Arts and Culture

Dr. King’s Connection to Oakland Bay Area

Published

7 years ago

January 13, 2017

As the Bay Area prepares to celebrate another national holiday honoring the life and work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Post News Group staff is reminded of how intertwined Dr. King’s mission and family’s legacy is with the newspaper and the Oakland Bay Area.

Gay Plair Cobb, wife of Post publisher Paul Cobb, marched with Dr. King in 1963 at the March for Jobs in Washington. She still is carrying on that tradition of demanding economic justice with her leadership of the Oakland Private Industry Council.

Gay also founded the Nelson Mandela Training Center that prepares minorities for construction-related jobs and she is still advocating for more jobs in the Bay Area’s economic boom.

“If Dr. King were alive today, he would be urging me and others to continue to speak the truth of economic justice through jobs to the powerful at the city, county, state and federal levels of government as well as the business leaders,” said Paul Cobb.

“When we lived in Atlanta in 1973 through 1976, Gay and I—along with Beni Ivey, who is now the Executive Director of Martin Luther King III’s center—had the opportunity to work with the late Coretta Scott King, Congressman John Lewis and Senator Julian Bond,” he said.

The Post archives record how Dr. King spoke at the Oakland Auditorium in December 28, 1962, before a 7,000-plus crowd where the themes of his famous March on Washington speech were tested.

Many of the economic justice ideas that King presented there were a continuation of the calls for reparations and economic restorative justice from the Reconstruction Era Freedmen’s Bank experience that had been presented months earlier at the McClymonds High School “Mind of the Ghetto” Conference, which was sponsored by the AfroAmerican Association.

At that conference, Malcolm X, Don Warden, Cassius Clay, (Muhammad Ali) Floyd McKissick, Will Ussery, Thomas Berkeley, Paul Cobb, Elijah Turner and many other Black leaders participated.

Dr. King was also tutored by the late Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams of Berkeley, while they were students at Boston University.

Rev. Ray Williams, pastor of Morning Star Baptist who attended the historic event, said: “Pastor Edward Stovall of the progressive Baptist Church of Berkeley led a group of ministers into history. He reached across the denominational lines to invite ministers of other faiths, including Rev. Richard Foster, pastor of Cooper AME Zion, Reverend Roy Nichols, a Methodist Leader, activist George Henderson of the Star Baptist Church, Rev. Peyton E. Pierce, President of the Baptist Minister Union, and several leaders of the Catholic Church.”

Paul Cobb, Gay Plair Cobb, Martin Luther King III, Beni Ivey, Sherry Ivey and the late John Ivey during King’s visit to the Post in 2014.

“The predominantly Black audience signaled for a political awakening that set the stage for the elections of Attorney Thomas Berkeley and Barney Hilburn to the Oakland Board of Education, and Byron Rumford to the State Assembly,” said Williams.

Rev. Frank Pinkard, pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church, said, “King captured our desire for economic redemption when he opened his March on Washington speech by saying the US government had given Blacks a note marked ‘insufficient funds.’ That part of the speech should have been equally glamorized as the famous ‘I have a dream’ phrase.”

During an excerpt from that speech, King said: “We have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

“This note was a promise that all men, yes Black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

“It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’

“But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”

In 1965, Post publisher Paul Cobb led a group of Oaklanders to march with and report on the Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights.

Cobb noted that the father of Assemblymember Rob Bonta was also a part of that march.

Cobb said he sees the BAMBD (Black Arts Movement Business District), as well as the Anti Police-Terror Project’s Spokescouncil Movement, as continuations of the King legacy of activism.

This week Cat Brooks and Tur-Ha Ak will lead activities where people can gather to participate and advocate for direct actions to make positive changes for people in need.

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Arts and Culture

Kedrick Armstrong: New Music Director for the Oakland Symphony

The Oakland Symphony Announced Kedrick Armstrong as its Next Music Director. In addition to conducting the orchestra’s public concerts, Armstrong will also actively participate in the Oakland Symphony’s many education and community engagement programs, designed to inspire a love of music in people of all ages.

Published

3 days ago

April 20, 2024

Oakland Post

Kedrick Armstrong is the new music director for the Oakland Symphony. Photo credit Scott Chernis.

