By ANDREW DALTON, AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will serve “Star Wars” fans what they crave, but the saga George Lucas spawned represents just one small corner of the galaxy of creative work within the walls of the Los Angeles institution he calls a "temple to the people’s art.”

The purpose of the palace that has become his life's work since he sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 is to take the work of populist painters, commercial illustrators, comic artists and paperback cover-creators and treat it with a reverence normally reserved for Rembrandts.

“That’s really what the mission is, that there’s these incredibly familiar pieces that have not had the opportunity to be platformed in this manner, to be placed like this, to be curated in this way, for people to really see the genius behind it,” museum CEO Tracey Bates said in an interview with The Associated Press inside the museum.

The building opens to the public Sept. 22.

The 82-year-old Lucas made an unannounced appearance at a media preview day at the museum on Wednesday with his wife, businesswoman Mellody Hobson, the museum's co-founder. He said he couldn't believe the place now exists after being conceived 17 years ago and having been “kicked out of” proposed locations in cities including San Francisco and Chicago, places where previous sites fell through.

"Part of the problem is that I’m a contrarian. I don’t like to do things people think can be done," he said, wearing a T-shirt that read “Dedicated to the people's art.”

“I’m used to doing the impossible," he said. "This one almost broke me.”

Visitors to the new museum will be greeted by a bright yellow Naboo N-1 Starfighter from 1999's “The Phantom Menace” that hangs in the lobby of the public research library. The opening exhibit, “Star Wars in Motion,” shows production versions of Luke Skywalker's landspeeder from the original film and speeder bikes from 1983's “Return of the Jedi.”

But Bates points out that “'Star Wars' only occupies 7% of the museum, actually.” And chief among the tasks of the CEO and her staff in the final days before opening is spreading the word about all it has to offer.

Nearly everything in the vast museum's 100,000 square feet of galleries comes from the personal collection of Lucas or Hobson, a major collector of African-American art.

The filmmaker began collecting original comic art from newspaper strips like “Alley Oop” when he was in college and it could be had for pocket change. When blockbuster money started rolling in, he started buying paintings from commercial artists, including Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish, that were deemed the height of uncool at the time. He joked at a San Diego Comic-Con panel last year that he needed a museum just to have somewhere to put it all.

Treating Rockwell like Renoir and Parrish like Picasso

Bates, who joined the project in 2020, spoke to the AP while sitting in the gallery devoted to Rockwell, the 20th century painter and illustrator who embodies the spirit of the museum more than Luke Skywalker or C-3PO.

“He’s one of the greatest storytellers of our lifetime, really,” she said. “I mean the level of nuance and depth in a Rockwell, I get lost in them constantly.”

Best known for his weekly covers of “The Saturday Evening Post,” with images of Boy Scouts and family Thanksgiving dinners, Rockwell's paintings were quintessential small-town Americana, which made them wildly popular but brought them scorn for their squareness.

Senior curator Ryan Linkof told the AP that when he joined the museum in 2018, he knew only the consensus view of the painter.

“Working here I really just grew to absolutely love the work and find him as an image-maker, him as an artist, him as the figure, the cultural icon, just to be incredibly sophisticated,” Linkof said.

The Rockwell gallery gives special prominence to a painting that shows he had greater depth than many realize: his rendering of Ruby Bridges, a 6-year-old Black girl who is surrounded by marshals as she walks into an all-white New Orleans school in 1960. It's titled “The Problem We All Live With.”

The gallery also has a sculpture of the artist, newly commissioned for the museum, that recreates a famous comic portrait of him painting himself.

Lucas also stockpiled the work of Parrish, another painter and commercial illustrator whose imagery helped define the 20th century but who could be dismissed as cloudy fluff. His work is ethereal and angelic, marked by a signature shade of blue, and the paintings' luminosity gives them a glow that feels made for a museum, even though one of the most ornate paintings in the collection was made for a chocolate box.

Linkof walked with the AP through the Parrish gallery, a favorite of many early visitors, calling it “a little sanctuary, a little chapel in some ways, dedicated to the work.”

“He was known for these really gorgeous light effects and creating these atmospheric landscapes,” the curator said. "We wanted to respect that and create a space that really let the paintings create that sense of tranquility.”

Many galleries are organized not by artist, era or genre but by aspects of everyday life, merging eras and styles. One examines sports. Another civic activism.

“We’re interested in the stories that they’re telling, rather than these kind of somewhat artificial categories defined by discipline,” Linkof said. “The gorgeous idea of these myths, myths of everyday life, the stories that we tell ourselves.”

The museum has its share of higher-brow artists too, with work from Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Andy Warhol. If it tells a story, it has a place.

The building gives vibes of a spacecraft, a tree canopy and a cloud

Visitors will walk through the museum designed by architect Ma Yansong eight years after its groundbreaking in Exposition Park, next to Lucas' alma mater: the University of Southern California.

Ma and his firm were chosen in 2014, and an architecture gallery in the museum shows his proposed models for San Francisco and Chicago along with the origins of the Los Angeles project.

Given the name outside, it’s hard not to think of a spacecraft when looking at the building. The architect acknowledges this, and says visitors will especially feel it when standing in front of broad oval windows that give views of Los Angeles from spaces spread throughout the galleries.

But Ma's style is more organic than mechanical, and the museum gives the feeling that it hovers above the neighboring Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and surrounding buildings like the California Science Center.

“For me it’s like a cloud or like a tree canopy that’s floating above you,” Ma told the AP. “It feels formless almost. But you want to discover. So you have to start a journey. You have to start to walk around.”

