This week: Filmmaker Joslyn Rose Lyons spotlights Oakland stories; Dr. Veronica Jow bridges dance and medicine; softball star Nina Pototo shines; and we honor lives well lived — Federal Glover, Rob Reich, and Dorothy Fisher Anderson.

Ahead of the big weekend headlines, we’re shining a light on Bay Area people making an impact — through creativity, service, leadership, everyday care, and now, in a new addition, through the legacies they’ve left behind.

Spotlight: Joslyn Rose Lyons

Born and raised in Oakland, Joslyn Rose Lyons is an award-winning director, writer, and producer known for telling powerful stories grounded in community, culture, and resilience. Her work includes the Emmy-nominated Showtime Sports documentary STAND and music videos for Bay Area legends like Too $hort and E-40, as recently reported by NBC Bay Area.

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Her newest film, The Masquerade, features an all–Bay Area cast and crew and explores how time changes a community — and how people hold on to their dreams through those changes, according to KQED. “It’s a love letter to time,” Lyons says, “and to the resilience of Oakland.”

She’s also a founding member of Make It Bay, a film collective focused on uplifting Oakland’s culture and economy through local storytelling. Other members include Kamau Bell, Rafael Casal, Ryan Coogler, and Stephen Curry.

As the site Canvas Rebel reports, Lyons says she’s driven by a simple idea: storytelling matters when it helps people feel seen. “Success,” she says, “isn’t just about the spotlight. It’s about what sticks with you. It’s about what you pass on.”

Through her films, her collaborations, and her community work, Joslyn Rose Lyons is helping shape what’s next for Bay Area arts — and doing it her own way.

Also Notable:

Dr. Veronica Jow, "Rave Doctor"

Dr. Veronica Jow is a Bay Area physician who combines her medical expertise with a deep passion for movement. As the official doctor for the San Francisco Giants and a longtime raver and festival-goer, she brings a unique perspective to injury prevention and performance care. After noticing the toll dancing was taking on her own body, she began developing resources to help others stay healthy — from online warm-ups and injury prevention classes to personalized fitness plans. Today, Jow is known for her work supporting both elite athletes and the city’s dance community, helping people stay active, resilient, and injury-free. [Broke-Ass Stuart]

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Nina Pototo, Lowell High Softball Standout

Since joining the city’s free Softball Academy program, Lowell High School sophomore Nina Pototo has become one of the city’s rising athletic leaders. A three-year participant in the academy’s year-round programming, she earned a varsity spot as a freshman and led her team with a .432 batting average. Off the field, she advocates for equity in sports through leadership and mentoring. This summer, she’ll represent San Francisco at the Elite Development Invitational in Kansas City — training alongside top athletes and coaches from across the country. [SF Recreation and Parks]

Lives Remembered

Federal Glover (1955–2025)

Federal Glover, the first Black supervisor in Contra Costa County’s 150-year history, died on May 18 at age 69. A lifelong Pittsburg resident and former city councilmember, Glover was elected to the county Board of Supervisors in 2000 and served District 5 for nearly 25 years. He was known for his steady leadership and deep commitment to equity, directing resources toward underserved communities in East County and the Carquinez Strait. Glover championed youth programs, public health, and transportation access, and helped guide the county through periods of major demographic and environmental change. After a life-threatening illness in 2015, he returned to office with characteristic quiet resolve. Glover died at a hospital in San Francisco following a brief illness. His legacy is visible in the civic fabric of the region he served with devotion and care. [SF Chronicle]

Rob Reich (1977–2025)

Rob Reich, the beloved Bay Area composer and multi-instrumentalist known for his accordion and piano performances at Zuni Café, died unexpectedly on May 15 while visiting Orr Hot Springs in Ukiah. He was 47. A cornerstone of San Francisco’s live music scene, Reich was the longtime bandleader for Circus Bella and a regular at venues from Davies Symphony Hall to Bird & Beckett Books. Equally adept at jazz, klezmer, chamber music, and experimental sounds, he was known for his warmth, versatility, and deep musicality. His final Circus Bella score will debut posthumously in June. [SF Chronicle]

