The performance of Dr. Acker’s play brings together two historic events—the bridge crossing and the 1954 Supreme Court decision that resulted in the unanimous decision to end legal segregation in U.S. public schools. Both bear strong messages today for Americans confronting the disturbing attacks on voting rights, equality in education, and justice before the law.

“Segregation continues to be at the forefront of human rights,” Dr. Acker said. “The fight over Brown v. Board has transformed into a battle for all democratic rights. …The equal right to vote is as critical now as segregation in public places was during the Brown ruling. We’re in the urgency of now, and we need courageous actions, as demonstrated in our play Words… to move people to action, including to vote.”

These issues aren’t limited to the South or red states. They occur right here in the Bay Area. As recently as 2019, Sausalito Marin City School District had to be ordered by the California Department of Justice to desegregate a school due to what state Attorney General Xavier Becerra called “intentional racial and ethnic segregation of schools within the District.” District officials had terminated math, science, and English programs at a school with a predominantly minority community of students.

“The actions taken by the Board of Trustees at that time were intended to segregate the District and they were successful, with negative consequences for hundreds of children,” Becerra stated.

Brown v. Board of Education continues to have meaning to this day as the entire nation struggles with the need to be an anti-racist society.

Learn more

• Watch: 2023 interview with playwright Dr. Cindy Acker with preview of two scenes.
• Watch: The actors, the play, and past performances.
• Read: Bridge Crossing Jubilee  at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, a festival of music, art and remembrance of the struggle for civil rights.
• Read: Gene Kahane shares a 2024 interview with Dr. Cindy Acker in the Alameda Post.

The post ‘Words that Made the Difference’ to be Performed in Selma, Alabama to Mark Landmark Civil Rights Events appeared first on Alameda Post.

“True believers have always fascinated me, but I am most definitely not one,” he said in a recent interview. “Religion, broadly defined, is a great beat. It’s a chance to write about how people find meaning, connection, and community in their lives, but also to write about politics, with the ongoing rise of [the] religious right and culture wars over abortion, sexuality, gender.”

A teen in the 1960s, Lattin studied sociology at UC Berkeley, but despite experimentation, he was more a writer than a hippie and was hired as an Examiner reporter at 23. “I may have turned on and tuned in, but I never really dropped out,” he said. “I never joined a cult or new religious movement, but I’ve been writing about them since the 1970s.”

Those books include The Harvard Psychedelic Club, a national bestseller, and its prequel, Distilled Spirits: Getting High, then Sober with a Famous Writer, a Forgotten Philosopher, and a Hopeless Drunk; Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge; and Following Our Bliss: How the Spiritual Ideals of the Sixties Shape Our Lives Today. He is also the co-author of Shopping For Faith: American Religion in the New Millennium, and numerous essays in encyclopedias of religion.

The first question that comes to mind is whether all that religious research affected Lattin’s own spiritual path.

“In doing the research for my last book, God on Psychedelics, I briefly joined an East Bay church that uses mind-altering plants, fungi, and chemicals as part of its spiritual practice, partaking in those rites with the Sacred Garden Church,” the author said. “In my previous book, Changing Our Minds, I took MDMA, ayahuasca, and other powerful psychedelic drugs under the supervision of trained therapists or neo-shamans. The goal there was to understand psychedelic therapy and sacred plant medicines from the inside out.”

The Harvard Psychedelic Club also won the prestigious California Book Award, while Distilled Spirits won the Religion Book of the Year from the Religion News Service. Suffice it to say that Lattin knows his subject and writes about it very well.

Lattin said he’s not what one would call a true believer in any one tradition, despite engaging in this interview while on his way to India with his wife. “I’m a skeptical universalist, meaning I look to find rays of truth in all the world’s religions, but I am also on the lookout for the corruption and hypocrisy that seems to infect them all.”

So no, they’re not going to India for enlightenment. “I’ll probably write something for Substack, perhaps on our visit to Varanasi, the major pilgrimage site on the Ganges River, or on our visit to the spectacular Ajanta and Elora caves. Most of the time we will be touring around Rajasthan, in the north, along with a few days in Mumbai, Delhi, and the obligatory swing by the Taj Mahal,” he said.

