Culture
Despite not attending art school, Derek McDonald’s art has permeated much of the local visual landscape, from gold leafed yacht names in the Emeryville Marina to local bar placards to the vintage signs at Oakland’s Fairyland park for children. At his West Berkeley studio, Golden West Sign Arts, McDonald stays true to the tradition of sign painting without any digital assistance.
Canopies were up for The People’s School For Public Education on Tuesday at Splash Pad Park, where protesters who had previously been camping at Lakeview Elementary School have relocated the volunteer-run summer program to teach kids about social justice issues. Protesters are saying that Thursday will be the last time the People’s School will be held at Splash Pad Park before they choose another location.
Many of the 20,000 people from Ethiopia and Eritrea living in the Bay Area call Oakland home. Oakland North is taking a look at the culture and history of the Ethiopian or Eritrean communities in Oakland with “East Africans in Oakland” a series of profiles on everyday people living in the city.
Extending as far as the eye could were white tents against bright sunny skies—along with Kettle Corn stands, giants slides and stages for acrobats—as Telegraph Avenue welcomed visitors during the ninth annual Temescal Street Fair on Sunday.
Residents and people from neighboring cities strolled the ten blocks to participate in rides on mini Ferris wheels, watch martial arts demonstrations, buy T-shirts from Oaklandish and eat chocolates from Hoopers and Korean barbeque made by community business owners.
This Saturday, a group of Oakland based-artists will stage the East Bay’s first literary pub crawl, a beast-themed, multiple-venue festival featuring performances, recitals and readings by at least 166 authors, poets and musical groups across 25 locations in Oakland.
Now that the finalists in Oakland’s first Youth Poet Laureate competition have been announced, the poets have until September to hear the final results after the last panel of judges make their decision. While waiting to find out who will be named the first Youth Poet Laureate, the finalists are preparing for the first group performance at the Art & Soul Festival this summer in Oakland.
On Saturday, 200 Bay Area residents put on their stretchy yoga pants and unrolled their colourful exercise mats to help Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland. For eight hours, barefoot participants moved and stretched their bodies at Richmond’s Craneway Pavilion to inaugurate the first annual Yoga Reaches Out Bay Area Yogathon.
A circus has come to town—a dancer rounds dozens of hula-hoops on her hips, one woman swings from a trapeze, another treads a fine line on the slack rope, and a clown puts up a formidable act for the audience. Meet A circus has come to town—a dancer rounds dozens of hula-hoops on her hips, one woman swings from a trapeze, another treads a fine line on the slack rope and a clown puts up a formidable act for the audience. Meet Circus Bella, a one-ring outdoor circus comprised of 13 troupe members and several live musicians.
The energy was palpable, with people filling the entryway, shaking hands and engaging in excited conversations as they waited for the ceremony celebrating the opening of Girls Inc’s new location in downtown Oakland to begin on Thursday. The organization works with girls to help them with literacy, career goals and to learning to care for themselves, both emotionally and physically.