Community
Interactive Map: follow Jeremías’ journey as an unaccompanied minor, from his neighborhood in El Salvador, to resettlement in Oakland, here. In the shadow of the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris and the ongoing strife in Syria, America’s role in handling the refugee crisis has been catapulted to the forefront of political debates. Discussions about whether the United States would accept Syrian refugees began after governors from over 30 states said they would not welcome them within their borders. In…
Each month, the beer market is flooded with brand new flavors, and sometimes people want to know exactly what goes into a batch of freshly brewed beer. Rob Bailard is the brain behind Diving Dog Brewhouse in downtown Oakland, which allows anyone from beer connoisseurs to non-drinkers to experience the brewing process. At the Brewhouse, beer director Derrik Battaglia is the one who keeps the beer flowing. The 30-year old Oakland native has been helping Bailard set up beer drinkers with…
Richard Ward of The Dry Garden nursery tells of a time when succulents saved a house from a wildfire. In 1989, raging flames from the last big fire approached a house but stopped short at a row of giant aloe and agave plants. Ward said that succulents are naturally fire retardant because 98 percent of their composition is water. Ward knows his succulents, cacti and bamboo. Since 1987, he has owned The Dry Garden on Shattuck Avenue, near the border between…
Eugene Lemon’s first exposure to computers was in an East Oakland high school in 1964 when a teacher allowed him to play tic-tac-toe sometimes in the class to keep him from “tearing the classroom up.” He retired from a 20-year teaching career in 2012, but he continues to work every day at The Hidden Genius Project, an initiative that aims to teach coding to male African American high school students. The organization also teaches entrepreneurship and leadership skills. The program,…
The Sun took off her raincoat over Downtown Oakland on Thursday, and outside OwlNWood, at 45 Grand Avenue, the air smelled faintly of fresh rain. OwlNWood is a small boutique selling vintage clothing, artisanal jewelry, and skincare products. As you step inside, your nose is met with a potpourri of sandalwood, musk, and hints of Nag Champa incense. Your ears are greeted with a stream of soul and electronica. A few steps inside, an elderly white lady sits in a barber’s…
The blender roared to life, shredding kale, mint, strawberries, bananas and ice into a delicious concoction. Anthony Forrest, the smoothie maker, handed cups of the nutritious potion to the students surrounding him in the school garden at Fremont High School in East Oakland. Forrest and his colleague Vernon Ray Dailey both work for Planting Justice, a nonprofit advocating for locally grown food, food education, jobs and shared green spaces. Forrest and Dailey are not secretive about their past: Between the…
A hum and chatter reverberates against the clean walls of a 90-year-old hallway above Oakland’s historic Fox Theatre. This is home for the Oakland School for the Arts, a charter school established in 2002. It’s Friday afternoon and the middle school students are giddy with anticipation. Two harmonious bells chime, signaling the day’s end. “We always have different bells that we play for the kids,” said executive and artistic director Donn Harris. “That’s a nice one. It’s got a kind…
At 8 p.m. on a Saturday evening, a damp breeze forced Oakland dwellers into puffy coats, and Café Underwood’s windows glowed with light and motion. At this moment, the café was home to five customers, spread across the square room with either beer or coffee in hand. Their laptops lit the space before them. Some scribbled notes by hand, until bright iMessage bubbles pulled their fingers back towards their keyboards. Others spoke with fervor into their headphones, with little apparent…
Ben Plumley, chief executive officer of Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, has been on the front lines of the global fight against HIV/AIDS for over two and a half decades.