Opens at the Huntington Oct. 24: Central Avenue and Beyond: The Harlem Renaissance in Los Angeles

A new exhibition focusing on the extraordinary artistic, cultural, and intellectual expressions and accomplishments of African Americans in Los Angeles will open at the Huntington Oct. 24, 2009.  Titled, “Central Avenue and Beyond: The Harlem Renaissance in Los Angeles,” the exhibition will include material from both The Huntington and the Mayme A. Clayton Library, a new cultural and education institution founded by Avery Clayton to house and make available his mother’s extraordinary collection of African Americana gathered during her 40-year career as a librarian in Los Angeles.  The show will continue until Jan. 4, 2010.

For more information, click here.

 

A New Issue of Southern California Quarterly has been published

The Historical Society of Southern California has published a new issue of Southern California Quarterly (Summer 2009, Vol. 91, No. 2).  The contents include the following three articles:

“Keeping Alive the Old Tradition”: Spanish-Mexican Club Women in Southern California, 1880-1940,” by Eileen V. Wallis;

“African-American Leisure Space in Santa Monica: the Beach Sometimes Known as the Inkwell, 1990s – 1960s,” by Alison Rose Jefferson; and

“Delano Diary: the Visual Adventure and Social Documentary Work of Jon Lewis, Photographer of the Delano, California Grape Strike, 1966-1970,” by Richard Steven Street.

There are also six book reviews:

Beebe and Senkewicz, Testimonios: Early California Through the Eyes of Women,
1815-1848, by Jennifer Gurley;

Horsman, Feast or Famine: Food and Drink in American Westward Expansion, by
Patricia Cleary;

Round, The Impossible Land: Story and Place in California’s Imperial Valley, by
Erik Akenbernd;

Sanchez-Jankowski, Cracks in the Pavement: Social Change and Resilience in Poor
Neighborhoods, by Elaine Lewinnek;

Griswold del Castillo, ed., Chicano San Diego: Cultural Space and the Struggle for
Justice, by Jerry Gonzalez; and

Schrank, Art and the City: Civic Imagination and Cultural Authority in Los Angeles, by Thomas W. Devine.

Southern California Quarterly is not published on-line, only in print, but it is well worth joining the Historical Society to receive a subscription to the journal. –Frank Gruber

 

Hidden Stories in Santa Monica: African American Beach Culture, 1900s-1960s

Hidden Stories in Santa Monica: African American Beach… – Eventbrite.

Hidden Stories in Santa Monica: African American Beach Culture at the Site Controversially Known as “the Inkwell”, 1900s-1960s, lecture with Alison Rose Jefferson

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 from 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM (PT)

Santa Monica, CA

5:15-6:15PM Docent tours at the Guest House

6:30PM Lecture

In 2007 Ms. Jefferson created the language engraved on the plaque: “The Ink Well”: A Place of Celebration and Pain, that graces a marker in the City of Santa Monica located along Ocean Front Walk at the end of Bay Street. The monument commemorates the Jim Crow era beach site used by African Americans as a gathering place and Nick Gabaldon, the first identified surfer of African American and Mexican descent. Her independent research, of people and places which have been overlooked in the ‘collective memory’ of the heritage of the Southern California region, also resulted in the 2005 designation of Phillips Chapel, a 100-year-old African American church as a Landmark in the City of Santa Monica. An article on her research will appear in Southern California Quarterly, Summer/July 2009 issue. Ms. Jefferson earned a Master’s degree in Historic Preservation in 2007 at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Pomona College in Claremont, California.
Stop by early for Beach House tours by docents from the Santa Monica Conservancy before every evening event, first come, first served.

Tickets: All events are free but seating is limited and reservations are required. If you would like to attend, please reserve online. Please plan to arrive by 6:15pm to retain your reservation. Late seating is not guaranteed. To adjust or cancel your reservation for this event, email beachhouse@smgov.net. We appreciate your keeping in touch!

Parking and Driving directions: From the Pacific Coast Highway north of California Incline, turn at the Beach House Way traffic light into convenient parking ($4/hr, $8/day, disabled placards and Santa Monica senior beach parking passes accepted).

Other events:

To view & make reservations for other Beach=Culture events, visit http://www.eventbrite.com/org/199463539/

For more information about events at the Beach House, visit http://beachhouse.smgov.net/plan-your-day/events-and-happenings.aspx

 

Lawmakers want apology for anti-Chinese measures | Sacramento Bee

Lawmakers want apology for anti-Chinese measures – Sacramento Politics – California Politics | Sacramento Bee.

Lawmakers want apology for anti-Chinese measures

ShareThis

By Susan Ferriss
sferriss@sacbee.com

Published: Monday, Jul. 6, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 4A
Last Modified: Monday, Jul. 6, 2009 – 10:16 am

It’s not a pretty history.

But, two California legislators say, it’s time to admit it and apologize for how Chinese immigrants were treated during and after the Gold Rush.

