THURSDAY, MAY 29 

“Victory Gardens in America During Two World Wars” and how history can help us achieve victory for healthy food in today’s communities with Rose Hayden-Smith at 7 p.m. at Martin Luther King Community Center, 360 Harbour Way South, at Virginia, Richmond. 232-5050. 

“Global Unions: Innovative Strategies from Cross-Border Labor Campaigns” A panel discussion on how unions can confront and address the implications of globalization at noon at UC Berkeley Labor Center, 2521 Channing Way, near Telegraph Ave. 642-6371. http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu 

“Green Collar Jobs” Discussion with Raquel Rivera-Pinderhuges, Professor of Urban Studies at San Francisco State University at 6 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. Cost is $10. Registration suggested. info@wencal.org 

“Teaching Race in Biblical Studies” A panel discussion at 3 p.m. at Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. Lecture on “Job’s Wife: A Minority Report” with Choon-Leong Seow of Princeton Theological Seminary at 6 p.m. 849-8239. 

“Beyond Conviction” Documentary by Rachel Libert on victim/offender mediation and restorative justice at 7:30 p.m. at All Souls Episcopal Parish, 2220 Cedar St., enter through the Spruce Street Courtyard. Suggested donation $20, no one turned away. 548-2377. www.ebcm.org 

CopWatch Training on ”Know Your Rights” at 6 p.m. at the Grassroots House, 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Baby & Toddler Storytime at 10:15 and 11:15 a..m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043.  

Fitness Class for 55+ at 9:15 a.m. at Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. 

FRIDAY, MAY 30 

Compost Give-away at Berkeley Marina from 8:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. with first priority given to Berkeley Unified School District and Berkeley Community Gardens, self-serve after 11:45 a.m., at Berkeley Marina Maintenance Yard, 201 University Ave, next to Adventure Playground. 981-6660. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Eric Klinenberg on “Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 524-7468.  

Burma Update with Nyunt Than, president of Burmese American Democratic Alliance at 7 p.m. at Newman Hall/Holy Spirit Parish, 2700 Dwight Way at College. Donations accepted for the victims of the cyclone. 649-8772. 

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

SATURDAY, MAY 31 

Spring Faire at Washington Elementary School with fun activities for children including bike drawn hayride, boat and car races, obstacle course, science projects, and more, with live music and Mexican and soul food. 486-1742. 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 1-888-EB-PARKS. 

Berkeley Historical Society Walking Tour “McGee Tract” led by Paul Grunland and exploring three historic neighborhood tracts, from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost is $8-$10. For reservations call 848-0181. 

Berkeley Garden Club Plant Sale featuring perennials, succulents and some veggies, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 547 Grizzly Peak, at Euclid. 845-4482. www.berkeleygardenclub.org 

Celebrate Schoolhouse Creek and learn about restoration plans and progress at the creek mouth in Eastshore State Park, Berkeley, with Friends of Five Creeks, with a bug hunt led by Cal Bug People at 10 a.m., a short interpretive walk at 11:30 a.m. followed by bring-your-own picnic, make art with natural materials with environmental artist Zach Pine in the afternoon. Free, but numbers limited. Register for one or all events at 848-9358. f5creeks@aol.com  

Walking Tour of Oakland Chinatown Meet at 10 a.m. at the courtyard fountain in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza at 388 Ninth St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Remembering 1948” Personal narratives, poetry, and music by Jews and Palestinians about the events surrounding the founding of the State of Israel at 7:30 p.m. at Kehilla Community Synagogue, 1300 Grand Ave., Piedmont. Suggested donation $10. 547-2424. www.kehillasynagogue.org 

“Art Saves Lives” 2008 Oakland Youth Arts Festival with exhibits, art making, and performances from noon to 9 p.m. at the Oakland Musuem of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. www.museumca.org 

Chocolate & Chalk Art Festival from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. along Shattuck Ave. in North Berkeley. 548-5335. www.northshattuck.org 

Workshop on Arts and Crafts Embroidery with Ann Chaves of Ingelnook Textiles. All day in Oakland. For information and to register email itextiles@earthlink.net 

Self-Defense Workshop for women and girls from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Rockridge Library. To reserve a space call 251-0559. 

Party for Socialism and Liberation with speakers and workshops, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Intertribal Friendship House, 523 International Blvd., Oakland. Near Lake Merrit BART/AC Transit 82, 82L, 801. Suggested donation $10-$20, no one turned away. 415-821-6171. www.pslweb.org 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Oakland Artisans Marketplace Sat. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Jack London Square. 238-4948. 

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 1 

Nature Sleuthing for the Whole Family Learn how to recognize the evidence animals leave behind with Meg Platt, naturalist, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Farm Tales and Songs for the whole family at 1:30 p.m. at the Tilden Little Farm, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Home Greywater Systems Slideshow & Tour Learn about the permitted greywater system at the Ecohouse, at 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. Cost is $15. Registration required. 548-2220 ext. 242. http://ecologycenter.org 

Build It Green Home Tour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. around Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. Tour guidebook, which serves as admission ticket, is $30. 845-0472. www.builditgreen.org 

A Tour & Taste of Albany with samples from local restaurants, music, arts and crafts, fun zone for children, from noon to 4 p.m. on Solano and San Pablo Aves. Free, but Tour and Taste ticket is $10. 525-1771. www.tasteofalbany.com 

Women’s Daytime Drop-In Center 20th Anniversary Celebration with music and live and silent auctions, at 7 p.m. at The Berkeley Yacht Club, 1 Seawall Drive. Tickets are $25-430. 548-2284. www.womensdropin.org 

“Awakening the Buddha Within” with Lama Surya Das at 7 p.m. at 2286 Cedar St. Sponsored by East Bay Open Circle. Suggested donation of $10-$15, no one turned away. www.eastbayopencircle.org 

Soul Sanctuary Dance Community dance benefit for Ashkenaz, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. Donation $5-$20. www.soulsanctuarydance.com  

Berkeley Rep’s Family Series, a monthly theater workshop for the entire family from 11. a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, Nevo Education Center, 2071 Addison St. Free, but bring a book to donate to the library at John Muir Elementary School. 647-2973. 

Bringing City Children to the Redwoods Fundraising dinner and silent auction at 6 p.m. at Hs Lordships Restaurant, 199 Seawall Drive, Berkeley Marina. 232-3032.  

Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Congregation Netivot Shalom, 1316 University Ave. To sign up go to www.bloodheroes.com  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712.  

