Christina Lisac's Apricot Forest Chinese Medicine is hosting a Chinese New Year celebration at its studio on Miller Avenue on Friday, Feb. 8 from 3-6pm.

“Come celebrate the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Pig!” says Lisac, a longtime licensed practitioner of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. “Everyone is invited to drop in for refreshments, raspberry cheesecake and more."

In addition to the Chine New Year festivities, Lisac is offering complimentary 30-minute consultations for patients looking to ease "stress, restore balance and create lasting change promoting peaceful sleep.”

Lisac treats a wide range of conditions, including depression, weight issues, back pain and intestinal issues, but she has no doubt her primary focus: “I’m a sleep specialist,” she says.

After growing up on the Peninsula, Lisac earned a Bachelor of Science at UC Davis. She then went on to attend the Blue Otter School of Herbal Medicine in Yreka, Calif., and then Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine College in Berkeley. Those years of dedicated study were preceded by an unexpected reading from a Chinese astrologist that indicated that Lisac “would find happiness working in medicine and become an acupuncturist.”

“At the time, I said, ‘Me, poking people with needles?’” and didn’t give it another thought,” she says. “But I continued to be drawn to it. I have a real passion for the field: when I’m not working, I enjoy reading case studies and searching out articles on advances in Oriental Medicine. I absolutely love the science and power of Oriental Medicine, and I’m dedicated to helping people through acupuncture.”

The 411: Apricot Forest is located at 244 Miller Avenue. Call 510.927.8480 for an appointment. MORE INFO.

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One Tam, the collaboration of public land agencies dedicated to the long-term health of Mount Tamalpais, is linking up with the Marin Art & Garden Center as part of the venue's conservation series to celebrate the opening of an interactive exhibit that explores the intersection of ecology and cultural history on Mt. Tam’s West Peak. The event is set for Thursday, January 31 (6-8pm)

One Tam's project team, as well as a number of artists and ecologists inspired by the potential of the West Peak's restoration, will be on hand to explain how these factors are incorporated into a community-based design process to chart a path forward. They will include Mill Valley filmmaker Gary Yost, who has made it his mission over the years to draw attention to the much-needed restoration of Mt. Tam's western peak. He's done so with a series of three short films, the third of which, “Song of the Last Place,” debuted in 2016 at "The Mountain Calls," a One Tam evening hosted by Tomales Bay Miwok descendent Sky Road Webb and television host Doug McConnell at the Throckmorton Theatre.

The series spans from 1950, when "the military bulldozed the highest peak of Mt. Tam to build an Air Force radar station tasked with directing jet interceptors and short range nuclear missiles against the potential threat of Russian nuclear bombers," to 1980, when "the base was obsolete and summarily closed. The military walked away from dozens of structures, leaving behind a huge toxic mess on the mountain," Yost writes. 

One Tam works to ensure a healthy, vibrant and diverse landscape for our beloved and iconic Mt. Tam. We are the community-supported partnership of Mt. Tam’s land agencies and managers that includes California State Parks, Marin County Parks, Marin Municipal Water District, and the National Park Service along with the nonprofit Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. One Team leads programs that care for our mountain, inspire our next generation of land stewards and strengthen our local community. 

The series continues in February with a focus on Native American History on Mt. Tam. On Thursday, March 14, the series turns to the Health of the Mountain. One Tam hosts its next Hands on Tam Winter Work Day on Saturday, February 2 from 8:30am-1pm (MORE INFO).

The 411: One Tam and the Marin Art & Garden Center celebrate the opening of an interactive exhibit that explores the intersection of ecology and cultural history on Mt. Tam’s West Peak. Event features a lecture and wine reception. Tix $15 for the talk or $35 for the series. MORE INFO & BUY TIX.

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“It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.” –Eleanor Roosevelt

The Marin Women's Commission, which envisions "a diverse, fair and equitable Marin, where all women and children have the resources to live happy healthy and productive lives," marks its 45th anniversary this year, and is throwing a part to celebrate. The event, set for Thursday, Feb. 7 (6-8pm) at the Marin Builders Association in San Rafael, features beer, wine and light appetizers "as we celebrate and honor the women of Marin County," according to organizers. 

