Arts & Entertainment

Zumba more popular than before the pandemic: ‘It’s wonderful. See how we’re sweating?’

Pulsing beats and whirling bodies fill up a cavernous hall at the Richmond Recreation Complex.   It’s not Richmond’s newest nightclub — it’s a Thursday evening Zumba class. Located in Richmond Village, the Richmond Recreation Complex offers Zumba and other activities for adults and children. There are volleyball leagues for middle schoolers and adults and drop-in pickleball, just to name a few.  The complex offers 10 programs, according to data from Richmond’s Community Services Recreation Department. The newly released winter…

Joy and harmony at a Point Pinole song circle: ‘Just come and we’ll see what we can create together.’

Saturday’s bleak forecast in Richmond may have meant fewer parkgoers than usual at Point Pinole, but the dreary skies didn’t seem to faze Eileen Hazel and her band of 14 vocalists. Bundled in their winter coats, they carried on with the “Sing with the Season” event. The crew came prepared. Many brought chairs, some brought snacks, and some sat on picnic blankets. When everyone found their place, Hazel began what would be her first time leading a song circle, a…

The sounds of summer: Friday brings the first of four free Point Richmond concerts

It’s official: The free outdoor concert series kicks off Friday, bringing budget-friendly, summertime vibes to Point Richmond.  Point Richmond Music’s beloved concert series is back for another summer jam-packed with live music, food trucks, local art, face painting, and dancing in streets. At 5:30 p.m., bring your lawn chairs to the corner of Washington Avenue and Park Place in historic downtown Point Richmond for the first of four free concerts on the second Friday of each month.  “People should go…

Afro-Peruvian dance in Richmond: ‘We are making sure the tradition is still alive for future generations.’

On a cloudy Saturday morning, Carmen Román and her husband, Pierr Padilla, filled the basement of the Golden Gate Library in Oakland with a symphony of sounds, using their feet, hands and traditional Afro-Peruvian instruments. A small group of children shrieked with glee and bumbled around the room, dancing as their parents nodded to the beat being created by Román and Padilla opening and closing the top to their cajitas, a box-shaped Latin percussion instrument, and hitting it with a…

After city reduces funding, Richmond Art Center campaigns for donations to keep going

The Richmond Art Center has overcome much in recent years, including the closure forced on all during the pandemic and more recently, a significant loss in donations over the summer.  As 2023 looms, Executive Director José Rivera says that despite bouncing back from the major revenue losses of 2020, the RAC is still in need of additional funding to return to its pre-pandemic level of operation. When Rivera was appointed in 2020, the RAC was just over $110,000 in the…

Richmond Art Center celebrates Dia de los Muertos ‘to educate people about such an important cultural event.’

Amid the drug store offerings of Halloween consumer goods, any Dia de los Muertos-themed item invariably sticks out. Decorations featuring iconic skulls and cempasúchil marigolds, or candy branded with characters from Pixar’s film “Coco” speak to the growing commercialization of a holiday once outside of the corporate limelight. But the holiday has more cultural significance in Mexico, where it orginated. And on Saturday, the Richmond Art Center will share that tradition with a Dia de los Muertos-themed Fall Family Day,…

About 100 players to compete at Richmond chess festival, as more kids take up game

On a Sunday afternoon in late September, TC Ball entered Richmond’s Multicultural Bookstore with a cart full of kings, queens, bishops, rooks, knights, and pawns and boards to start the first of several chess classes for children. “Cool people play chess,” said Ball, 69, founder and director of the West Coast Chess Alliance in Richmond, as he prepared to start the class.  He fell in love with chess about 40 years ago when he was at college, and then 13…

Audience returns to Point Richmond Music Fest: ‘It’s very much a community event’

After a two-year absence due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Point Richmond Music Festival was back in full swing this summer with an eclectic roster of artists playing everything from Bollywood pop to Louisiana zydeco. With Friday temperatures hovering at a pleasant 70 degrees, Park Place was packed from curb to curb for the year’s third and final performance, featuring Laurie Lewis and Andre Thierry. While enjoying the free music, attendees availed themselves of tacos from a local food truck,…

Richmond’s first Ferry Fest debuts this weekend with free cruises

With more bay shoreline than any other city in the Bay Area, it’s natural that Richmond has had a long association with ferries. Before the Bay Bridge was built, the ferry from Richmond to San Francisco was the most direct way to commute back and forth to the city.  Richmond’s original ferry service stopped in the 1950s, and besides a short-lived ferry in the 1990s, Richmond did not see another ferry until San Francisco Bay Ferry launched its Richmond Ferry…