Sourcing clarity in the fog of ideas. Lighting your way to ideas.
In-person and across the Bay.
The Bay's intellectual scene is rich, varied, and hard to find.
Burnoff brings it into view. Expand your horizon.
44 upcoming workshops and classes in the East Bay. 8 are in the next seven days; the list is updated daily.
Everything in the East Bay →Workshops across the Bay →The full calendar →Burnoff for iPhone →
More in the East Bay Lectures 280Book talks 86Salons 18
Workshops elsewhere San Francisco 75Berkeley 26Oakland 11Santa Cruz 16North Bay 32South Bay 19
A guided walk and talk led by Kristina Parkison exploring Ohlone plant uses and cultural objects that sustain the Ohlone people's deep connection to the land they have stewarded since time immemorial. The program centers both historical and contemporary Ohlone practices. Ages 8 and up; adult participation required. Bring water, hat, layers, and sturdy shoes.
A full-day experiential workshop with Liz Koch exploring primal gestures and spinal awareness through movement practice. Drawing on embryological and somatic paradigms, participants will engage in 6 hours of guided movement (10am–1pm and 2–4pm, with a one-hour lunch break) designed to stimulate neuroplasticity, reduce stress, and awaken creativity. Koch, an internationally recognized somatic educator and author with 45+ years of expertise in psoas and core awareness, frames the spine as the nexus of embodied being and explores how micro-undulations and spirals in tissue reflect planetary rhythms. A Friday evening lecture by Koch is available as a separate ticketed event.
A four-week seminar exploring Dante's *Inferno* as both a masterwork of Western literature and a profound meditation on human striving and justice that resonates in our own historical moment. Led by Timothy Hampton, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley, the course will read the poem slowly, unpacking its mysteries, medieval philosophical context, and enduring relevance. Open discussion follows each session. Meets Thursdays, October 10, 17, 24, 31, 11 am–1 pm.
An immersive workshop exploring the esoteric meanings within the poetry of Indian mystic saints—Kabir and Guru Nanak—through indigenous folk songs of the Malwa region. Priyal Maheshwari, a musician and yoga teacher, guides participants by singing and interpreting these 600-year-old oral-tradition songs while accompanying himself on tambura and kartaal. The workshop alternates between song, storytelling about Kabir's life and India's oral traditions, collective reflection, and shared silence. Printed translations enable participants to follow along and join the singing. A contemplative experience designed to deepen self-discovery and a sense of connection.
Meet tarantulas in their natural habitat as summer turns to fall. Led by naturalist Alex Collins, this hands-on program explores why these arachnids emerge during mating season and offers a chance to observe them up close. Drop-in, no registration required; adult participation needed.
A workshop on Jungian dreamwork exploring how dreams provide access to the unconscious and support psychological growth and individuation. Alyssa Polizzi, a Jungian scholar and founder of The Artemisian educational platform, guides participants through the foundations of dream interpretation, common archetypal motifs, and a practical four-step method for analyzing dream symbols. Attendees are invited to bring a dream or striking dream image to explore in class.
A 3-part prompt-based storytelling workshop for adults and older adults led by Stagebridge, the nation's oldest performing arts organization for seniors. Participants can join a single session, multiple classes, or the entire series. Registration required by calling Montclair Branch at (510) 482-7810.
A four-session immersive workshop with Silvia Nakkach, Grammy-nominated composer and sound shaman, exploring sound as a living cosmic force. Participants will learn to improvise medicine melodies—spontaneous transmissions from nature and the spirit world—drawing on practices from Peruvian Amazon icaros, Afro-Brazilian invocations, Indian ragas, and healing invocations. The workshop cultivates deep listening, tonal centering, and vocal freedom as forms of spiritual attunement and musical divination. No singing experience required; open to anyone willing to listen, feel, and explore the sacred intelligence of the voice.
A guided nature walk and craft activity exploring plant galls—the bizarre growths created by insects, mites, and other organisms on plants. Led by Martha Cerda, this program combines botanical inquiry with creative play: after learning about gall ecology during a short forest walk, participants design and wear their own gall-inspired costume accessories, then parade them along the trail. All ages welcome; parent participation required. Drop-in, no registration needed.
A guided birdwatching walk exploring migratory and resident waterbirds at Crab Cove, led by naturalist Kevin Dixon. Participants will learn how local birds—from plovers to herons—are adapted to Bay habitats and seasonal food sources. Binoculars provided; beginners welcome. Ages 6+.
