There’s no shortage of things that Richard Montoya loves about Bay Area culture the Mission District, Carlos Santana, the Golden State Warriors. Perhaps most striking for Montoya is the East Bay’s artistic forebears: poets like Joaquin Miller, Diane de Prima and Montoya’s father José Montoya, whose works are informed by their time in Oakland, San Francisco and Berkeley.
“It’s really those golden gates that kick us off into a rich California legacy that has to do with the West, our literature,” Montoya said in an interview with The Daily Californian. “I am about unpacking moments in our history that show precisely when Ginsberg and the Chicanos were hanging out, (or) when Ferlinghetti and my dad appeared in the same anthology.”
Vanessa Hua February 4, 2021Updated: February 4, 2021, 7:06 pm
The whirlwind of the past year brought a national reckoning on race and massive protests against police brutality, followed by the electoral victories of Kamala Harris, the first Black vice president, and Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first Black senator. Last month, Black poet Amanda Gorman dazzled us on Inauguration Day with “The Hill We Climb,” her stirring work about these turbulent times.
She’ll follow up that performance at the Super Bowl on Sunday. As Black History Month begins this week, I spoke with several Bay Area authors who recommended their favorite books.
Faith Adiele is a professor at California College of the Arts. Photo: Courtesy Faith Adiele
Fit for a Queen on Queen Sirikit of Thailand and Pierre Balmain
The Zay Initiative aims to promote an understanding of the evolution of regional culture, building up public awareness and appreciation of this unique heritage, reaching out to like-minded individuals and institutions nationally, regionally and globally. In addition to seasonal or touring exhibitions and museum loans, the collection is accessed through the digital archive (Collection), first of its kind on a regional level, fortified by a pop-up glossary in both Arabic and English. The Zay Initiative aims to empower women regionally and globally by bringing their untold stories to life.
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Learn: Modernism Week Online Experience
All things modern art, architecture, and design are the centerpiece of Modernism Week. In advance of the event’s April showing in Palm Springs, California, the celebration heads online for a monthlong virtual program filled with activities that bring its amusing tours and historical accounts to a broader audience. Enjoy a tour of the city’s significant architecture from the virtual front seat of a 1966 Mustang convertible, or stream films the delve into the backstories of Philip Johnson’s Glass House, Albert Frey’s Aluminaire House, and Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, among other icons of modern design. Also included in the ticketed event is the CEU-accredited Fast Forward series, which asks more than 25 industry professionals to render the design future of Palm Springs.
He designed Warriors The Town apparel. He says Oakland Forever is an insincere guilt jersey.
Alan Chazaro
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When he was young, Dustin O. Canalin swears he saw Tim Hardaway pull up to an Alameda park in a brand-new Mercedes 500 SL convertible. The NBA star known for his killer crossover, the “UTEP Two Step,” made his way onto the court and proceeded to fire off dozens of jumpers while Canalin stared in awe.
“I’ll never forget that moment,” Canalin says. “I was nervous and nobody else was around. My brothers never believed me, but Tim Hardaway was there.”