Culture
Grieving their ‘little angels’: Latina women in Oakland process the loss of their children, together
A Day of the Dead exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California highlights the work of MADRE, a local group who aims to help Latina women cope with the grief of child loss.
Founded in 2011 at the Oakland School of the Arts, the group is made up of high school students at the charter school. They have won the International Championship of High School A Cappella (ICHSA) three times, including this year in April. In 2013, they placed third on NBC’s The Sing-Off, a televised a cappella competition between some of the best musical ensembles in the country. With the level of success they’ve garnered, the group has decided to use their art as a form of activism: “aca-activism,” that is.
On December 1, the Mills Board of Trustees may make a final decision on whether to phase out the undergraduate dance major over the next few years.
The newest phase of contest over the East 12th parcel is a student “guerrilla art” exhibit.
Photographer Ray Bussolari harnesses the symbolic power of tattoos to represent the experiences of foster youth.
This year, Oakland Tech turned 100, and its alums have planned a celebration lasting an entire year.
The Centennial Celebration, organized by staff, students and alumni, included a gala over Memorial Day weekend, a talent show for students and alumni in February, and the creation of a book, video and website commemorating the anniversary. “This centennial was kind of a fun opportunity to show off the school and how well it’s doing, especially to its alumni, who might have become disengaged over the course of the years,” said Dan Williams, a parent of three Oakland Tech alums and a key player in the planning process for the celebration. Williams said his children “were very different, and did different things, academically were in very different places, but all had a great time,” he said. “And as I quickly found out, Tech’s an amazing school with an amazing history.”
Born in East Oakland and raised in the Bay Area, Imara is an astronomer and a researcher at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, holding the prestigious title of a Harvard-MIT Future Faculty Leader Postdoctoral Fellow. Not only was she was the first African American woman to get a Ph.D. in astrophysics from UC Berkeley, but she is also a self-taught painter.
The gamers’ cries were punctuated by clocks of game controllers, flips of cards and a crackle of pizza crusts—all part of the soundtrack at Reddit on November 7 as the social networking and news site participated in Extra Life’s 24-hour Game Day to raise money for Children’s Hospital Oakland.
The Raiders Foundation hosted the event in advance of Veterans’ Day November 11, inviting veterans from organizations including Sentinels of Freedom, Wounded Warrior Project and Special Operations Warrior Foundation, to spend the afternoon with Raider players and the Raiderettes.