Community newsletter: The big September events email

So much happening in September (and also October, some of which is previewed here). If you like environmental justice or mysteries or caregiving or closing the camps or archival art projects or public transit or finding a job or birdtanical drawing or groundbreaking critiques of Silicon Valley or African diasporic literary arts or voting or resisting environmental amnesia or zine launches or Howard Zinn or a play-based workshop for kids or OUR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY PARTY...

We may just have something in the hopper for you. Full event descriptions below.

But wait, there's more: we've got new Local Economy totes in! You get one if you sign up to be a member, which is how we pay for all the stuff we do.

And just a reminder: anyone can stop by and hang out 11am-4pm, Tuesday to Friday. The beautiful space awaits. (Just remember that coffee closes at 2pm to avoid disappointment.)

Sarah & Alexis

P.S. You're getting this email because you once signed up for news from Local Economy. We're trying to send these out a little more regularly to deliver on that promise.

The Rest of the Week at Local Economy

• Thurs, Sep 3, 6pm: Sundial Reading Series 3: West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project edition
  Poet Ben Gucciardi hosts the third edition of his reading series at Local Economy, a benefit for the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, which has been the leading environmental justice organization in that part of the city for the last twenty years. Reading this time around: poet Mukethe Kawinzi, novelist Vanessa Hua, and our own Alexis Madrigal. Writer Lauren Markham moderates the discussion, and WOEIP executive director Veronica Eady will be in the house too.
• Sat, Sep 5, 1pm: Oakland Noticing Club: Mysteries
  Turn on your curiosity radar for the latest meeting of the Oakland Noticing Club, an informal meet-up inspired by Rob Walker’s “Savor of the Month” at The Art of Noticing. This month’s theme is Mysteries — things that make you wonder why they are the way they are, that make you want to dig up a history or invent a story. Why is that chair on the street? Why is that building still there? Who wrote that note on the sidewalk, and for whom? Bring what you notice and share it however you like. There are no wrong answers.

