Hybrid | 2026 Black Men's Brain Health Conference
2026-02-03 - 2026-02-04 | Merritt College, 12500 Campus Dr, Oakland, CA, 94619
The staggering amount of ethnoracial inequalities in healthcare has been documented and researched for decades. Today, the 2026 BMBH Conference continues this effort to better understand the health inequities that affect Black men as they age across the life course.
The fifth annual BMBH Conference, with no registration fee, will reinvent how communities engage in and benefit from scientific research. For too long, the scientific and medical fields have been criticized for research that provides little lasting value to participating communities. By centering community voices, this conference aims to tap into genuine engagement and transform Black men’s roles in brain health and AD/ADRD research.
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Former S.F. Mayor Willie Brown Talks Politics . . . and His Iconic Career
2026-02-03 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA, 94105, United States
Join former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown as he returns to Commonwealth Club World Affairs to talk national, state and local politics. As CalMatters observed last year in an article marking his 90th birthday, Brown is “one of the most flamboyant and powerful politicians California has ever known,” who “still dominates every room he enters with his smarts and swagger.”
The first African American speaker of the California State Assembly, Brown served a record 14 years in that role. He then served two terms as San Francisco mayor.
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2026 San Francisco Gubernatorial Debate
2026-02-03 16:00 - 19:30 | Bay View Opera House, 4705 3rd St, San Francisco, 94124
​2026 offers Californians a rare opportunity to elect a new executive. The Gubernatorial race has significant impact on San Francisco and this debate, hosted by the Black Action Alliance in partnership with KTVU FOX 2 (San Francisco) and KTTV FOX 11 (Los Angeles) presents a unique opportunity for candidates to address the Bay Area’s most pressing issues and respond with policy perspectives and strategies.
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Reading Californians Book Discussion: Nicola Twilley on ‘Frostbite’
2026-02-03 17:00 | [ Virtual ], CA
Meet author Nicola Twilley when we discuss her winner of the California Book Awards’ 2024 gold medal in nonfiction, Frostbite, via Zoom.
In this book, we learn about how refrigeration, which we take for granted in our daily lies, changed how we eat as well as the effects on our health and the environment. Twilley, co-host of the “Gastropod” podcast, investigates the “cold chain” that connects farms to our refrigerators, revealing how artificial cold has reshaped everything from the availability of bananas to the taste of tomatoes, and created a world where nearly three-quarters of our food is processed, shipped and stored under refrigeration.
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“A Voice for the People,” Featuring San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins
2026-02-03 18:00 | Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA, 94105, United States
Prosecutors wield extraordinary influence over how justice is carried out—from decisions about charging and diversion to how victims are supported and public safety is defined. Yet too often, their on-the-ground expertise is missing from legislative conversations about criminal justice reform.
“A Voice for the People” brings San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and formerly incarcerated community members into that conversation. This timely program elevates the role of modern prosecutors as essential leaders in building a smarter, more equitable, and community-centered justice system. Sitting at the intersection of law, public safety, and community trust, prosecutors are uniquely positioned to translate reform ideals into policies that work in practice.
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Istevie and Friends
2026-02-03 20:00 | Yoshi’s Oakland, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
iStevie, known as The Emperor of Romance, hails from Oakland, California — a city rooted in soul, hustle, and sound. A singer, songwriter, and producer with nine studio albums, iStevie’s artistry bridges smooth R&B and Bay Area flavor.
His production credits include the hit record “Todd Shaw” by Mr. Jay ft. Too $hort, and the all-star collaboration “Issa Movie” featuring The Luniz, Money B, Silk-E, Eddi Penthouse, Mistah F.A.B., Esinchill, and 4Rax from The Mekanix. He also helped launch a Billboard-charting single for E-40, proving his impact runs deep through West Coast music.
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BATSHIT
2026-02-04 - 2026-02-07 | BIng Studio, 327 Lasuen Street, Stanford, CA, 94305, United States
BATSHIT is a wildly theatrical and deeply intimate story of female madness. Created by psycho-siren Leah Shelton (AU) and directed by Olivier award-winning Ursula Martinez (UK), this is a requiem for Leah’s grandmother Gwen, who was incarcerated for seeking independence in 1960s Australia. This work draws on personal stories, pop psychology and Prozac-laden humour to explore the myths that keep us compliant and the systems that let us down.