Berkeley Chess Club meets every Sun. at 7 p.m. at the Hillside School, 1581 Le Roy Ave. 843-0150. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Tom Morse on “Mind and the Origin of Appearance” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000 www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Sew Your Own Open Studio Come learn to use our industrial and domestic machines, or work on your own projects, from 4 to 8 p.m. at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Cost is $5 per hour. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

Ecstatic Dance East Bay A sacred freeform journey of dance and movement, every Sun. morning at 10:30 a.m. at Historic Sweets Ballroom, 1933 Broadway, Oakland. Cost is $15. www.ecstaticdanceeastbay.com 

MONDAY, JUNE 2 

Sunset Walk in Upper Codornices Creek Watershed Join Berkeley Path Wanderers Assn. and Friends of Five Creeks on a sunset walk exploring new and old paths, history, and ecology in the upper Codornices Creek watershed. Meet at 6:30 p.m. at Grizzly Peak Park, 50 Whitaker Ave. between Miller and Sterling. Walk heads straight down and then zig-zags slowly back up. Wear comfortable shoes; bring walking sticks if you use them. 848-9358. f5creeks@aol.com 

“Castoffs” Knitting Group meets at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 524-3043. 

World Affairs/Politics Discussion Group, for people 60 years and over, meets at 9:45 a.m. at Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave, Albany. Cost is $3. 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

Dragonboating Year round classes at the Berkeley Marina, Dock M. Meets Mon, Wed., Thurs. at 6 p.m. Sat. at 10:30 a.m. For details see www.dragonmax.org 

TUESDAY, JUNE 3 

“Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley” with author Richard Schwartz at 10:30 a.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak at 10th St., Oakland. 238-2022. www.museumca.org 

Tilden Mini-Rangers Hiking, conservation and nature-based activities for ages 8-12. Dress to ramble and get dirty. From 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

End the Occupation Vigil every Tues. at noon at Oakland Federal Bldg., 1301 Clay St. www.epicalc.org 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043.  

Street Level Cycles Community Bike Program Come use our tools as well as receive help with performing repairs free of charge. Youth classes available. Tues., Thurs., and Sat. from 2 to 6 p.m. at at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. 644-2577.  

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704.  

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. Monthly field trips. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

Sing-A-Long Group from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic. Ave., Albany. 524-9122. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around the 1870s business district. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of G.B. Ratto’s & Co. at 827 Washington St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Richard Dawkins: Secular Humanist” A documentary from the 2007 Atheist Alliance International Convention at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.Humanist Hall.org 

“Sufism: Its Relationship to Islam” with Sheikh Jamal Granach at 7:30 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Pasta dinner at 6:30 p.m. for $6. For reservations call 526-3805.  

“Wandering the World: Essential Tips for Travelers” at 6 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $20. 527-4140. 

Jump Start Entrepreneurs Network meets to share info, support, business tools at 8 a.m. Cuppa Tea, 3202 College Ave. Cost is $1-$5, first meeting free. 899-8242. www.jumpstartten.com  

Teen Chess Club from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 1170 The Alameda at Hopkins. 981-6133. 

Theraputic Recreation at the Berkeley Warm Pool, Wed. at 3:30 p.m. and Sat. at 10 a.m. at the Berkeley Warm Pool, 2245 Milvia St. Cost is $4-$5. Bring a towel. 632-9369. 

After-School Program Homework help, drama and music for children ages 8 to 18, every Wed. from 4 to 7:15 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Cost is $5 per week. 845-6830. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome, wear comfortable shoes and a warm hat. Heavy rain cancels. 548-9840. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Morning Meditation Every Mon., Wed., and Fri. at 7:45 a.m. at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way at 6th. 486-8700. 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, JUNE 5 

Empty Bowls Benefit for Alameda County Community Food Bank Join us for an evening of nourishment in this family-friendly event as we help fill empty bowls in our community. Cost is $20 per adult, $40 for a family. For more infomration call 635-3663, ext. 328.  

“Who Is Afraid of the Light Brown Apple Moth?” Panel discussion and Community Brainstorm about all aspects of the LBAM eradication program and possible actions to stop it at 7 p.m. at Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita. www.bfuu.org 

4c’s of Alameda County’s Give Children the World Auction-Dinner with Assemblymember Sandre Swanson and Mayor Ron Dellums at 6 p.m. on at the Oakland Rotunda Building. Cost is $200 per person, $300 per couple. For reservations call Margaret T. Tobias at 582-2182. 

Take Action: Dig Into Urban Farming with Hands On Bay Area to learn about the food industry and how people can become more involved at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Seniors Explore Albany and North Berkeley Gardens for walkers age 50+ Meet at 9 a.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 843 Masonic, near Solano. AC Transit 18. Free but numbers limited; register at Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122, or Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin. 524-9283.  

Berkeley Festival Exhibition & Music Marketplace from noon to 6 p.m., Fri. from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sat. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at First Congregational Church. www.earlymusic.org 

Baby & Toddler Storytime at 10:15 and 11:15 a..m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Fitness Class for 55+ at 9:15 a.m. at Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Avatar Metaphysical Toastmasters Club meets at 6:45 p.m. at Spud’s Pizza, 3290 Adeline at Alcatraz. namaste@ 

avatar.freetoasthost.info  

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Birding in Tilden Park with Phila Rogers. Meet at 8:30 a.m. at the parking lot at the north end of Central Park Drive for a 1-mile stroll through a lush riparian area. 848-9156. 

“Proposition 13 at 30: The Political, Economic and Fiscal Impacts” A day-long conference from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Barrows Hall, Lipman Room, UC Campus. Free. http://igs.berkeley.edu/events/prop13.html 

Special Olympics Summer Games Opening Ceremony at 7:30 p.m. Games are Sat. from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sun. from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Haas Pavilion, UC Campus. Free. www.sonc.org/summergames 

“Battlefield without Borders” with poet David Smith-Ferry and activist Jim Haber at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Proceeds to benefit medical aid to Iraqi refugees. 482-1062. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Dustin R. Mulvaney, Ph.D., Environment and Society Fellow, UC- Santa Cruz on “Food and Energy Crises: New Contexts for Debate About the Social and Environmental Dimensions of Genetically Engineered Organisms” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14.50, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. 524-7468.  