And the Rest of Our September Events

• Tues, Sep 8, 10am: Storytime for Caregivers with Amanda Montei
  This month’s Storytime for Caregivers welcomes Amanda Montei, author of Touched Out: Motherhood, Misogyny, Consent, and Control, a blend of memoir and cultural criticism that the LA Review of Books credits with revealing “the web of outrageous expectations, contradictions, and impossibility” of American motherhood today. Hosted by member Patricia Zaballos. Babies welcome but not required. One hour, free, and stay after for IRL connection.
• Tues, Sep 8, 6pm: Dishes Washed and Uncles Chosen: A photo essay
  Justin Limoges, curator of the Idora, Idora exhibition about Oakland’s early twentieth-century amusement park, shares a collection of snapshots of people washing dishes, taken over the last hundred years. What patterns and variations can be gleaned from looking closely at these enigmatic images, fished out of the pre-digital river of detritus and lost loves? And how might this vernacular archive connect to questions of family — by blood or chosen — art history, and the performance of gender? A talk with slides, and discussion after.
• Thurs, Sep 10, 6pm: How to Close a Camp
  In How to Close a Camp, journalist and translator John Washington makes a galvanizing, clear-eyed case for why immigrant detention camps must close — and how to do it. Despite decades of growth in immigrant detention, communities have been fighting back and winning, and Washington distills strategies from the campaigns that shut camps down or blocked new ones, drawing on conversations with veteran organizers. He’ll be joined by Lauren Markham, author of The Far Away Brothers, A Map of Future Ruins, and Immemorial; and by Julia Neusner, a lawyer and researcher on migration and human rights who founded the nonprofit Human Security Initiative.
• Fri, Sep 11, 5:30pm: Job Seeker Social for the Career Curious: BINGO! (Gaming the Job Part 1)
  Job searching is a strange kind of work: there’s always something you could be doing, it’s rarely obvious what comes next, and small tasks are easy to put off alone. So this second Job Seeker Social turns the process into a challenge. Everyone gets a Job Search Bingo card of concrete, achievable moves — update part of your resume, reach out to a contact, research a company, practice an interview answer, ask for feedback. It’s informal coworking and mutual support: pick your squares, bring what you’ve been meaning to do, and get a few things done alongside other people figuring it out too. Then take the card home and keep playing.
• Sat, Sep 12, 5pm: The Mobile Museum of Mary Roach
  Mary Roach is one of the most beloved science writers in the world, a genius at finding the tantalizingly weird odds and ends of our world — Stiff, on the afterlives of human cadavers; Bonk, on the laboratory practice of sex research; and her most recent, Replaceable You, on the body parts that can be swapped out. They’re all delightful, informative, and hilariously specific. She tells us she has “ten or so odd (and probably mysterious to others) items” collected on reporting trips over the years — a little museum of Mary Roach, which she’s bringing to Local Economy for a show-and-tell. It’s gonna be so good. (Sold out, but there’s a waitlist.)
• Mon, Sep 14, 6pm: Botanical Drawing
  Our regular drawing event, led by Hannah Hirsekorn, an artist working in ink on paper and skin. She runs Oology Tattoo and specializes in flora and fauna; for her, drawing the more-than-human world is a practice of deep looking and a form of environmental conservation. Bring your own art supplies. Hannah will bring items to draw and offer some low-key instruction. Chill, meditative, participatory.
• Tues, Sep 15, 6pm: The Earth Said Remember Me, a guide to resisting environmental amnesia
  For years, climate scientists and activists wondered what new emergency might finally shock the world into action. None has. We are masterful at getting used to one new normal after another — scientists call it “shifting baseline syndrome,” and warn it is why we are sleepwalking toward disaster. In his new book, environmental activist and longtime Sierra editor-in-chief Jason Mark offers an antidote: four simple rules for resisting environmental amnesia. Go outside. Bear witness. Make a record. Pass it on. He’ll be joined in conversation by Melinda Kramer, co-founder of Women’s Earth Alliance, to talk through the everyday practices that help us remember the Earth and support conservation, restoration, and rewilding.
• Wed, Sep 16, 6pm: Queer Trans Hysto Zine launch party
  The launch of the Queer Trans Hysto Zine, an anthology of personal essays, poetry, and art about hysterectomy, co-edited by East Bay writers Hanne Williams-Baron and Adrian Matias Bell. The zine gathers stories from trans and queer people in and outside the U.S. on the medical system and barriers to good care, the joy and heartbreak of community aid, surgical autonomy, sex and desire, and ambiguous loss — alongside a how-to guide on navigating early menopause, a manifesto on surgery as self-creation, and diary entries and recovery ephemera. Nine contributors will read. Copies for sale, light refreshments, and note that the narratives may not suit younger audiences. (Just a few spots left as of this writing.)
• Thurs, Sep 17, 6pm: An evening with Paulina Borsook about her classic book, Cyberselfish
  Paulina Borsook’s Cyberselfish, first published in 2000, was a groundbreaking exploration of Silicon Valley culture — one violently lacking in compassion, fiercely opposed to regulation, more comfortable with computers than people, and surprisingly ignorant. Borsook foresaw that once tech boomed to new financial heights, those at the helm would expect success in one sphere to grant them power in others. “It was never intended as a book of prophecy,” she says, “but that sadly is what it has turned out to be.” Tin House republishes it this year, and Borsook comes to Local Economy for a conversation with Alexis about the book and the twenty-six years since.
• Fri, Sep 18, 6pm: Story Explorers Salon: Stories of Travel & Adventure
