Rick Prelinger: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 4, Fri. Dec 4

Rick Prelinger: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 4 – The Long Now.

Rick Prelinger, a guerrilla archivist who collects the uncollected and makes it accessible, presents the fourth of his annual Lost Landscapes of San Francisco screenings. You’ll see an eclectic montage of rediscovered and rarely-seen film clips showing life, landscapes, labor and leisure in a vanished San Francisco as captured by amateurs, newsreel cameramen and industrial filmmakers.

How we remember and record the past reveals much about how we address the future. Prelinger will preface the screening with a brief talk on how historical memory is shifting away from mass culture towards individual expression, and what consequences will arise from the emerging massive matrix of personal records.

Join us for a reception with no-host bar following the Seminar in the main Lobby of the Herbst Theater.

Doors open 7 pm, Talk begins 7:30pm lasting ~1.5 hours

Herbst Theatre on Van Ness Ave. San Francisco, California

 

Next Autry Western History Workshop – Nov. 10 – On Lewis & clark

The next meeting of the Autry Western History Workshop will take place on Tuesday, November 10.  The presenter will be Elliott West from the University of Arkansas; his paper is entitled “Why It Matters That Lewis and Clark Didn’t Get Sick (Or At Least Really Sick),” and available to read ahead of time from the Autry.

As usual, the workshop will meet in the classroom at the Autry’s Griffith Park campus.  The seminar will begin at 7PM, with dinner at 6:30 to those who reserve a place by Thursday, November 5.  Reservations are required for dinner for this session.  To reserve, please contact Belinda Nakasato-Suarez at bnakasato@autrynationalcenter.org.

 

SPUR Event: Planning on the Edge: 6 West Coast Planning Directors, Wed. Nov. 4

The San Francisco Planning Department and SPUR (San Francisco Planning +
Urban Research Association) proudly present

PLANNING ON THE EDGE…OF THE CONTINENT

A conversation with the Planning Directors of six of North America’s most
innovative cities (at least we think so)

Featuring:
Bill Anderson – San Diego, CA
Susan Anderson – Portland, OR
Amanda Burden – New York, NY
John Rahaim – San Francisco, CA
Diane Sugimura – Seattle, WA
Brent Toderian – Vancouver, BC

When: Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 –  6:00 to 8:00PM
Where: San Francisco City Hall – North Light Court This is a free event

 

Autry Western History Workshop returns Tuesday, October 13

The Autry Western History Workshop returns for another year on Tuesday, October 13.  The presenter will be James Snead from George Mason University, and he will present his paper, “‘That indefinable Exhilaration’: Economy, Ambition, and Relic Hunting in the Territorial Southwest.”

The workshop will begins at 7PM, with dinner available at 6:30 for those who reserve a place by Friday, October 9.  To make a reservation, or to obtain a copy of Prof. Snead’s paper, email Belinda Nakasato-Suarez at bnakasato@autrynationalcenter.org.

 

California Historian, Louise Nelson Dyble, on the Golden Gate Bridge and TJ Kent: Oct 14th in Berkeley; Oct. 16 in Oakland

Past CSA President, Louise Nelson Dyble will be appearing at University Press Books in Berkeley to present on her recent book, Paying the Toll: Local Power, Regional Politics, and the Golden Gate Bridge. She will also be presenting on seminal UC Berkeley and City of Berkeley planner, TJ Kent, at the Planning History Conference that weekend. See the University Press Books event here. See the SACRPH, Planning History Conference, program here.

