Northern California Public Media

Connect the Bay

Connect The Bay: Niles Canyon Railway

All Aboard for History! Ride the rails with NorCal Public Media and the volunteer-run Niles Canyon Railway, which operates excursion and holiday trains from Sunol to Niles (in Fremont) in the East Bay...

Connect The Bay: D Herrera Dance

Dancing to the beat! The David Herrera Performance Company has been celebrating innovative dance that promotes Latinx voices since 2007. We visit a rehearsal in San Francisco to find out what inspires...

Connect The Bay: AI Dream Garden

“Dream Garden” is an AI-Powered immersive exhibit at San Jose’s The Tech Interactive which invites visitors into a whimsical world where imagination and movements bring a surreal ecosystem to life. De...

Connect The Bay: Pride Flag Raising

Pride & Progress – for LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, Redwood City marks their commitment to embracing all community members at an annual flag raising ceremony at historic Courthouse Square. This year the mayo...

Connect the Bay: Rising Phoenix Lion Dancers

Rising Phoenix Dragon and Lion Dance Association practices the art of modern lion dancing with team members mostly from San Jose’s Eastside neighborhoods. They are a young and dynamic multicultural gr...

Connect the Bay: Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District

Chairperson Jeffrey Myers leads us on a walking tour through an exciting area of Oakland: the newly formed Lakeshore LGBTQ Cultural District. This district will foster a community where every Oakland...

Connect the Bay: Indian Health Center

Culture is Medicine—that’s the belief of Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley, where American Indians and Alaska Natives can find high quality, culturally competent medical and wellness services...

Connect the Bay: Erasing the Gap - Conversations with Women Leaders

Erasing the Gap: Conversation with Women Leaders . Our guests include Karin Demarest Vice President for Programs at the Sonoma Community Foundation, Lynda Hopkins Sonoma County Supervisor Dist. 5, Dr....

Connect the Bay: Bay Area 2020

What the new year means for equity, tech, the environment, and our future. Our guests include john a. powell, Director of the Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at the University of California...

Connect The Bay: Brava Theater

Brava For Women in the arts is getting ready to welcome live audiences this month.

Connect The Bay: Tulio Flores

Tulio Flores. The Latino artist based in San Jose, used the time during the pandemic to focus and paint.

Connect The Bay: DACA Fellows

Each year the County of Santa Clara offers the New Americans Fellowship program to recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, aka "Dreamers," living, working or going to school in the Count...

Connect The Bay: Clapper Stick

For this Connect the Bay segment, Kanyon Sayers-Roods (Indian Canyon Mutsun) offers a song about Hummingbird while demonstrating the indigenous California instrument, the clapper stick. She reminds vi...

Connect the Bay: Pinata Artist

Patty Botello has been making piñatas since she was a little girl. Though some are destined to be joyously destroyed by children at parties, much of her work is museum quality and intended for gallery...

Connect The Bay: Sculptor Matthaus Lam

Matthaus Lam is an accomplished young artist with a playful sense of humor that pours out of his amazing sculptures. Lam's creativity sparked early–he has created works of art since he was just five y...

Connect The Bay: Coming Out

BAYMEC Community Foundation Executive Director Ken Yeager tours his recent exhibition "Coming Out: 50 Years of Queer Resistance and Resilience in Silicon Valley." Included are mementos and artifacts f...

Connect The Bay: Author Naheed Hasnat Senzai

Naheed Hasnat Senzai is a successful Bay Area author of Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction. She specializes in writing stories that feature diverse characters with lives rooted in rich cultural heri...

Connect The Bay: San Jose Taiko

Taiko, or Japanese drum performance, is thrilling contemporary entertainment rooted in deep cultural traditions. Founded in San Jose's Japantown in 1973, San Jose Taiko has grown to become one of the...

Connect The Bay: The Sons of the Soul Revivers

James Morgan, Dwayne Morgan and Walter Morgan Jr. are The Sons of the Soul Revivers, who have been singing gospel music together with family in the Bay Area since they were kids. Inspired by deep fait...

