Moving right along through our welcomed spring showers, here are some suggestions for the next several days, from a lecture about the importance of forests and another about the potential of the exploration of Mars to some Easter festivities, a guaranteed to-make-you-laugh cabaret performance — and more.
Thursday, April 2
Spend the evening with renowned forest ecologist Suzanne Simard, author of When the Forest Breathes: Renewal and Resilience in the Natural World, which explores how forest cycles of birth, death, and rebirth are crucial for ecosystem health and can help combat climate change. Simard will be in conversation with Manjula Martin, whose memoir The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. 7 p.m. at the San Francisco County Fair Building. Free admission with a recommended donation of $5–$20 to support the Gardens of Golden Gate Park.
Friday, April 3
Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries opens today. The renowned Japanese artist known for her immense, intricate webs of thread makes her Bay Area debut. Through July 20 at the Asian Art Museum. Tickets from $24.
Saturday, April 4
Enjoy a Spring Fling Rooftop Lawn Party with the Funny Bunny, egg hunts, live music, face painting, crafts, and more. If your little bunny would like to take part in one of the three age-specific egg hunts, you will need to RSVP. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Salesforce Park. Free admission.
Alerting all foodies: Eat Me Artisan Food Fair is the place to be this weekend, featuring artisanal food products from local culinary vendors. The venue is the original William Randolph Hearst print plant built in the 1920s, which houses a historic letterpress printing and a vintage advertising mercantile modeled after a 1850’s country store. (NB: at publication time, this even wasn’t listed on their site, but there’s always something worth checking out here.) Through Sunday at The Box S.F. Free.
Sunday, April 5
With inspiration from New York’s legendary Easter Parade from the late 19th century, the debut of San Francisco’s Easter Bonnet Parade/Promenade, is billed as “an afternoon of elegance and style” for participating in (not viewing), and displaying your best crafted bonnet å la San Francisco style. Free admission with donation option and RSVP.
Notable next week
Tuesday, April 7
Join planetary space physicist and geophysicist Dr. Rob Lillis to learn about NASA’s ESCAPADE Mars mission at Auroras and Escapades: Space Weather and Mars Exploration. He’ll also discuss how the million mile-per-hour solar winds strip the planet’s atmosphere over time, which causes auroras unlike any on Earth, and how the space weather missions will help future explores navigate, communicate, and avoid radiation. 6 p.m. at Manny’s. Tickets: $9 and change
Do your part for National Volunteer Month, donate some blood (especially you type Os), and if you’ll have a chance to win a $10,000 gift card. Most people are eligible to give blood and it takes a variety of volunteers to support an always-ready blood supply. Visit the nonprofit Vitalant for more information or to make an appointment, or download their app. Or you could probably just show up at CPMC’s Van Ness Campus from 12:30 to 4:45 p.m.
Wednesday, April 8
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate hump day than with the talented Australian chanteuse Meow Meow, who mesmerizes audiences with her impressive voice and stage antics and who “… seems to specialize in cabaret teetering on the brink of comically self-inflicted disaster” (San Francisco Chronicle, 2014). I saw her show commissioned by the Berkeley Rep in 2014, and I guarantee you will laugh and enjoy. 7:30 p.m. at the Presidio Theatre. Tickets from $50.
Enjoy your week whatever you decide to do, and be nice; we’re all in this together.
