The beat of the drums immediately arrests you, and the dancers grab the rhythm and keep you. You have been drawn into the drama even before you fully realize that the play has begun. The dancers fade out and return in time as the women who live and work in Mama Nadi’s bar. Women who service the men who savaged them, who have been spiritually and physically raped. Cast as “ruined.” “How do you begin to tackle a play that explores the effect of a brutal civil war on the women of the Democratic Republic of the Congo? A war where, as the Amnesty International saying goes ‘Rape is Cheaper than Bullets’; where there are no rules and where it is safer for women to work as a prostitute in a bro

Historically, landlords of multi-unit housing rental properties have been required to include 15% of “affordable” units for low and very low-income tenants. That is changing, in part due to a 2009 landmark court decision in Los Angeles (Palmer/Sixth Street Properties, L.P. v. City of Los Angeles). The court found that forcing landlords to provide low-income units without subsidies violated the Costa-Hawkins Act, which allows landlords to raise rents after tenants move out, effectively eliminating rent control. Why is a lack of Affordable Housing important? Consider… The jobless rate in Sacramento rose slightly last week to 11.4%.* About 93,000 jobless workers were recently notified tha

It goes through the mind of every woman who has ever wanted children: What if it doesn’t bond with me? Or…what if I don’t have that maternal instinct that everyone talks about, what if I don’t feel anything? I can only imagine the deluge of complicated feelings that wash over parents of a child who is born with mental or physical challenges. And if your child is of indeterminate…species? That could take post-partum depression to a whole new level. Such is the premise of Smudge, directed by KOLT Run Creations co-founder Lisa Thew. Colby and Nicholas Stillman are a happily married couple, eagerly anticipating the arrival of their first child, when an ambiguous ultrasound--one in which

  True or false: High school students in Sacramento are actively and enthusiastically involved in changing the way they and their families think about, shop for, and consume food? Absolutely true. And if this surprises you, you should have a chat with some of the teens involved in what could really be thought of as “living laboratories” of Hiram Johnson, Sacramento Charter, and Luther Burbank Senior High Schools. No doubt they are not the only adolescents interested in engaging in a healthier lifestyle, but they are the first local students to participate in a movement, co-founded by well-known celebrity heart surgeon and television host, Dr. Mehmet Oz, known as HealthCorps. The idea

First, a disclaimer: I have been a fan of The Nightcats since “Little Charlie” Baty fronted the band in the 80’s. Balancing this potential (but not actual) bias, however, was my lack of enthusiasm at the idea of venturing out, dateless, into the pouring rain on Saturday night to see them perform. But venture I did. I arrived at The Torch Club little after the beginning of the first set—which, by the way, lasted an amazingly energetic hour and fifteen minutes—and the place was already wall-to-wall people. I claimed the last empty barstool, and wished I’d dressed for the weather indoors, which was about ten degrees warmer than the nastiness outside. What little dance floor exists in front