Get ready for the southern feel of rockabilly from the ’90s, brought by Derek Irving & His Combo. 9pm, Friday, March 3. $10.
The Phoenix Theater
201 Washington St., Petaluma. thepheonixtheater.com.
Four artists named after the Golden Gate city, San Francisco Sound Experiment, are blazing onto the stage at the Phoenix. 8pm, Saturday, March 4. $10.
Starling Bar Sonoma
19380 Highway 12, Sonoma. starlingsonoma.com.
The three time winner of the North Bay Bohemian Norbay award for best Americana artist, Sean Carscadden is performing this weekend.
3pm, Sunday, March 5. Free.
Hopmonk Tavern Sebastopol
230 Petaluma Ave., Sebastopol. hopmonk.com.
Taking Bob Dylan songs to a whole new level, Ghosts of Electricity are bringing rock and roll to the HopMonk this weekend. 6pm, Sunday, March 5. $32.50.
Spancky’s Bar
8201 Old Redwood Hwy., Cotati. facebook.com/SpanckysBar.
Get ready to play at the longest-running jam in Sonoma County, with players of all levels welcome for Trees Blues Jam every Tuesday night.
7pm, Tuesday, March 7. Free.
The Flamingo Resort
2777 4th St., Santa Rosa. vintagespacesr.com.
DJ DYOPS will be hosting LUSH, a LGBTQ+ friendly dance party, at the Flamingo Resort.
9pm, Friday, March 10. $10-15.
—Kainoa St. Germain
Share your events at
bohemian.com/events-calendar and pacificsun.com/events-calendar.
It was quite an eventful evening at the Marin Theater Company opening of Justice: A New Musical. The show, with book by Lauren Gunderson, music by Bree Loudermilk and lyrics by Kait Kerrigan, premiered last year at the Arizona Theatre Company, but has undergone significant revisions since then. On top of some typical opening night “bumps in the road,” they also had to contend with two weather-induced power outages.
During an impromptu Q&A held as the crew worked to restore power, Gunderson shared that she had initially been contacted to write a one-woman show about Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She found more inspiration, however, in the differences and similarities between O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. This brought about a play that follows the careers of the first three women appointed to the United States Supreme Court: O’Connor (Karen Murphy), Ginsberg (Lynda DiVito) and Sonia Sotomayor (Stephanie Prentice).
Despite the setbacks and delays, Murphy, DiVito and Prentice all delivered strong performances. Prentice’s Sotomayor is charismatic, with a strong sense of determination that makes it easy to root for her. Murphy’s O’Connor is a convincing and nuanced portrait of a woman who has worked hard for power but is questioning her decisions. DiVito’s Ginsberg comes off as less of a real person than “The Notorious RBG.” She even sings a mischievous torch song about her alter ego.
The set design by Carlos Aceves makes clever use of a single set piece as multiple locations. Unfortunately, it was too far downstage for the size of the space. Had it been further upstage, it would not have overwhelmed the actors as it did. Similarly, the costumes by Maggie Morgan worked well but for the odd fit of judicial robes on all three women.
The script, like the set and costumes, almost gets it right. It takes too much time educating and not enough time exploring the ramifications their decisions had on these women’s lives. Also, for a play ostensibly about equality, partisanship and how women function in politics, Gunderson does not even name-check controversial Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Like most of Gunderson’s plays, the show is written to simply entertain. The music is fun, the story is interesting, and the acting is strong. Just don’t go in expecting a realistic look at American politics. As the composer and lyricist shared, this is basically just Wicked in Washington.
‘Justice: A New Musical’ runs Tues–Sun through March 12 at Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. Tues–Sat, 7:30pm; Sat & Sun, 2pm. $25.50-$60.50. Masking required. 415.388.5208. marintheatre.org.
Local fashion maven Lily Samii shares her latest creation, a memoir, Lily Samii: A Journey through Life and Fashion, at 1pm, Sunday, March 5 at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. The event invites readers to step inside the mesmerizing world of San Francisco-based Iranian fashion designer Samii— from her upbringing in Iran to the runways of Paris to her retail boutique, L.Y.Z. Ltd. in Larkspur, and elegant showrooms on Union Square in San Francisco and in New York. Samii’s book takes readers through the designer’s 50 years in the fashion industry and reminds why she’s known as the “Grand Dame of Bay Area Fashion.”
The event is free.
