San Francisco’s Own Rosa Parks

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, CSA Steering Committee member Elaine Elinson writes about Charlotte Brown, a young African American woman who challenged the color bar on San Francisco streetcars while the Civil War was still raging and news of the Emancipation Proclamation had not yet reached most slaves.

When young Charlotte Brown refused a San Francisco streetcar conductor’s demand to disembark because “colored persons were not allowed to ride,” she faced a social climate almost as hostile as Rosa Parks did in Montgomery, Ala., in 1954.

But Brown’s challenge came almost a century earlier – on April 17, 1863.

Click here to read the entire piece as featured on Sf Gate.

 

Jared Farmer to speak Jan. 17 on Street Palms and the Fashioning of Los Angeles

The Autry Western History Workshop and the Los Angeles History Group will hold a joint seminar on Tuesday, January 17, 2012.  The presenter will be Jared Farmer of the State University of New York, Stony Brook, who will speak on his paper, “Metropolitan Fronds: Street Palms and the Fashioning of Los Angeles.”

The seminar will meet in the classroom at the Autry National Center’s Griffith Park campus.  Dinner will be available at 6:30 for those who reserve a place by Thursday, January 12.  To make a reservation, and to obtain a copy of Prof. Farmer’s paper, please email Belinda Nakasato-Suarez at bnakasato@theautry.org.

 

Next California Studies Dinner Jan. 18: Jan Goggans speaking about the work of Paul Taylor and Dorothea Lange

The next California Studies dinner will take place Jan. 18, 2012, in Berkeley; the speaker will be Jan Goggans, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, UC Merced; the title of the talk is “California and the Great Depression:  the work of Paul Taylor and Dorothea Lange” 

TIME & PLACE

Jan. 18, 2012
7 :00 p.m. – 10 :00 p.m.
Director’s Room, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, 2521 Channing St.(just above Telegraph Ave).

The dinner is buffet style. Dinners are free, but a small donation is requested from those partaking of wine and beverages.

PLEASE RSVP by Monday, Jan. 16, 2011, to Delores Dillard, Department of Geography, 507 McCone Hall, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA  94720-4740 phone (510)  642-3903 or FAX (510) 642-3370, or e-mail: deloresd@berkeley.edu

SAVE THE DATE: The next Calif. Studies dinner will take place Feb. 15, 2012; the speaker will be Chuck Wollenberg, Professor, Berkeley City College.

 

LA Times reports on the Study of California Literature Outside of California

In its Monday, Jan. 2, 2012, edition, the Los Angeles Times reports on the increasing study of California literature both in and outside of the state:

Students sample the large shelf of California literature

From the article:

Boosted by a new generation of students eager to explore the state’s confluence of luxury and despair, of exploration and reinvention, courses in California Lit have popped up in schools such as Bowling Green University in Ohio and Carleton College in Minnesota as well as UC, Cal State and private campuses in California.

The courses often focus on the tension between California as a fantasized place of new beginnings and the harsh disappointments that follow. They explore how fictional works unfold against a natural backdrop that combines beguiling beauty and the ever-present threat of earthquakes and fires.

 

Grave Matters: Excavating California’s Buried Past

Grave Matters: Excavating California’s Buried Past
Tony Platt, Heyday, Berkeley, 2011

This books examines the dark relationship between academic anthropologists, specifically those affiliated with the University of California at Berkeley, and the cowboy underworld of grave diggers and pot hunters. The fact that thousands of human burial sites were recklessly torn up and skeletons shipped away was bad enough, but even the noble hand of Science was not properly invoked – very few of these remains were ever analyzed. The author weaves together strong research with moving interviews and personal narrative, and examines this process through the lens of world genocides. He further explores challenges and solutions to correct the pedagogical void that persists regarding the devastating loss of life and culture.

The author was a recent guest at a CSA dinner talk; review contributed by Lincoln Cushing

 

Artwork honors California geographer

Michele Pred, daughter of the late UC Berkeley geography professor Allan Pred, has installed a memorial piece at an Oakland art gallery called “Radical Geographer: Portrait of my Father.” The collage explores the cross-generational love for politics, passion, and place. Swarm Gallery, through December 23.

