Interesting People
Healing With Talk
Talking about mental health is Nefertiti Khemet Goudjayi’s mission.
As a licensed clinical social worker, mental health therapist and member of the Stop Stigma Sacramento Speakers Bureau, Khemet Goudjayi wants to normalize conversations about mental health.
“I joined the speakers bureau because I was looking for something to do with my time that also gives back in a more personal way,” the North Sacramento resident says. “As a therapist, you’re there to support people, but you’re removed. You provide expertise, but not your own experience. This volunteer space allows me to use my lived experience to help and support people.”
Past & Present
The Dante Club, an Italian social and gathering organization, has thrived and survived for almost 100 years. That’s 100 years of family, food and fraternity.
The Dante Club was established in 1926 “to help Italian immigrants adapt to life in America among people who spoke their language and had similar customs.” It has been a comfort to its members, particularly to new arrivals and through some challenging times. Today it has an even broader reach.
Seventy-eight presidents have served the group since its inception. “The warmth of the place and its people are just part of our heritage. We wrap our arms around our culture and community,” says Tom Novi, current president.
Growth Factor
With an appetite for risk and a willingness to invest in dreams, Misty Sueño advanced her cosmetology career and built two Sacramento studios from the ground up.
That’s an accomplishment anytime. But Sueño did it all during the pandemic.
She opened Wild Heart Beauty at 24th and J streets in June 2020, during the height of COVID-19 lockdowns. Unable to operate indoors, she set up shop on the sidewalk outside her studio. With characteristic determination, Sueño vowed she “wasn’t going to let it fail.”
From Stage To Page
A farmer in overalls and rugged brown boots kneels next to a large, orange pumpkin, its stem neatly crosshatched in vivid green. This is the work of Matthew Patrick Callaghan, son of celebrated oral storyteller Mary Lynne McGrath and illustrator of McGrath’s book, “The Farmer, the Thief and the Pumpkin Patch.”
“People often ask Patrick how he got the ideas for the images to match and support the words,” McGrath says. “He’s very good at figuring out the heart of each page.”
This collaborative project is the result of years of work by both writer and illustrator. McGrath, a local legend who has taught and performed storytelling for children and adults, got the idea for the book while studying for her master’s degree in early childhood education at Sacramento State.
Never Idle
Raymond L. Ledesma has been an athlete, army medic, engineer, bar owner, writer, husband and father. At age 88, he recently learned to play guitar. But in some ways, he’s just getting started.
“My ambitions for the rest of my life are to get a boulevard in Sacramento named after my grandpa, who was a famous saddle maker, and get a book published,” Ledesma says.
Endless ambitions have taken Ledesma around the world. As a kid growing up in Fruitridge and Curtis Park, he attended C.K. McClatchy High School where he played baseball and football. When he got drafted, he attended medic training in San Antonio before spending six months in Korea.
Fully Emersed
For Miguel Perez, being bilingual is like having a superpower.
“I like to remind my students that it’s a gift being able to read, write and speak in two languages,” says Perez, a fifth-grade teacher at the Language Academy of Sacramento, a public charter school near Stockton Boulevard and Broadway that offers bilingual education in English and Spanish.
