ST EOBHCSunset 072321 - Flipbook - Page 16
oakland love letters
dear oakland,
You’re on your way to reclaiming
your old glory, creators of rocky road ice cream, 7th
Street blues and jazz clubs, home of the Black Panther
Party, aroma and tastes of Lady Esther’s soul food and
Lois the Pie Queen, breakdancing, Hip Hop Rap Center
of Northern California-- you still shine.
Though tarnished by gentrification, displacement
and mass incarceration, we still rise. Reaching
out, reaching up, our legacy will continue to be
Ms. Towanda Sherry
perseverance, persistence, and hope. We’re making
that new future with Black Cultural Zone, East
O akland Neighborhood Initiative, beautiful voices singing, bubbling the spoken word -- we
still fight for a place for African Americans to call home.
Our new song is love, healing, laughter, growth, so our history will
no longer be a mystery
but a love song that
reverberates
throughout
America.
-Ms. S herry
10
FOR THE LOVE OF BLACK EAST OAKLAND: EOBHC Sunset Report