Culture

Behind a 12-foot-high chain-link fence topped with barbed wire on a dead-end street underneath one of Oakland’s major freeways there is a concrete skate park called Bordertown. This West Oakland spot is the site of a long-standing controversy between the City of Oakland, Caltrans and the skateboarders that illegally built this park here six and a half years ago.

Early Sunday morning in the drizzling rain, a small group of people is standing on the shore of Lake Merritt peering out onto the lake through binoculars. They are birdwatchers participating in the Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count— the group’s annual tally of different species of birds.

Dancers with the Oakland Ballet Company have spent the past month preparing for this year’s production of “The Nutcracker. The shows, which will be presented at the Paramount Theater, are scheduled for Christmas weekend, but you can listen in on a rehearsal in this audio piece.

For Christmas this year, Leo Keegan set out to create a nativity spectacle at the Cathedral of Christ the Light, the seat of the Catholic Diocese of Oakland. The result was the Starlight Festival: seventeen unique displays of the crèche, or nativity scene, each an interpretation of the biblical story of Jesus’ birth

The Crucible, Oakland’s non-profit arts education center began in a small Berkeley warehouse in January 1999. Listen in as reporter Mary Flynn explores The Crucible and the art of motorcycle maintenance.

Though psychic storefronts are ubiquitous in Oakland, little is known about this mystical community. Do their abilities hold weight in the scientific community, or is the phenomenon just smoke and mirrors?

Sitting before a semi-circle of her peers at Chabot Elementary, fifth-grader Nyah read aloud from her story, Alia and Andrew and the Story of the Odd Objects. It’s a novel, and she wrote the whole thing this fall. Her audience, consisting of nine fellow classmates and instructor Sondra Hall, were gathered on a Tuesday for the semester’s last session of “Take My Word For It!,” an afterschool workshop developed by Hall.

Oakland forge and glassworks The Crucible opened their 56,000 square foot studio to a craft fair this weekend, featuring blacksmithing demonstrations, glass blowers and 70 artists.

The Trappist was overflowing Friday as thirsty Oaklanders tossed one back in honor of KerstBier Fest—a two-day celebration of the rich brews of the season. On offer at the downtown pub that specializes in artisan and speciality brews were about 30 beer varieties from Belgium, Norway and the US.