Community

Expired prescription drugs, controlled substances collected at Oakland drop-off

More than 126 pounds of expired drugs and at least seven pounds of controlled substances were collected from senior Oakland residents during the Healthy Living Festival, an annual festival hosted by the United Seniors of Oakland and Alameda County (USOAC). The coalition of Oakland residents hosted the Healthy Living Festival at the Oakland Zoo on July 19th.

Oakland Museum honors Ohlone basket weaver and culture

Over 500 people showed up for songs, dances, and storytelling during the Ohlone Basket Welcoming Celebration held in the gardens of the Oakland Museum of California on Saturday. The museum offered free admission all day for the event honoring Ohlone artist and scholar Linda Yamane for her crafting a ceremonial Ohlone basket, the first of its kind to be made in almost 250 years.

At the Compound Gallery, a new show explores storytelling and art

In a group show at the Compound Gallery & Studios titled “The Artist as Storyteller,” artist and curator Alison O.K. Frost has assembled a collection of works that tell viewers stories, leaving them to interpret what the artists mean to say. Multi-paneled pieces marry words and images in a way that is simultaneously familiar and abstract.

Oakland Zoo throws annual feast for its animals

On Saturday, animals at the Oakland Zoo will suspend their diet plans and indulge in what could easily be this year’s largest animal party, feasting on servings of produce donated by Oakland residents, many of whom will come and watch the animals eat their hearts out between 8 am and 6 pm.

Oakland celebrates groundbreaking for renovation of historic California Hotel

The sound of jazz—a melody, harmony, rhythm, or timbre—hadn’t filled the lobby of the California Hotel, just off San Pablo Avenue, for more than a decade. And as over a hundred people filled into the hotel on Wednesday—Billy Strayhorn numbers setting the mood—for a groundbreaking marking the city’s decision to revitalize the historic hotel, passersby, many of them with iPods, didn’t know the hotel was a venue for the most preeminent figures on their playlists: James Brown, Ray Charles, Billie Holiday, Sly Stone, Aretha Franklin and Big Mama Thornton.