Calistoga Gallery Taps Dickinson

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Calistoga Gallery Taps Dickinson

Located in the heart of Calistoga, Sofie Contemporary Arts is one of Napa Valley’s premier purveyors of inventive modern art that is diverse in media, styles and approaches.

The gallery is run by director Jan Sofie and manager Scott Sofie. Since opening the gallery in 2017, the couple have endured fires, mass evacuations and, more recently, a Covid-19 pandemic that closed their space for the past six months.

Still, Jan and Scott Sofie remain hopeful, and they share that feeling with the community as Sofie Contemporary Arts reopens this month. The new exhibit—entitled “Hope Is the Thing…”—is running now and remains on display through October.

The invitational group show’s theme is inspired by Emily Dickinson’s 1862 poem, “Hope Is the Thing With Feathers,” in which Dickinson describes the capacity for hope in metaphor as a bird that “perches in the soul.”

That hopeful feeling is illustrated in the exhibit’s diverse art from more than 20 accomplished Bay Area artists, including many North Bay favorites.

“While talking with many artists over the past difficult months, it became obvious that we were all trying to keep focused on what we really cared about, what really mattered,” Jan Sofie says in a statement.

For this exhibit, many of the participating artists are displaying works that focus on what is personally relevant for them, and selections in the show hit on topics of the pandemic and social distancing as well as economic turmoil and environmental concerns.

Participating artist Sylvia Gonzalez creates natural scenes such as her piece “Goldfinches” (pictured) from pencil and pastel drawn over monotype backgrounds. Working from her studio in Petaluma, Gonzalez focuses her layered art not only on birds, but on foxes, coyotes and other wildlife that can be found in the North Bay.

San Rafael artist Bill Russell also uses birds as an artistic metaphor in his contribution to the exhibit. His acrylic piece, “Little Birdies,” features several feathered figures in a colorful collage of movement.

Napa Valley artist Anne Pentland’s piece in the show is also a nature scene, though Pentland finds hope among ashes in her oil painting, “Aftermath Australia.” The piece is from Pentland’s ongoing “Madonna” Series, which employs the religious symbol of protection to represent Pentland’s passion for nature and her concern over climate change and its effects on wildlife.

In addition to works that feature animals, plants and other natural wonders that act as essential sources of solace, the exhibit includes works that evoke notable historical and culturally significant figures and references that aim to bolster resolve as well as hope.

“Without hope, I don’t think we can muster the courage or grit to change or go forward with what we need to do,” Sofie says. “There is always intelligence and light even in the most discouraging moments, but it takes critical awareness and discipline to manifest it; I think you will see this in the exhibition.”

Sofie Contemporary Arts is located at 1407 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga. Open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 6pm or by arrangement. 707.942.4231.

A Recitation for the River

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A Recitation for the River

When it comes to quarantine hobbies, binging Netflix and day-drinking on Zoom top the list. Writer-performer David Templeton had something different in mind—he committed the entirety of the seventh chapter of Kenneth Grahame’s seminal work, The Wind and the Willows, to memory. Now that it’s—literally—in his mind, he’s bringing it out, word-for-word in an online recitation this Saturday to benefit Friends of the Petaluma River, the organization that stewards the conversation of the Petaluma River Watershed. 

The chapter in question, “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” finds the protagonists Rat and Mole on a late-night boat journey up the river in search of a lost baby otter. Who do they meet along the way? The god Pan—the goat-legged pipe-player of the title. For context, the 3,800-word chapter is about 10 times the length of this column (the contents of which I’ll forget immediately upon filing it). 

How Templeton managed to squeeze a beloved literary classic into his brain and keep it there likely comes from his skills as a solo theatrical artist, penning and performing one-person shows like his popular Wretch Like Me in the past decade (not to mention being a former Bohemian theater critic). 

The difference, beyond the text being that of another author, is that Templeton has forbidden himself the luxury of extemporizing should memory fail. It’s a literary tightrope walk across a roiling river of words. Will he make it? Tune into the free simulcast on YouTube, Facebook or the Friends of Petaluma River website this Saturday to see for yourself. 

Online donations are encouraged and donors will have the opportunity to win a “Wind in the Willows”–themed gift basket. I’ll be on hand, virtually, to introduce Templeton and to host a post-performance Q&A with him and Stephanie Bastianon, executive director at Friends of the Petaluma River.

As Templeton says, memorizing “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” “has been a true joy and pleasure at a time when joy and pleasure sometimes seem in short supply.”

Indeed, it’s good to have a little Pan without all the “demic.”
David Templeton’s from-memory recitation of “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” begins at 5:30pm, Saturday, Sept. 12. The performance will be available for free via Facebook, YouTube or the Friends’ website; for links and more information visit FriendsofthePetalumaRiver.org.