The announcement from University Press Books:

Louise Nelson Dyble, author of

Paying the Toll: Local Power, Regional Politics, and the Golden Gate Bridge

Wednesday, October 14, 2009, 5:30-7:00

The impact of the Golden Gate Bridge on the San Francisco Bay Area has been much more than visual—toll revenue has allowed the small group of appointees in charge of the structure to build a minor political empire, shaping the regional landscape and economy in the process.  Even though the agency responsible for the bridge was extremely unpopular and its officials were notorious for crooked dealings and mismanagement by the 1960s, they were able to defend its autonomy by actively opposing oversight, fighting investigations, and spurning reform.  Ultimately, they insured its survival beyond the retirement of construction bonds by expanding operations to include mass transportation—a guaranteed money-loser and perpetual reason to collect tolls. Paying the Toll traces the development and the influence of the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District from its creation in the 1920s through its metamorphosis into a regional transportation authority in the 1970s.  Drawing upon previously unavailable sources, it provides an inside view of the high-stakes bureaucratic power politics carried out in the shadow of the bridge.

Louise Nelson Dyble is Assistant Professor of History at Michigan Technological University.

 

Society for American City and Regional Planning History, Oakland Conference Oct. 15-18

To All Urban Historians, Planners, Activists, and Academics in the Bay Area and Beyond:

The conference organizers are very pleased to announce the upcoming 13th National Conference on Planning History, taking place in Oakland, California October 15-18, 2009.  The event is sponsored by the Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH).  The preliminary program and conference registration forms, as well as travel and hotel information, are available on the conference website: http://www.barnard.edu/urban/sacrph09.  Interest in the meeting has been remarkable, with the number of paper and panel proposals up 20-25% over all previous SACRPH meetings.

The conference location, the Oakland Marriott City Center, is accessible by BART (Oakland City Center / 12th Street Station) and is convenient to the 880 and 980 Freeways.

Local Highlights: While the conference is international in scope, a number of events focus on the Bay Area itself. These include:
- A Thursday pre-conference tour entitled “Democracy on the Ground in West Oakland: Immigrants, Migrants, and the Development of an African-American Community”;
- A Thursday night address by Richard Walker of the University of California on “West Oakland and the Bay Area Region”;
-  A Friday morning plenary roundtable on regional equity, focusing on the East Bay;
- A Friday lunch plenary featuring pioneering urban planners of the Bay Area;
- Sunday morning tours of Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Marin;
- Papers and sessions throughout the conference on local and regional topics such as urban renewal in San Francisco; Chinatowns in San Francisco and Oakland; gay neighborhoods and the geography of sexuality in San Francisco; the 1906 earthquake and its aftermath; race and housing in Fremont and Richmond; and many, many more.

SCHEDULE:

All paper sessions will take place between 8:30 am on Friday, October 16, and 6:30 pm on Saturday, October 17.  The conference schedule and full registration includes receptions Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, breakfast Friday and Saturday, and lunch Friday and Saturday.  In addition to the paper sessions and round tables, we’d like to draw your attention to two New Media sessions, an undergraduate and Master’s student poster session, a proposal-writing workshop and reception for graduate students, and the screening of a documentary film-in-progress allowing participants to provide feedback to the director.  The book exhibit, open on Friday and Saturday, has a record number of participating presses.

The Thursday and Sunday events (Thursday’s Oakland symposium, and the Sunday tours) require separate registration, as explained in more detail on the website.  The Thursday tour of West Oakland promises a fascinating look at the multifaceted history of a neighborhood.  The four Sunday tours will take advantage of the rich variety of the Bay Area:  Historical Development and Ethnic Change in Oakland; Berkeley Architectural Tour; Urban Renewal in San Francisco; and finally, North of the Golden Gate: Growth Control, Open Space, and Alternative Agriculture on the Urban Fringe.

AICP CREDITS

We have worked closely with the Northern California chapter of the American Planning Association to ensure that the conference will bring together scholars and practitioners.  AICP members can earn Certificate Maintenance (CM) credits for many activities at the SACRPH Conference. More information about AICP’s CM program can be found at www.planning.org/cm.

CONTACT

Questions about the conference?  Please e-mail SACRPH@history.rutgers.edu.

CALL FOR STUDENT VOLUNTEERS

Student volunteers are needed both before the conference (to help with local arrangements) and during the conference (to staff the registration desk and provide AV support).  Each three-hour shift will qualify a volunteer for one free day of conference registration.  This is a great opportunity to meet with the leading scholars and practitioners in the fields of urban planning, urban history, architectural and landscape planning and history, urban design and preservation.  Please contact Stephanie Dyer at stephanie.dyer@sonoma.edu or Asha Weinstein Agrawal at asha.weinstein.agrawal@sjsu.edu for details.

