Arts & Culture

In one of the most difficult eras for immigrants in modern history, Oakland’s Ariam Weldeab Araya is making a difference. The Eritrean native, who immigrated to the U.S. in 2027, was named one of eight 2026 Arts...

ARIES (March 21-April 19): The 18th-century Aries watchmaker John Harrison solved one of the great scientific problems of his time: how to determine longitude at sea. Many learned astronomers failed to crack the puzzle, yet Harrison, largely...

Grace Krilanovich is preoccupied with acid.  Not the molecule, or ion, or aqueous liquid with a pH below 7 squeezed onto guacamole or used to dissolve gold. Not the mind-altering substance, either.  Instead of on her tongue, she drops...

It’s a sunny day in May, and Candi Martinez holds her daughter’s tiny hand as the two twirl to face a pair of friends in the middle of a car-less Oakland street. She greets them as music...

Does California exist at all, in the way we usually conceive it?  No, says Oakland naturalist/author/painter Obi Kaufmann in his new book, California Inside Out: Mapping an Ecology of Mind. The book’s first page lays out Conservation International’s...

Judy Collins has been singing, composing songs, playing piano and guitar, writing books and making records since 1961. She has 55 albums to her credit, as well as several memoirs, a novel and a documentary about Antonia...

This week's calendar picks feature a tribute to Ralph Stanley, Sukhawat Ali Khan & Cali Qawwali, Schoolboy Q, KD the Poet, Jazz Mafia's 'Stevie Wonder Reimagined,' Elephant Revival, 'Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange,' 'Twin Peaks: Conversation With the Stars,' Bedouine, and Matt Pond & Anya Marina.