For the last 45 years, the Marin Women’s Commission, whose members include Mill Valley resident Sherene Chen, "has been lighting candles by serving Marin County women and girls through advocacy, research, and partnership with local agencies and organizations."

The Commission was created by the Marin County Board of Supervisors in April 1974 "to ensure women equal economic, social, political and educational opportunities throughout the county. The Supervisors empowered the Commission to study problems, consult with the Board of Supervisors, prepare information, advise and counsel residents as well as County, State, and Federal officials concerning matters related to discrimination against women and the violation of women’s rights."

The 411: The Marin Women's Commission celebrates its 45th anniversary with an event on Thursday, Feb. 7 (6-8pm) at the Marin Builders Association, 660 Las Gallinas Road in San Rafael. MORE INFO & REGISTER.

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Doug and Dave Canepa, the owners of Mill Valley Market, one of the 94941’s iconic businesses for nearly 90 years, acquired Vintage Wine & Spirits, the downtown shop that’s been around for nearly as long, in late 2018. With the logistics of the acquisition nearly complete – both shop’s will maintain their extensive wine, beer and spirits inventory and expand them a bit – the market is beginning to celebrate by doing what it does best: giving back.

On Saturday, February 9, both Mill Valley Market and Vintage Wine & Spirits will donate 5 percent of all proceeds to Kiddo!, the Mill Valley Schools Foundation. Customers must mention Kiddo! at beginning of checkout for it to count.

The Canepas officially took over longtime Vintage owner Richard Leland 1,400-square-foot shop at 82 Throckmorton Avenue on Nov. 1. They named longtime employee Mike Beeson as Vintage’s manager and plan to retain the shop’s current employees. MORE ON THE ACQUISITION HERE.

Donation days are nothing new for the Canepa family. In late 2017, Mill Valley Market’s Shop & Give Program – the evolution of then-Market co-owner Bob Canepa’s initial “Dollars for Scholars” effort, which donates to more than 115 nonprofit organizations in the form of 2 percent on purchases, with the recipient organization selected by the shopper – crossed the $1 million threshold in terms of money the market has donated to local nonprofits through the program since its inception in 1992.

For the February 9 Kiddo! day, customers must mention Kiddo! at beginning of checkout for it to count.

Stay tuned for more info on Mill Valley Market and Vintage Wine & Spirits.

​The 411: Mill Valley Market is at 12 Corte Madera Ave, while Vintage Wine & Spirits is at 82 Throckmorton Ave. MORE INFO.

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"From ancient grudge break to new mutiny."

The Throckmorton Theatre is readying an innovative take on the classic of all classics in February, turning William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet into an immersive production that will roam throughout the illustrious, historic theater.

"Our production of Romeo and Juliet is an immersive, emotional take on the greatest love story of all time," says Throckmorton Founder Lucy Mercer of the production, which kicks off Feb. 1 and runs through Feb. 17. "You can expect to be on your feet, moving through different areas, please wear warm clothes and comfortable shoes. There are a limited number of tickets available to each performance."

The timeless tale of love is brought to life in an intimate new imagining from director Amy Marie Haven, Mercer says.

"Witness a brawl in the street, sip champagne at the grand ball of Lord Capulet, share secrets in Juliet's room, and take a peek into the Friar's private quarters," Haven adds. 

In addition to the roving nature of the performance, Romeo and Juliet will also feature two casts: a main cast of professional adult actors, and a secondary cast of teens, ages 13-18. Teens cast in the production are part of Throckmorton's Performing Apprenticeship, which offers a unique combination of performance, training and observation.

The 411: The Throckmorton Theatre's immersive, roaming production of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet kicks off Feb. 1 and runs through Feb. 17, with 7:30pm performances on Friday and Saturday and 2:30pm performances on Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday performances will feature the teen apprentiCe cast. MORE INFO.

The show has subsequently drawn plaudits from the Marin IJ.

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Mill Valley Philharmonic is diving in 2019 with a little something different, hosting a 'Retro Dance Party' fundraiser featuring tunes from the 1970s and 80s spun by DJ DanniBoi and an evening of revelry in support of the organization's concerts of free symphonic music.