We look forward to seeing you in Oakland.

With best wishes,

Robin F. Bachin, SACRPH President
Alison Isenberg, SACRPH President-Elect and Program Committee Co-Chair
Owen Gutfreund, Program Committee Co-Chair
Jim Buckley, Local Arrangements Co-Chair
Gail Sansbury, Local Arrangements Co-Chair
Stephanie Dyer, Local Arrangements Co-Chair

More on SACRPH: SACRPH is an interdisciplinary organization dedicated to promoting scholarship on the history of planning cities and metropolitan regions.  Its members come from a range of professions and areas of interest, and include architects, planners, historians, environmentalists, landscape designers, public policy makers, preservationists, community organizers, students and scholars from across the country and around the world.  SACRPH publishes a quarterly journal, The Journal of Planning History (http://jph.sagepub.com/), hosts this biennial conference, and sponsors awards for research and publication in the field of planning history.  For further information please consult http://www.dcp.ufl.edu/sacrph.

 

Berkeley Arts and Letters lecture: Robert Scheer and Peter Richardson to discuss Ramparts Magazine; Sept. 24

Fabled journalist Robert Scheer, and Peter Richardson, author of the newly published, A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America, will speak about Ramparts at a Berkeley Arts & Letters event, Thursday, September 24, 7:30 p.m., at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley. 800-838-3006. $15.

 

Author event at Book Passage in Marin; Peter Richardson on Ramparts Magazine; Sept. 25

Peter Richardson (Chair of the California Studies Association) will talk about his new book, A Bomb In Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America. From the Book Passage listing:

This is the rollicking story of Ramparts—the San Francisco magazine that captured the zeitgeist of the 1960s, repeatedly scooping the N.Y. Times. Ramparts brought the new left into American living rooms, and it made an indelible imprint on American journalism.

Fri., Sept. 25, 7:00 pm

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, CA 94925, Phone: (415) 927-0960

 

Author event at Book Passage in Marin; Mike Miller talks about the Mission Coalition; Sept. 24

Mike Miller will talk about his new book, A Community Organizer’s Tale: People and Power in San Francisco. From the Book Passage listing:

This is the story of a Bay Area neighborhood and its long-term citizens. The Mission Coalition was a group of citizens who fought to keep the community intact in San Francisco’s predominantly Latino Mission District.

Thurs., Sept. 24, 7:00 pm

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, CA 94925, Phone: (415) 927-0960

 

Author event at Book Passage in San Francisco: John Buntin on the LAPD; Sept. 24

John Buntin will talk about his new book, L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City at Book Passage in San Francisco on Sept. 24.  From the Book Passage listing:

Buntin offers a fascinating examination of how the LAPD created a  dangerously unaccountable surveillance-intensive model of crime fighting that damaged Los Angeles’s social fabric and eerily prefigured today’s “war on terror.”

Thurs., Sept. 24, 6:00 pm, Book Passage, 1 Ferry Building, #42, San Francisco, CA 94111, Phone: (415) 835-1020

 

Peter Richardson to speak about Ramparts Magazine at the Institute on California and the West

The Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West will be presenting a conversation with Peter Richardson (current Chair of the California Studies Association), to discuss his new book, A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America.  The conversation will be led by David Igler, of UC Irvine.

Peter Richardson teaches California Culture at San Francisco State University, chairs the California Studies Association, and is editorial director at PoliPointPress, which publishes trade books on politics and current affairs.  Richardson wrote American Prophet: The Life and Work of Carey McWilliams.

Details: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2009 from noon to 1:00pm
Seaver Classrooms 1&2, Huntington Library

This event is part of a brown bag luncheon series sponsored by ICW.  The event is open to any who wishes to attend, and a limited number of lunches will be available on a first come/first served basis.  To reserve a seat, please respond to Kim Matsunaga at kmatsuna@usc.edu by October 1.

