David Bacon, photographer, journalist, and union organizer, has created a powerful photo documentary chronicling the state of farm labor and the United Farm Workers Union as it exists today in California. Bacon's black and white photographs, exhibited at the Oakland Museum, Summer 2001, provide an intimate look at field labor, union organizing activity and labor leaders during the United Farm Workers 1996 drive to organize the 25,000 workers in the Central California coast strawberry industry. The images capture the working lives of the people, from strawberry pickers bent doubled-over in the fields, to the extreme youth of today's farm workers, where the average age has fallen to 20.

The web site for the exhibit can be found at:

http://www.museumca.org/exhibit/exhi_every_worker.html

Nationally acclaimed poet and teacher Dorianne Laux presents an evening reading of her work in Petaluma, Formerly a Petaluma resident, Dorianne is professor of creative writing at the University of Oregon in Eugene, and the author of three collections of poetry from BOA editions: Awake (1990) What We Carry (1994), and most recently Smoke (2000). She is the recipient of many awards and honors, including grants from the NEA and Guggenheim Foundation. Her poetry has also been featured on National Public Radio's "The Writer's Almanac," hosted by Garrison Keillor. Funded in part by a grant from Poets & Writers, Inc.

http://www.webdelsol.com/LITARTS/laux/

Among Latin American and European cultures, one day of the year is set aside to celebrate El Dia de los Muertos, a time to honor with sadness, humor, altars, food and song those who have died. One night of the year we invite them back in memory and spirit to help us celebrate the thread that links us in our common humanity/mortality. Opening the evening will be the musical group, Cuyuy, a quechua word which means "to transport a person from one place to another." Through the indigenous music of South America, full of mysticism, magic, imagination and color, Cuyuy shares the folkore, traditions and values of their native lands. Performers include Rafael Fernandez, Javier Salmon, Carlos Aguilar and Lorenzo Pastores and friends. Following the musical introduction, bilingual poets John Oliver Simon and Peggy Shumaker will read their work along with other special guests from our community. Bring a photo of someone you want to remember, and join us for an evening of music from South America and the poetry by these two award-winning authors. Peggy Shumaker received a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship in 1989 and has published four books of poetry including the most recent Underground Rivers (2002). John Oliver Simon is a poet, translator, teacher and editor. He has written five books of poets and has translated the work of Chilean poet Gonzalo Rojas, Mexican poet Elsa Cross and many other contemporary poets from Cuba and countries throughout Central and South America. Co-sponsored by SRJC's Multicultural Events Committee, and funded in part by a grant from Poets & Writers, Inc.

http://www.petalumaartscouncil.org/programs/dodeng.html

This website and its contents are copyright 2001-2002 Santa Rosa Junior College. Send questions or comments to Jane Labes. Last updated 24 January 2002.