Upcoming Events
Our full slate of early 2026 (!) events is coming out soon.
We’ve already got 16 things on tap for January and more in Febraury. Sign up for membership to be the first to register or the newsletter to keep up to date on all the things.
Sunday Coffee, hosted by Jeff Wright, vol. 3
Jeff Wright of Edith’s Pie has been hosting a regular event on Sunday mornings at his house for months. It’s a low-stakes morning of chatting, coffee, and snacks, and he’s bringing it to Local Economy on a Sunday morning each month.
Cost: Sliding scale to $10
Vibes: Chill, chatty, cozy
New Year Silent Writing Session with Jasmine Guillory
New Year Silent Writing Session with Jasmine Guillory
Romance novelist and neighbor Jasmine Guillory is the author of a bunch of bestselling books including The Wedding Party, Drunk in Love, and Flirting Lessons. For the new year, she leads a silent writing session, a moment to bring your writing materials and get busy on whatever you've been wanting to write. Journal, start the novel, dash off a poem, etc.
We'll have a couple prompts, too, if those are helpful!
RSVP coming soon!
Vibes: Introspective, cozy, literary
Oakland Review of Books Holiday Party (and Secret Santa)
Oakland Review of Books is a new publication featuring writing about, for, and from Oakland. Join the editorial team for a holiday party where they'll introduce themselves, tell you about their whole deal, and also deliver an informative and very brief lecture on what Herb Caen thought about Oakland. The best part? An Oakland-themed Secret Santa. Bring a piece of Oakland paraphernalia -- a book, a pamphlet, an old-school souvenir, anything worth less than $20 -- and you'll get to exchange it for someone else's piece of Oakland history. Don't have anything? You can come and buy an Oakland book from a display at East Bay Booksellers next door.
Vibes: Paraphernaliac, envibed, not-just-books
Non-Gestational Parents Discussion
A discussion event for non-gestational parents of all kinds—men, women, enbies, trans, cis, queer, straight, adoptive—just to talk about our specific issues across identity categories. Like: we didn't carry the kids, but we're parents, too, and we're carrying other things.
This will be a small event, and we're hoping it's deeply interactive. Come ready to talk. What didn’t you expect that’s shown up in your experience of parenthood? What’s something your baby/kid has taught you about yourself? We’re all building wisdom in the process of parenthood, so what’s something you’d like to share with other non-gestational parents?
Vibes: Talky, parental, supportive
BYOB Show and Tell
A simple concept: bring a significant object to you and tell us its story (probably a true one). You'll get 3ish minutes. Bring something to drink of whatever persuasion you prefer.
Photographer Kara Brodgesell will be on site, offering up photos with your object.
Just note that there are two types of tickets: show-and-teller & listener. Choose wisely!
Vibes: Storytelling, holiday vibing, community building
Storytime for Caregivers with Tomas Moniz
Story time is great, no matter how it works. BUT, Patricia Zaballos brings you a literary series that’s for the caregivers, not the cared for. Each month a writer with a caregiving theme shares their work, chats about their reading, and ends with a book for the baby/toddler crowd. This month we’ll dig into fiction for the first time, discussing Tomas Moniz's novel All Friends Are Necessary. Set in the Bay Area, the book explores the devastation of infant loss, how community can show up for us in hard times, and how humor and joy can exist in the mix of it all.
Babies & toddlers welcome, but not required.
One-hour event; stay after for IRL connection!
Vibes: Warm, relaxing, communal
Authors Against Book Bans with Maggie Tokuda-Hall and Rachel Latta
Maggie Tokuda-Hall is an Oakland author who has taken up the cause of keeping books from getting banned. She's now the president of Authors Against Book Bans, which is standing up for intellectual freedom across the country. In this event, she'll talk with District 1 Oakland School Board rep Rachel Latta about banned books and how to keep our freedom to read in our region.
And we’ve also added special guest, Dashka Slater, who will read and discuss her brilliant (and sometimes banned) book, The 57 Bus.
Any proceeds from ticket sales will go to support AABB, which is now a 501c3.
Vibes: Righteous, hilarious, informative
Graphic Novel Art Talk & Auction to Benefit Chapter 510
Long-time Pixar animator Bobby Podesta is out with his first graphic novel, North for the Winter. Podesta has a bunch of process drawings—bits used to create the final product—and he came to us wanting to auction them for a charity. Other members of our community like Mac Barnett & Shawn Harris, Briana Loewinsohn, and Wahab Algarmi are also donating art for the auction.
