Remember clubs with discriminatory dress codes such as “no baggy clothing?” Well, times are finally changing. For the latest party that blogger-promoter Cami Ramos is throwing at Omiroo, the 15th Street art gallery at the epicenter of the Second Saturdays art walk, guests will be strongly encouraged to don their size XXL white T-shirts (the kind you’d get from the liquor store). That’s because the theme of the party is Going Outrageously Dumb — a time warp into the mid-2000s, celebrating hyphy culture. And the best-dressed person will get free drinks all night, so dust off that case of Hyphy Juice energy drinks and don’t forget your Mac Dre tall tee. DJs Sad Andy, Neto 187, and Solstice will be behind the decks, and to whet your palette, they’ll be dropping hyphy-era mixes on SoundCloud all week.
Kool John routinely takes selfies while smoking joints the size of burritos; Berner is the proprietor of the weed-centric brand Cookies; Juicy J promotes the vape pen brand Trippy Sticks; and Cypress Hill paved the way for these weed-positive rappers with songs like “Dr. Greenthumb” in the Nineties. What these artists have in common — other than their affinity for getting baked — is that they’ll be performing at Berner Presents Hippie Hill on every stoner’s favorite holiday, 4/20. The show takes place at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and also features Chronixx, Dizzy Wright, and J Boog. Rolling up and going to this show is definitely the after-work move next Wednesday — or a great way to wrap up your night if you happen to spend the day smoking in the sunshine.
“What does East Oakland look and sound like through the eyes and ears of its artists?” That’s the question at the core of Sights and Sounds of East Oakland, an upcoming free event put on by KALW. The afternoon of performances, which will take place at Odell Johnson Performing Arts Center at Laney College (900 Fallon St., Oakland) on Sunday, April 17 at 3 p.m., will feature live storytelling by Oakland Voices’ citizen journalists, plus musical and dance performances by youth performers Young Gifted and Black, the famous turfing crew Turf Feinz, Danza Azteca performer Calpulli Coatlicue, and the eight-piece Afro-Colombian dance music band La Misa Negra. The audience will hear from Brittani Sensabaugh, an East Oakland native who has traveled the country documenting Black communities and listening to stories from residents therein. The event will also feature visual art from Ajuan Muance, who makes comics about Black life in America, and Chamuco Coretez, a Chicano tattoo artist from East Oakland.
Collage by Cal Tabuena-Frolli for KALW featuring Young Gifted and Black (L) and a member of Turf Feinz.
The Oakland Ballet Company’s spring 2016 season, entitled A Capella — Our Bodies Sing, aims to pair the beauty of the human voice with the grace of the body. The program features Bay Area choral groups the Berkeley Chamber Singers, the women’s early music ensemble Vajra Voices, and members of the Oakland gospel choir Nona Brown and the Inspirational Music Collective. Set to the timbre of their voices will be world premieres of newly-commissioned dances by acclaimed choreographers Val Caniparoli, Janice Garrett, and Charles Moulton, as well as the West Coast premiere of a recent work by Oakland Ballet’s artistic director Graham Lustig. Performances will take place April 14 through 16 at the Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts (1428 Alice St., Oakland), April 21 at San Francisco’s Brava Theater (2781 24th St.), and April 23 at the Reed L. Buffington Performing Arts Center at Chabot College (25555 Hesperian Blvd., Hayward).
Alexandra Naughton is known for uncomfortably honest, often diaristic poetry about contemporary life that probes into concepts like the performance of self and the complicated boundary between wanting to be loved and wanting to be used. Her new novel is American Mary, a lyrical, melancholic narrative about desire. To celebrate the release of the book, which was published last month by Civil Coping Mechanisms, Naughton is putting together a public living room soiree in the residence of Oakland poet Cassandra Dallett (2465 26th Ave., Oakland) on April 16. The party, which starts at 5 p.m., will feature readings from Naughton, Dallett, and fellow poets Paul Corman-Roberts, Joshua Kent Fowler, Zack Haber, and Kate Robinson, among others. Naughton also promises music, food, dancing, and of course, copies of her new book.
