Explore the Museum of Sonoma County in a Virtual Escape Room

Though the Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa is currently closed to support the local efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, it continues to engage the public with online content including an online coloring book and digital records of its permanent collection of historical Sonoma County artifacts and art.

But, just when you think it’s safe to virtually delve into the museum’s collection, located in the storage area under the historic 1910 Santa Rosa Post Office building, the door closes and locks behind you! There’s only one way out in the Museum of Sonoma County’s Virtual Escape Room—discover local art and history while you search for clues to get the key to the locked door.

Get up close and personal as you search through objects including a purse made by a Miwok woman out of gold-miner bootlaces in 1895, or the painting “Daughter and Cat” by Marguerite Wildenhain, the renowned potter from Pond Farm in Guerneville.

After you’ve made your escape, view more items from the Museum of Sonoma County’s extensive collection or travel back in time with videos like this one about the Historic 1910 Santa Rosa Post Office, narrated by Peter Coyote.

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Governor Won’t Touch the Tap

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Building on efforts to provide support for residents during the statewide State of Emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom today suspended public water systems’ ability to disconnect water service to residences and critical infrastructure sector small businesses.

The executive order issued today builds on the steps already taken by the California Public Utilities Commission for private water systems and more than 100 public water systems within the state that have adopted their own policies for not shutting off water service to residents facing financial distress during the health emergency.

California Secretary for Environmental Protection Jared Blumenfeld praised the governor’s leadership in ensuring safe and affordable drinking water. “A lot of communities and families are having their water shut off,” Blumenfeld said. “This executive order allows for water to be turned back on and not shut off during this emergency – both residences and critical workforce small businesses.” The Secretary added that water shutoffs have created hardships, but “This will do a huge amount to change that.”

“Access to water and sanitation are critical to maintain in the midst of this public health crisis,” said State Water Resources Control Board Chair E. Joaquin Esquivel. “If individuals and families are cut off from running water or sanitation, the lack of access can compound the public health challenges we face.

“Many of our state’s public water agencies have shown incredible leadership by voluntarily providing these critical protections to their customers. This order will ensure there is statewide protection for Californians as we remain in our homes and follow the guidance of our public health experts. These protections and the ongoing crisis may create challenges for our state’s public water systems, and the State Water Board is committed to working with agencies experiencing difficulties.”

In addition to a prohibition on residential and critical infrastructure sector small business water shutoffs, the executive order requires water systems to restore service to residences that were shut off for non-payment after the March 4, 2020, emergency proclamation. The order also directs that State Water Board to identify ways to support water systems and their customers throughout the crisis.

To implement the executive order, the State Water Board is working on several interactive websites for water customers and drinking water systems. As soon as those portals are ready, they will be posted on the State Water Board’s website found at waterboards.ca.gov.

This North Bay Music Fest Is Hitting the Couch for an Online Tour


Flatbed Music Festival, scheduled to take over Sebastopol between June 4 and 6, is still hopeful that their plan to host 30 shows on 10 stages with over 60 Sonoma County–grown musicians will happen despite recent shelter-in-place orders to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Yet, the organizers of the festival, which works with organizations including Play It Forward Music School and others dedicated to providing musical arts education in Sonoma County, are well aware that many of their booked performers are economically hurting right now as all concerts are canceled through April.

This week, the festival is responding to the crisis by launching a fundraising Flatbed Couch Concert Tour, happening online throughout the next month.

The festival’s first couch concert, on Friday, April 3, features an intimate performance by Stephanie Salva and Adam Walsh of local Americana duo Tumbleweed Soul. In the following weeks, the couch concert tour will spotlight many other musicians from the festival’s June lineup.

Tumbleweed Soul performs live on Flatbed Music Festival’s Facebook page, Friday, April 3, at 7pm PST. Tune in and join the fun from the comfort of your own couch, and don’t forget to click the virtual tip jar to help raise funds for the performers.

Street Stories

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Edward Campagnola has a story to tell. Currently living as an unsheltered resident in Sonoma County, he spent the last five years writing his story, and last year he released his debut novel, Directions to the Dumpster.


Now available on Amazon.com, the book traces Campagnola’s journey in homelessness and his attempts to get out of it. The book also dispel preconceptions about homelessness and combats the stigma of it with a call for awareness and compassion.

“I’ve been in a cave really for five years,” Campagnola says. “You’re lucky if you have a phone, you know what day it is. I would lose days if I didn’t have a phone, but having it is a security risk.”

