Peer mediators serve as “Mr. Kyle” McClerkins’ eyes and ears around school. They listen to fellow students, help them take responsibility for their actions and decide on appropriate consequences. McClerkins’ peer mediator program is part of a larger framework called the Restorative Justice Whole School Model, implemented in Oakland since 2005, and existing in various forms around the country, from Chicago to New Orleans.
Dirtwire, led by Bay Area musicians Evan Fraser and David Satori, fused their eclectic beats with the recorded voice of the late Siberian throat singer Kongar-ol Ondar in peformance at The New Parish.
SALTA is a dance collective formed in 2012 by seven young women seeking an East Bay alternative to the dance scene in San Francisco, where many dancers can’t afford to live and often have trouble finding a venue to perform
Blackball Universe creates a haven for artists across mediums to share their work free from commercial expectations and conventional definitions of success.
The East Bay Bike Coalition is currently in the planning stages of a potential bike lane for Telegraph Avenue. As they consider several designs to help keep cyclists safer, however, they are finding themselves running up against opposition from businesses that may have their on-street parking removed to make way for the bike lane.
The New Parish is packed – with couples trying to dance a two-step, with indisputably underage girls taking selfies, with raucous laughter, with the sounds of congas and pulsating bass lines. And, rising above it all, an exceptional falsetto that captures every eye and ear in the place.
Today Antique is wearing a black skirt over green tights, a boldly-striped tank top over a black long-sleeve shirt, bright earrings that look like ice cream cones you might find in a Dr. Seuss story, an orange and black bandanna in her hair, and black 1950s-style cat’s eye glasses with sparkles in the corners. “I dress in different eras every day,” she says.
The music she creates, however, is naked.
As the lead vocalist of the ensemble Antique Naked Soul, Antique, along with vocal percussionist Tommy Shepherd, also known as Soulati, and vocalists Jayme Brown and N’gala McCoy, composes songs that consist solely of the human voice. The challenge, she and Shepherd say, is managing to create full-bodied “manifestos” within the limitation of such spare instrumentation.
Ross Chan and Ron Parvini’s juicing business, Beet Generation, was inspired by Chan’s new healthy lifestyle brought on by the adoption of his daughter, Brooklyn. The stand opens weekly at the Temescal Farmer’s Market.
The journalism class is part of an effort to incorporate new electives into the school’s curriculum. Claremont Middle now offers 3-D Animation, Ethnic Studies, and Design Thinking courses.
Oakland’s own Twin Steps, a chameleon band, blends angst-ridden lyrics with incongruous sounds from soul to pop to punk, in an eclectic show.
Like moths to a flame, crowds flock to the troupe’s recurring Wednesday performances
Caroline Chin Yee, a veteran Oakland educator who died earlier this year, was honored with Wednesday’s dedication of an education annex at the school she attended as a child and served as principal.
When Rebecca Adams started teaching yoga and mindfulness at Oakland High School last year, it was as a weekly class for the staff, funded by a Staff Wellness grant from the Oakland Unified School District.
Pastor Billy Dixon Jr. leaned forward in his seat. “Do you know what 26 seconds of solid gunfire sounds like?” he asked. He placed his cell phone on the table, and started a timer. “Bang bang bang … !” he cried repeatedly, as a table full of Oakland North reporters, students at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, looked on in silence. Dixon wasn’t joking. As co-chair of the Oakland Ceasefire program and a longtime resident of Oakland, he…