The event, set for Saturday, February 23, 7-10pm, at the Tam Valley Community Center, is "a post-Valentine's Day party designed for those who love the music of the 1970s and 1980s and want a safe, comfortable place to get their groove on in Marin, according to organizers. While the event is particularly envisioned for party-ers 40-plus whose time of going out to clubs has passed, anyone eager to spend the evening boogying to great dance music is welcome."

Organizers of the 21+ event are encouraging attendees to come in their favorite dance clothes and prepare to dance the night away – retro costumes encouraged.

Mill Valley Philharmonic is in the midst of its 2018-19 season – its first season without founder and artistic director Laurie Cohen – and new MV Philharmonic executive director Richard Aldag has lined up three prominent guest conductors, all of whom are candidates to become artistic director and join Aldag, the former executive director at the Napa Valley Symphony, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and Lincoln Theater Napa Valley, in filling part of Cohen's role. 

Paul Phillips, the director of orchestral studies and associate professor of music at Stanford University, began the series in November 2018, and Dana Sadava, the artistic director of Pasadena Opera, among myriad other roles, continues it in March, followed by Alexander Kahn, associate professor of music and director of orchestral activities at Sonoma State University, where he directs the Sonoma State Symphony Orchestra, in May.

​Based on input from the musicians and audience members, MVP will then select one of them as its next permanent artistic director/conductor.

The mission of MVP is "to enrich the cultural life of the Bay Area by offering free orchestral programs to people of all ages and means in their own communities," according to the organization's website. "As an organization, MVP believes that music is a vital part of individual and community life. Whether participating as a player or as a listener, music engages our imaginative powers, awakens our aesthetic sensibilities, and inspires our creative expression."

The 411: Mill Valley Philharmonic hosts a 'Retro Dance Party' fundraiser at the Tam Valley Community Center, 203 Marin Ave., on Saturday, February 23, 7-10pm. Tix $20. Questions? info@millvalleyphilharmonic.org or 415-383-0930. MORE INFO & TIX.

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As with all of the late, legendary playwright August Wilson’s work, there’s a lot to unpack in Marin Theatre Company’s production of Wilson’s “How I Learned What I Learned,” which opened earlier this month.

But as you leave the theater at the end of the 150-minute performance, marveling at Wilson’s memories of his years as an aspiring writer in the African American-dominated Hill District of Pittsburgh, Penn., the play’s format, and its main character – make that only character – shine brightest.

Directed by Margot Hall, “How I Learned What I Learned” is an autobiographical one-man show making its Bay Area premiere at MTC, with subsequent performances at Buriel Clay Theater in San Francisco in February and the Ubuntu Theater Project in Oakland in March. It revolves entirely around actor Steven Anthony Jones’ portrayal of Wilson, who performed the one-man show himself in Seattle in 2003, two years before his death.

Jones is front and center for the play’s entirety, delivering thousands of words built around Wilson’s memories, adages and anecdotes about his experiences, with only the occasional typeset cues, projected onto a backdrop of hanging sheets of paper of different sizes, to lean on for transition.

Those anecdotes spanned the many jobs Wilson quit after racist mistreatment by bosses who assumed the worst about him. “Something is not always better than nothing,” he says, later lamenting “a job that required you to accept the fact that your boss didn’t respect your humanity.”

In a commanding performance, Jones not only captures Wilson’s physical appearance and gravity of thought, he also evokes his potent mix of righteous anger and riotous humor, delivering an engaging, often hilarious portrait of a man whose life, and work, was so directly impacted by the racism he recounts as "an inheritance unworthy of our grandchildren."

A longtime company member of the American Conservatory Theater and the former artistic director at the Lorraine Hansberry, Jones’ showcased a deft ability to deliver across an array of non-linear topics, from Wilson’s romantic involvement with a married woman named Snookie to his pal Cy Morocco’s determination to perform like his jazz hero John Coltrane, despite lacking the ability to play the horn.

