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Clean the Coast, Then Celebrate at Bay Festival

Celebrate the Bay with an Earth Day coastline cleanup, which you can follow up with a family-friendly festival focused on learning about the Bay and its wildlife. Come to both or just the one you prefer. At the coastal cleanup along the Berkeley Waterfront and Aquatic Park, you’d join City staff, community groups, and volunteers from around Berkeley to help clean up trash and plastic pollution.

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Come out April 22. Help celebrate the Bay by cleaning up our coastline, learning more at the Bay Festival or sampling in all that is offered at our Berkeley Waterfront.
Come out April 22. Help celebrate the Bay by cleaning up our coastline, learning more at the Bay Festival or sampling in all that is offered at our Berkeley Waterfront.

On April 22, help beautify the bay shore, bask in a festival about the bay – or do both. At the Bay Festival, hold birds, watch fish, and learn about otters and other native wildlife. Take a boat ride into the Bay. Eat, dance, and learn.

Celebrate the Bay with an Earth Day coastline cleanup, which you can follow up with a family-friendly festival focused on learning about the Bay and its wildlife.

Come to both or just the one you prefer.

At the coastal cleanup along the Berkeley Waterfront and Aquatic Park, you’d join City staff, community groups, and volunteers from around Berkeley to help clean up trash and plastic pollution.

At the Bay Festival, go on guided bird walks with the Golden Gate Audubon Society. Challenge your preconceptions about pigeons by holding a few and learning from Palomacy Pigeon, a pigeon rescue organization. Observe the Bay’s fish up close in a 1,500-gallon tank. Or go for a free boat ride.

Of course, like many of our bigger events put on by our Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department, we’ll have live music to dance to and a variety of food vendors.

Come join us at Shorebird Park.

VOLUNTEER TO CLEAN UP THE WATERFRONT

Protect our beautiful Bay and all the creatures that live in it by volunteering to pick up the trash that washed down to the waterfront during this year’s winter storms.

Please register so coordinators can best plan for volunteers. Groups only need one person to sign up as they can register up to 50 volunteers (including themselves).

All participants must fill out a waiver. If under 18, volunteers must be accompanied by their parent or legal guardian.

Earth Day Cleanup
Saturday, April 22
9:00am – 11:00am
Meet at the South Cove Sailing Basin lot
Register for the Cleanup

Follow signs on University Ave to reach the South Cove Sailing Basin lot, where you’ll check in or register if you haven’t already. Volunteers should plan to wear closed-toe shoes and dress appropriately for the work and weather conditions of the day. A limited number of supplies will be available, so please bring the following if you are able to:

  • bucket or reusable bag
  • reusable gloves
  • a trash grabber
  • reusable water bottle

Let’s work together to keep the Berkeley Waterfront clean!

ENJOY FOOD, LIVE MUSIC, AND EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

Over 30 environmental and wildlife conservation organizations from around the Bay will share their exhibits with the public.

Berkeley Bay Festival
Saturday, April 22
11:00am – 4:00pm
Shorebird Nature Center, 160 University Ave

There will be food from Curbside Kitchen, Royal Egyptian, Tacos El Rey, Nissa Expresso and Gelato Bar. The music and entertainment includes:

  • 11:00am – 11:40am
    The Berkeley Public Library Storytime Band, music for children and families
  • 12:00pm – 1:00pm
    Bug Family Band, music for children and families
  • 1:25pm – 2:25pm
    Aguacero, Puerto Rican folkloric vocal, drum and dance troupe
  • 2:45pm – 3:45pm
    Motor Dude Zydeco, fast-paced Louisiana-style dance band

A 1,500-gallon mobile freshwater fish exhibit will feature the large fish found in the delta and nearby lakes.  East Bay Regional Parks District Staff will bring and host the tank. Golden Gate Audubon, Palomacy Pigeon, and other organizations will also be leading events to help teach about the native wildlife and Bay ecosystem.

At the Shorebird Park Nature Center’s Straw Bale Building, you’ll be able to view marine organisms under high-quality microscopes.

If you’re coming just to play, Adventure Playground will be open for children to build with hammers, nails, saws and paint (with parental supervision). The Berkeley Racing Canoe Center (DragonMax) and Cal Adventures will provide free boat rides.

DEDICATED TO THE PROTECTION OF BERKELEY WATERFRONT

Organized by the City of Berkeley, the festival began in 1937 and continues to create community through live music, performers, food, hands-on educational activities, and free boat rides.