Napa
Tea With Audrey Vardanega
Celebrating Women’s History Month, The Meritage Resort and Spa hosts a special “High Tea” from 11am to 1pm, Saturday, March 11, as part of the resort’s ongoing Women in the Arts speaker series in partnership with Festival Napa Valley. Honoring the accomplishments of nationally recognized female artists, Women in the Arts features a female artist as well as women leaders in the wine, spirits and beverage industries. In this case, it’s pianist, arts innovator and Festival Napa Valley favorite Audrey Vardanega who will share her story and the work of Arium, a multimedia platform she co-founded in 2020. A portion of the proceeds from each event supports scholarship programs in Napa County and beyond. Tickets for the event are $90, including a keepsake fine china teacup and saucer from UppercaseTea. Guests are invited to dress up for the occasion by wearing a fascinator or hat (imagine something Kate Middleton might wear on her head) to add some whimsy. More details at bit.ly/high-tea-meritage.
Santa Rosa
Art by and for Locals
The City of Santa Rosa Public Art Program, in conjunction with the National Arts Program, announces the opening of the 20th Annual National Arts ProgramExhibition and Competition, from 3 to 5pm, Sunday March 12, at the Finley Community Center, 2060 W. College Ave., Santa Rosa. This program provides Santa Rosa artists of all ages with an opportunity to showcase their artistic accomplishments and encourages artistic growth. The exhibition features 160 works by artists of all ages and levels of experience, and participants are eligible for $4,000 in awards. It remains on display and open to the public through April 21. The National Arts Program was established in 1985 by the National Art Program Foundation to inspire, acknowledge and reward creative accomplishments throughout the nation. Learn more about the City of Santa Rosa arts programs at SRCity.org/arts.
Santa Rosa
Breaking Traditions
The Santa Rosa Junior College Multicultural Museum is preparing a unique and rare collection of Pomo basketry, never before exhibited in its entirety since its arrival at Santa Rosa Junior College 20 years ago. Titled “Breaking Traditions, Saving Traditions: Elsie Allen and the Legacy of Pomo Basketry,” the exhibition opens on Friday, March 3 with a reception from 4 to 7pm, and will be displayed through the rest of the year. An opening reception will feature speakers from the local Pomo community, as well as a traditional blessing and song preceding the event. The Santa Rosa Junior College Multicultural Museum is located on-campus at Bussman Hall, 1501 Mendocino Ave. For detailed information, including information on other events in support of the exhibition, visit bit.ly/srjc-baskets.
Joel D. Eis doesn’t need a weatherperson to know which way the wind blows.
The activist, author and bookseller’s new memoir, Standin’ in a Hard Rain, The Making of a Revolutionary Life: Lessons from the Last Revolution, proves he not only knows where from come the prevailing winds of change but also his Dylan lyrics.
In its essence, Eis’ book is a bildungsroman that follows his development from a suburban Jewish kid to a committed lifelong radical, having cut his teeth in the kaleidoscopic hurly burly of ’60s social and political upheaval.
Throughout, Eis is present at a variety of cultural inflection points, when moments become movements—whether it’s with the Freedom Riders in the Deep South to the 1968 student strike at San Francisco State University, Eis’ experience reads like, as comedian and columnist Will Durst observed, “Forrest Gump for the 1960s, only it’s real!”
Asked when his interest in radical politics was first piqued, Eis deadpans, “In utero.” Several decades later, after years of regaling friends with stories of his radical heydays, he was motivated to heed their insistence to collect them in a book when Donald Trump received the GOP nomination for president. Six years later, the results were released as a 440 page paperback by World Beyond War, a publisher and anti-war organization.
Among those encouraging Eis was Rosa del Duca, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and author of Breaking Cadence: One Woman’s War Against the War. She observed that Eis’ book “…passes the torch to the next generation. He’s not only rooting for you, he’s counting on you.” Indeed, the book is not just a memoir but also a primer on how to be an effective activist.
“You can’t change people’s minds by throwing a brick through a window. You change people’s minds by going into the bank, for example, and talking to the people who work there about what their bank is doing,” Eis says. He reminds that a bank is more than merely a building but part of a complex series of systems that ultimately has a human face. “The bank is an activity carried on by people. Understanding how you make your energy constructive and practical is really important,” he adds.
Not all of Eis’ advice is as politesse. In one of his book’s later chapters, he writes: “In your organizing, always play hardball with The Systems. If you make it clear you’re willing to go to jail, the more likely the authorities will be to want to resolve your issue some other way, but don’t count on it. They get off on fucking with you. The whole situation is based on having the power to determine your life. Nevertheless, avoid arrest if you can. It involves more hassle than glory.”
