Around Berkeley: Zine workshop, Ohlone-led tule boat and doll-making session

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Around Berkeley

📚Bay Area naturalist Jack Gedney, author of 2022’s The Private Lives of Public Birds: Learning to Listen to the Birds Where We Live, celebrates the release of his new book on the avian companions of our iconic trees, The Birds in the Oaks (from Berkeley’s Heyday Books). Thursday, Nov. 14, 7 p.m. Pegasus Books Downtown. FREE

🎸 Berkeley guitar explorer John Schott presents the first in a two-part Monkey House series celebrating the music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn with Berkeley-reared vocalist Cecilia Engelhart, and veteran Berkeley bassist Dan Seamans. Thursday, Nov. 14, 7:30 p.m. The Monkey House. $20 

📚 ARC Indigenous Poetics Lab hosts a zine-making workshop, facilitated by Sierra Edd (Diné), that includes a tutorial for crafting and publishing zines and is open to both experienced zinesters or folks new to the medium. This workshop will also offer a background to Indigenous storytelling through zines. Friday, Nov. 15, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Hearst Field Annex D23. FREE (with registration)

🌊 The California Coastal Commission is looking for help documenting king tides, the highest high tides of the year. Photos of king tides are important in helping agencies identify infrastructure  — landmarks, staircases, sea walls, piers, roads and more — that are at risk from flooding as sea levels continue to rise. All you need is a smartphone or digital camera. Check the website for details on how to participate in the California King Tide Project. Remember to never turn your back to the ocean! Friday-Sunday, Nov. 15-17. 

🎤 Professor Marshall Ganz, a senior lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School, will give a talk on collective organizing, which he considers an essential driver of democracy. Ganz is the author of People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal. He’ll be joined by Robert Reich, professor of public policy at UC Berkeley and former Secretary of Labor. Pizza and drinks will be provided. Friday, Nov. 15, 11:30 a.m. Goldman School of Public Policy, Room 250. FREE (RSVP)

🍕 See Arthur Miller’s tragic Death of a Salesman performed in the secret basement of a Northside neighborhood pizza shop a short walk from the Cal campus. The production is a new partnership between the Actors Ensemble of Berkeley and the California Historical Radio Society, which lent the theater company a working wire recorder — the precursor to the magnetic tape which reached its heyday in the 1940s and ’50s — to use in the play. Check the website for performance times. Nov. 15-Dec. 1. La Val’s Subterranean Theater. $15-$40 (RSVP)

🎶 The sumptuously velvet-toned Chicago soul jazz vocalist and songwriter Lizz Wright makes her Freight debut with a stellar band featuring former Bay Area guitarist Adam Levy, bassist Ben Zwerin, drummer Ivan Edwards, and guitarist Marvin Sewell. Steeped in the cadences of the Black church, Wright focuses on music from her gorgeous new album Shadow. Friday, Nov. 15, 8 p.m. Freight & Salvage. $49-$54

🌎 As part of its Climate Literacy Initiative, the Berkeley Unified School District is holding a public Fix-it Fest to teach students — and you — to reduce waste. Bring your broken electronics, appliances, toys, and clothes, as over 30 volunteer “repair coaches” will be there to help guide you. Saturday, Nov. 16, 1 p.m. King Middle School. FREE

🎤 Street Spirit’s fall fundraiser opens with a panel discussion on the state of homelessness and local news moderated by veteran KQED reporter Nastia Voynovskaya followed by a DJ set by The Tune-Yards’ Merrill Garbus, food by General Li, a silent auction with items donated by Corduroy Joan, screen printing by San Francisco Poster Syndicate and more. Saturday, Nov. 16, 3-7 p.m. 2727 California St. FREE (donation suggested)

🎸 Led by veteran Bay Area bassist and vocalist Bruce Linde, who’s worked with the likes of Ricki Lee Jones, Shawn Colvin and Jai Uttal, Slinky Thing is an eight-piece band that plays the music of Steely Dan with precision, panache and a requisite tinge of paranoia. Saturday, Nov. 16, 8 p.m. The Back Room. $25

🎹 Over the years Harry Bernstein’s Spruce Street Concerts have presented some of the world’s great improvisers, and this house concert brings together Berkeley clarinet wizard Ben Goldberg with pianist Mick Rossi, an internationally celebrated pianist, composer, percussionist, conductor and arranger best known for his extensive work with Paul Simon and the Philip Glass ensemble. Contact Bernstein at [email protected] for reservations and tickets. Sunday, Nov. 17, 4 p.m. Spruce Street Concerts. $40

🛶 Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino, the co-founders of Cafe Ohlone, will lead two tule boat and doll-making sessions in honor of National Native American Heritage Month. Materials are provided. The event is a part of UC Berkeley’s ‘ottoy initiative, which aims to “foster understanding of and respect for Ohlone people and culture and to repair and improve our relationship with the Ohlone community,” according to the Lawrence Hall of Science. The event is included with museum admission. Sundays, Nov. 17 and 24, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Lawrence Hall of Science. 

🎥 An advance screening of “Pacific,” the first episode of the new Netflix docuseries Our Oceans, narrated by Barack Obama, explores the ocean’s ecosystems and the remarkable creatures that live within them. A panel discussion led by Professor Jason Spingarn-Koff, featuring researchers from the Berkeley Center for Ocean Futures, follows the screening. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 6:30 p.m. UC Berkeley’s North Gate Hall. FREE

🌸 UC Botanical Garden is hosting its annual florilegium exhibition, which features 75 botanical illustrations, including 31 that have never previously been displayed. Before the advent of photography, botanists relied on highly detailed botanical illustrations to identify and study plants and flowers. They’re still useful today as a visual record of a plant’s life cycle. Admission to the art exhibit is included with garden admission. Check the website for hours. Through Nov. 21.

Beyond Berkeley

🕵️ Following a screening of Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink, journalist and filmmaker Steve Talbot will moderate a conversation about the state of local news and how the lack of coverage of local news affects communities nationwide. The Q&A will include two-time Academy Award-nominated director Rick Goldsmith, local journalist Madeleine Bair from El Tímpano, and local investigative reporter Tom Peele from EdSource. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 6:55 p.m. The New Parkway Theater, 474 24th Street, Oakland. $12-$16

🛍️ More than 50 women-owned brands, including fashion, design, jewelry, art and beauty, will vend at the holiday marketplace MARCHÉ. Some Bay Area-based brands selling at this year’s marketplace include Case for Making, Elsie Green, La Saison, Lan Jaenicke, Parker Thatch, Shira Gil, Tienda Salsita, Wolfspout and more. The event also includes craft booths to make holiday wreaths and watercolor cards. Food, desserts and beverages will also be sold. Saturday, Nov. 16, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The Bridge Yard, 210 Burma Rd., Judge John Sutter Regional Shoreline Park, Oakland. $15 ($18 at the door)

🎥 A group of UC Berkeley and Claremont student filmmakers and recent grads produced En Garde, an adventure drama about two estranged roommates brought together by a sword-fighting fantasy, The short film, directed by the Hong Kong-raised, Los Angeles-based filmmaker Michael Yu, was created as part of The 48 Hour Film Project, a competition that requires contestants to produce a film from scratch within 48 hours under assigned creative prompts, and won 2024 Best Film of the Bay. It premieres in San Francisco on Friday, and will be followed by a mixer. Friday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m. Artist Television Access, 992 Valencia Street, San Francisco. 

If there’s an event you’d like us to consider for this roundup, email us at [email protected]. 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.

The Oaklandside’s Arts and Community reporter Azucena Rasilla contributed to this list.