Assemblymen Paul Fong and Kevin de Leon are sponsoring a resolution that recognizes Chinese laborers for mining ore, building levees to create farmland and constructing — at great peril and for less pay than whites — 80 percent of the western half of the transcontinental railroad.

While the Chinese toiled, the assemblymen say, California’s 19th-century politicians passed law after law segregating the Chinese and, when their labor was no longer in high demand, tried to drive them out.

Assembly Concurrent Resolution 42 calls for an apology for forcing the Chinese to pay higher taxes on gold than whites; barring them from holding certain jobs, owning property or testifying in trials; and segregating them and forbidding them from marrying whites or bringing family from China.

California politicians, the authors also note, were instrumental in persuading Congress to pass the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred more Chinese immigration.

“It’s a shameful chapter in California legislative history,” said Fong, D-Cupertino, who is of Chinese descent.

“We should recognize this as part of our history,” he said, “say our regrets and move on.”

Fong’s great-grandfather worked in California, but when Fong’s grandfather wanted to immigrate to the state in 1939, the only way he could do it was with fake papers identifying him as the Chinese-born son of a family in California that pre-dated the Exclusion Act, Fong said.

“That was the system for getting in at that time,” he said.

Fong’s grandfather farmed near San Francisco but had to rent land. State laws on the books until 1952 barred him from owning property.

De Leon, D-Los Angeles, the son of Mexican immigrants, approached Fong about a legislative resolution to make amends for this history.

De Leon’s district contains the city’s Chinatown and one of the nation’s most diverse immigrant populations.

“The Chinese deserve an acknowledgment, even if it’s a century late,” de Leon said.

Californians, he said, have a long history of benefiting from foreigners’ labor and lashing out at them during tough economic times.

“The Central Pacific Railroad went across the Pacific to recruit the Chinese. And then as soon as a project was done, the state legislators initiated ways to chase them out,” de Leon said. “I don’t think a lot of people today know that.”

In 1879, California’s Legislature targeted the Chinese by voting to “impose conditions” to remove foreigners and protect the state from “the burdens and evils arising from the presence of aliens, who are, or may become vagrants, paupers, mendicants, criminals, or invalids afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases.”

The law was passed just 10 years after thousands of Chinese recruits hand-drilled through the Sierra Nevada to help finish the transcontinental railroad.

To prepare their resolution, Fong and de Leon consulted Bill Hing, a UC Davis immigration law and history professor.

“What happened to the Chinese,” Hing said, “is what’s happening today — let’s face it — to the Mexicans.”

Just as they have since, Hing said, California politicians then called for voter referendums on immigrants. In 1879, Californians voted overwhelmingly against Chinese immigration.

In the 19th century, racism was naked and led to laws targeting immigrants by race, Hing said.

Today, he said, many people say they resent illegal immigrants because they don’t wait their turn and enter legally.

What many people don’t realize is that there is no line for many foreigners to join, Hing said, adding that the immigration system has encouraged unlawful entry because visas don’t exist anymore for most of the jobs immigrants fill in the United States.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee passed the Chinese resolution on June 23, with no opposition.

Assemblyman Steve Knight, R-Palmdale, who is a member of the committee, abstained from voting. He also requested to delay a vote in the full Assembly so he could study the bill more.

“I’m not denying that what happened, happened,” Knight said. “But our job as legislators is to move the state forward.”

He said he’s worried other wronged groups will ask for more apologies.

In fact, in 2005, the Legislature passed an act apologizing for California’s part in rounding up and deporting about 400,000 residents of Mexican descent, many U.S.-born, during the Great Depression. Nationwide, about 2 million people of Mexican descent were forced to go to Mexico.

Fong and de Leon said they believe their resolution, eventually, will easily gain approval in both the Assembly and the Senate.

They’ve received some criticism, mostly anonymous Web site postings, for pursuing a symbolic act while the state is mired in a budget crisis.

But some messages were racist, Fong said, including one that said: “Go home, gook.”

 

South Los Angeles Health & Human Rights Conference, Fri. June 5

South Los Angeles Health and Human Rights Conference

There is a fundamental crisis of health and human rights in south Los Angeles. South L.A. has the poorest health outcomes and indicators in the County of Los Angeles – mirroring the health status in some developing nations. Chronic institutional under-funding, substandard environmental and living conditions, a lack of necessary health services and other inequities have produced some of the worst health conditions and disparities in the country. While local coalitions, community clinics, hospitals, advocacy groups, and nonprofits have pieced together a safety net to address these chronic health inequities, the situation is worsening. The abject failure to uphold and protect the fundamental human rights of
south Los Angeles children and families mandates a community based, transnational, results-oriented approach by residents, service providers and advocates.