As he looked around inside the museum, he said he couldn't wait to see people flowing through it.

“We designed an architectural space with emotion,” he said. “We want to see people’s reaction to those spaces.”

Comics, sci-fi and kid stuff permeate the space

The museum has as much sci-fi and fantasy from Lucas' collection as from his own work. The sword-and-sandal comic book and paperback art of artist Frank Frazetta has a dedicated space. Nearby are huge, heavy-metal-epic paintings of images from J.R.R. Tolkien by Paul Raymond Gregory, complete with skull-studded frames.

A children's section includes a painting of Eloise of “Eloise at the Plaza” fame by illustrator Hilary Knight, a painting of Pikachu modeled on a Van Gogh self-portrait from Pokemon illustrator Naoyo Kimura, and rooms full of anime and manga images.

And the comic art that started Lucas' collecting has several halls dedicated to it, with some of the earliest drawings of “Star Wars” inspiration Flash Gordon on display, along with Flash Gordon's own inspiration, Buck Rogers, and proto-“Peanuts” panels from Charles Schulz, along with edgier alt-comic work from artists including Robert Crumb.

Jessica Malone has been a staple of the Sacramento folk scene for years, performing her lush melodies and poetic songs up and down Northern California with a large cast of collaborators.

Her sharply honed lyrics often highlight the natural beauty of our region while telling stories of love, loss, and personal growth. Jessica’s new EP Indigo, releases tomorrow and was recorded in Nashville.

And it shows, deftly incorporating the soulful sounds of one of the country’s premiere music cities into the warm acoustic style of her previous work. She’ll be performing with her nine piece band on Saturday the 29th at the Sofia in Sacramento. 

Ahead of her show she stopped by CapRadio with her longtime violinist Giorgi Khokhovbashvili, to perform in this month’s Insight Studio Session and spoke with Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez about what inspired her new songs.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Interview highlights

Thank you so much for coming to Insight. Your music has so much soul and emotion to it. I want you to start with your songwriting, the stories that you tell. What inspires songs like Rather Be in Love? 

I get inspired by a lot of different things and in the past, nature has been one of my biggest inspirations. I write a lot of songs about beautiful places. This song is about something completely different. I started writing the song and it was almost like the idea was writing itself. I was like uncovering it or something. And so it started out with a love story, somebody who was pretending, putting on a face and pretending like they were fine on their own, but really they would rather be in love.

And then it has this other part to it where they are reading books and living vicariously through the lives and love stories in the books that they read. So there's all these book references like ‘line by line’ and ‘paper back’ and ‘up your spine.’ 

I love that you mentioned nature because I kept getting visions of the outdoors and nature with this song. Why is that such a special inspiration for you?

Well, I grew up in Mount Shasta, California. I grew up in the little town of Mount Shasta city and I was always outside. That's just what you did there. You played outside, you know, in the 90s. Then after that I went to Humboldt, so [I went from a] snowy volcano to where the redwoods meet the ocean. And I've just always lived in the most beautiful places. 

So for your upcoming EP Indigo, you recorded it in Nashville?

Yeah, I did. I went out to Nashville last August, so it's been like exactly a year. I went to Frida Recording and the engineer/producer Nick Bullock invited me out and we did the whole EP in a day.

I got there on a Tuesday. On Wednesday I finished [writing] the songs and then Thursday I met the band. It was a bunch of just really incredible Nashville musicians and we recorded the whole thing on Thursday and then I flew home on Friday! 

So the title track off your EP is “Indigo,” why did you choose that one and what inspired that song?

So this one was a free associative writing about colors. I was like, "I'm just going to start writing." I had this line ‘blue as the coast’ and then I just went with that. There's a little bit of a heartbreak moment in the chorus where there's a past tense. ‘Even though the colors fade, I'll remember every shade, our love was indigo.’ That's the little hook line there.

I think it sounds the most different and new from anything I've ever written before and that was really exciting for me. And maybe because Joni Mitchell has her Blue album so I wanted my Indigo album [laughs].

You’ll be performing at The Sofia this weekend, as you have been doing every year for a while now, what is so special about this venue? 

We do a show there every summer with the nine-piece and it's such a beautiful room. The sound is incredible and the size. I think it's about 400 people, so it's this big beautiful theater, but it still feels really intimate and I still feel connected to the audience. 

It's just an incredible place to get to showcase the songs and all the hard work we've done. And playing with Giorgi is one of my favorite things in the world.

And it must be such a special week when you're performing at The Sophia and then it's the release of your EP!

Absolutely, a lot of work goes into recording an EP and then doing all the things you need to do to get it out in the world. It feels like it's exciting and then it's also like all the hard work has paid off for that moment, you know? 

It's like it all led up to that and it's always really fun to have everybody come out and celebrate with us.

So the last song on the EP is Gold and Green, what inspired this one? 

So I moved to Grass Valley a couple years ago. I bought a little house out there and I have my garden. It's the first time I've had a garden and I have my roses and I spent a lot of time with myself, by myself, at my house, making it my home and it was a really special time for me.

I learned a lot about myself and I grew a lot as a person and I just got a lot closer to myself and that's what this song is about. The title of this song [came when] I was finishing. I had like one lyric I couldn't figure out. And as I was driving out to a show in Sierraville the sun was coming through the trees in the most beautiful way. So there's a line ‘sunset through the trees, everything is gold and green.’ Because it was just so beautiful. So more nature inspiration there, personal growth and nature and flowers [laughs].