This glimpse into Campagnola’s daily experience is one of the book’s many details that dissolves the reader’s veil of ignorance and exposes them to the reality of what unsheltered residents go through day to day.

The title of the book, Directions to the Dumpster, is a phrase Campagnola uses literally and figuratively. He argues that in a capitalist society, the homeless are seen as worthless, while they also often get directions to the dumpster when they reach out for help.

Originally from New Jersey, Campagnola traveled to New Orleans, Houston and Las Vegas after the death of his wife. At one point in his travels he suffered a violent, random attack on a California-bound Greyhound bus that left him with PTSD. When he arrived in Sonoma County, words began to pour out of him. Campagnola wrote the novel as a form of therapy, as a way to reconnect with his adult children and to give society a better understanding of homelessness in America.

Campagnola describes his book as a documentary-style narrative, detailing events as they occurred and letting the reader make their own personal connection.

Though Campagnola secured a publisher, the book is an entirely DIY experience, with Campagnola editing and promoting the book on his own. The road to publishing was a long one, but he’s ready to do it again.

“The book’s a cliffhanger,” Campagnola says. “I’ve already started writing the sequel. The title will be Directions Home.”

‘Directions to the Dumpster’ is available online.

Found In Translation

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The silver lining of sheltering in place is that we can still read books. With all scheduled book events cancelled, many authors debuting books right now have lost the opportunity to publicize their work in person. The new translation of Plagios/Plagiarisms by Mexican poet Ulalume González de León is a case in point.

Local trio Terry Ehret, Nancy Morales and John Johnson have just released their collaborative translation of González de León’s poetry. So read this article and then read the book. You can even brush up on your Spanish at the same time—as the poems are in both languages.

González de León, or UGL as she calls herself, was born in Uruguay to bohemian poet parents in 1928. She studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and the University of Mexico and became a Mexican citizen in 1948. She was part of a movement of women writers in the ’60s and ’70s who experimented with personal identity and language itself in their work.

Poet Terry Ehret, who served as poet laureate of Sonoma County from 2004–2006, first encountered González de León’s work in grad school in 1982, not realizing González de León was a female poet. “I was instantly enthralled by the language; richly erotic imagery blending anatomical and scientific vocabulary in an unconventional syntax,” Ehret says.

When she later wanted to read more work by the poet, Ehret discovered the misleading gender identity, which she found was tolerated and even perpetuated by the poet herself. Ehret began translating some of González de León’s poems in 2012.

González de León was a contemporary of Carlos Fuentes, Ramón Xirau and Octavio Paz—her friend and literary colleague who, in 1978, wrote the introduction to the original, Spanish-language version of her book. Her work, while popular in Mexico, had not previously been translated into English, limiting her global audience. The fact that she was a woman likely played a part. “I suspect this was a consequence of her gender,” Ehret says. “In much the same way that Chilean-poet Gabriela Mistral was always eclipsed by her contemporary Pablo Neruda, despite her being the first Latin American writer—and only Latin American woman—to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.”

Co-collaborator John Johnson learned about González de León as a student in Ehret’s writing class in 2003. Years later, he introduced Nancy Morales to the Mexican poet’s work while taking her Spanish class, which included Spanish literature in its curriculum.

“In poetry, depending on the poem,” Morales says, “I enjoy how quickly one can engage with the richness and complexity of the language, the artist, the culture and simultaneously their own thoughts, reflections and values.”

Johnson asked Morales to review some of his translations of the poems, which evolved into a collaboration.

“It became clear immediately that she wasn’t simply reviewing my translations—Nancy and I were translating the poems together,” Johnson says.

He told her about Ehret and when they contacted her, the trio of translators was born.

“This creative outlet was a lifesaver,” Morales says. “It was an escape from my personal reality to a place that was imaginative, creative, interesting, unique, beautiful, mysterious, safe and bigger than me and my personal situation. I was, and I am, very grateful.”

While Johnson had no previous translation experience, Morales had written translations for medical and educational purposes. Ehret had extensive experience with personal translation projects. The team met on weekends at the Sunflower Cafe in Sonoma. Ehret and Johnson brought independently translated poems and Nancy translated on the spot. Then the three compared versions and combined them in the way they thought best.

“Once we had a sense of the original poem, we tried to make it sound like a poem in English, an endeavor that could go on for hours, days,” explains Johnson.

