The History of Roller Coaster Design
Evolution of Polyandrous Alpha Female Societies
The 1971 Merritt College Protest
Doors at 7, Talks at 8. Online Tix $8, $10 at door: bit.ly/NNEB-63
White Hills, Black Flats: Black Studies and the Struggle for Community Control of Merritt College
Disappointed with the failures of integration and the racist curricula and hiring practices of the 1960s, Black students took over the administration building at Oakland’s Merritt College on March 15, 1971 to protest the relocation of the campus from the city’s flatlands to the hills. Merritt holds significance for the Black Studies, Black Campus, and Black Power Movements as home to the first Black Studies Department and home of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Learn about Oakland history and education politics in the 1950s and 60s and how protesting students sought complete community control of Merritt College as an independent and reimagined “Huey P. Newton College” that would serve the needs of the adjacent community.
Rasheed Shabazz is a creative cultural communicator working in journalism, education, and public history. He received his Bachelor’s degrees in African American Studies and Political Science from UC Berkeley and minored in City and Regional Planning. He would’ve attended Merritt College, but transportation up the hill was a challenge. Rasheed is currently working on a book project about African American history in Alameda, California, titled Alameda is our Home. While at Cal, he participated in the McNair Scholars Program and developed the manuscript for this presentation.
The Long Looping History of Roller Coaster Design
When the first Gravity Switchback Car drifted down the wooden slopes of Coney Island at a stunning six miles per hour, it began an American obsession with roller coasters that use speed and gravity for our entertainment. Hear how inventions like upstop wheels led to the Golden Age of roller coasters in the 1920s (including the Santa Cruz Giant Dipper), learn how California innovations like the corkscrew and modern inverted loop rescued and reinvigorated iconic amusements parks in the 1970s, and discover how today’s Megacoasters push fun from high speed physics to the not quite breaking point.
Nicholas Laschkewitsch represents American Coaster Enthusiasts, a worldwide roller coaster enthusiast group dedicated to the enjoyment and preservation of roller coasters. He has spent nearly 20 years researching the amusement industry and is currently studying mechanical engineering at San Jose State University with hopes to design roller coasters and themed attractions.
Tamarin Females Make a (Helpful) Monkey Out Of Males
Female tamarin monkeys (probably) got tired of terrible Tinder dates and formed a unique cooperative polyandrous society where females are the undisputed alphas and multiple males are the primary caregivers. Discover how these primates broke the Bateman curve and the unorthodox theories of next generation inheritance that ensure male investment in the care of offspring. See how twinning, group augmentation and genetic chimeras led these tiny monkeys to have weird (and maybe better) sex, and learn about the rare human societies that do it the same way.
Gustav “Tavi” Steinhardt is a behavioral ecologist in biological anthropology at Berkeley, where he studies evolutionary neuroscience and social behavior in small South American monkeys for his PhD project. Tavi chases monkeys in the Peruvian Amazon all summer and spends the rest of the year alone in a room full of pickled brains.
Plus preshow games from 7-8PM with Ann-Marie Benz, beats from DJ Rubberband Girl, craft beer from Uptown’s Club 21, food from The Lumpia Company, and brain-filling info from the Oakland Public Library.