Jones remained deeply engaging throughout, never moreso than when he removed his jacket to reveal a t-shirt that proclaims, ''I am supposed to be white,” drawing uproarious laughter, only to follow that with virtuous indignation: ''We are an African people. We have our own history and we are not black by the accident of our birth.''

The 411: August Wilson’s “How I Learned What I Learned” at the Marin Theatre Company runs through Feb. 3. 397 Miller Ave. Tix $25-$70. MORE INFO. Here's a trailer:​

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Another springtime of baseball awaits Mill Valley kids at historic Boyle Park, and registration is now open at millvalleyll.org. In particular, the organization wants to reach kindergarten families who aren't aware of the registration process. The "Rookie League" is a tee-ball/coach-pitch league for kindergarteners and guaranteed fun in the sun. One practice per week, and a game on Saturday – plus the magic of leading the traditional Mill Valley Little League parade! Play ball! MORE INFO.

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The Mill Valley Chamber Music Society, the non-profit, all-volunteer organization founded in 1973 to present exceptional classical musicians in Mill Valley at affordable ticket prices, continues its 2018-19 season with a performance by the St. Lawrence String Quartet featuring Geoff Nuttall and Owen Dalby on violin, Lesley Robertson on viola, Christopher Costanza on cello, joined by acclaimed clarinet virtuoso Todd Palmer. Immediately after the concert the audience is invited to stay for a reception to meet Bay Area composer Jonathan Berger and the performers.

The performance, the latest in the organization's 46th season of Marin Chamber Performances concert series, is set for Sunday, February 17 at Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church. 

Established in Toronto in 1989, the St. Lawrence String Quartet quickly earned acclaim at top international chamber music competitions and was soon playing hundreds of concerts per year worldwide. They established an ongoing residency at Spoleto Festival USA, made prize-winning recordings for EMI of music by Schumann, Tchaikovsky, and Golijov, earning two Grammy nominations and a host of other prizes before being appointed ensemble-in-residence at Stanford University in 1999.

At Stanford, the SLSQ is at the forefront of intellectual life on campus, directing the music department's chamber music program, and frequently collaborates with other departments including the Schools of Law, Medicine, Business and Education. The Quartet performs regularly at Stanford Live, hosts an annual chamber music seminar, and runs the Emerging String Quartet Program through which they mentor the next generation of young quartets. In the words of Alex Ross of The New Yorker: "The St. Lawrence are remarkable not simply for the quality of their music making, exalted as it is, but for the joy they take in the act of connection."

Three time Grammy-nominated clarinetist Todd Palmer has appeared as soloist, recitalist, chamber music collaborator, educator, arranger, and presenter in a variety of musical endeavors around the world. He has collaborated with many of the world’s finest string ensembles and has also shared the stage with sopranos Kathleen Battle, Renée Fleming, Elizabeth Futral, Heidi Grant Murphy, and Dawn Upshaw, as well as many notable instrumentalists.

Jonathan Berger is an American composer whose symphonic, chamber, vocal, and electroacoustic works are performed throughout the world. Thrice commissioned by The National Endowment for the Arts, Berger has also received major commissions from the Mellon and Rockefeller foundations, Chamber Music America, and numerous chamber music societies and ensembles. The winner of the 2016 Rome Prize and the 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship, Berger is the Denning Family Provostial Professor in Music at Stanford University.

The February 17th concert is the inaugural program of the BAY AREA MUSIC CONSORTIUM (BAMC), a partnership between four distinct organizations dedicated to presenting the finest in chamber music experiences: Berkeley Chamber Performances, Gold Coast Chamber Players (Lafayette), Mill Valley Chamber Music Society, and Noe Valley Chamber Music (San Francisco). With the synergy of combined resources, collective planning and a shared artistic vision, the BAMC is able to present outstanding ensembles performing uniquely designed programs that enrich each of the individual member communities.

MV Chamber Music Society's 2018-19 season continues Fauré Quartet on March 24, 2019. As usual, the organization will cap its season by showcasing the talents of five emerging classical musicians at the annual Marin Music Chest “Young Artists' Concert” on May 19, 2019.
   
