Bay Area Epic Things to Do: Week of 10/31
Sparknify has curated eight of the Bay Area’s coolest and most unusual experiences. For Saturday, October 31 through Friday, November 6, 2026, step into The Haunt’s artist-built techno-fantasy, explore Indigenous technologies with Tanya Lukin Linklater at UC Berkeley, or hear Ryli play inside a painting exhibition at YBCA. These are chances to see how people build worlds, preserve knowledge and connect through art, good reasons to close the laptop and head out. All times below are Pacific.
10/31 Saturday — Lasting Joy: Asawa Family Selections — FREE
An intimate look at Ruth Asawa through the people who knew her best.
Start Saturday with a quieter discovery in Dogpatch. Twenty members of Ruth Asawa’s family chose favorite works and shared what those pieces mean to them. Their selections sit alongside life-cast masks, bringing a personal perspective to an artist whose wire sculptures are instantly recognizable. The surprises include jewelry, sketchbooks and even a surfboard. For anyone who makes things, the appeal is seeing creativity as an everyday family practice, with room for play alongside the finished work.
Visit October 31, 11 AM–4 PM, at Ruth Asawa Lanier Gallery, 1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco. This is an ongoing exhibition, open Tuesday–Saturday through December 16; Saturday is our suggested visit date.
10/31 Saturday — Maxita Screening and Panel — FREE
An Indigenous leader’s journey connects the Amazon to the consequences of extraction.
The San Francisco Main Library presents Maxita as part of the 18th San Francisco Latino Film Festival. Directed by Mariana Machado and Ana Maria Machado, the 70-minute documentary follows Yanomami leader Davi Kopenawa from the Amazon to Brazil’s mining regions and a reunion with Ailton Krenak. The screening and panel offer a way into questions about land, resources and humanity’s relationship with the planet. For a community accustomed to talking about the future, it is a chance to listen to a different account of what that future depends on.
October 31, 2–4 PM, Koret Auditorium, Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco. Reserve through the library’s event page; admission is free and seating is subject to availability.
10/31 Saturday — The Haunt at YBCA
Discarded electronics become a handmade Halloween world of art, sound and strange encounters.
Bat Witch Ghost’s Halloween hangout turns YBCA’s performance space into a techno-fantasy assembled by artists. Expect installations, corridors to explore, tarot readings and DJs curated by Lower Grand Radio. The inventive part is the material: salvaged objects and discarded electronics become the building blocks of imagined futures. It is an especially fitting Halloween outing for makers and designers who like seeing familiar components put to unexpected uses. Come in costume and leave time to wander.
October 31, 8–11 PM, The Forum at YBCA, 701 Mission Street, San Francisco. General admission is $25; members pay $15. The evening is recommended for ages 13 and up. Tickets include gallery admission.
11/2 Monday — Festival of Altars and Mercado de Muertos — FREE
A community evening of remembrance, living traditions and local art.
The Marigold Project’s Festival of Altars brings people together at Potrero del Sol for Día de Muertos. Community-built altars, Indigenous and Mesoamerican traditions, ceremony, music and dance form the heart of the gathering. ArtyHood’s accompanying Mercado adds local artists and food vendors. Go with time to look, listen and understand what the altars commemorate. The significance is in a tradition sustained by the community for more than three decades, and in the opportunity to take part respectfully in a shared space of remembrance.
November 2, 4–10 PM, Potrero del Sol / La Raza Park, San Francisco. Admission is free with RSVP; food and purchases are separate. Register for event updates.
11/2 Monday — Tendon thread with Tanya Lukin Linklater — FREE
A Berkeley conversation expands what we mean when we talk about technology.
Artist and choreographer Tanya Lukin Linklater brings Sugpiaq technologies and ancestral belongings into a conversation about contemporary artistic practice. Her lecture draws on visits to museum collections and on the grasses, estuaries and customary practices of Alaska’s Kodiak archipelago. For Silicon Valley’s builders, this is an invitation to consider knowledge carried through materials, movement and generations. A related workshop on Tuesday, November 3 combines creative writing and embodied inquiry; it is limited to 25 participants and requires a separate registration questionnaire.
Lecture: November 2, 5–6:30 PM, Eugene Jarvis Auditorium, Grimes Engineering Center, UC Berkeley. Workshop: November 3, 4:30–6:30 PM, Bancroft Dance Studio, for UC Berkeley students and community members. Follow the organizer’s separate RSVP links.
11/4 Wednesday — Ryli Live Inside GaHee Park’s Exhibition — FREE
Jangling guitars and introspective paintings share the same room.
San Francisco band Ryli performs in Gallery 3 at YBCA, surrounded by GaHee Park’s Behind the Curtain. The group’s melodic, melancholic jangle-pop provides another way to experience the paintings: look before the set, listen, then return to the artwork afterward. That compact combination of a concert and a gallery visit makes this an appealing midweek plan with friends. YBCA also invites visitors to stop by the Creativity Explored residency on the first floor for hands-on artmaking.
November 4, music begins at 7 PM, Gallery 3, YBCA, 701 Mission Street, San Francisco. Free with RSVP; seating is limited. Drinks are available in the lobby but are not allowed in the gallery.
11/5 Thursday — From Street to Stage with Beaver Bauer — FREE
Five decades of theatrical imagination, revealed through the work behind the costumes.
Costume designer Debra “Beaver” Bauer’s opening reception at the Main Library offers a close look at how stage characters take visual form. The exhibition brings together original renderings, performance photographs, video and costume elements from a career spanning more than 50 years. It is a rewarding stop for anyone interested in design as storytelling: a drawing or a choice of fabric can change how an audience reads a person before a single line is spoken. Light snacks and beverages will be served at the reception.
Catherine Castellanes as the Ghost of Christmas Present in A.C.T.’s 2006 A Christmas Carol. Photo: Kevin Berne; event image courtesy of SFPL.
November 5, 5–7:30 PM, Main Library, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco. The exhibition is in the lower-level Jewett Gallery; consult the event page for the reception’s associated library spaces. No registration is listed.
11/6 Friday — Legend Zeppelin at The Chapel
A rock show built around recreating the sound and stagecraft of 1969.
Legend Zeppelin starts its journey at the beginning of Led Zeppelin’s live career, using period-appropriate equipment, clothing and performance approach to revisit the band’s earliest shows. The group describes a six-year project tracing that history chronologically. For listeners who enjoy the craft behind a performance, the attraction is hearing how the instruments and arrangements contribute to an era’s sound. This is a tribute performance, not an appearance by Led Zeppelin.
November 6, 9 PM, The Chapel, 777 Valencia Street, San Francisco. All ages; advertised admission is $25 in advance or $30 on the day. KPCR also lists a giveaway for two winners to receive two tickets each, closing November 5 at 5 PM Pacific. Winning is required for complimentary tickets; ordinary admission is paid.
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