This post continues the chronicle of my escapades this past Friday night, another “First Friday” in Oakland. In fact, the rest of the week will highlight the various venues hit… expect posts to get shorter and images to get blurrier as evening progressed!
And a bit of a heads up… next week (while I am on vacation ~ woo hoo!) I’ve got some posts lined up about some of the key influential African American leaders in Oakland’s history. I took a walking tour last weekend (provided free of charge thanks to the city, despite their budget woes) and it was fascinating! I hope you will find it equally so… please tune in next week to read more about the first and second generations of black leaders who shaped the city we live in today.
Last note: cool show at the Stork Club tonight. 9-9:30ish. Two drummers. One sax. Experimental. OUT THERE. Come check it out if you’re feeling brave…
In the meantime… second stop Friday night…. bayVAN, which stands for Bay Area Visual Arts Network. It’s a gallery, housed in a tiny but beautiful space nestled between Broadway and Telegraph Avenues, on the third story of 455 17th Street. But it’s not your run-of-the-mill conventional gallery… Their focus is “[sourcing] opportunities for artists to display, lease and sell original artwork outside traditional gallery venues,” and large scale residential and commercial applications seem to fit this bill quite nicely. They currently have an artists’ registry of 100 strong, and though their 2010 Open Call to Artists is currently closed, you can check back here for future openings later in the year.
BayVAN is headed by three women who’ve been formative in developing the East Bay arts community:
- Brooke Baird is a painter and illustrator who has been working and teaching in the Bay area for 15 years. With non-profit management experience as well as skills in high-end art advertising and real estate marketing, she “takes great pleasure in using original art to bring together beautiful and unique spaces while creating economic opportunities for fellow artists.”
- Kerri Johnson “is a working artist, arts administrator and curator. She is the co-owner of Blankspace gallery, a contemporary art gallery she co-founded in 2005. Ms. Johnson has been a member of the Bay Area fine art community for 9 years and has worked with internationally renowned artists including Keith Boadwee and Anya Gallacio.”
- Nicole Neditch “has been part of the Bay Area Art community for over a decade, as an independent curator, arts administrator and graphic designer.” She opened Mama Buzz Cafe and Buzz Gallery in 2002, and later, with the help of other new gallery owners in the Uptown district, “founded Art Murmur, Oakland’s ‘First Friday’ art walk, which now hosts thousands of Bay Area residents at more than 15 galleries surrounding the Mama Buzz Cafe.” She also recently designed and executed the city’s new art & culture website: OaklandArts.org
The current exhibit, up for the next two months, is a group show that hosts a number of artists with whom they’ve worked over the past year: Brian Caraway, Jason Byers, Steuart Pittman, Modesto Covarrubias, Maryly Snow, Zoe Ani, Eric Larson, Martin Webb. The show is mostly small works, which seem well suited for the narrow profile of their space. It’s not clear to me if the gallery has other open-to-the-public hours, aside from First Fridays. You can check their blog or contact them directly.
Friends and I checked out the Art Murmur scene on Friday night… I missed the last one (it fell on New Year’s Day) so I was excited to mingle among the artists and hipsters once again. My artist friend C came from San Francisco (I love that city folks are the new “bridge and tunnel” crowd… trekking to Oakland on the weekends for edgy art and sublime dining). Unfortunately, she got hung up in traffic due to an accident on the bridge which gave me an extra hour to kill, so I met friends at MUA for a drink. Or two…
First of all, a bit of a disclaimer… I have yet to actually eat dinner at MUA, so those looking for a full dining review should just skip to the end and check some other links I’ve provided. But I have been to MUA a handful of times for drinks and/or snacks and I have to say, I just love this place. Everything about it, from the ginormous warehouse space and the way their minimalistic asian-shic decor perfectly meshes with the raw materials and scale of the larger industrial space, to the edgy urban art, the ultra-modern unisex bathrooms, and the artistry they apply to their simple but delicious food & drink preparations (and yes, I just mentioned bathrooms and food in the same sentence, but who really cares?). The whole place exudes a modern, but warm, aesthetic and the crowd inside (both staff and patrons) feels like modern-Oakland in my mind. It’s hard to explain, but it’s really one of the few spaces I’ve been in in Oakland where I really felt, for a moment, like I was in New York (or Brooklyn rather, because this is a huge space.)