The 411: The Mill Valley Chamber Music Society presents a concert the St. Lawrence String Quartet joined by acclaimed clarinet virtuoso Todd Palmer. on Sunday, February 17 at Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church, 410 Sycamore Ave. at 5 p.m. Single tickets are $35 general and FREE for youth, teen and college music students. Students 15 years old or younger must be accompanied by an adult. Season subscriptions options include $120 per person for all five concerts or a mini-subscription for $90 for three concerts. All subscribers receive a complimentary ticket to the annual Marin Music Chest Young Artists Concert in May 2019. MORE INFO & TIX. 

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Since its debut 10 years ago, the secret has long been out on Stuart Schwartz’s The Image Flow as a go-to resource for a wide range of photography services, from high-end printing, photo scanning and art reproduction to education and workshops, not to mention they’re ever-burgeoning slate of deeply immersive trips to places like Cuba and Tuscany, allowing photographers to hone their craft while diving into the culture around them.

But while the larger Mill Valley photo community has made The Image Flow a vital hub in Miller Avenue’s Egger Plaza, some of Mill Valley’s biggest brands have taken advantage of a lesser-known component of its array of services: its commercial photography studio, and Schwartz’s commercial photography talents.

“Stuart and The Image Flow are an extraordinary resource for our community,” says Margaret O’Leary, whose 15 stores across the U.S. have used both the studio and Schwartz as a photographer on several occasions. “Having a team with such deep technical know-how in our midst has been a huge help to our business. From photo shoots to printing, we rely on Image Flow. In fact when it came time for my portrait, Stuart is the only one I would trust to capture the Margaret O’Leary brand (and me!).”

Lily Kanter, creator of the former Mill Valley Baby & Kids Co. and co-founder of the renowned home design brand Serena & Lily brand, used The Image Flow as the primary studio for the Spring 2019 catalog for her latest venture, Boon Supply, an innovative online retailer that splices retail with the democratization of crowdfunding on sites like GoFundMe, IndieGogo and Kickstarter. On every item the company sells, 50 percent of the proceeds go towards the cause of the customer’s choice, including organizations like Kiddo!. Organizations can also create their own fundraising campaigns on the site – just like they do on sites like GoFundMe.

“The Image Flow is an amazing local photo studio that works perfectly for our studio needs, and Stuart is so accommodating and service oriented,” Kanter says. “We love that studio!”

O’Leary and Kanter aren’t alone, as a diverse array of local businesses, including Studio Velo, EO Products, Marin Theater Company and Proof Lab, have used The Image Flow as a studio and/or Schwartz as a photographer.

The 411: The Image Flow offers a range of commercial photography services. MORE INFO.

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Bloom, the San Rafael-based nonprofit that provides free wardrobes and life skills training to men, women and families transitioning to a life of self-reliance and looking for a job, has plenty to celebrate in 2019. The organization, founded as Image for Success in 1999, turns 20 this year, and has just hired new executive director Lenice Smith to build on the success established by Sherene Chen.

A native of Flint, Mich., Smith has lived and worked in Marin for more than 18 years, largely in the healthcare field. She'll oversee the organization's operations and community outreach and develop resources toward its strategic goals. Smith says she was an occasional shopper at Bloom’s retail store long before she accepted her new role of executive director. Smith says she enjoys board games with her three sons and singing at local venues around town.
 
Barbara Lee founded the nonprofit after President Clinton established the welfare-to-work program and she learned that one San Rafael agency had 40 women ready to go to work but didn't have any business clothes. Prior to Image for Success’ creation, Cal Works (a welfare-to-work program) had provided each of their clients with vouchers to shop at a local discount store. But Lee wanted to create a more positive and personalized shopping experience for these women who were struggling to meet the serious challenges in their lives.

The organization morphed into Bloom in 2016 to reflect its broader array of services designed to have a direct, tangible impact on people’s lives at a critical moment: people and families transitioning to a life of self-reliance and looking for a job, whether it’s a person just released from prison, someone recovering from substance abuse or a victim of domestic abuse seeking independence. 

Bloom is set to host a number of 20th anniversary events in 2019, and the annual Bloom Spring Luncheon (fashion show) is set for April 26. They'll also offer financial and career literacy workshops in 2019. 

