Latest Events - Today in Montclair, 94611

[Feb 11] Screen "Race To Nowhere"

2010-02-08T03:06:55.144Z

Come to an exclusive, pre-release screening of Race To Nowhere this Thursday evening. This documentary looks at the dark side of America’s achievement culture, and its impact on our children. Director Vicki Abeles, will lead a discussion following the film.

Since its recent debut at the Mill Valley Film Festival, the film has ignited a national conversation about the pressures American kids and their teachers face today. It's destined to become a “must-see” for every parent, educator and policy maker.

** Check out this YouTube trailer - click here **

Through poignant, real life stories of stressed students, concerned parents, and exhausted educators, Race To Nowhere unveils the overwhelming demands that plague our educational system with crushing, widespread consequences. Cheating has become commonplace, stress-related illnesses are rampant, depression and teenage suicide are on the rise, and students arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.

Race To Nowhere is national message with many local examples. Director Vicki Abeles is a mother and film producer from Lafayette., and she features many East Bay schools as well as commentary from prominent experts such as Dr. Madeline Levine, the author of the best selling book, “The Price of Privilege,” and Dr. Deborah Stipek, Dean of Education at Stanford University.

Corpus Christi School is pleased to sponsor this screening in conjunction with Reel Link Films for our neighbors and community. Due to sensitive content, this film is not recommended for children.

Details, details...
-- Screening takes place Thursday, starting at 6:45pm
-- Come early because a crowd's expected!
-- Tickets are $10 at the door or in advance from the Grand Lake Theater.
-- If you have any questions, please contact Chris Trevino at Trevino@sbcglobal.net

[Feb 13] Chabot Observatory: Three Special Activities

2010-02-07T18:13:10.128Z

Normally Chabot Space & Science is the place to go when you have kids and visitors. This coming Saturday, there are three special activities that are worth a special visit:

(1) Chinese New Year - Ring in the "Year of the Tiger" with crafts and hands-on traditional Chinese activities. (Free with regular admission, 10am - 6pm.)

(2) Kids Go Green - Try hands-on environmentally related demonstrations and activities. Fill out an exploration passport and earn a small prize. (Free with regular admission, 10am - 4pm.)

(3) Valentine's Day Love Missions - Celebrate with your Valentine on a simulated space mission to the Red Planet. This package includes an all access pass to the Center, chocolates, fizzy Martian beverage, and a souvenir of your trip. (Costs $85/couple, 1:30pm and 3:30pm, reserve by calling 510-336-7311.)

[Feb 13] Screen "Inside Buffalo" About Segregated WWII Unit

2010-02-07T10:30:47.118Z

In celebration of Black History Month, the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco and African American Museum & Library at Oakland (AAMLO) present a FREE screening of the documentary Inside Buffalo, this Sunday at 1pm.

About the documentary:

Inside Buffalo's a documentary that tells the story of the 92nd Buffalo Division, an African American segregated combat unit called the "Buffalo Soldiers" that fought with outstanding heroism in Italy in WWII.

The documentary is divided into three different times: before WW II, during WW II, after WWII until contemporary days.

Director Fred Kuwornu, an Italian filmmaker of African heritage, searches out little-known aspects of the story, including details of the friendships forged between African American soldiers and the partisan fighters and villagers they liberated from fascist rule.

After 65 years since the end of the WW II, the filmmaker Fred Kuwornu has tried to ask if Italian people remember the sacrifices of many black soldiers for their liberty.

More info: Please call (510) 637-0200 or link to the African American Museum & Library website here.

[Feb 14] Learn To Fly Fish!

2009-06-06T05:57:33.397Z

Did you ever want to learn to fly fish? I think it looks very elegant and all, having seen A River Runs Through It several times.

Now here's your opportunity, right at Tilden Park's Lake Anza. See how it all works through their Intro to Fly Fishing course. This exciting and informative day is geared toward the beginning angler.

First, you'll spend three hours at Lake Anza practicing casting with a certified fly-casting instructor. Then enjoy two 1/2 hours of classroom instruction where you will be introduced to knots, fly selection, reading the water, and more.

Details, details...

You must be age 18 or older, and pay $60/resident and $66/non-residents of Alameda County. But that's a decent deal, considering all the all-day class.

Reservations are required, so please call the East Bay Regional Parks Office at: 1-888-EBPARKS (1-888-327-2757), and mention course #23144.

[Feb 14] East Bay Park Stroll: Sibley Love's In The Air

2009-12-14T10:09:17.579Z

East Bay Regional Parks has kicked off their 2010 Sunday Stroll series, by featuring our very own Sibley Preserve this weekend, at 10am.

In honor of Valentine's Day, you will be searching for love. On this hike we will search for amorous salamanders, weave our way through mazes, and enjoy scenic views of Mt. Diablo. Yes, love is in the air and in the ponds at Sibley!

The stroll details:

Stop by the Skyline Blvd. entrance to meet up with the group and East Bay Parks guide. You'll take a moderate 2.6 mile walk, which should be a nice introduction (or re-introduction) to our backyard volcanic park.

Also please check the weather beforehand. We suggest bringing an extra layer, since you will be exposed on the ridgelines. The place is fascinating and worth strolling, even if there's a little blustery wind there.

This program's free, and no registration is required. If you have questions, then please call (510) 544-3187.

[Feb 14] Valentine's High Tea For Kids, At Berkeley Botanical Garden

2010-02-08T01:57:57.141Z

Celebrate Valentine's Day at the Berkeley Botanical Garden, next Sunday at 2pm. Come and enjoy a special tea party celebration that's perfect for adults and children of all ages.