Options Recovery Services Graduation Luncheon at noon at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 1931 Center St. 666-9552. www.optionsrecovery.org 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction at 7:30 p.m. at Finnish Brotherhood Hall, 1970 Chestnut St at University. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

SATURDAY, JUNE 7 

The 5th Annual Berkeley World Music Fest with music along Telegraph Ave., in cafes and People’s Park from noon to 9 p.m. featuring Sila & the Afrofunk Experience, Andrew Carriere & the Creole Belles, (Cajun), Sambadá (Afro-Brazilian Funk),Sukhawat Ali Khan (Qawwali Sufi trance) & Stephen Kent (didjeridu). www.berkeleyworldmusic.org 

Special Olympics Summer Games from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sun. from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Haas Pavilion, UC Campus. Free. www.sonc.org/summergames 

Nature Exploration for Toddlers to visit the meadows, ponds and trails around the Tilden Nature Area, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. with Lind Yemoto, naturalist. 525-2233. 

Summer Ponds Join us to look for tadpoles, newt larvae, dragonfly nymphs and more, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

The Berkeley Farmers’ Markets’ Family Fun Festival with live performances, hands-on activities, and informational booths, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Civic Center Park, Center St. at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. 548-3333. www.ecologycenter.org 

Temescal Street Fair from noon to 6 p.m. along Telegraph Ave. between 51st St. and 47th St. with food, arts and crafts booths, live music, children’s activities, and information on alternaitive energy and transportation. www.temescaldistrict.org 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around Preservation Park to see Victorian architecture. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of Preservation Park at 13th St. and MLK, Jr. Way. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

“Got a problem in the garden?” Visit the master gardener booth at the Berkeley Famers’ Market, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Center Street between ML King and Milvia. 639-1275. 

Learn to Row at Berkeley Paddling and Rowing Club’s free drop-in clinic for all ages and skill levels from 9 a.m. to noon at 2851 Bolivar Dr., south end of Aquatic Park. Bring comfortable clothes, not baggy, shoes to slip out of, extra socks, sun protection, hat and sunglasses, and a lawn chair. 913-3669. www.berkeleyrowingclub.org 

Jack London Aquatic Center Summer Splash A free water sports open house for ages 12 and up from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Jack London Aquatic Center, 115 Embarcadero, Oakland. 208-6067. www.jlac.org 

The Kids’ Chalk Art Project will create the world’s larget chalk art drawing from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Naval Air Base at Alameda Point, 1951 Monarch St., Alameda. Satellite photo of the drawing for the Guinness Book of World Recordswill be taken at 11:20 a.m. 395-3920. www.reenchantintheworldthroughart.org 

Bike Tour “Story of an Urban Creek” Follow Codornices Creek from its source to its end,exploring secret waterfalls, tracking elusive steelhead trout and learning the art/science of creek restoration Meet at Berkeley BARt at 10 a.m. For infomration on this and other bike tours see www.cyclesofchange.org 

National Trails Day Service Project at Redwood Regional Park Children welcome with supervising adult. Registration required. 527-4140, ext. 216. 

Trees in the Garden Docent-led tour at 1 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $10-$12, for one child and one adult. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

From the Big Bang to the Present: Galaxy Formation and Evolution at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. revolutionbooks.org 

Political Affairs Readers Group will discuss “Marx’s ‘Capital’ and Sustainable Developemnt” by Davis S. Pena at 10 am. at Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. 595-7417. www.marxistlibr.org 

Sat. June 7, at 3 p.m.: “Is a Change about to Come?” A discussion of the November 2008 elections. Jarvis Tyner, Executive Vice Chair, Communist Party USA. Presented by California CPUSA. Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Suggested donation, $5. Information: (510) 251-1120. 

Soroptimist International of El Cerrito 50th Anniversary Fundraiser with dinner, music, dancing, live &andsilent auctions at 6 p.m. at Masonic Hall, located at 5050 El Portal Drive, in El Sobrante. Tickets are $25. 662-8469. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Trees in the Garden Docent-led tour at 1 p.m. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $10-$12, for one child and one adult. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Oakland Artisans Marketplace Sat. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sun. from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Jack London Square. 238-4948. 

SUNDAY, JUNE 8 

“The Lives of Bees” An interactive adventure for children to learn about the lives of honeybees, from 11 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Little Farm and Garden Open House Meet the sheep, turkeys cows and more, with crafts, music and games for the whole family, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Little Farm, Tilden Park 525-2233. 

“Greening Albany: Community Efforts Against Global Warming” with workshops and community booths on energy efficient products and services, from noon to 5:30 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Builing, Memorial Park, Albany. james@greenchamberofcommerce.net 

“California Deserts: An Ecological Rediscovery” with Mills College Prof. Bruce Pavlik at 1 pm. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $8-$10. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Future Leaders Institute Legacy Awards, honoring seven Bay Area high school students, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the First Unitarian Church, 685 14th St., Oakland. 292-8181. www.thefutureleadersinstitute.org 

Ross Parmer Memorial Patio Benefit concert and dedication at 5 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 201 Martina St., Point Richmond. Donation $10. RSVP to 233-1792. 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732. www.nativeplants.org 

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Berkeley Chess Club meets every Sun. at 7 p.m. at the Hillside School, 1581 Le Roy Ave. 843-0150. 

Tibetan Buddhism with Sylvia Gretchen on “Transorming Emotions” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 809-1000 www.nyingmainstitute.com 

Sew Your Own Open Studio Come learn to use our industrial and domestic machines, or work on your own projects, from 4 to 8 p.m. at 84 Bolivar Dr., Aquatic Park. Also on Fri. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Cost is $5 per hour. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

CITY MEETINGS 

Peace and Justice Commission meets Mon., June 2, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. Manuel Hector, 981-5510.  

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thurs., June 5, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461.  

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., June 5, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400.  

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs., June 5, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7419.  

Public Works Commission meets Thurs., June 5, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-6406.

THURSDAY, MAY 29 

THEATER 

Willard Dramatic Arts “Turf” A student-created play about the experience of middle school, Thurs. and Fri. at 7 p.m. at Willard’s Metalshop Theater, 2425 Stuart St., enter on Regent St. Free. 883-1877. 

FILM 

9th Annual Berkeley High School Film Festival at 7 p.m. at Florence Schwimley Little Theater on Allston between Milvia and MLK. Tickets are $5-$10.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Karen Volkman and Paul Hoover, poets, at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Kala Artists in Residence Talk with Lisa Levine, Mary Shisler, and Susan Wolf at 7 p.m. at Kala Art Institute, 1060 Heinz Ave. http://kala.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Big Jazz Band Bash fundraiser with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School Jazz Band and the Berkeley Jazz School Middle School Project Band at 7:30 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School Auditorium, 1871 Rose St. at Grant. Free, but bring your checkbook!  

From the Top, classical music showcasing young musicians, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $20-$40. 642-9988.  