 

Huntington Distinguished Fellow Lecture: Ramón Gutiérrez to speak Nov. 16 on Reies López Tijerina and the religious origins of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement

Announcement from the Huntington:

THE HUNTINGTON
LIBRARY, ART COLLECTIONS, AND BOTANICAL GARDENS

Distinguished Fellow Lecture

“Reies López Tijerina and the Religious Origins of
the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement”

The Mexican Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s encompassed two extremes; from the pacifism of Cesar Chavez to the radicalism of Reies López Tijerina.  Ramón Gutiérrez, Professor of History at the University of Chicago and the Los Angeles Times Distinguished Fellow, will discuss the religious, Pentecostal origins of Tijerina’s political thought and its transformation over time.

November 16, 2011
7:30 p.m., Friends’ Hall
Free.  No reservations required.

 

I Am the People: Living and Writing Blackness in L.A.; A Conversation with Erin Aubry Kaplan Nov. 9 at the Southern California Library

The Southern California Library will host a “Conversation” with Erin Aubry Kaplan on her new book, Black Talk, Blue Thoughts, and Walking the Color Line, and viewing from SCL’s collections of the lived histories of Black L.A.

From the invitation (and the book):

“Black folks in every place and station are intimately connected by history, experience, and socialization, whether we want to admit to that or not…I wanted to describe how all the ongoing battles for equality and acceptance, from affirmative action to public school and police reform, have influenced who we are, what we expect from the world, how we shop for shoes, how we operate daily in this social experiment called America.”

Date and Time: Weds., Nov. 9, 12:00 noon.

Southern California Library
6120 S. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90044

For more information, click here to reach the SCL’s website.

Admission is free but guests are asked to RSVP by calling  (323) 759-6063, x15

 

Next California Studies Dinner Nov. 17: Tony Platt speaking about Berkeley’s Role in the Looting of Native Gravesites

The next California Studies dinner will take place Nov. 17, 2011 in Berkeley; the speaker will be Tony Platt, Professor Emeritus, California State University, Sacramento; the title of his talk is “10,000 Skeletons in the Basement:  Berkeley’s Role in the Looting of Native Gravesites.” 

TIME & PLACE

Nov. 17, 2011
7 :00 p.m. – 10 :00 p.m.
Director’s Room, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, 2521 Channing St.(just above Telegraph Ave).

The dinner is buffet style. Dinners are free, but a small donation is requested from those partaking of wine and beverages.

PLEASE RSVP by Friday, Oct. 14, 2011, to Delores Dillard, Department of Geography, 507 McCone Hall, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA  94720-4740 phone (510)  642-3903 or FAX (510) 642-3370, or e-mail: deloresd@berkeley.edu

 

Next Los Angeles History & Metro Studies Group Meeting Nov. 4 at the Huntington: on the crisis in Bell

The next meeting of the L.A. History & Metro Studies Group will take place on Friday, November 4, 2011, at 12 noon at the Huntington Library.  This will be a panel discussion on the Bell Political Crisis.  The panelists will include: Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives of the Los Angeles Times, Jerry Gonzalez, Assistant Professor of History at University of Texas San Antonio, and Gilda Ochoa, Professor of Sociology and Chicana/o Studies at Pomona College.

Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives, the Times reporters who won Pulitzer Prizes for their coverage of this crisis, will recount their experience breaking the story about massive political corruption in Bell.  This will be followed by a discussion with the panelists and the audience that seeks to place the situation in Bell in historical and political context.  (There will be no pre-circulated paper for the session.)

The group will meet in Seaver Classrooms 1 & 2 in the Munger Research Center at the Huntington Library, starting at 12 noon.  A complimentary lunch will be available to those who RSVP by November 1.  If you would like to attend, please RSVP at this link.

For answer to questions, contact the coordinators:

Becky Nicolaides                           David Levitus
bnicolaides@ucla.edu                       levitus@usc.edu

The LA History & Metro Studies Group is generously sponsored by the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West (ICW)

 

Elaine Elinson Writes to Commemorate the Centennial of Women’s Suffrage in California

This month marks the centennial of women’s suffrage in California, a victory won almost a full decade before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote nationally.  In the San Francisco Chronicle edition of Oct. 9 CSA Steering Committee member Elaine Elinson described in her article “S.F. Women Helped Forge Suffrage Victory in State”, the creativity, tenacity and pure chutzpah involved in this crucial campaign for women’s right to vote.

