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MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — “Earth, Sky, and Everything in Between,” Lake County’s first contemporary Native American art exhibit, closes Monday, Oct. 10, at the Middletown Art Center.
This Saturday, Oct. 8, you can gain insight into what being a contemporary Pomo basket weaver, jeweler or mixed media artist means to the artists themselves.
Their responses will be varied but include stories that raise awareness about the history and heritage of the first people of this place, who are still here. They carry, into the present and future, the cultural practices of their ancestors using both traditional and contemporary materials.
“Conversations with Artists” will provide an introduction to the final weaving workshop of the year-long “Weaving Baskets, Weaving Bridges” project. The workshop which will focus on basic coiling for basketry.
Activities begin at 11 a.m. and run to 4 p.m. with conversations with artists from 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.
Preregistration for participation at MAC or viewing on Zoom is required. Please visit www.middletownartcenter.org/weaving to learn more and register.
MAC’s year long Weaving Baskets, Weaving Bridges is a cross cultural collaboration that culminated in this unique and powerful collection of contemporary art work by 31 Native artists. Conversations this weekend include artists Robin Meely, Ali Meders-Knight, Eloisa Oropeza, Fred Briones, Denise Davis and Gemma Benton, among others.
During his visit to the gallery, Robinson Rancheria Tribal Chair Beniakem Cromwell said, “It’s wonderful that there is an opportunity for Native artists to display their work in Lake County. It feels like our voice is being heard here, at home.”
In the final weeks of the exhibit, 550 students grades third to 12 have participated in field trips to the exhibit. Led by cultural educators and in partnership with MAC artists, most students toured the gallery, then made collagraph prints inspired by the display using a professional printing press in the MAC studio. These youth now have an increased awareness of the history and original culture of this place.
Experience this unique and historic exhibit Thursday through Monday, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and First Friday, Oct. 7, from 10:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. It’s free to the public. For a holistic experience of this powerful and historic exhibit, register for the weaving workshop and artists’ conversations at MAC.
The WEAVING project and Earth, Sky, and Everything in Between exhibit are funded in part through the generosity of Middletown Rancheria, Robinson Rancheria, Big Valley Rancheria, Charlotte Griswold, community members and the California Arts Council, a state agency.
The MAC is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29 in Middletown.
To find out more about Earth Sky and Everything in Between or other programs, events, engagement opportunities, and ways to support the MAC’s efforts to weave the arts and culture into the fabric of life in Lake County, visit www.middletownartcenter.org or call 707-809-8118.
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- Written by: Middletown Art Center
Lester Chambers, lead singer of the Chambers Brothers of 1960s yore and lately of the group, Moonalice, has released his memoirs.
The Chambers Brothers' anthem of Psychedelia, “Time Has Come Today,” ushered the flower children into The Summer of Love in 1967.
The book is titled, “Time Has Come: Revelations of a Mississippi Hippie,” and is co-authored by local writer Thurman Watts.
The release was announced at the recent KPFZ Moonalice benefit concert, where the 82-year-old Chambers exhibited the masterful vocal and harmonica chops that are solely his.
The foreword of “Time Has Come” is written by Robert Darden, professor of journalism and new media at Baylor University.
He is also the former gospel music editor of Billboard Magazine and makes several spot-on observations about the Chambers Brothers, including, they were too rock for folk, too secular for gospel, and too raw, real and passionate for rock.
The book traces the origins of the Chambers family back to 1830 but focuses on the mid-20th century when their family escaped from the farm that they sharecropped on that was owned by a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
Landing in California, the Chambers Brothers eventually signed a recording contract with a major label, only to discover that they were still sharecropping — for the label.
Through Lester Chambers’ lens, this story details the mercurial rise of the Chambers Brothers and the decision by Lester Chambers to go it alone.
Glimpses of larger-than-culture figures like Lightnin’ Hopkins, Jimmy Reed, Miles Davis, Betty Davis, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Augustus Owsley Stanley II, Bob Dylan, Mahalia Jackson, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and a host of others spring from the pages that span Lester Chambers’ career.
Revisit the hardships of recurring illnesses, the 2013 festival where he was attacked on stage, recovering, returning to the stage and working into his 80s, and the accolades commensurate with the release of the 2022 Grammy-winning documentary, “Summer of Soul,” in which the Chambers Brothers opened and closed the film.
“Time has Come: Revelations of a Mississippi Hippie” is available in paperback and Kindle eBook format. An audiobook will follow in 2003. It is also available at www.lesterchambers.com.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