In 2023, a Sacramento indie band called Humidity Glow threw a house show at their drummer’s house. The show featured Humidity Glow, local indie band Blonde Star Wig, and Sacramento’s Philharmonik, who would go on the following year to win NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest.

The drummer, August Rose and their partner Dove Rose, would go on to host a series of shows in their home, which they dubbed Humidity Glow Headquarters, or HGHQ.

In the summer of 2024, Humidity Glow broke up. But, August and Dove decided they still wanted Sacramento’s music in their home.

Dove said they always wanted the space to feel more like a place where the community can gather and not just another venue. So, they decided to keep throwing shows, and call their new community “The Hearth.”

“I’ve always just really liked the imagery, the figurative hearth at the center of the home, the place where people gather, the place where you come in from the cold and feel safe,” Dove said.

Their living room-turned-venue features vintage CRT televisions and VHS tape decks, cassette tapes, and a wall scrapbooked with memories from shows in the past. Dove said that the inspiration for their vintage aesthetic came from their own love for old technology, and the analog feel of physical scrapbooks.

“The goal was to have it feel more like a community hub than someone’s living room,” August said. “We were trying to bridge that space between professionalism and comfort.”

They said that, ever since they started throwing shows, Sacramento’s music scene has shown support.

“I think it’s always going to be a concern, letting a bunch of random people into your home, but at the same time, we’ve been doing it this long and people have been showing that they're respectful and receptive to what we’re doing,” August said. “A lot of times, like random showgoers will just be like, ‘Oh, is there anything I can help with here and there?”

The Hearth has thrived on its relationship with Sacramento’s community, and an ethos that centers around mutual aid and respect. At all of their shows, which are all volunteer-run, they charge admission but they always specify that no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Davis jangle-pop band Illbie played at the Hearth on July 11, 2026.Courtesy of the Hearth

Iran is home to a rich, diverse culture spanning 31 provinces and dating back thousands of years — particularly music and storytelling.

A new touring performance — featuring a Sacramento-based percussionist — is bringing this rarely-experienced part of the country’s culture to audiences across the country, including at the International House in Davis on Aug. 2.

ZÂ guides audiences through the emotions and journey of life, woven around the traditions from the Western Iranian province of Lorestan and featuring the sounds of Iranian string instruments and drums.

Musicians Nariman Assadi, Behfar Bahadoran and Mazdak Alipour spoke with Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez about the inspirations behind ZÂ, and shared a sample of Lorestani music.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Interview highlights

I would just love to start with learning more about the three of you. Where did your passion for music come from?

NARIMAN: Since I was 13 years old, I started playing the instrument called Tombak, a goblet-shaped drum. That was my first experience with music. And I've been following music performances, other musicians, started learning more drums [and] percussion. That was my first interaction with music. 

BEHFAR: I started studying music when I was six, and we’ve been performing on different stages in Iran, outside and in the United States for the past 20 years. I've known Nariman and Mazdak for five years now, and we have been working on different projects but this is the first project that we have been working on — Lorestani music to be specific.

MAZDAK: So from the early ages, [I] played music. [I] started learning from my dad; his name is Faraj Alipour, he’s a legendary Kamancheh player and vocalist. 

Nariman, you teach at schools in Sacramento. What is that experience like, bringing this musical style and traditions to young children?

NARIMAN: Yes, I teach Tombak and Daf [in] private and group lessons, and also working with elementary schools, Music for Children, and Farsi schools.

Since I started the training for music for children I always had that desire, especially in [the] Iranian diaspora, to teach the second generation of Iranian kids about their culture. Also sharing this culture with the elementary schools is a different experience for me, especially kindergarteners, TK and first graders that I see every day. It's very joyful, playing these instruments and sharing a culture that I've lived.

What was the inspiration for ZÂ itself? 

NARIMAN: ZÂ coming from the word zayesh in Persian, meaning “birth” and “beginning.” It was born from a desire to preserve and share this living tradition. If you go to a village in Lorestan, in Western Iran, you can see it still happening. 

It explores the milestones of life through music from lullabies, work music, love music, weddings, ritualistic ceremonial music that we have, and also mourning and celebration music.

What are the instruments that you are playing?

NARIMAN: So the instruments we're performing with are the Kamancheh, the Iranian fiddle; Tar [a lute-like instrument]; and Daf, the frame drum.

ZÂ’s music comes from the Lorestan region of Iran. Can you describe what the music there is like?

MAZDAK: What is very unique about Lorestan [is the instrument]. As you can see here, it has this special design where the back of this instrument is open compared to other Kamancheh in the other regions. The reason for that is it was used to play at weddings, and there was no amplification. So they designed this instrument so people can hear it. 

In Lorestan, in that region, they do everything with music. They wake up, they have music. They work, they have music. They fall in love, they have music for it. And if they lose someone, they also have music. They’re happy people, but some of the upbeat music you hear, when you go deep into the lyrics they’re actually very sad.

This performance is touring all over the country. What has the response been like?

NARIMAN: It’s interesting; for the first time I feel like everyone from all ages is connected to this music. We actually performed a demo of this performance at UCLA and we had some non-Iranian professors actually reaching out to us that they really enjoyed it. In Portland there was a kid, 12 years old, came up to us and was like, “that was the first time I'm hearing music from my homeland.” She was very attached;  she told us she felt very connected to her ancestors by this music as well. 

We also heard from non-Iranian audiences that they really love it, they feel attached as we were telling this story. And I feel, [compared to] other performances that we had before, this is not just museum pieces of the past that we're showing, rather a life story.