From the article:

The campaign for suffrage began long before that momentous victory. In the late 1800s, California women – primarily from the urban upper-middle class – lobbied state and local governments for the right to vote. Buoyed by visits from leaders of the national suffrage movement, including Susan B. Anthony, California suffragists organized an intense lobbying campaign in the Legislature. Three hundred women went to Sacramento, claiming they represented 50,000 more who wanted the vote. They were met with ridicule. One legislator told them, “You are no more than 50,000 mice. Go home and look after your own girls. They may be walking the streets for all you know.”

In 1896, the first attempt to win the vote through a referendum suffered a crushing defeat, especially in San Francisco, then the most populous city in the state.

After the earthquake and fire of 1906, however, the movement regrouped and was transformed. It moved out of the parlors of upper-class women and into more public spaces – union halls, theaters, African American churches, libraries and even the street. In 1908, three-hundred women marched on the state Republican convention, meeting in Oakland, to demand that the party include suffrage in its electoral platform.

 

 

Frank Bardacke to speak Nov. 6 on “Trampling Out the Vintage”: his new book on Cesar Chavez and the UFW

Frank Bardacke will discuss his recently published book from Verso Press, Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers, at a celebration of its publication. The event will take place Sunday, Nov. 6, 3:00 P.M., at Heyday Books, 1633 University Ave, Berkeley.

From the invitation:

“Trampling out the Vintage” is a narrative history of the UFW, study of the work and world of California farm workers, and reappraisal of the conflicts that shaped the union’s trajectory. Here’s what initial reviews have said about it:

“Frank Bardacke’s long-awaited masterpiece is the kind of book that comes along only once in a generation. Not only is the research spectacular and his analysis of the United Farm Workers as a social movement nuanced and compelling, but he finally places rank-and-file farm workers at the center of the story as savvy and opinionated activists. Best of all, he’s a superb writer who’s constructed a gripping tale.”  –Dana Frank, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Cruz

“It is the human beings that come alive here—union officials, organizers, and workers—with their foibles, rivalries and triumphs. Cesar Chavez emerges as a hugely complex individual with a full range of all-too-human traits. An extraordinary book about an extraordinary movement and man, and a story as inspiring as it is tragic.” –Douglas Monroy, author of The Borders within: Encounters Between Mexico and the US.

“There is so much marvelous stuff in Frank Bardacke’s book that’s simply not been done before. At the book’s core are the men and women who pick the crops in California’s fields and orchards., their skill and endurance,  the world they built among themselves, and the ways they shaped the history of the UFW. It is their story—refreshingly, sympathetically, and beautifully told—that makes this book stand apart and will make it stand forever.” –Alexander Cockburn, CounterPunch

 

 

“Making Cents” Conference in Berkeley Will Address State Budget Crisis Oct. 22

An group of graduate students in several departments at UC Berkeley including, City and Regional Planning, Sociology, the School of Education and the Berkeley Law School, along with many co-sponsors, have organized a conference to take place Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011 at the Berkeley Law School to address the state’s budget crisis. Entitled, “Making Cents: Forging a New California in a Time of Crisis” the conference will address “the causes of the California budget crisis, the impact across diverse communities, and the most innovative short-term and long-term strategies for forging a new California in this crisis.”

For more information and to register to attend, click this link.

 

 

Festival of California Poets — at the Hammer Museum, Oct. 14, 7:00 p.m.

The Hammer Museum, along with PEN Center USA and the Poetry Society of America, will present on Oct. 14, the 5th Annual Festival of California Poets.

The event will celebrate the poetic tradition of the Golden State. Three distinguished, contemporary California poets will introduce and read poems by canonical California poets, as well as their own poems. Featured readers include: Maxine Hong Kingston on Lucille Clifton; Suzanne Lummis on Nora May French; and James Ragan on Denise Levertov.

A Q&A will follow the readings.

FESTIVAL OF CALIFORNIA POETS
FRI OCT 14, 7:00PM

HAMMER MUSEUM, 10899 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024

For more information, click here.

