Have you subscribed yet to our new arts and culture newsletter, The Scene, yet? Each week we round up the best of local events and send it to your inbox on Thursday morning.
Around Berkeley
➤ Alliance Française de Berkeley is hosting a French cheese and wine party. Bring your favorite pairings and be prepared to converse in French, though all levels are welcome. Friday, June 16, 6:30-8 p.m. $5
➤ La Peña Cultural Center is hosting a community dance party featuring La Mixta Criolla. Friday, June 16. 7:30 p.m.-1 a.m. $20-$30
➤ An improvisational triumvirate hailing from Berkeley, the Actual Trio features the inveterately inventive guitarist John Schott, bassist Dan Seamans and drummer John Hains returning to their home base at the Back Room with an expansive repertoire encompassing greasy funk, Delta blues, and post-bop forms. Friday, June 16, 8 p.m. $20
➤ Veteran guitarist Ray Obiedo’s quartet supports Mill Valley R&B vocalist Chloé Jean celebrating the release of her new Obiedo-produced album Fairy Tale Fail at the California Jazz Conservatory’s Rendon Hall. Friday, June 16, 8 p.m. $25
➤ Movies in the Park is returning to Berkeley’s parks this summer, so bring a blanket or a beach chair and enjoy a night of family-friendly movies under the stars. From the Rough is the first movie being shown. Friday, June 16, 8:45 p.m. Live Oak Park. FREE
➤ The Kala Art Institute in West Berkeley will hold a conversation and book signing with co-founder Archana Horsting as a part of her retrospective exhibition, On the Fringe of the Field, A survey of Works 1972-2022. Saturday, June 17, 2 p.m. FREE
➤ The city’s Music in the Park series continues with a concert at Strawberry Creek Park featuring R&B and soul music with Dee Dee Simo. Saturday, June 17, 4-7 p.m. FREE
➤ Berkeley filmmaker Les Blank, whose movies celebrated garlic eating and shoe swallowing, will get his day at the Pacific Film Archive this weekend. Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers and Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (he really did — after Alice Waters cooked it!) will be shown on the big screen, along with reminiscences from Herzog, Waters and Tom Luddy. Blank, a Berkeley resident for over 30 years, died in 2013. Saturday, June 17, 4:30 p.m. $5-$14
➤ A student of classic 1970s fusion and prog rock, guitarist Joshua Cedar has assembled an interstellar band with violinist John Ettinger, keyboardist Matt Lebofsky, bassist Dan Feiszli and drummer Jon Arkin for a Jupiter excursion exploring the music of Jean-Luc Ponty, Bill Bruford, Gentle Giant, Yes, Rush, Genesis, Jeff Beck and others. Saturday, June 17, 7-10 p.m. FREE
➤ Maurice Tani and The Sons of The Soul Revivers, Little Village Foundation labelmates, join forces at Freight & Salvage for an evening of Tani’s barbed twang-noir sanctified by the classical gospel music strains of the Vallejo sibling combo. Saturday, June 17, 8 p.m. $20
➤ Funky Door Yoga is hosting The Funkshun: Music Art Vibes, an event featuring MCs and local performers, at the Ashby Arts Space. Saturday, June 17, 8-11 p.m. $20
➤ Celebrate Juneteenth at the 36th annual Berkeley Juneteenth Festival. Music performances include Sonny Fairley, Junior Toots and Blackcat Zydeco, food and vendors. And check out our roundup of other Juneteenth events in Oakland and Albany. Sunday, June 18, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Adeline, between Alcatraz and Ashby. FREE
➤ The Marsh Berkeley is hosting an LGBTQ Comedy Night. Ages 15 and above. Sunday, June 18, 7 p.m. $15-$25
➤ Berkeley resident Josh Kornbluth, who studied the human brain at the Global Brain Health Institute and believes society may be suffering from political dementia, is presenting his new autobiographical monologue, Citizen Brain. The show runs through July 29. Saturdays through July 29, 5 p.m. The Marsh Berkeley. $25-$100
➤ Photographer Orin Rutchick’s exhibit Botanicals; Weavings & Mosaics, which relies on a cyanotype process invented in 1842 and widely used to make architectural blueprints, is on view at the Berkeley City Club Loggia through July 6.
➤ Aurora Theatre Company’s Hurricane Diane, a mythical comedy about climate change, opens on Friday, June 16, and runs through mid July. $33-$65
➤ Catch Shotgun Players’ Yerma, a lyrical play set in ‘30s Southern California that explores infertility and feminism, before it closes on Sunday, June 18. $8-$40
Beyond Berkeley
➤ Dorothy Lazard, the former head of the Oakland History Center, will give a talk on her experience penning her new memoir What You Don’t Know Will Make a Whole New World. Thursday, June 15, 6 p.m. Oakland Public Library, 125 14th St. FREE
➤ The Oakland Museum of California is hosting a Juneteenth edition of its Friday Nights at OMCA event celebrating members of the Black community at Oakland Unified School District. There will be live music, activities for kids, and food trucks. Friday, June 16, 5-8:30 p.m. FREE
➤ In Crawfish — We the Invisible, presented under the auspices of the San Francisco International Arts Festival, is set under the overpass of I-580 in Berkeley in September 2020. Written by and starring Gamal Abdel Chasten, the play shares a man’s journey from homeowner to homelessness — and his insights on gentrification, global warming and Alzheimer’s. Saturday-Sunday, June 17-18. BRAVA Studio. $20-$30
➤ Head over to Lake Merritt in Oakland for the 14th Annual Juneteenth Festival presented by FAM BAM, featuring live music, local vendors, wellness workshops, art installations and more. Saturday, June 17, 12 – 8 p.m. Lake Merritt Amphitheater. $25
➤ Celebrate the summer solstice by wandering through New Music Bay Area’s Garden of Memory concert, which consists of many concurrent performances in different parts of a funeral home in Oakland. Berkeley-based composer-cellist Theresa Wong and pianist Sarah Cahill are featured. Wednesday, June 21, 5-9 p.m. Chapel of the Chimes. $5-$20
The Oaklandside’s Arts and Community reporter Azucena Rasilla contributed reporting to this story.
