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Around Berkeley
➤ Six dozen Scottish fiddlers are coming to Freight & Salvage. Led by maestro Alasdair Fraser, the pied-piper of traditional Scottish music, the multi-generational throng of musicians includes a Berkeley heart doctor who became hooked on the fiddle after attending a camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains./i Friday, May 19. 8 p.m. $24
➤ The fair at Live Oak Park, held annually since 1983, will showcase vendors, crafts, music, dance and food from Himalayan regions. Saturday-Sunday, May 20-21.
➤ Thursday is Bike to Work Day across the East Bay, with free tote bags being given out at multiple locations in and around Berkeley. The festivities culminate in an evening happy hour hosted by Walk Oakland Bike Oakland at 900 Washington St. Thursday, May 18. RSVP for the happy hour
➤ Bike East Bay, the host of Bike to Work Day, is also holding a Family Cycling Workshop at the Ecole Bilingue De Berkeley Middle School. Sunday, May 21. 10 a.m. FREE (registration encouraged)
➤ Guitarist Simon Lunche — whose Berkeley band The Blondies formed when he was 9 and later put out a coming-of-age album addressing heavy themes like sexual assault — is now 24. He’s returning to Berkeley to play a show with old friends at Cornerstone featuring new music about life growing up in the city. Saturday, May 20. 7:30 p.m. Billy BobThornton and the Boxmasters. $25
➤ Fifty-nine Berkeley artists — including jeweler Susan Brooks, painter and printmaker Juliet Mevi and glass sculptor Fuff Tabachnikoff — have opened their work spaces to the public this month as part of East Bay Open Studios. Saturday-Sunday, 20-21 | FREE (ticket required for kick-off event)
➤ Berkeleyside’s newest Idea Makers will explore the frontiers of feminism. Technologist-designer Mindy Seu will be in conversation with Oliver Haug, a journalist at Ms. Magazine. And Inflection Point’s Lauren Schiller and activist-producer Hadley Dynak will be interviewed by our reporter Ally Markovich. Friday, May 19. 6:30 p.m. BAMPFA. $10-$20
➤ During the virtual East Bay Green Home Tour, East Bay residents will share what actions they’re taking to be more sustainable and combat climate change at home. Saturday, May 20. 10 a.m.-1 p.m. FREE
➤ Kairos Music Academy presents a Ukrainian-centric production of Fiddler on the Roof.
Saturday, May 20 | Hillside Club | $15-$20
➤ Author Shanthi Sekaran reads from her new pandemic-inspired book Boomi’s Boombox at Mrs. Dalloway’s. Tuesday, May 23. 5 p.m. FREE (registration encouraged)
➤ A rising saxophonist who melds classical North Indian music with jazz, Birsa Chatterjee brings a stellar quartet of twentysomething New York musicians to the Back Room featuring pianist Esteban Castro, bassist Daniel Finn, and drummer Christian McGhee. Monday, May 22. 7 p.m. $18
➤ Shotgun Players’ Yerma, a lyrical play set in ’30s Southern California that explores infertility and feminism, will run through mid-June. Pay-what-you-can previews start Saturday, May 20. $8-$40
➤ Oakland bassist Caroline Chung brings her Citizens Jazz combo to the California Jazz Conservatory Saturday for a program of music by Billy Strayhorn (“Lush Life,” “Something to Live For,” “Take the ‘A’ Train”), the nonpareil composer who spent his career as Duke Ellington’s indispensable collaborator. Saturday, May 20. 8 p.m. $20
➤ The San Francisco Bach Choir performs J.S. Bach’s monumental Mass in B Minor at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. Saturday, May 20. 4 p.m. FREE for under 18, $15-$40 for adults
➤ Chef Helga Alessio will be giving a cooking demonstration in partnership with the Ecology Center using farmers market ingredients. Saturday, May 20, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Downtown Berkeley Farmers Market. FREE
➤ The Berkeley Potters Guild is holding its annual “seconds” sale this month — offering not-quite-perfect ceramics for a reduced price along with new kiln-fired works. May 20, 21, 27, 28. 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
➤ The Berkeley Garden Club and ACCI Gallery are co-hosting an Art in the Garden Tour, which includes six home gardens in Berkeley. Saturday, May 20. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. $35
Beyond Berkeley
➤ Folk dance troupes, cooking demonstrations, the Ascension Liturgical Choir, photo displays and lots of Mediterranean food are all part of the weekend Oakland Greek Festival, which is sponsored by the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension. Friday-Sunday, May 19-21. $5
➤ The annual Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival at San Antonio Park in East Oakland will have five zones featuring live jazz, dance, art, freestyle battles and a “soapbox” stage where poets and organizers will talk about pressing social issues. Saturday, May 20. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. FREE
➤ Berkeley pianist Sarah Cahill joins the California Symphony for the world premiere of Viet Cuong’s “Stargazer” at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center For the Arts. Saturday-Sunday, May 20-21. $20-$79
➤ Our film critic John Seal says it’s worth the drive across the Bay to see The Starling Girl — which tells a girl-meets-dashing-youth-pastor story of evangelical angst with nuance and grace. Opens Friday, May 19. AMC Kabuki 8, San Francisco. $17
➤ In a late addition to the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival program, Fanny, the first all-female rock band signed to a major label, performs as part of a triple bill with rising Filipina-American rapper, producer and director Ruby Ibarra and Burlingam pop-rockers Peaboo and the Catz. Saturday, May 20. 1 p.m. FREE
➤ Oakland rap icon Mistah F.A.B. will take the stage with other artists who, like him, played an instrumental role in bringing hyphy music to the masses. Thursday, May 18. 8 p.m. The New Parish, Oakland. $35
➤ The Friends of the Kensington Library is holding a book sale. Pick up hardcovers for $1 and paperbacks for $0.50. Sunday, May 21. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 61 Arlington Ave.
The Oaklandside’s Arts and Community reporter Azucena Rasilla contributed reporting to this story.
Featured photo: William Newton
