Storytelling at Banning's Art Festival

Dragonfly Lecture on April 29

What some see as annoying weeds, others treasure as native plants important to indigenous people — foods, medicines, and more. And what some don't see at all are vital signs, forgotten murals tucked here and there throughout the Inland region. 

Explore Inland backways and back alleys in a search for "Vital Signs and Lavish Weeds" with poet Juan Delgado at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center's next Dragonfly Lecture on Monday, April 29.  

Juan Delgado is an award-winning poet who is unflinching witness to voices, lives, and landscapes often overlooked. He is a professor of English and director of the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing at California State University, San Bernardino. 

The lecture is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. April 29 at Dorothy Ramon Learning Center's San Manuel Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning. Your $5 will help the nonprofit Learning Center save and share Southern California's Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. Information: 951.849.7736.

10 years in the Pass: Ballet concert April 28

San Gorgonio Ballet is celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year and so is Dorothy Ramon Learning Center. The two nonprofits will get together on April 28 when the ballet’s junior company performs in the Center’s San Manuel Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning.

San Gorgonio Ballet is a 501(C)3 nonprofit professional ballet company that was established in 2003 by founding artistic director Julia Olsen-Rodriguez. The ballet company is dedicated to the preservation and presentation of the art of classical dance by providing professional performances danced by professional dancers from throughout the United States. The company trains and gives opportunity for talented local youth to perform with these artists in both elite theater productions along with many local outreach performances yearly.

San Gorgonio Ballet Junior Company is scheduled to perform from 3 to 5 p.m. April 28 at the Learning Center’s Hall in downtown Banning. San Gorgonio Ballet Junior Company is a special group of talented young dancers on their way to professional careers in dance. This amazing young company will be performing a variety of classical and contemporary ballet works along with a special appearance by artistic director, Julia Olsen-Rodriguez. The performance will also feature the great classical ballet titled "Pas de Quatre" first set in 1845 by Jules Perrot; it’s one of the most adored of the classical ballets. There will also be a sampling of some new contemporary work and a rousing Can Can, sure to please one and all.

The $10 admission will benefit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, which saves and shares Southern California’s Native American cultures, arts, languages, and history. The Center offers a concert every Fourth Sunday in a cross-cultural series that benefits the Center’s work.

Information: 951.849.7736

 

Connect With The Landscape

UPDATE: Due to an injury, we are sad to announce we are postponing this workshop. We'll let you know when it's rescheduled.

 Dorothy Ramon Learning Center plans a two-day workshop in the Banning area on April 27-28 that will help artists connect with San Gorgonio Pass native landscapes through the paintbrush — and through Native American cultures.

Plein-air artist Terry d. Chacon (Pat Murkland Photo)

In the first part of the workshop, Center President Ernest Siva (Cahuilla/Serrano) of Banning will share traditional area Native American cultural songs and stories. Daniel McCarthy, an archaeologist knowledgable in native plant uses, will share the Native Americans' many uses of local native plants for foods, medicines, tools, and more, and lead a short tour of the landscape. 

Then Terry d. Chacon of Redlands, a national award-winning artist, will take over and lead a plein-air workshop, painting with oils outside on location in natural light.

Proceeds from the $100 workshop will benefit the nonprofit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center's work to save and share Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts, according to organizers. Class space is limited; to enroll call the Center, 951.849.7736. Information: www.dorothyramon.blogspot.com.

Save Your Family Treasures

Basket by Eva Salazar

What family treasure do you have?  Maybe it’s a Native American basket. Or a one-of-a-kind photo album featuring your ancestors. Or your great-grandmother’s quilt. At Dorothy Ramon Learning Center on Monday, March 25, you can find out how to preserve your treasure for yourself and future generations. 

Maggie Wetherbee, curator of the Edward Dean Museum & Gardens in Cherry Valley, will explain in a Dragonfly Lecture starting at 6 p.m. at The Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio, Banning, how to care for and preserve heirlooms and family treasures. 

Wetherbee encourages people to bring their “stuff” to share and for her advice. It’ll be a lot like a San Gorgonio Pass version of the popular television program, “Antiques Roadshow;” although Wetherbee does not give values, she will refer those interested in their item’s value to a qualified appraiser.

What she will do is advise you how to take care of your treasure. At similar lectures elsewhere in Riverside County, people have brought amazing items to show Wetherbee, such as old Native American baskets and even a Civil War diary. So, join the fun and see what others have celebrating heritage and history.

Wetherbee has extensive experience in preservation and curation. Most recently as curator at Edward-Dean, Wetherbee has worked to preserve an extensive and varied collection dating from the 1500s.

The recommended donation of $5 will benefit Dorothy Ramon Learning Center’s mission to save and share Southern California’s Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. Information: 951.849.7736.

Songs & Stories With Flutes

Finger-picking Fourth Sunday Concert

Courtesy of Don Strandberg

Have Fun. And Do Good:
Every Fourth Sunday, the Center presents a concert with cross-cultural music in our amazingly acoustical Gathering Hall. The concert is only $10 and benefits our work to save and share Southern California's Native American cultures.

This Fourth Sunday, Feb. 24, concert features guitarist Don Strandberg.

About the Music:
Don regularly mixes guitar instrumentals with spirited versions of traditional songs ranging from folk to blues to country. He also enjoys performing carefully selected songs from more contemporary sources. And he sings.

Details: 3 p.m. at the Center's San Manuel Gathering Hall, 127 N. San Gorgonio Ave., Banning. $10


About the Musician:
Don Strandberg grew up in Redlands, CA, and began guitar lessons at age 9 at the House of Note music store. His first teacher was Norm 'Roly' Sanders, the founding member and lead guitarist for the now legendary surf band, the Tornados.

Don was old enough to be strongly affected by Folk Revival music of the early 1960s, and sought to perfect the art of fingerpicking (also refered to as fingerstyle guitar playing) in response to that influence. Both American and English guitarists made their mark on Don's playing, and over the years he continued playing and performing locally, first in high school concerts, then as a regular at the Penny University Music Hall in San Bernardino. 

All in all, Don has been perfecting his playing and performing for almost 50 years.

Among his influences are Merle Travis, Doc Watson, John Fahey (all Americans), and  Bert Jansch and Davey Graham (from England).

He describes his playing as lush but restrained. He says this comes from: solo instrumentals on steel string guitar, classical guitar studies, and years of being an accompanist in a number of ensembles. The latter he counts as extremely important in developing a sense of how much playing is just right for any given situation, while he believes his studies in classical guitar taught him how to make each note count. This is central to his approach to the guitar.

Don now lives in San Diego and over the last 10 years he's produced a number of CDs of instrumental guitar music, garnering strong reviews in San Diego Troubador magazine, making him a known quantity in the circle of top fingerstyle guitar players in the area. 
Come and enjoy!