THURSDAY, AUGUST 28 

Berkeley No-Wall Reception with indigenous Apache representatives from the US-Mexico border, at 3 p.m. at Berkeley City Hall, Redwood Room, 2180 Milvia St. Hosted by Councilmembers Anderson and Worthington. 981-7130, 981-7170. 

Nomination of Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention will be shown at 7 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Sponsored by the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club. www.Humanist Hall.org 

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from 3 to 4 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. Bring photo ID and two references. 644-8833. 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Auditions by appointment from 4 to 9 p.m. at Crowden Music Center. 849-9776. www.ypsomusic.net 

Toastmasters Berkeley Communicators meets at 7:30 a.m. at Au Coquelet, 2000 University Ave. Rob.Flammia@gmail.com 

Three Beats for Nothing South Mostly ancient part music for fun and practice meets every Thurs. at 10 a.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, Ellis at Ashby. 655-8863.  

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 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 29 

Hurrican Katrina Commemoration at 3 p.m. with a march down Broadway to Oakland Police Dept., rally at 3:45 p.m. at 7th and Broadway. http://justcauseoakland.org 

Introduction to Pilates at 10:30 a.m. at Elephant Pharm, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

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. 

Three Beats for Nothing Mostly ancient part music for fun and practice meets every Fri. at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Hearst at MLK. 655-8863. asiecker@sbcglobal 

Drop-In Acupuncture Clinic from 3 to 6 p.m. at Long Haul Info Shop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $15-$30. 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 30 

Family Birdwalk Learn birding basics on a walk around the Nature Area seeking our feathered friends in a variety of habitats, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Wildcat Peak Hike Join a 3-mile loop, from 2 to 4 p.m. to learn about the flora and fauna of the East Bay Hills. Bring water, a snack and a poem or story to share at the peak. Call for meeting place. 525-2233. 

Got a problem in the garden? Want expert advice on watering, plant selection, lawn care, or pest management? Visit the master gardener booth from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Center Street between ML King and Milvia. 639-1275. 

Composting Class Learn the basics of composting and using worms in your garden at 10:30 a.m. at Smith & Hawken, 1330 10th St. Free. 527-1076. 

Walk the Line & Connect to the Home Front Walk the line of history and the keel of a victory ship, and learn about the men and women who contributed to victory on the home front during World War II, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. followed by optional 45 min. Bay Trail stroll. Meet park ranger at memorial by main parking lot at Rosie the Riveter Memorial, Marina Bay Park, Melville and Regatta, Richmond. 232-5050. www.nps.gov/rori/ 

All Hands on Deck: Building the Ships that Kept Democracy Afloat Learn about the 747 ships built at the Kaiser shipyards and the people that built them, from 2 to 3 p.m. at Historic Shipyard No. 3, 1337 Canal Blvd., Berth 6A, Richmond. Park outside SS Red Oak Victory gate. 232-5050. Directions to shipyard 237-2933. www.ssredoakvictory.com/contact.htm 

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 

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, AUGUST 31 

Family Fun on the Farm Day Meet the animals, explore the gardens, and enjoy crafts, music games, and home-made ice cream, from 12:30 to 3 p.m. at Tilden Little Farm, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Solo Sierrans Hike in Tilden Park Meet at 5 p.m. at Lone Oak parking lot for an hour and a half hike through the cool woods. Optional dinner on Solano Ave. 234-8949. 

Leopard Shark Feeding Frenzy Feed our resident leopard shark and learn more about them and our other aquatic inhabitants at 2 p.m. at the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center, 4901 Breakwater Ave., Hayward. 670-7270.  

Social Action Forum with Gary Bogue, co-founder of the Lindsay Wildlife Museum on animal farming at 10 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Yoga and Meditation at 9:15 a.m. at Elephant Pharm, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

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 “Courage, Fear, and the Spiritual Path” 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 

MONDAY, SEPT. 1 

Labor Day Open House at the Tilden Nature Center and Little Farm from 11 a.m. t0 3:30 p.m. with crafts, nature walks and farm activities for the whole family. 525-2233. 

Labor Day Sidewalk Art Show and Sale A fundraiser for nonprofit organization Animal Switchboard and its Cora Fund, which provides emergency boarding for rescued dogs. From 11 to 3 p.m. at 2427 San Mateo Street, Richmond Annex. 

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. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, SEPT. 2 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visit Crab Cove Marine Conservation Area. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from 3 to 4 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. Bring photo ID and two references. 644-8833. 

An Evening of Functional Wisdom with Indian Agricultural activist, Vandana Shiva, at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way at Dana. Tickets are $12-$15. www.brownpapertickets.com/event/40634 

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

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 

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. www.watersideworkshops.org 

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. www.ecologycenter.org 

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 offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

Yarn Wranglers Come knit and crochet at 6:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 3 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Walk at Rosie the Riveter WWII Homefront National Park. Meet at 10 a.m. at the end of the parking lot, closest to the water, 1401 Marina Way South, Richmond. 528-3246. 

“Shorebirds” A class with Bob Lewis of the Golden Gate Audubon Society, meets at 7 p.m. for three Wed. eves. at Oakland Museum of California, with Sat. morning field trips. Cost is $60. To register call 843-2222. 

“Drawing Inspiration from California Indian Belief and Practice” with Malcolm Margolin at 7:30 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Optional pasta dinner at 6:30 p.m. for $6, children free. Talk is free. For dinner reservations call 526-3805.  

“A Really Inconvenient Truth” A film by Joel Kovel on capitalism’s overproduction and consumption, at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.Humanist Hall.org 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Auditions, fro 4 to 9 p.m. by appointment at Crowden Music Center. 849-9776. 

