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November 14-16, 2019: California Indian Conference
The California Institute for Community, Art, and Nature will have a major presence at the California Indian Conference to be held at Sonoma State University from November 14-16, 2019. In addition to having a table that will have information on our various California Indian programs and projects, we’re sponsoring the following two panels: Panel I: Memories of Pomo Life | November 15 at 1.30pm In the mid-1980s Vic Bedoian, a staff member of KPFA in Berkeley recorded 37 hours of interviews with legendary Pomo elders and younger tribal leaders. Annie Lake, Elsie Allen, Salome Alcantra, Bernice Torrez, Edna Guerrero, Frances Jack, Priscilla Hunter, Lanny Pinola, Susan Billy, Barbara Graumann, Carmen…
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November 7, 2019: Life after Genocide: Extinct People Can Park Anywhere – An Evening with L Frank Manriquez
November 7th, 2019, 6:00 pm – 7:30 pmBerkeley Public Library, West Branch1125 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94702. (map) The California Institute for Community, Art, and Nature (California I CAN) invites you to an evening with L. Frank Manriquez (Tongva/Ajachmem), a well-known Native American activist, artist, cartoonist, performer, and humorist. Malcolm Margolin, a longtime friend and admirer, will introduce her. Sponsored by the Berkeley Public Library as part of their celebration of Native American Heritage Month. This program is free and open to the public. RSVP to info@californiaican.org. Fasten your seat belts and hang on tightly for a tour of Native California that will utterly amaze you. Here’s a preview. Join…
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September 11, 2019: Reception for William Alsup’s latest book, “Won Over”
On September 11th, 2019, we’ll host a reception for William Alsup, federal judge and author of NewSouth Books’ latest publication, Won Over: Reflections of a Federal Judge on His Journey from Jim Crow Mississippi. Book description from NewSouth: “What was it like growing up white in Mississippi as the civil rights movement exploded in the 1950s and ’60s? How did some white children reconcile the decency and fairness taught by their parents with the indecency and unfairness of the Mississippi “Way of Life,” the euphemism applied to Jim Crow segregation? Won Over examines these questions as it traces the life journey of United States District Judge William Alsup, born in…
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June 1, 2019: California Indian Arts & Culture Festival at Ohlone Park’s 50th Anniversary
Ohlone Park, BerkeleySaturday, June 1st, 201911 am – 4 pm On June 1st the California Institute for Community, Art & Nature and the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, in cooperation with Friends of the Ohlone Park, Heyday Books, and others, will be putting together a festival to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Ohlone Park. This event will bring to Berkeley the best and most accomplished artists, basket-weavers, boat builders, storytellers, singers, and other traditional artists from many parts of California. Central to the event will be the refurbishing and enhancement of the Ohlone Mural painted years ago by Jean LaMarr (Pit River and Paiute), which depicts members of the…
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May 14, 2019: Taste of California: A Celebration of California’s Beauty
Tuesday, May 14, 20196:00 PM — 9:00 PM David Brower Center2150 Allston Way • Berkeley, California 94704 Tickets will be available at the door. $150.00 – Ticket$250.00 – Sponsor ticketSponsorship opportunities available This special evening will include: A buffet dinner and beverages of all kinds from some of Berkeley and the Bay Area’s best organic artisan purveyors, restaurants, and cafes. Visual artists in a number of media whose work will expand our capacity to see the world in new ways and world-famous authors including: Jennifer Bates, Aya de Leon, Rose van Thater Imai, Obi Kaufmann, Maxine Hong Kingston and Earl Kingston, Reuben Margolin, Rina Margolin, Vijaya Nagarajan, Wes “Scoop” Nisker,…
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November 8, 2018: Lessons from the 1960s
November 8th, 2018: Book Release Event and Reception for Frye Gailliard’s recent book, A Hard Rain: America in the 1960’s: Our Decade of Hope, Possibility, and Innocence Lost On the evening of November 8th, 2018, the California Institute for Community, Art, and Nature (California I CAN) hosted southern historian and author Frye Gaillard and a stellar panel of authors, activists, poets, and artists. The questions at hand: “What should we bring with us from this tumultuous era that will be valuable in the coming decades? What should we leave behind?” With Frye’s recently released 750-page history, A Hard Rain: America in the 1960s: Our Decade of Hope, Possibility, and Innocence Lost, as a touchstone…
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October 22, 2018: Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Publication of The Ohlone Way
A wonderful gathering took place at Berkeley’s historic Hillside Club on the evening of October 22nd, 2018 when over 200 cherished friends and members of the public joined with theCalifornia Institute for Community, Art & Nature to celebrate and reflect upon the 40th Anniversary of the publication of California I CAN Founder Malcolm Margolin’s landmark book – The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the SanFrancisco-Monterey Bay Area. Longtime friends and colleagues of Malcolm and The Ohlone Way shared wine and hors d’oeuvres as old friends greeted each other and new friends were made. Hillside Club member and Berkeley Frame Shop owner Tim Holton (whose idea it was to organize this event in…
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Native Teachings
The California Institute for Community, Art, and Nature gathered an exceptional group of native artists and cultural leaders to present to a full-house of attendees at Goldman Theater of the David Brower Center in Berkeley for a series of morning presentations. Our speakers shared personal reflections on the value of the lessons they learned, how knowledge is conveyed, and the wisdom embedded in a variety of Native institutions, beliefs, and practices. They discussed to what degree this knowledge has been transferable to mainstream America. Additionally, a number of non-Indians who have had long and deep engagement with Indian communities added commentary on what they have learned and how it has…
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April 7, 2018: Invitation to a Lost World: 5,000 Years of Art from the Bay Area Shellmounds
April 7, 2018 On the afternoon of April 7th, 2018 at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) artifacts from the West Berkeley Shellmound and Emeryville Shellmound, some of them thousands of years old, were taken from the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum’s storage area and, for the first time ever, were shown to the general public. Over 300 people joined California I CAN and friends in the light-filled and elegant BAM/PFA amphitheater to view these remarkable objects and to hear a panel of contemporary Native California artists, skilled in traditional practices, discuss how these objects were made, the aesthetic principles that guided their manufacture, how they were used, their place…
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Writing, Publishing, and Bookselling in the Bay Area
The Bay Area is home to hundreds if not thousands of writers, among them some of the world’s most prominent novelists, poets, and non-fiction writers. Scores of presses, ranging from those publishing limited editions of fine press books to major publishers producing a hundred or more titles a year have found fertile ground and flourish here. While the number of independent booksellers, long the backbone of the literary scene, has dwindled, those that have withstood the assault of chain stores and electronic ordering seem to be resilient, and in recent years their numbers are increasing. What factors have created such a dynamic and diverse literary scene? How have the literary…
