Local Economy Community Newsletter: A busy fall

Well, here we are at the soft edge of shoulder season. Or, judging by the fashions on these recent foggy mornings, maybe it's called cardigan season? We're still banking on the coming fall months bringing us some well-earned warm and sunny weather, as the Bay Area ought to do.

We are rooting back down after some summer travel and gearing up for a super packed September and October at Local Economy, with programming spanning everything from an obituary "open mic" of sorts, to a workshop on Zen caregiving, to an evening pairing up romance novels with guaranteed income. We are also entering peak book-release season, so look out for many launch events in partnership with East Bay Booksellers. Below are some highlights of the upcoming calendar, and as always, the full slate of events will be going up on Luma on a rolling basis.

If, as fall routines return, you have curiosity about joining Local Economy as a member, registration is open to all, and those early morning hours at the shop have become a really nice time for members to work, journal, read, sip coffee. Hope to see you soon!

—Sarah and Alexis

• Fri, Aug 21, 6pm: Matt Mills Photography Exhibition Opening
  Come hear from the artist behind our new photo show, which went up in the shop earlier this month and runs into October. Matt Mills has amassed a huge collection of images, all taken along San Pablo Ave. Ten are hung in the shop, and he also has a book filled with photos from his documentation of one of the East Bay’s main arteries.
• Sat, Aug 22, 12pm: Where Does Your Water Come From?
  Do you know where your water comes from? Learning By Hand's Eli Utne hosts a drop-in exploration of our local watersheds, with stations set up inside Local Economy: maps, models, literature, art supplies, documentation of ongoing projects around the Bay Area and Northern California, and demonstrations of how to monitor water quality with remote sensing devices. Find out what creeks flow underneath and around us, learn about local watershed advocacy and restoration, and sign up for workshops and retreats focused on bioregional resilience. It runs during Rockridge’s annual Rock & Stroll.
• Tues, Aug 25, 6pm: Food & Bev, Vol 4: Josey Baker Bread and Rize Up Bakery
  What does it actually take to build something in food and bev? This edition goes into the early mornings and late nights of two beloved local bakers. Josey of Josey Baker Bread has been baking since 2011 and co-owns The Mill, which was back in business less than two weeks after a fire shut it down. Azikiwee Anderson “Z” of Rize Up Bakery started making sourdough in quarantine, and within a year his backyard ovens couldn’t keep up; he’s now writing a cookbook and opening Rize’s first brick and mortar. Hosted by Showoff founder Margarita Florez Vasconcelos.
• Wed, Aug 26, 6pm: Tiny Lessons From Obituaries: Stories That Could Change Your Life
  This is not a morbid night; it’s a strangely joyful one. Vanessa Li, founder of the Tomatokind creative community, and Mary McGreevy, creator of the viral Tips from Dead People obituary project, gather us to read real obituaries and uncover the tiny, unexpected ways people lived meaningful lives.
• Thurs, Aug 27, 6pm: Writing the Liminal Body
  Ali Lawrence of Four Chambers Writing invites you to the untamed intersection of puberty and perimenopause. Parenting a pubescent body while your own is shifting beneath you is complicated, humbling, frustrating, poetic, and sometimes absurd. This is an invitation to stop holding it together, just for a couple of hours, and to let those unruly bodies unlock some unruly words. (Down to a handful of spots as of this writing.)
• Mon, Aug 31, 7pm: Bedtime Club
  A gathering for non-gestational parents of all kinds — men, women, enbies, trans, cis, queer, straight, adoptive — to slow down together and sit with the stuff that doesn’t always get airtime. We didn’t carry the kids, but we’re carrying other things. This is a small, intentional space, so come ready to go a little deep. Led by member Shea Waldron.
• 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, this one 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. The reader lineup is still coming together, but will include Vanessa Hua and our own Alexis Madrigal.
• Sat, Sep 5, 1pm: Oakland Noticing Club
  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 Architectural Details — think doors, textures, trims, colors, funky art, anything on a building. Collect them as you go about your month and bring them to share however you like: words, photos, zines, poems, PowerPoint, whatever strikes your fancy.
• 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.
• 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. Here books are 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... And she’s bringing them to Local Economy for a show-and-tell. It’s gonna be so good.
• 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 one reason why we are sleepwalking toward disaster. In his new book, environmental activist and longtime Sierra editor-in-chief Jason Dove Mark offers an antidote: four simple rules for resisting environmental amnesia.
• 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. Eight contributors will read. Copies for sale, light refreshments, and note that the narratives may not suit younger audiences.
• 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 Madrigal about the book and the twenty-six years since.
• 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.