Spanish Conversation Classes Wed. and Thurs. at 9:30 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst St. 981-5190. 

Bike Touring Adventures with Cubby Cashen and his dog, at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Jump Start Entrepreneurs Network meets at 8 a.m. at Cuppa Tea, 3202 College Ave. at Alcactraz. Cost is $5-6 includes breakfast. 899-8242. www.jumpstartten.com 

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 

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. 

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

Berkeley CopWatch Drop-in office hours from 6 to 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

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

THURSDAY, SEPT. 4 

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

Three Beats for Nothing South Mostly ancient part music for fun and practice meets every Thurs. at 10 a.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, Ellis at Ashby. 655-8863. asiecker@sbcglobal 

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 

FRIDAY, SEPT. 5 

Golden Gate Audubon Society Birding Walk at Jewel Lake in Tilden with Phila Rogers. Meet atat 8:30 a.m. at the parking lot at the north end of Central Park Dr. for a one-mile, two-hour plus stroll through this lush riparian area. Berries are ripening and migration is under way. 848-9156. 

Electronics Recycling Fri. and Sat. from 10 a.m. to 2 pm. at Elephant Pharm, 1607 Shattuck Ave. Accepted are large and small electronics, CFL light bulbs, batteries and crayons. 549-9200. 

Right Rights for all People A benefit for Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action at 7 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. SUggested donation $15. 665-5821. 

Walk the Line & Connect to the Home Front Walk the line of history and the keel of a victory ship, and learn about the men and women who contributed to victory on the home front during World War II, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. followed by optional 45 min. Bay Trail stroll. Meet park ranger at memorial by main parking lot at Rosie the Riveter Memorial, Marina Bay Park, Melville and Regatta, Richmond. 232-5050. www.nps.gov/rori/ 

All Hands on Deck: Building the Ships that Kept Democracy Afloat Learn about the 747 ships built at the Kaiser shipyards and the people that built them, from 2 to 3 p.m. at Historic Shipyard No. 3, 1337 Canal Blvd., Berth 6A, Richmond. Park outside SS Red Oak Victory gate. 232-5050. Directions to shipyard 237-2933. www.ssredoakvictory.com/contact.htm 

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. 

Three Beats for Nothing Mostly ancient part music for fun and practice meets every Fri. at 10 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Hearst at MLK. 655-8863. asiecker@sbcglobal 

Drop-In Acupuncture Clinic from 3 to 6 p.m. at Long Haul Info Shop, 3124 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $15-$30. 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 6 

4th Annual East Bay AIDS Walk from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Lake Merritt, Bellevue and Grand. Free. info@eastbayaidswalk.org http://eastbayaidswalk.org  

GI Suicide Awareness March & Rally at 5 p.m. at Sea Breeze Cafe, Frontage Rd and University Ave., followed by a march to Berkeley Fellowship for a film showing, music and speakers. Donation $10, no one turned away. 415-565-0201 ext. 27. 

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-EBPARKS. 

Berkeley Path Wanderers Hayward Fault Walk with a cartographer and emergency preparedenss officer from EBMUD. Meet at 10 a.m. at the playground at Codornices Park. 528-3246. 

Berkeley and Albany Historical Societies Boundary Walk at 10 a.m. Cost is $10. Reservations should be sent to Berkeley Historical Society, Walking Tours, PO Box 1190, Berkeley, CA 94701-1190. 848-0181. 

Project WET Educator’s Academy covering aquatic ecosystems, water conservation and pollution prevention, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Cost is $45-$51. Registration required. 1-888-EBPARKS. 

Nature Detectives Scat and Tracks Search for clues that mammals and birds leave behind as they make their living along the shoreline from 11 a.m. to noon at the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center, 4901 Breakwater Ave., Hayward. For 3-5 year olds and their caregivers. Cost is $5, registration required. 670-7270.  

Electronics Recycling from 10 a.m. to 2 pm. at Elephant Pharm 1607 Shattuck Ave. Accepted are large and small electronics, CFL light bulbs, batteries and crayons. 549-9200. 

Political Affairs Readers Group will discuss “New Times, New Opportunities” by Sam Webb, chair of the CPUSA at 10 a.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., between Alcatraz and 66th. 595-7417. 

El Cerrito Democratic Club Special Meeting to hear from WCCUSD candidates, and East Bay Regional Park District, AC Transit, and BART district at large candidates. There will also be a presentation on the WCCUSD Parcel Tax Extension. From 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at St. Peter CME Church, 5324 Cypress Ave., El Cerrito. 

Open House JFK University Graduate School of Professional Psychology at 6 p.m. at 2956 San Pablo Ave., 2nd flr. 649-7428. www.jfku.edu  

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. 

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

Meditation Class at noon at 7th Heaven Yoga Studio, 2820 7th St. Free. 665-4300. 

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, SEPT. 7 

Birding for Beginners Learn the basics of birding while exploring the marsh trails, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center, 4901 Breakwater Ave., Hayward. Bring bird guides and binoculars. 670-7270.  

Montclair Village Jazz & Wine Festival from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at LaSalle Ave. and Mountain Blvd., Oakland. Festival is free, wine tasting tickets are $30-$50. www.MontclairJazzAndWine.org 

Brooks Island Boat Trip Join a guided boat trip across the Richmond Harbor to Brooks Island to explore the island’s natural and cultural history, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For experienced boaters who can provide their own kayak and safety gear. Cost is $20-$22. Registration required. 1-888-EB-PARKS. 

Key to Tree ID Learn to identify the trees in Tilden Park from 10:30 a.m. to noon at Tilden Nature Center. 525-2233. 