JOIN US FOR THE 1st ANNUAL SOUTH LOS ANGELES HEALTH & HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE

Friday, June 5, 2009, 8:00am – 5pm

California Science Center
700 Exposition Drive
Exposition Park, Los Angeles, CA 90037

Register Now
www.southlahealthandhumanrights.org

Or call: 323-541-1600, x. 4001

Convenors
St. John’s Well Child and Family Centers
Community Health Councils
Esperanza Community Housing Corporation
Los Angeles Community Action Network
Physicians for Social Responsibility – Los Angeles (PSR-LA)
SAJE (Strategic Actions for a Just Economy)
Southside Coalition of Community Health Centers
South Bay Family Healthcare Center
UMMA Community Clinic

Sponsors
California School Health Centers Association
L.A. Care Health Plan
Los Angeles Best Babies Network
MedPoint Management
St. John’s Well Child and Family Centers
The California Endowment
California Wellness Foundation
The USC Center fro Community Health Studies
Kaiser Permanente

Key Endorsers
African American Alcohol and Other Drug Council /SPA 6 Homeless
Coalition (AAAOD)
American Academy of Pediatrics California Chapter 2
Bienestar
California School Health Centers Association
Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science
Children’s Defense Fund-California
Community Coalition
City of Los Angeles AIDS Coordinator’s Office
Doctors for Global Health
Ex-Offender Action Network (EAN)
Homeless Outreach Program/Integrated Care System (HOP/ICS)
Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA)
—Worker Health Program
MedPoint Management
National Economic Social Rights Initiative / National Health Law
Program
National Latino Research Center
National Physicians Alliance
Office of Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas 2nd District
Pacific Institute for Women’s Health
Partners in Care Foundation
Partners in Health
People’s Health Movement USA
Physicians for Human Rights
Society for Adolescent Medicine
South Central Farmers Health and Education Fund
UCLA Program in Global Health
USC Office of Religious Life
UCLA Center for Civil Society
UCLA Center for Health Policy Research

 

Ronald T. Takaki dies at 70; pioneer in the field of ethnic studies – Los Angeles Times

This obit from H-California and the LA Times. This ed. learned much from A Different Mirror and Iron Cages. He will be missed.

 

Ronald Takaki Obituary in the L.A. Times, May 29, 2009

Ronald T. Takaki, a “prolific and controversial scholar who helped pioneer the field of ethnic studies and wrote animated histories about blacks, Asians, Latinos and other marginalized Americans during four decades on the UC Berkeley faculty, has died. He was 70.” Click here for the complete L.A. Times obituary.

 

Call for Papers: Sabato Rodia’s Watts Towers in Los Angeles: Art, Migrations, Community Development

Submission Due date:  July 20, 2009

As a follow-up to an international conference that took place April 2-5, 2009, at the University of Genova in Italy on the theme of art and migration as they relate to Sabato (Simon) Rodia and the Watts Towers, an independent group of scholars (partly in formation) has announced that it is ready to consider submissions for a volume of selected papers related to the themes of the Genova conference.  From the announcement:

The tentative title of the collected essays will be: Sabato Rodia’s Watts Towers in Los Angeles:  Art, Migrations, Community Development.  The volume will seek to treat the monument and its maker from a diverse spectrum of disciplinary perspectives and cover these areas: 1) The Community of Watts and its Monument:  Physical, Socio-Economic and Political Realities; 2)  Art Environments, Vernacular Traditions, and their Imaginaries; 3)  Italian Migrations:  Literary, Artistic, and Visual Legacies; 4)  Reproducing Nola (the Watts Towers vis-a-vis the Gigli of Nola).  Consult subjects 1 – 4 below for further details.  Please reply immediately with your intention to contribute (include your name, essay title, one-sentence description).  Submit your essay contribution for consideration by July 20.  All submissions will be peer-reviewed by an editorial advisory committee with expertise in the publication’s subject areas:

1.  Migration
- The life of Simon Rodia in the context of 19th to 20th-century Italian immigration
- Italian immigration as bridge between two worlds
- From Nola to Watts:  material culture traditions
- Oral history, oral culture and the Watts Towers
- Watts Towers and migration studies

2.  Art & Architecture
- Varieties of artistic definition:  e.g., Outsider Art, Folk Art, Visionary, etc.
- The Watts Towers and the Architecture of personal fantasy and genius
- Engineering, Construction, Conservation of the Towers

3.  Literary and Visual Legacies
- Los Angeles, the Towers, literature, film, music, etc.
- Visual documentation

4.  Socio-Economic and Political Realities
- Economic underdevelopment and renaissance:  yesterday and today
- In their shadow:  cultural politics and the Watts Towers
- Watts Towers Art Center:  arts education and community activism
- Italy as the New America:  immigrant art and literature in Italy

Submit:  Digital copy of your 20 – 25 page, double-spaced, essay (as an email attachment, Microsoft Word .doc file please).  Please follow the Chicago Manual of Style (http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html).
Appropriate critical apparatus (notes and bibliography), as well as illustrations, encouraged.

