They talked about his humble consistency. They praised his willingness to tell not the prurient or provacative, but the plain, positive yarns and personal stories unfolding all over Richmond - stories that may otherwise go overlooked.

Whitmore, a longtime newspaperman and current publisher of the Richmond Globe, said that’s the role he relishes most.

“Providing the positive news on all the good people and organizations in the city of Richmond,” Whitmore said. “That’s what I’m most proud of.”

Whitmore, 60, was honored at Tuesday’s City Council meeting for being recently named president of the West Coast Black Publishers Association. The association includes prominent black press organizations in six Western states.

The Council awarded Whitmore a certificate of recognition and hailed him as an integral figure in the community, particularly during a time when trimmed news media staffs in the Bay Area often result in reduced coverage of smaller communities.

During a public comment period praising Whitmore, several residents alluded to the few stories not focused on crime, a dearth they said would be more pronounced without Whitmore’s Richmond Globe.

Richmond has one of the highest homicide rates in California, a fact that some believe results in disproportionate media coverage of local crime.

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin said the city was grateful that it had the Globe, which she called a voice for the positive in Richmond.

Councilwoman Ludmyrna Lopez said Whitmore is “not only a publisher, he’s a community leader.”

Resident Jackie Thompson told a little tale of her own that she said exemplified Whitmore’s role.

It was more than two years ago, Thompson said, when a young woman confined to a wheelchair, as the result of being struck by an impaired driver, came to a City Council meeting to speak about the dangers of drunk driving.

“I called Vern, and he dropped what he was doing and he came and took her photo,” Thompson said.

Not long after, the wheelchair-bound woman died.

“But it meant so much to her,” to be featured in the Globe, Thompson said. “(Whitmore) did an admirable thing.”

Whitmore worked at the West County Times newspaper from 1981-88, he said. Later, he worked for the Oakland Post, a paper aimed at black readership.

Since 2004, he has been publisher of the Globe Newspaper Group. He said his paper serves a crucial function.

“Richmond is truly a misunderstood community,” Whitmore said. “A lot more good happens in Richmond than is portrayed in the mainstream media.”

His name is Leroy. He wears a luscious purple shirt open at the collar, better to show the pendant hanging from his neck. His smile is slight, conveying a sense of benevolent knowledge. The knowledge comes from above, because Leroy is a towering figure. His book, probably a leather-bound Bible, hangs cradled in his left hand, its heavy pages draped open.

Butterflies seem to dance from its pages.

This is how you’ll find Leroy, no matter the time, as his huge figure and sweet visage are the product of a collage of rich colors painted on the wall at McDonald Avenue and Ninth Street, just west of downtown.

But he’s not just a painting, not just the grandest character on a huge public mural on the wall painted last year by youths from an Oakland nonprofit group. Leroy is real.

“Hang around long enough, and you’ll see him,” said Steven Carlisle, who owns the building adorned with the images. “Leroy is around here all the time.”

Another character in the public mural.

Carlisle said he agreed to his building being painted because it was a good activity for the kids and could tell a native story about a city rich in characters. Some, like Leroy, are based on real people.

Others, like the little girl with white, dangling braids reminiscent of a young Venus Williams, are like most fictional characters: Not a specific person, but a composite of reality.

The kite-sized butterflies? Well, Carlisle confesses to not being sure exactly what those mean.

“It’s just a beautiful work of art for our city,” he said. “I look at it every day.”

Carlisle, a longtime resident who waxed poetic about the days when native son and former Major League player Willie McGee was the talk of the town, said he’s hoping to sell his building soon.

“But I hope the painting lasts longer than I do,” he said.

No, it wasn’t a miracle snowstorm in Richmond, but deftly-delivered children’s tales inside the city’s West Side Branch Library.

“I believe in the power of books and words and music,” said Colette Van Cleve, her 6-month-old grandson Max sitting wide-eyed on her lap. “We’ve been coming every week.”

