Featured Arts
"By Any Means Necessary, I Will Keep Being an Artist."
Painter. Bluesman. Filmmaker. Educator. After retiring in 2012 from UC Davis, where he was an art professor for 43 years—and on the eve of a solo show at the Manetti Shrem Museum—Mike Henderson reflects on shining shoes as a young man in Missouri, seeing his soul in Van Gogh's Potato Eaters, believing he had lost decades' worth of paintings in a fire, and securing his place in one of the greatest university art departments ever assembled.
Forever (530)
Davis native Hasan Minhaj wears his hometown pride on his sleeve—or sometimes on his sleeveless Kings jersey signed by ’90s-era point guard Bobby Hurley, which he proudly keeps in his New York office. The former Daily Show correspondent and Patriot Act host also filmed his first Netflix comedy special, Homecoming King, here at the Mondavi Center in 2017, and steadfastly refuses to part with his 530 Davis area code number. With his new one-man show, The King’s Jester, now streaming on Netflix, he talks to Sactown about honing his comedy chops at Laughs Unlimited and Punch Line, loving the new vibe of midtown Sacramento, feeling the lingering pain of the Kings’ crushing Western Conference Finals loss 20 years ago, and bringing that “I gotta make up for 2002” energy to NYC.
A Comedy Giant
Jimboy’s Tacos, Tower Records and Sunrise Mall. As Brian Posehn gets ready to take the stage at Punch Line and release a new special this December, the “forever nerdy” 6-foot-7 stand-up comic—who is also a proud metalhead and Dungeons & Dragons podcast host—shares tall tales (literally) from his childhood and how he got his comedy start right here in River City.
One for the Books
A likeness of native daughter Joan Didion is set to take a permanent seat in a fitting setting
Thiebaud: A Celebration
Five months after Wayne Thiebaud passed away on Christmas Day at the age of 101, the Crocker Art Museum is remounting its Covid-curtailed 2020 retrospective of the artist’s career—this time with more than a dozen additional works. The museum’s chief curator Scott A. Shields gives us a tour of 10 of the 117 pieces in the exhibition, which opens May 29, and lends his perspective on Sacramento’s “patron saint of painters.”
Super Natural
A pair of local landscape architects take us to church with California Cathedral
The Thrill Isn’t Gone
After his 2020 birthday concert was canceled due to the pandemic, Mick Martin is getting his band back together for take two at The Sofia in August—his first live indoor performance in over a year. At 72, the Sacramento bluesman is readier than ever to reclaim the stage.
A Lasting Impression
The Manetti Shrem Museum celebrates Sacramento painter Wayne Thiebaud’s remarkable legacy with a group exhibit featuring works by the longtime UC Davis professor alongside those by former students and other artists influenced by him.
Capitol Intrigue
The California governor’s granddaughter is kidnapped, a killer leaves playing cards at the crime scene, and a deadly shoot-out takes place across the street from the people’s house. They’re all connected, but how? This and other mysteries get solved piece by piece in All That Fall, a new novel set in Sacramento by longtime Capitol insider Kris Calvin.
Lights, Camera ... Action
Led by three members of its team—Latrice Montez Madkins, Danielle Moné Truitt and Jerry Montoya—B Street Theatre reimagines itself with the launch of a new online social justice series that aims to amplify the voices of BIPOC artists.
The Sweet Life
On the eve of his 100th birthday, Wayne Thiebaud—the Sacramento painter best known for his evocative portrayals of desserts that look good enough to eat—talks about the new pieces he’s working on (yes, he’s still wielding a brush—and a tennis racket!), his favorite kind of pie, and why, despite his status as one of America’s most important living artists, he still sees himself as “just an old art teacher.”
Murders, She Wrote
Over the past decade, Granite Bay author Theresa Ragan—or T.R. Ragan, as she’s known on Amazon, where she has sold more than 3 million books—has been penning mysteries and thrillers in which female vigilantes exact not-so-sweet revenge on their male predators. Her latest page-turner stars a Sacramento crime reporter and a crew of femmes “fatal.” Get ready for a bloody good read.
Live Work Create
In 2015, a visionary young developer heeded the call to create an urban sanctuary for local artists to live, work and create all under one roof. Five years later, the Warehouse Artist Lofts is a kaleidoscope of creatives—from fashion designers to fire dancers—with one common truth among them: Home is where the art is.
Game Nights
We’ve got game—or rather, games. From a new underground mini-golf pub pouring local craft beers to a popular BBQ joint that just added axe throwing, here are six hot spots around town where you can eat, drink and play your way through these cool winter nights. Game on!
A Killer's Instincts
California Stage’s brand-new play explores the cunning—and conning—mind of Sacramento serial murderer Dorothea Puente
The Queen of Happiness
Everyone’s in pursuit of happiness, but how do you capture it? Nearly 11 years after being diagnosed with ALS—the same deadly disease that took the lives of her mother and two brothers—Cathy Speck is alive and kicking butt. Even the more recent news of terminal cancer hasn’t slowed (or brought) her down as she navigates the streets of Davis on her festively festooned trike, spreading her colorful brand of heartfelt cheer and hard-won optimism. Speck shows us all how to live like you were dying, while loving every precious minute of it.
Elaine Welteroth
Before Elaine Welteroth joined the judging panel on the current season of “Project Runway,” she was climbing the masthead at magazines like “Ebony,” “Glamour” and “Teen Vogue,” where in 2017 she became the youngest ever to serve as its editor-in-chief. But before she took the media world by storm, the Sacramento State alum, who graduated in 2007, was pulling all-nighters for the school newspaper, “The State Hornet.” The 32-year-old Brooklyn-based writer talks about getting the journalism bug here, going way beyond 280 characters in her new memoir, and why she doesn’t think Anna Wintour is the devil who wears Prada.
The Fall & Rise of Hobo Johnson
Frank Lopes Jr.—the “Hobo” of Hobo Johnson & the Lovemakers—has had, by all accounts, an eventful first 24 years. He has already been, in a very particular order: a troubled student, a homeless teen, a viral video sensation, scorned by Black Lives Matter, swooned over by fans, signed to Warner Bros. Records, Instagrammed by Snoop Dogg, and predicted to be “huge” by New York magazine. On the eve of his major-label debut and a tour schedule that will see him sharing the bill with many of the biggest acts in the world, the Sacramento poet-rapper is working hard to stay grounded at a time when he’s so clearly taking flight.
Allison Arieff
As the editorial director of the San Francisco-based urban planning and policy think tank SPUR, Allison Arieff spends her days assessing the impact of civic design on everyday life. But it’s her past two decades of work—first as editor-in-chief of “Dwell” magazine and currently as a contributing op-ed writer for “The New York Times”—that have cemented her reputation as one of America’s foremost thinkers on design. The UC Davis alum speaks about building cities for people instead of cars, getting lost in Sacramento riding light rail, and her 2020s vision.
Colin Hanks
With a new movie out, a starring role on Broadway and a turn in the director’s chair, Colin Hanks may be the hardest working man in his show biz family—which is saying something, considering this native son of Sacramento also happens to be the son of Tom Hanks. The younger Hanks takes a rare moment between curtain calls to talk to us about being a Broadway baby and an East Sacramento kid, and having his movie-star dad play his movie dad in "The Great Buck Howard."
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