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[Frozen] Assets
Celebrate South-Asian inspired ice cream, attend a French-inspired second hand market, and grab some prints by up and coming Berkeley student artists.
The Bostonian ability, nay predilection, to eat ice cream in freezing weather never ceased to amaze me. I do not need to feel even colder while coping with arctic winds. As a Texan, I’d assumed that “winter coat” meant “peacoat” and “snow pants” meant “jeans”. And yet, I somehow found myself waiting in line, cozied up with Northeast-native roommates, so I could hold frozen dairy in my frozen hands to go into my frozen belly.
Celebrate South-Asian inspired frozen desserts, attend a French-inspired second hand market, and grab some prints by up and coming Berkeley student artists.
Malai: Frozen Desserts | A Sweet (and Spiced) Book Tour
Category: Literary & Culinary
Date: Monday, April 14th @ 6:30pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Omnivore Books on Food (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: I’m a sucker for cardamom. Author, chef, and founder Pooja Bavishi is sharing the magic behind ice cream flavors like Coffee Cardamom and Orange Fennel French Toast with the release of her book Malai: Frozen Desserts Inspired by South Asian Flavors. Malai has its origins in an eponymous Brooklyn-based ice cream shop, which was named one of New York’s best frozen dessert spots. This book stop will include a chat with Bavishi, moderated by Milk & Cardamom writer Hetal Vasavada and featuring a tasting of desserts straight from the cookbook.
And with a near-sweltering SF high of 70° F, I couldn’t think of a better day to enjoy.
Opening Reception | Alec Soth: Advice for Young Artists
Category: Art
Date: Saturday, April 19th @ 2pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Fraenkel Gallery (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: Oh to be a (not-so-frozen) undergrad again. Fraenkel Gallery exhibition Advice for Young Artists is an ode to the young and creative restless as they make their way through undergraduate art programs. Artist Alec Soth was inspired by artist Walker Evans and his Polaroid documentation of youth and embedded himself in studio programs across the US to photograph the young at art.
Soth will be in attendance, so harness that shameless extroversion to hear more from the photographer directly.
Bon Marché | 2nd Hand Market
Category: Fashion
Date: Sunday, April 20th @ 11am (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Abrams Claghorn Gallery (East Bay)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: Think of Bon Marché as a Goodwill with European flair. This second hand market is organized by the California Copenhagen Collective, whose mission is fostering material sustainability. Founders Sarah and Stéphanie were respectively inspired by their time in Denmark and their upbringing in France to “make zero waste accessible, convivial, & sublime.” Bon Marché will include vintage vendors, a native plant learning lab, sock recycling, and an indigo community dye bath where your clothes can take on a second, elevated tie-dye life.
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
Category: Film
Date: Friday, April 18th @ 6:30pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Letterman Digital Arts Center (SF)
Price Range: $26
Why I Care: BLKNWS is a blockbuster exhibition-turned-feature-length film, first exhibited as an installation at the 2019 Venice Biennale. The work intertwines the archival with fiction to tell a story of Black history and Afro-futurism. Director Kahlil Joseph’s film is rooted in W.E.B. DuBois’ previous efforts to release an encyclopedia that focused on communities of African descent, mixed with “Black thought and culture for former Tumblr kids.” If Joseph’s name sounds familiar, it could be because he was also one of the creative minds behind Beyoncé’s Lemonade visual album and Kendrick Lamar’s live performance when opening for Drake. How times have changed.
This SFFILM event will feature Joseph in conversation with Boots Riley, whose own directorial film debut was the scifi black comedy Sorry To Bother You.
Book Talk | What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis
Category: Literary
Date: Sunday, April 20th @ 6pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: 510 Firehouse (East Bay)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: According to author Malcolm Harris, we have three paths forward to save our planet: progressive, socialist, and revolutionary. What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis explains why all three are critical in saving our third rock from the sun. The author is also known for his publication of Palo Alto, a less-than-glowing review of his hometown and the ideology it represents. Harris will discuss What's Left and his approach to collective political climate action in this talk organized by Bathers Library and the Disaster Reading + Action Group.
Artist Talk | Caring, Nurturing, and Aging
Category: Art
Date: Wednesday, April 16th @ 6pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: SFAC Main Gallery (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: Artists Pablo Tapay Bautista, Marna Clarke, and Germán Herrera will join moderator and podcaster Emily Wilson to discuss the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) exhibition Metaphors of Recent Times. Each artist has work included in the exhibition, which tackles environmental and socio-political upheaval through photography. Bautista, Clarke, and Herrera will discuss why they’ve chosen to engage on the subject matter, why photography as a medium, and how who their personal stories impact how they approach creating art.
UC Berkeley Annual Student Print Sale
Category: Art
Date: Saturday, April 19th @ 11am (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: 265 Anthropology and Art Practice Building, UC Berkeley (East Bay)
Price Range: Free (cash only for purchases)
Why I Care: Printmaker, UC Berkeley educator, and print sale founder Tamar Beja wouldn’t be caught dead on Instagram. Beja champions prints because of not only their democratizing nature but also the physicality that comes with their production and distribution. She founded this annual student print sale in 2008 to create a space for students from across Berkeley to showcase their screen prints, etchings, relief prints, cyanotypes and other works produced during their time on campus.
Now all we need is some up-and-coming student framers.
Next Drop: Thursday, April 24th
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