Van Cleve and the toddler were two of about 20 mothers, grandmothers and small children who attended the library’s “Snow Stories” event Tuesday morning. Children’s Librarian Sheila Dickinson delivers dramatic readings at both the West Side and Bayview Branch libraries once per week, regularly drawing dozens of listeners.

But Tuesday’s event was a bit special. With Christmas only days away, Dickinson chose a theme of holiday wonderment blanketed in the figurative white powder that local kids rarely experience.

“We are doing stories about snow,” said Dickinson, a youthful 44-year-old who jumps and dances with the children. “Most of the country gets to see it up close, but the California kids don’t have that much exposure to the snow.”

Among the handful of books Dickinson read was “The Snowy Day,” by Ezra Jack Keats, a prize-winning 1962 tale that features a boy named Peter exploring his neighborhood after the season’s first snowfall.

The children were enthralled.

“Sheila’s story times are wonderful because it’s not just her stories but her poems and her music and her dance and her art,” said Corinne Jonas-Mayer, who came with her son, Jacob. “Every theme is just right on target for their development.”

The story time at the West Side Library Branch is especially dear to Point Richmond residents.

The branch reopened in March 2008 after being closed for four years due to budget constraints.

“They’ve become really wonderful parts of our community,” Jonas-Mayer said of the library staff.

Kerry Radcliffe, who brought her 6-year-old daughter Mia, said attendance was light because the session was scheduled close to Christmas.

“Generally the story time here is standing room only,” Radcliffe said.

Dickinson led the children though a handful of esteemed titles, interspersed with song and dance sessions, before ending with arts and crafts. The gathered audience made paper snowflakes.

“These young kids are all about sensation, the immediate in front of them,” Dickinson said. “It is a wonder immersion.”

NIAD studio

But what sets these artists apart is that they create in a constant, fluid motion. There’s no hesitation when selecting colors, or putting their brush to paper, needle to fabric, or hands to clay.  Their freedom generates an industrious atmosphere, as well as one that appears to honor creativity in its most spontaneous form.

These artists are working at the National Institute for Arts and Disabilities (NIAD), a studio and gallery collaborating with developmentally disabled adults since 1982. More recently, NIAD opened its doors to adults with any kind of disability. More than 60 artists from Contra Costa and Alameda Counties currently work at the studio, supported by a group of 20 teachers, all artists themselves.

It’s the artists’ lack of ego, NIAD staff says, that make them so inspiring. “They have no inhibition,” says Gallery Director Brian Stechschulte. “They’re not restrained by those psychological concerns…that’s what makes their work so interesting. It’s raw, it’s immediate, and it’s unrestrained.”

NIAD was the last of four art centers in the Bay Area founded by Elias and Florence Katz, a couple who wanted to provide a place where people with disabilities could lead self-fulfilling lives. The center in San Jose has since closed, but the other two centers — Creative Growth in Oakland and Creativity Explored in San Francisco – are thriving.

NIAD’s gallery has a regular rotation of exhibits showcasing their artists’ work. Past shows have centered on ceramics, beads, and shadow puppets, and collaborations with Richmond High School and Oakland-based California College of the Arts. “The artists here find solutions that you will never think about,” says Andres Cisneros, Studio Manager. “Traditional artists are taught rules – you just have to forget about that here.”

Sylvia Fragoso

Several of NIAD’s clientele have been practicing art for more than 20 years. One of them, Sylvia Fragoso, 47, is known for her whimsical, colorful pastel work with religious themes. Fragoso, who lives with her parents in San Pablo, doesn’t say much about her art, but the constant smile on her face is a sign of how she feels. One of her large pastel paintings — a bright, symmetrical scene composed of a gallery of angels, checkered squares resembling stained glass, and babies lying underneath – recently sold to a couple from North Carolina. “I like angels,” Fragoso says, who has exhibited her work in Washington, D.C., Belgium, and China.

Work by Fragoso currently on display at the NIAD Gallery.

