Sights & Sounds is your weekly guide to the Bay Area arts scene. Vinita Sud Belani, artistic director of Enacte Arts, told KALW’s Jen Chien about three great events happening around the Bay this weekend.
- Sanctuary City: With Liberty and Justice for Some at the San Francisco Arts Commission Main Gallery through 4/8
- To Sleep to Dream at the Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University through 4/9
- Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin at the Berkeley Rep Theatre through 4/30
Sanctuary City: With Liberty and Justice for Some is the first installment of Sanctuary City, a year-long exhibition and public program series that delves into topics related to San Francisco's immigration policies, immigrant and refugee populations, and the history of its Sanctuary City status. With Liberty and Justice for Some is co-curated by Bay Area artist Monica Lundy, features over 125 portraits of immigrants to the United States by 100 artists from Los Angeles and the Bay Area. The exhibition will be up at the San Francisco Arts Commission Main Gallery through April 8th.
BELANI: I think having an exhibition that lays out all the ideas of what a sanctuary city is, who does it affect, and a celebration of the immigrant experience is a really good place to begin to pick which side of the debate you're going to be on.
EarFilms produce immersive live events using only audio; audience members are blindfolded to focus their senses. This EarFilm, To Sleep to dream, is set in a society where the act of dreaming is outlawed. When Jack Richards sees a symbol from his dream in waking life he follows it and finds himself in an underground group of resistance dreamers living beneath the city. To Sleep to dream is showing all weekend long at the Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University.
BELANI: I'm a storyteller myself, and I'm always looking for new and interesting ways to tell stories ... to shut off one sense which is your sense of sight and let your sense of sound take over in that moment, I think that's very exciting.
Virtuoso pianist Hershey Felder has performed for Berkeley Repertory Theatre audiences before with his portraits of composers like Bernstein, Chopin, and Gershwin. Irving Berlin was a Czech immigrant to the United States who ended up writing a lot of patriotic music - famously “God Bless America,” “Puttin on the Ritz” and “White Christmas.” Felder will perform as Irving Berlin at the Berkeley Reperatory Theatre through April 30th.
BELANI: Hershey Felder's music, I mean his talent is just incredible.