A grief tending circle led by Shannon Knorr and Petra Gojun, designed as a container to honor and metabolize grief through somatic exploration, movement, dream tending, and creative art-making. Participants will engage in altar building, writing, and ritual to hold personal and collective grief — including grief from loss, life transitions, chronic illness, identity shifts, and systemic crises. This is not talk therapy but rather an earthy, concrete practice space welcoming all types of grievers. Bring a journal, writing materials, and comfortable clothing for movement; art supplies and yoga props provided.
Learn the principles and practice of Japanese tea ceremony in an immersive 75-minute workshop led by Harue Imaizumi, a certified Omotesenke tea instructor based in Berkeley. The session covers matcha and Japanese tea culture, wellness benefits, ceremony etiquette, and hands-on whisking technique. You'll prepare and enjoy your own bowl of matcha with traditional Japanese sweets, then receive practical guidance on brewing matcha at home from water temperature to storage. Tea sourced from ochamode, founded by Mayuka Inaba, featuring organic matcha from Shizuoka, Japan. Q&A with instructor and founder included.
A lantern-lit Día de Muertos walk to Jewel Lake led by Paula Urtecho, honoring deceased loved ones and extinct and endangered park species. Bring a photo of someone you wish to remember to add to a communal altar. The walk covers 0.5–2 miles on paved and gravel trails with minimal elevation change. Drop-in, no registration required.
A somatic movement workshop led by interdisciplinary artist Steffani Jemison, an Associate Professor at Rutgers University and exhibiting artist whose work spans mark-making, gesture, projection, and movement. Drawing on the children's game 'Marco Polo,' participants will explore orientation, perspective, and relation through guided improvisation, playful prompts, and contact improvisation. The workshop integrates theory, fiction, and poetry—referencing Dionne Brand, Tyrone S. Palmer, and Quincy Troupe—and is adaptable to all bodies and physical capacities. No prior movement experience required.
A poetry writing workshop led by writer and educator Darius Simpson, exploring vulnerability and creative expression through verse as a form of resistance. The workshop welcomes all experience levels and draws on traditions of the Black Arts Movement and spoken word circles, fostering peer dialogue and collective learning. Simpson is a New Afrikan writer, farmer, and recipient of fellowships from the Poetry Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts; his collection Never Catch Me is recently published.
Learn to tell compelling stories across any medium with writer and filmmaker David Feather. This hands-on workshop explores story structure using popular media, examines storytelling techniques from cultures around the world, and includes collaborative writing and feedback on participant ideas. Designed for teens, tweens, and young adults. Part of Literally How, a monthly life literacy series at Berkeley Public Library's North Branch offering hands-on skill-building workshops.
On election night, physicist and author Sky Nelson-Isaac guides an interactive workshop on staying grounded when politics divides us. Drawing on his forthcoming book *The Synchronicity Path* and years of seeking out people with different worldviews, Nelson-Isaac introduces SEW (Style, Emotions, Wholeness)—a simple framework for staying curious rather than taking sides. The event combines real conversation, wine, and collective inquiry into the deeper questions beneath recurring arguments.
A professional development workshop for K–12 and college educators on US involvement in fascism from the Spanish Civil War through the Nuremberg trials and beyond. Sebastiaan Faber of the Abraham Lincoln Brigades Archives and Oberlin College explores how American citizens, policy, and institutions responded to the rise of fascism in Europe and its legacies. Designed for teachers and students seeking historical context and pedagogical approaches to this period.
A two-part workshop exploring movement building rooted in deep relationships and collective responsibility. Part One uses guided poetry and storytelling to explore kuleana—our responsibilities to ourselves, families, lands, and communities—through hands-on writing exercises. Part Two, facilitated by SOUL, RUKUS Society, and the Huli Movement, covers campaign strategy, organizing tactics, targets, messaging, and security culture for building sustainable movements. Led by Dr. Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, a Kanaka Maoli organizer, scholar, and Associate Professor of Indigenous and Native Hawaiian Politics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
A 2-hour introductory workshop in Guided Imagery and Music (GIM), an experiential group practice rooted in the Bonny Method—a recognized music-psychotherapy modality developed from Helen Bonny's work supporting LSD-assisted therapy in the 1960s. Participants lie down and listen to two curated classical music programs designed to surface inner imagery, emotion, and insight, then integrate the experience through mandala drawing. No musical or art background required; the practice opens expanded awareness through sound, relaxation, and attention alone. Led by Sophia Wang at The Berkeley Alembic.
