Community Calendar
Local Events, Meetings and More
Regular Government Meetings
• Castro Valley Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) generally meets on land-use issues at 6 p.m. on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month, and holds general purpose meetings at 6 p.m. on most 3rd Mondays. Meetings are currently virtual at 6 p.m. For agenda, visit: acgov.org/bc/cvmac
• Castro Valley School Board meetings are currently virtual. For agenda, visit: https://www.cv.k12.ca.us/boarddocs/
• Castro Valley Sanitary District (CVSan) meets at 6:30p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month. Meetings are currently virtual: https://www.cvsan.org/who_we_are/board_of_directors/agendas_and_minutes.php
• Alameda County Board of Supervisors meets every Tuesday at 10:45 a.m. Meetings are currently virtual: https://www.acgov.org/agenda_minutes_app/board/bos_calendar/ag_min.jsp?subType=REG
Broken Pencils: A Visit and Conversation with Author J.R. Rice
Broken Pencils: A Visit and Conversation with Author J.R. Rice
at Castro Valley Library
Saturday, February 1, 2025
12:30 pm to 2:00 pm
Join us as local, award winning author J.R. Rice comes to the Castro Valley Library to discuss his book Broken Pencils. The author will do a reading from his book as well a poetry performance and an author Q & A.
Broken Pencils tells the story of Jonah Tarver, a troubled Oakland teenager grappling with his parents' troubled marriage, his own mental disorder, and the weight of his best friend's death, embarks on a desperate quest to find meaning in life. On his eighteenth birthday, coinciding with his Senior prom, Jonah, along with his girlfriend Taniesha, his best friend Trevon, and a group of peers, spirals into a night of reckless indulgence in drugs and alcohol in the vibrant city of San Francisco. As tensions escalate and emotions run high, Jonah finds himself thrust into a gripping twelve-hour journey through the dark underbelly of San Francisco's nightlife, forever altering his perception of the world. Will Jonah uncover the purpose he so desperately seeks, or will he discover that life, like broken pencils, may have no point?
J.R. Rice is a Black man, writer, teacher, and spoken word artist, born and raised in Oakland, California. He has a B.A in Creative Writing and an English Education teaching credential from California State University of Long Beach. While studying abroad in Greece, he was mentored by the author, George Crane. His novel, Broken Pencils earned the 2024 Literary Titan Gold Book Award, 2024 Pencraft Summer Best Book Award winner for Young Adult Coming of Age Fiction, and the 2024 Hawthorne Prize Finalist for Best Fiction. To learn more about J.R. Rice, please visit his website at www.jrrice.com.
The Castro Valley Library is a branch of the Alameda County Library system and is located at 3600 Norbridge Avenue, Castro Valley. The Library is wheel chair accessible. An ASL interpreter will be provided with ten days’ notice. For more information, call the Library at 510-667-7900, or see Events at www.aclibrary.org/branches/csv.