A Farm and a Dispensary Bloom in Sonoma

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A Farm and a Dispensary Bloom in Sonoma

Mike Benziger has grown many things in his life, but not this. 

“We’re not growing placebos,” Benziger tells me at Glentucky Family Farm, where his pot patch looks and feels more like a jungle than a garden. It’s challenging to move around plants that press in from two sides and tower overhead.

Before he began growing weed, he grew grapes, made great wine and helped create the Benziger brand. As of August 2020, Mike has the crucial documents from both the State of California and from Sonoma County to cultivate weed legitimately. Hurray!

I sang Mike’s praises at a Sonoma Valley Planning Commission Zoom meeting, which gave him a thumbs-up, and later before the  Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, also via Zoom. A half-dozen others, including Mike’s neighbors, testified, along with cannabis lawyer, Omar Figueroa.

Also on Zoom, Kumail Raza, who works for Sonoma County in the permits department, described Mike’s operation: 50 plants on a 2,400-square-foot parcel, with no plants visible to the public and with no odors that could possibly offend visitors at nearby Jack London State Historic Park. The authorities scrutinized nearly everything about Mike’s Farm. The whole process felt to me like an invasion of privacy.

To grow cannabis legally these days you have to allow the authorities to inspect setbacks from roads and waterways, monitor wind direction, measure use of water and keep an eye on security systems meant to prevent, or to at least mitigate, break-ins and theft.

Supervisor Susan Gorin said that she had visited Glentucky Family Farm and talked to “the applicant” whom she described as “a well-known person in Sonoma Valley.”

Supervisor Shirlee Zane tried to sound like an advocate for employees’ rights and insisted that cannabis workers are habitually paid poorly. She urged Benziger to provide healthcare benefits for his workers and sick leave, too. Thanks, Shirlee!

Mike described his own garden as “pharmaceutical” and said his emphasis is on cannabis as medicine. He also testified that he grows 20 different kinds of fruits and vegetables and that he’s committed to agricultural diversity. Later the same day, I understood why he told me that if he had to do it all over again, he might not get into the cannabiz. It’s costly, time-consuming and emotionally draining. Sonoma County has made it nearly impossible for citizens to become legit pot farmers.

Mike tells me, “If small-time growers like me are to survive, we’ll need dispensaries that will carry our weed.”

Fortunately, the town of Sonoma now has a real dispensary. No, not right this minute. But in August the Sonoma City Council awarded SPARC, one of the coolest cannabis companies, a conditional certificate to operate a dispensary on Sonoma Highway about a 15-minute drive from the city’s center.

SPARC was a surprise winner. When the Justice Grown folks, one of the finalists for the certificate, announced that they would name their proposed dispensary “The Jewel Mathieson Wellness Center,” I thought that they were a shoo-in. Honoring the work and the memory of Mathieson, a longtime cannabis activist who passed away on Aug. 5, 2020, seemed like an idea whose time had come.

But it was not to be. Justice Grown is linked to a law firm in far-off Chicago.  SPARC is local, owns and operates a cannabis farm in Sonoma Valley, runs dispensaries in Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and San Francisco, and has a proven track record. The representatives from Justice Grown who testified before the council members tended to be overbearing. That was my impression. I watched and listened via ZOOM.

SPARC came across as humbler and smarter. “We haven’t been lobbying,” SPARC’s Erich Pearson told me, shortly before the city council voted to award him and his group a permit. “We don’t have to do backroom shenanigans.”   

Justice Grown promised to donate $1,000,000 to the city of Sonoma over the course of its first five years of operation provided it was granted a license. Was that a bribe? Some citizens thought so. SPARC’s offer to donate $4,000 per month in free cannabis to low-income medical patients, and those needing palliative aid, came across as genuinely philanthropic.

For more than a decade, residents of the town of Sonoma have traveled weekly, if not daily, to Cotati and Santa Rosa to buy cannabis and then gone home. That made no sense to many local citizens, and to cannabis activists such as Jewel Mathieson and her husband, Ken Brown, a former mayor and council member who planted the first idea for a dispensary ages ago.

Segments of the wine industry have been opposed to a cannabis dispensary in Sonoma, which would bring competition for tourist dollars. If SPARC’s dispensary is to succeed it will have to rely a great deal on sales to out-of-towners. That does mean a fight for disposable income.

Benziger thinks that in the long run cannabis has a good chance of becoming more popular than wine because of a generational shift.

Michael Coats of Michael Coats Public Relations and a leading cannabis activist, tells me, “Sometimes the city of Sonoma can feel like the most conservative place of earth.” Now with a dispensary, that perception will surely shift.