Unique to Eis’ book is straight talk about what the radicals of his era endured after the relative chaos of the ’60s. Some were able to channel their energies productively; others, notably Abbie Hoffman and Eldrige Cleaver, fell into addiction and eventually died prematurely.
“How do you transition and take your progressive values into a productive life? A lot of people became teachers, they became NGO organizers, they became medical practitioners. They went into law or productive, what I would call, humanist occupations,” says Eis, who became a bookseller and runs San Rafael’s Rebound Bookstore (which he calls an “inherently progressive institution”).
In reflection, Eis is proud of what his generation accomplished. “It’s been the bedrock of the culture that we have today—which, you know, people are certainly taking for granted,” he says with a wry smile, “But it’s a more benign world.”
Joel D. Eis’ ‘Standin’ in a Hard Rain’ is available wherever quality books are soldincluding Rebound Bookstore in San Rafael. Eis will read from his work and speak at 4 pm, Saturday, April 15 at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corta Madera. The event is free.
Marin Ballet is getting ready to celebrate its 60th anniversary in style with not just one, but two days of festivities.
This non-profit organization has been bringing the gift of dance to the local community since before the internet existed or man set foot on the moon.
To honor this momentous occasion and the hard work that went into reaching it, Marin Ballet is hosting both a night of celebration and a day of performances, making the 60th anniversary of Marin Ballet a festive fête indeed.
It all began with a small but prestigious ballet school, founded in 1950 by Leona Norman, who taught ballet to over 20 students from the attic of her home on Lincoln Street in San Rafael. In 1963, Norman incorporated her school of dance with the Marin Civic Ballet (a non-profit organization founded by Max and Phyllis Thelen), and the Marin Ballet of today was officially underway.
ORIGINS Leona Norman stands between two of her dance students. Photo courtesy of Marin Ballet
“Leona was Russian-trained and a fabulous instructor who inspired a whole generation of male and female students,” said Nancy Rehkopf, acting executive director of Marin Ballet and daughter of Max and Phyllis Thelen. “We have about 50 alums of Marin Ballet who have gone on to have impressive professional careers.”
Rehkopf and her sister, Jane Thelen, were among Norman’s early ballet students. Jane Thelen began dancing when she was only three years old and, after graduating from the Marin Ballet training program in 1971, joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, danced with the Irish National Ballet and performed in the Metropolitan Opera Ballet before retiring in 1981.
“My sister, Jane, was one of the first alums to become a professional dancer and, after she retired, she came back to become executive director—it’s very much a family affair,” explained Rehkopf. “There are many multiple-generation families that have been so instrumental in Marin Ballet. That’s one of our strengths: the prosperous legacy to devotion to keeping this organization up and running.”
Today, Marin Ballet is a prolific non-profit center for the performing arts, with more than 1,000 ballet alums to its name. The school and its performances, especially the annual Nutcracker ballet, have become a fixture of the community, and its continued success speaks to the ongoing dedication and support the local community holds for the fine arts.
“Leona really lit that fire in the belly of our students, and one of them, Laurie Klein, returned to Marin Ballet after her professional career, to teach for us for 50 years,” said Rehkopf.
Klein’s dedication to the school inspired the Laurie Klein Scholarship Fund, an initiative that allows the school to increase financial aid for students who require assistance with tuition. This scholarship fund was established in June of 2022 to celebrate Klein’s 50th year as an instructor at Marin Ballet and to increase accessibility to dance in the Marin community.
Now, for the 60th anniversary of Marin Ballet, the organization has made it their goal to raise $60,000 for the Laurie Klein Scholarship Fund.
“Marin Ballet has about 15% of its students on some form of tuition assistance,” explained Rehkopf. “Every year, we receive applications and we grant scholarships and, with the new endowment from Laurie’s fund, we’re looking to increase that number up to 20%. Our big, beautiful building is of no use if we can’t use it to teach to all of our community, and we’re doing what we can to make sure that everyone who really loves dance has access to it.”
The Marin Ballet Anniversary Celebration event will take place on Friday, March 24 from 6 to 10pm. The evening’s dinner will be provided by Insalata’s, Marin County’s premier Mediterranean restaurant (and the proud recipient of the Michelin Bib Gourmand Award). Local wine will be served at the celebration as well, and music and dance-themed activities will entertain guests through the evening. Tickets are $85 each, and attendees must be aged 21 or older.
