Culture
Chickens, cilantro and compost – oh, my! These were just some of the options for guests at the San Francisco Flower and Garden show as they walked through the 5,000 square feet of edible gardens arranged by Oakland-based Star Apple Edible Gardening. The company displayed what a modern urban homestead can look like. Throughout the four days of the show, Leslie Bennett, one of the three co-owners spoke to garden growers. “For reasons hard to comprehend, not everyone is growing…
Twenty two-year-old spoken word artist Jasmine “Jazz” Hudson has been rocking Oakland’s mics since the eighth grade. From her first writer’s workshop at the West Oakland Library — where her father sent her to “curb that mouth of hers” — she has performed everywhere from the streets of Oakland and Richmond to the national stage, often with her three-year-old son Nassor at her side.
Behind a small grey non-descript house near San Pablo Avenue and 60th Street in the Golden Gate neighborhood is a different kind of bicycle shop. As you walk down a path alongside the house, you pass chicken coops, Birds of Paradise and a vegetable garden full of beets, bok choy and broccoli. Past the garden, a door leads to a clean little studio full of tools and bikes. This is where Dan Woloz just opened a service-oriented bike shop called Bike Man Dan.
Breakfast and lunch hotspot Mama’s Royal Café is calling all doodlers, amateur and professional, young and old: The deadline for its 29th annual Napkin Art Contest is fast approaching. (Really fast, actually. Entries need to be in by March 31. You can either send them in by mail or drop them off at the café’s 4012 Broadway storefront).
Gourmet and Modern Bride magazines went under. US News and World Report has gone digital-only. Apple launched a new iPad that lets people read National Geographic and The New Yorker online and also watch live TV. You might worry anything made with paper is … well, doomed. A stop by Issues magazine store, however, might quell those fears.
Oakland residents John Morgan and John Boomer graduated from UC Berkeley in 2009. A few months later, they faced a decision: make some quick cash, or move back home. On a lark, Morgan wheeled a full-size piano out to Macarthur BART station, sat down, and played.
Brother and sister Sarah Lynn and Aaron Goeth were raised on church service and bar music while growing up in San Antonio, Texas. Now living in Oakland, the ginger-haired duo have been playing as Aquarena Springs, a country, honky-tonk band that incorporates the ukelele, drums, bass, melodica and keyboard.
Many in the Chinese community find themselves at odds with new legislation aimed at banning the sale and import of shark fin, the main ingredient of the Chinese delicacy known as shark fin soup.
Jorge Leon was removed at an A’s game last year for holding a sign that read “Wolff lied, he never tried” to protest the move. Reporter Evan Wagstaff sat down with Leon to ask what he’s done since then to keep the team in Oakland.