Plus, the Novato Festival, Hello Dolly! at Mountain Play and Imogen Cunningham’s photographs in Sonoma.
Celebrate Juneteenth
Juneteenth is the oldest recognized commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States; check out these events held around the Bay Area.
June 4, 11, 16–19: Bayview Opera House Juneteenth Celebration
Over three consecutive weekends, San Francisco’s Bayview Opera House Ruth Williams Memorial Theatre celebrates Juneteenth with a Point Pushas Artist Expo; a Ferguson Rises documentary film screening premiere and community activation with Mike Brown, Sr., chronicling his journey over the past five years since the passing of his son; choreographer Gregory Dawson’s “The Joy Protocol” performed by dawsondancesf; and a community Juneteenth celebration.
June 18 MLK Community Festival
Santa Rosa hosts an afternoon of musicians, choirs, kids’ games, presentations by Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow, a wellness area and a walk to Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park in memory of Vince Harper and his work with Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County.
June 18 San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora
Museum of the African Diaspora offers free admission today; a virtual program, Art as We See It: Protest Songs and Art; a live SFJAZZ performance on site; and a live and ZOOMed Myths of Slavery and Juneteenth discussion with University of Texas at Austin Professor Daina Ramey Berry.
June 19 Berkeley Juneteenth Festival
The intersection of Adeline St. and Alcatraz Ave. hosts a community festival; live performances of drumming, jazz and spoken word on two stages; and a kids/STEM zone with a rock wall, skating, clows and storytellers.
June 19
In an effort to promote a more diverse, equitable and inclusive Mill Valley and Southern Marin, Mill Valley Force for Racial Equity & Empowerment and Mill Valley Recreation are hosting a Freedom Festival with entertainment, food and information booths at Mill Valley’s Depot Plaza.
Also Coming Up This Month:
June 1 Langston Kerman
It’s anyone’s guess what the L.A.-based slam poet-turned-standup-comedian and actor (Jared on HBO’s “Insecure,” most famously) will come up with during a four-night stand at San Francisco’s Punchline, through June 4.
June 2 SF DocFest
A mix of virtual and in-person screenings includes “Ricochet,” which follows the events after a bullet accidentally fired by an undocumented immigrant, José Ines García Zaraté, killed Kate Steinle at San Francisco’s Pier 14; “Jack has a Plan” from Berkeley’s Bradley Berman; and “Roots of Fire” from San Francisco’s Abby Berendt Lavoi and Jeremey Lavoi, through June 12.
June 3 Paula Poundstone
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The host of the podcast “Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone” and new online game show “Nobody Asked You” brings her brand of humor to Montalvo Arts Center.
June 4 Don Giovanni
Mozart’s propulsive score as conducted by Bertrand de Billy sets a lively tone for the dark comedy and darker deeds in this opera that involves murder, mayhem and a mission to unmask the culprit, through July 2.
June 5 Oakland Zoo
Officially founded on June 6, 1922, the Oakland Zoo will celebrate its centennial with a free event at its original home, Snow Park, featuring food, music and events for kids, with more events planned all year long.
June 6 Romeo y Juliet
A bilingual adaptation of Shakespeare’s timeless tales of youthful love and parental dismay at Orinda’s CalShakes leaps between English and Spanish and takes aim at traditional gender roles by featuring Sarita Ocón as Romeo and Vero Maynez as Juliet, through June 19.
June 7 Bouquets to Art
Perennials and portraits converge in a week-long floral fundraiser at the DeYoung where 100 designs from Bay Area floral designers take inspiration from, and are placed next to, the piece that acted as the florist’s muse.
June 8 Social Males
One piece in ODC’s 10 day-long summer dance festivalis a work-in-progress that looks at the effects of male socialization in our culture as directed by James Graham, through June 11.
June 9 Bob Dylan
The Nobel Prize winner and, oh yeah, songwriter, takes to the stage for a three-day series at the Fox in Oakland in support of his 2020 album release, “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” through June 11.
June 10 Dear Evan Hansen
The smash hit about life and the way we live it is coming to Broadway San Jose, a deeply personal and contemporary musical about a boy who is about to get the one thing he’s always wanted: a chance to finally fit in, through June 19.
June 11 Breaking Down Walls
With proceeds to benefit Ukraine, a diverse mix of artists performing music, dance, theatre, poetry, and animation come together at San Francisco’s Fort Mason to remind us how connected we all are and celebrate our shared humanity.
June 11 Daughters of the Delta
Oakland’s Michelle Jacques’ signature New Orleans Big Band style is the lens used to consider this musical anthology that honors Black women composers and musicians hailing from Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the chants and stirring rhythms of Mardi Gras Indians, jazz, funk, soul, Creole, Cajun, gospel, Caribbean, African, Zydeco and rock.
June 11, 12, 19 Hello, Dolly!
Tune up your vocal cords: The June performances of Mountain Play at Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre on Mount Tamalpais tell the tale of the romantic and comic exploits of Dolly Gallaher-Levi, turn-of-the-century matchmaker and “woman who arranges things,” with audience sing-alongs.
June 12 Tower of Power
The horn-driven funk-rock of the band that Emilio Castillo founded in Fremont in 1968 opens the outdoor music season at San Francisco’s Sigmund Stern Grove.
June 13 Kelp!
In an effort to raise awareness and find solutions in the areas of climate action, ocean stewardship and environmental equity, an exhibition in San Francisco centers on California’s endangered kelp forests and features the work of more than half a dozen visual artists, including Tiffany Bozic, Ann Holsberry, Josie Iselin, Ellen Litwiller, Lina Prairie and Laurie Sawyer, through December 8.
