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[Winter] Is Coming
Free classical music, a downtown DJ set, an indigenous poet, and SF garbage on display
My mom cautioned I’d regret not learning the piano. She didn’t have access to music lessons growing up and made sure all of her daughters did. One by one we wavered and wilted, and my mom's hopes came to rest on the shoulders of a rather unlikely virtuoso: My brother, who had managed to lose his school clarinet twice, first taught himself piano, and then guitar, and then banjo, and then forged an entire musical career from a mix of raw talent and passionate obsession.
Enjoy a classical music orchestra that blossomed in the face of adversity, hear from the next generation of indigenous poets, and celebrate the trash of San Francisco.
Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra: Winter Concert
Category: Music
Date: Sunday, January 5th @ 3pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Hertz Hall, UC Berkeley Campus (East Bay)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: Eugene Jones loved classical music even when it didn’t love him back. Jones founded the Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra almost 60 years ago as a Black WWII veteran while fighting segregation as an opera singer and Oakland firefighter. He used his performances to advocate for equal rights, and his love of teaching black history and music brought together a group of amateur, multi-racial musicians that would ultimately become the Berkeley Community Chorus & Orchestra on stage this weekend.
Come revel in Jones’ legacy and find inner peace with the music of Beethoven, Hayden, and Fauré this first weekend in 2025.
SFJAZZ x SMARTBOMB: SMARTBOMB Community Open House
Category: Music
Date: Saturday, January 4th @ 4pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: SFJAZZ Center (SF)
Price Range: $35
Why I Care: SMARTBOMB is bringing its Oakland-based experimentation over the bridge to SFJAZZ. The community organization started as a monthly party featuring artists of East Bay and their lo-fi beats. SMARTBOMB has since evolved into a multi-faceted collective of creatives across audio and visual fields. The organization reinvented itself during the pandemic and supported artists through their Tiny-Desk-esque Video Home System project that brought creators to the screens of the quarantined. This open house will showcase SMARTBOMB’s ingenuity through a jam-packed evening of performances, art work, and full takeover of SFJAZZ.
Opening Reception: Queer by Nature
Category: Art
Date: Friday, January 3rd @ 7pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Black Bird Bookstore and Café (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: Artist Jun Yang is bringing queer bodies of color to the walls of Black Bird Bookstore and Cafe. The artist, originally from South Korea, has grown deep roots in San Francisco and continues to fight to make the city he calls home livable as a full time artist. Yang engages in LGBTQ+ and immigration activism, which reflects in both his artistry and the community he fosters in the Bay.
Be sure to congratulate Yang on his upcoming artist residency in Mexico!
Downtown First Thursdays: Toro y Moi (DJ Set)
Category: Music
Date: Thursday, January 2nd @ 7:30pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: 2nd & Market St (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: Oakland-based Toro y Moi thinks the San Franciscans out there should come to East Bay more often, but he is SF-bound for First Thursdays. Chaz Bear, the artist behind the moniker, made the Bay his home because of its natural beauty, design-centricity, and diversity, especially as it relates to his Black and Filipino heritage. He even has a special place in his heart for my favorite neighborhood nook: Temescal Alley.
Listen out for my favorite Toro y Moi song “Ordinary Pleasure” and heed the singer’s demands to “maximize all the pleasure, even with all this weather.”
Book Talk: The Sky Was Once A Dark Blanket
Category: Literary
Date: Monday, January 6th @ 7pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Green Apple Books on the Park (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: I’m in awe of poets and their ability to distill so many emotions into so few words. Poet Kinsale Drake has accomplished this in her debut collection, The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket, for which she won the National Poetry Series. As a member of the Diné tribe, Drake has encouraged literary arts in indigenous communities through the NDN Girls Book Club. The organization has distributed over 15,000 Native-authored free books to indigenous youth and tribal libraries as part of its mission to foster the next generation of indigenous voices. With only 24 years under her belt, Drake already has me hopeful for all the light she’s yet to bring to this world.
Museum Talk: History of Origami in San Francisco
Category: Art
Date: Thursday, January 2nd @ 5:30pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: SFMoMA (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: I first learned about origami when we read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes in elementary school. The novel is based on the true story of 12-year old Sadako Sasaki, who was diagnosed with leukemia after radiation exposure from the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and wished to join her school's running team before becoming too ill. According to Japanese folklore, a person will be granted one wish upon making one thousand paper cranes. So Sadako begins folding and enters a race against time. Sadly she did not survive her leukemia, but her story lives on to proselytize peace and humanize the continued impact of war on the innocent.
Come early to try your hand at creating your own folded hope and stay to learn what this art form’s history means to San Francisco.
Opening Reception: Garbage Age Fashion and Art
Category: Art
Date: Friday, January 3rd @ 5pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: MAG Galleries (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: Trash and San Francisco have a tenuous relationship. The question of how the city manages its rubbish was front and center in our mayoral race, with even our Office of the Controller concluding that “San Francisco is a pretty dirty place.” Artist group Piles Collective is making lemonade out of our rotten lemons through an exhibition of works created entirely from the city’s trash. This reflection on sustainability and discarded objects will be accompanied by a live viola performance.
Or grab your own rotten banana and duct tape and call it a day.
Next Drop: Thursday, January 9th
Paid Subscribers Only - Vinyl on NYE
