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A National Reckoning, the Clarifying Power of Nonviolence

Open Mic

Dec 9, 2025

A National Reckoning, the Clarifying Power of Nonviolence

When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed in Birmingham in 1963 for protesting segregation, he argued that nonviolent protest was meant to create a “constructive nonviolent tension”—a crisis so undeniable that it “inevitably open[s] the door to negotiation.” Such tension, he wrote, could lift people from the “dark depths of prejudice and racism.”

Today, that clarifying power is at work in a new context, helping define the true nature of the struggle unfolding across the nation. It is not simply a partisan fight, nor even a battle between democracy and authoritarianism. At its core, it is a clash between cultures of nonviolence and violence, with authoritarianism expressing the most extreme version of a will to harm.

That clarifying force has appeared in thousands of largely peaceful protests across the country. Millions have marched against ICE brutality, against the firing and union-busting of federal workers, and against cuts to essential programs in the national safety net—from health care and nutrition to education, housing and job training.

As the protests grew from three to five to seven million participants over several months, they raised awareness of harms inflicted by the Trump administration and helped energize voters in November elections. Their momentum contributed to the defeat of Trump-backed candidates and initiatives in states including New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Mississippi and California.

This sustained civic pressure also stiffened Senate Democrats’ resistance during a 43-day government shutdown triggered by Donald Trump’s refusal to negotiate over Medicaid cuts and increased Affordable Care Act premiums. In the standoff, the administration further clarified the violence at the heart of authoritarianism: Trump cut off food assistance for 42 million Americans, inflicting needless harm despite available funding.

The core impulses were unmistakable: threaten, inflict pain, force submission.

Ultimately, eight Senate Democrats voted to end the shutdown. One of them, Tim Kaine of Virginia, wrote a newspaper column explaining his decision—but by then, the deeper conflict had already been illuminated: a national reckoning between a culture of nonviolence and one defined by harm.

Andrew Moss is an emeritus professor of nonviolence studies and English at the California State University.

Quiet Miracles, Local Filmmakers Bring Humanity Into Focus

Daedalus Howell

Dec 9, 2025

Quiet Miracles, Local Filmmakers Bring Humanity Into Focus

North Bay filmmakers Vince and Alia Beeton have been quietly making some of the most affecting work in their field—quietly, that is, until the world started handing them awards for it.

Their web series, Time Together, recently took home a Bronze Anthem Award for Human & Civil Rights, placing their work alongside purpose-driven projects from 42 countries. And just days before that, their documentary, Going Inside, earned Best Documentary at the Texas Short Film Festival.

This newest body of work lands squarely in the realm of empathy, justice and human transformation. The couple’s company, Humans Being Media, was founded eight years ago specifically to serve changemakers: nonprofits, foundations, NGOs and mission-driven organizations that need their stories told with artistry and emotional clarity.

The Time Together project began when Megan McDrew, founder and executive director of the Transformative Justice Center of Monterey, invited them to document its Empathy in Action program inside Soledad Prison. And the premise is deceptively simple: Bring volunteers from the outside into deep, facilitated conversations with incarcerated men participating in rehabilitation programs. What unfolds in these rooms—raw vulnerability, accountability, grief, catharsis—is something few of us ever witness.

“There’s this very special alchemy that happens,” Vince Beeton says. “You can have somebody who was convicted of a murder 20 years ago, and a woman who’s had a child killed… These conversations can be not just vulnerable, but healing.”

But access is its own odyssey. How does one bring a camera crew into a prison facility? “Not easily,” he says with a laugh. Every piece of equipment, “every single screw,” must be logged. Yet the greater challenge is trust. Sometimes he has only seven minutes with a subject. “So we just drop in fast,” he explains. “We are not there to question [their crime]. We are there to see who they are now, in this moment, and where they are along their rehabilitation journey.”

One of the most compelling figures in the series is Jose “Junior” Guzman, born into gang culture and offered no alternatives. “When other people of my age were choosing which college they were gonna go to, I was choosing which gang I was gonna go into,” Vince Beeton recalls him saying. Guzman has since become a facilitator within the prison, guiding others through the same transformative process.