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Piece by Piece: Celebrating African American Contemporary Art
2026-02-04 14:00 - 15:00 | Oakland Public Library, 125 14th St, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
Is a hands-on visual arts workshop that introduces participants to influential African American contemporary artists while encouraging creative interpretation through paper mosaic techniques. Participants will observe iconic works by selected artists and reconstruct visual elements using color, texture, and pattern—learning how storytelling, identity, and culture are embedded in contemporary art practices.
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Traditional Burkina Fasso: Gonré
2026-02-04 17:00 - 19:00 | 900 Innes Ave, 900 Innes Ave, San Francisco, 94124, United States
Join us for an unforgettable culinary journey with Chef Awa Gaffoure as she brings the vibrant flavors of Burkina Faso to life with her signature dish, Gonré, featuring black-eyed peas. This beloved staple of West African cuisine is more than just a meal; it’s a celebration of culture, nourishment, and community. Dive into the rich history and traditions that have shaped this dish and discover why it holds a special place in the hearts of many. Don’t miss this opportunity to savor authentic flavors and connect with a culture that values unity and sustenance through food.
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Unleashed Potential: A Conversation Between Fred Blackwell and Regina Jackson
2026-02-04 17:30 | Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA, 94105, United States
Across the Bay Area, young people—especially youth of color from historically underinvested communities—are coming of age in a moment defined by deep inequities, rapid economic change, and profound social challenges. While the region boasts immense wealth and innovation, it also holds some of the nation’s starkest disparities in housing, education, health and opportunity. Our young people are growing up in the shadow of systems that too often overlook their brilliance. Yet we know the truth: these young people are not problems to be solved, they are leaders waiting to be unleashed.
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Frontier & Field: Black Cowboys from Gold Rush to Superbowl LX
2026-02-04 18:00 - 19:30 | Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA, 94105, United States
Black History Month event exploring the historical, cultural & therapeutic significance of Black equestrians in American history & today.
Frontier & Field is a Black History Month program presented during Super Bowl Week. It centers on a multidisciplinary panel exploring the historical, cultural, and therapeutic significance of Black equestrians in American history and contemporary life.
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Hybrid | Algorithms of Love: Dating in the Digital World
2026-02-04 19:00 | Computer History Museum, 1401 N Shoreline Blvd, Mountain View, CA, 94043, United States
Online dating is a fast growing $9+ billion industry, and that’s just humans seeking humans! Dating AIs are already generating billions and growing at 25% a year. Digitally assisted romance has evolved from the early days of computer dating to modern AI-driven platforms and so have the business models. Join us for a conversation exploring how technology has changed the meaning of love, sex, romance, family, and human connection.
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Long Haulers
2026-02-04 19:00 | BAMPFA, 2155 Center St, Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States
Taking a ride with three long-haul truck drivers, filmmaker Amy Reid documents their labor and the world they inhabit while recording their stories, observations on the economic importance of trucking, and reflections on what it is like to be one of very few women in the profession. Reid’s assured 16mm cinematography registers the vast landscapes traversed as well as the details of gas stations, truckstops, motel rooms, and truck cab interiors. Paying close attention to the sonic environment, Reid captures the radio signals, broadcasts, and audiobooks that keep the drivers company, gently revealing unspoken aspects of their distinct personalities.
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Mike Phillips
2026-02-04 19:30 | Yoshi’s Oakland, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland, CA, 94607, United States
World-renowned saxophonist Mike Phillips is known as one of the most electrifying instrumentalists today. Mike is the first musician signed by Michael Jordan to the Nike Jordan Brand, home of the Air Jordan, and is the only musician in the world to have recorded and toured with the legendary “Big Three” of American soul and pop music: Michael Jackson, Prince, and Stevie Wonder, not only as a member of the band, but as a featured soloist.
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The Mountaintop
2026-02-05 - 2026-02-15 | Oakland Theater Project, 1501 Martin Luther King Jr Way, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
The Mountaintop is a play by American playwright Katori Hall. It is a fictional depiction of Martin Luther King Jr.’s last night on earth set entirely in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel on the eve of his assassination in 1968.