Everyone in the audience, they're also joining us in this journey as we're going. We hope that every time that we take this on the stage, we also leave those pieces in the moment.

Music has the power to educate, and bring people together. What does it mean for you all to perform together and connect these traditions through song?

BEHFAR: Being part of the Iranian diaspora for the past 20 years, reconnecting in a way to the roots of our culture and also sharing it with the American society that I’ve been living within myself for almost two decades, it’s amazing. 

It’s sharing something more than what we actually hear and see on the news. It’s refreshing, I think, to the foreign audience [and] our culture.

Editor’s note: Nariman Assadi provided translations for Mazdak Alipour during this interview.

ZÂ will be performed at the International House Davis from 5-7 p.m. on Aug. 2.

Odd time signatures, psychedelic textures and emo ballads define the eclectic experience that is Squid Saves the Planet. The new band hailing from Placerville is just under a year old but their connections go way back.

The group is composed of three brothers Jonathan (vocals/guitar) Dylan (vocals/bass) and Tim (drums) Punturo, along with their longtime family friend Freya Ahrima (guitar/vocals). 

Their deep connections show up immediately when you listen; weaving in complex guitar lines between distorted walls of shoegaze soundscapes and yearning vocal melodies. 

Their band name is more than just a cheeky reference to lead singer Jonathan’s nickname Squid. It’s part of the DIY punk ethos they are embodying, trying to build community, inspire creativity and ‘save the planet,’ one song at a time.

We first discovered them during our roundup of the best local entries into NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest and we decided to invite them to perform for us live at CapRadio for our next Insight Studio Session. 

After their performance, they all sat down with Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez to talk about how the band got started and where their inspiration comes from.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Interview highlights

So technically, you all are a new band. You started less than a year ago, but I mean the four of you go way back. Were you all musical growing up?

Ahrima: I got into music because of these guys. The first song I learned on guitar, our drummer Timmy taught me.

At that time, Jonathan was already in all sorts of bands and it was just really inspiring for me to get into music. 

Jonathan Punturo: Our dad played when we were little and he started showing me stuff when I was as young as six or seven. I had my first guitar by the time I was nine. And then when these guys were old enough to become interested, I kind of showed them some tricks that I knew. Actually, Tim is a ripping guitar player and Dylan's actually like a singer, songwriter, poet. 

So Dylan, when did the idea come about for the four of you to start a band?

Dylan Punturo: Most of these songs off of this album are original songs that Jonathan wrote over like the last 10 years or so. And Freya has been recording all of our individual projects and as that was kind of getting wrapped up, Jonathan asked us to join in the live band and I'm personally stoked and honored to be a part of it. 

Jonathan Punturo: Yeah, it's been fun. It kind of just happened naturally.

Where do you draw your influences from? 

Jonathan Punturo: All kinds of stuff. I've kind of always been drawn to like more I guess relatively obscure music.

I listen to a lot of instrumental math rock and stuff. Early influences would be like Coheed and Cambria and the Mars Volta and things like that. 

I recently was trying to describe my music to somebody who I didn't know and what I cooked up was Mac DeMarco meets The Mars Volta.

So, you played a set for us and we're going to listen to "Softer Inside.” Where did the song come from?

That one I wrote kind of in my mid-20s and actually the inspiration for the vibe of it was actually a reflection or like think-tank kind of thing I did about the idea of demonic possession actually.

It is a little haunted!

Yeah, it's being consumed by an energy, I guess, was the inspiration for that one. 

Since all of you have played in different bands over the years, when you listen to Squid Saves the Planet, do you get a taste of other bands from the past that you all have been part of? 

Ahrima: All of this album that just released is just Squid Solo music, but we have a new couple of songs in the works. We're already working on album two, which will be our first release as a band. So now getting to actually write music as a unit, I do feel like the different influences [are] coming in.

Dylan plays in like a psych rock funk instrumental band and he gets to write more of his own licks and Timmy's learned the drums for this band. So he actually gets to put his imprint [with] his style of drumming on it. And then, I come from a similar zone of inspiration as Squid. I like emo music and heavier music, so I get to write riffs that are a little bit more visceral or in your face compared to learning Jonathan's like psychedelic [parts].

Jonathan Punturo: Yeah, what I'm finding is that we're getting a little more intensity and a little more kind of dynamic range and the songs are a little longer too.

Well, let's just get into your tiny desk submission. That's because you that's why you all are here. I mean, was it a no-brainer like hey, let's submit to Tiny Desk? 

Ahrima: I personally have just been a fan of Tiny Desk for a long time and I I watch a lot of submissions. We're from this area, The Philharmonik [won]. It was inspiring seeing someone local you know blow up off of that and I brought it to their attention. I was like, ‘hey this is happening right now.’

We have all of the equipment to do this in I think a more professional way than maybe most could because of just the shared equipment and my experience as an engineer and Jonathan's history in the music scene and just kind of really flowed together naturally. 

Jonathan Punturo: Yeah, I mean it totally was just kind of a no-brainer. We'll probably submit next time as well. It's just a really cool series. It's honestly one of those beautiful things.

There's just so many great artists and then also some like you know not so developed artists and they kind of get to share that space. 

Ahrima: Everyone gets a chance and that's awesome. 

The last song is “Feed Me to the Fishes”. Let's dive into that song.

Jonathan Punturo: The meaning of that song is actually pretty personal. I was going through some  kind of life-altering stuff in my late teens, early 20s. 

And that was a song, ultimately just about accepting reality and growing as a person and you know, ‘the only way out is through’ kind of a thing. 