Pond Cycles Learn the life cycles of the insects living in our ponds, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Progressive Democrats of the East Bay “Progressives Take Back Congress” with Bill Durston, challenging Rep. Dan Lungren in CD 3, and Norman Solomon, from 3 to 5 p.m. at Albatross Pub, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $25. pdeastbay@pdeastbay.org or www.pdeastbay.org 

Berkeley Rep Family Series “Ensemble Adventure” from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Nevo Education Center, 2071 Addison St. Free, but bring a book to donate to a school library. 647-2973. 

Personal Theology Seminar with Walter Truett Anderson on “Religion Without God” at 10 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Feldenkrais for Breast Cancer Survivors at 5 p.m. at Elephant Pharm, 1607 Shattuck Ave. 549-9200. 

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 Mark Henderson on “Tibetan: The Buddhist Language of Translation” 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 

Commission on the Status of Women meets Wed., Sept. 3, at 7:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5190.  

Community Environmental Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 4, at 7 p.m., at 2118 Milvia St. Nabil Al-Hadithy, 981-7461.  

Housing Advisory Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 4, at 7 p.m., at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Oscar Sung, 981-5400.  

Landmarks Preservation Commission meets Thurs., Sept. 4, at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7419.  

THURSDAY, AUGUST 28 

EXHIBITIONS 

Pro Arts New Visions 2008 Group show opens at Pro Arts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland, and runs through Oct. 24. www.proartsgallery.org 

FILM 

International Latino Film Society “Tres/Three” and “Lorca; así que pasen cien años” at 7 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5-$6. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Artists’ Talk: Ellen Lake & Takehito Etani at 7p.m. in the Kala Gallery, 1060 Heinz Ave. 

Peter Orner discusses the plight of undocumented workers in the United States as part of the Literature and Conversation series at 7:30 p.m. at JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. 848-0237. 

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

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Ditty Bops at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Jean-Paul Buongiorno at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Geva Alon, Krystle Warren, Steven Taylor-Ramirez at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

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

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

FRIDAY, AUGUST 29 

THEATER 

“A Noir Musical” and “Staged Reading” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun at 2 p.m., at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $16. 800-838-3006. 

Aurora Theatre “The Best Man” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. through Sept. 28. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep “Yellowjackets” by Itamar Moses, a Berkeley resident, set at Berkeley High School, Tues.-Sun. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through Oct. 12. Tickets are $27-$71. 647-2949. berkeleyrep.org 

Crowded Fire Theater Company “The Listener” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Aug. 31. Tickets are $15-$25. 415-433-1235. crowdedfire.org 

Masquers Playhouse “The Petrified Forest” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through Sept. 27. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org  

Rough and Tumble “Candide” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun at 7 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. through Sept. 21. Tickets are $16-$22. 499-0356. www.randt.org 

EXHIBITIONS 

“AeroSoul” Works by the TCB Crew, celebrating the significance of spray can art. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St. Oakland. www.joycegordongallery.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Robert Bowman performs Mozart, Prokofiev, Gottschalk, Scarlatti, and Brahms at 8 p.m. at The Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Tickets are $10-$15. 845-1350. www.hillsideclub.org  

GTS Band, old school 60s, 70s, 80s, at 5 p.m. outdoors at Broadway at Water St., Jack London Square, Oakland.  

Ill Ones, hip-hop, at 9:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7-$8. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

Caribbean Allstars at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Amy Meyers & Jennifer Corday at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Wilson Wong, Nomad at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Mushroom, The Moore Brothers, Matt Baldwin at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Sahn Maru, Appalachian Terror Unit, Wartorn at 7:30 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $6. 525-9926. 

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

Rocker T, More Love Band, reggae, at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10. 548-1159.  

Greg Scott, R&B, at 9 p.m. at Maxwell’s, 341 13th St., Oakland. Cost is $10. 839-6169. 

Bobi Cespedes with Marco Diaz, Saul Sierra, Jose Roberto Hernandez, Sandy Peres and Julio Perez at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, through Sun. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 30 

CHILDREN  

Puppet Show “The Adventures of Peer Gynt” Sat. and Sun. at 11 a.m., 2 and 4 p.m. and “Perez & Mondinga Mexican Fiesta” at noon at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Cost is $6. 452-2259. www.fairyland.org 

THEATER 

Shotgun Players “Ubu for President” An adaptation of the plays of Alfred Jarry, Sat. and Sun., and Mon. Sept. 1, at 4 p.m. at John Hinkel Park, Southampton Ave., off the Arlington, through Sept. 14. Free, donations accepted. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Art & Soul in downtown Oakland with over 60 bands on six stages, participatory art projects, artisans and community group, Sat.-Mon. noon to 6 p.m. at Frank Ogawa Plaza. COst is $5-$10. 238-7402. art&soul@oaklandnet.com 

Violin Variations Themes and variations for solo violin at 8 p.m. at Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Ave. Cost is $10-$15. 524-5203. 

Fuga, Tocayo at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $7. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Quejerema! at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $15. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Nice Guy Trio, Jessica and Ramon at 8 p.m. at the JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St. Tickets are $10-$15. 848-0237. 

Zydeco Flames at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun/Zydeco dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Moment’s Notice Improvised dance, music and theater at 8 p.m. at Western Sky Studio, 2525 8th St. Tickets are $8-$15 at the door. 692-6295. 

Brindl, Will Edwards at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

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

Pebble Theory, Silver Griffin, Hey Young Believer at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Force, Static Thought, Das Kapital 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. 

