Susan Straight
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About Me:
Susan Straight was born in Riverside, where she still lives. Her latest novel is "Take One Candle Light a Room." She teaches at UCRiverside.
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My KCET.org Activities
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There is a wedding day and then there is the rest of your married life. Richer or poorer.
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This is what it means to have been a teacher for 30 years, as of this new January quarter.
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You might think that we've all heard this speech, these words, before. All of us in America, by now. We have. But I stood, transfixed, unable to move, looking out the window while he said words not as often quoted.
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There are six sisters in this story, and one brother, all educated in a one-room schoolhouse, ninety children and one teacher, and all of them went to college, and their kids went to college. This story, and the sweet potato pie, come from slavery, which Americans don't like to talk about any more.
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It may be one of the most quintessential Southern California landmarks, beloved by thousands, and now it's made national news.
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Jose Medina walked into the banquet room at Zacateca's Restaurant on Riverside's Eastside to loud cheers and clapping of hundreds of supporters.
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When my oldest daughter moved to Texas, she made us watch the popular TV series "Friday Night Lights" because, as she told her father and me, "I realized you guys are exactly the same in Riverside... It's crazy."
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Take a look today while you drive around, wherever you live, at the not-lost art of housepainting.
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Posted Raquel Marquez-Britsch: First Latina Judge in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties
in SoCal Focus"In Riverside County, there are two million Latinos, one million Latina women. I'm a bracero's daughter. To be a judge here, in the Inland Empire, means everything." -
Where does story begin? My new book was released yesterday. It's my eighth novel, and each time, I spend days walking around thinking of where that book began.
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The old Route 66 and surrounding environs are home to fast food history. The empire of places founded here such as Foster Freeze, Taco Tia, Taco Bell, Del Taco, McDonald's, and yes, Juan Pollo.
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San Bernardino's making national headlines because elected officials have filed for bankruptcy, but a lot of people said what really outraged them: The city council said it couldn't host the Route 66 Rendezvous downtown.
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Posted Rock Walls and Stone Sunbursts: The Quarry-Faced Homes of Southern California's Past
in SoCal FocusThink locavore -- eating food produce within a few miles of where you live. Now think locabuild -- it worked for decades. -
Fairmount Park in Riverside, CA was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, known for Central Park in New York City and others. His vision for this less-spoken about space continues today.
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A chance encounter with coyotes shows just how wild the 96-Mile Santa Ana River can still be.
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Posted The Home Society Desires is Not About Envy: It's Fish Tanks, The Incredibles, and Couches
in SoCal FocusI teach in an area almost written off by affluent America, in a university where "minority" students have been the majority for years. I teach students who lately inspire resentment among Californians who begrudge tax dollars. -
I thought my job was to make them write about stucco and wood framing, about gated communities and urban apartment complexes, about bedrooms decorated with designer furniture, and kitchens where twelve people sat around one table. You can be...
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I've come to realize that so many classic cars and trucks are like emblems of American history, but the Apache truly gets a particular kind of sentimental, historic, and intense love from people of all races, backgrounds, and regions.
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People who still make something we can drive, like the Jimenez Bros, are artisans putting another coat of primer and then custom flames or candyflake on better dreams.
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Pinstripes and swirls. Nine-foot flames lifting from custom hoods. The percussive revving of engines. Custom upholstery, gleaming chrome and candyflake paint. It must be spring, and time for one of the best parts of being a Southern Californian -- car shows!
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Posted Heizer's LACMA Rock and Mom's Crazy Rock: Insane Tiny Clocks and Genetic Cousins from Jurupa
in SoCal FocusI went to visit my rock last week. I hadn't actually touched it since I was about five, though I salute it every time on that freeway, and the other rock's celebrity journey had me staring at the hundreds of other huge obelisks of stone where we grew up. -
Doug's photos and my essays have been some of the most transformative fun I've ever had. Now our work for KCET is on display at Venice Arts -- Doug's photos, and my stories.
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Here in Southern California, especially in the old citrus-growing regions, the first week of April is a picture-postcard replica of most lyrics in "America the Beautiful."
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His photographs capture an immense solitude, tinged with loneliness that people feel is stoic and cloud-filled.
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Something many Americans believe about Southern California is that people here came from somewhere else. In Riverside, every day I see people I've known since kindergarten, and every time I go to a North High game, it's like a family reunion.
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None of this would be in this long desert valley without two essentials brought from other places years ago, or months ago, or yesterday: water and workers.
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Imagine it is late August, and 120 degrees, and you have to climb the hundred feet of ladder to cut each heavy bunch of dates with a knife fashioned out of steel and lower the bunch on a hook to a man waiting at the bottom. Now imagine that you have to climb the ladder a hundred times.
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County Fairs in America usually make people think of late summer or early fall -- harvest of corn or apples, prize pigs like Wilbur in "Charlotte's Web" along with horses, cows, and chickens on display. Who would expect a county fair in February?
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Coming out of the Ontario Airport, travelers can see just beyond the railroad tracks a vast stone building with arched windows and the skeletal remains of a wooden roof. Nearby are smaller buildings wrapped incongruously in shiny white plastic,...
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It can be historic, as it remains the nation's first-ever master-planned retirement community where seniors could buy their own plot of land, move onto it a single or double-wide mobile home, and run this world.
Recent Actions from Susan Straight
No recommendations yet.
-
There is a wedding day and then there is the rest of your married life. Richer or poorer.
-
This is what it means to have been a teacher for 30 years, as of this new January quarter.
-
You might think that we've all heard this speech, these words, before. All of us in America, by now. We have. But I stood, transfixed, unable to move, looking out the window while he said words not as often quoted.
-
There are six sisters in this story, and one brother, all educated in a one-room schoolhouse, ninety children and one teacher, and all of them went to college, and their kids went to college. This story, and the sweet potato pie, come from slavery, which Americans don't like to talk about any more.
-
It may be one of the most quintessential Southern California landmarks, beloved by thousands, and now it's made national news.
-
Jose Medina walked into the banquet room at Zacateca's Restaurant on Riverside's Eastside to loud cheers and clapping of hundreds of supporters.
-
When my oldest daughter moved to Texas, she made us watch the popular TV series "Friday Night Lights" because, as she told her father and me, "I realized you guys are exactly the same in Riverside... It's crazy."
-
Take a look today while you drive around, wherever you live, at the not-lost art of housepainting.
-
Posted Raquel Marquez-Britsch: First Latina Judge in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties
in SoCal Focus"In Riverside County, there are two million Latinos, one million Latina women. I'm a bracero's daughter. To be a judge here, in the Inland Empire, means everything." -
Where does story begin? My new book was released yesterday. It's my eighth novel, and each time, I spend days walking around thinking of where that book began.