An auction completes the Friday night festivities, and guests will bid on vacation opportunities to places like Santa Fe, Lake Tahoe and Las Vegas alongside other auction items like a Nutcracker-themed birthday party or an Australian Walkabout, a behind-the-scenes walk through the Oakland Zoo, a case of Materra Cunat 2016 Reserve Merlot and much more. The proceeds of this auction will go toward the Laurie Klein Scholarship Fund.
“We’re doing two things to celebrate the 60th anniversary,” explained Rehkopf. “First, the celebration on Friday when we’re opening up the entire building to our guests! We’ll have a costume photo booth, a dinner, an auction and a sock hop where we’ll be spinning vinyl.
“Then, on Sunday, there are the two performances, which have all the students in the school performing,” continued Rehkopf. “These shows are a great testament of what we provide to our students, and there will be five new dances with classical, contemporary and some theme-incorporated works as well from Julia Adam, who has been working with all the 100-plus students. We don’t want to give anything away about the performance; we want it to be a surprise!”
The Marin Ballet Anniversary Performance is set for Sunday, March 26, with shows at both 2pm and 5pm at the Marin School of the Arts in Novato. Tickets will cost $31 for general admission to this anniversary performance.
A premiere new work will be revealed in the Sunday shows, a work that was choreographed, run and made by Julia Adam, retired professional ballet dancer, choreographer and the performance director at Marin Ballet. Amy London, Charlie Martin, Catherine Hader and Corinne Jonas have also lent their expertise to creating new choreography for this special 60th anniversary performance.
“I just hope that people will come to celebrate with us—the gala will be loads of fun, and the performance will be a really wonderful experience you won’t want to miss out on,” said Adam.
“I would hope Leona’s heart would be full watching the 60th anniversary performance, because she founded this school and because it houses such wonderful training and such a joyous community,” concluded Adam. “And I hope that she would be proud that her vision of a ballet school has lasted so long and has become such a fixture of this community.”
Marin Ballet is located at 100 Elm St. in San Rafael, in the same building that was bought in 1971 with a grant from the Cowell Foundation for the purpose of teaching ballet to Marin’s youth.
For more information about the organization and the 60th anniversary celebration and performance, visit the website at marinballet.org, email in**@*********et.org or call 415.453.6705.
Employees of one of the North Bay’s largest healthcare providers are fighting against service cuts which could impact patients from cradle to grave.
According to its website, Providence operates 52 hospitals across five western states. In the North Bay, it owns three hospitals and provides birthing and hospice care to hundreds of patients a year.
Recently, citing nationwide worker shortages, the nonprofit healthcare giant has begun cutting back on local services. Last month, Providence announced plans to close a birthing center in Petaluma, the only such facility between Santa Rosa and San Rafael. Three months earlier, with less public outcry, the nonprofit fired about 15 hospice workers and shortened the length of health aides’ visits with patients from 90 minutes to 60 minutes.
In recent weeks, the cuts—both enacted and proposed—have been met with resistance both inside and outside Providence.
Birthing Center
In January, Laureen Driscoll, chief executive of Providence’s Northern California region, sent a letter to the Petaluma Health Care District, a public agency which sold the hospital to a Providence subsidiary in 2021. Driscoll explained that, due to staffing struggles, Providence intended to close the Family Birthing Center at Petaluma Valley Hospital, consolidating services at its Santa Rosa hospital.
“Despite the best efforts by Providence and the local physician community to support the Family Birthing Center at Petaluma Valley Hospital, recruit new physicians and secure anesthesia services, it has become clear that the program cannot continue to sustain itself and meet our high standards of safety and patient experience in the coming years,” Driscoll wrote in part.
Protest signs in the hallway outside of a Feb. 15 meeting of the Petaluma Health Care District’s Board of Directors.
The letter prompted swift pushback from the community, workers and the district. The district maintains that, in a contract signed at the time of the sale, Providence agreed to keep the birthing center open until Jan. 1, 2026.
In a public statement in January, health care district CEO Ramona Faith wrote, “Contrary to a statement issued by Driscoll that Providence is working with the District to ensure a smooth transition, the District Board has not agreed to this outcome or made a decision… Per the [Petaluma Valley Hospital] sale agreement, the closure of the Family Birthing Center without the approval of the majority of the Directors of the District Board will be a default under the agreement.”
If the Petaluma birthing center is closed, it will create a 41-mile gap between similar service centers in Santa Rosa and San Rafael.
