Around Berkeley
🎶 A talent-packed double bill at Ashkenaz features some of the leading women of Cajun music, with Louisiana-based guitarist Ann Savoy rounding up her favorite East Bay players in the Raggedy Ann Dance Band with Suzy Thompson, Agi Ban, Delilah Lewis, Michaelle Goerlitz, Karen Leigh, and special guest Laurie Lewis. Straight outta New Orleans, T Marie and Bayou Juju play the opening set, delivering a dance-inducing mix of traditional South Louisiana Cajun, Creole, swamp pop, country and zydeco. Thursday, Aug. 24, 7-10 p.m. $20
🎶 Featuring Julian on drums, Steve on bass and Colin on electric piano and accordion, the Hogan Brothers are practically a Bay Area institution with musical connections encompassing some of the deepest funk, R&B and jazz on the scene. Their last-Friday-of-the-month residency anchors Jupiter’s calendar with a heavy dose of soul. Friday, Aug. 25, 7-10 p.m., FREE
🎬 The city’s latest showing in its Movies in the Park series is Strange World, an animated sci-fi adventure that delves into father-son relationships. Friday, Aug. 25, 8 p.m. Willard Park. FREE
🐶 Berkeley Humane is holding its annual Bark and Meow Around the Block Adopt-a-thon and Street Fair this weekend. The event features more than 20 shelters and rescues, 250 adoptable pets. There will be live music, food, beer and vendors. Saturday, Aug. 26, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 2700 9th Street. FREE
☀️ Say farewell to summer at the End of Summer Artisan Market, a joint event by Fourth Street Maker’s Row and Creative Communal that will feature 30-plus local makers, live music, a lobster food truck and complimentary arts and crafts. Saturday, Aug. 26, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. 1919 Fourth Street. FREE
🎨 The new West Berkeley art gallery 120710 is opening its second-ever exhibition, Dude, Where’s My School, a group show of alumni and faculty from the recently closed San Francisco Art Institute. (Check out our Q&A with its founder, a former Cal computer science professor.) Opens Saturday, Aug. 26, 4 p.m. 120710. FREE
🧚 The Actors Ensemble of Berkeley’s new musical, Faeries of the Moonlight, opens on Saturday, Aug. 26. It follows the story of the rebellious teen Sunny, who crosses over into the fairy realm after a fight with her Celtic punk rocker mother. On weekend afternoons through Sept. 4. John Hinkel Park. FREE
🎶 Led by drummer and Stanford poli-sci professor Jon Krosnick, Charged Particles is both a high-energy acoustic jazz trio and a crunching fusion combo, powered by bassist Aaron Germain and keyboardist Murray Low, reminiscent of Chick Corea’s Elektric Band. Saturday, Aug. 26, 7-10 p.m. Jupiter. FREE
🎶 The Fula Brothers, Berkeley n’goni master Mamadou Sidibe’s Mali-meets-Americana project with blues guitarist Walter Strauss, returns to the intimate confines of the Monkey House. (Read our story about how Sidibe grows gourds into string instruments in a Northwest Berkeley community garden.) Saturday, Aug. 26 7:30 p.m. $10-$40 (reservations encouraged)
🎶 Free weekend music on Fourth Street continues with Orion’s Joy of Sextet Jazz and Latin Jazz, a loose and fun-loving combo led by veteran drummer Orion Edmonson. Sunday, Aug. 27, 1-3 p.m. In front of Peet’s Coffee. FREE
🎶 Pianist Laura Klein and guitarist Tony Corman are a Berkeley couple who make beautiful music together, particularly with their co-led band FivePlay with reed player David Tidball, bassist Dan Feiszli and drummer Jim Zimmerman. Performing at St. Albans as part of the Calliope series, they’re joined by a first-rate string quartet featuring violinists Anthony Blea and Ariel Wong, cellist Lewis Patzner and violist Jacob Hansen-Joseph. Sunday, Aug. 27, 4 p.m. $15-$30 (also available via livestream)
📷 “Black chicagoland is…” combines photography and house music to “thicken how we understand Black Chicagoness within and beyond the city’s iconic South Side.” The exhibit, located at UC Berkeley’s Worth Ryder Art Gallery, is curated by Leigh Raiford, the co-director of the Black Studies Collaboratory at Cal. On view through Sept. 21. Opening reception: Wednesday, Aug. 30, 5 p.m.
📷 The Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art’s new exhibit, Cities and Wars, opens on Tuesday, Aug. 29. It features never before seen work by Russian-Jewish photographer Roman Vishniac. On view through Dec. 14. FREE
🏢 Learn about the origin of what is arguably UC Berkeley’s ugliest building (even the Daily Cal agrees). UC Berkeley has installed an exhibit telling the design history of Bauer Wurster Hall in the Environmental Design Library located in the building. On view through Oct. 8.
🎨 The Berkeley Art Center’s exhibit, Rabbit Hole, examines the significance of space and the ways we engage with it every day. Artists featured include Fred Marque Dewitt, Mark Harris, danielle nanos-luz, Courtney Desiree Morris, Arleene Correa Valencia, and Connie Zheng. On view through Sept. 23
Beyond Berkeley
🌱 Hella Plants, an Oakland pop-up plant event that launched in the summer of 2021 and has since expanded with events in San Francisco and Long Beach, features vegan food and many types of plants. Saturday, Aug. 26, 12-5 p.m., 2323 Broadway, Oakland. $5-$25
🎨 Local writer, painter, yogini and tarot card reader Amy Copperman launched a monthly live figure drawing event in March at The Sunshine Prophecy vintage store on Piedmont Avenue, where art aficionados get to paint a model wearing vintage clothes and surrounded by props. Drinks and art supplies are provided. Proceeds from this month’s session will go towards helping Maui recover from the devastating wildfires. Saturday, Aug. 26, 1 p.m.-4 p.m., 4121 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland. $15 ($25 at the door)
👪 Every August since 1956, Children’s Fairyland pays homage to the art of puppetry by hosting a special event to showcase puppet shows and puppets from other companies. This weekend, regular admission to the park will include access to the puppet shows being performed throughout the day, including shows by the Bob Baker Marionette Theater from Los Angeles, Three Dinosaur’s Gruff by The Puppet Company, and Fairyland’s own Storybook Puppet Theater’s latest show, It Could Be Worse. Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 26-Aug. 27, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 699 Bellevue Ave. $16
If there’s an event you’d like us to consider for this roundup, email us at the-scene@berkeleyside.org. If there’s an event that you’d like to promote on our calendar, you can use the self-submission form on our events page.
The Oaklandside’s Arts and Community reporter Azucena Rasilla contributed reporting to this story.
