Goldstar

Barry Jenkins' feature film is a love story of bikes and one-night stands told through two African-American twenty-somethings dealing with issues of class, identity and the evolving conundrum of being a minority in rapidly gentrifying San Francisco - the city with the smallest proportional black population of any major American city. Starring Wyatt Cenac (The Daily Show) and Tracey Heggins (Fashion House). Director Barry Jenkins joins San Francisco Film Society Director Graham Leggat following the film. Learn more...

The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco presents Irving Berlin's I Love a Piano. In this blockbuster musical revue, six talented singers will perform more than 60 songs. Berlin wrote many of American music's most unforgettable tunes, from "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and "There's No Business Like Show Business" to "God Bless America" and "White Christmas." Learn more...

Michael Bishop, the Nobel Prize-winning Chancellor of UC San Francisco, and KQED host Michael Krasny discuss The Future of Cancer at Kanbar Hall. Bishop will focus on the cutting edge of cancer research and treatment, including the short- and long-term strategies that are emerging to combat the genetic malfunction at the root of cancer. Learn more...

The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco welcomes author Gregory Maguire, whose novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West inspired the Tony Award-winning hit musical Wicked. His other best-selling novels include Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Lost, Mirror Mirror, and Son of a Witch. Learn more...

In The Tumblers, a group of World War II-era Jews board a train headed for the circus instead of a death camp. To make their escape, they camouflage themselves as acrobats and perform before an audience of Nazi sympathizers. This is a staged reading from Nathan Englander's bestselling short story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges. Learn more...

Novelist and screenwriter Barry Gifford visits the Jewish Community Center to read from his latest work. The Imagination of the Heart serves as the final novel in a "neo-noir" series that started with Wild at Heart, which was adapted by David Lynch into a film starring Nicolas Cage. Gifford also co-wrote the screenplay to Lynch's Lost Highway. Learn more...

The Jewish Community Center welcomes author Francine Prose (The Glorious Ones, A Changed Man) for a discussion about the legacy of Anne Frank and her Diary of a Young Girl. Prose argues that Anne Frank's book was intended for the public, and offers an appreciation of Diary as the work of an ambitious and talented young writer. Learn more...

The Jewish Community Center presents a conversation with author Julia Glass, hosted by bestselling author Michelle Richmond (The Year of Fog). The Massachusetts-based Glass is the author of novels The Whole World Over and I See You Everywhere. Her 2002 debut novel, Three Junes, won the National Book Award. Learn more...

Eric Bogosian, award-winning playwright (Talk Radio), actor (Law & Order: Criminal Intent), and novelist (Wasted Beauty, Mall) speaks about his life, career, and Untitled, his latest novel which recreates the landscape and atmosphere of downtown New York. Learn more...

Rova Saxophone Quartet returns to the JCCSF for another ground-breaking collaboration. Featuring acclaimed Berlin digital-animation artist Lillevan and an international crew of music giants from the field of improvised music, the show will consist of a suite of pieces in which the musician's sounds influence the spontaneously composed film images, and the in-time digital animation inspires the music. Learn more...

Holocaust scholar Saul Friedlander speaks at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. With The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939 and The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945, Friedlander has written the definitive historical work on Nazi Germany's murder of Europe's Jews. Friedlander, whose parents died at Auschwitz, received the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 Learn more...

TheatreworksUSA presents a delightful collection of mini-musicals based on favorite children's storybooks, including Amazing Grace, Owen, Martha Speaks, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Borreguita and the Coyote, Master Man, Math Curse and Imogene's Antlers. Learn more...

Biblical scholar Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg speaks at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Her latest book, The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious, explores biblical commentators' understanding of the interplay between conscious and unconscious levels of experience. In this talk, she'll focus on the story of Ruth. Learn more...

Commissioned by Harvard Law School for the 60th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials, Liz Lerman's Small Dances About Big Ideas uses movement, spoken word and documentary soundscape to examine the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust and more recent atrocities in places like Bosnia and Rwanda. Learn more...

Celebrate Cab's 100th birthday year by revisiting the fabulous Cotton Club of the 1920s and 1930s, when jazz ruled the day and the nightclubs. Catch clips of Calloway onstage, as well as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Lena Horne and many more. Learn more...

As the amount of media that kids consume has risen over the past few decades, so too has the prevalence of unhealthy and risky behaviors that kids learn from the media, including aggression, obesity, substance abuse and unsafe sexual behavior. In a lecture at Kanbar Hall, Common Sense Media CEO James Steyer offers practical tools for combating these negative effects. Learn more...

Three-time Grammy nominees Trout Fishing in America bring an infectious mix of folk/pop and family music to Kanbar Hall. The band draws on the wide-ranging influences of reggae, Latin, blues, jazz and classical music to create a unique sound the whole family will enjoy. Learn more...

Richard Milner's one-man musical about the life and times of Charles Darwin has been hailed by critics as "the thinking person's musical." Milner, a noted anthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History, delights audiences of all ages with his witty blend of song, history, science and madness. Learn more...

