What if you could use something as simple as music to help people dealing with everything from traumatic brain injuries and strokes to neurological disorders and depression?
Image Comics changed the face of the industry with the success of titles like “Spawn” and the “Walking Dead.” At Image, the idea was to create a company where comic creators could bring new ideas to the table and the creators would own their intellectual property without worrying about being underpaid. Spencer Whitney tells us…
Charles Porter, 68, has lived his most of his life in the Golden Gate district of Oakland.
Porter grew up in a two-story Victorian at San Pablo Avenue and 63rd Street that his parents purchased for $7,500 in 1949. He spent much of his youth at the Golden Gate rec center and the public library, playing games and reading books. He remembers San Pablo Avenue during the 1950s and 60s as a a commercial corridor—department stores, grocers, barber shops, car mechanics, five and dime stores, donut shops, even a movie theater. Back then, Porter remembers, it was one of the first Oakland neighborhoods to open up for African Americans.
Over the past 60 years, he has watched the neighborhood go through a number of changes, and seen the community change with it. For Porter, the changes are just part of the natural life cycle of the neighborhood.
A group of Bay Area folks come together every year on March 14 to celebrate pi — the mathematical constant and the dessert. Laura Hautala spent a recent Saturday afternoon joining in on the peculiar celebration.
Cities like Oakland would like to see more residents commuting by bike. But urban biking is risky, and sometimes both drivers and cyclists aren’t sure how to keep things safe.
This year the Gilman, a not for profit punk rock club celebrates its 25 year anniversary. Oakland North talks with Brian Edge, author of “924 Gilman: The Story So Far,” about how this small gem of a venue is much more than just the few bands that played there and went on to become famous.
Even if you set aside the tear gas and broken windows, it’s hard to keep things clean when thousands of people are gathered in one place. The city says that things have gotten so dirty it’s a danger to the neighborhood, but some of Oakland’s occupiers are working hard to clean up their act.
Sara Davis Buechner, an associate professor of piano at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, established her success early in her career. She joined the Oakland East Bay Symphony on November 4 to play Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 “The Age of Anxiety,” as part of their kick-off concert for the 2011-2012 season. Buechner has an incredible off-stage story as well. She was once known as David but in 1998, at the age of 39, underwent gender reassignment and transitioned to being Sara. Although facing walls as a transgendered woman, Sara remains positive and hopeful for the future generation. “I have often said to people, ‘I don’t know why we’re so obsessed with what’s between the legs—I think what’s between the ears is a lot more important,’” she said.
This weekend, organizers of the second national conference of BUTCH Voices, a grassroots organizations dedicated to all self-indentified “Masculine of Center” people, had over 450 attendees at the Oakland City Center Marriott.
Ever want to learn about the cellulolysis processes or why karyokinesis and cytokinesis happen in the fourth phase of cell division? Just ask one of the 22 students at Oakland Technical High School and Berkeley High School, who are finishing up their summer internships at biotech companies in the East Bay.
Checking out tools here is as easy as checking out a library book. With nearly 3,000 tools available for loan, including books and how-to videos, it’s a DIY heaven for crafty and inspired Oaklanders.
This is isn’t your grandma’s acting company — well, it might be — but its reputation is much more lively than apple pie and wool-knit sweaters.
Oakland library supporters crawled down Telegraph Avenue Saturday evening in their zombie finest to protest the potential closure of 14 of the 18 city libraries. The living dead groaned “Zombies need brains, keep libraries open!” to passerbys in cars, restaurants, and at Oakland’s Uptown galleries.
During a two-day conference last week, Youth ALIVE! hosted the third annual National Network of Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs National Conference at Oakland’s Preservation Park. Over 120 representatives from non-profits across the country met to discuss strategies on how to stop the “revolving door” of young gunshot victims who are treated at urban emergency rooms, only to return later.
This story takes us under the big top. Traveling troupes of trained animals, acrobats and clowns may have originated in Ancient Rome, but today in West Oakland, a group of twenty-somethings are not just reinventing the old art form—they’re living it.
Local businesses, bands and teachers are using social networks and online communities for more than just keeping up with friends.
Oakland residents Kim Di Giacomo and Michele Senitzer co-founded Found Fruit as a way of connecting with other neighborhoods who have produce and foraging skills to share. Flowering trees will soon start to produce fruit such as plums, peaches, nectarines and apricots and will ripen starting in June. Foundfruit.com lists where to find wild plum trees in public areas.
Last Sunday afternoon, Ed Rivera passed along MacArthur Boulevard in his Sunday best, from his shiny black top hat all the way to his dangling coattails. But don’t let his dapper apparel fool you: he wasn’t headed to church or a wedding, but to Mosswood Park, where he would serve as umpire for a baseball game.
The Oakland Athletics finished up their opening weekend series against the Seattle Mariners with a 7-1 victory on Sunday while celebrating Japanese Heritage Day.
Brother and sister Sarah Lynn and Aaron Goeth were raised on church service and bar music while growing up in San Antonio, Texas. Now living in Oakland, the ginger-haired duo have been playing as Aquarena Springs, a country, honky-tonk band that incorporates the ukelele, drums, bass, melodica and keyboard.
