Arts and Culture

List of MLK Week Events to Honor Dr. King’s Legacy Across the Bay Area

Published

8 years ago

January 10, 2017

The following is a list of upcoming events honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. next week across the Bay Area. (* after the event name indicates an admission fee).

Where Do We Go From Here Chaos or Community? A film viewing and discussion of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s works and legacy

January 14, 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Martin Luther King Jr. Branch Library, 6833 International Blvd.

2017 marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community. In honor of this work and Dr. King’s birthday, the MLK Branch, in collaboration with the Oakland International Film Festival, will host a screening of the films, “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: A Historical Perspective” and “Been to the Mountain.” The films will be followed by a discussion of the book and Dr. King’s legacy. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/2iSGIhf or call 510-615-5728.

MLK Service at Stanford Memorial Church

January 15, 10 a.m. – 11 a.m.

Stanford Memorial Church, 450 Serra Mall at Stanford University

The service is the 50^th anniversary celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community” book. It will feature dramatic readings of his sermons and music related to his life.

http://events.stanford.edu/events/644/64491/

MLK Day of Service & Resistance – Public Land for Public Good

January 15, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Drivers Plaza at Stanford Ave. and Adeline St.

Join Self Help Hunger Program, Santa Fe CAN Beautification Committee, and The Island Crew for a MLK Day of Service and Resistance. This year’s theme is #PublicLandforPublicGood. Volunteers will be planting an additional 18 fruit trees in this public community orchard.

Join the group for a free pancake breakfast (bring a topping to share), cob oven pizza potluck (bring a topping for the free cob oven pizzas), prepping and planting 18 memorial fruit trees for the 2nd phase of the living fence program, and planting tree collards for the Self Help Hunger Program Community Feeds.

In the Name of Love: 15th Annual Musical Tribute Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.*

January 15, 7 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Oakland Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Dr.

In the Name of Love, Oakland’s Annual Musical Tribute to Dr. King, is proud to present “Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On?” highlighting five outstanding vocalists including Kenny Washington; Terrie Odabi; Will Russ, Jr.; Destani Wolf and Luq Frank with Tammy Hall on piano, Marcus Shelby on bass, Sly Randolph on drums, John Santos on percussion and Teo Avery on sax.

The powerful 65-voice Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir and the 300-voice Living Jazz Children’s Project will also perform. The Oakland Citizen Humanitarian Award will be presented to Mr. Glen Upshaw for his work on behalf of the Oakland community. Upshaw has worked in the field of street outreach and violence interruption for close to five years.

The 15th Annual Tribute, which will support the Living Jazz Children’s Project — a free music education project for Oakland public elementary schools, promises to be a profound celebration of civil rights and an amazing evening of music.
mlktribute.com or 510-858-5313

MLK2017 March and Parade in San Francisco

January 16, 9 a.m. – Noon

SF Caltrain Station (700 4^th St in San Francisco) to Yerba Buena Gardens

Join thousands in honoring the Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama marches at the MLK2017 commemorative march/parade from San Francisco’s Caltrain Station to Yerba Buena Gardens.

The 1.5-mile journey crosses the Lefty O’Doul Bridge and stops at Willie Mays Plaza at AT&T Park to commemorate the crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, a symbol of violence and victory in the civil rights movement. On arriving at Yerba Buena Gardens an interfaith commemoration will commemorate Dr. King.

Participants in groups of ten or more are encouraged to register to ensure a designated location within the march/parade for your team and participants.

MLK Day of Service: Jingletown

January 16, 9 a.m. – Noon

Check in at the Jingletown Native Plant Garden Art Wall, 2934 Ford St.

Join the Friends of Sausal Creek and Jingletown Arts & Business Community for a workday to clean up the shoreline and tend to the Jingletown Native Plant Garden. All tools and instruction will be provided. All need a signed waiver to participate (bit.ly/2bqkyBI), and anyone under 18 also needs a parental signature on both forms. Bring sturdy shoes, long pants and warm clothes.
http://bit.ly/2i8kyql

MLK Day of Service: Brookfield Elementary

January 16, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Brookfield Elementary, 401 Jones Ave.

