Khoteswa, Narmada River, India 1999 by Karen Robinson.

Water is the subject of a panel discussion this evening at the David Brower Center to kick off Water, Rivers and People/Agua, Ríos y Pueblos, a photography exhibition in the center’s Hazel Wolf Gallery.

The exhibition, an international collaboration, is an homage to those who fight to defend rivers and the people who depend on them. Through its striking imagery, the exhibition charts inspiring examples of rivers that have been protected by citizen action, and community-led efforts to provide water for people in affordable, sustainable and effective ways.

Loire River, France 2009, by J.F. Souchard.

Photographers Robert Dawson and Roberto Bear Guerra, both featured in the exhibition, will be on hand tonight to discuss the artist’s experience in highlighting the connection between rivers, dams and human rights.

They will be joined by Steve Rothert, California Director of American Rivers, and Aviva Imhof, Campaigns Director of International Rivers, a Berkeley organization based in the Brower Center. The panel discussion is from 6:30-7:30pm in the Goldman Theater and the opening reception runs from 7:30-9:00pm.

Protestors at UC Berkeley, May 5, 1970, Courtesy of Bancroft Library

Today is the 40th anniversary of Kent State, where four students were shot and killed by Ohio National Guardsmen.

The students were shot during a protest against President Richard Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia, which he had announced on television a few days earlier.

The day after the shootings, students at UC Berkeley launched their own protest. This photo, supplied by the Bancroft Library as part of their “Digital Object of the Day,” shows student protesters walking around Sather Gate. The picture was taken by Theresa Lowenberg on May 5, 1970,

Dorothea Lange Fellowship winner looks at dueling identities (above) [UC Berkeley]
CHP pursuit leads from Pittsburg to Berkeley, with one arrest [Coco Times]
Congregation Beth El starts a new family Shabbat school [J-Weekly]
Future of punk venue 924 Gilman may be in jeopardy [East Bay Express]
Come for the culture, stay for the food: new Visit Berkeley push [VB]

Sunday is the 104^th anniversary of the massive 1906 San Francisco earthquake and SFGate.com is honoring the occasion by running 39 pictures from Berkeley author Richard Schwartz’s book on the subject.

Earthquake Exodus 1906, Berkeley Responds to the San Francisco Refugees discusses – in words and pictures – how numerous San Francisco residents came to Berkeley to escape the flames. Many of them stayed, transforming the town from a small community into a bustling city.

The pictures show life before and after the earthquake, with a smattering of shots of burning buildings and heaps of rubble. My favorite is one of Joaquin Miller outside a set of cottages he occupied in what is now the park named after him (above).

“Miller was an early riser, so it was not surprising he was lying awake in bed a little after 5 a.m. on April 18, listening to the dawn chorus of birds,” writes Schwartz.  “He then heard the cattle on his seventy-acre Oakland hills estate begin to moan far earlier than usual. Next his cats ran under his brass bed. He thought they were hiding from a stray dog. ‘I never witnessed such stillness,’” Miller later wrote. “The stillness was ‘terrible’ and the light ‘unnatural.’ Miller suddenly felt a slight jolt, as if he was ‘in a small boat bumping against a wharf.’”

Schwartz, a general contractor by training, came to Berkeley in 1973, but he knows more about the town than most natives. He has written three books on Berkeley history. All have lots of pictures. He self-published his first book, Berkeley 1900, and it went on to be immensely popular. A new edition came out in 2009.

Click here to see more pictures of the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake.

Refugees peeling potatoes, courtesy Richard Schwartz

Another day, another Cal prof wins a top prize [WSJ]
Berkeley part of “shoulder tap” sting operation [CBS5]
Vegan bakery Cinnaholic set to open in Berkeley [SFoodie]
Oakland “kicks Berkeley’s ass” on green policy [SF Weekly]

Photo: brinberkeley/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.

Marc Riboud is considered one of the great photojournalists of the 20th century. He joined the Magnum photo agency in Paris in the early 1950s and traveled extensively, working with Magnum founders Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa.

His skill in capturing fleeting moments in life through powerful compositions, already apparent, was to serve him well for decades to come.

Riboud’s photographs will be on exhibition at North Gate Hall through May 1. See more events associated with the Photojournalism department of the J-School here.

The crowd of 200 or so, including some kids, were among the first to try out the new BAMscape sculpture-slash-seating area. As designer Thom Faulders explained, BAMscape includes power outlets so that visitors can settle in on it and plug in their laptops. Part of the installation’s aim is to lure Cal students in from campus across the street.

The hum of the crowd and the music in the lobby made wandering the galleries more fun—lightening the reverent, “I’m looking at serious art, therefore I am serious” attitude that seems obligatory for most museum visits.

If you haven’t been to BAM recently, go before next Sunday, February 7, when the Fernando Botero and Ari Marcopoulos exhibits close. Botero’s series of paintings, based on a written account of the treatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, is definitely strong stuff—there’s a reason this exhibit is tucked away on the top floor.

Marcopoulos’s photos and video are arresting in a completely different way. I was reminded of Robert Frank’s “The Americans” more than once by these photos’ earthy subjects and beautiful, classical composition. The portraits of Keith Haring and Robert Mapplethorpe gave me a twinge of nostalgia.

The about-to-open James Castle exhibit, with lots of booklike objects, is an intriguing reason to come back for another Friday night—maybe on February 12, for the Marker Dance Party, with KALX DJs and drawing on the (papered) walls.

BAM is holding L@te events most Friday nights, and admission is $5 after 5 p.m.

Justin Beck shot the above portrait on Shattuck Avenue. He paid the man, whose name he couldn’t identify, $2.00 and chatted to him for a while.

The portrait was taken as part of an initiative Beck is participating in called the $2 Portraits Project which was launched by San Francisco photographer Thomas Hawk on June 12 2008.

On that day, Hawk vowed that every day until he died he would offer $2.00 to anyone who asked him for money in exchange for their portrait. As he explains it: “While I’m taking their portrait I’m going to ask their name and try to learn a little bit about them. I plan on doing this for the rest of my life — assuming that I can afford to. In part I’m undertaking this project because I realize that I’ve been avoiding people asking me for money. My biggest motivation behind this project, however, is simply that I think human interaction is a good thing.”

Beck’s friend recorded the conversation he had with the man above. He has taken a number of other portraits for the project in Berkeley, including Michael and Kim, both on Telegraph Avenue. Find out more on Beck’s Flickr page.