You'll be able to taste herbs and flowers in this hands-on experience. Make your own fresh teas, assemble herb finger sandwiches, taste lavender cookies and create Valentines from pressed botanicals.

This "high tea" isn't free, though tickets are reasonably priced at $20/pair (one adult and one child) and $12/additional person. Please register beforehand, by contacting the Garden at (510) 643-2755 or garden@berkeley.edu.

Directions: North on College, 0.6 mi -- Right at Dwight Way, 0.2 mi -- Left at Prospect St, 0.2 mi -- Second right onto Bancroft Way , 115 ft -- Left at Panoramic Way, 148 ft -- Continue onto Stadium Rim Way, 0.1 mi -- Right at Centennial Dr

[Feb 14] Farm Love on Valentine's Day

2010-02-07T18:29:05.131Z

To celebrate Valentine's Day, the Tilden folks are hosting a special "Farm Love" session. Come up to the Tilden's Little Farm this Sunday afternoon, at 3:30pm.

You and your kids will learn who's is in love, and how they show it. The little farm is actually full of gossip and stories to tell.

Since this is a drop-in program, no registration is required. If you need more info, then please call (510) 544-2233.

[Feb 14] Tenderness: a KPFA Valentine Evening

2010-01-26T04:38:40.000Z

For Immediate Release 14 January 2010

KPFA Radio with Poetry Flash
presents

Tenderness: a KPFA Valentine Evening with two profoundly beautiful films by Haydn Reiss (featuring poets William Stafford, Robert Bly, Maxine Hong Kingston, Alice Walker, Naomi Shihab Nye, Coleman Barks, W.S. Merwin, Michael Meade and Kim Stafford). Plus worthy nibbles.

$10 advance tickets at Mrs. Dalloway’s Books, Pegasus, Pendragon
or www.brownpapertickets.com/96709 :: 800-838-3006 ($12 door, $6 HC members)
Information: www.kpfa.org KPFA benefit

Filmmaker Haydn Reiss (Rumi: Poet of the Heart) will be on hand to present the East Bay Premiere of “Every War Has Two Losers” – A Poet’s Meditation on Peace, based on the Journals of National Book Award Winner William Stafford, voiced by Peter Coyote, with narration by Linda Hunt, and music by John Gorka (www.everywar.com). Poet Maxine Hong Kingston will also be on hand.
&
“William Stafford & Robert Bly: A Literary Friendship”
This extraordinary hour-long film documents the intimate friendship between two of America’s greatest poets, both National Book Award winners and peace activists - William Stafford and Robert Bly. Before his death in 1993 Stafford, a uniquely eloquent conscientious objector during WW 11, published 65 books of poetry and prose, and won the Western States Lifetime Achievement Award. Robert Bly has already given us thirty books of his poems, prose and translations from many languages. The author of Iron John, co-founder of American Writers Against the Vietnam War, leader of the Mythopoetic Men’s Movement, and a popular teacher at the annual Great Mother Conferences, Bly has long
provided a desperately needed spiritual depth to contemporary American poetry.

In documenting the creative friendship of Bly and Stafford, and then following it with this new film on younger writers’ responses to Stafford, Haydn Reiss has crafted two visionary testaments to the sacred power of peace. KPFA Radio was founded 60 years specifically to promote peace.

[Feb 18] Eve Ensler: I am an Emotional Creature

2010-01-26T04:35:22.996Z

KPFA Radio 94.1FM presents

EVE ENSLER
I Am An Emotional Creature:
The Secret Life of Girls Around the World

$12 advance tickets at Pegasus Books, Pendragon, Mrs. Dalloway’s, Moe’s, Walden Pond, DIESEL, A Bookstore, and Modern Times
or www.brownpapertickets.com/event/97262 :: 800-838-3006 ($15 door)
Information: www.kpfa.org/events KPFA benefit

Eve Ensler, bestselling author of The Vagina Monologues, has won an Obie Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Amnesty International Media Spotlight Award and numerous other major recognitions for her artistic and anti-violence work. Celebrities who have performed in The Vagina Monologues include Whoopi Goldberg, Glenn Close, Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon and Oprah. Her 2006 play The Treatment, dealing with the trauma resulting from participation in military conflict, starred her adoptive son Dylan McDermott. Her book Insecure At Last: Losing It In Our Security-Obsessed World, emerged in 2006.

I Am An Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World is a daring and brilliantly provocative celebration of the authentic voice inside every girl, and an inspiring call to action for girls everywhere to speak up, follow their dreams, and become the women they were meant to be.

“Like a woman claiming her body, a girl claiming her emotions breaks a silence and unleashes a vast resource of clean energy, an energy that can inspire all of us to transform and heal the world.” — Carol Gilligan

“Women have entrusted Eve with their most intimate experiences, from sex to birthing… I think readers, men as well as women, will emerge from these pages feeling more free within themselves- and about each other.” — Gloria Steinem

“In the current era, it takes some brain racking to think of anyone else doing anything quite like Ensler. She a counter-cultural consciousness-raiser, an empowering figure, a truth-teller” — Chicago Tribune

“Nobody brings sharp, witty, knowing voice to the plight of women in our country and around the world like Ensler.” — Marie Claire

[Mar 14] Summer Camps and Programs Fair

2010-01-27T04:48:36.018Z

Get the 411 on summer camps and programs at the 28th Annual Summer Camps and Programs Fair. From robotics to Shakespeare to water-ski camp, meet reps from over 100 day and sleep-away programs. There are camps and programs for kids from preschool to high school, including special needs. This free event will be held Sunday, March 14, 2010 from 1 - 4:30 pm at the Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Drive, Oakland. For more information, visit aauw-op.com