Culture

Film on former Panther Richard Aoki debuts

Five years in the making, the documentary “Aoki,” about the Asian-American activist who was one of the original Black Panther leaders, premieres Thursday night at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater.

Roller Derby in Oakland is only for the rough and tough

Some families hand down dishware and handmade quilts. Other families hand down aliases, casino luck, and hip-smashing, hard-hitting, skirt-rocking roller sports. Jane Hammer’s family falls into the second category. Hammer is team captain and coach for The Oakland Outlaws roller derby team – a group of women athletes who represent, “tenacity, fire, and drive.”

Oakland groups address sustainable agriculture

On Monday night people came out from around the East Bay to attend the Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA) event at the David Brower Center in Berkeley. The event showcased Oakland organizations like Planting Justice, Communitree, Art in Action, People’s Grocery, Something for your Soul catering service, Healthy Hoodz, and Ital Pinay Jewelry. Each addressed the importance of sustainable agriculture and featured the creative ways they are implementing it in their urban communities . “We’re trying to create health and wellness…

Lights, camera, SWAT team: NBC films Trauma in downtown Oakland

A showdown at Bayside Mutual Bank blocked traffic Tuesday, while police worked to diffuse a bank robbery gone bad. Police cars piled up and FBI agents swarmed the intersection of 21st and Broadway in downtown Oakland. SWAT teams swiftly moved into position. A rooftop sniper carefully took aim. And then: Reuben “Rabbit” Palchuck arrived on the scene.

Oakland wants to join U.S. bid for World Cup

Imagine a series of summer afternoons at the Oakland Coliseum a few years in the future. The sun-dappled parking lot has become a Tower of Babel—English, Spanish and a smattering of Scandinavian tongues—but all are mutually intelligible in their passion for one sport: soccer. It might just happen, since Oakland is bidding to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup.

One of the newest Korean Restaurants in Temescal

Suk Lee opened Casserole House on Telegraph Avenue just over a year ago. It’s one of the newest Korean restaurants in Temescal and features home style Jeongol (Korean word for casserole). In this audio piece, she invites us into her kitchen and shows us one of her specialty Jeongol dishes.

California Roll world record broken at Cal

Over 350 lively people made up of fraternities, sororities, campus clubs, individual students, and community members registered for the event at UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza on Sunday afternoon. Each was hopeful that they would beat the Maui, Hawaii contingent that set the last record with a 300 foot-long California Roll in 2001.

The Crucible’s opening art showing: “eARTth”

On Friday night, more than 50 people crammed into the small narrow studio of the Crucible’s new art studio, the Cathedral Gallery, on Broadway in downtown Oakland. The show, which runs until Dec. 18, displays art ranging from a beautiful clay sculpted statue of a woman to brightly colored neck ties made of glass. The title: eARTh (with an emphasis on art). The art: made from glass, clay, marble, stone and plaster. The price: $50 to $3,000.  Or am I…