Here are some images from Auburn’s 40th celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday. The General Gomez Arts & Event Center organized the march and program in downtown Auburn at their arts center. The theme for the event was “Strategizing for Change.” It was a well-attended, uplifting event with over 100 people that began with rapper Unity Lewis leading a downtown march. It was then followed by an event at the center that included Native American music by Mignon […]
Please check back in February 2024 for my article on Saint Lucia, which will be running in Outword Magazine. Until there, please enjoy these photos, which I took on two separate trips to Saint Lucia in 2014 and 2019. All photos are copyright Chris Allan and cannot be used without my written permission. Please contact me for usage rights. Thank you for reading my page Saint Lucia: Why honeymooners like us keep returning to this beautiful Caribbean island.!” To learn more about […]
I was fortunate to be able to travel to Peru for two weeks in 2022. It was a wonderful adventure! While there, I wrote several blogs that you can find on my Instagram feed, as well as two articles in Outword after the trip covering the huge Pride celebration in Lima and a longer overview of the trip. I am pasting those below with minor modifications. What an amazing country! Mucho gusto, Peru! Highlights from a two-week jaunt to South America […]
For De’s birthday this year, we opted for a quick visit to South Lake Tahoe. This amazing body of water straddles both California and Nevada and is only a two-hour drive from Auburn. We chose to do it as a circle, heading out on Highway 50 to catch the great summit view as you come into the basin. We returned via I-80, where you pass beautiful Emerald Bay. This really was just a whirlwind trip with only two nights on […]
Here are some images from the new Native American Statue is Unveiled in Capitol Park. It was the dedication of the beautiful bronze William J. Franklin Sr. statue in downtown Sacramento’s park. It takes the place of the Junipero Serra monument, which was toppled in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter riots. Serra was associated with the gross mistreatment of Native Americans during the Spanish colonization period. Sacramento was also built on unceeded indigenous lands, therefore Assemblyman James Ramos (the […]
With minor modifications, here is the article on Pastor Casey Tinnin that I wrote with photos that appeared in Outword Magazine in October 2023. * * * When the War is Won It took almost three months of investigation and a 30-page document to say what Pastor Casey Tinnin already knew. “Nothing fixes things like the truth. I knew the facts. But I only know what I know.” Tinnin is referring to the Van Dermyden Makus Investigations Law Firm report on […]
Singing hits like “Big, Big Love,” popular and very upbeat singer Michael Franti brought his show to Sacramento in September. One of the last two closing acts of the Farm-to-Fork free Street Festival, Franti is originally from nearby Davis, California. In fact, possibly the most touching part of the show was when Franti pointed out his mother. She was unassumedly hanging out in the front side of the crowd. Franti talked about how she, as a white woman, had adopted […]
Last week I attended the Roseville Joint Union High School District Board Meeting. Pictured here are Board members Heidi Hall (Clerk), Pete Constant (President), Julie Hirota (VP), Superintendent John Becker, and speakers Natalie Robbins (President of the Roseville Secondary Education Association), and Barb Brass of PFLAG. Purpose The meeting was almost entirely dedicated to the nearly two hours of public discussion around a proposed parental notification policy. Like other policies that have recently passed in the State, including nearby Rocklin […]
We are long-term members of the Crocker Art Museum, but have never managed to make CrockerCon. This year was different, and with minor modifications, here is the brief blurb I wrote with photos that appeared in Outword Magazine in September 2023. * * * The ninth edition of CrockerCon was a lighthearted evening to schmooze with Stormtroopers and congregate with caped cuties. Held each September at Sacramento’s Crocker Museum, the event explores the influences that comics and cartooning have on […]