Bill Joyce, Author at Oakland Voices

Plastic bags line a portable table in a parking lot, ready to be picked up via drive through at Arsola Food Pantry.

Tuesday Morning at Arsola’s Food Pantry in Oakland During COVID-19

May 8, 2020 Bill Joyce

Long before hundreds of vehicles roll up on Tuesday morning, a half dozen volunteers are on the job. Along a makeshift assembly line, extended to allow for social distancing, a half dozen volunteers wearing masks

An arch over the street that says "Laurel."

Sheltering-in-Place in the Laurel District

April 8, 2020 Bill Joyce

Mine is the only car as I pull up to 35th and MacArthur early Tuesday morning. Usually swarming with students on their way to Skyline High and workers heading downtown or BART, only one man

Dishing Up a Kinfolks Thanksgiving

December 8, 2017 Bill Joyce

The Kinfolks Motorcycle Club’s annual Thanksgiving dinner at Palo Vista Gardens is still an hour away but the dinner guests are already gathering. Joanne Berstine, a 35 -year resident of the senior housing residence, is

Nearly a Century of Magic in the Dimond

August 29, 2017 Bill Joyce

Magic in all its mystery hung, literally, in the air at a recent meeting of the Oakland Magic Circle (OMC). Twelve- year- old Azlan Dubin fanned a deck of cards flawlessly telling me, “I’ve been

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

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

Grand Opening of The Shed: The Original Scraper Bike Team on the Move

July 11, 2016 Bill Joyce

The Original Scraper Bike Team mustered at noon on Saturday, June 11 at the 81st Ave Library. Scrapers torqued chains and pumped air in their tires as they prepared to ride to the grand opening

Change for the better promised by new West Oakland Health Council CEO Benjamin Pettus

July 1, 2016 Bill Joyce

Smooth jazz played softly in the background while some 100 supporters gathered June 30 under a bright white tent beside the West Oakland Health Council (WOHC) on Adeline Street near 7th Street. Benjamin Pettus _

Sights and Sounds: An Artist Paints in Athol Park – A Radio Story

May 12, 2016 Bill Joyce

http://cpa.ds.npr.org/kalw/audio/2016/04/WEB.AtholPark.mp3 Two tennis courts, enclosed by a chain link fence, sit adjacent to Athol Plaza Park in Oakland, near Lake Merritt. Laila Espinoza is here nearly every weekend. She hangs a canvas on the

Friday Mornings at Arsola’s

May 3, 2016 Bill Joyce

In the lot tucked between Castlemont High and Center of Hope Church along MacArthur Blvd., three women are pulling down the flap of a pop-up tent. It’s an extra task, one of many, on this