Figure skater Michael Xie is a familiar face at the Oakland Ice Center, where he has been training for the past year and a half under coach Laura Lipetsky. The 16-year-old from Washington comes to Oakland for weeks at a time to master jumps and perfect his performances before national competitions. The rink is becoming more widely known in the figure skating community, having nurtured Olympian Alysa Liu, who came in seventh at the Beijing games this winter and until…
Every Tuesday, Maria Rodriguez waits in a line that stretches down the block on MacArthur Boulevard in East Oakland, her 5-year-old daughter sitting patiently beside her. Rodriguez chats with other mothers from the neighborhood about what they might be picking up that day.
Beside bikes dazzling with brightly colored tape and foil, about a dozen East Oakland elementary school children excitedly, in unison, recited their ABCs: “Air, brakes, chains.” The kids learned the drill to check bike parts during a new six-week, after-school bike course this fall for children at Brookfield and Madison Park elementary schools. Mentors from The Scraper Team and the nonprofit Higher Ground launched the program to teach kids about bicycle safety and maintenance in a neighborhood that has very…
Black mothers are leading calls for change and reparations in the Oakland Unified School District. Pecolia Manigo Awobodu, a mother of three in Oakland public schools, said she’s watched her children experience disparities when trying to access resources at school. And she’s heard countless similar stories from other Black mothers in the district. “I have experienced the pain and the joy of raising Black children in Oakland schools,” said Manigo Awobodu. “I am grounded in that experience in real ways.”…
Mills College junior Faith Thalacker, who identifies as queer, is worried about the school’s announced merger with Northeastern University — especially how the admission of more cisgender men at the historic women’s college may change the dynamic for women on campus. “Mills feels like a really safe place, and it feels sacred to me,” she said. “I’ve been sexually harassed at other colleges, and I’m able to let go when I’m on campus now. I feel like I’m going to…