Walking tour giveaway, Oakland Trib tattoo, Hanks' houseboat, and more
Instead of starting out this newsletter with one of my usual rants, here’s some good news: I’ve got two sets of tickets for the Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour to give away. If you want to attend on either June 30 (10am-1am or 2-5pm) or July 7 (2-5pm) send an email to eastbayyesterday@gmail.com and let me know which date/time you want tickets for. First come, first served!
Even if you don’t score the free tickets, this tour is still worth checking out. I interviewed the co-creators Barnali Ghosh and Anirvan Chatterjee in my most recent episode and they share some great stories about what the tour covers and why they’ve been doing it every month for the past 7 years. Check it out – EBY Q&A: Taking South Asian history to the streets
More East Bay Yesterday news
I had a good feeling that my profile in the East Bay Times was going to be positive when I showed up the photo shoot in front of City Hall and the photographer was rocking a Tribune Tower tattoo. Jane Tyska got this to celebrate 20 years at the Trib...
Shoutout to David DeBolt for this really lovely coverage of East Bay Yesterday…
Also, much gratitude to those of you supporting East Bay Yesterday on Patreon! Thanks to you guys, I was able to afford a new mic, which I plan on using to record more interviews outdoors. Can't wait to take it out for a spin!
In other news…
-I knew Tom Hanks graduated from Skyline High, but I had no idea he lived in a houseboat off the coast of Alameda! Thanks to Liliana Michelena for sharing a bunch of interesting tidbits about the actor’s East Bay roots in this article.
-One of the first national controversies over trans rights happened right here in the East Bay. Check out this piece about Steve Dain’s pioneering legal battle in The E’ville Eye.
-In 1971, Sun Ra’s trippy Afrofurist film “Space is the Place” was filmed in Oakland. Sun Ra has departed this planet, but his band, the Arkestra, returns to SF Jazz in July to perform along with a screening of the film.
-I’m really glad this plan to “fill the Bay with a 36-lane highway” never happened.
-Speaking of the Bay, part of the old Bay Bridge is being turned into a park. I checked out the progress on “Gateway Park” last weekend, and here’s what it currently looks like:
-“About 96 years ago, Berkeley leased and purchased land to create three camps in the wilds of California.” Frances Dinkelspiel has the rest of the story at Berkeleyside.
-“The East Bay Punk Digital Archive is finally up and running."
-Sam Lefebvre has the latest updates on “Arts Groups Challenging Kaiser Auditorium Redevelopment Plan.”
-As July draws nearer, I’m getting more and more excited about this season’s lineup of Oakland Heritage Alliance walking tours.
Finally...
Thanks to Cyrus Farivar for inviting me to A’s game last week when they were giving away free hats to commemorate the Oakland Larks, a team that played in the West Coast Negro Baseball Association in 1946. (Cool fact: Oakland's first Black mayor, Lionel Wilson, was a pitcher for the Larks!) If you want to know more about some of the East Bay’s earliest baseball teams, check out Cyrus’s episode from deep in the East Bay Yesterday archives.
Don't forget to support East Bay Yesterday if you can afford to kick down a few bucks per month. I wouldn't be able to do this without your help.
Thanks,
Liam
PS: If you sent me an email recently and I haven’t responded yet, I’m sorry! I’m trying to catch up…