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.

Oakland is home to one of the oldest operating gay bars in the nation. The White Horse Bar hasn’t closed its doors since...
01/13/2026

Oakland is home to one of the oldest operating gay bars in the nation.

The White Horse Bar hasn’t closed its doors since 1933. The term “q***r bar” is more accurate for today.

The White Horse remains a place to enjoy good company, drinks, and fun events, and a safe space for everyone under the rainbow umbrella: le***an, gay, bisexual, pansexual, transgender, non-binary, questioning, and more.

Located on Telegraph Ave at 66th St. in North Oakland near the Berkeley border, a rainbow-colored crosswalk bridges the major thoroughfare and leads you to the entrance.

The owner, Patty Di**le, said she her heard stories about folks going to q***r bars most of their life because they couldn’t be themselves at home or out and about in the streets.

“For a lot of folks, it was the only place for them,” Di**le said. The White Horse remains a safe and inclusive community that all can attend a feel seen and a part of.
A place for q***r folks to experience “Fun with Love.”

Even though people may starve, die, and suffer all over the world, Di**le said she can play a bigger piece by playing a significant role right here at home in Oakland.

“I focus on the people right here in front of me and the love we all deserve,” Di**le said. By ensuring the doors remain open at the White Horse and everyone from her staff, to anyone who comes through its double doors, experiences “Fun with Love.”

The phrase “Love is Love” is painted out front on the electrical transformer box just outside of the bar.

As for the future of the White Horse, she hopes future owners will sprinkle their own seasoning and still keep its essence.

“I want the future of the White Horse to be that it evolves because our community evolves,” Di**le said. “At the end of the day someone is going to need a safe space to be themselves.”

https://oaklandvoices.us/2025/12/23/oakland-white-horse-gay-q***r-lgbtq-bar/

The following is an excerpt from Emile Suotonye DeWeaver’s 2025 book, Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine: Reform, Whi...
01/10/2026

The following is an excerpt from Emile Suotonye DeWeaver’s 2025 book, Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine: Reform, White Supremacy, and an Abolitionist Future.

White supremacy is a social, economic, and political order, but it’s also a cultural order. The latter is too often unaddressed or unseen in strategies to end it. Contemporary history bears this out: it hasn’t even been fifty years since freedom fighters discovered that individualist approaches to racism can’t solve a structural problem.

Prison Abolitionists have normalized that discovery in our strategies for change. That’s a victory, but we’re now called to normalize a new realization.

I believe we will fail to end white supremacy if we rely only on structural strategies and analyses, because the structure is only the mechanism of enforcement, not the thing itself. Beneath the structure lies a culture; beneath the culture lies an ideology; and just as individualist solutions can’t answer a structural problem, structural strategies won’t solve cultural and ideological ones.

Excerpt courtesy of New Press. Read the excerpt and find where to order the book on OaklandVoices.us

https://oaklandvoices.us/2025/12/18/book-excerpt-ghost-in-the-criminal-justice-machine/

Fueled by Resilience: An Interview with Mia BontaAssemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) serves California’s 18th Assembly ...
01/08/2026

Fueled by Resilience: An Interview with Mia Bonta

Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) serves California’s 18th Assembly District (East Bay). She was first elected in a special election on Aug. 31, 2021.

Throughout 2025, Bonta said her efforts emphasized dignity, access, and fairness across issues ranging from maternal health and immigration to youth justice reform. While celebrating hard-won policy victories shaped by community advocates and impacted families, she has also been candid about the persistence of deeply rooted challenges – particularly for young people navigating systems that too often prioritize punishment over support.

California Black Media spoke with Bonta about her successes and disappointments in 2025 and her outlook for the new year.

California Black Media: What stands out to you as your most important achievement last year and why?

Mia Bonta: I was proud to lead AB 1261, expanding access to legal counsel for immigrant youth. I came into the Legislature to fight for our children, and with the federal administration openly targeting young people for deportation, this bill was a labor of love. No child should be forced to stand alone in a courtroom, navigating a legal process they don’t understand, often in a language they don’t speak. That is not who we are as Californians. I’m grateful my colleagues and our governor agreed.

CBM: What frustrated you the most last year?