Before I left Benziger’s cannabis jungle, he gave me samples of two of his strains: La Bamba and Banana. At home, I smoked them both and emailed: “I’m glad you’re not growing placebos. Your weed worked wonders.”

Jonah Raskin is the author of “Dark Past, Dark Future: A Tioga Vignetta Murder Mystery.”

San Rafael Nonprofit Rebrands

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San Rafael Nonprofit Rebrands

In an attempt to reflect its ongoing growth, a 65-year-old San Rafael nonprofit announced last week that it has changed its name to Vivalon.

Vivalon, formerly known as Whistlestop, offers resources to older adults and people living with disabilities. The nonprofit announced the name change on Sept. 1 after a two-year planning process.

“We are growing our service offerings, expanding geographically and are reaching more people in need, which is why we decided that a more progressive name will reflect and support our organization’s path for growth,” Vivalon CEO Joe O’Hehir said in a statement.

The nonprofit isn’t completely ditching the old name. One of Whistlestop’s best-known services—offering transportation through partnerships with regional transportation agencies—will now be known as Whistlestop Wheels by Vivalon. 

The rebrand comes after Vivalon expanded its offerings within Marin County in recent years to include services for people living with chronic illnesses and low-income families living on Medi-Cal. The nonprofit now plans to begin offering services in Sonoma, Solano and San Francisco counties.

“The new name helps reposition the brand with the future in mind,” said Vivalon Board President Dennis Ryan. “Vivalon is an invented word conveying life, longevity, activity, vitality, and connection. It exudes vibrancy and energy and we’re extremely pleased with the result.”

Alumni and Administrators Clash Over School Name-Change Process

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Alumni and Administrators Clash Over School Name-Change Process

The process to rename Sir Francis Drake High School officially began in July at a school board meeting. Drake Principal Liz Seabury laid out the steps to legally change the school’s name, which included empaneling a site council of teachers, students and parents, advising the public about the high cost, making a list of potential new names and giving community stakeholders an opportunity to make public comment.

The panel’s first responsibility was to decide if the school’s name should be changed at all. 

The inclusive process was expected to take a year and be complete in August, 2021, when the school board would vote on the panel’s suggested new name, according to Seabury.

At the meeting, School Board Trustee Cynthia Rosenisch complained to Seabury about the lengthy timeline and said she thought the first step, making the decision to rename the school, had already been made.

Seabury pushed back against Roenisch’s complaint by bringing up the need to comply with the Brown Act, a state law that requires councils, boards and commissions to make decisions that affect the public in the light of day. Seabury, for a second time, explained to Roenisch that the school’s site council is legally responsible for deciding if the school will be renamed. Seabury went on to say the site council is required by district policy to seek public input at each stage of the process. 

“As much as we may want to unilaterally make the change, I do believe it’s the responsibility of the school to create a space for the public to have input,” Seabury said.

But, on July 28, less than two weeks later, the process was upended when Drake administrators, including Seabury, without public notice, pulled the Drake name off the building and temporarily replaced it with a sign that read: “High School No. 1327.”

The abrupt decision caught the community off guard and ignited strident debate on social media.

At a public listening forum held by school officials on August 12, comments from both sides were less hostile than the social media debate and most comments were made in good faith. They contributed to a healthy debate about community identity and generational perspective. The debate demonstrated how important and vitally attached the high school is to the community.

 The comments mostly centered around Sir Francis Drake’s reputation. The pro-change faction claimed Drake was a slaver and a pirate, who used brutal tactics on native peoples, per a recent revision of Drake’s history.

“The reality was he was a slave trader, he was a brutal rapist and pillager. In fact, he was doing that until the day he died in 1596,” said parent Robert Ovetz.

The other faction, mostly made up of older alumni, claimed there is no evidence that Drake ever owned slaves or that he was a rapist or even a pirate. They claimed that Drake redeemed himself by renouncing the slave trade at the age of 23 and spent the rest of his life advocating against slavery.  

“What better learning experience could there be for an academic community than learning from one’s mistakes?” asked Collette Scafani, a Tamalpais Union School District teacher and Drake alumni. “Who would have thought he had the courage to do that, but he did. This is something to be emulated, not removed.”

Adding fuel to the debate, school officials finally admitted that the estimated cost of renaming the high school would be $430,000, a fact the district had kept hidden from the public when it removed the Drake name from the school facade, an action which some alumni believe was fundamentally deceitful and a further violation of the Brown Act. School officials have said the expense is “a distraction,” and that the funding will come from community contributions and grants. But the administrators’ explanation has done little to quell parents and community members at a time when the high school is cutting classes and school programs after a school district parcel tax, Measure B, failed to get a two-thirds majority vote in March. 