Send materials to volume editor:

Luisa Del Giudice, Ph.D.
P.O. Box 241553
Los Angeles, CA 90024-1553

Tel.:  (310) 474-1698
E-mail:  luisadg@humnet.ucla.edu

 

Community Campfire: Unmatched Courage Japanese American Experience in the Presidio during WW II Saturday, May 16, 2009 5pm – 7pm

The National Park Service, Crissy Field Center, and the National Japanese American Historical Society will hold a “community campfire” at the Presidio on May 16, from five to seven p.m., to commemorate the courage of Japanese-Americans who were interned during World War II.  From the Golden Gate Park calendar:

Join the National Park Service, Crissy Field Center, and the National Japanese American Historical Society as they share the “untold” story of the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence Service language school based in the Presidio. As linguists, these Japanese American (Nisei) soldiers were attached to every combat unit in the Pacific and ultimately helped Allied forces win the war. They translated documents, gathered key intelligence, and served as “goodwill” ambassadors once the war was over, helping Japan transition from occupation to democracy. Meanwhile, the families of these MIS soldiers—together with 120,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast, 62% of whom were American citizens—were sent to detention camps.

Hear stories about the many contributions and sacrifices made by both the Nisei soldiers and those interned during WW II as you gather around the outdoor campfire. Listen to traditional Japanese folk music of Ensohza whose lively vocals, bamboo flutes, and taiko drums evoke the spirit of rural Japan. Watch the sunset while munching on “hurricane pop” and rice cracker ‘smores in your beautiful national park next door. Don’t forget your picnic dinner, we’ll supply the marshmallows!

This event is the first in a series of four Community Campfires hosted by the National Park Service and Crissy Field Center, designed to introduce the Golden Gate National Parks to groups that have not historically visited. Additionally, the Community Campfire series is part of the “Untold Stories” project which filmmaker Ken Burns features in his latest PBS documentary “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea”.

For more information about the proposed establishment of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) Historic Learning Center at Building 640 visit http://njahs.org/640/index.html

The event will be located at Building 640 Mason Street (site of the former MIS Language School) in the Presidio, across Crissy Field.

For more information contact cfcregistrationinfo@parksconservancy.org

 

Book Signing with Kauko Nakane at the National Japanese American Historical Society in San Francisco, May 2

The National Japanese American Historical Society will be hosting a book-signing with Kauko Nakane, author of Nothing Left in My Hands, a moving portrait of the lives of early Japanese immigrants in Pajaro Valley, California.

Saturday, May 2, 2009, 2 – 3:30pm
In the NJAHS Gallery, 1684 Post Street San Francisco, CA 94115 – (415) 921.5007
For more information, go to the NJAHS website.

 

100 Years Since Allensworth: Is California Living up to the Legacy? A conference May 4 at USC

The inaugural conference in the Hidden Stories Series of the California State Parks Association will take place May 4 at the Doheny Library at USC; the conference title is: “100 Years Since Allensworth: Is California Living up to the Legacy?”

The conference will commemorate the centennial of the founding of Allensworth, a town in Tulare County founded in 1908 for and by African Americans, with the idea that they could own property, learn, thrive, and live the American Dream.  The site of the town is now a the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.

The day will includes panels, lunch, and a post-conference reception in the new Visitors Center at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook in Culver City.  The keynote speaker will be the Hon. Willie L. Brown, Jr.

The deadline for registration is April 28.  For more information, and to register, click here.

 

Vox California: Cultural Meanings of Linguistic Diversity Interdisciplinary Workshop, at UCSB, April 3-4

Forwarded by Nari Rhee:

The Center for Latino Policy Research is happy to be a co-sponsor of this important interdisciplinary workshop that will take place Friday, April 3 and Saturday April 4 on the UC Santa Barbara campus. For additional information please click on the link below.

Vox California: Cultural Meanings of Linguistic Diversity
A UC Interdisciplinary Workshop

April 3-4, 2009
University of California, Santa Barbara
HSSB 6020

“Vox California” is an interdisciplinary workshop that seeks both to highlight language as a central component of California studies and to establish California as a crucial site for the investigation of language in social life. As the first conference to focus on the full scope of California’s linguistic resources, including but not limited to indigenous and immigrant languages, regional and ethnoracial dialects, subcultural linguistic styles, and linguistically mediated social activities, “Vox California” has a broad interdisciplinary mandate to examine how language semiotically shapes the sociocultural meaning of California and Californians locally, nationally, and globally. The workshop’s goal is not simply to document the state’s linguistic diversity but more importantly to investigate the cultural meanings of specific linguistic forms, representations, and practices, including social identities, political ideologies, and embodied cultural activities.

REGISTRATION IS FREE BUT ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. To register, and for more information, see the Vox California website:

http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/VoxCA/

 

At the Huntington, April 8: The Loren Miller Papers

The Huntington Library will present a free lecture Weds., April 8, 2009, on Attorney and Judge Loren Miller.

From the Huntington’s calendar:

Attorney and Judge Loren Miller was also a civil rights activist who knew and worked with Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and author Langston Hughes. Amina Hassan, scholar and biographer of Loren Miller, will present a lecture on this prominent Los Angeles figure.

No reservations required. Friend’s Hall, Huntington Library.

