Janis Hashe

Oakland, United States

Writer and Editor at Freelance

Contributor at East Bay Express

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Articles

Spicing up our lives

1 month ago | eastbayexpress.com | Janis Hashe

Both the use and the mystique of spices goes back centuries. Ancient Egyptians used spices such as coriander, cumin, myrrh, frankincense, cinnamon and ginger in cooking, as well as mummification. The ancient Chinese developed the classic “five-spice blend” of cinnamon, cloves, fennel seeds, star anise and Szechuan peppercorns. In Africa, spices such as pepper, cardamom, cumin and ginger were used as currency, as well as in cooking.
Annie Owens exhibits quiet power in 'Vampire Summer'

Mar 4, 2025 | eastbayexpress.com | Janis Hashe

When artist Annie Owens lived in San Francisco, she shopped in the middle of the night. Yet the aisles were far from deserted. Many other people clearly preferred the relative quiet and deep shadows of the night to the pandemonium of the day. This preference is reflected in her art, and in her current solo show at Nielsen Arts Gallery in Berkeley.
Pacific Pinball Museum plans to expand

Jan 14, 2025 | eastbayexpress.com | Janis Hashe

It all started in the not-yet-United States when French soldiers fighting on the colonists’ side during the Revolution brought over a game called “Bagatelle.” Named for its possible invention in the mid-1700s at the Chateau Bagatelle, the billiards-derived game continued to evolve, through the 1880s, when it was still Bagatelle and played with a marble, right on up until 1947, when the first machine with flippers was created.
Let’s Ride Richmond powers electric bikes

Jan 7, 2025 | eastbayexpress.com | Janis Hashe

Richmond is getting another electric upgrade, in the form of electric bikes, after a major 2022 power failure. In that year, Bolt Motility, founded by Jamaican track superstar Usain Bolt, abruptly shut down and abandoned its electric bikes and hubs, which had been built in sites throughout the city. Richmond was one of eight U.S. cities affected.
Local groups prepare to battle Trump

Dec 10, 2024 | eastbayexpress.com | Janis Hashe

Barely more than a week after the election, on Nov. 13, Politico announced, “The Trump resistance goes flaccid.” On Nov. 29, the same outlet announced, “The anti-Trump movement is in tatters.”Leaders of anti-Trump organizations beg—rather, demand—to differ. But first, some facts. Not factoids. Not “alternate facts.”There was no Trump “landslide.” There is no Trump “mandate.” AP statistics as of Dec. 4 show the popular vote count at 76.9 million Trump, 74.4 million Harris.
‘Making Their Mark’ awes at BAMPFA

Nov 26, 2024 | eastbayexpress.com | Janis Hashe

When Komal Shah was a little girl growing up in India in the home of her textile merchant father, she and her sister did not have a lot of toys. “We used fabric samples to make costumes for our dolls,” she said in a phone interview. “It taught me a lot about color, and developed my eye. That carried forward into my collecting journey.”Today, the Atherton resident and former tech executive is considered one of California’s most influential art collectors, alongside her husband, Gaurav Garg.
The Doctor Was Always In

Nov 19, 2024 | eastbayexpress.com | Janis Hashe

The man recently celebrated by the creation of a memorial fund in his honor would probably have shied away from public acknowledgement of his contributions. Dr. Howard Daniel spent more than 40 years as a classic family physician in East Oakland, caring for community members with little access to quality medical treatment, delivering nearly 5,000 babies and quietly becoming a revered local figure.
New doc highlights Dorothy Day House and homelessness

Nov 12, 2024 | eastbayexpress.com | Janis Hashe

A new documentary film, Dorothy’s Way, shines light on the services and successes Berkeley’s Dorothy Day House offers. Founded in 1992, with UC Berkeley as a partner, DDH began serving breakfast to unsheltered people in People’s Park. It was named in honor of journalist and activist Dorothy Day, who dedicated her working life, from the labor movement of the 1920s through the Vietnam War era, to helping people in need.
Richard Schwartz gives 'Poppy Talk,' not poppycock

Oct 29, 2024 | eastbayexpress.com | Janis Hashe

There was a time in California, before ranchosand missions, before housing developments and freeways, when Spanish sailors viewed the coastline, seemingly ablaze in orange, and called it tierra del fuego, “land of fire.”The blaze the sailors saw wasn’t fire, but acres and acres of California poppies.
Attaboy's 'Portal' into nothing and everything

Oct 22, 2024 | eastbayexpress.com | Janis Hashe

Richmond-based artist Daniel “Attaboy” Seifert is fascinated by transition and transience. Both of these fascinations are expressed in his solo show, “Portal,” on view at San Francisco’s 111 Minna Gallery through December. “If you look up at the stars, we are nothing. An atom on the back of nothing,” Seifert said in a phone interview.