Hear from those who know firsthand just how deeply personal the political can be, and vice versa. The Search for Equality: LGBT Stories of Democracy in Action documents first-person stories from San Diego's LGBT community that explore the basic principles of democracy, inequality, and community activism.

Our partner Mary Menzel from the California Center for the Book spoke with Beeman, who is one of the nation's foremost Constitutional scholars, at the Newport Beach Library at an author in conversation event in April 2012.

*Note: this is the short version of this interview. You can also find the full-length version of the interview here on our site. In the aftermath of disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, or the Loma Prieta Earthquake, author Rebecca Solnit collected hundreds of interviews and spent time in various disaster zones. …

Experience a taste of the documentary From the Quarters to Lincoln Heights, which delves into the story of how thousands of African Americans came to work in Northern California's lumber mills nearly a hundred years ago and explores the multi-racial rural towns they called home.

*Note: this is the short version of this interview. You can also find the full-length version of the interview here on our site. Daniel Alarcón is the author of California Reads selected book Lost City Radio, a fiction rooted in the human experience of the aftermath of war through the …

When AIDS (or “gay cancer,” as it was first called) began ravaging San Francisco’s gay community in the 1980s, the epidemic raised profound personal and community issues and unleashed broad political and social upheaval. Despite the fear and turmoil, many Bay Area residents responded tirelessly in compassionate and creative ways.

When a new wave of urban gentrifiers infiltrate a historically disenfranchised LGBT San Francisco community conflicts and tensions abound. Can they find a way to live together harmoniously or will war ensue? Since the late 1970s, San Francisco’s Polk Gulch neighborhood has been a national destination and home of some of …

Who put the funk in punk? It hasn't been easy, but for over 25 years a band out of South Central Los Angeles has been challenging racial stereotypes and defying musical genres.

Throughout the state of California, small town industries like fishing, mining, and agriculture are quickly becoming a thing of the past. As competition stiffens and resources diminish, how will these communities survive?