Welcome to our new calendar feature BIG WEEK! Each week, our expert Arts & Culture writers recommend the best things for you to do in the best city on earth: Arts, Music, Food & Drink, Theater, Film, Nightlife, and more.
ARTS
Tons more to do and support right here.
THU/29: BLACK FUTURIST ART TALK We cannot hope to combat the vertiginous inequities of the day without being able visualize a more just future. Two artists will be in a conversation today bound to bolster its audience’s imaginative capacities: Trinidad and Tobago’s Aisha Shillingford and Oakland-based Kristen Zimmerman, the former the creator of meditative group experiences aimed at weaving webs of beauty to come. Shillingford, for her part, has built futuristic installations of thriving Black culture at Carnegie Hall and other venues. Real Time & Space, Oakland. More info here.
OPENS FRI/30: MUSK MING: UNSEEN BOUNDARIES A new Castro art space serves as a funding source for the Queer Livelihoods Project, which will support queer creatives across the Global South and beyond. Its opening show features work by Chinese artist Musk Ming, who queers Socialist history in transformative works with names like “Counter-revolutionary Sodomite.” Opening, 6pm. Loom + Ten, SF. More info here.
FRI/30: CUMBIA Y CERVEZA Break out the end-of-week pasos prohibidos at the flea market tonight—this free event will have delicious offerings from local food trucks, brews to get you going, and live cumbia with which to start your weekend with a satisfying twirl in the open air. Garden at the Flea, San Jose Flea Market. More info here.
SAT/31 + SUN/1: BAY AREA BOOK FESTIVAL In good times, a book, and in bad times too. The team behind this fest is well aware of the pivotal power of the page, and has put together quite the lineup for this year’s two-day, 275-plus-author (!) extravaganza. If you’re wondering how on Earth you’ll choose from among the book talks, kids’ events, panels, block party, ample opportunities to score local lit, writer’s workshops, and six whole stages booked to the gills, consider the social issue that currently has you losing sleep, and locate the expert presentation that addresses the subject, potently and with literary flair. Various Berkeley venues. More info here.
SUN/1: NEVERMIND THE BAN$, BABES Yes, there are many ways to kick off the month of Pride, but surely reveling in own of the city’s more iconic queer artists is right up there! The work of Diego Gomez, of extraterrestrial, historic, horrifying, and downright alluring drag art renown, is being highlighted at this show in a fabulous Mission hair spot. You have been promised an evening of art and gayety, should you care to partake. Bon Vada Barbershop, SF. More info here.
MUSIC
Hit up John-Paul Shiver’s Under the Stars column for great musical picks every week.
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SUN/1: THE DETROIT COBRAS W/SUTROS, THE IFIC This institution of garage rock has been conveniently dubbed “Detroit’s Most Famous Cover Band,” but after a career spanning 30 years, numerous line-up changes, and its survival after the passing of founding member and lead vocalist Rachel Nagy, with Marcus Durant of Zen Guerilla and MC5 fame, just call ’em badass. They will be thriving and driving at standout venue BOTH for sure. Make time and space to arrive early for The IFIC and local favorites Sutros, featuring their unique blend of noise, drone, free jazz, rock, and pop. Bottom of the Hill, SF. More info here.
FRI/30: FRIDAYS ON FRONT STREET Opening night of the new admission-free block party launches Friday in the heart of downtown SF. It’s a Front Street takeover with live outdoor music curated by Noise Pop; drinks to go from classic SF bars like Harrington’s, Schroeder’s, and The Royal Exchange; a Giants vs. Marlins watch party; lawn games; and—by the power of Zeus—legal drinking in the streets as California’s first-ever designated entertainment zone is given a runway to flight. Front Street, SF. More info here.
