Two Decades Rooted in Oakland

Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, CA. 

I am celebrating 20 years in Oakland this month. When I found this Town, it was so different. There were dirt lots and businesses of yesteryear were still thriving. Jerry Brown's vision to revive downtown with a collective heartbeat was still just words.

There was no wealth invasion, no "affluenza," as my friend Victoria calls it. Construction cranes were not everywhere and if you planted me on a random block, I knew where I was versus feeling disoriented. I have nothing against density and everything against creating density accessible only to the wealthy. Now, most NIMBYism has given way to the homeless who are everywhere.

Oakland has lost its balance in being a place where all can live and for that I am sad, but I don't think it's unsolvable. It does take people powerful and committed enough. These folks are making an effort. Later in the post, I talk about Oakland's native peoples who are breathing new life and awareness into the history of the original people of this place.

This post is an honest reflection on and celebration of what I love in this Town, even if the lustre has been thrown some shade (literally from a new building) by change.

Sounds of Oakland

About 5 years into my love affair with Oakland, I was surprised to get an email from Erika Mailman, the editor of an anthology of stories about Oakland. My piece, "Sounds of Home" about Adams Point had been accepted and is included in her anthology (published 2005).

Lounge 3411. Photo by Rachel Medanic.

Oakland has a deep history in the arts, including being one of the early birthplaces of jazz. Jazz and blues are music I sing today. I feel the Louisiana express train, both in the music and in the constant stream of soul food chefs that create here.

• I love this vision for a museum of Jazz and Art! How can we make it real?  

Lounge 3411 is an Oakland treasure that attracts a diversity of people to its Blues nights. Guitar, harmonica, bass, sax, drums and vocal talent from people of every walk of life and every race, gender, different ability. I've met inspiring, highly skilled musicians there that take my breath away.

Native Renaissance and Ttuuŝtak

Pinon nuts served in abalone shell with local honey. Cafe Ohlone

In January 2019, Corrina Gould and her family came to the Dimond Library to educate a packed room about the oldest dwellers of Oakland, the Ohlone native people. Over 220 years ago, her ancestors were forced off their land, baptized, and enslaved into the missions as the victims of European colonization. Even the Wikipedia article doesn't make that part clear. They didn't just leave and go to the missions (where many of them suffered disease and death on top of ill-treatment).

It was not voluntary. 

Gould created the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, the first urban indigenous women-led land trust in the country working to regain access to her people's land, as well as preserve their traditions and cultural heritage.

The Chochenyo believe in the power of:

Mt. Diablo.  The Ohlone believe the world began on its peaks. They call it tuuŝtak.

De-colonization in the form of returning lands in the East Bay to indigenous stewardship.

Ohlone welcome greeting at Cafe Ohlone - Mak 'amham

We also share an interest in fostering, learning and growing awareness of the indigenous people who are not extinct, who still live here, their language and culture.

Duck bacon, quail eggs, walnuts, watercress salad. Mak 'amham.

Earlier this month, I was blessed to attend brunch at Cafe Ohlone Mak-'Amham, a pop-up cafe serving Ohlone foods in Berkeley.

We ate delicious non-dairy, gluten-free foods and tasted what the ancestors of our hosts and their servers (all of whom were descendents of native tribes throughout California) ate. There were a few modern twists in the form of duck bacon and brownies made with special cocoa from native peoples in Mexico.

Here is a recipe for Ohlone Salad.

Urban Features

What now occupies Oakland, in addition to people with heritage from all over the world, is a variety of street art, tagger art, murals, lakes (Temescal, Chabot, Merritt), churches, and public art that comes (gets a sweater knitted for it) and then goes.

Flora in Oakland. Photo:  R.Medanic

Tagger art Oakland.

Paramount Theatre Oakland.

We have a variety of 20th century art deco buildings that I've always loved. Performances pass quickly through the theaters while the art deco building facades stand silent and beautiful against the rise and fall of small and medium sized businesses come and go within their structures.

Healers

My town also has a huge diversity of healers I've been blessed to know:

Applied kinesiology, Balance Chiropractic
Compassionate communication, Nancy Kahn
Physical therapy, SOL Physical Therapy
Bodywork, Laura Centorrino
Ortho-bionomy, Michael Huff
Piedmont Springs, Several bodyworkers over the years and hot tubs

Nature's Breath

The East Bay Regional Park System will be 85 years old this year. Here was my tribute (worthwhile picture alert!) on the system's 80th anniversary.

I think it's a coyote! Pippi in Chabot Regional Park.

Where Community is Part of Business

Hipline's Founders Celebrate its 8th Birthday Party in 2016. Oakland, CA.

Community is also strong in Oakland. If we can help keep small businesse we love going, we do.

A few businesses instinctively know that if they creat community, it acts as a natural barrier against the boiling economic waters of this place.

Among some of my favorite community/engaged businesses are:

Hipline
Rare Bird
Bay Made


Yep, other than Cafe Ohlone, I didn't even touch the realm of food. Another time. There's a lot to love here. A lot to support and engage with. I am lucky to be fortunate enough to stay and feel a reciprocality with this place. I give to it as well as am sustained from it.