Project Greenfield, world jam, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. 525-5054.  

Big Cheese & Jive Rats! at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ.  

Country Joe McDonald Open Mic Night at 7 p.m. at Cafe de la Paz, 1600 Shattuck Ave. 843-0662. www.cafedelapaz.net 

Scoop Nisker at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

The Courtney Janes at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Speak the Music Beat boxing with Butterscotch, Soulati, Syzygy, Eachbox and many others, at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $8. 849-2568.  

Charles Wheal at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Otis Taylor: Recapturing the Banjo at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18-$22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, MAY 30 

THEATER 

Berkeley Rep “”No Child...” Wed.-Sun. at 2025 Addison St., through June 8. Tickets are $33-$69. 647-2949. 

Altarena Playhouse “On Golden Pond” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda, through June 21. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Brookside Rep “Franz Kafka’s Love Life, Letters and Hallucinations” Thurs.- Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., through June 29. Tickets are $16-$34. 800-838-3006. www.brooksiderep.org  

Impact Theatre “‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. Tickets are $10-$15, through June 7. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “The Full Monty” Fri. and Sat. at 8, selected Sun. matinees at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond through July 5. Tickets are $20. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Shotgun Players “Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at The Asby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through June 22. Tickets are $17-$25. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Theatre de la Jeune Lune “Figaro” through June 8 at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St. Tickets are $13.50-$69. 647-2949. 

Willard Dramatic Arts “Turf” A student-created play about the experience of middle school, at 7 p.m. at Wilard Middle School’s Metalshop Theater, 2425 Stuart St., enter on Regent St. Free. 883-1877. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Steven Saylor reads from “The Triumph of Caesar: A Novel of Ancient Rome” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com  

Volt War Issue Anti-war poetry reading with Dennis Philips, Donna de la Perriere, Leslie Scalapino, Maxine Chernoff and many others at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

San Francisco Girls Chorus “Dance On, My Heart!” ar 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way. Tickets are $12-$24. 415-863-1752. 

Marvin Sanders, flute, selections from Telemann “Twelve Fantasias ”at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Tickets are $10. 848-1228. 

Bay Area Classical Harmonies with The Kymata Band at 7:30 p.m. at The Pro Arts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $12-$18. 868-0695. www.bayareabach.org 

Venezuelan Music Project “Canto, Fulia y Tambor” at 8:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $14-$16. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Audra McDonald, soprano, at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $36-$68. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Michael Smolens’ Kriya Jazz Octet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Baguette Quartette, Parisian café music, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Adrianne at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Scoop Nisker at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Antioquia at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

What it Is at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Kakistocracy, One in the Chamber at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Otis Taylor: Recapturing the Banjo at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square,. Cost is $18-$22. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, MAY 31 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Portraits of Palestinians from the Nablus and Jenin Regions” by Berkeley resident Larisa Shaterian. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Photolab Gallery, 2235 Fifth St. Exhibit runs to July 12. 644-1400. www.photolaboratory.com 

“Art Saves Lives” 2008 Oakland Youth Arts Festival with exhibits, art making, and performances from noon to 9 p.m. at the Oakland Musuem of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. www.museumca.org 

“Reflections of Me and My World 2008” The ArtEsteem annual exhibition. Opening reception at 3 p.m. at ASA Academy & Community Science Center, 2811 Adeline St., at 28th, Oakland. 652-5530. 

“Art of the Cotton Mill Studios” Paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media by Keiko Nelson, Bill Stoneham, Elizabeth Tennant and Susan Tuttle at 1091 Calcot Place, Unit # 116. 535-1702. www.thefloatcenter.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Field of Mirrors, An Anthology of Filipino American Writers” with editor Edwin Lozada and several authors at 3:30 p.m. at Eastwind Books of Berkeley, 2066 University Ave. 548-2350. www.ewbb.com 

Larissa Brown on “Knitalong” on knitting together for a common goal, at 4 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Nuccia Focile, sporano, Paul Charles Clarke, tenor with the Berkeley Symphony Orhestra at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $48. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

La Peña Community Chorus at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15-$17. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Jules Broussard Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Sambo Ngo, African, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

The Refugees: Cindy Bullens, Deborah Holland & Wendy Waldman at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Annual Middle School Invitational, a showcase of middle school jazz bands, at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Rivka Amando at 9 p.m. at Downtown. 649-3810.  

George Cotsirilos Jazz Trio at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Jinx Jones Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Heathen, Hatchet at 7:30 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

Tom Scott; Cannon Re-Loaded at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SUNDAY, JUNE 1 

CHILDREN 

Charity Kahn and the Jamband, rockin’ music, at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

FILM 

Video Works by Lynn Hershman Leeson from noon on, with the artist in a virtual conversation. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5.50-$9.50. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Trevor Paglen “The Other Night Sky” Artist talk at 3 p.m. at Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft. 642-0808. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Celebrating Hal Stein with Lee Bloom, John Wiitala, Danny Spencer, Larry Vuckovich, Eddie Marshall, Mark Levine, Harvey Wainapel and many others from 1 to 4 p.m. at Yoshi's at Jack London Square, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. Free, but donations welcome to support the ceartion of a documentary about Hal. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Danny Quynh and Danny Dancers at 3 p.m. at Expression Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. www.expressionsgallery.org 

Americana Unplugged with The Backyard Party Boys at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Twang Cafe with Careless Hearts and Whisky Chimp at 7:30 p.m. at Epic Arts, 1923 Ashby Ave. Cost is $10. 644-2204.  

Cascada at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Soul Sanctuary in a benefit for Ashkenaz at 10:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is tba. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Howard Wiley: A Tribute to Dexter Gordon at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373.  

Tom Rush at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $30.50-$31.50. 548-1761. 

Tom Scott; Cannon Re-Loaded at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Arshia Soul at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

MONDAY, JUNE 2 

EXHIBITIONS 

James Scheihing, photographer and retired geologist, will present his “The Earth: by Wind, by Water, by Fire” series from June 2nd through July 4th at the Light Room Gallery, 2263 Fifth St. Hours are 9-6 weekdays and 10-2 on Sat. 649-8111. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bill Bell, aka The Jazz Professor, speaks as part of the Brown Bag Speakers Forum at 12:30 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave., Albany. 526-3720 ext 17. 

