Features
Olympian Dreams
The West Coast’s only native oyster has a colorful history that appears to have been embellished for dramatic effect. But the true story is just as compelling. By Lydia Lee • Photos by Penni Gladstone
The Gentrification of Consciousness
San Francisco’s Mission district has become synonymous with well-paid tech workers displacing non-white longtime residents. It’s now the setting for a new battle, as the coming psychedelic-industrial complex threatens to strip hallucinogenic drugs of their historical and religious significance. By Roberto Lovato • Photos by Jason Henry
Street Fight
Boyle Heights’ DoorDash-sponsored murals and the backlash against fnnch’s honey bears reveal the polarizing rifts in the California guerrilla art community. By Ajay Orona • Photos by Christina Gandolfo
She Has a Name
Veteran investigator Steve Rhods helped take down the Golden State Killer. But solving the identity of his first Jane Doe murder case has proved even more vexing, and reveals a larger problem: Why does society so easily overlook missing women of color? By Louise Farr • Illustrations by Mark Smith
When Mark Twain Canceled Bret Harte
Despite their shared history of condemning bigotry, anti-Chinese racism fueled the falling-out between two of California’s biggest writers. By Joy Lanzendorfer • Illustrations by Steve Carroll
A Literary Odd Couple
Writer Victor Villaseñor and editor Marc Jaffe’s working partnership spans 50 years—and 3,000 miles. By Jesse Katz • Photos by Gregg Segal
The Man That Got Away
Jim Bailey spent his career impersonating Judy Garland, leaving a biographer to ponder: Where did that leave him? By Sam Wasson • Illustration by Philip Burke
San Francisco’s Debt to Finland
Eighty years ago, two California designers traveled to Helsinki to see master architect Alvar Aalto. The trip launched lifelong friendships and helped shape the ranch house aesthetic of West Coast subdivisions in the 1950s and ’60s. By Daniel P. Gregory
The New Hollywood
Image Makers
Three top directors of photography on filming for screens—big and small—in stressful times. Moderated by Tim Greiving
Fashion Gone Streamable
Will film ever make us play dress-up again? By Monica Corcoran Harel
Play It as He Lays
The Academy Awards represent the last gasps of a morally decrepit version of Hollywood. By Will Self • Illustration by Red Nose Studio
Acting Your Age
Hollywood is finally falling for the middle-age meet-cute. By Monica Corcoran Harel
Keeping Hollywood in Hollywood
California is tired of losing big money to runaway production—so it’s fighting back. By Robert Ito • Illustration by Martin Gee
What Shall We Do in Our Dark?
The screen reflects our anxieties about community, technology, and, perhaps, the end of the world. By David Thomson • Illustration by Matt Mahurin
Why I Love This Show
- The Secret Power of The Magicians? It Teaches Us About Growing Up. By Jeff Schaffer
- Telling the Story You Want to Tell in I May Destroy You. By Marissa Jo Cerar
- RuPaul’s Drag Race Opens the Door on a Gay-Subculture Art Form. By Justin Noble
- Embracing Fierce Female Friendships in We Are Lady Parts. By Tanya Saracho
- The Oddly Relatable Family Drama at the Heart of Succession. By Kourtney Kang
- Finding Hope in Character Growth on Mythic Quest. By Alice Wu
Alta Picks: An Influencer’s Guide to the New Hollywood
Dispatches
The Gatekeepers
For centuries, zanjeros have controlled the waters of California. By Marcela Davison Avilés • Photos by Tod Seelie
Birds of Passage
A proposal to introduce an endangered species to a group of California islands challenges assumptions about native habitats under global warming. By Scott Addeo Young • Illustrations by Zoe Matthiessen
Fresno on Her Mind
Urban planner Danielle Bergstrom has taken an unlikely route to combating social inequities in the Central Valley: she started a nonprofit newsroom. By Brad Balukjian • Photo by Penni Gladstone
Storming the Mission
Toypurina, a female shaman who led a revolt against Spanish rule, emerges as a cultural icon. By Denise Hamilton • Photos by Dustin Snipes
Trailblazer: Dr. Lauren Esposito
Turning invisibility into community. By Jessica Klein
Culture
Poetry: ‘Our Son Comes Over’
By David L. Ulin
Personal Favorite: Landscape at Beaulieu
Renoir sparks in me an all-consuming urge to paint. By Guimi You
Poetry: ‘Take to the Days a Fist of Starlight’
By Mai Der Vang
The Sisterhood of the Baton
Jessica Bejarano is on a quest to become one of the few women to lead a top-tier orchestra. She’ll rely on hard work, supportive allies, and the music she loves. By Catherine Womack
A Tale of Two Theaters
In a city renowned for its progressive values and support of the arts, the Black Repertory Group struggles and the Berkeley Repertory Theatre thrives. It’s business as usual for Black theater. By Ishmael Reed • Photos by Craig Lee
Fiction: ‘He Dreams About the Bunny Ranch’
By Allie Rowbottom • Illustrations by Victor Juhasz
Books
The Form of a Sentence
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum on finding thought in language—or is it the other way around? By Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
Why You Should Read This: Likes
By David L. Ulin
The Practice of Poetry
Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Natalie Diaz explores the power of language and images in her work. By Natalie Diaz
Why You Should Read This: Postcolonial Love Poem
By David L. Ulin
‘Year of the Monkey’
An excerpt from I Hotel. By Karen Tei Yamashita
Why You Should Read This: I Hotel
By David L. Ulin
To See ‘Such Color’
Tracy K. Smith’s new and selected poems show her gracefully pivoting between
light and dark and channeling grief into joy. By John Freeman • Photos by Erin Clark
In Every Issue
• Publisher’s Note: Audience Is the Future
By Will Hearst