Dorothy Fisher Anderson (1925–2025)

Dorothy Fisher Anderson, who died in March at age 100, lived a life defined by service, art, and intellectual curiosity, as Palo Alto Online reports. Born in Madeira and raised in New York City, she was shaped by Depression-era resilience and a progressive Jewish upbringing. After earning degrees in sociology and social work, she became a clinical social worker, supporting WWII veterans and at-risk children in the Bronx. A longtime Palo Alto resident, she raised three children, traveled widely, and returned to psychotherapy later in life, including play therapy from her home office. A sculptor, opera lover, and avid tennis player, Anderson celebrated her 100th birthday surrounded by family on the Stanford campus, where she had lived since 1968. [Palo Alto Online]

Image via Joslyn Rose Lyons on Instagram

Previously: Notable Humans: How Lisa Truong’s Help a Mother Out Changed Public Policy

Apparently it's not totally uncommon for racers to die in marathons -- two men died during the LA Marathon in March, and in 2003, a 28-year-old died of dehydration during Bay to Breakers. We send our condolences to the Wired family (with whom SFist's only contact has been losing a game of softball) and to Goggins's family.

Our story began last week when a mens softball team headed off to the Connecticut Yankee for some post-game celebratory drinks. As is softball players' wont as the Yankee is known as a sports bar and a good home for wayward New Englanders. So the group began to order and when the last person, a person who was most definitely wearing their baseball cap backwards, ordered, the bartender told him that they wouldn't serve him unless he turned his cap around. When the guy protested, the bartender announced to all of the backwards baseball cap wearers in the group that none of them would be served again unless they all turned their caps around. Some stayed (hey, they already paid for their drinks), some left in protest.

Afterwards, e-mails went a-flying as word was spread throughout the league about the Yankee's new baseball cap policy. An e-mail was sent to Ms. Garchik who called the Yankee to find out what the deal was. She was told, and we quote: "We're tired of stupid people coming in here with stupid hats...you need to be serious about your baseball and be serious about your hat.''

We here in San Francisco pride ourselves in our tolerance and our hatred of any sort of prejudice. And what we have here is a prejudice most foul-- the owners of the bar are clearly anti-backward-baseball-capites. If this doesn't call for some sort of San Francisco style protest, we don't know what would. Will some frat-dude Rosa Parks brave the bar and refuse to turn around their hat? Will a bunch of Yuppies get together and stage a sit in where they all wear their caps backwards in solidarity and sing "We Shall Overcome" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame?" Where is Chris Daly when you need him? He's probably worn a baseball cap backwards a few times. And you can't tell me Gavin has never strayed from having his cap forward looking.

Oh, well, we kid, but this is like one of the stupidest things ever.

Anyways, more e-mails are circulating and a boycott is being called for. As is a challenge to the Yankee to play a game of softball to show who the serious baseball people are and who aren't. Others wonder why the Yankee doesn't say anything about the motorcycle gang that makes the bar it's home. Are the bar owners too scared to do something or do they just wear their caps to bar regulations?

Either way, developing....

The story behind it is this: back in February, GE was soliciting Flickr users to submit pictures of themselves doing "healthy" things for use in a GE ad campaign. We didn't care what the product was; we only cared that their marketing people had requested that we submit this picture of us that they had arbitrarily stumbled across.

We obliged. Oh lordy, did we oblige. You see, as Team SFist, our name is sometimes mistaken for having something to do with an invasive sexual practice; not willing to disappoint the fans, we adopted an appropriate (actually, completely inappropriate) team gesture and chant: a sort of cautious thrusting action accompanied by a teeth-gritted grunting sound. Evidently, it wasn't much help in our embarassing defeat by the staff of Wired. But it makes a very attractive photograph. Especially when it's three stories tall.

