* NOTE: Items in RED and with an asterisk before the date are local and being held in person.

Thursday, 8/1 through Saturday, 8/31

German Film Office/Goethe Film Institute: Der Wald: An 8 Film Series about the Forest

Thursday, 8/1, 2-5pm

Women in Media-Newark:  Women’s International Film Festival (Virtual)  From powerful documentaries to thought-provoking dramas, this event showcases the diverse talents and perspectives of women in film.

* Friday, 8/2, 7-8:30pm

Rotary Nature Center Friends: Screening of Hank See Kari Paul’s short documentary about the rescue American White Pelican at Lake Merritt, followed by a panel discussion about endangered birds.

Saturday, 8/3, 1-11:30pm

The Film Lab: Practical Dreamer: World Premiere of the TOP TEN 72 Hour Shootout Films of 2024. A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, The Film Lab is devoted to the promotion and support of gender and racial parity in film and television programming. 

* Saturdays & Sundays in August

Most events on this list are free, but for those who want to learn more about Oakland’s history and architecture, these walking tours ($) sponsored by the Oakland Heritage Alliance, are spectacular. Here is the list for August.

• Saturday, August 3: Downtown Oakland: Sand Dunes and Building Stones
• Sunday, August 4: Historic Places in a Hidden Area / Inside the Cohen Bray House
• Saturday, August 10: Black Arts Movement Business District
• Sunday, August 11: Leimert’s Legacy: Lower Oakmore’s Whimsical Homes
• Saturday, August 17: The Evolution of the 12th St. Dam and Key System Routes
• Saturday, August 18: Evolution of Storybook Homes: College Court and Normandy Gardens
• Saturday, August 24: Oakland’s Chinatown: A Dream of Belonging
• Sunday, August 25: Fernwood’s Centennial Year
• Saturday, August 31: Planting Justice

* Sunday, 8/4, 1-3pm

The Oakland Municipal Band season started on July 4 (this is the last concert of the summer) at the Edoff Memorial Bandstand behind Fairyland in Lakeside Park. Check out the concert program.

Monday, 8/5, 3-4pm (and also 8/12, 8/19, 8/26, 3-4pm)

AARP:  Beyond The Basics of Chess  National Master John Michael Silvederio will guide players through the complex game, to help participants build new chess skills in an easy-to-follow format.

Monday, 8/5, 6pm

City Lights:  Annotations: On the Early Thought of W. E. B. Du Bois  Nahum Dimitri Chandler will discuss his book.

Monday, 8/5, 7-8pm

San Mateo County Libraries: American Beauty, The Osher Collection of American Art 

Tuesday, 8/6, 10-11am

Marine Mammal Center: Changing the Conversation: Intro to Effective Climate Change Communication  Hear about how specific values and metaphors can make your audience more receptive to climate change messaging. 

Tuesday, 8/6, 2-3pm

AARP: Virtual Birding 101  Learn the basics of bird watching and find out why so many people are passionate about it.

Tuesday, 8/6, 4-5pm

Harry Truman Library: Of White Ashes  In memory of the bombing of Hiroshima, Constance and Kent Matsumoto will discuss their novel, inspired by Kent’s parents’ survival stories from WWII.

Tuesday, 8/6, 4-5:30pm

Arts Club of Chicago:  Architect Vishaan Chakrabarti in Conversation with NY Magazine’s Architecture Critic Justin Davidson Chakrabarti’s books include A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America and The Architecture of Urbanity: Designing for Nature, Culture, and Joy.

Tuesday, 8/6, 5-7pm

AARP: Movies for Grownups: Last Vegas

Tuesday, 8/6, 6pm

City Lights: Pulp Empire: The Secret History of Comic Book Imperialism  Paul S. Hirsch will discuss his book, which describes how the US both attacked and appropriated comic books to help wage World War II and the Cold War. 

