Image and Imagination

Ben Clarke, Editor; Photographer, Dorothea Lange

Writer-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.

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Stories from El Barrio

Piri Thomas

Piri Thomas, who reached millions of readers with his bestselling autobiography, Down These Mean Streets, now gives readers of all ages a vivid slice of the life in El Barrio—a place where people face their problems with energy, ingenuity and love. He draws vivid stories from his past experiences and makes us feel what it means to be poor and proud and generous; to be streetwise and full of bravado but frightened, too; to struggle to go straight; to be ashamed of being ashamed; to dream.
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Through the Wall: A Year in Havana

Margot Pepper

Margot 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.

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Back to the Streets

George Wynn

In Back to the Streets, George Wynn tells stories of a nation’s poor. Bracing, realistic, archetypal, with a steady-handed objectivity, the writing follows the way cut by Dos Passos and Steinbeck. The vivid sketches gathered in this collection offer glimpses of lives led inside the 21st century Depression.
“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
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Prickly Pears

Eric Robertson
Prickly Pears.jpg

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
Crow-Calling.jpg

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
Rolly Pollys.jpg

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. 

To the Woods

Freedom Voices
I had a good trip to the woods
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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
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