Articles by Sabirah Mustafa

My Magic Pill

March 4, 2013 Sabirah Mustafa

This piece was done in collaboration with the What’s Your Story? Project of KQED’s California Report. By Sabirah Mustafa I used to wish for a magic pill what would enable me to swallow away my

Why I Go to Oakland’s Public City Meetings, & You Should, Too

March 4, 2013 Sabirah Mustafa

By Sabirah Mustafa If you attend town hall meetings, protests, and demonstrations, you may have heard the public demanding to be heard when public policies affect them. But when I recently attended two meetings –

The Vegas Effect

January 28, 2013 Sabirah Mustafa

By Sabirah Mustafa What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. It’s an ad slogan with some truth to it. People take the phrase seriously, shunning those who come back from Sin City with perpetually loose

PHOTOS: Health of the Hood – Cleveland Heights

January 22, 2013 Sabirah Mustafa

By Sabirah Mustafa If healthy is as healthy does, then the residents of Cleveland Heights just might live forever. Aside from the abundance of joggers, and the dogs walking their owners, there are free and

PHOTOS: Health of the Hood – Cleveland Heights

December 26, 2012 Sabirah Mustafa

By Sabirah Mustafa Cleveland Heights has a lot of natural beauty, but requires diligent maintenance. Otherwise, leaves back up storm drains, and tree branches block out street lights and sidewalks. Blight and vandalism, while not

Recovery

December 19, 2012 Sabirah Mustafa

Recovery by Sabirah Mustafa Tell me What is recovery? Is it what you recover from? Like the opposite of subtraction that uncovers a sum? Or, Is it what you recover to? Like a transparent

Former Drug-Dealing ‘Street Star’ Becomes Youth Mentor

November 13, 2012 Sabirah Mustafa

Like Sankofa – the mythical bird in West African culture that symbolizes going back to retrieve things lost in order to move forward – Michael Gibson also had to go back and reconnect, while he was incarcerated, with his own history. He regularly draws on his past struggles to help him improve his life, and those of others.

Native American Mental Health More Than A Dream

October 29, 2012 Sabirah Mustafa

By Sabirah Mustafa Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes asked the question,”what happens to a dream deferred?” “Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?,” goes his famous poem Harlem, “or does it explode?”

‘Way Too Black’: Local Love Sustains Downtown Oakland Art Gallery

September 24, 2012 Sabirah Mustafa

By Sabirah Mustafa Do you want to feel good? Let go, and step into another world? If you live in Oakland, you don’t have to go far. Just downtown, at the corner of 14th Street

Health of the Hood: Merritt/Cleveland Heights

June 15, 2012 Sabirah Mustafa

By Sabirah Mustafa – I began my journey through my family’s neighborhood in the Lake Merritt area of East Oakland. My starting point was on Lester Avenue. This diverse, working-to-middle class, ethnically mixed neighborhood, is what I’d like to call the “Oakland Riviera”. The name might seem misleading, because depending on which direction you walk, you might also find blight as well. Located within a three-block area of Lake Merritt, there is plenty of contrast – so much so that at times my journey felt like I crossed city limits into an entirely different town.