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    • BAY AREA NEWS GROUP: Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury News >
      • Ridwell recycles
      • Piedmont author Zapruder’s memior
      • Alameda’s Bay Area Music Program
      • Alameda filmfest features 'Jack has a Plan'
      • United Dumplings in Rockridge
      • Tech pioneer Roy Clay, Sr.
      • Author/poet Tess Taylor
      • Montclair safety ambassador program
      • Montclair’s Italian Colors restaurant
      • Author Orenstein's 'Unraveling'
      • Author Rue Mapp's 'Nature Swagger'
      • Oakland’s Montclair Library
      • Montclair gym CRUfit
      • Chabot space center’s creative director
      • Friends of the Pleasant Hill Library
      • Artist Stephanie Syjuco at BAMPFA
      • Veterans Day at USS Hornet
      • Piedmont Anti-Racism and Diversity Committee
      • Year-round Oktoberfest on Piedmont Ave
      • Author Pete Torrey's memior
      • El Cerrito’s new fire chief
      • Blind sculptor at Valley Art Gallery
      • Montclair's GGPBooks hosts author T J Reid
      • Acre Restaurant to open in Rockridge
      • 1619 Project creator Hannah-Jones at Lesher
      • AXIS Dance's ‘Adelante’
      • Lawton Dance's 'Farallonites'
      • Oakland Firesafe Council
      • Author Sexton's 'On the Rooftop'
      • Alameda musician Paul Kotapish
      • Planterday in Rockridge
      • Author Dabney’s ‘Year of the Plague Journal’
      • Montclair Beer, Wine & Music Fest '22
      • Cal's Alt Meat Lab
      • Rockridge Rock-N-Stroll fest
      • N. Oakland’s ‘Daughters of the Delta’
      • Oakland Fukuoka Sister City marks 60th
      • Head-Royce's robotics team competes
      • Bancroft Garden celebrating 50th
      • ‘Diet for a Small Planet’
      • Montclair train mural
      • Montclair actor in ‘Endlings’
      • USS Hornet: gala and Vietnam Vets
      • Dance: 'Voice Within'
      • Author Stokes' 'Remember Me Gone'
      • Crogan's celebrates St. Patrick's Day
      • Oakland’s Temescal park dispute
      • Maria Shriver at East Bay Women’s Conference
      • Oakland’s White Elephant Sale 2022
      • ​Alameda’s Time Released Sound
      • Oakland developer ‘Buzz’ Gibb
      • Contra Costa MLK ceremony
      • Oakland’s Pacific Boychoir Academy
      • Richmond zydeco accordionist Andre Thierry
      • Alameda’s Alley & Vine
      • Montclair Village Holiday Stroll
      • Ellie Koplan's 100 years
      • Lesher's Denison retires
      • Bringing up butterflies in Richmond
      • Chabot space center reopening
      • Burning Man art in Richmond
      • Architect/glass artist Winterich
      • CCCT's 'Our Town'
      • WC Lib talk "Broadway's Golden Age'
      • Piedmont Beautification Foundation
      • Richmond's Urban Tilth
      • Alameda's Chochenyo Park art installation
      • Alameda Comedy Club curing Covid
      • Arjan Flowers and Herbs
      • Piedmont Avenue’s Timeless Coffee
      • Piedmont’s League of Women Voters
      • Eyes In Sync
      • Oakland's Mountain Music
      • Montclair mural
      • First female Eagle Scout
      • 13 yr old valedictorian
      • Books for the Barrios
      • WC Bronco Baseball Academy
      • Women's Cancer Resource Cntr during Covid
      • Bay Area Book Festival
      • Oakland's '21 White Elephant Sale
      • Walnut Creek Chamber's new Pres.
