Art

Review: Mitski at Fox Theater

From the moment she walked on stage, there was the distinct atmosphere of watching a play. Mitski looks out into the audience, but she does not speak to them. There is no banter between songs. Only a brief, completely dark pause. Her face displays different emotions for each song — at times longing — other times fierce. Mitski dances with choreography that’s both expressive and abstract. During “Goodbye, My Danish Sweetheart” she plays with a paper airplane, then throws it into the crowd.

Published

3 years ago

March 22, 2022

Oakland Post

Mitski at the Fox Theater. Photo courtesy of foxoakland.

Indie-pop musician Mitski played a sold-out show at Oakland’s Fox Theater on March 4. with misunderstood brilliance.

By Sarah Clemens

The Japanese-American musician has been writing self-examining indie-pop for ten years. Her songs are often short and poignant, rarely lasting over three minutes. While Mitski’s early work meshed distortion with drumbeats, her latest offerings are synth-heavy meditations. Recently she’s exploded in popularity, becoming extremely popular on social media platforms like TikTok. She’s now earned the kind of audience that yells, “I love you!” between songs and waits outside in the cold for hours just to see her. These interjections seemed crude, however, juxtaposed with the kind of show Mitski puts on.

Mitski has been known as many things; but not a performer. After her TikTok success, Mitski was aligned with the new genre called “sad girl” sound. It’s a vague amorphous collection of female musicians that make downbeat music. “Sad girl” includes Phoebe Bridgers, Clairo, Lana Del Rey, Lorde, and even Taylor Swift. Interpreting Mitski as sad music isn’t entirely false, but it is overly simplistic. To think of Mitski as a perpetually crying, hopelessly devoted blank canvas is to strip her music of artistic value. This interpretation positions Mitski not as an artist, but as a conduit. When we cast aside Mitski’s performance abilities, this is not only a disservice to her, but to ourselves.

Case in point; Mitski’s voice. There is no one who sings quite like Mitski. Her voice swells with every word, creating the kind of transference actors spend years perfecting. During “I Will,” when she warbled “All I want is / Always you / It’s always you,” there was a collective crescendo. It felt as if everyone wanted so deeply, the word “always” was not enough. This is the spellbinding quality at the heart of Mitski’s success; resonance. Fans may be deemed silly for responding so deeply to songs written by someone they don’t know, but that is just a testament to Mitski’s gifts.

At the night’s end, the spell breaks. Mitski speaks for the first time, saying, “Thank you. I love you. Goodnight, stay safe.” Then she runs backstage. The audience erupts into cheers.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

California Democratic Party Adopts Platform Language Prioritizing Black Student Achievement

Don't Miss

Rebecca Kaplan Officially Files to Run for District 3 Alameda County Supervisor

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Griot Theater Company Presents August Wilson’s Work at Annual Oratorical Featuring Black Authors

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Published

3 months ago

February 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Late playwright August Wilson. Wikipedia photo.

By Godfrey Lee

Griot Theater Company will present their Fifth Annual Oratorical with August Wilson’s “Half a Century,” at the Belrose on 1415 Fifth Ave., in San Rafael near the San Rafael Public Library.

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20^th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Previous performance highlighting essential Black American authors included Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry with Langston Hughes.

The play will be performed at 3:00. p.m. on Feb. 20, 21, 22, 27, and 28 at 7:00 p.m., and on Feb. 23 at 3:00 p.m.

For more information, go to griottheatercompany.squarespace.com/productions-v2

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

MLK Day of Service Volunteers Make Blankets and Art for Locals in Need

“Everyone has an opportunity to participate,” said Glenda Roberts, kinship support care program manager at CCYSB. “Our nonprofit organization and participants recognize how important it is to give back to the community and this is serving. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, ‘Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.’”

Published

4 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Photo courtesy of the nonprofit.

By Kathy Chouteau
The Richmond Standard

The Contra Costa Youth Service Bureau (CCYSB) and Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church (BMBC) are collaborating with a team of volunteers for a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, Monday, Jan. 20 that will wrap the community’s most vulnerable people in warm blankets and provide them with an uplifting gift of art.

Volunteers will kick off their activities at BMBC at 11 a.m., making blankets for the unhoused people served by the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP) and art for those in convalescence in Richmond.

Others will get to work preparing a lunch of chili, salad, a veggie tray, and water for participants, offered courtesy of CCYSB, while supplies last.

“People of all ages are welcome to participate in the MLK Day of Service,” said Roberts. Volunteers can RSVP via phone to Glenda Roberts at 510-215-4670, ext. 125.

CCYSB Boardmember Jackie Marston and her friends donated the materials and supplies to make the blankets and art projects. The nonprofit is also providing the day’s complimentary lunch, as well as employees to volunteer, under the direction of CCYSB Executive Director Marena Brown.

BMBC, led by Rev. Dr. Carole McKindley-Alvarez, is providing the facility for the event and volunteers from the church, which is located at 684 Juliga Woods St. in Richmond.

Located in Richmond, CCYSB is a nonprofit youth advocacy organization that serves eligible children, youth, and low-income families with a variety of wraparound services so they can thrive. Programs include academic achievement, youth mentorship, truancy prevention and direct response.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Art

Vandalism at Richmond Ferry Terminal Saddens Residents

Residents have been lamenting the destruction online. Ellen Seskin posted photos of the vandalism to the Facebook group, Everybody’s Richmond, on Jan. 12, saying she encountered it while out on a walk. “It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

Published

4 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Graffiti mars the walkway at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Photo by Kathy Chouteau, The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

“This is why we can’t have nice things,” stated the post on NextDoor.

The post referenced images of graffiti at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Not just on the terminal, but also on public artwork, on trail signs, on public benches and the boardwalk.

On Wednesday, the Standard stopped by to see it for ourselves. The good news was that it appears the graffiti on the terminal and on the artwork, called Changing Tide, have been cleaned for the most part. But graffiti remained abundant in the area around the relatively new ferry terminal, which opened to the public just six years ago.

Graffiti artists tagged benches and the boardwalk. Cars that had done doughnuts in the street marked the cul-de-sac just outside the historic Craneway Pavilion.

A ferry worker told us the graffiti had been there since before he started working for the ferry service about a week ago.

A member of the Army Corps of Engineers who did not want to be named in this report called the scene “sad,” as “they’d done such a nice job fixing it up.”

“It’s sad that all this money has been spent and hoodlums just don’t care and are destroying stuff,” he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how soon the graffiti would be removed. The Standard reported the graffiti to the city’s graffiti abatement hotline. We were prompted to leave a message reporting the address and location of the graffiti.

“It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

In the comment section responding to Seskin’s post, local attorney Daniel Butt questioned why there aren’t cameras in the area.

On Nextdoor, one resident suggested searching to see if the tags match any accounts on Instagram, hoping to identify the perpetrator.

On its website, the City of Richmond says residents should graffiti immediately call Public Works graffiti removal and/or Code Enforcement at 510-965-4905.

Kathy Chouteau contributed to this report.