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Urban Guide Listings to plan your week by Enviropoetry comes to full flower at the Watershed Environmental Poetry Fest. Watershed Environmental Poetry Fest This is the how-Berkeley-can-you-be-fest of academ-ic poetry. Seven years ago, former U.S. poet Robert Hass initiated this gathering of deeply enviro-minded metaphor makers (think Muir, Thoreau, Snyder), which include some of the most important living poets of the niche of American nature writing. On the slate is Mexico's Homer Aridjis, environmental activist, and a spinner of "lost worlds" in the vein of Octavio Paz. Linda Hogan, an award-winning Chickasaw writer of many genres, is praised as a "mighty force." The list goes on to include Jarid Manos, Director of the Great Plains Restoration Council and author of Ghetto Plainsmen, soulful Brenda Peterson, Michael McClure, who performs his poetry with Ray Manzarak of the Doors, and ethno-poet Jerome Rothenberg. In addition to main stage readings, there will be musical performances (most likely of the folk bent), and a "River Village" for interactive arts and all-ages nature activities. You can even start the day with a three-block walk tracing the route of Strawberry Creek from city center to civic center, focusing on "daylighting" the creek and resurrecting it from its underground speedway to the Bay by miking the soothing sounds as a backdrop for featured readers. The Watershed Festival is a collaboration between Hass, Poetry Flash, the Ecology Center, and EcoCity Builders. Sat/7, noon-5pm. Creek walk, 10am (Center and Oxford). Civic Center Plaza. M.L.K. Jr., and Center, Berk. Free. www.poetryflash.org. (EP) Kultur Shock takes its genre-bending act to Ashkenaz. Postmodern Hoe-down: Kultur Shock Music that refuses pigeonholing is largely absent from the MTV/Clear Channel mainstream these days; playlists tend to (re)cycle tired variations of the same rap-rock or pop-punk hybrids, with each carefully constructed performer nearly indistinguishable from the next. But exhilarating, genre-bending acts like Seattle-based Kultur Shock are thriving -- and rocking out -- beneath the commercial radar. Politically infused and in-fectiously danceable, Kultur Shock is a band rooted in both traditional and personal histories of migration. After stints as a lawyer, musician, and internationally acclaimed composer/performer in war-time Sarajevo, frontman and self-proclaimed narcissist Gino Yvedjevich arrived in America under the tutelage of Joan Baez. Here he met up with two former members of the Bulgarian prog-rock group Orion, drummer Boris Iocher and guitarist Val Kossovski. (They'd sought political asylum in the U.S. after lyrics criticizing their Communist-era government were broadcast over Radio Free Europe.) Enter one talented Japanese bassist and a simmering American horn section, and Kultur Shock's current kaleidoscopic incarnation was born. Descriptions of their first record, Live in Amerika (1999), read like an "Intro to World Music" textbook index, with reviewers referring to them as brash Gypsy-folk rock mixed with jazz and funk. Now that their new album, Fucc the I.N.S (2001), has been released under world-punk label Kool Arrow Records with a harder, darker edge, categorization is even more futile. You're much better off just going to their show and dancing your face off. Sun/8, doors open at 8:30 pm, show at 9:00 pm. Ashkenaz Music and Dance Community Center, 1317 San Pablo Avenue, Berk. 525.5054. $8. (MW) Love is bittersweet for Max (Paul D'Addario) in Antero Alli's "Roadkill." Vertical Pool Founded in 1996, Vertical Pool is an independent production company consisting of a rotating crew of volunteers and professionals. Currently, they are presenting three experimental narrative videos by cult filmmaker Antero Alli. Finnish-born Alli is an esoteric powerhouse given to exploring themes of dysfunctionality and disconnection in the human condition. His intense, oblique visions have earned him critical praise and a following among the art house cognoscenti. The upcoming screening titled On Love & Other Difficulties features three film shorts that he wrote, edited, directed, and produced. The three films were made a number of years apart and are being shown together for the first time in the Bay Area. Requiem for a Friend (1991; 40 minutes) explores complex rituals of mourning for multiple aspects of the self. Inertia (1994; 21 minutes) juxtaposes a butoh performance with the deterioration and rejuvenation of a couple's love. Roadkill (2001; 27 minutes) probes love and obsession between two artist couples via improvised dialogue. The screening will be followed by a conversation with the artist and his soundtrack collaborator Sylvi Antero. Sat/7, 8 pm and 10 pm. Tuva Performance Space, 3192 Adeline St (between Ashby & Alcatraz), Berk. $7. 464.4640; http://www.verticalpool.com/love.html.(JN) Picks by Jeff Nakamura (JN), Erica Pedersen (EP), Meg Wright (MW). [ East Bay | Metroactive | Archives ]