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Around Berkeley

🎷 The Bay Area Jazz Society’s ongoing Thursday jam session at North Beach Pizza, designed to provide a space where junior high and high school musicians can sit in with seasoned pros, takes a Latin turn with a house combo that includes guitar master Ray Obiedo and percussionist Jon Benditch. Thursday, May 29, 6-9 p.m. North Beach Pizza. FREE

🎶 The long-running collaboration between guitarist Lisa Zeiler, co-founder of the influential feminist folk trio Rebecca Riots, and Berkeley-reared vocalist Jennie Chabon, rabbi and cantor at Walnut Creek’s Congregation B’nai Tikvah, manifests at the Freight with a stellar supporting cast including Kevin Weber, Isaac Coyle, Josh Gelfand, Shira Kammen, Kiki Lipsett, and Ezra Chabon. Thursday, May 29, 8 p.m. The Freight. $34-$39

🎺 Berkeley-reared trumpeter Anthony Ant’s funk Thursdays continue with a heavyweight lineup featuring Adar and Josh Carter on vocals, bassist Uriah Duffy on bass, guitarist Ben Misterka, saxophonist John Palowitch and special guest drummer James “StickNasty” Small, performing songs from his album A Universal Love Language. The band performs 9-11 p.m followed by a jam session lasting ’til 1 a.m. (who says Berkeley’s an early-to-bed town?) Thursday, May 29, 9 p.m. The Starry Plough. $15 (jam session is free)

🍺 Featuring Julian on drums, Steve on bass, and Colin on electric piano and accordion, the East Bay-raised Hogan Brothers return to Jupiter for their long-running final Friday residency, delivering a delectable repast of funk-laden jazz (or jazz-tinged funk). Friday, May 30, 7 p.m. FREE

🐒 Three distinctive California singer/songwriters play concise acoustic sets at the Monkey House on a triple bill featuring Zoe Fitzgerald Carter, Brad Colerick, and John Roy Zat. Friday, May 30, 7:30 p.m. The Monkey House. $20-$40

🎶 The Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra’s spring 2025 concert series features Sergei Taneyev’s three-part cantata “St. John of Damascus” and Camille Saint-Saëns’s tragedy-shrouded “Requiem.” Friday, May 30, 7:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 3 p.m. Hertz Hall. FREE (donations gratefully accepted and reservations encouraged)

🌎 The city’s Movies in the Park series, an annual summer tradition, kicks off next Friday with a screening of “Plastic Earth” at Shorebird Park. Before the movie begins, the city will also be holding an accompanying shoreline cleanup from 6:30-7:30 p.m., where kids can learn about bay ecology and how plastic pollution threatens the shoreline. (To partake in the cleanup, kids under 18 must have their parents or guardian sign a waiver.) Friday, May 30, 8:30 p.m. 160 University Ave. FREE (RSVP)

📚 The 11th annual Bay Area Book Festival will feature conversations with writers Obi Kaufmann, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Judith Butler, Roxane Gay, Gene Luen Yang, john a powell, and many more. There will also be a Bookworm Block Party on Sunday. (Drop by Berkeleyside’s booth to say hi!) Saturday-Sunday, May 31-June 1. See the full schedule. FREE

🌳 Berkeley is looking for volunteers to help weed, add mulch and tend to the over 1,000 native trees and shrubs that were planted by volunteers in West Berkeley’s Aquatic Park. This year’s Community Tree Maintenance Day kicks off 9:15 a.m. Saturday with some safety briefings before tools are handed out. There will be a lunch break at 11:30 a.m. followed by a cleanup. Saturday, May 31, Aquatic Park (west side). FREE (RSVP)

🇬🇷 Celebrating the interconnected musical traditions of the Balkan region with a focus on the Hellenic world, Berkeley’s Kombos Collective launches its latest arranging and recording project Vardari with a folk dance lesson followed by live music exploring shared Balkan melodies. Saturday, May 31, 7 p.m. Berkeley Finnish Hall. $10-$25

🎤 Marxist economist Richard D. Wolff, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a founder of Democracy at Work, will discuss the “Crisis of Capitalism Today” and talk about the changing world order. His presentation, hosted by the socialist organization Speak Out Now, will physically take place in North Carolina, but will be broadcast live to other locations across the country including the South Berkeley Senior Center. Sunday, June 1, 4 p.m. 2939 Ellis Street. $5 donation

🎭 Catch the final performances of Berkeley’s Black Repertory Group’s production of Ishmael Reed’s “Life Among The Aryans.” The satirical play, which premiered in 2018 at the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, follows two white MAGA families as they “wallow in conspiracy theories and turn their fates over to a charismatic leader,” according to the Rep. Through Sunday, June 1. 3201 Adeline Street, Berkeley. $25-$50 (RSVP)

🎨 Organized by Oakland Art Murmur, East Bay Open Studios features dozens of artists around Berkeley (and the wider East Bay). Saturday-Sunday, May 31–June 1, 11 a.m.-–5 p.m. FREE  

🍜 Slurp chef Leif Hedendal’s homemade udon noodles while making live sound art at BAMPFA’s “Teach Your Children to Slurp Noodles” event. Artist David Horvitz will also use some noodles to make “spontaneous sumi ink prints.” The event is included with gallery admission, but you’ll need to RSVP, as space is limited to 20 per session. Sunday, June 1, noon and 1 p.m. 

