Art
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.
When the photographer epli came up with the project “Here. Before. Art From A Contested Space,” she had one goal foremost in mind—to spark an honest conversation about gentrification between new residents of West Oakland and the “traditional” residents rooted in the neighborhood.
Latham Square is an experimental project in a space once entirely open to vehicle traffic, but was transformed into a pedestrian plaza last August. The City of Oakland partnered with the Downtown Oakland Association and design studio Rebar to offer foot-travelers a place to sit and socialize.
The theatre company will be bringing its collaborative energy to Downtown Oakland in 2014.
Oakland’s own Twin Steps, a chameleon band, blends angst-ridden lyrics with incongruous sounds from soul to pop to punk, in an eclectic show.
Community events and activities for the weekend of October 11-13, 2013.
Like moths to a flame, crowds flock to the troupe’s recurring Wednesday performances