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Jessica Laskey

Journalist

About This Author

Jessica Laskey is a freelance writer and professional actress who has lived and worked in Sacramento, San Francisco, Dallas, New York City and Paris. She is also the co-founder of Theater Galatea and Indomita Press.

Articles by this author

Out & About November 2025

Find out what is happening Sacramento during the month of November!

Sister Act

Sacramento and its sister city Jinan, in China’s Shandong Province, are similar. Both are capitals, both have rivers and both share rich cultural scenes. Grace Liu knows this firsthand.

Liu is a Jinan native. She attended Shandong University before coming to Sacramento State¬. The J Street campus was the only U.S. school she applied to, due to its sister city status. She earned a master’s degree in management information science.

When Liu arrived in 1996, she was contacted by the Jinan-Sacramento Sister Cities Corporation, a nonprofit set up in 1984 to “foster mutual understanding, cultural awareness and friendship” between Sacramento and Jinan.

Piano Powerhouse

The best place to find Jennifer Reason is at a piano or microphone. Reason figures she’s played for “pretty much everyone at every place in town.”

She recently finished an artist residency at The Jacquelyn club, where she assists with shows. She’s a regular at Fleming’s Steakhouse in Roseville.

A musical theater expert, Reason is in the pit at Broadway at Music Circus shows, including the upcoming “White Christmas” in December, part of the company’s first year-round season.

She performs with the Sacramento Preparatory Music Academy’s The Beatles Guitar Project, where hundreds of students and professional musicians tour the state.

In The Same Boat

On the water, rowers can’t think about much else. Rhythm and teamwork take concentration. Or as Shari Lowen puts it, when you’re in the boat, you’re in the boat.

This works for Lowen and her fellow ROWsist members. Lowen founded ROWsist rowing group within the River City Rowing Club in 2023 for cancer survivors like herself.

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She wanted to “give people who’ve been through cancer an opportunity to use their bodies and minds” along with “the community and emotional aspect of doing something together.”

Culture Keeper

Bill Cerruti just returned from his annual trip to Italy. It was work and play.

Cerruti and his wife, a native of Lucca, lead tours as part of their work running the Italian Cultural Society, which they founded in 1981.

As a young man, a proud Italian American and East Sacramento native, Cerruti searched for a cultural organization to meet other young Italians and stay in touch with his roots. When the Italian American club system didn’t click with him, he started his own group.