Uncategorized

Sista Monica Parker Goes Acoustic

Published

13 years ago

January 25, 2013

Oakland Post

Sista Monica Parker

By Lee
Hildebrand

“I get paid to belt and shout, but I actually can sing,” Sista Monica Parker quips in the living room of her Mountain House home prior to a Wednesday night rehearsal with her new Acoustic Honey band.
Since the Gary, Indiana, native became a professional singer 20 year ago, she’s been knocking out audiences at festivals, clubs and blues cruises throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Turkey with her electric band and big, brassy, church-hewn contralto pipes.
She has recorded 11 CDs for her own Mo Muscle label, most of them focused on blues. Two are devoted to gospel music, the most recent of which is 2010’s “Singin’ in the Spirit” featuring guests Linda Tillery, Deanna Bogart and Bishop Yvette Flunder.
With Acoustic Honey, comprising pianist Danny Beconcini, tenor saxophonist Danny Sandoval, drummer Leon Joyce Jr. and onetime Charles Brown side person Ruth Davies on upright bass, Parker plans to present a softer sound and a broader repertoire.
The group will make its debut, beginning at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 2, at Piedmont Piano Company, 1728 San Pablo Ave. in Oakland. Two shows are booked for the following Saturday at Kuumbwa Jazz in Santa Cruz.
“It’s gonna be a mix of roots music, blues, gospel and jazz,” Parker says before breaking into the opening line of “What a Diffr’rence a Day Makes.” “”We’ll be doing some standards and we’ll be doing some popular songs, and then we’ll be doing some Sista Monica.
“The band will not be able to overpower me, which sometimes bands do when they can plug in and turn up. Although my band rarely does that because we talk a lot about dynamics, the truth is when we’re on the festival scene, sometimes it just gets that way.”
Parker recently left her day job as a freelance corporate headhunter in order to devote more time to her music. She served as a Marine Corps recruiter during her three-years of service in the late ‘70s, then worked for more than three decades for such companies as Hewlett Packard, Apple, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems and Dolby Laboratories.
“I meditate and I write songs,” Parker says of her new-found free time. “I’m studying my craft a lot more. I’m going into the history of Etta James and Koko Taylor and Ruth Brown and Katie Webster — the older girls who preceded me – so I can learn how they developed their craft and got to where they are.”
Parker began singing in a Baptist church in Gary when she was 7 and later developed an affinity for blues after attending the Chicago Blues Festival. “Blues has some of the same rhythms and chord changes that gospel does,” he vocalist plans to travel to Memphis in May to attend the Blues Foundation’s 34th Blues Music Awards ceremony. She, along with Barbara Carr, Denise LaSalle, Dorothy Moore and Irma Thomas, are nominated for this year’s award in the organization’s Soul Blues Female Artist category.

Oakland Post

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Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

6 months ago

June 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Special to The Post

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department (Oakland HCD) announced its awardees for the 2024-2025 New Construction of Multifamily Affordable Housing Notice of Funding Availability (New Construction NOFA) today Five permanently affordable housing developments received awards out of 24 applications received by the Department, with award amounts ranging from $7 million to $28 million.

In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”

In December, the office of Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 City Councilmember, worked with HCD to allocate an additional $10 Million from Measure U to the funding pool. The legislation also readopted various capital improvement projects including street paving and upgrades to public facilities.

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is the media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

10 months ago

January 30, 2025

Oakland Post

Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 city councilmember. File photo.

Special to The Post

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units, including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Oakland Acquisition Company’s Acquisition of County’s Interest in Coliseum Property on the Verge of Completion

The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.

Published

11 months ago

January 11, 2025

Oakland Post

Alameda County Board of Supervisors Chairman David Haubert. Official photo.

Special to The Post

The County of Alameda announced this week that a deal allowing the Oakland Acquisition Company, LLC, (“OAC”) to acquire the County’s 50% undivided interest in the Oakland- Alameda County Coliseum complex is in the final stages of completion.

Oakland has already finalized a purchase and sale agreement with OAC for its interest in the property. OAC’s acquisition of the County’s property interest will achieve two longstanding goals of the County:

The Oakland-Alameda Coliseum complex will finally be under the control of a sole owner with capacity to make unilateral decisions regarding the property; and
The County will be out of the sports and entertainment business, free to focus and rededicate resources to its core safety net

In an October 2024 press release from the City of Oakland, the former Oakland mayor described the sale of its 50% interest in the property as an “historic achievement” stating that the transaction will “continue to pay dividends for generations to come.”

The Board of Supervisors is pleased to facilitate single-entity ownership of this property uniquely centered in a corridor of East Oakland that has amazing potential.

“The County is committed to bringing its negotiations with OAC to a close,” said Board President David Haubert.