Aimee Allison knows something about building community. As a candidate for the Oakland City Council in 2006, Allison attracted a passionate band of volunteers. She lost that race, but she went on to become the host of a radio show on KPFA, and the co-author of an anti-army recruitment book called “Army of None.” She hasn’t lost any of her organizing drive. Now she’s launched a new website in Oakland called Oakland Seen. Think of it an ongoing campaign championing the city of Oakland.

This month, Oakland finds itself at a cultural crossroads with our City Council considering a 50 percent cut in arts funding which could drastically affect such venerable arts organizations such as ProArts and The Crucible. Such groups are indispensable because they provide opportunities for emerging artists to gain credibility and acclaim as well as a civic service in terms of arts education. 

Michael Eli and Savanna Snow are having their first show (in a long time...a group/solo show: they painted most of the displayed paintings together) at the OakBook's gallery called Art@the OakBook in Jack London Square this month. It opens tomorrow – Friday, March 19, 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Please come support this show. The scope of the exhibit is breathtaking. The work is eternal, stylish and sob-inducingly beautiful.

A few years ago, in the early days of the Oakand Art Murmur, two galleries distinguished themselves by regularly pulling off the rare feat of fulfilling the promise of an art walk much heralded in our local media. One of them, Boontling Gallery, tended to focus on figuration and otherwise representational work. It closed in the summer of 2007. The other, Blankspace, covered the other end of the art pool, favoring more conceptual work to critical acclaim. 

Gina Telcocci has always been an artist. As a kid growing up in the sixties with a jazz musician for a father and a mother who was always doing craftwork, art seemed to be in her blood – and in her daily life.“My parents were totally encouraging,” says Gina. “They never told me it was impractical, which it is. And so, I continued to do it what I was doing.”

This month, I am choosing to highlight some shows that aren't necessarily a part of an Oakland art walk opening event. In these picks, there will be no Midtown art walk, no Uptown Art Murmur and no open studios in Jingletown. Sometimes, an event can overshadow the art it means to evangelize. Considering that and the practice of many local galleries to schedule separate artist receptions on "off days" like Sunday or not when an art walk is happening - perhaps in an effort to attract collectors scared off by crowds - I have chosen three worthy art events that exist on their own, not necessarily in conjunction with anything.

I didn’t think I was going to exhibit my paintings in Oakland this year. I have some big solo shows coming up in Seattle in the summer, and San Francisco in the fall - that’s plenty. When Theo Konrad Auer told me that there were a couple weeks when the OakBook gallery would be empty, and asked if I had any projects I wanted to fill the space with, I honestly didn’t know. I didn’t accept Theo’s invitation and didn’t expect to embark on this mural. Then I went home and had the dream.

Art and religion have always had a close, symbiotic relationship. And in Oakland, perhaps no one's work exemplifies that more than Casey Jex Smith's. In an earlier OakBook article, Art, Religion and Success, this is how I described emergent artist Casey Jex Smith: "[He] has created a body of work that somehow manages to be intensely autobiographical regarding his relationship with his faith." 

"Reality TV, please!" exclaimed George Csicsery (pronounced "Chi-cherry"), almost spitting out his baklava, when I asked about trends in documentaries today and referenced the dreaded aforementioned.  

"This is a dead horse and a cash cow for broadcasters who want to spend nothing," Csicsery fumed.

Oakland often feels like the ultimate Do-It-Yourself town. Dozens of knitting and fabric stores, the ultimate DIY destination -- the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse -- and the popularity of classes that teach people to make things are evidence that the DIY culture in Oakland is healthy and strong. So it makes sense that the film Handmade Nation: The Rise of D.I.Y. Art, Craft, and Design would get a warm welcome here.  

A new week, and there's interesting art to check out, thanks to Iranian-born artists, rock poster designers, and artists with disabilities. 

Carissa Weir borrowed from her life's script to create the script for her first film, Two Weeks from Monday. She shares her doubts, fears and the excitement that came with turning filmmaker.

It’s the time of year for top ten lists and while The Oakbook doesn’t have one of its own, we’ve got the next best thing -- Artopic’s listing of the “10 Best Oakland Gallery Shows of 2009”. Of those ten shows, seven were featured in this column. Improvised Branches, my first show as gallery director with The Oakbook’s new gallery, art@theOakBook, is holding down a nice, comfy perch at number three.

This December, the Oakland Ballet Company will present the premiere of Carlos Carvajal’s Nutcracker at the Paramount Theatre. This performance isn't just the story of the Nutcracker -- it's the story of a show that might have never happened, had it not been for the commitment of many Oakland artists to their community. The end result is that this year's performance will be even bigger, catering to audiences in Oakland as well as San Mateo. 

This holiday season, Art@theOakBook invites you to discover the work of six local emerging artists who who have gotten positive critical accolades on the local and/or national level. Each and every artist in this show has been “vetted” by critics and journalists as artists well worth watching.

Art@theOakBook's holiday show is your chance to buy affordable art..

There are more than a 100,000 photos on Yahoo’s popular photo sharing site, Flickr, that have been taken with an iPhone. And most of them are way better than you expect pictures taken on a phone to be.

“A folk art form has unfolded where the depiction of reality and spontaneous events has been assisted not through the sophistication of the camera, but through its ubiquitous presence in our everyday lives,” writes Oakland-based architect Rae Douglass, who runs Giorgi gallery.

 

Three years ago, Carey Fay Horowitz spent a week teaching young girls how to play the drums at True Summers, a rock and roll camp for girls in Portland, Oregon.  It was a life changing experience, recalls the founding director of the Bay Area Girls Rock Camp. “I wanted to bring that camp back to the Bay Area.”

Shopping locally is always fun, but thanks to a few creative minds, shopping locally on Friday will be even more fun than usual. Meet Kerri Johnson, who's one of the directors of Blankspace Gallery and the Oakland Art Gallery, and who is now trying to convince people to shop at their neighborhood boutique instead of at the malls outside Oakland. She's one of the organizers of Plaid Friday, an alternative to Black Friday.

On Tuesday, the Oakland Museum of California hosted a press luncheon and a quick look at its $58 million dollar renovation, which will be finished next May. The museum’s public relations team has been touting the remade galleries as spaces that will last for many future generations. As the museum’s executive director Lori Fogarty says, “Just as California is not a ‘fixed place’ but constantly evolving, this museum is embracing change and new ideas. It’s in our DNA.”

If you feel that there aren't enough venues to showcase all the art talent we've got in Oakland, you're going to like what the holiday season brings. It brings many opportunities for local artists to display their work in our art-loving town. Here is one such call for artists for a holiday show.

  

Walking through an art exhibit with the artist can be quite an exciting event for an art lover. While art is all about personal interpretation, the artist’s intent is a big part of the story behind any artwork. You can have your very own artist-guided tour at Swarm tonight.

It feels like fall has just arrived and the holiday shopping season is already very nearly  upon us. What better gift to buy than one made by our many talented local artists and craftspeople? This November offers up many opportunities to shop locally at Oakland’s art galleries. We’ve also got an intriguing two-man show at the ever-consistent and compelling Hatch Gallery and an exciting discussion among a group of eminent artists to look forward to.

This recession has been brutal. Walk down any major shopping boulevard in Oakland and you’ll see empty storefronts. And you’ll see beautiful stores where the only people inside are the ones who work there. But try getting into one of Oakland’s many upscale restaurants without a reservation – and chances are that you’ll have a long wait. Danielle Fox had one such long wait earlier this year at a restaurant in Glenview. And it got her thinking. 

Women artists figure prominently in our local art scene. From Viola Frey to Margaret Kilgallen, the Bay Area has a long and storied history of amazing women artists adding and expanding to the canon of essential art history. This month offers some great female artists in high profile shows, which offer evidence of a new generation picking up where the last left off. Here are some Oakland shows you will want to see.

Sometimes, a diagnosis can mean the end of the road. In the case of Tennessee Reed, the daughter of choreographer Carla Blank and writer Ishmael Reed, it was a new beginning. By the time she was two, she had been diagnosed with a speech and language-based learning disorder. Over time, names like Aphasia, Dyscalculia, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder entered her vocabulary and her life. Over time, she learned to deal with all the labels and disorders she had been overwhelmed with. Even though experts had predicted she would never be able to read or write, she was authoring poetry books by the time she was in her teens.

Art means different things to different people. The same piece can speak to two people in totally different ways. Some art consumers want their art to make them think, to challenge their boundaries. Some want to see art that's pretty and is almost ornamental. And then there's the art that that viewers want to be able to relate to. That's the kind of art Daphne and Mike Cheng were looking for. 

This last month Oakland had what was perhaps the largest and most diverse gathering of folks for a First Friday Art Murmur ever. It was a beautiful sight. Zack Houston held down as usual on his 23rd Street curbside perch, crafting witty, short improvised poems typewritten live on the spot for fans lined up to buy them for prices too low for me to mention here. He even works in requests – give him a word or two or three and you’ll find a poem built around a theme with every single word included in mere minutes. Across the street, a vendor sold miniature bouquets filling up tiny lab beakers from a bicycle basket for lovers on a budget. Later in the evening, in front of the venerable Mama Buzz Café, a DJ started spinning vintage garage house music, funk, hiphop, and Michael Jackson for a crowd of pulsating, gyrating hipsters, college age mooks, drag kings, a few hippies and even several leather daddies.

Do you see the Art Murmur as a warm-up or panacea for the nation’s birthday and all the traditions that come with it? We’re talking about the cheap beer, BBQ and late night fireworks the night after the art murmur..

This summer offers up a ton of open studios all over the East Bay as well as the usual First Friday jinks associated with the art murmur and surrounding openings. Here’s a diverse sampling of shows I’ve picked as “must sees” for your consideration. There’s a good reason Oakland’s art community has been getting increasing attention in the media and these shows should serve as evidence of that. Without further adieu, here are my picks for The Month Ahead In Oakland Art.

As you read this month’s column, I’ll be arting it up in New York on my first vacation in quite a long while. It’ll be the first art murmur I’ll have missed in a year.  Each month, I pick at least two art murmur shows worth checking out, but this time, I have picked only one as it is by far the one most deserving of your support. Also, many galleries such as Johansson Projects and Swarm Gallery often host artist receptions on days other than the first Friday of the month. My picks reflect this and aim to highlight a small, noteworthy slice of what our diverse and vibrant art community offers.

9th Floor Radio is largely the brainchild of Station Manager Melissa Neal. Started in October 2007, 9th Floor Radio grew out of the 20-year-old Peralta TV Station (which recently produced an award-winning documentary about the Black Panthers). Station Manager Jeffrey Heyman originally wanted to expand Peralta TV’s programming to be more responsive to the wealth of musical talent coming out of Laney’s music program as well as create a bridge between the college and the broader Oakland community, so he proposed a three-hour TV show for live bands.

In the last few years, longtime Oakland resident John Casey has become a fixture in our art community with his drawing, sculpture and installation, curating, and helping other local artists in their endeavors. His work, in which his characters are totemic representations of his psyche, has been garnering critical acclaim and is included in the collection of the di Rosa Preserve in Napa and the de Young in San Francisco.

He is also one of our most consistent local art bloggers, often giving a candid look into the creation of his own work as well as spotlighting many noteworthy local art shows on his website.

Every month, Oakland’s art spaces offer up a slew of new shows – some great and others not so great. Here, I’ve spotlighted some of the more noteworthy ones as my “must see” picks amongst galleries both experimental and arguably commercial. I say arguably as the two galleries in question – Swarm and Johansson Projects – have managed to marry a sustainable business plan to a decidedly adventurous schedule of thoughtfully curated art shows. Having said that, I should add that Oakland offers up more than just what the art market considers viable.

Oakland photographer Alison Yin started going to West Oakland while following the local school basketball team. The trips to McClymonds soon became journeys into the heart of an old Oakland neighborhood. The 25-year-old photographer captured them in black and white.
 

While our recent downpours and economic downturn might rain literally and figuratively on our parades, they haven’t cast a shadow on our local art scene as yet, as evident by the healthy turnout for last month’s 40th St.Oakland Artquest. It’s time for the Oakland Art Murmur again, and looking at the quality of the shows out there, it might be worth your while to step out Friday evening.

Theo Konrad Auer talks with Oakland artist, activist, and Facebook prankster Favianna Rodriguez about the city, her work, and Shepard Fairey's unethical art.

One could go looking for Rowan Morrison in the aisles of the local video store, or at Burning Man, with varying degrees of success. But in only one place in Oakland can one regularly find monthly art shows of great consistency and vision as well as a burgeoning publishing venture: Rowan Morrison Artists Gallery and Fine Art Bookstore. At this time, it’s their role as publisher that interests me, as their efforts so far have been impressive and well thought out.

