Events & Attractions Search
Elephant Benefit
Lectures, Sales, Swaps, Promotions, & Fundraisers, Culinary & Wine Fri., May 17, 6 p.m.510-632-9525
How can you help our tusked and trunked friends can live in safety, health, and harmony? Dinner doesn't hurt. Delivering the seventeenth annual "Celebrating Elephants" lecture at the Oakland Zoo (9777 Golf Links Rd., Oakland) on Friday, May 17, is Ed Stewart, founder and director of the Performing Animal Welfare Society. Preceding his talk is a dinner reception and silent auction. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Amboseli Elephant Research Project. 6 p.m., $40. 510-632-9525 or OaklandZoo.org
$40"Notes & Words"
Fairs, Festivals, & Fiestas Sat., May 18, 8 p.m.Once a year, writers, comedians, and musicians take the stage at the Fox Theater (1807 Telegraph Ave., Oakland) for a fundraiser of the most heartwarming proportions. Audience members dance, laugh, and experience new literary heights -- all while contributing to one of the most objectively good local causes there is: Children's Hospital Oakland. This year's iteration will feature former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins, local science writer and comedienne extraordinaire Mary Roach, author (and Notes & Words founder) Kelly Corrigan, and TV star Lauren Graham, plus music from G. Love; porch-folk lyricists Goodnight, Texas; and Oakland School for the Arts' award-winning a capella group, Vocal Rush. Consider your Saturday, May 18 booked. 8 p.m., $50 and up. 510-428-3814 or NotesandWords.org
$50-$175Oakland Greek Festival
Fairs, Festivals, & Fiestas, Culinary & Wine Fri., May 17, 10 a.m.-11 p.m., Sat., May 18, 10 a.m.-11 p.m. and Sun., May 19, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.510-531-3400
Greece may not be faring too well on the economic front, but that's not stopping the annual Oakland Greek Festival, now in its 41st year. Celebrating the music, food, and long cultural history of the small nation of ten million, the festival will feature live music, dance performances and lessons, cooking demonstrations, and all the souvlaki, spanakopita, and moussaka you can stomach. The festival takes place on Friday through Sunday, May 17-19, at Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension (4700 Lincoln Ave., Oakland). Fri.-Sat. 10 a.m.-11 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; $6 for adults, free for children twelve and under. OaklandGreekFestival.com
$6, kids 12 and under freeOakland Showga
Social Events, Sports & Outdoors-Participatory, Health, Wellness, & Sexuality Mondays, 6:30-8 p.m.If yoga is your jam but the usual gongs and grunts are getting you down, bring your mat to the Starline Social Club (2232 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland) on Mondays from 6:30 to 8 p.m. for Oakland Showga, where East Bay Community Yoga founder Katie Colver teaches vinyasa classes for yogis of all levels to the sounds of a live local band. While the live music/yoga combo has been done before, Colver strives for a more mind- and body-bending experience by booking psychedelic line-ups that buck the New Age-y, Burning Man trend. If you leave class feeling a bit funky, it might be owed to more than just a strenuous workout. EBCYoga.com/showga.html
$5-$15Fight Night
Sports & Outdoors-Participatory, Social Events, Kids Tuesdays, 4 & 6 p.m.The first rule of The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment's (610 16th St., Ste. 230, Oakland) weekly Fight Club gatherings: Gamers of all ages are free to duke it out via old-school video games like Soul Caliburand Street Fighter 2, played on gaming systems from Atari 2600 to Neo Geo. The second rule of The MADE's weekly Fight Club gatherings: Halfway through the evening, the gloves come off and the real tournament begins, with the game du jour determined by participants, and games and other geekery awarded to the winners. Kids under fifteen: Bring a parent or guardian. Every Tuesday, including Dec. 6.6-9 p.m.; general play free, tournament $5. 510-788-5702 or TheMADE.org
$2Berkeley Juggling Club
Sports & Outdoors-Participatory Wednesdays, 6-8 p.m.The circus arts aren't just for clowns anymore. They're not quite highbrow, but close -- not only do many regional teams and touring companies compete and perform across the country (Berkeley's unicycle basketball team is one of the best in the world), but some aerial feats developed in the circus have made their way into the fine-art world of dance. If it's about time you learned how to juggle, unicycle, aerobalance, slackline, or do anything else you've seen under the big tent (except, perhaps, elephant-riding), join the Berkeley Juggling Club at its weekly Wednesday meetings. Participation is free and open to all. On summer nights you'll find the gang at the UC Berkeley campus on the lawn north of the library (Memorial Glade); if it's dark or rainy, they'll be inside Dwinelle Hall, also on the UC Berkeley campus. 6-8 p.m. BerkeleyJuggling.org
freeFriday Night Launch
Religion & Spirituality, Social Events, Spoken Word Fridays, 7 p.m.510-859-3150
Every Friday, the Launching Pad (2649 Russell St., Berkeley) hosts the Friday Night Launch, featuring spiritually focused spoken word, discussions, and music for young adults. The events start at 7 p.m. and are free, although donations are accepted; there's a group vegetarian dinner available at 6 p.m., too. 510-859-3150 or LaunchingPadBerkeley.com
free/donationDragon Boat Racing
Sports & Outdoors-Participatory Saturdays, 8:45-10:30 a.m.510-521-7555
It's not every day that you get an opportunity to help propel a fifty-foot-long boat through the waters of the Alameda-Oakland Estuary (2400 Mariner Square Dr., Alameda). But the Alameda Dragon Flyers -- a part-recreational, part-competitive band of paddlers -- gives you the chance each Saturday with free introductions to the two-thousand-year-old Chinese sport of dragon boating. The weekly sessions are open to athletes of all abilities, and the first three are free -- after that, participants are asked to join the California Dragon Boat Association for a $50-$120 annual fee. 8:45-10:15 a.m. 510-521-7555 or AlamedaDragonFlyers.com
freeEast Bay Front Runners
LGBT, Sports & Outdoors-Participatory Saturdays, 9-10 a.m.510-548-5335
Running needn't be a solitary sport, and for the East Bay Front Runners it's a veritable social occasion. Camaraderie and friendship take first billing at the group's weekly runs, with fitness a close second and competition a non-issue. The club formed in 1984 to serve the entire LGBT community and is also open to friends, family, and supporters. The group meets at a different East Bay marina or waterfront each week and then proceeds to a nearby eatery for a group brunch. Guests and non-members welcome. Visit EastBayFrontRunners.org for weekly locations.
freeGolden Gate Fields Dollar Days
Sports-Spectator Sundays510-559-7300
From pins and patches to cell-phone covers and low-riders, we're all involved in the ritual of imparting our barrage of mass-produced stuff with that certain je ne sais quoi of individual identify. And "we/customize," the new participatory exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California (1000 Oak St., Oakland), is inspired by just that spirit of personal expression. From Friday through Sunday, Jan. 4-6, join makers, hackers, and DIYers at the museum to make clothes, hack toys, remix music, and more. 1-4 p.m., free with museum admission. 510-318-8400 or MuseumCA.org
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