Culture
“Are you enjoying your sex life?” That’s a question sex therapist Isadora Alman would like primary healthcare providers to ask their patients, along with other basic questions often asked of people coming in for a check-up, like inquiries about smoking or drinking. But this doesn’t happen, said Alman, who is also a California licensed marriage and family therapist, because, she believes, a satisfying sex life isn’t considered an important part of health. She addressed this topic last month during a…
The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) is presenting a new exhibition exploring Oakland through the work of local artists. The exhibition is called “Who is Oakland?” and is organized by Chris Johnson, the lead artist, in cooperation with the museum. The exhibition is featuring the work of nine local artists lead by Johnson, produced using different forms of art and different materials. “The most important material is the content,” said Johnson. In his piece, he took a map of Oakland,…
Huck Sinn’s life was falling apart, including her relationships. After she stopped going to grad school, she moved from San Francisco to the East Bay, where she started “dating herself.” “I was taking myself out. I took myself to concerts and I took myself to a roller derby bout,” she said. It was at that bout that she realized she was “born to do this.” By “this,” she means playing and coaching for the Oakland Outlaws, one of the Bay…
The Christian and Chinese New Years parties are long over. But on March 21, the Bahá’i celebrated their Naw-Rúz (literally, New Year). The Bahá’i faith was established a century and a half ago and has more than 5 million members all over the planet. The religion is the second most widespread worldwide; only Christianity can be found in more regions on the globe. California is home to more than 19,000 believers, and therefore the largest Bahá’i community in the United…
The local conversation about development and displacement in Oakland made its way to the University of California, Berkeley in form of a play and panel at Anthony Hall on Tuesday evening. The play “We Go Boom” explores the effect of the tech industry in Oakland by dramatizing the future ribbon cutting at Uptown Station—a real-life project to develop the area above the 19th Street BART Station and the Sears Building at 20th Street and Broadway. The development site was bought…
Blue Bottle Coffee’s historic W.C. Morse Cafe on Broadway became a casual and intimate concert hall Thursday night as three members of the Oakland East Bay Symphony performed selections from Vivaldi, Debussy and more. Called “Cup of Classical,” the event was the latest in the Oakland East Bay Symphony’s efforts to bring classical music into the community by performing it in non-traditional venues. The symphony hosted a similar event, called “Bach & Brew,” last May that brought together beer aficionados…
Bumping music, energetic people and booths selling food were all apart of the festivities at the sixth annual Oakland Running Festival on Sunday. The day included a marathon, half-marathon, a 4-person relay, a 5k and a kids’ fun run. Starting at 7 am, people from all over the Bay Area biked, walked and drove to Snow Park near Lake Merritt where the race began and ended. In total, 9,678 registered runners from 34 states and eight foreign countries ran for…
Oakland residents gathered in Park Community Garden this weekend to commemorate the victims and survivors of violence against women. The event, which included the unveiling of several portraits, was organized by the anti-violence group Her Resilience and Mamacita’s Cafe. “Her Resilience is a testament to what can be done when women come together,” said Hazel Streete, the group’s director. She said the goal of the grassroots organization is to support women in the process of healing and dealing with trauma….
Two years ago, Jake Anderson took three friends from India to an NBA basketball game. To his surprise, his friends weren’t very impressed with what they saw. “We thought basketball games were fast and entertaining. This was the opposite,” one of them said. That was when Anderson realized he had to do something to save the sport he loved. One year later he created a community-based league called “The Run and Only.” “We take players that are terrifically talented and…