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March Library Happenings

Event Highlights

Literally How: Get hands-on experience learning or developing a new skill every month

This is a new monthly series at North. March's topics are: 

Learn how to be a barista - Tuesday, March 3 @ 4:30 pm

Learn how to be a library aide - Tuesday, March 17 @ 4:30 pm

Spring Series: Weekly Art Workshops with the Museum of Children's Art (MOCHA)

Fridays from 3:30 - 5 pm at Central

Saturdays from 10:30 am -12 pm at West

How Money Works: Financial Literacy for Everyone

Tuesday, March 3

6 pm

Tarea Hall Pittman South

Dungeons & Dragons for Teens

1st & 3rd Wednesdays

3:30 pm

Central

Family Game Night

Thursday, March 5

5:30 pm

West

Two musicians playing fiddle and guitar five musicians posing with guitars, fiddle, upright bass

Berkeley Old TIme Music Convention Spring Sitch

Saurday, March 7

1 - 5 pm

Central

Come celebrate Women's History Month with a full day of concerts, workshops, and jams spotlighting women musicians and their impact in old time music, featuring a Stairwell Sisters reunion!

Review the jam-packed schedule to plan out your day:

 

See schedule five singers in traditional Native dress

Red Lightning Woman Power

Saurday, March 7

12 pm

North

Red Lightning Woman Power is a Bay Area–based Indigenous women’s singing collective grounded in ancestral songs, storytelling, and living tradition. They will share songs of hope, love, and renewal.

The Prom Dress Pop-Up

Saurday, March 7

2 pm

Claremont Branch

Attention high schoolers! Find and take hoe your perfect prom dress.

Ramadan Storytime with Iqra Tales

Saturday, March 7

3 pm

Central

 

A middle age mother with a school age child on here lap, both wearing hats

Author Talk with Terena Scott

Raising Rhia: a Mother's Fight for a Joyful Life

Monday, March 9

6 pm

Central

 

Combat Robotics Presentation by UC Robotics Team for Grades 3-5


Tuesday, March 10

3:30 pm

North

 

Drop-in Guided Meditation


Wednesday, March 11

12 pm

Central

 

Cozy Crafts: Promoting Comfort, Warmth & Relaxation

This month's craft is pressed flowers bookmarks

Saturday, March 14

11 am

Claremont

 

Chorus Song Circle


Saturday, March 14

2 pm

Tarea Hall Pittman South

 

Book cover with silhouette of person holding a child

Author Talk with Ruth Whippman

BoyMom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity

Monday, March 16

6 pm

Central

Whipman will be in coversation with Bay Area personality, author and award-winning producer Lauren Schiller

Herbal Healing for Menopause


Tuesday, March 17

6 pm

North

*Registration Required

 

Storytime & Community Cafe

Workshop for caregivers that provides resources for managing life challenges

Wednesday, March 18

10:30 am

West

Creative Writing Space


Wednesday, March 18

4 pm

West

Wildflowers of the Bay Area

with David Margolies from the East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society 

Saturday, March 21

12 pm

Central

historic photo of a woman serving from a camping stove

Author Talk with Caitlin Keliiaa

Refusing Settler Domesticity: Native Women’s Labor and Resistance in the Bay Area Outing Program

Saturday, March 21

1 pm

North

Bike Friendly Driver How-tos


Saturday, March 21

1:30 pm

Tarea Hall Pittman South

All Ages Art Club


3rd Saturdays

2 pm

Claremont

book cover with a drawing of a sky full of kites and children with title of book: A Year of Kites: Traditions Around the World

Author Reading & Craft with Monisha Bajaj

A Year of Kites

Saturday, March 21

3 pm

Central

Healthcare Advance Directives


Monday, March 23

10 am

Claremont

Quilt Pattern Workshop: Sew Cathedral Windoows


Tuesday, March 24

10 am

Claremont

portrait of Maggie Tokuda-Hall and three book covers.

