We work for you — reporting on the stories our community needs. Our journalists attend city council and school board meetings, follow tips and make the calls to keep you informed on the important issues in Berkeley. Will you chip in today to support that work during our year-end fundraising campaign?
Peiting C. Li teaches a Chinese calligraphy class at Teance Fine Teas. Credit: Teance Fine Teas.
🕊️ The newly created Palestine and Arab Studies program at UC Berkeley hosts “From Apartheid to Democracy: A Blueprint for Peace in Israel-Palestine,” a talk with Sarah Leah Whitson, co-author of From Apartheid to Democracy and executive director of DAWN, an organization that seeks to support democracy and human rights in the Middle East. Thursday, Nov. 13 4 p.m. UC Berkeley Law School. FREE
🍎 Test your knowledge at Trivia Night with Ms. Jenna, a bartender and third-grade teacher. Questions are often pulled from tests she gives her students. 6:30 p.m. every Thursday. Starry Plough. FREE (donations accepted for Ms. Jenna’s classroom)
🇨🇳 The Berkeley Historical Society & Museum present Russell Low’s “Rising from the Mission Home: The Remarkable Journeys of Three Chinese Women,” a multimedia presentation exploring the lives of three courageous Chinese women in the East Bay via rare historic photographs and vivid illustrations of San Francisco and Oakland Chinatowns from the 1890s and early 1900s, set to music and narrated by the author. Thursday, Nov. 13, 7 p.m. FREE (RSVP to info@berkhistory.org for the Zoom link)
♀️ Prolific Canadian poet, translator and essayist Bänoo Zan and Cy Strom, editors of “Woman Life Freedom: Poems for the Iranian Revolution,” lead a reading and discussion with Bay Area contributors to the anthology, followed by audience Q&A and book signing. Friday, Nov. 14, 6 p.m. Pegasus Books Downtown. FREE
🏃♂️ Run through Telegraph Avenue, the UC Berkeley campus, Fourth Street, the Berkeley Marina, and more at the Berkeley Half Marathon. Choose between running a 1K, 5K, 10K, or the full race distance of 13.1 miles. Kids 1K on Saturday, Nov. 15, all other races on Sunday, Nov. 16. $95-$225
Runners pass through Sather Gate at UC Berkeley during the 2022 Berkeley Half Marathon. Credit: Kelly Sullivan
🎵 Celebrate Amoeba Music’s 35th anniversary with a party that includes a ’90s-themed DJ set from noon-4 p.m., a music-themed raffle, and goodie bags and limited edition posters with purchase. Saturday, Nov. 15, store open 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
🎤 UC Berkeley’s first student-run record label, Public School Records, is hosting an on-campus music festival featuring local student bands, vendors, and concert promoters. Saturday, Nov. 15, noon-5:30 p.m. Savio Steps/Sproul Plaza. FREE
🎭 Shotgun Players debuts the Stephen Sondheim classic, “Sunday in the Park with George.” 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. Shows run Nov. 15 to Dec. 30. $15-$90
🍵 Teance holds monthly tea socials where you can taste test teas from their extensive menu with fellow community members. Other activities for this upcoming social include mahjong, drawing Wisdom of Tao oracle cards, and karaoke. Saturday, Nov. 15, 5:30 p.m. $25
🇮🇷 Diaspora Arts Connection presents Mohamad Khodadadi’s “Immersion,” a three-hour guided listening experience exploring centuries-old Persian repertoires and lesser-known regional sounds from Iran, each framed with context, reflection, and poetic insight by a master of Persian classical music. Saturday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m. Impossible Stage. $100
🎸 A triple bill at the living-room-like Monkey House featuring award-winning Berkeley singer/songwriter and filmmaker Alexis Harte, jazz-steeped bassist/songwriter John Lester, and Pilgrims of Stoke, a collective represented by a guitarist and singer Nick Peters and bluegrass guitarist Rob Morris (joined by Lester on bass). Saturday, Nov. 15, 7:30 p.m. Monkey House. $20-$40 donation
🎶 The rollicking gutbucket psychedelic blues combo HowellDevine plays the Back Room, celebrating drummer Pete Devine’s birthday and his return to the bandstand while fighting cancer. Saturday, Nov. 15, 8 p.m. Back Room. $25
✒️ Dive into Chinese calligraphy while sipping some tea. This session will cover the concept of 空 kong—which translates to “empty,” “sky,” “air,” “space,” or “void” — and how it has been written by different calligraphers and scripts. Calligraphy enthusiasts of all levels are welcome. Sunday, Nov. 16, 10 a.m. Teance. $25 for class, $5 extra for materials
🧶 Explore the loose ends of Eli Leon’s collection of textiles, fabric scraps, and other materials that were posthumously donated to BAMPFA. (Read more about Leon’s collection of over 3,000 African American quilts, currently on display in the “Routed West” exhibition.) Sunday, Nov. 16, 1 p.m. FREE with museum admission
✡️ KlezCalifornia presents another Joy of Jewish Music and Dance series of workshops and jam sessions, and this one features cantor Achi Ben Shalom and multi-reed player Asaf Ophir leading the music and Bruce Bierman teaching the dance. Sunday, Nov. 16, 2-5 p.m. Netivot Shalom. $25-$54 (under 18 free)
🎻 Cellist Rebecca Roudman’s hard-rocking Renegade Orchestra previews a new album “Sounds of San Francisco … and the Bay Area” at Berkeley’s Finnish Hall, delivering symphonic arrangements of classic works by acts from Jefferson Airplane to the Dead Kennedys. Sunday, Nov. 16, 7 p.m. Berkeley Finnish Hall. $30
♟️ Try out new board games with their game designers to have fun and provide feedback, or bring your own original game for others to playtest. Monday, Nov. 17, 6-11 p.m. Victory Point Cafe. $12 (or buy 2+ items from the cafe)
💥 Got aches from sitting, typing, and staring at a screen all day? Join a hands-on workshop where you’ll learn sustainable ways to manage pain using a “pleasure and consent-based approach.” Wednesday, Nov. 19. 6 p.m. Tarea Hall South Branch 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.
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.
… We have a small favor to ask.
We work for you to provide free and independent journalism covering the stories that matter most in Berkeley. And we rely on readers like you to make our work possible. That’s why we’re asking you to contribute to our year-end membership campaign today. We’ve set a goal to raise $180,000 by Dec. 31 and we’re counting on readers like you to help get us there.
Your support will enable us to continue doing the work for you and our community to provide the reporting Berkeley needs. So, what do you say, will you join us in doing the work?
“*” indicates required fields