Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "sacramento city college"

Fashion at Sacramento City College

2013-05-11T09:53:41Z

Vintage fashion costumes adorned the entrance to Sacramento City College's campus' Student Center. The SCC City Fashion Club presented an enchanting evening of fashion on Wednesday night, May 8.

The Spring 2013 Fashion Show featured a classwork runway and designs by seven student designers.

Excitement and anticipation were apparent backstage as models and designers worked on last-minute details. Also backstage were beauty and esthetician school representatives from Paul Mitchell.

Faculty members Lynne Giovannetti and Jean Winchell represented the fashion club and managed the activity backstage and at the door.

Giovannetti, Applied Apparel Studies Program professor, shared some information on the City Fashion Club. “The club is open to students throughout the campus. You don't have to be a fashion student to be a member,” said Giovannetti and continued, “They have a faculty advisor who is Jean Winchell.”

Giovannetti indicated that the club's aim is to have a showing at the end of every semester. The shows' goal is to show what students learn in beginning to advanced classes during the semester of the showing. “In December we'll do another show, so we'll have something for every semester and the fashion club will be the ones who put it on.”

SCC offers several associate degrees and certificates for students wishing to study the different aspects of the fashion industry.

In order to keep up with vintage and current trends, Giovannetti said, “Our fashion program has been around for over 40 years. It just keeps changing. It changes to conform to the industry around every five years. We take a good look at the program and then we retool all the degrees and courses to match what's going on in the industry so we stay up to date.”

Winchell, an adjunct professor who teaches stretch fashion courses and is a figure skating costume designer, quoted the club's mission: “to share our love of fashion with the world in order to create a fashion-conscious campus where you can feel free to be daring and shock the halls with your fashion!”

Many of the concepts learned in stretch classes, Winchell noted, went into the design and construction of the fashion showed.

Winchell's enthusiasm was apparent as she described new equipment used at SCC. “We just got some new sergers about a year ago so that every student has the opportunity to sit down with an exceptional sewing machine,” said Winchell. She continued, “Getting these sergers was very fortunate, the students are going crazy. The one thing that this program really teaches is that the students here are taught to design and then construct the complete project.”

Once on the runway, student designers exhibited their passion as models paraded beautifully constructed fashion.

Student designers Crystal Gill, Sinan Dunlap, Temperance Bonner, Marcy Millet, KB Yang, Kaysy Xaynhalath, Ulysses Gonzalez and the fashion department classwork showcased an array of designs.

The Spring Fashion Show included fashion for men, women and children. Imaginative formal; casual, activewear; wedding; and urban styles graced the runway.

Each designer showcased their passion for fashion and incorporated what they've learned at SCC, while their individual creativity brought their designs to life and the delight of the audience. The City Fashion Club will soon be preparing for a show in December 2013.

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Women working on the railroad presentation

2013-04-20T05:21:26Z

At 1 p.m., Saturday, April 20, Shirley Burman will speak about the history of women in the railroad industry. This event is sponsored and hosted by the SCC Railroad Club and will be held in the Sacramento City College Student Center.

Burman is a documentary photographer and historian who received the Fred A. and Jane R. Stindt Photograph Award for her “‘accomplishments as a railroad photographer, especially the documentation of women’s contributions to railroading’” in 2012.

In 2013, she received the Hall of Fame Award at Winterail. She is the first woman to receive this award in the organization’s 35 years.

About the award, she said that she hadn’t been thinking about the award because she was busy thinking about her lecture and slide presentation, “Donner’s Journey,” documenting trips to Donner Pass after the 1983 blizzards with her future husband, Richard Steinheimer.

Since 1991, Burman has presented talks and programs at the Smithsonian, the California State Railroad Museum and the Oakland Museum. Her work has been published in “Journal of the West,” “Diesels over Donner,” “Mountain Soul of the Southern Pacific,” “Whistles Across the Land” and in the “Encyclopedia of North American Railroading.” Additionally, she co-wrote a children’s book, “She’s Been Working on the Railroad.”

This event is free and open to the public.

How Eddie got his Addy: Local graphic design student surprised at annual advertising awards

2013-04-08T21:34:00Z

Imagine you’re in front of an admiring crowd, all of whom are smiling and cheering as you inch toward the microphone. You’ve just received a prestigious award, and as everyone quiets down for you to humbly accept, your mind goes blank.

Not long ago, Eddie Arcilla found himself in just this situation. A 25-year-old Sacramento City College graphic design student, Arcilla received top honors in the student categories of Sacramento’s 2012 Addy Awards held March 21 at Elks Tower.

“I was really shocked,” he said. “I didn’t even know I was going up there to make a speech. I was in awe.”

The Addy Awards, hosted every year by the Sacramento Ad Club, recognize excellence in the local marketing and advertising industry. Earlier this year, the Ad Club held an open call for entries on its website, and contestants made their submissions in a variety of media forms, all vying for the coveted “Best of Show” award. Arcilla came out on top, earning awards in two different student categories including “Best of Show,” and now is eligible for the district-level Addy awards later this year.

“I didn’t even intend to submit my work,” said Arcilla, who wasn’t aware of the Addy Awards until a friend brought the open call for entries to his attention. “My friend sent me the link and said, ‘Maybe you should enter this? And now!’”

Arcilla, who used a final project from one of his past typography classes as his Addy entry, said the response from the crowd was unbelievable.

“That night was so crazy,” he said. “I couldn’t even make it back to my seat without someone wanting to give me a business card! It was about two days before everything really hit me and started to sink in.”

Born in the Philippines, Arcilla moved with his family to Folsom in 1995. From a very young age, Arcilla liked to draw anything from cartoon characters to real life people, and even then, he was praised for his creativity.

“Throughout my childhood, everyone always told me how artistic I was, but I never really thought anything of it. I just liked drawing,” he said. “I used to draw all the time. Some [characters] I'd make up, and some were from videos games I played, mostly based on Final Fantasy 8. I also drew dinosaurs and people like Albert Einstein, which actually won an award when I was in middle school because everyone liked it. The school framed it and presented it to me in front of the whole school.”

A self-taught graphic designer, Arcilla says it was as early as high school when he sought to refine that creativity into a viable career path. In his senior year, he won a contest to design his high school’s video production class logo. It was then, he said, that he started to become more serious about graphic design.

“I said to myself, ‘Hey, I like doing this! I want to be in a creative environment and also get paid.’”

Arcilla started trying to learn programs like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop after winning the logo competition.

“I was pretty determined not to only familiarize myself with photoshop but to master it,” he said. “I would go online and look up tutorials, buy books, magazines on how to do this and that and techniques on how to select objects, how to use certain tools and whatnot. And from that, I started doing photo manipulations, typography, etc.”

Arcilla admits that when he was not out with friends, or even in spare moments during class, he would get on a computer and “start messing around,” he said.

Wanting to learn as much as he could about design, Arcilla enrolled at Sac City after graduating Folsom High. By the time he started taking design classes in college, he already knew a lot about the programs being used in his classes.

While he plans to transfer to Sacramento State next fall, Arcilla admits that at the moment, school is a secondary pursuit.

“For me, I don’t see my education as getting to a degree. My purpose for school is to learn as much as I can and sharpen my skills in design.”

Currently, Arcilla is creative director at iSnap, a Sacramento-founded social media company and an Addy Awards show sponsor. iSnap creates photo stations where users can take a photo of themselves at events or venues and then automatically tag themselves and friends on social media like Facebook and Twitter. Companies, iSnap clients who host the photo booths, can then use social media communication for promotional or informational purposes.

“We have one set up at Blue Cue, and have had them at places like bars, nightclubs, etc.,” said Arcilla.

Approached about a year ago by iSnap co-founders Alex Lowe and Dat Tau, Arcilla now considers himself gatekeeper of the company’s image.

“I’m responsible for revamping the image and identity of iSnap,” he said. “Beyond the original logo, I’m responsible for the look and feel of iSnap, whether through print, videos, graphics or web design. [Lowe and Tau] give me a lot of creative freedom, and I love that about my job.”

Arcilla worked as a freelance graphic designer for about five years prior to getting hired at iSnap. And Sacramento, he says, has been good to him. “Most of my clients have been in the Sacramento area.”

But to Arcilla, it’s about more than money in the bank. “I’m very passionate about design, and I don’t see it as just a job.”

Arcilla says he subscribes to no particular artistic style, but his work tends to be minimalistic and attention-grabbing – and there is no better representation of this than his Addy Award-winning project.

Last semester, a class assignment called for Arcilla to act as head designer in a marketing campaign for a fictional event at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The event was a monthlong retrospective exhibit on the typeface Gotham. Arcilla not only created billboards and posters that would serve as promotional teasers for the event, he also created a brochure, mock tickets and video commercials for the event.

Speaking of promotional teasers, one of the iSnap’s creative director’s current projects is a new video campaign, with videos to be released soon, he said.

“They’re just an overview of our company, and how our machines are made,” he said. “Just a feel-good type of video for our clients and users.”

The videos will appear on iSnap’s website and Facebook page. You can take a look at more of Arcilla’s work on his personal website, House of Intent.

Editor’s note: The “News Digest” goes out every Tuesday morning and highlights our best stories, photos and videos from the week prior. Sign me up.

Kris Allen comes to Sacramento

2013-02-18T06:39:35Z

American Idol winner Kris Allen came to Sacramento on Wednesday, Feb. 13, for a concert performance as part of the Out Alive tour to promote his sophomore album, “Thank You Camellia.” The tour gets its name from the title of the fourth track on the album. His stop in Sacramento was one out of eight stops in California. His previous stops on the West Coast also included one at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas.

The season eight champion and his band performed at the Sacramento City College Performance Arts Center, for an intimate audience of about 200 people, curious newcomers as well as longtime fans, including one woman who confessed it was the 30th time she’d seen Allen perform live. Tweens, older couples, groups of college students, families and lovers all came out for an early Valentine’s celebration.

Folks began lining up before 6 p.m., with the doors opening at 6:30 p.m. Some VIP members were treated to a meet-and-greet. Allen’s opening act was songstress Jillette Johnson. She performed several songs on the piano, including a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep.” She joined Allen onstage for the duet “Loves Me Not,” and took pictures with fans in the lobby after the concert.

After the opening act, Allen and his band came on stage and jumped right into the song “Out Alive.” Then they performed the first song from “Thank You Camellia,” the crowd pleaser “Better With You.” From his debut album, Allen performed “Alright With Me” and “Before We Come Undone.” Afterward, Allen performed a mashup of George Michael’s “Faith” and Fun’s songs “We Are Young” and “Some Nights.”

Back in January, Allen was in a car accident with his pregnant wife, Katy, and their dog Zorro. Due to the accident, Allen suffered a broken wrist and was unable to play guitar for a while. However, for his Sacramento concert, Allen took to his guitar to play a fan-requested cover of Justin Bieber’s “As Long as You Love Me.” “I have to be a different person,” he said, as he donned some sunglasses to play the Justin Bieber hit.

Before playing a new song for the audience, Allen admitted his mind was already off his second album and onto the third one. But from his sophomore album he also performed the ominous “Monster.” The crowd fell completely silent after Allen finished singing “Leave You Alone,” until a girl uttered, “Wow.” For the lively “Rooftops,” Allen took the mic off the stand and danced across the stage. He changed the chorus of the song, “Shout it from the rooftops all over the world,” into “Shout it from the rooftops all over Sacramento.” The song included solos from each of the three band members. Asking the audience to stand up and approach the stage, Allen closed the show with his hit song, “Live While We’re Dying.”

After Allen left the stage, the room erupted in chants of “Encore!” He returned to perform three more songs, including “Shut That Door” and the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” but not before pleading with the audience to support the World Vision children’s charity. Allen traveled to Kenya last year as an ambassador for the organization. For more information on the organization, visit www.worldvision.org.

March for the dream continues in Sacramento

2013-01-24T20:24:39Z

“We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

The words of Martin Luther King Jr. were quite evident as the 32nd annual March for the Dream took place on Monday, Jan. 21.

An estimated crowd of 30,000 marched to the Sacramento Capitol Building and the Convention Center. Marchers of all ethnic persuasions came to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. as they marched from the Oak Park Community Center, Sacramento City College and Grant High School.

Community representatives, local employers, healthcare professionals, small business vendors and others attended the event to supply guests with valuable information about education, employment and community services.

This year the event also featured a rally in front of the Capitol West Steps.

For the first time in several years rain did not come down on this parade allowing families to enjoy a car show and other outdoor events.

Crowds gathered inside two large halls to view high school marching band performances, poetry readings, community educational and employment panels. Dozens of community organizations were represented and had booths at different halls in the convention.

Educational videos played during the event emphasizing the work of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement. The event also included many activities for children and adults to participate in. The hands on activities added to this year's Martin Luther King Jr. celebration.

The work and name of Martin Luther King Jr. and the role he played in American history continues to be kept alive through the annual Sacramento celebration.

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Locally owned: Girl Glass Studio: Shannon Jane Morgan and Kyrana Michaelson

2012-12-21T05:32:41Z

Shannon Jane Morgan’s first exposure to the ancient art of glassblowing was when friends invited her to an arts and crafts conference in the Bay Area. While there, she saw a glassblowing demonstration and was “blown away” by what artistic hands could do and by how smoothly all the glassblowers worked side by side in sync.

Shortly thereafter, Morgan enrolled in a Glassblowing 101 class at San Francisco State. When the instructor asked why she was there, she answered, “Because I’m supposed to be.”

Morgan says she “was terrible at it,” but when a local glass artist came to the class he noticed her. Morgan attributes the attention to her age - she was in her thirties and older than the rest of her classmates. The artist offered Morgan a job working in his Emeryville studio, and although there was no pay Morgan cleaned the studio four days a week to earn a day of precious furnace time.

While cleaning, she would pick up bits of colored glass from the floor and use them in her early glassblown pieces. She remembers her first piece – an opal white vase with shards of colored glass.

It did not take long until Morgan was hooked on glassblowing and gave up her former business making neon signs.

In the 1990s, she heard about a furnace that had been built 20 years earlier for Sacramento City College by ceramic and glassblowing artist Andre Gayet. The furnace had never been used because a gas crisis hit about the time it was completed and the school couldn’t fire it up.

Morgan tracked down Gayet, who got the furnace running, and the two started offering glassblowing classes with Morgan as Gayet’s assistant. Again, there was no pay for the work but Morgan could go to the studio at night and use the furnace for her creations.

Morgan fondly recalls a “magical day” during the school’s winter holiday break when she and Gayet were able to blow glass uninterrupted. Working in a kind of hot glass cocoon, Shannon says that “no one was around and I remember the sound of the rain dripping on the tin roof.”

Morgan credits Gayet as her mentor who taught her the art and has supported her ever since. He insisted that if she wanted to get better and to make a living out of glassblowing she needed to fill her lehr (a kiln that slowly cools the glass objects) everyday.

Gayet says that he taught her how to make goblets, which are now “a mainstay of the business and are collectibles.” Gayet praises Morgan’s skill and notes that “color is her forte and she has become a master glassblower.”

Morgan took her skills to Renaissance fairs, where she did glassblowing demonstrations and sold her goblets and chalices. The turning point in her business was when she presented a special goblet to the presiding Queen Elizabeth at the fair in Novato. Suddenly, everyone wanted a similar goblet and she sold hundreds of them in a week.

Another successful business venture began when she proposed creating glass pumpkins for the lawn of a Midwest arboretum. She produced and sold over 2,000 glass pumpkins and her participation in the festival has been a recurring annual event ever since.

Morgan met Kyrana Michaelson in 2009 at a lunch for mutual friends. Michaelson is a photographer and a relative newcomer to glassblowing. She handles much of the backend work of the business. The two became business and life partners in 2010 and are working to establish a strong local client base so that they can be near Morgan’s mother.

Girl Glass Studio has begun offering Groupon deals for group classes and private lessons. In addition to building the business, their goal is to give people a true experience of glassblowing. Morgan wants the practice to be meaningful and she teaches about color, glass, tools and safety as the students produce high-quality glass paperweights. The students also come away with an “appreciation for how hard it is,” laughs Michaelson.

