Category Archives: political art

West Oakland Roots…

Wandering around my home stretch of West Oakland, I am always amazed how, after more than 10 years, I can still find things I’ve never seen before.  Just this past weekend I came across a new cafe, new art installation, new community garden plot, and more. All within a couple blocks of the BART station I’ve been to hundreds of times.  This is what I love about Oakland. And West Oakland in particular, with its vast assortment of abandoned manufacturing sites and empty lots, seems ripe for this kind of discovery.

I have to be honest and tell you I was on a bit of a mission when I came across these things, so it wasn’t completely by chance.

I went to the Oakland Indie Awards Nominee Mixer last week.  Do you guys know about the Indie Awards? An annual event hosted by the California One Foundation in partnership with the East Bay Express, to promote and highlight local artists and businesses doing amazing things in Oakland.  You have to be nominated by a community member, but after that, it’s strictly a juried process and finalists in a number of categories are chosen by a panel of judges after a series of interviews.  The awards party is on Friday, May 14th and should prove to be a huge event with local food & drink vendors, live music, DJs, and more. (tickets here)

But back to the mixer… last week was an opportunity to rub elbows with other nominees and even meet the judges and pitch your business or art a bit. I talked with a bunch of talented & creative peeps, one of whom was Keba Konte – artist, business owner, and self-proclaimed “waffle curator.” The owner of Guerilla Cafe in Berkeley as well as one of the founders of Kijiji Grows (featured in Oakland Youth Center post), he recently worked in conjunction with Mo’ Better Food and numerous other organizations in the establishment of Mo Better Food’s East Bay Farm/Garden one block from the West Oakland Bart Station. The garden workday took place on January 18th in honor of Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, and Keba organized a community installed art piece entitled “The Beautification Art Project,” directing volunteers to tie thousands of colorful ribbons onto a chain-link fence to create a portrait of the great civil rights leader. Fantastic.

keba konte, Martin Luther King art installation, community art west oakland BART

martin luther king art installation, beautification art project by keba konte

Apparently Kijiji Grows set up an aquaculture garden on site, but I didn’t see that during my visit…

keba konte, west oakland bart community garden, mo' better food garden

East Bay Urban Gardeners (EBUG) assisted volunteers in constructing numerous raised planter beds. Here are a couple…

mo' better food, west oakland garden, kijiji grows

lady bug, west oakland community garden, garden west oakland BART

Folks from Urban Releaf (formerly Oakland Releaf) planted numerous trees on the site, and it looks like this formerly abandoned lot is well on its way to becoming a beautiful green zone for food production and recreation. Way to go Mo’ Better Food!

Save Oakland Arts… Strategy Meeting Tonight!

SAVE OAKLAND ARTS NOW! Stop the 50% Arts Cut!

Strategy & Info Meeting, Tuesday, March 30, 6:30 pm at Pro Arts, 150 Frank H Ogawa Plaza at Oakland Art Gallery

Learn about public comment at Council, sign-up for a speaker card, review talking points, and get your message to Oakland’s City Council!

oakland cultural trust, save oakland arts

A message from the Oakland Cultural Trust:

The Council needs to hear from us again! The community prevailed when we raised our voices against similar cuts in October 2008. WE CAN DO IT AGAIN!

The Oakland City Council considers a 50% Cut to Oakland Arts at a special budget session on Thursday, April 1, 2010, 7pm. This is one move closer towards the elimination of the Cultural Funding Program, the long-established, competitive City program to provide arts and cultural services with attendance over 1.4 million.

3 STEP CALL TO ACTION:

1. Get the Word Out! FORWARD this alert to constituents, colleagues, students, friends, families, neighbors, friends-of-friends– or Share Arts Action Facebook Alert

2. CALL, EMAIL or WRITE your Council Member NOW! You can make the difference- Cut & Paste sample text or write your own message (See Sample below); Remain Positive and Respectful in your communications. We need the Council’s support!

