It’s time for Labor Day weekend!
Looking for things to do in the Bay Area? Listen to KQED Arts’ Gabe Meline and Sarah Hotchkiss discuss their critic’s picks for this weekend at the audio link above, and read about each event below.
Hiero Day: When East Bay hip-hop crew Hieroglyphics puts on a music festival, it’s more block party than Bonnaroo. The scene is casual, there’s usually people out breakdancing and skateboarding, and the lineup always pulls together underground rappers from all over the country. This year, it’s heavy on the ’90s: that means you’ll see Scarface from the Geto Boys, the producer Pete Rock, a reunion of the duo Little Brother, Black Moon, Smif-n-Wessun, Count Bass D, Diamond D, and a ton more. It all goes down on Labor Day, Sept. 2, along Third Street on the edge of the Jack London district in Oakland. Details here.
‘Against the Ropes’: Many of you know the Netflix show GLOW. And San Francisco artist Kelly Inouye has a new show of large-scale watercolor paintings that’s inspired in part by her rediscovery of women’s professional wrestling. At the same time, Inouye was reading a lot of feminist writing about empowerment, intersectionality and female rage, and she channeled that need for catharsis into these giant works on paper depicting really powerful, athletic women playing with different personas (the biggest one is 60 x 74 inches). The show opens at Marrow Gallery in the Inner Sunset on Friday, Aug. 30, and runs through September 28. Details here.
‘Tierra de Rosas’: This a show of painting and sculpture by Maria de los Angeles, who was born in Mexico, came to Santa Rosa’s Roseland district as a young girl, and for the past 10 years has lived on the East Coast. This exhibit in Santa Rosa serves as a homecoming of sorts, in a city that remembers her well—at the opening last weekend, it was packed. She’s paired her own work with that of 10 other artists who’ve inspired her, much of it unpacking immigration, and much of it joyful. It’s up now, and runs through Nov. 3 at the Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa. Details here.
‘Jodorowsky’s Dune’: You may be familiar with David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of the epic Frank Herbert sci-fi, starring Kyle MacLaughlan and Sting. You may also know that director Denis Villeneuve is working on his own Dune for 2020. But before both of these, there was another Dune that never got made, a visionary film by Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky. When he started working on it in 1974, it was going to star Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, David Carradine and even the artist Salvador Dalí, and he commissioned designs from artists like H.R. Giger and Jean Giraud. In this documentary, Jodorowsky gets to describe the film that could have been, as well as its influences on so many movies that followed. It screens Friday, Aug. 30, at the New Parkway in Oakland. Details here.
Sonido Clash: Nina Sky headline this year’s Sonido Clash music festival in San Jose, a day-long celebration with two dozen buzzed-about indie and alternative Latino artists—the type of acts you’re likely to see on NPR’s Tiny Desk in a year or two. Katzu Oso, Ms. Nina, Reyna Tropical and a ton more play in the cozy courtyard setting, at the School of Arts and Culture at the Mexican Heritage Plaza, in San Jose. It’s on Sunday, Sept. 1. Details here.