Head to the 'Flight Deck' for new local plays

   OAKLAND - An evening of plays - including work written by Point Richmond's David Cole - will be performed Weds. March 8 at the Flight Deck in Oakland, beginning at 7 p.m.
     The performances are open to the public - admission is free.
     The short plays are part of an advanced playwriting class, which operates as part of the Performing Arts Institute for older adults.

Inside the Flight Deck

   
    For the Wednesday performances, professional actors and directors have been hired to perform the staged readings.
    The four playwrights whose work will be featured include Cole, Michael Dougan, Joan First and Mary Spletter.

    Cole says attendance at the showcase of plays - besides the entertainment value - supports the playwrights and gives interested people an opportunity to see if they would like to try their hand at writing a play.
    "You will laugh, cry, and everything in-between," he says.
 
    The Flight Deck is located at 1540 Broadway in Oakland. Doors at the theater open at 6:30 pm. Tickets can reserved by calling 510-444-4755.

Fundraiser for Masquers Playhouse Sunday

   PINOLE - A fundraiser for the Masquers Playhouse in Point Richmond will be held Sunday, starting at 2 p.m. at the Pinole Community Playhouse, 601 Tennent Ave. Pinole.
     The performance is called What's Not to Love about Love, and is presented by the Masquers Envision program.
     The cost is $15 at the door. Reservations are recommended and can be obtained by calling 510-232-3888.

AOPR sets general meeting for Sat. March 4

   POINT RICHMOND - The Arts of Point Richmond group will be having its annual meeting Saturday, March 4 at the Community Center in Point Richmond, the group announced this week.
    The meeting runs from 10 a.m. to noon and will review AOPR accomplishments as well as plans for the next year.
    AOPR members will receive a full agenda for the meeting prior to March 4.
    This week the Point Richmond Writers group set up a display in the window next to the Point Richmond Post Office of books and information about authors in the group.
    The display will remain up until early April.
    For more information about the Arts of Point Richmond, check out the group's website, AOPR or its Facebook Page, AOPR Facebook.

Author exhibit next to Post Office

Photo by Rita Gardner

Arts of Point Richmond membership drive

   POINT RICHMOND - The Arts of Point Richmond has launched its annual membership drive, AOPR chair Irene Hightower announced Wednesday.
     The group includes artists from a variety of artistic disciplines. Its members' work is often on display in various storefront and businesses around the Point.

     Persons who are already members of AOPR should have received a renewal letter in the mail in the last week. If not, a copy of the registration form is at the bottom of this story.
     Or you can download a copy of the application here: AOPR membership application.
     Hightower said there are many benefits to joining: connecting with the arts & literary community, showcasing work on the AOPR website's Member Gallery, taking part in sales events and exhibiting art around the Point.
     The annual dues run from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31.
     For more information about The Arts of Point Richmond, check out the group's website here: AOPR or the group's Facebook page here: AOPR FACEBOOK.

'Refinery Town' - a tour de force new book

   POINT RICHMOND, Calif. - Richmond author Steve Early's new book Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money and the Remaking of an American City is a complete tour de force.
     It's sooooo thorough, detailed, compelling and well-written that a single reading of this tome is probably not enough. A second read is required to pick up the rich detail Early has laid out for readers here.
     Refinery Town delves deeply into the story of Richmond's cultural-political-industrial roots, moving through the decades to the point when a progressive political revolution wrested control of the city government away from oil giant Chevron.
     Even sans the history lesson, the tale of the growth of the Richmond Progressive Alliance and the change in the political landscape could be the basis for a political-thriller novel.
     Chevron didn't give up quietly.

     Refinery Town also is a paean to the labor union movement, explaining its part in the growth of Richmond and how it influenced the progressive politics for which the City of Richmond has gained fame, not just nationally, but internationally.
     The book's forward by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders - a well-known figure in Richmond long before he ran for President of the United States - sets the stage for the dramatic non-fiction narrative in Early's book.

Bernie Sanders

"Our country obviously needs a great deal of change at the state and federal levels. But laying a solid local foundation, like activists in Richmond have done, is an important first step in overcoming working-class alienation from politics and resulting low voter-turnout rates... Fortunately, as Richmond writer and longtime labor activist Steve Early reveals in this book, there are local success stories in the fight to keep corporate giants like Chevron from just buying elections," Sanders wrote.

     Neatly divided into seven sections, Refinery Town covers territory from the Chevron Refinery's horrific 2012 fire - that sent more than 15,000 area residents to seek medical treatment for respiratory ailments - all the way to recent battles over rent control and the gentrification of the city.

