East Oakland is considered a food desert. A food desert–according to the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture)–is defined as a “low-access community” where at least 500 people or 33 percent of the census tract’s population live more than one mile from a supermarket. And perhaps because East Oakland is a food desert, taco trucks predominate …Read more…
While Everyone Else Is Sleeping, East Oakland Is Eating
It’s a Monday evening just after 11 p.m. as I pull into the Tacos Los Amigos parking lot on East 14th Street (also known as International Blvd.) I was referred to this taco truck by veteran graffiti writer Ceaver (640, Lords crews), who claimed it as his favorite late night food spot. Known as a …Read more…
O.G. Beat Meet, a video story
A Client’s Choice Pantry in East Oakland Grocery Desert
I arrive around 10:15 a.m. on a recent Saturday at the Flunder Foundation Word of Mouth Food Pantry located at the City of Refuge United Church of Christ http://www.cityofrefugeucc.org/, which is in a mixed residential and commercial neighborhood not far from the Oakland airport. Although the pantry doesn’t open for another 45 minutes, there’s already …Read more…
Faces of Bay Area PLAN’s Family FEST
Dad Hip Hop
“It wasn’t hard to be a Tupac fan when I was in high school,” says Oakland rapper, music producer, record label owner, and dad, Tahajiye Edwards. “But people thought you were a little strange when you were a Freestyle Fellowship fan, you know what I mean? When you showed up dressed up like De La …Read more…
What Will Happen to This Land?
“I’m leaving here today Yes, I’m going back home to stay Yes, I’m walking to New Orleans” Fats Domino This is the first in a series about how one family is addressing inherited land. Taxes are current but the land is undivided among multiple families who left the South during the great migration. No clear …Read more…
Oakland Estuary’s Tidal Canal
The atmosphere holds East Oakland close with an overcast sky. The maritime air has a chill to it. The wind and the noise of the traffic whip into my ears as I watch birds soar over the water. A lone rower glides over the green-grey waves as I walk at a fast clip over the …Read more…
My Salvation
I stared deeply into his brown eyes, not because I was trying to avoid looking at the graphic carnage that had been inflicted upon the rest of his body, but because I was transfixed by the desperate look of terror etched on his face. As I stood before the original crucifix used by Spanish colonizers …Read more…
Middle Eastern Students Speak Out
I must have passed by the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California in Oakland many times, but never noticed it. This center was the site for a Sanctuary Education conference held in Oakland on a Saturday in February. The conference, for K-12 teachers, staff, and youth workers, was organized by a …Read more…