Community
Thousands of East Bay residents, gay and straight, celebrated last year’s gay rights triumphs on Sunday at Oakland’s second annual Gay Pride Festival. A landmark year in gay rights, 2011 saw the elimination of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the policy that banned openly gay personnel from serving in the military.
Touted by locals as the center of the medical marijuana industry, Oakland seems a fitting host for the nation’s first marijuana outdoor street festival: the two-day International Cannabis and Hemp Expo, which opened its doors Saturday.
To chants of “Si se puede!” eight young people stood smiling on stage at the New Parish club in downtown Oakland on Thursday night. They were there to tell the stories of the farmers and community members they had met while on a road trip across California to promote farm bill reform and to encourage young people to support new farm-related legislation.
Meet the next watering hole in our new bar series, The Nightcap: The Stork Club has live rock music every night it’s open and looks like a typical dive bar from the outside. But The Stork is also owned by a sweet, 74-year-old woman who shows off her Barbie collection at the bar and used to decorate a Christmas tree year-round.
In 1991 activist and writer Paul Kivel and UC Berkeley health educator Allan Creighton co-authored a book called “Helping Teens Stop Violence: A Practical Guide for Counselors, Educators and Parents.” The book was written as a guide for adults who work with teens, to help them tackle violence.
The Oakland History Room’s exhibit will display items related to the fire on the second floor of Oakland’s Main Library from September 1 to November 30. The exhibit includes aerial maps of Oakland before and after the fire and public records related to the firestorm.
At Spokeland, anyone can learn how to fix their ride, with bike tutorial workshops designed for everyone from kids and families to women and transgendered people.
The Oakland Police Department’s Special Victims Unit has released an urgent appeal asking for help in its search for a woman who went missing last month.
The International Maritime Center (IMC), which has been at the Port of Oakland in some form since 1964, provides a variety of services for seafarers while they are in port, such as shuttling them to local shopping centers, selling them discounted phone cards, or helping wire money home—anything to make their lives easier.