 

Oct. 7 at the Huntington: Rebecca Overmyer-Velazquez on Race, Ethnicity and Class in the San Gabriel Valley

The first meeting of the LA History & Metro Studies Group will take place on Friday, October 7, 2011 at 12 noon, at the Huntington Library.  The presenter will be Rebecca Overmyer-Velazquez, Associate Professor of Sociology at Whittier College, who will be speaking about her paper, “Moving On Up: Race, Ethnicity, and Class Obstacles to Community and Regional Organizing in the San Gabriel Valley.” (Advance copies of the paper are available by contacting the coordinators at the email addresses listed below.)

The group will meet in Seaver Classrooms 1 & 2 in the Munger Research Center at the Huntington Library, starting at 12 noon.  Lunch will be available to those who RSVP by October 4.  If you would like to attend, please RSVP at this link.

If you have questions, contact the coordinators:

Becky Nicolaides                                    David Levitus
bnicolaides@ucla.edu                           levitus@usc.edu

The LA History & Metro Studies Group is generously sponsored by the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West (ICW)

 

Table of Contents for Fall 2011 Issue of Southern California Quarterly

The Table of Contents for the Fall 2011 issue of Southern California Quarterly, the journal of the Historical Society of Southern California is the following:

ARTICLES

Southern California Quarterly: Past and Present

By Patricia Adler-Ingram, Executive Director

Two Party Invitations: “Supreme Court of Old California: Case of The Good Old Days, Plaintiff, vs. John Uri Lloyd, Defendant,” November 30,1913, and “March Hares Invitation,” March 2,1919

By Charles F. Lummis (Edited by Merry Ovnick)

Writing The Script for Survival and Resurgence: RKO Studio and the Impact of the Great Depression, 1932-1933

By Edwin J. Perkins

David Weber and the Borderlands: Past, Present, Future; Conference on Latin American History/American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Boston: January 8, 2011

Borderlands and Frontiers Studies Committee Panel Honoring David Weber

The Historian’s Eye

BOOK REVIEWS

Phillips, Vineyards and Vaqueros: Indian Labor and the Economic Expansion of Southern California, 1771-1877, by Brett Garcia Myhren

Ignoffo, Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune, by Michelle Stonis

Culver, The Frontier of Leisure: Southern California and the Shaping of Modern America, by Catherine Cocks

Schwartz, Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles, by LaNitra Berger

Moore, Sells Like Teen Spirit: Music, Youth Culture, and Social Crisis, by Eileen Luhr

Peterson, Sound, Space, and the City; Civic Performance in Downtown Los Angeles, by Kenneth H. Marcus

Dedina, Wild Sea; Eco-Wars and Surf Stories from the Coast of the Californias, by Sean Smith

 

Sat., Oct. 1: Boyle Heights History Night at Libros Schmibros in Boyle Heights

Boyle Heights’ lending library/book shop Libros Schmibros will host a conversation with author/historian George Sanchez about the history of the neighborhood, co-hosted by the Boyle Heights Historical Society, and featuring a celebration of the new book Barrio Doctor by Pauline Furth — who probably delivered a goodly fraction of all living Boyle Heights-born adults. The event starts at 7 PM.

Libros Schmibros is located at 2000 1st Street in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles.

For more information click here.

This event is one of six weeks of events at both the Hammer Museum and at Libros Schmibros in Boyle Heights that are part of the Hammer’s hosting of Libros Schmibros as part of the Hammer’s Public Engagement program.  For more information about the entire program, click here.  For the Libros Schmibros website, click here.

 

Thu., Sept. 29: Thomas Pynchon’s L.A. Trilogy at Libros Schmibros in Boyle Heights

Boyle Heights’ lending library/book shop Libros Schmibros will host a conversation with House of Leaves and Only Revolutions author Mark Z. Danielewski about Thomas Pynchon’s three L.A. novels (not counting Gravity’s Rainbow, which concludes in Southern California, where it was written). According to Libros Schmibros, “expect special guests.”

The event starts at 7 PM.

Libros Schmibros is located at 2000 1st Street in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles.

For more information click here.

This event is one of six weeks of events at both the Hammer Museum and at Libros Schmibros in Boyle Heights that are part of the Hammer’s hosting of Libros Schmibros as part of the Hammer’s Public Engagement program.  For more information about the entire program, click here.  For the Libros Schmibros website, click here.

 

 

Calif. Supreme Court Historical Society Symposium Oct. 5 in Los Angeles: “Direct Democracy, the Cause of California’s Problems or the Solution?”