And yet, seeking some grain of truth in the universe is a regular practice. “For about a dozen years, I’ve been part of a small Zen meditation group that meets every other Saturday morning,” Lattin explained. “On alternate Saturdays, we practice a kind of contemplative prayer practice, or lectio divina, that focuses on a reading that could be from Rumi, a Christian mystic, Sufism, or a poem by Wendell Berry or Mary Oliver. I also practice T’ai Chi and have long felt drawn to Taoism and Advaita, the non-dual Vedic philosophy. Our Saturday gatherings are at Lenox House, a Roman Catholic retreat center near Lake Merritt, further evidence that it’s all pretty eclectic.”

Lattin is not working on a new book these days, and isn’t sure if another book is in his future, but he has been crafting a weekly series on Substack called Messiahs I Have Known.

“It’s about some of my misadventures as a religion reporter on the cult beat. It’s been a chance to publish some old work that, for various reasons, never saw the light of day, and to recast some published material in a new light,” he said. “Of course, I couldn’t resist including the 600-pound gorilla in the room, so I wrote a few posts about MAGA and the messianic cult around Donald J. Trump.”

“I may be done with [writing] books,” he added, although Harvard Psychedelic Club has recently been optioned for a possible feature film or streaming series. But there’s always hope that his inquisitive mind will find a new topic to dive into.

Meanwhile, Lattin stays busy in midtown with a new obsession: “The most exciting thing in our lives is our new granddaughter, who is approaching the terrible twos.” His wife, Laura Thomas, is a local affordable housing activist and puts out a podcast about Alameda called Island City Beat. 

“If you see a big, bearded guy walking a Golden Retriever down Chestnut Street toward the Estuary, it’s probably me,” Lattin said. “Stella [the dog] loves the new waterfront park across from Coast Guard Island. You might also see me riding my e-bike along the Bay on my way to play pickleball at Leydecker Park. That’s my real cult these days. I’m there three times a week getting love-bombed.”

Julia Park Tracey is an award-winning journalist, poet and author of nine books. Julia writes about books and other delicious things from her mountain hideaway, a restored 1880 Victorian, with her cats, chickens, bees, and emotional support husband. Find her on social media as @juliaparktracey, all platforms.

The post Don Lattin on Finding His Religion appeared first on Alameda Post.

Alameda is a bird-lover’s paradise, so it’s fitting that the K Gallery at Rhythmix Cultural Works is presenting “Flight Patterns,” an exhibit that celebrates the wonder of local birds through photography, drawing, painting, ceramic, print and mixed media.

Thousands of long-distance migrant shorebirds spend their nonbreeding season at Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary. Endangered and threatened species such as Least Tern and Peregrine Falcon breed on opposite ends of the island. And more common birds like California Towhee and Anna’s Hummingbird populate backyards and community gardens year-round. In all, more than 200 bird species—in an astounding variety of shape, size and color—have been documented in Alameda.

“Flight Patterns,” which will run from March 6 through April 24, is curated by local birder, musician, and writer Deborah Crooks, and will feature works by Brice Binder, Laura (Tex) Buss, Jean Chen, Flavia Krasilchik, Rick Lewis, Mary Malec, Christopher Reiger and Dana Zed.

An opening reception is scheduled for March 13, 6 to 8 p.m., at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Avenue. Admission is free; please RSVP online.

About the artists

Brice Binder has shared a new Two Birds from Alameda comic in the Alameda Post every week since August 2022. In his first print zine collection of the comic, he writes, “I loved growing up here. Alameda was so much better back then in so many ways. I love that my boys get to grow up here. Alameda is so much better now in so many ways.”

Laura (Tex) Buss first studied painting at the School of Visual Arts, New York. From there her craft took her into varied directions, including an ongoing career in tattooing at Red Kestrel Tattoo, and oil painting with a heavy focus on figurative work. She also paints bird and nature-focused watercolors. She is based in San Francisco.

Jean Chen is an artist and writer (sometimes at the same time) who lives in Alameda. She is a regular contributor to the Alameda Post. Her articles are available to read online. See her art—comics, sketches, and tattoos—on her website and Instagram.

Flavia Krasilchik was born and raised in Brazil. She moved to the United States in 2003 and practiced architecture until she discovered utilitarian ceramics. She then moved to clay as a medium for sculpture. Her sculptures are whimsical with a touch of the absurd and reflect Brazilian culture and the great painters. “I am an audience for the birds’ cycle on the Alameda shores and bird sanctuary,” she said. “I chose to live in Alameda because it is a place where urban meets nature in total harmony and grace, providing me the source of inspiration to create my ceramic sculptures and whimsical creatures.”