Superintendent Taupier and School Board President Leslie Harlander have answered few questions since the hasty decision to remove Drake’s name and mire the school in additional debt. Instead of being transparent, they have referred most questions to the private law firm of Dannis Woliver Kelley.

However, according to the limited information given by high school administrators, the authority to take the name down was given to the superintendent by a district board policy that allows administrators to take emergency actions to protect the school and students from imminent threats.

But the only evidence of an imminent threat to the school, according to school administrators, was a vague reference to vandalism, which sounded more like an annoying-but-harmless Halloween prank typically called “toilet papering.” 

Vice Principal Nate Serverin said school officials would normally have engaged the community about the decision to change the school’s name, but there was a threat to paper over Drake’s name on a freestanding stucco sign in the school’s parking lot. 

“But due to at the time we, I think we had received letters posted to our windows stating that, um, some of the (Sir Francis Drake) signs were going to be covered up and indeed, they were covered up,” Serverin said. “So, due to that and the current state of, you know, our nation and racial uprising, we wanted to ensure the safety of our property.”

The apparent pretense to change the name and incur debt was insulting to many students, alumni and parents. 

In response to the hasty name-removal process, Drake graduate Rick Franceschini, an attorney, has sent the district a “demand to cure or correct” letter that requests the district immediately rescind its decision to remove and change the name of Sir Francis Drake High School and that any future action regarding the name change be done transparently and in compliance with the Brown Act.

“If the community wants to change the school’s name, that’s fine, but they need to include the community in the decision-making process,” Franceschini said.

Franceschini is the son of beloved teacher and coach Bob Franceschini, who worked at Drake from 1957 to 1987. All four Franceschini children graduated from Drake and all were involved in athletics. When Coach Franceschini died in 2002, the family started a scholarship in his name which is distributed annually through the Drake Foundation.

The family is against the name change, and is offended at the tactics the district has used to impose its will on the entire community, Franceschini said. The Franceschinis have a strong association with the Sir Francis Drake name through their father, football and the many years they collectively spent on the campus. He said he is considering resigning from his seat on the board of the Drake Foundation.

After school officials acted unilaterally to take the name down and incur a $430,000 debt, the district is now continuing the remainder of the public process laid out by Seabury at the July 14 board meeting. There have so far been two “listening” forums and a third is scheduled for September. The school’s site council will be empaneled on Sept. 9. The site council is expected to begin another round of yet to be scheduled community input sessions in the coming months.

Information about upcoming meetings is available on the school’s website.

John Geluardi is a 1976 Drake graduate.

Marin County’s Contact Tracers Help Fight Coronavirus

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The intriguing detective work of Covid-19 contact tracers contributed to the dramatic reduction of new virus cases in Marin from July, our worst month of the pandemic, to August, where we saw a flattening of the curve.

Contact tracers, public health professionals who follow the trail of Covid-19 from an infected person to their close contacts, will be just as essential as we forge ahead.

Some Marin contact tracers are volunteers, such as Jill Aggersbury, a retired nurse from Novato who began volunteering in May.

“Initially, we were very behind,” Aggersbury said. “We weren’t contacting the infected person until two weeks after testing. It defeated the purpose. Now state and county employees have joined us to help out.”

Today, there’s a 70-person team, including rapid responders, contact investigators and contact tracers. Their primary goal is to reduce the spread of the virus.

Rapid responders break the news to folks who test positive for Covid-19. With the county’s addition of new staff, they now alert infected people within two to three days.

Contact investigators then call to offer advice and resources. They also compile a list of people the infected individual has come into close contact with during the past two weeks. A close contact is defined as someone who has been within six feet of the infected person for at least 10 minutes.  

From there, contact tracers track down everyone on the list provided by the investigator. On average, Aggersbury said they contact two to three additional people per case.

The conversations vary, depending upon the person’s situation. Aggersbury recently spoke with someone who just came home with a newborn and she had many concerns.

“Fortunately, we now have more contact tracers and fewer cases, allowing us to go more in-depth with each case,” Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis said.

Certain cases are extremely laborious. Contact investigator Eduardo Portela-Parra, of San Anselmo, a county employee, finds the most challenging cases in the Canal District, a higher density, low-income neighborhood in San Rafael where one apartment may house multiple families. He could be contacting 10 people in the same household.

Bilingual tracers can play an extremely important role since seventy one percent of Marin cases are in the Latinx community, a group which comprises only 16 percent of the county’s total population. That discrepancy is partly fueled by extremely high case rates in the Canal District, which has a large Latinx population. In August, NPR reported that nearly one third of Marin County’s cases were located in the Canal District. 

“Some refuse to isolate or share information, because they’re worried about legal issues and want to continue to go to work,” Portela-Parra said.