Despite public pressure, at a tense public meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 15, Driscoll told district board members that Providence planned to continue with its plan.
At a curb side rally before the meeting, workers and supporters from the community waved signs condemning the closure plan.
“They’re saying that they need to close because they can’t find anesthesia coverage but, if they would pay market rate, it would not be a problem finding coverage,” said Denise Cobb, a labor and delivery nurse who has worked at the Petaluma Valley Hospital for 25 years.
Janice Cader Thompson, Petaluma’s vice mayor, joined the protest as well.
“Women’s health is on the line in the United States and I want to make sure that, in my hometown, women are able to get the services they need. Not having an OB ward is dangerous for the mother and the child,” Cader Thompson said.
Though critics aren’t convinced, Providence has maintained that closing the birthing center, which it says lost over $900,000 in 2021, is not a financial decision. Instead, the nonprofit cites safety concerns brought on by pandemic-fueled staffing struggles.
At the district meeting, Driscoll revealed that Providence had received two responses to a Request for Proposals seeking help continuing to provide obstetric anesthesia coverage in Petaluma. Driscoll said staff are still evaluating the documents, some of which were received the day before the district’s meeting.
Residents, workers and a Providence executive spoke at a tense meeting of the Petaluma Health Care District’s Board of Directors on Feb. 15.
District board members took turns criticizing Providence’s plan and the way it was announced. After reading Providence’s response to questions from the district, board member Dr. Jeffrey Tobias said, it did not seem that the healthcare provider was trying its hardest to keep the birthing center open.
“I did not walk away from the response getting the sense that there was any willingness to maintain the services… and the discussion about collaborating with the district is [about] collaborating to close the unit. There’s really been no attempt to collaborate [on keeping the center open] so far—hopefully we can moving forward,” Tobias said.
After a closed-door discussion, the board announced that it had voted to reject Providence’s request due to a lack of evidence of “meaningful efforts to solve the lack of anesthesia services.” The board also created an ad hoc committee to work with Providence to keep the birthing center open.
As of the end of the week, it remained unclear how Providence would respond. A spokesperson declined to comment on the board’s vote, instead providing a letter to the editor by Driscoll published in the Press Democrat on Feb. 5.
Hospice Care
While workers at Petaluma Valley Hospital help to usher babies into the world, other Providence employees work to keep North Bay residents comfortable in the last months of their lives.
In 2021, hospice workers cared for 1,375 patients, a federal report filed by Providence states. Most received services at their homes scattered throughout Sonoma County, along with a few in Marin County.
Aidee Garcia, a home health aide who has worked at Providence for six years, says the demanding yet rewarding job involves a combination of “physical, mental and emotional work.”
“Some of the patients, they don’t have family around or they don’t have any relatives, and we are the only ones who come to see them,” Garcia said.
In October, employees received a series of disheartening announcements from management. First, workers were informed that in-home health aides would be required to serve five patients per day, a 20% increase in workload, requiring aides to spend 30 minutes less per patient.
Two weeks later, management fired around 15 employees. Hospice workers say the unceremonious layoffs impacted a range of support workers, causing a chaotic reorganization.
But, instead of taking the cuts lying down, workers used them as motivation to unionize. On Thursday, Feb. 9, despite opposition from Providence, hospice employees voted 105-6 to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which already represents many workers at Petaluma Valley Hospital.
Asked for comment on the impact of cuts and union campaign, a spokesperson stated that “Providence is committed to ensuring we continue to provide the level of hospice services at the bedside that every patient needs and their family is counting on at a sacred time in their lives.”
The nonprofit opposed the union campaign because “We believe that we can better work out issues and resolve caregivers’ concerns when we work directly with each other. However, we respect the right of caregivers to explore union representation and the decision our hospice caregivers have made to join a union,” the spokesperson stated.
In an interview, Garcia and three other workers said their concerns about the impacts further cuts would have on patient care fueled the union campaign.
“One of my patients said, ‘When you come, you bring me love,’” Garcia said. “I feel like we’re not losing that love because it’s something that we have [inside], but I feel like Providence [by cutting back] is going to take away our ability to protect our patients the way we used to.”
The Western Monarch butterfly is an iconic symbol of the California coastline.
For as long as most Bay Area dwellers can remember, the butterfly’s vibrant orange and black wings, interspersed with flecks of white, have come and gone in a migration pattern synonymous with the changing of the seasons. But, as years have passed, so too have the butterfly’s days of splendorous plenty.
