Best Bets: Downtown Gallery Walk

See works by new and established artists at dozens of downtown venues in a self-guided Downtown Gallery Walk from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, April 6, with music and refreshments at selected galleries, shops and businesses. Maps available online at www.downtownbellingham.com and at participating venues. Call 527-8710. Among the works displayed is Trish Harding’s “The Unextinguishable Flame” at Studio UFO, 301 W. Holly St.

Robert Force, who helped bring Jefferson Airplane, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters and Allen Ginsberg to Western Washington University’s campus in the 1960s, and was (with Flip Breskin) one of the founders of WWU’s Mama Sunday’s music series, performs on his six-string dulcimer at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 11, at the Roeder Home, 2600 Sunset Drive (at Broadway). The concert is sponsored by Whatcom County Homemade Music Society and Whatcom County Parks and Recreation Department. For details on the concert, call 733-3860. For more on Force, see robertforce.com. The concert is rescheduled from Jan. 10. Suggested donation is $8 to $12, sliding scale.

Anoushka Shankar, the only person in the world who can claim to have been entirely trained by the legendary sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, who is her father, performs at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 6, at Western Washington University’s Performing Arts Center Mainstage Theatre. She comes to the PAC Series with a program featuring songs from her new “Rise” album, with elements of acoustic and electric instruments such as the traditional Indian tabla, flute, piano, synthesizer, voice and sitar. Tickets range from $16 to $25, and are available through WWU’s Box Office, 650-6146 and online at www.tickets.wwu.edu. A limited number of tickets are available at Village Books and the Community Food Co-op.

Egress Studio Press celebrates April as National Poetry Month with readings by Seattle’s Sibyl James and Bellingham’s Jim Bertolino at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 6, at Village Books, 1200 11th St. James writes about her experiences as an American feminist while teaching in China in her collection, “China Beats.” Bertolino was the poet on the inaugural Chuckanut Radio Hour sponsored by the American Museum of Radio and Electricity. His poems play havoc with one’s sense of humor, revise one’s sense of decency and become a university for one’s sensory faculties. Both poets are published by Anita K. Boyle’s Egress Studio Press. For details, call 671-2626 or go to www.villagebooks.com.

Motherlode — Janet Peterson, from left, Kathleen Fallon, Marie Eaton and Nan Collie — performs love songs, traditional ballads, political satire and songs about contemporary issues in a benefit for the Conant Dodge Scholarship Fund for first-generation college students at Fairhaven College at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 7, at Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship, 1708 I St. The concert is American Sign Language interpreted by Karee Wardrop. Tickets, $14 general, $8 students and seniors, are available in advance at Village Books and the Community Food Co-op. Tickets are $16 at the door. For more information on the concert, call 671-6371. For details on the ensemble, visit www.motherlodemusic.com.

Brooklyn-based musician Elisa Korenne performs at 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, at the Green Frog Acoustic Tavern, 902 N. State St. Her album, “Favorite: The Debut Album of Elisa Korenne,” blends folk, pop and rock with touches of jazz, soul and what she calls “circus-eclectic.” For more on the gig, call 756-1213. For more on her music, see www.elisako renne.com.

The Seattle Men’s Chorus, directed by Dennis Coleman, performs songs made famous by Styx, the Pointer Sisters, Kool & the Gang, Diana Ross, Men at Work, Blondie, The Cars, Cyndi Lauper and others at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 7, at Western Washington University’s Performing Arts Center Concert Hall in a benefit for Evergreen AIDS Foundation. Tickets are $22.50 and are available at WWU’s box office, 650-6146 and online at www.tickets.wwu.edu.