Finally, you describe the band as DIY, do-it-yourself. What does that ethos mean to you all?

Jonathan Punturo: We write from a sense of being authentic and genuine. That's always the goal. It's never about like, ‘how can we sell this music best?’ Also very importantly we are anti-capitalist. 

So as to say whatever we can do ourselves without somebody robbing us blind, we're going to. And that's not because of the money, that's because of the culture. 

Ahrima: It's obviously changed a lot through the years and the way that labels approach people now, it's just predatory in a different way. Now, it's like, you already have to have this kind of Tik Tok following or build up your own Instagram base before we'll even consider you. Like, you have to have so many followers and we don't need to do all of that.

Independent artists make it big all the time at this point and I think that a big part of the DIY scene is just like building community around it. And I feel like a lot of artists when they develop an ego or they start getting a bit of traction, there's like an isolation. And I think that we care a lot about just being a part of a strong scene and collaborating with other bands.

Jonathan Punturo: It's all about the art and it's all about being creative and it's all about encouraging others to feel like they can be creative and open and free.

I think if there is any kind of message as far as like, ‘saving the planet’ goes or whatever, it's a celebration of the human spirit and not letting the oppressors get you down and always choosing love when you can kind of a thing. And the DIY stuff really does kind of center and root in all of that. 

Squid Saves the Planet will be playing in Sacramento on Friday, August 21st at the Hearth. Follow the band on Instagram for more details on upcoming shows and music.

Football is recognized around the world as a competitive, team-based sport with players looking to score as many points as possible.

But the exact kind of football you’re talking about may be open to more interpretation.

Is the ball round or more egg-shaped? Is it played more with the feet, or with the hands? Can you tackle another player, or is agility and speed preferred?

One sport that’s been described as a little of “all of the above” has been gaining attention in the U.S. for years, including in California’s capital city — Australian rules football, also known as “Aussie rules” or “footy.”

And since 2009, the Sacramento Suns have been bringing some down-under flair every time they step on the field.

Welcome to the team

For veteran Suns player Lauré Kwoka, Aussie rules has been a part of her life for 14 years. It’s seen her take multiple leadership positions within the Suns organization, as well as spend four years with the U.S. Women’s National Team.

“I liked the freedom of it; I did play rugby at Sac State and I loved it, but I feel like I would get singled out to get tackled a lot,” Kwoka told Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez. 

“In footy if you’re fast enough, you won’t get tackled… I just got addicted to it,” she added.

Sean MacEachern, the team’s “resident Australian,” spoke about the popularity of the sport. “Aussie rules football, in Australia it’s the number one sport,” he said. “It’s boisterous; there’s 100,000 people at the stadium, it can be a really fun game — especially on some of the big holidays.”

MacEachern played a little footy while at university, but fell into the sport more after coming to California and feeling homesick. 

“[I] found out there were teams playing in San Francisco and here in Sacramento,” he explained. “There was a little local Australian community, so it was nice as an expat to have that camaraderie.”

MacEachern is glad to see the Capital City embrace the game. “It gives you a little bit of pride as an Australian, that we invented something that is suitable for a lot of other people to come and play,” he said.

And the Sacramento Suns are certainly drawing in a diverse range of players.

“I’m an archaeologist,” Kwoka said. “We have some doctors, nurses… people who just come from different backgrounds, somehow hear about us, and they come out and give it a go.”

Footy rules

While the Suns are an amateur organization, they offer a variety of options for playing Aussie rules. The team fields both men’s and women’s sides across different competition levels — tag, tackle and travel — as well as a youth clinic program to introduce footy to young competitors.

Footy is played on an oval-shaped field roughly twice the size of the American gridiron, about 180 yards long and 50 yards wide. Two teams of 18 players try to kick the ball, described by Kwoka as “the child of an American football and a rugby ball,” through four tall uprights at each end to score.

Players move the ball down the field using the handball, a form of punch, to pass between each other. There is no offside rule or throwing the ball, and players commit to tackles — without pads.

The sport isn’t just fast, it’s also vocal. Suns player Andrew Loewen said players are constantly talking to one another to cut through the on-field chaos.

“We always try to have our voice up at practice because if we’re not talking in the game, we’re not communicating, and then the other team can get the advantage and get up on you,” he explained.

Kwoka put it more simply. “LED — when you’re talking it’s loud, early and direct.”

The constant chatter can also provide a psychological edge. “You gotta be rowdier and louder than them; it’s a bit of an intimidation factor,” Loewen explained. “If the other team is more up for it than you, it could be a long day on the pitch.”

Honing the fundamentals

Under the afternoon sun at Airport Field in Natomas, Suns players gathered for a practice. The events are co-ed, with women’s team members joining in drills and scrimmages alongside their male counterparts.

Players lined up to pass the ball back and forth, ran down the field to catch kicks, and wrapped one another up in tackling drills. The match ended with a few group scrimmages, as the Suns spread out and competed against each other.

“The biggest thing we need to work on as a team is our fundamentals,” said men’s coach Ramish Bahramand. He started playing footy in his mid-20s, and said the Suns have been known to play with more heart than skill — which can make tournaments more challenging.

“It’s difficult to kick the ball as well as make those hand passes; getting that down it really helps our games,” he added. “We’re not Australian, obviously, so we’re all learning this.”

Vanessa Goh is a new member of the Suns, having recently made the switch from American flag football. “I saw this ad on Instagram [and] was like, 'I should come and try it, and see how it goes,'” she said. 

