Culture
Hundreds of street murals brighten Oakland’s walls, painted by local artists, graffiti writers and collectives, like the Community Rejuvenation Project. Some are “bombed”, i.e. done without permission, on the fly, usually at night. Others are commissioned by private businesses and public institutions. This audio slideshow is a preview of some of them.
After a five-year, 14-stop worldwide tour that kicked off at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2005, the exhibition that covers Pixar’s entire lifespan is coming home. The Oakland Museum displays the East Bay studio’s unique visual style and extraordinarily vivid digital animation that brought the world Toy Story, WALL-E, and Finding Nemo.
In the shade of large, leafy lettuce and kale and tall stalks of beans, approximately 150 Bay Area residents met Saturday at the Saint Martin de Porres Elementary School garden to show their support for the nonprofit organization that planted it to give Oakland students a chance to learn about nutrition.
In a lively, standing room only meeting, the Oakland city council voted Tuesday night to approve on first reading a city-wide plan for the cultivation of medical marijuana in four new large-scale factories.
Seoul on Wheels is not your typical taco truck—the tacos being served up are more Far East than south of the border. In addition to kimchee burritos, aka “korritos,” Julia Yoon, the owner of Seoul on Wheels, sells barbeque tacos, barbeque sandwiches, traditional barbeque rice plates and more—all of which have Korean ingredients, spices and flourish.
“What you’ll need for a day of suffering” read the top of the invitation for this year’s Rad Massaker alleycat bicycle race, which instructed bikers to bring water, spare tubes, energy gel and helmets. Sunday afternoon, hordes of cyclists showed up at Mosswood Park prepared to brave the pain.
On randomly-selected afternoons a couple hundred people gather in a big brick building on Martin Luther King Jr. Way to shop, browse and taste ready-made food from top chefs from all over the Bay Area. It’s not a farmers market, food fair or co-op—it’s the Pop-Up General Store, a place where people can buy pre-made food that can’t normally be found outside of an expensive restaurant.
What do you get when you mix an outdoor market, workshops on healthy eating and food justice? A Phat Beets farmers’ market. This new North Oakland weekly farmers’ market, which debuted on Saturday, is more than just buying food locally—it’s about education, health and the community.
One or two days a week, a little before noon, a crowd of people begins to line up in downtown Oakland, right off Broadway near City Hall. It’s unclear what they’re waiting for though, because there’s nothing there. Shortly, a big white truck painted with colorful polka dots rounds the corner. Stenciled on the side of the truck, it says “Cupkates—a mobile cupcakery.”