Community

Although fencing is often thought of as an East Coast sport for the elite, the East Bay Fencers Gym in downtown Oakland is helping to disprove this long-held understanding of this somewhat obscure sport.

Until Monday morning, Chabot Elementary School, like several other schools in the Oakland Unified School District, was still struggling to heat all of its classrooms in the cold days following Thanksgiving break. Last week in the school’s newly constructed “D-building,” which houses first and second grade students, teachers were forced to hold class in the hallways, administrators said, which were warmer than the unheated classrooms.

Oakland North is continuing with our new feature. Every Wednesday, we will publish a photo submitted by one of our readers. This week’s photo is by Steve Place.

Oakland North is continuing with our new 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 Turnip the dog.

For some, the holiday season starts with the first snowfall, or the lighting of a tree. But at Uptown Body and Fender on 26th Street, a new tradition may be taking shape: an elaborate puppet show performance of the fairy tale “Cinderella.” The show, which is performed by a team of puppeteers and technicians from Oakland’s Zanzibar Fairytale Puppet Theater, is now in its third year, and its second in Oakland.

Each year, 24,000 novels, dictionaries and books of poetry are packaged and shipped around the country by volunteers of the Berkeley-based Prisoners Literature Project. For nearly 30 years, the volunteer-run organization has provided books to prisoners in an effort to nurture rehabilitation and encourage education among this sometimes-forgotten population of society.

On Saturday afternoon in Oakland, a small group of dedicated dog owners got together to show off their primped pups for a good cause. Participants in the Do You Look Like Your Dog? Fashion Show brought their holiday adorned pooches to Pride and Pedigree, a dog academy that can house as many as 40 canines located at 437 25th St., to try and take home bragging rights.

With no baseball games for Oakland A’s fans to go see until the season starts in April, A’s players are spending some time this offseason going to see their fans. The A’s began their four-day Holiday Caravan Thursday at the Oakland Zoo, where three A’s pitchers—Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill and Oakland native Tyson Ross—signed autographs for students from Thurgood Marshall Elementary School. Joined by the A’s mascot, Stomper, the players have been whipping around the East Bay to different charity…

The weather outside is frightful, but thrifty Oakland art lovers and gift-shoppers might consider braving the chill to head down Telegraph Avenue for the Temescal Winter Art Hop, which will run Friday night from 6pm to 9pm between 42nd and 50th streets.