Volunteers will plant 50 trees and install garden boxes. Bring garden gloves, a water bottle and sturdy shoes.
http://bit.ly/2jsgTFE

MLK Day of Service: Fruitvale

January 16, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

1001 Fruitvale Ave. at the corner of E. 10th St.

Join the group at the corner of Fruitvale and E. 10th Street for beautification efforts along International Boulevard. Volunteers will mulch, weed and clean up trash from the sidewalk and gutters. Coffee and refreshments provided. Great event for adults, students and families. Children must be accompanied by parents. All projects are taking place rain or shine! Please wear sturdy shoes and bring a water bottle.
http://bit.ly/2i4eocg

MLK Day of Service: Peralta Hacienda

January 16, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, 2465 34th Ave.

Peralta Hacienda is partnering with Alternatives in Action at Life Academy and the City of Oakland for a full day of service to clean-up and beautify Peralta Hacienda Historical Park and Life Academy campus. Be part of a major community stewardship effort.
http://bit.ly/2jlLNM0 or 510-532-9142

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Commemoration in Oakland

January 16, 10 a.m.

Oakland City Church (corner of Coolidge and MacArthur Blvd)

Join the Oakland City Church for a celebration of Dr. King’s legacy. The event will be keynoted by human rights activist and educator Dr. Cesar Cruz and will feature a hip-hop performance from Hebrew Boyz featuring Pastor Mustafa Muhyee, gospel music by Sister Mattie Johnson of the Street’s Disciples, and praise music by the Oakland City Church Praise and Worship Band.

There will also be a community Charge to Action from Councilmember Annie Campbell-Washington.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Multi-Cultural Rally

January 16, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Warehouse Union Local 6, ILWU, 99 Hegenberger Rd.

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Multi-Cultural Rally is celebrating its 25th Anniversary. This year’s theme is “Initiate Change Through Non-Violence & Education, and Justice, to Keep the Dream Alive.” Newly elected
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Madden will be the keynote speaker.
510-798-5535

3rd Annual March to Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy in Oakland

January 16, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Frank Ogawa Plaza, 14^th St. and Broadway in Oakland

All are invited to the march on Monday to #ReclaimMLK, which also launches 120 hours of direct actions of protest and resistance leading up to the January 20 inauguration of Donald Trump.

The march will start at Frank Ogawa Plaza at 14^th St and Broadway in Oakland.

This year, the Anti Police-Terror Project will begin its week of action with the Reclaiming King’s Radical Legacy March. This year’s focus is on immigrant rights, protection of Muslim neighbors, women’s reproductive rights, loving LGBTQ sisters, brothers and siblings, and the defense of Black life.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Film Festival in Oakland

January 16, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.

African American Museum and Library at Oakland, 659 14th St.

Join AAMLO for its annual film festival honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Film screenings will include “Black Americans Since MLK: And Still I Rise,” “The African American: Many Rivers To Cross,” “The Powerbroker: Whitney Young’s Fight for Civil Rights” and “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.”
http://bit.ly/2iSZH9v or 510-637-0200

20th Annual Bringing the Noise for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.*

January 16, 7 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Nourse Theater, 227 Hayes St., San Francisco

Youth Speaks celebrates 20 years of Bringing the Noise for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Curated by Senior Poet Mentor M.C. K-Swift, this year’s showcase is inspired by Dr. King’s seminal speech and text “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” Join as audiences listen with urgency to Dr. King’s profound oratory and witness the next generation respond, reinterpret and renew the work he left behind.

Featuring guests and performances by Youth Speaks Grand Slam Champions 2015 & 2016, Brave New Voices Alumni Poets, Tongo Eisen-Martin with Peck the Town Crier, Toaster, Jeff Chang, Rico Pabon, and hosted by Queen Nyabingha Zianni. youthspeaks.org

Interfaith Candlelight Vigil and Walk in Oakland

January 17, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, 2619 Broadway St. in Oakland

Join the First Presbyterian Church for this family-friendly event in remembrance of the work of Dr. King and in recognition of the work communities need to do to make the Beloved Community a reality. Bring a candle, glowstick or other source of light.

