By day, Dextra Denovo hovers over a computer, hammering out contracts, trademark agreements and other legal processes. But once evening rolls around, Denovo launches into an hour-and-a-half hair and makeup session before heading off to the next drag queen performance. 

Pride Month is a time of both revelry and reflection for the LGBTQ community. For many, life changed when California first began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2008. San Francisco’s Civic Center was ground zero for some of the first same-sex weddings in the state. Joe Rosato Jr. has the story of one of those couples.

Biologists who study fish in the tributaries of West Marin said the winter’s heavy rain is fueling a healthy population of endangered coho salmon smolts as they make their way from the creeks of their birth out to the ocean. 

Melissa Cruz’ life is full of motion — jarring stops, dramatic twists, hypnotic rhythms — and that’s just when she’s on stage. As one of the Bay Area’s stalwart Flamenco dancers, Cruz has carved out a niche in the traditional Spanish art form — becoming one of the most prolific practitioners in the East Bay where she makes her home.

Nitya Narasimhan has nurtured her passion for dancing since she was four years old growing up in Bangaluru and Chennai in Southern India. Her family moved often, but the dancing — a classical form of South Asian dance called bharatanatyam — always followed.

The temperatures may be heating up, but signs of our wet winter are still with us. In Fremont, pools of water known as vernal pools are beginning to dry up. But not before they reveal some important biological data.

San Francisco’s Chinatown has a certain style. But beyond its signature Asian-inspired architecture and restaurants sits another source of unique hipness — its fashionably adorned senior citizens. 

A former manager of the iconic San Francisco Fillmore and Warfield concert venues is selling off his vast collection of rock poster art all for the love of dogs. 

As video after video turned up showing elderly Asians in the Bay Area being belted with chairs, punched, randomly stabbed or flung to the ground, Hudson Liao became more and more incensed. In his mind, a moral line had been breached. 

Like so many other nail salons attempting to navigate the fussily crafted mandates governing their industry through the pandemic, Fremont’s Pamper Nail Gallery shut down in 2020, early into the shutdown. Unlike most of those businesses, however, it turned out to be a blessing for owner Vivian Sue Rahey.