Fragoso, like all other NIAD artists who sell their work in the organization’s gallery, gift shop and online store – receive 50% of the selling price. The remains stay within the organization to support teaching and operating expenses. This arrangement, says Pat Coleman, Executive Director, enables the artists to have their own money to spend as they wish. The money artists make from their sales does not jeopardize their monthly Social Security benefits for disabled adults, Coleman says, as NIAD pays artists in monthly increments. In addition to the money they make through sales of their work, over a third of NIAD artists get paid for studio jobs ranging from rinsing out brushes to making tea for the teachers and artists.

The studio is divided into three activity areas: painting, fiber arts, and printmaking. Students also make jewelry, ceramics, and sculpture. Teachers work with the artists one-on-one and introduce them to a number of different techniques. Stechschulte says the teachers do not get in the way of the artists’ creativity, nor do they shape or manipulate their work.

“It’s a fragile line,” says Jan Mignaud, who has taught at NIAD for 3 years. Mignaud was working with the studio’s oldest artist, 88-year-old Beverly Trieber, known affectionately as “Bubba.” The collages, paintings, and prints he produced in the past 20 years at NIAD were featured in a retrospective exhibit last year alongside those of fellow artist Rosie Pardo.

Beverly "Bubba" Trieber

Trieber, wearing a baseball hat festooned with pins and a forest green apron underneath his gold and red 49ers jacket, was designing patches made out of a jumble of recycled silk flowers and scraps of patterned fabric. An array of vintage magazines lay in front of him, where he selected images that would be included on the patches by sticking the pictures to cellophane tape, then sewing them on to the patch. Using a zigzag stitch, he had already sewn several of the patches onto a dark brown apron.

Before coming to NIAD, Trieber was institutionalized for much of his life, which was the norm for people with disabilities born before the late 1970s. Coleman points to Trieber as an example of the effect NIAD has had on the lives of those old enough to have undergone institutionalization. “It’s giving people a chance to lead productive lives,” she says. “They’re developing professional and artistic skills.” In the era of institutionalization, she says, society did not see a role for people who had disabilities, resulting, Coleman says, in the creation of a poor sense of self.

NIAD also sponsors other activities: field trips for artistic inspiration, and independent living classes held during the lunch hour. Many get to the studio by the bus provided by the Regional Center for the East Bay. The Regional Center is the organization that funds a good portion of the daily costs for each developmentally disabled client. The classes are voluntary, as many live with their families and at group homes. But others choose to come on their own through public transit.

Working regular studio hours – some 5 days a week, others just a few days per week — seems to provide a sense of community and friendship.

Harry Ingram and Sarah Malpass

Harry Ingram and Sarah Malpass were quick to praise each other’s paintings, and eager to pose for a photo together. On a break from working on a cowboy scene in colored pencil and ink  — a piece that she said reminded her of a Dean Martin movie — Rosie Pardo munched on half a sandwich. When she saw that another artist didn’t have any food on her table for lunch, she quickly offered to give the other half away.

Stechschulte says what he most enjoys about his job organizing NIAD exhibitions is undermining popular misconceptions about art created by people with disabilities. “People are surprised – they have low expectations,” he says.

Coleman says that NIAD’s model should be replicated in day care centers, nursing homes, and other group homes. “This is the problem with our culture…they don’t have budgets for art. Their way of doing art projects is to keep them busy. But to actually be really creative…wow.”

The gift shop and art gallery.

NIAD’s current exhibit, “Art From the Heart,” runs until December 31, and features pieces from NIAD artists, teaching staff, and volunteers.

To see more of the work done by the artists featured here, click on their name below:

Sylvia Fragoso

Harry Ingram

Sarah Malpass

Rosie Pardo

Beverly “Bubba” Trieber

It’s got the Red Oak Victory Ship, Rosie-the-Riveter-turned National Park Service ranger Betty Soskin, and a sea of faces representing Richmond’s diversity. Large birds fly overhead, dogs sit patiently, and colorful houses are strung throughout. Trains chug forward on railroad tracks running through the west side. And in the middle of it all, a baseball player is ready to swing a bat as hard as he can, hoping for a home run.

