ACTA
Our dear friend and ACTA co-founder, Malcolm Margolin, has passed. Malcolm, a tireless advocate for Native California culture and history, founded the celebrated Berkeley-based Heyday books in 1974, where he authored The Ohlone Way, and published News from Native California. Malcolm was instrumental in co-founding the Alliance for Traditional Arts in 1997, devoted to uplifting California’s folk and traditional arts. He served as a Founding Board Member for 28 years, from 1997 to 2025, helping to shape ACTA’s vision from its earliest days. He went on to found the Islandia Institute, a literary center in Riverside, in 2001, and the California Institute for Community, Art and Nature in 2017.
As Amy Kitchener, ACTA’s Founding Executive Director, reflects, “Malcolm was a champion of beauty who ignited our spark and kept our moral compass true. He leaves us so many lasting gifts from his writings, prolific projects, and love of humans and nature.”
That spark and moral compass continue to guide ACTA. Board President Chike C. Nwoffiah, who was honored to serve alongside Malcolm for over 20 years, remembers: “His wisdom guided us, his kindness bound us, and his radiant light inspired us. To know him was to be called to our better selves. As we mourn the passing of our dear colleague and extend deep condolences to his family, we also lift up the enduring legacy he leaves us – a legacy of selfless service, quiet grace, and a spirit that will forever shape ACTA’s story.”
Malcolm’s voice was never confined to books or boardrooms. He was also, as ACTA Board Member Daniel Sheehy recalls, “a fearless thinker, a wonder-evoking wordsmith, and a strategically creative iconoclast. At the same time that he disdained forms of institutionalization which suffocated individuality and unfettered truth-telling, he invented and nurtured extraordinary nonprofit organizations grounded in awe of the beauty of the human and natural world around us.”
Dan remembers Malcolm’s contributions to ACTA’s founding mission statement, when the fundamental principles of cultural democracy, engagement, and respect were first being articulated. “He contributed a pearl of prose which set the spirit and path for decades to come, and which I cherish to this day: ‘ACTA’s work is guided by four core principles that are lived with openness, generosity, playfulness, and sweetness of soul.’’ Openness, generosity, playfulness, and sweetness of soul—that was Malcolm. I miss him dearly.”
ACTA board member Josephine S. Talamantez also served closely with Malcolm. She described the experience of remembering him as “surreal.” She shared she had unconsciously thought he would always be present to guide and offer counsel on critical issues. For Josephine, his passing left her devastated by the loss of “such a powerful and important voice.” She added that Malcom was a unique combination—“a visionary yet practical in his deliberations, strategic in his timing and implementation, and always thoughtful about possible impacts, both positive and negative.” As co-founder of ACTA, Malcom was a “true advocate for the folk and traditional arts in their various forms.”
Josephine also spoke to Malcolm’s integrity and convictions: While he was a kind gentleman, she noticed that, when faced with injustice, “you experienced the fierce determined ferrous tiger through his gentle–but powerful–wrath on the perpetrator for their lack of values, conscience, compassion, and/or adherence to due process.” “Malcolm was one of a kind,” she shared in closing. “Malcolm Margolin, PRESENTE! May your SPIRIT soar with the Eagles in Peace and Freedom. Que Descanse en Paz mi Querido Amigo!”
Malcolm’s joyful spirit, his unwavering commitment to culture bearers in California, and his profound influence on ACTA will continue to guide us for years to come. His absence is deeply felt, but the legacy of openness, generosity, playfulness, and sweetness of soul he modeled for us lives on in ACTA’s work and community.
