Welcome to our calendar feature BIG WEEK, wherein our expert Arts & Culture writers recommend the best things in Arts, Music, Food & Drink, Stage, Film, Nightlife, and more.
GENERAL ARTS
Marke B. is in the arts hot seat.
FRI/12: RIDDIM & ROOTS HOLIDAZE PARTY Warm up the season Jamaican-style with this global reggae joint, featuring a live performance from Blakkamore and DJs Sep, Irie Dole, and Guidance. It’s vibe time, baby. 9:30pm-2am, Great Northern, SF. More info here.
FRI/12-DECEMBER 21: “CINDERELLA” The African-American Shakespeare Company’s annual holiday offering always finds new ways to change up the fairy tale, adding in hip-hop, ballet, modern dance, and standard ballroom, as well as additional musical numbers that pay homage to the ’80s, ’90s, and beyond.
SAT/13: 23RD ANNUAL PAROL LANTERN FESTIVAL The Parol Lantern is a quintessential Filipino symbol of hope, peace, and community during the holiday season, and can be found lighting up windows in Filipino homes throughout the world. This free, family-friendly festival at YBCA continues the tradition, with the theme “MAKIBAKA: Ignite the Fight, Light Up Our Legacy,” a rallying call to fight, rise, and shine amidst hardship and harm. 3pm-8pm, YBCA, SF. More info here.
SAT/13: TWISTING THE RABBIT HOLE: PSYCHEDELIC PUPPET SHOW OK there is a bunch of AI involved in this (and maybe NFTs?), but I’m still curious. “Dive into a multidimensional, multimedia celebration of visionary art, consciousness, and sonic innovation at Twisting the Rabbit Hole, a one-evening-only event produced by the Psychedelic Puppet Show. Taking place at Heron Arts, this experience features a psychedelic film festival, a conversation of luminaries, and the world premiere of the new 3-D version of DJ Q-bert’s trippy 2001 cult classic, Wave Twisters. After the screening, we’ll party with DJ Q-bert performing live. 2:30pm-10pm, Heron Arts, SF. More info here.
SAT/13: BLACK HOLIDAY MARKET Score some sweet gifts (and yummy treats) and support local Black creators and small businesses at this annual pop-up on Ferry Plaza from the Foodwise org, featuring small-batch jams and sauces, jewelry, skincare, apparel, and more. Plus, it’s during the weekly Ferry Plaza farmers’ market, so you can grocery shop as well! 9am-2pm, Ferry Plaza, SF. More info here.
SAT/13: G|O|D|W|A|F|F|L|E||N|O|I|S|E||P|A|N|C|A|K|E|S Experimental music combined with fluffy vegan pancakes—it’s an irresistible duo, and this year marks 25 (!) for the sweet event. This installment brings Lauren Hayes, Tom Djll, Dyemark, Tanuki Spider Cat, and Tone Shepherd to the Center for New Music stage—and plenty of syrup. Noon, Center for New Music, SF. More info here.
SAT/13: FIFTH ANNUAL RUTH WEISS POETRY AWARDS The inimitable Beat poet from Germany died in her California home in 2020 at age 92, but her creative legacy endures. This immersive evening features “live poetry readings, cinepoem screenings, DJ-curated music, and a rare exhibit of ruth’s poem-paintings”—plus honors for other great poets. 6pm-8pm, Counterculture Museum, SF. More info here.
SAT/13: “LOST LANDS” A group art-fashion-music show at the truly rad Yucci Outlet Gallery that asks, “If you could speak to the Indigenous peoples of the Bay Area, or to your own ancestors—but you couldn’t use words, only your art—what would you say?” DJ BEATS ME, Rich Iyala, Monk HTS, Loke Tamba, Forced2fly & Ke The Spirit will handle the tunes. Noon-9pm, Yucci Outlet, SF. More info here.
SUN/14: DRAG QUEEN STORY HOUR 10TH ANNIVERSARY Created in 2015 by writer Michelle Tea and RADAR Productions, under the leadership of Julián Delgado Lopera and Virgie Tovar, Drag Queen Story Hour now shines as a beacon of diversity and joy in our terribly dark times. This free, family-oriented celebration will reunite original storytellers from the Bay Area, including beloved local icon Per Sia, the very first drag queen to read for Drag Story Hour. Storytellers from founding chapters across the country, including representatives from Indigenous Drag Story Hour, will also join the festivities, making this celebration a once-in-a-decade gathering of DSH’s most dazzling voices. Noon-5pm, SF Public Library Main Branch. More info here.
SUN/14: RETURN TO OZ Look, it’s SF, and the drag never stops. The fabulous Trixxie Carr is pouring the OZ on, too: “Relive the fantasy and the terror of this beloved favourite, a film that had children running in horror from theaters as Dorothy Gale’s nightmares came to LIFE! The big screen debut of Fairuza Balk (The Craft), Return to Oz is TRULY CULT. This twisted take on the classic tale is a seriously disturbing masterpiece of 1980s cinema and must be seen to be believed.” 7pm-9:30pm, 200 Channels, SF. More info here.
MUSIC
Hit up John-Paul Shiver’s Under the Stars column for great tunes and shows every week.
THURS/10: PEARL CHARLES opens for Rose City Band at Cafe du Nord, which means you need to catch that early cocktail, settle at the front of the stage, and luxuriate in those trademark genre time travel skills this vocalist possesses. That whole metaphysical queen into then, a country folkie terrain? It’s your perfect teaser for the next time she shows up headlining. Start your weekend really cool and really right. 8pm, Cafe Du Nord, SF. More info here.
