Community
Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Oakland), Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), and a host of advocacy groups celebrate the passing of ”Free the Vote Act.”
Imagine downtown Oakland with parks wrapping around it and even more high rises. Maybe Interstate 980 is gone and has been replaced with a pedestrian-friendly boulevard. That’s all part of Oakland Planning and Building Department’s proposed vision for the next 20 years.
On Saturday afternoon, a group of four older men in white pants and linen shirts sat in front of a stage at the center of a room filled with art, books and mismatched chairs. These men, all from the group Urban Healers, a men’s group that focuses on brotherhood and spiritual betterment, chatted amongst themselves, and to several men wearing yellow shirts and white pants who walked around the room greeting people, snacking on hard boiled eggs and bananas and…
Oakland comedian Kelly Anneken says she identifies as a “triple A”— alcoholic, anorexic and anxious. “Stand-up comedy,” she said in a performance last week, “is everybody’s last resort before suicide or grad school.” Suicide, of course, isn’t everybody’s idea of comedy, but Anneken’s audience, there for the Mental Health Comedy Hour, laughed. Founded earlier this year by two local comedians struggling with depression and anxiety, the monthly show is the only one of its kind in the Bay Area, and is…
As the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, and the daughter of two proud union workers, Bonnie Castillo’s understanding of the world was forged in an atmosphere that celebrated people power through art. Growing up in Sacramento, Castillo volunteered with her mother at La Raza bookstore, a hub for Chicano community. Her family friends were members of The Royal Chicano Airforce, an artists’ collective founded in 1969 to express the goals of the Chicano civil rights and agricultural labor movement in rural…
Last week Oakland residents attended a monthly gathering dedicated to giving those behind bars a voice.
At Tuesday’s Life Enrichment Committee meeting, residents, advocates, and city council members expressed concerns about a new family shelter.
Amid lengthy contract negotiations, city workers rallied at Frank Ogawa Plaza to protest what they say are high vacancy rates in city departments.
NIMBY, one of East Oakland’s scruffy DIY artist warehouse spaces, is closing on September 30 after not being able to compete with rent premiums cannabis businesses can afford.