Arts & Life
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — In celebration of her new book release, the Lakeport Library is welcoming award-winning Mendocino County poet Michelle Peñaloza for a reading of her work on Saturday, Sept. 27, at 2 p.m.
An audience Q&A will follow.
This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Lake County Library and the Lake County Literacy Coalition.
Michelle Peñaloza is the author of “All The Words I Can Remember Are Poems,” winner of the 2024 Lexi Rudnitsky Editor’s Choice Award and the James Laughlin Award, awarded by The Academy of American Poets (Persea Books, 2025).
Peñaloza is also the author of “Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire,” winner of the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk National Poetry Prize (Inlandia Books, 2019), and two chapbooks, “landscape/heartbreak” (Two Sylvias, 2015) and “Last Night I Dreamt of Volcanoes” (Organic Weapon Arts, 2015).
Some of her honors include the Frederick Bock Prize from the Poetry Foundation as well as grants from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the Community Foundation of Mendocino County, Upstate Creative Corps, 4Culture, Artist Trust, Literary Arts, and PAWA (Philippine American Writers and Artists).
You can find her work at The Seventh Wave, Poetry, Honey Literary, Bellingham Review, New England Review, Lantern Review, and featured in American Life in Poetry.
The proud daughter of Filipino immigrants, Peñaloza was born in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, and raised in Nashville, Tennessee.
She now lives in Covelo, California.
The Lakeport Library is located at 1425 N. High St. in Lakeport.
For more upcoming events, visit the library’s website at http://library.lakecountyca.gov/.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
UKIAH, Calif. — The Mendocino College Art Gallery is honored to present “Urban Introversions: Master Works by Yu Ji,” an exhibition of large-scale drawings, paintings, and prints by internationally recognized academic realist Yu Ji.
The exhibition runs through Oct. 26, with an opening reception on Thursday, Sept. 4, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The public is warmly invited to attend.
Yu Ji’s meticulous multi-figure compositions emerge from decades of drawing from life. Working in charcoal and oil, his works translate spontaneous urban sketchbook studies into introspective, layered studio paintings.
Each piece presents an inner world of solitary figures, often set in shared public spaces yet emotionally distant — meditations on individuality, cultural identity, and urban experience.
Born in China, Yu Ji earned his BFA from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing before immigrating to the United States during the Open Door Policy era. He went on to complete dual MFA degrees in Painting (1986) and Printmaking (1989) at SUNY New Paltz.
His early practice in New York was shaped by constant observational drawing in public spaces such as Washington Square Park, where he captured the human landscape of American life through fresh eyes.
In 1999, he relocated to Los Angeles, where the color and character of Southern California’s urban life reshaped his palette and compositional language.
“Many of Yu Ji’s paintings have a pensive interiority, with languid figures who, though placed together, often appear absorbed in their own thoughts … These invented compositions utilize complex spatial overlapping, including exquisitely subtle scale shifts,” said Jonathan Puls, professor of art and chair, Department of Art, Biola University.
The exhibition is curated by Jazzminh Moore, gallery director at Mendocino College, who first met Yu Ji as a student in 2001 during a workshop at the Academy of Realist Art (now Gage Academy) in Seattle. Her personal journey — from student to mentee to colleague — adds a deeply resonant context to the show.
“Yu Ji is a true master. That week working with him in Seattle changed my life. I uprooted and moved to Long Beach just to study with him. His teaching clarified everything for me—from the structure of shadow edges to the precision of color mixing. I’m beyond honored to now be presenting his work to our students and community,” said Moore.
Also featured in the exhibition is “Lost in Transection,” a collaborative video installation by Joe Ren, assistant professor of Digital Media at California State University, Bakersfield.
Ren’s work merges Yu Ji’s figurative imagery with contemporary symbols of American urban culture, creating a hybrid visual dialogue between drawing, print, and video.
Urban Introversions offers a rare opportunity to experience the work of a modern master whose commitment to observation, formal discipline and quiet intensity sets him apart in the contemporary art landscape.
The Mendocino College Art Gallery is located at 1000 Hensley Creek Road, Ukiah. Gallery hours are 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesdays, and by appointment.
Admission is free and open to the public.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT, Calif. — The historic Soper Reese Theatre is pleased to announce the return of a cherished tradition: Spanish-language films will once again grace the screen on the first Sunday of each month.
These events are presented in coordination with Latinos United of Lake County.
Starting Sunday, Sept. 7, the Soper Reese Theatre will showcase a carefully curated selection of Spanish language films, celebrating the rich and diverse cinematic heritage of the Spanish-speaking world.
The screenings will take place at 3 p.m. on the first Sunday of each month.
From children’s classics to contemporary gems, each screening will offer a unique experience for film enthusiasts of all ages.