      • Great Good Place for Books during Covid
      • East Bay Women's Conf. 2021
      • Artist Ezawa at Haines Gallery
      • Artist Lift Off project
      • ‘Deconstruction’ at Perlmutter Gallery
      • El Sobrante food-justice community center
      • Urban Park CleanUp
      • Photographer Collopy at Laf Lib
      • Oakland Symphony's Morgan on 2020
      • Piedmont church interim pastor
      • BAMPFA's new quilt curator
      • Non profit adapts to pandemic
      • Oakland photographer Andrew Paynter
      • Author Virginia Cowart
      • Piedmont Center for the Arts during covid
      • Pacific Edge Voices' new director
      • Alamo’s Luxe Hair during Covid
      • BAMPFA's new Film Archive Director
      • Hercules Cares
      • Bay Area Children's Theater adapts
      • Garden of Memory
      • Oakland's womens choir Kitka
      • USS Hornet will survive shutdown
      • East Bay Golf courses in demand
      • Worship during shutdown
      • Guitarist Stevie Coyle performs online
      • 'Grit' theme at 2020 EBWC
      • Piedmont’s Kehilla Temple
      • Oakland’s House/Full of BlackWomen
      • Wendy Burch Steel & Redwood in Berkeley
      • El Cerrito HS teacher Taylor passes
      • Dr. Christine Carter's 'New Adolescence'
      • "Elemental' at PCA
      • Carrie Lederer leaving Bedford
      • Youth vaping seminar
      • Berkeley Open Studios
      • DeSaulnier town hall
      • 'Elevada' at Shotgun
      • Singer-songwriter Natu Camara at Cal Perf
      • Lafayette Lib celebrates
      • UC BAMPFA’s chief Rinder
      • Poet Matthew Zapruder
      • Live @ the Library
      • ARM of Care
      • East Bay museums get out
      • El Sobrante's Soul Flower farm
      • Author Meredith May's 'Honey Bus'
      • Guns into Sculpture
      • Author Mary Ellen Butler
      • Authenticity at USS Hornet
      • 2019 Heart of the Home Tour
      • Joyce Carol Oates in Lafayette
      • Author Matt Richtel's 'Elegant Defense'
      • Esme Weijun Wang's 'Schiziophrenias"
      • Mimi Fox celebrating life
      • Author Devi Laskar's 'Atlas'
      • Pleasant Hill golfer John Scott Senz
      • Walnut Creek United Methodist anniversary
      • Author Markham on migrant students' needs
      • 'Altered States' at Bedford
      • Filmmaker Jafa's 'White Album'
      • Montclair's restaurant renaissance
      • Author Newhouse's 'Incredible Slip Madigan'
      • Author Adam Plantinga
      • Bedford Craft Fest
      • Author John Jay Osborne
      • Learning via PORTS in Alameda
      • 'Tastes Like Chicken"
      • Owen's 'Other People's Love Affairs'
      • YBCA's 'Bay Area Now' exhibit
      • El Cerrito's surveillance cameras
      • Author Lydia Kiesling's 'The Golden State'
      • Author Gortner's 'The Romanov Empress'
      • Paula West at Summer Jazz Fest
      • State teachers summit in Moraga
      • 'Raised in the Shadow of the Bomb'
      • Author Meredith Jaeger's 'Boardwalk Summer'
      • Photographer Peter Hujar
      • Michael Pollan turned on
      • Teller's "All the Ever Afters"
      • St. Mary's golf team
      • Author Peter Rubin's 'Future Presence'
      • Bay Point mural
      • Chen's 'Bury What We Cannot Take'
      • East Bay Sea Serpents
      • Rakestraw Books' 45 year
      • Salt Craft restaurant
      • Norhtgate HS wins at Monterey Jazz
      • San Ramon utility box art
      • Rita Coolidge at Bankhead
      • Warrior's Unified Basketball Clinic
      • Concord Brewing Network
      • Kerri Shawn in 'Shirley Valentine'
      • East Bay Parkinson's advocate
      • Atmospheric scientist at Bankhead
      • Oates and Johnson at Laf lib
      • Author David Lukas 'Last Watchman'
      • Dr. Jill Biden speaks at EBWC
      • Diablo Foods in Lafayette
      • Kate Braverman's 'A Good Day for Seppuka'
      • Author Anne Raeff
      • EdTech Symposium
      • 'Until, Until, Until,...' at YBCA
      • Tri-Valley ice rinks
      • Kilbanes' 'Weightless" rock opera
      • Jewish Intnl. Film Fest opens
      • Ruth Bancroft Celebration of life
      • Author Eva Schloss
      • Stress reduction through diet
      • Gold Coast Chamber Players school visits
      • BAMPFA's Woodstock tribute
      • 'Long Way Home' at Livermore Reads
      • More women serving
      • '1776' at Bankhead
      • East Bay Regional Parks job fair
      • Charity Bike Institute
      • Danville Village Theatre's 'Wild'
      • 'Seed Vortex' at Bedford Gallery
      • William Noguera's death row memoir
      • Running With Love
      • Warrior's Jordan Bell
      • St. Mary's Jan Term
      • Bankhead's 'Best Face Forward'
      • Winter hiking
      • Latkes
      • 'Irish Christmas' at Bankhead
      • Danville's Santa's Mailbox
      • Model trains at Blackhawk
      • St. Mary's 'Across the Aisle'
      • DeSaulnier on tax bill
      • 'Thank you' to Tri-Valley art scene
      • Moraga sinkhole
      • 'Customer Experience'
      • Joyce Maynard's 'The Best of Us'
      • Teen Battle of the Bands
      • Painter John Tullis
      • Raising Resilient Girls
      • Blackhawk Gallery exhibit
      • Experience Burma Restaurant
      • Sustainable Enterprise Conf.
      • Author Barry Gifford's 'The Cuban Club'
      • Teens and social media workshop
      • Horsepower and Patriotism
      • Author John Green in Pleasanton
      • Lafayette's Reservoir Run
      • Author Daneille Wong
      • Joan Osborne sings Dylan
      • Walk for diabetes research
      • Girl Scout Troop's Bronze Award
      • Poetry duo at St. Mary's
      • 'Classroom Champions'
      • Abstract art by women
      • Pittsburg Entertainment & Arts Hall of Fame
      • Horses soothe dementia patients
      • Author Elizabeth Rosner's 'Survivor Cafe'
      • Artist Pallavi Sharma
      • "Pasquale' at Bankhead
      • American Indian culture at Bankhead
      • 22nd Lafayette Art & Wine Fest
      • 20th California Independent Film Festival
      • Annual Bay Area Pet Fair
      • Training immigrants to become baristas
      • Indigo Girls at Bankhead
      • New comedy series in Danville
      • Oakland Beast Crawl
      • East Bay CERT's emergency food
      • Sketching critters at Bedford
      • Zuppan-Hood at World Transplant Games
      • Non-violent activism
      • 18th Eugene O'Neill Festival
      • Warriors dancer audition
      • BEASTMODE-A-Business
      • Margaret Sexton's 'Kind of Freedom'
      • Retired teacher' still teaching
      • Senior Transportation in East Bay
      • Jill Biden at St. Mary's
      • Electric bikes on East Bay trails
      • Concord Japanese festival
      • San Ramon library jazz concerts
      • Lafayette Senior Symposium
      • Livermore's Casse-Croute
      • Cyclist rides for breast cancer
      • 'Halcyon Days' at Diablo Fine Art
      • Poet August Kleinzahler
      • JD Souther at Bankhead
      • 'Gentleman, Champion...'