Connect The Bay: Sculptor Alicia N. Ponzio

Stepping into Alicia N. Ponzio's North Beach, San Francisco studio is a little like time traveling to a renaissance European workshop. With daylight streaming in through high windows, paintings on eas...

Connect the Bay: Cuong Ta Ceramics

Since 1998 Cuong Ta has been following his passion for ceramic art. A math teacher by trade, after taking a pottery class he discovered a true calling: making beautiful objects out of clay. We visit h...

Connect the Bay: Needle Felting Stephanie Metz

Non-traditional sculptor Stephanie Metz has her studio at San Jose's Alameda Artworks collective, and fills it with her fantastic, fun, and sometimes downright weird creations. Working primarily in wo...

Connect The Bay: Parangal Dance Company

With a name that means "Tribute," Parangal Dance Company’s mission is to honor Philippine heritage by preserving and promoting ethnic attire, music, and dance through research, workshops, and performa...

Connect The Bay: Sonoma TrainTown Railroad

A Bay Area treasure since the Sixties, TrainTown brings the art of model railroading to a new level. Passengers on this scaled-down train take a 30-minute journey through tunnels and across bridges to...

Connect The Bay: SWEA Christmas Fair

The San Francisco Chapter of the Swedish Women's Educational Association holds a festive Christmas Fair every year, this season in Palo Alto. It is the place to find all things Swedish: from crafts, t...

Connect The Bay: The Crucible

Young artists Tobias and Sharay are part of the Fuego Youth Leadership Program at The Crucible in Oakland. After being mentored by adult artists, Fuego youth leaders instruct their peers in industrial...

Connect the Bay: San Jose History Park

Original and reproduced historic buildings make up San Jose's History Park, revealing a fascinating glimpse of Santa Clara Valley’s past. Complete with paved streets, running trolleys, and an old-fash...

Connect the Bay: Luther Burbank Home & Gardens

At the intersection of two busy downtown Santa Rosa streets, Luther Burbank Home and Gardens is a park containing the former home, greenhouse, and gardens of the noted American horticulturist. Garden...

Connect the Bay: Martin Yan’s Chinatown by the Numbers

Come take a tour of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Celebrity chef Martin Yan gives us a short history lesson of the 24 blocks that make up the most densely populated neighborhood west of Manhattan.

Connect the Bay: Hydroponics Bruce Gee

In his Palo Alto backyard, Bruce Gee has what he calls extensive "adventures" in hydroponics. His goal is to experiment growing food with an economy of space and water, and to help others see that cre...

Connect the Bay: Ensamble Folclórico Colibrí

Ensamble Folclórico Colibrí is a Mexican folklore dance group with a mission to promote the pride of identifying as an LGBTQ+ Latinx through the art of Mexican Folklórico dance. "Connect the Bay" atte...

Connect the Bay: Los Altos Youth Theatre

The mission of Los Altos Youth Theatre is to provide an opportunity for young artists to collaborate with professional artists in rehearsing both plays and musicals. Education Director Gary Ferguson i...

Connect the Bay: Waging Peace Exhibit

Warning: some graphic content. The "Waging Peace in Vietnam" exhibit is at the War Memorial Veterans Building in San Francisco through August 14, 2022. It shows how the GI movement unfolded, from the...

Connect the Bay: Painter Lucy Liew

Lucy Liew paints vibrant compositions of California flora and fauna because she is inspired by the beauty in nature that is often overlooked. Through her work she attempts to evoke a sense of intimacy...

Connect the Bay: Kelp Artist

San Francisco photographer and author Josie Iselin helps audiences look at seaweed in a whole new light. Her art focusing on kelp and other marine algae puts her at the forefront of ocean activism. Sh...