The last month has been a particularly heavy one as we’ve seen tragedy in the form of Oscar Grant’s death at my neighborhood Bay Area Rapid Transit station (Fruitvale) as well as the riots that followed and made the papers from New York to Germany. But it was also a heady month as we saw the inauguration of our first black President, Barack Obama, and images from the ceremony and the inaugural balls had people transfixed all over the world.

Meanwhile, artists and art critics, including me, have been trying to anticipate how the economic downturn will affect the art world.

I couldn’t think of a better cure for a new year hangover than a month filled with a hearty helping of art. This month holds ample opportunity for art viewing, buying and the immersive/interactive experience of an art opening where you can discover the stories behind the art on view in any given month.

Oakland is the Bay Area capital of art and music. Knox Bronson, a local musician, has spent the last few weeks putting the finishing touches on his latest CD, The Seasons. If you've heard his music before, you know it's eclectic. It's very 60s. It can also be very contemporary. Regardless of what else it is or isn't, it's more often than not the story of his redemption.

Every December, in the month's first week, the largest art fair in the United States goes down in Miami. The event brings together nearly every corner of the art world from America and abroad. The Art Basel Miami Beach as it is officially known is the sister show to a similar event which takes place each year in Basel, Switzerland. Since its inception in 2002, it has steadily grown. It now overshadows the original fair in terms of status, importance and sheer size. The fair draws the most powerful art dealers in the United States (Larry Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitch,) and celebrities like Benicio Del Toro, street art phenomenon David Choe, Beyonce Knowles and Jay Z.

The holiday shopping season and the art season are colliding this month during an economic downturn. Some are hoping that this benefits those at the lower and the mid–end of the art world’s economic spectrum. In other words, collectors hampered by tightening purses might look to the work of artists deemed “emerging” by dealers and buyers worldwide. Certainly, the middle and high-end of the market shall be affected most dramatically with only the safest investments being bought by a relatively small number of collectors. Hopefully, in some small way, this will transfer into a widened interest in the art that's made by those still yet unproven in a timid market.

People have been claiming the slow death of live performance theater ever since television became standard in the mid-1950s. While it is true that ‘serious’ repertoire theater has especially suffered since the cuts of the mid 1990s at the National Endowment for the Arts, improvisational theater has become increasingly popular during this time -- from Second City in Chicago, Big Mess Theatre in Philadelphia, Upright Citizens Brigade in NYC and Dad’s Garage in Atlanta.

This August, Esteban Sabar Gallery quietly closed after a two year run that saw more than its share of controversy and buzz. It was the first commercial contemporary art space in the well trod art corridor of 23rd  Street and Telegraph, which roughly forms the epicenter of the popular Art Murmur art walk. 

The last few weeks have seen a dramatic intersection of art and politics as our City Council almost cut finding for its cultural arts grants programs and the election of our nation's first black president, Barack Obama. America’s art community has strongly supported his candidacy. Famed street artist and graphic designer Shepard Fairey created the now-ubiquitous official campaign image that you see on a wall or a lawn or on a tee shirt near you. 

There are few subjects as critical for an artist as freedom of expression. And if you’re curious about how a group of artists would react to the checks and curbs on it, pay a visit to the African American Museum and Library at Oakland.

At AAMLO, which has partnered with the San Francisco Center for the Book for a show called Banned and Recovered: Artists Respond to Censorship, sixty artists have put their thoughts and works on censorship on display. 

Our friends over at CineSource magazine are always on the prowl. This time Doniphan Blair and the gang are looking for Oakland narratives. They want your screenplay, your story, your script. According to Doniphan, a visionary who spent nearly two decades living in a San Francisco commune in order to make a documentary about the experience, the idea that best predicts the future will likely win. Read more to find out what the lucky writer wins.

One of the great charms of downtown Oakland still intact from its heyday during the first half of the 20th century is Frank Ogawa Plaza, extending northwest from the intersection of 14th and Broadway, diagonally up San Pablo and Telegraph. Although restrictive zoning and curfew laws, along with high real estate costs, have rendered downtown Oakland a veritable ghost town after 6 p.m., the Artifact Reading Series does its bit to bring some walk-in traffic to downtown Oakland...

Well, if you live in The Town, you might not have it for long. With Oakland facing a $42 million deficit, City Hall is slashing budgets for programs and next on the chopping block: funding for the Oakland Cultural Affairs Commission, the office that regularly provides grants and art opportunities to the local creative community.

There's Speed, of course. And there are a handful of movies with bus in the title, but the humblest form of public transportation doesn't have many starring roles in cinema. At best, a bus will have a critical supporting part. Think of the last scene in The Graduate.

When I moved to the Bay Area eight years ago, it did not take long before I discovered the Oakland East Bay Symphony and its dynamic leader Maestro Michael Morgan. What struck me was that this orchestra was not just a surviving icon in the Paramount Theatre.

A few days ago, I sat down with the brains behind the upcoming “Dead” show at West Oakland’s LoBot Gallery. I talked with Adam Hatch, LoBot’s owner and curator, Derek Weisberg, working artist and former owner of Boontling Gallery, and Theo Konrad Auer,  artist and OakBook’s art writer, about the Oakland art scene and what to expect from their upcoming show, the working title of which is “Dead Spaces.”

The book is called Sweet Charlotte's Seventh Mistake. Cori Crooks happens to be the seventh mistake made by her mother, Sweet Charlotte, a feisty woman who never wanted kids, but ended up having seven. She led a tumultuous life, and by the sound of it, it makes for a great story.

Oakland has many D.I.Y.-style galleries and underground warehouse spaces, but it is significantly lacking when it comes to galleries that can consistently sell, market and display contemporary art – and the number of those that are showing innovative and fresh works is even smaller. With the recent closure of Esteban Sabar Gallery, our city can now only count three commercial spaces that regularly show contemporary art.

In the art world, September is when “the art season” begins. From now through December, high profile art shows will be in the offing all over the Bay Area, and of course -- in Oakland. Here are a few picks worth checking out – out of the many, many shows happening this month in Oakland.

This week, Esteban Sabar Gallery, the art space that was always quick to get a nod from the local media, quietly closed its doors after a two-year run. It was as notable for the good press it received as it was for the controversy it generated by being the first commercial art space in the well trod art murmur corridor of Telegraph and 23rd Street in uptown Oakland.