 

Los Angeles History Research Group’s first meeting of 2009-10 is Sept. 19

The first meeting of the Los Angeles History Research Group for 2009-2010 will take place at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 19, 2009, in Classroom 3 of the Munger Research Center at The Huntington Library.

The presenter will be Sara Fingal, PhD candidate, Brown University, who will discuss her paper, “Turning the Tide: Conflict, Leisure, and Access along Southern and Baja California’s Coastline, 1940s-1980s.”  To request a copy of the paper, please contact Carolyn Powell at cpowell@huntington.org.

Anyone with questions may contact one of the coordinators listed below, who can also provide a complete schedule for the year.

Nick Rosenthal, ngrosen@lmu.edu

Allison Varzally, avarzally@exchange.fullerton.edu

 

BOOK TOUR: Peter Richardson Speaks at the CSA Dinner Series, and Across California on Ramparts Magazine

Please come help us celebrate the release of California studies scholar and CSA chair, Peter Richardson. You can read more about his work at his blog here. Please also find information on Richardson’s book tour below and at his blog.

Peter Richardson, Author

Mr. Richardson will speak on his new book on Ramparts Magazine and the culture and politics of the 60s

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 we ask for a small donation for those partaking of wine and beverages.

PLEASE RSVP by Friday, September 11, 2009 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

The Seminar is a project of the California Studies Center  at UC Berkeley (part of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment) and is supported by the California Studies Association, Department of Geography and Townsend Center for the Humanities.

To see the full  schedule go to:  http://geography.berkeley.edu/LecturesEvents/CalDinners/CalDinners.html

BOOK TOUR DATES:
The Ramparts book campaign is getting traction. I just heard Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone field a question from “CounterSpin” host Peter Hart, who referred to the history of Ramparts he was reading. Call me a reckless speculator, but I think that book might be A Bomb in Every Issue.

Related articles and coverage are starting to appear, too. A long excerpt appeared in California History, the sharp-looking journal of the California Historical Society. Truthdig posted a piece adapted from Chapter 5. Hunter S. Thompson Books also posted a short piece on HST’s links to Ramparts and a Q&A with me. And the stylish California magazine will run a essay on Ramparts and Berkeley in the September issue.

We’re expecting reviews and coverage in Slate, In These Times, Beyond Chron, and FrontPage. I’ve also been contacted by Andy Ross and Frances Dinkelspiel, who blog about books and publishing.

We’re booking radio and such now. In addition to the programs below, look for interviews with Gustavo Arellano (KPFK), Norm Stockwell (WORT in Madison), and Bob McChesney (WILL AM 580 in Illinois). It looks like there will also be an event at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism in late October.

So here’s what’s confirmed on the calendar so far.

Bay Area:

Sept. 16, California Studies Dinner Seminar, Berkeley

Sept. 21, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center with Steve Keating, First Presbyterian Church, Palo Alto, noon and 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 23, City Lights book party with Warren Hinckle, Larry Bensky, and Reese Erlich, Vesuvio Cafe, San Francisco, 7 p.m.

Sept. 24, Berkeley Arts & Letters with Robert Scheer, introduction by Susan Griffin, First Congregational Church, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 25, Book Passage with Norman Solomon and Reese Erlich, Corte Madera, 7 p.m.

Sept. 29, Capitola Book Cafe, 7:30 p.m.

Los Angeles:

Oct. 5, Book Soup, Sunset Strip

Oct. 6, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, Huntington Library, San Marino.

Oct. 6, USC with Robert Scheer’s class

Oct. 7, USC with Robert Scheer’s class

Oct. 9, Village Books with Derek Shearer, Pacific Palisades, 7:30 p.m.

Media appearances:

July 29, “Politics with Norman Solomon,” KWMR 90.5 FM

Aug. 19, “This Is America” with Jon Elliott, San Diego 1700 AM, 4:30 p.m.