And that’s one of the things that’s so impressive about MUA. They’ve been open for 2 years now and I remember thinking when the first opened, ‘Man, that’s a big space. How are they gonna keep that full consistently?” But they do, and I’m so happy to see this enterprise going strong on a mostly abandoned stretch of Broadway’s Auto Row. Granted, there are a few other things going on there… but there are also a lot of large empty car dealerships, and a couple redevelopment plans already in the works for the area. Here’s one specific plan and EIR (Environmental Impact Report) if you’re interested. It’s actually pretty fascinating reading… The redesign of a city, in progress.
BROADWAY / VALDEZ DISTRICT Specific Plan and Environmental Impact Report
You can chime in if you have something to say. There are already great discussions going on here…
Building Up Broadway on A Better Oakland
Oakland’s Growing Pains on Living in the O
But I digress. Back to MUA, which is right in the thick of the redevelopment zone on Broadway at 24th Street… I meandered upstairs to see Ross Simonini putting the finishing touches on his portion of a two-man show in the upstairs area of MUA. The next two photos are his pieces, which were collaged creations of crayon, paint, and, if I remember correctly, “sandpapered” photographs. The room was rather dimly lit, but amidst the raw textured surfaces of compressed plywood and more sophisticated asian-influenced furniture, I thought his pieces looked, well, perfect. In fact, his whimsically constructed lanky figures, who seemed to be battling or dancing – I couldn’t quite tell, reminded me of the slender figures of Indonesian shadow puppet batiques. Beautiful. Simonini is also an editor at Believer magazine and has a blog here where you can read about more of his work, and many other artistic things of interest.
William Saroyan, the other artist displaying works, is known more for his writing than his painting. His paintings were difficult to see by candlelight, and alas, I had a cold drink waiting for me at the bar downstairs, so I will have to go back to see his pieces by the light of day (the picture below does not do them justice). In the meantime, I’ll provide you an excerpt from Simonini’s recent blog post about the show…
“His vein of abstract expressionism came not from New York but from Fresno, his home, and contained an intensity of ferocious markings and firework colors, often quickly scrawled on butcher paper. As a writer, he received Pulitzer for “The Time of Your Life,” but turned it down, and was given an Oscar for his screenplay, “The Human Comedy,” but sold it to a pawnshop. Like Steinback, he wrote extensively about central California, though Saroyan was widely known for his work about San Francisco.”
Sounds interesting, eh? Go check it out… this place is cool.
More reading and reviews…
MUA on Yelp
MUA on City Homestead
MUA on Oakland Magazine
MUA on East Bay Express
I love this mural, despite its dilapidated state. Painted 10 years ago by folks from Laney College, the East Bay Institute of Urban Arts, and Pat McElroy on the corner of 31st and MLK, it’s definitely showing its years, not to mention the heap of dump-destined-junk dumped in front of it. I thought about going back to snap another shot without the pile of junk, but then decided it was more authentic to just show you how I saw it when I first came across it.
This is typical in West Oakland, and the symbolism does not escape me.
Here you have symbols of power and change for people of color – activists, political leaders, artists, musicians, migrant workers, athletes, and more – all stitched together into a positive tapestry of, dare I say, “hope”, and some thoughtless person obscures it with a bunch of trash they’re too lazy or cheap to dispose of properly. It makes me mad. Trash gets dumped here daily, and I don’t just mean kids throwing their candy wrappers on the sidewalk as they walk home from school (which also happens). I mean large trucks advertising dumping & hauling, who likely charge folks to take their trash away, and then come dump it in my neighborhood so they don’t have to pay the city dump fees. Argh. The city still ends up paying for it, through blight clean up crews, and even more so, reduced property taxes.
It sometimes feels like a losing battle… which reminds me of this essay I read yesterday. It’s a breakup letter to the city of Oakland, from a resident who, after many years of struggling to make this city a better place, has given up. She’s movin’ to the country. Check it out… Ode to Oakland.
I’m not there… yet.
Directed by: Edythe Boone and Meera Desai (if that name rings a bell it’s because she was also involved in the Martin Luther King Jr. mural I covered when I first started this blog – To Ignore Evil…)
My friend and I went to Art’s Crab Shak last night. Now this is an Oakland experience. And by that, I mean a real, old-school, home-style Oaktown experience. Not for the faint of heart.
I’ve wondered about this place for years… I used to live right around the corner on 49th street and would drive past regularly, visit Mama’s across the street frequently, and yet never made my way in… until last night.
The first thing you notice is the sign that says “since 1963″ – not an easy feat for a restaurant in the Bay Area. But originally it was Art’s Steakhouse, until 1992 when Milouda Kelley took ownership, switched the menu to seafood, and added “Crab Shak” to the old sign.
