Walkin' with Joaquin

Join The California Writers Club for a festival of outdoor lit in Joaquin Miller Park! On Earth Day Weekend, Sunday, April 24th, 2022, the Berkeley Branch will host a day of springtime activities and networking. All events are free except the meeting/speaker series, for which we ask that you purchase a ticket. (Free tickets are available for those who need them.) 10-12 p.m. Earth Day in the Park Come work with Friends of Joaquin Miller Park featuring a CWC Wolf-Pack write-in. A speaker will give an overview of the state of the trees in the Oakland Hills, providing focus points for literary and physical action. Participants can choose to: write letters advocating restoration of the Cascade or other needs of nature, grab some gloves and pull out invasive species tune in to the “minister of the woods” and free write among the Oaks and Redwoods. LOCATION 12-1 p.m. Picnic Lunch! BYOBOC (Bring your own Basket of Chow) / “Joaquin Miller Went Walkin” Bring a picnic lunch and socialize wi

Today I went walkin' with Johnella LaRose, co-founder of the  Sogorea Te' Land Trust , an urban Indigenous women-led land trust that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. Several years ago, when I first heard about Sogora Te', I was inspired by the whole idea of Indigenous land trusts , which create a breathing space in the madness around owning property. I'd been wanting to meet Johnella since I heard she was on the FOJMP board. Sogora Te' has been a member of FOJMP since 2020, and the Ohlone people who they protect were here, of course, long before Oakland, before Joaquin Miller, for some TEN THOUSAND YEARS. She was dressed in a bright orange vest so it was easy to spot her as I pulled into the Sequoia Bayview parking area. She carried a garbage grabber and a big plastic bag, and I thought for a minute she'd put them in the car while we walked...but instead I began seeing what she saw. She pointed down the hill where bags of trash bla