Goh said there is a lot of similarity between the two sports, from the catching style to the need for good hand-eye coordination. But other parts of Aussie rules have come with more of a learning curve. 

“The tackle portion is a lot more fluid… kicking on the run is super weird,” she said. “It’s not as intuitive as you think, but it’s really fun.”

Goh credited the team with welcoming her into the fold. “Everyone’s super nice, super supportive,” she explained. “Everyone’s like, ‘don’t be afraid to make a mistake; everyone will help you out and try to make you better.’”

Maintaining the team

For the Suns’ veteran players, bringing in new players like Goh is critical — especially to keep the women’s team going. “We need the numbers… getting women who are not used to contact sports to play is hard,” Kwoka explained. 

She said some women players sometimes choose not to return to footy as they get older, or after having a child, as the physical recovery can be more difficult. “That’s OK; there’s nothing wrong with that, we respect that, and some still come out and support [us],” Kwoka added.

Others do come back, like women’s coach/captain Christine Muthusamy-Flok. She joined the Suns after moving to Sacramento from the Bay. 

“I was looking for people because I was new to a city, I came out, and they’ve become my second family,” she explained.

Muthusamy-Flok said the team has seen her and her wife raise multiple children. “Those times away, the times back, seeing me through all of that… we’re a social club” she said.

When it comes to keeping the team around long-term, Muthusamy-Flok said she thinks Sacramento has a leg up because of its proximity to other teams. 

“We have teams that are close to each other so we can grow more locally… a lot of other teams around the country have themselves to play against,” she said. “I do think Sacramento has its own nice little niche for women to grow.”

Kwoka passed along some advice to prospective players – don’t be intimidated. 

“I’ll tackle one of my friends, we’ll both get up, give each other a hug — it’s not as intense and scary as you think it is,” she explained. “You’ll learn that just tackling someone can kind of be freeing sometimes!”

Culture and community 

That camaraderie between the Suns was unmistakable.

Cheers and good-natured ribbing as teammates passed the ball or worked on tackling. Between sets the Suns gathered in a circle, raising fists and chanting along to Kwoka’s enthusiastic call, “Suns on me, Suns on three! One, two, three, SUNS!”

The team culture is also highlighted in more unusual ways. “The one thing about footy is everyone gets their own kind of nickname,” Loewen explained, with the back of his shirt bearing the self-explanatory moniker, “Drew.”

“I think that’s part of Australian culture; we’re just lazy by default,” MacEachern joked. “If you’ve got a name that’s just a couple syllables, we’ll try and shorten it down to one.”

Nicknames flew at the Suns practice — Rhino looking for a pass from Rabbit; Peacock clearing the way for Socks.

MacEachern is “Macca,” a traditional Australian name. Kwoka becomes “Lozza,” which she explained is a common riff off names like Lauren or Laura. Another player, Marcus Jones, is “Yo-Yo,” his catchphrase when getting open, while Mutusamy-Flok is simply “Flok.”

Whatever their backgrounds, every player has found their place among the Suns — a bond that is on full display in the team’s song, sung to celebrate every victory.

“At the professional level in Australia every team has their own song,” Loewen explained. “There’s lots of tradition that’s built into it.”

We are the Suns of the Sactown sky!
One in gold and red that’s who!
We are the mighty Sactown Suns!
And we play to win the flag for you! 

Fight, fight, fight, ‘til we hold up the cup!
Run, run, run all the way… HEY!
We are the Suns of the Sactown sky!
The team that never says die! 

The Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum has called Sacramento home for 30 years, and is considered the only museum in the region dedicated to preserving Black history. 

Shonna McDaniels founded the museum in 1996. Named after the legendary abolitionist and civil rights activist, its mission includes providing art education to students across the area and organizing community beautification projects throughout South Sacramento. 

“What better way to connect human beings together than in the form of creation and doing art,” said McDaniels. “And not only art, but of course history. I tell everyone that African-American history is world history. We've made so many contributions to this world and it's important for everyone to learn this history so we can feel better connected.”

McDaniels explains a lack of funding in recent years is putting the museum at risk of closure.

“We didn't think that having the only African American museum in Sacramento that we wouldn't get the help that we need,” she said. “It's heartbreaking. There's absolutely no help for us in Sacramento.”

The longtime museum is located inside Florin Square, home to a large collaboration of Black-owned businesses known as Black Wall Street. From floor to ceiling, the space is an eclectic exploration of African Americans and their legacy. 

“You're not going to see a lot of museums that are eclectic, like where art's everywhere and where there's information everywhere,” said docent Judah X Pimentel. “Museums have been normalizing minimalism a lot lately, and that they have been for years. But I like that it's more maximalist here, and that's a unique experience in itself.” 

Pimental explained the range of pieces include, but go beyond the Civil Rights Movement and slavery, to also celebrate the accomplishments of Black Americans as well as neglected parts of history at risk of being forgotten. 

“The history is deep and it's unfiltered. I think that's really important, to see it through the side of truth rather than sugarcoating.”

A longtime professional muralist and visual artist, McDaniels had been teaching art classes and organizing exhibits in Oak Park and Del Paso communities when she came across the space to open a museum in 1996.

“Art has always been part of my life. I tell everyone that I came into this world with a paintbrush in my hand,” said McDaniels. “I've seen so many generations grow up under my tutelage.”

What began as the Sojourner Truth Cultural Center, McDaniels explained her mission has always gone beyond museum walls. She along with a collective of artists regularly go into schools to uplift the next generation of creatives. 