By Post Staff

The Oakland Symphony Announced Kedrick Armstrong as its Next Music Director.
In addition to conducting the orchestra’s public concerts, Armstrong will also actively participate in the Oakland Symphony’s many education and community engagement programs, designed to inspire a love of music in people of all ages.

Armstrong is the successor to previous music director and Conductor Michael Morgan, who passed away in 2021 after a 30-year tenure at the Symphony.

Armstrong will open the Oakland Symphony 2024-2025 season on October 18.

Armstrong, who is 29 and hails from Georgetown, South Carolina, is currently the creative partner and principal conductor of the Knox-Galesburg Symphony.

The Chicago Tribune has praised Armstrong for his ability to “simply let the score speak for itself.” He enjoys a wide range of repertoire, spanning early music to premiering new works, using his joy and curiosity for all music to cultivate understanding and collaboration within diverse communities.
“I am deeply honored and grateful for the opportunity to serve as the new music director of the Oakland Symphony,” Armstrong said. “As a Black conductor, I find it humbling to stand on the shoulders of both Michael Morgan and Calvin Simmons,” the most recent and the first African American music directors of the Symphony, respectively.

Armstrong led three programs at the Symphony between 2022 and early 2024, which showcased his broad knowledge of the classical repertoire and enthusiasm for spotlighting diverse voices.
On his Oakland Symphony subscription debut on Feb. 16, Armstrong led the world premiere of “Here I Stand: Paul Robeson,” an oratorio by Carlos Simon on a libretto by Dan Harder, commissioned by the Oakland Symphony.

Armstrong was selected unanimously by the Oakland Symphony’s board of directors and musicians after an extensive two-year search. “The search committee was overwhelmed by Kedrick’s scholarship and curiosity about all kinds of music, from classical and jazz to gospel and hip-hop,” said. Dr. Mieko Hatano, executive director of the Oakland Symphony. “We are thrilled to have him join us at the Oakland Symphony.”

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Arts and Culture

Faces Around the Bay Dr. Carl Blake, Pianist

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999. One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Published

7 days ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Dr. Carl Blake

By Barbara Fluhrer

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999.

One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Blake obtained a Bachelor of Music from Boston University and continued post-baccalaureate studies in Jamaica before earning a Master of Arts in Music at San Jose State University. He was the recipient of two Fulbright residencies in Honduras and completed a third residency at the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. He has a Doctor of Musical Arts from Cornell University.

At age 19, Blake, then an undergraduate piano major at Boston University, was “discovered” by Impresario Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams, who is the Founder and Director of Today’s Artists/Four Seasons Arts.

Williams honored Blake by awarding him the first Marian Anderson Young Artist Award. Anderson personally presented the award at the Masonic Auditorium in S.F. Subsequently, Blake was presented by Dr. Williams in his San Francisco debut at The Herbst Theatre. Williams subsidized a year of study abroad for Blake at the Paris Conservatory of Music. Additionally, Williams sponsored Blake’s New York Weill Hall debut, where he has performed twice since. Blake performed several times at the Yachats Music Festival in Oregon.

Blake continues to perform nationally and abroad. His hobbies are reading, baking and travel. He says, “I’m still pumping ivories, as Belgian pianist Jeanne Stark described the disciplined practice of concert piano.”

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Arts and Culture

Oakland Jazz Great Offers Master Class as City Declares “John Handy Day”

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city. Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

(L-R) Del Handy, John Handy, Roger Glenn, and Joe Warner celebrate John Handy Day at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, Oakland. Photo by Lady Bianca.

By Conway Jones

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city.

Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

“John Handy is a jazz icon and an inspiration to musicians everywhere,” said Ayo Brame, a 16-year-old Oakland tenor saxophone player who is enrolled at the Oakland School for the Arts.

In celebration of this day, the reception in downtown Oakland at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle was a gathering of artists, young and old, coming together in his honor and celebrating his 91st birthday.

Handy presented a Saxophone Colossus free masterclass for musicians. This class afforded a rare opportunity to learn about the saxophone from an aficionado. The class was free and open to all – saxophonists, vocalists, aficionados, students, and casual listeners.

“As a longtime friend for over 60 years, and fellow musician who has had numerous opportunities to share the stage with John, it has always been a pleasure performing with him and hearing his creative interpretations of the music and his gift of ease inspiring the next generation of jazz musicians,” said Roger Glenn, a multi-instrumentalist.