In addition to offering classes, Morgan sells her glass art. Seasonal pieces, such as ornaments for Christmas and vases for Mother’s Day, are popular items. She accepts commissions and occasionally takes on glassblowing apprentices - not for pay, but when she feels there is a heartfelt connection between her, the student and the glass.

Working on projects with other glassblowers can be “like a silent dance,” explains Michaelson. As if choreographed, each blower anticipates the other’s next steps and they work quietly together in dancelike moves.

Michaelson notes that Morgan freely gives her knowledge to new glassblowers just to see the excitement and awe on their faces as “they get a capture of their own breath.”

At a recent open studio, Ashley and Matthew Zellmer each had an opportunity to create an ornament. Ashley smiled and said, “We wanted to make an ornament to celebrate our first Christmas in our first real house as a married couple. It was so much fun!” A video of Matthew Zellmer’s glassblowing experience can be seen in video footage taken by Phil Kemp.

The third and final weekend of the December Girl Glass open studios, which includes sales, demos and short classes, will be Dec. 21-23. Upcoming activities in early 2012 include tumbler classes, paperweight classes and a “Get Your Flame On” class to make heart paperweights for Valentine’s Day.

Morgan acknowledges that glassblowing is her passion, and adds that “the world would be an interesting place if we pursued our passions.” She relishes working every day because each time there is the “possibility of miracles and of making something truly beautiful.”

Girl Glass Studio can be reached at 916-706-1875 or by email at GirlGlassStudio@gmail.com. The studio is located in Sacramento at 15th and C streets, and is open by appointment and during open studio hours posted on the website.

"Locally Owned” is a regular column highlighting local business owners, the backbone of our community and economy. Each column explores the personal stories of the owners and the businesses they built.

Contested development: the struggle over Curtis Park Village

2012-12-06T20:41:39Z

The future can’t come fast enough for Paul Petrovich. The prominent Sacramento developer has spent nine years and more than $25 million to bring the controversial Curtis Park Village project online, and he’s so close now, he must be able to taste it. So at last week’s emergency meeting of the Sierra Curtis Park Neighborhood Association, called to discuss the developer’s latest proposed changes to the project, he did something entirely out of character. He apologized for scaring the bejesus out of the neighborhood and withdrew most of his proposed changes.

“No one has a bigger vested interest in making sure this project turns out the best that it can be than me,” Petrovich told the SCNA board and approximately 40 residents in attendance. It’s a mantra of his, and no doubt he means it, considering he’s paying $5,000 per day in interest on the money borrowed to clean up the former railyard situated between Sacramento City College and the Curtis Park neighborhood.

If you stand at the peak of the Sutterville Road bridge that crosses the railroad tracks just south of City College and gaze north across this 72-acre brownfield, you can imagine Petrovich’s future, or fill in the blanks yourself. The toxic soil from the railroad days has been either removed or encapsulated on the site, which has been bulldozed flat. White signs stick out of the dirt indicating the location of various new streets. A horizontal bulldozer track bifurcates the property; commercial zone to the south, residential zone to the north. The buildings of downtown Sacramento loom in the middle-distance. It looks like a giant cavity waiting to be filled.

Petrovich Develop Company plans to build more than 500 single and multi-family housing units and 200,000 square feet of retail space on the property. The project has been touted as one of the ultimate urban-infill projects on the West Coast.

But if you don’t get up on that bridge, or take the light rail to South Sacramento, you’re likely to never notice the site. It’s not very visible from ground level. I live in Curtis Park, just blocks away, and it’s almost like it’s not there. It’s been going on for so long – efforts to reclaim the land began in the mid-1990s – it’s easy to forget about. Earlier this year, I was jogging down 24th Street, where a chain link fence separates the project’s eastern boundary from Curtis Park, and was literally startled when I noticed several of those white signs sticking up out of the dirt, informing the neighborhood that Fifth Avenue and Donner Way will soon be bisecting 24th Street.

You can’t stop the future. However, as the Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association has shown and continues to demonstrate, you can change it, if you do your homework and remain persistent. The SCNA has been Petrovich’s nemesis since the project began and occasionally it has even gotten its way, as former SCNA president Rosanna Herber recounted in an editorial in the Viewpoint, the association’s monthly newsletter.

“For years, neighbors and the various SCNA boards [have] worked to better shape the project. Early in the process, we insisted on having affordable housing on site when the developer wanted to put it in another location. We strongly objected when all the multifamily units were removed because we believed it was important to have higher density around the two rail light stations. How many neighborhood associations would fight to have more density and affordable housing?”

The end result? After the board voted for and filed a six-point petition with the city, affordable housing and multifamily units became a significant component of the residential mix. Similarly, SCNA pushed for a pedestrian bridge to connect Curtis Park Village with the Sacramento City College light rail station. The bridge is now included in the project. “We got concessions on everything but the commercial square footage,” Herber wrote. “Still, our neighborhood will be changed forever. It wasn’t a unanimous vote. Three board members believed we could have gotten a better deal if we had sued.”

All of this occurred during the runup to the Sacramento City Council’s unanimous approval of the Curtis Park Village draft environmental impact report in 2010. The fact that a suit was contemplated is indicative of how serious many Curtis Park residents take their neighborhood. With its towering oak trees and solidly built Craftsman and Tudor-style homes, it’s easy to see why. Curtis Park is one of the most charming boroughs in Sacramento, and it’s understandable residents want to keep it that way.

Thus the emergency meeting called last week by the SCNA board. In October, Petrovich sought permission from the city to change the project’s housing mix to make room for an additional drainage basin required by the city and increase the project’s commercial footprint by 17,000 square feet to satisfy prospective tenants. The changes were significant enough to require approval from the city council, and SCNA was intent on forcing the issue. It could have significantly delayed the project, now tentatively scheduled to begin in late January. The day before the meeting, Petrovich informed Fifth District City Councilman Jay Schenirer he was withdrawing his request, except for those items directly related to the new drainage basin, which is required to meet 100-year flood protection.

Schenirer attended the meeting at Curtis Hall, stretched out on a folding chair in a slick gray suit. Petrovich sat in the front row, facing the board; I sat next to him. The stocky developer was a loaded spring, grinding his jaw, shoving his hands deep in the pockets of his blue jeans and occasionally trying not to roll his eyes as board president Patrick Soluri painstakingly reviewed the remaining changes, ensuring that each was directly related to the new drainage basin. As Petrovich fielded questions from the board and the audience members sitting behind him, it was not unlike watching a circular firing squad.

He pretty much kept his cool until the dreaded cookie cutter issue came up. There are plenty of people in Curtis Park who support Petrovich, but even they express fears that the project will wind up looking too suburban, with row upon row of bland, identical-looking tract homes. It’s a side issue, and had nothing to do with the subject of the meeting. Soluri broached the subject by mentioning that he’d received a Petrovich Development advertising mailer seeking out major homebuilders. Both he and board vice president Andrea Rosen voiced concern that a single major homebuilder, say, a Del Webb, might get the contract to build the majority of the project’s 155 single-family homes.

“No one has a bigger vested interest in making sure this project turns out the best that it can be than me,” Petrovich intoned his mantra, louder this time, in case he hadn’t been heard earlier. He’d been ticking off his big-ticket expenses most of the meeting: interest on the $25 million loan, $400,000 to remove Heritage Oaks that were on contaminated soil, $600,000 for a fancy water feature in the Curtis Park Village lake. He’s going to plant 2,400 trees on the site. The economy is lousy he noted – many homebuilders have gone bankrupt – and if he doesn’t sign up someone soon he’ll have to do it himself, a prospect he’s not too keen on.

“If this was an issue it should have been brought up three years ago,” Petrovich said with emotion in his voice. “You are impinging on my right to develop my property. I’ve made 44 changes to this project after nine years. Enough is enough. It’s too intrusive.”

While he talked, Soluri and Sacramento architect Phil Harvey, attending the meeting as Petrovich’s much-needed sidekick, reviewed a document that ultimately resolved the issue. The plan stipulates that the single family homes must emulate one of five styles reflective of the Curtis Park Neighborhood – including Tudor, Craftsman and Mission – and that on any particular block, a style may be repeated only every fifth house. So, even if one homebuilder does get the contract, it would have to abide by the plan, not a cookie cutter.

“See Paul?” Soluri said, somewhat hopefully. “We’re collaborating.”

The tension in the room eased somewhat, and Schenirer, like a kindly-yet-firm debate coach, reminded the board they had yet to officially vote on the proposed changes. They’re persistent, the SCNA board, and they reviewed the list of nine items in detail one more time, eventually approving seven of the proposed changes and, after much discussion, issuing no opinion on the remaining two. By that time, two hours had passed and half of the audience had headed home. One senior lady on her way out put her hand on Petrovich’s shoulder and thanked him for apologizing.

At the end of the night, an uneasy truce was reached in a struggle that’s sure to continue as the Curtis Park Village project comes online early next year. One major issue remaining to be decided concerns the site’s so-called flex zone and the amount of square footage that will ultimately be dedicated commercial space. But many of the Curtis Park Village blanks have been filled in. It may not be coming as quickly as Paul Petrovich desires, but the future is almost here.

Curtis Park Village developer reverses course on controversial project

2012-11-28T16:50:41Z

Developer Paul Petrovich has abandoned a plan to increase the commercial footprint and alter the residential mix of the controversial Curtis Park Village project, according to a city councilman.

“I know many of you are deeply concerned with the Curtis Park Village project and the proposed amendments that have come forward in recent months,” District 5 City Councilman Jay Schenirer stated in an email to constituents. “Yesterday, my office was informed by Mr. Petrovich that he will not be moving forward with any of the changes initially proposed to the commercial area of the project.”

The Curtis Park Village project is located between Sacramento City College on the west and the Curtis Park neighborhood on the east, in what used to be an abandoned railyard. Plans to redevelop the 72-acre brownfield have been in the works for nearly two decades, and residents of Curtis Park have taken a keen interest from the beginning.

In October, Petrovich sought permission from the city to change the project’s housing mix to make room for an additional drainage basin required by the city and increase the project’s commercial footprint by 17,000 square feet to satisfy prospective tenants. Now, the housing mix and the commercial footprint will remain the same, although some property lines might change to accommodate the additional drainage basin.

“As you may recall, it was discovered that the CPV site has additional storm water runoff onsite that was previously unknown,” Schenirer said. “To address these issues the Department of Utilities is placing additional requirements on the project that will necessitate a likely modification to the single family lot lines and the addition of a second detention basin north of the Donner Trunk.”

The revisions will require approval from the Planning and Design Commission and City Council, which should be much easier to achieve now that Petrovich has withdrawn his request.

“In light of the new information, the Rezone and the General Plan Amendment are no longer required entitlements for the project,” Schenirer said.

The Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association is holding a special board meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. to discuss the proposed revisions.

“The City of Sacramento has notified us that there is an accelerated timeline for the disposition of the proposed changes to the Curtis Park Village development,” states the SCNA website. “Due to this accelerated time frame, the SCNA board has scheduled a special board meeting on November 28 to formalize its position. We welcome and encourage your input. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7pm in Curtis Hall.”

ANALYSIS: Freeport bike lane faces challenges, including opposition from residents

2012-10-29T14:58:44Z

Sacramento city staff presented their final recommendation for the Freeport Boulevard Bike Lane Project to an overwhelmingly skeptical crowd of Land Park and Curtis Park residents at McClatchy High School on Thursday, Oct. 25.

At issue was a 1.2 mile section of Freeport Boulevard, a four-lane, two-way roadway that runs north from Sutterville Road to the railroad and light rail crossing at Fourth Avenue. The project is estimated to cost $1.4 million. The funding source is still to be determined.

The section of road is scheduled for resurfacing in 2014, and the city wants to take the opportunity to transform a major thoroughfare into a “complete street” more amenable to bicyclists and pedestrians by adding a bike lane and making other changes that would result in a loss of street parking and the reduction of Freeport Boulevard from four lanes down to two.

In the long term, in accordance with the city’s master plan, the project makes sense for several reasons. This segment of Freeport Boulevard passes by Sacramento City College, McClatchy High School and the Fourth Street light rail station, and commuters and students on foot and bicycles are thick during peak hours.

If the project is implemented, Sacramento City College students living in Midtown would have a nearly straight, 2-mile shot by bicycle to school. And of course encouraging more walking, bicycling and transit use reduces greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

Nevertheless, most of the 75 or so people who showed up at McClatchy High School had few kind words to say to city staff about the proposal – despite the fact that the Land Park Community Association recently issued a statement in support of the project.

Parking was a major issue. One man said that without street parking, he’ll have to park in his driveway, and it will be impossible to back out because of traffic.

One woman asked why the effects of the parking reduction hadn’t been mentioned in the Freeport Boulevard Bike Path draft Environmental Impact Report. A staff member explained that it isn’t required to be in the report. The woman scoffed.

Many residents were concerned traffic would be diverted onto neighborhood streets. That’s confirmed by the Environmental Impact Report, which states that traffic will be diverted to north/south corridors as far west as Riverside Avenue and as far east as 24th Street. Exactly what side streets these commuters will use is “intuitive,” according to the EIR, but nevertheless will have no impacts requiring “mitigation” in the “project area.”

The EIR also says that the completion of Curtis Park Village, Paul Petrovich’s urban-style mixed-used infill project located on the old Southern Pacific railyard east of City College and accessible by Sutterville Road, will not significantly impact traffic in the Freeport Boulevard Bike Lane Project area.

That audience wasn’t swayed.

“This is not smart planning, and this is not a smart street,” one man said, summing up the mood in the room.

For bicyclists, the Freeport Boulevard Bike Lane Project appears to be a sweet deal. While no bicycle advocate made a statement at the McClatchy High School meeting, the Sacramento Area Bicycle Alliance thanked the department of transportation for its decision on Facebook.

“Proposed intersection modifications where southbound 19th Street merges with Freeport at Taylor's Market aren't optimal, but they're an affordable, workable improvement,” the posting stated.

If the audience at McClatchy is any indication, however, cutting Freeport Boulevard from four lanes down to two is far from a popular proposition. Neither is eliminating up to 90 parking spaces. Residents are also weary of waiting in long lines at rail crossings.

Will the Freeport Boulevard Bike Lane Project go forward? That depends on the Sacramento City Council, which will vote on the issue Nov. 8.

TOUGH ROAD AHEAD

The bike lane project has three major obstacles.

The first is to create northbound and southbound bike lanes stretching from Sacramento City College to Midtown.

The second challenge is to make the intersection at Freeport Boulevard, 21st Street and Fourth Avenue safer for average bicycle riders in order to keep traffic flow continuous on the southbound bike and auto lanes, which are right next to each other.

That’s no easy task, considering the roadway crosses three pairs of oblique-angled railroad tracks that are extremely slippery, even when they’re not wet, and then merges with southbound traffic rounding the blind corner at Freeport Boulevard and Fourth Avenue, where Taylor’s Market is located.

The third obstacle, and judging from the reaction of the audience gathered in the McClatchy High School cafeteria, the hardest to overcome, is convincing local residents that the Freeport Boulevard Bike Lane Project is a good idea.

With the first goal in mind, establishing bike lanes along the length of Freeport Boulevard, project manager David Edrosolon explained to the audience that he and his staff had explored various options for the Sutterville Road-to-21st Street segment, eventually deciding that the best choice was to cut Freeport Boulevard’s four 8 and a half-foot-wide lanes down to three lanes: one 11-foot-wide lane traveling north, one 11-foot-wide lane traveling south and a 10-foot-wide, two-way left-hand turn lane dividing them.

That’s a significant cut: Four travel lanes down to two, on what still is labeled State Highway 160 on the map. In addition, most of the parking on the west side of Freeport Boulevard, as many as 90 spaces, will be eliminated. That creates space for two 5-foot-wide bike lanes running alongside the northbound and southbound auto lanes, from Sutterville Road through the intersection across Broadway under the freeway and all the way to W Street.

To solve the project’s second challenge, providing safe passage for bicyclists through the intersection, bicyclists will have the option to either merge naturally with southbound traffic rounding the blind chicane where Freeport Boulevard emerges from Land Park, or push a button to stop the traffic if it’s too dangerous to merge.