Contrary to what you might gather from media coverage, art in Oakland doesn’t begin with hipsters and end with activists. Oakland is not an easy city to pigeonhole and neither is its art community. The city has its long-lived art institutions like California College of the Arts and the Oakland Museum of California. It also has nonprofit galleries like ProArts and the Oakland Art Gallery.

The Lake Merritt Gazebo, officially known as The James P. Edoff Memorial Bandstand (in honor of the chairman of the Oakland Parks Commission in 1918 when the bandstand was dedicated), is one of downtown Oakland's most notable landmarks.

While the Oakland Municipal Band, for whom the bandstand was originally built, still performs a summer concert series on Sunday afternoons, there is still a lot of time for other activities (tai chi, ballroom dancing, fencing, first kisses, tangos, skateboarding, weddings) to take place under the gazebo.

The summer is traditionally a dry period for art galleries as many of them close their doors temporarily or choose to not host many high profile shows. Not so in Oakland, with its  art community providing much to ponder, admire and be inspired by in its hotter months as in its colder and even foggier ones.

She still doesn’t know who sent her that e-mail. Erinn Anova was living in Los Angeles, working in theater and music, when she got an e-mail that was a casting call for the lead part in a film called Oakland B Mine.

“How random? I live in LA.,” she remembers thinking. “Why would someone send me an e-mail about an Oakland part?”

This month brings us portals into our inner landscapes, an art show slash Barbecue slash group bike, and a large scale show of art that explores issues of race, identity, and cultural hybridity. In other words, there is more than enough for everyone – whatever type of art you gravitate to. Without any further adieu, on with the July art picks.

Opal Palmer Adisa has spent a lifetime telling stories. She connects with the griot tradition, an African tradition where poets and musicians act as keepers of history, to involve audiences in her story telling.

Adisa, who now lives in Oakland, is a literary critic, renowned storyteller, author of thirteen books, and tenured professor at the California College of The Arts. Adisa was born in Jamaica, and this summer, she's heading back. 

Charlotte Schulz’s series of large charcoal drawings entitled An insufficiency in our screens are strange and unnerving works of art that quickly draw the viewer into a world of puzzling objects left discarded in a somber world of billowing darkness and piercing light. These are at once stark, literal, black and white images of strange and abandoned landscapes, but lush in their handling of forms, shadows, light, and space.

If you're a regular visitor to the various art galleries in Oakland, you've probably caught Dan Nelson's work sometime. He is an artist, photographer, performer, musician -- and now, an author. McSweeney's, the eclectic publishing company, has just released his new book, All Known Metal Bands, which according to Rolling Stone magazine, could be the best bathroom book ever. What it is is a straightforward listing of the names of more than 50,000 metal bands. He didn't need to do much beyond that. The names did the rest.

A year ago, trying to get an interview with former Oakland songbird Ledisi would have been as simple as picking up the phone and dialing the same 510 phone number she's had since 1995. Let's say that was during her "lost" period. In the 12 months since, however, she's been found in a big, big way.

The National Endowment for the Arts demolished one of Oakland's most treasured conceits this month when it published a report titled Artists in the Workforce. According to the NEA, Oakland is 23rd in a list of 50 metropolitan areas ranked by artists as a percentage of the labor force.

The circus isn't what it used to be. It's probably more entertaining now than it ever used to be. Here's a front row view into the Velocity Circus troupe's rehearsals in their West Oakland warehouse and their subsequent performance outside the Oakland Museum of California.

The fourth installment of Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones series grossed $143 million in its opening weekend. If you're one of those Indy fans that contributed to the tremendous welcome Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull received, here's a little something for you.

My friend and Oakland-based artist and zine maker Obi Kaufman and I have often argued about what art should or shouldn’t be, often agreeing to disagree. I think the only thing we’ve come to full agreement on is that there are a whole lot of “haves” that art shouldn’t be. Art shouldn’t have to be trendy, elitist, high, low or middlebrow, and least of all – it shouldn’t have to be convenient.

Imagine waiting at a BART station for a train to take you home. Instead, George Clinton’s Mothership slides up to the platform, welcomes you in through its beaded curtain, and transports you to an alternate universe of star-shaped sun- glasses, foot-high hair, and electric guitarists with names like Rumpofsteelskin and Master Gee.

Oakland is a mobile kind of town. Way beyond the "whatever gets me from point A to point B" mentality, folks here seem to take a special kind of pride in their rides while eschewing conventional transportation ideas with an almost religious zeal. We've got Scrapers and Choppers and Hybrids. We've got Fixed Gears and Art Cars and Rat Bikes. We run on pedal power and vegetable oil just as much as good old petrol, and are just as likely to be spearheading the next big transport trend in an abandoned warehouse as we are to be tricking out an old Impala in our front yard. When it comes to our wheels, Oakland definitely goes.

If you’re a first time visitor to Githinji Wa Mbire’s workspace on the second floor of a West Oakland Victorian, it takes but a quick glance around to perceive the visual artist’s latest muse. Africa is everywhere. The outline of the continent collects in stacks of leaning canvases four deep, and in textured installations that scrape the ceiling.

There is a small painting of soccer balls forming Africa; a larger one comprising cowry shells; Africa constructed out of bright red wooden planks; Africa in magazine cutouts, or dark salvaged wood wrapped in rusty metal and dirty rope, or a combination of all of the above. A painted continent even covers the logo on the camouflaged tee that envelopes Mbire’s compact frame. There is something profound in the simplicity of the shape and stunning in the assorted manners that Mbire has formed it. The number of ways to see Africa, says Mbire, is limited only by the imagination.

The Internet is a like a musical Easter egg hunt for the dedicated audiophile. Between podcasts, digital downloads, music blogs and the nearly infinite amount of music services, it's possible to find just about anything online if you're the persistent type. But if you're just a casual listener looking for some new tunes, the multitude of choices can be intimidating enough to make you grin, bear it and hit 'Play' on that worn copy of "Thriller" just one more time.

The art shows I’ve picked are all over Oakland, and there’s one in San Francisco, too. So if you manage to hit all of these shows, there is a good chance you’ll see a part of our city or an art space you’ve never experienced before. This time of year brings MFA shows along with the usual group and solo shows, ensuring that this month will have an especially and uniquely varied array of art on display. Here are my notables for the month of May.

Rebirth Cool -- Poetry

As you probably know by now, Earth Day was celebrated in many places on Saturday. In Oakland, parties of all sizes, ranging from schools to neighborhood groups, came forward to clean up the town. People volunteered to plant trees, remove weeds, clean neighborhoods, clean sidewalks, paint medians... in short, there was a lot of cutting and cleaning going on. If you missed it, here's a snapshot of how several Oaklanders spent a beautiful Saturday. Photographer Russ Osterweil shared his photos from Jingletown.