MB: It has been frustrating to operate under yet another Trump administration rather than one that could have been led by a daughter of Oakland. With deep cuts to health care, violent immigration raids, and rising costs, the challenges facing California families have only grown. But these pressures also make the work we’re doing more urgent.

CBM: What inspired you the most last year?

MB: I am constantly inspired by the people of AD-18 – Oakland, Alameda, and Emeryville. They never give up, never back away from a righteous fight, and continue to push forward even when the odds are stacked high. Their resilience fuels my own, especially in the hardest moments.

CBM: What is one lesson you learned in 2025 that will inform your decision-making in 2026?

MB: We are strongest when we fight together.

Read full interview on OaklandVoices.us.

🎤: California Black Media

01/07/2026

Assemblymember Mia Bonta discusses her 2025 accomplishments, frustration with Trump administration, and hopes for the future.

Teresa D. Williams’ parents joined the Black Panther Party in its formative years. They entrusted the Party with their c...
01/06/2026

Teresa D. Williams’ parents joined the Black Panther Party in its formative years.
They entrusted the Party with their children’s upbringing as they labored for the cause. While she and her siblings received a good education and had outstanding teachers, the experience was often bittersweet.

Williams felt abandoned and isolated. Williams said that she and other children experienced sexual abuse while attending the Oakland Community School, an award-winning school started by the party.

Although her time was not always happy, Wiliams’ is proud of her journey and the compassion instilled in her.

For Williams, the teachings at the Panther school helped her cope with adversity and shaped her science curriculum and philosophy of “Each one, Teach on.” Today, Williams is Department Chair of Geology and Geography at both Merritt and Laney Community Colleges.

“That’s why I never really left Oakland,” Williams said. “You can say all children have different experiences and those experiences make you who you are. It helped me become a teacher and to have a lot of compassion to help people.”

https://oaklandvoices.us/2025/12/02/panther-cub-teresa-williams-oakland/

Seventeen years after Oscar Grant III was killed by a BART police officer at Fruitvale Station, his family and a multige...
01/05/2026

Seventeen years after Oscar Grant III was killed by a BART police officer at Fruitvale Station, his family and a multigenerational movement gathered on New Year’s Day with a familiar message: still pressing on.

Oscar Grant’s mother, Rev. Wanda Johnson, greeted attendees wearing a shirt bearing her son’s image and the words “I am ... Still Pressing On.”
Through the Oscar Grant Foundation, she continues to turn tragedy into triumph, funding scholarships, hosting backpack giveaways, and investing in youth.
“We’re working to build our community,” Johnson said. “It’s important to work to make sure our youth have a better tomorrow.”

Grant’s daughter, Tatiana, now a mother herself, attended.

Anti Police-Terror Project organizer Cat Brooks recited a poem she wrote when her own daughter was just three years old, at the beginning of the Justice for Oscar Grant Movement.
“How do I explain to my three-year-old/ why I’m marching in three streets…
How do I explain to my three-year-old/ another Black man killed in the street.”
Her daughter is now 20—one of many children raised inside the movement.
The remembrance was also a call to action for organizers.
“The way we maintain the legacy of Oscar Grant is to continue the fight,” said George Galvis of Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, pointing to the ongoing struggle for justice in the Alameda County District Attorney's office.

Dr. Liza J. Rankow's recently published, "Soul Medicine for a Fractured World: Healing, Justice, and the Path to Wholene...
01/03/2026

Dr. Liza J. Rankow's recently published, "Soul Medicine for a Fractured World: Healing, Justice, and the Path to Wholeness."

The great warrior-poet Audre Lorde cautioned that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.”

She said, “In a world of possibility for us all, our personal visions help lay the groundwork for political action.”⁠

Dominant forces stay in power not by convincing people their way is the best way, but by convincing us it’s the only way. Artists and visionaries are dangerous to the system because they conjure fresh possibilities and offer them as a sacred and subversive medicine, calling us beyond the status quo. Art, music, and writing have the power to transform consciousness, and that can transform the world.

