Page 12 | Bohemian | Sonoma & Napa Counties

Artists at Work, Marin’s Rancho Roots and History Impresarios

Crush

Weeklys Staff

Jan 20, 2026

Sausalito

Artists at Work

ICB ART kicks off the year by throwing open the doors to one of Sausalito’s most quietly industrious creative hubs. Artists at Work offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look inside the historic ICB Building, where more than 60 artists—working across painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, textiles and beyond—invite the public into their studios while the work is actually happening. Spread across three floors of waterfront space, the event lets visitors wander, ask questions and watch ideas take shape in real time, from experiments that almost work to pieces ready to go home with a new owner. Offered just twice a year, Artists at Work is part open studio, part cultural field trip and part reminder that Sausalito’s art scene is very much a living, working organism. 11am–5pm, Saturday, Jan. 24, ICB Building, 480 Gate 5 Rd., Sausalito. Free admission; free parking; all ages welcome. More info at icbart.com.

San Rafael

Rancho Roots

Marin History Museum opens the doors to a deeper layer of local history with Rancho Roots: The Californio Legacy in Marin, a new bilingual exhibition that traces the enduring influence of Spanish and Mexican settlers who established ranchos across Marin County in the early 19th century. Through artifacts, storytelling and hands-on interactive displays, the exhibition explores how Californios shaped the region’s land use, agriculture, place names and cultural identity—threads that still run through Marin’s farms and communities today. 11am–3pm, Saturday, Jan. 24, Marin History Museum, 1125 B St., San Rafael. Free.

Sonoma

Gold on the Roof

History gets theatrical—and a little supernatural—inside the Buena Vista Winery legendary Bubble Lounge with Gold on the Roof, the latest installment from Sonoma History Cabaret. Created and performed by local history impresarios George Webber and CW Bayer, the show summons Zoltar the Magnificent, a spiritualist armed with Andronico Vallejo’s mystical guitar, who attempts to clear the afterlife reputation of Count Agoston Haraszthy, Buena Vista’s famously controversial founder. Accused of embezzlement in life and apparently still stewing over it in death, the count returns to help uncover the “real” culprit—through means both historical and hilariously theatrical. Admission includes a glass of Champagne, sparkling wine or white wine, with additional pours available. 4–5pm, Saturday, Jan. 24, Buena Vista Historical Winery, 18000 Old Winery Rd., Sonoma. $75.

Petaluma

Flow and Form

Usher Gallery opens its 2026 exhibition calendar with Explorations in Flow and Form, a joint show pairing the intuitive abstractions of Catrina Walker and Nicole Mathers. Though distinct in process, both artists work from a place of movement and responsiveness—letting material, gesture and repetition guide the work rather than fixed imagery. The opening reception invites viewers to meet the artists, with live music by Jethro Jeremiah alongside light refreshments and wine. It’s a community-forward evening that reflects the gallery’s emphasis on local voices and exploratory practice. 5–8pm, Saturday, Jan. 24, Usher Gallery, 1 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma. Free. More info at ushergallerypetaluma.com.

Freedom From Fear: What We Can Do Here and Now

Cincinnatus Hibbard

Jan 20, 2026

Freedom From Fear: What We Can Do Here and Now

This is the third and final piece of a three-part series on ongoing issues with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as it reaches into our areas. -–Editor

Part 3: Fear Is Control

“Freedom from fear” was the fourth of four freedoms defining democracy President Franklin D. Roosevelt framed in his rally cry to fight fascist conquest from without. It is openly debated whether America is now fighting a fascist takeover from within.

It may be debated, but only because the would-be dictators of the world will always disguise their plays for power in the mock forms of democratic legality (e.g., declaring a fake emergency, attacking political rivals through trumped-up legal charges or holding rigged elections).

But there can be no disguising the fear. Fear is how authoritarians maintain control, how they keep the people head down and silent—hardworking, obsequious, compliant. In any country in the world, the questions, “Do you fear the president?,” “Do you fear the government?” and “Do you fear the police?” cut through the political lies to the truth.

Wherever one stands on the political spectrum running blue, purple, red, there can be no doubt that in America a great fear is rising.

Fighting Fear Itself

“Power, not panic” is the slogan with which “immigrant defense coordinator” Gina Garibo signs off every email. I was always relieved to see it. In the process of my research, I met a great many professionals, protesters and volunteers just like Gina, “Esteban” and “Marisol.” Some are working openly. And some are working in the new underground resistance.

They are part of a great mobilization of people gathering around a strategic arc of methods for confronting ICE terror. It is a thrilling thing to witness, but still much more support is needed if they are to succeed. “Expanded capacity” is the watchword among these groups.

Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” passed last summer by a cowed millionaire’s Congress that doubled the ICE budget to $80 billion. A crash recruitment drive is setting targets to recruit another 18,000 officers to the president’s private police force (The Economist, “Trumpforce”).

California is a “sanctuary state” with the highest percentage of undocumented people in the U.S. (7%). It is governed by one of Trump’s strongest opponents now and in the 2028 election—democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. California is going to be heavily targeted. ICE will return to San Francisco. “It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better,” “Esteban” told me when we first met at the “American nostalgia” diner.

The activists I spoke to invite our readers to look at these elements of their adapting strategy and try to find their part in it. Whether our readers are motivated by the fight for immigrants’ human rights and dignity, or to fight for the rights of the poor, minority rights, anti-racism, the fight against the billionaires, public safety, national security, or by the preservation of our constitutional rights, these activists urge them to find their part in this fight. ICE is now the flashpoint in the fight against fear. Use these terms and names to begin one’s own research. Be brave; be unafraid. Fight.

Sanctuary States, Counties and Cities

Sanctuary declarations are based in constitutional law which except state and local officials in assisting in the enforcement of federal laws. The phrase “sanctuary” relates these laws to a religious tradition of sacred sanctuaries for the oppressed, amplifying moral outrage at their violation. Ultimately, they are a local declaration of passive non-cooperation with ICE—with no necessary commitment to resistance or to assistance to those who are fighting.

Putting Pressure on Elected Officials

Claudia Rios Manzo, the program director of the Sacramento F.U.E.L., a network of organizations for immigrants, recommended this key piece. Ask elected representatives what they are doing to actively support our undocumented neighbors. Through funding and partnerships, local government can support those actively fighting ICE terror for all of us. Help them be brave; even U.S. senators feel unsafe in this terror.

Boycotts

Conscientious consumerism quietly remains one of our most powerful political tools. In this way, the people can lead powerful corporations that have no morality but will always follow the money like cattle. Don’t buy from the corporations that have contributed to Trump in the last year or have contracts to supply ICE. If one has stocks in these companies—dump them.

Marches

Along with local chapters of No Kings, a host of local and national groups are organizing a wide range of non-violent protests across the Bay Area. There are many calendars—I suggest the calendar at actiontogetherwest.org. I would also recommend Gene Sharp’s “Methods of Non Violent Action.” Boycotts and marches are just two of the 198 methods of resistance listed in its pages.

Be Out

This part of resistance was advised by activists, especially for Latinos and for persons of color. It is advice for all the communities that feel targeted by this administration (such as LGBTQ persons):

Be safe. Take care of oneself. And to the extent that it is consistent with safety (in one’s personal assessment), be out. Continue to go out—show one’s face; be loud; take one’s place; be proud. Gather. Dance. Live lives as free people. It is a political act. It is effective resistance. They want people to hide, and hide who they are. Be out.

Allies are advised to recognize, honor and support this everyday courage.

Talk About These Issues

Use platforms to keep these issues out in front. Have conversations with friends and family. Continue to educate oneself.

Print and Digitally Distribute Red Cards / Tarajetas Rojas

These index cards, available in 56 languages, have been prepared by the influential Immigrant Legal Resource Center. They have constitutionally protected immigrant rights printed on one side, and a script for talking to ICE agents on the other.

Keep the Number of One’s Local Rapid Response Network on One’s Phone

These networks collect and verify crowdsourced ICE sightings in one’s area and send trained legal monitors to observe and document ICE activity and arrests.

Look up “California Rapid Response Networks” to find one’s local network. And read up on how to identify ICE—false alarms fan the fear.

Train to Be a Legal Observer

Abigail [redacted], a legal observer for rapid response, suggested going to a training by one’s local network without commitment and “make your own assessment of personal risk” after. Some trainees may choose to become rapid responders, others to participate in “adopt-a-school” or “adopt-a-day labor site” programs or be observers at community events that might be targeted. Still other trainees become public sources of good information.

Besides adding to the safety of our immigrant friends and neighbors, observers’ video documentation discourages rights abuses by ICE agents, helps identify detained persons for family and becomes evidence in deportation hearings.

If One Is an Attorney, Consider Volunteering

There are corresponding rapid response networks for defense attorneys. Contact the Immigrant Legal Resource Center or one’s local rapid response network to learn more.

Volunteer

Donate time and skills to local immigrant rights groups. And also do the same for the food banks, community free clinics and homeless shelters, community of service providers that supply their very limited social safety net.

Donate

Donate money to those same local and national organizations. I will add that there is a special moral obligation on the part of employers in industries that have benefitted from hard-worked and cheap immigrant labor to donate. Immigrants have given to us; now it is time to give back.

