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A panel of artists and toy makers discuss toy design during a workshop at the 2024 Berkeley Public Library Comic Con. Credit: Berkeley Public Library
💥 The Berkeley Public Library Comic Con is back for its third year! Over 30 local artists and vendors will be in attendance, and 11 workshops will be held throughout the day on insights from East Bay BIPOC cartoonists, how artists have worked in large projects such as Star Trek and Marvel, how to make your own zines and comics, and more. Saturday, Nov. 8, 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Central Library Branch. FREE
📚 Novelists Jennine Capó Crucet (“Say Hello to My Little Friend”) and Willy Vlautin (“The Horse”) speak as part of a series of events celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Oakland-based New Literary Project, which has put nearly $1 million directly into writers’ hands, from UC Berkeley English department grad students teaching teens in juvenile detention to mid-career authors receiving career-changing prizes. Thursday, Nov. 6, 5 p.m. Wheeler Hall’s Fife Room. FREE
📗 Queer singer, actress, and author Hayley Kiyoko will speak about her latest young adult novel, “Where There’s Room for Us.” Socialite Freya Tallon has her life mapped out to produce heirs for a lord and uphold her family’s nobility, but that changes when she meets a female poet named Ivy. Tickets include a signed copy of the book and a photo opportunity with Kiyoko. Thursday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m. International House. $30
💃 Cafe Buenos Aires will host a beginner tango class and social every Thursday in November and December. Tickets include admission to the class, social, and a non-alcoholic beverage. 7-9 p.m. $20
🎒 Central Works presents “Dada Teen Musical: The Play,” a comedy featuring high school student Annabelle who decides to create a dadaist version of “The Sound of Music” to round out her Harvard application, despite being part of a staunchly Yale family and not knowing what dadaism is. (Read Emily Mendel’s review.) Shows run now through Nov. 23. $20-45 (Pay-what-you-can tickets also available)
🎭 An amuse bouche to whet the appetite before the opening of the Shotgun Players’ production of the Tony Award-winning Sondheim classic “Sunday in the Park with George,” the company and the Al Hirschfeld Foundation present “Hirschfeld’s Broadway,” a one-night multi-media presentation with behind the scenes stories of Hirschfeld’s work plus a pop-up art gallery of his iconic line drawings. Friday, Nov. 7, 7 p.m. David Brower Center, $20
🇵🇷 Grupo Sudamericanto presents “Songs of Resistance, Beauty and Love,” a program of música latinoamericana combining Brazilian jazz with folk rhythms from Chile, Perú, Venezuela, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Led by multi-faceted Puerto Rican vocalist/interpreter Madeleine Zayas, the all-star combo performs original arrangements of Latin American classics as well as originals by Zayas and pianist Marcos Silva. Friday, Nov. 7, 7 p.m. La Peña Cultural Center. $17.30-$35
🎄 It’s a hard knock life for Annie at Berkeley Playhouse. Annie’s life at Miss Hannigan’s orphanage turns around when billionaire Daddy Warbucks adopts her for Christmas to show her New York City and his love. Shows run from Nov. 7 to Dec. 21. $19-$55
🌼 The Berkeley Herbal Center is hosting a Community Limpia Circle, a traditional Mexican folk medicine practice where plants and prayers are used to promote healing, release of emotions, and support during major life transitions. Saturday, Nov. 8, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. $30
🇭🇺 The Orly Museum of Hungarian Culture, where Budapest meets Berkeley, presents acclaimed pastry chef Eve Aino Roza Wirth’s cookbook “Sweet Heritage: A Journey Through Hungarian Tortes and Desserts.” Reserve in advance and you can take a pastry home with you after the book talk. Saturday, Nov. 8, 2:30 p.m. Orly Museum of Hungarian Culture. FREE