After a brief gathering ceremony, participants will begin their candlelight walk to Frank Ogawa Plaza. Clergy and faith leaders are invited to wear vestments or other garments relevant to their ministry.

Bay Area Women’s Marches

January 21, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Oakland: Madison Park (Madison St. and 8^th St.) to Frank Ogawa Plaza (14^th St. and Broadway)

SF: Civic Center to Justin Herman Plaza

The Women’s March is a national movement to unify and empower everyone who stands for human rights, civil liberties, and social justice for all. This is a non-partisan march.

In Oakland, marchers will meet at Madison Park in Oakland at 10 a.m. At 11AM marchers will begin their march up Oak Street to Grand Street along Lake Merritt. They will then march down Broadway to end at Frank Ogawa Plaza.

At 12:30 p.m., the event will begin its rally with speakers, art and music concluding at 3 p.m.

In SF, people will rally with speakers, arts and music from 3 p.m. – 5 p.m. at Civic Center in San Francisco. At 5 p.m., marchers will begin a candlelight march down Market St. to Justin Herman Plaza.

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Arts and Culture

Book Review: Building the Worlds That Kill Us: Disease, Death, and Inequality in American History

Nearly five years ago, while interviewing residents along the Mississippi River in Louisiana for a book they were writing, authors Rosner and Markowitz learned that they’d caused a little brouhaha. Large corporations in the area, ones that the residents of “a small, largely African American community” had battled over air and soil contamination and illness, didn’t want any more “’agitators’” poking around. They’d asked a state trooper to see if the authors were going to cause trouble.

Published

1 day ago

January 6, 2025

Oakland Post

Courtesy of Columbia University Press.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, c.2024, Columbia University Press, $28.00

Get lots of rest.

That’s always good advice when you’re ailing. Don’t overdo. Don’t try to be Superman or Supermom, just rest and follow your doctor’s orders.

And if, as in the new book, “Building the Worlds That Kill Us” by David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, the color of your skin and your social strata are a certain way, you’ll feel better soon.

For Rosner and Markowitz, this underscored “what every thoughtful person at least suspects”: that age, geography, immigrant status, “income, wealth, race, gender, sexuality, and social position” largely impacts the quality and availability of medical care.

It’s been this way since Europeans first arrived on North American shores.

Native Americans “had their share of illness and disease” even before the Europeans arrived and brought diseases that decimated established populations. There was little-to-no medicine offered to slaves on the Middle Passage because a ship owner’s “financial calculus… included the price of disease and death.” According to the authors, many enslavers weren’t even “convinced” that the cost of feeding their slaves was worth the work received.

Factory workers in the late 1800s and early 1900s worked long weeks and long days under sometimes dangerous conditions, and health care was meager; Depression-era workers didn’t fare much better. Black Americans were used for medical experimentation. And just three years ago, the American Lung Association reported that “’people of color’ disproportionately” lived in areas where the air quality was particularly dangerous.

So, what does all this mean? Authors David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz don’t seem to be too optimistic, for one thing, but in “Building the Worlds That Kill Us,” they do leave readers with a thought-provoker: “we as a nation … created this dark moment and we have the ability to change it.” Finding the “how” in this book, however, will take serious between-the-lines reading.

If that sounds ominous, it is. Most of this book is, in fact, quite dismaying, despite that there are glimpses of pushback here and there, in the form of protests and strikes throughout many decades. You may notice, if this is a subject you’re passionate about, that the histories may be familiar but deeper than you might’ve learned in high school. You’ll also notice the relevance to today’s healthcare issues and questions, and that’s likewise disturbing.

This is by no means a happy-happy vacation book, but it is essential reading if you care about national health issues, worker safety, public attitudes, and government involvement in medical care inequality. You may know some of what’s inside “Building the Worlds That Kill Us,” but now you can learn the rest.

