Arts & Events

TUESDAY, FEB. 26 -more-

In order to keep his favorite bookstore from being turned into a beauty shop, Harvey Dong transformed himself from customer to owner of Eastwind Books in 1996. -more-

Dying embers of a fire on a blustery night; a pensive woman, alone in a room ... when the door opens and a rainsoaked man steps in, greets her by name, and just stands there while she gawks. It’s her husband, who left on a two-day business trip 20 years before. -more-

Paul Robeson was something of a Renaissance man. A singer, actor, lawyer, writer, civil rights advocate, all-American athlete and political activist, Robeson was a powerful and eloquent spokesman for racial justice well before Martin Luther King, Jr., or Malcolm X, yet these successors have eclipsed him in the annals of history. -more-

Wilde Irish, Berkeley’s resident Irish theater company, will stage a centennial celebration for Ireland’s National Theatre this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m., with two original Abbey Theatre short comedies: Lady Gregory’s The Workhouse Ward and John Synge’s In the Shadow of the Glen. -more-

It’s the Year of the Rat again‚—but which rat? For most of us “rat” signifies Rattus norwegicus, the Norway, brown, sewer, or wharf rat, progenitor of all those rats in all those labs, whose original homeland was northern China. But a case could be made for a less-well-known relative with roots in Asia: Rattus rattus, the black, roof, house, or ship rat. -more-

TUESDAY, FEB. 26 -more-

FRIDAY, FEB. 22 -more-

Jovelyn Richards of Oakland is a born storyteller. When she was little, her mother would have visitors by for coffee “and I heard things that weren’t said; I put language to their secrets. After they left, I told my mother their story. She knew the truth from them and would say, ‘Where did you get that?’ I was putting language to their secrets. I didn’t know how to decode that for her.” -more-

A clerk at a Florida resort hotel during the 1920s property boom leaps out from behind his desk and joins in a lively production number. The villainess in an engagement con on a wealthy mother and daughter leads a line of dancers doing the Charleston. -more-

Of all the architects who resided in Berkeley during the first four decades of the 20th century, the one who received the most coverage in the local press was not John Galen Howard or Bernard Maybeck but William Hatch Wharff. And only occasionally was the press coverage related to his profession. -more-

“Music will be an Old Time Music Jam, bring yer fiddle,” is what Terri Compost, the exquisitely named point person of the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library (acronym’ed, equally exquisitely, “BASIL”) replied to my query. I wanted to know who would be playing the music promised for BASIL’s Ninth Annual Seed Swap tomorrow, Saturday February 23, 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Ecology Center. Dang, I don’t have a fiddle. Guess I’ll just send the cat. -more-

I was inspecting a house out beyond the Naugahyde Curtain the other day (Walnut Creek, if memory serves; landing strip for white flight). The house was unillustrious but amongst the artifacts that brought me sufficient intrigue to set the day aglow was a brand new fireplace. -more-

FRIDAY, FEB. 22 -more-