Two cutouts for buses to pull over for bicycle access would also be added – one in a designated park area. One Land Park resident’’s rant about this incursion into parkland drew the biggest applause of the night at the meeting.

For pedestrians, two triple-four crosswalks will be installed at difficult-to-cross intersections at Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Avenues. They are much-needed.

Expect a raucous meeting on Nov. 8. No doubt, more than one button will be pushed.

City seeks to link bike traffic between Land Park, Curtis Park

2012-09-11T16:14:57Z

The Sacramento City Council will consider approving a contract Tuesday for a project which aims to link bicycle and pedestrian traffic between Land Park and Curtis Park.

The Sacramento City College Bicycle/Pedestrian Improvements Project will create a pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly route on 12th Avenue between 23rd Street and Panther Parkway, according to a city staff report.

The route will link with the light-rail station, and eventually, with Sacramento City College via a pedestrian bridge that will extend from the parking-garage area on the college campus, over the train tracks and into the proposed Curtis Park Village development, according to the report.

A bike lane will also be painted on 12th Avenue to "to accommodate westbound bicycle traffic and eliminate the bicycling bottleneck," the report says.

The cost of the portion of the project that City Council will consider Tuesday will be $350,000, though none of that, according to the report, will come from the general fund.

Do you think this project is a good idea? Let us know in the coversation below this articleand we may quote you in our follow-up story after the meeting Tuesday night.

We’ve embedded first few pages of the report, which include the description, background and a map. You can download all 253 pages here. : Sacramento City College Bicycle/Pedestrian Improvements Project

Jared Goyette is the editor of the Sacramento Press. Follow @JaredGoyette

Hanson brushes up his Shakespeare for pentameter-rich 'King Arthur'

2012-06-30T16:19:01Z

photographs by Barry Wisdom /

Iambic pentameter. The very words strike fear in those who equate classic Shakespearean verse with a foreign language.

Luther Hanson, a Sacramento City College professor who also serves as the coordinator for the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival, hopes to change the common perception that the Bard is for Brainiacs.

His newly reworked play, "King Arthur," which kicks off the 2012 Sacramento Shakespeare Festival season June 29, is not part of the Shakespeare canon, but is an homage to the playwright (1564-1616) whose legacy has tormented more high schoolers than Columbus, Susan B. Anthony, and FDR combined.

Written in Shakespeare's familiar style of verse (five metrical feet per line), "King Arthur" is no talky, static, lab practical, but a robust, arch telling of the Arthurian legend suffused with humor, and punctuated with high-energy action sequences featuring broadsword duels galore (men versus men, women versus women, men versus women).

Directed by Hanson and produced by City Theatre at Sacramento City College, "King Arthur" plays through July 27 at the William A. Carroll Amphitheatre, and features Brent Bianchini (Arthur), Breanna Reilly (Guenevere), Rob August (Lancelot), Bradley Moates (Merlin), Sara Hanson (Morgan), and Anthony Person (Mordred).

To view more production photographs, please see Barry Wisdom's "King Arthur" gallery.

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Sacramento Shakespeare Festival production of "King Arthur"

WHEN: 8 p.m. June 29-30, and July 8, 13, 15, 20, 22 and 27 (gates open at 6:30 p.m.)

WHERE: William A. Carroll Amphitheatre, 4000 Land Park Dr., Sacramento, Calif.

WHO: Written and directed by Luther Hanson; featuring Brent Bianchini (Arthur), Breanna Reilly (Guenevere), Rob August (Lancelot), Bradley Moates (Merlin), Sara Hanson (Morgan), and Anthony Person (Mordred)

HOW MUCH: $18 (general admission); $15 (students, seniors, SARTA members); www.sacramentoshakespeare.ticketleap.com

MORE INFO/TICKETS: (916) 558-2228; www.sacramentoshakespeare.net

Diminishing the power of hate

2012-04-28T00:11:43Z

Although the four-letter word “hate” doesn’t get censored, the actions that are fueled by it do.

According to psychology Professor, Dr. Gayle Pitman, hate stems from individual psychological issues—fearing or hating what people are, or psychological issues projected outward caused by social, institutional and religious teachings.

“In some ways, religion is a good thing, but it can also be used as a powerful and dangerous tool,” said Pitman, who has taught psychology of sexual orientation and psychology of women for 11 years at Sacramento City College.

In 2009 and 2010, two hate crimes were reported in the Los Rios District—both occurred at City College, according to Los Rios District Police Sgt. Mike Olson. One act of intimidation based on race was reported in 2009 and in 2010 there was an assault based on sexual orientation.

Although only two crimes were reported, Olson said many hate crimes involving intimidation go unreported.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines hate crimes as bias against victims based on race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or national origin, and physical or mental disability.

In 2009 and 2010, the number of hate crimes has held constant with more than 6,600 hate crimes per year nationwide, according to the FBI. Nearly half of the hate crimes were based on race, while religion and sexual orientation each accounted for 20 percent of the hate crimes committed.

Olson said finding the motive for hate crimes may not be clear unless suspects give clues as to how their anger was directed.

“Generally there is a greater punishment for hate crimes,” said Olson.

According to Pitman, people often feel the “bystander effect” when they witness a hate crime and don’t report it. By not reporting a crime or standing up to it, people maintain their neutral status and they are not seen as deviant from the closed-minded group.

An FBI report states that 60 percent of the crimes committed were by white offenders. Pitman refers to this white and heterosexual majority as a privileged group.

“If you claim to be an ally of a marginalized group, you may lose your privilege,” said Pitman.

As a straight man, Queer Straight Alliance faculty adviser Derrick Wydick has sensed the discomfort from other faculty members when they discover his role in the club.

“I have had some weird situations due to my involvement with QSA,” said Wydick, a Workability Counselor for students with disabilities. “There seems to be more respect for other cultures, such as blacks or Asians on campus than there is for the LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender] community.”

Wydick said some people are also uncomfortable with people with disabilities—especially when it comes to mental disabilities, such as Asperger’s syndrome.

“As a society, we are still wondering how we should interact,” Wydick said.

Although white offenders commit the majority of hate crimes statistically, City College student Jeff Cole, a 34-year-old white man, has experienced several situations where he was targeted based on his race and outspokenness.

“I’ve always been the kind of guy that speaks up,” said Cole, a construction management major.

In 1995 when Cole was in high school, he and some friends went to Land Park and were approached by a car with several black men in it. Cole and his friends were harassed and fled as five rounds were fired at them. No one was injured, and the incident was reported to police.

Cole said that he dated women of different races growing up, which occasionally created conflict with other men of his girlfriends’ races.

As a member of a predominantly black high school basketball team, Cole said he felt anger from peers who grew up more disadvantaged than he did, and four of his teammates beat him up out of resentment.

According to Cole, life experiences have taught him that hate has more to do with other things than just race—sometimes it’s because of economic status or the way one behaves.

“It’s good to be open-minded and not make final judgments based on color,” said Cole, who believes racism is learned. “Society needs a lot more positive role models that are sending out the right messages to the people who are not getting it.”

According to communication Professor Kimberly Church, who teaches conflict management, learning how to acknowledge, manage and talk about anger appropriately is the first step to conquering hate and build role models for healthy expression of anger.

“As a society, we ignore our anger and fear,” said Church. “Most of us are not ready to acknowledge our prejudices.”

Church said hate stems from “othering”—emphasizing differences that create delusion, irrational explanations, fear and anger.

“What we have in common often outweighs our differences,” said Church.

According to Pitman, the rise of anti-LGBT groups that focus on individuals’ differences are a pushback to the way things used to be—reversing progressive social change.

City College’s Cultural Awareness Center, which is one of its kind in the Los Rios district, by its design pushes social issues into the public campus sphere.

“Hate and prejudice are rooted in American history, and we are all victims,” said Victoria Henderson, Cultural Awareness Center coordinator.

Founded in 1996, the CAC provides guest lectures, discussions and programs from a diversity of opinions and cultural backgrounds representing local and global affairs, and aims to dispel myths, stereotypes and break down barriers.

“We know that children don’t come into this world racist or full of hate,” said Henderson. “However, along their path, messages are passed on to them and are reinforced by people and systems that they are told to trust [i.e., family, education, church and police].”

According to Henderson, changing racism and hate is an individual responsibility beginning with people asking themselves what they can do about stemming hateful speech and actions.

“One [solution] is to broaden the diversity of people within one’s friendship groups,” Henderson said. “Too often we fear what we don’t know. It’s about changing your mind and your heart.”

Assessment Center Supervisor Sherri Goldberg created and hosted the first LGBT conference on campus in March to promote a friendlier LGBT climate on campus.

“We don’t even have a web page,” Goldberg said. “I wrote a mini grant through the SCC Foundation to get some money for LGBT workshops and a conference started because I didn’t see anything going on in terms of campus-wide [LGBT] education.”

Pitman and Goldberg developed City College’s first campus climate survey in fall 2011 to gauge how students and faculty felt about the social climate on campus and find areas of improvement. The survey was submitted to Associate Vice President, instruction Julia Jolly, but no determination was made to implement the survey, according to Goldberg.

“There might be concerns about what the survey will find,” Goldberg said.

Disclosure: Matthew Blackburn is a staff writer for the Sac City Express. This article was originally published April 18, 2012 at http://saccityexpress.com/.

It’s art coming together

2012-04-26T22:53:11Z

It is fitting that during Earth Week, and a week before the Whole Earth Festival, the city of Davis will host the region’s largest professional art function that embraces earth —literally. That is earth of the ceramic variety.

The John Natsoulas Art Gallery is hosting the 23rd annual California Conference for the Advancement of Ceramic Art (CCACA) in downtown Davis April 27-29.

Pronounced “caca,” like the natural fertilizer that animals drop to the earth, the CCACA’s festivities will showcase ceramic art from three Los Rios District colleges, CSU Sacramento, UC Davis and more than 40 West Coast colleges, universities and high schools. Of the 5,000 who attend, 2,000 students will exhibit work to the public. Distinguished ceramic artists will also be conducting hands-on demonstrations, lectures and shows.

Natsoulas says the conference’s concept is to improve ceramic education, bring the ceramic field to a higher level, and network with the region’s artists.

Sacramento City College ceramic sculpture professor Mark Boguski has attended CCACA numerous times throughout his 25 years in the ceramics field and 15 years of teaching throughout Northern California.

“It’s just downright fun,” says Boguski. “I really see this as an extension of the classroom in a really good way. It’s a great opportunity for students to show their work in a public forum.”

About 20 City College students will show over 40 pieces at a gallery at 612 4th Street in Davis. Boguski said students gain experience setting up for the show, doing the lights, painting the pedestals, committing to present at a gallery to show and selling their work in a professional setting.

“That is such a great part of it—putting on a show,” Boguski said. “That is something we don’t do a lot of. [John Natsoulas] makes this happen, but the show goes up by all the blood and sweat of the students and instructors.”

Natsoulas attributes the 23-year-long success of CCACA to relying on downtown business owners to supply the raw space and to the physical nature of the ceramic artists, students and faculty’s art—using hard labor transforming raw space and materials into several galleries throughout downtown Davis.

“What we are about is community,” says Natsoulas, who has been in the ceramics field for over 26 years.

City College student Melissa Etcheverry says the quantity of schools attending allows her to see the many potential forms and functions of clay.

“People do some pretty interesting things will clay — some things you would never think of,” says Etcheverry, who is attending CCACA for the third time and will be showing two of her own pieces. “It’s really interesting. It’s to see what’s possible.”

Nan Osterholt, a retired nurse of 28 years, has returned to school at City College to pursue her second degree in art and will be attending CCACA for the third time.

“You are involved and you really get to experience what the art world is doing,” says Osterholt.

She says the exposure students receive, the impressions their art leaves on each other and networking with the ceramic community and public over the course of the weekend is more important than selling a piece.

“The exposure you get in Davis, you see what field of expertise different schools have,” Osterholt says, “and [it] gives you that idea of where would I like to challenge myself next.”

Osterholt hand-builds functional luminary light boxes from slabs of clay that she carves, glazes with bright colors and high fires.

“We are predominantly beginners,” says Boguski. “It’s a wonderful way for students to see what other colleges are doing, so somebody who might be interested in transferring to Humboldt, San Jose State, or San Francisco Art Institute can see their kind of work and talk to the instructors who are there.”

Natsoulas believes that CSU schools, such as Humboldt, San Jose and San Francisco consistently demonstrate some of the most innovative ceramic work.

According to Boguski, City College’s venue will be a shared space with Solano and Mendocino colleges—two schools that are very strong in functional pottery and wood firing—programs that City College does not have.

“It will be great for some of our advanced students to see,” Boguski says.

Former City College student Heather McFadin graduated from Humboldt State in 2007, with an emphasis in metalsmithing and ceramics, and is returning to CCACA for the sixth time.

“Gallery practices are learned — just like art technique, such as firing kilns or formulating glaze,” says McFadin. “Developing a portfolio and then presenting it among colleagues gains practical experience for a student seeking a professional career in art.”

McFadin thinks that clay lends itself to a wide degree of variation. Viewing the work of many artists allows her to see what artists are experimenting with and developing. Her work will be displayed at the College of the Redwoods gallery at 315 G Street in Davis.

“[It] allows me to continually learn about new techniques and watch the development of artistic dialogue among the professionals I admire in the ceramic art field,” says McFadin. “It is an inspiring display of ceramic sculpture every time.”

This is the first time McFadin has combined clay with metal to produce her latest body of work — nine functional luminary lamps made from translucent porcelain and forged metal, as well as a few pieces that were soda-fired in a wood kiln.

“I enjoy the process and creative challenge of building electrical fixtures,” says McFadin, whose luminous work, “Transpiration,” mimics the movement, erosion and deposition in natural forces of water, for which it was named.

Natsoulas says he intends to take CCACA further this year and leave a lasting impression on Davis.

“Before I was just interested in education.” Natsoulas says. “Now I have a whole new purpose in life.”

In lieu of California’s massive budget cuts to college’s art programs, which prevented some schools from returning to CCACA this year, Natsoulas says he plans to do a community build, where students will have an opportunity to use broken ceramic pieces to construct a 7-foot sculpture symbolizing California’s troubled budget and educational cuts.

“This is the first time in my life I can use the artist [in me] to do a community build,” says Natsoulas. “Imagine what kind of imprint we can leave in the community?”

If you would more information about CCACA, visit John Natsoulas Art Gallery.

Disclosure: Matthew Blackburn is a staff writer for the Sac City Express. This article was originally published April 26, 2012 at http://saccityexpress.com/.

High School Baseballers Don Pink to Fight Breast Cancer

2012-04-13T22:29:23Z

PINK! There’s no pink in baseball!....

Well actually there is…and quite a bit…at the 4th Annual Albie Swingin’ For Life Baseball Match-Ups which take place at Sacramento City College on April 28, 2012.

First Game at 10am. (Gates open at 9am)

“Pink-think” comes into play because all the players and umpires will be sporting pink…and when they round the bases, the runners will be tagging…you guessed it…pink bases.

This line-up of baseball games, held to raise money for Albie Aware Breast Cancer Foundation, pits some of the area’s best high school teams in a four game program.

Game 1 - 10am - Franklin vs. Antelope

Game 2 - 1pm - Roseville vs. Oak Ridge

Game 3 - 4pm - Elk Grove vs. Pioneer

Game 4 – 7pm - Christian Brothers vs. Jesuit

Before each game, breast cancer survivors who are friends, relatives, spouses or teachers of those teams will throw out the first pitch, and each _ inning will be played in memory/support of someone that has been affected by breast cancer. Also, public address announcements to raise awareness will be played throughout the games

“What’s been most impressive to me is that these young ballplayers, many of whom whose families have been impacted by breast cancer in some way, bring a great enthusiasm and spirit to this event. They’re proud in pink!”

--Chris Fahey, Organizer, Albie Swingin’ For Life

Tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, and admission is free for survivors wearing pink and children under 5. A 50/50 raffle will be held.

Disclosure: Steve LaRosa is Media Director for Albie Aware Breast Cancer Foundation

Sacramento City College to host first LGBT district-wide conference

2012-03-15T04:23:42Z

Through a collaborative effort between faculty and students, Sacramento City College will host the first Los Rios District-wide LGBT Conference Friday, March 16, from 1–5 p.m. in the Student Center.