Connect the Bay: Found Wood Sculpture

Bennett Ewing is an artist known as Eyevan Tumbleweed, a found wood sculptor. He creates amazing sculptures assembled from a variety of wood found on weekly excursions into natural areas. He works met...

Connect the Bay: Cellist Daniela Gonzales Siu

San Francisco Conservatory of Music cellist Daniela Gonzales Siu shares with Connect the Bay that "being in a quartet is one of the things that I love doing." Traveling from the Peruvian Andes to atte...

Connect the Bay: Harpist Destiny Muhammad

A self-described "Harpist from the Hood," Destiny Muhammad is a recording and performing artist, composer and producer. Her genre is Celtic to Coltrane—cool and eclectic—with a feel of Jazz and storyt...

Connect the Bay: Mental Health – Prof. Shortell

In light of recent occurrences of gun violence in California, Professor Emeritus Stephen Shortell of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health has important advice for those in need of assistance. His m...

Connect the Bay: Mental Health – San Mateo County

In light of recent occurrences of gun violence in California, Ziomara Ochoa-Rodriguez, Deputy Director of San Mateo County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, has important advice for those in ne...

Connect the Bay: San Jose Museum of Art

The San Jose Museum of Art is home to both the cutting edge art of today as well as artifacts of the Santa Clara Valley’s long history of innovation. Facilities manager Randy Bricco takes us through p...

Connect the Bay: Open San Jose Black History Month Film Screenings

At our new shared space in the South Bay – Open San Jose – NorCal Public Media was proud to host a community screening of two films in honor of Black History Month: “Becoming Frederick Douglass” and “...

Connect The Bay: Montalvo Ohlone

Join us for a visit to Saratoga’s Montalvo Arts Center to experience “A Path Forward: Honoring Ohlone Land & Spirit.” This brand-new work includes both actual and virtual artwork in a cutting-edge com...

A.I. Advice from Silicon Valley Leadership Group | Connect The Bay

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group was established by Hewlett-Packard founder David Packard in 1977. CEO Ahmad Thomas has worked extensively in the field of artificial intelligence policy, and offers...

Connect The Bay: Artist Elba Raquel

Native San Jose artist Elba Raquel empowers women through her work and hopes her viewers can find the strength within them to follow their dreams as she has done in her artistic career. We visit MACLA...

Connect The Bay: Prince Among Slaves

“A story that is important…to know who made this country what it is today” is how the children’s picture book Prince Among Slaves is described by its author. The captivating tale of Abdulrahman begins...

Connect the Bay: AACSA - African American Community Service Agency

Though there’s no specific black neighborhood in the City of San Jose, there is definitely a home for the African American community: the African American Community Service Agency. Since its founding...

Connect The Bay: AbilityPath

At nonprofit AbilityPath in Burlingame, the staff works toward creating a world where people of all abilities are fully accepted, respected, and included. Among their many programs for the development...

Connect the Bay: Peninsula Family Service

Loneliness is an epidemic*, especially among older adults. Nonprofit Peninsula Family Service has partnered with San Mateo County to address what they are first in the nation to recognize, that loneli...

Connect the Bay: Unsung Hero Millicent Grant

Unsung Hero Millicent Grant Working tirelessly as a volunteer assisting her aging neighbors, Millicent Grant says “I love helping other people.” For decades she has been involved with the East Palo Al...

Connect The Bay: Unsung Hero Jackson Aldrich

As a kid, lifelong athlete Jackson Aldrich had the idea to collect, clean, and re-distribute sports equipment and clothing before it was thrown away after kids grew out of it. Now his nonprofit --Spor...

Connect The Bay: San Mateo County Parks Spanish Outreach

Raquel Henriquez is Bilingual Community Engagement intern for San Mateo County Parks. She spends her days making sure that all in the Spanish-speaking communities of the county feel welcome—since the...

Connect The Bay: Unsung Hero Nilou

After arriving from Iran, Niloufar Khonsari was inspired to pursue becoming an immigration lawyer to help newcomers through the complex and often daunting U.S. immigration system. As the founder of Pa...