Rick Lewis is a longtime member of the Golden Gate Bird Alliance, Friends of the Alameda Wildlife Reserve, and other environmental organizations. He contributes often to Bay Area and Central Valley birding groups that promote wildlife and habitat conservation. His images have been used on the covers and inside of various magazines, brochures, field guides, newsletters and websites, including the Alameda Post, Bay Nature, Outdoor California, Sierra Heritage, Audubon, Ducks Unlimited, Birder’s World, Earthjustice, Point Blue, Sierra Club Yodeler, Save Wetlands, Golden Gate Bird Alliance, Save the Bay, San Luis National Wildlife Refuge Complex, San Francisco Estuary Partnership, and Wonderments of The East Bay.

Mary Malec is a Golden Gate Raptor Observatory (GGRO) hawk watcher and volunteer for CalFalcons, East Bay Regional Park District, and Predatory Bird Research Group, monitoring the fall raptor migration as well as Bay Area Peregrine Falcon, Golden Eagle and Burrowing Owl populations.

Christopher Reiger is originally from the rural Delmarva Peninsula on the mid-Atlantic coast. He spent his 20s in New York City and his 30s in San Francisco. Whether exploring an abandoned city lot or a tract of forest far from an urban center, he still feels the same excitement he felt as a boy, when he found many of his experiences in the “natural” world to be similar to those of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Carroll’s premise that things get “curiouser and curiouser” guided Christopher through many an outdoor adventure. As an adult, his love of the outdoors has evolved into a fascination with natural history, conservation, and ecology. His visual art, illustration, design, and writing projects wrestle with contemporary constructions of nature, and the human relationship to nonhuman animal species. Christopher now lives in Santa Rosa with his wife and two young sons.

Dana Zed has been an exhibiting visual multi-disciplinary artist in the Bay Area for more than four decades. She has had solo museum shows at the Napa Valley Museum and the de Young Museum, and multiple gallery shows, most especially Braunstein/Quay where she had yearly solo shows for over a decade. She has done numerous private architectural commissions and a large public commission for the San Francisco Public Library. She has taught at Pixar, San Francisco Art Institute, California College of the Arts, Esalen and Oakland Unified School District. Dana is the mother of two successful children, has cycled from San Francisco to Washington DC twice, and has written volumes of flash fiction.

About the gallery

The K Gallery at Rhythmix Cultural Works supports the organization’s mission to bring people together and build community by inspiring engagement in the arts. Exhibitions in the K Gallery reflect the vitality of local artists in the Bay Area community.

The K Gallery is named for Kazuko (Kay) Koike, one of Rhythmix’s founding donors. “Kazu” is the Japanese word for “peace” and “ko” means “child.” Kazuko Koike, child of peace (1919-2020).

The post Rhythmix Cultural Works Presents ‘Flight Patterns’ at K Gallery appeared first on Alameda Post.

The free event will take place at the Main Branch in the Stafford Room (first floor), 1550 Oak Street, from 1 to 3 p.m. No registration is required. All are welcome.

The Black Banjo Reclamation Project is a group of musicians and performers who “curate musical, cultural, and land-based healing opportunities for Black, Afro-Diasporic communities around the world to work with the banjo as a tool for reclaiming ancestral wisdom and creating Afro-futures,” according to the library’s event description.

“By teaching and learning banjo playing techniques with African and Black centered perspectives, the BBRP’s unique facilitation of programs, which includes banjo musical education, building & repair, and restorative somatic community experiences, highlight the practice of land stewardship and the roots of Black liberation found in our folkways,” the description states. “Through economic solidarity and self-determination, the BBRP is paving pathways for restorative narratives to use music as a tool for transforming our world.”

Hannah Mayree

Founder and creative director of the Black Banjo Reclamation Project, Hannah Mayree is an artist and musician whose work as a banjoist, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and vocalist has made cultural waves over the last decade, as a conduit for music and craft expansion in Black folk expression.

Hannah’s work highlights original and traditional banjo compositions as well as harmonies through acoustic live vocal looping, which involves audiences in community singing.

After releasing a studio album, “Thoughts of the Night,” Hannah’s evolution as a musician has included solo performances as well as duo, trio, and full band configurations. Her work highlights both the Black string and tradition as well as innovation between genres.