“I remember being struck with how translation involved ‘bargaining’ to arrive at one of many possible versions/interpretations in English,” Ehret recalls. “I realized that neither the connotations nor denotations of words could ever be carried over to my own language. I had to settle for an approximation, with so much left unsaid in the margins. We really need the give and take, the perceptions and expertise, of each member of the team to compose a translation we’re all comfortable with. Collaboration like this is slow-going.”

Indeed, it is rare for a group to embark on this kind of difficult endeavor, and the trio were not without their challenges.

“Despite our efforts, now and then we were unable to agree on a single translation, and we would put the poem aside and move on,” Johnson says. “Without ever saying so, we expected our individual interpretations to fit inside a single translation.”

The translators found certain cultural references mysterious and had to track down their meaning. Sometimes these references held and other times the references themselves needed translation. For example, the phrase “los Trescientos,” or “three hundred and a few more,” refers to a specific group of wealthy families who lived in Mexico City in the mid-20th century while attempting to hold onto their prestige and privilege.

“Because 21st-century readers of English are not likely to be familiar with ‘Los Trescientos,’ we took the liberty of calling them ‘the One Percent,’” Johnson says.

This illuminates one of the main compromises with translations—the trade-offs that must be made, in this case, to either communicate the message and ideal of the work or to preserve a potentially confusing cultural reference. In this translation, the reference to a specific historic group in Mexico is lost, but the meaning behind the reference is made clearer to the modern, English-speaking audience.

“Many times in our collaboration, the words that were chosen fell flat for me,” Morales says. “I felt the words didn’t give me the picture that the original Spanish painted for me. Often, this was a hard one to negotiate—how to create an equally beautiful poem in English.”

Ehret explains how difficult it was to either “Keep UGL’s idiosyncratic wording, grammar and syntax—part of her style—or to render the poem more accessible, more ‘readable’ in English.” “Many of my friends have told me how much they love the lyricism of looser translations, such as Robert Bly’s, Coleman Barks’ and Stephen Mitchell’s,” she says. “Many of our readers will be encountering UGL for the first time in this book. We want to invite them into this poet’s work without blunting her edginess or simplifying her style.”

After six years of creative collaboration, the book delivers—in both its literal and energetic interpretations—and brings a new literary figure to the English-speaking world.

‘Plagios/Plagiarisms’ by Ulalume González de León can be purchased online at Copperfield’s Books Online, Amazon or at Sixteen Rivers Press. For more information, go to: sixteenrivers.org

Hard Bound

Since opening in 1981, Copperfield’s Books has survived earthquakes, fires and floods, and fought off big box stores and the Internet itself.

The independent bookseller not only survived these adversaries and events, it’s thrived; with nine locations in Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties.

Yet, it’s never faced an economic threat like the current shelter-in-place that looms over the North Bay during the coronavirus outbreak. Co-owner and co-founder Paul Jaffe discusses how his business is coping.

First and foremost, how is your health and the health of your staff?

PAUL JAFFE: We’ve been checking in, there’s nobody on our staff who currently has the coronavirus. Two of my managers, right before it broke, came back from a trip to Paris and they did self-quarantine for 14 days, but nobody that we know has Covid-19.

Have you had to lay-off or furlough people on your staff (which numbers 120)?

Yes, pretty much everybody. There’s only a handful of people working part-time, including myself and another person in another part of the building handling unemployment claims.

What steps are you taking for online ordering and shipping?

Our online store is fully functional. If people order from us, books will be shipped directly to their homes. I know there are some other bookstores who are doing some curbside pickup, we’re not ready to do anything like that at the moment. Right now, the best thing for sure would be to order online. That would be a huge support for us in this very challenging time.

Is Copperfield’s Books better or worse positioned than other bookstores facing the same challenges?

I wouldn’t want to say better or worse, there’s some bookstores with only three employees who may not have the safety net we do, not that we have a big one.

Given the uncertainty of the current situation, what do you think about when you contemplate the near future?

Our motto has always been “creating community together,” and that’s why we’re such a part of the social fabric of every community where we have a store. We miss providing that service, but we know we need to sleep well and get healthy, and definitely be ready to open when we are allowed to.

Copperfield’s Books is online at copperfieldsbooks.com.

Radio Daze

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Brian Griffith’s office has been quiet lately. A little too quiet. The host of 91.1 FM radio station KRCB’s Music Mornings program usually greets a full staff at the station, but for the last two weeks of sheltering-in-place, he’s been alone in the studio.

