Benchmark Climbing will be hosting an indoor rock climbing competition on Saturday, Jan. 24. Credit: Joanne Furio
🌳 Shotgun Players’ run of “Sunday in the Park with George” has been extended through Feb. 15. An artist struggles to finish his latest painting while balancing his love life, and a century later, the artist’s great-grandson struggles to maintain his creative streak. With onstage seating and immersive stage design, audience members may find themselves part of the painting, too. $15-$90
🎭 Actor-writer Jacob Ming-Trent will perform his play, “How Shakespeare Saved My Life” at Berkeley Rep. Ming-Trent is deemed unfit by others to be a poet, yet his gift for poetry sends him on a journey that invokes artists like Biggie, Tupac and Basquiat. Jan. 23 to March 1. $41-$290
🎻 A full-spectrum festival of Louisiana Cajun and zydeco music & dance, Bayou Boogie West is a three-day cultural extravaganza featuring performances by Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys, Geno Delafose, Ruben Moreno, Mark St. Mary, Okie Weiss & the Zydeco Playboys, Iko Ya Ya, the Aux Cajunals, and others. The program includes dance lessons, workshops and jam sessions. Friday-Sunday, Jan. 23-25. Ashkenaz. $36-$350
🐻 The Berkeley Path Wanderers Association will lead an evening walk around the Cal campus, which will pass by famous landmarks like the Campanile and lesser-known creek crossings and gardens. Friday, Jan. 23. Meet on the sidewalk east of Oxford and Center St. FREE
🕖 The Marsh presents “The Waiting Period” by actor Brian Copeland. Copeland plays himself as he reenacts the 10-day period before he could buy the gun he planned on using to take his own life. Even under these painful circumstances, Copeland’s humor shines through and results in a realistic and redemptive look into people who struggle with depression. Friday, Jan. 23, and Thursday, Jan. 29, 7 p.m. FREE for general admission, $50-$100 for reserved seating.
🏛️ BAMPFA opens a major show on the multidisciplinary artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, best known for her book “Dictée.” Cha studied at UC Berkeley from 1969 to 1978, after moving to the Bay Area from South Korea, and her work explores language, memory, and diasporic identity. “Multiple Offerings,” the artist’s first large-scale retrospective in 25 years, digs deep into her archives, which make up three-quarters of all recent research requests at the museum. On view Jan. 24-April 19. $18 (FREE on Sunday, Jan. 25)
🧗♀️ Benchmark Climbing is hosting an indoor rock climbing competition, featuring problems for all skill levels and categories for men, women and nonbinary people. Saturday, Jan. 24, 10 a.m. FREE for members, $40 for non-members
🎶 The South Branch Library hosts a ukulele club that meets biweekly, with occasional exceptions. No experience is required, and ukuleles will be available to borrow if you don’t have your own. Saturday, Jan. 24 and every other Saturday, 11 a.m. FREE
🥁 One of the Bay Area’s most esteemed drummers, Sylvia Cuenca, brings a top-notch quartet into the library featuring pianist Dahveed Behroozi as part of a free afternoon series sponsored by Jazz In the Neighborhood. Saturday, Jan. 24, noon. Tarea Hall Pitman Branch. FREE
🎤 The Berkeley Historical Society presents “Nuestras Raíces: Our Stories,” a session at the library featuring elders recording their memories of living in Berkeley in past decades. Saturday, Jan. 24, 1 p.m. West Branch. FREE
🎻 Violinist Kana Luzmoor leads a string quartet playing some recent works by Berkeley pianist, flutist and composer Erika Oba on a program with Koh Yamakawa playing shakuhachi and leading a beginner taiko workshop. Tea and snacks included. Saturday, Jan. 24, 2 p.m. Berkeley Buddhist Temple, 2121 Channing Way. $10-$15
📚 Financial expert and Haas School of Business grad Lillian Zhang presents her new book “The New Money Rules: The Gen Z Guide to Personal Finance” in conversation by startup veteran Lana Nguyen (and will sign copies after the presentation). Saturday, Jan. 24, 5 p.m. Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore. FREE (registration requested)
🍲 The Marsh also presents the autobiographical play “Spanish Stew” by comedian Marga Gomez. After being kicked out of her family home in 1976 for being a lesbian, Gomez moves to San Francisco and finds work at a restaurant. When the restaurant asks her to recreate a family stew recipe, she blends together her family of origin and chosen family of queer San Franciscans. Saturdays, 7:30 p.m., and Sundays, 2 p.m., through Feb. 22. $25-$100
🇪🇹 San Francisco Ethio-jazz vocalist Meklit celebrates the release of her recent Smithsonian Folkways album “A Piece of Infinity,” a gorgeous collection of traditional Ethiopian songs reimagined with her talent-packed band. Rising Oakland singer/songwriter August Lee Stevens plays an opening set. Saturday, Jan. 24, 8 p.m. The Freight. $34-$39
👯 If 2026 is already not feeling like your year, travel back to the past at a 2000s-themed dance party. Dig up your best Y2K fashion and jam to Britney Spears, Eminem, Lady Gaga and more. Saturday, Jan. 24, 8 p.m. Cornerstone Berkeley. $25-$30
🏛 ️ Berkeley City Club docents offer tours of this hidden treasure the fourth Sunday of the month. Sunday, Jan. 25, 1-4 p.m. Berkeley City Club. $0-$10
🇧🇷 The East Bay quartet Som Dela (“Her Sound”) features a triumvirate of brilliant Berkeley musicians with flutist Jane Lenoir, violinist Irene Sazer, pianist Rebecca Hass and Oakland percussionist Michaelle Goerlitz performing Brazilian music by female composers such as Léa Freire, Luisa Mitre, and Chiquinha Gonzaga, as well as originals. Sunday, Jan. 25, 3 p.m. Good Shepherd Episcopal Church. $30
🧘 Join a group meditation circle, where you’ll explore mindfulness and the practice of relating to one another. Sunday, Jan. 25 and every Sunday, 7:15 p.m. Far Leaves Tea. $15-$35 sliding scale
🫖 Teance hosts a biweekly letter writing club, where you can doodle, sketch or write letters in community. Stationery will be provided, but make sure to order a cup or pot of tea. Sunday, Jan. 25, and every second and fourth Sunday, 3-5 p.m. FREE
📚 Fiction writer/TV producer Grant Faulkner and illustrious punk rock photographer Gail Butensky celebrate the release of “something out there in the distance,” a story of a couple’s final road trip through the American desert. Copies of the book, which pairs flash fiction with edge-of-the-world photography, will be available for signing at the event. Tuesday, Jan. 29, 6 p.m. Pegasus Books Downtown. FREE
🤘 Shh, keep it down, please, we’re banging our heads over here! The library’s Art & Music Department presents an extreme music listening session focusing on the heaviest, bleakest sounds from the fringes of noise and beyond. Bring your grungiest tracks to share, and vie for an opportunity to win the raffle for a near-mint vinyl copy of Slayer’s “Christ Illusion” at the end of the session (which, WARNING, will feature intense music at high volume with lyrical and artistic content that may offend or disturb some listeners). Tuesday, Jan. 29, 6 p.m. Central Library. 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. 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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