Lectures and talks in Oakland

Shannon Rogers: Myriad — Artist Guided Walk-through @ pt.2 Gallery

Culture & Humanities Lecture / Forum

Sat, Oct 24 ·12:00 pm ·pt.2 Gallery ·Oakland

A guided walk-through of Shannon Rogers: Myriad, an exhibition of geometric abstraction paintings by Oakland-based artist Shannon Rogers. The show features expansive, intricately constructed works that move between recognizable landscape and abstraction, drawing from archetypal visions of volcanoes, canyons, ruins, and sunsets while geometric structures disrupt coherent perspective. Rogers explores interconnectedness and multiple readings of space, informed by Daoist philosophy. The artist will lead the walk-through.

via Art Bae ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
What to expect when El Niño is expecting

Science & TechCivics & Power Lecture / Forum

Sat, Oct 24 ·12:00 pm ·Tamarack ·Oakland

A talk demystifying El Niño and its local impacts, followed by an open community forum on preparedness and resilience. Learn what to expect from this climate pattern and how Oakland residents can prepare.

via Tamarack ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Gravitational waves: exploring the dark side of the Universe — Gabriele Vajente, Deputy Head of System Science and Engineering of the LIGO Laboratory at Caltech

Science & Tech Lecture / Forum Free

Sat, Oct 24 ·7:30 pm ·Chabot Space & Science Center ·Oakland

Gabriele Vajente, Deputy Head of System Science and Engineering at the LIGO Laboratory (Caltech), explores gravitational waves and what we've learned from a decade of detections. Ten years after LIGO first detected gravitational waves from colliding black holes, the field has become central to modern astronomy. Vajente will discuss how LIGO detects these ripples in space-time, discoveries about black holes and neutron stars, and future directions for gravitational-wave science.

via East Bay Astro ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Tax Release: Art Installation and Public Shredding Event

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / Forum Free

Sun, Oct 25 ·11:00 am ·Local Economy ·Oakland

Professor Galen Crantz displays her personal tax returns from 1963–2018 in a one-day public installation, inviting visitors to witness the accumulation of bureaucratic effort embedded in decades of filing. Attendees are welcome to bring their own tax documents (older than 7 years) to shred manually onsite or deposit in secure bins for later shredding at Berkeley Shreds. The exhibition critiques the collective time investment required by tax filing and asks what more productive uses of our effort might look like.

via Local Economy ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Special Guest Gallery Chat with Traditional Medicine Practitioner Batul True Heart

Culture & HumanitiesCommunity & Practice Lecture / ForumMuseum

Sun, Oct 25 ·1:00 pm ·Oakland Museum of California ·Oakland ·$10

A 30-minute gallery talk with Batul True Heart, a 2Spirit Yaqui-Chicane and Panamanian death and grief worker, herbal medicine maker, and emotional release specialist. Batul will share their personal experience practicing traditional medicine during times of mourning, discussing the path to earth-based ancestral medicine, Indigenous perspectives on emotion, and practical ways to connect with feelings, the earth, and natural elements. As part of OMCA's Día de los Muertos Community Celebration, they will introduce cempoalxóchitl (marigold) and how to work with it during grief. Batul co-creates Floripondio End of Life Planning and Services and produces Maaso Medicina: Flower Medicine for Ancestral, Generational, and Personal Pain.

via Oakland Museum ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
American Witch Hunts: From Salem to the Lavender Scare — Ilyssa Forman

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumBar / Cafe Talk

Mon, Oct 26 ·6:30 pm ·Mad Oak Bar ‘N’ Yard ·Oakland ·$25

Who gets called a witch—and what happens when people believe them? UC Berkeley PhD candidate Ilyssa Forman traces the history of American witch hunts from Salem through the Lavender Scare, exploring how the idea of the witch has been weaponized against those deemed dangerous by society: women who refused to obey, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, sex workers, and other criminalized "others." Through centuries of American fear and difference, Forman asks what makes witch hunts possible, why people become convinced danger hides among them, and what happens when the hunt outlasts the supposed threat. A lecture on power, persecution, and the language of exclusion, followed by Q&A and discussion.

via Pub Scholar ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
What Psychedelics Reveal About How We See the World

Science & Tech Lecture / Forum

Mon, Oct 26 ·7:00 pm ·The New Parkway Theater ·Oakland ·$27

How does the brain construct our conscious visual experience? Michael Silver, Professor of Optometry, Vision Science and Neuroscience at UC Berkeley and director of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, explores how vision is an active inference shaped by attention, expectations, goals, and past experience—closer to a controlled hallucination than a camera. He will discuss how psilocybin research is revealing how the brain generates these inferences and illuminating the nature of consciousness itself. Includes Q&A.

via Big Brain SF ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Fatimah Asghar & Hieu Minh Nguyen - Daughter of the Mountains

Culture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / ForumBar / Cafe Talk Free

Tue, Oct 27 ·6:00 pm ·Local Economy ·Oakland

Fatimah Asghar discusses her debut poetry collection *Daughter of the Mountains*, which explores exile, displacement, belonging, spirituality, and lineage through meditative, formally inventive verse. The collection grapples with fulfillment, betrayal, love, loss, and longing, using vivid imagery and disruptive form to examine how place and environment inform spiritual practice. Asghar appears in conversation with poet Hieu Minh Nguyen.

via Local Economy ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Graphic Novel Group

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumLibrary

Tue, Oct 27 ·6:30 pm ·Oakland Public Library — Rockridge Branch ·Oakland

A monthly gathering for graphic novel enthusiasts featuring author talks, participant recommendations, and collaborative drawing and writing sessions. The October 27th meeting features Rina Ayuyang, an Eisner-nominated cartoonist and 25-year veteran of the Bay Area indie comics scene. Ayuyang's latest graphic novel, *The Man in the McIntosh Suit*, was named one of the best books of 2023 by the New York Public Library. Meetings held the fourth Tuesday of each month.

via Oakland Public Library ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Becoming Leaderful: Building the Communities We Want

Civics & Power Lecture / Forum Free

Tue, Oct 27 ·6:30 pm ·Oakland Asian Cultural Center ·Oakland

A panel discussion on community leadership and social change featuring Claudia Leung (Director of Programs, New Breath Foundation), Tash Nguyen (community organizer, Restore Oakland), and Krishna Desai (attorney, Desai Tran), moderated by Kim Tran. Panelists will explore refuting the model minority myth, overcoming learned powerlessness, and building lasting community change. Attendees will gain new models and inspiration for taking active roles in social transformation. Childcare and light refreshments provided.

via Oakland Asian Cultural Center ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Jenn Scott - All the Tiny Beauties

Culture & Humanities Book TalkBookshopLecture / Forum

Tue, Oct 27 ·7:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$22.11

A discussion of Jenn Scott's debut novel *All the Tiny Beauties*, which spans 90 years in Oakland and explores shifting notions of self across generations through interconnected stories: a reclusive man, his estranged daughter, and a young housemate who form an unlikely friendship that defies age and expectation. Scott and facilitator Andrea Gough examine how the novel grapples with the fragility of identity, societal constraints on authentic selfhood, and the question of who we might become under different circumstances. Scott's work has appeared in *Fiction*, *Gettysburg Review*, and *Alaska Quarterly Review*; her debut collection *Her Adult Life* was longlisted for the PEN America/Bingham Award. Gough is an educator specializing in discussion-based curricula and the transformative power of literature to unsettle and expand thinking.

via Clio's Books ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Women's Impact Summit

Business & EconomyCivics & Power Conference / SymposiumLecture / Forum

Wed, Oct 28 ·8:30 am ·PG&E Auditorium ·Oakland

A regional summit convening 250+ senior women leaders from Bay Area business and civic sectors to discuss pressing issues shaping the region's economic and social future. Keynote from First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Hosted by the Bay Area Council at PG&E Auditorium.

via Bay Area Council ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Ashia S. Ajani with Keala Uchôa - Tending the Vines

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumBook Talk ✦ burnoff pick

Wed, Oct 28 ·6:00 pm ·EastSide Arts Alliance ·Oakland

Author-researcher Ashia S. Ajani and community organizer Keala Uchôa discuss *Tending the Vines*, which unpacks the rhetorical and ethnobotanical lives of plants moved across the Western Hemisphere. The book examines how plants have served as metaphors for Black incursion and symbols for Black liberation, while complicating notions of "invasive" species and belonging. Ajani contextualizes plant migration through an eco-griot and abolitionist lens, while Uchôa brings her work at the intersection of abolition and environmental justice. A conversation on diasporic plant relatives and tender living amid the decline of empire.

via EastSide Arts Alliance ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Are Ghosts Real? Inside Bay Area Paranormal Investigation

Culture & Humanities Film + TalkLecture / ForumBar / Cafe Talk

Wed, Oct 28 ·6:30 pm ·Oakland Athletic Club ·Oakland ·$25

A screening and discussion of The Haunted Bay, an Amazon Prime documentary series exploring reported paranormal activity at Bay Area locations. Creator and producer Ying Liu discusses her investigations into historic San Francisco theaters, bars, the USS Hornet, and other sites, examining both rational explanations and unexplained occurrences while uncovering the history behind each location. Liu will take attendees behind the scenes of the documentary and share what goes into investigating a haunting, followed by audience Q&A. Part of Pub Scholar's lecture series at Bay Area bars.

via Pub Scholar ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Tomas Moniz & Laleh Khadivi in Conversation

Culture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / Forum Free

Thu, Oct 29 ·6:00 pm ·Local Economy ·Oakland

Two Bay Area novelists discuss their new works. Tomas Moniz presents *The King of Aloe Vera*, a novel about the Mission, intergenerational friendship, and aging. Laleh Khadivi discusses *Female Life on Planet Earth*, exploring mothers, daughters, and family secrets. Khadivi chairs the creative writing MFA at USF and is author of *The Age of Orphans* and *A Good Country* (New York Times Editors' Choice); Moniz teaches at Berkeley City College, Antioch MFA, and USF, and his novel *All Friends Are Necessary* won the 2024 California Golden Poppy Award.

via Local Economy ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
David Maisel and the Apocalyptic Sublime — David Maisel with Alexander Nemerov

Culture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop

Thu, Oct 29 ·7:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$71.21

An evening celebrating David Maisel's career survey *View from the Precipice*, a comprehensive monograph spanning forty years of photography, painting, and video. Maisel's aerial works address landscapes transformed by mineral extraction, resource reclamation, and military testing—sites rendered as destabilizing abstractions that use beauty to force attention on environmental catastrophe. His large-scale paintings respond to wildfire and flood; his immersive installations layer spatial ambiguity with human-altered geographies. Maisel will appear in conversation with art historian Alexander Nemerov (Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor at Stanford, author of *Fierce Poise*) and Clio's founder Timothy Don to discuss the artist's practice and the monograph's development.

via Clio's Books ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Hell and the Imagination: Reading Dante’s Inferno

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumBookshop

Sat, Oct 31 ·11:00 am ·Clio’s Books ·Oakland ·$10

A four-week seminar on Dante's Inferno, exploring one of Western literature's greatest narrative poems and its continued relevance to contemporary crises of justice and human striving. Timothy Hampton, Aldo Scaglione and Marie M. Burns Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and French at UC Berkeley, will provide historical and philosophical context on Dante's medieval worldview before opening discussion of the text. Participants should read Robert Pinsky's English translation. Meeting Fridays, October 10–31, 11 a.m.–1 p.m. at Clio's Books.

via Clio's Books ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Lung Cancer Awareness in the Asian American Community

Science & TechCivics & Power Lecture / ForumLibrary

Sat, Oct 31 ·1:00 pm ·Oakland Public Library — Asian Branch ·Oakland

A community conversation on lung cancer in the Asian American community, with clinical and research perspectives. Dr. Velotta, a thoracic surgeon at Kaiser Permanente, will discuss clinical insights alongside patient experiences. Dr. Lin, a clinical researcher and lung cancer patient at Stanford University, will share both research findings and her personal experience. The discussion covers prevention, diagnosis, treatment, research advances, and lived experiences, with a focus on raising awareness and encouraging open dialogue about lung cancer in Asian communities.

via Oakland Public Library ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Tommy Orange & Shane Hawk - Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II

Culture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / Forum Free

Tue, Nov 3 ·6:00 pm ·Local Economy ·Oakland

Tommy Orange, author of *There There*, discusses the new Indigenous horror anthology *Back for Blood: Never Whistle at Night Part II* with co-editor Shane Hawk. This collection features 21 stories by established and emerging Native and First Nations writers—including Stephen Graham Jones—drawing on Indigenous experiences, histories, and traditions to showcase horror as a vehicle for survival and transformation. The editors describe the work as 'sustained dread, sustained appetite, sustained consequence.'

via Local Economy ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
How Hollywood Gets Ghosts Wrong (and Right)

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumBar / Cafe Talk

Wed, Nov 4 ·6:30 pm ·51 and TEL ·Oakland ·$25

A lecture on how cinema portrays the paranormal compared to actual reported paranormal experiences. Loyd Auerbach, a parapsychologist, paranormal investigator, and author who appeared in Netflix's Surviving Death, draws on decades of research investigating paranormal claims to unpack Hollywood's ghost-story tropes, myths, and cinematic liberties. He'll explore where films take creative license, where portrayals may align with reported experiences, and why the reality of the paranormal is often more complex than movies suggest. Includes audience Q&A.

via Pub Scholar ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
One Fighting Irishman: A Film Screening and Panel Discussion

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Film + TalkLecture / ForumMuseum Free

Thu, Nov 5 ·6:00 pm ·Oakland Asian Cultural Center ·Oakland

A screening of *One Fighting Irishman*, a 30-minute documentary by Sharon Yamato and Evan Kodani narrated by George Takei, followed by a panel discussion on immigrant rights, Japanese American history, and allyship. The film tells the story of Wayne M. Collins, the San Francisco civil rights attorney who prevented the deportation of more than 5,500 Japanese Americans imprisoned at Tule Lake Segregation Center during WWII. The panel features filmmaker Sharon Yamato, Justice Tracie Brown (California Court of Appeal), and civil rights advocates, moderated by Justice Brown. Light refreshments provided.

via Oakland Asian Cultural Center ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
The Havana Syndrome — Lowell Bergman with Michael Rey & Oriana Zill de Granados

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop

Thu, Nov 5 ·7:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$37.05

An evening discussion on *The Havana Syndrome*, the investigative book by Emmy-award-winning 60 Minutes producers Michael Rey and Oriana Zill de Granados, in conversation with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Lowell Bergman. Rey and Zill de Granados recount their decade-long investigation into a mysterious weapon that has targeted U.S. diplomats, intelligence officials, and military personnel from Havana to Vienna. They discuss how they interviewed victims, uncovered suppressed government documents, and identified evidence of a highly specialized technology—all while the U.S. government denied the attacks. Bergman, a legendary investigative journalist and professor of journalism at UC Berkeley, will explore their groundbreaking reporting and the obstacles they faced breaking through classified material and institutional resistance.

via Clio's Books ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Making Sense of Medicare

Civics & Power Lecture / ForumLibrary

Fri, Nov 6 ·12:00 pm ·Oakland Public Library — Dimond Branch ·Oakland

Learn how Medicare changes coming in 2027 will affect your health care coverage, formularies, copays, deductibles, and out-of-pocket costs. Denise Lombard, a health insurance specialist with 25+ years of experience, will help you understand the impact on both Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plans and Original Medicare with Medigap coverage, and guide you through making the best coverage decision for 2027.

via Oakland Public Library ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Special Guest Gallery Chat: Exploring BeHere/ 1942 with Margaret Yee

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumMuseum

Sat, Nov 7 ·1:00 pm ·Oakland Museum of California ·Oakland

A gallery walkthrough exploring BeHere/1942: A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration, an exhibition featuring enlarged and recontextualized photographs by Dorothea Lange and Russell Lee, activated with augmented reality. Museum educator Margaret Yee examines media representation and the language used to describe forced incarceration, examining the power dynamics between photographers and subjects. The session concludes with a poetry exercise centered on Mitsuye Yamada's 'Evacuation,' encouraging visitors to look beyond the images to the emotional and historical dimensions of this moment.

via Oakland Museum ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Paris Marx - Hyperscale: The Ambition and Excess of Big Tech's Data Empires

Business & EconomyCivics & Power Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop

Sun, Nov 8 ·2:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$34.92

Tech critic Paris Marx discusses his book *Hyperscale*, which exposes how tech companies exploit vulnerable communities to power their data infrastructure while pursuing digital dominance. The conversation explores the industry's deceptive practices around energy and water resources, the growing public backlash—including Oakland's recent moratorium on new data centers—and pathways toward technology that serves the social good rather than billionaire profits. Marx, host of the podcast *Tech Won't Save Us*, is joined by Dr. Alex Hanna, a sociologist of technology and labor at the Distributed AI Research Institute and co-author of *The AI Con*.

via Clio's Books ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Crossing the Rubicon: The Betrayal of American Democracy, 2000–2026 — Mark Danner with Arlie Russell Hochschild

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumBookshop

Sun, Nov 8 ·5:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$31.66

How do we recognize history while we are still living through it? Journalist and political thinker Mark Danner traces twenty-six years of American political life from the disputed 2000 election through the rise and return of Donald Trump, examining how democratic institutions have been tested and transformed. In conversation with sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of *Strangers in Their Own Land* and *Stolen Pride*, they explore both the political forces shaping the nation and the human lives shaped by those forces. Hochschild's work, selected by Barack Obama as a favorite book of 2024, examines the emotions and identities beneath America's political divisions. Anthropologist Cari Borja, Clio's founding member, opens the evening, contextualizing the conversation within the history of ideas. $10.

via Clio's Books ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Find Your Story: Local Authors, Librarians & Belonging

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Lecture / Forum Free

Mon, Nov 9 ·6:00 pm ·Local Economy ·Oakland

An anchor event for Oakland is a Reading Town, a campaign celebrating local literacy and community belonging. Panelists include librarians Denise Ngnan (Roosevelt Middle School) and Sam Soloman (Calvin Simmons Library), YA/kids author Maggie Tokuda-Hall, and graphic novelists Thien Pham and Wahab Algarmi discussing storytelling and the role of libraries in building community. The event includes a button-making station.

via Local Economy ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro & Nadia Ellis - Daylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He Made

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop

Mon, Nov 9 ·7:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$33.85

An evening exploring how artist and activist Harry Belafonte used fame as a force for political change. Geographer and writer Joshua Jelly-Schapiro discusses his book *Daylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He Made*, tracing Belafonte's pivotal role in the civil rights movement, his friendship with Sidney Poitier and Martin Luther King Jr., and how he brought Caribbean music into American consciousness. UC Berkeley English professor Nadia Ellis, author of *Territories of the Soul: Queered Belonging in the Black Diaspora*, joins the conversation alongside cultural anthropologist and Clio's founding member Cari Borja, who brings her own fieldwork from Jamaica. Together they explore the intersections of music, migration, race, and activism, asking what it means when an artist becomes a force capable of changing the world.

via Clio's Books ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Housing Advocacy 101: Understanding Policy and Making Your Voice Heard

Civics & Power Lecture / Forum ✦ burnoff pick

Tue, Nov 10 ·5:30 pm ·Local Economy ·Oakland

Learn how local housing policy decisions are made and how to advocate effectively for change. SPUR Urban Center hosts this introductory forum on housing advocacy, offering answers to common policy questions and practical guidance for engaging in the civic process.

via SPUR Urban Center ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Mike Alvarez Cohen with Darren Cooke & Laura Hassner - Startup Campus

Business & EconomyCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumBookshop

Tue, Nov 10 ·7:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$23.13

A conversation on how ideas become ventures and how entrepreneurial ecosystems shape innovation. Mike Alvarez Cohen, UC Berkeley's Director of Innovation Ecosystem Development and author of *Startup Campus*, discusses Berkeley's rise as a global center for entrepreneurship alongside Darren Cooke, Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer, and Laura Hassner, Executive Director of the Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Moderated by Missy Martin, founder of Cat Eye Collective. The evening opens with cultural anthropologist Cari Borja exploring how ideas move between people and what kinds of places enable that movement—examining not just what gets built, but what happens between the people doing the building.

via Clio's Books ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Food & Bev, Vol 5: Behind the Scenes with Cookbook Creators

Culture & HumanitiesBusiness & Economy Lecture / ForumSalon Free

Wed, Nov 11 ·6:00 pm ·Local Economy ·Oakland

Behind-the-scenes look at cookbook publishing and creation, exploring what it takes to bring culinary books to market. Speakers include Maria Zizka, James Beard Award–nominated cookbook author and editor (six of her own, 50+ with chefs like Yotam Ottolenghi and Suzanne Goin); Joyce Tang, who left tech for culinary school and co-wrote her debut cookbook *Bake Sum* with Soleil Ho; and Aya Brackett, Oakland photographer whose work appears in cookbooks by Maria, Joyce, and Samin Nosrat. Hosted by Margarita Florez Vasconcelos (founder of Showoff) with conversation, Q&A, and light snacks.

via Local Economy ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
The Science of Longing

Culture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop

Wed, Nov 11 ·7:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$23.13

What happens when the desire to know becomes inseparable from the desire for something to be true? Scott Lambridis and Yance Wyatt, authors of the debut novels *St. Ulphia's Dead* and *The Watersmith*, explore how grief, love, memory, and loss complicate the boundaries between evidence, belief, obsession, and hope. Their conversation moves between psychology, science, faith, and mythology to ask what makes a belief reasonable, where skepticism becomes its own certainty, and whether emotion distorts inquiry or gives it urgency. At stake: when ordinary explanations fail us, what are we willing to believe in order to keep making sense of the world?

via Clio's Books ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
The Enneagram: Making Sense of Me, You, & Everyone Else

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumBar / Cafe Talk

Wed, Nov 11 ·7:00 pm ·Mother Tongue Cafe & Bar ·Oakland ·$25

An introduction to the Enneagram as a framework for understanding personality types, motivations, and interpersonal connection. Sheena Symone Blackwell, a PsyD student with six years of Enneagram study and emphasis on community-based behavioral health, will guide an engaging lesson and interactive exercise on how recognizing our own patterns can deepen intimacy and foster stronger relationships. The event includes a Q&A and time to mingle.

via Pub Scholar ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
David D. Schmidt - San Francisco Bay Area: An Environmental History

Science & TechCulture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / ForumLibrary

Thu, Nov 12 ·6:00 pm ·Oakland Public Library — Main Library ·Oakland

David D. Schmidt discusses his California Book Award–winning environmental history of the San Francisco Bay Area, tracing how natural forces and human choices have shaped the region's landscape over thousands of years. Schmidt will present his research with particular focus on Oakland and the East Bay, followed by audience Q&A and book signing.

via Oakland Public Library ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
George M. Johnson - And If I Die Before I Wake

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop Free

Thu, Nov 12 ·6:30 pm ·Marcus Books ·Oakland

Journalist and activist George M. Johnson discusses their adult memoir *And If I Die Before I Wake*, which recounts 15 transformative years navigating an HIV diagnosis, alcoholism, grief, and the fight against book banning. Johnson's previous work, *All Boys Aren't Blue*, remains a frequent target of censorship despite critical acclaim. In conversation with Maggie Tokuda-Hall, children's and YA author and co-founder of Authors Against Book Bans. Doors at 6 p.m.

via Litquake ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
William Kentridge’s The Head & the Load Nov 12–15

