Culture
Every Saturday morning, volunteers from North Oakland’s Lighthouse Mosque come to the Rainbow Recreation center on 59th and East 14th Street in East Oakland to give hot food and groceries to people in need.
While much of the country took Monday off in honor of Columbus’ expedition to the New World, Phat Beets Produce farmers’ market in North Oakland took an alternate approach on Saturday with its “Decolonize Your Diet: An Indigenous People’s Day” celebration.
Hundreds gathered on College Ave. this Sunday for the Out and About Festival, Rockridge’s annual celebration of food, music, crafts, community organizing, and good-natured neighborhood noise. The festival featured Bay Area musicians such as The Clifford Lamb Trio and The Blue Monday Jazz Jam. Young children had their faces painted, practiced hula hooping, painted small pumpkins, planted seeds, and tried to climb a gigantic rock wall…
A chorus of barks, yips and the odd meow served as background music at Skyline Community Church’s 11th annual Blessing of the Animals on Saturday — the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. patron saint of animals.
The artists behind the Wonderarium, an eight-foot floating terrarium they hope will find a home on the waters of Lake Merritt, brought their project to the public plaza outside Oakland’s Christ the Light cathedral–where they invited passers-by to dig into dirt and plants to make their own mini-terrariums.
The Nightcap is a series that features a favorite Oakland drinking establishment every Friday afternoon. This week, it’s George Kaye’s. It first opened in 1934, right after Prohibition ended, serving drinks to neighborhood folks in the same small, wood-paneled room the bar occupies today. Much of Kaye’s has remained the same for decades, in fact, like the 1950’s cash register, the original icebox and bathroom doors, and the wood bar.
Armenian Americans may be one of the Bay Area’s less-noticed ethnic groups, but this Friday and Saturday at the Armenian Bazaar & Food Festival, their rich cultural legacy will be on full display for anyone interested in learning more.
Cheerleaders hooted and waved pom-poms. School bands marched to the thunderous beats of drums. This was the 37th Black Cowboy Parade held in Oakland, and as usual, it was a big one.
Souley Vegan, located at Broadway and 3rd Street in downtown Oakland, conjures up a sense of Southern comfort with murals of jazz artists like Louis Armstrong and Big Mama Thornton covering the walls. The air is scented by the steaming gravy wafting off the top of one patron’s mashed potatoes. Blues tunes carry over the entire seating area and bar, as does the sizzling of something frying in a batter: tofu.