Holiday

City’s 57th Holiday Arts fete lets Richmond artists shine

Richmond Art Center’s 57th Holiday Arts festival brought together residents, children, art lovers and shoppers with independent artists and craftspeople sharing their art and handcrafted holiday gifts for the season.   Here is a sampling of artists and vendors from the festival, displaying and discussing their work: TheArthur Wright  “I’m a painter that uses bleach as a medium,” says TheArthur Wright. Most of his works use bleach to remove, rather than add, color from black backgrounds revealing a golden color. Wright…

Richmond’s Jewish community marks the New Year with traditional Rosh Hashanah celebrations

Richmond’s Jewish community joined Jews around the world this week to mark their faith’s High Holidays. Among them, members of Temple Beth Hillel gathered to celebrate Rosh Hashanah which marks the New Year in the Jewish Calendar. Greetings of “L’shana Tovah,” a Hebrew saying to wish someone a good year, filled the air as service began. Songs of praise, prayer readings, and the sounding of the shofar, a ram’s horn used during Jewish religious ceremonies, were the essence of the…

After hard times, restaurant owner warms hearts in Richmond with love

Menbere Aklilu has come a long way. From a struggling single mother, she is now a restaurant owner in Richmond, after moving from her native Ethiopia and a time in Italy.

Aklilu hosts an annual Thanksgiving dinner at her restaurant, Salute E Vita, where she just served a sit-down dinner for more than a thousand Bay Area homeless people. She has also begun holding a four-course Mother’s Day brunch for young single mothers. She helps Richmond and Oakland students pay school tuition.

Thanksgiving comes early for Richmond seniors

About 60 senior citizens attended this year’s Richmond Annex Senior Center’s Thanksgiving lunch. Richmond Fire Department fire fighters helped serve the food, prepared by students of Contra Costa College’s Culinary Arts Department.