University of California Press Blog

Weegee's Naked City, 63 Years Later

The photographer Weegee's camera was the eye of the night; with his eerily accurate timing and nocturnal hours, he provided the curious with a porthole to Manhattan's midnight world. He was one of the first tabloid photographers, showcasing bloodstained gangsters, tenement residents, and fur-draped celebrities, and his book Naked City made him famous. As authors Anthony Lee and Richard Meyer discuss in Weegee and Naked City, there are many ways to interpret Weegee's influence, and his work gains meaning when it is viewed in the social and artistic context of the 1930s and 40s. He helped establish photography in the art world, but also exposed the social problems of urban life, and played a gritty, underworld character in his own tabloid story. For the nostalgic or curious who wish to see if the ghosts of Weegee's Naked City still walk the streets, The New York Times Weekend Explorer has created an audio walking tour of Weegee's old haunts, from his room above a gun shop to the Bowery, Washington Square Park, and the scenes of some of his famous photographs.

FREE COMIC BOOKS! KRAZY!

Tomorrow, May 3, is Free Comic Book Day! Walk in the door of any participating comic book store from San Francisco to South Africa, and stuff your pockets with all the free comics you can grab. After you devour the latest Jughead adventure, expand your visual imagination further by pre-ordering Bruce Grenville’s KRAZY!, an art exhibit in book form, curated by this planet’s experts on comics, graphic novels, video games, manga and visual art. Whether your life is more R. Crumb than Superman, or more The Simpsons than The Sims, KRAZY! will zap you from your reading chair to the outer reaches of the graphic universe, where anime heroines blast laser-wielding transformers, and your Sims alter ego improves her hunger level with a pixelated turkey.

KRAZY! will be available in August. If you can't wait until then to fill your head with KRAZYness, head to the Vancouver Art Gallery between May 17 and September 7 for the exhibit KRAZY!: The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art.

Libraries Break the Silence for a Week of Celebration: National Library Week, April 13-19

Libraries are precious resources. They are inexhaustible mines, filled with veins of knowledge and deposits of discovery. They are quiet sanctuaries, where one can explore a century long past, an imagined future era, or an undiscovered planet. The library's cool, silent stacks can represent a refreshing escape from digitized information, but libraries also use technology to easily access rare books and documents. Finally, they provide a crucial service as quality community spaces, hosting events like readings, film showings, classes, clubs, volunteer opportunities, and afternoon storytime for kids. Your library is the place to be if you like to expand your mind, meet interesting people, and participate in your community.

April 13-19 is National Library Week, and the American Library Association has chosen “Join the Circle of Knowledge @ Your Library®” as this year’s theme. If you don't have a library card, get one—and on National Library Workers Day (April 15) , be sure to thank the librarian. National Library Week ends on April 19, but libraries and librarians are there for everyone—and deserve everyone’s appreciation and support—all year long.

Our local libraries invite everyone to join them in some special events this week. A few of them are listed below. Visit their websites for full event schedules and more information about how to get involved, or visit your local branch.

Berkeley Public Library

UC Berkeley Library

Oakland Public Library

Alameda County Library

San Francisco Public Library

Phantom Sightings Exhibit Opens this Sunday at Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement—the companion exhibit to the recent UC Press book by Rita Gonzalez, Howard N. Fox, and Chon A. Noriega—opens its doors this Sunday, April 6, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Phantom Sightings is LACMA's largest-ever collection of Chicano art, and it is one of the first exhibitions to focus on the current generation of contemporary Chicano artists. As the curators describe, rather than trying to define Chicano art or represent an entire population, the exhibit displays the work of this artistic generation and conceptualizes many facets of Chicano experience since the 1970s. The art defies categorization, invites challenge, inspires curiosity, playfulness and imagination, and evokes a surreal, dreamlike presence just below the surface.

See the Exhibit:
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, April 6 - September 1, 2008
Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City, October-December 2008
El Museo del Barrio and the Americas Society, New York, March-May 2009
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Summer 2009

UC Press Spring 2008 catalog cover: Carlee Fernandez, Bear Head and Arms Study I, 2004.  C-print, 30 x 42". Courtesy of the artist and Acuna-Hansen Gallery, Los Angeles. From Phantom Sightings, page 39.

Paul Farmer to Speak at Orphans of Rwanda Benefit in San Francisco

Orphans of Rwanda will be holding its first benefit in San Francisco on Monday, November 12. Their main speaker will be world-renowned physician and anthropologist, Dr. Paul Farmer, the author of several UC Press books, including Pathologies of Power, Infections and Inequalities, and AIDS and Accusation. Orphans of Rwanda works with Dr. Farmer's organization, Partners In Health, in Rwanda. It will be a great evening at an absolutely terrific space in the Presidio. .

The evening is dedicated to supporting the expansion of Orphans of Rwanda's university scholarship program. Earlier this year, they received 1,500 applications for 68 scholarships -- resulting in an acceptance rate of less than 5%. This says a lot about the high caliber of the students in the program and the unmet demand for university education in Rwanda. The benefit will enable Orphans of Rwanda to serve even more talented young Rwandans next year. You can read more about these amazing students on the Orphans of Rwanda website: www.orphansofrwanda.org/our_students/student_profiles.php.

You can find out more about the event and how to register for the event at: www.orphansofrwanda.org/sfevent

Weekend Gardening Tips

Looking for some ideas for your garden this weekend? The Landscaping Ideas of Jays, and its author, Judith Larner Lowry might just have some ideas for you. Lowry will be speaking this Saturday, April 7 (11am) at Native Sons Nursery http://nativeson.com in Arroyo Grande, Ca.

Thus far, gardening critics have gushed over The Landscaping Ideas of Jays. Most recent are two reviews at The Los Angeles Times and The San Francisco Chronicle.

For more upcoming events with Judith Larner Lowry, please visit http://www.larnerseeds.com/_pages/events.html

Last Holler for Coal Hollow

Don’t miss your last chance to see the photography exhibit Coal Hollow, on view now through October 29 at the Southeast Museum of Photography in Daytona, Florida.

The exhibit consists of arresting black-and-white photos and oral histories of the coal-mining legacy in southern West Virginia. On October 25, the museum will hold an open house and reception to meet the exhibiting artists, Ken and Melanie Light. The evening will include a lecture by Ken at 7:00 p.m. The following morning, the Lights will hold a seminar and open-classroom session entitled “History, Journalism and Documentary Photography.”

The book accompanying the project, Coal Hollow: Photographs and Oral Histories, includes nearly one hundred glossy photographs, along with forewords by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Orville Schell, Dean of the School of Journalism at UC Berkeley.

Bringing the work full circle, the Lights recently received a grant from the Open Society Institute to distribute their documentary photographic project in an alternative way: They have created multimedia kits— containing the book and DVD versions of Coal Hollow, along with laminated text and image panels—which will be given to targeted public libraries in West Virginia. In due course, this project will allow people all over West Virginia to access information about this hidden catastrophe.