Community
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.
It’s the last day of the year to buy tomatoes at the Temescal Farmer’s Market.
Etelvina López, a 33-year old mother of two, is grooming the 400 square-foot nursery room located on the first floor of the headquarters of Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA), an Oakland-based advocacy group for Latina domestic workers. She’s preparing for the arrival of the children who she takes care of every Thursday evening. López came to Oakland from Guatemala almost 16 years ago to seek job opportunities. In addition to this job, which pays $15 per hour, López works as…
The Crucible is a nondescript warehouse in West Oakland. Except for a few brightly colored metal signs and a large wooden crucible outside the building, the nonprofit industrial arts school could be any other structure in the freeway wrapped landscape. A swinging door in the lobby opens to a large, high-ceilinged workspace with bare cement floors. The constant hum of machinery vibrates throughout the space. In various nooks carved out throughout the expansive warehouse, people work. And they work mostly…