December 2016 - Oakland Voices

Oakland United in Sorrow and Celebration

December 30, 2016 Kat Ferreira

“Thank you! Love you, Oakland!” Xavier Dphrepaulezz shouted at the end of Fantastic Negrito’s brief set. Those five words summarized a recurring theme during an intensely emotional night dedicated to the victims of the deadly Ghost

Modern Day Ruins : The Ghost Ship Warehouse

December 28, 2016 Damu Dailey

The parking lot of Wendy’s across the street from the “Ghost Ship” is where people sit in their cars and stare at the massiveness of the incident. They can see the whole building from there, clearly,

Deep East Oakland Rising

December 28, 2016 Howard Dyckoff

A new energy is gathering in Deep East Oakland. Two community meetings in early December focused on familiar issues, such as improved schools and illegal dumping, as well as the not-so-familiar topics of creek restoration

No Judgment

December 27, 2016 Sandra Tavel

It was 2004 in San Francisco’s Mission District. I was at the Lexington Club with my friends standing at the juke box. An attractive, tattooed, masculine bartender came up to me and handed me a

A Holiday Party: A Time for Games

December 22, 2016 Monica Green

“2016 seems like it just went by in a minute!” my friend wrote in an email where we were bantering about the passage of time. “Now time just goes by in a flash! It really

Music: It’s a Wonderful Life

December 21, 2016 Tony Daquipa

For most Americans, December is usually a time when the normal routine of life slows down a little bit and people reconnect with friends and loved ones. It is a time for sitting in traffic,

The Midas Touch

December 20, 2016 Marabet Morales Sikahall

The typical immigrant narrative tends to showcase the struggle more than success. But what if there was a way or one person who could balance this type of narrative? I am positive that there

A Resilient Person: My Father

December 20, 2016 Katharine Davies Samway

My father, Roy Davies, was 14 when he left school in 1920, the school leaving age in England at the time. He wanted to go to high school, but his father had died when he

Sequoyah Highlands An Inner City Surburb

December 19, 2016 Monica Green

Deep in East Oakland off the 98 Avenue exit of 580, about two miles up Golf Links Road is my neighborhood. Sequoyah Highlands is an inner city suburb nestled between Knowland Park’s permanent open

The Bridge

December 16, 2016 =

There’s a busy street between Dimond District and Laurel. I guess you could call it a bridge between the two districts. If you just sit and observe, you’ll note cars rushing down MacArthur Boulevard, kids