It’s the July 4th weekend, but there’s a lot more than fireworks on the calendar. We’ve got creative performances, music and dancing, and several Independence day celebrations.
Friday, July 3
Opera Piccola @ the Oakland Museum of California
The always enjoyable Opera Piccola is staging readings from four new plays by Oakland playwrights at the Oakland Museum of California’s First Fridays After Five. Hear lines from new works by Judith Offer, Jay Chee, Julie Rainbow, and Nicole Shaw. The show starts at 7:30, so you’ll have plenty of time to hit up Uptown, the First Friday epicenter, post performance. If you’re walking from the museum toward Uptown, consider stopping off at the Joyce Gordon Gallery at 406 14th Street to see the opening of Glimpses in Time 2009, a photo competition juried by Rene de Guzman, the Oakland Museum of California’s senior curator.
Oakland Museum of California’s First Fridays After Five
1000 Oak Street
5 p.m.-9 p.m.
Joyce Gordon Gallery
406 14th Street
5:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Terrence McManus & Phillip Greenlief, Theresa Wong
These musicians are creative and acclaimed, and they’re in Oakland. Saxophonist Phillip Freenlief, improvisational guitarist Terrence McManus and cellist/vocalist Theresa Wong will be performing in the town tomorrow night, and those who know their music will be there. Check out the links below to get to know them, if you don’t already.
evandermusic.com/
terrence-mcmanus.com/
theresawong.org/
9 p.m.
$10
Flux 53 Theater
5300-5312 Foothill Boulevard
510-842-8841
3rd Annual Frederick Douglass Day / Alternative Fourth of July Celebration
At the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, they’re honoring the abolitionist Frederick Douglass. And the recently formed youth ensemble that bears his name will perform, along with popular local jazz poetry ensemble, UpSurge! (The founder of Upsurge, Raymond Nat Turner has been instrumental in creating the youth ensemble.) The evening’s special guests are actor/director Michael Lange, who will read excerpts from Douglass’ famous speech, “What Is the Fourth of July to the Slave?, and activist/poet Cesar A. Cruz.
Oakland Public Conservatory of Music
1616 Franklin Street, (bet. 16th and 17th St, downtown Oakland)
BBQ: 6 p.m. BBQ (incl. veggie burgers) available, donation goes to OPC music programs for youth
Salsa dancing
If you’re feeling festive this weekend, or just toying with the idea of learning a dance, try the free class in Jack London Square on Friday evening. This week, they’re teaching the salsa. Try an old-fashioned evening — dinner and dance instead of the usual dinner and a movie.
8:30 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Foot of Broadway (at Water Street)
Free
Saturday, July 4
Party Like its 1909
Two of Oakland’s eminent historic houses, the Pardee Home Museum and the Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate, are hosting old-timey Fourth of July celebrations on Saturday. Hellman Dunsmuir is opening its grounds to picnickers and letting visitors view the home on self-guided tours. There’ll be games for children and live music. Admission is $5. For a few dollars more you can relive the early 20th century in downtown Oakland without having to bring your own food. The Pardee Patriotic Picnic and Stereopticon Ice Cream Social costs $12 for adults and $5 for kids between 5 and 11, but there’s a $2 discount for grown ups willing to don period garb. The proceeds will benefit the upkeep of the old home and its gardens.
Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate
12 p.m.-6 p.m.
$5
2960 Peralta Oaks Ct.; 510-615-5555
Pardee Patriotic Picnic and Stereopticon Ice Cream Social
12 p.m. – 4 p.m.
$12 for adults, $5 for kids
672 11th Street
510-444-2187
Party like it 2009
If you like watching fireworks by the water, then Jack London Square is where you need to be Saturday evening. Live music begins at 7 with Ben Oni Orchestra and the Bluesburners, an Oakland R & B band. Little kids might want to know that K.C., the lead vocalist of the Bluesburners, was once queen of Fairyland. If you’re worried about the crowd and parking, then take the bikes out. Bay Area Bikes will offer free bike valet services.
Music: 7 p.m. onwards
Fireworks: 9:15 p.m. – 9:35 p.m.
Free
On the waterfront in Jack London Square
Celebrations on the Bay – Dinner & Fireworks
If you’d like to be someplace a little fancier than the waterfront, then try a three-hour dinner cruise around the Bay. Board at the Oakland ferry dock at 7 p.m., and watch the fireworks from the middle of the water. There will be an all-night cash bar on board.
7:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. Dinner Cruise
$70 for adults, and $35 for children 10 and under
More information: Celebrations on the Bay at 1-877-499-4229 or www.celebrationsonthebay.com
Sunday, July 5
Musiquarium@Water
Water Lounge is more than a place for $1 oysters. On Sunday evenings, it’s home for spinnin’ soul, R & B, Hip Hop and funk with djs wonway, dion decibels, LN.
8 p.m
5634 College Avenue (near Rockridge Bart)
510-654-5426
waterloungeoakland.com
Wayne De La Cruz and the Big Trio
Fillmore Jazz Festival 2009
If the traditional July 4th celebrations aren’t your scene, stop by the Fillmore Jazz Fest. Three stages of music and a chef’s stage, there’s got to be something for you in the mix. The line up features popular local names like the Marcus Shelby orchestra, Bobbie Webb and the Smooth Blues Band, Kim Nalley and many others. See the complete schedule here.
Saturday, July 4 and Sunday, July 5
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
On Fillmore — between Jackson and Eddy streets in San Francisco
Free
fillmorejazzfestival.com
Thursday, June 18
If there’s one thing Oaklanders can relate to, it’s devastating fires and horrible earthquakes. The Mills College Art Museum obviously understands this. Its new exhibition brings us Japanese woodblock prints from the 1923 Kanto earthquake, which destroyed Tokyo, Yokohama, and Chiba. 100,000 people died, buldings were levelled — and so were the print shops. But surviving artists and publishers documented what they had seen with what tools they had left. The results are amazing.
