Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a day for honoring the life and memory of loved ones was celebrated over the weekend of Oct. 27-28. The event, known as Panteón de Sacramento (Sacramento Cemetery) was celebrated with dance performances, music and family oriented activities. Dozens of altars honoring loved ones who have passed away were set up at the Native American Health Center’s parking lot on J Street. I attended part of Saturday’s event and was captivated by many of the altars I stopped at. Individual and community groups participated in building elaborate altars. The event is hosted by La Raza Galería Posada and many people and organizations that participated last year an

La Raza Galería Posada and the Midtown Business Association will be holding their annual haunted festivities this weekend, October 27-28, to celebrate both Halloween and Día de los Muertos, a Mesoamerican celebration that honors and remembers the dead. Last year nearly 4,000 attendees participated. This year, local businesses and organizers are hoping for an even larger turn out to join in on the free fun. Midtown Business Association’s “Yappy Hour” pooch costume contest will start the day, as dog owners have the opportunity to parade their spooky pets through haunted Midtown streets with the hopes of winning a prize. Meanwhile, children will be filling their sacks with sweets and treats

  La Raza Galería Posada (LRGP) and Bows & Arrows are teaming up to present an evening of "Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead" films on Tuesday, October 23 from 7 pm-10 pm. Bow & Arrows is located at 1815 19th Street between R and S Sts. in Sacramento. http://bowscollective.com. Dr. Fred Dobb, the Galería's film curator, will host the evening of "Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead" films. The main film will be the 1960 classic, Macario, from what is considered the "golden age of Mexican cinema." Dobb will give a short pre-concert talk on this classic Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead film (with English subtitles) and also show several animated Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead shorts.

Sad news has hit Sacramento’s art community as it learns of yet another gallery closure, Tangent Gallery. In addition to Tangent, several other prominent galleries have fallen victim to challenging times and faced closure, including 20th Street Art Gallery, Skinner Howard Contemporary Art, Solomon Dubnick, and MAIYA. These galleries have provided years of beauty to Sacramento’s art district and as they close their doors some may assume that this is a result of a decline in support of the arts, but the reality is quite to the contrary. These closures have been positively countered with creative arts partnership efforts and a new reign of galleries moving in, here to show art is alive and we

If you had wandered on to the new site of La Raza Galería Posada (LRGP) on the morning of its grand opening celebration, you would have seen vendors setting up, an artist in the midst of an installation, and heard a sound check in progress. Near the stage was a small group that included a poet, a local café owner and former LRGP board member, and a young student (and occasionally a community reporter). This group was not planning a performance or discussing marketing strategy, they were blowing up balloons to draw traffic to the venue. Executive Director, Marie Acosta, was directing cars, among other things. That is the sort of teamwork that exemplifies the spirit of LRGP. This year mar

Fiesta en la Calle made its much anticipated return to Cesar Chavez Plaza on June 9. The weekly event continues every Saturday until August 11, 2012. Scheduled for the Saturday, June 16 event was Celso Piña, El Sonido Callejero and Latin Touch. Piña had to cancel because of health issues and was a favorite performer that many in the audience came to see. DJ Ricardo “El Niño” Rayas provides music before and in between acts allowing guests to warm up and enjoy his delectable mixes. MC for Fiesta en la Calle is Vince Vicari who brings a likeable presence to the stage. Vicari’s humor (or attempt at humor) and confidence behind the mic keeps the audience entertained. At every opportunity

  The Miller Park Art Complex, new home of La Raza Galería Posada, will host "Celebrate in the Park!" -- a grand opening event on Saturday, June 23. La Raza Galería Posada is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary cultural center and public space offering Latino/Chicano and Native arts exhibitions, art education programs, workshops, films and concerts and serves as a community gathering place. 2012 is the 40th anniversary of the organization's founding.The new address is 2700 Front St., just south of the Broadway Corridor in Sacramento. With large old trees, picnic tables and plenty of free parking, the new home offers a peacefulness that belies it's proximity to the nearby bustling Broadway C

