Author: andy

With a panel presentation on the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant organization and the history and current status of the sanctuary movement. Speakers will include Sister Maureen Duignan and board and staff members of EBSC, a pioneer in faith-based assistance to immigrants since the early 1980s.

 

The Works Progress Administration, the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, hired millions of unemployed workers during the Great Depression. The WPA’s Federal Art Project commissioned artists to create murals, photographs, sculpture, paintings and graphic arts, including more than two million posters—many designed and printed on the edge of the Berkeley campus at the Western Museum Laboratory.  Only a few thousand of the historic posters survive today. 

Doug Leen started Ranger Doug Enterprises as a hobby in 1993 when he began researching and reproducing the WPA’s national park posters to raise funds for Grand Teton National Park, where he spent seven years as a seasonal ranger. Now living in the backcountry of Alaska, “Ranger Doug” will discuss the WPA’s iconic park posters—their creation, loss, rediscovery and the role of public art and infrastructure in America today. He will be introduced by Harvey Smith, local Berkeley New Deal expert and co-curator of the current exhibit at the History Center.

John Aronovici will display artwork by and photographs of his mother, Elizabeth Ginno, at work for the WPA at the Western Museum Laboratory and at the World’s Fair on Treasure Island in 1940.

Ranger Doug will offer for sale reproductions of the WPA National Park Posters in various sizes and formats, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Berkeley Historical Society.

November 11, 2018, is the 100th Anniversary of Armistice Day – the end of World War I. At 11:11 AM, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín will hold a ceremony on the steps of the Veterans Memorial Building for the World War I memorial plaque, newly restored. Immediately following, there will be a presentation in the building’s auditorium hosted by the Berkeley Historical Society. 

The program will include City Councilmember Linda Maio speaking on her experiences with Sanctuary City movements in Berkeley. In addition, representatives from the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission and Code Pink will speak about one Sanctuary City moment: a 2011 resolution that the Guantanamo prison should be closed and the welcome of one of the refugees to the Berkeley community with an event known as “From Guantanamo to Berkeley.” 

Exhibit curators Phyllis Gale and Harvey Smith will then present introductions to the subject matter of the new exhibit. The exhibit will be opened for viewing for approximately one hour, with light refreshments served in the lobby. 

Following this event, people may wish to attend the United Against Hate Week kickoff across the street in Civic Center Park, scheduled from 1 to 4 PM. 

The Center Street Parking Garage, a block from the Veterans Building, has just reopened. Parking is $3 per hour. You may also find free parking behind Old City Hall or on the streets west of Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

Join us for this last chance to see the exhibit, plus a little socializing and refreshments.

Betty Reid Soskin is the 96-year-old ranger at Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historic Park, author of the recently published memoir Sign My Name to Freedom, former co-owner of Reid’s Records on Sacramento Street in Berkeley and field representative to Assemblymembers Dion Aroner and Loni Hancock. She became politically active during the Civil Rights Movement, wrote and performed protest songs, fundraised for the Black Panthers, and became involved in Berkeley politics upon taking over the management of Reid’s Records in the late 1970s.

Carole Davis Kennerly, MSW/LCSW, was the first African American woman on the Berkeley city council and served as vice mayor. Earlier this year she received a Lifetime Achievement Award for activism at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Breakfast, having spearheaded the Byron Rumford memorial on Sacramento Street.

Tina Jones Williams is the author of Things I Want You to Know and the “Julia Street” series of novels, set in the same South Berkeley neighborhood as Reid’s Records, the Rumford statue, and the South Berkeley Senior Center.

Stop by and visit. Publications and postcards will be available for purchase.

Come meet and greet other Berkeley history enthusiasts! Please bring a contribution of food and/or non-alcoholic beverage. We have reserved a picnic area in San Pablo Park in southwest Berkeley, an area whose history we are pursuing through a number of routes. This park was the City of Berkeley’s first, opened in 1914.

Our next installment of the Book Talk Series features Paula Friedman and her new novel, The Change Chronicles: A Novel of the Sixties Antiwar Movement. Friedman was a young activist in late 1960s Berkeley protesting the Vietnam War, and a reporter at the “underground” Berkeley Barb. In The Change Chronicles, Friedman provides an intellectually and emotionally intense tale exploring the human depths of the Bay Area’s antiwar and proto-feminist struggles of 1965-1969.  

Admission is free (donations always welcome), but space is limited, so please register on Eventbrite to be sure of a seat. Doors open at 2:30; talk begins at 3:00. Light refreshments will be served after the talk, and the author will be available to sell and sign copies of the book.

Ann Harlow, Berkeley Historical Society president, will give an illustrated talk about eight notable Berkeley photographers born before 1900: Oscar V. Lange, Anne Brigman, Oscar Maurer, Laura Adams Armer, Adelaide Hanscom, Emily Pitchford, Cedric Wright, and Dorothea Lange.

Ann Harlow is an independent art historian specializing in the art and culture of California from 1850 to 1950. She is a past director of the art museum at Saint Mary’s College and has had many opportunities to become familiar with California photographic history, beginning with her apprenticeship with curator Therese Heyman at the Oakland Museum forty years ago.

The talk will be preceded by a brief annual election meeting and followed by the opening of an exhibit about Berkeley photographer Allen Stross (1923–2017).

The event is free but seating is limited; make a reservation on Eventbrite or call (510) 848-0181. Please plan to arrive by 2 pm.

Shelley was a longtime and invaluable Berkeley Historical Society volunteer. She coordinated the current exhibit, “Soundtrack to the ’60s” (which you will have an opportunity to visit), and was a co-author of Berkeley Bohemia. As assistant archivist, Shelley was extremely knowledgeable about our collection and gracious and helpful to visitors as well as fellow volunteers.

Contributions in Shelley’s memory can be made to the Berkeley Historical Society, P.O. Box 1190, Berkeley, CA 94701.