Seraphina Perkins

Seraphina Perkins is a multidisplinary artist, musician, seamstress, and storyteller. She explores themes of ancestral reverence with depth and ethereal softness, through the banjo, guitar, and dulcimer.

Folk music and craft holds a grounding force in her life that she loves to share as an offering. It helps her to connect with spirit in a tangible way.

Azere Wilson

Azere Wilson is a bluesy, roots Americana musician from the hills of central California. Old-time blues, Americana, and Folk music are her “volumes of truth.” She excavates America’s past through the lens of her life experiences as a mixed-race Black woman.

Her first album, “The Rock the Roots the Lean On Me,” is available on Spotify, Apple Music, and all streaming platforms.

The post Celebrate Black History Month with the Black Banjo Reclamation Project appeared first on Alameda Post.

Travel from New Orleans to coastal Venezuela, blending New Orleans and Caribbean traditions in a joyful evening of music, history, and culture.

CHELLE! & Friends

New Orleans native, and Oakland’s own “Queen of New Orleans Music,” Michelle Jacques is Artistic Director & Founder of CHELLE! & Friends. She and some of the most accomplished musicians in the Bay Area combine all the influences of New Orleans music—jazz, funk, soul, Creole, Cajun, gospel, Caribbean, African, Zydeco, rock, and the chants and stirring rhythms of Mardi Gras Indians—into an irresistible musical gumbo that is sweet, spicy, aromatic, and intoxicating.

CHELLE! & Friends features Michelle Jacques on lead vocals; Rhonda Crane on vocals; Bryan Dyer on vocals and trumpet; Donna Viscuso on woodwinds; Eric Swinderman on guitar; Kevin Scott on bass; and Michaelle Goerlitz on drums.

“Whether leading a children’s Mardi Gras parade or headlining the ‘Queens of New Orleans’ Music Festival, CHELLE! & Friends’ blend of music delights audiences of all ages,”
said Linda Lucero, Executive Director of Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

Venezuelan Music Project

The Venezuelan Music Project (VMP) was founded in 1997 to share the sounds and cultural traditions of Venezuela throughout the Bay Area and the continental United States. Combining indigenous Venezuelan, West African, and Spanish influences, VMP is a dynamic ensemble full of vitality, energy, and color. Led by Jackeline Rago, a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer, and educator who specializes in Venezuelan folk music as well as music from other countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, VMP is one of the only groups in the Bay Area performing Venezuelan music today.

VMP features Jackeline Rago on vocals and guitar; Anna Marie Violich on vocals; and Omar Ledezma Jr. on percussion and vocals.

Rago “has become a recognized ‘folklorista’ and a respected Bay Area musician,” Jesse “Chuy” Varela wrote in Latin Beat Magazine. “Blessed with a superb voice and a melancholic falsetto so important to the rural Joropo style, she’s also a dynamic percussionist with an amazing sense of rhythm.”

Tickets to Mardi Gras Carnaval at Rhythmix may be purchased online for $36 apiece (includes $4 service fee) or $100 for four tickets (includes $14 service fee).

All seating is general admission.

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Her efforts on the latter just earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design. So this remarkable, boldly talented artist, who once roamed the hallways at 210 Central Avenue, is going to walk the red carpet at the Dolby Theater on March 15, looking, you can guarantee, simply marvelous. She’s been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, and now she’s the star of the Alameda Post‘s 5Q4: Miyako Bellizzi.

Can you remember that first time when you dressed yourself, for school maybe, made that bold choice, and said “Yeah, okay, this is what i’m wearing today”? Sort of your declaration of clothing independence.

I can remember being self-aware in the decisions of what I was wearing as early as junior high. I will say, it wasn’t until high school that I really started branching out on my own and trying out new ideas inspired by other eras. Once I wore an ’80s outfit that was my mother’s at some point and really felt like I stuck out. It was amazing—some white batwing long-sleeve crop top with high-waisted acid-wash jeans. I think I wore pumps and my hair in an updo. High school is where I really branched out and took risks for the first time.

Being a Bay Area person, can you shout out any shops where you shopped when you were younger? Were you a thrifter? Did you trek to Telegraph in Berkeley for cool looks? Haight Street in San Francisco?