The California Supreme Court Historical Society has  announced its 2011 symposium, “Direct Democracy, the Cause of California’s  Problems or the Solution?” to be held in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday evening, October 5, 2011.  The symposium will focus on the initiative and referendum process in California, which marks its 100th anniversary in October.  Among the featured speakers will be former California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno.

The symposium is being cosponsored by the Society, Zócalo Public Square and the League of Women Voters.  Attendance is free, but reservations are required.  MCLE credit will be provided.

To download an announcement for detailed information about the time, place and panelists, click here.

To make a reservation, click here.

For more information, contact:

Chris Stockton  Director of Administration
California Supreme Court Historical Society
E-Mail: cstockton@pesc.com
Ph: (800) 353-7537
Fax: (559) 227-1463

 

New exhibit at Calif. Historical Society: Oyster Farm, featuring the documentary photography of artist Evvy Eisen, opening Oct. 27

From October 27, 2011 to January 19, 2012, the California Historical Society will host the exhibit Oyster Farm, featuring the documentary photography of artist Evvy Eisen. Evvy Eisen’s photographs will be accompanied by pieces of ephemera and other materials from the rich collections of the California Historical Society. From the CHS’s announcement:

When discussing Oyster Farm, Evvy Eisen explains, “I set out to photograph the workers at the Drakes Bay Oyster Company because they are part of our community, though few of us have ever seen them or understand what they do. They stood before my camera, with dignity and patience. Their portraits communicate information specific to these individuals, but also illuminate essential aspects of the universal human condition.”

The Drakes Bay Oyster Company is located on Drakes Estero in the Point Reyes National Seashore in western Marin County. It is also currently the center of a controversy about whether it will be permitted to remain in operation after 2012. Opposing positions have divided the community and have been argued at the state and national levels as well. This exhibit does not deal with the complex issues involved in these disagreements. Rather it focuses on the people who work at the oyster farm, who are silent and stoic in the face of an uncertain future. Their portraits communicate information specific to them but also illuminate essential aspects of the universal human condition and reveal unrecognized facets of daily life at the Drakes Bay Oyster Company. This exhibit creates a place where differences can be set aside, and where the people portrayed can be appreciated in a new light.

Evvy Eisen was born and educated in New York City and has lived and worked in Marin County since 1971. She specializes in environmental portraits and often works on long-term projects, portraying the people involved in socially relevant issues.

Please join us for the Oyster Farm opening reception on November 16 at 5:30 p.m. and meet artist Evvy Eisen. The event is free and open to the public.

Oyster Farm is on view at the California Historical Society from October 27, 2011 through January 19, 2012. For more information about this exhibition visit www.californiahistoricalsociety.org.

 

Autry to host symposium Oct. 9: “Becoming Mexican American and Beyond”

On October 9th, the Autry National Center, in anticipation of its upcoming exhibition, Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican American Generation, will host a one day symposium: “Becoming Mexican American and Beyond.”  The conference will consider the impact of George Sanchez’s seminal 1993 book Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945.

Schedule

11 AM Welcome — Stephen Aron, UCLA and Autry National Center

Keynote Speaker—George Lipsitz, University of California, Santa Barbara

Noon-1:30 Lunch

1:30-2:45: Panel Discussion

Anthony Macias, University of California, Riverside
Natalia Molina, University of California, San Diego
Jerry Gonzalez, University of Texas, San Antonio
Gabriela Arrendondo, University of California, Santa Cruz

3 PM-4PM: Conversation between William Deverell, University of Southern California, and George Sanchez, University of Southern California

Reservations required. Please contact Belinda Nakasato Suarez at bnakasato@theautry.org to reserve your ticket. Museum admission rates apply / Free for Autry members. Payment is due on the day of the event.

This conference is part of a series of programs being presented in conjunction with the Autry’s exhibition Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican-American Generation, which explores a seminal but overlooked generation of artists who started working in Los Angeles between the turn of the century and the end of the 1960s.

Art Along the Hyphen is part of a unique four-exhibition project called L.A. Xicano, organized by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center in partnership with the Autry National Center, the Fowler Museum at UCLA, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Other concurrent exhibitions include Icons of the Invisible: Oscar Castillo (Fowler), Mapping Another L.A.: The Chicano Art Movement (Fowler), and MuralRemix: Sandra de la Loza (LACMA).

