Culture
Only about half of foster youth graduate from high school, and of those students, only 20 percent make it to college. Franco’s goal for FConnect is to help them learn about resources that will help them get to college and, once there, make it to graduation.
Artists and designers repurpose parts of the demolished eastern span of the Bay Bridge and create projects celebrating the bridge’s importance as an iconic structure.
Bay Area Swap-O-Rama-Rama teaches people how to repurpose their used clothing through sewing in order to make clothes last longer and keep them out of landfills.
A teaching artist with Thingamajigs taught a weeklong workshop at charter school East Bay Innovation Academy on “sound engineering,” where students learned about physics, design, and mathematics by making their own instruments and learning about how they make sound.
Tales of Two Cities reporters explore all things repurposed — from buildings and bridges to names, Lyft rides, school meals, and cannabis.
The festival’s theme wove through the 26 altars assembled by local artists as well as artwork created by this year’s poster contest winner Eduardo Chaidez. The poster features an illustrated image of a little girl with Día de los Muertos-inspired face paint and an Oakland T-Shirt, holding a sign that reads “DREAM FOR ALL.”
Kindergarten teacher Lourdes Rivas wrote a children’s book, They Call Me Mix, to help teach their students why they use gender-neutral pronouns.
“The problem is not fatness, health, or fat phobia,” says Luna. “The problem is we place bodies on a hierarchy.”
Peralta Hacienda Historical Park unveiled a new art exhibit in early October called “Undocumented Heart: Oakland Day Laborers Tell Their Stories,” that features the creations of undocumented day laborers through paintings, quilts, graphic art, song and dance.