Please consider riding a bike, carpooling, or taking public transportation (AC Transit, bus 51B).

If you do drive, please park in the dirt lot behind Adventure Playground or the South Cove lot east of the Cal Adventures Sailing. Please do not park in the nearby L & M lots which require permits on weekends.

These events are organized by the City’s Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department, whose Recreation Division organizes dozens of camps, classes, and other activities for people of all ages. Get a glimpse at the Recreation division’s offerings through our recreation portal and events calendar.

For more information, contact the Shorebird Park Nature Center at (510) 981-6720 or naturecenter@berkeleyca.gov. If you are interested in volunteering at this event, call Samantha, (510) 981-6720.

Come out April 22. Help celebrate the Bay by cleaning up our coastline, learning more at the Bay Festival or sampling in all that is offered at our Berkeley Waterfront.

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Activism

Community Opposes High Rise Development That Threatens Geoffrey’s Inner Circle

City Council chambers were full for the May 17 Planning Commission hearing, and almost all the 40 speakers who had signed up to make presentations talked about the importance of the Inner Circle as part of Oakland and Geoffrey Pete as a stalwart community and business leader who has served the city for decades.

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Geoffrey Pete went to City Hall to appeal the city Planning Commission’s approval of the high-rise development that threatens the closure of his 44-year historic cultural mecca. Photo by Jonathan ‘Fitness’ Jones.
Geoffrey Pete went to City Hall to appeal the city Planning Commission’s approval of the high-rise development that threatens the closure of his 44-year historic cultural mecca. Photo by Jonathan ‘Fitness’ Jones.

By Ken Epstein

An outpouring of community supporters – young, old, jazz lovers, environmentalists and committed Oakland partisans – spoke out at a recent Planning Commission hearing to support Geoffrey Pete and his cultural center – The Inner Circle – an historic Oakland landmark whose future is threatened by a proposed skyscraper that out-of-town-developer Tidewater Capital wants to build in the midst of the city’s Black Arts Movement and Business District (BAMBD).

City Council chambers were full for the May 17 Planning Commission hearing, and almost all the 40 speakers who had signed up to make presentations talked about the importance of the Inner Circle as part of Oakland and Geoffrey Pete as a stalwart community and business leader who has served the city for decades.

The speakers argued passionately and persuasively, winning the sympathy of the commissioners, but were ultimately unsuccessful as the Commission unanimously approved the high-rise to be built either as a residential building or office tower on Franklin Street directly behind Geoffrey’s building.

Mr. Pete has said he would appeal the decision to the City Council. He has 10 days after the hearing to file an appeal on the office building. His appeal on the residential tower has already been submitted.

Mr. Pete said the Planning Department still has not published the boundaries of the BAMBD. “Tidewater’s applications and subsequent applications should not be approved until the Planning Department fully acknowledges the existence of the BAMBD,” he said.

“This (proposed) building poses a grave danger to the historic (Inner Circle) building next to it, arguably Oakland’s most meaningful historic building,” Pete said.

“We’re here to advocate for what’s best for the African American district and community that has gotten no representation, no advocacy, as of yet,” he said. “The (commission) is guilty, the City of Oakland is guilty, and Tidewater is guilty.”

One of the first speakers was Gwendolyn Traylor, known as Lady SunRise, who directly addressed the developers.

“With all due to respect to your business, it’s not a need of this community. I would like to ask you to reconsider the location …What is being (promised) here does not add to the healing of this community,” she said.

Naomi Schiff of the Oakland Heritage Alliance emphasized that Geoffrey’s Inner Circle is a treasure of Oakland’s history.

“Our first concern is the integrity of the historic district, in particular the former Athenian-Nile Club, now Mr. Pete’s equally historic venue, which has been the location of a great number of important community events,” she said. “It would not be OK with us if the integrity of the building were damaged in any way, no matter how much insurance (the developer bought) because it is very difficult to repair a historic building once it’s damaged.”

The Inner Circle was previously owned and operated by the Athenian-Nile Club, one of the Bay Area’s largest all-white-male exclusive private membership club, where politicians and power brokers closed back-room deals over handshakes and three martini lunches.

Cephus “Uncle Bobby X” Johnson pointed out that commissioners and the city’s Planning Department have “acknowledged that you went through the entire design review process without even knowing that the Black Arts Movement and Business District existed.”