 

Laura Cunningham to speak at UCLA Oct. 27 on “A State of Change: California’s Forgotten Landscapes”

Author and artist Laura Cunningham will give a talk Oct. 27 at UCLA about what California looked like long ago, based on her 2010 Heydey Press book, A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California. From the event announcement:

With paintings and historical accounts, ecologist and author Laura Cunningham leads us on an exploration of California’s early ecosystems and denizens. By visiting the forgotten past, we gain deeper insights into the future of California’s ever-changing landscapes.  Based on her new book, A State of Change.

The event takes place at the UCLA California Nanosystems Institute Auditorium. For more information, and to register for the event, click here.

 

Next California Studies Dinner Oct. 19: Frank Gruber speaking about Convulsive Urbanism in 1950s Santa Monica

The next California Studies dinner will take place Oct. 19, 2011 in Berkeley; the speaker will be Frank Gruber, columnist for the Santa Monica Lookout News; the title of his talk is “The Destruction of the Belmar Triangle:  A case of convulsive urbanism” Mr. Gruber will discuss the destruction of an African-American community neighborhood through urban redevelopment in Santa Monica during the 1950s, to build the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

TIME & PLACE

October 19, 2011
7 :00 p.m. – 10 :00 p.m.
Director’s Room, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, 2521 Channing St.(just above Telegraph Ave).

The dinner is buffet style. Dinners are free, but a small donation is requested from those partaking of wine and beverages.

PLEASE RSVP by Friday, Oct. 14, 2011, to Delores Dillard, Department of Geography, 507 McCone Hall, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA  94720-4740 phone (510)  642-3903 or FAX (510) 642-3370, or e-mail: deloresd@berkeley.edu

 

Red in black and white: The New Left printing renaissance of the 1960s – and beyond

In conjunction with the PEACE PRESS GRAPHICS 1967-1987: Art in the Pursuit of Social Change show at the University Art Museum at CSU-Long Beach, archivist of graphics and author (and current chair of the CSA Steering Committee) Lincoln Cushing has published an essay entitled, “Red in black and white: The New Left printing renaissance of the 1960s – and beyond.” The essay appears in the catalog for the show, and is also available online.

From the essay:

The advent of relatively low-cost office spirit duplicators and mimeograph machines [4] democratized the lowest end of printing, and made it possible for unions, churches, and community groups to produce crude flyers composed on typewriters. But the trickier and larger jobs were still in the domain of professionals who had the skills and equipment. Occasionally a sympathetic shop or press operator could slip out a surreptitious tract, but for all intents and purposes public printed agitational documents like posters vanished from the landscape. It’s a remarkable fact that the Civil Rights movement and the Free Speech Movement of 1964 relied on almost every medium but posters.

What broke the ice for posters were the free handbills produced for the San Francisco rock concerts starting in 1965. All of a sudden, people realized what they didn’t know they were missing – vibrant, powerful graphics they could put on a wall. And the underground newspapers were doing crazy thing with graphics. Cultural forces preceded political ones, which interestingly was happening about the same time in Cuba. The majority of posters produced by government agencies after the 1959 revolution had been relatively stiff and boring until visionary publicist Saúl Yelin at the Cuban Film Institute transformed the entire concept of a film poster. He encouraged a style where the graphic art emphasized the film’s content rather than the film’s stars, and dozens of idealistic and talented artists applied their professional skills to this new enterprise. The other Cuban propaganda agencies took note. That happened here too.

The first glimmer of the new generation of activist print shops started in 1964 in the heat of the Free Speech Movement. The Free Speech Movement Newsletter was first printed on a 14” x 20” Multilith 2066 by Duard Hastings, in the basement of a home later demolished to make People’s Park. The press was owned by Dunbar Aitken, publisher of the occasional science journal Particle, but Dunbar was evicted by his landlord for printing “communist papers,” and they briefly moved the operation to the basement of Lewin’s Metaphysical Books (Ashby and College) before settling into a propitious storefront on the 1700 block of Grove Street (now Martin Luther King Jr.)

