Events
Asian Heritage Night with the Pacifics Baseball Game
The Asian American Alliance of Marin (AAAM) is inviting the public to watch the San Rafael Pacific play against the Vallejo Admirals on 6:30 p.m., Friday August 9 at Albert Park, 155 Andersen Drive in downtown San Rafael. The gates will open at 5:30 p.m.
This will be the San Rafael Pacifics’ first Asian Heritage Night. Sonoma County Taiko will be performing.
A single game ticket is $15. Enter promo code AAAM and all fans will receive $3 off any general admission ticket! In addition, the Pacifics will donate half of the proceeds to AAAM for every ticket sold.
The Pacifics was created by major league baseball executive Mike Shapiro and investor Brian Clark in 2011 to play in the North American League. The Pacifics then won the championship in 2012.
Eugene Lupario and Shapiro, along with Steve Allen, Lupario’s business partner, bought out Pacifics’ majority owner Brian Clark to make the Pacifics a primarily Marin-owned group.
The new owner, Redwood Sports and Entertainment, created the current league, the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs, an independent professional baseball circuit not affiliated with Major League Baseball. The Napa Silverados, Salinas Stockade, Sonoma Stompers, and the Vallejo Admirals also play in the league.
Sharpiro, Clark, co-owners Lupario and Allen, proposed to the City of San Rafael that Albert Field could be transformed into a minor league ballpark, and that San Rafael and the entire Marin County community would benefit from having a minor league baseball team as a part of its social fabric.
The proposal was unanimously approved by San Rafael’s Parks and Recreation department and then twice approved by the City Council.
On June 4, 2012, before a sold-out crowd at Albert Park, the first pitch was thrown and the San Rafael Pacifics were launched. The Pacifics won the 2012 North American League championship in its inaugural season.
In 2013, the Pacifics posted a league-best regular season record of 54-21 (.720), and won the newly formed Pacific Association’s Division Championship. They also won in 2014, 2015, and 2018.
In 2017, the Pacifics drew over 18,000 fans over their 39-game schedule, averaging over 450 fans per game played at Albert Park in downtown San Rafael.
Attorney Leslie Lava joined the San Rafael Pacifics Ownership Group.
The Pacifics, beginning in their seventh year in operation in 2018, were the league’s most successful team, having won three championships in the league’s first six years and each year supported by the league’s highest attendance.
The Pacifics established themselves in the local community for their engaging and unique family-oriented fan experience at their games, and for their commitment to community service; and was awarded in San Rafael’s 2015 “Large Business of the Year,” the 2015 “Spirit of Marin,” and as the 2017 Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s “Business Diversity Award” winner.
The Pacifics also reaches out to the community through school, senior center and hospital appearances, fund-raisers and awareness campaigns, and baseball clinic and equipment programs for economically disadvantaged kids.
In August 2018, the team was put up for sale, and in 2019, was sold to Gabriel Suarez who was drafted by the Montreal Expos in 2004. He retired in 2013 and began owning and operating minor league franchises.
Suarez hopes to continue with the success of the Pacifics. “I want people to remember the Pacifics. I want them to remember the team and what’s (on the field),” Suarez told the Marin IJ. “I want them … to think ‘The Pacifics were an awesome part of that, an awesome part of our trip here’ or ‘an awesome part of community’ if they live here.”
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024
To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.
Activism
Oakland’s ‘Green the Church,’ Others, Host a Climate Revival
On April 20, Oakland’s Green The Church California (GTC) and the Center For Food, Faith and Justice will celebrate Earth Day and present a Climate Revival event titled “Growing Healthy Communities From Soil To The Soul” at McGee Avenue Baptist Church at 1640 Stuart St, Berkeley, CA. The day will include inspiring talks, interactive workshops, networking opportunities, and a special panel on Food Sovereignty and Global Food Resilience.
Growing Healthy Communities from Soil to the Soul in Berkeley
By Y’Anad Burrell
On April 20, Oakland’s Green The Church California (GTC) and the Center For Food, Faith and Justice will celebrate Earth Day and present a Climate Revival event titled “Growing Healthy Communities From Soil To The Soul” at McGee Avenue Baptist Church at 1640 Stuart St, Berkeley, CA,
The day will include inspiring talks, interactive workshops, networking opportunities, and a special panel on Food Sovereignty and Global Food Resilience.
The keynote speaker is Rev. Danté R. Quick, PhD, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, N.J. Quick is well known in the Bay Area, having served for more than 10 years as pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Vallejo, CA.
Green The Church, founded in 2010 by Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll, Sr., and headquartered in Oakland, helps galvanize Black churches and their local communities and leaders to address issues critical to populations historically disengaged from conversations around pollution and health, climate change, and sustainability and energy efficiency.