Richard Schwartz discusses “Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley” at 10:30 a.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak at 10th St., Oakland. 238-2022. www.museumca.org 

John Perkins discusses “The Secret History of the American Empire: The Truth About Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and How to Change the World” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

Lius Garcia, James Schveill and Clem Stark, poets, at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express with Hew Wolffe at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. 644-3977. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Downtown Jam Session with Glen Pearson at 7 p.m. at Ed Kelly Hall, Oakland Public COnservatory of Music, 1616 Franklin St., Oakland. Cost is $5. www.opcmusic.org 

Artists’ Vocal Ensemble, works by Claudio Monteverdi on period instruments at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $35-$15. www.ave-music.org 

Community Song Circle at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage Coffee House. Cost is $4.50-$5.50. 548-1761.  

El Cerrito High School & Portola Middle School Jazz Ensembles at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$15. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, JUNE 3 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Lama Surya Das on “Words of Wisdom” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Shattuck. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Sergei Podobedov, classical piano at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Piano Club, 2724 Haste St. Tickets are $10-$15. 415-990-3851. 

Women’s Antique Vocal Ensemble “Rule Britannia!” A concert of sacred and secular compositions from 200 years of English musical tradition at 8 p.m. at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 2300 Bancroft Way. Tickets are $5-$15. 233-1479. www.wavewomen.org 

Berkeley Festival “Wildcat Viols” at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $28. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Gerard Landry and the Lariats at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun/Zydeco dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Singers’ Open Mic with Ellen Hoffman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $5. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Lost Weekend at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Nicolas Bearde at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$18. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4 

EXHIBITIONS 

Bruce Conner “Mabuhay Gardens” Punk photographs, opens at Berkeley Art Museum. 2626 Bancroft Way and runs through August 3. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Get Acquainted with Tosca” with Berkeley Opera Artistic Director Jonathan Khuner and singers from the upcoming production at 7:30 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 

Jenny Block describes “Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Shattuck. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Summer Sounds at Oakland City Center with Pure Ecstasy, motown, at noon at 12th and Broadway, Oakland.  

Berkeley Festival “Le Poeme Harmonique” music by Monteverdi and Manelli at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $56. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Berkeley Festival: The Concord Ensemble “El Despertar del Alma” at 8 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $32. 642-9988.  

The Very Hot Club of Berkeley at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Ed Neff and Friends, bluegrass, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. www.lebateauivre.net 

Whiskey Brothers, old time and bluegrass, at 9 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Joseph Israel at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Socket Trio at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Ahmad Jamal at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

THURSDAY, JUNE 5 

CHILDREN 

Oakland School for the Arts “Once Upon this Island” Thurs.-Sat. at 7 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1800 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. 873-8800. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Seeing Music” An exhibit inspired by traditional and folk music, in conjunction with Freight and Salvage’s 40th Anniversary. Reception at 5:30 p.m. at Addison St. Windows Gallery, 2018 Addison St. 848-2112. 

FILM 

“The Blank Generation” with filmmaker Mindaugis Bagdon in person at 8:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Free first Thurs. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Love Grandma, Activists Write” with contributors from Grandmothers Against the War at 10:30 a.m. at North Oakland Senior Center, 5714 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, in the Old Merritt College Building, enter through parking lot on 58th St. www.gawba.org 

Oasis High School Spring Arts Celebration, with poetry, music and plays, at 5:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $6-$8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Festival “Le Poeme Harmonique” Lecture by Vincent Dumestre, artistic director at 3 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Free. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Hillary Gravendyk and Craig Santos Perez, poets, read at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Khalil Bendib, author of “Mission Accomplished: Wicked Cartoons by America's Most Wanted Political Cartoonist” at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. www.revolutionbooks.org 

Mary Pols reads from “Accidentally On Purpose” about her first pregnancy at 7:30 p.m. at JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

Susan Linn describes “The Case for Make Believe” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Shattuck. 559-9500. 

Chris Carlsson and Erick Lyle introduce their new books "Nowtopia" and "On the Lower Frequencies" at 7 p.m. at AK Press, 674-A 23rd. St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

New Century Chamber Orchestra, with Rachel Barton-Pine, guest concertmaster, at 8 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. TIckets are $28-$42. 415-357-1111. www.ncco.org 

Berkeley Festival: American Bach Soloists Baroque violin competition semi-finals at 5 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $16. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Berkeley Festival “Le Poeme Harmonique” music by Monteverdi and Manelli at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $56. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Bruce Molskey at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Eric Swinderman & Terrence Brewer at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Emam & Friends, world music, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10 . 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com.  

London Street at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Selector: The Sound Capsule at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Diablo’s Dust at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Ahmad Jamal at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 

CHILDREN 

Oakland School for the Arts “Once Upon this Island” Fri.-Sat. at 7 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1800 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. 873-8800. 

THEATER 

Altarena Playhouse “On Golden Pond” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda, through June 21. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Berkeley Rep “”No Child...” Wed.-Sun. at 2025 Addison St., through June 8. Tickets are $33-$69. 647-2949. 

Brookside Rep “Franz Kafka’s Love Life, Letters and Hallucinations” Thurs.- Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St., through June 29. Tickets are $16-$34. 800-838-3006.  

Impact Theatre “‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid. Tickets are $10-$15, through June 7. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “The Full Monty” Fri. and Sat. at 8, selected Sun. matinees at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond through July 5. Tickets are $20. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Shotgun Players “Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at The Asby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through June 22. Tickets are $17-$25. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

Claudia Tennyson “Domestic IInsecurity” Art using common craft techniques such as knitting and sewing. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Chandra Cerrito Contemporary, 25 Grand Ave., upper level, Oakland. Exhibit runs to July 12. www.chandracerrito.com 

“What is a Book?” Explorations by a dozen artists. Recption at 7 p.m. at Oakopolis Creativity Center, 447 25th St., Oakland, to June 21. 663-6920. 

“The Hot Salon” Paintings by Scott Hove and Bethany Ayres. Artists’ reception at 6 p.m. at Esteban Sabar Gallery, 480 23rd St., at Telegraph, Oakland. Exhibition runs to June 23. 444-7411. 

“Life is a Pigsty” New work by Jason Byers. Opening reception at 7 p.m. at The Compound Gallery, 6604 San Pablo Ave, Oakland. Exhibition runs to July 7. www.thecompoundgallery.com 

“Global Menagerie” Works by Elijah Pfotenhauer and Kristi Holohan. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Mama Buzz, 2138 Telegraph Ave, Oakland. 465-4073. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Battlefield without Borders” with poet David Smith-Ferry and activist Jim Haber at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church, 1640 Addison St. Proceeds to benefit medical aid to Iraqi refugees. 482-1062. 