On Sunday, April 17, Pro Arts Gallery (150 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza) will be christening its newest programming series, Pro Arts Cinema Matinees, with a sort of baptism. The free series will be curated by Oakland filmmaker, archivist, and Black Hole Cinemateque founder Tooth and will feature screenings of experimental and alternative films supported by discussions with the filmmaker, artist, or curator. The first event, entitled Elemental Forces: Water Signs, will showcase two cinematic water rituals by filmmakers Peter Hutton and Will Hindle. Described by the gallery: “As California begins our hopeful emergence from years of historic drought into the embraces of the seasonal deluge, we take time to look at the work of two filmmakers who cast their lens to the realms of the aquatic with different meditations on the elements as both a chaotic and ordering force.” Hutton’s piece, Skagafjörður, pairs landscape shots of northern Iceland with images of the Hudson River. Meanwhile, Hindle’s film Watersmith focuses on the freedom of bodies moving through water, as if flying. Both films will be shown on 16mm prints provided by the Canyon Cinema Foundation.
Credits: Paul Sullivan.Bus stop: Last April, Summit Bank pressured the City of Oakland to remove a frequently-used AC Transit bus stop located on Broadway at 30th Street in front of its Oakland branch office. Bank executives complained to the city that the bus stop caused people to loiter in front of the branch. The bank’s leaders told city officials that they feared bus riders would be a source of crime, and that they also wanted to maintain street parking in front of their branch. City officials, including Director of Planning Rachel Flynn and Mayor Libby Schaaf — who received $4,600 in campaign contributions from Summit Bank executives in 2014 — had the bus stop removed even though AC Transit vigorously opposed the decision. Transit advocates complained that this was an example of the city caving to pressure from a politically-connected business and that the city’s decision is bad for bus riders, and it runs counter to Oakland’s stated environmental and transit policies.
Pressure has been growing to reinstate the bus stop, however. And this week, Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan’s effort to reverse the decision is coming to the public works committee for a hearing.
“Rigged” city contract: At Tuesday’s finance committee meeting the Revenue Management Bureau — the city office that collects most of Oakland’s business, hotel, utility taxes, and parking fees, about $156 million last year — is asking for permission to purchase a $1.2 million tax software system to handle the billing and collection of these revenues. The Revenue Management Bureau (RMB) has already selected HDL Software as the winning bidder for the contract.
But there’s controversy. Oakland’s current provider of tax software, Progressive Solutions, Inc. (PSI) is calling the decision to award the contract to HDL a “rigged” process. According to Progressive Solutions, Oakland’s former Revenue and Tax Administrator David McPherson hatched a plan with HDL while he ran Oakland’s RMB to break the existing contract with PSI and hand it over to HDL. After breaking off ties with Progressive Solutions last year, and getting the ball rolling on a new contract, McPherson retired from the city. He was immediately hired by HDL, which was already preparing to bid for the Oakland contract. According to HDL’s web site, McPherson currently heads up the company’s medical marijuana tax program.
According to a protest letter sent by Progressive Solutions President Glenn Vodhanel to the City of Oakland on April 3, his company may seek a court injunction to prevent Oakland from awarding the contract to HDL. Vodhanel wrote in his letter:
We are alleging that the procurement process was corrupt because it appears that the decision to award this contract to Hdl was predetermined, even before the subject RFQ was issued. The bidding process was started by a Mr. David McPherson, the now former head of the City’s Revenue Administration department. Mr. McPherson, after being accused of violating city law, left the City and is now working for Hdl … We believe, and intend to prove as part of our lawsuit against the City, that PSI was terminated and Hdl is being “selected” for corrupt reasons. We believe that PSI’s unexpected termination under mysterious circumstances and this sudden need for new software is a ruse to provide a “kickback” or some other benefit to person, or persons, involved in the selection process.
Affordable Housing for Six Figure Incomes: Oakland city staff are proposing to redefine income limits for an affording housing program so that Oakland can spend millions to subsidize home ownership opportunities for middle class families who have also been priced out of Oakland’s housing market.
The First-Time Homebuyer Mortgage Assistance Program currently provides financial assistance to households that earn up to 100 percent of the area median income ($84,150 for a family of three) to obtain a mortgage and purchase a home in Oakland. The city wants to change the program so that households that earn up to 150 percent of the area median income ($126,230 for a family of three) can take advantage of the program.
City officials have said that the change is consistent with a past practice of periodically increasing the program’ income limit because the price of housing tends to rise faster than incomes, and as a result even the middle class are being priced out of Oakland now.
But housing activists slammed this proposal last month when it was first unveiled because it would siphon off affordable housing dollars from programs that benefit low-income Oakland residents in order to assist middle class homebuyers, many of whom may not currently reside in Oakland.
“The city has an obligation to affirmatively further fair housing,” said David Zisser, an attorney with the nonprofit legal aid group Public Advocates, during the public comment period at the March meeting. “This moves us in the opposite direction by shifting resources away from low-income to moderate-income residents.”