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Nov 12–15 Thu, Nov 12 ·7:30 pm ·Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts ·Oakland

The West Coast premiere of William Kentridge's seminal multimedia work chronicling the untold history of over two million Africans who labored, fought, and died during World War I. Through dance, projection, shadow play, song, and costume, Kentridge weaves together texts by anticolonial authors and Dada poets in multiple languages with original music by Philip Miller and Thuthuka Sibisi, blending traditional African songs with quotes from WWI-era European composers. The production takes its name from a Ghanaian proverb, "The head and the load are the troubles of the neck," continuing Kentridge's exploration of history, language, and political movements. Concept and direction by Kentridge; choreography by Gregory Maqoma; music direction by Thuthuka Sibisi.

via UC Berkeley ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
William Kentridge’s The Head & the Load

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Fri, Nov 13 ·7:30 pm ·Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts ·Oakland

William Kentridge's West Coast premiere of *The Head & the Load*, a visionary multimedia work that chronicles the untold history of more than two million Africans who labored, fought, and died during World War I. Through dance, projection, speech, song, shadow play, and costume, Kentridge—concept and director—weaves together texts by anticolonial authors and Dada poets with original music by composer Philip Miller and choreography by Gregory Maqoma. The production features co-composer and music director Thuthuka Sibisi, blending traditional African songs with WWI-era European compositions. Presented by Cal Performances at UC Berkeley.

via UC Berkeley ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Making Sense of Medicare

Civics & Power Lecture / ForumLibrary

Sat, Nov 14 ·12:30 pm ·Oakland Public Library — Rockridge Branch ·Oakland

A practical guide to upcoming Medicare changes in 2027, including shifts in HMO and PPO plan availability and increases to copays, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums. Presenter Denise Lombard, a health insurance specialist with over a decade of experience, will help attendees understand how these changes affect their coverage and walk through the plan-selection process before the December 7th deadline.

via Oakland Public Library ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Ghost in the Machine: Film screening and panel discussion

Science & TechCivics & Power Film + TalkLecture / ForumLibrary

Sat, Nov 14 ·2:00 pm ·Oakland Public Library — Main Library ·Oakland

A screening of Ghost in the Machine, a documentary exploring the origins of artificial intelligence in power structures rather than machines, directed by Valerie Veatch. Following the film, a moderated panel with Dr. Alex Hanna (Director of Research, Distributed AI Research Institute, co-author of The AI Con), Wendy Liu (author of Abolish Silicon Valley), Adam Becker (author of More Everything Forever), and Khari Johnson (tech reporter, CalMatters) will discuss AI's societal implications and the tech industry's role in shaping these technologies.

via Oakland Public Library ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Jae Nichelle & KB Brookins - Grownfolk Blues

Culture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop Free

Sat, Nov 14 ·6:00 pm ·Nomadic Bookshop ·Oakland

A conversation celebrating Jae Nichelle's poetic musical collection *Grownfolk Blues: A Musical in Poems*, a cross-genre work blending narrative verse with musical theater. Nichelle discusses this dynamic experiment in form and the queer Southern blues influences that inspired it, in conversation with local literary icon KB Brookins.

via Nomadic Bookshop ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Ecologies of Resistance: A Conversation with Authors Umi Vaughan, Tiffany Yap and Robert Liu-Trujillo

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Lecture / Forum Free

Sun, Nov 15 ·12:00 pm ·Oakland Asian Cultural Center ·Oakland

A conversation with three writers and artists exploring how creativity responds to attacks on land, memory, and cultural ecosystems. Robert Liu-Trujillo (illustrator of I Am Sausal Creek), Umi Vaughan (author of Rebel Dance, Renegade Stance and Carlos Aldama's Life in Batá), and Tiffany Yap (conservation scientist and urban wildlands science director at the Center for Biological Diversity) discuss crafting inclusive work that holds history, ecology, and lived experience simultaneously. The event concludes with a closing performance by SambaFunk.

via Oakland Asian Cultural Center ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Spotlight Sundays: Japanese American Legacies of Resistance

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumMuseum

Sun, Nov 15 ·1:00 pm ·Oakland Museum of California ·Oakland ·$10

A program exploring Japanese American legacies of resistance through OMCA's exhibition BeHere / 1942: A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration. OMCA Executive Director Lori Fogarty will open remarks, followed by Satsuki Ina and Miya Sommers—both with personal or familial ties to wartime incarceration—in conversation with host Joemy Ito-Gates about anti-imperialist organizing, solidarity, and healing work amid ongoing racial injustice. Taiko Peace will close with an interactive performance of "Ei Ja Nai Ka" honoring Japanese American immigrant ancestors and their resistance through taiko, dance, and song. A post-program Call to Action gathering and interactive protest art activities by Japanese American Families for Justice, Nikkei Resisters, and Tsuru for Solidarity will follow.