Aug. 23, “Sunday Sedition,” KPFA, 94.1, 9-11 a.m.

Sept. 15, “America Offline,” KWMR, 90.5 FM, 5:30-6:30.

Sept. 15, “The Pat Thurston Program” with John Rothmann, KGO AM 810, 11 p.m.

Oct. 7, “On the Radio” with Jon Wiener, KPFK, 90.7, 4-5 p.m.

 

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins Keynotes Event at East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy : Thur. Oct. 15

BUILDING POWERFUL BRIDGES:
Community, Faith and Labor For a Just Economy

Thursday, October 15, 6:00 PM
Hilton Garden Inn, 1800 Powell St, Emeryville
Keynote Speaker: Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO, Green For All

EBASE has forged powerful bridges between truck drivers and environmentalists, congregants and immigrants, and residents and workers, bringing about major victories for working people. While the current crisis poses serious challenges,  together, we can create an economy where workers earn enough to live in dignity. Please join us and celebrate as we set the stage for 10 more years of progress!

 

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

 

LaborFest Schedule Now Online: EVENTS July 2-July 31

LaborFest 2009
July 2 – July 31

LaborFest 2009 Schedule is up

This year is the 75th anniversary of the San Francisco General Strike and the West Coast maritime workers strike. The ‘34 strike and maritime strike was an important point in  strengthening organized labor and bringing hundreds of thousands of workers into our unions.  In commemoration of this significant historical anniversary for San Francisco and Northern California labor, LaborFest will be having many special events including an art exhibition, presentations, a labor jeopardy contest as well as a labor film festival that will include videos of the San Francisco general strike.

There are also plans for a commemoration march and concert in San Francisco and educational conference.

LaborFest this year will also be honoring the workers who made the strike, the role of the San Francisco Labor Council and the workers who have built the Bay Area including building the San Francisco Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge and the newly constructed Al Zampa Bridge which is the first major bridge named after an iron worker. Labor faces great challenges today as it did 75 years ago and the need to learn about our history, and how we won victories in the past is vital for today.

 

New Book on Prop. 13 from IGS at UC Berkeley + Companion Conference Online

Our colleague, Ethan Rarick, the director of the Center for Politics and Public Service at the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, sends us information on IGS’s publication of this new book on Prop 13. Ever timely, revisiting Prop 13 is especially critical now with rumbles of a constitutional convention and new tax policies reverberating through the state. The book contains articles from several friends of the California Studies Association.

In addition to the book, take a look at IGS’s recent conference on Prop 13: the conference is available on several video sites linked from this site where  you can also view slide presentations. IGS has other publications here.

After the Tax Revolt: California’s

Proposition 13 Turns 30

Jack Citrin and Isaac William Martin, editors

A New Examination of the Legacy of a California Political Milestone

In 1978 California voters shocked the political world by approving Proposition 13, a strict limit on local property tax rates. No state had ever approved such a far-reaching constitutional limitation of the power to tax. And Californians did not just approve it; they embraced it, rejecting dire warnings of doomsday from the state’s political, business, and academic leaders. Voter turnout was the highest recorded for any off-year election in the history of California and the tax cut won in a landslide, with 65 percent of the vote. Thirty years later, Proposition 13 remains firmly entrenched in California’s constitution, but what has it meant for politics and public policy in the state?

On June 6, 2008, the thirtieth anniversary of the adoption of Proposition 13, a group of scholars, journalists and policy experts gathered to assess the legacy of this groundbreaking measure. Their mandate was a simple one: assess what we have learned about the political, economic, and fiscal consequences of Proposition 13 over the last 30 years.

After the Tax Revolt: California’s Proposition 13 Turns 30 is a result of that conference, and an attempt to summarize the state of our knowledge about the consequences of this critical event in the history of California and the United States. This collection of essays constitutes a cutting-edge and timely review of one of the most important reforms in California history, and will be crucial for anyone trying to gain a full understanding of politics and policy in the Golden State.