The second thing you notice when you enter, is how the interior is almost as much bar as it is restaurant. With the lack of windows, dim interior, and vintage vibe, it definitely feels more dive bar than fine dining. I wanted to take some pictures inside, but felt like dorky tourist, so refrained. You’ll just have to go see for yourself.
The third thing you notice after taking your seat in one of the the vinyl upholstered booths framed by circa-70s corkboard chock full of Christmas cards from years past, is that the menu says you must “pay before food comes.” Now that’s a twist. But it’s likely due to the fact that despite it’s divey aesthetic, this crab don’t come cheap!
But this is what you love about Art’s. It’s an experience.
We shared a “bucket” for two, which – if I had done my research beforehand – I would have known would not truly be a bucket. Instead it was a large platter heaped with gorgeous crab-legs steeped in garlicky mushroomy goodness. It’s not your classic east-coast style crab (what I grew up with), but it’s damn good, nonetheless.
“Buckets” come with a basket of garlic bread, a plastic bib (you will wear it!), a huge stack of napkins, and sani-wipes. Definitely not a first date place, unless you’re a bit wierd.
My only complaint would be the poor beer selection: basic bud, MGD, corona, etc. Can’t a girl get a nice pale ale to go with her crab?!?
More reading…
Art’s on Yelp
Reason to Wear A Bib (East Bay Express)
Art’s on Eat Drink SF
Art’s on Not For Tourists
To commemorate the beginning of Black History Month, I made a visit to the African American Museum & Library on 14th Street, just a couple blocks behind City Center. I have to be honest, and I am ashamed to admit this, but this was my first ever visit to this museum which opened 8 years ago. I guess I’ll just say it was well worth the wait, because it really is a gem of an institution.
First of all, the building itself is absolutely gorgeous! Both an Oakland City Landmark, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it’s an architectural delight with lovely arched windows and doorways, detailed exterior stone work and incredible craftsmanship inside.
The building was spear-headed by Charles S. Greene, Oakland’s City Librarian from 1889 to 1926, who realized the city was outgrowing its first public library (a wooden structure erected in 1878 where City Hall now stands). He initiated a campaign to build a new one and, along with others including a women’s organization called The Ebell Society, found funding assistance from Andrew Carnegie’s Foundation, which offered $50,000 for the construction of the building. It was designed by architects Bliss and Faville in the American Beaux Arts style, and served as Oakland’s main library from 1902 until 1951.
“The elegant exterior of tan brick and terra cotta is incised with names of authors and disciplines and “Oakland Public Library.” “Free to All” is inscribed above the main entrance. The interior exhibits elaborate oak paneling, classical columns, and ornamented plaster ceilings. The second floor with its coffered, barrel-vaulted ceiling supported by massive columns, is one of Oakland’s most imposing interior spaces.” [Historical Plaque co-sponsored by Oakland Heritage Alliance]
Once the new main library (at 14th and Oak streets) was opened in 1951, this building served as a branch library, at which point it was renamed the Charles S. Greene Library. It later became city offices, and was eventually abandoned after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. “Following extensive restoration, it reopened in 2002 as the new home of the African American Museum and Library at Oakland.”
The mission of the Museum & Library is to discover, preserve, interpret and share the historical and cultural experiences of African Americans in California and the West for present and future generations.
The library is housed downstairs and consists of unique archives and reference materials on the history of African Americans in Northern California. The reference library houses approximately 12,000 volumes whose subjects include “religion, the military, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party, Africa in relationship to the African-American experience, genealogy, and California history.” And the archives contain diaries of prominent African Americans, newspapers on microfilm, videos and oral histories, and much more.
The museum is upstairs and “regularly hosts traveling and original exhibitions that highlight the art, history and culture of African Americans.” Here are two of the murals that greet you as you take the stairs to the second floor…
The current temporary exhibit is titled Access to Life: Faces from a Quiet Revolution and will be up through February 27th. It’s a powerful photographic exhibit by 8 Magnum photographers who focus their lenses on AIDS patients both before and for months following their antiretroviral treatments. “The project documents individuals in Haiti, Mali, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, and Vietnam; countries chosen because of the diverse contexts and circumstances driving the epidemic in each one.” To learn more, visit accesstolife.theglobalfund.org. Here are a couple shots…
There is also a permanent multi-media installation titled Visions Toward Tomorrow: The African American Community in Oakland, 1890-1990. “Visions documents the historical accomplishments of generations of African Americans in Oakland from the era of pioneering and settlement to those eras of community formation, development of the press, establishment of local churches, and creation of a lasting legacy of music and the arts.”
