Tom Dalzell has lived in Berkeley since 1984. After working for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers for 10 years as a legal worker and then lawyer, he went to work for another labor union in 1981 and has been there since, first as an attorney, and, since 2006, as its elected leader. In his free time he walks the streets of Berkeley, street by street and block by block, recording and photographing the quirky material culture that he finds. Dalzell, who is an expert on slang, writes the Quirky Berkeley blog and contributes to Berkeleyside about his finds, both in the present tense and with an occasional foray into Berkeley’s non-conformist past.
One bystander was killed, one was permanently blinded, and many others were hurt when police forces used lethal buckshot to corral demonstrators in at the park, newly created on UC Berkeley land, 50 years ago today.
Dozens of protests in support of civil rights, the student movement in France, the Black Panther movement and against the UC Regents set the stage for the creation of the Southside Berkeley park.
The creation and destruction of People's Park took 25 days in 1969. April 20 marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the building of the park.
In 1969, Tom Dunphy moved to Berkeley. His nickname and alternative persona was “General Wastemoreland,” alluding to and mocking General William Westmoreland who commanded United States Army forces in South Vietnam.
Join us on a brief exploration of the elephants of Berkeley, both three- and two-dimensional.
Let us linger on objects in Berkeley belonging, or appropriate to, a period other than today, especially an object that is conspicuously old-fashioned. Know of others? Give us a shout.
The family had created a quirky house on Russell Street. Fortunately, when they moved to Prince Street, they added some quirk to their new surroundings.
To visit the Berkeley studio of Susan Brooks is to step into a world of whim and quirk.
Telegraph Avenue was her stomping ground, her nation. She spent her days at the Caffe Med, drinking coffee, watching the world pass by and writing poetry. The City Council gave her a lifetime achievement award.
Tom Dalzell talks to the activist and writer who lived in Berkeley at an extraordinary time and was fully engaged in a series of history-changing movements.
Angel Jesus Perez, whose latest work, “Displacement of Beauty and Migration of Gentrification,” is on Alcatraz, is a bright addition to our city's cadre of muralists.
A charming "small village" in a front yard turns out to be the tip of the iceberg of a creative wonderland, created with the help of children, in North Berkeley.
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