 

The Secret Life of Geologist Clarence King; Lecture at the Huntington Feb. 17

The Huntington Library will host the following lecture Feb. 17:

“Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line”

Martha A. Sandweiss, Professor of American Studies and History, Amherst College, shares her new findings about the secret life of the late nineteenth-century Western explorer Clarence King, who was the first director of the U.S. Geological Survey and who was particularly well known for his studies of the Sierra Nevada.  His colleagues knew King as a celebrated geologist and writer, but for thirteen years he lived a double life, also passing as a “black” man named James Todd who married an African-American wife, had five children with her, and revealed his true identity to her only on his deathbed. Prof. Sandweiss will discuss her new book about Clarence King.

February 17, 2009

7:30 p.m. – Friends’ Hall, Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens.

For additional information, please contact Susi Krasnoo at <skrasnoo@huntington.org>

 

“Palo Alto Reads” — Brian Copeland on his book, “Not a Genuine Black, Man: My Life as an Outsider,” Jan. 28

In the Palo Alto Reads series, author Brian Copeland will discuss his new book, Not a Genuine Black Man: My Life as an Outsider.

From the announcement:

In the summer of 1972, when Brian Copeland was eight, his family moved from Oakland to San Leandro, hoping for a better life. At the time, San Leandro was 99.99% white and the suburban community was not welcoming to African Americans. This reputation was confirmed almost immediately: Brian got his first look at the inside of a cop car. Days later, Brian was turned away by several barbers who said “we don’t cut that kind of hair.”

It was a time that Brian spent his adult years trying to forget, until one day an anonymous letter arrived that forced him to reevaluate his childhood: “As an African American, I am disgusted every time I hear your voice because YOU are not a genuine black man!”

A poignant, hilarious, and disarming memoir about growing up black in an all-white suburb, Not a Genuine Black Man is also a powerful contemplation on the meaning of race, and a thoughtful examination of how our surroundings make us who we are.

Palo Alto Reads: Brian Copeland
Not a Genuine Black Man: My Life as an Outsider
Wednesday January 28, 2009 6:30 p.m.

Location: Palo Alto High School Haymarket Theater, 50 Embarcadero Rd., Palo Alto

FREE and Open to the Public

 

Book Event: “Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century”; at the Berkeley YWCA Jan. 22

The UC Berkeley Labor Center, Institute for the Study of Social Change, Institute of Governmental Studies, and Chicano Studies are sponsoring an evening with Randy Shaw, author of the new book Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. In Beyond the Fields, Shaw reveals the untold story of how the spirit of “Si Se Puede” that began with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers in the 1960s still sets the course for today’s social justice movements. Shaw finds that the influence of Chavez and the UFW has ranged far and wide: in labor campaigns like Justice for Janitors, in the building of Latino political power, in the fight for environmental justice, in the growing national movement for immigrant rights, and even in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. In fact, many of the ideas, tactics and strategies that Chavez and the UFW so skillfully employed, like grassroots organizing and the cultivation of young activist talent, were integrated into the Obama campaign and overseen by former UFW disciples like Marshall Ganz.

Thurs., Jan. 22, 2009, 6:30 p.m.

YWCA Berkeley
2600 Bancroft Way
Berkeley (2 blocks from the Labor Center)

For more information contact Andrea Buffa, andreabuffa@berkeley.edu, 510-642-6371.

 

CALL FOR PAPERS: National Assn. for Ethnic Studies, San Diego (Deadline, Oct. 15; Conference, April 2-4, 2009)

NAES 37th Annual Conference

April 2-4, 2009
San Diego Mission Valley Hilton Hotel
San Diego, California

Borders & Boundaries

Saludos! Welcome to San Diego, California’s second largest city, where blue skies keep watch over 70 miles of beaches and a gentle Mediterranean climate greets visitors most each and every day. Bordered by Mexico, the Pacific Ocean, the Anza-Borrego Desert and the Laguna Mountains, San Diego offers the perfect setting for this year’s annual conference. The city is home to numerous ethnic communities, including members from the Kumeyaay/Diegueño, Luiseño, Cupeño, and Cahuilla native tribes, whose ancestors inhabited the San Diego region as far back as 7,500 B.C., and Latina/os, who currently make up more than a quarter of the overall population. Similarly, the Asian Pacific Thematic Historic District recalls San Diego’s early Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, and Japanese settlements, and Baja California is accessible just minutes from downtown.

San Diego’s diversity also extends to its landscape, where visitors can explore rural mountain or desert trails, run with the tide or swim against it, scuba dive the depths of kelp forests or cycle pine forests. For the less adventurous but equally curious, the lush 1,200-acre Balboa Park is one of the nation’s most extensive cultural centers, with the greatest concentration of museums west of the Mississippi. Browse the spectacular array of fine art, science and natural history, aerospace, photography, model railroads, automobiles and performing arts. Plan a picnic near one of the Park’s many botanical gardens or arboretums. Tour the “world-famous” San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park or head over to the nearby SeaWorld and LEGOLAND theme attractions.

