Category Archives: Arts & Culture

Del Norte High Students Paint Miniature Kamomes For ‘Boats of Hope’ Art Tour

Thumbnail photo: Del Norte High School senior Elle Jacot painted two Kamome replicas for the Boats of Hope art tour. One will be headed to Rikuzentakata during a student exchange in January. | Photo courtesy of the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce

Four years after the friendship between Del Norte and Rikuzentakata found an international stage at the Tokyo Olympics, replicas of the fishing vessel that sparked the relationship will be featured in a local art tour.

The Boats of Hope art tour will feature seven mini Kamomes placed at various places throughout Del Norte County. The project is spearheaded by the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce as well as Carol Zocchi, advisor for Del Norte High School’s Japan Club.

Zocchi put out a call for students interested in pitching a design and inspiration for their boat to seven partner agencies, according to a chamber press release. The students were also able to earn an artist stipend.

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LRT Shows Del Norte A Loverly Time; My Fair Lady Opens Friday

Thumbnail: Rebecca and Phillip Dyke are Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins in LRT’s production of “My Fair Lady.” | Photo by Heather Polen

(Updated at 2 p.m. to correct an error. General admission tickets to My Fair Lady are $20, NOT $70.)

Rex Harrison may be iconic as Henry Higgins, having played the phonetician into the 1980s, but Phillip Dyke says his version will be different.

“I’m more of a singer than he is, that’s one major difference,” he told Redwood Voice Community News. “It’s always hard to critique your own work, but one of the things I try to do as an actor for any role is not spend too much time looking at the work of other actors who have performed the roles previously because I don’t want to be copying the work they’re doing.”


Dyke will star alongside his wife Rebecca in Lighthouse Repertory Theatre’s production of My Fair Lady, which will open on Friday. LRT’s interpretation of Lerner and Lowe’s musical will be a return to the organization’s old stomping grounds at the Crescent Elk Auditorium, it’s also the first time LRT has taken on such a large-scale production since their performance of Honk in 2016.

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Crescent City Council Approves Small But Significant ‘Kick Off Moment’ For Tolowa Cultural Trail At Beachfront Park

Thumbnail photo: The canoe node will be one of the first interpretive elements to be constructed as part of the Tolowa Cultural Trail feature at Beachfront Park. | Image courtesy of Crescent City

Crescent City councilors on Monday approved an agreement with the contractor that will lay the groundwork for the Tolowa Cultural Trail at Beachfront Park.

The city’s agreement with Tidewater Contractors to do the excavation, grading and improvements needed to install the first three interpretive elements seems small, especially after the City Council accepted a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation earlier this month.

But Public Works Director Dave Yeager pointed out that it’s taken roughly five years of collaboration, public outreach and pursuing and cobbling together funding from eight different grants to get the city to the “kick off moment” for the project.

“We’re breaking ground as we say with this project,” he told councilors, adding that Crescent City is managing eight grants connected with the Tolowa Cultural Trail. “This is a very small segment, but as the city manager also mentioned, we need to get some of this installed by Nov. 30.”

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Best-Selling Author Joanie Lindenmeyer Spoke on Authenticity and Resiliency as a Kick-Off to PRIDE 2025

“Be you, be the sparkle, and have faith!”

Joanie Lindenmeyer, retired Del Norte High School teacher turned best-selling author, shared stories of authenticity and resiliency as an LGBTQ+ person at the library June 19 as a kick-off to DNATL PRIDE 2025. She also spoke on the three books she wrote and co-wrote: Nun Better, Joyously Free!, and Healing Religious Hurts.

Lindenmeyer was a health education teacher at DNHS for 25 years until she retired in 2018. Before that, she worked in health education at Rural Human Services for two years. She now lives in Brookings.

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Low-Power FM Station Continues To Broadcast Local Voices, News to ‘Crescent City, Del Norte County and Beyond’

Health Matters wasn’t Lynn Szabo’s idea.

Paul Critz, co-founder and director of KFUG Community Radio, had visited Redwood Urgent Care to discuss underwriting possibilities. Next thing Szabo knew she had a spot on the air to discuss all things health and why Del Norters should care.

“It was kind of amazing,” she said. “He came up with a show idea and for me to do [it]. He took a minute and a half to come up with it.”

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DNHS Music Department Turns Up The Heat This Memorial Day Weekend

Slideshow: Screenshots from the last Chili Pepper Fundraiser video | Courtesy Dan Sedgwick

Two years ago for Christmas the Del Norte High School music department attempted an unconventional fundraiser. Students from band and choir teamed up to play and sing “Oh Come All Ye Faithful”… with a twist. Part way through the concert, participants were challenged to eat a chili pepper before continuing their musical fare. The event was a hit with students and donors alike, ultimately raising around $10,000.

This year, the school’s music department hopes to match that figure as they revive the chili challenge for a spicy take on “America The Beautiful” as part of a Memorial Day fundraising blitz.

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‘Sketch Comedy Experiment’: Not Your Typical LRT Production

Thumbnail photo: The cast of Lighthouse Repertory Theatre’s ‘Sketch Comedy Experiment’ prepares for the production’s opening night, which will be held at the Cultural Center on Friday. | Photo and video by Monique Camarena

The jury’s still out on whether Lighthouse Repertory Theatre’s new production embodies the definition of insanity, but preparing for it was definitely loony, or so Elizabeth Coburn says.

Coburn is one of the producers for LRT’s “Sketch Comedy Experiment” which makes its second appearance at the Crescent City Cultural Center starting Friday. It’s a departure from the organization’s usual repertoire, but Coburn is hoping to get the same results as the previous demonstration.

“From most of the responses we got, the audience really enjoyed it,” she said, adding that she and longtime LRT thespian Howard R. Patterson wrote the sketches for the experiment’s debut in November. “Howard’s goal when he wanted to put a sketch comedy together was to replicate what was done on Saturday Night Live, but on stage in front of an audience. That’s definitely what we heard from the audience [members] that we spoke to. That’s what they felt like.”

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DNUSD Discusses AI Policy

The AI Task Force Steering Committee came back to the Del Norte Unified School District Board of Trustees with a draft policy on the acceptable use of Artificial Intelligence, or AI, April 10. 

The policy is meant to outline the acceptable uses of AI within schools, with goals to foster safe and ethical use, enhance learning and teaching, and develop digital literacy. It also outlines guidelines for use by teachers, staff, and students. The criteria needed to vet AI tools, frequently asked questions, and the consequences for violating the policy are also included.

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Youth Take to the Trees at Roots and Wings Dance Camp

“An extremely liberating and expansive and challenging flight,” said Lauren Godla of DiRT and Glitter when asked what vertical dance is. “A totally new perspective on gravity and reality and what kind of movement is possible.” 

Godla has been doing vertical dance for 10 years with several productions under her belt and has shared that experience with youth in Del Norte County through the Roots and Wings Dance Camp. 

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Library Director Fights To Maintain Access

Phyllis Goodeill sidles around the desk in her office at the back of the Del Norte County Public Library, stepping between cardboard boxes as she does. Her desk is a mess. Piled high with binders, papers and books, it looks exactly how you’d expect the desk of a busy library director to look: Like there are other things more important than an orderly workspace. 

“At this point,” Goodeill says, “I don’t have any answers. We’re all just waiting to see what the fallout will be.”

Goodeill, like many others in the world of non-profit, quasi-government agencies, is waiting for the funding waters to clear. Back in Washington, D.C., programs are being cut with abandon, entire agencies shuttered at a moment’s notice, and it’s up to people like Goodeill to translate all the budget slashing into realities on the ground in the often poor, rural communities where the funding cuts will be felt the most. 

“It’s concerning,” Goodeill says, taking her seat behind the desk. “Of all the things they could monitor or investigate, why the libraries? Why the museums?”

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