Trevor Calvert and Eleanor Johnson, poets, read at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Melissa Marr reads from her novel “Ink Exchange” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books, 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. www.codysbooks.com 3 

SATURDAY, JUNE 7 

CHILDREN  

Los Amiguitos de La Peña with Jose Lius Orozco and Guitarra Mágica at 10 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. at La Peña. Cost is $12 for adults, $5 for children. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Oakland School for the Arts “Once Upon this Island” Sat. at 7 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1800 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. 873-8800. 

EXIBITIONS 

Digital Photography and Printmaking Exhibit at Berkeley City College, 2050 Center St. between Shattuck and Milvia, Sat. and Sun. from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., through June 15.  

“Karen Nierlich: Fragile and Resilien” color photography, photos of moss and children engaged in exuberant, messy art. Artist’s reception from 4 to 6 p.m. at 1251 Solano Ave., Albany. 526-9558. 

THEATER 

Stone Soup Improv at 8 p.m. at Temescal Art Center, 511 48th St. at Telegraph. Tickets are $6-$9. 415-430-5698. www.stonesoupimprov.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Berkeley Festival “The Pope, the Emperor and the Grand Duke The Rediscovery of a masterpiece of Renaissance Florence” at 3 p.m. at Wheeler Auditoriuml, UC Campus. Free. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Poetry Flash with F.D. Reeve, Jack Foley & Adele Foley at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books 2201 Shattuck Ave. 559-9500. 

Bay Area Poets Coalition open reading, 3 to 5 p.m., at Strawberry Creek Lodge (senior housing), 1320 Addison St., Berkeley. Park on the street (not in Lodge parking lot). Free. For information call (510) 527-9905, or email poetalk@aol.com.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The free 5th Annual Berkeley World Music Fest rocks with continuous music throughout the Telegraph Avenue district: Saturday, June 7th, Noon – 9 P.M., mainly in cafés & People’s Park. www.berkeleyworldmusic.org 

La Peña Open House with performances from La Peña’s msuic and theater workshops fromat 6 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Berkeley Festival: Piffaro, The Renaissance Band A tour of instruments and music at 11 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $18, $9 for children 16 and under. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Berkeley Festival “Le Poeme Harmonique” music by Monteverdi and Manelli at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Campus. Tickets are $56. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Chalice Consort, a new Renaissance ensemble, at 7 p.m. at St. Joseph of Arimathea, 2543 Durant Ave. Tickets are $10.(415) 875-9544 

Berkeley Festival “Missa sopra Ecco si beato giorno” at 8 p.m. at First Congregational Church. Tickets are $56. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Kensington Symphony Folkdances for String Orchestraat 8 p.m. at Northminster Presbyterian Church, 545 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito.Suggested Donation: $15; Seniors, $12; Children free. (510) 524-9912. 

Darryll Anders & Agape Soul at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Prestige, Ras Kidus, reggae from Jamaica, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

The world is full of hope. But not for us,” Franz Kafka once replied to someone who questioned the “hopelessness” of his stories.  

In Mae Ziglin Meidav’s play, Franz Kafka’s Love Life, Letters and Hallucinations, staged at the Berkeley City Club by her Brookside Repertory Theatre with the direction of John McMullen (who directed Romeo and Juliet for Berkeley Opera), there’s an episodic series of glimpses of that “hopelessness,” the contrary characteristics of Kafka’s tales, in scenes from the author’s life.  

Meidav recalls writing a scene from an old photograph in a playwrights’ workshop, later realizing, when reading a biography of Kafka, that the scene expressed the novelist’s complex relationship with fiancée Felice Bauer. It has become one of the best of not a few comical vignettes, as a young photographer (Roy Landeverde), both discreet and frantic, tries to keep the couple (Carson Creecy and Julia Heitner) posed while they squabble. 

In a long string of over 30 scenes, the cast of 12 reveals the ongoing obsessions and frustrations of the great author from Prague, occasionally heightened by hallucinations like tableaux in his tales.  

In one, Felice becomes a mouse, while Franz shouts, “you can’t eat my stories; they’ll make you sick!” In another, a pretty young woman (Rosa Trelfall) in a fur coat and hat, from a photograph Franz has posted to his wall, enters and poses, smiling—then smothers Franz’s stream of speculative chatter with her muff.  

Kafka’s tales are notoriously difficult to adapt to the stage or screen. Steven Berkoff’s stage productions (“Metamorphosis” with Baryshnikov as the bug) and films of The Trial by Orson Welles and “In the Penal Colony” by Raul Ruiz have taken a sometimes oblique perspective, sometimes a very literal one, regarding the original stories. 

“My stories are full of autobiographical significance,” Meidav’s Kafka says, which for the writer himself may have been one reason he instructed his papers to be burned at his death.  

Where the scenes come closest to allowing Kafka’s fictional grotesquery to act on the anecdotes of his life, stylizing them, the play works best. Many scenes, though, delve unwittingly into the slough of clichés from literary potboilers and biopics about tormented artists (recently burlesqued in another Ruiz film, Klimt).  

The relentless chronology of the life also adds to the sameness of tone and rhythm that often plagues any long performance of a string of brief episodes. Meidav humorously thanks her colleagues for their editorial work, sparing the audience a much longer show. It would be interesting to watch a different arrangement of some of these scenes, perhaps with newer versions of some left out, with a different organizing principle—something more fantastic, dreamlike?—than following the events of Kafka’s life so linearly, inserting snippets of his work. 

Such reflections come from suggestive moments: entering the theater to find the writer’s parents (Jaene Leonard and Remi Barron) in bed; seeing the streams of old photographs between scenes projected above Don Cate’s sets; watching Jaene Leonard’s comic turn as a Lola Montez-like actress bearding the maladroit Franz at a bistro table, a cabaret act in itself; and Brian O’Connor taking on multiple roles—one moment, a crude, Jew-baiting soldier, the next a Kabbalistic doorkeeper in black robes and periwig—with Remi Barron, alternately sympathetic and a martinet as Franz’s father, equally convincing. 

Franz Kafka’s Love Life was performed about a decade or so ago by Subterranean Shakespeare, with Stanley Spenger—present in the opening night audience at the City Club—playing Franz. 

FRANZ KAFKA’S LOVE LIFE, LETTERS AND HALLUCINATIONS 

8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 5 p.m. Sundays through June 29 at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. $16-$24. (800) 838-3006. www.brooksiderep.org.

When I first became a jazz fan (short for fanatic) in high school, I saw European classical music as the enemy. The 19th century composers were easily characterized as a pack of pretentious, highfalutin, hoity-toity, high-hat, pompous, stuffy, overstuffed, snobby, snooty, effete and elitist fuddy-duds, not to mention being middlebrow, bourgeois, sententious and musically platitudinous, to boot; instigators of gargantuan aggregations of performers intoning their vast musical stories full of profound meanings, all of which reeked of the academy and salon and smelled of the lamp.  