This month’s Second Saturday Art Walk provided several new venues for art and music lovers to enjoy. Artists showcased their talents at various galleries, pubs, boutiques and restaurants. Several street performers also displayed their talent at several places along Midtown. Spanglish Arte conducted a sidewalk sale that included many items available at vast discounts. Spanglish Arte also allowed other local artists the opportunity to sell their art and merchandise. One of the tables included the work of Roberto Robles Jr., whose colorful drawings drew the attention of many casual observers. His drawings can be customized to the buyer’s specs making the art that much more personal. Insi

The 40-year-old La Raza Galería Posada Latino arts and culture center will leave its Midtown location next month, moving to a bigger facility in Miller Park that will allow for larger indoor and outdoor events. “We hope to have our inaugural event in early or mid June, and that will be a concert in Miller Park,” said Marie Acosta, executive director of La Raza Galería Posada. “It will also be an opportunity for us to introduce the public to the site and talk about building a new building or renovating the current building.” The building is an approximately 1,800-square-foot warehouse-style structure on Front street just south of Broadway. It is double the size of the center’s Midtown loc

La Raza Galería Posada, a local nonprofit Latino arts organization, succeeded in reaching its fundraising goals to stay open after Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna helped fill the funding gap with a music event Saturday. In November, the center announced that it needed to raise $25,000 or face closure. “We are extremely grateful for Supervisor Serna for his beyond-the-call-of-duty support,” said Marie Acosta, executive director of La Raza Galería Posada. “It’s very rare when an elected official will go out of their way and walk the talk for a nonprofit in need of funding.” Funding sources for the art gallery and cultural center, located at 1022-1024 22nd St., have been in steady

Sacramento art galleries hosted small crowds of visitors during the last Second Saturday of the year. Many visitors took advantage of the smaller crowds to do Christmas shopping. Galleries and other businesses sold art, crafts, gift certificates and other items to Christmas shoppers. Festivities in Sacramento began earlier in the day with the annual Santa Parade. Thousands of children, along with their parents, lined the parade route. The parade started at the corner of 9th and I Streets and an anticipated crowd of over 25 thousand watched. The annual parade began at 10 a.m. and participants included marching bands, cheer squads, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, several floats, car clubs,

Members of Sacramento’s Latino community gathered Thursday night to ask questions and voice concerns at the first of Mayor Kevin Johnson’s Town Hall meetings for his 2012 campaign. Education and lack of funding for city public schools took top priority in the discussions. “There is nothing more important than our public education system, and we must do a better job with our schools,” said Mayor Johnson. Approximately 150 people attended the Town Hall at La Familia Counseling Center in North Franklin. Seats filled quickly and dozens of concerned community members stood in the entryway and aisles. Affordable access to health care, racial profiling by police, support and funding for the art

Culminating the Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos festivities this year, La Raza Galería Posada, Sacramento’s not-for-profit Latino art and cultural center, brings the Panteon de Sacramento (Sacramento’s Cemetery) to life.This is a two day/night outdoor display of fifty large, colorful altares. The altares will be available for public viewing on Saturday October 29 and Sunday October 30. Families, individuals, area artists and local not for profit organizations will build the altares for public display.Theatre, music, poets and children's workshops are all part of the two-day event. In Sacramento, Día de los Muertos has been celebrated since the early 1970s, commensurate with the Galería’

  Several hundred people showed up to this weekend's Midtown Modern Arts Festival. The event took place on 20th Street between J & K and was enjoyed by children and adults. Various performances included the Sacramento Ballet, Capital Stage Company, The Sacramento Philharmonic, B Street Theatre, Sacramento Comedy Spot, the Harley White Jr. Orchestra and other acts. Over a dozen arts and performing organizations had stations set up to give those in attendance information about the many art programs offered in Sacramento and surrounding areas. Several demonstration tables also allowed visitors, mostly children, the opportunity to participate in arts, music and crafts set up by various o