Bobby and some other artists will also talk about how they make their graphic novels. And the proceeds from the art auction will go to Chapter 510, our local storytelling and bookmaking space for young people.
This event is designed to be fun for families. We'll have light tables and some cool drawing opportunities for graphic novel-loving kids.
Vibes: Arty, auctiony, good feeling-y
Repair Advice Clinic w/Jenny Odell
Jenny Odell is working on a book about repair. For this event, we're partnering with her to bring together experts in fixing different things with people who need things fixed.
Jenny is planning to talk a bit about her new work towards the beginning of the clinic, but the main event is people helping each other learn how the things around us work.
There are two types of tickets: participants, who want to bring things to be fixed, and viewers, if you just wanna come by and see what's going on.
We currently have repairpeople to work on: Woodworking, bikes, clothes mending, electronics, bookbinding, and small appliances.
If you have some repair skills, email us at hi@thelocaleconomy.com
Vibes: Meetupy, self-organized, drop-in-drop-out
Dire Straights Live with Tracy Clark Flory and Amanda Montei
Writers and podcasting superteam Tracy Clark-Flory and Amanda Montei present an evening celebrating their show, Dire Straights, with special guest Myisha Battle, a feminist sex and dating coach.
Dire Straights is a feminist podcast critiquing heterosexual love, sex, politics, and culture. Recently they've taken on the rise of WWE masculinity, marital "intimacy" as the fifth shift of women's work, the decline of the 4B movement, "red flags" in dating, and the "work" of couples therapy.
For this one night only, Tracy and Amanda will be in conversation with Myisha—and you—about the state of hetero life and love.
Oh, and as a special treat, Savala Nolan will also be opening the show with a reading from her new work.
Vibes: Feminist, hilarious, variety show
Mahjong Night with The Mahjong Project's Nicole Wong
In what may well be the first in a series of Mahjong Nights, we've got a special one to start. Nicole Wong, author of The Mahjong Project: House Rules from Across the Asian Diaspora joins us for a little how-to and history. We'll talk, and then we'll play.
Cost: Free for members, sliding scale $10 for the public
Vibes: game-y, table-y, auntie
Botanical Drawing with Hannah Hirsekorn, vol 3
Hannah Hirsekorn is an artist working in ink on paper and skin. She runs Oology Tattoo, and she specializes in flora and fauna. For her, drawing the more-than-human world is a practice of deep looking and a form of environmental conservation. In this workshop, you’ll bring your own art supplies. Hannah will bring items to draw and do some low-key instruction.
Vibes: Chill, meditative, participatory
How to Make a Zine with Rena Tom
On the one hand, a zine is just a tiny magazine, cheaply produced, often handmade. On the other hand, THE ZINE is a way of life, an approach to the world of letters. Visit any zine fest and you can see that making zines isn't just about copying and pasting. People are drawn to the ideas inside these tiny publications and to the collaborative, DIY philosophy that leads people to make them.
Artist (and LE member) Rena Tom shares her zinemaking techniques and knowledge of the culture of zines in this hands-on session.
We'll have some things, but bring materials and ideas!
Cost: Free for members, sliding scale $10 for the public
Vibes: Hands-on, DIY, skillsharey
Bay Aerial exhibition with East Bay Yesterday's Liam O'Donoghue
What does looking at half a century of aerial photographs reveal about the Bay Area’s ongoing transformation? East Bay Yesterday host Liam O’Donoghue will explore this question with Alexis Madrigal by closely examining a mysterious archive of images he rescued from destruction. These photos show much more than changing landscapes – they illustrate the values, circuitry, and impact of our civilization, for better or worse.
Come see stuff starting at 6. We'll start the actual program at more like 6:30.
Cost: Free for members, sliding scale $10 for the public
Vibes: History but make it Friday night, interactive, not stuck in the past
Sex Change and the City with Tuck Woodstock & Soleil Ho
Coyote Media co-founder Soleil Ho interviews Tuck Woodstock, creator of the Gender Reveal podcast, about the new book he co-edited, Sex Change & the City, an anthology featuring 45 trans and queer perspectives on “Sex and the City.” (And if you like that, check out his excellent 2 Trans 2 Furious zine.)
