Never miss local events!Sign up for Berkeleyside’s arts and culture newsletter, The Scene. And check out our roundup of affordable things to do anytime in Berkeley.
Around Berkeley
🎨 San Francisco curator and author Jordan Stein is giving a talk to celebrate his new book, Miyoko Ito: Heart of Hearts. The book is the first monograph of the life and work of the Berkeley-born artist Miyoko Ito, best known for her abstract watercolor and oil paintings. The event is included with gallery admission. Sunday, March 3, 3:30 p.m. BAMPFA. FREE with gallery admission
🎤 The city of Berkeley’s Black History Month celebration will include dance performances, songs and poems by the Frances Albrier after-school program. Thursday, Feb. 29, 6 p.m. Frances Albrier Community Center. FREE
🎶 New York tenor saxophonist Michael Marcus, a significant figure on the 1990s Bay Area jazz scene, performs at the library‘s Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch with a top-shelf quartet featuring pianist Matt Clark, bassist Heshima Mark Williams and drummer Alicide Marshall. Thursday, Feb. 29, 6 p.m. FREE
💃 Kicking off Women’s History Month Kathy Reyes and Ashkenaz present BELLA (Become, Embrace, Lead, Learn, Accept), a women-focused celebration of multicultural social dance with professional female instructors leading dance workshops, showcasing their dance teams, and performing at a one-night dance social event. Friday, 6-10 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 a.m., March 1-2. Ashkenaz. $20-$110
🎶 Riding a high since winning a Latin Grammy Award for Best Flamenco Album in 2022, Las Migas is an unorthodox all-women Spanish quartet that blends the Andalusian art form with jazz, Gypsy swing, bossa nova and classical influences. Friday, March 1, 8 p.m. Freight & Salvage. $40-$45
🥁 Beloved drummer Pete Devine, whose rootsy grooves have powered Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers and the elemental blues band HowellDevine, is fighting cancer and to help him get by a bevy of his closest colleagues are raising money with an epic afternoon of soul, including Lady Bianca, Rhonda Benin, Kim Nalley, Sam Rudin and the North Beach Rhythm Band with special guest Maria Muldaur. Saturday, March 2, 1 p.m. The Back Room. $30-$50
🦋 The Left Coast Ensemble will pay tribute to the late Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho in their upcoming concert. Titled “Butterflies, Moons and Mirrors,” the concert will feature Saariaho’s Cendres, Papillons, Oi Kuu, Mirror, among other works for flute, cello and piano. Saturday, March 2, 7:30 p.m. Berkeley Piano Club. $5-$35
💃 ECCO, a nonprofit that works to increase child literacy, is holding a gala to raise funds for online education for girls in Afghanistan who have been banned from attending school. Featured performers include Mazakat at Berkeley (ancient North Indian classical dance), Natya at Berkeley (Indian classical dance), Shahrzad Khorsandi (contemporary Iranian dance), Ballet Afsaneh (traditional Afghan dance), Fei Tian Dancers (Chinese dance) and Asa at Cal (Attan, the national dance of Afghanistan). Tickets are $30 for UC Berkeley students and start at $60 for everyone else. Sunday, March 3, 4 p.m. International House (Chevron Auditorium). RSVP
⛴️ San Francisco Chronicle urban design critic John King will discuss his book Portal, which tells the story of the rise, fall and rebirth of San Francisco’s iconic Ferry Building. Tuesday, March 5, 7 p.m. Books Inc. Berkeley. FREE
🎶 Kehilla Community Synagogue celebrates a four-decade milestone with “Wellspring: 40 Years of Music, Joy and Social Justice,” featuring music from internationally acclaimed singer Melanie DeMore, Rabbi Hanna Tiferet Siegel, the Kehilla Klezmer Band and Hazzan Shulamit Wise Fairman, who’s also marking 20 years at the social justice oriented congregation. Tuesday, March 5, 7 p.m. Freight & Salvage. $18-$36
🐻 Former UC Berkeley professor Tony Platt will give a talk on UC Berkeley’s roots in “plunder, warfare and the promotion of white supremacy.” His book Scandal of Cal presents an alternative institutional history of the school, covering its hoarding of Indigenous remains and its role in the Manhattan Project. (Read our review.) Wednesday, March 6, 6 p.m. Books Inc. Berkeley. FREE