🎻 Award-winning Galvin Cello Quartet will be performing their program “Voice of the Piano,” which explores famous piano compositions such as Mozart’s Four-hand Sonata on the cello. Saturday, Nov. 8, 3 p.m. 2727 College Ave. $40
🇮🇷 Diaspora Arts Connection presents vocalist and setar master Fared Shafinury, best known as a rocker who draws on classical Persian music, for a classical recital with Rambod Dargahi on the tonbak and Naghmeh Sarang on the kamancheh. Saturday, Nov. 8, 7 p.m. Live Oak Theater. $60-$75
🎶 Acclaimed French accordionist Théo Ould concludes his November UC Berkeley residency with a concert of graduate student works developed via months of close collaboration and exchanges with Ould on the artistic and technical aspects of the compositions. Saturday, Nov. 8, 8 p.m. Wu Performance Hall. FREE
🇿🇼 Zimbabwean mbira master Samaita Botsa, who’s performed widely across the U.S. over the past two months, returns to the East Bay for a final performance with Berkeley mbira champion Erica Azim, delivering a meditative prayer for global healing. Saturday, Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m. Mahea Uchiyama Center for International Dance. $10-$1,000
🎻 The Women Composers Collective presents Berkeley violinist and composer Irene Sazer with pianist Rebecca Hass, cellist Jessica Ivry and guest percussionist Lillian Yee for a night of original music. Saturday, Nov. 8, 7 p.m. Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship. $25-$40
🤠 It’s never been cooler to get square, dancing that is, with Dare to be Square West, a square-dancing workshop culminating in evening hoedowns featuring callers Sue Hulsether and Tony Mates, and bands Stumptown Stringband and Echo Mountain. Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 8-9, 8 p.m. Ashkenaz. $20-$25
♟️ Brad Buchanan, English professor emeritus at California State Sacramento, reads from his coming-of-age novel set amid the Soviet Union’s elite chess players at the end of the cold war, “Spy’s Mate.” followed by an informal chess tournament with Thinkers Publishing’s Daniel Vanheirzeele, a National Master in chess. Sunday, Nov. 9, 11 a.m. Clio’s Books. $7
🎷 The Electric Squeezebox Orchestra, a talent-laden 17-piece ensemble led by Berkeley-reared trumpeter and composer Erik Jekabson, celebrates the release of the group’s 4th CD, “A Piece of the Action,” and 10th anniversary at the Jazzschool, where the ESO is the ensemble in residence. Sunday, Nov. 9, 5:30 p.m. The Jazzschool. $20
🇰🇷 Next week, CNMAT hosts a series of concerts showcasing a very different side of the peninsula’s musical heritage with the Korean Experimental Music Festival, which runs Nov. 11-16 at UC Berkeley, as well as UC Santa Cruz and Stanford. Blending traditional Korean instrumentalists with emerging technologies, the performances feature a bevy of musicians from the National Gugak Center in Seoul and the Bay Area’s intrepid Del Sol String Quartet. The first four of the festival’s 10 concerts take place at Cal. Tuesday-Sunday, Nov. 11-16, various times. Morrison Hall’s Wu Hall. FREE
🧶 Got a half-finished knitting or painting project calling your name? Bobby G’s Pizzeria is hosting a Creative Co-working Night for anyone looking to gather and work on their crafts together. Tuesday, Nov. 11, 6-8 p.m. FREE
🎥 The Hillside Club’s Documentary Film Series presents Berkeley director Kathryn Golden’s feature length profile of Oakland percussion maestro John Santos, “Santos–Skin to Skin,” an intimate portrait of a culture bearer, activist, and bandleader. Wednesday, Nov. 12, 7 p.m. Hillside Club. $15
🌎 Berkeley Rep is debuting “Mother of Exiles,” a play where Miami border patrol staff Braulio accidentally summons the spirit of his great-grandmother, who faced deportation at Angel Island from America’s immigration laws in 1898. Together, they travel the world to escape a climate catastrophe. Shows run from Nov. 14 to Dec. 21. $31-$135
🗓️ 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.
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