Max attendance: 60
Vibes: Fun, 2 Trans 2 Furious, Literary
Sunday Coffee, hosted by Jeff Wright, vol. 2
Jeff Wright of Edith’s Pie and 50 Minutes has been hosting a regular event on Sunday mornings at his house for months. It’s a low-stakes morning of chatting, coffee, and pastries, and he’s bringing it to Local Economy on a Sunday morning each month. The October edition was a dream, and it's back.
Cost: Free for members, sliding scale $10 for the public
Vibes: Chill, chatty, cozy
Heyday's Colors of California
For years now, I've been trying to imagine the right format to talk about the colors of our landscape. Poppy orange, dry grass gold, mid-summer blue, oak dark green. Who better to help us see and feel and write these colors than Heyday, the local publisher started by Malcolm Margolin, which has been putting out work about our bioregion for decades.
For this event, Heyday associate publisher (and poet and LE member) Marthine Satris is bringing together three Heyday folks to discuss color. Sara Calvosa Olson is a member of the Karuk tribe, photographer, food writer, and plant friend based in Marin. Obi Kaufmann is the author and illustrator of the wonderful and strange California Field Atlas, among other guides. And Sophie Wood Brinker is a young star, who wrote and illustrated Heyday's forthcoming Birds of Santa Cruz.
We'll talk color and then we'll make some interactive explorations into color and art and writing.
Vibes: Unusual, interactive, bioregional
Thread Therapy: Lap Loom Weaving Workshop
That Art Party's Naomi Peña brings you this special class. In a world obsessed with productivity, weaving asks us to be patient. In a culture of instant everything, it invites us to create slowly. Thread by thread, row by row, there's something deeply therapeutic about watching something beautiful emerge beneath your hands.
Storytime for Caregivers with Ruth Whippman
Story time is great, no matter how it works. BUT, Patricia Zaballos brings you a literary series that’s for the caregivers, not the cared for. Each month a writer of fiction or nonfiction with a caregiving theme shares their work, chats about their reading, and ends with a book for the baby/toddler crowd. This month Patricia will be talking with Ruth Whippman, author of Boy Mom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity.
Babies & toddlers welcome, but not required.
One-hour event; stay after for IRL connection!
Vibes: Warm, relaxing, communal
Oakland Garden Club: Introduction to Liberation Ecology with Sue Pierre
In this session, we'll meet Suzanne Pierre, a soil microbial ecologist and biogeochemist, and founder of Oakland's Critical Ecology Lab. Their mission is "to create novel processes and spaces for communities of people with scientific and generational knowledge to destabilize oppressive systems and fight back against escalating social and planetary disaster." Suzanne is a dynamic and fascinating scientist who is trying to change the infrastructure through which research is done.
Doors at 6
Session will run at 6:30-7:15ish
Hang til 8, if you want
Vibes: Insight, loose, meetup-y
Writing Place, with Alexis Madrigal
Alexis says: I love writing about place… This place. In my work over the years, I’ve found different ways to immerse myself in Oakland and other parts of the Bay. We’ll play with some examples from my book The Pacific Circuit and forthcoming work. Then, we’ll jump off of them for live writing exercises. This is the first session, the other two will be at the same time on November 17 and 24. The price includes all three sessions.
Over these weeks, we’ll look at three different methods of exploration: historical, spatial, bodily.
Works-in-Progress x MIPSLIP
For our second round of the Works-in-Progress series, we’re partnering with MIPSLIP, an ongoing gathering for sharing recent creative work. You bring a recent or unfinished creative work and come prepared to share why it is meaningful to you. All media and themes welcome.
MIPLSIP aims for greater aliveness through consistent practice, self-expression, and collective inspiration. They have some guidelines. Part of being seen in your creative process is seeing others in theirs. Please come prepared to witness others and disclose how their works impact you.
Max attendance: 15
Vibes: Participatory, open, supportive,
Cost: Free
Bookseller Holiday Book Preview
We made up an event to get Brad Johnson from East Bay Booksellers and Stephen Sparks from Pt. Reyes Books to tell us what books coming out in the fourth quarter are actually interesting. Perhaps it is an excuse and a vehicle for the two of them to put together a good holiday catalog, as opposed to the dull, commodified one that the book industry trade folk try to make them sell on.
Max attendance: 50
Vibes: Discerning, occasionally dyspeptic, helpful
Cost: Free
The Present Moment Game
Alli Magidsohn’s leads an hour-long social meditation experience that offers a simple yet powerful technique to help people drop into full presence. We call it a game, but it’s really just a framework to deepen present-moment consciousness in community.