Learn traditional seed-cleaning techniques—threshing and winnowing—with Farmer Sama of Reyhan Herb Farm, a small-scale Bay Area grower of heritage crops from the SWANA region. This hands-on workshop transforms the end-of-season seed harvest into dry, shelf-stable seed lots ready for storage and sharing. Participants will engage in practices unchanged since agriculture's origins while entering a flow state of meditative, connective work. The event celebrates ancestral foodways, ecological knowledge, and the relaxation found in working with your hands alongside others.
Discover which owls inhabit the Bay Area and learn about their adaptations in this hands-on nature program led by naturalist Melissa Fowlks at Tilden Nature Area's Environmental Education Center. Participants will dissect owl pellets to understand these silent hunters' diets and behavior. Drop-in; no registration required.
An immersive afternoon of mantra, sound practice, and embodied exploration with Grammy-nominated artist and teacher Radhika Vekaria. Through direct practice—chanting, mudras, breath work, and group vocalization—participants explore sound as an organizing intelligence for cultivating focus, presence, and inner coherence. The workshop draws on yogic philosophy to examine mantra's deeper meaning, the relationship between sound and resilience, and chant as a practice of clarity and courage. No prior experience required. The afternoon closes with a 75-minute live performance by Vekaria in a communal setting.
Educator, anthropologist, and community organizer Isa Prieto leads a discussion and collective mapmaking activity exploring utopianism and the fragments of utopia already present in Bay Area neighborhoods. Participants will engage in hands-on mapping as both an intellectual and creative practice, examining how communities envision and build alternative futures. Hosted at BAMPFA (Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive).
A reading and generative workshop celebrating Emilie Lygren's anthology *How to Get Home in the Dark: Poems on Mental Health and Healing*. Lygren reads alongside poets Alegria Barclay, Zeina Hashem Beck, Melissa Fowlks, and Antwan Linton Penn, followed by a brief panel discussion. Attendees then write their own pieces in conversation with the anthology—paper, pens, and journal space provided. A space for poetry, reflection, and shared creative practice around healing and mental health.
A workshop on lucid dreaming as a trainable skill and gateway to psychonavigation—the art of moving through your own psyche with clarity and intention. Mother-daughter teaching team Norma Burton and Nisha Burton guide participants through foundational practices from cultures worldwide, including dreamwork, shadow work, and drumming journeys. Designed to build an inner map supporting healing, intuition, and discernment, the workshop also serves as preparation for integrating psychedelic experiences.
A three-part prompt-based storytelling workshop series designed for older adults, led by Stagebridge, the nation's oldest performing arts organization for seniors. No storytelling experience necessary. Participants can join single sessions or the full series. Sessions are October 27th, November 10th, and November 24th. Registration encouraged but not required; walk-ins welcome.
A writing workshop on embodying memoir, led by Savala Nolan, author of *Good Woman: A Reckoning* and *Don't Let It Get You Down: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Body*. Nolan explores how writers draw from and contend with the body to craft honest, fresh memoir — what our bodies can tell us that minds cannot, how to work with embodiment when we live in a society hostile to our bodies, and concrete approaches to honest representation. The session includes examples of embodied writing from celebrated authors and a skills-building exercise. Bring pen, notebook, or laptop.
A beginning twined basketry workshop using paper rush, led by Michelle and Jenny of Jardin Wicker. Twining is an ancient weaving technique where horizontal strands are twisted around vertical strands to create strong, pliable structures. Participants will complete a finished basket in this session, with colorful hand-dyed options available. Returning students can learn to add handles and lids to advance their skills. Instructors Michelle and Jenny are fine artists and wicker specialists with decades of experience in restoration and weaving. Open to ages 9 and up.
A two-hour memoir workshop led by Katharine Harer, a poet and creative writing instructor. Participants will excavate and write personal memories—sights, sounds, feelings, smells, tastes—and learn techniques for crafting vivid, emotionally resonant stories from lived experience. Harer has taught memoir and creative writing at the San Francisco Writing Salon for eight years and previously taught English at Skyline College. She is the author of seven poetry collections, including *Deconfliction* (2020) and *Jazz & Other Hot Subjects* (2016), with work published widely in literary journals, newspapers, magazines, and anthologies.
A guided winter birding experience along the Pacific Flyway led by Naturalist Aki. Big Break's paved trails and pier viewpoints make it accessible for birders of all levels. The program uses birding by sound and adaptive scope equipment to help participants connect with migratory birds. The hike covers 0.5–2 miles on generally flat terrain with multiple rest opportunities and restroom access at the Visitor Center. Drop-in program; no registration required. Adult participation required.
An evening exploring Oakland's boxing legacy and the next generation keeping the sport alive in the Bay Area. The program combines conversation and history with a hands-on boxing workshop led by community practitioners. Wear comfortable clothes and shoes; the workshop welcomes complete beginners of all ages and bodies, requiring no prior experience or equipment.