These aren’t easy spaces, but they are deeply affecting ones. At one screening inside the prison, the Beetons showed the finished film to the men who appear in it—and read aloud messages of public response. “That was a really special experience,” Alia Beeton says. “To see how they were affected by their own stories.”

The public was equally moved. “People really wanted to get involved,” she notes. And in Austin, after winning Best Documentary, serendipity struck. An elderly philanthropist, featured in another film, approached them. “He said, ‘I thought I was coming here on behalf of my film, but I know now I was here to see your film. How can I get involved?’”

That’s the magic of this work—its ability to ripple outward.

Their Anthem Award win affirmed that mission-driven storytelling, when executed at a high level, can shift narratives around incarceration, reform and humanity itself. Vince Beeton, who spent 25 years in broadcast television—including time as a DP (director of photography) on Mythbusters—has built Humans Being Media with Alia around that principle: Use world-class craft to elevate stories that traditionally go unseen.

“If I am tearing up in the edit suite,” he says, “then I know it’s having the right effect.”

More is on the horizon. The couple continues working with nonprofits across the North Bay and beyond. Their compass remains true: Tell the stories of transformation, redemption and human potential.

“We believe that’s possible for everybody,” Alia Beeton says.

And with their cameras rolling, they make us believe it too.

Delta Blues Master, For Roy Rogers, the Blues is a Statement

Bill Kopp

Dec 2, 2025

Delta Blues Master, For Roy Rogers, the Blues is a Statement

Though named after the King of the Cowboys, guitarist Roy Rogers isn’t a country and western yodeler. The Bay Area resident and Redding native is an acclaimed Delta blues musician and producer.

His extensive credits include work with a diverse array of celebrated figures, including John Lee Hooker, Norton Buffalo, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Ray Manzarek. But Rogers’ body of work under his own name—showcased on dozens of albums—has earned him fame in and beyond the world of blues.

Rogers and the Delta Rhythm Kings perform in the Abbey at Sebastopol’s HopMonk Tavern this Dec. 13.

Roy Rogers’ musical journey has taken him far and wide. In the early, pre-Beatles 1960s, he was already playing in a band. The group’s repertoire included “Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, standard fare of the time,” he recalled. But when his older brother brought home a vinyl copy of Robert Johnson’s King of the Delta Blues Singers, his life changed. “That record blew my mind,” said Rogers. “‘What is this? How does he do that?’” he remembered thinking.

Hearing Johnson’s powerful voice and unusual guitar tunings struck a chord with the then-teenage musician. “Nobody could approach him rhythmically,” Rogers said. “He borrowed from other guys—like Son House—but Robert put it all together in a way that was just stunning. Still is; always will be.”

Thus inspired, Rogers dove deeper into the world of blues. Reading the credits on the back of early releases from British groups like The Animals and The Rolling Stones, he was fascinated by their blues-oriented songs. He recalled wondering, “‘Who’s McKinley Morganfield? Who’s Chester Burnett?’ I was a kid, so I didn’t know who those guys were.”

But he made a point of finding out. The ’60s brought the peak of the Fillmore West and Avalon Ballroom, so he got to see legendary blues musicians like Jimmy Reed and John Lee Hooker live onstage. Rogers was especially moved by the blues’ Delta variant. “The passion and delivery of that type of blues … it all emanates from there for me,” he said. By the time British blues boom artists like John Mayall’s Blues Breakers and Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac came to the attention of American ears, Rogers was already a seasoned blues guitarist.

Rogers worked regularly, teaming up with fellow Bay Area musician David Burgin. “It was a harmonica and slide-guitar duet in the Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee mold,” he said. The pair gigged extensively, releasing A Foot in the Door in 1978. By 1980, Rogers had earned a spot in John Lee Hooker’s band. He went on to play on and produce four of Hooker’s albums, including the 1989 Grammy-winning release, The Healer. And he learned a lot working with the legendary figure. “You’re not trying to reach everybody” with your music, Hooker told him. “You’re trying to make a statement.”