Check in With Neighbors

Immigrant communities are fragmenting; families are isolated and scared right now. People of color are intimidated. Abigail [reacted] had this further piece of advice: “Reach out to each other. If you happen to know they are undocumented, offer to pick up their groceries. Let them know that you are on their side.”

Meet these people and build community. Force does indeed check force, but ultimately, communal love is the power that fights fear directly. And most assuredly, love wins.

CODA

After our intense interviews with the farm workers, “Esteban” wanted to show “Marisol” and me his grandfather’s old wooden plow by way of refreshment. “He fed 10 children with that plow,” “Esteban” said with pride.

It made me think, once again, how fundamentally similar working class Mexicans and Americans are (they are rural, independent, truck driving, beer and barbecue loving, church-going family people, wanting only to work a square deal and for the government to leave them in peace).

At one point on our walk over crunching gravel, a sudden impulse made “Esteban” stop in his tracks and pull out his phone. “I didn’t show you this, ‘Marisol,’” he said. It was a video, now five years old, of two of his grandchildren, then aged three and five. They are in their PJs in a playroom before a keyboard. Together, they sing a song for him—grandpa. “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” they sing in their small piping voices. “I watch it a lot these days,” said “Esteban.” And not for the first or second time that day, we cried together.

Learn more. Click or type this link: linktr.ee/iceterrorANDamericandemocracy.

Family Legend: Gabriel Fraire’s ‘Pancho Villa’ to Run on Raven Stage

Christian Kallen

Jan 20, 2026

Family Legend: Gabriel Fraire’s ‘Pancho Villa’ to Run on Raven Stage

Local drama takes another step forward with the next play at the Raven Performing Arts Theater in Healdsburg, Who Will Dance with Pancho Villa? But the production, which opens on Jan. 22 for an eight-performance run, is hardly new.

Gabriel Fraire and his brother, John, wrote the play more than 30 years ago; it had its first off-Broadway performance in New York in 1994.

“This was our first collaboration,” said Healdsburg resident Gabriel Fraire. “My brother is actually the theater fan. He was living in Manhattan and told me that if a couple of Mexicans wrote a play about their Mexican family history, he was sure he could find a producer.”

Though John Fraire has moved on to another career as a university administrator, older brother Gabriel Fraire (he’s 77, oldest of six) is still a writer, with several novels to his credit, plus poems, screenplays and newspaper work. He was editor of the Windsor Times for several years, and a Healdsburg Tribune columnist. His local history book, I Remember Healdsburg, is available at the Healdsburg Museum, and his other works are on his website at gabrielfraire.com.

He and his wife, Karen, have lived in California since 1975, when they realized they had no reason to stay in the Midwest.“We were living on a farm in Illinois, doing that back-to-the-earth, self-sufficient stuff,” he recalled. “We didn’t have a lot of money. In the winter, we had to close down all the rooms and live out of one room. Finally one day, I just said to her, ‘We could live anywhere. We don’t have to live in the cold.’”

That cold was more than the climate. “When we lived in Illinois, we were considered a mixed-race couple. Our landlord at the time told all the neighbors, ‘Oh, Karen is such a nice girl. Too bad she had to marry out of her race,’” Gabriel Fraire said.

“But soon as we came over the mountains and drove down into California, oh my goodness,” he remembered. “Mixed-race couples, blended children; you know, it didn’t seem to be a big deal. And for the first time in my life I felt like, wow, we can just walk the street and not be thought inferior.”

Who Will Dance with Pancho Villa? was the Fraire brothers’ first produced play, quickly followed by Cesar Died Today, staged in 1997 at Brooklyn College. That latter play was produced at the Raven just three years ago—it concerns a Latino family’s reactions to the death of Cesar Chavez—and was directed by Oscar Montelongo. Initially tabbed to direct again, he had to leave this production after several weeks of rehearsal and was replaced by Jenna Dolcini.

Though the original play contained some dancing, Fraire noted, it has been pumped up for this production with the involvement of the Ballet Folklórico Legado de Mi Alegría of Cloverdale. They perform as dancing spirits, intertwined through the play, who help remind the main character—a young man called simply Chicano—of the joy of dancing.

Several of the actors are returning from the Cesar Died Today production, including Windsor Mayor Rosa Reynoza, who again plays the family matriarch. There’s also a father-son team on stage, Juan Vera and Gabriel Vera, but Fraire is most excited by the performance of Ismael Ramos in the lead.

“This kid is a great actor,” the playwright said. “He goes back and forth from Rohnert Park to L.A. I just hope he gets a shot in TV or movies because his facial expressions are so effective.”

