Culture
Salsa lovers in the Bay Area on Sunday gathered in at the Splash Pad Park for the 3rd annual Salsa by the Lake. More than 250 people, from toddlers to elderly enjoyed salsa and the hot rhythm played by Rumbache.
More than 50 local artists envisioning sunflower murals, films and other projects attended an orientation Thursday at City Hall to find out about the Oakland Open Proposals program in which the city will give out $100,000 for art projects. “We still have money to fund art, even though the budget is cut across the board,” Steven Huss, the Cultural Arts Program Coordinator at Oakland’s Cultural Art and Marketing Department, told the artists. “I would like to detox some parts of…
Dominic De Vincenzi remembers early mornings in the 1950s, when the intersection of 51st Street and Telegraph Avenue was the heart of Oakland’s Italian community. Long lines of customers formed as soon as 7 a.m. at Genova Deli—then a cramped, 600-square-foot store owned by his father-in-law—as workers poured in to buy their lunches or treat themselves after working the graveyard shift. Appetites were beastly and it was common for customers to bicker over their place in line, so in the…
The Wheels of Justice cyclery, nestled in the foothills of Montclair, is a community-oriented bike shop whose aim is to create a welcoming atmosphere for families and give back to the children of the bay area. Daniel Watson and Justice Baxter (from whom the store draws its name) opened the store in 2003 because they wanted kids in the area to have opportunities that they lacked when they were young.
Several fat books stacked on Deborah Cunningham’s lap spilled over the edges of her wheelchair. As an aide wheeled her away, the dark-haired, elderly woman, a retired English professor in her mid-eighties, grasped them tightly. She is one of ten or eleven repeat customers at Mercy Retirement and Care Center that look forward to the monthly Bookmobile visits from the Oakland Library system. The Bookmobile, a large, multicolored bus that traverses Oakland streets two days a week to visit under-served…
Books? No, give me a wrench, ask many Oakland residents who use the Temescal Library. The branch holds 29,000 books, and rents out 4,000 books, CDs and movies a month. Its Tool Lending Program, started in 2001, checks out 3,000 tools a month and that number is growing.
Last Sunday afternoon, Matt Siee dressed in knee high socks with a wool white top picked up a 42-ounce ash bat to play baseball circa 1886.
Produced by AYAKO MIE