3. Be There April 1 at 7 pm! TAKE ACTION & MAKE A DIFFERENCE during the special City Council BUDGET MEETING at City Hall, Sign-up for speaker cards at the meeting or in advance online -Agenda Item tba.

What’s at Stake: The City Council faces an unprecedented budget challenge. The additional proposed 50% cut to the Arts 1) is disproportionate to other City program cuts, 2) stands to cripple the arts sector, and 3) significantly reduces City tax revenues. Oakland is currently 13th in the nation for Arts Businesses per capita.

For every $1 the City invests in arts and culture, the City gets back $4 in fees, licenses and taxes. Nonprofit Arts in Oakland generate over $103 million in total gross annual economic activity and provide more than 5,000 jobs. The proposed cut means less revenue, more arts organizations closing their doors, loss of jobs and irreversible damage to the sector’s infrastructure. The Arts are a means of economic investment and renewal for Oakland! STOP THE 50% ARTS CUT!

—

Supporting Documentation & Resources:

A. SAMPLE Letter/Email:
Dear Council Member ________________,
Oakland Arts are the means to Oakland’s economic renewal and are fundamental to our quality of life. It has come to my attention that the City Council is considering a disastrous and disproportionate 50% cut to the Cultural Funding Program.
As a concerned citizen, I understand that difficult choices need to be made to ensure that essential services and infrastructure remain in place. I also understand that there are no easy solutions to our budget crisis. However, I believe a disproportionate cut to the arts exacerbates the crisis, cripples Oakland’s nationally ranked arts sector, and undermines our economic competitiveness, the compassion within our communities, and our investment in our future. I call upon you to mitigate the Arts cuts through a lens of equity and proportionality. Thank you for your leadership in investing in a better Oakland.
Sincerely,

B. Council Contacts:
District 1, Jane Brunner, jbrunner@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7001;
District 2, Pat Kernighan,pkernighan@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7002;
District 3, Nancy Nadel, nnadel@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7003;
District 4, Jean Quan, jquan@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7004;
District 5, Ignacio de la Fuente. idelafuente@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7005;
District 6, Desley Brooks, dbrooks@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7006;
District 7, Larry Reid, lreid@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7007
At-Large, Rebecca Kaplan, rkaplan@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7008

Not sure who your council member is? Click here to find out: http://gismaps.oaklandnet.com/councils/

C. Key Talking Points – Nonprofit Arts in Oakland:

  • 13th in the nation for Arts Businesses per capita.
  • Generates over $103 million in economic activity
  • Provides more than 5,000 jobs.
  • Produces more than $ 4 million in revenue to local government
  • Arts funding is a Low Cost Investment with High Economic and Cultural Return
  • Arts are a means of community and cultural development
  • Art serves public safety, violence prevention and saves lives
  • Arts education contributes to academic success and increased skill development for youth
  • Art generates revenue; If the arts decline then other businesses decline in a ripple effect.
  • Oakland benefits from one of the largest artist populations in the country
  • Art Cuts = Bad press for the City and undermine national and regional marketing campaigns

Additional Resources and References available online: http://www.proartsgallery.org/oaklandCulturalTrust/artsAction20100401.php

Community Organizing is our best option for ensuring the survival and sustainability of Oakland Arts. Please forward this email to friends, colleagues and mailing lists; the arts have strength in numbers.

Thank you for your support,
Margo
Chair, Oakland Cultural Trust

Mission: The Oakland Cultural Trust advocates for a vibrant, safe and sustainable Oakland by policies and action that support and nurture the vitality of Oakland artists and cultural organizations. More Info: http://proartsgallery.org/oaklandCulturalTrust

—
Margo Dunlap
Executive Director
****
Pro Arts
New Gallery Location- 150 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland CA 94612 (at Oakland Art Gallery)
510.763.4361
F510.763.9470
margo@proartsgallery.org
http://www.proartsgallery.org

Kill Your Television?

