Art
Birdland Jazzista Social Club, a long-time Berkeley staple, moves into North Oakland. Its founder sees the opportunity to turn a stretch of Martin Luther King Jr. Way into a music and art district.
PEN Oakland’s 24th annual book awards honored eight writers for their literary excellence. The annual awards ceremony recognizes authors from across the country for their books published during the previous year. In addition to acceptance speeches, authors read excerpts of their work and signed books for fans.
Oakstop is a place with many labels: a shared working environment, an event space and an art gallery. Oakstop exhibits work from local and emerging artists and is a destination for a diverse community of artists, entrepreneurs and freelancers.
Creating an altar can be a private ritual, but altars have also become a platform for people to express their views on social and political issues, especially those that involve death.
Crowds came to the Fruitvale Village to celebrate the sacred Latin American holiday Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead on the first Sunday of November.
Thousands attended the East Bay Mini Maker Faire, an annual gathering of inventors, technologists, engineers, science clubs and artists. The event included 170 projects, such as mini-robots, a home-made butter shaker and a clothing swap.
At a rally in West Oakland, artists and presenters explained why the giant canvases behind them evoked both international struggles for natural resources and California’s ongoing conflicts over water rights.
Michael Hannan reveals “Making Human,” his indigenous art collection at Oakstop. He uses cultural history, music, storytelling, and folk art, to portray the underlying theme of the collection– the common ground we share in being human.
“This is Jose,” said Captain Steven Tull of Oakland’s Police Department (OPD) District 4. “He doesn’t think about himself — he thinks about others.” Jose Ortiz, a longtime community organizer in the Fruitvale district, smiled humbly as he was honored in many testimonies delivered by attendees at his appreciation event last Saturday evening inside the gym of the Manzanita Recreation Center. Ortiz’s business partner Big Lou Feliciano and members of his Street Inspiration Low Rider Car Club were joined by…