SUNDAY, AUGUST 31 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

Paul H. Taylor and the Montara Mountain Boys at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Americana Unplugged: Redwing Bluegrass Band at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

The Strange Boys, Crystal Antlers at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, SEPT. 1 

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.opcmucsic.org 

Umalali: The Garifuna Women’s Project at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $5-$18 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

TUESDAY, SEPT. 2 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Neil Marcus and Petra Kuppers, poets, read from their new book “Cripple Poetics: A Love Story” at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Gator Beat at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun 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 

Anthony Wilson, Chinco Pinheiro Quartet “Nova” at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $5-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 3 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Quilts by Jennifer Snedecker” on display at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park, through Oct. 31. 525-2233. 

Landscape and Urban Photography by Patrick Smith opens at the LightRoom Gallery, 2263 Fifth St., and runs through Oct. 3. 649-8111. www.lightroom.com 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

George Lakoff on “The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st Century American Politics with an 18th Century Brain” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. www.universitypressbooks.com 

Malcolm Margolin on “Drawing Inspiration from California Indian Belief and Practice” at 7:30 p.m. at Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. 526-3805. 

Frank B. Wilderson, III, Black American member of the African National Congress on “Red, White & Black: Cinema and the Structure of US Antagonisms” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Wen-hsin Yeh on “Shanghai Splendor: Economic Sentiments and the Making of Modern China, 1843-1949” at 4 p.m. at the IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton St., 6th flr. 643-6536. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Wednesday Noon Concert, with April Paik and Melissa Lin, violin, Garrett McLean, viola, Ting Chin, cello, at 12:15 p.m. at Hertz Hall, UC Campus. Free. 642-4864. http://music.berkeley.edu 

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

Red Hot Chachkas at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Yiddish dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Candela at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa dance lessons at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Leni Stern “Africa” at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10-$16. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com  

THURSDAY, SEPT. 4 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Samuel Lucas, in conversation with Aarti Shah on “Theorizing Discrimination in an Era of Contested Prejudice” at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way. 548-0585. www.universitypressbooks.com 

Raj Patel discusses his book “Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System” at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books 2425 Channing Way. 848-1196. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Afrissippi at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Workshop at 8 p.m. Cost is $10-$15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

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

The Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $12. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Dave G Collective at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Jane Monheit at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, SEPT. 5 

THEATER 

“A Noir Musical” and “Staged Reading” Thurs.-Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 and 8 p.m., at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Tickets are $16. 800-838-3006. 

Aurora Theatre “The Best Man” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St. through Sept. 28. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep “Yellowjackets” by Itamar Moses, a Berkeley resident, set at Berkeley High School, Tues.-Sun. at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., through Oct. 12. Tickets are $27-$71. 647-2949. berkeleyrep.org 

Impact Theatre “Ching Chong Chinaman” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, through Oct. 11. Tickets are $10-$17. 464-4468. impacttheatre.com 

Masquers Playhouse “The Petrified Forest” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2:30 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through Sept. 27. Tickets are $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

Rough and Tumble “Candide” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun at 7 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. through Sept. 21. Tickets are $16-$22. 499-0356. www.randt.org 

Shotgun Players “Ubu for President” An adaptation of the plays of Alfred Jarry, Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. at John Hinkel Park, Southampton Ave., off the Arlington, through Sept. 14. Free, donations accepted. 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org 

Woodminster Summer Musicals “The Pirates of Penzance” Fri.-Sun. at 8 p.m., at Woodminster Amphitheater in Joaquin Miller Park, 3300 Joaquin Miller Rd., Oakland. through Sept. 15. Tickets are $23-$38. 531-9597. www.woodminster.com 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Reconfigured Figurines” Works by Susan Sanford. Opening reception at 2 p.m. at Alta Galleria, 2890 College Ave., Suite 4. 414-4485. www.altagalleria.com 

Doug Minkler “Banned and Recovered: Artist Responds to Censorship” Opening reception at 6:30 p.m. at the African American Museum and Library, 659 14th St., Oakland. Through Dec. 31. 637-0200. 

“The Reading Chair” A story by Vicki Gunter, read in performance. Ceramic sculpture illustrate the story. At 7 p.m. at Oakopolis, 447 25th St., Oakland. 663-6920. 

“Double Vision” Works by David Best, Donald Farnsowrth, Era Farnsworth, Robert Hudson, Raymond Saunders, Richard Shaw and William Wiley. Reception at 7 p.m. at Front Gallery, 35 Grand Ave., Oakland. 444-1900. 

Joesam “New Works: Paintings” Opening reception at 5:30 p.m. at Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St., Oakland. www.joycegordongallery.com 

“Kwatro-Kantos” Works by the Filipino Collective. Artists’ reception at 6 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St., at Broadway, Oakland. 444-7263. www.kwatro-kantos.com 

“Chosen Terrain” Pastel drawings by Jamie Morgan, photographs by Mary Curtis Ratcliff. Opening reception at 6 p.m. at Mercury 20 Gallery, 25 Grand Ave., Oakland. Exhibition runs through Sept. 27. 701-4620. www.mercurytwenty.com 

“Bob’s Wondrous Women” Works by Robert Wahrhaftig. Opening reception at 7 p.m. at Frank Bette Center for the Arts, 1601 Paru St., Alameda. info@frankbettecenter.org 

FILM 

ITVS Community Cinema “Runners High” A documentary by Justine Jacob and Alex da Silva on teenagers from a tough East Oakland neighborhood training for a marathon at 6:30 p.m., followed by discussion, at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. Part of the Port Huron Project 5. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“Urban Landscapes” Film and video shown at 8 p.m., outdoors on The Great Wall of Oakland, Grand Ave just west of Broadway. www.oaklandculturalarts.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Studio One Reading Series with William Moor and Daphne Gottlieb at 7:30 p.m. at Studio One, 365 45th St. at Broadway, Oakland. Suggested donation $3-$15. 597-5027. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Right Rights for all People A benefit for Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action at 7 p.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. Suggested donation $15. 665-5821. 

