Hyped up on history
Hi everybody,
First, the big news: I was recruited by the Friends of Hoover-Durant Public Library to help develop a historical walking tour. As part of their efforts to bring a library back to the Hoover-Foster neighborhood, this group wants to highlight West Oakland's incredibly rich history and so I’m helping out by collecting oral histories that will be featured in a self-guided audio tour that we’re hoping to launch in June. Stay tuned for more details, because the audio clips I’m gathering will only be one small part of this community-led project, but here’s what I can tell you so far…
This project is being led by long-time West Oakland residents and they want the main theme of this tour to be the concept of Black Liberation. I’ll be incorporating some of the interviews I’m conducting for this tour in upcoming episodes, so expect to be hearing about C.L Dellums and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the California Hotel, distinguished alumni of McClymonds High, local blues legends, pioneering Black political leaders, anti-displacement struggles and more. If you enjoyed my most recent episode, about the history of the Afro-American Association, I think you’re going to dig this series. And of course we can’t talk about Hoover-Foster without mentioning Flint’s BBQ, which will hopefully be returning to the neighborhood soon!
More East Bay Yesterday News
The boat tours are back! I just did two trips to Pt. Molate and back about Richmond history, but for the next few months all of my tours will be about Oakland/Berkeley/Alameda/Treasure Island history. I’m so excited to be back on the water and I hope you can all join me for one of these upcoming rides. Get your tickets here. (If you want more details about the tours, here’s an essay I wrote last year.)
I don’t want to give away too many details yet, but I’m writing the script for a film about Lake Merritt. My friend Brandon Jourdan, who recently produced this mini-doc about the Moms 4 Housing struggle, is the director and driving force behind this project. We’re currently looking for grants to fund a feature-length documentary, so if anybody has experience raising money for docs and wants to work with us, we could use the help! Drop me a line at eastbayyesterday [at] gmail.
I still can’t believe that Diablo magazine compared me to Ira Glass in this profile. I’m extremely humbled by this generous article, which you can read here: “Keeping History Alive with Liam O’Donoghue”
Clay Anderson, who I interviewed last year for my episode about Oakland’s official bird, is being celebrated by Bay Nature magazine with an Environmental Education Hero Award. Clay has been doing an incredible job at introducing a new generation of birders to the Bay Area’s many avian species through his work as Youth Program Manager at Golden Gate Audubon Society, so I can’t think of anyone more deserving of this honor.
Have you seen the Bridgeview Trolls yet? I wrote about this hilarious collection of ramshackle statues for SF Gate and connected this unsanctioned public art display to prior “exhibitions” such as the Emeryville mudflat sculptures and Oakland gnomes. Here's a sample of what you'll see on the trail... Doug Harris, the filmmaker behind the Byron Rumford documentary, is back with a series of shorts about Richmond history. These mini-docs cover everything from Starlight Studio (where Tupac recorded) to the Red Oak Victory. In this video about the Spanish flu, I talk about similarities between the 1918 pandemic and the one we’re still living through now. These vids were co-produced by the Richmond Museum of History and Culture, which just reopened its galleries.
Other local history news
A’s fans are finally back in the stands at Oakland Coliseum, but if you want to read about some of the East Bay’s earlier ball parks, check out this fascinating round up – I had no idea there used to be a baseball field across from where the Adams Point Whole Foods is now located. (h/t Morgan Fletcher). Its unclear how much longer the A’s will be playing in East Oakland, but Oaklandside recently published this great “Ode to Oakland Coliseum” about what will be lost if/when they move.
Chilling: “In order to get from their jobs to their homes each evening, the Chinese residents built a series of tunnels… above the tunnels and outside their doors, the threat of violence was simmering.” From the must-read SF Gate article: “The Bay Area town that drove out its Chinese residents for nearly 100 years” (via Katie Dowd)
Unfortunately, this type of story is all too common: Private companies spent years making profits while polluting the bayshore and end up leaving taxpayers with the cleanup bill. Richmond is still dealing with the toxic legacy of AstraZeneca and other corporations, complicating redevelopment plans. Tarnel Abbot, who I interviewed for my “Iron Heel” episode, is featured in this East Bay Express article about the latest chapter of this environmental saga.
Are you aware of any “ghost signs” that haven’t been documented by artist Kasey Smith yet? If so, message her via Instagram or Twitter, so she can expand her growing archive. You can read some great background about this project here.
The NY Times looks back at Mills College’s history as “a hotbed of experimental sound”: “In the first half of the 20th century, when composers like John Cage became associated with the school, Mills developed a reputation for nonconformity…”
The next Berkeley Historical Society event on April 29 sounds fun: “A virtual guided tour of sites in Berkeley as they were in the 1960s and 1980s and as they are now.”
“Independent bookstores have been hit so hard by the pandemic, and I can’t help thinking about what are we losing, each time we lose one.” -from “Coming of Age in a Struggling Berkeley Bookstore” (via Lithub)
Finally
Thanks for reading this – and extra special thanks to those of you who are keeping East Bay Yesterday alive by donating to my Patreon!
Liam