SUN/1: CRUCIAL REGGAE SUNDAYS Just about every Sunday from 4:20pm, heh, to 7:30pm at the Golden Gate Bandshell, you can get your cool runnings in order amidst the trees and breeze for no cost. Crucial Reggae Sundays brings free, family-friendly reggae music to the historic bandshell at Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park. Hosted by residents Irie Dole (Jah Warrior Shelter Hi-Fi), Guidance (Infinite Guidance Sound/Nice Up Radio), and DJ Sep (Dub Mission), the day party features special guest live performances and DJ sets every week. Coming up, look out for Mighty Mystic (June 1), Selecta Rebel & Chillbo (Flash It! Saturdays) (June 8), No Show (June 15), Byrds Of A Feather (June 22), and Saritah Duo (June 29). Golden Gate Bandshell, SF. More info here.
TUE/3: BUZZED LIGHTBEER AT BOTTOM OF THE HILL Buzzed Lightbeer is a San Francisco band on everybody’s lips. On a random night, I’ll be talking to a bartender or friends, and about 10 minutes in, I’ll get: “Yo, you check out Buzzed Lightbeer yet?” And of course, I have to say no, because I have not. Which is a damn shame, ’cause their videos are the shizz. And when bartenders talk about bands, that’s real. So get down to BOTH, again, and see this band with the hybrid-children’s movie name once interviewed by Playboy Mexico. Told ya, this band keeps it fresh. Bottom of the Hill, SF. More info here.
FOOD & DRINK
Tamara Palmer’s Good Taste Good Taste column tells you where to stick your fork every week.
FRI/30: NIGHT MARKET 2025 AT FORT MASON Off The Grid’s food truck Fridays no longer take place on a weekly basis, but the catering and event company has partnered with West Coast Craft to throw monthly events through the end of the year. West Coast Craft brings 100 art vendors, so it may be a good place to shop for gifts. OTG revealed a partial list of this month’s food lineup on Instagram and casually mentioned that there will be four new creators in the mix. Free, 4-9pm at 2 Marina Boulevard, SF. More info here.
SUN/1: COOKBOOK SWAP 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO My new Food Book Club will host its second free cookbook swap from noon to 5 p.m. at Studio Aurora/Fault Radio. Swing by any time to enjoy sweet and savory snacks from chef Dario Barbone and crew, listen to Fault Radio DJs spinning live, and to trade one or more of your gently used cookbooks for new-to-you titles. I’ll also give away some vintage food magazines for free. The first swap back in April brought fun people and a wide array of interesting book titles from various eras. It was so cute that we want to do it regularly! Studio Aurora/Fault Radio, SF. More info here.
STAGE
Charles Lewis III hits up theaters and performance spaces every week for his Drama Masks column.
RUNS THROUGH JUNE 8: PARADE Jewish Brooklynite Leo Frank, a resident of Marietta, Georgia in 1913, has no reverence for the Confederacy. His general discomfort with his new home turns into full-fledged terror when one of his employees, is found brutally murdered on the factory floor. It doesn’t take long for Leo to be singled out as the prime suspect, despite there being no evidence that he killed her. Brown’s Tony-winning songs remain as vivid and captivating as they’ve ever been, never causing the action to drag. Its examination of mob justice is a sobering reminder of the biases inherent to American culture, and the violence that inevitably results from forgetting they exist. Orpheum Theatre, SF. More info here.
other staff picks… SAT/31-JUNE 7: HARVEY MILK REIMAGINED After all, what better tale to be converted into an opera than the tragically terminated life of San Francisco’s Mayor of Castro Street? (Get real if you answered The Nutcracker, please.) Opera Parallèle presents this production on what would have been Milk’s 95th year of life, its arias sure to conjure thoughts of what was and could have been. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF. More info here.
FILM
Dennis Harvey’s long-running Screen Grabs has tons more flicks to recommend.
THU/29-JUNE 8: DOCFEST Reality: We’re at a juncture where more people than usual seem to be dangerously out of touch with it. That might seem to work against the timing of the San Francisco Documentary Film Festival. But as ever, its 24th edition casts a wide net, well beyond the usual nonfiction cinema realms of current events and politics. You’ll certainly find some of the latter in its 2025 program… but also everything from Afghani song and ecological kayak-tivism to bathing beauties and Qatari street cats. Showings primarily held at Roxie and Vogue Theaters, SF. More info here.
