Tag Archives: King Middle School
Ex Berkeley teacher Marie Schumacher plays hometown
Back in the mid-1990s when Marie Schumacher was teaching at Berkeley’s King Middle School, her students didn’t know she was living a double life. By day she elucidated math and science for sixth graders, and by night she performed at venues like Albany’s Club Muse and Berkeley’s Rose Street House of Music. While honing her craft with bands like the retro-pop combo Agent 99, she started to develop her own book of tunes as a singer/songwriter.
Based in Portland, OR since 2000, the vocalist, guitarist, pianist and vocal arranger has maintained close creative ties to the East Bay through her long-running faculty position at Cazadero Music Camp. She plays her annual Berkeley concert Saturday February 4th at the Subterranean Arthouse with bassist John Foster, drummer Jon Arkin and guitarist Steve Gibson, co-founder and co-director of Berkeley’s innovative music program BandWorks.
Her latest album, “Island Set Aflame,” is the result of her revived collaboration with Gibson, with whom she often performed back in the 90s. While developing the new music in the fall of 2008, she received a jolt of inspiration from a spectacular brush fire that swept across Angel Island, with flames visible from her rehearsal. Crystallizing themes of destruction and creation, life and death, she wrote a series of thematically linked songs that Gibson set to beautifully latticed arrangements. … Continue reading »
Berkeley schools see new appointments at the top
It’s like a game of musical chairs at Berkeley schools right now, as a group of new faces move into top positions following the departure of key personnel.
John Muir and Oxford Elementary schools, King Middle School and Berkeley Technology Academy (B-Tech) have new principals, and there’s a new vice-principal at Berkeley High.
Jason Lustig’s decision to pursue an academic course at Harvard, which saw him step down from his position as principal of King Middle School at the end of this academic year, set the ball in motion for several appointments that followed. Lustig, was in the post for four years after a stint as principal at Cragmont Elementary School. … Continue reading »
Last week we reported that four chickens — a New Hampshire Red, a Buff Orpington, a Barred Rock, and a Wyandotte – had been scooped up by Berkeley High School security staff after being found on campus. The officers took the birds to a neighbor, Shirley Carrie Brewin, who keeps chickens, and they were then taken to Berkeley’s Animal Shelter. Two Berkeleyside readers — Emma and bhs-student — left notes in our Comments saying they believed the chickens belonged to King Middle School.
Mossberg collected the birds from the animal shelter. He said the chicken coop had been broken into on the night of June 8. “We are relieved to have found them. There are no suspects at this point,” he said.
Natasha Boissier forages fruit, feeds hungry
Driving around North Berkeley with Natasha Boissier is an educational experience. Where others see a quiet residential area she sees streets lined with potential pickings and delights when she spots prospective bounty or familiar fruit.
Boissier is a part of a growing movement of urban gleaners who pick fruit from people’s yards (with permission) and donate this surplus produce to food banks, senior centers, and schools who can put this fresh food to good use.
Some residents view an abundant fruit tree as a problem but the 42-year-old clinical social worker sees a simple solution to excess bounty and a way to fill a community need.
Boissier grew up, in part, in Switzerland and remembers climbing her favorite walnut tree during her childhood. She’s turned her love of fruit picking into a kind of foraging philanthropy as the founder of North Berkeley Harvest.
Since the summer of 2007 Boissier and her loose-knit volunteer crew (about 30 in all, around 10 regulars) has harvested a cornucopia of fruit including apples, pears, Asian pears, oranges, lemons, limes, plums, peaches, figs, nectarines, apricots, persimmons, feijoas, grapefruits, sour cherries, walnuts, quinces, and loquats.
… Continue reading »
The Edible Schoolyard throws its big annual bash
This weekend offers the opportunity to celebrate and support one of Berkeley’s best ideas. The Edible Schoolyard at King Middle School will be hosting its annual plant sale in the garden. Schoolyard founder Alice Waters will be on hand on Saturday morning to meet, greet and sign copies of her new book, “In the Green Kitchen”; and Bakesale Betty’s will be serving its iconic organic chicken sandwiches.
King students have spent the past months cultivating the … Continue reading »
“Flanagan made me choke on my chard”
Berkeley freelance writer Sarah Henry, who muses about food and family matters on her blog, Lettuce Eat Kale, was so hot under the collar after reading Caitlin Flanagan’s “Cultivating Failure” article in The Atlantic, she had to wait a week to cool off before responding. Henry volunteers at King Middle School’s Edible Schoolyard. Here’s her view, first published on Lettuce Eat Kale:
I was so royally peeved by Caitlin Flanagan’s hatchet job on Alice Waters and the Continue reading »
Berkeley’s Edible Schoolyard under attack
An article which claims edible school gardens, such as Berkeley’s famous one at King Middle School, are “cheating our most vulnerable students”, is ruffling feathers, both on this site and more widely.
“Cultivating Failure”, written by Caitlin Flanagan and published in the January/February issue of The Atlantic, was brought to our attention by Berkeleyside reader Alicia. In the piece, Flanagan argues that children who grow vegetables as part of Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard project would be … Continue reading »
The Berkeley Wire: 12.17.09
King Middle School student found with unloaded gun [Daily Cal]
John Yoo critics turn attention to potential fellow lecturer [SF Chronicle]
Business owner keeps up hunt for brother’s killer 11 years on [NBC Bay Area]
Berkeley planet hunter finds three new super Earths [Chron.com]
Jahvid Best will not play the Pointsettia Bowl for Cal [Google]
[Photo of corner of Derby and Telegraph by rmnicholas from Berkeleyside Flickr pool]
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