AVAILABLE LIGHT Lucinda Childs’ Available Light, hailed by The New York Times at its 1983 premiere as “a career breakthrough… a work of blazing formal beauty,” is set to John Adams’ richly impressionistic score, with a striking set designed by Frank Gehry. Childs, whose choreography was on Bay Area stages for Einstein on the Beach, returns with her company for this Cal Performances co-commissioned revival. It’s also a chance to celebrate Berkeley composer Adams’ 70th birthday. Saturday’s performance will also be streamed in its entirety on Facebook Live. Friday, Feb. 3 and Saturday, Feb. 4, 8 p.m., Zellerbach Hall.
CARTOONING THE LANDSCAPE Chip Sullivan, professor of landscape architecture and environmental design, discusses on Friday evening his lifelong commitment to drawing, garden history and environmental awareness, and through the medium of the sequential narrative, he shares with the audience tools that will help us envision the metaphysics of landscape to create positive environmental change. His presentation takes the audience on an optical sweep of the iconic landscapes of history and illustrates their interrelationship with art, nature and consciousness. Friday, Feb. 3, 6 p.m., UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Dr.
FOURTH STREET LUNAR NEW YEAR FESTIVAL Saturday’s Lunar New Year Festival on Fourth Street is a free family-friendly event that celebrates Chinese New Year. To celebrate the year of the rooster, Fourth Street will be hosting a parade, martial arts demonstrations, a Lion Dance by the famous performers at Kei Lun, candy giveaways, and more. During the celebration, Stained Glass Garden on Fourth Street invites the public to take part in a rooster community mosaic project. The finished artwork will be donated to the Berkeley Arts Magnet School. The Lunar New Year Festival takes place on Saturday, Feb. 4 from noon to 4 p.m. on Delaware at Fourth Street.
PAZ ENCINA Paraguayan artist and 2017 UC Regents’ Lecturer Paz Encina is at BAMPFA for a week-long series of screenings of her films, each of which will be preceded by a conversation with the artist. On Sunday afternoon, Encina will discuss her installation work and the importance of site specificity for both her artwork and her films in an illustrated lecture. She will also address the complexities of using the Archive of Terror in Paraguay – the unique and horrific archive kept by the Stroessner dictatorship of its “state terrorism” – from which she has drawn materials for her film and art practices, resulting in stunning and chilling work. The relationships among public space interventions, museum exhibitions, biennial showcases, and film festivals have emerged as fundamental questions for Encina. She will also share sections of a film that she is currently making with an indigenous tribe in Paraguay whose habitat is being destroyed. Sunday, Feb. 5, 4:30 p.m., BAMPFA, 2155 Center St.
FRANKYE KELLY As part of its celebration of Black History Month, the California Jazz Conservatory has a performance on Saturday from singer Frankye Kelly. She pays tribute to some of the great African American jazz and blues singers from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s. Kelly has sung at jazz festivals around the world. When she isn’t performing, she teaches at the conservatory. Saturday, Feb. 4, 8 p.m., California Jazz Conservatory, 2087 Addison St.
Don’t miss these other events featured on Berkeleyside:
Big Screen Berkeley: ‘The Salesman’
An audience with the Godfather of Groove, and jazz master classes at the Back Room
