December 2016 - Page 2 of 2

Still on Fire: Artist’s Spaces in Oakland

December 16, 2016 Sara Rowley

There’s a large old Victorian boarding house, now an artist’s communal living space, in East Oakland that always makes people stop and stare when they go by. It has climbing roses, decoratively painted steps, taxidermy

Sometimes it takes a tragedy

December 15, 2016 Bill Joyce

[slideshow_deploy id=’11545′] As the unsettling sifting of the ashes of the Ghost Ship fire drew to a close Wednesday, three blocks away at St. Elizabeth Elementary School, sixth-grade teacher Adrianna Alvarez led students in a

Mandela Parkway: The Day Before Crack Hit. Then and Now.

December 15, 2016 Damu Dailey

“Man,” yes, my neighbor’s real name, was a man-child in all respects. He was always serious and rarely smiled, even when we played happily for hours. We were young, feral children running wild without

Can You Taste the Culture, Art and the Beautiful Struggle in the Fruitvale?

December 14, 2016 Abel Regalado

My neighborhood – the Fruitvale – is the heart Oakland’s District 5; the sense of community and culture are undeniable as you walk down International Boulevard from Fruitvale Avenue up to High Street. Eloteros, paleteros and

Life in the Killing Fields

December 13, 2016 Tony Daquipa

As I walk down this residential street in East Oakland, I notice how the front yard of every house is green. There are no lawns in this working class bedroom community, but the young weeds

Jingletown: the Jewel of East Oakland

December 8, 2016 Sandra Tavel

Jingletown is a small neighborhood in East Oakland adjacent to Alameda, next to the 880 Highway near the Fruitvale BART station. Local lore tells us this was once a working class, Portuguese neighborhood where people

What Would You Do?

December 2, 2016 Bill Joyce

(On the 2nd weekend in October, labor activists, military veterans, musicians, artists, and people of faith from across the US converged on both sides of the US-Mexico border at Nogales, AZ. The action was sponsored

We Are Rome

December 1, 2016 Damu Dailey

It’s not the election of Trump. It’s the murder of Martin Luther King. It’s not presidency of Trump, it’s the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. It’s not the rhetoric of Trump. It’s