Community

Bill Clinton visits Oakland for community service day

Former President Bill Clinton recently came to Oakland on behalf of the Clinton Foundation’s Global Initiative. Volunteers made improvements such as gardening and painting the playground. The Clintons were also joined by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and local school officials.

Oakland Ballet Company to host second annual East Bay Dances

On April 17, the Oakland Ballet Company will be hosting the second annual East Bay Dances Showcase. This showcase is meant to highlight the diversity of artistry and dance in the East Bay. The event will feature multiple dance groups from the East Bay including Oakland Ballet, AXIS Dance Company, Diablo Ballet, Jubilee American Dance Theatre, The Milissa Payne Project, Patty Chu’s Chinese Folk Dance, Quicksilver Dance, and Savage Jazz Dance Company. Graham Lustig, the show’s producer and artistic director…

Africana studies community research center has a welcome debut

Guests could hear music and laughter the moment they walked through the entrance of Building L at Merritt College one chilly March evening. They were here for the community open house for the new Africana Studies Community Research Center and Curriculum, which focuses on educating the public on African-American Studies and history. Every inch of the room was occupied by excited attendees, trays of soul food, decorations and detailed pamphlets that explained how the interactive curriculum in the center’s computer…

Cephus Johnson and the men of Black Lives Matter

Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson got the call in the afternoon. “You better get your butt down here,” Patrisse Cullors told him. She was standing on a corner of Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza with five activists from London, each of whom had lost a family member to police violence. They were jetlagged and wearing matching T-shirts. “You’re supposed to be here,” Cullors said. A self-possessed woman with short, dreaded hair, Cullors is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter. Johnson is the…