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Around Berkeley
📚 Debut authors Christine Platt and Catherine Wigginton Green will read from, discuss and sign copies of their new novel, Rebecca, Not Becky, which explores motherhood, friendship and race. Thursday, Jan. 11, 7 p.m. Mrs. Dalloway’s. FREE (RSVP)
👁️ The nonprofit Alma Rise Gallery, which opened in October in the North Shattuck neighborhood, will celebrate the opening of its second-ever exhibition centered around the ideas of invisibility and individuality. Titled Seen, the exhibition will highlight the work of Bay Area artist Laura Paladini. An opening reception will be held at 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 12. Through Feb. 9. FREE
💥 Discover your new favorite cartoonist at the Hella Comix Reading Event, a comics reading event put on by the East Bay BIPOC Cartoonists group. There will be snacks, mini comics, books, zines, readings and an art supply swap. Friday, Jan. 12, 7 p.m. 2727 California Street. FREE (RSVP)
🎨 Oakland artist Karen LeGault will teach an introductory class on drawing flowers and plants at the UC Botanical Garden in the Berkeley Hills. Drawing paper, charcoal, and bristol drawing paper are provided, but you’ll want to bring a drawing pen, pencils, erasers and, optionally, chalk pastels. Garden admission for the day is included with the course fee. Saturday, Jan. 13, 9:30 a.m. UC Botanical Garden. $55 (RSVP)
🎶 Green Day will offer a sneak preview Saturday afternoon at Amoeba with a listening party for its upcoming “Saviors” album (which isn’t slated for release until Jan. 19). There will be free posters while supplies last, photo ops in front of a backdrop with the album cover art, and a raffle for exclusive “Saviors” T-shirts, lyric books and Amoeba merch. No purchase necessary to attend. Saturday, Jan. 13, 2 p.m. Amoeba. FREE
📽️ Because there’s never too much Werner Herzog, BAMPFA continues the Infinite Horizons retrospective with a screening of his disturbing tall tale Even Dwarfs Started Small, an early film by the German auteur set on a bleak volcanic island populated entirely by dwarfs who take over the asylum in which they’ve been committed. Saturday, Jan. 13, 4 p.m. BAMPFA. $14
🎶 Percussionist John Santos has been a scene-defining presence in the Bay Area for more than four decades as a visionary bandleader, educator, activist and champion of Latin American music, and he returns to the Freight to celebrate the release of his new album Vieja Escuela with his talent-laden sextet and special guests such as legendary percussionist Orestes Vilató, violinist Anthony Blea, violinist/vocalist Fernanda Bustamante, and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist José Roberto Hernandez. Saturday Jan. 13, 8 p.m. Freight & Salvage. $30-$35
🎹 A Berkeley supergroup featuring four masters with deep interlocking ties, this improvisation-steeped combo brings together pianist Myra Melford, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, cellist Ben Davis, and drummer Jordan Glenn (a ringer from the far reaches of Oakland) for an evening of lyrically charged exploration. Saturday, Jan. 13, 8 p.m. The Back Room. $15-$20
🎶 The reappearance of Faun Fables on Bay Area stages augurs well for the future, as the rustic, rootsy musical narratives of vocalist/guitarist Dawn McCarthy and spooky vocalist Nils Frykdahl unerringly lead to strange and wondrous places. Saturday, Jan. 13, 9 p.m. The Starry Plough. $20-$22
🥁 Highly versatile Albany drummer Bryan Bowman, who played with expert textural acuity with saxophonist Harvey Wainapel at the Back Room last week, brings a trio to Fourth Street for an afternoon concert al fresco. Sunday, Jan. 14, 1-3 p.m. 1776 Fourth Street. FREE
🪦 Resurrecting Love, The Cemetery That Can Heal A Nation, a documentary “about race, reparations, and reconciliation” set in a small East Texas town where African American community members were barred from their 200-year-old burial ground, will screen at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley. The movie will be followed by a conversation with the filmmakers. Sunday, Jan. 14, 1-4 p.m. FREE (RSVP)
🎶 San Francisco clarinet maestra Beth Custer returns to Berkeley with Russian Telegraph Trio, her project with deeply funky guitarist David James and pianist Jordan Glasgow, who all contribute tunes to a book that ranges across their multitudinous influences. Sunday, Jan. 14, 3 p.m. Maybeck Studio. $30
