Culture
Meet Los Cenzontles, a Mexican folk band and musical academy based in San Pablo, California. To say that this group’s sound is eclectic would be an understatement. Their sound ranges from Tejano music to classic rock to re-imaginings of traditional Mexican musical genres such as the boleros, corridos, rancheras and the Son Jarocho.
Laura Bruland of Yes and Yes Designs makes hand-made, laser cut jewelry … out of old books. Most of the books that she uses tend to be old textbooks, Reader’s Digests, or children’s books. She avoids books with glossy covers, preferring fabric or textile covers, and tries to use books with lots of colors or images. “I don’t cut up classics or first editions,” she said, adding that she always tries to buy books that most people would not want to read.
Two months ago, two Oaklanders started “Projet En Vue.” The idea is simple: they walk around Oakland and find interesting people to talk to. They document the interviews on their website, building an online gallery that reflects “an eclectic, vibrant, interesting” Oakland community.
At the 16th Annual Youth Speaks Poetry Slam Finals, thirteen young people between from across the Bay Area held the audience captive with their poems on everything from young love to the broken economy. Hear their poems in this interactive audio piece.
This Friday, the city kicked off Jack’s Night Market, a small festival and market is being held in conjunction with Oakland’s First Friday Art Murmur, a citywide art walk incorporating galleries from 26th Street to Uptown, Old Oakland, downtown Oakland and Jack London.
After canceling its spring dance program amid financial troubles, the Oakland Ballet Company plans to host its annual gala fundraiser on May 5 in the Kaiser Center Auditorium.
Now that the nights are getting longer and warmer, the Oakland Museum of California is introducing a new event: a monthly Summer Nights series that launched on Friday. Summer Nights events offer extended evening hours, half-price admission to all exhibits and galleries, as well as food and drink specials and special events such as book signings or screen printing demonstrations.
Presented by San Francisco’s Kearny Street Workshop and held at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center on Thursday night, the Dumpling Wars was a light-hearted, humor-infused cook-off between six teams intent on creating the best dumplings imaginable.
Many of the 20,000 people from Ethiopia and Eritrea living in the Bay Area call Oakland home. Oakland North is taking a look at the culture and history of the Ethiopian or Eritrean communities in Oakland with “East Africans in Oakland” a series of profiles on everyday people living in the city.