Community
The mayors of Emeryville, Berkeley and Richmond, along with Oakland city council member Rebecca Kaplan, together cut a virtual ribbon with the click of a mouse this morning to launch 510arts.com, a collaborative website for the four cities to promote the East Bay arts. The website features regional arts events and news and serves as a portal to each city’s own arts-related site. 510arts.com positions the East Bay’s diversity at the forefront of the campaign with its “World Culture in…
Concerned dads are stepping up and getting involved at Sankofa Academy, a small school that’s making big strides toward addressing Oakland’s student achievement gap. Story by Jake Schoneker/Oakland North
College Avenue Presbyterian Church, designed by the famed architect Julia Morgan, has a long history of helping people through personal and spirtual crises.
It seems like a tall order. Wanted: fifteen volunteer hip-hop or modern dance performers willing to learn spoken word theater for a Spring show in Oakland and possible national tour. Song, rap, martial arts and aerial dance skills could also come in handy. Oh, yes–and actors must be 12 or younger. The group will be known as “Destiny Junior Company,” and the idea emerged out of Destiny Art Center, a non-profit that runs dance, theater and martial arts classes for…
Twelve hundred guests at and drank their fill at Girls Incorporated’s Women of Taste event at the Oakland Museum Saturday. Video by Becky Palmstrom and Mary Flynn.
Oakland native Stanley Kirk Burrell, a.k.a. MC Hammer, but now preferring simply Hammer, brought his dance and rap show to the recently reopened Fox Theatre in downtown Oakland Friday night. The scene on the street outside was atwitter with Hammer talk. Oakland North posed this question to the Hammer faithful: What makes the rapper so great? We asked the fans attending the show talk about what makes their beloved Oakland icon special.
Dragon boats converged on the Bay this weekend from all over the Bay Area and way beyond. Teams from Texas and Canada, as well as the newcomer Oakland Renegades, were among the dozens racing in this year’s International Dragon Boat festival. Videos and story by Laurel Moorhead, Mario Furloni and Paige Ricks.
Old-fashioned mechanical jukeboxes, loaded with the records or CDs that reflect the soul of their home establishments, are vanishing fast. Their replacement: Internet jukeboxes, which direct users into the online vastness of “SEARCH ALL MUSIC.” They’re modern, they’re lucrative, and they fill some Bay Area bar patrons with despair. Story by Mario Furloni/Oakland North.
In Rockridge, one can shop, eat, or sit and read a book. One can people watch, meet friends for some drinks, or just take a stroll down the street. On Sunday, Oaklanders will do it all at the 3rd annual Rockridge Out and About Festival. Well, maybe not read a book, but they will certainly shop, enjoy live music, attend cooking demonstrations, view art and even picnic in the street. 150 merchants will flood College Avenue from Claremont to Manila…