Tommy Orange on the New Voices of California Literature, 7pm, Clio’s (The Lake). John Freeman (poet, critic, Sacramentan) and Official Genius Tommy Orange on contemporary classics in the California canon. Ask Tommy what the future of reading is and send us the report report. [ThirdPlace]
Reading by Sara Jaffe, with Diana Cage and Jess Arndt, 7 pm, Bather’s Library (Telegraph Ave, the Oakland Side). Jaffe will read from her new collection of stories, Hurricane Envy which promises to be chaotic and investigative and full of lesbians and guitars. Accompanied by two other readers making fictional worlds to help us dissociate. [insta]
Lyrics and Dirges: October Harvest Moon Reading, 7pm, Pegasus Books Downtown (Berkeley). Readers are: Alison Hart, paulA neves, Terra Oliveira, Richelle Slota & Wendy Thompson. Some locals, some visitors, celebrating new books and old words. [Facebook]
Mantras at Midnight, 7pm Grand Lake Theater (Grand Lake). A visionary new short film exploring dreams confusion with reality, from Oakland writer-director Takai Ginwright, who will be there to answer questions when you wake up. [GrandLakeTheater]
Also: Lounge Night at Dear John (The Laurel) / Creativity as Resistance: A Bioneers Event at the Brower Center (Downtown Berkeley) / Oakland Hella-Ween Costume Run at the Lake (Lakeside) /Berkeley Book Chat with Mark Goble on Slo-Mo in Geballe Room (Cal) / Beyond the Frame: Amplifying Disability Stories (Films and Panel) at Sutardja Dai Hall (Cal) / Bay Nature Talk: Butterflies of the Bay Area and (Slightly) Beyond with Liam O’Brien for Bay Nature (online)
Thursday, October 30
Intro to Panfishing, 9 AM, Fishing Pier at Big Break Regional Shoreline (Oakley). Want to become one of those folks posted up for hours at a railing, watching the Bay lap and wash the shore and maybe reeling in some fish for the pan (my personal folk etymology for the term in the title)? Learn how. [EBRPD]
Longshoreman and Labor Activist Clarence Thomas Jr., 2 pm, 554 Social Sciences Building (Cal). Thomas, was a member of Local IWLU Local 10 , the Longshoreman’s union based in the West Bay and Oakland ports. Thomas edited Mobilizing in Our Own Name: Million Worker March, published in 2021, which documents decades of ILWU-backed protests, written by the activists and workers behind the actions. Oaklandside interviewed him and now you can go meet the man himself. [UCB]
What I Saw in Gaza: A Surgeon’s Account, 4:00 PM, Location provided after registration (Cal). Dr. Feroze Sidhwa volunteered with the World Health Organization at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, March 25 – April 2, 2024, and again from March 3 – April 2, 2025, with MedGlobal, an American Non-governmental Organization (NGO). Dr. Sidhwa will provide eyewitness testimony of the genocide against Palestinians through a series of cases that he encountered as a trauma surgeon serving in the Gaza Strip. [Every Action]
Repulsive Reads: Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung (tr Anton Hur), 5 pm, North Branch BPL (North Berkeley). “Blending horror, sci-fi, fairy tales, and speculative fiction into stories that defy categorization, Cursed Bunny is a book that screams to be read late into the night.“ [BPL]
All the Walls Came Down: Screening and Filmmaker Q&A, 5 pm, School of Journalism (Cal). When the L.A. Fires of 2025 destroyed filmmaker Ondi Timoner’s home in Altadena, she made a movie because LA, whaddaya think. Timoner follows activist Heavenly Hughes and the community as they rally in solidarity, revealing remarkable resilience amidst climate catastrophe. [UCB]
[West Bay Bonus Event] Publishing as Practice: The Art of the Small Press, 5:30pm, Arion Press (Fort Mason) Luca Antonucci (Colpa Press), Abby Banks (Auspicious Books), and Zach Clark (National Monument Press). In a conversation moderated by John DeMerritt (DeMerritt Pauwels Editions). Live the dream, learn to make books (and then make a plan for storage and distribution). [eventbrite]
~~Week of Werth~~ On Loop, 6pm, Main Library (Lakeish). Alex Werth and Rickey Vincent (who hosts The History of Funk on KPFA) in conversation about Black Sonic Politics in Oakland. Through studies of downtown nightclubs, Lake Merritt, and the Eastmont Mall—geographies rarely considered, yet critical to Oakland’s culture and politics—Werth reveals how the liberatory sonic politics of funk, hip-hop, and hyphy rap have been met with a repetitive "war on nuisance." Make sure to send this to all your neighbors trying to fund more police. Vibe: passionate, political, intergenerational, funky [OPL]
Sinners Movie Night & Trivia, 6:15pm, Kinfolx (Downtown). Black horror film trivia followed by Coogler’s movie, for those lucky enough to have a ticket. Remember, like any movie in the Squad Assembles genre, "Sinners" is secretly about full employment. Sold out: waitlist yourself. [Partiful]