Wednesday, 8/7, 11am-12pm

Detroit Public Library:  Behind the Scenes at the Space Station

Wednesday, 8/7, 5-6:30pm

Reimagine: Virtual Candlelight Vigil with Steve Guttenberg

Wednesday, 8/7, 7pm

Getty:  Charles Phoenix: Southern California in Kodachrome  A mid-century tour of Southern California’s space age suburbia, iconic landmarks, famous attractions, classic car culture, unique architecture, theme parks and more. 

Thursday, 8/8, 12-1pm

Santa Clara Library:  Millenia of Unique Life: Channel Islands National Park 

Thursday, 8/8, 4pm

Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum: Behind the Design: The Art of the Stamp  Guest Artist Katie Kirk will discuss the design process with a stamp art director, Antonio Alcalá, and several stamp artists.

Friday, 8/9, 6pm and 8pm

Playground: Livestream of Venn Diagram and The Definition of Drag  Read synopses of the plays and about their authors here. 

Saturday, 8/10, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, and 8pm

Playground: Livestream of The Test, Venn Diagram, Goddess Da from the Planet Yuronit, and Post Grad Life  Read synopses of the plays and about their authors here. 

Sunday, 8/11, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, and 8pm

Playground: Livestream of Venn Diagram, Post Grad Life, The Definition of Drag, The Test, and One of the Good Ones  Read synopses of the plays and about their authors here. 

Monday, 8/12, 5-6:30pm

AARP Theater: Tango Under the Stars at The Hollywood Bowl

Tuesday, 8/13, 4-5pm

Black Swamp Bird Observatory: Peter Kaestner: World Record Birder  On February 9, 2024, when he saw an Orange-tufted Spiderhunter in the Philippines, he’d seen 10,000 of the world’s 11,000 bird species! 

Thursday, 8/15, 7am through Sunday, 8/18, 8pm

DC Environmental Film Festival:  Screening of 6 Short Films about Conservation

Hear about efforts to help Western Toads, puffins, bats, orcas, creatures in the deep ocean, and the Amazon. 

Thursday, 8/15, 12pm through 8/19

AMIA Cultura: Screening of Here, Today  Bittersweet comedy about an intergenerational friendship, starring Billy Crystal. View any time during the available time window.

Thursday, 8/15, 4-5pm

Community Living Campaign: LGBTQ+ Talk: The AIDS Memorial Quilt  Speaker: Gert McMullin, who has been sewing The Quilt since it began in May of 1987 and who has caressed and/or had a hand in sewing each and every panel. 

Thursday, 8/15, 5-6pm

Santa Fe Workshops: A Dialogue with the Landscape with Michael Kenna and Anne Kelly

Thursday, 8/15, 5-6:30pm (or on demand through Saturday, 8/31, 5pm)

AARP: Movies for Grownups: Short Film Night  View 4 films, including Every Monday Night (about some Berkeley, CA men in their 70s and 80s playing basketball). 

Thursday, 8/15, 7-8:30pm

Golden Gate Bird Alliance: How Birds Sense the World  Speaker: Ed Yong, a Pulitzer-winning science writer, moved to Oakland last May and started birding last September. 

Friday, 8/16, 6pm and 8pm

Playground: Livestream of Black Bastard and Stare into the Void and You’ll See Stars  Read synopses of the plays and about their authors here. 

Saturday, 8/17, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm and 8pm

Playground: Livestream of Title Pending, Stare into the Void and You’ll See Stars, Where I Come From, and Black Bastard  Read synopses of the plays and about their authors here. 

Sunday, 8/18, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, and 8pm

Playground: Livestream of Black Bastard, Where I Come From, The Test, Goddess Da from the Planet Yuronit, and Stare into the Void and You’ll See Stars  Read synopses of the plays and about their authors here. 

Monday, 8/19, 6pm

City Lights: The Long Run: A Creative Inquiry  Stacey D’Erasmo will discuss her book, which offers one practitioner’s conversations, anecdotes, confidences, and observations about sustaining a creative life. 