Part sleuth, part therapist, Portela-Parra works to gain the confidence of the infected person in order to collect necessary data. In addition to empathy, he offers groceries, a letter for the employer and financial assistance to make up for lost wages as they isolate. If the person lives in a home with those in high-risk categories, arrangements can be made for a hotel room.

Portela-Parra encourages people to trust the contact tracers for their own benefit and the benefit of the community. The identity of the infected person remains confidential.

“We don’t want them to have any negative consequences in their life,” he said.

Some people are surprised to learn they were exposed to the coronavirus, while others have experienced symptoms, Aggersbury said. Those with symptoms are instructed to isolate for seven days.

If symptomless, she recommends a quarantine for 14 days from the last date of contact with the infected individual. Most people want to get tested right away, but they should simply stay home to help prevent spreading the disease. As we know, there’s no cure or vaccine yet.

“Right now, contact tracing is the most important tool we have,” Willis said. “We test to see who’s positive, then we isolate and quarantine.”

While Trump touts a Covid-19 vaccine before the end of the year, Willis says we shouldn’t count on one anytime soon, as it will be months before a vaccine is developed. Even then, we won’t immediately know the level of protection it will offer.

“It won’t negate the need for contact tracing,” Willis said.

In the meantime, the team continues their efforts to keep flattening the curve and move us out of lockdown. Though Aggersbury and Poretela-Para admit the job can be difficult, they say their work is rewarding. Heroes, indeed.

Go West: Goat Rock Artist Draws Home

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Go West: Goat Rock Artist Draws Home

There’s West Sonoma County, and then there’s “West West” Sonoma County. That’s where artist and musician Christopher Lods lives, out on the coast at Goat Rock; and it’s what inspires his illustrations and hand-done art that adorns the signs and the walls of businesses throughout the region.

Now, Lods is using West Sonoma County as the backdrop for his new comic strip, “West West County,” featuring a locally-inspired cast of characters engaging in fantastic adventures that touch upon several local references.

“West West County is a special place to me,” Lods says. “This is where I live and this is where I love, and people are a little bit different here. There’s a lot of good vibes going on.”

Originally from Indiana, Lods first moved to California in 1986, living in Lodi before relocating to Sonoma County 25 years ago. It was in Lodi where Lods learned the art of sign-painting from old-time artists. 

“Back in those days, everything was done by hand, even making patterns and drawing letters,” Lods says. “I learned all those old-school techniques and I still use them today.”

Bringing that skill to the North Bay, Lods’ work can be seen all over HopMonk Tavern in Sebastopol, Howard Station Cafe in Occidental and numerous other local spots.

In addition to learning old-school signage art, Lods studied under some infamous figures. For several years, Lods apprenticed under iconic illustrator Stanley Mouse, best known for his culturally significant psychedelic rock concert posters.

Lods currently apprentices under cartoonist Thomas Yeates and works alongside Yeates on the present run of the long-running comic strip “Prince Valiant,” regarded as one of the most impressive visual comics ever syndicated. With Yeates’ tutelage, Lods is learning to master skills like using quills and working with India ink, and Lods is also helping color the comic strip.

“In the comic-book industry, there’s a writer, a penciler, an inker—that’s like Thomas—and there’s a colorist and a letterer,” Lods says. “Those people work together to create the comic, and it’s still done that way. It’s been an amazing thing, and I’m really having fun doing it. That’s where ‘West West County’ comes from, learning how to do all that.”

The characters and content of Lods’ “West West County” comic came to him in a dream back in July. 

“I woke up in the middle of the night, and it was kind of all there,” he says. “I got up and laid out the first one, finally got to bed, woke up in the morning and inked it, scanned it and colored it.”

Centered around a coffee shop, the Deepwater Cafe, Lods’ comic is packed with animalistic characters with names like Surf Skunk, Smoking Sam and Fly Guy; all of whom engage in activities ranging from cycling up Joy Road to drinking astral-projected coffee to being abducted by giant Space Abalones.

“My characters are a little bit crazy, and exciting and strange things happen,” Lods says. “I don’t know where the ideas come from, it’s like an unexpected gift. It’s innocent and it’s fun, and maybe there’s a little politics in there, maybe not. You’ll have to decide for yourself on that one.”

Visit christopherlods.viewbook.com to see more of Lods’ art.

Open Mic: I Love the USPS

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Open Mic: I Love the USPS

I recently returned to California from Costa Rica. There are many wonderful aspects of Costa Rica; the people, the wildlife and the food, to name a few. One of the worst is the postal service. There is no handy mailbox in which to put your letters for delivery. You must either use a post office box or use an outside service. When using a post office box, delivery time is dicey. Letters sent to the United States can take up to two months for delivery, sometimes more.

