Author Talk and Book Launch with Jacqueline Barber

Hear author and textile artist Jacqueline Barber introduce her hyper-local history book, Block 36: Life in a West Berkeley Neighborhood 1900–1950, just published by the Berkeley Historical Society. By diving deeply into what life was like for the inhabitants of a single block, this book provides insight into how the social and political context of the times played out with everyday people right there on that block. The prevalence of child labor; the anti-Chinese movement; the time before any social safety net existed; the ravages of uncontrolled diseases; defined sex roles; the impact of world wars, Japanese internment camps, and the Great Migration—all this and more is manifest in the lives of those who lived on Block 36 (bounded by Sixth, Seventh, Camelia and Page streets).

Admission is free. Books will be available for purchase and author signing. The related exhibit, On the Waterfront: The Other Side of Betkeley, will be open for half an hour before and after the program, which is in the Veterans Building Auditorium.