The grassroots effort for LGBT education, rights and services in the Los Rios district is an attempt to increase understanding and support for all students and faculty throughout the system.“Even though we are one district, we are four different satellites, and [the conference is] kind of getting everyone together to start a dialogue,” said Queer Straight Alliance faculty adviser and Workability counselor Derrick Wydick. “We are hoping to support the efforts that are already established at each college and to help promote more of a Los Rios effort to make Los Rios—as a district—a more LGBT-friendly place.”

Partially funded by a mini grant from the Sacramento City College Foundation, all four Los Rios campuses will come together in one location to discuss lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues of faculty and students.

“We [Los Rios] all have different climates and populations,” said Assessment Center supervisor Sherri Goldberg, who has spearheaded the planning of the event in coordination with the Queer Straight Alliance (QSA) club at City College.

Although City College has the Queer Straight Alliance club on campus, Goldberg said she had recognized the need for a friendlier and more supportive environment for LGBT students.

“We don’t even have a web page,” said Goldberg. “I wrote a mini grant through the SCC Foundation to get some money for LGBT workshops, and a conference started because I didn’t see anything going on in terms of campus-wide [LGBT] education.”

According to Goldberg, the conference will include a panel of representatives from UC Davis and CSU Sacramento pride centers to discuss their campuses’ facilities and the challenges they encountered to get started.

Additionally, a University of the Pacific Ph.D student and high school instructor will share his personal experience about having to go back in the closet at work to keep his job, as well as discuss his research on LGBT students transitioning from high school into college.

“Nobody looks at transfer rates of LGBT students,” said Goldberg.

Other discussions will include City College psychology instructor Gayle Pitman on the classroom and campus climate for LGBT staff and students.

Goldberg said there are two breakout sessions aimed at students and faculty. LGBT students from UC Davis and CSU Sacramento will lead a discussion on student leadership, while the second breakout session for staff will discuss building a support system and becoming an ally—staff to student and student to student.

“Part of the conference, from a faculty standpoint, was to bring more information to LGBT issues,” said Norman Lorenz, an early childhood education professor at City College who will co-host the conference with QSA president and theatre arts and film major Mikey Griffin.

The conference will be followed at 6:30 p.m. by Fabulosity in Red, a talent show hosted by QSA to raise money for the local nonprofit Golden Rule Services.

“It’s just giving a whole bunch of different performers from acting to singing to dance to put on a show for people to see not only what talent QSA has, but what all of SCC has,” said City College student Alex Martinez, QSA secretary.

More information on the LGBT Conference can be found at http://www.scc.losrios.edu/current_students/student_services/lgbt.htm.

Disclosure: Matthew Blackburn is a staff writer for the Sac City Express. This article was originally published Mar. 14, 2012 at http://saccityexpress.com/.

High School’s Entire Freshmen Class Tours Local College

2012-03-15T00:50:45Z

Administrators at John F. Kennedy High School organized a mega fieldtrip this week: They brought every freshman student – all 500 – on a college campus tour.

The JFK ninth graders visited Sacramento City College on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. While college visits are not uncommon for Sacramento City Unified School District high school students, this is the first time a large campus has ensured that every member of a class gets to see a college in action before graduation.

“We want every student to know that they can go to college if they choose,” said JFK Principal Chad Sweitzer. “No matter what academic achievement level or income level you’re at, there are opportunities open to you.”

On Wednesday, the teens arrived at the college’s Student Center to hear a fiery speech by SCC Vice President Michael Poindexter, who spoke passionately about the potential of each student to change the world. Poindexter asked the teens to look into the eyes of those sitting next to them.

“You are looking into the eyes of the next President of the United States of America!” he shouted to applause. Poindexter ended his remarks by asking the students to repeat “I am the best in the world!”

To students who are not working as hard as they should in high school, Poindexter admonished: “We need you to get to on board.”

Students also heard from SCUSD Superintendent Jonathan Raymond, who told them to plan their futures well before graduation. “I didn’t start thinking about college until the fall of my senior year, which was too late,” he said. “I want you to be ahead of the game.”

The fieldtrip is an outcome of an emerging partnership between SCUSD, Los Rios Community College District and California State University, Sacramento. Through the partnership, the organizations hope to demystify higher education and, ultimately, decrease the number of college students who need remediation in English and math.

During this week’s fieldtrips, students learned how to register for classes, apply for financial aid and meet college requirements -- information not always apparent to high school freshmen, said Sweitzer. They also learned about classes to take in high school to prepare for the rigors of college.

Too often, said Sweitzer, kids emerge from high school without the skills needed to be successful in higher education. “We want college students to tell our kids what they wish they had known when they were in high school,” Sweitzer said.

SCC Professor Josh Roberts told the teens that knowing how to write an essay isn’t enough. They need to know how to critically think about subjects so they can defend an argument. He asked them to commit to reading for 30 minutes every day.

Ed Mills, associate vice president of enrollment at CSUS, gave the students three tips for success. “Show up, be dedicated and have some fun,” he said. He also encourage the teens to think creatively.

“Most of the jobs all of you will have don’t exist today,” Mills said. “You are going to build the world you’re going to live in. What’s the next Apple? What’s the next Facebook? You guys are going to decide.”

For more information about John F. Kennedy High School, visit www.jfkcougars.net.

Disclosure: Janet Weeks is the Communications Manager for the Sacramento City Unified School District.

New community brings neighborhoods together

2012-03-08T20:14:32Z

The Feb. 15 groundbreaking of the 72-acre lot that neighbors Sacramento City College brought the campus one step closer to becoming a bridge between the Land Park and Curtis Park neighborhoods.

The vacant lot east of Hughes Stadium and the Union Pacific rail line, which once served as a rail yard, is being transformed into a neighborhood by Petrovich Development Company. The new community will be called Curtis Park Village, a residential and retail development featuring a pedestrian bridge connecting it to the City College light rail station.

“On the north side, it’s going to be single family housing, parks, low-income senior housing, apartments and condominiums,” said City College Vice President of Student Services Robert Martinelli. “The southern portion [connecting to Sutterville Road] is going to be retail.”

According to Martinelli, the retail area is planned to include a movie theater, coffeehouse and a Safeway grocery store with additional retail space and a parking lot.

A bridge with a stairway and bike ramp will ascend from the area between the City College light rail station and the parking garage.

A suspension span over the light rail and Union Pacific rail lines will connect to the Curtis Park Village retail area where an additional stairway and ramp will descend.

“The bridge is going to be done in 2013 to 2014,” said Martinelli.

Currently, Curtis Park residents must use the narrow sidewalk on Sutterville Road’s bridge to access the City College campus, light rail station or other western points of the neighborhood.

“That would work out fairly well for me,” said Mark Taber, a Curtis Park resident and City College art major who crosses the busy Sutterville bridge with art equipment in tow.

Some students, as well as Martinelli, had concerns about an increase of foot traffic on campus.

“Maybe it would be good for entertainment, but there would be random people coming onto campus,” said Nelly Figueroa, major undecided.

Martinelli said funds for the construction of the bridge were secured by a federal grant obtained by the city of Sacramento. A portion of the funds will be used to build a sidewalk on the north side of Twelfth Avenue, adjacent to the city water tower to connect pedestrians and bikers to city sidewalks along the north end of campus to Freeport Boulevard.

“We had some issues and concerns about not wanting people to come across that bridge and come through the middle of the campus as their way out to Freeport [Boulevard] to catch a bus,” Martinelli said. “It’s a public place, you are never going to stop that, but we wanted to at least provide an alternate means.”

Controversy has dogged the project for years, especially from residents in the area who raised health concerns about the soil. The 72 acres located behind City College have been dormant for decades because of toxins left behind from railroad maintenance. Amid contention in the community, the Sacramento City Council eventually approved plans in 2010 for Petrovich to develop the land after clean-up measures were taken.

According to Martinelli, the first phase of the Curtis Park Village construction will begin in May or June, installing roads and housing. The addition of the retail area will provide more options for students to find affordable places to eat within walking distance of campus.

“I think that will be a good idea if they are going to have more options to go and buy food,” said Efrain Martinez, a psychology student who uses light rail and the bus to get to City College. “The prices [on campus] are so expensive, especially when you are a student.”

Dental hygiene student Bee Thao, a commuter from Natomas, recognizes the opportunity and challenges Curtis Park Village may bring to the neighborhood.

“I think traffic is already bad as it is,” said Thao. “Economy-wise, it’s going to help Sacramento out with jobs. It will give us a bigger variety than just the cafeteria [food] to munch on during lunch hour.”

Martinelli is hopeful that Curtis Park Village, in addition to the completion of Hughes Stadium and the Performing Arts Center construction on campus will help the neighborhood’s economy—bringing patrons from the community to sports games and plays as well as students to the surrounding community.

“The condos and apartments might benefit students who go to school here,” Martinelli said. “There would be jobs associated with the retail outlets. I do think that having a development like that with houses for sale, apartments, condos, even low-cost senior housing would be beneficial to, if not students, a lot of the faculty who want to work here at City College.”

See Express 2010 coverage of the City Council’s decision to allow development at Curtis Park Village at http://saccityexpress.com/2010/10/14/it-takes-a-village.

Disclosure: Matthew Blackburn is a Staff Writer for the Sac City Express. This story was originally published Mar. 8, 2012 at http://saccityexpress.com/

City Farm uses waste as an opportunity to grow

2012-01-31T21:39:14Z

The growing season is over.

In the California capital, dead autumn leaves lay heavy on the damp, manicured lawns of Sacramento City College as students learn that through death, something else will eat.

City Farm, Sacramento City College’s organic urban farm, concluded its first semester cultivating students into stewards of the land outside of Lillard Hall on Dec. 2 with an experiential learning experience—naturally recycling organic waste to create healthy, valuable, nutrient-rich compost for the next growing season.

“It's also called ecologically intelligent design,” says Robyn Waxman, City Farm faculty coordinator and graphic communication instructor. “Instead of taking, making and wasting, we are creating new and useful materials.”

According to a 2009 study by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. landfills account for 20 percent of the methane emission in the world—a potent green house gas 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. Over 34 million tons of food waste goes to U.S. landfills annually—more than any other kind of waste. Only 2 percent is composted.

“The human waste problem is a reality we will have to face in our future,” says guest lecturer Derek Downey, co-founder of the Davis Farmers’ Market Zero Waste Program.

Downey grabs a piece of soil from one of the City Farm plots and looks at it closely as he breaks it apart with his fingers—it is dry, sandy and does not contain any life.

City Farm did not flourish as Waxman had hoped—swiss chard, brocolli and other leafy greens appear dwarfed.

“Even plants have better immune systems with compost,” says Downey, a UC Davis biological systems engineering graduate.
Compost is nature’s way to rejuvenate soil by decomposing organic matter (food waste and yard trimmings) into living soil providing colorful, delicious, micronutrient-rich food.

Waxman and Downey developed and distributed a seven-step pictorial guide to composting to over 20 City Farmers.

“Dead things equal food,” says Downey as he demonstrates layering branches and leaves to form the base of the pile—allowing air to circulate.

Waxman brought a container filled with compostable kitchen waste from her home to demonstrate suitable compost—egg shells, coffee grounds and vegetables.

A few students enquire on where to get worms to start a worm bin for at-home composting.

“I’ve got worms!” says Ryan Thalken, City Farm President, biology major and gardener.

According to Downey, worm poop produces more microbes and pasteurizes the soil. Worms love coffee grounds—a perfect ingredient for compost piles and gardens where worms reside. Downey recommends asking neighborhood cafes for their coffee grounds.

“It’s one way of taking responsibility for your community’s waste,” says Downey.

Waxman explains that classes would like to work together for a common goal or shared learning experience.

“While City Farm does have a club who act as the stewards of the space, City Farm is primarily a place for classes to experiment and test theory learned in the classroom,” says Waxman. “It's a multi-disciplinary, academic garden.”

The Science Math and Engineering Club are sharing the plant biology plot for a water-saving hydroponics experiment. Next semester, the art and chemistry class hopes to include a African history class studying the European indigo plantations to demonstrate making indigo dye for fabrics.

“People crave reconnecting with things that are real,” Waxman says.

Students shovel a thin layer of soil over the pile to prevent flies and odors before covering the pile with a tarp to retain heat and moisture.

With over 10 other classes and clubs waitlisted to use one of the four plots, Waxman feels very positively about City Farm’s potential growth with participatory learning and taking personal responsibility of our futures.

Several other lecture opportunities contributed to City Farm’s success. Secretary of Sustainability and plant biology major Michael Viscuso facilitated workshops on amending soil with natural fertilizers. California Food Literacy Center co-founder and ‘Awake at the Wisk’ blogger Amber Stott discussed natural pest control—more than 60 people attended.

“Most students don't realize how much power they wield,” says Waxman.

In October, City Farm students hosted a documentary film festival for National Food Day focusing on genetically modified food, fair labor practices and sustainable food production—over 100 attended.

“City Farm allows you to take it upon yourself to learn and make with it [the farm] what you want,” says Waxman.

By Monday afternoon following Friday’s composting party, Waxman had emailed City Farm students—per administration, the compost pile must be dismantled.

While clearing the pile, students discussed other ways to increase City Farm yields with compost.

A student passing by the deconstruction of the compost pile stops to ask if the compost pile would smell badly.

“It should smell like the forest floor—like the good stuff,” Waxman says smiling.

Disclosure: Matthew Blackburn is a journalism student at Sacramento City College

Converting Freeport Blvd into a 'complete street'

2012-01-30T23:45:35Z

The City of Sacramento Transportation Department is considering a redesign of traffic lanes along Freeport Blvd between Sutterville Road and 4th Avenue. This part of the roadway is scheduled for resurfacing in 2013 and last August the city approved a Bike Lanes Project to study options for redesigning Freeport Blvd into a "complete street" as part of the resurfacing effort.

From the National Complete Streets Coalition website: "...a complete streets policy ensures that transportation planners and engineers consistently design and operate the entire roadway with all users in mind - including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and riders, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities."

This section of Freeport Blvd currently has two traffic lanes in each direction, some on-street parking and no bicycle lanes. The designated speed limit is 30 MPH and an estimated 21,000 vehicles travel this street each day. Sacramento City College and C.K. McClatchy High School are located along the section, along with residences, small businesses, restaurants and a senior residential facility.

The city planners are considering these redesign options for Freeport Blvd:

3 Segment Design Concepts (Sutterville to Vallejo)
- Bike lanes, parking on both sides, no middle turn lane, one lane north and one lane south
- Bike lanes, middle turn lane, parking on east side 13th to Bidwell, one lane north and one lane south
- No bike lanes, no parking on either side, two lanes north and two lanes south with lane widths increased

4 Options (Vallejo to 4th)
- Signed southbound bike route
- Southbound bike lane/bike route with push button
- Southbound bike lane with signal control
- T intersection

Students, residents, business owners, cyclists, pedestrians and commuters are showing interest in the project. Tom Buford, Senior Planner with the City of Sacramento, says community interest is healthy. In a telephone conversation, Buford said, "It's an important street in the community and we've seen the kind of interest that we would expect from discussions of changing the way a roadway is working."

Anyone interested in this project is invited to provide comments and suggestions to the draft Environmental Impact Report that is being developed by the city transportation department. Comments and suggestions may be submitted in writing until 5:00 PM, February 13, 2012 to:

Dana Allen, Associate Planner
City of Sacramento, Community Development Department
Environmental Planning Services
300 Richards Blvd., 3rd Floor
Sacramento, CA 95811
Phone: (916) 808-2762
Email: dallen@cityofsacramento.org

Questions may be directed to Linda Tucker, City of Sacramento Transportation Department Director at (916) 808-7523 or email her at ltucker@cityofsacramento.org.

Disclosure: Ron Nabity is an avid cyclist, Sacramento City College student and resident near Freeport Blvd. Ron is also a regular contributor to the Sacramento Press.

Ways to spend your MLK, Jr. Day in Sacramento

2012-01-12T21:22:34Z

Not everyone has this coming Monday off (alas!) but for those that do, Sacramento has a few options for using your day off to celebrate the man it honors—Martin Luther King, Jr.