via Oakland Museum ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
William Kentridge’s The Head & the Load

Culture & Humanities Lecture / ForumUniversity / College

Sun, Nov 15 ·3:00 pm ·Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts ·Oakland

The West Coast premiere of William Kentridge's seminal work *The Head & the Load*, which chronicles the untold history of more than two million Africans who labored, fought, and died during World War I. The production weaves together texts by anticolonial authors and Dada poets in multiple languages with original music by Philip Miller and Thuthuka Sibisi that intermingles traditional African songs with early 20th-century European compositions. The work combines dance, projection, shadow play, costume, and live performance across a massive stage. Directed by Kentridge, with choreography by Gregory Maqoma and music direction by Sibisi.

via UC Berkeley ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
From Plymouth to the Pub: Thanksgiving, Native History, & Resistance

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumBar / Cafe Talk ✦ burnoff pick

Mon, Nov 16 ·6:30 pm ·Mad Oak Bar ‘N’ Yard ·Oakland ·$25

Jayden Lim, a Berkeley PhD student and Program Specialist at the California Indian Museum & Cultural Center, explores the untold histories beneath America's Thanksgiving mythology. Drawing on research into federal Indigenous relocation policies, Lim examines how Native peoples from across the country were relocated to urban centers like San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, and how they built community and resisted assimilation through Native bars that became gathering places for political organizing and cultural connection. This talk challenges familiar national narratives and centers the histories and ongoing presence of California's Indigenous communities, particularly Bay Area tribes.

via Pub Scholar ↗ Event link ↗ Edit
Archives of Love and Liberation — Tanaïs with Carvell Wallace

Culture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop

Tue, Nov 17 ·7:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$33.85

A conversation between award-winning authors Tanaïs and Carvell Wallace exploring what it means to write an archive of the past to imagine a more loving, liberated future. Tanaïs launches *Stellar Smoke*, a novel about Qamar, a musician who returns to her birth island after losing her apartment in a fire, only to discover VEDA—an artificial intelligence created by her late mother to hold their family's archive. The novel weaves climate change, refugee crises, fascism, and technological upheaval through intimate human experiences of family secrets, spirituality, and the mother-daughter bond. Wallace is author of the Kirkus-finalist memoir *Another Word for Love*. Tanaïs's *In Sensorium* won the Kirkus Prize and their novel *Bright Lines* was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

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Jori Lewis - A Natural History of the Spirits

Culture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop

Wed, Nov 18 ·7:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$30.64

Journalist and author Jori Lewis explores how the living world carries traces of human history—migration, colonialism, memory, and belonging—through objects like seashells, plants, and places. Moving between scientific discovery, myth, and folklore, Lewis examines how nature holds spiritual and cultural meaning. In conversation with Idrissa Simmonds-Nastili, Oakland-based writer and curator of the literary salon Brunch & Word. Cultural anthropologist Cari Borja, Clio's founding member, opens with reflections on how cultures read meaning into the natural world. Lewis is author of Slaves for Peanuts (Whiting Award, Harriet Tubman Prize) and A Natural History of the Spirits.

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Paulina Borsook & Jonathan Weber - Cyberselfish and City on the Edge

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop

Wed, Nov 18 ·7:00 pm ·Tally Ho! Books ·Oakland

A conversation on how Bay Area tech culture has shaped global politics, featuring two definitive books on the subject. Paulina Borsook, former Wired editor, discusses *Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech* (reissued 26 years after its original publication), a prescient critique of tech's toxic ethos and lack of compassion. Jonathan Weber, founding editor in chief of The San Francisco Standard and former editor of The Industry Standard, explores *City on the Edge: Technology, Politics, and the Fight for the Soul of San Francisco*, a sweeping history drawn from 200 interviews examining how the city's transformation into the global tech capital sparked the culture wars now playing out worldwide.

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Margiana Petersen-Rockney - Farmers and Climate Change: Agricultural Adaptation in an Age of Rural Polarization

Science & TechCivics & Power Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop

Thu, Nov 19 ·7:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$38

A conversation on how farmers and ranchers adapt to climate change beyond the politics of belief. Margiana Petersen-Rockney, environmental studies professor at University of Montana and political ecologist, draws on seven years of research in Northern California to explore the social, economic, and personal forces shaping agricultural adaptation—what it means to change how we farm when it touches land, family, identity, and generations of knowledge. She joins award-winning journalist Anna Sale, host of Slate's Death, Sex & Money and People Trying, for a dialogue on where climate science meets lived experience. Anthropologist Cari Borja, who works at the intersection of food, agriculture, and education, will introduce the conversation: How do we ask people to change without first understanding what we are asking them to risk?

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The Art of Bay Area Boxing

Community & PracticeCulture & Humanities Lecture / ForumWorkshop / Practice

Sat, Nov 21 ·1:00 pm ·Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts ·Oakland ·$20

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.