      • 'Four Immigrants'
      • Art of Charles Howard
      • Wente's 'Midsummer' and 'Cyrano'
      • Bentley underwater robotics
      • Author Edan Lepucki
      • Faz Restaurant
      • 'Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic'
      • S.F. String Trio doe 'Sgt. Pepper'
      • Founders of Mendocino Music Festival
      • Festival Opera 'Sins' and 'Pagliacci'
      • Concord job fair for vets
      • Wry Crips Disabled Women's Theater
      • Pleasanton's Almare Gelato
      • William Blake collector
      • Walnut Creek Art & Wine Festival
      • Summer Reading
      • Documentary 'California Typewriter'
      • Director discusses 'California Typewriter'
      • Cornelia Nixon's 'The Use of Fame'
      • Las Lomas garden
      • 'Off the Shelf and On Stage'
      • Dublin's Mirchi Cafe
      • The Peace Center
      • Principal Elaine Frank retires
      • Acalanes district green teams
      • MomWarrior conference
      • Miss USA
      • College of Alameda Gospel Ensemble
      • Berkeley Jazz Ensemble
      • Lafayette 'Food Adventures'
      • Contra Costa Fringe festival
      • Pairings Cellars
      • O'Neill Foundation staged readings
      • Bankhead's 'Wine County Tales'
      • Love and Bipolar Disorder
      • Storm Large at Bankhead
      • Lamorinda ShortDocs Film Fest
      • Lamorinda Business Forum
      • 'Spontaneous Shakespeare'
      • Dublin's Pamir restaurant
      • St. Mary's forum on environment and energy
      • Los Medanos College Gospel Choir
      • Lafayette Earth Day Fest
      • DeSaulnier's town hall
      • Northgate H.S. jazz band
      • Corvette show at Blackhawk
      • Anita Hill at St. Mary's College
      • Arlo Guthrie at Bankhead
      • Popular vote change
      • 'Cork Dork'
      • 'Lean In' cofounder Hemmeter
      • Pura Vida Cocina Latina & Sangria Bar
      • Author Rebecca Solnit
      • SF Symphony exec leaving
      • Post Civil Rights and African American Church Music
      • Union and Fifth
      • 'Soul and Spice' at Dublin HS
      • Early aviation on West Coast
      • San Ramon's Brass Door
      • O'Neill drama workshop
      • Lunafest East Bay
      • 'Just Like a Woman'
      • Town Hall Theatre
      • Confronting global terrorism
      • Livermore Valley Opera's 'Figaro'
      • Author Jason Reynolds at libs
      • 'Brilliance' exhibit in Danville
      • Food banks under Trump
      • Author Yiyun Li's 'Dear Friend'
      • Opposition to Habitat for Humanity
      • College Park H.S. ceramics
      • International Guitar Night
      • Drones for public safety
      • T.J. Stiles at Berkeley library
      • De La Torre’s trattoria
      • Warm Winter Nights
      • Village Theatre 'Piano Lesson'
      • Creating a Peaceful School
      • St. Mary's 'Jan Term'
      • Richmond Art Center's "Living Black'
      • 'The Wrong Dog'
      • The Jazz Room
      • Dublin's Falafel Town restaurant
      • Livermore Valley Opera's new Artistic Director
      • Citizen Scientists
      • Pittsburg image up-date
      • On Fire Pizza in San Ramon
      • New Year, Adult Learning
      • 'We Gon' Be Alright'
      • Speakers at Bankhead
      • Olivia Newton-John
      • Orinda Theater 75th Anniversary
      • Danville Brewing Co.