Oakland police officers began to wear body cameras in 2010.
Credits: Darwin BondGraham/File photoMore Body Cameras: The Oakland Police Department is buying still more body cameras for its cops, and the staff report for this latest purchase proposal also reveals that OPD plans to reopen is master contract for body cameras this summer.
OPD wants to buy fifty more body cameras from Vievu for $63,500. The fifty new cameras will be used to outfit the fifty new police officers OPD expects to add to the existing force of 737 sworn officers in July when the latest police academy graduates.
In December, the Express reported that lobbyists with Taser International had been seeking meetings with city council members and police officials in hopes of poaching Vievu’s contract. At the time, OPD officials told the Express that there were no plans to reopen the contract, and that the department was happy with Vievu’s technology. But according to Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent’s report to the public safety committee this week, “OPD has begun the competitive bidding process and will be issuing a [request for proposals] by July 1, 2016 to replace and modernize the entire fleet of BWCs and related software and equipment.”
This multi-million dollar contract is sure to result in a heated competition between Vievu and Taser, and perhaps other companies that are hoping to enter the lucrative police body camera market.
The White House’s drug czar Michael Botticelli — a recovering addict — is tempted by the delicious smell of cannabis while walking down the street in Washington DC, he told the New York Times Magazine, in a short Q&A that illustrates a potential new federal response to state marijuana legalization.
Michael Boticelli.
It’s no surprise Drug Czar Botticelli said he opposes marijuana legalization.
“I think that there is a middle ground where you can move people away from the criminal-justice system without some of the challenges that might come along with legalization,” he told Ana Maria Cox, in the interview published Wednesday.
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That’s a refreshing bit of moderation from the new director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a job normally held by people with no public health qualifications.
“Looking back over the history of the office, it has typically been led by generals and police officers,” said Botticelli. “It was really geared toward supply reduction and interdiction. We want to focus on public-health strategies.”
Botticelli also lamented that “walking down the street and smelling pot everywhere is really challenging to people in recovery.” (Washington DC legalized cannabis for adults in 2014, resulting in a 98 percent reduction in arrests.)
Cox responded with a question: “Alcoholics can walk down the street and smell alcohol. Would you want to make alcohol illegal?”
“No,” Botticelli said.
Instead, he advocates a tobacco control approach. “[W]e’ve really changed the culture, and our smoking rate is at its lowest level. Unfortunately, I still smoke.”
Ajax — a twenty-year veteran alcohol regulator in California — said she believes there are legitimate medical uses for cannabis, though she has no personal or familial experience with them.
“It appears there is a medical need … I have heard stories, of course. And through my meetings I’ve set up with industry groups and with legislators, I’ve heard stories of how it has helped folks with cancer.”
Ajax astutely avoids the argument that medical pot recommendations are too lax in California.
“I don’t have enough information at this point to tell you whether I think that is happening. I think over the course of the next couple of years that is something we are going to have to look at.”
Ajax defers to local control on the issue of medical pot regulation. “The locals know best what they want in their cities and counties,” she told the Los Angeles Times.
Ajax even sounds sensitive to former pot felons who want into the legal industry. Her comments indicate that there may not be a state blanket ban on people with drug felonies from entering the legal pot industry.
“That’s going to be through our licensing process. We are going to have to do a background, a fingerprint check and then you evaluate the seriousness of the crime at that point.”
In response to the question “You have never used marijuana?,” Ajax responded with what appears to be a tactful, hair-splitting answer.
“No. I’m not a marijuana user.”
Half of America has tried pot, Pew Research reported in 2015.
Beejus and Oops are a creative dream team if there ever was one. Though the two West Oakland natives aren’t blood related, they consider each other cousins and have been making music together since they were teenagers.
Often rapping in tandem, Beejus counterbalances Oops’ rapid-fire delivery with his gravelly flow, with Oops handling the majority of the duo’s production. On Beejus’ latest album, BeeSmoove2, Oops’ soulful, jazzy beats underscore Beejus’ contemplative lyrics about confronting insecurities and, as he put it, making friends with all my dark places.
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Beejus and Oops have built a following through their FreeSpirit movement, which promotes an ethos of hard work and self-acceptance — something that certainly resonates with East Bay hip-hop fans raised on the based philosophy of Lil B.
Now roommates, Beejus and Oops have been busy working on upcoming releases in their home studio. Later this spring, Beejus will put out his EP No Time But To Mob. Meanwhile, Oops is looking to release a cassette called The Oops Tape and a West Oakland-centric Tribe Called Quest tribute called A Tribe Called West (R.I.P. Phife Dawg).
