June 8 - June 14

Pasadena Tournament of Roses to Host Free World Music Day Events

Workshop presenters will include Ping Ho, Founder and Director of Arts & Healing Initiative and Co-developer of Beat the Odds; Mike DeMenno, Manager of Recreational Music Activities at Remo, Inc. and Co-developer of Beat the Odds; Hilary Yip, Chair of Music Therapy Department at California State University, Northridge; and Cory Hills, multi-percussionist, composer, Grammy Award winning artist, and creator of Percussive Storytelling. -- Pasadena Now

CSUN Remembers Lecturer, Civil Rights Icon James M. Lawson

Longtime California State University, Northridge lecturer and pioneering civil rights activist, the Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., has died, at the age of 95. Lawson was a mainstay of the CSUN campus since 2010. He taught theories and practices of nonviolent activism as part of the Civil Discourse and Social Change initiative, an effort dedicated to promoting ideas of community involvement, as well as social and justice related activism. In the 1960s, Lawson was a close adviser and friend to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and traveled with him to the southern United States to train people in the ways of peaceful protests in the struggle for civil rights. -- SCV News

Trouble dead ahead: Acidifying oceans harm tropical corals

Porites reefs, say scientists Peter Edmunds and Robert Carpenter of California State University at Northridge, are among the most sensitive of all corals. Edmunds, Carpenter and Steve Doo of the University of Hawaii published results in the journal Limnology and Oceanography revealing the consequences of ocean acidification. The reefs may not be able to grow and reproduce. -- National Science Foundation

Warning: Tropical Corals at Risk from Acidifying Oceans

Porites reefs, say scientists Peter Edmunds and Robert Carpenter of California State University at Northridge, are among the most sensitive of all corals. Edmunds, Carpenter and Steve Doo of the University of Hawaii published results in the journal Limnology and Oceanography revealing the consequences of ocean acidification. The reefs may not be able to grow and reproduce. -- Mirage News

NASA lets university students solve issues

Students from California State University, Northridge, who are part of the university’s Autonomy Research Center, displayed and discussed their research with posters highlighting the technology they developed at a recent event at Edwards Air Force Base. A Mars science helicopter, mini rovers for science exploration, and 3D printed sulfur concrete for Mars habitats are some of their projects, and they answered questions from experts in the field on May 23 at the Air Force Test Pilot School auditorium. -- Antelope Valley Press

Things to do in the San Fernando Valley, LA area, June 13-20

SoCal Sound Benefest: The SoCal Sound, 88.5-FM (California State University, Northridge (KCSN) and Saddleback College (KSBR) linked together adult, album and alternative radio station), hold a fundraising concert with Pete Yorn, Jade Bird, Cayucas, JEMS, and special guest Jackson Browne, 8 p.m. June 15. Tickets $29 and up. Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale. www.thesocalsound.org/ -- Los Angeles Daily News

Rev. James M Lawson, Jr., bellwether of nonviolence in the civil rights movement

When Vanderbilt University sponsored a three-day Freedom Ride commemorative program in 2007 Lawson participated. A year before this event, during a graduation ceremony, the university apologized for its treatment of him and he later returned to teach at the college. His papers were donated to Vanderbilt in 2013. For several years he served as a visiting scholar at California State University Northridge (CSUN), where he taught a semester-long course on nonviolence. -- New York Amsterdam News

Ventura College Foundation Distributes Over $636,000 In Scholarships

Gabrielle MacNeill of Simi Valley, a member of the Ventura College water polo and swim teams, is transferring to Cal State Northridge in the Fall. She received multiple scholarships including the Miriam and Henry Schwab Memorial Aquatics Scholarship given to students involved in aquatics. A swim instructor, she teaches kids with physical and cognitive disabilities. MacNeill will major in psychology and possibly obtain a master’s degree in occupational therapy to continue her work helping kids. -- Moorpark Patch

Soraya Season Ranges From Randy Newman’s Faust to Tchaikovsky’s Fifth

To open the 2024–2025 season for The Soraya, the performing arts center at California State University, Northridge, Newman is fashioning an all-new concert version of the score. His take on the classic tale of soul-selling is set for performances Sept. 28 and 29, cast to be announced. -- San Francisco Classical Voice

The Rev. James Lawson Jr., civil rights leader who preached nonviolent protest, dies at 95

Lawson earned that theology degree at Boston University and became a Methodist pastor in Memphis, where his wife Dorothy Wood Lawson worked as an NAACP organizer. They moved several years later to Los Angeles, where Lawson led the Holman United Methodist Church and taught at California State University, Northridge and the University of California, Los Angeles. They raised three sons, John, Morris and Seth. -- Washington Post

LA500 2024: Dana Roberts

Roberts’ first job as a teenager in 1970 was alongside his father, a superintendent at C.W. Driver. Roberts obtained an ownership stake in the company in 1981 and assumed full ownership in 1987, the same year he became chief executive. Recently, the 105-year-old company completed a $68.4 million new classroom building at UC Santa Barbara, a $33 million creative office building in Santa Monica, and a $37.8 million mixed-use development for Begonia Temple City. The firm also broke ground on a $100 million high school in Malibu for Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and two student housing buildings for Cal State Northridge. -- Los Angeles Business Journal

James Lawson, Civil Rights Activist and MLK’s Chief Strategist, Dies at 95

After segregationists had Lawson removed from Vanderbilt, he and his wife, Dorothy Wood Lawson, moved to Memphis, where Lawson led the Holman United Methodist Church. The pair eventually moved to Los Angeles after King’s assassination, where Lawson taught at California State University, Northridge and UCLA. He and his wife raised three sons together. -- The Wrap

Rev. James Lawson, Civil Rights Legend, Has Died

He was involved with California State University, Northridge’s Civil Discourse & Social Change initiative and taught labor studies at UCLA, with the university naming a building near MacArthur Park in his honor in 2021. He was also awarded the UCLA Medal, the university’s highest honor, in 2018. -- LAist

The Rev. James Lawson Jr. has died at 95, civil rights leader’s family says

Lawson earned that theology degree at Boston University and became a Methodist pastor in Memphis, where his wife Dorothy Wood Lawson worked as an NAACP organizer. They moved several years later to Los Angeles, where Lawson led the Holman United Methodist Church and taught at California State University, Northridge and the University of California, Los Angeles. They raised three sons, John, Morris and Seth. -- WABI

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