Commissioned by the Richmond PD for its new headquarters on Regatta Boulevard, the 9’6” by 3’5” mural was designed and painted by a group of artists from the National Institute of Arts and Disabilities (NIAD). It was unveiled on Thursday at a ceremony with Police Chief Chris Magnus, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, NIAD staff and the artists themselves. The mural was installed in the reception area outside Magnus’ office.

NIAD teacher Tomoko Murakami had to climb a ladder before unveiling the mural.

“This represents our history and the current state of the community,” Police Chief Magnus said.

Guided by NIAD instructors Carol Stewart and Tomoko Murakami, the artists conducted research about the city’s history at the library and the Richmond History Museum, where they sifted through archival photos and materials. Betty Soskin also gave the group a tour of the Red Oak Victory Ship, the only cargo ship built at the Kaiser Shipyards restored for the public. The group made sketches of the ship and its surroundings.

Asked to point herself out in the mural, Soskin gestured towards the artists’ rendition of a woman facing forward, wearing glasses and a yellow hat. Soskin joked that the elongated shape coming out of the side of her face on the mural “is not a cigar. It’s my ponytail.”

The artists with NIAD Executive Director Pat Coleman.

Based on their research, the artists decided what they wanted to include in the piece. Stewart and Murakami curated drawings from each artist’s work and mapped out the mural’s basic composition. This was then projected onto the canvas so that the artists could trace their drawings on a larger scale, before any painting commenced. Working on the mural intermittently between other projects, the piece took 4 months to complete.

Saul Alegria, a NIAD artist who enjoys painting a variety of animals, described the species of birds he created at the top of the mural. “I painted a pelican – it looks very nice,” he said. “I also made a stork.” Other artists shyly pointed out their contributions as well.

The Police Department paid $4,000 for the mural, and is currently renting 18 of NIAD’s paintings for display, according to Pat Coleman, NIAD’s Executive Director. Coleman said that the artists will receive 50% of the selling price. NIAD will apply the remaining funds towards the organization.

Mayor McLaughlin was inspired. “I love being in your workspace,” she said, referring to NIAD’s studios on 23^rd Street in Richmond. “Maybe you can do a mural for City Hall.”

The event showcased the wide selection of classes offered by the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, a nonprofit organization in Richmond that has trained youth in a variety of arts and traditions for more than 40 years. A supportive crowd of more than 200 proud parents, siblings, grandparents, and teachers filled the seats in front of the stage.

The evening’s opening act set the bar high for the rest of the night. About a dozen youth from the Center’s West African dance class moved in synchronization — from left, right, front, and back, with their heads bobbing to and fro. Before their performance was over, whoops and cheers erupted from the crowd.

Composed of four to six-year-old girls, the pre-ballet class teetered on to the stage dressed in black leotards and pink tutus. The girls sat cross-legged on the floor, then danced up to the front of the stage in pairs. Instructors Nikita Jew and Antoine Hunter led the class in a circle of pirouettes to music similar to that of The Nutcracker.

The Junior Jazz band played “Satin Doll” by Duke Ellington, with the young saxophone player donning a fedora. The Mexican dance class members flared their skirts and showed off their skills to the sounds of Latin guitar music and tambourines. And the Introduction to Animation class played its short clay animation film about how one might discover their gift – through taking classes at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts.

When introducing the film, Artistic Director Jordan Simmons noted that film runs at 24 frames per second – meaning that the students had to stage 24 shots to complete just one second of film. Indeed, the amount of work the students at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts put in to produce the film and perform on Tuesday night was evident throughout.

The project “Where We’re From” was coordinated by Summer Brenner, author of Richmond Tales: Lost Secrets of the Iron Triangle.

“You’d think that stories like that would have been talked about in the family,” she said. But, as Ruby Jean Fox told her great-granddaughter Bianca, “Nobody ever asks you to sit down and tell them about your life, and by the time they think of it, it’s too late.”

On display at the Hilltop Mall until February 15^th, are the poems and pictures of this year’s “Where We’re From” project. Under Brenner’s tutelage, 19 students from Kappa Continuation High School conducted interviews with older family or community members in order to find out more about their family history, getting creative with it in the process.

