Community
When conceptual artist Mark Dion needed materials for his new exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California, he headed behind the scenes, or technically, under the scenes. “It was a little bit like raiding the icebox,” he says of his time in the belly of the building. “I began scrounging through the archives, spending a lot of time in storage.” After unearthing an eclectic mix of lost treasures—everything from Reagan campaign buttons to a stuffed baby elephant—Dion constructed “The Marvelous Museum,” which opens Sept. 11.
Some people rested. Some traveled. Others played on Labor Day. Many Oakland residents used their extra day off from work or school Monday to create their own sporting events: a bike ride in the hills, steering an unfamiliar water vessel at Lake Merritt. Check out reporter Laith Agha’s slide show and map for a glimpse of city residents finding their own ways to play.
Dozens of people participated in a different type of art walk along Telegraph Avenue on Friday. It was the launch of Invisible City Audio Tours, which has the goal of showing an alternative way of looking at Telegraph Avenue by bringing together Bay Area authors, visual artists and a composer to guide walkers on a tour from MacArthur Bart Station to the central hub of Art Murmur.
An eclectic mix of families, young couples, and scantily-clad merrymakers donned their Sunday best as Oakland turned out to participate in the city’s first major gay pride celebration in six years.
Over 300 people convened at Scott’s Seafood Restaurant in downtown Oakland on Saturday night, to attend the 23rd annual gala of the Organization of Chinese Americans-East Bay (OCA-East Bay). In addition to featuring Asian American athletes the group presented $75,000 to the widow and son of Tiansheng Yu, the victim of a fatal attack on the 1800 block of Telegraph Avenue in Oakland this April.
Many of Oakland’s Ethiopian immigrants and their families and friends joined the Berkeley festivities Sunday for Enkutatash, an Ethiopian celebration of the new year.
Stephanie Benavidez has worked at the Rotary Nature Center for over 35 years, but now thanks to city budget cuts she is its only full time staff member. With only one full-time person on the job, and five part-time employees, it’s harder for the center to keep up with all of its work.
Muslims in Oakland are in the last third of the month of Ramadan–its most intense part, as observers continue to fast during daylight hours, declining both food and water until the sun sets. Daylight, and with it the Islamic obligation to fast, lingers long in August.
Several hundred people gathered on Saturday in Frank Ogawa Plaza, where promises of free back-to-school supplies attracted a wide range of students, from kindergarteners to college freshmen. Many parents arrived hours before the official start time, children in tow, in order to ensure a good place in line for the give-away.