 

Thu., Sept. 15: Lower Left Blue: L.A. Cartography at Libros Schmibros at the Hammer

Libros Schmibros at the Hammer will host a conversation about L.A. maps with author/LA Public Library librarian Glen Creason (Maps of Los Angeles) and artist J. Michael Walker (All the Saints in the City of Angels), whose painted map of the city graces the western wall of Libros Schmibros at the Hammer. The event starts at 5:30 PM.

The Hammer Museum is located at 10899 Wilshire Boulevard, at Westwood Boulevard, Los Angeles 90024.

For more information click here.

This event is one of six weeks of events at both the Hammer Museum and at Libros Schmibros in Boyle Heights that are part of the Hammer’s hosting of Libros Schmibros as part of the Hammer’s Public Engagement program.  For more information about the entire program, click here.  For the Libros Schmibros website, click here.

 

Thu., Sept. 8: Ruben Martinez and . . . Rueben Martinez at Libros Schmibros in Boyle Heights

Boyle Heights’ lending library/book shop Libros Schmibros will host “Will the Real Ruben Martinez Please Stand Up?,” a conversation between namesakes, featuring author/scholar/broadcaster Ruben Martinez (The Other Side/El otro lado) and the Boyle Heights-bred, Santa Ana-based MacArthur award-winning bookseller Rueben Martinez.. The event starts at 7 PM.

Libros Schmibros is located at 2000 1st Street in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles.

For more information click here.

This event is one of six weeks of events at both the Hammer Museum and at Libros Schmibros in Boyle Heights that are part of the Hammer’s hosting of Libros Schmibros as part of the Hammer’s Public Engagement program.  For more information about the entire program, click here.  For the Libros Schmibros website, click here.

 

Table of Contents for Summer 2011 Issue of Southern California Quarterly

The Table of Contents for the Summer 2011 issue of Southern California Quarterly, the journal of the Historical Society of Southern California is the following:

ARTICLES

LOCATING ABSENCE: THE FORGOTTEN PRESENCE OF MONJERIOS IN ALTA CALIFORNIA MISSIONS, by Chelsea K. Vaughn .

NAVIGATING THE FLUID BOUNDARY; THE LOWER COLORADO RIVER STEAMBOAT ERA, 1851-1877 by Eric Boime

BRONZEVILLE, LITTLE TOKYO, AND THE UNSTABLE GEOGRAPHY OF RACE IN POST-WORLD WAR II LOS ANGELES, by Hillary Jenks

THE HISTORIAN’S EYE

 

BOOK REVIEWS

Salomon, Pio Pico: The Last Governor of Mexican California, by William David Estrada

Boessenecker, Bandido: The Life and Times of Tiburcio Vasquez, by David Miller

Sitton, Grand Ventures: The Banning Family and the Shaping of Southern California, by Nicolas G. Rosenthal

Limerick, Cowell, and Collinge, Remedies for a New West: Healing Landscapes, Histories, and Cultures, by Char Miller

Scharffand Brucken, Home Lands: How Women Made the West, by Michelle E. Jolly

Olsson, Los Angeles Before Hollywood: Journalism and American Film Culture, 1905 to 1915, by Paul Kahan, 251

Vanderwood, Satan’s Playground: Mobsters and Movie Stars at America’s Greatest Gaming Resort, by Alicia Barber

Worthen, The Young Nixon and His Rivals: Four Republicans Eye the White House, 1946-1958, by Donna M. Binkiewicz

 

 

Table of Contents for Spring 2011 Issue of Southern California Quarterly

The Table of Contents for the Spring 2011 issues of Southern California Quarterly, the journal of the Historical Society of Southern California is the following:

ARTICLES

 JOHN WORK, J. J. WARNER, AND THE NATIVE AMERICAN CATASTROPHE OF 1833, By Peter Ahrens

TOWARD AN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF THE BOOK; THE NATURE OF HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT’S WORKS, By Thomas G. Andrews

“I AM ALMOST MORE AT HOME WITH BROWN FACES THAN WITH WHITE”; AN AMERICANIZATION TEACHER IN IMPERIAL VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, 1923-1924, By Benny J. Andrés Jr.