Ah, of course. I come from a big flea market, pawn shop, thrift store family. We were always looking for gems and I think it’s where I found my eye early. I loved all the flea markets and searching for the one thing I would ask to get, so I had to make it count. Laney College flea under the freeway, the one by the Oakland Coliseum, even Alemany over in South San Francisco. Other than that, we spent every weekend going to yard sales and pawn shops. I loved it—looking for old things that were worth something. Beyond that I loved the mall. Went to the malls in Hayward and even up to Richmond. Don’t think I started venturing out to Wasteland in San Francisco until later in my high school years. I also had the experience of being able to spend time in New York City as a young person, so I also remember going to Soho to Michael K’s and Dr. Jays to go back-to-school shopping. That’s when I realized I had to move to NYC.

If you could only wear one outfit—maybe you were stuck on a desert island—what would that be? Or, if you’re super late for a meeting, what’s your go-to throw-it-on so you can dash out the door outfit?

I try to figure out a uniform for myself to make it easier to leave the house quickly. But this one is tricky, as what I want to wear depends on how I’m feeling that day. If weather wasn’t an issue and I was stuck on a desert island, I’d probably be in my favorite beach outfit, which consists of a bikini with a ’50s plaid housedress and a hoodie. Maybe it’s from growing up in the Bay Area, but my favorite item of clothing—and something I have most of in my closet–are hoodies. I love them! I have every color, every style, multiple eras.

Clearly you do your research for your costume design projects, especially period pieces like Marty Supreme, but how much of your process is instinct or divine intervention?

I think a lot of the job is instinctual. The industry and shoot schedules move so quickly that more often than not I have to make 100 decisions in a matter of seconds, so there’s no time to really think. That’s where the instinct comes in. Earlier in the prep process is my time to think about what I want to do and how to convey it. The research can bring divine intervention and that’s where you are able to find connections between thoughts and ideas.

You’ve gotten to work with some really famous and talented actors—Sandler, Menzel, Paltrow, Chalamet—so any fun stories you can tell about them? Do any of them have any quirks when it comes to their looks?

I’ll talk about Sandman (Adam Sandler), my favorite. What a stand-up guy. His one note always is that he needs to feel comfortable. And I get that. He needs to feel cozy and that’s his number one. Specifically, basketball shorts and basketball sneakers. It works for him, and sometimes I feel like he only takes roles in which he can dress cozy or he won’t do it.

Gene Kahane is the founder of the Foodbank Players, a lifelong teacher, and former Poet Laureate for the City of Alameda. Reach him at gene@alamedapost.com. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Gene-Kahane.

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For Oakland Filmmaker Lauren Shapiro, the road from concept to seeing her feature-length film Still Life on a movie theater screen has been a long one, spanning decades, but worth the wait. She wanted to make this film about her own coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of her mother’s battle with cancer since the events in the film happened, beginning in late 1999. But it wasn’t until the 2020 pandemic struck that she really set the ball in motion. Along the way, she gained filmmaking knowledge and experience and made new lifelong friends, including Alameda High School alumnus Anika Jensen, who stars in the film. Still Life will debut at its first film festival, the San Francisco IndieFest, on Saturday, February 7.

A coming-of-age story

Still Life is set in the Bay Area in 1999 and centers on Dafne, a teen whose mother is battling leukemia. Over several months on the eve of the new millennium, Dafne juggles school, ballet, a nascent romance, and the everyday rhythms of youth—all while living with the pall of fear and grief that her mother’s illness casts over her life. As the year turns and her mother’s condition worsens, Dafne stands between childhood and adulthood, and between having someone who loves her and losing that person. When her mother dies, Dafne is alone in liminal space—grown but still growing, alive but changed.

Birthing a film

Shapiro filmed Still Life in 2024 during Jensen’s gap year between graduating from Alameda High School and starting at UC Irvine, then filmed pick-up shots during spring break of 2025. In between, rough-cut editing began in earnest. “As soon as my Kickstarter was successful, I reached out to (film editor) Ellie Vanderlip whom I had worked with before,” she said. “I went through all the footage, selected my favorite takes, and added lots of notes. She put it all together over months of us sitting next to each other and trying things out. We started in January and worked through August.”

Film festivals allowed Shapiro to submit Still Life for consideration even before she had finished sound editing, so she began submitting as soon as the rough cut was done in August. “Waiting to hear back was excruciating because I had poured so much time and heart into this project, and my hope is for it to reach a wider audience,” Shapiro said. “I had been told that acceptance into a film festival is an important first step. When I wasn’t sure if I was going to be accepted into any festival, it was crushing. But I started to explore other pathways, like connecting with [organizations] for motherless daughters and learning how to contact sales agents and distributors directly, which was empowering. I’m glad I did that because now I have other paths that I’m excited to pursue in parallel.