Two unique sites not to be missed are the Casa del Rey Moro Museum and Chicano Park. Located in Old Town, the Casa del Rey Moro Museum houses a multimedia exhibit that highlights 6,000 years of African world history with a special focus on African-Spanish, African-Mexican and African-American heritage. Chicano Park is situated beneath the San Diego-Coronado Bridge in Logan Heights (Barrio Logan), a predominantly Mexican American and Mexican-immigrant community in central San Diego, California. The historical site is home to the world’s largest conglomeration of outdoor murals (67 in total), as well as various sculptures, earthworks, and an architectural piece dedicated to the cultural heritage of the community.

In addition, downtown San Diego is an exciting urban center full of specialty shops, hotels, galleries and theaters. Dance to the rhythm of blues, jazz, reggae and rock at one of the many clubs, festivals and outdoor concerts. When it’s time to eat, you will find a delicious array of rich and savory choices. Food representing almost every world cuisine can be found somewhere in the city, including Mexican, Moroccan, Ethiopian, Thai, Vietnamese, Afghan, Persian, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, British, Italian and Cuban cuisine.

Not to be outdone by our surroundings, the NAES conference promises an equally exciting venue. As in the past, you can expect to hear national and international scholars discussing cutting edge work from a variety of academic perspectives. In addition, we will feature several panels and special sessions addressing local community issues facing San Diego residents. Finally, we will be presenting a number of awards to both young and established scholars as well as community leaders.

San Diego represents a great opportunity to blend intellectual stimulation with relaxing fun. Please join us!

Dr. Maythee Rojas, NAES 2009 Conference Chair

<!–
Submit your 2009 NAES Conference Abstract Here! –>
Call for Papers – 37th Annual NAES Conference at San Diego, CA

 

TALK: Quintard Taylor on African Americans in California and the West, Los Angeles (Thur. Sept. 11)

Conversations@CAAM presents:

Dr. Quintard Taylor
Scholar & Writer

Dr. Quintard Taylor is the Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor of American History at the University of Washington.  He writes and lectures on African Americans in the West, and is the author of The Forging of a Black Community: Seattle’s Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era and In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the America West, 1528-1990.

His articles have appeared in various scholastic journals including the Journal of Negro History, Arizona and the West, and Western Journal of Black Studies.  His online resource center called BlackPast.org (www.blackpast.org), is one of the largest reference sites of its type for African American history on the Internet.

Please join us for a stimulating evening as Dr. Taylor speaks about his life’s journey and the history of African Americans in the West.

Thursday, September 11
6:30 to 8:00 pm
California African American Museum

Admission is free.  Please call 213-744-7432, or visit www.caamuseum.org for more information.

 

CALL FOR PAPERS: Cultural Studies Association, Kansas City (Deadline Sept. 15; Conference April 16-18)

FROM: H-AMST

Seventh Annual Cultural Studies Association (U.S.)
Marriott (at the Plaza), Kansas City
April 16-18, 2009

Expected plenary speakers include:
Michael Bérubé, Pennsylvania State University
Marc Bousquet, Santa Clara University
Orit Halpern, New School for Social Research
Michele Janette, Kansas State University
E. Patrick Johnson, Northwestern University
Karim Murji, Open University (U.K.)
Cary Nelson, University of Illinois
Amit Rai, Florida State University
Sangeeta Ray, University of Maryland
Maria Josefina Saldaña-Porillo, New York University
Jeff Williams, Carnegie Mellon University

Also, the popular Journal Salon feature will continue.  Journals expected
are:
Cultural Critique
Cultural Studies/ Critical Methodologies
Dialectical Anthropology
Flow
Genders
Mediations

Deadline for Proposals: September 15, 2008.

This conference, which uses Open Conference Systems developed by the Public
Knowledge Project <http://www.pkp.ubc.ca/> , enables participants to submit
abstracts online at http://www.csaus.pitt.edu/conf/submit.php?cf=5.  The
website for submissions will open August 15, 2008.

Call for Papers and Sessions

The Cultural Studies Association (U.S.) invites participation in its Seventh
Annual Meeting from all areas and on all topics of relevance to Cultural
Studies, including but not limited to literature, history, sociology,
geography, anthropology, communications, popular culture, cultural theory,
queer studies, critical race studies, feminist studies, postcolonial
studies, media and film studies, material culture studies, performance and
visual arts studies.

All participants in the Sixth Annual meeting must pay registration fees by
March 16, 2009, to be listed and participate in the program. See the
registration page of this website for details about fees.

If you have any questions about procedures for submission or other concerns,
please e-mail us at: csaus@pitt.edu. We welcome proposals in the following
four categories:

1. INDIVIDUAL PAPERS
Proposals for individual papers are due September 15, 2008.

Successful papers will reach several constituencies of the organization and
will connect analysis to social, political, economic, or ethical questions.

They should be submitted online on the conference website. Successful
submission will be acknowledged. If you do not receive an acknowledgment
within 24 hours, please resubmit. The acknowledgment will say that your
proposal has been ‘’successfully submitted,” which does NOT mean your
proposal has been accepted.