      • Bedford's 'Cut Up/Cut Out'
      • Bicycle nonprofit
      • Holiday fun
      • Basque Boulangerie Cafe
      • Seva Foundation benefit
      • Costuming Center Rep's Christmas Carol
      • Saint Mary's Social Justice conference
      • Filming Peter Pan Foundation show
      • Nonprofit volunteers honored
      • 'Celebrating the Natural World' art show
      • Trout in San Pablo Creek
      • Preserving history digitally
      • Uncle Yu's restaurant
      • Berkeley Open Studios
      • Civil rights attorney Fred Gray
      • Poet Devorah Major
      • Service to God and Country
      • East Bay Holiday Train rides
      • Chef's Turkey Day
      • Role Player's 'Don't Drink the Water'
      • Congresswoman Barbara Boxer
      • Locanda Ravello restaurant
      • Family history searches
      • Author Natalie Baszile's 'Queen Sugar'
      • Cashore Marionettes at Firehouse
      • Jumping for fun and advocacy
      • 'Rebuilding Lives' after abuse
      • Author Divakaruni's 'Oleander Girl'
      • Author Dean Karnazes' 'Road to Sparta'
      • Mixology
      • Bankhead's 'In the Heights'
      • 'Flying Dutchman' at LVO
      • SMC panel: Millennials matter
      • Former policeman inspires teens
      • Author Richard Alameddine
      • Parsons Dance at Bankhead
      • Musician Marc Broussard at Firehouse
      • Berkeley idea fest 'Uncharted'
      • Michael Krasny on Jewish humor
      • Lafayette Art & Wine Festival
      • Elisa Kleven's 'Gingerbread Boy'
      • 17th Annual O'Neill Festival
      • Walnut Creek Library's 'One Book'
      • NorCal Kids Triathlon
      • Sunday Suppers
      • Running and reading in Danville
      • STEAM at libraries
      • Photographer opens gallery
      • Martinez crop swap
      • National Park Service symposium
      • Teacher's summit at St. Mary's
      • Singer Laura Michele
      • Residency program at Bankhead
      • Tony Furtado Trio at Bankhead
      • Las Trampas adults with disabilities
      • Sojourn to France
      • Cal Shakes' 'Fences'
      • Japan tour for jazz ensemble
      • 'Laura's Ride' fundraiser
      • Free summer movies and concerts
      • Travolta Film Camp
      • 'Tempest' at Wente
      • Carlos Reyes at Aegis
      • Tri-Valley Rep 'Mary Poppins'
      • Keltner's 'The Power Paradox'
      • WWII bombardier
      • Diana Ross, Jackson Browne at Wente
      • Host families for Pittsburg Diamonds
      • Cross-country biking for cancer
      • Emergency ham radio
      • Longtime Rheem teacher retires
      • 'Florence Nightingale: Live!
      • Citizen of the Year Kathleen Odne
      • Alameda County Fair
      • Medical Marijuana panel
      • Livermore Valley Performing Arts Center's new season
      • Walnut Creek Art & Wine Festival
      • Moraga schools start time
      • Livermore public art
      • Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble
      • Northgate High at 'Next Generation' jazz fest
      • Blackhawk Museum's Nora Wagner
      • Moraga 'Citizen of the Year' Judy Dinkle
      • Moraga Community Garage Sale
      • Band 'LK Project'
      • Wings of Freedom tour
      • Lafayette ComicFest 2016
      • Volmer's 'Reliance, Illinois'
      • Children's book illustrator Christian Robinson
      • "Common Ground' photo exhibit
      • Futures Films
      • Taste of Lafayette
      • Livermore Valley Film Fest
      • White Pony Express
      • Poet Gregory Pardlo
      • Defending the Caveman
      • Bay Area Storytelling Festival
      • Art Tag
      • Los Medanos College Gospel Choir
      • Cookbook Author My Nguyen
      • Frances Stroh's 'Beer Money'
      • Photographer Lisa Toby
      • Author Gary Soto
      • Challah making
      • The Empowerment Project
      • Bedford Gallery's 'Safe at Home'
      • SF Green Film Festival
      • Tom Steuber
      • ShortDocs Filmfest
      • Aspen Santa Fe Ballet at Bankhead
      • JFKU counselors-in-training
      • Quilter Sherri Lynn Wood
      • Japanese internment exhibit
      • Heart to Heart
      • Lunch and literature
      • Lamorinda Tri-Cities meeting
      • CG artist Adam Schnitzer
      • Bentley students go to Switzerland
      • Veterinarian Jamie Textor
      • Orinda Citizen of the Year
      • East Bay Intnl. Jewish Film Fest
      • Holocaust survivor Dora Apsan Sorell
      • Moraga singer with Autism
      • WW2 Vet receives Legion of Honor
      • Comedian Tim Lee at Bankhead
      • Pianist Larry Vuckovich
      • Author Nayomi Munaweera
      • Crucible's 'Hot Couture'
      • Jewelry designer in Moraga
      • BAM/PFA's 'In Focus'
      • Teen Violinist Jaclyn Thach
      • What's Up Downtown Orinda
      • Southern Cafe in Antioch
      • Robert Rezak
      • Author Roland Merullo at SMC
      • Classical guitarist Jason Vieaux
      • Morgan Fire recovery
      • LMC diverse hiring
      • Creating a Peaceful School
      • Worth Ranch restaurant
      • Blackhawk Museum
      • Berkeley Public Library
      • Coach Campanelli memiors
      • International children's film fest
      • Permculture workshops
      • Festival of Women Authors
      • Bankhead ukulele band
      • Green Ribbon Day
      • Beatles course
      • Bedford 'Superhero'
      • Bankhead's 'Pirates of Penzance'
      • Tattoo Dad
      • Canyon Elementary STEM
      • Crab feed health warnings
      • Author Catherine Armsden
      • Billy Joel tribute
      • Muffin People
      • Bookseller Marian Nielsen
      • Matches reunion
      • TIE
      • Vet receives Legion of Honor
      • Fiber Artist Melinda Tai
      • Pearl Harbor Vets
      • e-comerce
      • Contra Costa soldier in Afghanistan
      • Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang
      • Berkeley Artisans open studios
      • Lafayette traffic roundabout
      • Veterans invitational softball tourney
      • Pacific Chamber Symphony
      • Firehouse Quilts
      • California food system
      • Return of school music program
      • David Talbot's 'The Devil's Chessboard'
      • Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion
      • Contra Costa Open Studios
      • Dublin's new Great Harvest
      • San Ramon Chronicles
      • Discovery Day
      • Firehouse's 'South Pacific'
      • Drones: upside/downside
      • 'Great Immigration Debate'
      • Author Don George's 'Wanderlust'
      • Author Yeonmi Park
      • Bedford's 'BG Craft Fest'
      • Paula Poundstone
      • Lafayette Children's Book Festival
      • 23rd annual STAND!
