Community

Bay Area residents create art protesting Trump’s travel ban

People from around the Bay Area gathered at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California in downtown Oakland on Sunday to create art and signs protesting the Trump administration’s travel ban. “It’s a really discouraging time right now,” said Raeshma Razvi, director of IC3: Incubating Creativity, Community and Civic Engagement, which put on the event. “Events like this show that a lot of us are together. [It’s about] strengthening and amplifying Muslim-American voices.” The most recent version of the travel…

Oaklanders voice opinion about new A’s stadium at Peralta College meeting

More than 100 community members attended a rare standing room-only meeting of the Peralta Community College Board of Trustees on Tuesday night. The unusually large crowd came out to share their opinions about the proposed construction of a new stadium for the Oakland A’s between 8th Street and the 880 freeway on land currently owned by the Peralta Community College District. Tuesday’s meeting was an opportunity for Peralta Community College Board of Trustees to hear public concerns about the project…

Schools in Oakland host Latinx Literature Read-In week

“Latinx Literature Read-In Week” took place from October 2 to 6 at many schools within the Oakland Unified School District including Allendale Elementary, Futures Elementary, and Fruitvale Elementary. The week focused on gathering volunteers to perform read-alouds in classrooms and host Family Literacy Nights. The event was organized by Lilly Smith, a program coordinator for Oakland School Volunteers, a group that brings people together to assist with school events. The event aims to honor Latinx Heritage Month, particularly writers and illustrators from a Latino/Latino…

African American Female Excellence Program hosts first Black Girl Power Conference

The chant of “Black girl power!” chant echoed throughout a room filled with purple balloons and ribbons early Saturday morning. More than 100 girls and their mothers, teachers, mentors—and one father—filled an auditorium on the Mills College campus for the first Black Girl Power Conference hosted by the African American Female Excellence Program (AAFE). The AAFE is a new initiative from the Oakland Unified School District’s (OUSD) Office of Equity. The initiative’s goal is to increase the academic achievement of…

Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater pays tribute to the vaudeville

Before every 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. weekend screenings at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater, Gordon Pratt pays tribute to the vaudeville–an act made obsolete by technological advancements in sound. While the ushers are still cleaning up spilled popcorn and the audience is beginning to file in, Pratt plays a few tunes on the pipe organ–a complex musical instrument, which has seen its best days fly by.