An image from a video work by artist Natasha Hoehn featured in the show “Mother” at 120710 Gallery. Courtesy: 120710 Gallery

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🎤 A double dose of alma is on tap at the library’s West Branch with tamales karaoke, a song session for tweens, teens and anyone who wants to unleash their inner Bad Bunny (or Selena), combining pop songs with a yummy Mexican dish. Thursday, Jan. 8, 5 p.m. West Branch. FREE

🇧🇷 Before he moved back to Recife about 13 years ago, guitarist and composer Carlos Oliveira was a creative force on the Bay Area’s Brazilian music scene, and one of the gigs he’s playing on a return visit reunites him with former collaborators in the Berkeley Choro Ensemble, a group he co-founded in 2010. Friday, Jan. 9, 7 p.m. The Hillside Club.$30

🇯🇲 The Caribbean Allstars are Ashkenaz regulars and one of the first Bay Area bands to infuse the local music scene with reggae grooves, a sound that expands the traditional electric bass-drums-guitars-keyboards lineup with steel drums to also embrace Trinidad and Tobago’s calypso and soca. Friday, Jan. 9, 8 p.m. Ashkenaz. $20-$25

🎹 Berkeley native Ethan Ostrow, a Minneapolis-based pianist/composer steeped in jazz and soul, teams up with ace jazz trombonist/composer Remee Ashley, in a quartet featuring fellow Berkeley High Jazz alumni Elliott Martens on drums and Owen Storey on bass. Friday, Jan. 9, 8 p.m. The Back Room. $25

🎭 The sun comes out again with the Berkeley Playhouse KidStage’s production of “Annie” directed by Clara Holland and Aletha Delay. Friday-Sunday, Jan. 9-11. Berkeley Playhouse. $23-$28

🥁 The Jazz Lounge series returns to the library with a program featuring a quartet led by dependably inspired Oakland drummer Michael Mitchell. Saturday, Jan. 10, noon. Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch.FREE

♀️ Curated by Natasha Hoehn, “Mother” runs through Jan. 31 showcasing artists from the North Street Project exploring the primal, protean maternal force as an elemental, generative engine. Using sculpture, painting, textiles, sound, film and written language, the artists explore the ways care can be both tender and volcanic, how lineage can illuminate or obscure, and how the daily labor of sustaining life coexists with myth, memory, and revolt. The opening reception is a family event with live music. Saturday, Jan. 10, noon-4 p.m. 120710 Gallery. FREE

⚭ As a resident living with dementia in The Ivy at Berkeley’s memory care neighborhood, Michael falls back in love with his wife, Linda, when she comes for one of her frequent visits. They met years ago as Alameda County deputy public defenders and raised a blended family of three children. The senior living community is hosting a renewal of their vows with dozens of family, longtime friends and Michael’s care team, and the public is invited to celebrate. Saturday, Jan. 10, 11 a.m.-noon. The Ivy at Berkeley. FREE

🎶 Singer/songwriter Cris Williamson plays a two-night stand celebrating five decades of music bookended by her epochal 1975 indie hit album The Changer and the Changed, joined by East Bay luminaries Barbara Higbie on vocals and piano and Mia Pixley on vocals and cello. Admission includes post-show reception with Williamson. Saturday-Sunday, Jan. 10-11, 7 p.m. The Freight. $54-$79 ($20 livestream)

🥁 With no rain in the forecast, music returns to Fourth Street this weekend with two afternoon sets by Citizens Jazz, a top-shelf combo led by veteran bassist Caroline Chung. Sunday, Jan. 11, 1 p.m. Delaware & Fourth Streets. FREE

🎤 Sam Rudin, aka blues pianist Hurricane Sam, and savvy blues belter Pamela Rose, host a jam session for blues and jazz singers at Rudin’s Back Room, providing an ace back-up band for anyone who wants to unburden their soul. Sunday, Jan. 11, 3 p.m. The Back Room.$20

🚲 If you’re looking for some spare parts for your bicycle, The Upcycle has got you covered with a 100% donation-based swap meet. Bring your bike parts, clothes and accessories to trade. Monday, Jan. 12, 5-7:30 p.m. Sports Basement. FREE

🐝 The City of Berkeley’s Public Art Program is seeking an artist or creative team to design, fabricate, and install two unique vertical structures that will serve as habitat boxes for birds and insects at the Community Garden Park and Urban Farm and Education Park, a project budgeted for $150,000. Applications are due on Jan. 12.

📚 The City of Berkeley reveals the 2026 Berkeley Youth Poet Laureate and Vice Youth Poet Laureate as part of an evening with snacks, refreshments poetry, performances, and special guest appearances including by a Berkeleysider. Tuesday, Jan. 13, 6 p.m. Central Library. FREE

🌵 Recent storms aside, we’ll soon be back to the semi-parched conditions that Cricket Riley and Alice Kitajima discuss in their new book “Designing the Lush Dry Garden: Create a Climate-Resilient, Low-Water Paradise,” which draws on the wisdom of the late Ruth Bancroft’s pioneering example of resilient, low-water-use design. Wednesday, Jan. 14, 7 p.m. Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore.FREE (reservations encouraged)

🎨 Graduate students from UC Berkeley’s departments of film and media and history of art offer tours of the exhibition “Object Oriented: Abstraction and Design,” which focuses on how artists have represented and reimagined familiar objects. Wednesday, Jan. 14, 12:15 p.m. BAMPFA.FREE (with admission)

🗓️ See more things to do in Oakland and Richmond. And check out our big list of affordable things to do anytime in Berkeley.

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.

Featured photo: Associated Press

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