For more than thirty years, saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell created what has come to be known as Great Black Music with Cecil Taylor, Malechai Favors, Joseph Jarmen and Anthony Braxton in the Art Ensemble of Chicago and their non-profit organization, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music. Though Taylor and Favors have since passed on, the Art Ensemble continues its work with new voices, visions, and projects. 

The Art Ensemble has been known to wear African-inspired face paint, but seeing Mitchell en masque is rare, or non-existent. His saxophone may be a swashbuckling blade, but his bare face and stoic composure let you know that Roscoe Mitchell is a serious man. Mitchell, 67, is at Mills College in Oakland, California as the Darius Milhaud Chair of Composition. He spoke with NovoMetro about his work, his upcoming recording in June,  and why he won’t paint his face.

When ProArts put out a call for exhibitions last year, artists from the Jingletown area took up the challenge, and that's a great thing. The neighborhood of live/work warehouses, machine shops and condos has one of the city's most diverse creative populations and "Jingletown Junction" examines the way new and old residents are working together.

You can see it now -- and you'll probably find it worth seeing. Just as many of James Gayles' subjects are worth hearing. Swarm's new show, JazzMasters: BayArea Treasures is a destination for jazz lovers.

It's a destination you'll want to head out to on Thursday, and then again next week. The evenings we’re talking about were designed with the jazz lover in mind. Tomorrow, there will be live music by the Marcus Shelby Quartet with Faye Carol, and next Thursday, there will be a panel discussion with some big names that you’ll easily recognize. And each time you go – there will be a lot of art. But this is art you will care about -- if it’s jazz you care about.

Spring is nearly here. And the promise of a vacation is already starting to pull at kids. The classroom feels a little confining as they yearn for something different -- a twist on their daily routine. For some, it’s just time outdoors; but for others, a new class with new friends and new ideas is perfect. Even as Oakland schools and libraries struggle to find funding for enriching new classes, a search around town can dig up some artsy and creative opportunities for kids. And if your kids are interested in visual arts, this town is exactly where they should be.

Don’t you hate it when you miss a good art show? I know life gets busy, but our local galleries make it so much easier by often having closing shows -- and not just opening shows -- where you admire some nice, new art for the first or last time over a glass of wine. Here are two shows that I recommend you stop by this First Friday.

2008 promises to be an exciting year for jazz guitarist Terrence Brewer. The 32-year-old impresario had a very good year in 2007 -- he was named best Jazz Artist by the San Francisco Weekly and won the Oakland Chamber of Commerce's “Artist of the Year Award.” This year, he's releasing his third album, QuintEssential, and also touring.

We love Oakland, and we love seeing it through different pairs of eyes.  So send us your photos to tell us how you see Oakland. It's the NovoMetro/OakBook photo contest!
 

Ariel Luckey has been exploring cultural roots since he was a little boy in Oakland. The performance artist began studying West African dancing and drumming in elementary school two decades ago. By high school he was performing in hip hop talent shows, and since then he has traveled the Caribbean and Latin America studying African-based music and dance. But despite an upbringing immersed in the multicultural traditions of the Bay Area, Mr. Luckey started to feel something was missing. "As a white boy, I have struggled with identity," the twenty-eight year old reflected one recent morning at the Oakland Rose Garden. "There's all these other cultures – where's my culture? What are my roots?"

From that question began a journey that took him to his last living grandparent's home in Kansas. Out of the questions, discoveries, and unsavory aspects of American history that his search uprooted, Mr. Luckey created a solo hip hop show, Free Land, which plays this Thursday and Friday at Laney College Theater.

More proof that one man’s trash can be another man’s rare artistic find. Continuing it’s efforts to modernize it’s resources, the U.C. Berkeley Art History Department recently digitized over 32,000 professionally mounted prints that had been used for classroom education and exercises.

 

Pro Arts Gallery is gearing up for its blockbuster annual show: The East Bay Open Studios.

A girl walks into a room with a giant banana suit. No, this isn't a joke -- not entirely. After all, this is Beth Lisick we're talking about, a master of the "slash profession"-- essayist/lecturer/poet/ journalist/promotional banana. This Bay Area culture maven has spent the last 12 years thrusting herself into odd situations and living to tell the tale, usually with hilarious results.

Avni Jamdar was working as a research associate at Oakland-based non-profit PolicyLink back in 2003. It was the sort of job many would admire, and some would envy. But a trip to her native India in 2003 made her realize that an enviable job wasn't enough.

Avni’s family lives in the state of Gujarat, a state that had been hit hard by an earthquake in 2001. Images of the destruction stayed with Avni, and left her with a sense that she had to do something. When she visited Gujarat two years later, she figured out what that something was.

Every month, there are dozens of new art shows featuring fresh work by artists from Oakland and beyond. “This Month In Art” will give you a regular monthly primer on notable openings and art events in Oakland. Here are two picks to put on your calendar before you head out this first Friday…

Many magazines and critics have hailed the burgeoning art scene of Oakland, with the accent on the word “burgeoning” in nearly every piece written about our art community. What’s clearly pointed out is that the local arts community is a young one. To a large extent, that’s true.

But what many people are missing is that Oakland’s art community has a long, rich history going from the turn of the century arts and crafts movement to the figurative school of the 70's, and all the way to towards today’s new black arts movement in the Village Bottoms and the wide variety of conceptualists on display each month.

Cross AC/DC with Devo, add Beck as the slick lead singer with a British Invasion aesthetic -- and you get Maldroid.

Rock Paper Scissors, the popular art collective on Telegraph, has been broken into twice since Christmas. Burglars first entered the store by smashing the glass on the door on Christmas day. A few days later, there was another break in. Instead of entering through the gaping gap in the door, the thieves chose to smash a window.

If you feel like doing something artsy this weekend, you might want to check out a play staged by the Bay Area Repertory Theater at the Milonga Casquelord Center for the Arts in downtown Oakland.

The Oakland Museum of California's got a great line-up of events starting next week to celebrate black history. And despite what you might expect at a museum, it's more than art and photography. Expect films and documentaries, music and dancing, and even story telling for kids.

