It’s 5 a.m. and the seagulls are perched on top of Da Feng Feng Seafood in Chinatown, screeching. “They’re here for the trash,” Sakhone Lasaphangthong says, pointing with blue medical gloves to an overturned garbage can. Near the littered food scraps are a giant TV and mattress on the sidewalk. Sakhone snaps a photo that he sends to SeeClickFix, the city’s citizen reporting app for illegal dumping. Last year, he sent over 200 of those photos. As a community ambassador…
In between bites from a chicken and veggie sandwich, Oakland resident Connor Hunter, 9, read aloud from a poster he had just signed at Lincoln Summer Nights, a community event hosted by a coalition of local organizations. The prompt: “If you were an elected official in Oakland, what would your first act be?” “I wrote that if I was elected mayor, I would give $500,000 to businesses in Oakland because it would help the community and businesses grow. I could…
Every other day, Gary Wade walks a few blocks from his home in West Oakland to City Slickers Farms. He says hello to everyone, and hangs out with the chickens. Then he goes to the “town fridge” to grab some fresh greens. If he’s lucky, he’ll also find a home-cooked meal from the Community Kitchens’ Home Chef Volunteer Program. The meatloaf is his favorite. For Wade, 72, the donated meals are a tastier alternative to the ones he receives from…
Terri Woodfolk-Nelson wants to give back to the neighborhood she grew up in. It’s why she’s hosting a picnic and story share at Dover Park on a Saturday in October, talking to 50 or so of her neighbors. A third-generation North Oaklander, she points to the nearby potluck table and says she’s brought figs from her tree because she always had them as a kid. “The neighborhood was really connected. There was a strong sense of community and people really…
Anjali Rimi is unapologetic about stepping into the light. And as the co-founder of Parivar Bay Area — a transgender-led, transgender-centering South Asian organization — she makes space for others to join her. On Saturday evening, Parivar hosted a joyous and informative Diwali celebration at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. Rooted in India but widely celebrated in the diaspora around the world, Diwali symbolizes the victory of light over darkness. Diwali’s significance was not lost on the audience of about 80,…
Writing saved Edward Gunawan’s life. And he hopes his story can help others. His comic “Press Play,” on view at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center until Monday, draws from his own struggles with lifelong depression. The title refers to a triangle the main character touches on his wrist “to make all the swirl and whirl come to a standstill,” as well as restart. On Saturday afternoon, Gunawan was in conversation with Bay Area poets Christine No and Michelle Lin for…
Charlene Harrison hadn’t danced at a powwow in 10 years. But on Saturday, the site director at Oakland’s Native American Health Center wore her jingle dress, stepped into the grass circle at Merritt College, and danced alongside family members underneath a burning sun. “I’m a third-generation powwower,” said Harrison, who is Pomo, Paiute and Navajo. “This is what I know. So slipping on those old bear shoes, it feels right.” Thousands of people came out to celebrate NAHC’s 50th birthday…
The first thing Milan Merchant did when he heard all of his student loans would be forgiven was take his mom and younger brothers out to Olive Garden for bottomless breadsticks to celebrate. Merchant, 27, studies biology and psychology at Laney Community College in Oakland. He hopes to transition from a program specialist for special needs children to becoming a neurologist, so he can help others like himself who suffer from migraines. When the college announced free tuition this fall,…