As they gear up to drop these individual projects, they gave the Express an exclusive listen to their collaborative track, “Trouble,” a bouncy summer anthem that contains a palpable sense of excitement about their music careers’ growing momentum.
“This year is gonna be Oops’ year — Oops and Beejus’ year,” Oops enthused in a recent phone interview. “We’re sending each other to start some trouble. We’re gonna shake up the city.”
“Lately, these past couple of months, I’ve been seeing a lot of buzz. [The song is] speaking on that,” said Beejus, adding that his verse in particular deals with him grappling with his newfound recognition. “One of the lines is about my gold chain. A lot of people don’t know I spent ten dollars on my gold chain from a crack head. … I wear it because it looks good, but people look at me hella weird because I’m wearing a chain now.”
Listen to “Trouble” below and tell us what you think in the comments.
When Flor Crisostomo walked into Calavera restaurant last October, where she had been employed since before its opening during the summer of 2015, she didn’t expect the news she received.
Former employee and lawsuit plaintiff Flor Crisostomo leading the chants during picket of Calavera.
Credits: Jenny Huang/ BARWM
“I went in and they fired me on the spot, arguing that I wasn’t doing enough for the kitchen, not fulfilling my responsibilities, and that production was slow,” Crisostomo told the Express in an interview. “They didn’t give me a two-week notice, and they were referring to a position that was not mine.”
For Crisostomo and other workers at Calavera, this was not the first instance of what they perceived as an abuse of workers’ rights. Last month, Crisostomo and fellow former Calavera employees Sergio Esquivel and Maribel Hernandez filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that the high-end Mexican restaurant located in Uptown Oakland failed to pay workers the city’s minimum wage, did not compensate for overtime, provided inadequate time for breaks, and did not pay owed wages upon termination. The workers are also calling on the public to boycott Calavara.
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The lawsuit specifically alleges that Calavera partner-owners Christopher Pastena (Lungomare, Chop Bar) and Michael Iglesias (Coqueta, Oyamel), as well as executive sous chef Adelar Rogers and opening executive chef Christian Irabien were responsible for the labor law violations. Irabien is now working at Cala in Hayes Valley, according to a San Francisco Chronicle report.
“We want to make sure that labor laws aren’t broken and that workers are treated with dignity and respect,” Crisostomo said about the lawsuit.
From left to right, Marisa Mendoza, Ivette Vega, Flor Crisostomo, Maribel Hernandez.
Credits: Jenny Huang/ BARWM
On April 1, during a busy First Friday street fair, the workers staged a protest outside of the restaurant, which is located in Oakland’s Hive development. Over one hundred food workers from the Bay Area Restaurant Worker’s Movement (BARWM), as well as members from the Brass Liberation Orchestra, housing, food justice and labor movements, showed up to help hold hand-painted picket signs and hand out #BoycottCalavera fliers. Dozens of patrons could be seen turning away from the restaurant due to the protest.
“With that protest and mobility, we could reach out to other restaurant workers to call out abusive owners. It was a great way for us to say that publicly and connect with other workers to let them know that it’s okay to speak up,” Crisostomo said.
Chanting “86 Calavera, Mi Cultura No Se Vende,” the protesters said that the restaurant is guilty of more than wage theft. By firing workers like Crisostomo, who is indigenous to Oaxaca, Mexico, and who over five months shared her ethno-culinary knowledge with Calavera’s owners, the workers are accusing the restaurant of stealing their culture.
BARWM supporters carry banner declaring “Food Justice = Worker Justice”
Credits: Jenny Huang/ BARWM
“The knowledge of nixtamal — to prepare corn for tortillas — and knowing recipes that go way back to [my] roots have been taken advantage of,” Crisostomo said. “That, for me, is where cultural appropriation and culture theft begins to happen.”
The owners of Calavera declined requests to speak to the Express regarding the lawsuit. But they released the following statement saying that the workers’ claims are false: “We are a diverse group of employees and owners at Calavera with a history of fair practices and creating a healthy, supportive restaurant culture, and we take pride in being Latino, African-American and female-owned,” the statement read.
Paul Blasenheim, an original member with the BARWM, said in an interview that the organization will continue to support the fired workers as long as the boycott continues. “Even an allegation of these things is enough for us to protest,” said Blasenheim. “We believe workers when they come to us and say to us something is happening.”
