Selected Writing

Examining Modern-Day Witch Hunts

Ms. Magazine

The most merciless and widespread European witch hunts occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries, and are presumably a thing of the past. Author and feminist historian Silvia Federici, however, argues that we must keep those memories alive—because only by examining the parallels between history and the present can we prevent that level of brutality from being unleashed again.

Overcoming Personal and Collective Trauma in the Age of COVID-19

PM Press

So how can we do it? How can we get through the hard work and pain of healing ourselves and our communities while isolated from each other? How do we stay healthy and creative and whole so we can rebuild a better world on the other side of this?

How Permaculture Is Helping Wildfire Survivors Recover

Yes! Magazine

Using permaculture for climate disaster recovery isn’t new. Activists used mycelium to consume and break down environmental pollutants in post-Katrina New Orleans and again to address toxic runoff in burn zones after the 2017 fires in Sonoma County.

Parenting Below the Poverty Line: Interview with Stephanie Land

North Bay Bohemian

For many, the mere idea of public assistance certainly evokes stereotypes and raises questions about who deserves help (and for those that are deemed worthy of help, how much support they deserve also comes into question).

Bioremediation Efforts Mushroom in the Aftermath of California’s North Bay Fires

Earth Island Journal

As ecologists strategize and seek funding for more in-depth research and evaluating the effectiveness of bioremediation and mycoremediation in Sonoma County, many hope that these efforts might serve as an inspiration to other communities...

Triggered: For survivors of sexual assault, the #MeToo movement opens old wounds

North Bay Bohemian & The Pacific Sun

As empowering as the #MeToo movement has been for the cause of amplifying and uniting women's voices, the constant news cycle detailing violations against women and women's bodies has also had an overwhelmingly painful impact

Herbalists Without Borders provides compassionate care around the world

Common Good

Herbalists Without Borders has numerous chapters around the world, with outreach programs and clinics supporting veterans, refugees, homeless communities, people battling addiction, and others at-risk of trauma or illnesses.

Shepard Fairey Explains Why He’s Popping Up All Over San Francisco

KQED Arts

Fairey’s iconic ‘HOPE’ poster of then-nominee Barack Obama gazing thoughtfully toward a new future in red, white and blue became symbolic for a new America — one which signaled a much-welcomed change for many.

Honoring a Slain Teen’s Memory with Support for His School Band

KQED Arts

Along with counseling services and community meetings, students were able to cope through involvement in the school’s music program. Because Andy had played trumpet in the school band, the first step in honoring his memory and processing classmates’ grief was for the band to perform the winter concert as a tribute.

‘Artist as Maggid’ Offers a Modern-Day Twist on Classic Jewish Tales

KQED Arts

In the Jewish tradition a maggid was a preacher who traveled from place to place, sharing folktales with their audiences.

From Gangs to Glory: Bambu’s Political Hip-Hop for the People

KQED Arts

Bambu certainly walks his talk. The artist, raised in Watts, organizes around issues like Asian youth leadership, community reform and empowerment, and offers time and design services to nonprofits.

The Squeamish Parent's Guide to Teen Sex: How speaking frankly and honestly is becoming the new revolution in sex ed

North Bay Bohemian

Think back to fifth or sixth grade. Remember that awkward spring afternoon when Mrs. So-and-So announced that the boys would be leaving the classroom with Mr. Teacher Man while the girls remained behind?

Interview with Jolie Holland

The Rumpus

“To be an artist, you have to do ridiculous things,” she says. “You have to practice for like eight hours a day—if you want to—or learn how to do really fine-tuned, weird things to develop yourself and that express something about you. But even if you clear the time to write, you don’t know if the gods are going to show up.”

World Travel Watch Column

Chicago Tribune

Officials raised the alert level on Sulawesi after Soputan volcano erupted Tuesday. The eruption shot smoke more than a mile into the sky and prompted authorities to establish a safety zone, prohibiting tourists from coming within 2.5 miles of the volcano. 

Sundays in the Kitchen with Food Not Bombs: A Love Story

North Bay Bohemian

The national Food Not Bombs movement has evolved over the years and through the changing times like any grassroots organization. Founded in 1980 by antinuclear activists in Cambridge, Mass., Food Not Bombs established itself as a direct-action group with the agenda of sharing food and information with people in public spaces without permits and without hierarchical organization.

‘Food Crisis’ symposium in San Rafael takes on our genetically modified food

The Pacific Sun

Worlds away from the struggles and complexities of rural India, farmers and consumers in GMO-free Marin are much more fortunate. Still, the concerns of the safety and potential harms of GMO foods will not disappear overnight.