Jorge Leon was removed at an A’s game last year for holding a sign that read “Wolff lied, he never tried” to protest the move. Reporter Evan Wagstaff sat down with Leon to ask what he’s done since then to keep the team in Oakland.
Veronica Hays stares out the window of a 12-person van cruising down I-580. In front and behind her, other passengers chat quietly with one another. Riding in a van with other parolees like herself on their way to volunteer has become a regular Saturday routine for Hays. This week they’re heading to the Alameda Food Bank where they will spend the afternoon organizing food donations. For Hays, just the thought of her sitting in this van, sober and out of prison, is enough to make her smile.
With homicide numbers already deep in the double digits this year, Oakland has a reputation for being one of California’s most violent and crime-plagued cities. But that won’t stop students at Castlemont High School in East Oakland from working hard to change that.
Last October, Oakland City Attorney John Russo proposed a gang injunction against 40 alleged members of the Nortenos gang in the Fruitvale neighborhood. This is Oakland’s second proposed gang injunction. It’s a controversial legal theory that says gang activity is a public nuisance that prevents non-gang members from enjoying peace in their communities.
Bringing together antique-hunters and hipsters, there’s a new monthly event in Oakland where you can find all the vintage gear you need–the Find.
Making the right decision can be hard when you’re young, especially when you’re raised in a violent neighborhood. But some community organizations are working to train urban youth in Oakland to think through their decisions more clearly, and help transform their community.
Recent studies show that the amount and frequency of your chuckles are proportionally linked to stress levels and general well-being. Like the science but aren’t one of those who can chuckle on cue? You might want to join the Lifefire Laughter Club of Oakland.
The East Bay Agency for Children’s Therapeutic Nursery School in Oakland cares for pre-school age children with behavioral or emotional problems, often a result of past traumatic experiences including abuse, neglect or prenatal drug exposure.
Dancers with the Oakland Ballet Company have spent the past month preparing for this year’s production of “The Nutcracker. The shows, which will be presented at the Paramount Theater, are scheduled for Christmas weekend, but you can listen in on a rehearsal in this audio piece.
The Crucible, Oakland’s non-profit arts education center began in a small Berkeley warehouse in January 1999. Listen in as reporter Mary Flynn explores The Crucible and the art of motorcycle maintenance.
Although fencing is often thought of as an East Coast sport for the elite, the East Bay Fencers Gym in downtown Oakland is helping to disprove this long-held understanding of this somewhat obscure sport.
For some, the holiday season starts with the first snowfall, or the lighting of a tree. But at Uptown Body and Fender on 26th Street, a new tradition may be taking shape: an elaborate puppet show performance of the fairy tale “Cinderella.” The show, which is performed by a team of puppeteers and technicians from Oakland’s Zanzibar Fairytale Puppet Theater, is now in its third year, and its second in Oakland.
Kate Hoffman spent the day as a poll worker at the Grand Lake Gardens polling station in Oakland’s Grand Lake neighborhood. As the final voters filed in Tuesday evening, Hoffman spoke about how the day went.
In Oakland, the school district had to cut $122 million from its budget this year, and teachers have not gotten a raise in nearly a decade. Some folks are trying to change that. They’ve put a measure on the ballot that would create a 54-cent per day property tax to raise teachers’ salaries. To learn more about how the measure would work and what the benefits to Oakland students might be, Lillian Mongeau caught up with one of the measure’s biggest champions, Jonathan Klein of Great Oakland Public Schools.
We now turn to that age-old question: Why is BART so noisy?
It turns out there are specific reasons for the noise and BART officials know what they are. BART officials also say, however, that studies actually rank BART as one of the quietest public transportation systems in the country.
If you had to use ranked choice voting today, would you know what to do? That’s the question Oakland North asked voters in the lobby of the Grand Lake Theater last Sunday, and even after watching a two-hour spy flick, theatergoers explained the process admirably.
Bud Cropsey is an institution on the Oakland music scene—a longtime middle school and private music teacher, as well as a patron of the Oakland East Bay Symphony. This week, shortly after Cropsey’s 99th birthday, the symphony is honoring Cropsey with a three-day series of concerts geared at helping children learn about classical music. Read the story of Cropsey’s musical life, and hear more from this week’s concert series.
Computer animation sprang into public consciousness in 1995 with Pixar’s film, Toy Story. Fifteen years later, the studio has turned out nearly a dozen feature length films from its East Bay headquarters, and now kids at an Oakland middle school are getting a chance to get in on act of animating. Listen to the full story on Oakland North Radio.
Listen to how Oakland residents spent a day surveying conditions of the city’s parks and other recreational areas, many of which have fallen into disarray.
The first rule of bike party is: Have fun during bike party. On Friday night, 300 cowboy-costumed cyclists rolled through three East Bay Cities, bringing the party with them. Listen to Oakland North Radio’s sound report of the happy biker pack out for the night.
@northoaklandnow: Alameda County Healthy Home Alliance discuss affordable and healthy housing --http://tinyurl.com/72llhf3 Theresa Adams report... More
Oakland North is a news project of U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. Our goals are to improve local coverage, innovate with digital media, and listen to you–about the stories and features that most interest you, the issues that concern you, the information services you want, and the reporting you’d like to see in your community.