      • Author Frances Dinkelspiel
      • Comedian Marc Yaffee
      • Artist Nancy Roberts
      • 'Spirit of India' at Bankhead
      • Litquake
      • Shevinsky's 'Lean Out'
      • Lego art at Bedford
      • Storyteller bookstore closing
      • St. Mary's creative writing program
      • Comedy contest at Bankhead
      • Moraga Pear & Wine Festival
      • CVCHS revises board membership
      • Monday Night Playground
      • Author Dan Siegel
      • Photographer Edward Burtynsky
      • The Black Diamond Follies
      • Walnut Creek's Walnut Festival
      • Delta Blues Festival
      • Northgate HS March-A-Thon
      • Jazz vocalist Spencer Day
      • 'Madama Butterfly' at Bankhead
      • Artist Ranjini Venkatachari
      • VetCon fair
      • Author Sue Grafton
      • Author Anil Ananthaswamy
      • 'One City One Book'
      • Ginny Golden, library manager
      • Buy one, give one
      • Scott Hovey, e911
      • Firehouse Arts Center's 2015-16 season
      • Bedford Gallery exhibit celebrates plant life
      • Tri-Valley writers summer camp
      • Ms. Wheelchair America
      • The Gardens at Heather Farm
      • Danae Mattes' art
      • Tanks for the comfy seating
      • Dave Newhouse's 'Founding 49ers'
      • Antioch physician retires
      • Death Cafes
      • Lafayette's MakerFest
      • O'Neill Festival
      • Concord umpire
      • Artist Tom Killion
      • Berkeley Panel for Book Inc. opening
      • Orinda woman is 'Born Survivor'
      • LVPAC's upcoming season
      • The 'Happy' side of Walnut Creek
      • Architect Chris Downey
      • Author Alex Dolan
      • Blind 4-H'er shows pigs
      • Read to the Rhythm
      • Eugene O'Neill expert Eric Hayes
      • Marrisa Moss' 'Amelia' ends
      • Faith in the digital age
      • Livermore Lab scientist's origami art
      • Bedford Gallery's 'Blow Up'
      • Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude
      • Bay Area Book Festival
      • Geppetto's Cafe changes hands
      • Artist Jacob Hankinson
      • Lafayette rent control
      • Tess' Community Farm Kitchen
      • Art and Wine Festival, Walnut Creek
      • Smuin's Weston Krukow
      • Slopes of Diablo exhibit
      • San Ramon Art & Wind Festival
      • WC Library Foundation's Kristin Anderson
      • Bankhead Theater's "Hula Lives On"
      • Bay Area KidFest
      • CVCHS trustees resign
      • Home Brew Fest
      • Supporting injured soldier
      • Notes4Notes
      • Vietnam Vet Hero
      • John Muir's medical mission
      • Science Cafe
      • Independant living
      • Gospel Community Celebration Concert
      • Clayton Valley Charter School seeks board replacement
      • Simply Sinatra, Almost Elton John
      • Walnut Creek Int. Short Film Festival
      • What's In Your Hat
      • Carey Perloff and Jonathon Moscone
      • Bay Area Storytelling Festival
      • Adonal Foyle
      • Nobel Laureate John Mather
      • Musical prodigy Annie Wu
      • Google
      • Village Theatre "Mice and Men"
      • Aquanut
      • Cyber Safety for kids
      • Rev. James Lawson
      • "Mice and Men"
      • Marechal Duncan
      • Science Thought Leaders Night
      • Village Theatre Art Gallery "Lost and Found"
      • WW2 Jewish spy 'Behind Enemy Lines'
      • Margolin and Rinder on CA art
      • Amy Cheney's Write to Read
      • Firehouse Art Center
      • Author Garry Wills
      • Walnut Creek Library Foundation Author's Gala
      • Recycled Percussion
      • Cal Perf's Berkeley Talks
      • Author Michael Gazziniga
      • Growing Theater Audiences
      • Drum circle
      • Poetry Out Loud
      • Cypress String Quartet
      • Clayton Valley Charter HS investigation
      • Science Contest
      • UC's Yudof and Naplolitano
      • Gap Year
      • ClayStation 6
      • Earn & Learn East Bay
      • Sculptor Julee Richardson
      • Science on Saturday
      • Author Munaweera
      • Girls in STEM
      • She's Beautiful When She's Angry
      • Peaceful Schools
      • American Mosque
      • BART
      • STEM at Berkeley Rep
      • Reggae children's musical
      • Marquis Business Person of the Year
      • Museum of Art, St. Mary's
      • Mega Challah bake
      • Ex-con coffee
      • Swan Lake
      • World Series Trophy tour
      • Sip of Soup
      • Author Joseph Di Prisco
      • White Pony
      • Miss America Kira Kazantsev
      • Robert San Souci
      • Olate Dogs
      • Live action role play
      • Photographer Ding Hong Wu
      • Chef Cal Peternell
      • Louis Zamperini
      • Baker Frank Giovanni
      • Richard Pryor: book review
      • Author Jennifer Dodd
      • Robbie Rogers
      • Vanya Without Borders
      • Gianni's Italian Bistro for charities
      • Clayton Valley Charter High School
      • Jealous Curator
      • Livermore Valley Opera Amahl
      • Dancer Edward Stegge
      • Dolores Huerta
      • Google.Org
      • War Comes Home
      • Voices Against Brain Cancer
      • Good Grief Cooking
      • Karl Hedrick
      • Billie Jean King
      • Saving a life
      • Guinness World record?