MLK365 is presenting the 31st Annual March for the Dream, which includes a peaceful march (choose to begin from the Oak Park Community Center, Grant High School, or Sacramento City College) that convenes on the Sacramento Convention Center for an afternoon of celebration. There will be something for all ages and interests—vendor booths, kids’ crafts & activities, entertainment, an art village featuring local artists, and more.

The Crocker Art Museum is opening their doors for their free Holiday Monday program. Monday’s event—“MLK Day – Lift Every Voice”—is a music-infused celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr, with regional choirs performing throughout the day. The event concludes with a screening of Not in Our Town, a documentary about the movement to stop hate.

If you think both those celebrations look fun—and you're also looking to listen to some jazz—consider signing up for Sacramento Wine & Nightlife Tours' MLK Day Experience & Smooth Jazz Celebration. This event meets for the March in front of Sac City College, attends the Celebration at the Convention Center, and then shuttles you to "Lift Every Voice" at the Crocker. From there, the shuttle will take you out to the Old Sugar Mill to enjoy musical performances by Tony Elder & Westbound Groove, Cynthia Douglas, DJ Rock Bottom, and more. This is a great way to make the most of your day!

Also open for the Holiday Monday, though not MLK-themed, is the Discovery Museum Science & Space Center, which is celebrating the opening weekend of their new Blast from the Past Exhibit. Kids can enjoy a day of hands-on fun learning all about dinosaurs! There’s a Dinosaur Train creative play area, dinosaur bone replicas on display, a “dino-nest” photo opportunity, and a dinosaur diorama craft.

If you are looking to give back with your day off, consider one of Hands On Sacramento’s volunteer opportunities for MLK, Jr. Day of Service.

Disclosure: Written by Sacramento365.com Assistant Editor, Alison Kranz

Veteran’s awareness week celebrated at Sacramento City College Nov.10

2011-11-13T22:52:57Z

The Quad at Sacramento City College was occupied Nov. 10 with approximately 350 students and faculty as guest speakers approach the stage to show their support and appreciation for the U.S military.

U.S Army veteran Kim Mack, served 3 years as a military police officer. She addressed the crowd by telling a personal story of the importance of veteran’s day.

“Service comes in all forms,” said Mack. “Service comes in many different ways. Today we honor our veterans and our people currently serving. Our young men and women who are putting their life on the line in Afghanistan and Iraq so you can go to school here, and get a job in a field that you want to work in.”

According to Mack, for over 200 years, the veterans have been making sure that Americans have the freedoms that to be enjoy in this country.

“Nobody has freedoms like we have,” said Mack. “You look at Egypt and what’s going on in the Middle East and look at what they’re going through. They want what we have. They’re risking their lives to get what we have.”

While honoring the veterans, Mack said to honor the parents.

“Our pain is real too,” says Mack. “Our support for our children is strong, and it hurts. Not even some of my closest friends would ask me how I was doing when my son was in a combat zone.”

District nine-assembly member Roger Dickinson, advocate for the dream act as well as the importance of education for students spoke from another perspective.

“You have a right to ask for whatever grieves you to be addressed by to that we elect to be in public office to serve us,” said Dickinson. “It is important that we remember those things that we often take for granted and don’t reflect on the fact that they truly have been purchased for over 200 years with the blood of our fellow Americans.”

There are thousands of American servicemen and women deployed around the world, said Dickinson. They defend the freedoms that Americans cherish and stand up for those that don’t have the capacity to defend themselves.

In response to the overall outcome of the event, Vets Club President Zach Pierce wasn’t impressed with the student turnout.

“I think that we did an ok job for the event being on such short notice,” said Pierce. “I wish that more students would get involved. I hope they understand why this sort of event is important. I’d like them to get a glimpse of the military culture.”

Education reform issues voiced at Latino Town Hall

2011-11-11T07:28:43Z

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 arts and concerns about community safety were also discussed.

Johnson also addressed the student achievement gap issue: of 1,000 Hispanic and Latino students in Sacramento, roughly 60 percent will graduate from high school on time, and only 13 percent will go on to college.

The mayor suggested a grading system that would allow parents to hold schools accountable, and charter schools as an alternative to sub-par public education.

Sandra Guzman, a counselor for the Puente Project at Sacramento City College, asked whether it were true that the charter schools supported by the mayor will not include ESL and ELL (English Language Learning) in the curriculum.

“They will and they should,” Johnson said.

The Town Hall was the first Latino-specific event to be hosted by the mayor since he took office four years ago.

The mayor’s website promoted the event as a “Listening Session”, and Johnson announced in his opening comments that his No. 1 goal for the evening was to hear from anyone in the audience who wished to stand up and speak.

The meeting was scheduled from 5:30 - 6:30 p.m., but one hour proved too short a time. Lengthy introductions and the need to translate dialogue between English and Spanish limited the number of questions that were addressed.

Roberto Lopez, a program coordinator at La Raza Galeria Posada in Midtown, barely had an opportunity to voice his concern about the lack of funding for Latinos in the arts sector.

The gallery, which has been operating in Sacramento for nearly 40 years, is on the verge of closing due to inadequate support. Lopez attended to ask Mayor Johnson how he intends to support La Raza Galeria Posada and empower artists in the Latino community.

According to the mayor’s campaign manager Steven Maviglio, Johnson kept his campaign promises from 2008, but will not rest on his laurels in next year’s election. The Town Hall meetings will play an important role in creating a blueprint for 2012.

"When most politicians go out, they speak to the public and not the other way around. We want citizens to know that their voices will be heard," said Maviglio Wednesday.

Vidal Gonzalez, who works as a youth specialist at La Familia Counseling Center, believes that Latinos in Sacramento are at more of a disadvantage today than they were 10 years ago. This is surprising in light of the fact that the Latino population has risen significantly.

“We know that we’re 27 percent of the population,” Gonzalez said. “Do we have to wait for the next census for them to notice it?”

He said he hopes to see strong Latino candidates running for City Council in the near future, and maintains that leadership is going to have to come from within the community itself.

Jenny Padierna Cortes, an eighth grader at the Language Academy of Sacramento, said she left the meeting happy. Following her question about vacant lots in her Oak Park neighborhood, Mayor Johnson invited her to the microphone and promised to pay her application fee to Sacramento State College, where she hopes to study writing.

The meeting closed on a high-energy note, and the mayor announced his intention to meet with the Latino community again in January or February to continue the dialogue.

The next Town Hall meeting will be a joint effort with the Sierra Curtis Park Neighborhood Association. Visit Mayor Johnson’s campaign website for more information.

Teaching with dirt: City Farm project starts at city college

2011-09-14T02:07:28Z

Sacramento City College students, faculty and staff gathered on campus Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the kickoff of the City Farm pilot project, an experiential curriculum-based community garden that will serve as an alternative teaching mechanism for multiple disciplines throughout the next school year.

The project was developed over the spring semester by a group of students and administrators led by the school’s faculty garden coordinator and graphic communications professor, Robyn Waxman.

“We had been thinking about how to get all these other disciplines to learn from the dirt,” Waxman said, adding that future students will be able to use it for hands-on learning. “It signifies a really big change in how we teach, deal with the budget crisis and how we build community on our campus,” she said.

The garden, located between Lillard Hall and the staff parking lot on the southeast side of campus, is composed of four 12-foot-by-4-foot raised beds, each complete with a drip irrigation system, and was completed over the summer with a $1000 grant from the college foundation. All other materials are donated from advocates such as Soil Born Farms and other small organic farms in Davis.

The kickoff event was met with much support from the college’s students and staff. A group of about 30 audience members, including children and teachers from the school’s child development center, looked on as guest speakers said a few welcoming words over four large, empty raised garden beds.

“We left this space empty so everyone can imagine what could be grown here,” Waxman said.

The garden doesn’t necessarily result in something people have to eat in the end, Waxman explained, “It has a tangible medium to make abstract concepts learned in a four-walled classroom more meaningful - a way of having a classroom that doesn’t need to be in a building.”

Each bed will be implemented into a class curriculum and passed along at the end of each semester. For the fall semester, one bed will be used for a plant biology class, which will grow California native plants, and another for the Child Development Center.

A third bed will be given to the City Farm Club, a student/faculty alliance that will act as the driving force behind the community garden, caring for its own garden bed and helping the children take care of their bed as well.

“We will be the overseers of all the beds; the force behind the scenes,”said Ryan Thalken, president of the City Farm Club.

The club is currently taking new members and is discussing a weekly meeting time for the group. Thalken said he hopes to begin planting for the winter season soon. For more information on the City Farm Club or how to get involved, click here.

Kathryn Jeffery, president of the college, described her enthusiasm for the project as reluctant at first, but added that she sees promise in the small scale project.

“It’s an opportunity to take a concept or an idea, put action behind it and see it grow over time,” Jeffery said.

Jeffery, who explained her father worked as a farmer, said the pilot project will give students at the college and children at the Child Development Center a chance to become more personally involved and more engaged in their learning environment.

Loretta Bruce, lead teacher at the Child Development Center, said she has already discussed with the children vegetables they would like to grow, which include tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce and cauliflower. The center still needs children’s hand tools and watering cans, she said.

“I think the earlier the kids realize they can grow this food, it’ll help them grow into a healthier lifestyle,” Bruce added.

The opening ceremony was not completed without Jeffery’s well-wishes: “Go forth and dig!” - That was followed by a ceremonial turning of the soil by the children of the center themselves.

“In honor of all those who till the soil, we do this today,” Jeffery concluded.

At the end of each semester, the beds will be passed onto the next semester’s classes to build upon and grow successively.

“It’s hard to imagine that a garden will be used as a place for anything other than growing food, but it can,” Waxman said, adding that it’s going to take a little time for people to see the abstract use of the garden, though other Los Rios colleges are already interested.

Administrators will look back on the project near the end of the school year to make further decisions on whether or not the project will continue or expand.

For more information on how to get involved with the City Farm pilot project, or the multiple disciplines it will serve, click here.

Sac City College Film students win Sacramento Film & Music Festivals, back-to-back!

2011-08-31T20:37:49Z

Sac City College Film students win Sacramento Film & Music Festivals, back-to-back!

San Francisco native, and Sacramento City College honor roll student & film major DonCarlos Sanders won the Audience Choice award for best film in the 10×10 filmmaker challenge at the Sacramento Film and Music Festival. Filmmakers, families, and friends filled the historic Crest Theatre in Sacramento, California on August 21st, to watch the various projects submitted by filmmakers of all ages. The 10×10 filmmaker challenge was the film festival finale, and host to over twenty great short films competing in various categories such as best use of color & image, emerging filmmaker, and audience choice for best film among other categories.

OmegaDon Promotions and DonMegaTV CEO DonCarlos Sanders also known as the artist Black Book from the 90s hip hop group; The African Identity; has written and directed his first film. The Sacramento City College film major’s career expansion into the world of film has been moving full steam ahead. DonCarlos made his acting debut nine months ago in the short film “There’s An App For That” by Clint Howard, and followed that by co-starring in “The Pitch” (Winner- 2010 Winterfest Sacramento Film and Music Festival) by Dwight Taylor. In such a short time DonCarlos has made a lot of surprising moves.

DonCarlos Sanders is the writer and director of “ENVY” starring Dan Wood, Patricia Simmons, and Joe Calavita; which premiered at the historic Crest Theatre during the six o’clock (pm) show. He reached out to many of his friends and colleagues in various communities to make this effort a success for everyone. He also stuck to his beliefs of helping children as well as adults realize their dreams by mentoring, consulting, and valuing the importance of networking. Many of the people in the cast and crew for (this) film are working in this field for the first time.

“ENVY” is a IMDb credited short film, filmed on location at Howe Park, Enotria Restaurant & Wine Bar, and The Progressive Elks Lodge #1587 all in Sacramento, California.

Short Synopsis: The Senator’s wife is ready to leave him, but she knows too much. She needs the expertise of a discreet specialist. She needs Vinny Vincenza.

For more information about this film, and a full list of Cast & Crew members please visit www.wix.com/omegadonpromotion8/ENVY.

DonMegaTV was established in 2007 by Black Book after his son was shot by the Oakland Police, and OmegaDon Promotions was established in 2009 to promote and serve our communities, businesses, and entrepreneurs.

Disclosure: D.C. Sanders is the CEO, and Editor-In-Chief of MegaDon Media for OmegaDon Productions

Creative way to pay for college

2011-08-05T06:59:15Z

For Allen Pryor, selling his original artwork was the obvious way to earn money to pay for college. Pryor had his first opportunity to showcase his art at The Sandwich Spot located at 2108 11th Ave.

As an art major at Sacramento City College since last spring, Pryor said that he has tried to find galleries and other such places to feature his art, but that many of them charge prior to displaying pieces. He added that he is blessed that his art is featured at The Sandwich Spot.

“It really gives me the opportunity to get my work out there,” Pryor said. “Everything helps. This is more than a hobby.”

Courtney Florian, manager and co-owner of The Sandwich Spot, said the shop is a place for artists to show their work for free.

“My sister and co-owner Jaime Silva have always been into art and the art community, and (we) showcase college art with no charge and no gratuity,” Florian said. “We ask only that artists bring in their beforehand for approval and we switch our artists out every six weeks,” Florian said.

“Everybody loves (Pryor’s) art,” Florian added. “It’s fun to look at, especially the 3D pieces. Customers spend time reading all of the writing in some of his pieces. He has great ideas.”

Pryor will have his original paintings up until the end of August.

“I’ve earned about $55 in total for commissioned work of prints and drawings,” Pryor said. “I have yet to sell an original painting.”

Pryor said his works go to paying for what any college student has to worry about – tuition and gasoline.

“Before I started focusing on college, I had to pay for my truck insurance,” Pryor said. “It has only been two years since I tried to save for college.”

Pryor said the Department of Rehabilitation and Nasco, an art supplier, pays for much of his tuition and book and work supplies, but that he still has to pay for necessities.

“(Art) wasn’t really an idea that just occurred to me. It was more of a lifestyle process,” Pryor said, adding that he grew up with an artistic family and developed basic skills from therapy sessions.

He first turned to drawing as a therapeutic practice to ease his symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome – it helped Pryor by focusing his attention and acting as an outlet for his thoughts.

“Art became my life. It was the one thing I could get into and do well at and not be hindered,” Pryor said. “Drawing is habitual, and I’m always carrying around a sketchbook. You never know when a moment of inspiration will hit.”

His mother, who is also an artist, encouraged him to learn new ways to make art.

She was also the one who suggested he sell it, when he was younger, helping out at her county fair booth. Pryor started selling his art when his was a kid helping out at his mom’s art and jewelry booths. Once he got to college, he decided the money should go to paying for school.

Pryor said he would like to make art his career by painting for a living. He said he is working on taking a graphic design, class so that he can branch out into other types of art.

Pryor added that he works immediately on any request he receives, but that as an artist, he has to become known in the world.

In addition to the Sandwich Spot, Pryor said he has many pieces displayed on the websites DeviantArt and Ovation TV. His pages showcase many of his drawings and paintings.

Pryor said his prints sell at $3, and paintings can go anywhere from $20 and up. Prices are always negotiable, he added.

“Small prints are what sell because they aren’t expensive,” Pryor said, “and competition is fierce.”

Limitations Pryor said he faces include costs of supplies, less willingness to buy art these days and digital art because of the techniques it offers, such as Photoshop.

“So many people want art for free,” Pryor said. “They get a preconceived idea that art is free because people do it as a hobby. You could spend $100 on materials, like paints and a canvas, and then you realize you haven’t sold that piece.”

Even though the market for art is fluctuating, Pryor said he will always create art.

“(A work) could take me three hours, or it could take me three minutes,” Pryor said. “But art is known for the things that make people happy and draw people in. It is a reflection of the human existence.”

Pryor dabbles in a little bit of everything, from painting to drawing to working on a way to turn patching plaster into masks.

He also works on what he said his friend calls Zen drawing, in which an artist draws multiple images on one paper that express what the artist is feeling at that given moment. Pryor said he favors colored pencils and regular drawing pencils.

