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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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Heart and Soul of Rock: Skip the Needle rock onstage and off as friends and family

By Lou Fancher

​​To hear the sound of rich, complex friendship transcribed into vibrant, soul-shaking rock music, tune in to Skip the Needle. Laying down four-part vocals, kicking aside convention with memorable guitar and bass licks and riveting drum riffs or ripping through lyrics with robust messages that sit easy in the ear but rumble the heart, the band’s collective energy stands on firm musical chops. Skip the Needle soars to familiar and otherworldly places on the individual talents and wing tails of Shelley Doty, guitar; Kofy Brown, drums, Katie Cash, guitar; and Vicki Randle on bass. All four members have long claimed their queer identities and, except for Cash, are Black. Almost everything written about them in the media shines a sharp light on the problems for an all-woman, all-queer, mostly-people of color band trying to bust up the mainstream, mostly-white, all-male paradigm of the rock industry.
Only thing is, Skip the Needle has moved so above, beyond and outside of that effort that to continue focusing only on the slog up an industry hill is to risk missing the point. These musicians—not despite being friends, but because of it—bring individual goods to every endeavor and more often than not, land in a rare space to which they justifiably claim ownership. Each is a lead singer, a multi-instrumentalist with an extensive resume, and songwriting is a collective process that leans heavily on improvisation. They jam together without preset notions; it’s simultaneously that simple and drop-jaw mysterious.
Fans and newcomers to their audience will have the opportunity April 1st to hear and see in-person the band’s synergistic dynamics as part of Little Village’s April First No Foolin’ Artist Revue at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. Others on the multi-genre bill include Aki Kumar, Tia Carroll, Marcel Smith, Nic Clark and Mariachi Mestizo.
“It’s most important to know we came into this band arrangement as friends and people who wanted to learn new instruments,” says Brown in an interview one week before the show. “For the first time ever, I started playing drums. I just really wanted to learn. Shelley and I were in (the band) Sistas in the Pit together and still are, and I said, ‘Hey, you wanna jam?’ Katie is a friend and said I’ll jam with you—and Vicki is a friend and was like, oh, if you’re going to play drums, I’m gonna play bass because I never played bass before. Katie and Shelley were playing their normal instruments, their guitars, and me and Vick were just playing and having fun and trying to figure out our new instruments. For two years, we played as KVSK: Katie, Vicki, Shelly, Kofy, just jamming and having fun. Our first album was self-titled and independently produced. People coming to see us said, get a real name, so we did. Our relationship as people who respected each other’s gifts and talents, it was already there. What has deepened in the last few years has been our communication.”
The foursome gathered a month ago and finished recording a project centered on Octavia Butler and completed in collaboration with the band Anand. Skip the Needle wrote and recorded six songs that need only to be mastered to be released. Some of them will be featured in the performance at the Freight. In recent jam sessions, Brown says she’s noticed a shift, a bump up to a new level. “We’ve fine tuned the way we listen to and respond to each other. The foundation of who we are as a band—that real respect and friendship and love for each other—now allows us to play with freedom to create that’s not normally available. I’ve only been drumming for eight years, but I can experiment, and there’s no shut down on creativity. If Shelley or Katie comes in with a lick, that voice is allowed to experiment and be heard. It’s fun and freeing to play with that level of deep listening. If we just listen to each other, something awesome is going to come out of it. You hear it in this last batch of songs. We dive in and play with different colors and flavors. We have a thing where we just say, ‘I love the band.’ It’s a real joy when the four of us get together.”
It’s possible to hear, in addition to joy in their music, the complexity of four friends in conversation. An amalgamation of crying, laughing, teasing, shouting, screaming, interrupting, murmuring, forgiving, soothing, mirroring, avoiding, targeting, breathing together—translates into wide-ranging vocal tones, bristling instrumental tracks, driving tempos, suspenseful pauses, lyrics that read like friends completing each other’s thoughts and rhythms that catapult, float, pulse or land hard in the gut. In their first, self-titled album, and even more so in their second album, We Ain’t Never Going Back, you hear sonic chemistry, an essential something that Doty says is primarily nonverbal.
“Musical exploration,” she says, “is a language beyond the verbal part. How people interact instrumentally is crucial. It can touch areas in the listener you might not be able to access with linguistics. It comes back to why the band allows me to express myself. We interact and connect on an abstract plane. You can see the joy, the intensity, the rough things that come in because life is so hard. We pick it up and lift it. What I’m saying is that music is language itself; it doesn’t matter what words or vowel sounds you’re making. You can play three notes on an instrument and express emotion. You can do it alone or with a band, which then makes it elevate, and you have a shared experience. Take that out and share it on a recording or live with an audience; it really explodes because we are all translating it through our experience.”