Connect the Bay: Lick Observatory

Hidden in plain view thousands of feet above the Santa Clara Valley, the University of California’s Lick Observatory has been a quiet leader in optical and infrared astronomical observation beginning...

Connect the Bay: Santa Clara County Office of LGBTQ Affairs

LGBTQ Pride Season lasts from June all the way through August, according to Santa Clara County Office of LGBTQ Affairs Manager Sera Fernando. We join Sera taking part in the County’s Pride Parade cont...

Connect the Bay: San Jose Pinoytown

Connect the Bay joins Robert Ragsac as he gives a walking tour of San Jose’s historic Pinoytown. Endearingly known as “Manong (Elder) Robert” to Filipino community members, he delights tourgoers with...

Connect the Bay: Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley

A NorCal anchor partner at Open San Jose, Latina Coalition Silicon Valley is a non-profit organization that has been providing Latinas with civic engagement and leadership development in Silicon Valle...

Gathering of Ohlone Peoples

Every year in the East Bay, indigenous Ohlone from diverse tribal communities share their living history through music, song, dance, and stories at the Gathering of Ohlone Peoples. Together, they teac...

Connect The Bay: Ukrainian Festival

Members of Zoloti Maky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble narrate the festivities taking place during the annual Ukrainian Independence Day picnic held in Sunnyvale. Members of Zoloti Maky Ukrainian Dance Ensem...

Connect the Bay: San José Spotlight

A NorCal anchor partner at Open San Jose, San José Spotlight is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to independent political and business reporting online. Its community-supported newsroom fosters...

Connect the Bay: LEAD Filipino

LEAD Filipino promotes culturally responsive education, grassroots leadership training and local economic development efforts in the Fil-Am community. They work on community-based campaigns, local cul...

Connect the Bay: Works San José

Works/San José Art and Performance Center believes that thriving communities support artistic experimentation. Board president Joe Miller gives a tour and describes how this long-standing nonprofit pr...

Connect the Bay: CreaTV

The mission of CreaTV is to educate and connect San Jose communities using media to foster civic engagement. Much more than a public access cable station, CreaTV offers media production classes of all...

Connect the Bay: Mosaic America

Mosaic America is a NorCal Public Media anchor partner with Open San José. Mosaic America’s mission is to activate social cohesion by connecting people to place and each other. They present multicultu...

Connect the Bay: Chopsticks Alley Art

Chopsticks Alley Art promotes Southeast Asian cultural heritage through the arts. Based at Open San Jose, they celebrate the cultural diversity of Southeast Asian contemporary art to foster greater un...

Connect the Bay: San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles

The vision of the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles is to preserve, celebrate, and promote knowledge about quilts and textiles, their creation, their beauty, and their relationship to human culture...

Connect the Bay: Virtual Choir

Over the past year, college students were limited to distance learning while sheltering in place. Despite daunting barriers, the UC Santa Cruz Concert Choir community met the challenge and turned defi...

Connect The Bay: College of Adaptive Arts

For eleven years the College of Adaptive Arts, in San Jose, has been teaching adults with special needs. The College offers 74 classes. Four years ago, they got a grant from the Adobe Foundation for a...

Connect The Bay: Martin Zuniga Old Courthouse Square Sculpture

Artist Martín Zuñiga has a new sculpture in Santa Rosa. The sculpture is titled Ollins, which means movement. It was designed just before the election to encourage people to vote. Six students and two...

Connect The Bay: Icarus

New short movie brings a ballet dancer to the streets of San Francisco. Starringh @angelAllan , directed by Pietro Pinto

Connect The Bay: Live Theatre

Our Gleidson Martins spoke with Lisa Mallette , Susi Damilano and M. Graham Smith about how they are adapting live performances to their online audience. It may be shocking to see an empty theater but...