Pryor said this is what is mostly featured at the Sandwich Spot, although his prints are what sell the most. Pryor added that he does have others of a more surreal style, but Zen drawing allows for a lot of creativity.

Pryor said his favorite piece is Grape City, the purple and green colors reminding him of Napa Valley.

“The real magic happens where creativity happens,” Pryor said. “The creative process is the space between thoughts, and that is where art comes from. Everyone can enjoy a piece differently.”

“When you are trying to make a living as an artist and not just a hobby, it becomes a little more difficult. You have to put yourself out there,” Pryor said.

2nd annual Jumble Sale fundraiser for Verge Center for the Arts

2011-08-04T02:05:52Z

As part of the Verge Center for the Arts’ second annual fundraiser jumble sale, VCA will host a preview party Thursday, where 20 artists will invite the public into their studios.

VCA is a nonprofit organization that promotes career working artists by helping them display and promote their art as well as providing affordable studio space for rent.

Funds from the jumble sale, which runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday, will allow VCA to continue the expansion project.

The Verge Center for the Arts was founded in 2008 and expanded into a 22,000-square-foot warehouse space downtown in 2010, and the space is being developed to include a classroom for public art courses, a printmaking lab, extra gallery space and 10 additional studios for rent. To learn more, continue reading here.

“(It) is a very special center for the Sacramento region that is doing wonderful things to support artists and support art education,” said Jiayi Young, professor of art new media at American River College. “It is something that we definitely need for Sacramento and (the) surrounding areas.”

The jumble sale will include many items that have been donated, such as exercise equipment, furniture, vintage clothing, electronic equipment, bicycles, books and art supplies.

The preview party for the jumble sale will be Thursday from 6 - 10 p.m. at 625 S St.

For $15, guests can attend the preview party, where a no-host bar will serve beer and wine, Luigi’s Slice will serve pizza and Scott Soriano will DJ. Attendees can tour artists’ studios and get first dibs on the items that will be for sale at the Jumble Sale held at the same location.

“The No. 1 difference between this year and last year is that we’ll have art studios open for touring,” said Liv Moe, executive director for VCA.

The jumble sale will be open for free to the public Friday from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Aside from the items for sale at the jumble sale, a temporary gallery will display artwork that can be purchased.

Each artist will have an art piece in the temporary gallery at the preview party that “helps illustrate their style,” said artist Jose Di Gregorio, who is also part of VCA’s board of directors.

“A lot of the work that I do is nonrepresentational, abstract paintings,” Di Gregorio said.

He uses two different styles of painting, one he said he calls drip painting and involves manipulating paint without using a paintbrush. Another style incorporates lines and dots to create geometric shapes.

Di Gregorio said he has a lot of artwork that will be for sale at the gallery, including small pieces ranging from $100 to large paintings that go for $1,000. Visit his website here.

Jiayi Young will be among the 20 artists who will have their studios open to the public at Thursday’s preview party.

“I attempt to mix traditional art with new media, and I tend to mix art and science,” Young said.

Young collaborates with her husband, Shih-Wen Young, who has a doctorate in high-energy physics and is also a professor at American River College, to incorporate science into artwork.

A series currently in Young’s studio is called “One Moment in Time” and is a project geared to answer the question, “If you could see sound, what might it look like?”

“We are turning sound into visuals, and my husband has used the physics of wave propagation” to do this, Young said.

She described the project as taking a visual snapshot of what sound waves might look like spreading through the air a a given moment.

The art pieces that Young will have on display at the preview party in her studio range from $100 – $2,500. For more information, visit her website by clicking here.

Professor of painting and drawing at Sacramento City College Gioia Fonda has been part of the VCA since 2008.

Fonda said she works with multiple media, but likes working with paper and is also working on a sculpture piece.

“My work is really playful, with the exception of the garbage pieces, and usually really colorful,” Fonda said.

Fonda said the atmosphere at Verge is really inspiring and that “it is really great to have other really serious artists around.”

Fonda’s artwork ranges from $50 – $2,000. For more information, click here.

Di Gregorio said he thinks the atmosphere at VCA is filled with “a lot of really thoughtful, innovative, articulate people who have some really creative things going on within their own craft.”

“It is an incubator of ideas that becomes like this living, breathing organism that, for people like myself, can come into and know that there is progress being made in each studio,” Di Gregorio said.

For more information, visit the Verge Center for the Arts website here.

4th Annual Sacramento Homeless Connect this Saturday, May 21 at Sacramento City College

2011-05-16T21:19:36Z

The 4th Annual Sacramento Homeless Connect event will take place this Saturday, May 21 at Sacramento City College from 10:00 am-3:00 pm. It is hosted by Sacramento Steps Forward, with support from presenting sponsor The Salvation Army. Speakers at the event include Assemblymember Roger Dickinson, Mayor Kevin Johnson and Supervisor Phil Serna. Over 1,000 homeless guests are expected; additionally the event hosts 500 community volunteers and over 60 different service providers.

Project Homeless Connect is a national Best Practice model for bringing services directly to homeless folks. Started in San Francisco, it now occurs in over 150 communities across the country. Homeless Connect events are one-day, one-stop, 100% free resource fairs that bring a myriad of services all to one location, thus eliminating many of the barriers homeless folks face in accessing the services they need. Transportation is provided for guests that day (a major barrier for many homeless people), as well as pet care and childcare. Homeless folks get to meet with providers face-to-face, in a warm, hospitable environment. Additionally, the Salvation Army provides BBQ chicken meals for the guests, and bands Guitar Mac and BluSoul Band will be providing all-day entertainment.

500 community volunteers will be donating their time that day, helping with a number of different projects.

This year, over 60 different agencies and service providers will be in attendance, including:

Community housing and shelter providers, including: Sacramento Self-Help Housing; Volunteers of America; Transitional Living & Community Support; Lutheran Social Services, Resources for Independent Living; St. John’s Shelter and Sacramento Area Emergency Housing
Health Services including: the UC Davis Willow Clinic rapid HIV-testing by CARES, Hep-C, STI testing and harm reduction services by Harm Reduction Services and Oak Park Outreach Services; dental screenings by Dr. Charles Newens, and ocular exams by the Lion’s Club Vision Van and UC Davis eye doctors
Free California State IDs provided by the DMV, with help from Francis House
An Employment Triage Station, run by Women’s Empowerment, with an interview-ready clothing closet and help with resume-writing and interview skills
A new Wellness Area, including: free yoga all day, by the Yoga Seed Collective, 20-minute mini-chair massages by the Healing Arts Institute, foot washing & clean socks by Christ Church, Davis, an art therapy station (staffed by AmeriCorps NCCC members) and a Story Table (with professional portraits by Lynette Falls of Three One Photography)
A Mental Health services station, staffed by Guest House Homeless Clinic, Genesis, Social Security Administration, SMART (a brand-new pilot program that helps folks receive SSI), and Clean & Sober
Veterans Services, staffed by the California Department of Veterans Affairs, the Sacramento Veterans Resource Center, the Sacramento Veterans Support Network, the Sacramento County Veterans
Sacramento County General Assistance and CalFresh (Food Stamps)
Bike repair provided by Cycles4Hope, who is also raffling off 10 adult bikes
Free haircuts by Federico’s Beauty Institute Salon
And amazing giveaways, including: The Sacramento Public Library is giving away 200 free books; the Bra Recyclers donated 1,300 bras; Restoring Vision provided us with 300 pairs of reading glasses; a Sac State student is giving away 150 pairs of shoes; 2 clothing closets and exit gift bags for each guest.
Other elements: free transportation all day provided by Regional Transit, Paratransit, Volunteers of America and Sacramento County. Free all day pet-care provided by WOOFF and free childcare provided by the Mustard Seed School!

The Salvation Army is our presenting sponsor, for the 2nd year in a row, and they’re providing at least $20,000 of in-kind support.

Additional sponsors: The City of Rancho Cordova, Wells Fargo Bank, Golden 1 Credit Union, Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region, Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency, Loaves & Fishes, Sacramento Mutual Housing Association, Councilmember Steve Cohn, The Merchants National Bank, CARES, UC Davis Health System, Sacramento Housing Alliance and Councilmember Jay Schenirer.

Last year's Sacramento Homeless Connect had over 800 homeless adults and 170 homeless children in attendance.

For questions about the event, please contact Kate Towson, ktowson@communitycouncil.org

Kate Towson is an Americorps VISTA serving with Sacramento Steps Forward.

500 Community Volunteers Needed for 4th Annual Sacramento Homeless Connect

2011-04-08T22:42:15Z

On May 21st at Sacramento City College, Sacramento Steps Forward will be hosting its 4th annual Sacramento Homeless Connect event. In addition to the over 800 homeless guests and 60 service providers in attendance, 500 community volunteers participate as well. Volunteers provide help at important stations like housing or health services, serving lunch to guests, guiding guests to services, checking guests in at the intake station or participating in the job readiness fair. There are many positions available, and folks can sign up to volunteer at Hands-On Sacramento.

This is a very popular event, so sign up as soon as you can! Volunteer positions tend to go quickly.

Community volunteers assist service providers and staff in providing an amzaing, welcome and heartwarming experience for our homeless neighbors. After the event, volunteers genuinely agree that the experience is a great one; some volunteers have felt their opinions around homelessness forever changed for the better.

Homeless Connect serves the community by enhancing the quality of life for homeless individuals, engaging civic leaders and community volunteers, and debunking myths and stereotypes about homeless people. The layout of the event is helpful and empowering for guests; as homeless folks have noted, it is often stressful, frustrating or impossible to navigate separate services housed throughout the city and county. At Homeless Connect, all of the services are in one location, making it easier for folks to access what they need.

One of the most unique components of Homeless Connect is an emphasis on hospitality. Homeless folks and families in attendance are treated as guests. Guests are welcomed to the event by an intake booth and then are directed to a catered meal and entertainment. From there they are directed by volunteers to services in which they are most interested. Guests are not expected to wait in long lines or be placed on waiting lists. They are to be connected to services that render same-day results

Services that have been present at the last three events include: housing, mental health services, help with applying for Social Security, legal advice, dental and medical screenings, foot washing and haircuts, childcare and pet care assistance, veterans’ resources and free California IDs. Three previous Homeless Connect events have occurred since 2008.

Sign up to volunteer for Sacramento Homeless Connect at Hands-On Sacramento. The volunteer postings are located under the 'Special Events' page. Click the 'More' button, then scroll down and click the 'Select a Project' button. This will take you to the 24 different volunteer categories. All volunteers must attend a mandatory 1-hour orientation.

Questions about volunteering should be sent to sacramentohomelessconnect@gmail.com.

If you have questions about Sacramento Homeless Connect, you can call Kate Towson at 916-447-7063 ext. 310.

Kate Towson is an AmeriCorps VISTA serving with Sacramento Steps Forward.

Review: Eight Views of the Tower Bridge

2011-03-10T07:11:43Z

Sacramento City College's theater department, City Theatre, presents a program of eight short plays at the West Sacramento Community Center "Black Box" Theatre, at 1075 West Capitol Boulevard. The plays all center on Sacramento's iconic Tower Bridge, ranging from the historic to the fantastic.

Because the City College's campus theater is currently undergoing renovation, they have moved their 2011 program to the "Black Box" Theatre, a new facility in West Sacramento. This location provides a most fitting setting for plays with this subject--chances are good that those who attend will cross over or pass within view of the Tower Bridge on the way to the theater.

Eight playwrights composed short one-act plays inspired by the bridge, but each evening is just half of the total program, with four plays per night--Program A and Program B. This review is of Program B (I didn't get a chance to see Program A.)

"Fishing on the Sacramento River", the first play of Program B, introduces the audience to the history of the Tower Bridge via a family fishing together within sight of the bridge. The family's patriarch tells stories of when he worked on the bridge and details of its inaugural day, while his family alternately battles, bonds and tries to catch a fish.

"The Mason Jar" is the story of a group of eccentric friends on a short trip to the Tower Bridge to pay tribute to an old friend, and on the way, make a new one in an unexpected place.

"The Bridge Committee" is a fantasy explanation of the Tower Bridge's origin, portrayed by a group of strange creatures from beneath the earth's surface, attempting to restore their dwindling powers of levitation.

"Roland of the River" is a day in the life of the Tower Bridge's first bridge operator, and a resident of the nearby riverbank, and the bridge operator's lunch.

All of the plays are comedies, featuring a lot of well-delivered and snappy dialogue and more than a few laughs. The student actors were all quite skilled, and the play seemed without technical flaw--if anyone flubbed a line, they covered it well enough to be unnoticed by the audience. Costumes and props were simple and minimal, relying mostly on the audience's imagination to make up for a junior college props budget, but enhanced by projections of the Tower Bridge on the back wall of the theater. There is some adult language and one simulated gunshot in the production, but nothing particularly shocking. All of the stories were themed around bridging the distances between people--between family members, between friends in conflict with each other, between strangers on the street, and between communities who must work together for a common goal. The Tower Bridge's beauty, classic design, utility and history are all acknowledged and celebrated, but all are secondary to the bridge's purpose--to span a gap, and allow people safe passage to the other side.

This weekend is the last weekend of the play's run: schedule is below.

Eight Views of the Tower Bridge: A Local Playwrights Festival

West Sacramento Community Center Black Box Theatre, 1075 West Capitol Blvd., West Sacramento

Program A: March 11, 8:00 PM, March 12, 2:00 PM

Program B: March 12, 8:00 PM, March 13, 2:00 PM

Tickets are $15 general and $12 discount (student ID, seniors, disabilities and SARTA members) for Friday and Saturday evenings, $13 general and $10 discount for Saturday and Sunday 2 PM matinees.

http://www.sacramento365.com/event/detail/441129192/Local_Playwrights_FestivalTower_Bridge_Eight_Views_of_the_Tower_Bridge

SCC: What's The Reason?

2011-02-01T06:51:12Z

What’s The Reason?
By Shani Lee
Sacramento Press Open 2011

It’s a tale as old as time. The school needs computers, or books right? I can remember that being said time and time again as far back as elementary school. Well in this economy it’s the adults who need some help at school. Students at Sacramento City College are from a wide variety of backgrounds, & races, and create an even more diverse group of professionals. Did you know that a group of SCC’s film students won the 2011 Winterfest Sacramento Film & Music festival? Seeing first hand the passion of these students in every aspect is amazing, and encouraging. In such tough economic times it’s good to see people eager to achieve their professional goals. By doing so each emerging entrepreneur will be resuscitating our economy.

Students taking the MIDI class are composers, songwriters, filmmakers, rappers, singers, producers, or just love music. Professor Knable and his students have been directly hit by continued budget cuts in SCC’s Introduction to MIDI (Reasons) courses are working with an old version of Reasons; Reasons4 which was released in 2007. The newest version, Reasons5 was released in 2010, and will only cost $3500 to purchase for all of the classroom instructional computers. The Final Cut (Film) editing class on the other hand; is working with the newest version of Final Cut, but they seem to be the lucky ones. This is only because their professor “Is the Mac Certified Pro Trainer, and the school has a contract to be a training center, so he automatically gets the newest version to teach” (DonCarlos S., SCC MIDI & Final Cut student). Many students have this benefit and also experience the disappointment of this disadvantage. “In my film class (Final Cut) I’m lucky to be learning the newest version. I wish it were the same story for my Reasons class.” (DonCarlos S., SCC MIDI & Final Cut student).

While learning the old version of Reasons, the students get the overall picture of how the application works and allows creativity using simulated “real” instruments, or a synthesizer. However they are not equipped to compete creatively with those learning the most current version. We have to give our community a fighting chance when vying for jobs creating music, soundtracks, stage plays, musical scores, and even better teaching the art of music to our youth in this technical day in age. So let’s support our Sacramento City Panthers and get them the programs they need to realize their goals and stimulate our local economy.

“I feel like it’s imperative that we learn and have practical experience with the most current version. I mean why would I want a degree and still not be able to compete with all of my counterparts in the industry?” (Fidel C., SCC MIDI & Final Cut student).

Russ Solomon – a 'new artist' at 85

2011-01-28T00:40:35Z

After spending much of his life in the spotlight, Tower Records founder Russ Solomon got behind the camera lens to showcase the faces of Sacramento’s art scene.

