The best the Bay Area has to offer, from the writers and editors of KQED Arts & Culture.

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A woman in a black suit outfit hoists a double-edged axe in the air as a second woman in a light pink dress gazes up at it in a stupor

There Will Be Blood: ‘Elektra’ Unfolds Like a Horror Movie at SF Opera

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A group of Black women dance as a concrete building and trees stand in the background

Juneteenth in the Bay Area: Your Event Guide for 2026

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A coiffed and made-up gender nonconforming person sitting elegantly in a doorway, dressed in silky blouse, pants and high heels.

A Vallejo Naval Museum Exhibit Celebrates Gender Rebels Across History

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A Black man feels the wall inside an empty yellow-tinted room.

Liminal Space Horror ‘Backrooms’ Goes From Internet Meme to the Big Screen

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large crowd cheers, shipping cranes in background

Portola Festival Lineup 2026: Robyn, Zara Larsson, Four Tet and More

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Large group of people eating mangoes in a park.

Indian Mangoes Are the ‘Fruit of the Gods.’ Now, in San Francisco, They Have Their Own Party

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An illustration of an Indigenous child wearing a white dress smiling gleefully as her parents watch on proudly.

A Dazzling New Children’s Book Honors an Indigenous Teen Heroine From California

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On stage, before a huge audience, a shirtless white man with green dreadlocks faces a white man with a green mohawk. Both gesture at each other wildly, holding guitars aloft.

New NOFX Documentary Charts the Band’s Unruly Rise and Wrapping Up

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Young kids in swimwear getting soaked by falling water

Beat the Heat at These Top 20 Swimming Spots in the Bay Area

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person looks dramatically over their right shoulder against dark background

Exploratorium’s ‘Resonance’ Series Brings Experimental Sound Back to the Museum

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