Most people really think about the Crucible about once a year, when the flames from the Fire Arts Festival shoot high up above the tracks of the West Oakland BART station. The spectacular fundraiser draws thousands of visitors over the course of the weekend and has become one of the city's most popular annual celebrations. But while the huge metal sculptures and fire breathing art instillations receive the lion's share of public attention, it’s the organization's youth programs that are influencing the community. And they’re doing it quietly, without any fanfare at all.

When Anthony Holdsworth first traveled to Italy in 1967, he was sure that he’d be back.

He was right.

Mr. Holdsworth originally arrived in Florence three months after the epic flood in 1966 and took a job restoring the ancient city by cleaning oil off the walls, columns and statues of churches. The job only took up 30 hours of his week, and so Mr. Holdsworth began spending his extra time painting scenes of the city. He says he immediately felt drawn to the country.

Sitting in an alcove at her computer in a black and white shirt and jeans, Svea Lin Vezzone is faxing, e-mailing, shuffling papers – resembling a busy college student getting ready for a tough final exam.

Ms. Lin Vezzone got a degree in Museum Studies a long time ago. Her exam today is about finding the perfect blend of art, business, and community in Oakland.

Berkeley High senior Ignacio Palmieri has mixed blood and ancestors from all over the world. His grandfather – the famous Latin jazz bandleader Eddie Palmieri – is from Puerto Rico, though the Palmieri name comes from Italy. Ignacio’s grandmother on his mom’s side is Japanese American, and his grandfather is Scottish-Welsh American. 

Now, Ignacio is adopting Mexican tradition to help mourn his mother’s death last April.  He helped construct and design a Dia de los Muertos altar dedicated to his mother, well-known Bay Area writer Chiori Santiago, who died of kidney cancer at age 54. 

Last July, artist James Sterling Pitt was in a near fatal car crash that limited the use of his left hand. One would understand if he didn’t keep a heavy work schedule.

But when fellow artists Lisa Solomon and Lorene Anderson came calling with an idea to create a piece of artwork every day for at least 21 days, he jumped at the chance.

Something was cooking behind the tiny storefront of Sofrito Restaurant in Fruitvale last Sunday afternoon, and it wasn’t just the stewed chicken and Spanish rice. Those who stopped in from International Blvd. to grab a pollo guisado or guanabana smoothie had to sit at the counter, because all seven tables were full. But from there, they could still hear, if not fully see, the local poets and touring musicians performing for the diverse family crowd. There was Spanglish spoken word and toddlers bouncing up and down to the cadences of cappella vocals before a dreaded guitarist silenced the audience with his angelic falsetto voice and Latin reggae acoustics.

Bruce Beasley's sculpture garden didn't surprise me. Its location did. I used to think I knew 7th Street pretty well. But in all the times I've driven past the huge United States Postal Services building, or caught a train from the West Oakland Bart station, I could have never imagined that I was just a few blocks away from a huge one-man-art colony built around an old gristmill.

Her pipes completed a rigorous training in the renowned Oakland Youth Chorus. She earned her struggling artist cred writing love songs in an LA apartment with no electricity. And diva training comprised of opening stadium concerts for Chaka Khan and Mary J. Blige.

Jennifer Johns is ready for her close-up. The Oakland singer has the confident, honey-dipped voice, the frequent-flyer miles, and the designers-you-haven’t-heard-of-yet wardrobe to qualify for stardom. Don’t forget the alliterate name. The only point missing from Ms. Johns’ star is a magazine cover plastering her broad smile – sweet with a touch of craftiness – for the world to see.

Tucked in a corner of the second floor, right past the California Impressionist section, hides The Edge: Where California Culture, Critters, and the Environment Collide. The exhibit, which runs until October 14, is the Oakland Museum of California’s attempt to explain, through a one-room show, the phenomenon of suburban growth and sprawl in California.

When Yan Liu moved her jewelry store from Lakeshore to Piedmont Avenue, she was looking for more than just a large space. She was looking to create a new retail concept. Partnering with husband Steve Robinson, the designer and entrepreneurial couple unveiled Lireille, a gallery of jewelry and art.

Dana Taylor was only 19 when she tried her hand at mixing art and business. Her craft company didn’t go anywhere, but it did plant a seed. Now in her thirties, Dana runs a charming art and home décor boutique in Oakland. And this time, it’s going somewhere.

This is your final chance to see some photos in Oakland that soon will be on display at the National Geographic Museum at Explorers Hall in Washington D.C.

If you've traveled in Asia, you've probably been to a night market already. And then you know what to expect at the Nite Souk in Old Oakland on August 18th. You'll have artists and craftspeople selling their work, you'll see clowns, jugglers, musicians, and live performances. If you've never seen any dances from the East, don't miss the Duniya Dance Company's performance that evening. If you're wondering what Duniya means, the company's Joti Singh breaks it down for NovoMetro's Ly Nguyen.

The newest gallery in downtown Oakland’s embryonic arts district has clearly adapted to the crafty, neo-folksy, hipsters-with-Singers, DIY aesthetic of Uptown. Johannson Projects second major show, titled Thread, features the works of eight artists using thread and textiles in their art.

Nothing can strike a blow to the idealism of a young reporter like being assigned a titillating stripper story for the evening news. “Strippers having a car wash,” recalls Tena Rubio with a laugh. In the six years she worked as a news writer for commercial television stations, that assignment was just one of the daily events that chipped away at her belief in journalism as a noble profession.

 

If you thought first Fridays were only about the art walk, think again. They’re also about sockhops. Wondering what those are? To find out, head to Interplayce tonight. You’ll find your feet moving to soul, funk, Afro-beat, funky Latin. But wait -- make sure you’re in your socks!  That’s the sock hop – dancing in your socks.

Allison Walton saw the movie Altered States when she was just 16. Ken Russell’s classic about a doctor who puts himself through sensory deprivation experiments in a floatation tank didn’t scare her. It made her want to float.

You can upload pretty much anything you want on YouTube. You can, as can millions of other people. But as anyone who’s actually uploaded something will tell you, there’s no guarantee of an audience. If you’re John Edwards, of course there is. But if you’re not, then your video might lie undiscovered in some remote corner of the site forever.

You might have noticed the Night Souk posters that have started going up on storefronts and windows in Oakland. And you might have paused to admire them, and comment on the very cool concept. The posters were designed by the winner of the 1st ever Night Souk Poster Contest: Walter Charles Baumann. if you have one of the posters, hold onto them -- they could become collectibles.