Crows and Sparrows, 7pm, BAMPFA (Downtown Berkeley). A Shanghai apartment building serves as a microcosm of China’s class struggles -- seems like the birds might just be a metaphor. Disappointing. Introduction by Paul Fonoroff and Preceded by three Hearst Metrotone Newsreels from the 1940s to create that authentic movie house experience. [BAMPFA]
Joyride, 7pm, Montclair Presbyterian Church (The Hills). Susan Orlean with Brooke Warner on how to write like you mean it and live a writing life. Get curious, and leave your house for starters. [GGPB]
Schattenfroh, 7pm Womb House Books (Temescal Alley). Hear novelist Mauro Javier Cardenas and Max Lawton, who translated a German book that is 1001 pages long by another guy. This is high literary art, but maybe the total isolation of the protag will get the booktokers excited, they seem to like that. [eventbrite]
Book of Light Poetry Series: Women In A Golden State, 6:30pm, Books Inc. (Alameda). This new anthology edited by Diana Raab and Chryss Yost highlights work by California women poets at 60 and beyond. Contributors include: Molly Fisk, Ellen Bass, Lucille Lang Day, and 172 other women. [eventbrite]
At the Edge: Women, California, and The Unknown, 7pm, Clio's (Lake) Two Northern California poets -- Cate Lycurgus (Seacliff) and Rachel Richardson (Smother). Lycurgus, “I love you so much, I run / through the house licking the rim of every cup your lips might have / touched.” Richardson, in one of my favorite endings I’ve read to a poem lately: “I want to delete my profile, I want pollination / of the blossom and the swelling of fruit. / I want to stand inside the fog socked in under a crown / of redwoods. I want to become the fog.” [eventbrite]
Also: Performing Mulan: How a Shared Story Shaped Sino-American Cultural Exchange at Cal (Berkeley) / Artist Legal Cafe at Local Economy (Rockridge) / Michel Foucault and the History of Madness at the Townsend Center (Cal) / Literary Speakeasy’s Samhain Reading at Martuni’s (West Bay) / The Craft Movie Night at Gold Palm (Downtown) / Neon Sign Walking Tour in North Beach (West Bay)
Friday, October 31
*EVENT OF THE WEEK * 2025 Oakland High School Students Present Their Linguistic Autobiographies, 10:00 am, 2121 Berkeley Way, room 1102 (Cal). We at ORB adore the languages of Oakland, the dialects, the accents, the vocabularies of our city. The kids will explain it all to us, and about their experiences with language and their ideas of language justice. What could be more beautiful than what hybridity arises from the confluence of so many languages in one city. [Google Docs]
Poetry! 6:30pm, Tamarack (Downtown Oakland). Antifascist Day of the Dead reading in support of SF Courtwatch and Gaza, guest hosted by Teddy Lance. Readings by Dora Prieto (Stegner Fellow and “I was built on ghosts, wetlands, fossils/ an unsettling way of answering ‘hi, where to?’”), Zander Moreno Lozano who Litquaked for the first time ever as a reader on Saturday & J. Yuru Zhou, who I met at City Lights at Brandon Shimoda’s reading. Talk to strangers, it’ll make your day.
Halloween Friday Nights at OMCA with Ritmos Tropicosmos, 5pm, OMCA (The Lake). La ltima noche con la musica y la cena. Aaron y los bebes might be there (my Spanish broke down at the subjunctive), but they might be trick or treating. Go groove it out. [OMCA]
Also: Live Oak Halloween Bash at Live Oak Community Center / Trunk or Treat at The Lake
Saturday, November 1
Basket Weaving Workshop, 9 am, Dimond Park (Sausal Creek). Join Ariel Cooper and Emma Fenton-Miller of Sausal Creek Artist Collaborative for a basket weaving workshop using invasive ivy harvested in Dimond Park. However! You have to have pulled ivy first. If you haven't, then sign up for a workday with the Friends of Sausal Creek and get to know your Oakland watersheds. [Give Lively]
Visible Mending Workshop with Jane Yu, 1 pm, BAMPFA. FULL! Man, y’all really want to learn to repair textiles. (Has no one else been hand sewing since they were children? Growing up without cable really develops some life skills, turns out) [BAMPFA]
Suzanne taught me, 1:30pm, The Sanctuary (Grand Ave). Join in for a poetry/writing workshop series in the Black radical tradition learning from the ancestors. Martinican poet, surrealist, and anti-imperialist activist Suzanne Césaire is the inspiration for the day. [insta]
State Legislature 1:30pm, BAMPFA (UCB). Wiseman gives us 3.5 hours of the 160 he filmed from the 12-week session of the Idaho state legislature in 2004. Introduced by Greg Hahn, who was a reporter for that session. [BAMPFA]