A couple more wheat pastes… These two were directly next to each other in West Oakland, but I’m not clear if they were produced by the same artist, or are supposed to relate to each other in some way. Maybe you’re supposed to practice a little mindful meditation after you’ve turned off the tube.

Whatever the case, they’re both pretty interesting…

television statistics, kill your television, television violence

Here is the text again (reformatted by me for ease of reading)…

  • 99 percent of American households possess at least one television.
  • There are 2.24 TV sets in the average U.S. household.
  • 66 percent of U.S. homes contain three or more TV sets.
  • The average TV is on for 6 hours, 47 minutes per day.
  • 66 percent of Americans watch television while eating.
  • The American population watches 250 billion hours worth of TV annually.
  • The value of that time assuming a wage of $5/hour: $1.25 trillion.
  • 56 percent of Americans pay for cable.
  • 49 percent of Americans say they watch too much television.
  • The average American child watches 1,680 minutes of TV per week.
  • 70 percent of day care centers utilize the television in their facilities.
  • 54 percent of children ages 4-6 chose watching television instead of spending time with their parents.
  • The average American youth spends 1500 hours watching television annually.
  • The average American youth spends 900 hours in school annually.
  • U.S. children are exposed to 8000 acts of violence on the television by the time they finish elementary school.
  • The number of violent acts seen on television by the age of 18: 200,000.
  • 79 percent of Americans believe TV violence helps precipitate real life mayhem.
  • 20,000 thirty-second commercials are seen by the average child.
  • The average 65 year old views 2 million or more commercials.
  • 53.8 percent of news stories are devoted to advertising crime, disaster, and war.
  • ?? percent is devoted to public service announcements.

A few comments…

When I was a kid I watched a lot of television. Too much television.  My family was probably quite representative of some of these statistics.  I watched Spiderman cartoons before school in the morning.  I watched Scooby Doo, The Brady Bunch, Bugs Bunny, and The Little Rascals after school.  We watched the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite every night during dinner, our plates perched on TV trays positioned in front of the living room couch.  We watched prime time TV most evenings.  I remember Wednesdays were Eight is Enough.  Fridays were The Love Boat and Fantasy Island.  Lame, I know. 

But it wasn’t all lame. There were some great shows, and certainly some that exposed me to characters and experiences I would know little about, living in white-middle-class suburbia – like The Jeffersons, Welcome Back Kotter, Good Times, and The White Shadow.  I loved these shows.

And television wasn’t nearly as violent as it is today.  The most violent shows I can think of were Starsky & Hutch and Charlie’s Angels, both rather tame by today’s standards. You could even argue the Angels were empowering for us young girls – to see those women kickin’ ass, takin’ names, and always baggin’ the bad guys. 

Could we have been spending our time more productively? Certainly.

But at this point in my life (and actually for most of my adulthood), I watch fewer than 5 hours of television a week… sometimes none at all.  Not bad for a kid raised on the boob tube.

I suppose you could argue that I’ll never know what untapped potential in myself was squelched due to an overdose of 70’s sitcoms.  But I’m ok with that.  In spite of it all, I think I turned out pretty well. 

I’m not saying I don’t agree with the larger message of the piece. I agree we’d all be a lot better off if folks spent a bit more time engaging in more interactive pursuits. I’m just sayin’, it’s not all bad.

buddha, doghead buddha, west oakland wheat paste

And now… I think I’ll get off this computer and do a little yoga…

Namaste.

SSS

Some short posts this week… busy busy busy.

People loved the first one of these, found just across the border in Berkeley (Time’ll Tell). This one’s just across the border too, in Emeryville though, and mostly gone now. I shot it awhile ago, but sadly only after somebody already ripped a chunk of it off.

What do you think it said?

broke, sss, time'll tell, giant buffalo wheatpaste

A giant wheatpaste cut to shape, it seems to be a reproduction done in a few large pieces from a smaller, quite detailed drawing. Pretty cool, eh?

Hoping to fine one in Oaktown-proper one of these days… (hint hint)