      • Chip Hale AZ Diamondbacks
      • Preservation Hall Jazz Band
      • Sleeps with Dogs
      • Andrew Denman, Wildlife artist
      • The Elegant Bib
      • 'Hometown Hero' Tom Steuber
      • Bruce Cockburn
      • Bedford Gallery '100'
      • Domestic violence
      • Dr. Cornel West
      • Heyday Books
      • Loma Prieta earthquake: be prepared
      • Uncharted
      • Daniel Levitin: 'The Organized Mind'
      • Loma Prieta earthquake
      • 400 Things Cops Know
      • Author Reese Erlich: Syria
      • Mrs. Dalloway's Literary and Garden Arts
      • Salad Bar Project
      • Author Steven Pinker
      • Comedian Steele
      • Maya Lin
      • Ygnacio Valley High football under lights
      • Concord/Pleasant Hill Recycling Center
      • Berkeley Arts & Letters
      • Artist Geoffrey Meredith
      • CA Independent Film Festival
      • Author Marissa Moss
      • Veterinarian Camp
      • Lafayette Cell Towers
      • Recycling
      • Engineering Camp for Girls
      • Giants Baseball Camp
      • JFKU interns help troubled youth
      • The Iceman Cometh
      • Greywater
      • Olympian Heather Petri
      • Author John Fuller
      • Climber Hans Florine
      • Homeless
      • Lev Grossman
      • Mayor's cook-off
      • Hiroshima
      • Clay and Glass Exhibit
      • BAM/PFA topping out
      • O'Neill Studio Retreat
      • Town Hall looks at juvenile justice
      • A's Great Dave Henderson
      • Hospice nurse invention
      • Professor Brenda Hillman
      • Wildlife 'Encounters' app
      • Orinda Books
      • Bedford's "Skull Show"
      • Trapshooter Blake Fahmie
      • Atlas Lift Tech
      • Wireless Technology dangers
      • Creeks poisoned by runoff
      • Author Dr. Daniel Levitin
      • Last Midway Battle survivor
      • Clayton Valley Charter School Tension
      • Orinda Theatre Concert
      • Futures Explored 50th
      • Lafayette Balanced Budget
      • Christine Deane
      • Party Politics at Commonwealth Club
      • Comic-Con at OMCA
      • Clayton Valley Charter Band
      • Actor Bryce Pinkham
      • Author Nate Silver
      • Lafayette Commonwealth Club
      • Hometown Hero: Gil Gleasons
      • Moraga Citizen of the Year
      • Kristi Yamaguchi
      • Madeline Albright
      • High-altitude training
      • SHELTER Inc.: Generosity
      • Pixar: Catmull
      • Actress Embraces Shakespeare
      • Mt. Diablo Armchair Tour
      • Oscar Grant
      • Amy McClure: Art's Mystery
      • Bedford Gallery 'Sky'
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      • Best Music books of 2017
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    • East Bay Monthly >
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      • Cal Shakes new director, new season
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      • Kronos Quartet, The Cusp of Magic
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      • Local Lit | December
      • Homegrown chef opens Tribune brasserie
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      • Piedmont's Education Speaker Series
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      • Festival Opera
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      • Shop the Block | Valentine’s Day
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      • Nature journaling
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      • Noodles from Shan Dong
      • Orinda Books reading recs
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      • Joffrey Ballet returns to Cal Perf
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      • 'Violins of Hope' at Paramount
      • March Local Lit
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      • 'Gatz' at Berkeley Rep
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      • Violinist Axel Strauss at PCA
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      • Oakland Symph. holiday tribute to Aretha Franklin
      • Piedmont holiday shopping
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      • Oakland Symphony’s 'Notes from Korea'
      • Video Games Live at Cal Perf
      • Singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn at Freight & Salvage
      • Actor Robert Townsend at the Marsh
      • David Sedaris at Cal Perf
      • November lit(erary) picks
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      • Mariinsky Ballet at Cal Perf
      • October's top five lit(erary) events
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      • Berkeley Rep's 'Great Wave'
      • Mark Morris at Cal Perf
      • Local Lit
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      • Peidmont East Bay Children's Choir in a new era/
      • Backstage at Berkeley Rep's 'The Good Book'
    • Bay City News >
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    • Other Publications >
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      • SMC course on lying
      • Yoga expanding
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      • Talking to kids about race
      • NYT's Ben Fountain at LLLC
      • Cal Shakes' 'Quixote Nuevo'
      • Author Gail Honeyman at Orinda
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      • 'Jesus Moonwalks the Missippi'
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      • Bell & Bunna's Books
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      • Vinyl's Vibrant Past
      • Berkeley Rep's 'Anarchist"
      • Google Smart Cars
      • Baryshnikov on Stage
      • Kronos Quartet
      • Turtle Island Quartet
      • Cellist David Requiro
      • Malcolm Gladwell
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Lara Downes Explores the Many Resonances in Roots Music

By Lou Fancher
In liner notes for her new album, Some of These Days, pianist Lara Downes expresses the 14-track CD’s origins and significance. A line in an African-American spiritual, “Welcome Table,” provides the album’s title and the final track is an adaptation by Downes of the composition by African-American composer Florence Price (1887–1953). Following a pull quote from the refrain, Downes reveals her purpose and shares a personal narrative:
“All of God’s children gonna sit together, some of these days.” (“Welcome Table”)
The conviction in these words — the hope and faith in them — is why I’m even here at all. I was born because my parents believed these words.