“Still, when I found out I got accepted, it was huge, because it’s what I had been working and hoping for, for so long. One of the festival programmers explained that once you get into one festival, it can open other doors. All you need is one person to give you a chance. San Francisco Indie Fest has given us the opportunity, so I’m grateful.”

Preparing for the first film festival

Acceptance to the SF IndieFest on December 12 was galvanizing. Suddenly, Shapiro had to finish the sound editing to meet the festival’s January 20 final submission deadline. Unfortunately, she was short on funds.

She posted a GoFundMe but also turned to her good friend, Claire Slattery, owner of Improv Central on Central Avenue, which had a space suitable for a small film screening: “I held two small, private screenings at the end of December as a fundraiser, and with the money raised, was able to start the sound editing,” Shapiro said.

The Alameda screenings gave her a chance to connect with people she’d known throughout her life. “I had people from all different parts of my life in the audience,” she said. “I had my mentor from when I was in college who wrote me a letter for graduate school. I had friends from elementary school. I had a friend who lived the story with me, and I hadn’t seen her practically since the story ended.”

Shapiro was thankful for the opportunity the film provided to express her gratitude to this lifetime of friends and family. “This is kind of dark, but my mom died at 47. My grandma died at 46. My cousin died at 45, and I’m about to turn 42,” she said. “I hope that I live a really long life, but we just never know. I was grateful for this chance to reconnect with all these important people and tell them how much they mean to me and what a difference they made.”

Shapiro’s sense of mortality has sharpened her focus: “I made a pact with myself that I was not going to settle. I became crystal clear about my vision and got a lot of practice articulating and advocating for it. I hope that skill transfers to other domains in my life.”

Alameda actors

Like Shapiro, Jensen feels she learned life lessons from the experience. “It was hard work,” she recalled. “Some days when we were filming in Walnut Creek, it was 100 degrees. One day, we filmed until about 4 in the morning. But it was really fun. Like any theater production, it’s a temporary community that you build, and it becomes a strong community because you’re closely involved with each other every day, working to create something. That combination of it being hard but fun made me believe that work can be fulfilling, that it doesn’t have to be inherently unpleasant.”

Regarding whether she wants to continue working as an actress, Jensen noted, “Acting in a film was always my dream, so I worked hard to get to that point. Now that I’ve achieved that, I’m exploring other interests that I haven’t dived into as much and feeling inspired in other directions. But I do miss it. I like acting a lot.”

Several students who were living in Alameda at the time of the filming, including Ella Banchieri, Katie Walker, and Avril Jensen, were cast in minor roles or as extras, along with Foodbank Players actor Aaron Bruce. Six Alameda Ballet Academy (ABA) students play students at Dafne’s ballet school, and Jensen’s mother, an ABA instructor, plays Dafne’s ballet teacher.

Festival debut

Still Life officially debuts at the San Francisco IndieFest on February 7 at 3:30 p.m. at the Roxie Theater. Tickets are available online. Shapiro and Jensen will be available after the film for a question-and-answer discussion. If you can’t attend in person, streaming tickets are available as well, so you may view the film on your device February 5-15. Both in-person and streaming viewers are eligible to vote for audience awards.

Contributing writer Karin K. Jensen covers boards and commissions for the Alameda Post. Contact her via karin@alamedapost.com. Her writing is collected at https://linktr.ee/karinkjensen and https://alamedapost.com/Karin-K-Jensen.

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Cultural Arts

Cultural arts or arts programming may include, but are not limited to the following:

• Performance arts—theater, dance, music.
• Literary arts—poetry reading and storytelling.
• Film and video.
• Screenings and installations.
• Arts education.
• Art lectures and presentations.
• Special events—festivals and celebrations.
• Artist-in-residence programs in the arts.

Cultural arts or arts programming must be accessible to the public at no charge, and must be located in the City of Alameda.

All nonprofit arts organizations, public agencies, and fiscally sponsored organizations are eligible, but local organizations are particularly encouraged to file proposals and will receive a point preference as part of the evaluation process.