Killers and Victims Seek Common Ground in Quest to end Circle of Violence

The Pacific Sun

“No More Tears” started as a San Quentin support group for convicted murders who wanted to come to grips with their crimes. Eventually they bagan inviting people from the outside… including those who lost loved ones to murder—with the unidentified perpetrators still at large…

Indigenous People’s Day at Alcatraz

The Pacific Sun

As the United States government continued to fall short on promises and agreements made with American Indians, AIM decided to reclaim unused federal property as rightfully theirs…

Literary Boroughs of San Francisco & The North Bay

Ploughshares

The Literary Boroughs series explores little-known and well-known literary communities across the country and world and show that while literary culture can exist online without regard to geographic location, it also continues to thrive locally. 

What Wildfires Do to Our Minds

Yes! Magazine

As climate change-related disasters become more common, there is a critical need to address the mental health of survivors after a catastrophe. Santa Rosa residents—and the greater Sonoma County community—rushed in to offer support services through pop-up holistic clinics, mental health education, and free counseling services. 

For Undocumented Workers, an Uphill Journey After the Fires

KQED

The national media calls them the “wine country fires” — the destructive fires in Sonoma and Napa Counties which decimated thousands of homes and businesses in October.

Into Darkness 

North Bay Bohemian

North Bay witches reclaim pagan roots and dispel wicked stereotypes:

"Each group has its own practices and perspectives, but the common core is a connection to the natural world and the cycles of the year.

Making EVs Possible for Low-income Drivers

Sustainable America

According to a 2017 report from the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, emissions-related health issues like higher risk of cancer, asthma, emphysema, heart disease and inhibited child development disproportionately impact lower income communities.

Airial Clark on How To Be A Woman And Not Give A F*ck

North Bay Bohemian

Emotional Labor. Gaslighting. Harassment. Assault. Transphobia. Racism. Pay Gap. Scapegoating. Unbalanced domestic duties. Women are pretty exhausted from carrying it all with perfectly crafted gender-appropriate charm. Some women are even angry, raging, tearing apart the patriarchy in their minds all day, every day.

Cannabis Reporting for Northern California

Emerald Report

 Lifstyle features,, product reviews, medical information, DIY projects, and more from Dani at Emerald Report, a cannabis news site run by the Pulitzer Prize winning Press Democrat.

Chronicle Books Celebrates 50 Years

KQED Arts

To a certain generation, it sometimes seems like everything started in the Summer of Love, when droves of long-haired, freedom-seeking flower children flocked to the Haight-Ashbury with dreams of evoking a new and exciting counterculture.

Cropmobster: Connecting the Dots Between Farms, Food Waste and Hunger

Shareable

A new food gleaning and supply-sharing programhas created simple and effective solutions to address food waste and hunger and increase farmer visibility in a decentralized, community-based way. 

‘The Q-Sides’ Merges Queer Culture with San Francisco’s Lowrider Scene

KQED Arts

San Francisco’s Mission District has a long legacy of lowrider culture, a rich history artist Vero Majano has documented and celebrated through film for almost two decades.

Meg Allen’s ‘BUTCH’ is Urgent and Celebratory and Everything in Between

KQED Arts

Allen says that because of the changing climate of queer acceptance, she was able to photograph many friends who may have been hesitant to participate in BUTCH 20 years ago. 

Budokon Yoga with Cameron Shayne

Spirituality & Health Magazine

Budokon started off as a Hollywood fitness fad, but creator Cameron Shayne left the limelight to take his life arts program to a deeper level.

Literary Boroughs: San Francisco and North Bay 

Ploughshares

Oh, San Francisco. Land of Milk and Honey, land of ghosts of Beatniks past. Land where new poets spring forth with every rumbling of your fault lines. One can almost sense the alphabet circling in the foggy Pacific that rolls through your streets, letters begging to be plucked from the air and arranged in brilliant words across blank sheets of paper. 

The Greatest Show and Tell on Earth

Utne

Harnessing the power of collaborative learning and DIY science, California’s Maker Faire aims to combat throwaway culture by giving young people the tools and inspiration to invent.   

Rocket yoga promises to get students to fitness nirvana faster

North Bay Bohemian

Rocket yoga is rooted deeply in ashtanga yoga, which was brought to the West from Mysore, India, by K. Pattabhi Jois, or Guruji as his devotees lovingly called him until his death in May 2009. Ashtanga practice swept through the West like wild fire in the 1990s and was promptly picked up by celebrities such as Madonna, Sting and even that wacky Willem Dafoe.

New 'No Street Hiring' signs point to conflict between concept of hiring hall and reality of day laborers

North Bay Bohemian

The presence of migrant workers in the west Sonoma County town of Graton has a long history, beginning with Chinese immigrants at the turn of the 20th century and then again when the black roller clouds of the dustbowl forced farmers west during the Great Depression. 

