Oakland Voices

Oakland Voices A community media project for Oakland residents funded by the Maynard Institute and the California Endowment.

Many of our correspondents join Oakland Voices because they want to reshape common misperceptions of their communities, portraying them instead as dynamic places where real people struggle, succeed, and thrive. Our correspondents learn journalism ethics and editorial decision-making, interview basics, and story craft. They use those tools to report on a wide range of issues highlighting the triump

hs and challenges of life in East Oakland, including community heroes and heroines, health and wealth disparities, and efforts to curb violence.

🏆 Former Oakland Voices co-director Momo Chang awarded for reporting on how Oakland Chinatown residents are rethinking p...
08/21/2026

🏆 Former Oakland Voices co-director Momo Chang awarded for reporting on how Oakland Chinatown residents are rethinking public safety.

Momo Chang shared first place award from the San Francisco Press Club with public safety reporter Roselyn Romero and freelance editor Tommy.

The story grew from a collaboration between Oakland Voices and The Oaklandside and revisited Chinatown years after anti-Asian violence during the COVID-19 pandemic drew national attention.

“It means a lot to be recognized for a community-focused, local news story focused on Oakland Chinatown,” Chang said. She’s reported on Oakland Chinatown since 2005.

The reporting took months to complete and examined how residents and community leaders have continued working together and learning from one another.

“The story shows the power of local reporting,” Chang said, “but also how much energy and resources are needed to do in-depth reporting.”

✍️: Oakland Voices
📸: Courtesy of Momo Chang

Bella Liu expected to write about housing and store closures. Instead, the Dow Jones News Fund intern found a broader bu...
08/20/2026

Bella Liu expected to write about housing and store closures.

Instead, the Dow Jones News Fund intern found a broader business beat focused on Oakland’s nonprofits, arts and cultural institutions, and got to explore the Town.

“Business is kind of just wherever people are spending money and where money is going,” Liu said.

✍️: Ayah Ali Ahmad
📸: Courtesy of Bella Liu

Oakland Pride Parade’s 16th annual celebration marched through downtown Oakland on Sunday, bringing together LGBTQ+ comm...
08/19/2026

Oakland Pride Parade’s 16th annual celebration marched through downtown Oakland on Sunday, bringing together LGBTQ+ community members, allies and local organizers.

Swipe to see Oakland Voices’ photos from the event.

📸: Ashley D**g/Oakland Voices Ashley D**g

Outside Lands, a Bay Area summer staple since 2008, draws hundreds of thousands of music lovers.To Oakland DJ Jordan Law...
08/18/2026

Outside Lands, a Bay Area summer staple since 2008, draws hundreds of thousands of music lovers.

To Oakland DJ Jordan Lawler, it’s just “the festival across the bridge.” Official AntiLands Music Festival Page

Lawler usually loves attending music festivals with his friends, many of whom are also DJs. But after moving to Oakland and watching ticket prices rise, he said Outside Lands no longer seemed worth it.

“A couple years ago we were like, ‘Man, are we really gonna go to Outside Lands again?’” Lawler said. “At that point, we were like, ‘Let’s throw our own rave.’””

Born from Lawler and his friends’s festival fatigue, Antilands is a renegade music festival featuring live house and techno sets by local Oakland DJs. While branded as Oakland’s tongue-in-cheek response to San Francisco’s Outside Lands, Antilands is much smaller.

Outside Lands is a three-day festival that takes over Golden Gate Park. Antilands is a one-day rave tucked away in a grove near the James P. Edoff Memorial Bandstand at Lake Merritt. Outside Lands drew 250,000 people this year. Lawler said that more than 300 people attended Antilands’s fourth annual event on Aug. 15. While passes to Outside Lands cost more than $500 this year, Antilands is free.

✍️: Bella Liu/Oakland Voices bella🐞
📸: Ashley D**g/Oakland Voices Ashley D**g

Normally, adults may enter Children’s Fairyland only when accompanied by a child. But on Aug. 14, the theme park bent th...
08/18/2026

Normally, adults may enter Children’s Fairyland only when accompanied by a child. But on Aug. 14, the theme park bent the rules for its 14th annual Fairyland for Grownups. Children's Fairyland

“Our core business is children, ages one to seven is really the sweet spot,” Fairyland CEO Kymberly Miller said. “But, as this event shows, we really love to engage the whole spectrum of humans.”