Connect The Bay: Chinese New Year

With the pandemic still going on, there will be no in person Chinese New Year parade this year in San Francisco, but wanting to celebrate the year of the ox, parade organizers had to pivot and come up...

Connect The Bay: Women of the Black Panther Party

A mural honoring the women of the Black Panther Party was unveiled last weekend in Oakland. Located at the corner of Center and 9th Streets in West Oakland, just a few blocks away from the original Bl...

Connect The Bay: New Arts Fund Story

On this episode of Connect the Bay, we feature two artist that are struggling to get by in these difficult times. Help may be on the way for some, through new city sponsored grants.

Connect the Bay: NorCal Responds Martin Yan

Chef Martin Yan responds to recent violence against the Asian American community.

Connect The Bay: Van Gogh

A New vision and certainly a new form of exhibition opened in San Francisco. The Immersive Van Gogh virtual show features stunning projections that illuminate the artist’s 2,000 + lifetime masterpiece...

Connect The Bay: New Ballet

Santa Clara County is now on orange tier, meaning Many indoor businesses may open with up to 50% capacity. The decision to move to a less restrictive tier is based on new cases rate up to 3.9% per 1hu...

Connect The Bay: We Create 408

As part of Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month in April, the San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs announced WeCreate408 2021 edition, a virtual festival that will inspire creativity and celebrate San J...

Connect The Bay: Hacienda Peralta

Since 1996, Peralta Hacienda Historical Park has been open to the public and continues to educate on the historical background of Oakland. Their mission is to promote understanding and historical heal...

Connect The Bay: Socially Distanced Eco-Volunteering

The invasive plant known as Stinkwort is the target of intrepid environmentally-minded neighbors whose eradication efforts to remove the non-native continue undaunted during the pandemic. In fact, the...

Connect The Bay: Agency Adapts Services for COVID

Dependency Advocacy Center is an organization that assists clients working through the child welfare system in order to reunite with their children. COVID has made complying with strict court and reha...

Connect The Bay: A Senior Center's Tasty Pivot

Beloved San Jose Japantown institution Yu Ai Kai Senior Center has provided vibrant activities and services in support of the area's elders for decades. Partnering with the County of Santa Clara, its...

Connect The Bay: YMCA Hosts Young Distance Learners

At the South Valley Family Y in San Jose, elementary school students have a place to continue their classes in a safe and supervised manner so that their parents--many of them essential workers--are a...

Connect The Bay: Biden Administration and Global Business

The last presidential election in the United States showed intensive interest in how business will be done globally under Biden’s administration. According to this business columnist in Mexico, this i...

Connect The Bay: Urban Education

One nonprofit in San Francisco is advocating to have more male African American and Latino teachers in the classrooms. It is all part of the Fellowship program at The UrbanEd Academy The organization...

Connect The Bay: Golden Gate School

Private english schools, which rely on international students have been struggling to stay open during the pandemic. Tammy Lee reports

Community Discussion: Gentrification & Displacement

NorCal Public Media and our partners San Jose Spotlight and CreaTV hosted a viewing party of the June 30, 2019, live program Connect the Bay. After watching the program, citizens of San Jose in attend...

Mi Tierra

Are you worried about getting priced out of Sonoma County? During this year’s Cinco de Mayo festivities, residents in Santa Rosa’s Roseland expressed their hopes and fears for the neighborhood to La P...

Homeward Bound

The high cost of real estate in the Bay Area has made buying a home out of reach for many Sonoma County residents. Nonprofit Habitat for Humanity is starting to employ pre-fab building techniques on i...

Connect the Bay: Gentrification & Displacement

The subject of this program is gentrification and displacement around the Bay Area, from San José to Santa Rosa. We feature stories about Oakland and also the Roseland neighborhood of Santa Rosa, and...

Connect the Bay

CASA COMPACT & AFFORDABLE HOUSING - How do we work together to build a more resilient, more equitable region that has room for all? How can we reduce the disparities of income and opportunity that gro...

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