June 14 Hidden Wonders
A Galapagos tortoise preserved from a 1906 expedition, an extinct Bay Area native Xerces butterfly, a saber-tooth Smilodon cat recovered from the La Brea Tarpits and other highlights from a collection of nearly 46 million scientific specimens star in a new natural history exhibition at the California Academy of Sciences.
June 15 The Government Inspector
Today is the last day to experience a tale not unlike a Marx Brothers comedy, where mistaken identity and local corruption drive a 19th-century classic comedy of errors by Nikolai Gogol.
June 16 Soylent Green
Also titled “How to Feed the World Without Eating Your Neighbor,” the 1973 film directed by Richard Fleischer and starting Charlton Heston will be followed by a discussion about how to address the movie’s examination of hunger and food scarcity, overpopulation and ecological collapse, as well as a canned food collection drive.
June 17 Let’s Dance
Fusing Latin, jazz and modern music and dance styles, songs from Broadway shows such as “42nd Street,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Wicked” and “Company” are at the heart of this program conceived by Luis Salgado (“In the Heights”), Matt Smart (“Hamilton”) and Amanda M. Stuart (“Harmony”), through July 3.
June 18 Obama Portraits
The iconic, official portraits of President Barack Obama and Mrs. Michelle Obama from artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald are presented in the American Art collection at the DeYoung, along with a video from the National Portrait Gallery, through August 14.
June 18 Novato Festival
Kid favorite Piccolo Puppet Show, crab fries and turkey legs, a stage dedicated to bands ranging from Petty Theft and Mustache Harbor to Cat Fight and His Awesome Hotcakes, and more will vie for your attention among the art, wine and beer vendors as Grant Avenue between Redwood and Seventh in downtown Novato closes to celebrate the community, through June 19.
June 19 Hiroya Tsukamoto
The Kyoto, Japan-based composer, finger-style guitar champion and singer-songwriter presents a blend of folk, jazz and world music at Old St. Hilary’s.
June 20 Frameline Film Festival
The San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival includes over 90 films from more than 30 countries, spanning narratives, documentaries, and shorts, and both in-person and virtual screenings around the Bay Area, through June 26.
June 21 How the Hell Did I Get Here?
“Downton Abbey’s” Lesley Nicol (Mrs. Patmore) shares her one-woman musical biography in a limited production at A.C.T.’s Strand Theater, with piano accompaniment from songwriter and San Francisco Bay Area native, Mark Mueller, through July 3.
June 22 Matter in the Hothouse
Walk around in Camerawork’s 2020 Exhibition Award winner Aimée Beaubien’s psychedelic jungle of cut and woven photographs of plants, organic plant materials, and other mixed media hung from the ceiling, through July 9.
June 23 Creative Conservation
Featuring painted creations by rescued and rehabilitated animals and wildlife-inspired works from human collaborators,the plight of the animals featured in Disney’s The Jungle Book is front and center and paired with The Jungle Book: Making a Masterpiece exhibit, through January 8, 2023.
June 24 Seen & Unseen
In the first exhibit of her work in more than 20 years, experimental photographer Imogen Cunningham’s images are the focus of this exhibit in Sonoma that includes street portraits from San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district and Paris, as well as family photographs, portraiture and abstract still lifes, through August 28.
June 25 SF Pride
After a two-year hiatus, the parade down San Francisco’s Market Street and Festival at the Civic Center are back for what is sure to be a hootenanny of epic proportions, through June 26.
June 26 Dave Alvin
The SoCal native’s unique blend of roots rock is on tour in Nicasio in support of his 2020 album, “From an Old Guitar: Rare and Unreleased Tracks,” along with Alvin’s brother Phil Alvin’s band, The Guilty Ones, and frequent collaborator Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
June 26 Chamber II
Rescheduled from an original performance date of January 16, a program of chamber music from Berkeley Symphony homes in on Composer in Residence Brian Nabors’ “Caged” for string quintet, Caroline Shaw’s “Limestone and Felt” for viola and cello and familiar works from Ravel and Bach.
June 27 Sound Bath
Sound artist Ryan Kleeman composed an immersive, ambient listening experience specifically for lucid listening in an all-ages show that includes 3D and ambisonic nature recordings.
June 28 Comedy Blast
Bay area comedian Danny Dechi (a.k.a the world’s only pencil musician) is emcee of an evening of comedy featuring local and national comedians, with karaoke following the evening’s performances.
June 29 Get Happy
Broadway star Jessica Vosk (“Fiddler on the Roof,” “Wicked”) celebrates Judy Garland on the centennial of her birth with a showcase of her songbook along with archival footage, home movies and interviews.
June 30 Terra Incognita
Three decades of Oakland-based artist David Huffman’s Traumanauts (characters who traverse the galaxy) series explores science fiction, formalist abstraction and social justice movements of the late 20th century in a range of media including large-scale canvas, works on paper, ceramics, video and printmaking, through August 21.
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- Not Stopping Us: Gilead House Helps Single Moms Through the Pandemic
Christina Mueller is a long-time Bay Area food writer. She hails from the East Coast and has spent way too much time in South America and Europe. She discovered her talent as a wordsmith in college and her love of all things epicurean in grad school. She has written for Condé Nast Contract Publishing, Sunset, and the Marin Independent Journal, among others. She volunteers with California State Parks and at her child’s school, and supports the Marin Audubon Society, PEN America, and Planned Parenthood. When she is not drinking wine by a fire, she is known to spend time with her extended family.