All paper proposals require:

a. The name, email address, department and institutional affiliation of the
author, entered on the website.
b. A 500-word abstract for the 20-minute paper entered on the website.
c. Any needed audio-visual equipment must be noted following the abstract in
that space on the site.

2. PRE-CONSTITUTED PAPER SESSIONS, ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS, OR WORKSHOP SESSIONS
Proposals for pre-constituted sessions are due September 15, 2008.

Roundtables are sessions in which panelists offer brief remarks, but the
bulk of the session is devoted to discussion among the panelists and
audience members. Workshops are similarly devoted primarily to discussion,
but they focus on practical problems in such areas as teaching, research, or
activism. No paper titles may be included for roundtables or workshops.

Pre-constituted sessions should NOT be submitted on the website, but should
be sent to csaus@pitt.edu with the words ”Session Proposal” in the subject
line. All proposals will be acknowledged, but please allow at least two
business days before inquiring.

All session proposals require:

a. The name, email address, phone number, and department and institutional
affiliation of the proposer.
b. The names, email addresses, and department and institutional affiliations
of each participant.
c. A 500-word overview of the session, including identifying the type of
session (panel, roundtable, workshop) proposed. For paper sessions, also
include 500-word abstracts of each of the papers. Paper sessions should have
three or four papers.
d. A request for any needed audio-visual equipment. All AV equipment must be
requested with the proposal.

3. DIVISION SESSIONS
Division sessions are due September 15, 2008.

A list of divisions is available at http://www.csaus.pitt.edu
<http://www.csaus.pitt.edu/> . Divisions may elect to post calls on that
site for papers and procedures for submission to division sessions or handle
the creation of their two division sessions by other means.  Division chairs
will submit their two panels/workshops/roundtables directly to the program
committee by September 15, 2008 (directions will be sent to the division
chairs). Proposals for divisions should NOT be submitted on the website or
to csaus@pitt.edu.

4. SEMINAR PROPOSALS
Proposals for seminars are due September 15, 2008.

Seminars are small-group (maximum 15 individuals) discussion sessions for
which participants prepare in advance of the conference. In previous years,
preparation has involved shared readings, pre-circulated ”position papers”
by seminar leaders and/or participants, and other forms of pre-conference
collaboration. We particularly invite proposals for seminars designed to
advance emerging lines of inquiry and research/teaching initiatives within
Cultural Studies broadly construed. We also invite seminars designed to
generate future collaborations among conference attendees. Once a limited
number of seminar topics and leaders are chosen, the seminars will be
announced through the CSA’s various public e-mail lists. Participants will
contact the seminar leader(s) directly who will then inform the Program
Committee who will participate in the seminar.  Seminars will be marked in
the conference programs as either closed to non-participants or open to
other conference attendees as auditors (or in other roles).  Examples of
successful seminar proposals from previous years are linked in here (if you
are reading this on the website).

All seminar proposals require:
a. A 500-word overview of the topic designed to attract participants and
clear instructions about how the seminar will work, including details about
what advanced preparation will be required of seminar participants.
b. The name, email address, phone number, mailing address, and departmental
and institutional affiliation of the leader(s) proposing the seminar.
c. A brief bio or one page CV of the leader(s) proposing the seminar.
d. A request for any needed audio-visual equipment. All AV equipment must be
requested with the proposal. Since seminars typically involve discussion of
previously circulated papers, such requests must be explained.

Seminar proposals should be sent to:

Bruce Burgett, Professor and Interim Director, Interdisciplinary Arts and
Sciences
University of Washington Bothell
burgett@u.washington.edu

and

Colin Danby, Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences,
University of Washington Bothell
danby@u.washington.edu

Those interested in participating in (rather than leading) a seminar should
consult the list of seminars and the instructions for signing up for them,
available at http://www.csaus.pitt.edu <http://www.csaus.pitt.edu/>  after
October 15, 2008. Deadline to sign up will be November 14, 2008.  Deadline
for seminar leaders to submit final lists of participants (minimum 8
individuals, in addition to the seminar leader or leaders) will be November
21, 2008.

 

NEWS: CSA Announces Partnership With the H-California Discussion Network

The CSA and H-California (Humanities Discussion Network, California) are proud to announce a new partnership to advance their missions to serve the communities of scholars, activists, and professionals who rely on scholarship in the humanities for their work. We are joining forces to strengthen the service we provide our communities.

In the last year, the CSA has undertaken a more robust approach to its use of the internet to serve its members by adopting a new website and a blog. These projects will be enhanced by collaborating with the editors at H-California who run a listserv (an email list), and an online forum with resources, through the international Humanities Network, h-net.org.

H-California functions as a way for scholars, activists, and nonprofit professionals to communicate about scholarly projects about California. Many of the postings are book reviews, calls for papers, event announcements, queries for projects, new resources, and so forth.

The CSA will collaborate with H-California in the following capacities:

* Shared news items, syndicated between the CSA blog and the H-California listserv.

* Promoting resources, events, and projects between the two resources.

