Silicon Valley One World – Page 6 – Demographics, Culture & Life

African Filmmakers, Silicon Valley Bedazzle One Another

17Oct

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Culture, Demographics

African Filmmakers, Silicon Valley Bedazzle One Another

By Sharon Simonson MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Late afternoon autumn squalls lift the long red carpet in front of Mountain View’s Community School of Music and Arts, creating fun havoc in the opening moments of the Silicon Valley African Film Festival. Organizers rush to find heavy — but aesthetically pleasing! — objects to weight the sides. The rug rises again before they succeed. Everyone laughs and scrambles to pull it back into place. Really, it seems nothing can suppress the joy that the gathering exudes, the uplift from another perfect Northern California evening—soft light, warm sun, cool air—and the young African and African-diaspora filmmakers arriving from points near (Oakland) and far (Egypt, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Rwanda). Bonginhlanhla Ncube has traveled from Sout...

African Filmmakers in Silicon Valley Seek to Reframe the Continent

14Oct

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Events

African Filmmakers in Silicon Valley Seek to Reframe the Continent

By Sharon Simonson A history of European colonization unites Africa, India and Mexico, continents and countries that in turn are sending residents to Silicon Valley and the United States. These diaspora communities throughout the Bay Area are expressing their complex intellectual and cultural heritages — including their American experiences — in theater, dance, music, literature and film. Growing up in Nigeria, a nation of nearly two hundred million people and a former British colony, performance was his passion from an early age, said filmmaker Chike Nwoffiah. From age 4 on, "I was in a theater and on a stage." In high school, he attended a Nigerian boarding school with a curriculum based on the traditional British model, studying Shakespeare, literature and the arts. "I love...

ULI: Housing Costs, Poor Amenities Souring Bay Area Residents on Region

9Oct

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Demographics

ULI: Housing Costs, Poor Amenities Souring Bay Area Residents on Region

By Sharon Simonson SAN FRANCISCO — The Bay Area’s high housing costs, limited housing diversity and inadequate amenities are reducing life satisfaction for all residents but especially the millennial-generation of young adults whose labors are helping to fuel the technology industry boom. According to a new report from the Urban Land Institute, the disquiet is most acute in Santa Clara County, where residents of all ages are the least satisfied with their current living choices and the least confident of their ability to buy a home or rent an apartment they want. Santa Clara County has the highest concentration of technology companies in the region and the highest proportion of millennials. South Bay residents are also the most likely to feel that they lack desirable, nearby o...

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky: Anyone Can Do It!

6Oct

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Demographics

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky: Anyone Can Do It!

By Sharon Simonson SAN FRANCISCO—Thirty-four-year-old Brian Chesky, the millennial-generation business leader who co-founded Airbnb Inc., articulated neatly an early theme for the Urban Land Institute’s 2015 annual Fall Meeting in San Francisco: The rising public expectation as his generation’s influence supplants the baby boomers’ that urban landscapes be not just spaces, but environments for people to spend memorable time. His rapidly growing home-sharing company wants to offer its travelers more than a room with a view, too, Chief Executive Chesky said. A home or a room—even a current inventory of 60,000 homes in Paris—is still “the limit of Airbnb today.” “What I am really interested in is Airbnb 2.0. I want to continue to shift Airbnb toward experiences. We are redefining...

EnActe Arts Brings Indian Playwright Anuvab Pal’s ‘Chaos’ to Silicon Valley

3Oct

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Uncategorized

EnActe Arts Brings Indian Playwright Anuvab Pal’s ‘Chaos’ to Silicon Valley

By Sharon Simonson In the end, Sunita Sen sought simplicity in her existence that being an immigrant denied her. It was too much to digest—the cloying richness of American life on top of nearly 250 years of colonial rule. The lead character in the 2000 play “Chaos Theory” by American-educated Indian playwright Anuvab Pal, Sen has just been offered a full scholarship to attend Harvard University when the play's action begins in 1965. It is less than 20 years after India’s independence from Britain. Sen anticipates the intellectual permissiveness of American academia with glee. “I think I’m looking for something,” she tells her love interest Mukesh “Muk” (then later “Michael”) Singh, in New Delhi in the days before she leaves. “American universities are great—all this freedom, e...

Brookings: San Francisco, Oakland Among U.S. Cities Gaining White Population After Decades of Loss

2Oct

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Demographics

Brookings: San Francisco, Oakland Among U.S. Cities Gaining White Population After Decades of Loss

By Sharon Simonson Whites are returning to America’s cities including San Francisco and Oakland, reversing what had become persistent outmigration. In the two decades from 1990 to 2010, America’s 50 largest cities experienced a net loss of more than two million people who identified themselves as white, according to the new findings from The Brookings Institution’s William Frey based on U.S. Census Bureau data. In the first four years of the current decade, the same 50 cities experienced a net gain of nearly 500,000 white people. Young adults aged 25- to 34-years-old and their young children are leading the shift, along with older adults aged 55 to 74, Frey found. “The impetus for this change is undoubtedly related to the post 2010 revival of big city growth that has been d...

Modi Speaks in San Jose: The Indian Prime Minister in His Own Words

30Sep

By Editor2 Comments

Events

Modi Speaks in San Jose: The Indian Prime Minister in His Own Words

The Indian prime minister gave an intimate speech to the Indian community in the South Bay, filled with references to the country's independence-movement heroes of the early 20th century, the many historic ties between Indians and Californians, and India's scientific and technical achievements as weapons against government corruption and national poverty. Text of the one-hour, Sept. 27 speech by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at SAP Center in San Jose translated from Hindi by Sneha Singh of the San Jose Learning Center. Good evening, California. It is a pleasure to see your enthusiasm today. Today is the 27th of September here and the 28th of September in India. The 28th of September is the birthday of the great Indian freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. I salute the great son of...

Indian PM Modi: Air India to Connect San Francisco, Delhi

29Sep

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Indian PM Modi: Air India to Connect San Francisco, Delhi

By Sharon Simonson In his last seconds on stage at the SAP Center in San Jose on Sept. 27, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a terse announcement: beginning Dec. 2, India national airline Air India would begin flying directly between New Delhi and San Francisco International Airport. It was another breakthrough moment in the India-San Francisco Bay Area relationship. Other U.S. metropolitan areas with large Asian-Indian populations including New York and Chicago already have non-stop Air India flights, said Sanjay Mehra, chief executive of Fremont's Low Fare Travels. Though the Bay Area flight had been the subject of travel-industry discussion for a time, it was not available to book until after the prime minister spoke in San Jose, he said. "It is a clear example of ho...