August 2008

Friday, August 1
FIRST FRIDAYS AFTER FIVE!
First Friday!
5–9 p.m.
Our blues and jazz summer series continues with Birdlegg and the Tight Fit Blues Band in the café.

Get the word on Cool Remixed from exhibition curators Evelyn Orantes and Christine Lashaw at 6 p.m.; then take a gallery tour of Birth of the Cool with Chief Curator of Art Philip Linhares at 7:30. Cool Remixed hosts “loud hours” in the exhibition all evening and a spoken-word free-for-all by ILL-Literacy.

The museum store and LGBT Task Force host an informal reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the lobby outside the Birth of the Cool exhibition. Stop by for a glass of wine and meet Sunny Green, the museum's new membership manager.

The museum gardens open at 7 as Sunset Cinema returns with free films from KQED's Truly CA documentary series. Bring a blanket and enjoy dessert and a discussion at 7:30 with filmmaker Alex Beckstead, followed by tonight's film Paperback Dreams, the story of two local bookstores-Cody's and Kepler's-and their struggle to survive.

Come to the James Moore Theatre at 6:30 to see a free sneak preview by ITVS Community Cinema of Brett Morgen's film Chicago 10, followed by a discussion about Port Huron Project 5: The Liberation of Our People with the project's artist/organizer Mark Tribe, former Black Panther Minister of Culture Emory Douglas, and OMCA curator René de Guzman. Port Huron Project 5 culminates on Saturday at 6 p.m. in Oakland's DeFremery Park with a reenactment of Angela Davis's historic 1969 speech. .

Don't miss the most exciting party in Oakland! Full cash bar-museum store and café open. All ages welcome.

Sunset Cinema is sponsored by KQED, Oakland Museum of California, and the Oakland Film Office. Info @www.kqed.org/trulyca. The ITVS Community Cinema Series at the museum features sneak previews of films scheduled for upcoming broadcast on the PBS series Independent Lens; the series is collaboration among the City of Oakland, Oakland Film Office, Oakland Museum of California, KQED, and ITVS. Included with museum admission.

Saturday, August 2
Port Huron Project 5: The Liberation of Our People
Event
6 p.m. in DeFremery Park
Creative Time and the Oakland Museum of California present Mark Tribe's reenactment of a landmark 1969 speech by legendary activist Angela Davis. The restaging takes place at DeFremery Park in West Oakland, the original site of Davis's speech in which she passionately advocated combining anti-Vietnam War sentiments with social justice causes, emphasizing her points with illustrations of government treatment of the Black Panther Party and the controversial trial of the Chicago 7, which occurred only weeks before.

DeFremery Park (formerly Bobby Hutton Park) is in West Oakland, at 1651 Adeline St., between 16th and 17th streets.

Mark Tribe's Port Huron Project is a series of reenactments of key New Left speeches from the 1960s and 70s, presented to examine American democracy by considering today's political situation in context to that of the 1960s and 70s. Tribe's intent is to examine and inspire civic dialogue about political and social concerns of our times as we approach the culmination of the presidential election cycle. The event is free and open to all.

Sunday, August 10
Tour of the Building and Gardens
Architecture Tour

Photo: Tina L. Cheung

1 p.m.
Members of the museum's Council on Architecture lead tours of the building and grounds, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Kevin Roche and renowned landscape architect Dan Kiley. Meet by the Admissions Desk on the second level. Wells Fargo Second Sundays are free.

Sunday, August 10
Catch the Reading Bug
Children and Family
12:30–4:30 p.m.
Join the museum and the Oakland Public Library in celebrating the end of the library's Children's Summer Reading Program. Watch “Magic by Alex,” meet amazing insects from the Insect Discovery Lab, have your face painted by Buki the Clown, play brain games and learn about how your brain works with the folks from Sylvia Bunge's Developmental Lab at UC Berkeley, and enjoy free frozen treats from Dreyer's at the end of the day (as long as supplies last)! A ceremony will honor all the kids who caught the reading bug. Wells Fargo Second Sundays are free.