Contemporary classical composer John Adams joins California historian Kenneth Starr for a conversation about music at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Adams is best known for groundbreaking works like Nixon in China and The Death of Klinghoffer, which blend opera, classical, and experimental and pop music to illuminate recent political events. Learn more...

The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco's annual Purim singles party features dancing to music provided by DJ Switched ON Audio. This festive evening includes snacking, drinking and dance lessons taught by a professional belly dancer. Costumes are optional, but prizes will be awarded for the most original costumes. Learn more...

The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco presents Dean Cameron's Nigerian Spam Scam Scam. In this show, a hit across the country and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Cameron tells the story of his absurd, deliberately misleading messages to an email con man, weaving his experience into a hilarious multimedia comedy about a relationship built on misunderstanding, desperation and deception. Learn more...

Frank Ferrante presents his portrayal of Groucho Marx, which has been seen on PBS, and in sold-out shows in New York and London. This fast-paced comedy consists of legendary Groucho one-liners, anecdotes and songs including "Hooray for Captain Spalding" and "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady." When he's not playing Groucho, Ferrante is an award-winning actor and playwright, and an audience favorite at San Francisco's famous Teatro ZinZanni. Learn more...

The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco welcomes Azadeh Moaveni. A foreign correspondent for Time, Moaveni was one of the few female correspondents allowed to work in Iran. She'll provide a candid account of her experiences, which are the basis for her new book Honeymoon in Tehran: Two Years of Love and Danger in Iran. Learn more...

Part coming-of-age story, part political thriller, and part paean to soccer, this Academy Award-nominated Brazilian drama tells the story of Mauro, a boy left in the care of his Jewish grandfather's neighbor when his political activist parents are forced to go underground. The boy discovers a diverse neighborhood, all of whom are transfixed by iconic soccer star Pelé and the 1970 World Cup. Learn more...

Author Ann Packer discusses her recently released second novel, Songs Without Words, at the Jewish Community Center. Her new book is an uncanny observation of contemporary American domestic life that takes readers inside a lifelong friendship pushed to the breaking point. It follows her debut, The Dive from Clausen's Pier, which was a national bestseller and critical success. Learn more...

The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco welcomes Tin Hat. This chamber ensemble has become known for their innovative, whimsical performances, which fuse genres and moods in unexpected and delightful ways. In preparation for an upcoming recording, they'll be playing alongside the Bay Area's Magik*Magik Orchestra. Learn more...

Popular speaker, Internet expert and filmmaker Tiffany Shlain will discuss and screen clips from her latest features, including the still-in-production Connected: A Declaration of Interdependence, as well as her award-winning The Tribe, which used Barbie dolls to tackle the challenging issue of Jewish identity. Shlain has been honored as one of Newsweek's "Women Shaping the 21st Century," and she is also the founder of The Webby Awards. Learn more...

The words of Bernard Malamud will explode into vivid theatrical life when Traveling Jewish Theatre brings the author's two most celebrated stories to the stage in the style of the Word for Word Performing Arts Company. The Magic Barrel centers on a hapless rabbinical student's encounter with a mysterious, herring-eating matchmaker. The Jewbird is Malamud's darkly hilarious fable of assimilation and identity. Learn more...

The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco welcomes Hâlau o Keikiali'i. This leading San Francisco-based Hula group presents an evening of powerful dance, beautiful chanting and exquisite costumes. The performance includes both traditional (Hula Kahiko) and modern (Hula 'Auana) styles. Learn more...

The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco presents a screening of Wondrous Oblivion. This inspiring tale of tolerance and loyalty stars Delroy Lindo as a Jamaican immigrant to London circa 1960, whose friendship with a young Jewish boy is kindled by a mutual love of cricket and tested by his narrow-minded neighbors. Learn more...

Martin S. Indyk, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, was a key member of President Clinton's Middle East peace team. Now a Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Indyk shares an insider's account of U.S. diplomacy, gives his analysis of the current Gaza crisis, and offers his suggestions for creating peace in the troubled region. Learn more...

Clowns, acrobats, contortionists and more light up the stage in the astounding New Pickle Circus's annual engagement at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Pickle Family veterans and Circus Center students delight audiences of all ages with their amazing performances. Learn more...

Based on original transcripts from the famous 1925 State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes "Monkey Trial," this staged radio play's subject is still relevant and controversial. The specifics may have changed - what was once a battle between science and faith is today reframed as an argument pitting evolution against intelligent design - but the passions behind The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial endure. Learn more...

Hailed by The New York Times as "one of the ten best choreographers in the world," Lar Lubovitch makes dances that resonate with an essential humanity - and celebrate the sheer joy of dancing. This evening's program, celebrating his company's 40th anniversary, features the classic Men's Stories: A Concerto in Ruins and other dances. Learn more...