Those unfamiliar with the legend of Pancho Villa will be brought up to speed by visual effects on the stage’s screen. The Mexican revolutionary, guerrilla leader and politician occupies a significant role in northern Mexico’s culture, so much so that three cast members of the Raven production claim some link to the charismatic guerilla.

The audience for the play will be seated on the stage itself, with actors and dancers performing in their midst, as it were. “I am doing most non-musicals with the audience onstage from now on; it’s a much more intimate and I think rewarding experience for the audience and the actors,” said Steven David Martin, the Raven Players’ artistic director.

“You know, the really important thing for both John and I about doing theater is that we want young Latinos to see that they can be a part of theater, that they can join theater—that it’s not an exclusive club,” said Fraire.

Though the Players tried to fill the cast with Latino actors, they weren’t entirely successful. “One reason, of course, is that Latinos don’t have the spare time to volunteer for community theater. Most of the Latinos I know have two jobs or a job and a family to care for,” Fraire said.

He verbalized a fact that remains increasingly obvious, even if unpopular to say: “As a person of color, we live a different life in America.”

‘Who Will Dance with Pancho Villa?’ will be staged Thursdays through Sundays from Jan. 22 through Jan. 31 (a Feb. 1 matinee has been cancelled). Curtain time 7pm; Sunday matinees 2pm. Tickets available at raventheater.org.

‘FeBREWary’ Reloaded, Santa Rosa’s ‘Beer Passport’ Keeps the City Flowing

Daedalus Howell

Jan 20, 2026

‘FeBREWary’ Reloaded, Santa Rosa’s ‘Beer Passport’ Keeps the City Flowing

Sure, January is the month of resolutions, including the month-long challenge, “Dry January.” But it’s next month, locally-known as “FeBREWary,” that taps both civic pride and the dollars averted by abstinence.

“Dry January is not necessarily a great thing for the economy locally,” observed Janelle Meyers, vice president of marketing & communications for Visit Santa Rosa, during a recent interview on The Drive on 95.5 FM. “It’s also the slow season around here for our hotels,” she said, adding that hotels are the main funding source for Visit Santa Rosa.

Hence, the Beer Passport. Launched a decade ago by Visit Santa Rosa’s advisory board, the program was created to encourage overnight stays, spotlight local breweries and give people a reason to circulate during the quietest stretch of the year. Now celebrating its 10th year, the Beer Passport is back to beckon visitors and locals alike.

With its concentration of independent breweries that rivals much larger metros, Santa Rosa is no beer backwater. Sure, “Wine Country” may sometimes eclipse brews as a brand concept, but the fact is beer consumption far outpaces wine at the statewide level. Though the available data is only as granular as the state level, according to a California Department of Tax and Fee Administration summary, beer made up about 46.9 % of total alcohol consumption in the state, while wine was about 23.2 %—almost double wine’s share. Add to that, Santa Rosa was recognized by USA Today’s Readers’ Choice Awards as a “Top 10 Beer City.”

This year’s FeBREWary introduces its most significant update yet: a new app-based Beer Passport platform that replaces the old QR-code system with geo-location check-ins, digital badges and real-time interaction. “It works like social media,” said Christopher Kren-Mora, Visit Santa Rosa’s events and community engagement manager. “You’ll be able to see other people on the platform, the badges they earn and the progress they’re making.”

The mechanics are simple. Participants save the passport to their phone, visit participating locations and check in on-site using geofencing or a tagged photo. Points accumulate. Rewards unlock. Finish the passport and one earns a commemorative medal that doubles as a bottle opener. “Everybody wins eventually,” Kren-Mora said. “It’s a marathon, not a race.”

Moreover, the beer-borne business traffic feeds directly into Santa Rosa’s economic engine. Visit Santa Rosa is funded largely through hotel occupancy taxes, meaning that every overnight stay helps support city services. “The program was designed for economic development,” Kren-Mora said, “to bring people downtown, get them into breweries and encourage them to stay.”

And the promotion isn’t just for tourists—locals are heartily encouraged to steep themselves in their local beer culture. Participation in 2026 spans the breadth of Santa Rosa’s beer ecosystem, including Russian River Brewing Company, Moonlight Brewing Company, HenHouse Brewing Company, Lagunitas Brewing Company, Cooperage Brewing Company, Shady Oak Brewing Company, OLD CAZ BEER, CUVER Belgian Brewers, Beer Baron Bar & Kitchen, and Wilibees Wine & Spirits.

FeBREWary launches Feb. 1 but runs year-round, resetting annually. Ten years in, the Santa Rosa Beer Passport is that rare opportunity for private residents to turn pints into public works.

For more information, visit bit.ly/srbeer26. Must be 21+.