One Book One BART: Train Expedition with Obi Kaufmann

RSVP to join One Book One BART for this event and two others: A Guided Nature Walk with Author Jeff Miller from 19th St. Station and a Bike Ride and Birdwatching trip from North Berkeley Station.

"Bay Area Wildlife" illustrator and acclaimed poet-naturalist Obi Kaufmann takes the public on a first-of-its-kind BART Train Expedition!

We’ll put on our explorer hats for a family-friendly ride on a moving, in-service passenger train as Kaufmann tells us about the natural history of the East Bay’s mosaicked, ecological landscape through the windows of a BART Yellow Line train. The first-of-its-kind experience will be full of lore and stories as we venture into “deep time” and learn about the area’s ecosystems, water, fire, infrastructure, volcanic history, trees, and more.

At the end of the approx. 30-minute ride, we’ll disembark at 12th St./Oakland Station and walk with Obi to Frank Ogawa Plaza, where we’ll pay homage to the Town’s most famous oak tree.

We will gather in the unpaid concourse area by the intersection of Sunne Lane and Coggins Drive (near the Add Fare machines). Look for BART staff with One Book One BART signage.

The ride will start at Pleasant Hill/City Centre. Arrive no later than noon as the train, which is in-service, will depart at approx. 12:20pm. We will be riding in the first car. The BART ride is approximately 30 minutes. After disembarking at 12th St., Obi will lead us to City Hall Plaza, where the expedition will conclude in front of some historic trees.

Plan your BART trip using Trip Planner.

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Click here to learn more about One Book One BART

The BART book club returns with a natural history-themed group read and three events for nature lovers of all ages and interests.

BART's book club is novel strategy for rider and employee engagement that invites members of the public to read the same book at the same time and participate in themed events in BART trains and stations.

The official selection is "Bay Area Wildlife: An Irreverent Guide” (Heyday Books), a humorous, informative guide to local fauna by naturalist and conservationist Jeff Miller. Miller wrote the book to connect readers with regional fauna and inspire people to witness the Bay Area’s magnificent natural phenomena for themselves.

About Obi Kaufmann

For poet, painter, and naturalist Obi Kaufmann, California is a magic network of living systems connecting ecology and beauty in a grand quilt, holding enough science, mythology, and language for a hundred field atlases to come. Obi Kaufmann regularly travels around the state, presenting his work and vision as keynote addresses to such groups as the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildland Center, Pacific Forest Trust, the Mojave Desert Land Trust, the Mechanics Institute of San Francisco, the Anza Borrego Foundation, the Mono Lake Committee, the University of California at Berkeley Botanical Garden, the University of California at Davis Plant Sciences Department, the University of California Santa Barbara Department of Water Sciences, the Peninsula Open Space Trust, the California Native Plant Society, the Wilderness Society, and the Audubon Society. Obi had a 2022 residency with the National Wildlife Federation as the illustrator for the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. One year later, in 2023, he was the artist in residence for the National Park Service at the Whiskeytown NRA. Obi’s essays and paintings have been published in Dark Mountain Literary Journal, Zyzzyva Literary Journal, Bay Nature Magazine, Western Art & Architecture, Sunset Magazine, Juxtapoz Magazine, and On the Range Magazine. His 2023 essay "The Mind of the Redwood Forest" won an honorable mention as one of the best essays in the country, as awarded by the Norton Books Anthology. Obi regularly posts his work on Instagram as @coyotethunder. He is published by HEYDAY and represented by WILDBOUNDPR. Tune into to his podcast, PLACE AND PURPOSE, with cohost Greg Sarris.