Image and Imagination
Ben Clarke, Editor; Photographer, Dorothea LangeWriter-in-residence at the Oakland Museum of California and the Oakland Public Library, Ben Clarke, re-examines Dorothea Lange's photographs along with collaborating artists including: A.K. Black, Scott Braley, Lucha Corpi, Kitty Costello, Maketa Groves, Richard Oyama, Margot Pepper, Eric Robertson, Clifton Ross, Abena Songbird, and Rhett Stuart. Using poetry, personal essay, rap and contemporary photography the artists explore the intersection between Lange's documentary photography and current realities.
Stories from El Barrio
Piri ThomasThrough the Wall: A Year in Havana
Margot PepperMargot Pepper's memoir propels us through the blockade to post-cold war Cuba. It's a surreal world where high-ranking officials are required to pick up hitch-hikers. Root canals, cosmetic surgery and graduate school are free, but toilet paper is exorbitant. There's no income tax nor homelessness, yet no house-paint either. As the story unfolds, Margot pursues a passionate love affair with a penniless Mexican poet who shakes up her views about Cuba.
Back to the Streets
George Wynn“George Wynn writes with toughness, sympathy, and great humor about difficult things and dire situations, and wonderfully about the redeeming qualities of literature and human kindness. He makes invisible people visible, and throws light in the darkest of places.”
Elizabeth McCracken
Author of The Giant's House
Prickly Pears
Eric Robertson
12/25/09
Christmas day was spent at Leah's parent's house in Castro Valley. This has become a tradition along with a walk down the hill behind their house. There is an open area there surrounded by woods. A flock of turkeys can often be seen strolling by in a long, slow line or foraging in the dirt and leaves. If disturbed they trot away or fly into the trees. There are deer, including a large antlered buck, that live back there too.
Crows
Eric Robertson
11/25/09
I took this photo in Point Reyes Station a few days before Thanksgiving. It was a foggy morning. I noticed a school bus coming up the hill and children at the elementary school and I felt good, like I was playing hooky since my school was already out for vacation. Weekdays are always nicer to have off when everyone else is still working, when I can move slowly and everyone else around me is moving fast.
Roly Polies
Eric Robertson
12/13/09
Roly Polies, also called Pill Bugs, are neat little creatures that I remember from early childhood for their ability to roll up into perfect little balls. The related Sow Bug looks the same but can't quite roll into a ball. I remember finding these as a kid, too. Not knowing that Sow Bugs and Pill Bugs are actually different, I wondered what their problem was or that I had only imagined these creatures could actually roll into a ball. I also thought that maybe I'd found some Roly Polies that were old and arthritic, like older humans who could no longer touch their toes.
Outline of Agroecological movie
Clifton Ross
Agroecology and the Past before Us
Directed by Clifton Ross
“In the Andean Cosmovision the past is not behind us, but rather before us.”
Armando López
Directed by Clifton Ross
“In the Andean Cosmovision the past is not behind us, but rather before us.”
Armando López
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