alerts@sfbg.com
Thursday 6
Skill Exchange launch party Storefront Lab, 337 Shotwell, SF; www.storefrontlab.org. 6-9pm, free. Skill exchange is a three day “pop-up workshop series.” Spend the weekend learning DIY skills from cheese and bread making to letterpress printing to butchering chickens. The workshops are taught by Bay Area chefs, artists and other people who make stuff. Workshops are Friday and Saturday, cost $8-12, and may require registering online. The weekend kicks off with a free party Thursday that will feature five skill demonstrations, drinks and snacks.
Friday 7
Takeover the de Young musuem de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr., SF; Facebook: Takeover the de Young musuem. 6pm, free. Museum workers are in contract negotiations with Corporation of Fine Arts Musuems. They say the bosses have “intimidated workers, withheld financial information necessary to bargain the contract and publicly vilified them in the local media for attempting to preserve union rights and win a fair contract.” The workers who care of art, build exhibits, teach education programs and staff the gift shop for ready for some direct action.
How capitalism shatters our lives South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis, Berk; www.speakout-now.org. 7pm, $3 suggested donation. Economist and author Richard Wolff and psychotherapist Harriet Fraad get together for a panel discussion followed by question and answer. Wolff plans to take on the poltical and socio-economic aspects of the shattering, including “how the basic functioning of capitalism brings about unemployment, wars and the other crises that unsettle our lives,” while Fraad will talk about personal and psychological affects of capitalism.
Saturday 8
Veronica and the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia, SF; www.laboractionmumia.org. 7pm, free. Valerie Jones will discuss her new book. It tells the tale of her sister, Veronica Jones, a key witness in Abu-Jamal’s case who says she was intimidated by police detectives into lying about what she saw. You can also hear from Rachel Wolkenstein, one of Abu-Jamal’s lawyers, at this public meeting and book signing.
Sunday 9
Richard Aoki — Cointelpro and Reclaiming the Legacy EastSide Cultural Center, 2277 International Blvd, Oakl; freedomarchives.wordpress.com, 510-533-6629. 4-6pm, free. On August 20, Seth Rosenfeld of the Center for Investigative Reporting came out with a shocking story. Richard Aoki, member of the Black Panther Party and other civil rights and revolutionary struggles, was in fact an FBI informant. People who knew and researched Aoki quickly countered these claims, saying there was insufficient evidence. At this event, speakers, including Diane Fujino, Emory Douglas, Tarika Lewis and Aoki’s close friend and Black Panther Party leader Bobby Seale will talk about what may be a case of “snitch-jacketing,” or falsely painting someone as an informant.
Monday 10
Seth Rosenfeld: Subversives The Booksmith, 1644 Haight, SF; www.booksmith.com. 7:30pm, free. Investigation reporter Seth Rosenfeld will speak on his book, Subversives, which traces the lives of three pivotal figures whose stories converged at Berkeley in the 1960s: Mario Savio, Clark Kerr, and Ronald Reagan. Rosenfeld will speak in converstion with Oscar Villalon, managing editor of the magazine ZYZZYVA. Rosenfeld’s name may also look familiar from the previous alert item — he broke the story about Richard Aoki informing the FBI.
Occupy Forum in the park Justin Herman Plaza, Market and Embarcadero, SF. 6pm, free. All summer, A branch of Occupy San Francisco hosted Occupy Forum, a place to lay down knowledge and discuss important and complicated issues brought up by the Occupy movement. The meetings took place in the Women’s Building. Now that summer’s over, Occupy Forum will continue, but back in the plaza where Occupy SF made its encampment community last fall. For the first edition of Occupy Forum in the Park, hear from Jerry Mander, author of The Capitalism Papers: Fatal Flaws of an Obsolete System. “We will have seating, blankets to keep you warm, amplified sound, and peacekeepers to keep it alcohol, interruption, and smoke-free,” say organizers.