🎺 Directed by native Berkeley trumpeter Erik Jekabson, the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra restarts its long-running California Jazz Conservatory residency where it reigns as both a 17-piece big band and a bustling sonic laboratory for some of the region’s most inventive arrangers and composers. Sunday, Jan. 14, 5:30-7 p.m. $20
📽️ Magical Imperfection: The Life of Architect Raymond Moriyama, the 2020 documentary about the renowned Japanese-Canadian designer, screens at the Hillside Club followed by a conversation with filmmaker Scott Calbeck. Tuesday, Jan. 16, 7 p.m. $15
🎷An appearance by Chicago blues great Corky Siegel, who’s equally down home on harmonica as on piano, is an event, but add into the mix tenor saxophone powerhouse Ernie Watts, possessor of an instantly recognizable cri-de-coeur tone and credits that range from the Rolling Stones to Charlie Haden’s Quartet West, and this two-night run is a booking coup for the intimate Back Room. Wednesday-Thursday, Jan. 17-18, 8 p.m. $40
👟 Poet and naturalist Charles Hood will discuss his new book California’s Best Nature Walks: 32 Easy Ways to Explore the Golden State’s Ecology. Featuring 32 hikes meant to highlight our beloved state’s forests, deserts, mountains, waterfalls and coastlines, the book will give you pointers on what flora, fauna and geology to look for at each location. Wednesday, Jan. 17, 7 p.m. Mrs. Dalloway’s. FREE (RSVP)
🎤 Standup comic Alex Edelman’s Just for Us, a one-man show that centers on a meeting of neo-Nazis that Edelman, who is Jewish, attended in Queens, New York, has arrived at the Berkeley Rep. Through Jan. 21. $25+
🎧 Shotgun Players is giving the world premiere of Babes in Ho-lland, a play that follows two Black teens who connect over a shared love for R&B girl groups while attending a predominantly white college in Pittsburgh. Pay-what-you-can previews start on Saturday, Jan. 13. Through Feb. 4. $28-$40
📽️ The Berkeley Historical Society and Museum is showing a preview of the incomplete and unreleased film Sign My Name to Freedom, which focuses on the 102-year-old Berkeley resident Betty Reid Soskin’s secret musical past. The preview will be followed by a Q&A with director Bryan Gibel and other members of the production team. Soskin herself might even make an appearance! Read more about the extraordinary life of Soskin, who in 2018 was the nation’s oldest park ranger. Thursday, Jan. 18, 7 p.m. Zoom (RSVP)
Beyond Berkeley
🎹 Crowden and class-of-2006 Berkeley High graduate Julian Waterfall Pollack holds down the keyboard chair in the band of trumpet star Chris Botti, who plays a six-night run at the SFJAZZ Center. Thursday-Sunday, Jan. 11-14. SFJAZZ Center. $55-$140
🎻 The Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival will cram a whopping five youth orchestras from across Northern California — including the Berkeley-based Young People’s Symphony Orchestra — into San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall. Program highlights include Leonard Bernstein’s delightful Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ utterly confident Overture to The Wasps, and the exhilarating finale to Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. Sunday, Jan. 14, 3 p.m. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. $25-$70
🕊️ On Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 15), people nationwide participate in MLK Day of Service, a day to provide “meaningful change in their communities.” In Oakland, community events are happening across the city. There’s a website with a digital map showing events in every district on Jan. 13, 14, 15, and 20. The nonprofit Service for Peace has partnered with Oakland Public Works to lead this annual day of service since 2003. Jan. 13, 14, 15, and 20, see website for locations and how to register
🍺 The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) is launching a new slate of programming and events to kick off the new year. Starting this Thursday, Jan. 11, the museum is launching Thursday After Hours at OMCA. The 18-and-up event includes drinks, small bites from Town Fare Café by Chef Michele McQueen, and weekly pop-up performances, all with music as a backdrop as you roam the galleries. Through January, museum visitors can purchase buy-one-get-one-free tickets every Thursday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Every Thursday, starting Jan. 11, 1000 Oak St, Oakland. $1-$19
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.
more to do in berkeley
Affordable things to do in Berkeley any day of the week
From farmers markets to trivia nights, we put together a roundup of events and activities held regularly in Berkeley.
