De Anza art exhibit takes on justice issues
A new exhibition at De Anza College’s Euphrat Museum of Art tackles the topic of social justice — or the lack thereof — with a variety of thought-provoking pieces.
It’s called “Justice For All?,” and it’s centerpiece is “Liberty Weeps,” a compelling cardboard sculpture by Joseph DeLappe with Charlie Becker that depicts the Statue of Liberty crying with her face in her hands. It perfectly captures the tone of the show, which is on display through March 23. It’s far from the only powerful piece, with others taking on the injustice of Executive Order 9066, which led to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, limits on freedom of speech and police brutality.
Several of the culturally diverse group of artists — including Rodney Ewing, Judy Shintani, Emiko Omori, Yolanda Guerra, David Izu and Taro Hattori — were at an opening reception held Wednesday night, which also featured a reading by Santa Clara County poet laureate Arlene Biala.
“Right now, the issues of inclusion or exclusion, the issues of social justice are really at the forefront of our consciousness,” said Christina Espinosa-Pieb, De Anza College’s vice president of instruction, noting that the theme was picked before the election. “The timing could not have been better, and I think it makes it even more powerful.”
For the ninth year, the exhibition is being held in conjunction with Silicon Valley Reads, which has a similar theme this year in “…and justice for all.” The community reading program centers on two books that explore that theme: “Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice” by Adam Benforado and “Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death and Redemption in an American Prison,” a memoir by Shaka Senghor.
If you haven’t read one or both of them yet, you’ve got some time. A month’s worth of programming — author appearances, poetry readings, panel discussions and more — begins with a kick-off event Thursday at the Visual and Performing Arts Center at De Anza College (that’s a change from the Campbell Heritage Theater, which has been the kickoff venue for several years). I’ll be talking to Benforado on stage beginning at 7:30 p.m. It’s a free event, and I just learned Friday that De Anza College also has arranged for free parking that evening for attendees.
Get more information on Silicon Valley Reads programs — including the “Justice For All?” exhibition — at www.siliconvalleyreads.org. GOING FOR THE GOLD: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was thrilled to be honored with the David Packard Award for Civic Entrepreneurship at Joint Network Silicon Valley’s annual State of the Valley conference Friday afternoon. “I’m never taking this off,” Hastings said of the award medal hanging around his neck. “I was never much of an athlete, so it’s like my first gold medal ever. And what an honor for it to be the
David Packard award.” Hastings received the award not for the successful DVD and streaming business he founded in Los Gatos but for his work with education, especially the charter school movement. Packard and
Bill Hewlett, he said, were inspirations in terms of how successful people can be engaged in civics. A QUESTION OF MURDER: When I think about tragic South Bay events in 1933, the Brooke Hart kidnapping and subsequent lynching and hanging of the suspects immediately come to mind. But there was another killing that year that generated a great deal of controversy. On Wednesday, author Tom
Zaniello will have a discussion and book signing in San Jose for his new book, “California’s Lamson Murder Mystery: The Depression Era Case That Divided Santa Clara County.” At its center is David Lamson, a Stanford executive who found his wife, Allene, dead in their Palo Alto home on Memorial Day 1933. After a judge sentenced him to hang at San Quentin prison, a team of Stanford colleagues stepped in to form a defense committee — a group that included poets Yvor Winters and
Janet Lewis, as well as Berkeley criminologist E.O. Heinrich. The group managed to overturn the verdict and bring on a series of heated retrials.
The event takes place at the historic Fallon House at 175 W. St. John St. in San Jose. Tickets are $5 at the door and free for History San Jose members. To RSVP, call 408-918-1049 or email levens@ historysanjose.org.
MUNI MEMORIES: The San Jose Giants just hit a social media milestone with 10,000 Instagram followers, which prompted the minor league baseball team to ask fans to share photos of their favorite memories at Municipal Stadium on their favorite social media platforms using the hashtag #OurGiants.
The memories will be posted on the stadium’s video board all season, and two posters will have the chance to take part in the team’s Opening Day Diamond Season Celebration, marking the team’s 30-year affliation with the San Francisco Giants and 75 years of baseball at Muni. THE NAME’S BELL,
GOLDEN BELL: Bellarmine College Prep has come a long way since it launched the Golden Bell Dinner Dance back in 1953 in the old school gym, paying a then-princely sum of $50 a couple. The event transformed into the Golden Bell Auction in 1977, and it’s been a huge financial aid fundraiser for the San Jose Jesuit boys school ever since, bringing in a record $1.1 million in 2007.
Brian Christensen, Bellarmine’s director of annual giving, says tickets are going fast for this year’s March 11 auction, the James Bond-themed “License to Bid.” While I’m thrilled with the theme as a 007 fan myself, I have to wonder if it’s not a little easy. After all, the guys are all going to be in tuxedos for the black-tie affair anyway. We’ll see if anyone shows up in an Aston Martin, or if they’ll just stick to Teslas.
Get more information at www. bcp.org/golden-bell. PARTING THOUGHT: As a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, Brian
Adams keeps his finger on the pulse of the movie biz, and every year imparts his thoughts on the upcoming Oscars race to the Rotary Club of San Jose. With nine movies vying for best picture, he gave his audience a fun way to remember them all.
“I was thinking, if you put all those titles together, you come up with: ‘I promised, come Hell or High Water, that I would jump the Fences near Manchester by the Sea and climb Hacksaw Ridge in Moonlight in order to see the Arrival of the Hidden Figures who made their way from La La Land. Really, I’m not Lion.’ ”