Order at igs.berkeley.edu/publications or by calling 510-642-1428

Contributors include:
Mark DiCamillo, Field Poll
David Doerr, California Taxpayers Association
William Fischel, Dartmouth
Joel Fox, Fox and Hounds Daily
John Fund, Wall Street Journal
David Gamage, UC-Berkeley
Jean Ross, California Budget Project
Terri Sexton, California State University, Sacramento
Steven Sheffrin, UC-Davis
Kirk Stark, UCLA

About the Editors:
Jack Citrin is Heller Professor of Political Science and the director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
Isaac Martin is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego.

--
Ethan Rarick
Director
Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service
Institute of Governmental Studies
University of California, Berkeley
111 Moses MC 2370
Berkeley, CA  94720
510-642-5158
erarick@berkeley.edu

 

Listen: Christensen, Worster, White: A Passion for Nature: Exploring the Life of John Muir| Aurora Forum

John Christensen, with Richard White and others leads a great program called the Spatial History Project at Stanford. All historians of nature, take a listen to this conversation on KQED about Donal Worster’s new book on John Muir. Fantastic stuff.–ed.

A Passion for Nature: Exploring the Life of John Muir

Donald Worster and Richard White with Jon Christensen

Thursday, May 7, 2009 | 7:30–9:00pm | Kresge Auditorium

In Donald Worster’s new biography, John Muir’s “special self” is fully explored as is his extraordinary ability, then and now, to get others to see the sacred beauty of the natural world. A Passion for Nature is the most complete account of the great conservationist and founder of the Sierra Club ever written. Rich in detail and personal anecdote, it traces Muir from his boyhood in Scotland and frontier Wisconsin to his adult life in California right after the Civil War up to his death on the eve of World War I. It explores his marriage and family life, his relationship with his abusive father, his many friendships with the humble and famous (including Theodore Roosevelt and Ralph Waldo Emerson), and his role in founding the modern American conservation movement. Inspired by Muir’s passion for the wilderness, Americans created a long and stunning list of national parks and wilderness areas, Yosemite most prominent among them. Yet the book also describes a Muir who was a successful fruit-grower, a talented scientist and world-traveler, a doting father and husband, a self-made man of wealth and political influence, and a man for whom mountaineering was “a pathway to revelation and worship.”

via A Passion for Nature: | Aurora Forum.

 

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

 

Tom Killion at Kepler’s in Menlo Park May 28

Tom Killion will be appearing at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park to discuss his and Gary Snyder’s new book, Tamalpais Walking: Poetry, History, and Prints, on May 28 at 7:30 p.m.  From the Kepler’s announcement:

In a new collaboration by the authors of the bestselling The High Sierra of California, Tom Killion and Gary Snyder, readers are introduced to the unique mountain overlooking San Francisco Bay. A source of story and myth since time began, Mt. Tamalpais has inspired conservationists, trail builders, botanists, artists, and poets for more than a century. With freshness and sustained delight, Tamalpais Walking explores Mt. Tamalpais s natural, cultural, historic, and spiritual dimensions. It is a book shaped by two master craftsmen collaborating on an enterprise nurtured by long and passionate involvement.

Woodcut and letterpress artist Tom Killion grew up in Marin County, on the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais, where the rugged scenery inspired him from an early age to create landscape prints strongly influenced by traditional Japanese woodblock prints. Along with publishing fine art letterpress books, Killion holds a Ph.D. in African history from Stanford University and has taught history at several Bay Area universities.

Kepler’s Books
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park CA, 94025
(650) 324-4321 Store Hours

 

Rick Prelinger is the Coolest Archivist in the World: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco May 16 the Exploratorium

After years of close interaction with the many  wonderful, quirky, and dedicated archivists in this great country of ours, I am unilaterally nominating Rick Prelinger as the coolest archivist on the planet. He will showcase his wares again on May 16 from 2 to 4 pm at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. The event is called Lost Landscapes of San Francisco and is not to be missed.

