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WEDNESDAY 24
“Ask a Scientist: Baseball” SoMa StrEat Food Park, 428 11th St, SF; www.askascientistsf.com. 7pm, free. Science teachers Tucker Hiatt and Zeke Kossover discuss and demonstrate the physics of baseball.
“Friends’ 50th Annual Big Book Sale” Festival Pavilion, Fort Mason Center, SF; facebook.com/friendssfpl. 10am-6pm, free. Through Sun/28. The Friends of the San Francisco Public Library host this annual sale to benefit the SFPL. All items are $3 or less; everything on Sunday is $1.
Roxane Gay City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus, SF; www.citylights.com. 7pm, free. The author discusses her new book, Bad Feminist.
THURSDAY 25
Naja Marie Aidt Booksmith, 1644 Haight, SF; www.booksmith.com. 7:30pm, free. The Greenland-born Danish poet and author reads from Baboon, her first book to be translated into English.
“Outbreak NightLife” California Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, 55 Music Concourse, SF; www.calacademy.org. 6-10pm, $12. Part of Cal Academy’s “Brilliant! Science: Pandemic Festival,” this after-hours event mixes microbiologists and cocktails in a look at diseases that have shaped the world we live in.
SATURDAY 27
Bay Area Blues Festival Main between Court and Alhambra, Martinez; www.bayareabluesfestival.com. 10am-6pm, free. Through Sun/28. The Downtown Martinez Italian Street Painting Festival and the Polk Street Blues Festival join together to make one festival, with lots of live blues, plus arts and crafts, food booths, chalk art painting, and more.
Bay Area Record Fair Thee Parkside, 1600 17th St, SF; www.theeparkside.com. 11am, $5 early entry (free after noon). Vinyl junkies, take note: over 30 Bay Area indie labels participate at this semi-regular event, which also boasts live music, DJs, raffles, and more.
San Mateo Bacon and Brew Festival Central Park, Fifth Ave and El Camino Real, San Mateo; www.sanmateochamber.org/bbf. 11am-5pm, $15. This fest breaks it down to the essentials. Admission gets you a free beer (or soft drink), while food vendors favor you-know-which crispy pork product.
“Sounds of the Streets: A Historical and Musical Tribute to Latin Rock” Brava Theater, 2781 24th St, SF; www.brava.org. 8pm, $12-20. Carlos Santana memorabilia exhibit, plus a slide show presentation with music by Ivy College of San Mateo professor Rudy Ramirez and a performance by the Mission Street All Stars.
SuperHero Street Fair 1700 Indiana, SF; www.superherosf.com. 1-11pm, $10. Seven stages and 13 “sound camps” provide the beats for this fifth annual festival celebrating heroes, villains, sidekicks, and everything in between. It goes without saying that costumes are highly encouraged.
“Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival” Civic Center Park by the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Martin Luther King, Jr Way at Center, Berk; www.poetryflash.org. Noon-4:30pm, free. Eco-poetry readings with Kay Ryan, Anne Waldman, Al Young, Dean Rader, Randall Potts, and others.
SUNDAY 28
Sunday Streets: Excelsior Mission between Theresa/Avalon and Geneva, SF; www.sundaystreetssf.com. 11am-4pm, free. Hit the street at this edition of Sunday Streets, which coincides with the sixth annual Tricycle Music Fest at the Excelsior Branch Library (sfpl.org/tricycle for more info). Also check out the concurrent Excelsior Festival (Ocean at Mission), with Aztec dancing, arts and crafts vendors, food trucks, and more.
MONDAY 29
Naomi Klein First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing, Berk; www.brownpapertickets.com. 7:30pm, $15. KPFA Radio 91.4 FM presents the journalist and author in a discussion of her latest book, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate.
“Queer Prism: Readings” Good Vibrations Polk, 1620 Polk, SF; www.goodvibes.com. 6:30-9:30pm. Free. Queer fiction reading with Eric Andrews-Katz, Dale Chase, Dena Hankins, Clifford Henderson, Kathleen Knowles, and Felice Picano.
TUESDAY 30
Chris Guillebeau Booksmith, 1644 Haight, SF; www.booksmith.com. 7:30pm, free. The author reads from travel memoir The Happiness of Pursuit.
Wave Books Party City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus, SF; www.citylights.com. 7pm, free. Wave Books editor-at-large Matthew Zapruder hosts this reading with Garrett Caples, Anthony McCann, Hoa Nguyen, Cedar Sigo, and Rachel Zucker. *