“Our current exhibit are students from Sheldon High School,” said McDaniels. “The schools don't really have art like the way we present art. We do so much art engagement in our community. That would just disappear.”

The museum's creative footprint can also be seen throughout South Sacramento. 

“Beautification projects which include street banners, street murals on buildings and utility boxes,” explained McDaniels. “Every type of activation we do, we invite the community so they can feel a part of creating public art in their community.”

The Sojourner Truth Museum’s finances grew dire following an expansion during the pandemic. McDaniels explains she took a leap of faith in 2021 when a neighboring space closed, but the initial starter funding is now long gone.

“Our rent just went up tremendously,” she explained, adding that it’s been a challenge to receive enough grant funding. 

“Some of them have said that, ‘you all are a museum. We can't believe that you do all of the work that you do. We can't believe that you have a youth docent program, that you have an entrepreneur program, that you have a workforce development program, you're a museum,’” said McDaniels. “But they're not sending no one to come here and see what we're doing. Because the community knows what we do, what we've been doing for years. We just did a mobile tour at a local school. We served about close to 700 students.” 

McDaniels’ hopes are squared-in on the museum’s fundraising event, the 15th Annual Sacramento Banana Festival happening Aug. 15-16 at William Land Park. 

“The banana brings together other diverse groups of people around the world,” explaining the inspiration behind the festival.

“Initially people were like, ‘bananas don't grow in California.’ But yeah, there are banana farmers in California. The gentleman in West Sacramento, he actually comes out and sets up at every banana festival.”

McDaniels added it was the first banana festival in California, and inspired others. 

“People don't know that we actually helped cultivate the banana festival in Ventura, California,” she explained. “They loved what we did because we are a collective of artists. We made banana hats, banana jewelry, banana eating contest, banana bake-off, you name it. And they were like, well, can you all come and help us?”

As funding gaps loom, for McDaniels, the festival’s success is intertwined with the fight to keep the museum alive.  

“It's kind of been shocking to us. It's a tough one. But we're trying to keep that ball rolling.”

Insight Senior Producer Andrew Garcia contributed to this reporting.

Sacramento Bike Kitchen will be holding their 20th anniversary party this weekend featuring local sister duo band Dog Party, six other local bands, and a bike polo exhibition this Saturday at their I Street location. The free event will be accepting donations and selling beer to help support the bike kitchen.

According to the organization’s president, Irie Honeyeater, the Sacramento Bike Kitchen is where they’re “cooking up bikes” — providing free and low-cost bike repairs to Sacramento’s cyclist community.

“We’re trying to increase accessibility to bikes because they are such a great, personal low-cost transportation for everyone,” Honeyeater said. 

He said that his bike is his main source of transportation, and that it’s the most affordable option for a lot of people to get around.

“I don’t turn my car on more than maybe once or twice a week,” Honeyeater said. “A lot of people lean on bikes for affordable transportation, and the bike kitchen is a main resource for that.”

Honeyeater got involved with the Sacramento Bike Kitchen six years ago, initially just as someone who needed their bike repaired. Since getting involved with the kitchen, he’s witnessed  it open doors for people.

“I’ve seen people that just moved to Sacramento and they need a way to get around and they come in, we set them up on a bike, and then they keep coming back,” Honeyeater said. “I myself started going there, and then I got a job at a local bike shop, I learned bike mechanics.”

Honeyeater said that proceeds from concerts held at the bike shop on the first Saturday of the month go towards repair parts for the shop and facility costs like rent, but the kitchen is entirely volunteer-run. 

However, their landlord is looking to sell the building the kitchen has been operating out of for 17 years, and Honeyeater is afraid that rent under a new landlord would surpass the discounted rate they’ve paid to the building’s current owner. 

Fundraising for the organization has grown more necessary with this prospect on the horizon, and they’re looking at what it would take to buy their current building. According to Honeyeater, it could take as much as a million dollars.

“We don’t get any grant money currently. We’re entirely self-sufficient. No one’s paid. So we’re in an okay position financially,” Honeyeater said. “But, we’re a far cry from a million dollars.”

The Sacramento Bike Kitchen full of volunteers on June 23, 2026Courtesy of Sacramento Bike Kitchen

The event on Saturday features Dog Party as its headlining act. The sister act duo, Lucy and Gwenn Giles, started playing in Sacramento when they were six and nine-years-old, toured with Green Day in 2016, and last year opened for Jack White of the White Stripes at Channel 24. They have been a fixture in the Sacramento music scene for over 10 years, despite still being in their 20s. 

Honeyeater said that the Sacramento Bike Kitchen has thrown their second Saturday shows for over 10 years, after a pause during COVID lockdowns, and they’ve had a longstanding relationship with Dog Party.

“We used to have a show for high school bands, they actually used to perform at the Bike Kitchen when they were teenagers, they used to perform there years ago,” Honeyeater said. “We thought it would be fun to have them come back. We’re kind of having a mix of legacy bands and some newer local acts.”

During one act of the show, when local band the Me Gustas will be performing, there will be an exhibition match of bike polo, which is exactly what it sounds like — polo on bikes, usually played on tennis or basketball courts.

The match will be put on by the Davis Bike Polo Club. Ed Henn, a member of Davis Bike Polo, said that the game is played with three players on each side, each team trying to hit balls into the opposing team’s net, all on bikes.

“It’s some of the most fun you can have on a bike,” Henn said. “I like things that are a little strange that most people think might be dangerous. I don’t do a lot of dangerous things, but I love anything on a bicycle.”

Henn said that despite the sport being played close-quarters on bikes, swinging mallets, on concrete, injuries are not commonplace.

