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Arts Feature
Future Ink masters blackout tattoos
At Future Ink on Broadway in Oakland, a man with both arms completely blacked out stands at a mirror photographing his latest tattoo.
He goes by Nero and came to this tattoo shop because Kevin Ligabue, founder of...
The Oakland we lost
In documentary photographer and filmmaker Ken Light’s new book, Soul City: Oakland, U.S.A., 120 black-and-white photographs tell the story of the people of West Oakland. Covering the years from 1974-1976 and viewed through the lens of 2026,...
Frederick Noland draws Black history
Frederick Noland is the unofficial oracle of lesser-known stories about Black people in America, and especially in the Bay Area. As an Oakland-based visual storyteller, the New Yorker cartoonist and California College of the Arts adjunct professor...
Margaret Cho takes on Trump
On Jan. 20, 2026, the White House posted a press release with the dubious headline: “365 WINS IN 365 DAYS: President Trump’s Return Marks New Era of Success, Prosperity.” For some Americans, each one of those “wins”...
Cape & Cowl Con showcases Bay Area comics and community
Everyone knows a kid who spends her entire weekly allowance on comic books, or a child constantly scolded for “doodling” instead of doing homework. Then, there’s the immigrant family in America in which the parents speak only...
Amy Miller brings punk ethics to her first comedy special
Two things guide the work of comedian Amy Miller: holding to one’s ethics and fighting to protect one’s community—values the Bay Area native learned in part from the punk scene at 924 Gilman. Now she brings her...
‘Comrade Sisters’ elevates the women of the Black Panther Party
More than 65% of the members of the Black Panther Party were women. Women of all ages, many of them young—teenagers, even. They taught at community schools, registering voters, handing out free food and running free medical...