Sunday, August 10
Samplings 2008: A Festival of Textiles
Festival
12-4 p.m.
The area around the koi pond will be filled with creative folks demonstrating and talking about embroidery, quilting, lace-making, doll-making, needlepoint, knitting, smocking, crochet, spinning and more. Families are invited to participate in a Make-A-Quilt hands-on project guided by an expert quilter. Bring a quilt for a “Quilt Sharing” with OMCA Curator Inez Brooks-Myers. From 1 to 2:30 p.m. she will identify and date quilts and discuss fabrics, quilting, and piecing patterns (one quilt per person). Second Sundays are free.

Wednesday, August 13
California Enamel: The 9th Juried Enamel Exhibition
Collector's Gallery
California Enamel: The 9th Juried Enamel Exhibition of the Northern California Enamel Guild The exhibit celebrates innovation and tradition in the art of contemporary enameling. Reception for the artist Saturday, August 23 2-4 p.m. On view through October 5, 2008. Free.

Friday, August 15
OMCA and KBLX present Pacific Coast Jazz on the Green
Music
6–9 p.m.
The last concert in the series of live jazz in the gardens features Dee Spencer and Dr. Dee’s NeoVintage Cool Project! Bring a picnic (no outside alcohol) and a blanket. Bill the bartender will be on hand at the no-host bar. Check out where “cool” started in Birth of the Cool and see where it’s going in Cool Remixed before the exhibitions close this Sunday. $8/$6 members.
Related Exhibit: Birth of the Cool

Saturday, August 16
Cool Mash-Up.
Community Event
11 a.m.–5 p.m.
Some of the Bay Area’s deadliest wordsmiths are women. Youth Speaks brings them together for an intergenerational head-to-head spoken-word battle. DJs, graffiti artists, Youth Uprising's turf dancers, and filmmakers from Youth Uprising and East Bay Asian Cultural Center show their stuff. Included with museum admission.
Related Exhibit: Cool Remixed

Sunday, August 17
Bike Tours of Oakland
Bike Tour
10 a.m.
Explore Oakland and its environs with the museum's bike-tripping docents the third Sunday of the month as we leisurely wend our way through downtown, Fruitvale, the Port of Oakland, West Oakland, Brooklyn, or Lake Merritt. Meet at 10th Street entrance at 10 a.m. Reservations preferred, but if you forget, come anyway: docentcenter@museumca.orgor 510/238-3514. Free.

Sunday, August 17
Cool Remixed
Exhibition closes
This exhibition continues the conversation about what’s “cool,” putting a contemporary spin to the Birth of the Cool exhibition with graffiti, DJs, lounges, street fashion, scraper bikes, video, skate culture, and artwork created on a range of media —from car hoods to sneakers. Curators Evelyn Orantes and Christine Lashaw from the museum’s Education Department worked with East Bay Asian Youth Center (EBAYC), Visual Element of East Arts Alliance, Town Park, Youth Radio, Youth UpRising, Oakland High School’s Visual Arts Academy (VAAMP), and local artist Estria—to sample and mix today’s art, music, design, fashion, and culture. Through August 17, 2008.
Related Exhibit: Cool Remixed

Sunday, August 17
Birth of the Cool
Exhibition closes
Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury features the visual, graphic, and decorative arts, furniture, architecture, music, and film produced in California in the 1950s and early 1960s. The exhibition, organized by the Orange County Museum of Art, includes a jazz lounge; film, animation, and television programming; a period art gallery of hard-edge abstract paintings; selections of art, architectural, and documentary photography; and an interactive timeline that highlights examples of California, national, and international culture and history in the 1950s. Birth of the Cool examines the dynamic community of artists who overlapped and interacted in Southern California at midcentury-Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, Charles and Ray Eames, John Lautner, Richard Neutra, Helen Lundeberg, and others who played a germinal role in the development of this iconic style of high modernism. Through August 17, 2008. Included with museum admission.
Related Exhibit: Birth of the Cool

Saturday, August 23
PCL Historical Society Reunion.
Event
1–3 p.m.
Highlights will be a slide show about the 2008 PCL Hall of Fame inductees with special guest Lee Susman and a panel discussion with former PCL players. Included with museum admission. To reserve a lunch for the PCL Reunion Lunch, which takes place earlier in the day, send check ($31/lunch) to PCLHS. 420 Robinson Circle, Placentia, CA 92870 (must be received by August 16).