A day-long celebration of The Berkeley Alembic's new managing director Anisa Charucksiri and the organization's next chapter, featuring eight teachers offering art, meditation, voice, dance, somatic connection, and kirtan throughout the afternoon and evening. Co-founders Michael Taft and Erik Davis will share long-term visions, with a community gathering and guided meditation in the late afternoon, followed by dancing, kirtan, and live music into the night. Food trucks and tea service available. Open to the Alembic community and curious guests.
Make a warming and fragrant pot pourri while sipping apple cider and gathering in community to reflect on intentions for the end of the year. Led by Talyce Ketura, a queer, mixed Afro-Caribbean herbalist, writer, and founder of Àtúnbí Wellness, who brings nearly a decade of experience in herbal medicine and reproductive justice rooted in Black feminist praxis. Part of Freedom Community Clinic's Herbalist-in-Residence program, which offers bi-weekly hands-on workshops in herbal craft and medicine-making.
A multi-day ritual event combining storytelling, music, and visual altars exploring belonging and diaspora. Presented by EastSide Arts Alliance, Puri Arts, Asian Refugees United, and the Asian Prisoner Support Committee, featuring artist Dohee Lee and musician Adria Otte. The program includes 'Calling the Spirit,' a musical offering (Friday, Nov. 20, 7pm), and two sessions of 'Storytelling and Ritual' (Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 21-22, 2pm) immersed in altars and offerings.
A hands-on workshop on piracy basics, hosted at Tamarack, a community space, café, and lending library focused on critical theory, social movements, and local history.
An interactive workshop for developing and performing personal stories. Participants will explore the fundamentals of crafting compelling narratives rooted in memory, identity, and lived experience through writing prompts, group exercises, and performance guidance. The workshop, led by Diaspora Arts Connection's storytelling program Third Culture Tales, focuses on emotional clarity, narrative structure, and authentic audience connection in a supportive, community-centered environment. By the end, participants will have the foundation of a personal story and the tools to perform it. Selected participants can then share their stories at Berkeley Open Stage, the festival's community storytelling event.
Transform your favorite books into glittering, one-of-a-kind keepsakes at this hands-on bedazzling workshop. Bring a beloved book from home or select from a curated menu of sassy classics provided on-site. All materials—rhinestones, gems, embellishments, and tools—plus step-by-step guidance are included. No crafting experience needed. Wine and snacks provided. Perfect for creating unique holiday gifts or adding sparkle to your own shelf.
A guided winter birdwalk led by naturalist Susan Ramos at Crown Memorial State Beach's Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary. Learn to identify shorebirds and marsh birds during their winter season, distinguishing between similar species in grays and browns. Binoculars available to borrow; beginners welcome. Drop-in, no registration required.
A guided nature walk exploring ferns and other ancient plants predating flowers, led by Anthony Fisher. Participants will identify species and learn about fern biology and ecology. Drop-in, no registration required. Meeting at the Environmental Education Center in Tilden Nature Area.
A winter bird-watching program for families led by Naturalist Miriam at Big Break Regional Preserve. Participants will observe migratory birds passing through the Delta, engage in crafts, and learn about winter ecology through play and guided exploration. Drop-in program; adult supervision required.
An end-of-year reading celebration and DIY book journal workshop at Book Society. Attendees share their favorite reads of 2026 on a Community Shelf, then craft a personalized reading journal for 2027 using provided templates and materials. The afternoon includes sparkling cider and closes with a toast to the new year. No artistic experience needed.
Stacey Lindsay, author of *Being 40*, explores the Autumn Queen—a mythological archetype embodying courage, creativity, intuition, and power that has been conspicuously absent from how we narrate women's lives. Historically, the Maiden, Mother, and Crone dominated storytelling; Lindsay argues this erasure was deliberate and shows how to reclaim this missing stage. The event combines conversation about the Autumn Queen with hands-on creative practice: guided journaling, sketching, and crafting to uncover your own inner Autumn Queen, including designing a tarot card and making a personal ornament.
A practice-based workshop anchored in Katherine May's Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times. Rather than a book report, this session explores rest as a radical practice — reframing winter (both seasonal and personal) not as failure but as necessary dormancy. Drawing on May's reframing of fallow, slowed-down seasons as integral to a whole life, participants reflect on how to integrate rest into their own rhythms and resist the cultural pressure to perpetually produce. The workshop provides space, ideas, and guidance to move from understanding the concept to actually practicing it.
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