Ly Nguyen sat down with Walter for a little chat.

in a town, in a town, in a town,
in a state, in a state, in a state,
in a nation, in a nation, in a nation
so bad,
even the birds sing bass

        - Reginald Lockett, from the 1995 collection of poetry, Where the Birds Sing Bass

If there is a certain sound, a particular voice or theme that can be traced across generations and disciplines throughout the long history of Oakland’s black artistic community – and that is no small if – it might be captured by award-winning poet Reginald Lockett. His work, oozing with inner-city vernacular, entrenched in working class communities, and redolent of southern blues (that last line of the poem was originally sung by Bessie Smith), epitomizes what artist and writer Duane Deterville identifies as the “Oakland Blues.”

There are many in Oakland who love to look back to the city's past. Sometimes, they forget to take a good, realistic look at where Oakland is and where it needs to go. Steven Huss is coming up with a proposal that meshes the past, present, and future in Oakland’s uptown area.

The Art Murmur enters its Baroque Period Friday night with free shuttles ferrying art lovers between galleries in different neighborhoods, and video projections on a giant blank wall near the corner of Broadway and West Grand.

No doom and gloom here - by last chance I mean that this is the last session of classes at the Alice Arts Center, because Studio One is going home this fall! After way longer than the year it was supposed to be camping out on the corner of 14th St., Studio One will finally be moving home to its original building next to Oakland Tech and the Temescal Pool.

This evening, the Dimond district is having its own little art walk. And it’s offering you more than just art.

Oakland Opera Theater is without question one of the ballsiest -- and one of the most interesting -- assemblies of artists working in Oakland today. The company’s 2006 production of The Life and Times of Malcolm X demonstrated that opera can engage new fans by taking risks and exploring contemporary themes. Friday night, Oakland Opera Theater breaks more new ground.

In his one-man show Colorstruck, now playing at Laney College Theater, Donald E. Lacy, Jr. invites you to laugh out loud about racism. And you probably will.

And then Lacy, a light-skinned black man who grew up in Oakland in the 1960s, will invite you to stay for the discussion he leads at the end of each performance. For him, this is the most important part of the show.

Lacy is an actor with the Campo Santo troupe, a stand-up comedian, and a disc jockey at radio station KPOO. But in his mind, he is first an activist.

On Sunday, head out to the Parkway Speakeasy Theater to catch the work that’s come out of the doors of Streetside Productions, the East Bay Asian Youth Center’s multi-media production house.

The art colony clinging precariously to the corner of 23rd Street and Telegraph Avenue received reinforcement last month in the form a new gallery called Johansson Projects.

Celebrating its artists is second only to Oakland’s love of “celebrating its diversity.” One of those unverifiable “statistics” you often hear about Oakland is that it has more artists per capita than any other city in the country. Who knows, that may be true. But can anyone actually make a living selling art in Oakland? Kimberly Johansson hopes so. She was earning a nice paycheck hawking fine art in downtown San Francisco when she decided to chuck the comfort, the luxury, and the security to open her own gallery in Uptown.

One panel of jurors said they didn’t like the title. Another said it sounded like it was going to be a National Lampoon sick joke. But usually the responses to the film come back as a blunt, “No, thank you.” For the past several months, film festivals all over the world -- except for one in New England -- have rejected Our Holocaust Vacation, a documentary by Oakland artist and graphic designer Doniphan Blair.

In a city that’s best known to the outside world for high crime and hip-hop, it should be no surprise that Oakland's top-selling album is a chilling epic of murder, fear, and the need to strengthen the community, woven over the electronic fingerprint of the hyphy movement.

And no, I'm not talking about Da Baydestrian, the latest album to drop by hyphy hero Mistah F.A.B. Sales of that pale in comparison to the success of Turf Unity, a less-polished but more ambitious undertaking. 

In Oakland, people tend to move in their own little worlds. For example, a Temescal resident might know the adjacent neighborhoods really well, but might never find a reason to visit Laurel or Fruitvale. So, if you’re looking for reasons to explore another part of our city, here’s an excuse.

Contests are good things—especially if there’s a chance they can make a star out of a relative unknown. Where would Jennifer Hudson be without American Idol?

The latest contest in Oakland comes out of downtown’s Joyce Gordon art gallery. It’s called Glimpses in Time:  A Juried Photography Exhibition in Honor of Gordon Parks.

For the past two and a half years, LoBot has hosted all kinds of musicians, artists, and assorted good causes in its 10,000-square feet West Oakland gallery. They say they have never taken more than a 20 percent cut on art or ticket sales. Now, LoBot is asking for some love (and money) in return.

There are Middle Earth and Narnia. There is Paradise Lost. There is Faust. There is the temple of Shaolin. And then there is Hip Hop Dynasty Parts I, II, and III.

The three Kung Fu movies are a portal to the Manichean universe of Oakland's Professor Pitt - musician, filmmaker, writer, teacher, and conjurer of a cosmology as complex and bizarre as any world ever imagined by a misfit with talent and something to say.

If you've ever driven past the old train station in West Oakland, then you've probably wondered what's in there. Madeleine Bair, an intrepid NovoMetro correspondent, visited the site this past weekend to check out the art installation by Linda Braz, Jessica Cadkin, and Jessica Serran. She signed pages and pages of an insurance waiver and came away with some great photos.

About four years ago, Daniel Levy began noticing odd shaped buildings and streets that ran at unusual angles through his hometown of Oakland. They were clues to the presence of a long-gone railway system, and the beginning of an obsession for Daniel.

Daniel, 18, had always liked trains.

A burger joint is probably not the first place you would think to meet a dancer for an interview. A wood floor dance studio or chic café might come to mind, but certainly not a place where simply breathing in the grease-saturated air wafting over heaps of curly fries can threaten a size-zero waistline. But Malia Connor, founder and artistic director of Oakland-based Malia Movement Company, doesn’t have a studio. Nor does she have a size-zero waist. What she does have though, is an 8-year-old daughter she needs to feed, so Barney’s it will be tonight.

If he were coming of age today, he’d probably be making CD covers, or designing websites. But Emory Douglas was 22-years-old and finding his style as a graphic designer in 1967, a time when entire city blocks were galleries for revolutionary art.

Fabrice Martinez was not born a gypsy, but he spent many years living the life of one. He wandered from town to town, country to country, in a wagon pulled by a mule, stopping to play for money wherever he could – it could have been a barn, it could have been someone’s private party, he played whenever and wherever he could. He traveled for nine long years...

