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Arts and Culture

Los partidarios de Malonga Center dicen que el proyecto de Mercado puede acabar con la Institución Cultural

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Casi un mes después de que el Ayuntamiento aprobó una resolución que designa el corredor de la calle 14 en el centro de Oakland como el Distrito Black Arts Movement Business “para resaltar, celebrar, preservar y apoyar las contribuciones de los artistas afroamericanos y propietarios de negocios de Oakland”, uno de los principales centros culturales instituciones de la ciudad está siendo amenazada por dos propuestas para desarrollar proyectos de vivienda a precio de mercado a través de la calle.

 

 

El Centro Malonga Casquelourd para las Artes, ubicado en la 14th y Alice St., ha sido una institución cultural reconocible en Oakland durante más de cuatro décadas y un eje central para las comunidades de la diáspora africana.

 

 

La cantidad de aparcamiento a lo largo de la calle 14, dos de los únicos lugares donde los clientes del Centro Malonga pueden aparcar sus coches al tomar clases o asistir a espectáculos culturales, están programadas para ser reemplazados por los desarrollos de vivienda a precio de mercado que también significará la destrucción del icónica mural de la Calle Alice.

 

 

De acuerdo con activistas culturales y vecinos del centro Malonga, las dos de las propuestas de desarrollo fueron por la vía rápida a través de la Comisión de Planificación de la ciudad y no incluyen unidades de vivienda asequible, no hay aparcamiento para reemplazar las plazas de aparcamiento y beneficios de poca a ninguno para la comunidad para compensar los impactos negativos en el Centro Malonga.

 

 

Carla Service, propietaria de Dance-A-Vision Entertainment y residente de largo plazo del Centro Malonga, dice que el proyecto y la falta de aparcamiento serán perjudiciales para la institución cultural y sus vecinos.

 

 

“Se van a ahogar nuestros negocios, y van a ser paralizados”, dijo Service. “Por aquí, estas empresas están en rectas nefastas, y la ciudad debe asegurarse de que se hace cargo de las personas que ya existen en los barrios, sobre todo si el desarrollo está llegando.”

 

 

“El centro es un destino internacional que atrae a visitantes de toda la región”, dijo. “Algunos vienen de lugares tan lejanos como Hayward, Antioquía, o Santa Rosa. El aparcamiento es ya muy difícil, y por lo general hay coches aparcados en doble fila o personas durmiendo en sus coches en espera de un espacio libre”.

 

 

Cerca de 200 artistas, activistas culturales, tambores y los estudiantes de Oakland se reunieron el jueves en frente del Mural de la calle Alice y marcharon al Ayuntamiento para protestar por la voluntad de la Comisión de Planificación a la “evolución de la vía rápida sin negociar una parte equitativa de los beneficios para la comunidad”, según un comunicado de prensa de Oakland Creative Neighborhoods Coalition (OCNC).

 

 

Los organizadores exigieron que las decisiones sean detenidas hasta que los costos para reemplazar el mural estén completamente financiados y la planta baja de los edificios se conviertan en un garaje de estacionamiento dedicado al personal y los clientes de Malonga Arts Center.

 

 

También quieren que del 15 al 28 por ciento de las unidades sea asequible para las familias que ganan menos de $64.000 al año.

 

 

“El Teatro Malonga es uno de los iconos culturales de la ciudad, y la gente viene de todas partes para verlo”, dijo el ex-alcalde Jean Quan, quien asistió a la manifestación.

 

 

“El ayuntamiento de la ciudad realmente no ha seguido adelante con la sugerencia del Mapa de Ruta para la Equidad de la Vivienda, y que realmente necesitan”, dijo el alcalde Quan. “De lo contrario, van a ser incompatibles luchando por equidad espacio por espacio a lo largo de Oakland, y vamos a perder la mezcla diversa de la ciudad.”

 

 

De acuerdo con Eric Arnold, miembro del comité de dirección de OCNC, los dos desarrollos van en contra de la promesa de la ciudad para apoyar un distrito de Black Arts.

 

 

La presidenta del Consejo Lynette Gibson McElhaney no respondió a las preguntas del Post con respecto a cómo la reciente aprobación del distrito Black Arts ayudaría a proteger a las instituciones como el Centro Malonga.

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Activism

New Oakland Moving Forward

This week, several socially enterprising members of this group visited Oakland to explore ways to collaborate with local stakeholders at Youth Empowerment Partnership, the Port of Oakland, Private Industry Council, Oakland, Mayor-elect Barbara Lee, the Oakland Ballers ownership group, and the oversight thought leaders in the Alameda County Probation Department.

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iStock.
iStock.

By Post Staff

Since the African American Sports and Entertainment Group purchased the City of Oakland’s share of the Alameda County Coliseum Complex, we have been documenting the positive outcomes that are starting to occur here in Oakland.

