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Raising a fist to ending juvenile injustice. Urban Guide Listings to plan your week by 'The Beat on Both Sides ... a cry for freedom!' Generally speaking, young people have energy. They're hyped up and looking for action. While some are inclined to expend that energy hitting mailboxes with baseball bats from car windows, others choose to activate against society's injustices. Luckily, something about Oakland brings out the latter in proud young people, which is in large part why Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company has been such a tremendous success. For the ninth year in a row Destiny Arts Youth bring a production of The Beat on Both Sides. The beat is the heartbeat of all urban youth, both sides refers to the young people divided by the bars of the "injustice system," and a cry for freedom comes in the form of dance, poetry, and theater. Structured in vignettes of dialogue between incarcerated youth (selected from the written words of those incarcerated) and youth on the street imprisoned by the more abstract institutions of racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and ageism, the performance is intended to educate as well as entertain, and ultimately to dissolve the barriers between the two sides in a noble call for solidarity among all urban youth. Generally speaking, young people respond positively to posivite attention. This weekend is a great opportunity to praise them for braving the vast sea of ideology. Fri/10-Sun/12. Fri-Sat, 7:30pm; Sun, 3pm. MacClymonds High School, 2607 Myrtle at 26th St., Oakl. $8-$17. www.destinyarts.org. (LS) Youth Arts Festival Spring is in the air, and so are hordes of restless kids, furiously counting the days until summer vacation. What is there to do with these children bubbling with hyperactivity, you ask? Take them to Berkeley and beat the art out of them. The Berkeley Art Center is proud to host the 10th annual Youth Arts Festival through May 24. It's a city-wide celebration of art, music, dance, and poetry by students from the Berkeley Unified School District. Along with visual art exhibitions and performances, there will be weekend workshops in such subjects as screen-printing, monotype, building musical instruments, and photography. The art center will also host evenings of classical music, poetry, drama, and dance throughout the festival. This week's workshops revolve around making cool stuff for mom on her upcoming day. Bring the kids or come by yourself -- either way, get into the festival mood this spring and do it at the Berkeley Art Center. Through Fri/24. Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut, Berk. Call or check website for specific events and times. 644.6839; www.berkeleyartcenter.org. (AL) Composer and instrument designer Scot Gresham-Lancaster performs with the Fuzzy Bunnies at the SF Alt. Fest. First Annual SF Alt Music Festival If it's not Britney, or some easily digestible, unoffending hodgepodge of crap, then the popular media just won't budge. What about the whole thriving experimental music scene, pushed to the periphery for too long, thriving off the Richter right under our Bay Area noses? The SF Alt Committee heard the call and organized a seven-night festival to kick off tonight. But don't be fooled by the name. The volunteer musicians comprising the committee come from all over the Bay to promote the underrepresented avant-garde jazz, free improv-isation, creative music, new classical, experimental, com-puter, electronic, and noise music scenes thriving in Oakland, the East Bay, and San Francisco (but not excluding Japan and France!). Now these styles and artists have a well-organized and promoted outlet in the Alt Festival. Working with such organizations as 21 Grand, Jazz in Flight, and The Association of Emerging Creative Artists, the festival will showcase the adventurous modern music of 20 local groups and international artists, and pull peripheral styles into a new epicenter. Get a pass early and see all 20 for a steal. Or pick and choose among nights. Get ready for vocals, documentaries, symphonies, and instruments like you've never seen or heard before. Wed/8-Sun/12. Wed, Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sat-Sun, 2:30pm. 21 Grand, Oakl. $10-$50. www.sfalt.org. (EP) Organic: Spring Love Harvest The Funky Tekno Tribe, "keeping your world beautiful, baby." An appropriate sentiment for professional party-throwers? I do believe. These funky SF house-party promoters are taking this year's spring love harvest very seriously. First, and most importantly, they've moved it over to the warmer side of the Bay, and secondly, they've reserved the Ibiza (pay no mind to whispers of its swingers hotel past) with pools, jacuzzis, tiki gardens, outdoor and indoor bars, a lily pad lounge, plush suites with balcony views into the club, and DJs Sneak, Simon, Hector Cardenas, Ruben Mancias, Spun, Harry Who?, Arturo Garces, Dawn of Sound, Dyno, Luck Reichold, Monty Luke, Re-Pete, Stevian, Joe DiFalco, Gabe Xavier ... if you're not getting the picture, this is Boogie Nights, only you won't be sitting on your living room couch, watching it all pass by. Who knows, you may be sitting in a hottub with a producer coming up with your new screen name. Sat/11-Sun/12, 9pm-6am. Ibiza, 10 Hegenberger, Oakl. $20. www.funkyteknotribe.com. (LS) Picks by Aimee Le Duc (AL), Erica Pedersen (EP), and Leigh Saffold (LS). [ East Bay | Metroactive | Archives ]