I moved to Santa Rosa three months ago. The USPS turned out to be the most reliable method of delivery. I could set my watch on my mailman. Then, last month, I noticed a change. The mail was coming in a little late. I also noticed a change in the behavior of some of the carriers. The stress was palpable. I realized that there was a very human toll being taken by the Trump administration’s attack on the USPS.

This week, I decided to do something. I made a poster that said “I love USPS.” I went to the post office on Lombardi Court. I waited in line with my poster. When the customer in front of me turned to leave, he saw my poster and gave me a big grin. I walked up to the post office worker, and asked if I could put my poster up. He was delighted. He put the poster in the front of his window.

I encourage anyone who feels sympathetic to the USPS to express your support in whatever way you are comfortable. Next time you see a postal worker, wave at him or her or give them a thumbs up. Send a letter or call your local, state or federal representative letting them know how you feel. Go to your local post office and let them know how they are doing. Or, if you are so inclined, put up a poster expressing your feelings.

Oh, and be sure to vote against Trump and all of his cohorts in November.

Sara Madison lives in Santa Rosa.

Tiburon Police Sergeant Resigns Following Racial Profiling Claims, Protests

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Tiburon Police Sergeant Resigns Following Racial Profiling Claims, Protests

EDITOR’S NOTE, SEPT. 2: After this story went to press on Tuesday, Sept. 1, Tiburon town manager Greg Chanis announced in a newsletter that Sergeant Michael Blasi had resigned from the Tiburon Police Department, effective Sept. 1. “[Sgt. Blasi] believes it would be difficult to continue being effective as a police officer in Tiburon. Based on this belief, Sgt. Blasi offered, and the town has accepted, his voluntary resignation,” Chanis wrote in the newsletter. The story below appears as it did in the Sept. 2 print issue.

The store owners noticed the Tiburon police cruiser slow down as it passed their brightly lit Main Street shop a few times at about 1am on Friday, Aug. 21. When the cop parked across the street and sat in his car eyeing the store, they saw that, too.

It wasn’t unusual for owners Yema Khalif and Hawi Awash to work late at night. On this particular evening, they brought a friend to help restock inventory at Yema, a downtown Tiburon retail shop carrying colorful clothing with bold prints.

Meanwhile, the police cruiser stayed parked within view for about 15 minutes. Khalif expected the officer would eventually come to the door, though he didn’t call the police, nor did a store alarm go off.

“We were minding our business,” Khalif said. “He was intimidating us. ‘Working while Black.’”

Khalif and his wife Awash are the only Black store owners in Tiburon and are among the few Black residents in the town. The friend who was with them that night is also Black. The wealthy enclave of Tiburon is 88 percent white.

What happened next is well-documented. A police body camera caught the confrontation from outside the store, and Khalif’s friend recorded a portion from inside.

Khalif opened the door to Tiburon officer Isaac Madfes, who started off friendly enough by saying he’d never seen them open that late.  

“Just doing our thing,” Khalif replied.

The response didn’t satisfy Madfes. Khalif requested a supervisor and Madfes informed him he was already on the way. While they waited, Madfes questioned Khalif, even as the store owner maintained he didn’t need to provide his name, home address or an explanation of his presence in the store.

The situation escalated when Tiburon Sergeant Michael Blasi and an unidentified Belvedere police officer arrived. The Belvedere cop kept his hand on his gun and Blasi raised his voice for about five minutes.

“You came, three of you guys,” Khalif said. “There are three Black people in the store. What’s the problem?”

Blasi denied the disproportionate police presence was about race and continued grilling Khalif about whether he was the store owner.

Khalif relented and said he owned the store. Blasi then raised the stakes by asking him to identify himself and prove he was the owner.

After more back and forth, a voice is heard from across the street:

“That’s his store.”

“What’s that?” Blasi asks.

“That’s his store,” the voice repeated.

“That’s all I needed to know,” Blasi said. “Thank you. See ya.” He turned on his heels and left.

With that, the almost 11-minute combative interrogation concluded. Now, the important questions begin.

Why was Blasi satisfied only when a white neighbor vouched for the Black store owners? His earlier denial that the encounter had nothing to do with race rings hollow.

After watching both videos, you might wonder if these three cops are the least observant in the county. Khalif and Awash are wearing the distinctive clothing they sell in their store. The officers didn’t seem to see large posters of the couple modeling their clothes, though they are displayed prominently on the walls of the store and completely visible through the windows. They are even visible in the video.

Khalif claims the officers missed something else that night: white folks working at the restaurant across the street.

