GENERAL ARTS
Marke B. is on it (mostly).
Don’t forget the SF International Arts Fest is happening in the Mission through May 10! Check out our preview here, and use discount code 202648HILLS20 for 20% off tickets at checkout here!
FRI/1+SAT/2: DISPATCHES FROM THE CHARCOAL FOREST Artist, composer, musician, and vocalist Merlin Coleman gifts us with an expanded song cycle for six voices layered over an audio-sculpture of found recordings, collected sounds, and interviews relating to the Sonoma County Tubbs Fires of 2017 (and beyond).” Featuring members of Kitka and shared evenings with Amy X. Neuberg, Dispatches considers the human response to environmental crisis alongside our part in the creation of it; how we grieve and how we persist. 8pm, Dresher Ensemble Studio, Oakland. More info here.
FRI/1: PHENOMENAL BALL How can anyone resist “an evening of science and surprise”??? The Exploratorium is giving us an “electrifying night of dinner, dancing, and discovery” with an interactive playground of hands-on exhibits, music, and pop-up experiences, featuring performances by local rapper P-Lo and RuPaul Drag Race fave Lady Camden, plus tunes from DJ Umami. 6pm-midnight, Exploratorium, SF. More info here.
SAT/2 + SUN/3: SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL TEA FESTIVAL As Lady Gaga says, somewhat datedly, “What’s the tea?” It is this, Gaga: Steep yourself in a two-day festival of delectable steaming (and cooled!) cups from more than 30 global vendors, and you even get a little porcelain one of your own. There will be lively conversations, expert presentations, and some piping hot previews. Ferry Building, SF. More info here.
SAT/2: CATCHLIGHT LIVE: 2026 VISUAL STORYTELLING SUMMIT First, hit up nonprofit photojournalism org Catchlight’s Friday evening benefit with legend Lynsey Addario. Then, the next day, check into this all-day event celebrating World Press Freedom Day, bringing together photographers, journalists, and artists exploring “how visual storytelling shapes public understanding of urgent global and local issues.” The day features a program of workshops, main-stage conversations, and creative exchange on the evolving role of visual media. 9am-6pm, KQED, SF. More info here.
SUN/3: GILMAN JAZZ FESTIVAL Look, I’m a techno fan who lives to feel the bass rattle my clavicle. But I also like to listen to quieter things, and sometimes I’m ready for some outright softness. While neither of the bands featured here—Death and Taxes Swing Band (’40s big band swing) and Parlor Tricks (“industrial-themed ragtime”)—are soft jazz, exactly, they are brought together by the Not Loud Concerts promoters, who promise “not too loud, comfortable seating, and not too long.” I kind of love that? Plus it’s at a great brewery. What a time to be alive. 2pm-5pm, Gilman Brewing Company, Berkeley. More info here.
SUN/3: LATINAS FOREVER: SELENA DE MAYO She may be gone, but her legend still grows. “March 31 marked the anniversary of Tejano pop star Selena Quintanilla’s passing, a moment remembered by fans across generations. Latinas Forever: Selena De Mayo celebrates her enduring cultural impact and legacy through music, fashion, and community. The event will feature Selena-inspired drag performances, a curated soundtrack of Latina artists including Celia Cruz, Gloria Estefan, Thalía, Paulina Rubio, and Rocío Dúrcal, as well as food and beverage offerings from SPARK Social SF’s lineup of food trucks. Plus: A community market of Latina-owned vendors.” Noon-4pm, noon-4pm, SPARK Social, SF. More info here.
MUSIC
Hit up John-Paul Shiver’s Under the Stars column for great tunes and shows every week.