Located at 1557 Fourth Street in downtown San Rafael, Bloom runs a retail store that accepts donated clothing. They also take a lot of that clothing to the clients that are referred to them through a variety of social services agencies like Adopt a Family of Marin, Center for Domestic Peace, Community Action Marin and the Marin Employment Connection, as well as school administrators, clergy and teachers.

Clients can come back to Bloom every season, and the organization’s volunteer dressers are trained to deliver a “Nordstroms-like experience,” the organization says. “They act as personal shoppers for their clients. And those clients feel really respected, which is part of our mission. It’s not just about clothes.
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Over the years, the program grew, expanding to include men in 2005, and then relocated to Fourth Street in 2007, allowing the organization to open a consignment store. In 2011, bolstered by revenue from that store, Image for Success hit a milestone of having served 10,000 clients. The organization continued to expand on its partnerships with referring agencies, and had served more than 15,000 clients by the end of 2015. 

The 411: Bloom is constantly seeking funding and clothing donations to continue to serve its clients and expand its services. The organization's annual gala and fashion show is set for April 26, 2019. MORE INFO.
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In the coming weeks, Depot Bookstore & Cafe owner Paul Lazzareschi and his team are set to embark on a renovation of the longtime City-owned building at 87 Throckmorton Avenue that it calls home. The project is extensive but largely has two components: an overhaul of the Depot space, bringing the historic building, particularly its bathroom and kitchen, up to code, as well as the construction of a long-sought, much-needed public restroom adjacent to the Depot.

To accommodate the construction, the Mill Valley Chamber, whose Visitor Center and office has also been in the City-owned building for decades, is relocating to a temporary mobile office a few hundred feet away, in a pair of parking spaces on Miller Avenue across from Piazza D’Angelo, as indicated in the illustration at left. The project is expected to take at least 6 months, and the Chamber will operate out of the mobile office with the same level of digital-centric service to its members and the larger Mill Valley community.

“We’re moving a short distance away, but very little will change about our day-to-day operations,” says Chamber Co-Director Paula Reynolds. “Our Visitor Center in the Depot Building gets a ton of foot traffic, and our ace staff will continue to dole out shopping and restaurant recommendations, give out our MV Community Map, directions to Muir Woods and Mt. Tam, and mostly brag about our incredible Chamber members.”

“We appreciate the City’s willingness to support our temporary relocation to a nearby space, as proximity to our current space within our downtown core is critically important,” Reynolds adds. “And we look forward to returning soon to a Depot that is gorgeous and strikes a balance between the building’s historic character and some much-needed modern infrastructure.”

The impending project kickoff comes on the heels of the longstanding efforts of Lazzareschi, who also owns Vasco restaurant across the street from the Depot to revitalize the Depot. Lazzareschi first put forward plans soon after he and partner Gary Rulli bought the business in 2016 from the family of the late Mary Turnbull, who founded the famed bookstore and cafe with her husband William Turnbull in 1987 and died in September 2015.

The Depot pays the City a base rent plus a percentage of total sales. The depot building was built by the Northwestern Pacific Railroad in 1928. It served as the terminal for electric and oil trains that between Mill Valley to the Sausalito ferry docks. The railroad shut down in the 1940s and morphed into a bus depot, used first by Greyhound and later by Golden Gate Transit.

In the 1970s, the building was re-invented as Ganey’s Bookstore and Cafe, which it remained until the Turnbull family took over the lease in 1987.

In April 2018, the Mill Valley City Council unanimously rejected an effort to stop plans to renovate the space and allow the construction of a long-delayed downtown public bathroom to proceed. City officials and Lazzareschi reached an agreement to incorporate the public bathroom construction into the Depot project to save costs and time. The public bathroom project was regularly discussed in 2014 and was fully budgeted in 2015 and conceptually dates back to 1984, when then-Mayor Richard “Dick” Jessup, who designed the Depot Plaza, first sketched out a downtown bathroom location.

The 411: The Mill Valley Chamber is moving to a temporary mobile office space on the Miller Ave. side of the Depot Plaza in the coming weeks. Regular hours will remain: Tues.-Sat., 10am-4pm. MORE INFO.