Some of the articles in the past have touched on actor Blair Underwood’s mission to breathe new energy into the social fabric of Oakland. He has joined the past efforts of Steph and Ayesha Curry, Mistah Fab, Green Day, Too Short, and the Oakland Ballers.

This week, several socially enterprising members of this group visited Oakland to explore ways to collaborate with local stakeholders at Youth Empowerment Partnership, the Port of Oakland, Private Industry Council, Oakland, Mayor-Elect Barbara Lee, the Oakland Ballers ownership group, and the oversight thought leaders in the Alameda County Probation Department.

These visits represent a healthy exchange of ideas and plans to resuscitate Oakland’s image. All parties felt that the potential to impact Oakland is right in front of us. Most recently, on the back side of these visits, the Oakland Ballers and Blair Underwood committed to a 10-year lease agreement to support community programs and a community build-out.

So, upward and onward with the movement of New Oakland.

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Arts and Culture

BOOK REVIEW: Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy

When Bridgett M. Davis was in college, her sister Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

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Love Rita Book Cover. Courtesy of Harper.
Love Rita Book Cover. Courtesy of Harper.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: Bridgett M. Davis, c.2025, Harper, $29.99, 367 Pages

Take care.

Do it because you want to stay well, upright, and away from illness. Eat right, swallow your vitamins and hydrate, keep good habits and hygiene, and cross your fingers. Take care as much as you can because, as in the new book, “Love, Rita” by Bridgett M. Davis, your well-being is sometimes out of your hands.

It was a family story told often: when Davis was born, her sister, Rita, then four years old, stormed up to her crying newborn sibling and said, ‘Shut your … mouth!’

Rita, says Davis, didn’t want a little sister then. She already had two big sisters and a neighbor who was somewhat of a “sister,” and this baby was an irritation. As Davis grew, the feeling was mutual, although she always knew that Rita loved her.

Over the years, the sisters tried many times not to fight — on their own and at the urging of their mother — and though division was ever present, it eased when Rita went to college. Davis was still in high school then, and she admired her big sister.

She eagerly devoured frequent letters sent to her in the mail, signed, “Love, Rita.”

When Davis was in college herself, Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

First, they lost their father. Drugs then invaded the family and addiction stole two siblings. A sister and a young nephew were murdered in a domestic violence incident. Their mother was devastated; Rita’s lupus was an “added weight of her sorrow.”

After their mother died of colon cancer, Rita’s lupus took a turn for the worse.

“Did she even stand a chance?” Davis wrote in her journal.

“It just didn’t seem possible that she, someone so full of life, could die.”

Let’s start here: once you get past the prologue in “Love, Rita,” you may lose interest. Maybe.

Most of the stories that author Bridgett M. Davis shares are mildly interesting, nothing rare, mostly commonplace tales of growing up in the 1960s and ’70s with a sibling. There are a lot of these kinds of stories, and they tend to generally melt together. After about fifty pages of them, you might start to think about putting the book aside.

But don’t. Not quite yet.

In between those everyday tales, Davis occasionally writes about being an ailing Black woman in America, the incorrect assumptions made by doctors, the history of medical treatment for Black people (women in particular), attitudes, and mythologies. Those passages are now and then, interspersed, but worth scanning for.

This book is perhaps best for anyone with the patience for a slow-paced memoir, or anyone who loves a Black woman who’s ill or might be ill someday. If that’s you and you can read between the lines, then “Love, Rita” is a book to take in carefully.

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Activism

Faces Around the Bay: Author Karen Lewis Took the ‘Detour to Straight Street’

“My life has been a roller-coaster with an unlimited ride wristband! I was raised in Berkeley during the time of Ron Dellums, the Black Panthers, and People’s Park. I was a Hippie kid, my Auntie cut off all our hair so we could wear  the natural styles like her and Angela Davis.

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Karen Lewis. Courtesy photo.
Karen Lewis. Courtesy photo.

By Barbara Fluhrer

I met Karen Lewis on a park bench in Berkeley. She wrote her story on the spot.

“My life has been a roller-coaster with an unlimited ride wristband! I was raised in Berkeley during the time of Ron Dellums, the Black Panthers, and People’s Park. I was a Hippie kid, my Auntie cut off all our hair so we could wear  the natural styles like her and Angela Davis.

I got married young, then ended up getting divorced, raising two boys into men. After my divorce, I had a stroke that left me blind and paralyzed. I was homeless, lost in a fog with blurred vision.

Jesus healed me! I now have two beautiful grandkids. At 61, this age and this stage, I am finally free indeed. Our Lord Jesus Christ saved my soul. I now know how to be still. I lay at his feet. I surrender and just rest. My life and every step on my path have already been ordered. So, I have learned in this life…it’s nice to be nice. No stressing,  just blessings. Pray for the best and deal with the rest.

Nobody is perfect, so forgive quickly and love easily!”

Lewis’ book “Detour to Straight Street” is available on Amazon.

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