His photography exhibit – The Faces of Art – opened Thursday at Sacramento City College’s Gregory Kondos Gallery and will run through March 4.

“It’s basically portraits of people in the art community, which includes as many portraits of local artists as I can, as well as wives in some cases, art dealers – people that involve themselves in the arts,” Solomon said.

Solomon said he has been taking photographs for 70 years, but he has never before displayed them in a gallery.

“For a long while, I was peddling records,” he said. “I didn’t do much, except take snapshots.”

All of the approximately 230 photos in the show were taken within the past five years.

Solomon said he prefers digital photography to film photography because of the ease of the process.

“It was really a pain ... to develop,” he said. “I did it many years ago. To me, it was just hard work.”

Despite using digital photography, Solomon doesn’t alter his work.

“Russ doesn’t manipulate these things,” said Mike Stevens, who co-curates the gallery with his wife, Suzanne Adana. “He shoots them and lets them read as they read. Some of the people like the photographs, and some ... maybe the photograph isn’t so flattering.”

Stevens said it was the realistic, gritty nature of the photographs that drew him to the images and inspired him to hold a show with them.

“He’s been on the Crocker (Art Museum) board, he’s been involved in the arts all these years,” Stevens said. “It just seemed to be a natural thing and place to go, and he is one of the unique personalities to come out of Sacramento.”

Stevens said he was also interested by the fact that Solomon has been better-known as an art collector, not an artist.

“We found that fascinating,” he said. “He is what we call a new artist at age 85.”

The show itself resembles a patchwork quilt of photographs of faces up-close, Stevens said.

“There’s no frame around them,” he said. “We pinned them up like a photographer in the studio would pin up work. As you walk into the gallery, there is one gigantic wall, and it looks like a tapestry of faces.”

The gallery itself is relatively new, having opened in August, and unlike its predecessor, it’s not a converted classroom, but a dedicated gallery.

“Russ’ work really suits this space,” Stevens said.

Crocker Art Museum Director Lial Jones – who appears in one of Solomon’s photographs – said the show is in keeping with a longstanding tradition.

“Since photography was invented in 1839, photos of artists have been taken,” she said. “Artists are around artists, so they tend to be subject matter.”

Jones added that she was “delighted” to be included in an art exhibition featuring artists from the region.

“I know Russ loves photography,” she said. “From the few things I’ve seen, he’s an accomplished photographer.”

For Solomon, however, it’s more about fun and new experiences than anything else.

“It’s just a bunch of pictures, almost snapshots enlarged,” he said. “Let’s not think of it in terms of great art.”

The Gregory Kondos Gallery, located at 3835 Freeport Blvd., is open from noon - 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Entrance is free, but all-day parking on the school lot costs $1.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Growing up.

2010-11-23T16:44:56Z

Six and a half years in foster care is enough to turn a boy into a man. At nineteen Jonathan Michael Littman, known better as Jon, is not only a student at Sacramento city College, but a father and a husband, and just to put the icing on the cake he is a mentor for young foster care children, Monday through Friday.

Just looking at Littman you have to admit he looks like every other nineteen year old guy on campus, curly hair, bright shoes and a skateboard; also known as his right hand man, he seems almost a little too laid back sometimes. Who would have known that he has seven siblings, a thirteen month old baby, a wife and an overactive imagination.

"I like to believe that life is a game with the end goal of dying happy," says Littman, "whatever that means."

Littman spent his childhood in foster care, and now as a young adult and active father he is working steadily on giving back to the community in which he grew up.

"It's been my life goal to be a mentor," Littman says simply.

After school Littman catches the light rail to work, then visits his daughter, wife and his siblings, family is a very important part of Littmans life. Just remember that Littman is nineteen years old, and with everything on his plate you would imagine that he is a pretty stressed out guy, but instead he is a happy guy, a smile always on his face, in class he will be the first to ask a question, the first to volunteer help.

So the big question is how did growing up in foster care shape Littmans life? It did so in every way possible. He looked back at the way he was raised and decided right then what he would change, though he is a young father, he works his hardest, and it is so apparent, he talks in such a manner that is almost beyond his years and you automatically upon first meeting him feel as if you have already made one of those lifelong friends.

International track and field registration now open

2010-11-05T02:25:58Z

Sacramento will be hosting the 2011 World Masters Athletic Championships, and registration is now open.

The worldwide event draws track-and-field athletes from about 80 countries every two years and is rarely held in the United States, with the last time being 16 years ago, according to Bob Burns, spokesman for the Sacramento Sports Commission.

“It’ll mean quite a bit of business here locally,” he said, explaining that most of the estimated 5,000 athletes and their families will be staying in the area for at least a week, as the event is held from July 6-17.

The biannual event is open to everyone 35 and older, and Burns said there is usually at least one athlete 100 years or older.

Registration costs are available at the event’s website, but Burns said the average cost per athlete is about $125.

So, why Sacramento?

“There are probably three factors we had,” Burns said. “We’re in California, and that’s attractive. We’ve put on the Olympic trials, and our group knows how to put on a complicated, multi-day event, and we have good facilities.”

The facilities include Sacramento City College’s Hughes Stadium. American River College’s Beaver Stadium and Sacramento State’s Hornet Stadium, where more than 80 percent of the events will be held.

To register for the event, click here.

Brandon Darnell is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

Othello - Shakespeare Festival

2010-07-26T07:13:34Z

The play Othello is about a black officer whose marriage to a white woman ends very tragically due to the ingenious scheming of an "honest" friend of Othello.

I love the storyline of Othello. I had seen the movie Othello starring Laurence Fishbourne about 10 years ago and again about 1 month ago. I read the play, also about 1 month ago, and even read another book, "Othello - Shakespeare Made Easy" so that I would be able to better interpret the language in the play. I had even seen a very contemporary version of the play in a movie called "O" starring Mekhi Phifer and Julia Stiles. So it seemed fitting that the only thing left for me to see was a live performance of the play that I love so much.

I was very surprised when I first arrived at the William Carroll Amphitheatre, which is located just behind Fairytale Town, in William Land Park because I was just at Fairytale Town the previous week and I didn't even notice the stage area at all. So needless to say, I felt at home in a very familiar environment. I had brought a dinner picnic for myself and my husband and a blanket to curl up in. The ambiance was wonderful. The people that were in attendance were at ease with the comfortable atmosphere that the park-like seating gave.

On the opening scene, I will admit that my heart gave a start, because I thought that I was watching the wrong play. Iago, the scheming, honest friend was dressed like he was ready for battle in the Civil War! Rodrigo, who Iago was talking to was dressed in a suit! Where were the Elizabethan clothes that I was expecting to see? But I'm not one to let one distraction take away my joy.

But then in Act I, Scene III, at the Venetian Senate Chambers, the Duke, was a woman! Now, I, too, am a woman, but I did not expect, nor did I want to see a woman in the role of the Duke when in those times, women did not have any place in government.

This is when I looked back at my program and I see that the "place" is set in "Venice" and "Cyprus" accordingly, but the "time" is set in "the Late 1920's". That explains why the female Duke was dressed in sequined flapper dress.

I also did not like that Rodrigo, the jealous suitor, was African American and that were other African Americans playing various roles in the play. What I believed to be important in this tragedy of Shakespeare is that here was this man, Othello, a black Moor, who was able to woo and win the senators daughter, Desdemona despite his race and background. In the original play, Iago shouted to Brabantio (from his hiding place) that an "old black ram is tupping your white ewe" which, in the original play, leaves little doubt as to who is "tupping" his daughter, but in the play at the William A. Carroll Amphitheatre, the "old black ram" could have been any number of "black ram" because Othello was not the only "black ram" in the play. Having an African American play the part of Rodrigo really took away the prejudice that I think that Shakespeare might have been trying to get the audience to see because Rodrigo felt like he was better than Othello and that he should have been able to have his chance at "winning" Desdemona's love. Having other African American's throughout the play also took away Othello's individuality as the "black Moor", who had come so far with his position of office. He, therefore, in the original play, stood out amongst the sea of so many white Venetians as someone who had achieved a lot. In the play in the park, Othello did not stand out as the successful Moor in Venice.

However, I think that the actors did fabulous in their acting job. The actor portraying Othello, Gregory Jolivette, was very good. He has a face that shows a lot of different, yet convincing emotions. When he was reunited with his wife, Desdemona, you could see the love for his wife on his face. Not just in his smile, but his whole face expressed his love for her. And when he was way past any convincing that his wife was not having an affair, you could not only see the anger in his face, you could feel it in your stomach. Very scary to see that anger.

The actor portraying Desdemona, Kirsten Myers, shocked me when she sang "Willow, Willow". I always think that I can tell by the way someone will perform in a song based on how they speak. Well, I sure didn't expect Kirsten Myers to have such a beautiful voice. I didn't think that she had a bad voice to begin with, it just seemed a ordinary. Great acting with a actors voice. However, her singing voice was beyond ordinary. I also thought that she held great poise on the stage during the performance, even when her hat was accidentally knocked off by Othello during an embrace, she didn't falter.

Iago, Iago, Iago. How did they find someone so befitting of the role of Iago in Rod Breton? My only previous knowledge of a performance of Othello, as I said earlier, was in the 1995 movie version of Othello which portrayed Kenneth Branagh as Iago. Rod Breton made me feel the same about him as Kenneth Branagh did for me in the movie version: unbelievable loathing and hatred for you! That is some great acting to be able to get someone to feel such strong negative feelings towards you based on your acting skills. Ingenious

I like the acting of Alondra Mendoza who portrayed Bianca. One word to describe her acting: saucy! She was such a spitfire in the play and I really enjoyed seeing her on stage. She added a little extra "umph" to the play.

For my first Shakespeare play that I have ever attended, I was sadly disappointed because I wanted to see the clothing and correct ethnic and gender roles portrayed in the play. I wanted to experience the full Shakespeare atmosphere. I don't mean to sound as if the play was horrible. It just didn't hold up to what I envisioned as a Shakespeare Festival rendition of Othello. I guess if you close your eyes so that you won't want to be distracted by the weird time period version of Othello, you will probably enjoy the play much better.

Virtual Assistants in Sacramento Receive Training at Virtual Offices

2010-07-02T21:56:28Z

As unemployment rates rise, now over 12% in California, individuals are starting their own businesses and looking for ways to cut expenses. Many moms are now opting to stay home with their children and find a way to add to the family budget working from home as virtual assistants. Some small business owners are reducing costs by using virtual offices and assistants instead of hiring a part-time assistant and renting office space.

What is a virtual office and a virtual assistant? A virtual office business in Sacramento is Capsity Offices located at 2321 P Street in Midtown Sacramento. Capsity combines the traditional office environment with coworking and virtual offices. This allows businesses to establish a professional image through shared business resources: business address, phone system, workspace, conference rooms, networking events, and now Virtual Assistant Services. Jeff Louie of Capsity states, "Our community asked us to develop the virtual assistant piece to our model of the Entrepreneurial Fueling Station."

Virtual Assistants provide a variety of support services to business owners from their own office or a virtual office. These shared, pay-as-you go professionals are also called virtual office professionals. They’re not employees, they're entrepreneurs themselves, so not only do they really understand the business owner’s challenges, they don't come with all the extra costs in money and time that come with hiring an employee.

Virtual Assistants in the Sacramento area receive additional support and training in a variety of ways. Both Sacramento City College and Sierra College have certificate programs for those interested in becoming Virtual Professionals. The Northern California Virtual Assistants Meetup Group was founded by one of Sierra College’s graduates, Sara Gaffney. The group currently has 48 members and meets monthly in various locations throughout the Greater Sacramento area. Many are also members of an online group of Virtual Assistants at FindVirtual.com which now has over 1,050 members.

To provide additional training to Virtual Assistants in the Sacramento area, including the Capsity Offices Assistant, Capsity Offices is sponsoring a 3-hour Virtual Assistant Workshop on July 9, 2010 hosted by Sue and Joel Canfield of Chief Virtual Officer. This workshop is designed to help Virtual Assistants grow their business. It's not skills training but business coaching. "This workshop will help me stay motivated to keep going. I look forward to learning more about the whole marketing and personal face-to-face networking thing," states Neilia Dudley of Butterfly Blue VA. Details and registration for the workshop can be found at Event Brite: http://sacramentovaworkshop.eventbrite.com/.

Today’s new style of work based around technology and collaboration will continue to foster more coworking, virtual offices and virtual assistants. The coworking and virtual assistant industries will continue to grow and work together. Virtual office professionals working from virtual offices will help business owners get more done, save time, money, effort, and frustration, and help grow their business.

"Disclosure: Sue Canfield operates Chief Virtual Officer. She coaches Virtual Assistants and will be presenting at the July 9, 2010 Workshop at Capsity Offices.”

Mayor Kevin Johnson's Greenwise Meeting

2010-06-16T22:35:22Z

Mayor Kevin Johnson held a second meeting on his Greenwise initiative Tuesday at Sacramento City College detailing his monthly plans through December and highlighting his four major focuses within the project.

The “Four Major Principles” Johnson discussed were regional economy, green jobs, innovative policies and green IQ.

Regional economy was emphasized at the meeting and Johnson said that for this project to work, the entire region, which consists of 6 six counties and 22 cities, must all work together and make the leap simultaneously.

“There are strength in numbers,” he said. “If we look at just one policy for one city, we will not have a competitive advantage. It has to be a region.”

Johnson described his month-to-month layout of how he wants the project to move. It will end in December with a clear and realistic goal, and a final action plan should be written and available by January 2011.

“It’ll be a document that’s bound, something that we feel very proud of,” he said. “We will have all contributed, not one person more than another, all of us collectively will be contributing to this action plan.”

Johnson showcased his five new policy headings, each with a policy team and leader: energy, waste/recycling, water/nature, green building and green/clean tech.

The highlight of the meeting was the 16-year-old special guest, Alec Loorz, a high school student from Los Angeles who travels around the country speaking to students about global warming. He also manages his own online community “Kids VS Global Warming.”

“I believe that we are up to the challenge, but we have to begin now,” he said. “We are the future, but we are more than that. We are here now. We are the present and our voices do make a difference. So let’s now all work together. Who’s with me?”

For more information, visit
www.greenwisesacramento.com and www.kids-vs-global-warming.com

UFL Draft to be held June 2

2010-05-30T21:12:28Z

The UFL Draft will be held on June 2. It will consist of 12 rounds. Each of the 5 UFL teams will have one pick in each round, thus adding 12 players to each roster. Each team also has 20 players returning from last season under protected status, and looks to add as many as 20 players through free agency. Many of those free agents will come from the NFL. A source close to the league says that as many as 52 players have already been invited to each team’s minicamp. That minicamp is scheduled to begin for all teams on June 8 in Arizona.

At the Sacramento Mountain Lions open tryout at Natomas High School on May 15, Head Coach Dennis Green said that each team had 74 total spots on the roster and that the Mountain Lions had 30 spots to fill. While the numbers don’t match up, one thing is certain: given that the Sacramento open tryout had 260 registered attendees, there is a lot of competition.

Local defensive lineman Sione Umufuke has been invited to the minicamp. Armed with a stretch coach, physio therapist, chiropractor, and an agent, Umufuke is giving it everything he’s got. His agent, Chris Johnson, could not be reached for comment. Umufuke’s performance history includes playing for Sacramento City College, the NCFL’s River City Gators and the Contra Costa Razorbacks. Reached for comment, Umufuke said, “I’m just really focused right now. I’m training every day.”

Defensive back Mervin Brookins, a product of Florin High School and Sacramento City College, is also doing everything he can to get to the next level. He’s currently playing for the AFL’s Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz. He played for the Arena-2 Stockton Lightning and the River City Gators in 2009. Brookins was invited to the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks camp last year. Reached for comment, Brookins said, “Arena football is much faster and more exciting, but it’s just a stepping stone. We go hard all day. When I’m on the field, nothing else matters. I’m ready for anything that crosses my path. I’ll be home June 12-17. Private workouts are definitely possible. The agent will work that stuff out.” Brookins is reportedly in talks with agent Chris Johnson.