The district was created in 2016 by City Council resolution. “At the heart of the opposition to this building is the desire to further the legacy of local Black entertainment and entrepreneurship exemplified by businesses like Mr. Pete’s … a historical landmark and venue (that serves) thousands of people who listen to jazz and other entertainment and hold weddings, receptions, and memorial services,” said Uncle Bobby.

This development is taking place within a context in which the “Black population in Oakland has decreased rapidly … because of the city’s concentration on building houses that are not affordable for people who currently live in Oakland,” he said.

John Dalrymple of East Bay Residents for Responsible Development said, “This project will result in significant air quality, public health, noise, and traffic impacts. He said the city has not adequately studied the (unmitigated) impacts of this project on the Black Arts Movement and Business District.

“This project is an example of what developers are being allowed to do when they don’t have to follow the law, and they don’t have to be sensitive to our city’s culture and values,” he said. The commission should “send a signal today that we will no longer be a feeding ground for the rich.”

Prominent Oakland businessman Ray Bobbitt told commissioners, “Any decision that you make is a contribution to the systemic process that creates a disproportionate impact on Black people. Please do yourself a favor, (and) rethink this scenario. Give Mr. Pete, who is a leader in our community, an opportunity to set the framework before you make any decision.”

Though the City Council created the BAMBD, the 2016 resolution was never implemented. The district was created to “highlight, celebrate, preserve and support the contributions of Oakland’s Black artists and business owners and the corridor as a place central historically and currently to Oakland’s Black artists and Black-owned businesses.”

The district was intended to promote Black arts, political movements, enterprises, and culture in the area, and to bring in resources through grants and other funding.

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Activism

Community Meeting on Crime and Violence

Join Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb to discuss the uptick in crime and violence in District 1 and across Oakland. Representatives from the Oakland Police Department will be in attendance. This event will be held in-person and online.

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Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb
Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb

Join Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb to discuss the uptick in crime and violence in District 1 and across Oakland. Representatives from the Oakland Police Department will be in attendance. This event will be held in-person and online.

Tuesday, May 30, 2023
6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Oakland Technical H.S. Auditorium
300-340 42nd St.
Oakland, CA 94611

For more information, contact District 1 Chief of Staff Seth Steward: ssteward@oaklandca.gov, 510-238-7013.

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Bay Area

UniverSoul Circus Opens in Richmond

Described by show organizers as a highly interactive combination of circus arts and theatre that spans musical genres, UniverSoul Circus will feature flipping motorcycles, stilt dancers, Fire Limbo Benders, ancestral carnival characters, clowns, flamboyantly costumed dancers and more “in a celebration of energy.”

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Clowns who perform with UniverSoul Circus. Photo courtesy UniverSoul Circus.
Clowns who perform with UniverSoul Circus. Photo courtesy UniverSoul Circus.

By Kathy Chouteau | The Richmond Standard

UniverSoul Circus kicked off its Bay Area run under the Big Top at Hilltop Mall last week with the performances continuing during various times through Sun., June 19.

The UniverSoul Circus is a single ring circus, established in 1994 by Cedric Walker and Calvin “Casual Cal” Dupree, an African American man who had a vision of creating a circus with a large percentage of people of color performing. He began searching for people from all around the world with incredible talents. Richmond police Chief Bisa French and City Manager Shasa Curl were set to be guest ringmasters for the opening night show.

Described by show organizers as a highly interactive combination of circus arts and theatre that spans musical genres, UniverSoul Circus will feature flipping motorcycles, stilt dancers, Fire Limbo Benders, ancestral carnival characters, clowns, flamboyantly costumed dancers and more “in a celebration of energy.”

“Get ready to be amazed and frightened at the terrifying, gravity- defying acrobats on the Wheel of Death or the bold, breathtaking daredevils on the High Wire,” said UniverSoul Circus in a statement about the show.

This season’s theme is, ‘We All Belong,’ according Walker, the circus founder and CEO. “We all belong to one human race. Everyone is coming together, different cultures, different people, a new transcultural fusion, a new generation inclusive and together in a UniverSoul Experience!”

Venue:
Hilltop Mall
2200 Hilltop Mall Rd, Richmond, CA 94806

Showtimes:
Thurs-Fri: 7:00 p.m.
Sat: 11:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m.
Sun: 11:00 a.m., 2:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m.

Box Office Hours:
Tues: 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Wed-Fri: 11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Sat: 9:00 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Sun: 9:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Mon: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (Memorial Day)

Tickets range from $27.50 to $60 depending on your seat and you can purchase them on Ticketmaster. Visit www.universoulcircus.com for more info.

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