Prelinger invites people to respond out loud to an array of short clips he digs up from God knows where. Historians, residents, and hipsters alike delight in this material and Prelinger’s witty, upbeat narration of the clips.

What other archivist introduces his materials with references to Borges and citing the enclosure on the archival commons?

See the event page here.

Preview the last version of Lost Landscapes, a perennial event, here.
SF Chron article on a past version is here.

 

Mark Arax at Kepler’s in Menlo Park May 13

Mark Arax will be appearing at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park to discuss his new book, West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders, and Killers in the Golden State, on May 13 at 7:30 p.m.  From the Kepler’s announcement:

Teddy Roosevelt once exclaimed, “When I am in California, I am not in the West. I am west of the West,” and in this book, Mark Arax spends four years travelling up and down the Golden State to explore its singular place in the world. This is California beyond the clichés. This is California as only a native son, deep in the dust, could draw it.

Compelling, lyrical, and ominous, his new collection finds a different drama rising out of each confounding landscape. And, in the end, he provides a moving epilogue to the murder of his own father, a crime in the California heartland finally solved after thirty years.

Award-winning author and journalist Mark Arax is a co-author of The King of California and author of In My Father’s Name. He is a contributing writer at Los Angeles magazine and a former senior writer at the Los Angeles Times. He teaches nonfiction writing at Claremont McKenna College.

Kepler’s Books
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park CA, 94025
(650) 324-4321 Store Hours

Monday through Thursday – 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Friday and Saturday – 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Sunday – 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

 

“West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders, and Killers in the Golden State” Mark Arax at Book Passage in Marin, May 8

Mark Arax will talk about his new book, West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders, and Killers in the Golden State, at the Book Passage bookstore in Marin on May 8.  From the Book Passage announcement:

In the tradition of Joan Didion, Arax combines journalism, essay, and memoir to capture social upheaval as well as the sense of being rooted in a community. Piece by piece, the stories become a whole, a panorama of California and America in a new century

Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera, CA 94925
Phone: (415) 927-0960

May 8, 2009, 7:00 pm

 

“Tamalpais Walking: Poetry, History, and Prints” – Tom Killion & Gary Snyder at Book Passage in Marin, April 28

Artist Tom Killion and poet Gary Snyder give a visual presentation and discuss Tamalpais Walking: Poetry, History, and Prints at Book Passage in Marin on April 28, at 7:00 p.m. The work explores Mt. Tamalpais’ natural, cultural, historic, and spiritual dimensions. “It is a book shaped by two master craftsmen collaborating on an enterprise nurtured by long and passionate involvement.” (from the Book Passage announcement).

Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera, CA 94925
Phone: (415) 927-0960

April 28, 2009, 7:00 pm

 

Author event at Capitola Book Café: Eric Soderquist and Chris Burkard presnt their “California Surf Project” April 22

The Capitola Book Café will present the authors of The California Surf Project April 22, at 7:30 p.m.  From the book café’s listing:

Eric Soderquist is a professional surfer and artist who has participated as both in numerous contests, films and community events while traveling the world from Peru to Australia. Chris Burkard is a surf photographer who has worked for Surfer, Surfing, Transworld Surf, Surfline.com, Patagonia and Burton Snowboards; he is the winner of the Follow The Light Foundation grant (in memory of Larry Moore). Together they cajoled their Volkswagen bus along Highway 1 from the Oregon border to the Tijuana Sloughs. Their fully illustrated book is a love letter to the astounding California Coast and a testament to the passion for catching a perfect wave. This event includes a visual presentation.

CAPITOLA BOOK CAFE
1475 41st Avenue, Capitola, CA 95010
831-462-4415

 

Landmark of Death: Purpose, Meaning, and Culture at the Golden Gate Bridge; a conversation with Louise Nelson Dyble at the Huntington, April 23

The Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West has scheduled an “In conversation” seminar April 23 with Louise Nelson Dyble, Ph.D., on her research about the Golden Gate Bridge.

From the announcement:

Landmark of Death: Purpose, Meaning, and Culture at the Golden Gate Bridge
Louise Nelson Dyble, Ph.D.