Bernard Anderson and Old School Flavor at 5 p.m. at Oakland Museum of California, 10th and Oak Sts. Cost is $5-$8. 238-2200. www.museumca.org 

“The Best Kept Secret” at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $10-$20. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Rhonda Benin & Her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Stompy Jones at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10-$13. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

“Un Viernes Flamenco” at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15-$18. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

The Original Crooked Jades, The Stripmall Ballads at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $9. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Born/Dead, Dead Section, Fix My Head 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. 

Arc Angel, Black Lung, Pop Ices at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$7. 548-1159.  

Jane Monheit at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $18-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 6 

CHILDREN  

“Harvest at the Lake” Native American stories at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. Cost is $6. 452-2259. www.fairyland.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Bay Area Poets Coalition open reading from 3 to 5 p.m. at Strawberry Creek Lodge, 1320 Addison St. Park on the street, not in Lodge parking lot. 527-9905. poetalk@aol.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Blumenstock & Johnson, violin and harpsichord, perform Bach & Telemann at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Cost is $10-$15. 549-3864. www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Angela Gheorghiu, soprano with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra at 8 p.m. at Zellerbach Hall, UC Campus. Tickets are $35-$100. 642-9988. www.calperformances.net 

Macy Blackman & the Mighty Fines at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Pellejo Seco at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cuban salsa lesson at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Gateswingers Jazz Band at 8 p.m. at 33 Revolutions Record Shop and Cafe, 10086 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. 898-1836.  

Sotaque Baiano, Brazilian, at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

George Kuo, Martin Pahinui and Aaron Mahi at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Allison Miller’s Boom Tic Boom at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $18. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Burlesque ‘n’ Brass, featuring Hot Pink Feathers and Blue Bone at 9 p.m. at Café Van Kleef, 1621 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $10. 763-7711. 

Dogwood Speaks, Brod Rob, The Knosckout Brothers at 9 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $8. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

La Plebe, Disaster Strikes, Armistice at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, SEPT. 7 

EXHIBITIONS 

“At Play” Paintings by Angie Cha, Julie Lee Gochman and Jamie Treacy, and mixed media figurative sculpture by Marsha Balian. Artists’ reception at 3 p.m. at Community Art Gallery, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, 2450 Ashby Ave. Exhibition runs through Nov. 13. 204-1667.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Larry Vann Group at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Sheppard’s Krook, Ed’s in Therapy, Jenna & The Big Weenies, Resucitations, in a benefit for Children’s Hospital, at 4 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com

Thousands of glass art objects—strange, striking, beautiful, and combined in fantastic arrangements—currently populate the special exhibit galleries of San Francisco’s de Young. They range from palm-of-your-hand pieces to gigantic supernovas of glittering glass tentacles, singular, vivid, bowls big enough to float baby Moses down the Nile, and hallucinogenically hued “marbles” blown as big as sofa hassocks. 

The museum is showing a broad survey of the work of the Washington-based Dale Chihuly. It’s a powerful, fragile, splendid display worth seeing before it closes Sept. 28. 

Perhaps you’ve put off seeing this exhibit because some art critics don’t care for Chihuly. Apparently, he’s a bit too commercial, too popular and not sufficiently obte. In essence, if I read one review correctly, it’s discouragingly lowbrow when a critic or curator isn’t needed to explain what art means. 

Chihuly’s exhibit text offers this observation about his glass sculptures. “Obviously, people are going to look at them and see things they want to see in them. I prefer that than if I told them what it is they should be seeing.” 

I’ve seen things I like in Chihuly exhibits in recent years: the first, in 2000, at the San Jose Museum of Art; the second, last year, outdoors in the New York Botanical Garden; now, at the de Young.  

My uncritical advice is to go see Chihuly exhibits when they’re around. They are like satisfying, entertaining movies; the art may not sweep the Oscars, but they’re a pleasure to experience. 

At San Jose, as now at the de Young, the displays are tightly structured, with objects placed in darkened, blank boxes and rooms and carefully spot lit. This can produce quite dramatic effects with single pieces or whole walls, islands, and constellations of glass appearing as glowing objects ap-proached through the gloom. 

At the New York Botanical Garden, in comparison, the glass artworks were in gardens or greenhouses, where wind and sun could play across them as they contrasted with the surrounding plants and structures.  

The most enticing pieces in New York were in the twin, open-air, water-lily pools of the Haupt Conservatory. Wooden boats, each piled impossibly full of glass, were surrounded by glass floats, all glittering in the afternoon sun.  

At the de Young, there are similar glass-laden boats, but they are displayed in a dark room. gliding on a black mirror glass surface as if crossing the River Styx. Single, planet-like, brilliant globes seem to float around them. 

The Chihuly exhibit is a “one way only” progression, although when we were there on opening day the guards didn’t seem too intent on stopping those who decided to backtrack to revisit an earlier room. 

Don’t cross the taped lines on the floor around many of the fragile sculptures, however. Photography is allowed, and perhaps too enthusiastically taken to. Many were intent on documenting, not necessarily contemplating, everything.  

Each room displays a different form, style, or era of Chihuly’s work. Some cohere as unified sculptural sets, including a large space filled with white birch logs and lavender glass lances, and another where dozens of yellow and red fan-like forms project in frozen undulation on a vertical framework.  

Other rooms feature diverse, stand-alone, single pieces, including intricate vases and several of Chihuly’s chandelier shapes that look like giant octopi, fantastical spiders, or starbursts descending from the ceiling.  