THU/30: BLISS ABYSS The first song in, which would be “Red Disgusting,” loaded to the teeth with the Cure’s driving force and gleaming sentimental guitar riffs: The self-titled, self-released album by the Bay Area’s bliss abyss will make those Robert Smith comparisons a happy association to process. Working through the shoegaze and post-punk genres, b.a. chooses to make its arrangements poppy and catchy, but never patronizing. Joints like “impersonator” present these blaring, fuzzy tunes, with the big hooks, loud choruses, and then melodic-as-fuck refrains, so if you don’t mind losing cool points, you can still sing along. Peter Wallner, lead vocalist, shepherds this trio through different climates of alterna-cool, guitar-driven thoroughfares of feedback, providing listeners with a full plate of options in the dream-pop and garage-rock format. It’s a buffet that works. Playing alongside Ringlet, Fitting, and Softie, anticipate soft-focus, gossamer environments that lead the audibly colorful charge. 7pm, Eli’s Mile High Club, Oakland. More info here.
SUN/3: 20 YEARS OF DONUTS Nobody can do what Dilla did. James Yancey (aka Jay Dee Aka J. Dilla)’s second album was released on his 32nd birthday in 2006, only days before his untimely death. Twenty years after its release, Donuts documents his battling a rare blood disease, the heart taking over when the body is fading. Radical, tender, raw, and giving everything he had before taking a final rest, Donuts was recorded in a hospital bed, with Dilla working from a portable SP-303 and a stack of crates. He left us an evergreen legacy, the blues, while the rhythm fades: instrumental hip-hop’s tear-jerker of a masterpiece. Join Dez Andre, a member of the group Dilla founded, Slum Village, for a celebration of spirit alongside Bay Area artists, DJ heyLove, Max Kane, DJ Traps, DJ Osé, and SETI-X (MC-Host). 3pm-10pm, Mad Oak, Oakland. More info here.
FOOD & DRINK
Tamara Palmer’s weekly Good Taste column tells you where to stick your fork. Sign up for the Good Taste newsletter here.
THURS/30 LAST CALL FOR THE FESTUS FEASTS X CHOTTO MATTE COLLAB It’s been a joy to watch the Nigerian philanthropist and former Warriors center Festus Ezeli become a local food personality and give shine to so many mom and pop businesses from the Bay Area via his Festus Feasts Instagram account. Every 10,000 followers the account amasses, Ezeli takes 10 followers to a dinner and grows his community in real life. One of the spots he’s done this is at Chotto Matte, the stunning rooftop Nikkei restaurant, and the experience led to a collaboration dish that was developed by Chotto Matte’s chef Cicero Souto and Ezeli’s mother.
“For her, us getting to share our culture is important to her,” Ezeli says of his mom. “She wanted to make sure they did it the right way, and when we mixed the different cultures and mixed the different foods, that we didn’t lose the essence of our own flavor. That was something that she really enjoyed.” The Dodo Nikkei Stew takes a full day to make, but the results are wonderful: meltingly soft beef and plantains in a luscious red sauce that we wouldn’t allow to be removed from the table until every drop was sopped up. It’s been a popular dish this month, and a portion of proceeds will be given to a youth charity that Ezeli works with in Africa each summer.
“They’re building young leaders,” Ezeli said. “They’re teaching them life skills and accountability, and they’re bringing people from different parts of the world to mentor these kids.” Here’s hoping the restaurant will extend the Dodo Nikkei special, or create another dish with Ezeli’s mom! I’ll have more with Ezeli soon in my Good Taste column. Chotto Matte, 50 O’Farrell Street, SF. chotto-matte.com
STAGE
Charles Lewis III checks out theaters and performance spaces every week in the Drama Masks column.
THROUGH MAY 24: HAMNET William Shakespeare was no stranger to “the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.” In a life that included poverty and plague times, much has been speculated about how much of the bard’s literal story is recreated in his yarns. This was, after all, the time before the autobiography. Usually, this speculation will take the whimsical tone of Shakespeare in Love, but occasionally, you’ll get the darker interpretation of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet, adapted from her bestselling novel by Lolita Chakrabarti. ACT stages the story of the tragic death of Shakespeare’s son, the terrible effect on his wife Anne Hathaway—and how life can sometimes be transmuted into healing art. ACT’s Toni Rembe Theater, SF. More info here.