Tuesday, 8/20, 4-5pm

Phi Beta Kappa Greater Detroit Association: Opera Discussion: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly  View the Dallas Opera production here from 8/18-9/30.

Wednesday, 8/21, 10-11am

Road Scholar: 10 Questions with: Walter Naegle on the Life of Bayard Rustin  In celebration of the 61st anniversary of the March on Washington, hear from Walter Naegle, the surviving partner of Civil Rights Leader Bayard Rustin.

Wednesday, 8/21, 4pm

Scripps Research: Delivering Medicines for a Global Population 

Wednesday, 8/21, 4-5pm

Ramsey Free Public Library: Strolling the Boards  Historian JoAnn Tufo highlights the amusement parks across America that made boardwalks such an iconic summer experience!

Wednesday, 8/21, 5-6:30pm

AARP: Movies for Grownups: Mad Props (Documentary)  A nerd journeys the globe to prove that movie props are as important as the greatest paintings and sculptures in history.

Wednesday, 8/21, 8-8:45pm

ISPT: Gauguin’s World: Tōna Iho, Tōna Ao  Speaker: Henri Loyrette, curator and former director of the Louvre Museum and Musée d’Orsay.

Thursday, 8/22, 10:30-11:30am

Climate Action North: Nature’s Ghosts: The World We Lost and How to Bring it Back  Sophie Yeo will discuss her book.

Thursday, 8/22, 5-6pm

Santa Fe Workshops: The Fine Art of Storm Chasing  Mitch Dobrowner will discuss his influences, the motivation for chasing big storms, and his transition from analog photography to digital.

Friday, 8/23, 6pm and 8pm

Playground: Livestream of Bad Behavior, A Play in One Act and Title Pending  Read synopses of the plays and about their authors here. 

Saturday, 8/24, 6am-5pm

Library of Congress:  National Book Festival

Saturday, 8/24, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm and 8pm

Playground: Livestream of One of the Good Ones, Title Pending, The Definition of Drag, and Bad Behavior, A Play in One Act  Read synopses of the plays and about their authors here. 

Saturday, 8/24, 4:30-7pm

The Film Society: Screening of Deluge (1933) In this film, often cited as the first disaster movie, a global cataclysm leads to massive floods and earthquakes and threatens humanity’s very existence. 

* Sunday, 8/25, 9 am-Noon

Splashpad Park: Fourth Sunday Volunteer Work Day. Gloves and tools are provided or bring your own for weeding, pruning, litter pick-up, and planting

Sunday, 8/25, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, and 8pm

Playground: Livestream of One of the Good Ones, Post Grad Life, Bad Behavior, A Play in One Act, Where I Come From, and Goddess Da from the Planet Yuronit  Read synopses of the plays and about their authors here. 

Sunday, 8/25, 5pm

Bay Area Culinary Historians: Culinary Material Culture at Fort Ticonderoga

Tuesday, 8/27, 6-7:30pm

SF Library: Grotto Nights: A Conversation with Writers: Eleanor Vincent, Audrey Ferber, Sabina-Khan-Ibarra, and moderator Sophie Raday will discuss writing about marriage.

Wednesday, 8/28, 4-6pm

Dock C. Bracy Center: American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress  Wesley Lowery will discuss his new book.

* Wednesday, 8/28, 7:30pm

Grand Lake Theatre: Bay Area premiere of At Her Feet, will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Nadya Wynd and members of the cast and crew.

Thursday, 8/29, 6pm through Friday, 9/27, 11:30pm

SF Opera Guild: Un Ballo in Maschera Opera Preview

 

By Sheila mcCormick

Sheila McCormick is an Adjunct Professor Emerita in Cal’s Department of Plant and Microbial Biology. Prior to her retirement in January 2016, she had a research lab at the USDA/ARS-UC Berkeley Plant Gene Expression Center in Albany, studying the molecular biology of plant reproduction. She also helps with editing and is a frequent contributor to the Splash Pad News, beginning with a series of seven neighborhood walks—posted between January and April 2017.