Culture

Oakland honors authors at annual ceremony

PEN Oakland’s 24th annual book awards honored eight writers for their literary excellence. The annual awards ceremony recognizes authors from across the country for their books published during the previous year. In addition to acceptance speeches, authors read excerpts of their work and signed books for fans.

Oakland North spotlight: Sacred Wheel

Sacred Wheel, an unpretentious cheese shop in Temescal, offers a funky menu featuring Pabst Blue Ribbon tomato soup, pickled eggs, and a Sriracha-infused sloppy Joe on what the menu calls “the trashiest bun we could find.” The eclectic menu is mirrored in the décor (a toy dinosaur with a chunk of cheese in its jaws presides over the cheese counter), and the staff (nearly all employees have a caricature of themselves on the wall, and the staff are decorated with…

Sold out show at the New Parish benefits unaccompanied migrant youth

President Barack Obama’s recent executive order defers the deportation of undocumented parents of American citizens or legal permanent residents who have been in the country for at least five years. This is expected to affect approximately 4 million undocumented immigrants, but excludes approximately 7 million others, according to a recent report on NPR. Among those excluded are the tens of thousands of unaccompanied child and teenage migrants that arrived to the U.S. border earlier this year. The Oakland-based Social Justice Collaborative (SJC)—a nonprofit…