Arts & Entertainment
Fourteen-year-old Abdul Black loves basketball, but he’s not worried about the NBA lockout. He’s following a different league this season, and he’s already got a favorite player. “I’m here to see ‘Little Pat,” he says, pointing toward a group of young men gathering at the bar at the Boiler House Restaurant Tuesday night. You can’t miss them – since, for one thing, they’re taller than everyone in the room. They’re the Richmond Rockets, the city’s new American Basketball Association professional…
Music, applause and hundreds of community members filled the newly renovated East Bay Center for the Performing Arts Thursday night at the center’s Community Launch Party. The center raised nearly $16 million under director Jordan Simmons to rebuild the worn Winters Building on the corner of 11th Street and Macdonald Avenue. Home to after-school performing arts programs for more than 350 Richmond youths from the Iron Triangle neighborhood, EBCPA’s reach extends throughout the Bay Area. For a full list of…
The West Contra Costa County School Board recognized Hispanic Heritage Month at its Tuesday meeting with lively music and dance performances that were a stark contrast to the usually formal board proceedings. The month is celebrated nationally as a time to recognize the contributions and culture of Hispanic and Latino Americans. Each year the board signs a resolution recognizing the month. This year they signed so close to the start of the school year that the celebration was postponed until…
Summer Brenner sits quietly at a coffee shop table amid the rumbling of the city outside and smiles as she gently thumbs through a copy of her 2009 children’s book Richmond Tales: Lost Secrets of the Iron Triangle, a story featuring an array of young characters who journey through time to discover the lost history of the industrial city. “I believe it gives insight into children’s lives growing up there, especially those that feel disconnected from their homeland,” Brenner said….
Through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, Monday night passersby on Macdonald Avenue peer in curiously at a whirl of dance. Fingers snap. Feet slide. Hands swoosh a horsehair prop through the air, slapping the knees at intervals. The bright pastels of Victoria Secret sweatpants flash across the room in a blur of pink, yellow and turquoise. The dancers chant a call and response in a West African language: “Wadapo!” Drums pound in a…
Last Saturday, local music fans strutted down the red carpet at Richmond’s Craneway Pavilion for a star-studded concert. The show, called The Red Carpet Experience, featured Robin Thicke, El Debarge, Faith Evans, Ginuwine, Sydney Nicole and Jermaine Dupri. But the artists weren’t the only stars for the night. Young men and women from several East Bay community organizations, including Richmond’s Police Activities League, participated in a fashion show, working the catwalk in between music sets. Oakland clothiers K&G Fashion Superstore…
The internationally renowned artist Richard Diebenkorn showed his drawings here. Tom Marioni, the conceptual artist known for the One Second Sculpture, was a curator here. Jasper Johns, credited with paving the way for both Pop Art and Minimalism
Richmond’s Police Activities League is gearing up for a star-filled “Red Carpet Experience” at the Craneway Pavilion this Saturday. The night of music and fashion supports health and wellness charity programs through Bay Area organizations including the Richmond PAL, Berkeley Youth Alternatives and El Cerrito High School’s James Morehouse Project. The concert lineup features Guest DJ Jermaine Dupri, and R&B singers Faith Evans and Robin Thicke. This past Sunday, young men from the PAL center went to the Men’s Wearhouse…
After responding to a series of boisterous parties characterized by out-of-town, late-night revelers, police shut down an illegal underground club in the Iron Triangle known as the “Bee Hive.” The illegal parties and discovery of both fire and municipal code violations prompted the Richmond Code Enforcement Unit to board up the windows and “red tag” the building. A crimson sign posted on the front door states that the area is unsafe, and anyone entering the building without police or fire…