Two Bolinas locals, Ole Schell and Elizabeth Weber, are on a mission to bring back the Western Monarch by combining the forces of science and art and lending their voices to a shared cause: advocate for the Western Monarch and remove the threat of extinction for the already-endangered insect. This includes putting on an exhibition at Marin Art and Garden Center to present to the community at large: “Return of the Western Monarch.”
At the exhibition, Weber will showcase her black-and-white photography of monarchs and the native nectar plants they need to survive and thrive. These photos, printed on vellum and adorned with gold leaf, are designed to denote the fragility of the monarch and to draw attention to its absence by removing the colors of the inherently vivid insect. As an independent documentary photographer, Weber advocates for environmental activism and for the butterflies through the lens of her camera.
“I really want to integrate my art into solutions for the environment,” said Weber. “To show my work on the Western Monarch butterfly in Marin, and in coordination with those who are actively engaged in solution-oriented work, enhances the impact of my art.”
Schell and Weber have known each other since childhood, and both boast deep family roots in Bolinas. Schell grew up on his family ranch, and his father, Orville Schell, partnered with Bill Niman to start Niman/Schell Ranch (one of the first ranches to introduce the concept of free-range cattle). Weber shares a similar story; her parents being the founders of Star Route Farms (known as the oldest continuously-certified organic row crop farm in California).
From their shared childhood memories, both Schell and Weber recall a time when the Marin landscape was lush with Western Monarchs.
“I grew up in Bolinas in the ’70s and ’80s on Star Route Farm, which my parents started,” explained Weber. “My memories of the monarchs are from this time, back in their full abundance. This is what motivated me to pursue this project—as a photographer, I focus my photography on environmental issues and, because of those memories of the monarchs and my connection to them growing up in Bolinas, this issue is very close to my heart.”
While Weber uses her photography to tell the story of the endangered butterfly, Schell instead turned his energy toward founding the Western Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary on his family land in Bolinas. At the exhibit, Schell will show his short film on the monarch’s plight, sharing his reasoning and method behind turning his ranch into a sanctuary.
“I also grew up in Bolinas and was born in Bolinas,” said Schell. “When Lizzie and I were kids, the monarchs were really abundant, and in the 1980s there were millions in California. You could go to one of a dozen sites in Bolinas, shake a branch, and it would be dripping with butterflies.”
Schell moved away from Bolinas to pursue a career in making movies and films. But when he returned to the family ranch years later to begin a new chapter of his life, he realized the abundance of butterflies he remembered was gone. The monarchs of his childhood had all but vanished during his absence.
“So, Lizzie and I talked about the butterfly problem, did some research and found the parties involved in trying to help preserve the monarchs,” continued Schell. “Xerces Society suggested I plant 1,200 native nectar plants on my land, so I got some money together, built a big fence for deer and quickly planted native nectar plants, as well as food crops that were native nectar, such as blueberries, passionfruit, plums and apples.”
The Western Monarch migrates to the Bay Area during the coldest months of the year in order to take advantage of the warm coastal climate in a process called overwintering. To do this, the butterflies require incredibly specific conditions, inducing safe havens to gather (i.e., south-facing bowl-shaped nooks, often in eucalyptus trees, that are sunny and capable of shielding them from the wind). These safe havens have dwindled significantly in recent years and are essential to the monarch’s survival.
Western Monarchs also need native nectar plants in order to gain weight before traveling inland to mate. The most famous of these is milkweed, aka the plant that butterflies love and butterfly enthusiasts love to plant. But many well-intentioned butterfly lovers have inadvertently contributed toward the Monarch’s extinction by misusing milkweed.
The rules of milkweed are simple: do not plant milkweed unless it is four to five miles inland, and only plant native milkweed. This is because milkweed activates the mating cycle of the monarch and, if this occurs too close to the coast, the eggs die. As for non-native milkweed, though it flowers beautifully and monarchs love it, there is an important distinction: Native milkweed dies back, effectively killing the parasite all milkweed hosts (OE). As non-native milkweed continuously blooms, the parasite thrives and can cause debilitating damage to and eventually kill monarchs.
“People have vague ideas of the monarchs and often don’t even know what’s harmful and what’s helpful,” said Schell. “This exhibition is about community engagement, education, spreading the word, enjoying good art and giving people seeds to plant in their gardens.”
The “Return of the Western Monarch” exhibition is a collaborative effort between Marin Art and Garden Center, Audrey Fusco of the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN), Mia Monroe of Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and, of course, Weber and Schell.
