Tag: West Oakland

In honor of African History Month, the Bay Area Aerosol Heritage Society is proud to present AeroSoul 2011, which will kick off on Feb. 4 at the Joyce Gordon Gallery in Downtown Oakland and be followed by a month-long series of events showcasing some of the most cutting-edge, dynamic Black urban calligraphers in the world. Refa 1 is the event curator.

On Saturday, Jan. 30, at 10 a.m., the Bay Area Black Builders plan to picket the Lord’s house. Beth Eden Church, a great church in the Black community, indicates that it has contracted with a White contractor apparently chosen by the lender, to build an addition.

How do we as a Black community build capacity in our own people? How do we learn to circulate our money in our own community? It is not just Beth Eden; it is all of us.

The characters’ stories in Chinaka Hodge’s debut as a playwright, “Mirrors in Every Corner,” capture a sense of tragedy lurking near all of us. From Rodney King to Oscar Grant, Loma Pieta to urban removal, one sits on the edge of her seat waiting for the wrecking ball to fall.

With the economic depression setting in and the effects of global warming being seen all over the planet, people are having to find ways to employ themselves as well as create cost effective healthy, earth friendly alternatives to expensive fast food and cheap GMO products. Marcel Diallo, a longtime Oakland community activist and cultural worker turned real estate tycoon, thinks that he has one of the answers, the Village Bottoms Farm in West Oakland.

Duane Deterville is a dedicated organizer in the Village Bottoms Cultural District in West Oakland and is the host of their Oct. 29 open house. The SF Bay View thinks that this open house is important because the Village Bottoms is a collective of Black business owners and homeowners who are working together to protect their property and institutions and to generate business. Listen to Duane in his own words ...

Eesuu has been one of my favorite visual artists for the last six years that I have been aware of his work. I like the vibrant colors and the overall vibe that his work transmits. He has recently finished a new sculpture and has founded an annual art festival in West Oakland. It will sound better reading it if you hear it from Eesuu direct.

The first stop on the Ghetto to Gaza Speaking Tour was in Sacramento with the Hip Hop Congress at Capital Garage. The usual Wednesday event is their weekly open mic, but it was altered to feature M1’s experience in Cairo and Gaza. Then we went to East Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley, West Oakland, San Jose, Santa Cruz and Sonoma.

Currently, the OHA contracts with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide public housing to low-income households in Oakland and is reimbursed by HUD at around $500 per unit on a monthly basis. But under the new Section 8 model being promoted to end public housing, the OHA and their affiliates may be reimbursed by HUD for as much as $900 to $1,000 for the same rental units if the plan works out to their way of thinking. Unfortunately for the poor, this scheme results in the loss of Oakland’s desperately needed public housing units, and in the future public housing will be one less option for the homeless needing a place to call home.

Right after the chattel slavery era, the great Marcus Mosiah Garvey taught our people all over the world the importance of providing for ourselves as well as the importance of being able to employ our own community. Today Garvey would be proud of ATL transplants Yasser and Vahid, two young adults who brought the Soul Food Co-op (grocery store) to West Oakland's Village Bottoms Cultural District. We finally have a place, in the hood, where you could send your children to the store to get real fresh fruits and vegetables, without them having to see cigarette and alcohol ads.

Next month the most important item on my agenda is Maafa Commemoration Month to reflect on the legacy of slavery and how everyone benefited from this human rights travesty except those who did the work. We began Aug. 30 with a successful Maafa 2009: Hurricane Katrina Fundraiser and Reportback, thanks to all the poets and the visual artists who donated art for the silent auction and of course to Tess and Yeme, the proprietors of Shashamane Bar and Grill.

On July 23 the Prisoners of Conscience Committee (POCC) kicked off the “You Can Kill a Revolutionary ... But You Can’t Kill the Revolution Tour” in Oakland, California, the birthplace of the Black Panther Party.

At 8 a.m. July 20, 10 sheriff’s deputies arrived at Tasha and James Alberti's West Oakland home after they had left for work, forced their children and grandchildren out and left them on the sidewalk. The grassroots movement to stop unfair foreclosure evictions is heating up. ACORN is helping the Albertis reclaim their home from B of A. Just Cause Oakland invites the community to a press conference at Karen Mims' home of 42 years at 9401 Cherry St., East Oakland, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 12 noon, to announce a temporary stay of her eviction.

In a letter dated May 22, 2009, Navy representatives announced their intention to dissolve the RAB. This is not the first time the Navy has threatened to take this action. Indeed, whenever a critical impasse has arisen regarding key shipyard cleanup matters, a threat to disband the elected body recognized by Congress as the legitimate organized voice for public comment, dissent and scientific debate has been made.

Thirty-seven percent of the adults and 20 percent of the kids living in West Oakland have asthma and children living in this community are seven times more likely to be hospitalized for breathing related illness than any other children in California.

When watching movies we often see the perspective of directors, writers and producers who were not conditioned to see the world and the culture they are filming from the viewpoint of somebody living in it instead of just a spectator. Idris Hassan is one of many emerging female filmmakers who refuse to sit back and just accept someone else's view of what is happening.

Right now, Adimu is working on a new documentary called "Operation: Small Ax" about the POCC: Block Report Radio show and its role in organizing in the terrible but fine year of 2009 in the Bay Area in the eye of the storm of controversies like the murder of Oscar Grant, the Oakland Rebellions, the trials of the Oakland 100, the murder of Lovelle Mixon and four OPD and more. It also includes exclusive interviews with Emory Douglas of the Black Panther Party, Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. of the POCC, Umar Bin Hassan of the Last Poets, rappers Beeda Weeda, J. Stalin, Mahasen and Chela Simone and an exclusive Block Report Radio interview with Angela Davis that was used to promote Mumia's new book.

Oakland has always been filled wit' a gang of lyrical MC's that "gas" ever since Hip Hop really got started in the Bay. Shady Nate is somebody that I could easily see being the King of Bay Area rap in a couple of years.

In San Francisco the average infant will exceed the EPA's lifetime exposure to toxic air pollutants in 19 days. In LA, it takes only 12 days.

Turning to Lennar’s recent activities, Sumchai’s politics came into focus. “We have to fight to control this property. We have to be stakeholders at the table of what goes on in the development of not only this property but other properties throughout southeast San Francisco.