COLLEGE BOUND Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and others want to create a “college-going” culture in the city. To that end, the mayor’s office, in conjunction with the Berkeley Alliance and UC Berkeley’s Center for Educational Partnerships is organizing the first city-wide College and Career Day on Friday. The idea is to help all students “visualize and prepare for a full range of post-secondary options through structural, motivational, and experiential college preparatory experiences.” More than 5,000 students will participate in city-wide events on College and Career Day. They will be encouraged to wear T-shirts with their favorite college logos, listen to their teachers describe their own paths to college, and various fun projects, such as a dorm room door decorating exercise. Mayor Bates will visit the King Child Development Center along with Oski the Bear, a school-wide assembly at Berkeley Technological Academy and a lunchtime rally at Berkeley High School. Details here.
AGE OF INNOCENCE Romp through Greenwich Village in the 1930s at a production of Leonard Bernstein’s Wonderful Town by the Berkeley-based Youth Musical Theater Company. The musical, which opens Friday, Mar. 1, is based on Fields and Chodorov’s 1940 play My Sister Eileen. It follows the story of two sisters who have left their hometown of Columbus, Ohio, and are trying to make it on their own in New York. 16-year old Berkeley High junior Lena Mayer, plays Ruth, the older sister, and Catilin Cobb-Vialet, 17, a junior at Oakland Technical High School, plays Eileen. The play will be performed Mar. 1, 2, 8 and 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Julia Morgan Theater at 2640 College Avenue and Mar. 3 and 10 at 2 p.m. Click here for details.
SONGS OF POLAND The 28th Annual Jewish Music Festival will offer a glimpse of the future of Jewish music in Poland at its opening night event Saturday, Mar. 2 at Berkeley Repertory Theater. Polyse, a Jerusalem-based band that features Polish singer Olga Mielesczuk, will perform forgotten Jewish folk songs from the shtetl at 8 p.m. The evening will begin with a multimedia presentation by journalist Ruth Ellen Gruber, who has traveled extensively in Poland and will discuss Jewish life in Poland today. The Polish jazz trio Shofar will also play. The festival will host eight performances at various East Bay venues through Mar. 12, including one by 88-year-old singer-actor Theodore Bikel, who will perform at Freight & Salvage on Thursday, Mar. 7 at 8 p.m. with Merima Kljueo and Shura Lipovsky. For details, click here.
HARMONY, NOT VIOLENCE Despite being at war on and off for more than century, Afghanistan has a rich musical heritage. On Saturday, Mar. 2, Cal Performances will present Voices of Afghanistan. Featuring Ustad Farida Mahwash, Afghanistan’s best-loved singer, and internationally renowned Afghan composer/rubâb master Homayoun Sakhi, the performance will explore the country’s rich musical traditions, from the sacred to the secular, and the traditional to the contemporary. The event is at Wheeler Auditorium at 8 p.m. Tickets are $36. Click here for more information.
CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN Come experience adventure film making as REI hosts two screenings of award-winning films from the 2012 Banff Mountain Film Festival. This international film competition, now in its 37th year, is held every November in Banff, Alberta, Canada, and focuses on thought-provoking action, environmental, and adventure mountain films. After the festival, the winning films go out on “tour” and are screened before 245,000 people in 35 countries. The films will be shown at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, Mar. 3 at UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Auditorium. Proceeds will benefit UC Berkeley’s Cal Adventures Youth Scholarship Program. Prizes will be given at intermission. Tickets are $13 for REI members and $15 for non-members and are on sale at REI Berkeley. Will-call tickets are also available. Call REI Berkeley’s Customer Service Department at 510-527-4140 for more information or click here.
Be sure to check out these other listings previously featured on Berkeleyside:
Through the eyes of Rachel Marker at the Magnes
In “Lore,” kids navigate WWII
At UC Berkeley, the musicians are making it up
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Still searching for things to do this weekend in Berkeley? Berkeleyside’s Events Calendar is chock full of music, theater, dance, talks and community happenings. We also encourage you to submit your own events.
