Art
Seeking recognition and support from the city, new initiative unites creative manufacturers
Oakland-based all-female dance collective, Mix’d Ingrdnts, incorporates various dance styles into their routines, including hip-hop, break dancing, samba and waacking – a style of dance from the 70’s that involves moving legs and arms to music beats.
Compound Gallery’s Art in a Box subscription service is transforming the way people collect art by showcasing studio artists’ work in 11” x 17” x 3” boxes.
“We’re not partial to anybody in particular. Just individuals who are strong and females who can work on their own cars,” Ann said.
The Jack London Market Square building was transformed into a showcase of Oakland’s ‘Do it Yourself’ (DIY) culture at the Patchwork handmade festival.
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.
Last Saturday, a group of over 100 people gathered at the African American Museum and Library in Oakland to celebrate the launch of “The Griots of Oakland,” a book and exhibition about young black men living in the city.
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.
Body music, for the uninitiated, is an art form composed of sounds and rhythms made solely with the body.