Around Berkeley
🐦 Photographer Gerry Traucht’s “Can Water Cry Tears of Joy” features his life-size images of egrets captured at Aquatic Park. Traucht’s show runs in conjunction with Ellie Fidler’s “Love,” a selection of works created shortly before her death last year. The joint exhibition links artists who were partnered for more than half a century (a love story beautifully recounted in Eve Kushner’s obituary for Fidler in Berkeleyside). Through Jan. 8, 2024. Cafe Leila. FREE (but buy a latte or something)
🔥 Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the devastating fire that consumed nearly 600 homes in the Berkeley Hills, John Ford leads a three-mile 1923 Berkeley Fire Walk that traverses a three-mile downhill path starting at Berryman Reservoir and ending at Live Oak Park (where the City is holding a commemorative event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.). Sunday, Sept. 17, 9-11 a.m., Berryman Reservoir (across the street from 1360 Euclid Ave.). FREE
🚒 The city is marking the centennial with a “fire ready fest” where you can learn about wildfire and disaster preparedness, talk with Berkeley firefighters, play games and buy food from vendors. Sunday, Sept. 17, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Live Oak Park. FREE
🏠 And the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association is hosting a lecture on Thursday about the fire’s history and a tour of homes on Sunday where you’ll have the “opportunity to view the neighborhood as it was before the Fire and how it was rebuilt after the Fire.” Another lecture, on Thursday, Sept. 21, will explore “how potential wildfires in the Oakland-Berkeley hills today are most likely to be different from 1923 and what firefighter response to expect now.” $15-$45
📚 Benjamin Y. Fong, associate director of the Center for Work & Democracy at Arizona State University, discusses his new book, Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st-Century Binge. Thursday Sept. 14, 7 p.m. Pegasus Downtown. FREE
🎶 Intrepid sonic explorers who’ve created a vast, disparate body of music using far-flung techniques and strategies, ROVA Saxophone Quartet celebrates the ensemble’s 45th anniversary with Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Bruce Ackley and Steve Adams joined by special guests, including protean drummer Donald Robinson and guitarist Fred Frith’s Trio. Thursday, Sept. 14, 8 p.m. Freight & Salvage. $30-$35
📚 Co-presented by Eastwind Books and the Berkeley Public Library, Newbery and Caldecott honoree and New York Times bestselling author Grace Lin celebrates the release of her new lushly illustrated book Chinese Menu: The History, Myths, and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods. Thursday, Sept. 14, 4:30-5:30 p.m. FREE (registration encouraged)
🎤 Did you hear the one about the comedy show in Berkeley? In a parents’-night-out show that’s strictly 18+, Live Oak Laughs features some of the region’s top stand-up comedians, including Carla Clay, Chazz Hawkins, and David Nguyen. Molly Sokhom hosts. Friday, Sept. 15, 8 p.m. Live Oak Theater, $15-$20 (registration strongly recommended)
🎥 The late Berkeley filmmaker Les Blank’s classic 1989 film I Went to the Dance/J’ai été au bal, which captured leading Cajun and zydeco artists such as Clifton Chenier, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, Marc and Ann Savoy, D.L. Menard, Rockin’ Sidney, and Queen Ida in their Southern Louisiana element, returns to screens around the Bay Area, scanned and restored from the original 16mm camera and magnetic ¼” tape elements by Anthony Matt and Harrod Blank. Read Berkeleyside’s review of the film and see a screening at the Elmwood Theater, which includes a Q&A with Maureen Gosling and Harrod Blank (Les’s son) and live music by Suzy and Eric Thompson. Friday Sept. 15, 7 p.m. $18.
🎶 After nearly a decade off the scene following a devastating stroke, Oakland trumpeter Clyde the Blynd is back with CVdubX, the latest iteration of his irresistibly grooving sound combining jazz and reggae (what he’s dubbed dubjazz). Saturday, Sept. 16, 7-10 p.m. Jupiter. FREE
🎶 A double feature treat for fingerstyle fans features the duo of Teja Gerken and Doug Young playing originals, jazz standards and Celtic tunes on a variety of guitars, and a solo set by Portland guitarist Eric Skye, a player who’s honed a disparate repertoire encompassing fiddle tunes and Miles Davis’s modal excursions. Saturday, Sept. 16, 8 p.m. The Back Room. $20
🎻 The Crowden Music Center kicks off its 40th anniversary celebration with a performance by the Baumer String Quartet, which includes three acclaimed Crowden School alumni: Dallas Symphony Co-Concertmaster Nathan Olson (’00), Phoenix Symphony violinist Aaron Requiro (’95), and his younger brother, Naumburg International Violoncello Competition-winning cellist David Requiro (’99). A reception follows the performance. Sunday, Sept. 17, 4 p.m. Crowden Music Center. $35
📚 Jennifer Jewell, the founder of Jewellgarden and the creator and host of the public radio program and podcast Cultivating Place, discusses and reads from her new book What We Sow: On the Personal, Ecological, and Cultural Significance of Seeds. Tuesday, Sept. 19, 7 p.m. Mrs. Dalloway’s, FREE (registration encouraged)
🎨 An Oakland-based visual artist who works with Indigenous art-making traditions leads an interactive workshop and conversation in the BAMPFA Art Lab titled Native American Medicine Wheel: Color Symbolism with Ocean Escalanti and designed to acquaint participants with the use of color in local Indigenous art. All participants receive a free risograph zine printed on site at BAMPFA as a takeaway. Sunday, Sept. 17, 1 p.m. BAMPFA. Free with museum admission
📷 “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.
🎨 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.
📷 The Magnes Collection of Jewish Life and Art’s new exhibit, Cities and Wars, opened 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. FREE
Beyond Berkeley
🧀 It’s been a month since the deadliest wildfire in more than a century leveled the historic town of Lahaina on Maui. People near and far have since banded together to lend a helping hand, and Oakland is no exception. Homeroom, a mac n’ cheese-focused restaurant in North Oakland, is donating all proceeds from its delicious “Hawaiian Mac” to the Maui Food Bank to help victims. Through Monday, Sept. 18. 4007 Webster St. Order in person or online
🕯️The popular candlelight concert series is back at Chabot Space & Science Center. This event features a quartet on stage surrounded by LED candles, performing live renditions of various songs by famous artists. Upcoming concerts include tributes to ABBA and the composer and film-scorer Hans Zimmer. Later in the fall, the music of Puerto Rican rapper and songwriter Bad Bunny will be celebrated. The series also includes Halloween and Christmas-themed nights. Monthly, starting Thursday, Sept. 14, 10000 Skyline Blvd. $36-$39
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.