The Crucible, West Oakland’s sprawling fire-arts center, is hard to miss when cruising down Seventh Street. Its flame-throwing fire truck, the terror of countless high-haired women at the Art and Soul Festival, is parked proudly out front. One enters the colorless former factory, whose only architectural adornment is pebbled panels, through a blazing arch.

Last Friday, I joined more than 400 artists, designers, their patrons, and the curious at the Crucible for a fashion show called Industrial Chic. It showcased the possibilities, and stretched the limits, of alternative materials in clothing design.

One of Erika Mailman's favorite places in Oakland is the history room at the Oakland Main Library. It was in that upstairs room that she stumbled upon rare books documenting old-time prostitutes, which became an inspiration for her most recent novel, Woman of Ill Fame.

Even as recently as two years ago, which is a short time in the publishing world, Erica was unknown. Today, she's got a popular historical, non-fictional book and a well-received novel behind her. Another novel is set to hit bookstores this fall.

Scholars of Chinese-American cinema will forever be grateful to the family that delivered the lost reels the first Chinese movie made in the United States to film historian Arthur Dong.

No one really knows what the movie is about, says Dong. What is known is that Marion Wong's 1916 silent film, "The Curse of Quon Gwon," is set in Oakland. 

Sitting over a heaping plate of rice, plantains, and pork at a Puerto Rican joint on 35th and International rapper Dun Dun doesn’t bother removing his shades as he savors his meal and talks about his music.

As one half of the local duo Los Rakas, the 19-year-old boasts all the credentials of an Oakland-bred rapper: He recorded his first album at Oakland High in 10th Grade, and peddled it out of his backpack during lunch breaks; his group has opened for legendary political hip hop group dead prez and, like rappers Zion I, the Coup, and other hometown hip hoppers, his lyrical emphasis leans toward pride of community, skepticism of political institutions, and tales of inner-city oppression.

Ask painter Raymond Saunders anything about his life and he'll give you rambling answers brimming with asides and anecdotes.  He'll talk freely about his childhood in Pittsburgh or attending the famed Carnegie Institute.  He'll gladly divulge details of his travels through Paris, Tokyo and Berlin, or his relationship to painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. But when the conversation turns to the meat and potatoes: the meaning of his work and the ideas behind them, there's just a smile and some vague musing before the declaration: "I just paint."

Sitting over a heaping plate of rice, plantains, and pork at a Puerto Rican joint on 35th and International rapper Dun Dun doesn’t bother removing his shades as he savors his meal and talks about his music. As one half of the local duo Los Rakas, the 19-year-old boasts all the credentials of an Oakland-bred rapper: He recorded his first album at Oakland High in 10th Grade, and peddled it out of his backpack during lunch breaks; his group has opened for legendary political hip hop group dead prez and, like rappers Zion I, the Coup, and other hometown hip hoppers, his lyrical emphasis leans toward pride of community, skepticism of political institutions, and tales of inner-city oppression.

The bay's graffiti scene has long been one of the hottest in the country with artists like CUBA and TDK Crew laying paint in San Francisco and Oakland for well over a decade.  And thanks to heavyweight transplants like Vulcan and ORKO, the area's alleyways and train yards became major stopping points for traveling "writers" over the years. The scene has changed a little with the times. Some call it art; some call it vandalism, but it's still hard to go far without seeing someone's spray paint masterpiece.

Oakland punk rockers Cinder Bischoff and Mike Avilez are more than just neighbors in their Montclair neighborhood. Now, they’re local business owners. As co-curators of Cinder Bischoff’s Designs in Ink, during the day they run the latest retail space on Thornhill. At night, they play in rock bands.

Oakland has more artists per capita than any other city in the country. That’s one of those boosterish facts you hear about Oakland all of the time, but it’s a fact that’s impossible to prove. Still, it’s undeniable that there are a lot of artists in the city. And on a morning after a rainstorm, drive down International Boulevard from the San Leandro border to Lake Merritt, you’ll see why. The streets are washed clean, white clouds are bunched up over the hills and downtown, and people from all over the world are busy living here. There’s enough physical and cultural inspiration to keep drawing artists. From time to time, we will bring you profiles of artists who call Oakland home.  Today, here are two artists who come from East Oakland.

For years, Daniel Alarcon kept a map of Lima tacked on his wall. With a black marker, he replaced the Peruvian megalopolis’ 30 districts with the names of neighborhoods in a fictional city.

That nameless Latin American capital is the setting of Mr. Alarcon’s first novel, “Lost City Radio, ” which Harper Collins will release February 1. While Mr. Alarcon has inhabited many places, both real and imagined, since he started writing “Lost City Radio” in 1999, he has lived the last two and a half years in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood.

Poetry from some of the young poets our contributor Carloyn Norr works with.

It’s no wonder that Sanjay Patel grew up with a grudge against the gods of his ancestors. As a kid living in a motel in San Bernadino County, family prayer time to the Hindu pantheon conflicted with cartoons on TV. 

For years, he had no interest in Ganesh, Vishnu, Kali, Hanuman, and the other deities that populate Hindu stories. Mr. Patel followed the cartoons instead. He went to art school. Dropped out. And, in 1996, he took a job at Pixar.

The collected works of three students

The Port of Oakland may be bursting with containers full of Chinese goods. But it can sometimes appear as if the city itself is regressing toward a pre-industrial economy. Oakland is full of boutique soap makers, backyard chicken farmers, and tailors who make stylish tee-shirts in batches of five. While the Internet makes a lot of this small-scale commerce possible, a little old-fashioned foot traffic can still be very good for business -- depending on the kind of business. That's why the art walk was invented.

For the past 17 years, Oakland has been supporting local artists with the only kind of help that really matters: money. Last year the city gave 73 individual artists and organizations 81 awards totaling $1.1 million. The city plans to distribute around the same amount next year, and the deadline to apply is looming.

There are 42 squares against a blue backdrop set with clouds of silver and gold. I didn’t know what it all added up to, but I loved it the moment I saw it. So did my husband. We bought it on the spot. It turned out that it was supposed to be a nuclear explosion. Not quite the happy subject one might want to hang in the living room. But we did.

I can’t even tell ya’ll how pumped we are to get this website popping. Besides being hardcore fans of our beloved city, we’re also news people who want to do right by Oakland. I don’t think I’m stepping out of line when I say Oakland most definitely needs new news sources. For awhile now, this city has lacked a journalism outlet that focuses exclusively on the ins and outs, ups and downs of the residents, the schools, the neighborhoods, the public servants, the non-profits, the motorcycle clubs, the progressive grassroots, the youth of the city.