The City of Alameda will host an orientation session and a Grant Writing for the Arts webinar to help applicants navigate the grant application process.

Cultural Arts Grant orientation

Learn more about the 2026 Cultural Art and Arts Programming grant application process at the City of Alameda’s virtual orientation on Wednesday, February 11, at 5 p.m. The orientation will provide an overview of the application and eligibility requirements, and will feature a Q&A session at the end to help applicants with the process. Click here to register.

Grant Writing for the Arts webinar

The City of Alameda’s Public Art Program is also hosting a webinar on Grant Writing for the Arts with Kimberley Acebo Arteche on Wednesday, February 4, at 5 pm. Arteche is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and cultural worker, and serves as the Executive Director at Brava! For Women in the Arts. Learn how to expand your arts funding opportunities and hone your grant writing skills. Click here to register.

Special Events

The Special Events Permit Grant Program offers financial and technical assistance to help high profile special events in Alameda meet their special event permit requirements. Grant awards are in the form of no-cost City services or reimbursement for specific costs associated with City permitting requirements. All applications for 2026 are due by Friday, February 27.

Because this program focuses on funding costs associated with the City of Alameda Special Event permit process, it is only applicable to events which require a special event permit. According to the City of Alameda Special Event Permit webpage, the following events must have permits:

• Events that are held in the public right of way (i.e. on a public street, sidewalk, alley or other right of way).
• Events held on private property that significantly impact the public right-of-way through increased traffic or other direct or indirect means.
• Events held in City-owned parks or facilities with more than 500 attendees.
  • Events held in City-owned parks or facilities with fewer than 500 attendees require a rental agreement with the Recreation and Parks Department.
  • Events at Crown Beach require a permit from East Bay Regional Parks District.
• Events held on public or City-owned property at Alameda Point.
• Bingo games.
• Charitable solicitations.
• Commercial filming or photography in the public right-of-way.
• Banners in the public right-of-way.
• Food trucks on public or private property.

For questions, please contact Special Projects Manager Amanda Gehrke at agehrke@alamedaca.gov.

Please note: The Special Event Permit Grant Program and the Cultural Arts Grants Program, while complementary, are two separate and distinct grant programs. While both provide assistance to events in Alameda, their program goals, types of events that are eligible, and types of assistance awarded are completely different. Please review the websites and guidelines for each individual program for more detailed information.

The post Public Art Program Now Accepting Grant Proposals appeared first on Alameda Post.

Rhythmix opened its doors almost 20 years ago and is known for its performances, classes, youth programs, and community-centered visual art exhibitions. The only Alameda organization dedicated to presenting multicultural arts, Rhythmix centers around those who have been historically underrepresented in the art world and beyond.

The Art Comes From Art exhibition offered a rare opportunity for locals to admire work by artists who, by day, are staff members at two of San Francisco’s most recognizable institutions—the Legion of Honor and the de Young Museum. The exhibition’s title echoes “Art Comes from Art,” the 2025 Wayne Thiebaud exhibition at the Legion of Honor, and nods to Thiebaud’s belief that all art exists in dialogue with what has come before.

The exhibition highlights seven artists whose lives as museum workers and artists collide. Each artist presented at least one new work directly inspired by the museums themselves. Inspired by their consistent proximity to historical and modern creativity, these staff members create artworks in diverse media, including acrylic paint, glass bead embroidery, and pencil.

The exhibition’s opening night drew so many visitors that the gallery felt comfortably full—impressive on a night when the San Francisco 49ers took on the Seattle Seahawks in a playoff game. The gallery was populated by artists, museum colleagues, Alameda neighbors, and first-time visitors. It was exciting to recognize artists based on their bio photos, and free snacks and drinks helped to set a relaxed tone.

An informal video discussion played during the reception, inviting visitors to learn more about the artists’ methods. The artists spoke about spending time in close proximity to canonical works and discussed how institutional life fuels creativity. For example, Sam Piro said in the exhibit film that he was “really inspired by the landscape paintings in both museums” and added that he included drawings of the Legion of Honor, both inside and outside, in his art.

The works on view reflect a wide range of media. Daniele Erville’s collages treat natural forms as metaphors for interior emotions, while David Manzanares Tafolla’s paintings center on pre-Columbian iconography.

Nancy Jean Guerrero works with intricate beadwork to explore personal encounters with repulsion, beauty, privacy, and obsession.