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M. Butterfly
2026-02-05 - 2026-03-14 | San Francisco Playhouse, 2nd Floor, Kensington Park Hotel, San Francisco, CA, 94102, United States
David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly is a captivating drama that subverts Puccini’s Madame Butterfly through the true story of a French diplomat’s 20-year affair with a Chinese opera singer. As cultural and personal identities blur, the play challenges our assumptions about love, power, and deception. With its clever twists and poignant humor, M. Butterfly is a thought-provoking exploration of desire, illusion, and the complexities of human connection.
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Free Admission | Downtown First Thursdays @ MoAD
2026-02-05 16:00 - 20:00 | MoAD | Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA, 94105, United States
MoAD celebrates our dynamic arts & culture neighborhood in conjunction with Downtown First Thursdays. Join us every First Thursday of the month for free admission to the exhibitions and programming at the museum from 4-8pm. Be sure to check out the street party on Second Street between Market & Howard!
You will have free access to our current exhibitions, UNBOUND: Art, Blackness & the Universe and Continuum: MoAD Over Time.
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THE MEETUP: Bay Area
2026-02-05 17:00 | Eria Events, 562 Bridgeway, Sausalito, 94965
THE MEETUP: Bay Area, presented by AfroTech, brings innovators, creatives, and industry leaders together for impactful conversations and real connections. This event offers a vibrant space to network, get inspired, and turn introductions into collaborations across tech and culture.
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MoAD & SFMOMA present Building Universes
2026-02-05 17:00 - 20:00 | MoAD | Museum of the African Diaspora, 685 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA, 94105, United States
Building Universes – Two exhibitions, two ways of imagining the world anew.
Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love, illuminates the cosmos one artist can create through a singular, visionary practice, while UNBOUND: Art, Blackness & the Universe reveals what becomes possible when artists from across the African Diaspora build cosmologies together—ideas sparking ideas, worlds unfolding in conversation.
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Building Universes
2026-02-05 17:00 - 20:00 | SFMOMA, 151 Third Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love at SFMOMA illuminates the cosmos that one artist can create through a singular visionary practice, while UNBOUND: Art, Blackness & the Universe at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) reveals what becomes possible when artists from across the African Diaspora build cosmologies together where ideas spark ideas and worlds unfold in conversation.
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Downtown First Thursday: Zekarias Musele Thompson
2026-02-05 17:00 - 20:30 | YBCA | Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street (at 3rd Street) , San Francisco, CA, 94103-3138, United States
For Spatial Facilitation (The Artist Is Presence) #3, Musele Thompson responds to the architectural features of YBCA’s Gallery 2 with their saxophone, while simultaneously responding to pre-recorded sounds from the text-based work Remnants of Memory (Robert and Me). The performance reflects upon the architextual condition of the gallery space and the encounter with ideas of the art object in a space temporarily without them. Musele Thompson will be joined by their dear friend Phillip Laurent in a duet.
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Black History Month: She Carried Us Forward
2026-02-05 18:00 - 19:30 | Glide Memorial Church, 330 Ellis St, San Francisco, CA, 94102, United States
This Black History Month, GLIDE presents She Carried Us Forward, an evening honoring the brilliance, courage, creativity, and enduring leadership of Black women across the civil rights movement – then and now.
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Black Film Unscreened & Unstreamed, Lorraine Hansberry
2026-02-05 18:30 - 21:00 | Oakstop, 1721 Broadway, Oakland, CA, 94612, United States
On March 11, 1959, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway and changed the face of American theater forever. As the first-ever black woman to author a play performed on Broadway, she did not shy away from richly drawn characters and unprecedented subject matter. The play attracted record crowds and earned the coveted top prize from the New York Drama Critics’ Circle. While the play is seen as a groundbreaking work of art, the timely story of Hansberry’s life is far less known.
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Robert Beavers: Program 5
2026-02-05 19:00 | BAMPFA, 2155 Center St, Berkeley, CA, 94704, United States
Sotiros incorporates narrative film devices such as intertitle cards into a metaphorical dialogue between two male lovers, revealed largely through the luminous depiction of everyday objects in their shared world. A color palette of pastels and golden hues and the strains of Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck enrich the film’s emotional character. Robert Beavers wrote of Efpsychi: “The details of the young actor’s face—his eyes, eyebrows, earlobe, chin, etc.—are set opposite the old buildings in the market quarter of Athens. . . . He speaks a single word, teleftea, meaning the last (one).” In Wingseed, Beavers draws comparisons between the pastoral beauty of a Greek hillside and that of the male form.