If you’ve never visited this wonderful institution, might I suggest that there is no time like the present. In honor of Black History Month, I plan to focus on more African American cultural events and institutions as February continues…
Ok… I’m a little peeved, so please excuse.
There was a big warehouse party in my neighborhood Friday night to celebrate the birthdays of several graffiti artists. The flyer was super-cool and the party was right around the corner from me so I was kind of excited to check it out.
There were DJs, live bands, an outdoor firepit, and tons and tons of kids (what I call “kids”… I think I was the second oldest person there!) It surely seemed like a great time for everyone else, but I ducked out early as tall PBR’s aren’t really my cup of tea (did you see my post on The Trappist? – that’s more my style). Walking back around the block we spotted numerous kids (aka young men) tearing up and down the street… the rattling sound of shaking spray-paint cans echoing against the concrete and brick. They were tagging anything and everything, in a neighborhood they don’t live in. Would they do this on the block where they live??!
The next morning I surveyed the damage.
Here are just a few pictures of my neighbor’s building…
I’m sorry, but this is not cool. In fact, it’s incredibly LAME.
You heard me… I don’t care if I sound like a stodgy old fart. That brick building is home to people who actually live in this neighborhood… working artists and interesting people. Do they deserve to have their property disrespected like this?
And what’s worse is that I know some of the people who did this are actually talented artists. There was a collection of wonderful poster art inside the party, with interesting and thought-provoking messages. This is Art…
It’s too bad these kids didn’t collaborate, and actually do something interesting, something that might be considered a complement to the neighborhood that would live on and inspire others. Instead, they created a bunch of eyesores that we’ll all have to spend money to remove. Thanks a lot guys. Pretty lame.
I thought I’d stay in the neighborhood since we’ve been here all week… here’s another mural produced by the folks at Community Rejuvenation Project. This one’s located at 21st and Mandela Parkway, right around the corner from Bee Aware – Connected Worlds…
These guys are busy. I haven’t even scratched the surface in terms of the murals they’ve produced over the last few years and intend to take a field trip down Foothill Blvd. in the near future to photograph many more.
I’m not sure when this one was produced… maybe my friend Desi can chime in and give us a bit more information. In the meantime I’ll tell you that CRP worked with 30 kids during a 6-week grant-funded program last summer to produce positive mural art in various neighborhoods in Oakland. The youth were actually paid for their time (jobs people!), as were the four artist instructors: Desi, Mr. E, Mike360, and Raven.
In addition to learning how to paint, the kids learned basic art concepts, promotional & marketing skills to interact with the local community around the project, documentation & surveying techniques, and even basic job skills like showing up on time and finishing a job through to completion. The unveiling of each mural was typically accompanied by a community block party.
At the end of the summer program they held a week-long workshop to produce the printed magazine S.W.E.A.R. documenting their efforts. SWEAR stands for Street Warriors Enacting Artistic Revolution, and the full 24 page piece was entirely produced by the youth, excluding printing.
It’s a gorgeous glossy full of wonderful vignettes about the projects and participants… poetry, artist bio’s, essays, etc. Here’s a snippet of one student’s essay:
“The CRP program is almost complete; we are still developing and exploring who we are and how art can change our world. During our first week, we dove into training and challenged ourselves to learn something completely new. Some of us had experience in painting, surveying, clean up, or promotion, but besides the lead artists, we were teaching each other.”
They’ve just finished their grant applications for 2010 and are planning for several more murals to be painted in the coming year. A couple locations have been picked in my neighborhood (the 30’s at San Pablo) and I, for one, am very excited!
Here is a piece of writing I found slapped up on a telephone poll near Hove’s blue trees mural from Monday. I didn’t have time to read it all that day, but I took these photos…
It’s about Oakland. Here is the text in its entirety… typed to match original as closely as possible. It’s interesting. It’s even more interesting that someone left it on a random telephone pole on Peralta street… it is unsigned. (correction… signed by “FOR FEAR THE HEARTS OF MEN ARE FAILING”… a fantastic psuedonym.) Thanks for sharing your work.