There’s a room of recent “black glass” pieces and a space that mixes antique Native American baskets with glass forms in colors and patterns recalling the woven designs. There are also a lot of rather abstracted drawings by Chihuly, as well as Indian trade blankets he uses for pattern inspiration. 

Many of the pieces are quite beautiful, others frankly weird, and at several points you’re likely to stop and think, “I had no idea you could do THAT in glass.”  

The finale of the exhibit is a long room with a raised, mirrored, podium down the center, sprouting a gigantic “milleflora garden” of glass—reed shapes, spiky aloe-like growths, balls, sinuous stalks, many of them towering over the viewer.  

My favorite space—both at the de Young, and at the earlier San Jose exhibit—has been the room with a “ceiling” of glass panels. Laid atop, in studied confusion, are hundreds, if not thousands, of glass sea-form shapes all brilliantly lit from above.  

The objects range from hefty “shells” worthy of a giant clam to delicate cups the size of a sea urchin. It’s an otherworldly coral reef or a beach awash with a rhythm of glass shapes, an effect the designers have slyly enhanced by inserting, here and there, tiny golden glass putti mermaids and octopi. 

It’s easy to spend a great deal of time in this room, discovering new patterns and yet another “most beautiful” piece of glass. 

It’s also the best room for people watching. Many are just lost in rapture although a few get no more than a crick in their neck. At San Jose, the floor was carpeted, and many people lay down on their backs for a better view; the de Young has low benches but, alas, a hard wood floor. 

There’s only one installation outside the special galleries, a huge yellow glass column in the “Pool of Enchantment” adjacent to the museum. You can see it without admission, and it’s lit at night. 

The DeYoung museum, in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, is accessible from the East Bay by BART, then Muni bus, or by car. The Chihuly exhibit runs through Sunday, Sept. 28. Tuesday-Thursday, 9:30 a..m.-5:15 p.m., Fridays until 8:45 p.m., and Saturdays -Sundays until 6:15 p.m. Standard admission, including a $5 surcharge for the Chihuly exhibit, is $15 adults, $12 seniors, $11 youths (11-17) and college students with ID. www.chihulyatthedeyoung.org or call (415) 750-3600.

“The initial idea I had for the play,” said Itamar Moses, a 1995 Berkeley High graduate and emerging playwright, of Yellowjacket, his play commissioned by Berkeley Rep that opens Friday, “was about what I did in school, hiding in the newspaper office. A simpler play, about the paper. I thought there probably was a play there. 

“Then talking to Tony [Taccone, artistic director of The Rep], say three years ago, about the commission, and the four or five ideas I wanted to write next, I mentioned Berkeley High School, and he said, ‘Why not for us?’ ” 

Moses’ play, named after the sports teams at Berkeley High (just as the paper, which he edited, is called The Jacket), deals with the upshot of an event he remembers, an insensitive article published in the paper and the controversy that followed, dividing students, parents and teachers along race and class lines. “The inciting incident was a fight on campus and the coverage the newspaper gave it ... Living in, growing up in Berkeley, it’s really, really easy to have all the appropriate liberal ideals, to espouse them and think you uphold them—until events personally affect you, or your children, putting your loved ones on the line for progressive ideals. More specifically, for people who came here in the ’60s, living in the hills, how do you react if your kid’s physically assaulted?” 

Instead of the simpler play, about the newspaper, Moses began taking notes, writing speeches, scenes. “I didn’t know what it would become. It was capturing the multifaceted insanity, from the ironic reversals that took place, a well-intentioned newspaper story backfiring, not responding to racism meaningfully, being superficial instead. What began to emerge was the central metaphor, the debate at the center. Aristotle would have jumped at it. There was a built-in dramatic structure, not as rigid as in [his earlier play] Bach in Leipzig, which was based on my noticing that a tight farcical structure is fugue-like, but more like an epic structure. Something in the way of Angels in America or half of Continental Divide. What makes epics isn’t that they’re long, but that the characters don’t necessarily meet each other, but are still connected. I was running different stories about school together, noticing the analogies, mirroring what everybody was talking about. It occurred to me the play could be tracked, just like history classes that were created as I was on my way out of school were tracked. This was all at the center, in the bones of the structure, underscoring the ideas debated. It took me a couple years to execute that—sort of!” 

Madeleine Oldham, The Rep’s literary manager and dramaturg, commented on her reactions to the script in its successive drafts. “I don’t think Itamar’s intention shifted at all. It wasn’t like the writing I usually see. It was made up of short scenes, feeling like an HBO show, yet amazingly complicated. It moves in the way high school moves, teenagers move. I think it’s great writing—and good for high school students.” 

Moses joked, “Like Berkeley High, it’s messy, chaotic ... someone from one scene will just walk through another. But even messiness can be kind of formal, have rigor—if it’s organized messiness.” 

One of the cast (and almost all are from the Bay Area, several who lived in Berkeley), Amaya Alonso Hallifax, grew up in Berkeley, attending Oxford, Longfellow and Crowden Schools, going to high school in the North Bay—“but took the tour of Berkeley High almost every year, thinking I might transfer.” She commented that the play “is incredibly representative of the stories I heard about it all, from my group of friends—who are pretty wide-ranging racially and socio-economically—and it contains the opposing points of view inside. Growing up in Berkeley you’re always hyperaware problems exist. I was aware from the age of six of the legacy of Civil Rights; you hear the rhetoric your whole life. Then you get into high school, begin to deal with the realities of your life, and it’s not the ’60s, a different atmosphere. You’ve heard the talk, but what walk? And the adults around you don’t necessarily understand.” 

