Tag: Stanford University

4 p.m., Institute of Governmental Studies library, 109 Moses Hall, UC Berkeley. 6:30 p.m., Encinal Junior and Senior High School Student Center, 210 Central Ave., Alameda. “Charm City”: Screening of a documentary about violence in Baltimore and how a group of police, citizens, community leaders and government officials tried to combat it. 7 p.m., Evans Hall, UC Berkeley. 6:30 p.m. World Affairs Council, 312 Sutter St., Suite 200, San Francisco. Immigration issues: A discussion of immigration issues threatening vulnerable communities. Noon, online and at Golden Gate University, 536 Mission St., Room 2201, San Francisco. Josh Harder/TJ Cox: Newly elected Central Valley Democratic House members hold a thank-you event with Bay Area campaign volunteers. $30 for non-Commonwealth Club members, $10 for students. Green New Deal: A town hall on the congressional climate-change resolution, sponsored by the Sunrise Movement.

Panelists include John Temple, investigative reporting program director at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism; David Snyder, attorney and director of the First Amendment Coalition; and civil rights attorney Daniel Sheehan, who worked on the Pentagon Papers case. Sponsored by the Community Water Center, Sierra Club California, and the David Brower Center. Sponsored by YR Media and the Commonwealth Club’s Inforum. $30 for non-Commonwealth Club members, $10 for students. Sponsored by St. Andrew’s Society of San Francisco. 7 p.m., 1088 Green St., San Francisco. 7 p.m., 2969 Mission St., San Francisco. 10 a.m., starting and ending at the Women’s Building, 3543 18th St., San Francisco. 7 p.m., Evans Hall, UC Berkeley. $30 for non-Commonwealth Club members, $10 for students.

A master in the craft of glasswork, beginning in 2004 he took upon himself the four-year task of reinterpreting the Met’s so-called “sputniks” for his work “Island Universe.” The five sculptures he made, along with related works on paper and a 20-minute film, are on view at Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center through Aug. 18. Following repair in 2016 of the machinery that raises and lowers the Metropolitan Opera’s crystal chandeliers, the Met produced this video to announce that the light fixtures “once again rise elegantly to the ceiling to signal the beginning of each performance.” The chandeliers partly inspired Josiah McElheny’s “Island Universe.” This video by the Metropolitan Opera, used by permission, is not the artist’s film shown in the exhibition. McElheny was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 2006. He is surely the only glass artist to achieve that distinction, and it was based primarily upon the conceptual rigor of his work, not his exquisite craftsmanship. Or, as in the case of “Island Universe,” teases out the significance that lies behind the ornamental surface of utilitarian objects. Hans Harald Rath, designer for the Austrian glassware company Lobmeyr, worked closely with architect Wallace K. Harrison, who so wanted to invoke space and the stars that he sent to Rath a book by a prominent astrophysicist, marking specific pages. It was 1963, just as the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe was entering popular consciousness. McElheny’s installation at the Cantor is evidence of an ever deeper investigation, referencing ideas of our universe as just one “island” among many. “The center is everywhere,” Blanqui wrote, which suggests a democracy of the physical world. “Josiah McElheny: Island Universe”: 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Wednesday-Monday; until 8 p.m. Thursdays.

Public bank: Strategy session for organizing a San Francisco public bank. The Women’s Building, 3543 18th St., San Francisco. Politics 101: United Democratic Club presents San Francisco Politics 101, an introductory course on politics with a panel of experts and activists. 6:30 p.m., 3092 16th St., San Francisco. Sponsored by San Francisco Party for Socialism and Liberation. 2 p.m., San Mateo Public Library, 55 West Third Ave. More information is here. 9:30 a.m., Grace Cathedral, 1100 California St., San Francisco. Free; advance registration recommended. 6:30 p.m., World Affairs Auditorium, 312 Sutter St., Suite 200, San Francisco. Sponsored by Center for Latin American Studies at UC Berkeley.