There are millions and millions of people in the city. There are people arguing in the streets. People looking out their windows to see what all that noise is about. People driving their cars, riding bikes, walking, staying put, people moving just because they can’t stand to stay still. Cowboys doing tai chi in the park. Single moms jogging. Cops giving tickets. Haters hating. Old Asian ladies playing hacky sack. Kids throwing fits on the bus. Scam artists sitting outside of grocery stores with a typewriter, selling what he calls poems. Baristas getting hit on. Hipsters calling each other hipsters. Teen girls wearing pajama bottoms and flip flops. People are putting their trash outside of their houses, cuz Earth Day is once a year but trash day is every week. Some people are taking that trash home, sleeping on it, dusting it off, eating it, hanging it on their wall and then throwing it away again after a week. This one kid was killed by a cop who meant to taser him. People are rioting because of that kid. This one girl is saying that it’s lame they should torch some innocent stranger’s car and this one guy is saying that some white artist hipster slumming it up in what she thinks is the ghetto being more concerned about the destruction of property than the violence against youth of color is a part of the reason that kid was killed. Oh snap, those people aren’t talking to each other after that shit! Someone is just going to work, minding her own business. Someone around the corner used to be in a popular band in the 90’s, The Counting Crows I think. Someone is quietly doing charity work. Someone is spitting on the liars and hypocrites in the name of Jesus Christ. Someone fell asleep on the bus. People are playing music. They’re walking down the street, rapping. They’re performing for elementary school children. They’re only playing to the sound guy. They’re making country music, city music, fifth wave ska, traditional Balkan dance songs exactly like they have been played for centuries (they imagine). They’re taking old music and adding electronic dance beats, beats antique. They’re making the newest sounds. They’re imitating their favorite bands. They’re playing music alone in their room. Everyone’s dumpster diving. Everyone’s watching lots and lots of TV shows on DVD. Everyone’s littering like crazy. Everyone drives up on the weekends to hit up the bars. Everyone’s wearing oversized white t-shirts and baggy jeans so the cops can’t tell them apart. Everyone’s jaywalking inhumanly slow. Everyone’s having unprotected sex. Everyone’s putting up signs saying they reserve the right to refuse service, for any reason. Everyone’s playing dice on the sidewalk. Someone’s saying its a pity. Someone’s gonna call the cops if you don’t get out of here this very second. Someone else lives here too, you know. She’s getting the shit kicked out of her. She’s singing the Dead Kennedys songs while she bikes home. She’s teaching yoga. She loves the Lord, Lordy Lord. She walks into a restaurant, sits down at a table that still have food on it and eats. He’s applying for a job at every goddamn corporate eatery on this goddamn street. He’s waiting for the library to open. He’s telling every young woman who walks by that she’s beautiful, but in the most obnoxious ways possible. He’s going to night school so he isn’t pushing a broom when he’s forty. He’s selling bootleg DVDs and drugs. They’re reading the Koran, books on how to fix appliances, Found magazine, Chick tracts, the whole Harry Potter series for the 2rd time and the newest issue of Cometbus. You are being racially profiled. You’re dressing up like a goblin for your jug band’s concerts. You’re looking good! You’re hooking up with people from the internet. You aren’t racist or anything, but you won’t go to certain parts of town after dark. You’re just looking for a decent cup of coffee. You have the right to remain silent. FOR FEAR THE HEARTS OF MEN ARE FAILING
Just a few blocks from yesterday’s mural I came across something even more magnificent, if only for it’s sheer size. Looks like Bode and friends have been busy since we interviewed him a couple months ago… (ART INTERVIEW: Bode)
This mural, or series of murals, stretches a huge city block between 26th and 28th streets on Peralta… it’s probably two football fields long! Check it out next time you head over to the delectable Brown Sugar Kitchen, just around the corner on Mandela Parkway…
I spotted this mural a couple weeks ago in West Oakland, at 26th and Magnolia…. not far from my home, but amazingly I had somehow never seen it before. I thought it might be new, but the inscription says it was painted by M. S. Hove (aka Scott Hove) in 2003. It’s amazing what you can find if you abandon your regular routines and explore a bit…
This is actually only half of the mural but I wanted to focus on the lovely blue skies during these dreary days of rain and drizzle, so I’ll have to show you the fiery side another day (or you can always check it out on his website if you don’t want to wait).
This one, at least the trees side, has a little bit of that Van Gogh Starry Night quality, don’t you think? He just did a new piece on Telegraph near Berkeley that feels a bit more Miró to me… I’ll feature that another day too.
Hove is another Bay Area native who attended the California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC, now renamed CCA – sans crafts), though he considers himself primarily a self-taught artist. He works in a variety of mediums, his work typically “reflect[ing] on the relationship between the natural world and mechanical civilization, and the drama that occurs during this interaction.”
One of the unusual mediums he works in is light. He actually draws with light, with the help of photographer Bruce Lynn. He has a whole series on his website, and I think this one is one of my favorites. Pretty cool, eh?