California State Park Closures Threaten Marin County’s Historic Sites

The Pacific Sun

After centuries as a thriving Coastal Miwok community, Marin’s bountiful shores along San Pablo Bay grew into a 19th century mecca for Chinese immigrants…

Headwaters Forest Reserve and the Battle that Saved It

Earth Island Journal

While Earth First! activists engaged in protests, treesits, road blockades, sit-ins, and disrupting Maxxam stakeholder meetings in Houston, EPIC busily compiled and filed numerous lawsuits to stop logging in Headwaters.

Fire Survivors Help Each Other—and Find Some Healing in the Process

Yes! Magazine

… a strong correlation exists between the well-being, happiness, health, and longevity of people who are emotionally and behaviorally compassionate.

Eating Well on a Tight Budget

Made Local Magazine

In the United States, more than 45 million people receive annual SNAP benefits: mostly children, seniors, and people with disabilities. Although SNAP benefits are modest (averaging roughly $1.40 per meal), the program is vital to combating food insecurity. 

Ethics of Native Plant Foraging

Pacific Sun

 With so many residents and weekend visitors plucking readily available edibles from hillsides, beaches and open fields, how sustainable is the practice of foraging? And are there ethical principles or laws in place to keep in mind while out gathering wild foods and medicine? 

Botanical Craft: A guide to locally made bitters

Made Local Magazine

Cultures all over the world use bitter flavors to promote good digestion. Europeans eat endive before a meal. In traditional Chinese medicine, bitter melon, a squash that more than lives up to its name, is said to balance the fire element in the body.

Everything's Gone Green

Made Local Magazine

The California School of Herbal Studies (CSHS) sits on 80 acres down a gravel road off Hwy. 116 in Forestville’s Pocket Canyon. Mostly steep hillsides, the land is thick with Douglas Fir and the remains of redwood stakes from an old Italian-American vineyard. 

de Young Hosts Recently Discovered Treasure Trove in ‘Teotihuacan’

KQED Arts

Who were the leaders of this complex city? What languages were spoken there? Who, exactly, were the underground tunnels created for and what were their roles in the community? 

Artists, Writers, Poets and… Farmers?

KQED Arts

“Traditional ecological knowledge, the ways of knowing of indigenous peoples who have learned from the land for millennia, is rich with philosophies and practices for sustainability."

Paul Lewin Continues Storytelling Tradition Through Painting

KQED Arts

In Jamaican folklore, the country’s only female national hero is the powerful Queen Nanny. Legend has it that Queen Nanny led a group called the Maroons, who escaped slavery and created their own civilization in the mountains. 

Radical Photos Capture Indelible Moments in California’s Past

KQED Arts

Mieth’s photography rose to a new level of radicalism for the time; she documented issues like birth control, unwed mother’s homes, orphanages, Japanese interment camps and female garment worker strikes.

Yes, Tinder's New Pricing is Ageist, Pure and Simple

WIRED

Tinder's logic is that geezers like me are willing to pay more because it is assumed we have higher incomes and will cough up the dough to undo our frantic mis-swipes. 

Interview with Mary Roach

Know Journal

Though graphic and hilarious details of Roach herself penetrating the side of a fistulated cow with her arm may be a bit too much for many readers to stomach (a fistulated cow, in layman's terms, is a cow with holes cut in its side for agriculture students to study the complex digestive process of the multi-stomached bovines)

Santa Rosa Community Acupuncture

The Press Democrat

Viola Huang-Beck moves quietly through the dimly-lit treatment room at Santa Rosa Community Acupuncture's office, which holds 10 reclining chairs. many of them are filled with people who sleep with needles protruding from their faces, ears, arms and legs. 

In His Heydey

North Bay Bohemian

A Boston-area transplant, Margolin and his wife headed west in their VW bus in the Summer of Love. After camping and working in Canada, Mexico and the wilds of 1960s Big Sur, Margolin settled in Berkeley where he founded Heyday in 1974. 

You're Not Alone: Hip Mama and Rad Dad provide forums for unconventional parenting

North Bay Bohemian

Gore first launched Hip Mama as a senior project at Mills College in 1993. A young single mom, Gore became the poster girl and champion of the "alternative" parenting scene through her unapologetic writing about the realities of raising kids outside of the norm.

The Rumpus Review of 'Being Flynn'

The Rumpus

Nick Flynn’s words sucker-punch me and drag me through Boston’s back-alley construction zones, skimming eruptions of broken glass. Across crumbling and unforgiving asphalt I arrive battered, gutted, laughing, astonished.
What the f*ck just happened?

Help Thanks Wow: An Interview with Anne Lamott

The Pacific Sun