Apprehension at entering an adult store for the first time is common among patrons, but with Christmas approaching Oakland store managers want to dispel some of those fears
After feeling uncomfortable at corporate gyms, Nathalie Huerta founded The Perfect Sidekick, a dedicated gym for LGBTQ athletes.
Kinetic Steam Works is a West Oakland-based nonprofit that utilizes steam to power antique machinery, like a player piano and a printing press, and to create artwork.
Apparently, pinball’s gender issues extend beyond the bikini-clad babes featured in the artwork of certain machines. The top 25 players in the world, according to the International Flipper Pinball Association, are all dudes.
Right now, somewhere on your block, a pumpkin is rotting. If you’re lucky, that somewhere is in a Waste Management-sanctioned green bin, where it can safely decay with other compostable trash, and not on your front porch. It is mid-November, after all. This time of year, pumpkins become a major player in the composting program run by Waste Management, the North American company in charge of trash in Alameda County. In Oakland, all degenerate Jack-o-lanterns — as long as they…
In a black-and-white photograph, John Caybut stands in front of Oakland’s Saint Augustine Catholic Church with his mother, father, sister, and brother. The picture was taken in 1965. Caybut passed away in February. Today, his sister is the photograph’s only surviving subject. Caybut’s widow, Sabina, has placed the picture on a colorful altarcito in the nave of the church on Alcatraz Avenue. There, John and his family join others who have passed on but survive in pictures, placed among bright…
In the pumpkin trade, it all comes down to stem size. To capture the ideal Jack-o-lantern aesthetic, a thick stem is key. That’s what Jon Goldstein, co-owner of the Piedmont Avenue Pumpkin Patch at 4414 Piedmont Ave., thinks. So stay away from the ones up for sale at chain stores, he says. Their stems are too wimpy, or even non-existent. Instead, the ones he sells have the impressive girth fit for a front porch or sidewalk. According to the United…
Since its founding by the St. Mary’s Parish in 1973, the center has tackled issues faced by the city’s elderly population, from homelessness and hunger to addiction resources and medication monitoring. Now an interfaith nonprofit, St. Mary’s operates out of the center’s 925 Brockhurst St. location.
In its 25 years, Ancient Ways has grown beyond a metaphysical supermarket of crystals, candles and Tarot readings, into an anchor of its Temescal neighborhood. Owner Glenn Turner celebrates her durable store’s quarter century in business, and credits her ability to “outlast most people.”
Totally Radical Muslim zine’s just-released second volume focuses on poetry and art reflecting the experiences of queer and transgender people within Islam.
Within the lavender walls of Oakland’s Humanist Hall, the Gender Reel Festival screened films respecting the diversity and fluidity of the transgender and queer communities.
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…
For some baseball fans on Saturday afternoon, the game didn’t end when the Oakland A’s beat the Houston Astros 2-0.