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A [Moment] Like This
An instant film exhibition, Nowruz celebrations, and SF Ballet's The Blake Works
I love taking a sneaky photo. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen story after story featuring unsuspecting subjects, typically in art spaces. Faces are always hidden or unrecognizable, partly for privacy, but mostly because I want the viewer to focus on how the body is moving, still, or positioned in ways I could never have staged. I think of it as capturing little moments of choreography: seeing dance in the world around me and showing people that even everyday movement has an element of art.
Attend an instant film exhibition, learn about the rebel women of the Bay and the colors of California, and the ballet I’m most looking forward to in 2026.
Opening Reception | When the Moment Presents Itself
Category: Art
Date: Friday, March 6th @ 5:30pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Lee’s Launderette (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: When the Moment Presents Itself is a group exhibition of fifty instant film photographers and kickoff event for PolaCon Bay Area 2026. PolaCon is a three-day festival packed with workshops, artist talks, gear demos, and guided photowalks across the city, and it’s open to (nay, encouraging of) all levels of expertise. The show itself is at Lee’s Launderette, a new multi-use art space that recently opened in the Mission for flexible programming. Preview a few of the exhibiting artists in their Instagram story highlights.
Forsythe’s The Blake Works
Category: Dance
Date: Friday, March 6th @ 8pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: War Memorial Opera House (SF)
Price Range: $39+
Why I Care: SF Ballet’s 2022 performance of Blake Works I deepened my love for the company and transformed an album I had written off at first listen: James Blake’s The Colour In Anything. Choreographed by the legendary William Forsythe, The Blake Works pairs that ballet with two SF Ballet premieres, Prologue and The Barre Project, for the first time as a complete triple bill in the US. An SF Chronicle headline declared the program “a nonstop thrill ride,” but I’ve refused to read any further: the beauty of live performance is the unexpected. Stick around after this and all evening performances to see Bay Area DJs take over the Opera House lobby.
Book Launch Party | Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed The Bay Area
Category: Literary
Date: Thursday, March 5th @ 7pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: City Lights Booksellers & Publishers (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: Unsung Heroines is an adaptation of KQED’s “Rebel Girls From Bay Area History” series that profiles thirty-five kickass women who shaped the Bay Area. Charlotte Brown was forcibly removed from an SF streetcar in 1863, took the city to court, and won, almost a century before Rosa Parks’ historic bus protest. Barbara May Cameron fought for indigenous LGBTQ+ rights. These are just a few of the women being celebrated the book’s launch party at City Lights. Explore the original series on KQED’s website before grabbing a paperback copy.
Opening Reception | Ephemera Unearthed! Anomalies from Baldwin’s Other Cinema
Category: Film & Art
Date: Thursday, March 12th @ 5pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: SFAI Legacy Foundation + Archive (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: Ephemera Unearthed! is an archival exhibition of Craig Baldwin's Other Cinema, an SF experimental screening series that’s run since 1985. Titled "Other" to signal its rejection of traditional categories, the series built its reputation on risk-taking and boundary-blurring. San Francisco Cinematheque and the SFAI Legacy Foundation + Archive are presenting this exhibition of Baldwin's personal collection of printed materials and objects from across the series' history. Check out Baldwin’s Other Cinema schedule to go see a screening for yourself.
Nowruz Community Market
Category: Art & Culinary
Date: Thursday, March 12th @ 5pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Middle East Market & Café (East Bay)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: Nowruz, the Persian New Year, marks the arrival of spring and a fresh start. Middle East Market, a Berkeley institution since 1974, is celebrating the holiday with a community market where local artisans will be selling handmade goods alongside the café’s Persian food. The event reflects the restaurant’s long-standing commitment to sharing Persian culture in a way that connects universally, offering a moment to gather with a community navigating complexity while celebrating the joy of its traditions.
Mother Nature: A Concert for International Women’s Day
Category: Music
Date: Sunday, March 8th @ 4pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: First Presbyterian Church of Oakland (East Bay)
Price Range: $20
Why I Care: Community Women’s Orchestra is performing an all-female-composer program at First Presbyterian Church of Oakland for International Women’s Day. As one of the rare all-female orchestras in the US, the organization has spent over forty years building visibility and opportunity for women in classical music. The lineup spans centuries: from 19th-century firebrand Augusta Holmès to contemporary Berkeley-native Mattea Williams. Keep an eye out for my friend Kate, who’ll be playing 2nd trombone.
The Colors of California Conversation Series
Category: Literary
Date: Saturday, March 14th @ 1pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Local Economy (East Bay)
Price Range: $10
Why I Care: I’m a sucker for interdisciplinary discussions on color. The Colors of California Conversation Series brings together three Heyday authors to discuss what makes the colors of California so rich and distinct. Their backgrounds range widely: Elissa Callen is an ecological artist; Krystle Hickman has spent years photographing the native bees of California; and Robin Lee Carlson uses field sketching to document ecological change. A previous conversation went so well it sparked this second installment, and Heyday associate publisher Marthine Satris told me she’s “hoping to repeat the magic.” I have faith that hope is a certainty.
Next Drop: Monday, March 16th