  Strategic story coach Liz Morrison spent fifteen years telling other people’s stories for Bravo, the Obama campaign, and Airbnb; now she helps people at a crossroads use their own. This edition of her Story Explorers Salon gathers around a shared theme: travel and adventure. The trip that went gloriously off the rails, the stranger who became a lifelong friend, the place that changed how you see the world. Through playful games and guided prompts you’ll spend most of the evening in small groups swapping stories, with the option to share with the room if the spirit moves you. No experience needed. BYOB welcome.
• Sat, Sep 19, 11am: Job Seeker Social for the Career Curious: Toast with Toast (Gaming the Job Part 2)
  Between roles? Changing careers? Casually looking, or happily employed and wondering what else is out there? All welcome. Bring your Bingo card from Part 1, bring some toast (or whatever you actually want for brunch), and come celebrate what you got done — whether you finished a row or filled half the card. We’ll share wins, compare notes, hype each other’s progress, and help one another work out what comes next. The challenge is optional and informal, and attending Part 1 isn’t required.
• Sun, Sep 20, 2pm: Fables & Futures: A play-based workshop on tech and society
  Fables & Futures is a creative learning kit that uses graphic fables and a Scratch-like game-building environment to help young people build a real point of view about AI. This workshop invites children ages 8–13 into Massa Mist, a lush valley where technology is embedded in the landscape — solarpunk by way of Miyazaki, with a touch of the Moomins. Participants read an original fable exploring surveillance, algorithmic profiling, data ownership, and consent, debrief on who benefited and who was harmed, then build their own Massa Mist game. Created by Ariam Mogos of the Stanford d.school. Bring a laptop; $10–15.
• Wed, Sep 23, 6pm: Transit Tales, a storytelling night co-presented by SPUR x Muni Diaries x Local Economy
  Every transit rider has a story. SPUR, Muni Diaries, and Local Economy co-present an evening of true stories inspired by riding transit — unexpected encounters and meet-cutes, hilarious mishaps, heartfelt moments. Come ready to share a three-minute story, or just sit back and enjoy. If you’d like to tell one, select “Participant” when you RSVP; names go in a bowl and storytellers are drawn through the evening, so a slot isn’t guaranteed. Whether you’re telling a story or cheering others on, come celebrate the people, places, and moments that make transit memorable.
• Thurs, Sep 24, 6pm: A Callaloo Conversation: The Joys and Perils of Writing Nonfiction & Memoir
  Callaloo, the premier journal of African Diaspora arts and letters, hosts an intimate conversation between Carvell Wallace and Keenan Norris on the delicate art of turning lived experience into narrative. The two will dig into what it means to write oneself — and one’s community and family — onto the page: the vulnerability, the craft, the ethical tightropes, and the unexpected discoveries that come with nonfiction and memoir. Moderated by Callaloo’s executive editor, Kyla Kupferstein Torres.
• Sun, Sep 27, 1pm: Caring for Yourself While Caring for Others: A workshop for current and future caregivers
  Roy Remer, executive director of the Zen Caregiving Project, and Tracy Tingle, an end-of-life doula and Zen Caregiving volunteer, lead an afternoon for anyone caring for loved ones who are aging, living with chronic or terminal illness, or approaching the end of life — or who simply wants some scaffolding in place before that time comes. The workshop is built around Roy’s recent book, Zen Caregiving: Caring for Yourself While Caring for Others, and mixes teaching, guided meditation, and group dialogue on present-moment awareness, compassion, impermanence, and gratitude.
• Wed, Sep 30, 6pm: Ping Practice: A different type of journaling practice
  Sometimes a word, phrase, or quote hits you and resonates somewhere invisible. Maybe you capture that sort of thing in a notes app, maybe a paper journal, maybe whatever is within reach. This evening is a chance to revisit those captures, reflect on them together, and talk about how they can grow into meaningful creative work. Led by Peter Pelberg, founder of the nonprofit journaling method Ping Practice, who by day works at the Wikimedia Foundation on the software volunteers use to edit Wikipedia in 300-plus languages. Bring whatever you keep those fragments in, and a pen you enjoy writing with.
• Thurs, Oct 1, 6pm: SPUR's Ballots and Brews
  Each election, the local urban think tank SPUR publishes a Voter Guide with comprehensive analysis and recommendations on the complicated measures up for a vote. This evening brings that treatment to the local measures on the November ballot — detailed examinations in a relaxed setting, with some beers at hand.
• Sat, Oct 3, 2pm: One Year Anniversary Party (!) at Fig Leaf Gardens
  Oh my, happy birthday to all of us. We’ll gather at Fig Leaf Gardens for an afternoon of gratitude, good food, and some drinks. Dan Polsby from Best Friends will be pouring wine, alongside a couple of excellent pop-ups you already know and love. There’s some light programming at 3pm, but mostly this is a hang in a beautiful place with all of us.
• Tues, Oct 6, 6pm: Bird-tanical Drawing!
  Hannah Hirsekorn teams up with Maggie Tokuda-Hall for a special drawing class that mixes Hannah’s botanical specialty with Maggie’s, which we take to be pigeons (and maybe other, lesser birds sometimes). Hannah is an artist who works on paper and skin, and runs Oology Tattoo, where she specializes in flora and fauna. Maggie writes celebrated children’s and young adult books, including the forthcoming Bath Time for Snow Monkeys, which is about what it says right there in the title. She’s also the local champion of Authors Against Book Bans. Soaring, chirping, head bobbing.
• Thurs, Oct 8, 6pm: KPFA Co-Presents Dave Zirin on The People's Historian, Howard Zinn
  KPFA co-presents an evening celebrating The People’s Historian: The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn, by Dave Zirin, a columnist at The Nation. The book examines the iconic radical historian whose bestseller, A People’s History of the United States, changed the way Americans saw the past — and, despite his conservative critics, the way history is taught. Zirin will be joined by Davey D, journalist, hip hop historian, and host of Hard Knock Radio on KPFA. Co-hosted with East Bay Booksellers, who will be selling the book.