OPENS FRI/30: BRING HER BACK Perhaps the most alarming and effective horror movie about a dysfunctional domestic dynamic since Ari Aster’s Hereditary. When their father suddenly dies, the already motherless half-sibling duo is at the mercy of the state, and is soon shoved into a foster situation featuring a ditzy and sinister New Age caretaker with a a shaven-headed, androgynous, almost catatonic mute pubescent she keeps locked up most of the time. Perverse, ironical, and ambiguous in addition to being tense, occasionally shocking, Bring Her Back is well worth seeing—if you can take it. Opens in theaters nationwide.
OPENS FRI/30: SISTER MIDNIGHT Karan Kandhari’s first feature plunges us right into the arranged Mumbai wedlock of surly country lass Uma (Radhika Apte) and awkward Gopal (Ashok Pathak). They’ve apparently been paired because no one else would have either of them—and perhaps because their families want them gone. Unpredictability is Sister Midnight’s charm. Though handsomely photographed in widescreen format, the movie has an absurdist minimalism redolent of Jim Jarmusch or Aki Kaurismaki. You may not entirely “get it” (I didn’t), but Sister is still pleasingly oddball. Opens Fri/30 at the Rafael Film Center and May 6 at SF’s Roxie Theater.
SUN/1 AND TUE/10: TO SLEEP WITH ANGER Charlie Burnett’s 1990 film remains the perpetually undervalued filmmaker’s best theatrical feature, a sneaky parable in which Harry (Danny Glover) turns up unannounced on the South Central doorstep of friends unseen since they lived “back home” (presumably in the South) 30+ years ago. They are delighted to see him—but gradually it dawns that this Harry (if indeed it is Harry, rather than some trickster spirit in his form) is an agent of stealth destruction, methodically laying open the pious middle-class hypocrisies of his hosts, exacerbating their petty squabbles and discontents. This sly, beguiling-if-slowly-paced tale gives the great Glover one of his best roles. Roxie Theater, SF. More info here.
OPENS MON/2: WHITE WITH FEAR Andrew Goldberg’s documentary details the gradual ruse of “a white fear industrial complex, where many people get very rich and powerful by telling white America that they are under constant assault.” Its real goal is money and power, facilitated by manufactured villainy in terms of lending certain words (like “terrorist”) an implicit racial tinge. White With Fear may not tell you much that you didn’t already know. Still, it’s a solid primer in how “dog-whistle politics” have invaded our mainstream. Released to On Demand platforms on June 2.
NIGHTLIFE
We often knows what’s up.
THU/29: SFMOMA ROOFTOP RADIO: DIRTYBIRD The SF party crew and music label takes over the SFMOMA top spot in celebration of its 20th anniversary. In addition to beats by Mark Farina, J. Philip, and Kevin Knapp, you get SF artist Sam Flores in motion—the mind behind much of the label’s visual identity will be putting up a live painting as the electronic sounds flow. Also being exhibited will be album art from Dirtybird’s past two decades of existence. SFMOMA. More info here.
SAT/31: PRINCESS ALL AAPI SPECTACULAR Because if we’re honest, you really haven’t celebrated AAPI Month to its fullest extent. You get one last chance with this fantastical at the city’s premiere drag weekly, courtesy of performers like John Fedellaga and Deedee Marie Holliday from Drag Race Philippines, and local talent like you wouldn’t believe. Oasis, SF. More info here.
SUN/1: THOT TOPIC: THE EMO DAY PARTY A “healthy, righteous emo rage” will abound at the Mission’s Teeth bar, featuring hosting by “punk who does drag” Kochina Rude and performances by the fresh-faced Tila Pia and Marisa Ortiz of Gothicc Burlesque. What you won’t be mad about is the cover—it’s $5 bucks, whether you cop in advance or at the door. Teeth, SF. More info here.
