Celebrate Mother’s Day at the Berkeley Rose Garden with live jazz, tea and multiple activity stations on Saturday, May 9. Credit: Clara Mokri
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☮️ Join the Berkeley YWCA for a talk with Gina Fromer, president and CEO of the GLIDE Foundation, to explore topics such as educational equity, generational poverty and pathways toward community empowerment. The program will also include an audience Q&A and light refreshments. Thursday, May 7, 6 p.m. 2600 Bancroft Way. $6-$11
🎤 Leland Productions present an evening of original songs by and for humans, the latest in a second-Friday series showcasing a different series of performers at each event. Friday, May 8, 6-7 p.m. Live Oak Park Amphitheater. FREE
🚔 Join UC Berkeley Ph.D. candidate Sarah Lee on a historical walking tour around campus, “College Cops: UC Berkeley and the Creation of Modern Policing.” Learn about how public spaces on campus acted as a staging ground for monumental changes to policing and student and faculty resistance to those changes. Saturday, May 9, 11 a.m. Gayley Rd. and University Dr. across from the Greek Theatre. FREE (RSVP required)
🪴 ACCI Gallery is hosting an art and plant sale, with art created by 25 artists and plants grown by Berkeley Garden Club members. The Las Cabañas Mexican Grill taco truck will also be on-site for you to grab a bite while shopping. Saturday, May 9, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 1652 Shattuck Ave. FREE
📚 Presented in collaboration with Albany Public Library, Satsuki Ina discusses her activism and book about the experience of her parents during World War II internment, “The Poet and the Silk Girl: A Memoir of Love, Imprisonment, and Protest.” Saturday, May 9, 1 p.m. Central Library. FREE
💐 Fourth Street celebrates Mother’s Day with live music by Ruben Hurtado y su Descarga (Saturday) and the vocal ensemble Jazz-ology (Sunday), a flower giveaway (while supplies last), a station for crafting handmade cards, and hand/arm massages by Aveda. Saturday-Sunday, May 9-10, 1–3 p.m. Fourth Street @ Delaware. FREE
🪷 Celebrate the matriarch in your life at the Mother’s Day: Hats and High Tea event with live jazz, tea and various activity stations including jewelry-making and canvas painting. Saturday, May 9, 2-5 p.m. Berkeley Rose Garden. FREE
🇺🇸 Classical-and-beyond pianist Lara Downes presents a judicious celebration of the United States’ impending 250th birthday with “This Land: Reflections On America,” a talent-packed program of song, spoken word and poetry with vocal great Judy Collins, Tank and the Bangas frontwomen Tarriona “Tank” Ball, the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, and more. Saturday, May 9, 8 p.m. Zellerbach Hall. $33-$135
🤠 Don Burnham’s long musical trail started in a UC Berkeley dorm room in the early 1960s, and brought him to the center of the Bay Area Western swing scene with the band Lost Weekend. Before he rides off into the sunset in New Zealand he’s playing a series of farewell shows with the Bolos, a talent-laden combo featuring Charlie Wallace on pedal steel guitar and fiddler Jeremy Cohen. Saturday, May 9, 8 p.m. The Back Room. $20-$25
🍊 If you’re looking for a way to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, take a Chinese paint brush painting class. Paint flowers and fruits with lucky meanings with Pauline Tsui, a local artist and docent of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Monday, May 11, 10:30 a.m. Claremont Branch Library. FREE
🎹 From boogie to baroque, blues to bossa nova, Gershwin and Bach to Fats Waller, pianist Ellen Hoffman invites singers and instrumentalists of all stripes to her open-mic vocal session. Monday, May 11, 7:30 p.m. The Marsh. FREE
🎓 If you’re graduating from school this spring, make a statement on the commencement stage by decorating your graduation cap — all materials provided. Tuesday, May 12, 4-6 p.m. Central Library. FREE
⚽ Joined by KQED morning anchor Brian Watt, Berkeley author Nick Greene presents his new book “How to Watch Soccer Like a Genius: What Architects, Stuntwomen, Paleoanthropologists, and Computer Scientists Reveal About the World’s Game.” Tuesday, May 12, 7 p.m. Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore. FREE
📚 Davin Malasarn reads from and talks about his debut novel, “The Other Country,” in conversation with Bay Area author and editor Linda Michel-Cassidy. Tuesday, May 12, 7 p.m. Pegasus Books Downtown. FREE
🛳️ Joan Bernier’s one-woman show “The Captain” is based on the harrowing final voyages of Captain Joseph Elzéar Bernier (1852-1934) as he confronts the legacy of settlement and “civilization.” A portion of proceeds will benefit the Qajuqturvik Community Food Center in Iqaluit, Nunavut. Tuesday, May 12, 7:30 p.m. The Marsh. $15-$100
🚪 🧢 The Jazzschool’s weekly daytime series featuring leading Bay Area jazz artists talking about topics near and dear to their hearts continues with Berkeley clarinet wizard Ben Goldberg discussing his musical hero Steve Lacy (1934-2004), who reintroduced the soprano saxophone in the 1950s, bridging traditional New Orleans polyphony with the avant garde. Wednesday, May 13, 12:30 p.m. The Jazzschool. FREE
🚲 Bike to Work Day has been going strong in the Bay Area since the mid-1990s, but East Bay Bike to Wherever Day promotes cycling for any reason, not just punching the clock. Where will you be riding on Thursday, May 14?
🎨 Feeling creative and artsy? BART is looking for one artist or team to construct a mosaic or tile mural at the North Berkeley BART Station. Artists residing in the five counties served by BART, including Alameda County, are eligible to apply. Applications are due by midnight on Sunday, May 17.
🗓️ 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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