“You should get a team!” District 6 Councilwoman Desley Brooks encouraged me when I told her that I was an avid basketball player. 

Maybe I will.

“When I started breastfeeding, my great grandmother would sit across from me and sing what I was doing wrong,” explains actress ‘Rie Shontel, who is known as Anita Woodley offstage. 

Shontell transitions seamlessly into her great grandmother’s voice singing, “That’s not how you do it/You’re gonna kill that baby with that milk.” The first few minutes chatting with the journalist who grew up in Funktown on 13^th Avenue and East 17^th is filled with laughter. She share’s some of most memorable interactions with the woman who inspired “Mama Juggs: Three Generations Healing Negative Body Image,” which shows Wednesday and Thursday - Dec. 29 and 30 - at the Black Dot Café in Oakland.

If you're the kind of family that loves everything about the harvest season, here are a couple of activities you do not want to miss.

If you like DIY costumes, you can join in on one of two Mask Making Workshops on Thursday, October 28. The first will take place from 3:30-5pm at Studio One Art Center. The second will happen later that evening, from 6:30-8pm at the Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts Annex. Tickets are free if you RSVP in advance by leaving a message for Oakland Parks & Recreation Specialist Ms. Neal-Madison at (510) 238-2786 Or, a $5 donation may be given at the door.

On a warm breezy Saturday morning on August 28, 2010, the 47th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech, a small group of East Oaklanders gathered at the Eastmont Branch Library to celebrate one step forward in their dreams.