SAT-SUN/13-14: SPANISH HARLEM ORCHESTRA is coming to SFJAZZ for Salsa Navidad, a lively holiday dance party. It’s an open dancefloor ticket at the Miner Auditorium, where veteran pianist Oscar Hernández knows that the best way to embrace the holiday spirit is through the gift and blessing of movement. During the performance, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra will play selections such as “Navidad Con Plena,” “Jingle Bells,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Sabor Navideño,” “Venimos Cantando Alegre,” and “Silent Night / Noche de Paz,” all featuring their signature arrangements and dance-focused presentation. It’s the vibrant holiday pick-me-up to get that Yuletide swag back. 7pm, SFJAZZ. More info here.
FOOD & DRINK
Tamara Palmer’s weekly Good Taste column tells you where to stick your fork. Sign up for the new Good Taste newsletter here.
SAT/13: GUITTARD x OCTAVIA SATURBAKE Armed with a wide range of baking chocolates from Guittard, the local couverture titan that’s been in the Bay Area since the 19th century, Octavia’s pastry chef Melissa Loar is hosting a bake sale with items such as chocolate hazelnut twice-baked croissants, chocolate conchas, vegan chocolate molasses cookies, and gluten-free white chocolate espresso cookies. All proceeds will be given to 18 Reasons’ community culinary efforts in the Mission. Pre-order boxes sold out with the quickness, so this particular pop-up is probably going to be popular. 10am-1pm at Octavia, 1701 Octavia Street (side door), SF. More info here.
SAT/13 THROUGH SPRING 2026: TINY CHEF, BIG IMPACT The Tiny Chef Show has taken its final bow on Nickelodeon, but the smol guy is back with a new mini-exhibit and 20-minute movie about sustainability called Tiny Chef, Big Impact debuts Saturday at California Academy of Sciences as part of regular admission through the spring. What’s more, Tiny Chef will be hiding in unexpected places throughout the natural history museum, and souvenirs will be given out while supplies last. Daily, 9:30am- 5pm, Cal Academy, SF. More info here.
STAGE
Charles Lewis III checks out theaters and performance spaces every week for his Drama Masks column.
THROUGH DECEMBER 14: AMALIA Y LA VIDA DE LAS COSAS The eponymous Amalia (a delightful Florinda Hershey) is the very sort of eccentric woman you’d expect to live alone in an old house in a fairy tale like this. Naturally, that house is full of magic. Her grand-daughter Martina (Montserrat Nava) is on her way to visit for the weekend. Little does Amalia know, Martina’s been sent there by her parents to talk Amalia into moving out so they can sell the house. Martina does what she’s told, but when she and Amalia’s mutual love of film-making is discovered, awakening childhood memories the young girl had put away in favor of smart devices, it becomes a lot harder to evict someone with literal magic in their hands. Theater 33, SF. More info here.
THROUGH DECEMBER 21: MOTHER OF EXILES Jessica Huang’s world premiere consists of two exhilarating acts sandwiched around a baffling sitcom-like middle one, but that’s no reason to skip this time-traveling, timely work. The first act finds us on Angel Island circa 1898. Pregnant Chinese immigrant “Eddie” travelled across the world in male drag in order to find work in this supposed “land of plenty.” She’s being quarantined before she’s shipped back to mainland China, so she leaves her new child in the land that she hopes will offer better opportunities. By 1999, her half-Latine descendant Braulio makes his living as, of all things, a border agent on the Miami Coast. When the story jumps ahead to 2063, Braulio’s own descendants are forced to flee what’s left of Florida due to climate devastation. Berkeley Rep. More info here.
FILM
Dennis Harvey’s long-running Screen Grabs has tons more flicks to recommend.
SAT/13 + MON/16: MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS PART I: LAST AIR IN MOSCOW Authoritarian threat is all too immediate in Julia Loktev’s five-hour-plus documentary. The Russia-born, US-raised filmmaker began the project in collaboration with her friend Anna Nemzer. The latter is an employee at Moscow’s TV Rain, which at the start here is already the last independent broadcast channel allowed by Putin’s government. Even so, Nemzer and colleagues have been labeled “foreign agents,” and every transmission is forced to sport a disclaimer claiming you are about to watch foreign-sponsored propaganda. The truth, of course, is that TV Rain and a precious few other outlets are the only Russian news sources not parroting state disinformation. When Russia invades Ukraine, everything hits the fan, and things become truly dangerous. Roxie Theater, SF. More info here.
NIGHTLIFE
Marke B. usually knows what’s up. Check out his club The Stud for more great parties.
SAT/13: BORED LORD The terrific Oakland-based trans DJ and producer known for ecstatic electronic mayhem and some very smart productions lands at one of our very favorite little venues. 9pm-1:30am, Bar Part-Time, SF. More info here.
SUN/14: MISSION SYNTHS: 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY The shop is a true gear-head’s dream, and we’re lucky to have it. This banger brings in local electronic/experimental moments from the likes of Colin Dyer, Fetz A/V, Hydroplane, Matt Robidoux, Müzmin and many more, plus projections and goodies. 3pm-10pm, Mission Synths, SF. More info here.
WED/17: STRUT SF AND F8 HOLIDAY PARTY WITH DAVID HARNESS Bets of the Bay-winning Best Nightclub F8 and Best Dance Party Strut pair up with previous Best DJ winner David Harness for a deep house dive into the holidays. 9pm-2am, F8, SF. More info here.
