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City Center Bishop Ranch is celebrating the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a new Slate banner series honoring Bay Area soccer stars.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of City Center Bishop Ranch<\/p>\n
Game Changers\u00a0<\/p>\n
Get ready for soccer fever. The 2026 FIFA World Cup takes place from June 11 through July 19, with matches in host cities around North America, including Santa Clara. To commemorate this premier sporting event, City Center Bishop Ranch is featuring a new banner series honoring local soccer stars as part of its Slate program. The installation, on the City Center exterior, shows images of Bay Area talents including National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee and former San Jose Earthquakes forward Chris Wondolowski (Danville), L.A. Galaxy goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski (Alamo), Washington Spirit goalkeeper Kaylie Collins (Clayton), and Olympic gold medalist and Carondelet High School graduate Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak, among others. Wondolowski and the Bay FC\u2019s Founding Four members joined a Q and A session as part of Homegrown Pros: A World Cup Celebration in San Ramon on May 17. The installation will remain on view through the end of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Local restauranteur Michele McQueen earns national recognition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eric Wolfinger<\/p>\n
Oakland\u2019s Culinary Mayor\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chef Michele McQueen, the force behind multiple Oakland eateries\u2014including her new Uptown lounge Lucy Blue and Town Fare at the Oakland Museum of California\u2014was recognized at the Black Women in Food Summit in April as its 2026 Restaurateur\u00a0Honoree. The awards honor the leadership and impact of Black women shaping the food, beverage, and hospitality industry. The 25-year Bay Area culinary scene veteran has also worked to address food insecurity in Oakland, partnering with nonprofit organizations such as Eat. Learn. Play., World Central Kitchen, and Allen Temple Baptist Church. McQueen is a cofounding member of the Oakland Restaurant Collective, established in 2025 to promote and support the Town\u2019s hospitality industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Literary Star\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another Oakland notable earned honors in May when Juliana Spahr was named the Pulitzer Prize winner in poetry for her\u00a0collection Ars Poeticas. Spahr is a professor at Mills College at Northeastern University and a respected scholar who has written and edited several volumes of poetry, along with books on criticism and theory. The Pulitzer citation describes Ars Poeticas as \u201ca\u00a0collection in which the poet takes stock of her personal disillusionment, which she uses to interrogate her relationship to her art form, community and politics.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marking a Milestone\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Eugene O\u2019Neill Foundation is honoring\u00a050 years of its stewardship of Tao House with a series of audio recordings recognizing some of the early visionaries behind the effort. The former Danville residence of Nobel Prize\u2013winning playwright Eugene O\u2019Neill is a National Historic Site that hosts an annual festival of his plays.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo Contest<\/p>\n
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Samantha Durbin<\/p>\n
This splash pad sits on land that was once part of a working cattle ranch. Do you know where it is?<\/p>\n