Hallifax continued about the play. “All my friends love talking about it. They’ve been lovely with yearbooks and remembering inappropriate stories ... the aberrative stuff, but also a teacher who was important to them. There are a lot of really recognizable stories about teachers in the play.” 

“Some iconic Berkeley High legends went into this play,” Moses said. 

Moses left Berkeley two weeks after he finished high school, attending Yale and New York University, at both of which he later taught playwrighting. He lives in Brooklyn. If Madeleine Oldham remembers coming to Berkeley from back East “and being slapped in the face ... by how it’s everything you think it is, and more complicted than just that,” and now feels at home here, Moses can talk about “without moving back here, writing Yellowjacket is a figurative way of going back ... there’s a conversation at the end of the play—Amaya’s in it—that says, ‘You don’t have to stay, it’s where the fuck you’re from.’ It doesn’t feel that long ago, doesn’t feel like a period piece, as Tony’s described it. I wanted to show the play to Berkeley, to make it hyperspeculative and fun; universal, but something so young people feel it accurately represents their perspective. I feel I had a clearer-eyed view when I was a teenager. And I still think adults can be short-sighted. 

“It’s not just Berkeley, it’s true everywhere,” Moses concluded. “Berkeley’s a great place to look at. People talk about it. And here they think they can solve it. Does the play have a life outside Berkeley? In a weird way, Berkeley is the least equipped to see it; it’s where it’ll be seen most literally, judged as how factually accurate it is. Elsewhere, it’ll be seen as a metaphor, Berkeley as a symbol—any urban high school as a microcosm of society.” 

YELLOWJACKETS 

Tuesday-Sunday through Oct. 12 at the Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. $27-$71. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org.

Before Bonnie and Clyde and Badlands—before Sam Shepard, for that matter—a prominent American playwright tied together a crime spree in the West, an offbeat sense of romance and the Existential angst of war babies and wannabe great artists. The result was The Petrified Forest, which launched both Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis when the Hollywood film version got made. 

Now the Masquers in Point Richmond are staging Petrified Forest in a good community theater production, and the clear lines of the well-wrought play about the exhaustion of the Frontier myth (if not the American Dream) are clearer on stage than in the movie, with dialogue which places it in time rather than dating it. 

Petrified Forest, is set in the Depression, on “the edge of nowhere,” Black Mesa Filling Station and Cafe (John Hull’s excellent set of a counter joint with the ominous sign, “Tipping is UnAmerican/Keep Your Change” on the till—looking out on a rocky scape changing colors with Rob Bradshaw’s lighting), down the road from the Petrified Forest. From the first exchanges, a Lineman (Ted Bigornia) talking up revolution and the Bolsheviks, with Legionnaire Jason Maple (John Burke) deriding him, and old codger Gramp Maple (George Adams as Jason’s father, who really owns the joint) trying to chat up every stranger with tall tales of his bygone youth and Billy The Kid, Sherwood’s dialogue establishes flurries of vigorous discussion, social contention contrasted by personal musings acted out. The middle of nowhere, but everybody seems to wander through—and everybody wants what they don’t have or can’t get, wrangling with the others about what they, or the country, ought to do.  

The positivism, and yet ardent nay-saying, of American individualistic enthusiasm is writ large on the diverse countenances of this cast of characters. Jason wants his old man to sell the place so he can go into public life in Southern California. His daughter and waitress Gabby (a very good Laura Morgan) wants to follow her long-gone war bride mother back to France, and reads aloud from the book of Francois Villon poems her mother has sent. Gas pump boy and former Nevada Tech football star Boze (solid Craig Eychner) wants Gabby’s love (or at least her virginity), and a little respect besides. And, wandering in from the road, hitchhiker Alan Squier (a convincing Kyle Johnson, in the Leslie Howard role), ex-gigolo and deferred great author, late of New England and the Riviera, just wants his next meal, the next ride and maybe a sympathetic ear for his self-deprecation, which he finds in rebellious, dreamy Gabby. 

Into this little warren of hope pursued and lost come a rich couple from Ohio (Michael Haven and Michael Fay), disappointed by cliff dwellings, and first the rumor, then the reality, of Duke Mantee (a splendid, bluff, all-business Robert Taylor) and his gang (Bigornia, Peter Budinger and Edward Nason), bristling with lifted firepower, who hole up for a planned rendezvous with Duke’s moll after a murderous spree and ongoing manhunt throughout the Southwest. 

A funny recognition springs up between Mantee and Squier, which the ex-gigolo takes to be their thwarted chivalrous natures, though it’s more the bottled-up hysteria from all that social malaise that piques Squier’s melancholy. Duke orchestrates it as professional heist boss and mayhem-maker (in 1943, a proto-fascist Robin Hood?) 

The Masquers sell the story well, everybody lending something to their character and the ensemble. There’s still the need for more build-up, more intensity in both fore and background for some scenes and a sense of the offbeat at the end. It isn’t easy, nothing is entirely straightforward about Sherwood’s seemingly clear, but rhythmically (and characterologically) complicated script.  

A dozen years later, it would have been called Noir, or Existentialist. Adams gets Gramps’ sly, Walter Brennanesque humor, but not his meanness. Johnson delivers Squier’s world-weariness well, but not the moonshine- and gunpoint-inflated excitement that energizes his old rashness. But the brilliant dialogue covers for almost any lapse, and the rightness of the cast, as directed by Marti Baer, should ensure further development. Right now, it’s already a refreshing—and bracing—evening of theater in a community setting. 

PETRIFIED FOREST 

Fridays and Saturdays through Sept. 27 at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. $18.  

232-4031. www.masquers.org.

