Community

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.

At this time of year, many parents grab up lists to Santa and race to the mall in hopes of nabbing the year’s hottest toys to hide under the tree. But for Nombuyiselo Gqajena, an Oakland mother living at the Henry Robinson Multi-Service Center—a transitional housing facility—Christmas presents great emotional and financial stress.

Oakland brought World AIDS Day, recognized globally every December 1, to the local level on Wednesday with an evening of recognition at Allen Temple Baptist Church. Members of local health nonprofits, activists and concerned neighbors gathered at the East Oakland house of worship to trade information and to shine a spotlight on a disease that has plagued this city and many others for decades.