KQED’s Cy Musiker and Rachael Myrow share their picks for great events around the Bay Area this week.
First things first: thanks to Suzie Racho and Gabe Meline for filling in these past few weeks while my wife and I were on the road in Eastern California and Southern Utah. Meanwhile, our arts and entertainment cup runneth over with the opening of Revelations: Art from the African American South at the de Young Museum. The show features 62 new acquisitions by mostly self-taught artists born in the segregation era of Jim Crow. Also, Justin Townes Earle is in San Francisco with a kick-ass new album called Kids in the Street, ranging from country pedal-steel to New Orleans funk. He’s at Slim’s June 2 — details here. I’ll be there. Now the rest of the show.
June 2 and 8: Chicago’s Jamila Woods puts a political spin on R&B — she’s a poet, teacher, singer-songwriter, and black feminist who’s worked with Chance the Rapper. She delivers even the toughest lines with a smile, but the lyrics are very edgy. (“They want us in kitchen; Kill our sons with lynchings.”) Woods, who grew up singing in the Chicago Children’s Choir, uses schoolyard chants to deliver some of her most potent songs. Woods plays the intimate Bing Concert Hall Studio June 2 on the Stanford Campus. Details here. And then Woods opens for Corinne Bailey Rae at the Fillmore in San Francisco on June 8. Details here.
June 3–4: The Bay Area Book Festival is back in Berkeley with an all-star lineup of Bay Area and national writers, focused on a common theme — literature and activism. Author Roxanne Gay talks about her new memoir on food and self-image; Micah White explains how he co-created Occupy Wall Street; Quilt maker and pioneer LGBT activist Cleve Jones talks about his memoir; and Ayelet Waldman joins her husband Michael Chabon for a panel on their new collection of essays on Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Bonuses include writing and performing workshops for teens, and programs for little kids — and their parents. As Rachael noted, reading is such a solitary experience, it’s great to be in a crowd of people who love books. Details here.