“Operation Softball Connect was in full effect,” said a proud Delepine.

On the other side of the diamond, the Mayor’s Board Liaison and team captain Wade Crowfoot tried to explain the Blues’s crushing defeat. “Softball is a perplexing game, a game that can break your heart,” mourned Crowfoot, “and our heart was broken as we were beaten once again by a stronger team.”

As we all know, it doesn't matter if you can write your way out of a paper bag, all that matters is if you can compete on the field of intramural athletics. We have a theory that your personal relationships won't ever really evolve past high school, so the kings on the field will be the kings at the office for the rest of your life (it applies especially to you Ivies). Self-reflection and a feeling of intellectual superiority is just a crutch -- the only real accomplishment is a two-out, go-ahead RBI.

While we're happy to hear that Gawker, Inc. is 2-0 in softball while SFist is a lowly 0-1, we want an opportunity to prove our loss a fluke. They beat the , and recently beat the New Yorker's gang of chain-smoking navel gazers, but haven't even challenged league leaders High Times. While we can't pay to fly you Gawker kids out here, every day that you delay our satisfaction is a day that we become more powerful, because your budgetary reticence belies your ultimate cowardliness.

So the gauntlet is down, and satsifaction demanded. We bet a month of our ad money against topless pictures of Denton that we can beat you bitches at softball, with or without Krucoff. Charter a flight with all your dirty CheapTickets money from Gridskipper and marvel over the California sunset whilst you get a softball ass-fucking.

Snark aside, Steve has kindly submitted himself to the SFist interview process. Despite the fact that we’re thrilled that Steve was kind enough to answer some real questions, we promise that his interview will in no way affect next week’s "We Read the Weeklies" deathmatch. The San Francisco Bay Guardian will not necessarily emerge victorious yet again. Maintaining such journalistic impartiality is going to be hard, given how interesting Steve seems. In many ways Steve seems to epitomize Bay Area journalism; he hangs out at Zeitgeist, he goes to Burning Man, and he wasted no time getting arrested during the anti-war riots.

Best story EVER in the Guardian?
As far as impact, it was probably AC Thompson's "The Hardest Time" which was about how the San Francisco Police Department framed two innocent guys from Bayview -- JJ Tennison and Antoine Goff -- for murder and sent them to prison for 13 years. Last year, as a direct result of our story back in 2001, a judge set them free and cleared their names. Since then, we've done stories calling for them to be compensated and highlighting how the two cops that did it -- including former police chief Earl Sanders -- have gone unpunished. It's journalism at its best that achieved results beyond what most journalists will ever experience. AC is a helluva writer and I'm happy to be working with him.

We met a guy at Thee Parkside after the ill-fated SFist/Wired softball game who asked us, "What's playing now that I should go see?" Now, when we meet people at bars and parties who ask about theater, we know they aren't interested in (sorry). To be fair, this guy never said he hated theater. However, we devised "Theater for People Who Hate Theater," an occasional series for those who want some live performance, but don't give a damn about the Tonys.

SFist Ted, Weatherman, set a new standard for self-sacrifice that is going to be hard to top yesterday. On a cool evening at Jackson Park, SFist and friends took on Wired Magazine in a friendly game of softball. In the bottom of the first inning, on a short pop-up to center field, Ted came charging in and tried to make a diving catch. The ball dropped, but the inning ended when the runner was tagged heading into second.

Going over to check on Ted and congratulate him on his hustle, he told us "I think I broke my wrist. I don't want to look at it." Indeed, it was a grisly sight. After a frantic but ultimately fruitless phone call to Kaiser -- where the automated system told us "You've been selected to participate in a customer service survey," causing us to swear a blue streak and hang up -- SFist Rita drove Ted and Molly Go Lightly to the emergency room. Not exactly an auspicious start to the game, but Ted wanted us to keep playing, so following his example, we sucked it up and soldiered on.