They met at a sit-in, my mom and dad. San Francisco, in the late 1960s. He was a Black man from Harlem and she was a Jewish girl from Akron. They fell in love and got married and had three golden-brown babies, all in the hope and faith that their daughters, and all the children, of all shades of black, brown and beige, would sit together in freedom and fairness — some of these days.”
The albums’ spirituals and freedom and protest songs trace a dark history of oppression, but sing forward to hope, courage, strength, faith, and enlightenment. Downes says in an interview this multigenre collection that intermingles the songs with classical, jazz, folk, country, and R&B musical traditions expands an authentically American story. Spirituals, she suggests, are the first examples of original, indigenous American folk music. Collaborations on the CD feature guest artists: Toshi Reagon, Howard Fishman, PUBLIQuartet, and the Chapin Sisters, in arrangements by Downes, H. T. Burleigh, Hall Johnson, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Nina Simone, and Billy Taylor.
Downes spoke about the album, slated for release on April 3, and her ongoing My Promise Project, which has had her traveling nationwide to engage with young people and through music, spark and support their activism and agency in the pursuit for social justice.
The lyrics obviously reflect songs that originated in slavery and speak or respond to human bondage. How does that impact the songs’ musical details?
I’ll turn that around. What I identify in this music is found in all American music. For me, it’s deeply and instinctively emotional. I, too, have learned and grown to blend traditions. It’s a complex mix of melody and rhythm and harmony — all of them get used, borrowed, and translated. This is the first music that was really developed in this country. It has traditions that came with the slaves from Africa, but as American music developed through the blues to jazz, the musical elements developed differently in different branches. If you listen to R&B, or across other branches to rock ’n’ roll and country music, you find the many places this music has gone.
Marian Anderson, interpreting spirituals and sharing their evolution in the concert-hall tradition was an important moment in classical music. As a woman of color and classically trained musician, it remains important to me. Anderson bringing spirituals onto the concert stage: That’s my gateway into the tradition. I’m most interested in places where the older vernacular of spirituals and the concert tradition intersect.

What principles apply as you select and organize a CD’s overall architecture?
That’s mostly an instinctive process. But there are thoughts as well. For example, the starting point was very intentional. [The album’s first track, “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” integrates Downes’s piano track with archival field recordings made in 1939 by Alan Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax, the famous American-music collectors. Sung by Clifford Reed, Julia Griffin, and Johnny Mae Medlock, the recording is archived in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.] It’s chosen to honor the history and the people who have pulled these songs through history. These are singers who are prisoners in a state prison — a work farm in the Jim Crow South. It’s a direct lineage to slavery. I wanted that place of legacy and ancestry. The voices are so haunting, so ghostlike.

Where did these songs come from? Who did they belong to? What was interesting for me in writing the record notes, the motivation for me is really the relevance and timelessness of these songs. The messaging in them: there’s the pain, reaction to oppression, always hope, always a vision of a better place. All of those things are relevant and current today. As I was writing the notes for “Motherless Child,” there were migrant children being torn from their families at our borders. That just shook me.

As you perform the piano arrangement by Stephen Buck in collaboration with the recording of the singers, what is your approach?
It’s constructed so the piano enters in a ghostlike voice and doesn’t interrupt or overpower the voices. In places, it’s taking the lead from the voices, which are obviously in a melancholy lane. It’s pulling back to an inward journey on the circumstances and history within those words and notes. It’s a meditation. And then I hand it back to the singers. It’s a tribute.
Please talk about Margaret Bonds and Troubled Water, her adaptation of the classic spiritual, “Wade in the Water.” What must you understand and master to play the piece completely, not just technically?
