Oakland North

Photos by Jake Schoneker and Paige Ricks

The Crucible, where students do everything from fixing bikes to giving live performances with flaming batons, is having an open house this Saturday, September 12.  ”We’re best known for the fire,” says Ismael Plasencia, the Crucible’s Youth and Community Program Manager. “Everyone knows about that, but we’re a school too.  We’re a school first.”

Twenty-four Oakland community  outreach organizations will set up information tables in and around the Crucible’s industrial workspace.  The open house will be punctuated by live performances, including a hip-hop show and a fire performance.  There will also be a metal pour — molten aluminum will be poured into sand molds to make metallic art — an art show, and student demonstrations of welding techniques and other skills they have learned in their classes.  Many of the Crucible’s students are kids and teens from the West Oakland neighborhood where the school is located,  the Crucible is always interested in reaching out to them, says Plasencia.  The Crucible’s very popular youth bike alteration program  is one example of this mission.

Oakland North will cover this Saturday’s open house. In the meantime, we’ve taken a close up look at the Crucible’s bike program in the accompanying audio slideshow.