“[There’s] occasionally an accident, usually when we’re running into each other… If you do, it generally is happening at pretty slow speed and people can safely dismount,” Henn said. “If you come out and try it, I can’t guarantee anything, but people don’t usually come out and get hurt. It takes some coordination at first, I’ll say that.”

Henn’s been involved with the Davis Bike Polo club for ten years. He first saw the club play in the middle of a parade in Davis. They set up nets right in front of him in the street and started playing.

“I had no idea bike polo existed, I was very surprised and very interested in anything a little unusual happening on bikes,” Henn said. 

His love of cycling, however, has persisted since he was a kid.

“It’s a great community, it’s great exercise. I often feel like biking is what sort of keeps me on the level,” Henn said. “[It] keeps me happy, keeps me sane, it gets you outdoors and exercising.”

The fundraiser for the Sacramento Bike Kitchen will take place at 1915 I Street in Sacramento this Saturday at 3 p.m. The bike polo exhibiton match will take place at 5 p.m., and Davis Bike Polo meets weekly on Sunday afternoons at West Manor Park in Davis.

If you've been thinking about exploring California's historic state parks this summer, now may be the perfect opportunity.

Governor Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom have announced a free special edition of the California State Parks Historian Passport, giving visitors unlimited admission to more than 30 participating state historic parks. 

The announcement comes in celebration of Juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating June 19, 1865. Union troops arrived in Texas and informed enslaved people they were free more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The holiday recognizes the end of slavery in the United States and honors the contributions of African Americans throughout the nation's history.

“Building on our Outdoors for All initiative, we’re creating even more opportunities for Californians to explore the natural beauty and rich history that define our state,” Siebel Newsom said. “As we celebrate Juneteenth and our nation’s 250th anniversary, the free special edition Historian Passport provides an incredible avenue for California families to immerse themselves in nature while gaining a deeper understanding of the remarkable place we’re proud to call home.”

The passport, which typically costs $50, can be claimed through July 6 and will remain valid until the end of the year.

Among the participating locations is Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, a California town in Tulare County dating back to 1908 which was founded, financed and governed by African Americans pioneers. 

The passport also grants access to other historic parks including Sutter’s Fort Historic Park in Sacramento, museums and cultural sites that tell the stories of Native Americans, immigrants, Gold Rush-era settlers, civil rights leaders and other communities that helped shape California.

The free passport program is funded through donations from the California State Parks Foundation and the California State Railroad Museum Foundation.

California State Parks Capital District Director John Fraser said it gives residents a chance to visit places that often receive less attention than the state's better-known outdoor destinations while supporting the department's Reexamining Our Past initiative.

“Utilizing this passport promotion is going to be a way to not only experience these amazing sites, but get a taste of how California State Parks is trying to be a more accurate and inclusive and complex interpreter of the state's rich history.”

The announcement also comes amid a broader national debate over how American history is presented at public institutions and historic sites.

Last year, the Trump administration ended free admission days at national parks for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, replacing them with what officials described as "patriotic fee-free days," including Flag Day and Trump’s birthday on June 14. 

Administration officials said the changes were an example of Trump's “commitment to making national parks more accessible, more affordable and more efficient for the American people." 

In his statement, Newsom criticized the removal of dozens of historical signs and exhibits from some national parks. Reasons given by the administration for the removals were because the items “disparage Americans.” Last week, a federal judge ordered them to be restored.

Newsom also drew a "stark contrast" between California's approach to its historic parks system compared to the administration's handling of the country's national parks calling it an attempted "whitewashing" of American history.

“California doesn’t hide from hard truths and uncomfortable history — in fact, we embrace it and learn from it,” Newsom said. “While Trump ignores and tries to rewrite the past, California is marking these celebrations of freedom by inviting everyone to learn our country’s history — our real history — for free in our state parks.”

Fraser said he’s proud of the state’s approach as well saying the public loses something when its park systems — state, national, or otherwise — “walks away from its charge.”

“Which is to try to tell the truth as best as we can about these sites, even if that leads to uncomfortable conversations about the country's history,” Fraser said. “I think the public deserves and expects something far better from its park systems.”

Residents interested in taking advantage of the offer must download the free Historian Passport by July 6 through the California State Parks website. Once claimed, the passport can be used through the end of the year at participating historic parks across the state

You can find the full list of California historic parks here. 

Composer Kurt Erickson specializes in writing works for multi-disciplinary collaborative projects that address loss and healing. His song set Here, Bullet has been performed across the globe and occupies a unique place in the classical music world as a composition being turned into a short film, as a vehicle for veterans arts therapy programs, and the recipient of the First Prize Award in the 2020 NATS Art Song Composition Competition.

Each Moment Radiant, his latest work with poet Brian Turner, tells the stories of interweaving lives affected by the tragic bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988. The work honors loss while celebrating resilience, love, and our capacity to celebrate the precious and ephemeral moments in our daily lives.

In this feature we enjoy samples of both these works, in addition to several others, and Kurt shares some of his own vulnerable personal tragedy as well. 

Performers in this feature include: Sybarite5 and pianist Tania Stavreva, Kindra Scharich-mezzo-soprano, Paul Yarbrough-viola, Tony Striplin-clarinet, Jeff LaDeur-piano, Joel David Balzun-baritone, Kathleen Roland-Silverstein-mezzo soprano, Katie Weber-mezzo soprano, Philip Marten-violin, Holgen Gjoni- cello, and Scott Cuellar-piano.

Local Artist Feature June 12th, 2026