Culture
On May 7, people gathered in Oakland’s Fruitvale district to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, commemorating the Mexican Army’s victory, despite the odds, against the French at the Battle in Puebla in 1862. The event, hosted by Oakland City Councilmember Noel Gallo (District 5) and the City of Oakland, began with a Mother’s Day mural dedication.
In the early 1980s, the Bay Area was at the center of thrash metal music, one of the many subgenres of heavy metal. During that decade, heavy metal became incredibly popular around the world; kids were growing their hair long, flashing the devil horn sign with their hands, and playing air guitar.
“Dogtown Redemption,” a documentary film shot over seven years in West Oakland, follows the lives of three local shopping cart recyclers.
Sury Martín and Paw Sei are part of a rapidly growing number of district parents who don’t natively speak English. According to OUSD’s fast facts website, during the 2014-2015 school year, 49.5 percent of students in the Oakland school district used a language other than English at home. Fifty native languages are spoken throughout the district.
In this week’s episode of the Tales of Two Cities podcast, hosts Brad Bailey and Matt Beagle will be discussing loss, and stories about people moving on when something or someone important is taken away. We’ll hear about a lost Oakland bus stop so important to bus riders that they’re trying to bring it back. We’ll listen as some surprising guests in the East Bay share their favorite memories of Prince. We’ll also hear the story of an Oakland woman…
Last Thursday, The Town Kitchen was awarded the “Most Community-Oriented Employer” at the Work Local Awards party. The award aims to recognize and celebrate the best employers in the Bay Area.
Oakland does not attract big record labels but it “wakes your game up.”
Some 1,600 people filled the Fox Theatre for this year’s Notes & Words concert. The concert, in its seventh year, benefited the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland and featured local talent like the Oakland School for the Arts choir, as well as high-profile authors and musicians, such as actor BJ Novak and Coldplay’s front man Chris Martin.
The celebration took place on Saturday, April 23, when thousands of visitors flooded through the park’s gates to watch the animals and observe the performance by Trapeze Arts Inc., a circus arts school in West Oakland.