In recent months, nonprofit presses in Berkeley have released new books that highlight diverse Bay Area neighborhoods and unexpected ways communities come together.

In September, Heyday Books, publishers of books about California history, arts, and culture, released “Under the Dragon - California’s New Culture.” The book is also the subject of a new Oakland Museum exhibit called “Trading Traditions” beginning in January 2008. Written by locals Lonny Shavelson and Fred Setterberg, Under the Dragon follows the lives of a diversity of Bay Area communities while capturing the poignancy of individual struggle in a way that goes beyond the personal. The stories are raw and authentic, and the photographs are stunning.

Another nonprofit Berkeley-based publisher, New Village Press, is celebrating revered community activists at a launch party on December 9, 2007 for “Building Commons and Community” by the late Karl Linn and “Undoing the Silence: Six Tools for Social Change Writing” by Louise Dunlap. The event will be held from 3:00 to 6:00 pm at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (BFUU) Hall at Cedar and Bonita Streets, and is co-sponsored by the BFUU Social Justice Committee and the NorCal Chapter of Architects/ Designers/ Planners for Social Responsibility. Speakers will include Louise Dunlap and Karl Linn’s longtime friend and colleague, Carl Anthony.

For over 40 years, Linn devoted himself to bringing people together in the spirit of reclaiming what he called “neighborhood commons,” creating urban oases, combined park-playground projects from vacant and blighted plots of land.

Linn, who grew up on a farm in Germany before his family was forced to flee Nazi persecution, worked as a child therapist and later established a distinguished landscape architecture practice in New York. By the late 1950s, he had decided to devote his career to social justice, teaching, and creating these neighborhood commons.

In the late 1980s, when Linn retired to Berkeley, he helped found the Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility and the Urban Habitat Program at Earth Island Institute. In 1993, Linn’s wife Nicole Milner, environmental justice activist Carl Anthony, and others banded together to convince Berkeley officials to name a city-owned community garden after Linn.

Soon thereafter, Linn teamed up with a UC Berkeley professor, her students, local craftspeople, and neighbors to rejuvenate the dilapidated garden, located in Berkeley’s Westbrae neighborhood. The Karl Linn Community Garden’s transformation inspired the creation of the nearby Peralta and Northside community gardens, the demonstration home known as the Berkeley EcoHouse, and a natural and human history project along the adjacent Ohlone greenway.

A Web site on Linn’s life and work can be found at www.karllinn.org.

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In October, the New York Times published an op-ed article called “The Green-Collar Solution” by journalist Thomas L. Friedman. The piece is about Van Jones’ crusade to bring economic opportunities to disadvantaged communities through job training in emerging and expanding environmental businesses.

Jones, a social justice leader in the Bay Area, has also become a prominent national advocate and voice for underserved and low-income communities that have not had opportunities to participate in the growing green economy. He serves on several advisory boards for environmental groups as well as the new Tipping Point Community, an anti-poverty philanthropic organization founded in 2005 in San Francisco.

With other environmental leaders, Jones recently created a national partnership called “Green For All“ to bring “green collar” jobs to urban areas across the country.

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On June 23, 2007, the Foundation for Self Reliance presented a symposium called “East Meets West: Awakening to the Challenges of Afghans in Fremont” that turned into a monumental event. Over two hundred guests gathered at The Golden Peacock restaurant in Fremont to hear panels in both Farsi and English including a keynote by Dr. Mo Qayoumi, a speech by Rona Popal of the Afghan Coalition and Afghan Women’s Association International, and presentations by Dr. Ronald Takaki on “Multiculturalism in America,” Dr. Hatem Bazian on “Islam in America,” Professor Ghafar Safa on “Violence and Reform in Afghanistan,” Tamim Ansari on “Biculturality: Understanding The Other’” and Fremont Councilmember Anu Natarajan on “Diversity and Public Policy.” Fremont is home to the largest community of Afghan immigrants in the U.S.

The Foundation for Self-Reliance and their community partners, the Afghan Coalition, are already planning a sequel event at the Golden Peacock on Saturday, January 19, 2008.

Press Coverage:

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On May 22, 2007 Van Jones, President and Founder of the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center, testified in Washington D.C. at a special hearing called, “Economic Impacts of Global Warming: Green Collar Jobs.” He was there to push Congress to make “clean energy jobs” and “green-collar job training” for urban youth and low income communities a top priority.

He reported back on his trip to Washington in the Ella Baker Center blog, Grist Magazine, and the Huffington Post.

Jones defines a “green collar” job as a “vocational job in an ecologically responsible trade.” With the increasing demand for alternative energy sources such as solar panels, waste reduction, materials re-use and recycling, and sustainable agriculture, skills in these trades will give unprecedented opportunities to low income communities - if training programs are designed and delivered effectively.

At the hearing, Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis (CA-32), a Member of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and the House Energy and Commerce Committee, delivered a statement called, “Green Jobs Will Create Pathways Out of Poverty.” Congresswoman Solis is currently building support for federal funding of “green collar job training” programs, which would help give low income communities access to the skills they will need to compete in the new green economy.

According to Jones, The Ella Baker Center initially introduced the concept of green collar job training as a pathway out of poverty to Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this year, which led to the beginnings of legislative language by Congresswoman Solis. The Center is expecting the proposal to be a part of the historic U.S. energy package, to be introduced on July Fourth (”Energy Independence Day“).

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