We strongly encourage CSA members and our community to join the H-California listserv, an automated email discussion board of all news and events related to humanities scholarship in California. The CSA will list all our news, events, blog postings, and official communication on the H-California listserv.

 

TALK/REPORT: Public Policy Institute of California Survey Shows Digital Divide in CA: Baldassare and Bonner Talk in Sacramento (July 9)

From PPIC.

Statewide Survey: Californians and Information Technology

The link to the event at the PPIC website is here.

The link to the pdf of the report can be found here.

July 9, 2008; 12:00-1:30 p.m.
Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building
914 Capitol Mall, Room 500
Sacramento, CA

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
While internet use and information technology is expanding, the digital divide is widening for some groups in California. This benchmark survey of Californians examines their access to information technology, including computer ownership, access to the Internet, and the use of mobile devices. The survey also looks at perceptions of the role of government in areas such as Internet regulation and broadband access and availability. The survey details results in the five major regions in California, by race and ethnicity, between urban and rural communities, and among socioeconomic and political groups. Lunch will be provided.

This survey was conducted with funding from the California Emerging Technology Fund and ZeroDivide.

SPEAKERS
PPIC president, CEO, and survey director Mark Baldassare is an expert in public opinion, including political, social, economic, and environmental attitudes.

Dean Bonner is a research associate and member of the PPIC Statewide Survey team.

Some findings of the current survey:

* Less than half of California Latinos (48%) have home computers compared to about eight in 10 or more for whites (86%), Asians (84%), and blacks (79%). Just four in 10 Latinos (40%) have Internet access and a third (34%) a broadband connection at home.
* Among households with incomes under $40,000, half have home computers, but only four in 10 (40%) have home Internet access and just a third (33%) have broadband.
* Twenty-nine percent of Californians have DSL, 19 percent have cable modems, 5 percent have wireless, and 2 percent have fiber optic or T-1 connections. Just 7 percent have dial-up connections.

This is the 87th PPIC Statewide Survey and the first in the Californians and Information Technology survey series, whose intent is to inform state policymakers, encourage discussion, and raise public awareness about a variety of information technology issues. This survey includes the responses of 2,503 Californians in multiple languages, on both landline and cell phones, and was conducted in collaboration with the California Emerging Technology Fund.

 

ANTHOLOGY: Daniel Libeskind’s Contemporary Jewish Museum opens in San Francisco

The Contemporary Jewish Museum opened its new building in the Yerba Buena cultural district on Sunday. The museum selected Daniel Libeskind ten years ago before the project was held up in financial and logistical complications. Libeskind won international acclaim–and a mountain of commissions–when he prevailed in the competition for master site planner at the World Trade Center Site in 2003. Two main features of the San Francisco building are its bizarre metaphorical angles and its post-modern hybrid of ultra-modern architecture with an existing 1907 building designed by Willis Polk, a PG&E substation, a hold-over from the post-conflagration City Beautiful movement. Here’s a re-cap of the reporting that went on and some resources for the new building.

The LA Times provided architectural criticism that questions Libeskind’s career development and discusses major features of the building.

Mathew Kuruvila discusses the Bay Area Jewish tradition in the Chronicle.

The Chronicle outlined the setbacks the museum faced in its ten year journey.

John King does a critical piece for the Chronicle’s coverage of the opening. “Is the Contemporary a great work of architecture. No.”

King also wrote a good speculative article in the Chronicle for the groundbreaking ceremony of the museum in 2006.

Kenneth Baker does a review of the new Contemporary’s exhibits: artists musing on Genesis, John Zorn’s curatorial soundscapes, William Steig’s cartoons, and submitted photos from Bay Area Jewish life.

David Basulto took some good pics in this post for ArchDaily.com

Libeskind’s firm’s website also has some cool images.

SFCurbed also did the Chronicle’s work with these reports (Number One, Number Two, Number Three, Number Four) on and array of photographs of the Contemporary Jewish Museum.

Zeek did an interview with Libeskind about the SF museum.

The Contemporary Jewish museum features an mp3 audio tour with California historian Kevin Starr about the PG&E substation as well as an mp3 audio interview with Libeskind.

 

EXHIBIT: The Chinese of California : A Struggle for Community (through Aug. 30)

This posting comes from the California Historical Society site.

The Bancroft Library, California Historical Society and Chinese Historical Society Present

The Chinese of California: A Struggle for Community
February 7 to August 30, 2008

From the gold country of Northern California to major metropolitan areas of Southern California and beyond, Chinese of California tells the story of the Chinese American fight for civil rights and the unique challenges that characterized the formation of Chinese communities in California.

As the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and further legislation removed the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law for people of Chinese descent, discrimination and violent attacks intensified. Since the Gold Rush to the building of the transcontinental railroad to the modern civil rights struggle, Chinese Californians have faced the challenge of organizing to fight for basic human rights—and for the very existence of their communities.

A joint project of the Bancroft Library, the California Historical Society, and the Chinese Historical Society of America, Chinese of California explores these stories, sharing from within the experiences of the Chinese communities’ struggles to survive.