Community
A man dressed in jeans and a t-shirt kneels on the ground, his hands held at an awkward angle by the chains that bind him to a drag king who is standing behind him wearing a sharp suit. Like a marionette, he is forced to bring his trembling hands to his face and smoke. The scene unfolds next to a 4-foot cardboard replica of a cigarette, as Maroon 5’s “Harder to Breathe” blares from the speakers.
At the end of her tenure as an artist in residence at the San Francisco Dump, Sharon Siskin discovered a pile of old, Arabic language textbooks used to teach Muslim children the fundamental lessons of life, such as to love their parents, attend school and share.
Oakland North is continuing with our feature. Every Tuesday, Oakland Animal Services will spotlight an “Animal of the Week” that’s up for adoption at their facility. This week it’s Sage and Flora.
Qadir Bilal strode confidently to the witness stand, in his colorful bow tie and crisp black shirt and trousers. He paused. He fixed his gaze on the person before him, a young woman who had been caught in possession of marijuana – and who, like 16-year-old Qadir, is in high school.
The sounds and smells of the bustling Coliseum swap meet—frustrated honking from the overcrowded parking lot and the hot fried dough aroma of fresh churros—drifted over Seminary Creek Saturday morning, as volunteers clad in neon-yellow work vests trolled its steep banks looking not for a bargain, but for trash.
About 600 people marched from Allen Temple Baptist Church in East Oakland to City Hall to protest crime and violence in Oakland on Saturday. Soldiers Against Violence Everywhere, a community and church coalition, organized the march and rally as a response to the 75 homicides reported in the city from January to August, 2011.
Oaklanders dragged furniture and plants into the street on Friday, transforming parking spots into miniature parks—or “parklets”—for International PARK(ing) Day.
In celebration of Bandaloop’s 20th anniversary, the troupe is debuting their latest work, Bound(less), this weekend, calling the event a hybrid of “the technology of rock climbing with the aesthetics of dance.”
Meet the next watering hole in our new bar series, The Nightcap: The Trappist is owned by a couple guys who fell in love with Belgian beer while travelling through Europe, and wanted to bring the experience of a Belgian pub to Oakland.