 🎤 This year’s Berkeley Poetry Festival features an open mic where poets like Lorene Zarou-Zouzounis, Persis M. Karim, and Carla Schick plan to speak out against genocide. The festival features a BIPOC writing workshop led by Burmese American writer Shein Win. June 1 to June 8. Various locations, see website for details. FREE

🇧🇷 Berkeley reed master Harvey Wainapel’s Brazilian jazz combo Alegritude plays a fundraiser for the Alameda County Food Bank featuring guitarist Jeff Buenz, bassist Scott Thompson, and drummer Dillon Vado at a gem of an amphitheater in the Berkeley Hills. Sunday, June 1, 3 p.m. Coventry Grove. $35

🎻 The Berkeley Symphony will close out its 2024-25 season and play its last concert with departing music director Joseph Young. The program, titled “Triumph,” features Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, Astor Piazzolla’s “Aconcagua” (featuring accordionist Hanzhi Wang as soloist) and the Bay Area premiere of Gity Razaz’s “Methuselah.” Sunday, June 1, 4 p.m. Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley. $30+ (RSVP)

🏳️‍🌈 Plan ahead: The East Bay Regional Park District is holding its third annual Pride in the Park event to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community and diversity in nature. The family-friendly event features a drag story hour, puppet shows, face painting, a nature scavenger hunt, live goats, arts and crafts and games. You’re encouraged to bring a picnic. Saturday, June 7, 10 a.m–3 p.m. Tilden Nature Area, 1500 Central Park Drive. FREE

 💃 Minneapolis-based composer and bandoneonist Charles Gorczynski leads his modern Tango Quartet West featuring bassist Sascha Jacobsen, pianist Alex Woods, and violinist Devan Moran at the Ashkenaz milonga. Monday, June 2, 7:30 p.m. Ashkenaz. $20-$25

✉️ The Berkeley Art Center gallery presents Postal Collage Project No. 14, a vibrant, global collaboration brought to you by Berkeley Commonplace featuring nearly 300 collages created by hundreds of participants from 31 states and 11 countries around the world. Wednesday-Sunday, through June 1, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Berkeley Art Center. FREE  

👃 Plan ahead: create your own scent at olfactory artist and researcher Arianna Khmelniuk’s experimental perfume workshop. The Friday workshop has already reached full capacity, but the Saturday workshop, June 7 at 1 p.m., is still open. BAMPFA. (RSVP)

🎭 Playwright Jiehae Park’s “The Aves” starts with small talk between an old man and an old woman sitting at a park bench — but, in the words of Berkeley Rep, which is putting on the world premiere of the play, “things aren’t as simple as they may seem.” Through June 8. $25-$134 (RSVP)

🎭 Shotgun Players presents “Yellow Face,” a semi-autobiographical satirical play by David Henry Hwang exploring Asian American identity and other racial issues. Through June 8. Ashby Stage. (RSVP)

Beyond Berkeley

📚 The Oakland History Center at the Oakland Public Library’s main branch will host professor and historian Caitlin Keliiaa to discuss her book, Refusing Settler Domesticity. The book explores Native Americans in Oakland in the 1910s and 1920s who were part of the “Bay Area Outing Program,” a controversial practice of putting Native American girls and women in white homes as domestic workers to help them assimilate to United States culture. Wednesday, May 28, 6:30 p.m. 125 14th St., Oakland. 2nd floor. FREE

🎤 Black Women Speak: an Abortion Storytelling Showcase aims to center voices of Black women and support community healing and wellness during a critical time for abortion access. The event is being co-presented by the UCSF Black Womxn’s Health and Livelihood Initiative, Girlx Lab, the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health and Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH). Thursday, May 29, 6:30 p.m. FREE (RSVP)

🫧 A new immersive experience just landed in Oakland earlier this month. The Bubble Planet comprises nine interactive rooms, ranging from one with a giant pool filled with plastic balls to another that makes you feel as though you’re visiting the underwater world. Kids and adults alike will enjoy their visit, and the rooms are perfect for capturing that perfect Instagram reel or TikTok moment. Through Sept. 28, Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, Oakland. $27.90+

💃 Lake Merritt Dance is a nonprofit organization that offers various dance classes in the Veterans Memorial Building, situated directly across from the northeastern side of the lake. The organization caters to various LGBTQ+ groups, offering classes such as West Coast Swing, Cuban salsa, queer country-western, blues, and others. This weekend, the nonprofit is hosting its annual dance fundraising that will support its dance programming. Saturday, May 31, 6:30 p.m., $28.52+, Lake Merritt Veterans Memorial Building, 200 Grand Ave.

🎉 The Oakland Museum of California’s annual party, Gathering in the Garden, will be hosted, appropriately, in the museum’s gardens. The event features Emmy-award-winning host, producer, and comedian W. Kamau Bell, who will be in conversation with Oakland filmmaker Adrian L. Burrell, Black Cultural Zone CEO Carolyn Johnson, and author Leila Mottley. The group will discuss the role artists play in creating social change. Proceeds from the event benefit the museum’s programming. Saturday, May 31, 6 p.m., 1000 Oak St., Oakland. Sliding scale $75-$1,000

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 to this list.