Bands, dancers, clowns, cowboys and cool cars filled downtown Oakland Sunday afternoon for the Black Joy Parade. Wet streets and chilly weather didn’t discourage hundreds of people from enjoying music, food and a host of activities for children and adults. In its sixth year, the parade celebrates the Black experience and culture. It also promotes Oakland’s many Black-owned small businesses. All photos by Najim Rahim
Davina Brown was awakened on New Year’s Eve by a car horn that was continuously honking outside her home in Coliseum Connections Apartments on 71st Avenue in Oakland. Looking out the window, she could see flooded streets from the storm that would pound the Bay Area for the next couple weeks. Soon she would find out that the building’s garage, where her car was parked, was flooded too, and that she and her 9-year-old son would have to evacuate. “The…