Alan Barillaro’s Bunns Rabbit, 1:30pm, Books Inc (Alameda). Local author and animator takes kids on a storytime adventure celebrating his new graphic novel. Probably less spooky than Bunnicula, definitely less creepy than the bunny that book club at Berkeley are discussing on Thursday. [eventbrite]
Grafting the Future: Cactus Care, Kinship, and Resiliency, 2pm, Xeritopia (West Oakland). Theory was Part 1, now they’re moving to praxis. Cactus grafting skills and the first vision-mapping meeting for XERITOPIA, a greenhouse in west Oakland and collective-in-progress focused on building local power through plant stewardship. Come ready to cut, splice, and plot, but RSVP first: xeritopia@proton.me. [BAFS]
~~Week of Werth~~ [West Bay Edition] LOOOOOOP On! 3pm Book Passage (SF Ferry Building). Because even the West Bay needs to learn about Oakland. Mr. East Bay Yesterday will be there to bring the historical, nerdy, illuminating, and caffeinated vibes. [BookPassage]
Strike Debt Bay Area Book Group, 5pm, RSVP for address (East Bay). reading and discussing the first three chapters of The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart by Astra Taylor. [IndyBay]
Shanghai Blues, 6:30pm, BAMPFA (UCB). One of the great “this is actually about Hong Kong” movies, Tsui Hark’s 1984 masterpiece. [BAMPFA]
Winslow House Project fellowship residency: Luca Mcgrath & Arlo Leaflet, 6pm, Confloptus (Chinatown). Two people who play with sound and video making some weird art for you, go check it out. Good people there. I had a fascinating conversation all evening long about an English river last time I went to Confloptus. [insta]
Also: Acta Non Verba’s First Annual Farm Fest at West Oakland Farm Park (West Oakland) / Watch Coco at Town Flicks at Raimondi Park (West Oakland) / Release party for the new “10 Shots” Hamilton album at 1234Go Records (40th St) / AAMLO Kids Club: Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom at AAMLO (Downtown Oakland) / Dia de los Muertos Block Party Celebrating the life of Greg Jung Morozumi at EastSide Arts’ Alliance (Deep East) / Craft Fair at Fig Leaf Garden (The Laurel)
Sunday, November 2
Playdate 4 Palestine, 10am-12pm, Jerusalem Coffeehouse (Telegraph). A storytime fundraiser for Jerusalem Coffeehouse’s legal defense. Toddler/baby storytime from 10-10:30, followed by free play and games. All ages welcome. [bsky]
Lower Grand Radio, 11am-5pm, Lakeside Park Garden Center (Lake). music all day, with over 70 vendors (records, clothes, memorabilia, ceramics, jewelry) [insta]
[North Bay Bonus Event] Fall Open House 2025, 12 pm, Headlands Center for the Arts (In the Fog). One of my favorite art residencies, Headlands values process, place, community, and really good food. Go check out what the fellows are working on. [Headlands]
Poetry Reading, 2pm, The Exchange (Vallejo). Featuring Terra Oliveira (founder of Recenter Press) and Valdez Hill. Hosted by Vallejo Co-Poets Laureate. [Terra’s Website]
Poets Emilie Lygren, Deema Shehabi, and Marilyn Hacker, 3pm, Local Economy (Rockridge). Holy SHIT Marilyn Hacker is coming to town. Emilie and Deema are great too but WOW. Also, WOW. Bringing Jewish and Palestinian voices together, bringing radical feminist lesbian and gender nonconformity into the room, this is a trio of bravery, plus there’s collaborative poetry happening, my favoritest thing and Amy Berkowitz's too! And hey, you can still RSVP! [Luma]
Lust, Caution, 3:30pm, BAMPFA (UCB). SOLD OUT. Spoiler alert: they pick lust over caution, so of course everyone wants to go watch it. [BAMPFA]
NO KINGS = NO COP CITY 5pm, online (The internet). No kings is about rejecting authoritarian power at the national level; stopping cop city bay area is how we live that principle locally. Join San Pablo residents and east bay neighbors for a virtual teach-in focused on san pablo’s proposed $47 million regional police complex and the community’s movement to reclaim and repurpose it. [mobilize]
~~Week of Werth~~ MORE WERTH, MORE LOOP, 6pm Chapter 510 (Downtown). This one’s a multimedia performance by the author with special guests Dorothy Lazard and DJ Kream. Vibe: creative, community, candid, celebratory. [eventbrite]
You & Your Future Commune, 6pm, intersection of 5th St. and Henry St., (Prescott). A panel discussion with a handful of folks who are deep in the planning phase or who have engaged in collective property ownership and land stewardship. Getting into the nitty gritty, and probably learning how to form an LLC. [BAFS]
Before Night Falls 7pm, BAMPFA (UCB). Javier Bardem as Cuban poet, novelist, and smokeshow Reinaldo Arenas. Cheryl Dunye and Damon Young will be there to talk about it. [BAMPFA]
Also: California Treescapes by Tom Killion opens at UCB Garden / Halloween Howl at DRAGONBOATS (Lake) / Wood Street Commons volunteers at Omnicommons / Curious Flora Bday party at Curious Flora Nursery / OMCA First Sunday at OMCA