The lawsuit comes at a time when numerous other high-profile Bay Area restaurants, such Coqueta in San Francisco and Bottega Ristorante in Yountville, are also facing legal action from workers. Though BARWM has not been active in those cases, Blasenheim said actions against Coqueta in particular — where two lawsuits were filed against celebrity chef Michael Chiarello and his restaurant group Gruppo Chiarello over alleged sexual harassment and labor violations — inspired the work that’s now being done in Oakland.
“The ownership is similar to those who are owning Calavera, and there is a lot of crossover within the industry,” said Blasenheim. “We were inspired by the leadership of powerful women restaurant workers who refuse to abide by the sexist and coercive status quo for women in general.”
Hector Martinez, an attorney representing the plaintiffs with the Oakland-based law firm Mallison & Martinez, said it could be up to a year until a trial happens, but that he is confident they will be successful. “We have lots of support from former workers and the records will show the violations,” said Martinez. “We are very excited about our clients being so active. This is something we don’t see that often, to have so much activism on behalf of our clients with regards to our case.”
Moving forward, Crisostomo said she was pleased to see such strong support from the Oakland community, and that the boycott campaign will not stop until positive changes have been made.
“We are not lying. We are addressing a problem that’s happening right now, and we are speaking on behalf of all the workers treated like this nationally — that includes those still working at Calavera right now,” said Crisostomo.
Over 110 protesters converged on Calavera for this demonstration.
Credits: Jenny Huang/ BARWM
Remember clubs with discriminatory dress codes such as “no baggy clothing?” Well, times are finally changing. For the latest party that blogger-promoter Cami Ramos is throwing at Omiroo, the 15th Street art gallery at the epicenter of the Second Saturdays art walk, guests will be strongly encouraged to don their size XXL white T-shirts (the kind you’d get from...
Kool John routinely takes selfies while smoking joints the size of burritos; Berner is the proprietor of the weed-centric brand Cookies; Juicy J promotes the vape pen brand Trippy Sticks; and Cypress Hill paved the way for these weed-positive rappers with songs like “Dr. Greenthumb” in the Nineties. What these artists have in common — other than their affinity...
“What does East Oakland look and sound like through the eyes and ears of its artists?” That’s the question at the core of Sights and Sounds of East Oakland, an upcoming free event put on by KALW. The afternoon of performances, which will take place at Odell Johnson Performing Arts Center at Laney College (900 Fallon St., Oakland) on...
The Oakland Ballet Company’s spring 2016 season, entitled A Capella — Our Bodies Sing, aims to pair the beauty of the human voice with the grace of the body. The program features Bay Area choral groups the Berkeley Chamber Singers, the women’s early music ensemble Vajra Voices, and members of the Oakland gospel choir Nona Brown and the Inspirational...
Alexandra Naughton is known for uncomfortably honest, often diaristic poetry about contemporary life that probes into concepts like the performance of self and the complicated boundary between wanting to be loved and wanting to be used. Her new novel is American Mary, a lyrical, melancholic narrative about desire. To celebrate the release of the book, which was published last...
On Sunday, April 17, Pro Arts Gallery (150 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza) will be christening its newest programming series, Pro Arts Cinema Matinees, with a sort of baptism. The free series will be curated by Oakland filmmaker, archivist, and Black Hole Cinemateque founder Tooth and will feature screenings of experimental and alternative films supported by discussions with the filmmaker,...
Bus stop: Last April, Summit Bank pressured the City of Oakland to remove a frequently-used AC Transit bus stop located on Broadway at 30th Street in front of its Oakland branch office. Bank executives complained to the city that the bus stop caused people to loiter in front of the branch. The bank's leaders told city officials that they...
The White House’s drug czar Michael Botticelli — a recovering addict — is tempted by the delicious smell of cannabis while walking down the street in Washington DC, he told the New York Times Magazine, in a short Q&A that illustrates a potential new federal response to state marijuana legalization.
It’s no surprise Drug Czar Botticelli said he...
Beejus and Oops are a creative dream team if there ever was one. Though the two West Oakland natives aren't blood related, they consider each other cousins and have been making music together since they were teenagers.
Often rapping in tandem, Beejus counterbalances Oops' rapid-fire delivery with his gravelly flow, with Oops handling the majority of the duo's production....
When Flor Crisostomo walked into Calavera restaurant last October, where she had been employed since before its opening during the summer of 2015, she didn’t expect the news she received.
Former employee and lawsuit plaintiff Flor Crisostomo leading the chants during picket of Calavera.
Credits: Jenny Huang/ BARWM
"I went...