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Open Question: Ocean Health
2026-02-05 19:00 - 20:00 | Exploratorium, Pier 15, San Francisco, CA, 94111
Recent research shows that climate change is destabilizing ocean currents, and making ocean waters warmer and more acidic. What do these changes mean for ocean ecosystems and the humans that rely on them?
The Exploratorium is teaming up with Point Blue Conservation Science to dig into the details. Find out what’s happening in our seas and what we can do to minimize dangerous changes.
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Cécile McLorin Salvant
2026-02-05 19:30 | Zellerbach Hall, 2499 Bancroft St., Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
Hailed as “her generation’s most imaginative and thrilling jazz interpreter” (Spin), vocalist and composer Cécile McLorin Salvant is much admired for beguiling projects that bring fresh perspectives to jazz performance through dramatic storytelling, vivid historical context, and daring original composition.
A MacArthur Fellow and three-time Grammy winner, Salvant is classically trained and steeped in jazz, blues, and Caribbean music, as well as Baroque repertoire and musical theater—an extraordinary musician who also surrounds herself with many of the best and brightest artists on today’s scene.
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SF History Talk - Mad Ave Meets Golden Gate Park: Ads, Souvenirs, and More
2026-02-05 19:30 - 20:30 | Manny’s, 3092 16th Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, United States
Part of our culture is based on the premise that someone’s worth allows them to earn money and, in turn, allows them to spend it on something they deem worthy. It’s the job of those advertising agencies, known by the moniker of Madison Avenue, to entice you to part with some cash in favor of their client’s product. With the fame of Golden Gate Park’s existence, since 1870, has come the use of the park to sell many kinds of things. For some it was the park’s co-location relative to residential real estate lots where the park was the “hook.” Also, there have been many forms of product promotion from grass seed to canned fruits to name a few. Souvenirs have also been another product to hawk. And none of these ever provided the park one red cent of income!
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Telling Our Stories, Preserving Our Traditions
2026-02-05 19:30 - 21:30 | Lighthouse Mosque, 620 42nd Street, Oakland, 94609, United States
Join us for what promises to be a delightful evening with renowned midwife, cultural historian, and author Shafia Monroe. She will discuss her new book, Mothering the Mother: African American Postpartum Traditions, Recipes and Healing, with Shannon Staloch, local midwife and author of Born Far From Home: A Midwife’s Search for Meaning. They will discuss the important role of story in midwifery, the great work Shafia has done to preserve the legacy of African American postpartum traditions, and how we can draw from the stories, faith traditions, and healing practices of women to help engender a richer landscape for birth in America. A book signing will follow the conversation, and samples from a few of the restorative recipes in Shafia’s book will also be available! Sumayyah Franklin of Sumi’s Touch, local and global midwife and doula trainer, will moderate the discussion.
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Mandy Patinkin in Concert: JUKEBOX
2026-02-05 20:00 - 22:00 | Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, 10 10th Street, Oakland, 94607, United States
“Mandy can turn an evening in the theater into an explosion of unbridled laughter!” —Chicago Sun-Times
“Mandy is in the business of show stopping.” —The New Yorker
Tony-winning Broadway legend, Emmy-winning TV star, renowned for creating timeless characters in movies such as The Princess Bride, Yentl, and Dick Tracy — Mandy Patinkin presents his new show, Mandy Patinkin in Concert: JUKEBOX.
With Adam Ben-David on piano, JUKEBOX features Mandy’s own hand-picked collection of classic musical numbers, expressed as only he can through a unique mastery of word and song. An unparalleled body of work from one of North America’s preeminent entertainers.
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SoundBox: Dream Awake
2026-02-06 - 2026-02-07 | Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA, 94102
In SoundBox: Dream Awake, violinist and curator Alexi Kenney leads us into a realm infused with nocturnal energy and psychedelic fantasy. Experience the unnerving and visceral confusion of waking life, the wild fear and frenzy of a shadowy nightmare, and a finale warmed and calmed by the clarifying rays of the rising sun.
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