Community
At the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in downtown Oakland, Portsha Jefferson and the Rara Tou Limen Haitian Folkloric Ensemble use dance and performance to educate the Bay Area about Haitian culture. The ensemble is organizing a fundraiser this Wednesday, October 21, at San Francisco’s Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.
Oral histories of Oakland residents collected by Laney College students are woven together in the original production, “The Miseducation of Oakland.” Director Michael Torres says that the overall message of the show is that, “everyone should get an education and nobody has the right to take away education.”
At least once a month on a Saturday night, the singles scene in Oakland is less about saving up the cash to wine and dine and more about brushing up on your UNO and Connect Four skills. This weekend, people gathered at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Oakland to show their love for doing things like rolling the dice to get past GO and trying to get their left knee on yellow and right hand on green. PlayDate, a monthly…
Ruthann Liu-Johnston brought her red high-heeled shoes to the anniversary ceremony yesterday—not on her feet, but as remembrances. Liu-Johnston was wearing those the day the Cypress Freeway collapsed out from under her. Johnston joined city officials at Cypress Freeway Memorial Park as part of a city-sponsored commemoration called “Reflect. Honor. Prepare: Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Loma Prieta Earthquake.” She can no longer wear her red shoes, due to severe ankle and spinal injuries she sustained during the earthquake,…
In a storefront art gallery near downtown Oakland, the family and friends of Oscar Grant, along with death penalty activists and concerned Oakland residents, gathered Friday night to celebrate the slain man’s life.
For talented 7-12 year olds in Oakland, October 5th was a big day. Fifteen of them were chosen from a group of thirty to become part of a hip-hop, dance and spoken word Junior theater company created through Destiny Arts Center, a North Oakland based non-profit that teaches hip-hop, kung fu and conflict resolution to youth.
Twenty four of the most talented graffiti artists from California, Chicago, Hawaii and New York battled in West Oakland last Saturday.
Eight choirs. One night. Fifteen thousand fans. Watch the singers of Oakland’s Genesis Worship Center as they take the stage in the “Best Choir in America” competition.
Grand/Lake traffic bustled by on a recent sunny Saturday. Parents pushed children in strollers; women carrying yoga mats chatted as they headed home from class; the coffee shops and cafes did a brisk business in iced beverages. But in front of the Lakeshore Ave Peet’s Coffee, there was a small crowd of stillness as passersby stopped to listen to the Hoffman children, a four-sibling string quartet, who were busking to raise money for ballet lessons. Their mother, Jodi Hoffman, hovered…