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Jasmine Ross documents Black identity through ‘Beauty Plus’
At age 22, Oakland-based artist Jasmine Ross is the youngest award recipient ever in the Museum of the African Diaspora’s annual Emerging Artists Program. Honored in MoAD’s 10th cohort, Ross, along with Demetri Broxton, Dorian Reid and...
Tony Gemignani and the rise of world-class pizza in the Bay Area
For years, California suffered from a reputation as a pizza desert. Having grown up in an East Coast family with roots in Naples, I was keenly aware of the deficit when my parents moved us West.
“It was...
Life teems below the surface
People living near oceans or on islands often overlook the marine wildlife teaming below the sea’s surface. Marvelously, many scientists, explorers, environmentalists and fine art photographers dive deep and return with unforgettable images and stories of the...
From totally harsh to thriving marsh
Driving along Waterfront Road in Martinez, the landscape feels exactly like the industrial heart of the East Bay. Speeding cars are flanked by the towering steel drums of petrochemical refineries, the rumble of I-680 and massive oil...
The Back Room lives!
There was a time, in the not-so-distant past, when small, companionable clubs, which welcomed multiple genres of music, flourished. That time is no more. The Great Recession, and then the pandemic, did in some of the last...
‘All People Powered’ stages the future
Oakland has long lived in the tension between innovation and displacement, where the growth of the tech economy rarely reaches the communities that shaped the region’s culture.
Now, a hip-hop musical born in Oakland is turning that tension...
UC Berkeley grads question whether to stay or struggle
Spring is about to release another wave of UC Berkeley graduates into the world. While some will follow the money—chasing AI startups and tech salaries across the Bay—many artists will stay closer to home, drawn to the...