“This exhibition is an invitation for people to come and learn about what they can do, to join the movement and participate, because we need everyone involved,” said Weber. “People can make a huge difference.”
“Our town is steeped in memories of monarchs, and people need to step up and help the monarch because, if they don’t, then the monarch will disappear,” concluded Schell. “It’s not just that they need to be saved; they need to be restored to their former glory.”
Marin Art and Garden Center will present the ‘Return of the Western Monarch’ exhibition from March 17 to April 30. The center is located in Ross at 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. Gallery hours are Fridays to Saturdays from 10am to 4pm and Sundays from noon to 4pm. For more information on protecting the Western Monarch, visit westmarinmonarchs.org and maringarden.org.
Kudos for publishing “Whole Lotta Loving” by Michael Giotis (Feb. 8-14 issue).
“Polyamory” is a topic fraught with misunderstanding and prohibition, entangled in religious, political, societal mores. And while we now recognize a “spectrum” for conditions like autism, few societies acknowledge the wholly natural spectrum of human sexual expression or gender identification, or the variety of love partners that may be enjoyed or engaged-in simultaneously or serially.
Instead, our taboos, our shaming prohibitions and punishments for deviations from tightly regulated “norms” (such as binary identification and monogamy) inevitably create an entangled affair for anyone whose leanings are to love and/or nest with more than one amorous partner at one time.
Devoting 30 years of study and practice in fields that define and facilitate healthy intimate relations, including tantra yoga, has fundamentally changed my outlook. I believe that as we humans learn to respect and be fully present for one another, love readily flows to where it belongs and longs to go.
Cheating or triangulating—adding additional lovers out of insecurity, neglect or spite—fade. As we embrace our anam cara, our soul connections, mono and poly-gamy marriage arrangements alike can be normalized.
Harems may become unnecessary (or legal)—or brothels, if we stop criminalizing prostitution, and diminish a need for it. Hurtful deviancies will wither as individuals’ real needs for love and nurture are actualized. Women, as well as men, may feel free to pursue multiple relations without fearing and encountering vengeful backlash.
Might we then envision a polymorphous “spectrum of loving?” Together, become less judgmental and more fearless about who loves whom, when and where, and in what ways? Everyone needs to love and be loved. Nature compels us to seek belonging, to feel truly appreciated. Our joys and sorrows compel a reimagining of what love really is, and a releasing what it is not: to open our hearts to love’s rainbow spectrum.
Marcia Singer, MSW, is the founder of the Santa Rosa-based Love Arts Foundation.
Now that the long-awaited dredging project of the San Rafael Channel is nearly completed, it may be time to break out the Great American Songbook of geologic themes in advance of any celebratory events that may be organized by local groups, as a public service.
I’m talking about hit songs such as…
You’d Be So Gneiss to Come Home to
Don’t Take Me for Granite
I Get Sedimental Over Nothing
It’s a Quartz to Three
It’s Neat to Beat Your Feet in the Mississippi Mud
Danny Luehring proves the dead will never die with “Grateful Wednesdays,” featuring Danny’s Live Dead. 7pm, Wednesday, Feb. 22. Free.
No Name Bar
757 Bridgeway, Sausalito. thenonamebar.com.
Move over Carly Simon; nobody does better than Bond Girl when it comes to 007’s musical missions. 8:30pm, Thursday, Feb. 23. Free.
Mystic Theatre
23 Petaluma Blvd. N, Petaluma. mystictheatre.com.
Umphrey’s McGee, an American jam band originally from South Bend, IN that has been winging it this entire century. 8:30pm, Thursday, Feb. 23. $80.
The Big Easy
128 American Alley, Petaluma. bigeasypetaluma.com.
We don’t know what we don’t know until we get schooled—School of Rock is here to help. Jack Black not included. 7pm, Friday, Feb. 24. $10.
Hopmonk Tavern Sebastopol
230 Petaluma Ave., Sebastopol. hopmonk.com.
Marty O’ Reilly Trio proves that three is not a crowd with inter-genre music-making. Opening for the trio is touring singer-sonwriter Jeff Plankenhorn.
7pm, Friday, Feb. 24. $20.
Brewsters Beer Garden
229 Water St. North, Petaluma. brewstersbeergarden.com.
Matt Bolton is a solo performer who incorporates technology to create live loops and delivers a contemporary pop, classic rock and roots-rock sound. 1pm, Sunday, Feb. 26. Free.
