Lou Fancher

6 days ago | 48hills.org | Lou Fancher

Presented by Cal Performances at Zellerbach Hall, April 8-13, the venerable yet still very much alive Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre placed a forever stamp—one hopes this lasts forever—on the company’s 57 years of annual appearances on the UC Berkeley campus. Four different programs, each worthy of heartfelt applause, included favorite works, premieres, and Ailey’s timeless 1975 “Revelations,” showing off the consistent artistry and rigorous technique of the dancers.

1 week ago | eastbaytimes.com | Lou Fancher

Sophia Akbar, the co-founder and co-owner of Oakland restaurants Parche and Jaji, was born and grew up in Walnut Creek. Raised in a single-parent home by a mother who worked full-time in dentistry and with an older brother with intellectual and physical disabilities, Akbar learned responsibility at a young age. The family's lesson book also included values steeped in respect for their ancestral history and identity as Afghan Americans.

2 weeks ago | eastbaytimes.com | Lou Fancher

Choro is an instrumental genre of music which dates back to Rio de Janeiro in the late 1800s, when immigrants to the country brought European styles and melodic structures that fused with the native Afro-Brazilian music centered on percussion, rhythmic groove and improvisation. The 10th annual Berkeley Festival of Choro will be held April 17-20 and offers concerts featuring special guest musicians, three community jam sessions and five public events.

2 weeks ago | localnewsmatters.org | Lou Fancher

IF FUTURE FOOD is fun, entertaining, and fantastic, it is also deeply embedded in culture, science, AI and state-of-the-art biotechnology and bioengineering. All of these angles are on display in the Lawrence Hall of Science’s newest exhibit, “Future of Food.”The over 4,000-square-foot exhibition, which opened in March and continues for the next two years, is highly interactive and self-directed.

3 weeks ago | localnewsmatters.org | Lou Fancher

San Francisco writer Jon Hickey, a member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Chippewa Indians from Wisconsin, tells a riveting and complex story set on a fictional reservation in his new, first novel.  In “Big Chief” (Simon & Schuster, 319 pages, $28.99, April 8, 2025), the 5,000-member Passage Rouge Nation is financed by a corporate casino and resort, but tribal president Mack Beck and his childhood friend Mitch Caddo, the youngest ever tribal operations director, are its true governors.