Doty seeks to find something new every time she picks up her guitar or opens her mouth to sing. “Yesterday, I discovered I like to transcribe vocal lines on my instrument. It’s important for me to sit down and not think and just try to express an emotion. It’s one thing if I just need to meditate, another if I’m songwriting. If I want to get an upbeat loud rocking sound, I do that. There are many ways to come about it.” Her aim, she adds, is never static perfection. She offers a word that sums up her intention and almost sounds quaint coming from a hard-hitting rocker: freshness.
Brown approaches music-making with kinetic exuberance and intrinsic joy. “Rocking out, especially as a drummer, is pure, in-the-mix, mental, physical stimuli. When you do it with people who love the music, it’s pure bliss. It’s a workout.” She started writing poetry when she was about 10 years old. Despite never taking formal theory courses, she says songwriting is “second nature.” In her mid-20s, Brown realized the journaling and poetry she wrote were too compartmentalized and, opening the gate on her words, she established a robust following in the Bay Area as a rapper.
“The raps were conscious lyrics about things I’d witnessed. Dope Fiend was a graphic depiction of people I’d seen shooting up heroin. It’s visceral, overwhelming, so the lyrics reflect that.” Her aim, she says, is always to provoke an emotional reaction in a listener. “It’s about the feeling of the song, the music, the melody. I took a road trip for two-and-a-half months and I journaled. The music was the road, and the places we stopped were the melody. I start a song with the state of mind I’m in. If I’m somber, music is the vehicle that can convey what I really feel, matching what I feel inside. Chords on the piano I play have gone inside of me and grabbed my heart.”
Inevitably, or purposefully, the conversations with Brown and Doty spiral to “the heart and soul of rock,” a phrase open to individual interpretation. Brown says, “I don’t know what that means when other people say that, but to me, the heart and soul is Black women. It’s Rosetta Thorpe, who got buried in rock history. That’s the root. I love Chuck Berry. I say that even though he’s obviously not a Black woman, but because it came to me: I love his music, he’s so magnetic. All of that music by Black artists was absorbed and taken and transformed into mainstream White culture. Then you got the Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley mimicking these artists.”
If a person accepts that rock’s “heart and soul” is carried forward by musicians like Skip the Needle, Doty remains circumspect about acceptance and opportunities for Black women. “Because of the pandemic, what I see in the world during the last few years mostly comes through my screen and computer. Black women in general, Black women in art and the life we live, it’s pretty parallel. We just sat through Ketanji Brown Jackson (during the Supreme Court nomination hearings) being harangued by people who don’t have as much of a skill set for their jobs as she has for hers. Black women have never been given the same platform as White men. That has not changed in music or politics. We have to be placed where decisions are being made. As a Black woman in music, I put all of my artistic life into living as an example. Black kids can look at me and see themselves and say, ‘Oh, I can be a lead guitarist.’ Is the greater United States culture finally giving Black women their due? I just continue to model to other Black women and girls so they can watch and say, ‘I have options and I don’t have to live in a constrained way.’”
Although Brown celebrates one thing she says will always be true of her music—“Joy is in my makeup; I’ll spread that forever,” she says—she remains “contained” and will likely be boxed in forever by one song/story, the end of which she may never be able to write.
“I was born in 1968, born into the middle of the riots in D.C. My mother took an ambulance to the hospital because the city was burning. My father died when I was three-and-a-half. He was part of the Blackman’s Development Center, and he was picked up by police and somehow died in a police cell. We never had full information. I inherited his books by H. Rap Brown, Kwame Torres, Malcolm X, and I read them when I was 10. That’s why Black Lives Matter came out; because we have to say it. It didn’t matter that my dad died in jail. I’m 53, and no one can tell me why my dad died at 28 years old. I’ve written songs about it: my first demo tape has Sabotage, and it’s lyrically about this culture and what’s happening. (She rapped it.) I wrote that in 1993. Then I wrote others like Black Lives, written in 2015 about Michael Brown. We shot a video of it during the protests about George Floyd. I wrote it about what was happening in Ferguson, and it was still happening. So no, there’s no shift. It’s just another and another and another Black life lost.”
Brown says she and the other band members are “not the youngest cats around,” and therefore see cycles of good and bad civil rights history repeating today. Which perhaps provides impetus for Doty to seek daily “freshness” and for Brown to never take for granted the joy in rock music. “I say I’m from a different galaxy, a visitor from another planet and everything is frigging amazing; that’s my true self and music is my vehicle,” says Brown. And if the unthinkable happens and the band breaks apart? Well, comfort can be found in knowing each one of these four musicians stands on solid rock: individual, respectful of craft and each other, not world-weary, and strengthened but never tethered by friendship.
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