“Everybody but essential workers are working from home; the radio hosts like Doug (Jayne) and I are there in the studio,” says Griffith. “Mark (Prell), who hosts ‘Morning Edition,’ is there when I get there. He takes off, I take over. I wipe down the board with disinfectant, wearing gloves. It’s pretty surreal.” Griffith’s program offers up classic rock, country, folk and other eclectic musical selections. On a recent Monday, he played a bit of a pandemic playlist featuring tunes like “Splendid Isolation” by Warren Zevon and “Storms Never Last” by John Prine, who himself is hospitalized with COVID-19.

“It’s harder than usual to pick music to play,” Griffith says. “You want something that’s not too depressing.”

Listeners have responded positively to Griffith and other radio hosts who are becoming more and more a lifeline for those stuck at home.

“It’s weird, because you’re in a room by yourself talking into a microphone, and you don’t know who is on the other end,” he says. “It’s nice to know that people are tuning in.”

Griffith notes the station also airs up-to-the-minute news, though KRCB, with other NPR affiliates, refuses to air the president’s uninformative coronavirus briefings. KRCB also offers comprehensive coronavirus coverage with its weekly hosted town halls with local experts and officials.

Not every station still runs this way—groups like Wine Country Radio, which run the Krush 95.9 FM among other stations, are automating during the shelter-in-place, meaning DJs like long-running bluesman Bill Bowker are stuck at home.

“We are going on a week-to-week basis,” Bowker says.

Some hosts, like Andre De Channes, are able to broadcast from home, but Bowker’s slot and others have become automated programs. It’s an unprecedented time for Bowker, who’s been on the air every week for 40-some-odd years.

“It’s an anxious feeling,” he says. “I’m still listening to new music sitting in my den, but I’m also wanting to be able to ‘spin them,’ as they say.”

Like most people, Bowker’s main concern remains on staying healthy.

“For Wine Country Radio to do a shelter-in-place, that totally makes sense,” he says. “We will get back to normal.”

Open Mic: Why are libraries closed during pandemic?

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By Ann Hammond

On March 13, in response to the rapidly growing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Sonoma County Library made the difficult decision to cancel events taking place in our libraries. A few days later we closed all library facilities, in compliance with the county shelter-in-place order.

No library director ever wants to close a library. It’s a heartbreaking choice, but staying closed is the right thing to do, to protect the public and our staff. The closure is all-encompassing. We are unable to offer curbside pickup for books and other materials, or accept returns of borrowed materials (although all due dates have been extended).

The county’s Emergency Operations Center issued a statement. It reads, in part:

“Librarians should be home and sheltered in place. They are not essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Library staff are not equipped to safely handle physical books and interact with the public. We must weigh our desire for the pleasure of reading with the health risk to the librarians. Library patrons are reminded that there are books available electronically through our public library system.”

Sonoma County is not alone in this regard. The largest library associations in the nation, including the American Library Association and the California Library Association, are strongly recommending that libraries suspend operations during this time, while we do our part to slow the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, the Sonoma County Library is working diligently to plan how to reopen quickly and effectively when it is safe, and we are adding new and exciting materials to our 24/7 online library. Visit sonomalibrary.org to access tens of thousands of electronic books, audiobooks, TV shows, movies, magazines, instructional videos, research databases and more. Your kids can even watch cartoons and animated storybooks. We have Spanish-language resources as well.

We thank everyone who misses their library. We miss you, too and we will be so happy to see you in our branches when we reopen!

Ann Hammond is the Sonoma County Library Director. We welcome your contribution. To have your topical essay of 350 words considered for publication, write to [email protected].

Online Gallery Calls for Sonoma County Stay-at-Home Art

Now that orders in Sonoma County are to stay at home through April due to the coronavirus outbreak, more and more events and gatherings are moving online in an attempt to keep the community connected while individuals remain isolated.

Bill Shelley and Chris Beards, co-founders of Blasted Art Gallery, are hosting an online art exhibit to do just that, and inviting Sonoma County artists currently under sheltering orders to contribute to the upcoming exhibit, “Sonoma County: Flattening the Curve.”

The online-only exhibit is meant for artists to share their creative reflections and responses to the stay-at-home order, COVID-19, or related concepts. “There are no wrong responses to this historic event if they are honest,” Shelley and Beards state in their call for art. “Show us what you’re thinking and feeling!”

The one requirement is that the work must have been made since Sonoma County’s stay-at-home order began. Submissions are due April 12.

“Sonoma County: Flattening the Curve” opens with an online reception that will take place on Friday, April 17th, at 7pm on Blasted Art Gallery’s Facebook page.