Natalie Jeng’s jewel-toned oil paintings bring humor to scenes drawn from everyday life. Jeng’s paintings of donuts and cakes drew in many visitors, and several paintings were already marked as sold.

Many of the works feel excitingly modern. Sam Piro’s ink work channels calligraphy and martial traditions into a contemporary visual language, and David Wong draws inspiration from fantasy and science fiction art as well as comic book art.

For language lovers, Coralie Loon’s meeting place: ekphrastic poems by a museum worker, a poetry micro-chapbook, was also available for purchase. Loon wrote poems inspired by pieces of art in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s collection, calling this “a really fun challenge” to engage with art “in a more meaningful, personal way.”

For those who missed opening night, there is still time to see Art Comes From Art, Comes From Art. The exhibition runs through Sunday, February 22; gallery hours on February 8, 15, and 22 are noon to 3 pm. Admission is free.

Vivian Delchamps Wolf (English PhD, UCLA, 2022) is a professor of English at Dominican University of California and a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. She is also a disability justice advocate, ballroom dancer, cat lover, and board game enthusiast. Contact her via vivian@alamedapost.com Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Vivan-Delchamps-Wolf.

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I saw each of these pieces live, before my own eyes, and still am in awe of what I witnessed. And now I have seen Samuel Barksdale play over forty characters in Fully Committed, the opening show of the Altarena Playhouse’s 2026 season. And while this actor does not (yet) have the name recognition of Holbrook, Whitmore, and Smith, his extraordinary performance left me equally in awe.

This one-person play, directed brilliantly by Kimberly Ridgeway, and supported impressively by lighting designer Stephanie Anne Johnson and sound designer Alex Fakayode, is among the strongest offerings I’ve seen in several decades of shows at the Altarena. And while the play is presented as a comedy—and earned laughter from the enraptured audience—for me, this play was a serious commentary on privilege. Barksdale’s main character is Sam, who works making reservations at a very fancy restaurant (think The Bear). But on this day, he is alone with absent co-workers leaving him to handle all the calls from customers hoping to get a seat and dine fabulously. And here’s the rub: Given the status of the establishment, and the nearly nonsensical dining options (molecular gastronomy?), the folks trying to secure a table (all voiced by Barksdale) are among the most demanding, disgusting people you have ever heard and thankfully don’t have to see.

Sam handles call after call from the obnoxious class insisting on a certain table, at a certain time, with absurd menu accommodations (poor Gwyneth Paltrow is a punching bag in this play). And our everyman bends, twists, and torques himself attempting to make them happy. It’s funny because the actor does some amazing “actor” things—he makes bold physical choices to suggest different personalities, uses his voice to mock without ridicule, and works the performance space to convey people and place. The blocking is dramatic and nuanced. Well done, theater team.

But, again, what this play really reveals is the extent to which probably all of us act based on some sort of privilege and the expectation that those employed to serve us should feel obligated and fortunate for having the opportunity to meet our needs. In the simple act of wanting a seat to eat, celebrities, the wealthy, older people, and friends and family bring an arrogance we may not recognize in ourselves. OK, you have no room for them, but surely you do for me! I’m going to borrow the phrase “savage inequalities” from another context (public education) to name what the play exposes while we chuckle and guffaw. As Sam is nearly overwhelmed taking endless and overlapping calls (by the end exhaustion mists the air), we witness those around him showing essentially no respect for this person, this real person.

Barksdale, when not racing about, punching the many phone buttons in response to the cacophony of rings, pauses to tell Sam’s story—of someone with ambition for a better life, someone in grief, someone with a loving dad, someone deserving of consideration and compassion and not the avalanche of indifference he’s subjected to from those he’s trying to make happy. I kept hearing Johnny Paycheck’s “Take This Job and Shove It” in my head.

See this play for several reasons—to witness an incredible actor led by a superb director deliver a remarkable performance, to genuinely laugh at this piece of satire showing what fools we mortals be, but also to think about where we land on this continuum. What is our badge of privilege? When do we flash it? And do we honestly see the people around us who get paid so very little to make us feel so foolishly important?

Fully Committed runs until February 22 at the Altarena Playhouse, with performances on Fridays and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the Altarena Playhouse website.

Gene Kahane is the founder of the Foodbank Players, a lifelong teacher, and former Poet Laureate for the City of Alameda. Reach him at gene@alamedapost.com. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Gene-Kahane.

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