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In two very disparate modes of expression, Janet Weaver has spent much of her adult life trying to heal others.

In the first of those efforts, Weaver spent nearly six years in Kampala, Uganda, managing programs for GOAL, a Dublin, Ireland-based nonprofit, with her work spanning adult literacy, small business development, women’s development and more. She later served as the field director for GOAL, administering grants to dozens of nonprofits in Calcutta, working to rehabilitate street children there.

“I used my anthropology background, research skills and my curiosity about people, places and cultures to design programs that helped people,” she says. “I felt there might be other ways to live in the world, and doing so in Africa and India surely were one way.”

When the Lafayette, Calif., native eventually moved back to the Bay Area, Weaver turned her attention to healing on less global, more intimate way.

Weaver spent a lot of time at a meditation ashram in Oakland upon her return, taking a yoga philosophy class and studying the teachings of yoga philosophy, meditation and Ayurveda, the latter of which operates on the principles that the mind and body are inextricably connected, and that nothing has more power to heal the body than the mind.

Weaver became a licensed massage therapist and later a yoga instructor. Within a few years, she garnered her certification as a yoga therapist, opening her own healing practice in 2006 in the East Bay, and in Mill Valley in 2010. Now on Miller Avenue, Weaver has a pair of distinct but related practices: Yoga Therapy for Life and Massage & Healing.

Weaver specializes in treating athletes, injuries, pain, stress and muscle soreness, offering specialty courses in yoga therapies and working one-on-one with clients to assess injury, diet and lifestyle imbalances using Ayurveda and yoga therapies and massage therapy.

Weaver says she prefers to start with a body work session – “that helps me to get to know the body of the person and identify areas where I can help,” she says – followed by 2-3 yoga therapy sessions. She also teaches a class at College of Marin on using yoga therapy to address anxiety and mental emotional imbalances. “It’s not just musculoskeletal, it’s also diet and lifestyle imbalances.”

“I treat all over the map,” she says.

The 411: Janet Weaver’s Yoga Therapy for Life and Massage & Healing practices are on Miller Avenue. MORE INFO.

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With 2018 in the rearview mirror, Melinda Neal's Marin Conservatory of Dance is moving swiftly into the new year, performing its Winter Showcase at the Marin Center in San Rafael on Sunday, February 3 at 2pm.

With choreography from Neal, her daughter Leilani Neal, and Calvin Thomas, the showcase features MCD students performing excerpts from the classical ballet “Sleeping Beauty,” as well as guest artists from San Francisco Dance Theatre performing "And If It's Still Black Outside." Dancers are Jackie McConnell and Michael Wells. The performance also features choreography by Sandrine Cassini with Christopher Dunn, as well  as "Close, Far and Somewhere in Between," choreographed by Alyssa Mitchel and performed by Gretchen LaWall and Linda Steele II.

Neal, a longtime professional ballet dancer and revered Bay Area ballet instructor, opened the Marin Conservatory of Dance on Miller Ave. in 2018, hoping to provide "high caliber pre-professional training in classical ballet for students of all levels an opportunity to explore and express themselves physically and emotionally." Spring Semester begins February 5, enrollment for all levels is currently open. Click here for a trial class.

The 411: Melinda Neal's Marin Conservatory of Dance performs its Winter Showcase at the Marin Center in San Rafael on Sunday, February 3 at 2pm. Tix $30 for adults, $17 for children 12 and under. MORE INFO.

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Jeffrey M. Smith has made a career out of highlighting the risks he believes are associated with genetically modified foods (GMOs). He's done so with a pair of books, Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating, and Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of our Lives, the latter of which he made into a film in 2012.

On Thursday, February 7 at 1pm, Smith, the executive director of the Institute of Responsible Technology, comes to the Outdoor Art Club to discuss his work and the risks associated with GMOs. This event is free and open to the public.

The 411: Consumer activist and author Jeffrey M. Smith speaks about the risks associated with GMOs on Thursday, February 7 at 1pm at the Outdoor Art Club. One West Blithedale Avenue. Free. MORE INFO.

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