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

‘Giants Rising’ Film Screening in Marin City Library

A journey into the heart of America’s most iconic forests, “Giants Rising” tells the epic tale of the coast redwoods — the tallest and among the oldest living beings on Earth. Living links to the past, redwoods hold powers that may play a role in our future, including their ability to withstand fire and capture carbon, to offer clues about longevity, and to enhance our own well-being.

Published

2 days ago

January 5, 2025

Oakland Post

A woman stands amid towering redwood trees in a forest. Photo courtesy of Marin County Free Library.

By Godfrey Lee

The film “Giants Rising” will be screened on Saturday, Jan. 11, from 3-6 p.m. at the St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, located 100 Donahue St. in Marin City.

Through the voices of scientists, artists, Native communities, and others, we discover the many connections that sustain these forests and the promise of solutions that will help us all rise up to face the challenges that lay ahead.

The film’s website is www.giantsrising.com. The “Giants Rising” trailer is at https://player.vimeo.com/video/904153467. The registration link to the event is https://marinlibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/673de7abb41279410057889e

This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Marin City Library and hosted in conjunction with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and St. Andrew Presbyterian Church.

All library events are free. For more information, contact Etienne Douglas at (415) 332-6158 or email etienne.douglas@marincounty.gov. For event-specific information, contact Zaira Sierra at zsierra@parksconservancy.org.

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Activism

‘Resist’ a Look at Black Activism in U.S. Through the Eyes of a Native Nigerian

In 1995, after she and her brothers traveled from their native Nigeria to join their mother at her new home in the South Bronx, young Omokha’s eyes were opened. She quickly understood that the color of her skin – which was “synonymous with endless striving and a pursuit of excellence” in Nigeria – was “so problematic in America.”

Published

1 week ago

December 29, 2024

Oakland Post

Cover of “Resist! How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America.” Courtesy image.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer, The Bookworm Sez

Throughout history, when decisions were needed, the answer has often been “no.”

‘No,’ certain people don’t get the same education as others. ‘No,’ there is no such thing as equality. ‘No,’ voting can be denied and ‘no,’ the laws are different, depending on the color of one’s skin. And in the new book, “Resist!” by Rita Omokha, ‘no,’ there is not an obedient acceptance of those things.

That became a bigger matter to Omokha later, 15 years after her brother was deported: she “saw” him in George Floyd, and it shook her. Troubled, she traveled to America on a “pilgrimage for understanding [her] Blackness…” She began to think about the “Black young people across America” who hadn’t been or wouldn’t be quiet about racism any longer.

She starts this collection of stories with Ella Josephine Baker, whose parents and grandparents modeled activism and who, because of her own student activism, would be “crowned the mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” Baker, in fact, was the woman who formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, in 1960.

Nine teenagers, known as the Scottsboro Nine were wrongly arrested for raping two white women in 1931 and were all released, thanks to the determination of white lawyer-allies who were affiliated with the International Labor Defense and the outrage of students on campuses around America.

Students refused to let a “Gentleman’s Agreement” pass when it came to sports and equality in 1940. Barbara Johns demanded equal education under the law in Virginia in 1951. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale formed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966. And after Trayvon Martin (2012) and George Floyd (2020) were killed, students used the internet as a new form of fighting for justice.

No doubt, by now, you’ve read a lot of books about activism. There are many of them out there, and they’re pretty hard to miss. With that in mind, there are reasons not to miss “Resist!”

You’ll find the main one by looking between the lines and in each chapter’s opening.

There, Omokha weaves her personal story in with that of activists at different times through the decades, matching her experiences with history and making the whole timeline even more relevant.

In doing so, the point of view she offers – that of a woman who wasn’t totally raised in an atmosphere filled with racism, who wasn’t immersed in it her whole life – lets these historical accounts land with more impact.

This book is for people who love history or a good, short biography, but it’s also excellent reading for anyone who sees a need for protest or action and questions the status quo. If that’s the case, then “Resist!” may be the answer.

“Resist! How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America” by Rita Omokha, c.2024, St. Martin’s Press. $29.00