The excerpt above is used used by permission of Orbis Books. Read the excerpt on OaklandVoices.us

https://oaklandvoices.us/2025/12/04/book-excerpt-soul-medicine-fractured-world-healing-justice-path-wholeness/

Empowering Black Women: An interview with LaNiece JonesCalifornia Black Media: Looking back at 2025, what stands out mos...
12/31/2025

Empowering Black Women: An interview with LaNiece Jones

California Black Media: Looking back at 2025, what stands out most?

LA Jones: Our most significant achievement was leading a historic leadership transition at BWOPA—honoring our founding legacy while boldly charting a path forward. This wasn’t just a change in leadership; it was a transformation of purpose and momentum.

CBM: What frustrated you most this year?
LA Jones: The ongoing political gaslighting of Black communities—especially Black women—has been deeply frustrating. We lead boldly and deliver results, yet are often last to receive equitable funding, appointments, or recognition.

CBM: What continues to inspire you?
LA Jones: The unstoppable power of Black women at the grassroots level continues to inspire me. Their clarity, courage, and often-unseen leadership are what sustain and grow our collective power.

Interview by California Black Media
Image courtesy of LaNiece Jones.

As we head into the new year, we remember and mourn those that have passed away. ICYMI: Thousands gathered in Fruitvale ...
12/31/2025

As we head into the new year, we remember and mourn those that have passed away.

ICYMI: Thousands gathered in Fruitvale for Oakland’s 30th annual Día de los Mu***os Festival, featuring ofrendas, lowriders, and cultura. The event filled East 14th/International Boulevard with altars, dancers, and food.

Photographer Howard Dyckoff was on the scene for these photos.

https://oaklandvoices.us/2025/11/18/photos-oakland-dia-de-los-muertos-fruitvale-howard-dyckoff/

Oakland's oldest Black theater company recently staged August Wilson's "King Hedley II." Wilson mixed the mystical with ...
12/31/2025

Oakland's oldest Black theater company recently staged August Wilson's "King Hedley II."

Wilson mixed the mystical with the material of everyday life.

“King Hedley II” (1999) follows the determination and despair of King Hedley, a formerly incarcerated man fighting to regain control of his life. Set in 1985, as the crack co***ne epidemic took shape across the country. The protagonist dreams of opening a video store, but to get there first settles on selling stolen refrigerators.

Oakland, once called the “City of Dope,” was a fitting place for the Lower Bottom Playaz. to stage King Hedley.

His "Century Cycle" chronicled Black life, struggle and survival, in 20th-century Pittsburgh.

The company’s founding artistic director, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, directed the production in the company’s 26th season, themed “Choices.”

“King Hedley is an echo that reminds us of where we have been in our quest for even ground,” Nzinga said. This staging marks her second time completing Wilson’s Century Cycle—ten plays told decade by decade from the Rust Belt. “In the rocky soil of this American sojourn, we have planted dreams and hoped for harvest.”

After 21 years in prison, Eddy Zheng has become a national leader in philanthropy. His advocacy for Asian American Pacif...
12/30/2025

After 21 years in prison, Eddy Zheng has become a national leader in philanthropy.
His advocacy for Asian American Pacific Islander communities has brought a new breath to social movements.
Through the New Breath Foundation, he bridges Black, Asian, and Latinx communities and supports formerly incarcerated people. The foundation lifts up grassroots work connecting immigation and criminal justice.

Oakland’s Designing Justice + Designing Spaces is reshaping reentry with abolitionist housing design for formerly incarc...
12/30/2025

Oakland’s Designing Justice + Designing Spaces is reshaping reentry with abolitionist housing design for formerly incarcerated people.

“The reality is that folks who have a record are one of the only groups of people that it is still OK to discriminate against when it comes to housing,” said Deanna Van Buren, the co-founder and executive director of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS) earlier this year. “It’s hard to get housing, but housing is fundamental to the success of their reentry, so it doesn’t make any logical sense.”

DJDS, an Oakland-based architecture and design firm, real estate development firm, and nonprofit that aims to end mass incarceration and structural inequity, has been at the forefront of this work.

DJDS projects aim to answer the central question, “What can we build instead of prisons?”

By collaborating with local nonprofits as well as a similarly innovative design company, DJDS’ latest projects have illuminated the possibilities of abolitionist architecture largely by constructing spaces for restorative justice and compassionate reentry.

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