DBD 07-02-2025: Joan
Welcome to the DBD, a Write for California community board where one can talk about anything – Cal-related or off-topic. Comment threads are sorted by topic. Anything is fine, so long as you’re generally civil.
Joan Didion (BA English UC Berkeley 1956) was a celebrated American writer, known for her contributions to "New Journalism". She gained prominence for her insightful essays and novels that explored American culture, particularly in her native California. Didion's sharp, introspective prose and incisive commentary on social unrest and psychological fragmentation earned her widespread acclaim and numerous awards, including the National Book Award for The Year of Magical Thinking. She died in 2021, leaving behind a lasting legacy as a vital voice in contemporary literature.
What’s a brand you’ll never trust again and why?
Anyone know anything about a musician Fantastic Negrito? He’s a blues and R&B singer who’s doing a free show at the Kennedy Center tonight. The KC has one of his videos on its website and the video was filmed in downtown Oakland and he won a Grammy in 2016 for a contemporary blues album The Last Days of Oakland. The Wiki page about him says he learned to play by sneaking into music classrooms at Cal even though he wasn’t a student.