Wednesday evening was filled with poetry, music and activism when Rafael Jesús González (poet, professor, artist and bilingual studies innovator) read to a full house at La Raza Galería Posada. He was accompanied by flautist and Rooted in Community co-director Gerardo O. Marín and artist and activist Colin Miller. The event was hosted by Los Escritores del Nuevo Sol / Writers of the New Sun and opened with local writer JoAnn Anglin. She spoke of the group’s founding in 1993, its monthly writing group, monthly readings and of the group’s anthology, “Voices of the New Sun: Songs and Stories / Voces del Nuevo Sol: Cantos y Cuentos.”  González was introduced by Dr. Fausto Avendaño, a retire

Radiant Mexican Singer Martha Toledo Debuts in Sacramento; Songs Speak of Respect and Dignity for Latin American Women La Raza Galería Posada, Sacramento’s nonprofit hub for Latino/Chicano and Native arts cultural programming, continues to bring rare,compelling and exciting music concerts to their intimate performance space in Midtown. Martha Toledo is an internationally recognized performer whose commanding presence embodies the sensibility and majesty of the Oaxacan culture. A Zapotec singer from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Oaxaca, Mexico, her soulful sound evokes the pulsing, vibrant rhythm of her country's music legacy. Many of these songs carry the contemporary message of

Opens at La Raza Galería Posada on July 9; Artist Reception on July 14 (Sacramento, CA) No matter how one views the wars in the Middle East, the visual window into that world is a compelling and valuable one to experience. The photographs from Sacramento native Chief Warrant Officer-2 (CWO2) Tony R. Ulep’s military service have resulted in a vast portfolio of fascinating cultures, architecture, landscapes, and blazing sunrises and sunsets. His debut exhibition at La Raza Galería Posada shows his passion for studying and experiencing other cultures combined with his love of photojournalism is apparent. Specifically, he presents photographs from his two Iraqi deployments, beginning in 200

Caliente, the Spanish word for hot, was the perfect word to describe Jammin’ in the Park 2. Saturday’s event drew well over 1,000 spectators to Cesar Chavez Park to enjoy the sounds of DJ Nightfly, Esteban Villa, Blanca Sandoval, Los Elegantes and the legendary Latin rockers Malo. Two fathers of the Chicano art movement — RCAF artist and poet activist Jose Montoya and El Teatro Campesino veteran and Chicano film producer Phil Esparza — were honored for their contributions to the Sacramento community. La Raza Galeria Posada presented a family day full of music, dance, poetry, arts and crafts. Many vendors had stations set up inside the beer garden and around other parts of the park. Chi

The 2011 In the Flow festival came to an end at Luna’s Café on Monday night after five days of enjoyable music at different venues. Jazz, rock, electronic, noise, poetry, spoken word, blues and other genres were delivered by talented musicians from May 12 to 16. On a rainy Monday evening, several bands came to share the small stage at Luna’s. The intimate setting provided great entertainment and gave it a delightful jazz club ambiance. In the Flow is the brainchild of Ross Hammond and Byron Blackburn. Performers play smaller venues such as La Raza Galeria Posada, Luna’s, Antiquité Maison Privée, Phono Select Records and the Press Club. Hammond’s grassroots approach is creative and provid

Around 20 supporters of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission attended the City Council budget hearing Tuesday afternoon wearing buttons emblazoned with the SMAC slogan: “Arts Open Daily” in response to a proposal to cut arts funding. Barbara Bonebrake, director of the Sacramento Convention, Culture and Leisure Department, presented a proposal to reduce the city’s general fund contribution to SMAC by $152,855 for the 2011/2012 fiscal year. As a result of these cuts, funding for SMAC’s Cultural Arts Awards, a program that provides grants ranging from $1,000-$25,000 to nonprofit arts organizations, would be reduced by $64,000. During the public comment section of the Convention, Cul