User:YiyiiiiYang/Barnali Ghosh

Early Life

Barnali Ghosh, 48, grew up in Bangalore, India, before moving to Berkeley to study landscape architecture in graduate school.

After graduating from UC Berkeley with a master's in landscape architecture, Gosh thrust herself into urban planning and activism. Formerly serving on the board of ‘TransForm’ a group committed to restructuring and providing equitable transportation services throughout the bay area. She currently serves as the mayor’s appointee to the Planning Commission and serves as the chair of the Berkeley Transportation Commission. She is also on the coordinating committee of Walk Bike Berkeley and serves on Berkeley’s Re-imagining Public Safety Task Force. A registered California Landscape architect, she has worked for over a decade on designing public schools, parks, and streets across California including parks in San Francisco and Fremont.

Works/ Art Career

Co-creator of “Berkeley Radical South Asian Walking Tour”  is a compilation of revolutionary stories spanning the history of South Asian presence in Berkeley including:

“First Campus Protest Against Colonialism,” (1908)

“Ghadar Party, via student activist story,” (1912-1916)

“Kala Bagai’s story of surviving local and federal racism,” (1917-2021)

“Students protesting emergency,” (1975-1977)

“Story of LGBTQ activist, founding of Tricone,” (1982-2013)

“Reddy trafficking case, founding of ASATA ,” (1999-2013)

“Highschool anti-hate organizing after 9/11,” (2001)

Gosh additionally worked in and curated two art shows “Our Name Is Rebel” and “Rebel Legacy” with Kearny Street Workshop. Ghosh also curated “Resistance Mixtape, Volume 1” with Anirvan Chatterjee which was also featured in National Geographic. Individually, she has branched out, with work on the “ 2023 CALIFORNIA WILDFLOWERS CALENDAR”, a colorful 12-month calendar that features California native flower recreations that she has been working on since the pandemic. Ghosh did this to make light-hearted and hopeful art in response to the COVID 19 pandemic that brought a lot of people into depressive states.

Exhibits

Ghosh has had her work shown around the Bay Area including campuses such as UC Berkeley (her alma mater) and the University of San Francisco. She took part in the Exhibit known as “ Our Name Is Rebel” to bring out what is known as “The Images of Berkeley's Radical South Asian Legacy” in November of 2013 which she also curated. She additionally curated "Human Nature: California Rare Plants". With that being said, her work is also shown at the “Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour”. In June of 2017, she curated the Resistance Mixtape, Vol 1 with Anirvan Chatterjee. Another exhibit that included pieces of her work is “All That You Touch: Art and Ecology” at the University of San Francisco in September 2021. Ghosh had another exhibit in San Ramon, CA known as “Open Circle: Belonging, Self and Community Care” which was exhibited in September of 2022.

Awards

Gosh has received a variety of honors for her work including the ‘National award from Asian Pacific Islanders for Historical Preservation’ and ‘Best of East Bay 2021’  for her work on the Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour.