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Teance is hosting a Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday, Feb. 21. Courtesy: Teance

🧧 Teance’s Lunar New Year Celebration will include lion dance performances, food and gift vendors, tai chi classes, complementary red tea, and much more. Saturday, Feb. 21, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. 1036 Grayson St. FREE

📝 The City of Berkeley wants your input on which mental health and substance use disorder services are most important for our community. Feedback from Berkeley residents will help shape a three-year plan for behavioral health services. Join one of several virtual and in-person meetings in February, or fill out a virtual survey by March 4; see the City of Berkeley website for more information.

🧗 Channel your inner lizard at Mosaic Boulder’s annual rock climbing competition, which will include competitions for climbers of all genders, casual climbers and climbers looking to compete on the USAC Collegiate level. Saturday, Feb. 11, and Sunday, Feb. 12, 2369 Telegraph Ave. $20-$50 (registration required)

🪵 Need wood chips for the upcoming spring season? Free wood chips will be available for pickup at four Berkeley parks, and city park staff will be available to assist with loading wood chips onto personal containers and vehicles. Thursday, Feb. 19, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Aquatic Park, Glendale La Loma Park, Great Stoneface Park and Willard Park. FREE

🎶 Berkeley Playhouse presents “Once,” a musical set in Dublin, Ireland where an Irish busker and Czech immigrant find connection over the course of a week through their shared love of music. From Feb. 20 to March 5. $19-$45

🥁 Do you know a child who loves music? This family-friendly orchestra performance features musicians who will perform Haydn’s Toy Symphony, with audience participation encouraged. Bring a percussion instrument or noise-making toy to play along! Saturday, Feb. 21, 11 a.m. Oxford Elementary auditorium. FREE (RSVP encouraged)

🥁 Veteran drummer James Gallagher, who divides his time between Manhattan and the Bay Area, brings a combo into the library for an afternoon Jazz Lounge gig. Saturday, Feb. 21, noon. Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch. FREE

🎭 Alternative Theater Ensemble presents the staged reading “When They Ask If We Were Real,” a global performance project that has grown through workshops on three continents, including local collaborations with the Berkeley Public Library, bringing people of different generations and cultures together to share stories, questions, and imagination in the age of A.I. Saturday, Feb. 21, 2 p.m. West Branch. FREE

The Young People’s Symphony Orchestra (YPSO) is holding a winter concert on Saturday, Feb. 21 at First Church Berkeley. Credit: YPSO

❄️ The Young People’s Symphony Orchestra is holding a winter concert, “Echoes of the Northern Lights.” The program will feature Jean Sibelius’s “Symphony No. 1” and William Grant Still’s “Threnody: In Memory of Jean Sibelius.” Saturday, Feb. 21, 7:30 p.m. First Church Berkeley. $20 (free admission for students)

🕺🏽 Choreographer Kyle Abraham’s company A.I.M makes its Cal Performances debut with three works at the intersection of Black and queer culture danced to live performances by a brilliant jazz ensemble featuring vocalists Charenée Wade and Crystal Monee Hall. Saturday, Feb. 21, 8 p.m. & Sunday, Feb. 22, 3 p.m. Zellerbach Hall. $33-$89

🫘 Bay Area bean lovers can bond at this casual bean meetup and potluck. (Read our story on Madeline Schapiro, the bean-fluencer behind the event.) Sunday, Feb. 22, 1-3 p.m. Willard Park. FREE

🥁 Albany-based Japanese percussion master Haruka Fujii joins a quartet of Berkeley Symphony musicians for “Roots and Resonances,” a program showcasing contemporary works for percussion and strings by some of today’s most innovative voices, including Fujii, Samuel Adams, Salina Fisher, Michio Kitazme, and Osvaldo Golijov. Sunday, Feb. 22, 4 p.m. Piedmont Center for the Arts. $40

 📚 Berkeley author, activist, street medic and consent-centric relationship educator Kitty Stryker discusses her newest book, “Love Rebels: How I Learned to Burn It Down Without Burning Out,” in conversation with Sezin Devi Koehler, author of “Much Ado About Keanu: A Critical Reeves Theory.” (Read our story about the book.) Tuesday, Feb. 24, 6:30 p.m. Pegasus Books Downtown. FREE

🎶 Trombonist and retired Berkeley librarian Pat Mullan co-leads Melba’s Kitchen, a band dedicated to the rich trove of compositions and arrangements created by Melba Liston, the only female horn player to work in top jazz orchestras of the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. The Freight’s dance floor is open for this swinging 100th birthday celebration. Sunday, Feb. 22, 7 p.m. The Freight. $39-$44

📖 Poetry for the People: The June Jordan Experience is an intimate portrait of June Jordan, a prominent and late poet, activist and UC Berkeley professor known for her commitment to justice and self-determination for all. The performance will feature Jordan’s poetry, interviews, other writings and a six-actor ensemble. Tuesday. Feb. 24, 7 p.m. The Freight. $40-$75

🏴‍☠️ Arrr, you scurvy seadogs, award-winning author Rachel Rueckert, a part-time Berkeley resident, returns to Mrs. Dalloway’s to launch “The Determined,” her historical novel based on the real experiences of two of the most infamous women from the Golden Age of Piracy, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. All freebooters, buccaneers, and marauders who roam the seven seas are welcome. There will be exclusive swag to give away and booty aplenty for thems that come in costume. Tuesday, Feb. 24, 7 p.m. Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore. FREE

✊🏿 The Jazzschool’s Black History Month brown bag discussions continue with saxophonist Howard Wiley talking about the deep history of the Bay Area jazz scene and the civil rights movement. Wednesday, Feb. 25, 12:30 p.m. The Jazzschool. FREE

🗓️ See more things to do in Oakland and Richmond. And check out our big list of affordable things to do anytime in Berkeley. Sign up for our weekly arts and culture newsletter, The Scene.

If there’s an event you’d like us to consider for this roundup, email us at the-scene@berkeleyside.org. The deadline to submit events for Around Berkeley is end-of-day Monday. 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.

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