Click here to read the call for art, or watch the video below.

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‘Bohemian’ Reporters Win Top California Newspaper Awards

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The California News Publishers Association (CNPA) honored the Bohemian on Tuesday with two awards for articles published last year, praising the paper for a “blockbuster piece of reporting” and an arts feature that captured Petaluma’s quirky side.

The Bohemian won first place in Investigative Reporting for a Weekly Newspaper and fifth place for Arts & Entertainment Coverage.

Investigative Reporting

Bohemian-contributor Peter Byrne and Bohemian news reporter Will Carruthers won first place in the Investigative Reporting category for “Charity Case,” their November article about the Rebuild North Bay Foundation.

“This is a blockbuster piece of reporting,” the CNPA judges wrote. “The reporters combed through incredibly detailed records to document a shocking abuse of regulations governing charitable non-profits, and in the process graphically displayed the disgrace of a daily newspaper once counted among the nation’s best for its size. It’s hard to imagine a weekly more admirably fulfilling its mission.”

“Charity Case,” part of the “Power Brokers” series, scrutinized the actions of the Rebuild North Bay Foundation, a PG&E-funded nonprofit founded by Darius Anderson, a lobbyist and an owner of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and other North Bay newspapers.

Find the first two parts of “The Power Brokers” series—“Juiced,” July 24, 2019 and “Charity Case,” Nov. 20, 2019—online.

The Fund for Investigative Journalism supports “The Power Brokers” series, which receives pro-bono legal assistance from attorneys at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Arts and Entertainment

Bohemian Arts Editor Charlie Swanson won a fifth-place award in the Arts & Entertainment category for “Welcome to Lumaville,” his article about Pill Head, a 2019 film featuring Petaluma (the film was directed by Bohemian editor Daedalus Howell prior to his tenure at the paper).

“This story is all about community,” the CNPA judges wrote. “It nicely embraces Petaluma’s quirkiness—telling the story of a film by intertwining lots of different local perspectives and ties to Petaluma (film history of the region, hometown ties of the actress, cameos by local characters, etc.). Well done!”


Explore the Museum of Sonoma County in a Virtual Escape Room

Discover local art and history with new online experience.

Governor Won’t Touch the Tap

Building on efforts to provide support for residents during the statewide State of Emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom today suspended public water systems’ ability to disconnect water service to residences and critical infrastructure sector small businesses. The executive order issued today builds on the steps already taken by the California Public Utilities Commission for...

This North Bay Music Fest Is Hitting the Couch for an Online Tour

Tumbleweed Soul kicks off the concert series on Friday, April 3.

Street Stories

Edward Campagnola has a story to tell. Currently living as an unsheltered resident in Sonoma County, he spent the last five years writing his story, and last year he released his debut novel, Directions to the Dumpster. Now available on Amazon.com, the book traces Campagnola’s journey in homelessness and his attempts to get out of it....

Found In Translation

The silver lining of sheltering in place is that we can still read books. With all scheduled book events cancelled, many authors debuting books right now have lost the opportunity to publicize their work in person. The new translation of Plagios/Plagiarisms by Mexican poet Ulalume González de León is a case in point. Local trio...

Hard Bound

Since opening in 1981, Copperfield’s Books has survived earthquakes, fires and floods, and fought off big box stores and the Internet itself. The independent bookseller not only survived these adversaries and events, it’s thrived; with nine locations in Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties. Yet, it’s never faced an economic threat like the current...

Radio Daze

Brian Griffith’s office has been quiet lately. A little too quiet. The host of 91.1 FM radio station KRCB’s Music Mornings program usually greets a full staff at the station, but for the last two weeks of sheltering-in-place, he’s been alone in the studio. “Everybody but essential workers are working from home; the radio hosts like Doug...

Open Mic: Why are libraries closed during pandemic?

By Ann Hammond On March 13, in response to the rapidly growing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Sonoma County Library made the difficult decision to cancel events taking place in our libraries. A few days later we closed all library facilities, in compliance with the county shelter-in-place order. No library director ever wants to close a library. It’s...

Online Gallery Calls for Sonoma County Stay-at-Home Art

Exhibit set to open on Facebook in mid-April.

‘Bohemian’ Reporters Win Top California Newspaper Awards

The California News Publishers Association (CNPA) honored the Bohemian on Tuesday with two awards for articles published last year, praising the paper for a “blockbuster piece of reporting” and an arts feature that captured Petaluma’s quirky side. ...
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