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Bridge of 봇 (Placenta) – A Ritual for Belonging

Culture & HumanitiesCommunity & Practice Lecture / ForumWorkshop / Practice

Sat, Nov 21 ·2:00 pm ·EastSide Arts Alliance ·Oakland

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.

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Harjant Gill with David Vine - Coming of Age in Macholand

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop

Mon, Nov 30 ·7:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$36.52

Anthropologist Harjant Gill discusses his book *Coming of Age in Macholand*, an ethnographic and memoir-based exploration of how young Punjabi men navigate rigid patriarchal systems—submitting, rebelling, trying to escape, or breaking under its constraints. Drawing on a decade of research, Gill examines how patriarchy claims to empower men while stripping them of emotional, sexual, and intimate freedom, while brutalizing women and queer people. He argues for what men must relinquish to become truly free. In conversation with David Vine, political anthropologist and author of *The United States of War* and *Base Nation*.

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Marie's Tree — Tom Molanphy with Arieann Harrison

Civics & PowerCulture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop

Wed, Dec 2 ·7:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$25.26

A conversation about Marie Harrison, an environmental activist who fought for housing, energy, and employment justice in San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point, and the environmental injustices her community endured—from contaminated water at Geneva Towers to radiation exposure near a major Superfund site. Freelance journalist Tom Molanphy, whose environmental reporting won a 2023 California News Publishers Association award, speaks with Arieann Harrison, Marie's daughter and Founder of the Marie Harrison Community Foundation. Half of book proceeds support the Foundation's continued work for environmental and economic justice in District 10.

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Julia Harte - Americans Without Borders

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop

Thu, Dec 3 ·7:00 pm ·Clio’s Books ·Oakland ·$10–$33.85

Investigative journalist Julia Harte discusses her book *Americans Without Borders: The Radical Activists Who Fought for US Ideals Abroad While Facing Political Persecution at Home*, which traces two centuries of Americans who joined revolutionary liberation movements abroad—from Black veterans of the Spanish Civil War to participants in Nicaragua's Sandinista conflict and the Algerian National Liberation Front—and examines how the U.S. security state branded them as threats. Harte will be joined by Sonia Paul, an award-winning independent journalist and producer who investigates power hierarchies and transnational issues for outlets including WIRED, Mother Jones, Harper's, and NPR.

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Janine Kovac & Shanthi Sekaran - The Nutcracker Chronicles: A Fairytale Memoir

Culture & Humanities Book TalkLecture / ForumBookshop

Mon, Dec 7 ·7:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$21.04

How did a colossal 1892 ballet flop become an unshakeable holiday tradition? Janine Kovac, former professional ballet dancer and author of The Nutcracker Chronicles: A Fairytale Memoir, explores the ballet's unlikely journey from artistic debacle to pop culture phenomenon in conversation with novelist Shanthi Sekaran (Lucky Boy, Boomi's Boombox). They discuss how The Nutcracker—first performed in the United States by San Francisco Ballet in 1944—evolved into a rite of passage for dancers and audiences alike, examining power dynamics, women's bodies in dance, and the cultural forces that transformed vague narratives and culturally insensitive motifs into an enduring American tradition.

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The Politics of Publishing

Culture & HumanitiesCivics & Power Lecture / ForumBookshop

Tue, Dec 8 ·7:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10

What determines which ideas get published, which voices are heard, and which stories enter cultural conversation? A panel explores the politics of publishing with Tim McKee (Publisher, North Atlantic Books), Michelle Phan (Marketing Manager, UC Press), and author and mental-health advocate Kelechi Ubozoh, discussing editorial power, knowledge systems, and representation across the publishing ecosystem. Using Ubozoh's anthology *We've Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health* as a case study, panelists examine how lived experience becomes valued as knowledge and what it takes for voices outside dominant systems to reach print and public attention. Moderated by Cari Borja, cultural anthropologist and Clio's founding member.

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Build or Die — Ned Resnikoff with Buffy Wicks & Natalie Foster

Civics & PowerBusiness & Economy Lecture / ForumBookshop

Wed, Dec 9 ·7:00 pm ·Clio's Books ·Oakland ·$10–$33.8

Cities across America face interlocking crises: chronic housing shortages, skyrocketing homelessness, car-dependent infrastructure poisoning the climate, and dysfunctional city governments. Ned Resnikoff, independent urban policy analyst and author of *Build or Die: How America Is Suffocating Its Cities and What to Do About It*, joins California Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and Natalie Foster, co-founder of Economic Security Project and author of *The Guarantee: Inside the Fight For America's Next Economy*, to examine how a century of shortsighted policy created this disaster and what structural changes can revitalize American cities and democracy.

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William Kentridge’s The Head & the Load Nov 12–15