Night+Day

wednesday
april 12
Back in Blakk After a long and successful late-night run, drag queen par excellence Joan Jett Blakk (aka Terence Smith, of the Pomo Afro Homos) sweeps into prime time with co-host White Trash Chef Babette and pianist Kenny Melman clinging to her apron strings. Also in tow are the best and brightest names in San Francisco politics and entertainment: Scheduled guests include Supervisor Tom Ammiano, writer/performance artist Kate Bornstein, legendary scenester Bambi Lake, queer comics Sabrina Matthews and Mark Davis, and musical gusts Death Card 13 and two-stepping twangers 2WMN. If you couldn't stay up late enough to see Blakk last time she appeared, you have two weeks to catch her early show at 8 pm, Wed-Sun through April 23, at Josie's Cabaret & Juice Joint, 3583 16th St, S.F. Tickets are $10; call 861-7933.

thursday
april 13
Animal Instinct With government funding for wildlife preservation endangered, the Marine Science Institute is struggling to ensure that Bay Area kids are aware of the human impact on the animals around them. To bolster that effort, the institute is hosting Witness: Endangered Species of North America, a slide show and lecture presented by local photographers Susan Middleton and David Liittschwager. The show includes images selected from over 100 photos of plants and animals that are nearing extinction; admission donations will help finance scholarships for the Marine Science Institute's innovative Discovery Voyage program, a hands-on marine science expedition on San Francisco Bay. The same photos are also displayed at the California Academy of Sciences and included in Middleton and Liittschwager's recently published book, also named Witness: Endangered Species of North America. The slide show begins at 7:30 pm at the Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way, S.F. The suggested donation is $5-10; call 554-9600.

This Is Where It Comes From If you thought the furies were women, think again. Solo performer Sten Rudstrom taps into deeply buried reservoirs of anger in his excavation of the roots of sexuality, This Is Where It Comes From. Flailing against the facile categorization offered by terms like "hetero-sexual" and "homosexual," Rudstrom also cringes at fears of hermaphrodism. Rudstrom, a resident artist at the New Performance Gallery, integrates improvisation, movement and text into intensely physical performances. Perhaps most surprising is the savage humor the performer employs to bind together the scary, scandalous and romantic. Having performed throughout the U.S. and Germany, Rudstrom unleashes his personal furies at 8 pm through April 16 at the New Performance Gallery, 3153 17th St, S.F. Tickets are $10; call 863-9834.

friday
april 14
Slam Dunk Never been to a poetry slam? Sample the best these fast-paced, performance-style poetry competitions have to offer when San Francisco's 1994 champion poetry slam team goes head to head with the London U.K. champs in an unprecedented international slam. Because slamming rules require that pieces last no longer than three minutes, quick wit will carry the day; audience members will be chosen to act on an Olympic-style panel of judges. The home team includes poets Bana Witt, Marci Blackman, George Tirado, Sparrow 13 Laughing Wand and Dominique Lowell. Their challengers are poets Abeng Medu-Netchar, John O'Neill, Sally Simpson, Martin Daws and Gillian Tipena. Proceeds from the event will help send the S.F. poetry slam team to the National Poetry Slam in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in August. Both teams start hurling couplets at 9 pm at Cafe International, 508 Haight, S.F. Cover charge is $3. The San Francisco Poetry Slam begins in earnest April 19 with Wednesday-night slams at Intersection for the Arts, 446 Valencia, S.F.; call 641-5406.

After the End of the World Eat, drink and watch a passel of jugglers and musicians as the End of the World Coretet celebrates the release of their second album, Quaternity. Regularly aired on KUSF, KPOO, KPFA and KJAZ, the Coretet plays experimental "jazz without cobwebs," influenced by blues, folk, jazz and free jazz. This is your last time to catch them before they embark on an open-ended European tour. The party starts at 8 pm at 111 Minna Street Gallery, S.F. Cover is $4-6; call 974-1719.

Toni Morrison With her 1970 novel The Bluest Eye, Morrison inspired a generation of African American women -- notably Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor and Toni Cade Bambara -- to tell their own stories. And given the way race, especially as it affects women's lives, has informed all of Morrison's writings, she is the perfect addition to City Arts & Lecture's "On Art and Politics" series. The reading and lecture, introduced by A.S. Byatt, will benefit the Women's Foundation; the event begins at 8 pm in the Masonic Auditorium, 1111 California, S.F. Tickets are $15; call 392-4400.

Rocky Horror Superstar It's zero B.C. and your nightmare unfolds: Jesus of Nazareth has become Jesus of Frankenfurter and he's lip-synching a mixed platter of songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice and Richard O'Brien. Actually, it's taken Andrew Wood, Diet Popstitute and a cast of almost 30 gaudily costumed performers to set this particular nightmare in motion. Adapted from the Bible, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Jesus Christ Superstar, Play-stitute's musical dance comedy, Rocky Horror Superstar: The Jesus of Frankenfurter Story, follows its hero from immaculate conception to glorious resurrection with a few pit stops in between. Ted Curtis Mashi stars as Jesus and Fennel Skellyman is Judas/Riff-Raff. Appropriately, Jesus of Frankenfurter makes his first appearance on Good Friday at 8 pm at the Third Wave Dance House, 3316 24th St, S.F.; perform-ances continue through April 29. Tickets are $12; call 331-1583 ext 1313 or BASS.