The Women’s Building, 3543 18th St., San Francisco. 6 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. 6:30 p.m., Manny’s, 3092 16th St., San Francisco. 6:30 p.m., 3092 16th St., San Francisco. Free; advance registration recommended. 6:30 p.m., World Affairs Auditorium, 312 Sutter St., Suite 200, San Francisco. Sponsored by Center for Latin American Studies at UC Berkeley. 6:30 p.m. 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. 6:30 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. 6:30 p.m. at Manny’s, 3092 16th St., San Francisco.

New Oakland council members: Inauguration celebration for new Oakland City Council members Nikki Fortunato Bas, Sheng Thao and Loren Taylor. $15 for members, $20 for nonmembers. 6 p.m., 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco. 6:30 p.m., Manny’s, 3092 16th St., San Francisco. 6:30 p.m., 3092 16th St., San Francisco. 2 p.m., San Mateo Public Library, 55 West Third Ave. More information is here. Free; advance registration recommended. 6:30 p.m., World Affairs Auditorium, 312 Sutter St., Suite 200, San Francisco. $20 for non-Commonwealth Club members, $7 for students. 6:30 p.m. 110 Embarcadero, San Francisco.

Yamamoto was born Oct. 19, 1918. Jordan, founding president of Stanford University, was a progressive reformer who thought society could be improved through sterilization and selective breeding. Fred Yamamoto as a member of the 442 RCT. The board formed a committee to recommend new names. Many cited the Nanjing massacre of 1937 in emotional testimony. “There exist certain hurt [feelings] when the last name ‘Yamamoto’ is mentioned, especially for Asian immigrants whose families were tragically affected in China, Korea and Southeast Asian countries during World War II,” a petition said. Further, some asked, if it’s wrong to object to Fred Yamamoto’s surname because Adm. Yamamoto shared it, why did the district scrap Frederick Terman’s name because of his father’s views? “Taiwan was colonized by Japan for 50 years.” Kathy Jordan, a former professional tennis player who had opposed naming the school for Yamamoto, ran an insurgent campaign for school board which won significant support from Chinese immigrant parents. We don’t want to see this kind of thing happen again here.” He asked to remain anonymous. Complaints of insensitivity and trauma have become distinctive marks of Americanness.

Today’s intersection of race, politics and sports harks back to the 1960’s. They could be setting themselves up for years of regret, knowing that when the times called for action they did nothing. Today’s NFL players have their reasons for engaging in the protests, or not. Those who are quietly sympathetic to the cause, but aren’t saying or doing anything about it, should take heed of Bob Cousy, a man from a different time and sport. But that’s what Cousy is doing. In answer to his conscience, Cousy wishes that, as team captain, he had privately pulled aside Russell during those seasons between 1957 and 1963 and said, “Russ, I’ve got your back.” He also wishes he had spoken out, even telling Boston’s white sportswriters, “I understand Russ’s feelings. When conscience comes into conflict with the wallet, conscience rarely wins – perhaps especially so in the NFL. San Francisco cornerback Richard Sherman, an African-American, says it “would mean a great deal” if more white players took part in the protests or spoke out in support of them. Sherman understands an NFL player’s need to protect his job: “This is your livelihood. At long last, Cousy had answered to his conscience.

No wonder our politics are so polarized: We all feel we're being dissed, and we take it very personally. In an interview from his Stanford University office on Monday, he discussed this increasing fragmentation, how it showed itself in the recent controversy over now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and how we could get to a shared identity as Americans. How you interpreted them depended upon your identity, and, increasingly, our identity is defined in partisan terms. If the court tries to dismantle what people consider settled law in a dramatic fashion, it's going to produce a very big political controversy, in a way that will threaten the court's legitimacy. I recently spoke to a political scientist who argued the next Democratic president who has a Democratic Senate should immediately expand the Supreme Court from nine to 11 seats. Do we need to make some fundamental changes in how we elect our president and representatives? There's a significant possibility that the Republicans will continue to hold onto the presidency, as the Democrats keep winning the popular vote. There are a lot of people who have a legitimate claim to not being adequately recognized. I make the point in my book that the Constitution doesn't define who the "American people" are. If you had a leader who didn't want to opportunistically divide people on identity grounds, but rather spoke up in favor of a broader identity, that would do a lot to reverse these current trends.