Teen-Moderated Author Talk with Maggie Tokuda-Hall

A Year of Kites

Tuesday, March 24

6 pm

North

Tokuda-Hall is the author of numerous award winning, best-selling children’s and young adult books including Love in the Library, The Mermaid the Witch and The Sea duology, Squad, and The Worst Ronin. She has been called “... one of the most unflinching voices in contemporary genre literature.” 

SpringFest: Crafting and Music for all Ages


Thursday, March 26

4 pm

Claremont

Astrology Salon with Sarah Weinberg


Saturday, March 28

2 pm

Claremont

Bingo Before Dark


Tuesday, March 31

3 pm

Tarea Hall Pittman South

Image of dog on a beach with its reflection in the water

Virtual Book Club: Simpatía by Rodrigo Blanco Calderón


Tuesday, March 31

2 pm

Zoom

Exhibit + Artist Workshop: Roots Unveiled

Multicolored painting in collage-style of a woman sipping tea on armchair

Roots Unveiled, curated by Bay Area-based artist Nimisha Doongarwal, examines how immigrant identity is carried through the quiet rituals of everyday life.

The series portrays ordinary moments cooking, walking, shopping, resting, meditating, not as simple routines, but as emotional bridges between past and present, home and displacement. The work offers intimate portraits of how cultural roots endure through lived experience rather than inherited symbols.

View the exhibit on the 5th floor of the Central Library from February 2nd - Wednesday, March 31st. 

Join a special workshop with the Artist on Monday, March 23 from 3-5pm at Central and learn how to add collage layer appliques onto canvas. All supplies provided. Registration required.

Register

The Black Panther Party in Berkeley: An Archival Exhibit and 60th Anniversary 

Exterior of building with sign for Black Panter Party National Headquarters Volunteers with rows of full paper bags

The Black Panther Party in Berkeley: An Archival Exhibit and 60th Anniversary Celebration is curated by former Black Panther Party member, founder of the Panther Alumni Association and Archive, It’s About Time, Billy X Jennings.

Through rare, often one-of-a-kind archival photographs, art pieces, newspapers, and other unique ephemera, the exhibit offers a new perspective on the people and stories that made the Black Panther Party such a lasting, vibrant, and compelling presence in Berkeley and beyond.

View the exhibit on the 2nd floor of the Central Library from February 2nd - May 29th. 

The opening reception is on Saturday, March 21st at 2 pm. 

 

Learn More

Save the Dates:

Spring Break Programs

Mariachi Luz de Oro standing on steps in front of the UC Berkeley Campanile

North Branch and West Branch are teaming up to offer some great programs throughout Berkeley Unified School District's Spring Break week!

Kicking off the week is a performance of mariachi music from Mariachi Luz de Oro de Berkeley on the North lawn on Tuesday, March 31 at 3pm.

** Also, catch Mariachi Luz de Ordo de Berkeley at Claremont on Thursday, March 12 at 4pm!

There are hundreds of upcoming library programs for all ages and a diversity of interests:

Event Calendar

Many library programs are funded by the generous support of the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library.

Thank you, Friends!

Love the Library?Join the Board of Library Trustees
Apply by 5pm on Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Drawn multicolored hands raised on a blue background

The City of Berkeley begins accepting applications today, Wednesday, February 25, 2026, to fill two vacancies on the five-member Board of Library Trustees (BOLT). 

Candidates must be residents of Berkeley and should be public library champions, passionate about lifelong learning and community engagement.

A demonstrated commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion is essential.

In addition, candidates with leadership, business, management, strategic planning, marketing and/or administrative skills are encouraged to apply.

Learn more about the role and how to apply on the Library's website.

Learn More

Thank you!

Working together to make a great public library extraordinary...

Thank you, Foundation & Friends!

Berkeley Public Libray Logo Berkeley Public Library Foundation logo Friends of the Berkeley Public Library logo

Holiday Reminders

All Libraries are closed on Monday, March 30.

eBooks, eAudiobooks, newspapers, music, movies & more available 24/7 at berkeleypubliclibrary.org.