Blasi’s judgment has been questioned before. During his stint at the Marin County Sheriff’s Department, he was involved in a 2003 Novato incident during which a suspect, whose arms and legs were hog-tied by deputies, lost consciousness and died at the hospital two days later after being removed from life support, according to press reports from 2006. The suspect’s crime? Public intoxication. Although Blasi and other deputies were cleared of wrongdoing, the County paid a $1 million settlement to the suspect’s family.

During a Tiburon and Belvedere online town hall meeting on Thursday, Aug. 27, to address the incident, many attendees said they believed that Khalif and Awash had been racially profiled. Several dissented, arguing that Khalif should have provided proof of his identity.    

Does the public viewpoint truly matter? Can the 88 percent understand what it feels like to be among the few Black people in Tiburon? Let’s examine the situation through Khalif’s eyes.

“The store was well-lit,” Khalif said. “Driving around four times is intimidation. Calling for back-up clearly shows there was racial profiling.”

Why didn’t Khalif answer the cops’ questions?

“I wasn’t happy with that line of questioning,” Khalif said. “I don’t have to explain anything. There is no crime going on.”

Then there are his past experiences, specifically with Tiburon and Belvedere police. The Belvedere officer involved in the incident had stopped him previously and seen his identification. In fact, Khalif and his wife had been stopped several times in Tiburon for no reason at all. How often does that happen to a law-abiding White person?

“They don’t have to give me that kind of heat. I was done,” he said.

Well, he’s not done quite yet, because the brouhaha continues. Tiburon Mayor Alice Fredericks issued an apology. The official word from the Tiburon police department is that an outside, independent attorney has been hired to investigate the incident and appropriate action will be taken based on the findings. The three cops will reportedly remain on duty until then.

A well-attended rally took place at the Tiburon Police Department on Saturday, Aug. 29. to condemn the actions of the police. People from around Marin participated.  

“I’m here to battle racism, particularly in Tiburon,” said rally-goer Tenisha Tate-Austin. “I grew up in Marin City and I’m hesitant to come here. I’m afraid I won’t be treated fairly.”

Speaker Holli Thier, Tiburon vice mayor, admitted the town has a problem. “How can we change?” she asked.

San Rafael Black businessman Bishlam Bullock, another speaker, had the answer. “Policy changes in your police department,” he said. “This is your town. You are responsible for the policy changes so we can come to your town and be safe.”

Khalif and Awash told the crowd they feel traumatized by the incident. For Khalif, it conjures up thoughts of George Floyd and other Black men killed by police. Awash can’t forget the cop with his hand on his gun.

“I’m a Black man,” Khalif said. “I can’t change that. I’m proud to be a Black man. I don’t want my dignity and respect questioned every time I move around.”

We’ve watched this scenario play out to different degrees around the country, although we like to think that in affluent, well-educated Marin we’re enlightened. Clearly not. Not yet, anyway.

Still, Khalif and Awash remain hopeful for the future. Khalif asks people to stand up the next time they see someone in Tiburon being harassed. In the meantime, he wants to engage in constructive dialogue.

“We will make a difference in Tiburon,” says Awash. “The community has roared. Racism is a disease. What do we do when we have a disease? We find a cure.”

Riding the Storm: Fairfax Artist Crafts Music at Home

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North Bay multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Daniel McKenzie has been making his own brand of musical mechanisms for 20 years. 

His long-running musical tenure began in post-rock band The Rum Diary, locally known as the “Cotati Sound Machine,” with bandmates Schuyler Feekes, Jon Fee and Joe Ryckebosch. These days, McKenzie stays busy with his two-person project Built For the Sea, collaborating with vocalist and songwriting partner Lia Rose. 

“In the last six years I’ve been working heavily on that project,” McKenzie says. “The band got signed to a label, we started getting publishing contracts with movies and television, so I stuck with that. Then in between, I would write, and of course I have 40 different songs on my computer that are totally unfinished.”

When he’s not working on Built For the Sea, McKenzie’s writing is directed towards his solo project Identical Homes, which has largely been on a backburner since 2014’s release A. Hydrophilia.

Now living in Fairfax, McKenzie is using the free time from the ongoing shelter-in-place to return to his solo output. Earlier this month, Identical Homes unveiled its first record in six years, Language Lessons.

“I work half from home anyways, and now that I’ve bought a house and have my own studio in the house, I didn’t really want to leave that much anyways,” he says. “I think it’s been good to set aside personal time to work on music, and I know my friends are in that zone too; they’ve been very active with music.”

The new seven-track instrumental album is a collage of darkly ambient electronic beats mixed with post-rock rhythms provided by live instruments that coalesce into shoegaze soundscapes that emotionally reflect the stormy days we are living in without the need for lyrics.

“I think the biggest freedom is of course doing anything I want,” McKenzie says. “I try to put no limits on it, the only criteria is that I listen to it and am engaged.”