Then I found out there were more flavors than vanilla at the classical soda fountain. Which brings us to this year’s Berkeley Festival and Exhibition, a celebration of the music of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries in Spain, Italy, Germany, England and Bohemia as composed by Biber, Corelli, Bach, Lawes, Byrd and Monteverdi for such diverse instruments as the shawm, sackbut, krumhorn, viola da gamba and theorbo.  

If you think you have slid into a parallel musical dimension, you have. This music is not only beautiful in itself, but also pre-classical and post-modern, a wonderful corrective to the narrow way we usually perceive the music of Europe. Early music will clean out your ears and, should you ever choose to return to the 19th century, you will find it not only both larger and smaller than you had thought but also stranger and refreshed.  

The festival kicks off on Tuesday, June 3, 8 p.m., in Hertz Hall on the University of California campus, with the Wildcat Viols, English music for six viols performing compositions by William Brade, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, John Jenkins and William Lawes. The harmonies produced by a viol consort can be ethereal, a little like the brotherly harmonizing of the Mills Brothers. To give you some historical context, it was Lawes’ brother Henry who composed the music for the songs in John Milton’s Comus.  

On Wednesday, June 4, 8 p.m., in Hertz Hall, the Concord Ensemble will perform 15th century Spanish secular music composed by Juan Vásquez and Cristóbal de Morales, with countertenor Paul Flight. 

One of the hits of the 2006 Festival was the performance of Baroque Carnival by Le Poème Harmonique. This year that group of singers and instrumentalists will present Venezia delle strade ai Palazzi, a combination of theater, lighting, costumes and Baroque gesture applied to the music of Claudio Monteverdi and Francesco Manelli, on Wednesday and Thursday, June 4 and 5, at 8 p.m., in Zellerbach Playhouse. 

The semi-finalists and finalists in the American Bach Soloists and Henry I. Goldberg International Young Artists Competition for Baroque Violin will perform on Thursday, June 5, 5 p.m., and Friday, June 8, at 3 p.m., in Hertz Hall. 

As revelatory as Bach’s Cello Suites or Tobias Hume’s Musicall Humors for viola da gamba are the Mystery Sonatas of Bohemian composer Heinrich Biber. Following the events of the Gospels from the Annunciation to the crowning of Mary, these haunting pieces were intended as an aid to meditation during the evening prayer services that follow the Feast of the Rosary on the first Sunday in October. Although the first piece and the concluding Passacaglia use the violin’s normal tuning, the other 14 pieces all use scordatura, unusual tunings, that allow for some exquisite sonorities. The trio of L’Estro Armonico performs the Sonatas on Friday, June 6, 5 p.m., in Hertz Hall. 

On Friday, June 6, 8 p.m., in Hertz Hall, Piffaro, the Renaissance Band, will join with the vocalists of the Concord Ensemble, to present Trionfo d’Amore e della Morte: Florentine Music for a Medici Procession. Themes familiar from Commedia dell’Arte, the Tarochi cards and Petrarch’s Triumphs will be heard in their musical incarnation. If you want to turn youngsters on to early music, catch Piffaro again on Saturday, June 7, 11 a.m., in Hertz Hall, for a demonstration of all manner of early horns, strings and percussion. 

One of the most romantic events of the festival will be the candlelight performance by ten of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra’s principal players of three of Corelli’s Opus 6 concerti grossi on Friday, June 6, 10:30 p.m. at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley. Two other Corelli pieces, one arranged by Geminiani and the other in variations by Tartini, will also be performed. 

Finally, there will be performances on Saturday, June 7, 8 p.m., and Sunday, June 8, 7 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, of Alessandro Strigggio’s Mass for five choirs, Missa Sopra Ecco Sì Beato Giorno in 40 and 60 parts. This work, the largest known contrapuntal choral work in Western music, was recently discovered by UC musicologist and harpsichordist Davitt Moroney, who will be conducting its American premiere. 

These are only the highlights of a Festival that can provide total immersion in this beautiful and variegated music. To find out about all the events of the Festival visit its website at bfx.berkeley.edu and for even more events visit sfems.org/ fringe2008.htm.  

Poets James Schevill and Luis Garcia, both Berkeley natives, will be joined by Clemens Starck from the Oregon coast range to read at Moe’s Books on Telegraph, 7:30 p.m. Monday, June 2, as part of the Monday At Moe’s series. Admission will be free. 

“Luis Garcia gave a reading here recently,” said Owen Hill of Moe’s, who coordinates the series, “and did such an excellent job, we invited him back immediately. Lu approached me with the idea of all three poets reading together, and I was delighted, as Clem Starck read here a year ago or so, and James hasn’t read much at all the past few years. It’s a historic occasion.” 

James Schevill was born in 1920 and grew up in Berkeley, attending University High School in Oakland. In November 1938, while on vacation with his mother in Switzerland, Schevill went to Freiburg to meet a friend from back home, Jack Kent, and witnessed Kristallnacht, the nationwide riots in Germany, orchestrated by the Nazi party, in which synagogues and Jewish businesses were vandalized and destroyed and German Jewish citizens terrorized and attacked. Schevill wrote his first poem as a response.  

“It was a terrible poem!” he said at a reading at the Berkeley Art Center (organized by Luis Garcia) a few years back, “But after that, I knew what I was about.”  

He worked at a camp in Colorado for the political reeducation of German prisoners of war during the 1940s. His novel, Arena of Ants, was based on that experience. 

Schevill attended UC Berkeley and graduated from Harvard, later teaching at SF State, directing the Poetry Center there during the ’60s, and writing “about 20” plays of “poetic realism,” produced at Actors Workshop in San Francisco among other venues, and later at Brown University, where he went to teach in 1968.  

A play he co-wrote in Rhode Island with Mary Singer Gail, renamed The Judas Tree, was produced in New York this April at Multi Stages with a musical score and lyrics by Schevill. Based on a news story of a Sacramento woman with a boarding house for the disabled who poisoned her tenants and buried them in her garden, The Judas Tree won a prize for best play of the year. 

His play, The Last Romantics, was produced for the Berkeley Arts Festival in the ’90s. Directed by Hal Gelb, it ran for several weeks at Shattuck and Durant. He and his wife Margot returned to Berkeley in 1993, where they now live. 