Opened in Oakland in 1950, Children’s Fairyland was the country’s first storybook theme park designed specifically for young children. Since then, its storybook gardens, fairytale rides, nursery-rhyme-themed sets, and puppet theatre have inspired several similar amusement parks like Disneyland.

Fairyland for Grownups, though, is meant to enchant and inspire a completely different audience.

“We want to make sure that we give people, whether they have children in their lives or not, the chance to be a kid again,” Miller said. “We love to entertain the 21-plus crowd and help people remember their childhood.”

✍️: Bella Liu/Oakland Voices bella🐞
📸: Ashley D**g/Oakland Voices Ashley D**g

08/18/2026

On Aug. 4, youth activists protested the use of pepper spray in Alameda County's Juvenile Justice Center.

“Healing cannot breathe in a room full of chemicals, rehabilitation cannot grow where pain is planted,” Hope Johnson said at the rally.

At the demonstration, Urban Peace Movement (UPM) transformed the Alameda County Administration Building into a stage with the performance of the “Breathing Room.” The street play showcased the harmful effects pepper spray has on the mental and physical health of young people.

Alameda County is one of three counties in the Bay Area that still use pepper spray on youth in detention.

In a statement, the Probation Department said that chemical intervention is used as a last resort when there is an immediate threat of harm and “less restrictive options have failed or are insufficient.”

🎥: Sathya Chaib

07/20/2026

🎶 Summer Sunday Jazz 🎶.

The Young Musicians Choral Orchestra took center stage at the July 11 Summer Sunday Jazz concert at the Golden Gate Library in North Oakland.

Every Sunday, the free series features a youth ensemble before the main performance.

The musicians included:
🎸Lukas Levine, 14, on bass
🎺Leonard Abesamis, 17, on trumpet
🎷Margret Kariuki, 16, on saxophone
🎷Tiquan Spence, 15, on tenor sax
🎹Max Nguyen, 18, on keys
and
🥁Geechi Taylor, artistic director of YMCO, on drums.

📍Concerts take place at the Golden Gate Library, 5606 San Pablo Ave, every Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

🎥: Rasheed Shabazz

Big news from Oakland Voices! 🎉Our director, Rasheed Shabazz, has been selected as one of just 10 journalists nationwide...
07/17/2026

Big news from Oakland Voices! 🎉

Our director, Rasheed Shabazz, has been selected as one of just 10 journalists nationwide for the 2026 Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting Fellowship.

The six-month fellowship provides advanced training, mentorship, and community for emerging investigative journalists. The organization and program honors the legacy of pioneering investigative reporter Ida B. Wells.

“Ida B. Wells is one of my sheroes,” Shabazz said. “With the fellowship, I hope to expand my investigative skills, think critically about verification, and improve my ability to ‘make it plain.’”

As part of the fellowship, Rasheed will investigate how Oakland manages homeless encampments, examining the human impact of encampment removals and how often those displaced ultimately obtain housing.

📷: Courtesy photo

07/16/2026

On July 14, local street vendors attended the City Hall meeting to protest the Oakland Police Department’s recent enforcement actions. The vendors said the OPD has confiscated merchandise, tents, cash and even vehicles, allegedly without prior warning or due process. Following the seizures, an advocate attorney is suing the city to obtain public records regarding an enforcement operation on May 1 where vendors’ properties were seized and destroyed. The lawsuit also requests public records about a number of homeless encampment operations.

Comment below: What are your thoughts on how the city is handling street vending enforcement?

🎥 by Sathya Chaib

07/16/2026

For Taylor Lyons, healing starts with legacy.

“I think knowing your history and where you come from@is a big part of your healing,” Taylor said.

At Black Cultural Zone’s Sisterhood Circle, Black women used collage to reflect on identity, healing, and those watching them grow.”

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4096 Piedmont Avenue Ste #377
Oakland, CA
94612

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