Written, performed and mixed by McKenzie in his home studio, dubbed The Black Lodge, Language Lessons is quite a collaborative effort for a solo album. The record features McKenzie’s musical friends Jake Krohn, Demetrius Antuna, Eric Kuhn, Jon Fee, Cory Grey and Matthew Solberg pitching in on drums, guitar, organ or bass, and adding to the electronic foundations that McKenzie creates on the computer.

“A lot of the songs were headed one direction, and then when I asked my friends to collaborate, the songs totally took another direction,” McKenzie says. “I think that might be the case for every song on here, and that’s a nice surprise for me because it makes the album more listenable to me when I return to it. It takes turns I would not have expected.”

Still, McKenzie notes that he’s the final judge of the music. To that effect, the seven tracks on Language Lessons average over six minutes each, and McKenzie embraces the extended space and time that the songs take up. “In every band I’ve ever been in, everybody says, ‘that intro is too long, you’ve got to cut that part down,’” McKenzie says. “So that is just me being able to express how I want to make music.”

‘Language Lessons’ is available as a digital album at Identicalhomes.bandcamp.com.

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Located in the heart of Calistoga, Sofie Contemporary Arts is one of Napa Valley’s premier purveyors of inventive modern art that is diverse in media, styles and approaches. The gallery is run by director Jan Sofie and manager Scott Sofie. Since opening the gallery in 2017, the couple have endured fires, mass evacuations and, more recently, a Covid-19 pandemic that...
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A Recitation for the River

When it comes to quarantine hobbies, binging Netflix and day-drinking on Zoom top the list. Writer-performer David Templeton had something different in mind—he committed the entirety of the seventh chapter of Kenneth Grahame’s seminal work, The Wind and the Willows, to memory. Now that it's—literally—in his mind, he’s bringing it out, word-for-word in an online recitation this Saturday to...
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A Farm and a Dispensary Bloom in Sonoma

Mike Benziger has grown many things in his life, but not this.  “We’re not growing placebos,” Benziger tells me at Glentucky Family Farm, where his pot patch looks and feels more like a jungle than a garden. It’s challenging to move around plants that press in from two sides and tower overhead. Before he began growing weed, he grew grapes, made...
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San Rafael Nonprofit Rebrands

In an attempt to reflect its ongoing growth, a 65-year-old San Rafael nonprofit announced last week that it has changed its name to Vivalon. Vivalon, formerly known as Whistlestop, offers resources to older adults and people living with disabilities. The nonprofit announced the name change on Sept. 1 after a two-year planning process. “We are growing our service offerings, expanding geographically and...
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The process to rename Sir Francis Drake High School officially began in July at a school board meeting. Drake Principal Liz Seabury laid out the steps to legally change the school’s name, which included empaneling a site council of teachers, students and parents, advising the public about the high cost, making a list of potential new names and giving...
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Marin County’s Contact Tracers Help Fight Coronavirus

The intriguing detective work of Covid-19 contact tracers contributed to the dramatic reduction of new virus cases in Marin from July, our worst month of the pandemic, to August, where we saw a flattening of the curve. Contact tracers, public health professionals who follow the trail of Covid-19 from an infected person to their close contacts, will be just as...
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There’s West Sonoma County, and then there’s “West West” Sonoma County. That’s where artist and musician Christopher Lods lives, out on the coast at Goat Rock; and it’s what inspires his illustrations and hand-done art that adorns the signs and the walls of businesses throughout the region. Now, Lods is using West Sonoma County as the backdrop for his new...
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Open Mic: I Love the USPS

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I recently returned to California from Costa Rica. There are many wonderful aspects of Costa Rica; the people, the wildlife and the food, to name a few. One of the worst is the postal service. There is no handy mailbox in which to put your letters for delivery. You must either use a post office box or use an...
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Tiburon Police Sergeant Resigns Following Racial Profiling Claims, Protests

EDITOR'S NOTE, SEPT. 2: After this story went to press on Tuesday, Sept. 1, Tiburon town manager Greg Chanis announced in a newsletter that Sergeant Michael Blasi had resigned from the Tiburon Police Department, effective Sept. 1. " believes it would be difficult to continue being effective as a police officer in Tiburon. Based on this belief, Sgt. Blasi...
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Riding the Storm: Fairfax Artist Crafts Music at Home

North Bay multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Daniel McKenzie has been making his own brand of musical mechanisms for 20 years.  His long-running musical tenure began in post-rock band The Rum Diary, locally known as the “Cotati Sound Machine,” with bandmates Schuyler Feekes, Jon Fee and Joe Ryckebosch. These days, McKenzie stays busy with his two-person project Built For the Sea, collaborating...
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