Hi and happy Monday. As always I write today from Sacramento, and this week I bring you news from your state capital, all built around a thesis: Sacramento is its own kind of awesome.
First, staying with the Black History Month theme that The Newsletter has been championing for the past four weeks, I am pleased to celebrate two venerable Black cultural institutions, and introduce a brand new institution that is likely to draw national attention. Out of order:
1. Last night I caught a performance of the 1975 play for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, staged by Celebration Arts, a Black theater company founded in 1986. This revolutionary Obie Prize-winning work consists of a series of monologues (or “spells”) in which the performers dance to accompany their stories, or another character’s stories, which are sometimes joyous and often devastatingly painful. Set on a spare stage with minimal props, these "choreopoems" relied entirely on the seven actors’ voices, bodies and hearts, and the show was thrilling.
Celebration Arts has dubbed this the season of Black Girl Magic. Its next production, Zora and Langston, is written and directed by Sacramento’s own Imani Mitchell, and is drawn from correspondence between the novelist Zora Neale Hurston and poet/playwright Langston Hughes during the Harlem Renaissance. It opens Friday, March 1.
2. Last week, the Sacramento Observer reported that Sacramento State University will be the first public university in the nation to host a Black Honors College on its campus. Sac State President J. Luke Wood, an alum, said the college will be modeled on the Historic Black Colleges and Universities of the South and Northeast, and that the effort represents “something that has never been done before outside of an HBCU, which is to have an honors college that is specifically designed to serve students who are from the Black community, who are interested in Black history, Black life and Black culture, and to use that as a way to protect the environment so that students are leaving having their brilliance, dignity and morality extolled.”
3. The Sacramento Observer itself has been covering the Black community here since 1962. Cofounded by longtime publisher Dr. William H. Lee, it is now guided by his son, Larry Lee, who in 2023 was named named Publisher of the Year by the National Newspaper Publishers Association. That organization has selected The Observer as the nation’s top Black newspaper seven times in its history, including last year.
I Heart Sacramento
The clouds can be spectacular this time of year in the Sacramento Valley. Walking on the levee by the American River late last Thursday afternoon, we were looking up to marvel at their puffy beauty when we noticed the almost full moon. Nice! The Sierra were also looking fine on the eastern horizon, draped in fresh snow.
I had no idea before we moved here from Santa Cruz that Sacramento is such a beautiful city. I did not know that you can see the snow-capped Sierra from here on clear winter days, or that bald eagles occasionally hunt this river right in town. This morning, taking a walk down at the river to clear my head, I heard the comically loud bugling of sandhill cranes overhead, and looked up to see a flock flying in V-formation way up there, so high that, even with their six-foot wingspans, they looked like a plain old flock of geese. Stuff like that happens almost every day.
In the seven years since we moved here, Sacramento has continued to surprise me. Midtown, the neighborhood where we live (right near the banks of the American River) is a showcase of old-school mixed-use development. We are in a modest hundred-year old duplex directly across the street from a stately, five-bedroom home and kitty-corner from an apartment complex that has been home to a string of Sac State students since we’ve been here. Every block for several miles in every direction is lined with its own parade of magnificent old trees—Paris may be the only city in the world with a more impressive urban forest than Sacramento. I’m not making this up.
Sac really is in many ways a case study in good urban planning; there are a lot of parks, and we can walk to great restaurants and bars—on Friday night, I popped into Harlow’s to see Helado Negro, just one of the countless great shows I’ve seen in my neighborhood nightclub.
I realize I’m bragging—you’re welcome. Come visit—you’ll thank me. I know (roughly) where you live, and Sacramento is no more than a few hours beautiful drive from your home. (Another great thing about this city: We’re centrally located in the heart of Northern California—in 90 minutes, I can be at my favorite XC ski destination in the Sierra Nevada, or in San Francisco. If the traffic allows, I can be back in Santa Cruz in a couple hours plus.) Okay I’ll stop.
• Wildfires Are Killing California’s Ancient Giants. Can Seedlings Save the Species?
Ecologists estimate that up to 14,000 sequoias have been killed in recent wildfires. The National Park Service for the first time has begun replanting some severely burned areas.
(02/26/2024) → CapPublicRadio
• Will CA Voters Like ‘Newsom Recall, the Sequel’ Any Better?
Conservative activists who worked on the failed recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021 have launched another attempt, arguing that conditions in California only worsened in the two-and-a-half years since then as Newsom’s attention shifted to national politics.
(02/26/2024) → CalMatters
• Meet Some of the Biggest Donors Shaping California's U.S. Senate Race
Here are the biggest donors in the 2024 California Senate race, both for and against the top candidates: Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, Steve Garvey and Barbara Lee.
(02/26/2024) → Los Angeles Times
• What California College Students Think About Online Classes
EdSource asked students at California colleges and universities why they are choosing between online or in-person options.
(02/26/2024) → EdSource
• What California Voters Want to Know About the 2024 Election
Voting in California can be complicated. Here are answers to some common questions, plus what the leading U.S. Senate candidates say they would do if they’re elected.
(02/26/2024) → CalMatters
• Scientists Warn That a Crucial Ocean Current Could Collapse, Altering Global Weather
New research warns of a possible collapse in Atlantic Ocean currents due to climate change. That could fundamentally alter global weather patterns.
(02/25/2024) → Los Angeles Times
• Awaiting the Count—Gray Whales Population Has Been Declining
There was a time not so long ago when trained observers were overwhelmed by the number of whales migrating through Monterey Bay.
(02/24/2024) → Monterey Herald
• Central Coast Ranch That Is Home to Endangered Species to Be Preserved
The Wildlife Conservation Board voted to award $10.3 million to the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County to preserve the 27,000-acre Camatta Ranch in Santa Margarita.
(02/23/2024) → Los Angeles Times
• Promises for New City in Solano County Are Worth Hundreds of Millions—if They Stick
California Forever CEO Jan Sramek says promises of new homes, jobs, investments are binding, but legal experts and elected officials are skeptical.
(02/21/2024) → CalMatters
• Classroom Fight Ramps Up in CA Election
On one side: Equality California, the nation’s largest statewide LGBTQ advocacy group. On the other side: Protect Kids California, a parents rights organization.
(02/21/2024) → CalMatters
• Bay Area Car Owners Have Yet Another Crime to Worry About
License plates are getting stolen from vehicles, Livermore officials say.
(02/20/2024) → SF Gate
• After Heavy Storms, Death Valley Is Now Open to Kayakers
A temporary lake in Death Valley National Park doubled after recent rains and is now deep enough to launch a kayak. Prior to August, ghostly Lake Manly hadn’t appeared in 19 years.
(02/20/2024) → Los Angeles Times
• The Inland Empire’s Once-Unstoppable Warehousing Industry Falls Into a Slump
Logistics has been an economic lifeline for the Inland Empire for decades. Now that the industry is hitting a downturn, the region is feeling the pain.
(02/20/2024) → Los Angeles Times
Downtown Sacramento, seen from Sutter's Landing Park in Midtown.