“We are delighted to revive this tradition and provide a platform for Spanish-language cinema,” said Lake County Arts Council Executive Director Barbara Clark. “Our goal is to foster a deeper appreciation for the art of filmmaking and to celebrate the vibrant cultures represented in these films.”
The first feature of the series will be “Condorito: The Movie.”
With help from his nephew, a condor embarks on an epic adventure to save his future mother-in-law and Earth from an alien king.
Admission is free, but donations are accepted.
For more information, please contact the Soper Reese Main Office at 707-263-0577 or visit https://soperreesetheatre.com/.
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- Written by: Tim Riley
Getting ready for the 2025-2026 television season, the FOX network, just like its competitors, touts whatever demographic category gives them a boost.
For the current season, FOX boasts of ranking as number one among the coveted Adults 18-19 class.
The network is adding six new series to its schedule, including a new one-hour comedy, a new dramatic thriller, an epic new scripted event series, and new unscripted competition series, as well as the return of an “Animation Domination” favorite.
Inspired by an award-winning Belgian film “La Memoire Du Tueur,” the dramatic thriller “Memory of a Killer” is about a hitman who develops early onset dementia. Losing your memory is a blow for anyone but for Angelo Ledda (Patrick Dempsey), where the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Angelo’s hit man job would be perilous enough, but there’s added pressure. He lives two totally separate lives – fearsome New York City assassin and sleepy upstate Cooperstown photocopier salesman and father.
Having built and maintained a brick wall between two worlds, Angelo has seamlessly juggled for years, but now that’s all about to change. Alzheimer’s disease is a foe he can’t outrun, and with the condition running in his family, he knows too well how this ends.
Despite being resourceful, Angelo is tested when he discovers that his wife’s recent death may not have been an accident. When someone comes after his pregnant daughter, it’s clear the wall between his lives has been breached.
Angelo must stop whoever is coming for his family by searching his past hits for clues, and the list is very long. He must hunt down a mortal enemy while continuing to carry out hits without giving away his diagnosis.
“Memory of a Killer” is a redemptive story about a man who is losing his memory but gaining a conscience. Because Angelo knows he must stop history from repeating itself and save his family.
Starring multiple Emmy Award nominee Josh Charles (“The Good Wife”), new series “Best Medicine” is a charmingly complicated one-hour comedy based on the critically acclaimed beloved global hit “Doc Martin,” a long-running British medical comedy-drama which may be found on Prime Video or Acorn TV.
The series centers on Martin Best (Charles), a brilliant surgeon who abruptly leaves his illustrious career in Boston to become the general practitioner in a quaint East Coast fishing village where he spent summers as a child.
Unfortunately, Martin’s blunt and borderline rude bedside manner rubs the quirky, needy locals the wrong way, and he quickly alienates the town, even though he’s all they’ve got.
Martin is really desperate to be left alone, but he keeps getting dragged right smack into the middle of the townsfolk’s chaos, feuds and fantasies. What the locals don’t know is that his terse demeanor masks a debilitating new phobia and deep-seated psychological issues.
During Easter and Passover season next year, six-episode limited series “The Faithful” is based on The Old Testament’s Book of Genesis and told through the eyes of the courageous and passionate women whose descendants would shape the faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Dimensional, dramatic, intimate, even shocking, “The Faithful” is about discovering and losing love, the challenges of marriage, the joys and heartbreak of children, confronting temptation, and finding faith.
The episodes will be told through the lens of five of The Bible’s most legendary women: Sarah and her former slave Hagar, Sarah’s great-niece Rebekah, and Rebekah’s nieces, sisters Leah and Rachel.
“99 to Beat,” an unscripted series hosted by comedian Ken Jeong and sportscaster Erin Andrews, is apparently patterned after similarly-titled competition shows telecast in European nations.
One hundred contestants go head-to-head in a range of visually distinctive and hilarious games in an arced competition game show like never seen before.
“99 to Beat” is the game show anyone can win, and there’s only one thing players must do for a chance of walking away with the cast prize – don’t come in last place.
As contestants battle it out against each other, each round will see the number of players whittled down until only one person is left standing and they take home the top prize of $100,000.
The hit Emmy Award-nominated “Weakest Link,” hosted by Jane Lynch, returns for a new season with an all-celebrity edition, a rapid-fire quiz show in which eight celebrities compete to win up to one million dollars for the charity of their choosing.
In “Celebrity Weakest Link,” the celebrities will answer general knowledge questions and bank money as a group across multiple rounds. At the end of each round, the contestants vote out who they perceive to be the weakest link.
The host sends off the person voted out with the phrase, “You are the weakest link. Goodbye.” The two who make it to the final round will battle it out to determine who wins the banked money for their charity.
Seth MacFarlane’s classic “American Dad!” returns next year in the “Animation Domination” lineup. The animated series focuses on super patriotic CIA agent Stan Smith and the misadventures of his unconventional family.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