The organization collaborates with major environmental, sustainability, food security, faith, and community-based non-profit organizations, and is committed to “creation justice”—care and justice for God’s people and the planet—and building the Beloved Community.
Environmental justice has long been a pressing concern for communities of color who bear the brunt of pollution and ecological degradation. Climate change exacerbates these issues, disproportionately impacting vulnerable communities. Recognizing this urgency, Black churches across the country are taking action.
With deep roots in the African American community and its commitment to social justice, the Black Church has become an essential advocate for sustainable practices and policies.
Over the past 14 years, in a powerful collaboration with significant environmental, sustainability, food security, faith, and community-based non-profit organizations, GTC has created a cadre of Black churches engaging in the environmental justice, climate, and sustainability movement.
GTC presently works with more than 1,000 pastors and congregations across the U.S., and groups in the Bahamas, Ghana, Nigeria, and the UK, showing that we can make a difference together.
The partnership between environmental justice advocates and the Black Church extends beyond individual congregations. Green The Church provides resources and support for faith communities seeking to address climate change and promote environmental justice.
Through collaboration, initiatives such as energy efficiency programs, solar installations, and environmental education have been implemented in Black churches nationwide. These efforts reduce the carbon footprint and save money on energy bills, benefiting the congregations and their communities.
The involvement of the Black Church in the fight against climate change is not just a participation, it’s a powerful message that galvanizes action across communities.
By integrating environmental justice into their ministry, Black churches are demonstrating that addressing climate change is not only a matter of science but also of social and moral responsibility, inspiring change at a grassroots level.
For more information, go to: www.greenthechurch.org.
Art
Marin County: A Snapshot of California’s Black History Is on Display
The Marin County Office of Education, located at 1111 Las Gallinas Ave in San Rafael, will host the extraordinary exhibit, “The Legacy of Marin City: A California Black History Story (1942-1960),” from Feb. 1 to May 31, 2024. The interactive, historical, and immersive exhibit featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers who migrated from the South to the West Coast to work at the Marinship shipyard will provide an enriching experience for students and school staff. Community organizations will also be invited to tour the exhibit.
By Post Staff
The Marin County Office of Education, located at 1111 Las Gallinas Ave in San Rafael, will host the extraordinary exhibit, “The Legacy of Marin City: A California Black History Story (1942-1960),” from Feb. 1 to May 31, 2024.
The interactive, historical, and immersive exhibit featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers who migrated from the South to the West Coast to work at the Marinship shipyard will provide an enriching experience for students and school staff. Community organizations will also be invited to tour the exhibit.
All will have the opportunity to visit and be guided by its curator Felecia Gaston.
The exhibit will include photographs, articles and artifacts about the Black experience in Marin City from 1942 to 1960 from the Felecia Gaston Collection, the Anne T. Kent California Room Collection, The Ruth Marion and Pirkle Jones Collection, The Bancroft Library, and the Daniel Ruark Collection.
It also features contemporary original artwork by Chuck D of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group Public Enemy, clay sculptures by San Francisco-based artist Kaytea Petro, and art pieces made by Marin City youth in collaboration with Lynn Sondag, Associate Professor of Art at Dominican University of California.
The exhibit explores how Marin City residents endured housing inequities over the years and captures the history of plans to remove Black residents from the area after World War II. Throughout, it embodies the spirit of survival and endurance that emboldened the people who made Marin City home.
Felecia Gaston is the author of the commemorative book, ‘A Brand New Start…This is Home: The Story of World War II Marinship and the Legacy of Marin City.’ Thanks to the generous contribution of benefactors, a set of Felecia’s book will be placed in every public elementary, middle, and high school library in Marin.
In addition, educators and librarians at each school will have the opportunity to engage with Felecia in a review of best practices for utilizing the valuable primary sources within the book.
“Our goal is to provide students with the opportunity to learn from these significant and historical contributions to Marin County, California, and the United States,” said John Carroll, Marin County Superintendent of Schools.
“By engaging with Felecia’s book and then visiting the exhibit, students will be able to further connect their knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of this significant historical period,” Carroll continued.
Felecia Gaston adds, “The Marin County Office of Education’s decision to bring the Marin City Historical Traveling Exhibit and publication, ‘A Brand New Start…This is Home’ to young students is intentional and plays a substantial role in the educational world. It is imperative that our community knows the contributions of Marin City Black residents to Marin County. Our youth are best placed to lead this transformation.”
The Marin County Office of Education will host an Open House Reception of the exhibit’s debut on Feb. 1 from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.. All school staff, educators, librarians, and community members are encouraged to attend to preview the exhibit and connect with Felecia Gaston. To contact Gaston, email MarinCityLegacy@marinschools.org
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