Coyote Sonoma
44F Mill St., Healdsburg. coyotesonoma.com.
Fleetwood Mask subsume their identities and pay tribute to the musical juggernaut known as Fleetwood Mac. RIP Christine McVie. 7pm, Saturday, Feb. 25. $35.
Green Music Center
1801 East Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park. gmc.sonoma.edu.
March to the beat of a different drummer, courtesy of the Taiko stylings of Yamato The Drummers of Japan. 7:30pm, Saturday, Feb. 25. $25–$85.
Henhouse Prowlers are the rare bluegrass quartet that has the distinction of having worked with the U.S. State Department as international “Bluegrass Ambassadors.” 7pm, Tuesday, Feb. 28. $17.
Green Music Center
1801 East Cotati Ave., Rohnert Park. gmc.sonoma.edu.
Inspired by resilient forests, Treelogy is performing at Sonoma State University.
7:30pm, Thursday, March 2. $25-75.
North Bay Live Music
16280 Main St., Guerneville. mainststation.com
Watch out, Road Runner! The creator of Wiley’s Coyotes, Eric Wiley, is coming to town.
6pm, Friday, March 3. Free.
Mystic Theater
23 Petaluma Blvd. N, Petaluma. mystictheatre.com.
Relive the ’80s in a way...
It was quite an eventful evening at the Marin Theater Company opening of Justice: A New Musical. The show, with book by Lauren Gunderson, music by Bree Loudermilk and lyrics by Kait Kerrigan, premiered last year at the Arizona Theatre Company, but has undergone significant revisions since then. On top of some typical opening night “bumps in the road,”...
Look Book
Local fashion maven Lily Samii shares her latest creation, a memoir, Lily Samii: A Journey through Life and Fashion, at 1pm, Sunday, March 5 at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. The event invites readers to step inside the mesmerizing world of San Francisco-based Iranian fashion designer Samii— from her upbringing in Iran to the runways of...
Joel D. Eis doesn’t need a weatherperson to know which way the wind blows.
The activist, author and bookseller’s new memoir, Standin' in a Hard Rain, The Making of a Revolutionary Life: Lessons from the Last Revolution, proves he not only knows where from come the prevailing winds of change but also his Dylan lyrics.
In its essence, Eis’ book is...
Marin Ballet is getting ready to celebrate its 60th anniversary in style with not just one, but two days of festivities.
This non-profit organization has been bringing the gift of dance to the local community since before the internet existed or man set foot on the moon.
To honor this momentous occasion and the hard work that went into reaching it,...
Employees of one of the North Bay’s largest healthcare providers are fighting against service cuts which could impact patients from cradle to grave.
According to its website, Providence operates 52 hospitals across five western states. In the North Bay, it owns three hospitals and provides birthing and hospice care to hundreds of patients a year.
Recently, citing nationwide worker shortages, the...
The Western Monarch butterfly is an iconic symbol of the California coastline.
For as long as most Bay Area dwellers can remember, the butterfly's vibrant orange and black wings, interspersed with flecks of white, have come and gone in a migration pattern synonymous with the changing of the seasons. But, as years have passed, so too have the butterfly's days...
By Marcia Singer
Kudos for publishing “Whole Lotta Loving” by Michael Giotis (Feb. 8-14 issue).
“Polyamory” is a topic fraught with misunderstanding and prohibition, entangled in religious, political, societal mores. And while we now recognize a “spectrum” for conditions like autism, few societies acknowledge the wholly natural spectrum of human sexual expression or gender identification, or the variety of love partners...
Channel Chansons
Now that the long-awaited dredging project of the San Rafael Channel is nearly completed, it may be time to break out the Great American Songbook of geologic themes in advance of any celebratory events that may be organized by local groups, as a public service.
I’m talking about hit songs such as...
You'd Be So Gneiss to Come Home to
Don't...
Papermill Creek Saloon
1 Castro St., Forest Knolls. papermillcreeksaloon.com.
Danny Luehring proves the dead will never die with “Grateful Wednesdays,” featuring Danny's Live Dead. 7pm, Wednesday, Feb. 22. Free.
No Name Bar
757 Bridgeway, Sausalito. thenonamebar.com.
Move over Carly Simon; nobody does better than Bond Girl when it comes to 007’s musical missions. 8:30pm, Thursday, Feb. 23. Free.
Mystic Theatre
23 Petaluma Blvd. N, Petaluma. mystictheatre.com.
Umphrey's...