“I came to be in the Bay Area for one year, in 1984,” said Thomas Simpson, founder of AfroSolo, the annual festival of African-American solo performance that includes tributes and art exhibits. “I was in theater, from Nashville, and this was to be a step between there and L.A. or New York. For my 39th birthday in 1991, I had a party and invited artists to perform who I knew from taking a workshop on developing solo pieces. It occurred to me it should be staged every year as a way for us to tell our own stories, form our own works.” 

The first AfroSolo was in 1994 with more than a dozen performers over several nights, and John O’Neill, New Orleans man of the theater, as special guest.  

“It’s our desire to honor artists who have had a significant impact on African-American culture and culture in general,” Simpson said. Since then, AfroSolo has featured luminaries like Ruby Dee, Dick Gregory, Charles Brown. “But we’re really focused on local artists.” 

August is the time for AfroSolo, and the performances and tributes ran last week with an ongoing art exhibit in the third-floor African-American collection at the San Francisco Public Library, which runs through Oct. 16. 

“I invited 15 artists who exhibited with us in the past,” said Simpson, “to express the theme of this AfroSolo—‘Resilience: My Culture, My People, Me.’ There’s ceramics, painting, sculpture ... and the library has done an exceptional job exhibiting it.” 

Last week there was a night of tributes at Yoshi’s-San Francisco with Noah Griffin honoring Sammy Davis, Jr., a tribute to John Coltrane by Onaderuth—the band from San Francisco’s Coltrane Church—and operatic and negro spirituals baritone Robert Sims, who just completed another summer teaching at UC Berkeley’s Young Musicians Program, paying tribute to Duke Ellington. 

“He sang songs from the Sacred Concert Duke performed in Grace Cathedral in the mid-’60s,” Simpson said, “and a few of the spirituals he’s famous for.” 

Special guest was 86-year-old opera singer Hope Foye, there in person to receive her own tribute—and to perform for it. 

“She began with ‘Summertime,’ the first verse the way Gershwin taught her to sing it operatically,” Simpson recounted, “then the next in the jazz nightclub style she had sung at New York’s Cafe Society. Then songs from her time in Mexico, after she was subpoenaed by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee ... and ‘Spring Song’ [‘Is there going to be a war next spring?’], finishing with a sing-along of that song we sing in church, ‘Let There Be Peace On Earth.’” 

While expatriated, Foye—who now lives in San Pedro, in Southern California—spent a decade in Europe while the recipient of two Rockefeller awards. 

“But in America,” Simpson said, “she was shunned, coming back. Now a renaissance of her career has begun. Every year, during Black History Month, Union Bank makes a CD about an African-American notable. The CD of Hope Foye was handed out at KQED, and I looked her up.” 

Last weekend at the Marsh, former Mission District jazz club and mecca for solo performance, four local performing artists showed what AfroSolo is all about. Laura Elaine Ellis, cofounder and executive director of African & African-American Performing Arts Coalition and company member of Dimensions Dance Theater, danced her “re-imagining” of Nina Simone’s “Four Women,” with additional music by Ajayi Lumumba with Kimara Dixon. Dixon also did the visuals, projections beginning with galvanized tin sidings, with Ellis working through a quick series of poses and attitudes, convulsive bobs and quick turns to slide guitar, harmonica, bass and drums, then congas, following Simone’s song and with Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s spoken text over, finally after leaps and twists to changing images, down to silence and the dancer’s breath.  

Poet Marvin K. White, author of Last Rights and Nothin’ Ugly Fly, performed “Our Name Be Witness,” flipping through the pages of his book and coming out with lines like: “Make sure you crook your neck and look back,/See if somebody’s following you” or “Just because you win it, child,/ Don’t mean that it’s a prize” to a vocal yet rapt response from the audience. 

Angela Dean-Baham, who was excellent as Betty Shabazz in Anthony Davis’ opera X at Oakland Opera Theater a couple of years ago, related the life and sang snippets of the songs, both in persona, of the subject of her piece “Unsung Diva: The Life and Times of Sissieretta Jones, aka Black Patti,” African-American opera star of the Gilded Age: “I am what you would describe as dead. It is true, I must remind myself—although being a Negro is a little bit like being dead. There is a part of you, you can never enjoy ... By the time of my death, it was even unclear who I was. I was Juliet, I was Norma, I was Queen Aida ... I was free to be anyone—but me.” 

Especially memorable for the grace of delivery and the suggestiveness of its subject’s reserve, Dean-Baham delivers her forgotten diva’s musings with a gentle discretion, part of that older, pre-World War I demeanor that storyteller Jovelyn Richards, in the audience, said “must come nowadays from operatic training.”  

Pianist Trente Morant accompanied this brief, bittersweet and elegant elegy with sensitivity. 

Longtime jazz and theater figure Idris Ackamoor performed an unusually multidimensional memoir of his life and career in music with storytelling, performing (his brilliant accompanist on piano and drums, Frederick Harris, often joined in), music, dancing, slides and film, working in projections of Djano Reinhardt playing with a disabled hand (Idris accompanying on guitar, then swinging out on alto) and a phenomenal dance routine by Peg Leg Bates, stamping with his prosthesis like a stilt walker, with Idris tapping along—all to expand on Idris’ own story of the disability he overcame. A whirlwind tour through a life, a career and a few recent epochs, engaging, touching and humorous, was directed by his Cultural Odyssey cofounder, Rhodessa Jones. 

“Dance, poetry, theater, music and the stories of our lives,” said Thomas Simpson, summing it up at final curtain, “That’s AfroSolo.” 

AFROSOLO ARTS FESTIVAL 15:  

RESILIENCE: My Culture, My People, Me! 

Presented through Oct. 16 at the San Francisco Public Library by the AfroSolo Theatre Company. (415) 771-2376. www.afrosolo.org org.