This week: Arab Film Festival in Oakland, street cuts in the Tenderloin, and mutual aid in Berkeley. Plus, Visitacion Valley library, musician Roddy Bottum’s memoir, a fanciful redwood tree net structure, and an artist's playful take on local landmarks.
The unbordered reel
The Arab Film Festival is back for its 29th year, holding steady after a year of budget stress and community rescue. What started as a scramble for support turned into a surprisingly full program, with films arriving from across the Arab world. In theaters from San Jose to Oakland, the lineup includes five Oscar submissions, three of them Palestinian.
Festival organizers frame the work as a gesture toward visibility and belonging, inviting audiences to meet the region’s filmmakers on their own terms. Screenings continue in Oakland through the weekend. — KPIX
Care and exchange
Saturday, November 22, neighbors and friends will gather for a mutual aid swap in Berkeley, bringing food, clothing, masks, rapid tests, and small works of art to share. Each person can take what they need and leave what they can, folding generosity into the afternoon.
Organizers are still accepting donations and volunteers to help run the swap. Masks are required, and the event will run rain or shine from 1–5 p.m., just a short walk from North Berkeley BART. — Rosemary McDonnell-Horita
Street cuts
Desmond Cannady sets up a chair on Leavenworth Street and cuts hair on the Tenderloin sidewalks. At 24, he learned barbering as a kid in Stockton and San Jose, and now balances school, a Berkeley shop, and these street sessions.
Beyond trims and fades, he talks with clients, offering advice and a listening ear. Twice a month, he gives free haircuts, making space for connection in a neighborhood that often feels overlooked. — Mission Local
Voice and reckoning
Roddy Bottum, whose musical journey spans Faith No More, Imperial Teen, and Man on Man, found his creative home in San Francisco, and now lays his life bare in The Royal We. The memoir traces early brushes with alcohol, years of drug use, and a queer awakening, all told with humor and candor.
Bottum reflects on family, loss, and the friends and icons who shaped him — Robert Plant, Kurt Cobain, and Courtney Love among them. Bottum will be at City Lights Bookstore on November 20 in conversation with Brontez Purnell. — Bay Area Reporter
Local icons
Menlo Park artist Courtney Beyer turns Bay Area landmarks into little bursts of delight. Her cards and stickers capture the Flintstone House, Stanford Dish, and even Karl the Fog with humor and heart.
Beyer’s work, now in about 60 stores nationwide — including locally — mixes charm with craft, while her eco-conscious approach adds an extra layer of care to every design. — The Mountain View Voice
Quiet corners
Local content creator Taylor recently shared her visit to the Visitacion Valley library, noting its unexpectedly cozy vibe despite being a newer building. When she visited on a Saturday, the branch was bustling with neighbors, families, and readers making themselves at home among the shelves.
Taylor has been visiting all of San Francisco Library’s branches and just has a few left to check out. — TaylesOfTheCity
Transit canopies
BART’s new canopies along Market Street give weary travelers a clearer sense of place amid the downtown rush. Their glass frames hold LEDs, cameras, and arrival screens, making the descent underground feel less like a plunge into darkness.
The structures are meant to shield the rebuilt escalators and cut back on the grime that’s long collected at the surface. They also double as small galleries, designed with imagery that reflects the different communities along the corridor. — SF Bay Area Rapid Transit
Woven heights
Just outside San Francisco, Kane and Fernando of the TreeNet Collective spent six weeks building colorful nets in the redwoods, blending play with art. The floating structures stretch across branches like sculptural treehouses, brought to life with the help of a small team of collaborators.
Visitors can climb, explore, and experience the forest from a new perspective. — Tree Net Collective
Correction: A previous version of this post included outdated information about the Mushroom Train, which occurred earlier this month. We apologize for the error.
Image: Courtney Beyer Design
Previously:Field Notes: Trans Youth Talk, Newt Migrations, Seasoning the Streets, and Elks Return to Tule River
