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Black Bay Area artists rebuild cultural infrastructure
A map is drawn to lay claim to a place. This one is drawn to recover it: By walking ground that already belonged to someone and naming what survived the three-headed blaze of divestment, disorganization and gentrification.
Not...
Richmond faces 60 years of DDT
On Sept. 16, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its current plan for a major cleanup of Richmond’s highly contaminated United Heckathorn site. But controversy is inevitable, because the plan does not correspond with the cleanup...
The wound, overthrown: Exploring AI psychotherapy
This is the second installment of a three-part series in which our writer delves into the depths of his psyche, guided by artificial intelligence. Read the previous installment here: Part 1, ‘AI: Final Weapon or Final Healer?’.
The...
AI: Final weapon or final healer?
Part 1: The Wound, Enthroned
“Know thyself”—the timeless injunction of Socrates, father of the Western wisdom tradition, to his students.
Science Fiction
I exhaled. The session had taken the afternoon. I had read the output, critiqued it, resubmitted it to...
Oakland students fight sex trafficking with their voices
Dream Youth Clinic occupies a small, gray building in Oakland right off I-980. Colorful murals and a spattering of posters cover its interior, creating a space that welcomes youth affected by sex trafficking.
“We try to make young...
Bay Area cities rethink downtown revitalization strategies
Kimberley Davidson has lived in Oakland her whole life and remembers when she could spend all day and all night downtown. She says you still “can-ish” but that it’s harder, and one has to know exactly where...
Love Local: Welcome to the Best of East Bay 2026
We know what we like. And—hopefully—we know what we stand for. In the East Bay, it’s often hard to separate the two. That’s why, I think, it’s particularly alarming when our favorite spots close. How can that...
