Transforming Trash Into Art

How a Riverside Taco Joint Became a Magnet for Community

I’ve lived in Riverside, and I’ve owned Tio’s Tacos here for over 25 years now. Growing up, I lived in a small town in northern Michoacán Mexico called Sahuayo. I loved the culture of my town, but I dreamed of escaping the poverty around me to the United States. I was a rambunctious child at school and it would get me into trouble, until I had to drop out in the third grade. I was surrounded by poverty, but I was a child, so I found ways to make the …

By Martin Sanchez, as told to Zócalo Public Square | October 19, 2016

Can Books Build Community?

Putting California’s Inland Empire on the Literary Map

By Cati Porter | December 31, 2015

Ahtziri and I are sitting on a stone garden bench outside the church in Riverside, California, where my children take piano lessons. In her hand is a stack of papers—typed …

When Choreography and Secrets Collide

A Collaborative Art Project Seeks to Turn Community Memories Into Dance

By Sue Roginski and Casey Avaunt | December 16, 2015

Does a work of art have to be created by one person with a singular vision? Our experience says “no.”

Art-making also works when a group of specialized artists—or even …

Bluegrass Isn’t Just for ‘Toothless Hillbillies’

Bringing the Sounds of Oklahoma to California, the Gifford Family Has Made ‘Banjo Music’ Popular in the Inland Empire and Beyond

By Marjorie Hernandez | July 24, 2015

“Only toothless hillbillies listen to that banjo music.”

John Gifford heard taunts like this all the time. Growing up in Riverside, a Southern California suburb, in the 1960s and …

Don’t Count on Your City to Build an Arts Scene for You

In Riverside, Coachella’s Director, the Local Arts Walk Founder, and a Historian Say the Best Thing Artists Can Do Is Make Things Happen for Themselves

by Sarah Rothbard | March 19, 2015

Who or what creates and builds a city’s arts scene? How can a flourishing arts community advance to the next level? At a “Living the Arts” event co-presented by the …

Undocumented, and Riding Shotgun

I Thought I Was an Average American Teen Until I Tried to Get a Driver’s License

by Janine Joseph | January 13, 2015

Up until my early 20s, I rode shotgun. With my high school and college sweetheart, I flipped through the soft sleeves of our shared CD binder in search of the …

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