3/3-4/3
Berkeley kids know that a little three-letter word like “art” doesn’t even begin to describe what they can do. For the twelfth year in a row, they’re strutting their stuff at the monthlong Berkeley Youth Arts Festival, and you and yours don’t want to miss the festivities. Tonight’s opening reception (5-7 p.m.) features the Berkeley Arts Magnet Choral Group and a bilingual poetry reading by students of Poetry Inside Out. Over the next month, you can catch free perfor-mances by Berkeley Arts Magnet Percussion (March 13), Sean Powers’ Shadow Puppets and Dance and Rhythm of India (March 20), Flute Fest and Rhythm and Muse (March 27). Visual art by K-8 students will be on view in the gallery Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. If you and the young’uns would rather get your hands dirty than sit back and enjoy the show, you have a choice of three different weekend workshops. The Pop Art Superstar silk-screen workshop for kids twelve to seventeen happens on March 13; the all-ages Shadow Puppets workshop takes place March 20; and the all-ages Building Experimental Musical Instruments from Salvaged Materials on March 27 is just what it sounds like. $5-$15 sliding scale, preregistration required. Scholarships available. 1275 Walnut St. in Live Oak Park. Info: 510-644-6893 or visit BerkeleyArtCenter.org. — Nora Sohnen
SAT 3/6
Cántame
Mariachi madness
Juanita Ulloa earned music degrees at Yale and UC Berkeley, trained at France’s Nice Conservatory, and is a skilled mezzo-soprano, pianist, and sitar player. She has recorded two CDs paying tribute to women’s contributions to Latin music, and her specialties are Mexican boleros and rancheras. But the Oakland resident can still get down with the niños, a fact she has proven on her CD and audiobook series cultivating bilingualism in families, Canta Conmigo (Sing with Me). She brings her original and traditional Mexican songs to Berkeley this weekend when she performs at La Peña’s weekly “Los Amiguitos de La Peña” series. Admission costs $3 per child, $4 per adult, and $10 for family of three or more. 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. Call 510-849-2568 or visit www.lapena.org for more details. — Stefanie Kalem