👮 Chesa Boudin, who went from being booted out of office as recalled San Francisco District Attorney to founding executive director of UC Berkeley’s Criminal Law & Justice Center, tells his story as part of a Berkeley City Club lecture series. Wednesday, March 6, 7 p.m. $5-$10
⛪ Cult of Love, a play about a deeply Christian family that reunites for a chaotic Christmas party in their childhood home, “dares to challenge our perceptions of faith, family and love,” according to Berkeley Rep. (Read our review.) Through March 3. $22.50-$134
🎭 Manahatta, a play that draws parallels between the forced removal, taxation and fiscal impact on Native Americans amid the 2008 financial crisis and the 1626 Dutch purchase of the island of Manhattan. (Read our theater critic’s review.) At 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 2, Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino, who opened the first Ohlone restaurant in California, will discuss their work to preserve and restore the Chochenyo language at a panel for Aurora Theatre’s donors. Through March 10. $38-$75
🇵🇸 The UC Berkeley Art Practice Department’s latest exhibit, Stitching Keffiyehs: Moving Images from Palestine, reflects on themes of land, exile, war, occupation, ecological decline, technology, femininity and the body. The film and video art exhibit features work by Palestinian and Palestinian diaspora artists Razan AlSalah, Zeina Barakeh, Mona Rouhana Benyamin, Samia Halaby, Mona Hatoum, Jumana Manna, Larissa Sansour and Oraib Toukan. Through March 13. Anthropology and Art Practice Building (Room 116), UC Berkeley. FREE
🕺 Disabled, non-disabled and neurodiverse dancers and educators from around the world are invited to Axis Dance Company’s five-day intensive at UC Berkeley’s Department of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies where participants immerse themselves in the language and embodiment of disability-integrated dance via improvisation, choreography and teaching fundamentals. June 24-28. Apply by March 31
🔥 See the work of more than 200 student artists from Berkeley, Richmond and Skyline high schools at the David Brower Center’s new exhibit, “Burning Questions,” which explores the connections between fire and the environment. Through May 16. David Brower Center. FREE (RSVP)
Beyond Berkeley
👑 When Port Bar announced its closure, one of the silver linings was that none of the events that used to take place at the now-shuttered bar would end. The bar’s popular Sunday Drag Brunch found a new home at Parche, an Uptown Oakland Colombian restaurant. The inaugural brunch at its new home took place on Feb. 4 and will be held on the first and third Sunday of every month with two performances at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. First & third Sundays, 2295 Broadway, Oakland. $25 (RSVP)
🎞️ Friends of the Congo, The Original Blackprint, EastSide Arts Alliance, Black Cultural Zone, Artist As First Responders, and The Wallace Foundation are teaming up for a special screening of the film Mahere (sacred shared space). The film explores how humans interact with nature. It also addresses colonialism and cultural heritage. After the film, there will be a Q&A with Congolese director and community organizer Petna Ndaliko Katondolo. Thursday, Feb. 29, 6 p.m. EastSide Arts Alliance, 2277 International Boulevard, Oakland. FREE (RSVP)
🇵🇷 Slow Food East Bay, a grassroots organization that promotes access to healthy food for all, is hosting a dinner as part of the Cultural Food Traditions Project. The event will focus on Puerto Rico’s cuisine and how colonization and climate change have changed its food system, with food prepared by Snail Bar sous chef Manny Rodriguez. Proceeds will benefit the Puerto Rican Civic Club, which supports Puerto Rican culture and provides support during natural disasters. Sunday, March 3, 5 p.m., KORNER Oakland, 1014 Fruitvale Avenue, Oakland. $50-$90,
If there’s an event you’d like us to consider for this roundup, email us atthe-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 ourevents 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.
"*" indicates required fields
