People
Oakland 19-year-old Solomon Tyson is a basketball player. A sled hockey player. A cyclist. A wrestler and mixed martial artist. A star of the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program. He also has cerebral palsy.
With Carlos Santana playing alongside the Oakland East Bay Symphony at the Paramount Theater this weekend, concertgoers will have a chance to broaden their musical palettes.
The last state of the city address by outgoing Oakland mayor Ron Dellums, scheduled for this Wednesday, was cancelled on Monday. Instead of a public speech, the mayor will deliver his closing remarks on his four year term in a speech posted online in text and video form.
Michael Rossman amassed 23,500 progressive social movement posters throughout his life as a free speech activist who also dabbled in arts, politics and science. Rossman died after a short battle with cancer in 2008, but his legacy will live on through his mammoth collection—the Oakland Museum of California recently acquired it. Check out this interactive to see a selection of posters and learn about the history behind them.
Oakland mayoral candidate and local businessman Greg Harland hopes to address the majority of Oakland’s problems—high crime, unattended street maintenance, and increased parking fees and fines—using business sense.
Bud Cropsey is an institution on the Oakland music scene—a longtime middle school and private music teacher, as well as a patron of the Oakland East Bay Symphony. This week, shortly after Cropsey’s 99th birthday, the symphony is honoring Cropsey with a three-day series of concerts geared at helping children learn about classical music. Read the story of Cropsey’s musical life, and hear more from this week’s concert series.
In June, Oakland’s last two adult schools—out of five the city once supported—closed their doors. And at the start of this school year, the district announced it would no longer offer English as a Second Language (ESL) classes to adults.
Oakland Tech head coach Delton Edwards, or Coach D, as he is warmly known among his program, is always around. 24-7 and 365 days a year, he likes to say. “Always,” says the 48-year-old. “You know how you bond with something? A lot of those coaches, they were a big influence on my life.”
In 20 minutes, Rick Butler can crochet a yarn ball into a hat that he says is unique. Like a mini handicraft exhibition, the hats are collected on a blanket laid on the edge of a plaza strewn with cigarette butts. The colorful hats easily stand out from the surrounding grey concrete. “Every hat is different,” says Butler. “I take a picture of every hat I make so I remember.”