FRI/1-MAY 23: BLOODLINE Awesome Theatre’s Bloodline jumps out at me. It’s written by Rebecca Pierce, a regular at Killing My Lobster, one of the few companies to actively speak out about the current political situation, and author of that essay I remember liking. The play is about a fired DEI rep returning to Missouri to deal with her complex family history. Since last year’s DOGE-ification of the US government, I think we all know fired DEI reps these days. I’m intrigued by a contemporary story that features someone trying to improve the US’s contemporary problems with race having to reckon with its long-term problems. This is a country that claims it has no money for slavery reparations, but has plenty of money to restore Confederate statues and roll out the red carpet for white South Africans as it deports (or kills) its own citizens. What I’m sayin’ is that it sounds like Pierce picked a helluva time to write a play about American racism. Eclectic Box, SF. More info here.
FILM
Dennis Harvey’s long-running Screen Grabs has tons more flicks to recommend.
STREAMING STARTING MAY 1: PAYING FOR IT Adapted from Chester Brown’s graphic memoir by Sook-Yin Lee—whose real-life breakup with him was largely its original subject—this little indie indeed pays off. The onscreen Chester (played by Dan Beirne) is, natch, a nebbishy underground comics creator living with longtime girlfriend Sonny (Emily Le), a VJ. They’re comfortable together. But emotionally, things have flatlined, and sexually, they’re six feet under. Sonny announces she wants to pursue other involvements, which Chester passively agrees to. But for her that new freedom turns into a parade of boyfriend disasters, while for him it opens a surprising door to satisfaction—he realizes his needs are fully met by paying professionals for regular, polite sex. This is one of those offbeat, low-key relationship dramedies that ingratiate with a smartly insightful script, character delineation and performances. Paying for It is available as of Fri/1 from arthouse streaming platform Film Movement.
THROUGH MAY 4: SFFILM FEST Film festivals are an inherently ever-evolving thing, but few have undergone more changes, over a longer span, than the San Francisco International Film Festival, commonly known these days by its organizational umbrella monicker SFFilm. This year marks the 69th edition of what remains the longest-running event of its type in the Western Hemisphere. Its form these days is considerably altered from those decades when it had few competitors, locally or nationally. But this “celebration of global cinema” still offers a diverse selection of upcoming commercial releases, arthouse fare that may not surface locally again (particularly as the Bay Area’s arthouse scene has drastically shrunk), shorts programs, tributes, and more. Various venues, more info here.
NIGHTLIFE
Marke B. usually knows what’s up.
SAT/2: STARDELLA W/ PROSUMER It’s been a minute since Berlin papa bear Prosumer has come through, but his underground house and techno energy (he’s been a Panoramabar regular) electrifies queer and otherwise audiences alike. He’s headlining the stellar Stardella party, with CarrieOn Disco, M3, Stond Fruit, and Chuck Gunn. 9:30pm-2:30am, Great Northern, SF. More info here.
SAT/2: COCO & BREEZY Miami’s annual house-oriented Winter Music Conference has seen a lot of ups and downs over its decades, so it was delightful to see it appear on my feed in such a positive light this year. That included many posts of these fiercely stylish twins—they come with their own sunglasses brand—who also slay behind the decks with deep vibes. 9:30pm-2am, Audio, SF. More info here.
SAT/2: CREWDEM W/ FIELDTRIP I will go to my plushie-lined grave promoting the postage stamp-sized dance floor at the Mission’s Mothership. So cute, so fun. This time around, promotion crew Crewdem come with a series of free parties, kicking off with Fieldtrip—”a Bay Area b2b duo consisting of Nick Alan and DJ Staley. This night will mark their 11th year anniversary of performing together. With experience and crates that run this deep, you should expect two things: the unexpected and to dance.” 9pm-2am, Mothership, SF. More info here.