JCCSF presents Tony Curtis in conversation with Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle movie critic. Curtis made comedy history with Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot, and carried on notorious romances with many female stars. In his new biography, American Prince, Curtis tells the story of his life and illustrious career, sparing no detail, no name and no ego. Learn more...

Celebrate the holiday in high style, and don't forget your dancing shoes. Jazz provides wine and tasty treats while Switched on Audio DJ spins your all-time dance favorites. Show up looking chic, and boogie on over for an unforgettable Hanukkah. Prizes awarded for the most authentic Roaring Twenties costume. Learn more...

Part of the Italian Jews During Fascism program, Oscar nominee Ettore Scola's Unfair Competition (Concorrenza Sleale), is a bittersweet comedy about anti-Semitism in Rome. Umberto (Diego Abatantuono) is a gentile who owns a clothing store in the Jewish quarter next to a store run by a Roman Jew, Leone (Sergio Castellito). When Mussolini enacts racial laws, Umberto and brother-in-law Angelo (Gerard Depardieu) must stand with their Jewish neighbors. Learn more...

Cantor Roslyn Barak speaks on the Jewish roots of Leonard Bernstein's musical genius. Barak, a noted Bernstein scholar, demonstrates the humor of Bernstein's secular song repertoire and shares thoughts on the devotion to faith displayed in his sacred choral and orchestral works. Learn more...

Comedian and actress Susie Essman performs live. Essman played Susie Greene on Curb Your Enthusiasm; she's also worked as the host of Bravo's TV show Better Half, had a half-hour stand-up special on HBO, and hosted the American Comedy Awards. She's known for her hilariously biting comic rants. Learn more...

Producer Ellie Mednick presents The Great Broadway Sing-Along at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco's Kanbar Hall. Join a crowd of musical theater fans at this popular event, and sing along with classic tunes by Leonard Bernstein, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Kander and Ebb, the Gershwins, Stephen Sondheim, Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and more. Learn more...

Enter the complicated land of the kasbah, the eternal expanse of the Sahara and high-tech mosques with laser beams that point toward Mecca. Captured in stunning cinematography, Rick Ray's film takes viewers through Fez and Marrakech, inside humble mountain villages and deep into the forests of the Atlas mountains. Learn more...

Dmitriy Salita, formerly of Odessa, Ukraine, is a 24-year-old fervently Orthodox Jew living in Brooklyn. Dmitriy Salita is also an undefeated professional prizefighter managed by a Hasidic rabbi. Is that a contradiction? Hardly, as revealed in this intimate, fascinating journey inside the two worlds of a remarkable young American immigrant. Learn more...

Both powerful and fun, the art of magic challenges the mind, stimulates the imagination and creates a bridge between illusion and reality. Join cantor, magician and historian Manny Sperling for a spellbinding afternoon of entertainment as he hosts a multimedia homage to legendary Jewish magicians from Houdini and Ballantine to Copperfield and Blaine. Learn more...

Leonard Bernstein always marked special occasions by composing musical tributes, which he called Anniversaires, for family members, friends and fellow composers. This evening of very personal music from a very public musical figure features the rarely heard, unpublished Meditation on a Wedding, plus Bernstein's first published work, a piano transcription of Copland's El Salon Mexico. Learn more...

Travel from Dixieland to be-bop and beyond with master archivist Mark Cantor's rare film selections. This program features rare recordings of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, T-Bone Walker, Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, Zoot Sims, Benny Goodman, and more. Learn more...

Award-winning author and scholar Josh Kun combines the classic, the kitschy and the quirky to reveal how the world saw Jews, how Jews saw the world, and most of all how Jews saw themselves through the lens of a disappearing cultural artifact: the album cover. Learn more...

Located between Thailand and Vietnam in Southwest Asia, Cambodia is a fascinating study in contrasts. Mike Smiley's new film illuminates ways in which Cambodia has managed to retain its rich identity, beautiful countryside and hospitable spirit - all in the face of violence, poverty and famine. Learn more...

Affectionately known as the "Jewish Pavarotti," Greek-born tenor Alberto Mizrahi has thrilled audiences worldwide in recitals, symphony concerts and operas. Mizrahi's unique and captivating repertoire spans nine languages and confirms his status as one of the world's leading interpreters of Jewish music. Learn more...

The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco presents Rick Ray's film 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama. This enlightening and provocative documentary explores the life and beliefs of the famous spiritual leader, and the history of the Himalayan region where he is revered. A discussion with the filmmaker follows the screening. Learn more...

Phoebe Snow makes her long-awaited return to the stage at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco's Kanbar Hall. Renowned for her powerful voice, Snow burst onto the scene in 1974 with the hit "Poetry Man". Her career has run the gamut between rock, folk, and rhythm and blues music. Learn more...

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie Blair reveals what it was like to combine life as a working mother with life married to the Prime Minister. An accomplished lawyer and human rights activist, she offers inside details of her relationships with Presidents Clinton and Bush, as well as the royals, including Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, and Princess Diana. Learn more...