Arts and Culture

Hundreds Flock to New Vegan Soul Food Grand Opening in Oakland

Published

7 years ago

January 23, 2017

The Philly Cheeze Melt is one of the most decadent vegan sandwiches in town.

The line to the Veg Hub was out the door and down the street all day at its grand opening on Macarthur Boulevard near Fruitvale Avenue last week.

At least 250 newcomers and regulars came for their sesame kale salads, grilled ‘cheese steak’ and ‘chicken’ sandwiches, quesadillas, nachos and the premiere of their soul food plate—fried ‘chicken,’ yams, and greens with ‘mac-n-cheeze.’

Giving all the glory to the Almighty, Chef G.W. Chew said, “God showed up and showed out.”

Willie Russell III brought his son, Willie IV, and daughter Monronica for their favorites, teriyaki chicken sandwich and the soul food plate.

Being regulars since the hub’s soft opening last month, eating at the Veg Hub is on its way to becoming a family tradition.

“Good environment, good food,” the elder Russell said.

“It’s like a meeting place where we find people from churches we haven’t seen for a while.”

Chef Chew, descended from sharecroppers in Prince Frederick, Md., and a business major at Howard University before traveling the country as a Seventh-day Adventist missionary, began cooking out of necessity.

“We had to cook for ourselves. We taught ourselves by reading cookbooks and experimenting,” he said.

He cooked for friends and family, opened a vegetarian restaurant in Cincinnati, Ohio, and another when he married and moved to Fayetteville, Ark.

SDA Northern California Conference Secretary Mark Woodson, met Chew at a convention in Ohio in 2012 where Chew was a food vendor.

A year later, Chew and Woodson met again in Oakland and serious plans for Veg Hub began.

Oakland was chosen in part because the vegetarian lifestyle prescribed by SDA is more common and because the restaurant could further the church mission of healthy living by teaching cooking and nutrition classes to neighborhood youth.

“We have a crisis with our health,” Chew said of African Americans. He wanted to “make food that can remove some of the ills” caused by meat-based diets.

No SDA churches were in District 4, Woodson said, making it a great place for a different kind of public ministry that was largely financed through SDA grants from regional to international levels as a well as $40,000 collected from local congregations.

That the Veg Hub opened a few months after the McDonald’s franchise next door closed down is significant to City Councilwoman Annie Campbell Washington.

“It’s such a wonderful addition to the Dimond,” she said.

Chew approached her three or four months ago about his intent to do community outreach in the form of cooking and other classes for the youth, a large number of whom congregate at the bus stop across Macarthur Boulevard after school.

Finding Chew’s enthusiasm contagious, Campbell Washington is engaged with the Neighbors for Racial Justice, the NCPC and others to help with his vision.

At 6 p.m., Chew locked the doors, leaving potential customers outside.

“We ran out of ‘meat,’” he said.

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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

2 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.

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Arts and Culture

Musical Chronicling Life of Betty Reid Soskin Set for Bay Area Debut

Betty Reid Soskin’s storied 102 years includes time spent as a WWII defense worker, activist, business owner, songwriter, National Park Service park ranger and so much more. Now the Richmond icon is the subject of a musical based on her incredible life.

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Betty Reid Soskin. Photo courtesy of Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond.

The Richmond Standard

“Sign My Name to Freedom,” a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO) production which will focus on the life, music and writing of Ms. Soskin, will premiere at San Francisco’s Z Space Friday, March 29 and continue through Saturday, April 13. Tickets range from $15–$65 and can be purchased online at https://www.sfbatco.org/smntf

The musical is directed by Elizabeth Carter, while playwright Michael Gene Sullivan integrates Ms. Soskin’s own music throughout dialogue between what SFBATCO calls “The Four Bettys” as they progress through a century of experiences of this awe-inspiring American woman.

The cast of “Sign My Name to Freedom” features Tierra Allen as Little Betty, Aidaa Peerzada as Married Betty, Lucca Troutman as Revolutionary Betty and Cathleen Riddley as Present Betty Reid Soskin, according to Artistic Director Rodney Earl Jackson Jr. and Managing Director Adam Maggio. Other casting will be announced in the future.

Jackson said that having Soskin’s blessing to steward her life’s story is an honor and career highlight for him and that her journey stands as “a beacon for Black Americans, women and people of color all across the world [and] is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.”