Former NFL wide receiver Paris Warren, a local product as well, is also in the mix. Warren played at the University of Oregon, the University of Utah – where he was a two-time All MWC selection and BCS Fiesta Bowl offensive Co-MVP. At the University of Utah, he played with current San Francisco 49ers starting quarterback Alex Smith. From there, Warren was drafted in the seventh round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He later played for the Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints, as well as the UFL’s Florida Tuskers. Reached for comment, Warren said, “I’ve been good and I’ve been taking care of things. We’ll see what my agent is talking about soon.” Warren is considered valuable given his NFL and UFL past; however, recent rumors regarding an opportunity to explore a reunion with his former college quarterback have certainly added to the intrigue. Warren is currently an active player with the River City Gators, and he is represented by agent Derrick Fox.

The Sacramento Mountain Lions will play their home games at Hornet Stadium on the California State University, Sacramento campus. Their season begins September 18, on the road in Hartford, Connecticut. Their first home game is September 25 versus the Florida Tuskers.

The Tuskers had the best record in the UFL last season. They were undefeated during the regular season with a 6-0 record. They earned a spot in the championship game after the fourth week of the season. The Tuskers were beaten in the championship game by the Las Vegas Locomotives. They lost on a game-winning field goal kicked in overtime.

Four-game season ticket packages are available online through the CSUS ticket office website. Plans start as low as $60, and go as high as $140 for the season. Single game tickets start as low as $15, and go as high as $35 per game. These prices do not include handling and transaction fees. Per the ticket office website, season tickets will be mailed in August. Customer service questions should be directed to the Mountain Lions by calling (916) 383-5466. People with disabilities should call to discuss season ticket locations.

2010 Homeless Connect provides jobs, health and housing resources for homeless

2010-05-19T02:21:50Z

The homeless will find easy access to all the services they need in one location Saturday, as the third annual Sacramento Homeless Connect returns. The event, held at Sacramento City College, will run from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., offering a variety of resources including free haircuts, bicycle and wheelchair repair, California identification cards, job preparedness and even a barbecue lunch.

"Last year we saw 700 people and had 400 volunteers," said Tim Brown, executive director of Sacramento Steps Forward. This year, Brown said he expects to see 800 homeless and about 500 volunteers, due mostly to the increased percentage of homeless.

Sacramento Steps Forward is an initiative started to combat Sacramento homelessness by empowering the homeless and assist them in finding permanent housing. The Homeless Connect event is modeled after San Francisco's project of the same name.

"We're trying to bring community volunteers face to face with the homeless," Brown said. "We want to break through myths of the homeless, raise awareness and show they're not so different from us."

New for 2010, Homeless Connect will be offering more employment resources in response to requests from prior years' events. Programs such as Women's Empowerment and Crossroads Employment Services will be on hand to assist the homeless with workshops such as interview skills, resume critiques, interpersonal communication and dressing for success.

Brown said approximately 60 organizations will contribute efforts toward services Saturday, from local businesses and nonprofits to public-funded programs.

Shuttle services, funded by Sacramento Steps Forward, will be provided every 15 minutes throughout the day, stopping at locations such as Loaves and Fishes between B and C streets, the Salvation Army between Dos Rios and Ahern streets and the Capitol Health Clinic at 1500 C St.

The main goal of the event is to increase access to a wider variety of resources in one spot. "We're trying to make it easier to access many different services all in one day," Brown said. Typically, he said, it can take one full day to access just one of these resources.

Sacramento Steps Forward still needs 20 volunteers for the 2010 Homeless Connect. To sign up, or for further information, visit sacramentostepsforward.com. To view the entire schedule of the event's workshop, click here.

Photos from 2009 Homeless Connect courtesy of Tim Brown, Sacramento Steps Forward

City of Sacramento Earth Day Celebration a Big Sucess

2010-04-24T18:48:58Z

There were several Earth Day celebrations and events Thursday. One of the biggest and most successful was the official City of Sacramento Earth Day Celebration. The event was held at Cesar Chavez Park and in the plaza of City Hall. An estimated 3,500 people of all ages attend this years' event. It was supported by Mayor Kevin Johnson and the City Council. The City of Sacramento Neighborhood Services Department organized the event.

I spoke with Neighborhood Services Department Director Vincene Jones. Jones and her staff started back in January giving early notice to Sacramento area schools, informing them of the event and its value as a field trip. Local media was enlisted to help get the word out. They worked with Regional Transit to secure 560 one-day free passes for bus and light rail. This allowed students to use public transit to and from the event in keeping with the values of Earth Day.

Staff had targeted junior high and high school students. It was obvious that there were large numbers of younger kids also. They especially stood out in the orange aprons given to them by Home Depot along with plants to take home for planting.

Home Depot had one of 59 booths. About 25 booths were commercial entities. The rest were city departments, other governmental entities, nonprofits, education and others. The 59 booths were an increase of about 35% over last year.

Mavis McAllister from American River College and Peggy Ursine with Cosumes River College were promoting Los Rios GreenForce. This is a program with all four Los Rios colleges that prepares students to work in green industries.

Ryan Bailey had a booth promoting Sacramento Sustainable Businesses. This included BERC, a free public service provided by Sacramento County, the city of Sacramento, Sacramento Utilities Departments and Sacramento Local Regulatory Agencies. They advise businesses on how to navigate all the complex environmental regulations.

City of Sacramento departments included utilities, promoting pollution prevention in waste water runoff, recycling, composting and one of several displays of worm bins. City employees Jamie Cutlip and Karl Kurka operated a booth promoting the city's Create a Sustainable Sacramento program. Bill Maynard, who works tirelessly at events like this, was giving out tomato plants as part of the city of Sacramento Community Garden Program.

The Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito & Vector Control District booth was a great hit with the kids. There were live displays of all stages of mosquitos and mosquito fish that eat them The kids were having a great time watching the mosquito fish eating mosquito larva. Kevin Valone and Steve Ramos with Vector Control said that this was one of the best turnouts for any of the venues they have been to. They were especially pleased with all kids asking them questions. They said they have found it best to educate the young kids to achieve their goal of protecting public health and welfare from diseases transmitted by mosquitoes such as West Nile virus, Western Equine Encephalitis, canine heartworm, malaria and others. In most cases, the kids go back to their families and educate them. This was a comment that was echoed by many of those presenting at the event.

There was also entertainment, with a message for the kids from Radio Disney, a performance from Top Class Magic and the Sacramento City College theatrical performance of the “Fall of X,” a play about the dangers of joining a gang.

Besides Home Depot, there were several other commercial green businesses or businesses with green products. These included Sacramento Natural Foods Coop, Costco, Propel Alternative Fuels, Green Sacramento Construction Services and several solar energy companies.

Jake Millan with Propel related a story about the power of kids. A man who came to his booth told him that he had recently purchased a flex fuel vehicle that would run on E85. When asked what prompted this, the man replied that his kids were so embarrassed and tired of getting teased when they were dropped off at school in the family Hummer they pushed the family to buy a more responsible vehicle.

Now I do not want to create the impression that the city of Sacramento Earth Day Celebration was only for kids. There were large numbers of downtown and state office workers asking questions and collecting information. I spoke with Rocklin Treasurer Kim Sarkovich and Mary Rister, one of her staffers. They were attending a conference on municipal finance. They said they were having a wonderful time visiting the event during their lunch break. They were particularly enjoying the Sacramento Natural Foods Coop booth. Part of Sarkovich's interest stems from her hobby as a suburban beekeeper.

All the people I spoke with who had displays at the event were very pleased with the turnout and response from the public. They expressed that Jones and her staff at Neighborhood Services were great to work with and that they were pleased with the commitment throughout the city government supporting a green and sustainable Sacramento.

Photos: 1. Welcoming kids to Sacramento Earth Day Celebration 2-3. City of Sacramento Neighborhood Services Department 4. Ryan Bailey, Sacramento Sustainable Businesses 5. city Department of Utilities 6. Jamie Cutlip and Karl Kurka, Create a Sustainable Sacramento 7. Bill Maynard, Sacramento Community Garden Program 8. Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito & Vector Control District employees Kevin Valone and Steve Ramos 9. Radio Disney entertains 10. Sacramento Natural Foods Coop 11. Dennis with Costco 13. A solar energy provider and Jake Millan in front of the Propel Alternative Fuels booth 12. Green Sacramento Construction Services 13. Kim Sarkovich and Mary Rister check out the Soil Born Farms booth with employees Randy and Jackie

Tough times ahead for students and professors

2010-02-03T04:40:23Z

With unemployment rising and private college tuition skyrocketing, more and more people are returning to school at all ages. Sacramento State and Sacramento City College have both seen an increase in enrollment despite an increase in fees.

Sacramento State's fees were raised $672 per year. Increased fees doesn't equal a better education. After reaching a compromise with the Board of Trustees, the California State University Employee's Union approved 24 furlough days school wide. These days are designated under the direction of President Alexander Gonzalez and each department head.

With eight campus-wide furlough days, the entire school shuts down. Students are unable to inquire about financial aid or other services, teachers are forbidden from grading or preparing for the next lecture and the administration is banned from work on or off campus.

In essence, students at Sac State are paying 30 percent more per class for 10 percent less class time than in previous years. Teachers are forced to re-tool their lecture plan for the added days off.

"My biggest concern involves students getting into the classes they need for graduation", said Kim Roberts, a psychology professor at Sac State. "There are seniors that only need one class to graduate and they are unable to get into the class needed."

Other problems plague local students as well. Class sizes have swollen to record numbers, forcing students to take fewer units than planned.

"I enrolled on my exact enrollment day and every class I wanted was already closed or wait-listed," City College student Charles Latham said. "I tried around 30 classes and couldn't find a single one. I started the semester wait-listed for eight classes— I got into one."

With a decrease in the amount of instruction days, professors are tailoring their lesson plans for the new schedule. Essays, projects and even finals have all been cut from various classes by the professor. Students are upset about paying more for less class time.

"We are still tested on information they don't have time to teach in class," Sac State senior Kirsten Williams said. "I absolutely believe my education has been effected by furloughs."

Photos by Michael Ramirez

Photo #1: The main enterance to Sac State

Photo #2: Professor Robert's psychology class

Zines: Local Underground Subculture

2009-10-26T20:44:55Z

A bead of sweat drips down the pierced nose of a girl as she grabs a hold of several heart-shaped balloons and floats away into the summer sky. Her balloons are etched into a piece paper with black Sharpie while her summer sky develops with the reader’s imagination. The wind picks up and flutters the pages of “Dreams of Donuts”, a comic zine for the young at heart filled with stories of bike rides, building gazebos from recycled materials, and other personal accounts from a local zine-creator who simply goes by Heather.

Zines are a heavily photocopied, do-it-yourself mini-booklet commonly printed in black and white. Held together by good old-fashioned staples, zines open a window into the colorful life of its creator with the turn of each page. Zines can double as a homemade diary to the creator, who then chooses to share those experiences with growing the zine-world.

“I do document much of my life through true stories and a lot of my fiction is borrowed from true events,” Andy Garcia, a former Sacramento City College student and creator of “Up the Kids” zine, quietly said. “Maybe hoping someone else can relate to it, or learn from it, or feel empowered even.”

Garcia, a soft-spoken 27 year-old, with tattered pants and an earthy-green beanie, remembers when he first stumbled upon an old pile of black and white zines at his friend’s house.

“The first zine I ever picked up was a D.I.Y zine that had everything from booking tours, composting, to making your own tofu,” Garcia said holding his warm coffee. “There were so many things in that zine that blew my mind; it opened my mind to a different culture.”

Garcia describes his zine, “Up the Kids”, as a hodge-podge of many zines rolled into one. “Up the Kids” can be found at Newsbeat, a Sacramento news shop at 1050 20th Street.

Zines come in many forms, no two are the same. Comic-zines capture clips from everyday life and transform them into mini-comics, while how-to zines may explain the mechanics of building your own bicycle. There are also political-zines featuring strong opinions and outlooks, food-zines sharing recipes with readers, and poetry-zines expressing the poems of local poets.

Zines have a way of connecting people from all parts of the country together with relatable stories of growing up, heartbreak, traveling and real issues that people find themselves facing like abuse or mental illness.

“I like writing about broken hearts because that’s universal and maybe because I might hope that one of those terrible people will pick up my zine and know that I am talking about them,” Garcia jokes.

Anyone can get a hold of zines, whether it is checking out the pile of zines at Sacramento’s R5 Records, going online to search for an independent distributer of zines, or attending the many zine festivals held all over the country.

San Francisco, Calif. and Portland, Ore. are two major cities on the west coast that hold annual zine fests. Over 100 different zine creators from all over the country will share, sell, or trade their work with thousands of people.

“The thing I appreciate about zine culture the most is that it’s not about making money, it’s about trading,” Sarina, creator of local zine “Carrots and Condoms”, explained. “You’re trading a piece of your art for someone else’s, a piece of your experience for someone else’s experience.”

Sacramento held its first Zine Symposium this past July at The Brickhouse Gallery and Arts Complex. A group of people involved in the zine community from the Sacramento and Davis areas, collaborated on the idea of bringing creative people together.

“I wanted to bring together a community of creative people from Sacramento and Davis that use each other as resources,” Sharmi Basu, head-organizer of Sacramento Zine Symposium, said. “Part of the reason why I want to do this is so people can get the confidence to do it themselves.”

Making a zine can cost several dollars per issue at your local copy and print stores, depending upon the number of pages printed, color or black and white copies, and many other variables those stores throw your way. Many zinesters tag a price of about $2 to $3 onto their finished photocopied masterpiece, but frequently, many zinesters will accept zine for zine instead of money.

“I think a lot of people that are new to zines don’t understand that you are not going to make money and you’re not going to break even either,” Sarina said twisting her brown dreadlocks. “You’re going to make a zine out of love and if you’re trying to make it for money or to break even it’s not going to happen.”

There is no right or wrong way to start making a zine because they work as an imaginative or therapeutic outlet for those who choose to create them, the creator has total freedom.

“I just like the creative process of digging into yourself,” Sarina said. “It’s almost like therapy, you cry when you write a lot or at least I do.”

Spending time getting lost in the pages of zines can remind us all that we aren’t as abnormal as we feel and that everyone no matter how different can relate to one another somehow even if that person is across the country.

“I wanted to create some sort of community even though it’s small,” Garcia said. “If I can write some story where someone is like, ‘I can relate to that,’ then I feel like they have some sort of community with that person.”

Revisionists Deny Holocaust

2009-10-22T07:50:40Z

Twenty years ago, historical revisionists began claiming the Holocaust had never happened. But to a survivor of the death camps, it was a tangible reality that meant a change in her life.

When Elane Geller heard that history was being rewritten, that some people claimed the Holocaust never happened, it compelled her to begin sharing her story. At 73, Geller now tours the country discussing her personal experiences in the concentration camps.

“I could not let revisionists change my history,” Geller said. “I want people to know what happened to me and thousands of others at the hands of the Nazis,” Geller said.

Geller spoke at Sacramento City College on Sept.15 to a group of approximately 30 people gathered in the Cultural Awareness Center.

Victoria Henderson Cultural Awareness Center, Coordinator said after spending the day with Geller.

“You don’t meet a stranger when you meet her [Geller].”

Geller was imprisoned at Bergen-Belsen at the same time as Anne Frank, and although they never knew each other, Geller says she now speaks for Frank and all of the souls lost during that grave historical period.

Geller told of her time in the prison camps, how she survived in the concentration camp by learning to sing songs in the language of the other prisoners, and in their appreciation she was given food.

“I know that they needed the food more than I did but I am not ashamed for what I did to survive,” Geller said.

Even after all that she has experienced--being imprisoned and losing most of her immediate family to the Holocaust—she says she still feels the obligation to leave the world slightly better than she found it.

According to Geller, there are approximately 350,000 Holocaust survivors still living today, but the exact number may never be known. The average age of a survivor is 83. On average 100 Holocaust survivors die each day. At this rate, in 10 years survivors will cease to exist, and she feels compelled to tell her story before this occurs.

City College student Lisa Linares Woodward said she came out a better person after listening to Geller’s presentation.

“What I got from Elane’s message and story is simple: Appreciate life and respect for all.”