     The section titled "Tuesday Night Cage Fights" details out how tense and out of control city council meetings got at times as there were "escalating clashes between old and new political forces."
     Refinery Town is recommended reading, particularly to get a grip on local politics and the importance of local governments - especially as we enter the murky waters of the Donald Trump presidential administration.
     Early sums that notion up nicely in his thoughtful epilog.
     "Our city's emergency response lesson is this: when we shelter in place together, we can change our communities for the better."

Review by Michael J. Fitzgerald

______________________________________________________________

Book Signing Wednesday at Kaleidoscope Café

     Author Steve Early will be launching a 16-stop national book tour of Refinery Town with an appearance at the Kaleidoscope Cafe in Point Richmond, Wednesday, Jan. 18 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Steve Early

     The book party, co-sponsored by Kaleidoscope and the Richmond Pulse newspaper, will start with music and a happy hour at 6 p.m. with conversation, book signing and more conversation at 7 p.m.
     The event is also a fundraiser for Richmond Pulse. Pulse editor Malcolm Marshall will be speaking along with Early. An RSVP is highly recommended, Early says. You can contact him either through email here: Steve Early or by phone at : 510-260-0636.
     Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money and the Remaking of an American City goes on sale January 17.

'David vs. Goliath': a perfect book for now

   POINT RICHMOND, Calif. - David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants is a book tailor-made as we enter the Trump Era - whatever that may hold.
     This 2013 book, authored by The New Yorker staff writer Malcom Gladwell challenges readers to look at perceived disadvantages and how they often are - in fact - the opposite.

Malcolm Gladwell

     The first segment of the book (as you guessed) looks at the familiar Biblical tale of David vs. Goliath, a story that has morphed over the last 2,000 years to refer to any situation where smaller, arguably weaker opponent takes on a seemingly much more powerful foe.
     But anyone who has studied David vs. Goliath in detail knows that Goliath never really had a chance when he stepped out into the Valley of Elah and issued his famous challenge, "Choose you a man and let him come down to me," Goliath roared. "If he prevail in battle against me and strike me down, we shall be slaves to you. But if I prevail and strike him down, you will be slaves to us and serve us."

     Historians say Goliath was likely at least 6 feet, 9 inches tall was wearing full body armor, a bronze helmet and carried a spear, javelin and a sword. Goliath - and the Philistine army behind him - expected a similarly outfitted warrior to step out. (Think Russell Crowe in the movie Gladiator.)
     But David was a slim youth. He declined to take a sword, shield or armor. Instead he picked up five stones, ran at the giant and launched a single stone from his sling. It caught Goliath square in his forehead, knocking the giant to the ground. David then rushed up, seized Goliath's sword and cut off Goliath's head.
     Game over.
     In Biblical times, armies had infantry, men on horseback (and chariots) and a third group that would be in today's terms called artillery: archers and slingers. David was a slinger and a deadly one. A good slinger could seriously hurt - or kill - an opponent up to 200 yards, with the stone traveling at a speed equivalent of 34 meters per second. Per second.

    "Goliath had as much chance against David as any Bronze Age warrior with a sword would have had against an opponent with a .45 automatic pistol," historian Robert Dohrenwend is quoted in David and Goliath.
     But Gladwell's book only uses this Biblical tale as way to get into a fascinating book. David and Goliath takes the reader on a wild political, social, cultural ride through more than a dozen situations and examples in which a supposed much-favored opponent loses what should have been an easy victory.
     Some it is the element of surprise. Some of it comes from what we might consider perceived disadvantage - like dyslexia. Many great artists are reported to have some dyslexia for example.
     David and Goliath is also about how the powerful are sometimes proven to be truly weak when they don't understand what they are really up against.  The British Army in Northern Island during The Troubles, is a classic example and featured prominently in the book.
     In the final section of David and Goliath, Gladwell sums up with a focus on a French village's stubborn and clever resistance to the Nazis that resulted in saving the lives of many hundreds of Jews from being sent to concentration camps.

"David and Goliath has tried to make plain

 that wiping out a town or a people or a movement is never 
as simple as it looks. 

The powerful are not as powerful as they seem
 - nor the weak as weak."

     David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants is highly recommended reading, particularly if you find yourself feeling powerless in the face of the political, social and cultural maelstrom lurking over the horizon.

     Read the book, figure out your psychological (and political) sling. And be ready to use it.

by Michael J. Fitzgerald