MLK BREAKFAST The community breakfast celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and work has rapidly become one of the key events in Berkeley’s annual calendar. Can you think of a better way to start MLK Day than to join fellow Berkeleyans to promote peace, non-violence, justice and a healthy community? No, we can’t either (Berkeleyside is a sponsor of the breakfast). Doors open at 7:30 a.m.; the breakfast program runs from 8-10 a.m. Tickets are $25. Monday, Jan. 16, HS Lordships, Berkeley Marina.
WTF NOW? If you started MLK Day at the community breakfast, the right way to end it would be at our Berkeleyside Uncharted special evening WTF Now? Race and Politics in Trump’s America. We’ll have Jamelle Bouie, chief political correspondent of Slate, and Christina Greer, professor of political science at Fordham, in conversation with Berkeleyside’s own Lance Knobel and Power PAC Plus’ Aimee Allison. Well, it would be the right way, but it sold out within 10 hours of our announcement. So why are we telling you about it (other than encouraging you to leap next time we announce an Uncharted event)? We’re going to try livestreaming the evening, so if you aren’t one of the 200 lucky ticket buyers, you can still dive into the conversation. So if you already have a ticket, see you at the Brower Center on Monday. Otherwise, look forward to joining our livestream.
CHEAP SUIT SERENADERS The Cheap Suit Serenaders were founded in the 1970s by underground comic book artist and illustrator R. Crumb, together with Robert Armstrong and Allan Dodge. They’re still going (although Crumb isn’t in the current lineup), wearing period threads and playing vintage instruments. The Cheap Suit Serenaders serve up a giddy blend of up-tempo Hawaiian stomps, ragtime, Italian polkas, and more, as they recreate the music of the golden age of jazz. Over the years, the band has played venues as diverse as nudist colonies, A Prairie Home Companion, festivals in the Hague, and tiny gin joints. In keeping with their unapologetically outmoded tastes, the Suits issued a string of 78-rpm 10-inch singles on the Blue Goose label, long after the format was obsolete. For a time warp, mind warp, and sublime warp experience, slip into some fancy, low-cost duds and see the Cheap Suit Serenaders at the Freight. Saturday, Jan. 14, 8 p.m., Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, 2020 Addison St.
CAL WOMEN’S TENNIS You’re probably not going to the Australian Open, which starts Monday in Melbourne. But you can savor the excitement of live tennis by seeing the Cal women’s tennis team in action all weekend in their Winter Invitational tournament at the Hellman Tennis Complex on the UC Berkeley campus. The women won the USTA/ITA National Women’s Team Indoor Championship last year – their first national team title – and enter the new spring season with a high national ranking. The invitational tournament pits the Golden Bears again players from Fresno State, Cal Poly and St. Mary’s. All day Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 14-15, Hellman Tennis Complex, UC Berkeley.
MARK ST. MARY LOUISIANA BLUES The hardworking Mark St. Mary Louisiana Blues & Zydeco Band has been a favorite of Cajun/zydeco festival crowds for years. They’ll be playing at Ashkenaz on Saturday, Jan. 14. St. Mary and company were voted best zydeco band of 2007 by the Bay Area Blues Society, and he was named the Delta King at the Isleton Crawfish Festival. St. Mary began playing accordion when he was 12, inspired originally by “King of Zydeco” Clifton Chenier. Accompanying St. Mary are some of the finest Cajun and zydeco musicians in Northern California, playing waltzes, two-steps, line dances, and flat-foot zydeco. Saturday, Jan. 14, 7:30 p.m., Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave.
Don’t miss these other events featured on Berkeleyside:
Big Screen Berkeley: ‘Neruda’ – a historic film with contemporary relevance
Rachel and Miriam’s Sephardic Jewish odyssey