THE HISTORIAN’S EYE

 BOOK REVIEWS

Pubols, The Father of All: The de La Guerra Family, Power, and Patriarchy in Mexican California, by Linda Heidenreich

Eisenberg, Kahn, and Toll, Jews of the Pacific Coast: Reinventing Community on America’s Edge, by Arlene Lazarowitz

Wallis, Earning Power: Women and Work in Los Angeles, 1880-1930, by Sherry J. Katz

McNamara, The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Los Angeles, by David Fine

Nelson, Wheels of Change from Zero to 600 MPH: The Amazing Story of California and the Automobile, by Jen Staver

Gerth, The People’s University: A History of the California State University, by John T. Donovan

Carriker, Urban Farming in the West: A New Deal Experiment in Subsistence Homesteads, by Eric Steiger

Widener, Black Arts West: Culture and Struggle in Postwar Los Angeles, by LaNitra Berger

IN MEMORIAM: DOYCE BLACKMAN NUNIS JR., 1924-2011

 REMEMBERING DOYCE BLACKMAN NUNIS JR.

 

Calif. Council for the Humanities sponsors touring exhibition based on “Wherever There’s a Fight”

The California Council for the Humanities  (CCH) is touring a lively, easy-to-use exhibit based on the book Wherever There’s a Fight: How Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Immigrants, Strikers, and Poets Shaped Civil Liberties in California, co-authored by (CSA Steering Committee member) Elaine Elinson (with Stan Yogi), published by Heyday Books. Spanning the period from the Gold Rush to the post-9/11 era, the exhibition tells the hidden stories of unsung heroes and heroines throughout California who stood up for their rights in the face of social hostility, physical violence, economic hardship, and political stonewalling.

The exhibit, which is part of the CCH year-long program Searching for Democracy,  educates audiences about the evolution of civil liberties and civil rights in California and how they are central to democracy. Stories of personal struggle demonstrate the ongoing fight and provide a framework through which current controversies can be debated.

The current schedule for the exhibition is as follows:

October 9, 2011 – December 4, 2011	California History Center, DeAnza College, Cupertino
December 18, 2011 – February 12, 2012	CSU Bakersfield, Bakersfield
February 26, 2012 – April 22, 2012	Cerro Corso Community College, Ridgecrest
May 6, 2012 – July 1, 2012	Booking Pending
July 15, 2012 – September 9, 2012	Museum on Main, Pleasanton
September 23, 2012 – November 18, 2012	Booking Pending
December 2, 2012 – January 27, 2013	Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum, Vallejo

For a look at the highlights of the exhibit and for booking information for your campus, library, or historical society, click here.

 

San Gabriel Mission’s History Forum: Saturday, October 1, 2011

The CSA Blog has received the following announcement for this year’s History Forum at the San Gabriel Mission:

San Gabriel Mission and

Jonathan Heritage Foundation

Invite You To

San Gabriel Mission’s History Forum

Saturday, October 1, 2011    10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

 

Dr. James A. Sandos

Farquhar Professor of the Southwest, University of Redlands

Patricia Sandos, Independent Scholar

“Spanish Music in California’s Missions:

Little known, Unexpected and Unforgettable”

 One of the most respected mission historians, Dr. Sandos and his wife Patricia have researched the lives of mission instrumentalists and found that participation in musical performance had powerful social impacts upon Indian community development beyond the conventional consideration of historians and musicologists. They will examine the impact of Spanish ritual music in the missions and will feature audio examples of both tribal and liturgical song.

Dr. Kristine Ashton Gunnell

Claremont Graduate University

“Modernizing the Mission: The Daughters of Charity and

Sisters’ Hospital, Los Angeles, 1880-1920”

Using Sisters’ Hospital in Los Angeles as a case study, Dr. Ashton Gunnell analyzes the ways that women-led charity hospitals negotiated the challenges associated with scientific modernization of their institutions, while also maintaining a commitment to their traditional mission of caring for the poor. These religious women sought to incorporate “modern” medical practices to attract more paying patients. By doing so, the Daughters of Charity modernized their mission, balancing the demands of medical businesses with humanitarian impulses to care for the poor.

 Moderated by John Macias, San Gabriel Mission parishioner and

Ph.D. Candidate in History, Claremont Graduate University

 This event is an opportunity for the public to interact with historians in an informal

setting so that everyone can share information and learn more about history!

This special event is FREE, but seating is LIMITED.

Reserve your seat by calling 626-457-3048 no later than September 23.

Persons age 17 and younger MUST be with a parent or guardian age 18 or older.

Enter at mission’s gift shop to check in.