Brenner says that at first, the students were standoffish. But “they were totally transformed” when visitors started coming into the class and sharing stories, such as community leader Fred Davis Jackson.

He told them what it was like for him, coming here from a small town in Missouri to pick cotton in California, and how he still could not escape racism.

“It was amazing,” he said, talking about his young interviewers. “They kind of sifted through me… little did I know they would so precise – and so poignant.”

The kids asked their elders about family traditions, recipes, and places they’ve lived. In class, Brenner taught them interview techniques and discussed genealogy and migration. The result is large, colorful panels with a black and white photograph (taken by Community Works director, Ruth Morgan) and poems written by the kids; both about themselves and the person they interviewed.

Many of the students, like Jose Navarro III, were surprised by what they found out about their family. He said that he never knew that his dad had been to Mexico City – nor that the police had robbed him there.

Navarro was the only student to come to the exhibition’s opening. Brenner said she was disappointed; she had tried to reunite her class for the occasion, but in the seven months that passed, her students – most of which come from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds – had scattered. Navarro read his poem aloud to the 30-odd people who had gathered. In the crowd were the mayors of Richmond and San Pablo, who spoke warmly about the program.

This is the second year “Where we’re From” has taken place; the first, done with ninth-graders from Richmond High, came about in 2007 thanks to a grant from the Christensen Fund. This year, the Lesher Foundation contributed the funds.

Morgan coordinated the project with Brenner. She said she hopes they will get a grant to descend upon yet another Richmond school next spring, and help more students discover their rich, unmined family histories.

The kids roared in approval as the rapper came into view, but just as quickly, he was gone. He wasn’t there to perform. Left was receiving his master’s degree from the University of California, and he and his partner in The Frontline, perhaps Richmond’s best-known hip-hop act, made sure that the teenagers from their hometown bore witness.

“I mean, how many of these kids get to see something like that?” Locksmith says.

In a genre where rappers can make – and waste – fortunes celebrating gold teeth and curvaceous women, Locksmith stands out. He doesn’t drink or smoke, doesn’t claim to be a thug, and goes out of his way to distance himself from the get-drunk-and-get-high cornerstones of modern Bay Area rap. He yearns for a strong community in the face of violence, and speaks weekly to parent-less teenagers about the value of education.

And while his music would never be confused with a ‘Just Say No’ public service announcement, Locksmith says he’s doing his best to buck the image of the gangster rapper.

The De Anza High alumnus says that as a youngster, his structured upbringing helped him stay away from the streets of South Richmond. He grew up with both of his parents, older brothers and sisters, and a slew of neighbors and family friends who were there to keep an eye out when others weren’t around. He played sports, too, which kept him busy and opened his mind to going to college. During high school, he became drawn to Islam, his father’s religion, and swore off drugs and booze.

“I’m not here to put the clamps down on anybody else’s artistic expression,” he says. “I definitely have my views, and I feel like a lot of people are just following a certain gimmick or a certain lead. So when it’s ‘in style’ to have misogynistic lyrics, people will follow that. And I think it’s a problem. I don’t condone it, I don’t do that. I choose to create the type of art I want to create.”

After two albums with Left as The Frontline, the half-Black, half-Persian Locksmith is now working on his first solo album, which is being produced by fellow Bay Area rapper E-A-Ski. He calls his new material more creative and more mature than his old battle-rapping riffs, and says he’s staying away from the driving, party-hard ‘hyphy’ sound that has defined Bay Area hip-hop in the last several years.

“I’m not perfect,” he says. “But I am trying to be as authentic and as real as I can be, and pull from an authentic and sincere place. And I think that’s what the kids and people respect the most.”

Below is an excerpt from the audio:

“Before our test, we practice loading firearms. They brought bolt action, lever action, pump action, semi-automatic and break action shotguns and rifles for us to play with. They all look pretty scary, but I’m just excited just to touch one.

One lady wearing an American flag track-suit catches my eyes. She’s teaching newbies how to load the guns without putting your nose to the trigger. I line up behind her only because she has the best outfit in the room.”