Schevill’s poetry is unique, “not indebted to any school,” as poet David Gitin has remarked. Last year he finished a longer poem in sections about painter Edvard Munch:  

I was shaping my hand to my heart  

...  

And this marriage 

grows forever, 

the heart married to the hand. 

...  

You can’t escape from the real, 

But you can change it 

into the world of 

Expressionism.  

A short poem he intends to read at Moe’s is “The Will of Writing”:  

The will of writing is 

to make the pen 

sound a word, 

the sound neither hard nor soft, 

but of that balance 

which gives forth 

something surrounded 

shining and stopped.  

Luis Garcia is a Berkeley native who attended Berkeley High (“a dropout! but later dropped in to classes”) and Contra Costa Junior College. In 1963, Garcia spent a year in Chile, where his first book was published, becoming associated with poet Nicanor Parra and meeting the surrealist painter Matta and (on returning to the Bay Area) with Chilean poet Fernando Alegria, who taught at UC Berkeley and Stanford. 

Garcia met poet Robert Creeley “serendipitously” at the Berkeley Poetry Conference in 1965, later visiting him when he taught at SF State, living in Bolinas.  

“Out of that friendship came a lot of things of what I consider my better poetry,” Garcia said. “I have a history of failure at academic pursuits, but lifelong friendships with the teachers outside the classroom came out of that.” 

“I listened to a lot of jazz,” Garcia continued, “the notions of improvisation, of the transformation of notes—hitting them in a different way—of inflection and intonation influenced my style, one of brevity and lyricism,” which qualities are exemplified in “Music Man”: 

He plays himself 

like a violin. 

(With no strings 

attached.) 

He’s a snowball in hell 

with everything 

but the song 

in his head 

melting. 

Clemens Starck has worked as a merchant seaman, a reporter on Wall Street, a ranch hand in eastern Oregon, a construction foreman, and as a journeyman carpenter at Oregon State University, experiences that informs his poetry. 

This saw has a life, it uses my hands 

for its own purpose. Lucky, 

to know your own uses! 

along with the lure of literature, and the singular hope 

that words will clarify my life. 

His poems have a reflective, sometimes elegiac sense—“Approaching 50, a man starts/counting backwards”—with a wry humor, references to Zen and Taoism, Chinese and Russian history, and the urban, rural and seaboard landscapes where he’s lived and worked. 

Don’t ask stupid questions. 

Throw a quick glance over one  

shoulder, throw salt 

over the other. Soon, 

you shall speak perfect Russian—so flawlessly, 

so fluently, 

not even your comrades 

will understand. 

—“Studying Russian on 

Company Time” 

The dressing of the stage—Ashby Stage, that is—says it all in advance of curtain. With a platform that makes the audience feel savagely ringside or fashionably rampside; a long counter below the apron with microphones set for a panel, backed by a sextet at the ready; a bank of fans as a wall behind—it’s clear the epic poem of Anglo-Saxon academe is to be subjected to a deconstruction via The Media, Big Time Wrestling and Vegas floor shows ... alliterative Beowulf has finally arrived. A little unkempt, with a sweep of gore-matted hair, in the carefully dishevelled, talking head-laden, close-up world of the early 21st century, replete with Rabbit’s Foot Mead for sale outside (sweet, but not cloying) to swill while said hero waxes grandiloquent. 

For a rhapsode’s night’s work, this word-hoard with chewy epithets took centuries to resurface, buoyed up by the Germanic “Volk” movement and the historic nostalgia of Victoriana. Now maybe a different tradition is invoked by Banana, Bag & Bodice in co-production with Shotgun: something more like James Joyce’s model mythographer, Vico. Defining History as the Time of the Gods, then Heroes and finally Men, the recondite Neapolitan would see this Beowulf subject to the backwash, the undertow after a populist wave of the Age of Just Folks, diced up with pop-psych commentary and pop song, the story of a backwater hero who hit the big time long after his own had fizzled. 

Seamus Heany’s bestselling translation brought the heroic Geat back into the limelight, but the best way into the hoary web of words in clean English poesy is the first truly modern version, which UC Press put out over a half century back, by the now-nonagenarian Poet Laureate of Scotland, Edwin Morgan, who conferred the acid flavor of his World War II experiences to this fighting saga of eld.  

Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage (A Songplay) reads the show’s title. Banana, Bag & Bodice’s cofounder, Jason Craig, has written the book and the lyrics, besides handily taking on the role of the hero, who poses in silhouette, then appears by slicing his way through the screen, while chorines Anna Ishida and Shaye Troha (of Killing My Lobster) wail and wheel in their chainmail like Vegas Valkyries or Busby Berkeley Berserkers in Kaibrina Buck’s costumery on R. Black’s striking set, lit by Miranda Hardy with Brendan West’s sound design.  

Dave Malloy has put together a combo, the Heorot Band (including musical saw), that plays the gamut from klezmer to (appropriately enough) snatches of heavy metal. Malloy also doubles, borne onstage in a kind of palanquin, as “Mr. King Hrothgar, Sir.” Such is the title Beowulf uses to address his summoner to arms when he reports in song, “Well, I ripped him up good.” His ghastly, shredded opponent, Grendel, played as a sympathetic geek (as per horror flick tradition) by Christopher Kuckenbacker, has something more than a soccer mom in Jessica Jelliffe’s angular rendition of a monster’s smothering stage mother from hell. Beowulf rips both up good, when he’s not preening, posturing or sulking in his tent, playing with Action Hero figurines. But those rent asunder stick around anyway, outliving their bestial roles, as talking heads on a stately academic panel, joining sprightly, psychobabbling Cameron Galloway. 

Directed by Rod Hipskin of foolsFURY (with whom Jelliffe performed brilliantly), the B. B. & B. talent for movement and action is, strangely, only fitfully revealed. There’s a lot more trash-talk in the ring than limb-wrenching, and even more metalanguage on the panel than raucous, raunchy song on the ramp behind. The concept is not so deep as Grendel & Dam’s grotto, but the logistics are complex, so the fun of it—and perhaps its substance—will grow during the run (and in the New York version to follow). But for the moment, despite delirious Dane production numbers and aquariums turning red with subaquatic bloodletting, this otherwise-impressive Beowulf is so far missing something of the charm and craziness of the olden farceurs—well, not the mimes of the Middle Ages, but the middle-aged might remember with glee the slapstick epigonery visited upon myth and fable by the likes of Ernie Kovacs and Sid Caesar, or the word-hoards of Lord Buckley and Stan Freeberg expended on same. Or that early limited animation cut-up, “Fractured Fairytales.”