Community
The downtown Oakland school, founded in 2002 by Governor Jerry Brown who was then Oakland’s mayor, will celebrate its 10th birthday Thursday night with a performance at the Fox Theater. It is the only public charter performing arts school in Oakland, and is actually made up nine different schools, each spanning grades 6-12, that teach dance, instrumental music, vocal music, digital media, literary arts, production design, theatre, visual arts, and circus arts.
Jane Powell was a woman who loved her home. Powell, an author and home restoration expert who died in November 2012 from lung cancer, spent the final years of her life fighting the bank to keep her dream home, Oakland’s historical Jesse Matteson House, fondly nicknamed the Bunga-Mansion by Powell and her friends. After losing most of her income during the financial crash of 2008, Powell rallied to keep her home from going into foreclosure, all while struggling with illness….
Dr. Elliot Gann is standing in front of his beat-up and stickered black Mazda Protégé in the parking lot of West Oakland Middle School. In his left ear is a Bluetooth earpiece, which, as he eats a Trader Joes sandwich wrap, enables him to lament to a friend the parking ticket he just received. To his side is a worn green Atlantic suitcase that wobbles with a broken wheel. Inside, its contents are packed tight: two sets of studio monitors,…
Every week, Oakland North will publish a photo submitted by one of our readers. This week’s photo is by Rachel Escoto. She writes, “Photographing and documenting local street art is one of my biggest passions. I spotted this piece at night then drove back the next day to snap it. I got lucky with the clouds.” She writes that the mural is located in West Oakland and is by artists David Polka, Santos Shelton and Joshua Mays. Rachel’s website is pixelinaphotography.com and…
Live experimental cinema returned to Temescal Sunday night with the opening night of the second season of Shapeshifters Cinema, a monthly series blending experimental video with live musical accompaniment.
Oakland North is continuing with our feature. Every week, Oakland Animal Services will spotlight an “Animal of the Week” that’s up for adoption at their facility. This week it’s a pair of rabbits named Henry and Leo.
Police Chief Howard Jordan and Mayor Jean Quan held a press conference Monday afternoon to condemn the recent spate of violence that resulted in four homicides in Oakland last Friday.
Held at the Oakland History Room on Sunday, this was the first History Edit-a-thon, which is about to become a regular weekly event. The meeting was organized by Oaklandwiki.org as a way to generate more content for the fledgling site—a collaborative project that seeks to collect all things Oakland into one easily navigable website that any user can edit.
On a barren West Oakland corner, amongst homes where the windows and front yards are gated and dead-bolted protectively from the world outside, now stands a “Tree of Life” — the Attitudinal Healing Connection’s debut traveling mural project. The mural and all seven of its transportable panels were unveiled Thursday afternoon at the West Oakland Youth Center’s construction site on Market Street. Construction on the facility, currently a skeleton of drywall, scaffolding and timber, isn’t expected to be complete until…