Culture
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.
Although fencing is often thought of as an East Coast sport for the elite, the East Bay Fencers Gym in downtown Oakland is helping to disprove this long-held understanding of this somewhat obscure sport.
For some, the holiday season starts with the first snowfall, or the lighting of a tree. But at Uptown Body and Fender on 26th Street, a new tradition may be taking shape: an elaborate puppet show performance of the fairy tale “Cinderella.” The show, which is performed by a team of puppeteers and technicians from Oakland’s Zanzibar Fairytale Puppet Theater, is now in its third year, and its second in Oakland.
Each year, 24,000 novels, dictionaries and books of poetry are packaged and shipped around the country by volunteers of the Berkeley-based Prisoners Literature Project. For nearly 30 years, the volunteer-run organization has provided books to prisoners in an effort to nurture rehabilitation and encourage education among this sometimes-forgotten population of society.
On Saturday afternoon in Oakland, a small group of dedicated dog owners got together to show off their primped pups for a good cause. Participants in the Do You Look Like Your Dog? Fashion Show brought their holiday adorned pooches to Pride and Pedigree, a dog academy that can house as many as 40 canines located at 437 25th St., to try and take home bragging rights.