The history. You have to know where Margaret Bonds was coming from. Bonds and Price are fascinating because they lived through a transition in America that was profound. The time and places where they were able to do their work was a fleeting moment: mass migration had big cities redefining themselves. There was a flowering in Harlem and in Chicago, with black writers and musicians coming together to work in harmony. The work that came out of it was so resonant. As artists performing their work, we communicate all of the history and story and experience that’s inside the music we’re privileged to play. We’re conduits.

What do you most appreciate about Bond’s compositions?
It’s brilliant piano writing. In Troubled Water, it’s her perceptive way of taking the groove of “Wade in the Water” and turning it into something that intersects with concert traditions. The structure and harmonizations are perfect: It travels. It pulls in post-Romantic concert writing and at the same time, it beautifully honors the spiritual traditions it’s leaning upon.
I’ve been playing it a lot lately and people go crazy. There’s an energy in it. You feel the layers of tradition and it just propels you forward. But that’s something I experience with all of this music. We are all, as Americans, intuitively connected to the complexity of our musical heritage. People find themselves in this music.
I was playing in a big hall in Washington, D.C., and went offstage during a break. There was a group of security guards, African-American guys in their 60s and 70s who just heard it through the doors. They were excited: it’s your home, your roots, your family.
What guided your selection of Florence Price’s Fantasie Negre No. 2?
I’ve recently released a series of 15 singles with newly discovered pieces of her piano work. My connection with Price is one of recognition; finding a part of myself reflected in her music. Ten years ago, really digging into American music and not find large amounts of it by African American composers, I found her music in pockets. With the reemergence of her work, I’m so lucky to have discovered it. It’s a moment in time now and a self-determined movement (by Price) in the history of classical music. Fantasie Negre No. 2, in the context of the broader vision, represents the entrance of this music into the concert tradition. When I chose it, I had in my mind her connection to Anderson, to honoring African American women and their place in history. It’s the meeting point that happened in the ’30s with spirituals and concert music, and there are others in the ’60s with spirituals and protest music coming into the album’s focus.

In a follow up email, Downes added:
“I found her first Fantasie in a compilation of music by black women composers. I want to be clear that I have been an active driving force behind the rediscovery of her work, not a passive recipient. I have been powerfully advocating for her work and I’ve been instrumental in this renaissance.”
How are you using the album in your My Promise Project’s To Be Free residencies?
This Promise Project has been alive for four years. The focus shifts for each project. I’ve been working with schools this year, although some are getting postponed right now [because of coronavirus]. The spirit of protest and the value of freedom songs is very much alive, is what I observe. Reaching younger generations is so important because the awareness they have of social injustice right now is enormous. The lessons of history are helpful and reassuring. I come to the music with firsthand knowledge from my parents. People were marching and singing these songs in the street not long before and after I was born. My mother told me this isn’t the first time things have been hard. Kids right now don’t necessarily know that. It’s hopeful for them to have connections to what is actually quite recent history. They need to hear how we’ve made progress forward and I try to remember that myself.

Their answers are vast when I ask them, “What is your promise in the world?” They say they can clean up the ocean, end hunger. I ask them how they can do those things. The project empowers them to realize how they can begin, and continue, to take these actions. It’s fascinating to hear their agency come forward as they connect to what has been possible before but find new ways to move forward. I need it too, because one of the things that’s hugely discouraging is how easy it is to lapse into false activism. Reposting things you see online is not action. We need small, grassroots efforts.
Do you introduce or integrate classical music concepts in the workshops?
It’s about the music and I don’t call it one genre or another at all. I play a piece by Price and talk about who she was and where she came from. To share this story with kids, mostly who are kids of color, to show how she pulled from two traditions — her ancestral traditions and the traditions in which she immersed and trained herself as a classical composer — has deep impact. No, I don’t have to talk about classical music directly. That’s the thing about music: you can share it and save a lot of words.
Is there a similar or comparable response from adults?
The workshops are targeted to young people and the CD is just being released, but in concerts with adult audiences, there’s resonance. People need hope. They need a linear American narrative with our past and including our possibility. That’s what I’m trying to share with this album. It says to them; we have tried before and we keep trying. Nobody said it would be easy, quick, or perfect. We have setbacks, and then we move forward again.
A last item: What is the significance of the performance you will be giving this summer with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra of Price’s Piano Concerto?
[The Chicago Symphony’s 1933 premiere of Price’s Symphony in E Minor was the first work by a black woman composer ever performed by a major American symphony orchestra.]
The significance is that Chicago was her home base. It’s a historically important performance because the CSO has never played this work before. The Chicago Symphony played an important role in her career. I played [the concerto] with the Boston Pops last spring and other places, but this performance in Chicago has so much resonance.
What does that mean? Resonance means vibration. The physical feeling I get as a pianist has implications, it has waves of connection. It’s complicated, and I don’t want to answer just in the context of Price. In the context of the entire album, this place in American music of uncovering voices you haven’t heard, bringing music where you find yourself ... it is all about resonance. When I play it, I feel it in my body and the vibrations are going out into the room. The way I expand on these stories through the historical and cultural references — we are feeling the things that bring us together in ways we don’t always immediately recognize. It’s our childhood, it’s in our DNA. That’s what I witness in the concert hall when people lean together and breathe together. There are bigger vibrations than just the music: it’s deep, human connection.

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