Max attendance: 11
Vibes: Immersive, present, playful
Cost: $25 for members, $35 for non-members
Poets Emilie Lygren, Deema Shehabi, and Marilyn Hacker
These writers celebrate the release of their new books. Emilie Lygren’s second book is Once I was a stone. Deema Shehabi and Marilyn Hacker co-authored Water to Water: Gaza Renga.
Lygen's Once I was a stone is an intimate portrait of gender nonconformity rooted in the context of childhood and the natural world.
Water to Water is a poetic correspondence between Palestinian American poet Deema Shehabi and Jewish American poet Marilyn Hacker. Their project involved an alternating call and response between them in the tradition of the Japanese renga form, each poet picking up a word, phrase, or image from the poem preceding.
Max attendance: 60
Vibes: Profound, lyrical, intimate
Cost: Free
Communal Collage
Rachel Rosen leads a communal collage session. Collage is the most democratic art form, she argues. Everyone can have success and fun. And it's a great way to use up materials that would otherwise be recycled.
Max attendance: 40
Vibes: Easygoing, heartening, ziney
Cost: Free
Artist Legal Cafe
A cross-sector collaboration between Movement Law, the Sustainable Economies Law Center and Vital Arts, the Artist Legal Cafe is an artist-led initiative that offers direct services and capacity-building support to individual artists, artist collectives, and arts organizations.
Each Artist Legal Cafe provides 1:1 support with licensed attorneys, solidarity economy experts, and cultural workers on a wide range of topics.
Max participation: 30
Vibes: Helpful, smart, profesh
Cost: Free
Local Economy x East Bay Booksellers: Jeff Chang
In the second of many collaborations with our next-door neighbors, East Bay Booksellers, Jeff Chang visits Local Economy. Chang’s new book is Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America. Bruce Lee, if you don’t know, spent a crucial period of his early years in Oakland. Chang is also the author of several other celebrated books including Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop and We Gon’ Be Alright. Chang will be in conversation with Alexis Madrigal. They’ll range across the Pacific economic and cultural circuits from the 60s to now, from Lee and the Panthers to today.
Doors at 6. Conversation from 6:30-7:30. Chang will sign after the conversation, next door at EBB.
RSVP pls
Max attendance: 75 people
Vibes: Revelatory, conversational, immaculate
Cost: Free for members, $10 for the public
Tuesdays Together freelancer meetup
Cherlyn Wagner hosts a monthly daytime potluck for creatives to get help with their work, next up: creative ruts and how to get out of them.
RSVP
Max attendance: 30 people
Vibes: Participatory, supportive, dishy
Cost: Free
Cookbook Club: Nite Yun’s My Cambodia
Cookbook Club! With help from East Bay Booksellers’ Thu Doan, we’re going to select, and then parcel out recipes from a cookbook to participants, who will then gather for a potluck at the space to share their efforts. Our first experiment in this format will draw on My Cambodia by Nite Yun, who created Nyum Bai and now Lunette in the Ferry Building. And Nite has even promised to join us on the 26th to roast our valiant attempts at making Khmer food.
RSVP pls
Max attendance: 15 people
Vibes: Delicious, participatory, delightful
Cost: Free for members, $10 for the public (optional wine pairing)
Local Economy x East Bay Booksellers: Julian Brave Noisecat and Tommy Orange
In the first of our collaborations with our next-door neighbors, East Bay Booksellers, Tommy Orange will be in conversation with Julian Brave Noisecat about the latter’s new book, We Survived the Night. Noisecat is a filmmaker and journalist. His first documentary, Sugarcane, was nominated for an Oscar. This is his first book. Orange is the best-selling author of the era-defining book, There There, as well as Wandering Stars. Both writers grew up in Oakland .
Doors at 6:30. Conversation from 7-8. Julian Brave Noisecat will sign after the conversation, next door at EBB.
SOLD OUT!
Max attendance: 75 people
Vibes: Deep, unexpected, Oaklandy,
Cost: Free for members, $10 for the public
Mending Workshop with Carrie Sloane
Artist Carrie Sloane helps you learn about different mending techniques and how to patch, darn, hem, fix buttons, and make other small common repairs (not zippers, tho!). Workshop will focus on hand-mending techniques, but machine-mending will also be briefly covered and there will be one sewing machine available for use with supervision.
RSVP pls
Max attendance: 25 people
Vibes: Practical, hands-on, skillshare-y
Cost: Free to members