Like many guitarists, Rogers plays a variety of models. But one instrument closely associated with him is a double-neck model based on a Gibson 125. For his playing, one neck might be tuned in standard fashion, with the other set to an open tuning, best for the distinctive slide playing that characterizes much of Rogers’ work. “The whole Delta blues [style] is based on being able to approach the music as a soloist,” he said.

While Rogers is steeped in the blues, he uses the form as a foundation, not the be-all and end-all. “I don’t consider myself a straight-ahead blues guy,” he said. “Because I like to stretch the envelope.” That musical open-mindedness and versatility has led to work—live dates, studio sessions, production—with an extensive assortment of musicians outside the blues idiom.

Rogers’ credits in the 1990s and beyond include work with Miles Davis, Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, fellow Bay Area musical heroes Steve Miller and Carlos Santana, and many more. He also recorded and released a trio of albums with former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek.

Even amid his numerous collaborative projects in various genres, the giants of blues remain closest to Rogers’ heart. “It all goes back to the Delta blues,” he said. “And if I can come within even a minuscule approach of what they achieved, I’m a happy guy.”

Roy Rogers & the Delta Rhythm Kings perform at 8pm, Saturday, Dec. 13, at HopMonk Sebastopol, 230 Petaluma Ave. Tickets, $48-$60, are available at wl.eventim.us/HopMonkSebastopol.

Back on the Air: ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ returns to Spreckels

Caitlin Strom-Martin

Dec 2, 2025

Back on the Air: ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ returns to Spreckels

Back by popular demand, Rohnert Park’s Spreckels Theatre Company presents Joe Landry’s It’s a Wonderful Life, a family-friendly radio play adaption of the Christmastime staple best known for the classic 1946 film starring Jimmy Stewart. It runs in the Spreckels Performing Arts Center’s Condiotti Studio Theater through Dec. 14.

Featuring several actors from last year’s cast, and directed by Jenny Hollingworth, the show offers a nostalgic holiday story with an absolutely beautiful set by Eddy Hansen, live Foley sounds performed with fluid skill by Gabe Adelman and plucky piano music by Janis Dunson Wilson. The atmosphere is charming and feels authentic. If one has ever listened to radio plays, they’ll be right at home.

Nic Moore runs a proverbial and moving marathon as the actor playing George Bailey, our classic American Everyman, who has a sudden crisis brought on by his small town, 1940s existence and wishes he’d never been born, setting off a nightmare scenario in which he witnesses a world without himself.

This is a strong performance, and Moore is intense—never missing a beat. His work is full of intention and connection with his fellow actors: Rosie Frater, John Craven, Allison Lovelace and Matt Farrell (who are themselves portraying actors performing said radio play).

Allison Lovelace is steady and vibrant as George’s love, Mary. The brilliant Rosie Frater plays multiple supporting roles (as do Craven and Farrell) with frightening ease, smoothly transitioning from adult to child, all with absolute distinction and sharp characterization. Frater is a true marvel.

John Craven convinces as the dastardly Mr. Potter, the thorn in George’s side, and Matt Farrell offers some good-natured chaos as helpful angel Clarence. There are many distinctions that have to be made to play multiple characters, and this cast is mostly successful, with a few minor quibbles.

The Foley aspects make this production. Magic is created with cornflakes, a bag full of glass and a mallet, and two shoes being precisely clacked together, amongst other ingenious techniques. This gorgeous work is worth the ticket price alone, but is also supported by colorful period costumes (Adriana Gutierrez), finely detailed props (Mary Jo Hamilton) and warm lighting (Hansen).

After rewarding the cast with a standing ovation, the audience walked away sniffling and smiling. For a little holiday cheer, one might consider catching this show.

‘It’s a Wonderful Life – A Live Radio Play’ runs through Dec. 14 in the Condiotti Experimental Theater at the Spreckels Performing Arts Center, 5409 Snyder Ln., Rohnert Park. Fri-Sat, 7:30pm; Sun, 2pm. $14–$34. 707.588.3400. spreckelsonline.com.