Suicides have been a persistent problem for the officials of the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District since the first disconsolate jumper plunged to his death in August 1937.  By 1940, the bridge’s macabre appeal had attracted national attention.  Seventy years later, the iconographic bridge retains its lure and fatalities are more frequent than ever.  It has been the site of more than 1,300 confirmed suicides, three times more than any other structure in history.  Dyble will discuss this phenomenon, drawing upon historical research and organizational theory to offer an answer to the question of why there is no suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge.

Louise Nelson Dyble is the Associate Director of Research of the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy at the University of Southern California.  Her book, Paying the Toll: Local Power, Regional Government and the Golden Gate Bridge, was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in March 2009.

Thursday, April 23, 2009
12 noon to 1pm
Seaver classrooms, Huntington Library

This seminar is a part of a brown bag luncheon series sponsored by ICW.  The events are open to any who wish to attend, and a limited number of lunches will be available on a first come/first served basis.   To reserve a seat, please respond to Kim Matsunaga at kmatsuna@usc.edu at least one week prior to the seminar.

 

The Los Angeles History Research Group’s Clark Davis Memorial Seminar takes place May 16 at the Huntington

The next meeting of the Los Angeles History Research Group will take place on Saturday, May 16, 2009, in Classrooms 1 & 2 of the Munger Research Center at The Huntington Library.  As usual, the  meeting will take place at 10:00 a.m., with coffee available from 9:30.

Sarah Schrank, Associate Professor of History at CSU-Long Beach and author of Art and the City: Civic Imagination and Cultural Authority in Los Angeles, will speak about her recently published book at group’s final session of the year, which will commemorate accomplished scholar, beloved friend, and one of the group’s founding members, Clark Davis.

No paper will be circulated prior to the gathering.

If you have any questions, please contact one of the coordinators listed below.

Nick Rosenthal, ngrosen@lmu.edu

Allison Varzally, avarzally@exchange.fullerton.edu
(On leave)

 

Los Angeles vs. Las Vegas: Which is the Most Unreal City in America? Zócalo panel at the Autry, April 29

Zócalo and the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West present a program April 29, 2009, at the Autry National Center, entitled: “Los Angeles vs. Las Vegas: Which is the Most Unreal City in America?”  From the announcement:

Los Angeles and Las Vegas are cities founded on fantasy—narratives of youthful glamour, the languor of palm and pool dotted landscapes, the ease of private automobile transport, the promise of self-invention and easy fame and power. They share city plans designed according to car culture. And they grow toward each other as they expand into the Mojave Desert. But reality has hit both cities: water grows scarce, space is tighter, cars clog roads and pollute the air, and money is disappearing. Zócalo hosts a panel of experts—including architect and University of Washington assistant professor Nicole Huber; writer, curator and former director of the Las Vegas Art Museum Libby Lumpkin; and educator, author and architect Ralph Stern—to discuss how the cities can continue to expand and to mirror each other even as they are forced to spar over dwindling resources.

The panel will be moderated by William L. Fox, Director of the Center for Art + Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art.

The event is made possible, in part, by a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation of Los Angeles.

Details:

Wednesday, April 29, 2009, 7:30 pm

Autry National Center
4700 Western Heritage Way
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Directions and parking
Go Metro

For more information, and to make reservations, click here.

 

“Mud, Blood & Gold: San Francisco in 1849″; author event at Book Passage in San Francisco, Apr. 8

From the Book Passage calendar:

Rand Richards talks about Mud, Blood & Gold: San Francisco in 1849. Richards vividly brings to life what S.F. was like during the landmark year of 1849. Based on eyewitness accounts and previously overlooked official records, Richards chronicles the explosive growth of a wide-open town rife with violence, gambling, and prostitution, all of it fueled by unbridled greed.

Wed, Apr 08, 2009, 6:00 PM

Book Passage Bookstore
in the San Francisco Ferry Building
1 Ferry Building, #42
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 835-1020

 

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.