It’s the same all over the world. Knock on a door. Pick up a phone. Stop a stranger on the street. Ask a question. You might get the brush off, or you might hear a story. Oakland and Berkeley are no different from anywhere else. Yet, in this metropolitan area of half a million people where 89 languages are spoken, tech entrepreneurs share buildings with potters, and one of the world’s great universities sits not five miles from one of the world’s great ports, too many stories are left untold.
The OakBook wants to tell some of those stories. And we want to offer a place where you can tell yours. We will bring you news from the schools your children attend, the ways your neighborhood is changing, new art, new theater, and new places to eat and drink. Our website invites you to give your take, whether it’s on an old cafe, a new charter school, or some outrageous plan hatched in City Hall. We’d love for you to tell us what we should be covering. So, send us your feedback. We want to hear from you.
Founders
* Alex Gronke
Except for a two-year stint in Berkeley, OakBook co-founder Alex Gronke has lived the last 14 years in Oakland. Before entering journalism in 2000, he was a teacher in the Oakland public schools. He has also written for the Los Angeles Times, Reuters, the Stockton Record, the San Francisco Chronicle, Red Herring, and the Oakland Tribune. His dream is to see local news win back its rightful audience of thoughtful, curious, and passionate readers. Write to Alex at alex@theoakbook.com
* Priyanka Sharma-Sindhar
Priyanka Sharma - Sindhar co-founded the OakBook after years as a Silicon Valley journalist. Most recently she was the Internet reporter for Red Herring. Priyanka discovered Oakand's charm when a professor asked her to write about the Grand Lake Theater for a class assignment in 2000. A graduate of UC Berkeley's journalism school, her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News, Bloomberg News, and the Sacramento Bee. Before coming to this country, she was a television producer at one of India's largest television companies. She is passionate about women's issues and the tango, and of course, the OakBook. Write to Priyanka at priyanka@theoakbook.com
Contributors
* Alison Peters
Alison Peters is an Oakland ex-pat and long time Bay Area resident. She completed undergraduate work at UC Berkeley and obtained her MFA at Mills College. A freelance writer moonlighting as an HR coordinator, her free time is spent with friends, family, felines and Sebastian, the chocolate lab love of her life. You can find her most recent work in Curve magazine.
* D. Scot Miller
D. Scot Miller is a Bay Area writer, visual artist , teacher, and curator. A founder of The BlackBard Writing Collective, and on the board of directors of noctunes review, a regular contributor to The East Bay Express, SF Weekly, YRB NYC, Popmatters, and Showcase Magazine. He has published the Afro-surreal Knot Frum Hear (an excerpt is in Bronx Biannual Two ISBN: 1-933354-09-7 l $13.95 ), and Slicker, a book of poems.
* Daniel McGlynn
Daniel McGlynn is an East Bay carpenter and writer. He is frequently seen on the water in his kayak. Read more at danielmcglynn.com.
* Ellen Mulholland
Ellen Mulholland grew up in southern California and graduated from the USC School of Journalism. After a brief residence in London, she moved to northern California. She has been teaching writing to adolescents for more than 15 years. Ellen lives in Oakland with her two kids and her unpublished novel.
* Joseph Amster
Joseph S. Amster has been a journalist and editor for 18 years, editing the publications IN Los Angeles the Orange County and Long Beach Blade. He began his culinary career in high school, working his way up from flipping hamburgers to soup chef at the Bay Area’s Salmagundi restaurants. Fulfilling a lifelong dream of combining his interest in the culinary arts and writing, Amster has been a food writer for the last 10 years. He maintains a culinary Web site and blog at www.gonzofoodism.com. Among his other interests are choral music, photography, local history, and collecting. A resident of downtown Oakland, Amster has previously lived in San Francisco and Laguna Beach
* Karen Booth
Karen Booth is a native of Lafayette, Louisiana, and has been living in the Bay Area for most of the last 20 years, although she still considers herself a southerner. She got her start as an editor at a weekly newspaper right out of college, then fled the mosquitoes and hurricanes for the cool fog of San Francisco two years later. After freelancing for the San Jose Metro and San Francisco Bay Guardian, Karen became a political communications specialist and spent the next nine years working for candidate and initiative campaigns, and public image campaigns both in California and Washington, D.C. She also served as managing editor at Campaigns & Elections Magazine in D.C., before returning to the Bay Area in 1996. She lives in the East Bay and, when not throwing huge crawfish boils in her backyard, explores Oakland's restaurants and neighborhoods with her husband and two sons.
* Kathy Hrastar
Kathy Hrastar is a perpetual student who appreciates the process of learning. She jumped into journalism at Laney College in 2006. So far, she likes the aspect of running around meeting people, which is also why she enjoys her job as a server in a diner.
After growing up on the east coast, suffering the San Francisco fog, and attempting a stint in conservative Colorado, she chooses to live in Oakland.
* Kevin Cook
Kevin Cook has lived in Oakland for 14 of the last 15 years. He teaches English in the West Bay part-time, and he also has a business card that reads "Staff Scientist." Kevin spends an inordinate amount of time riding his bike around the East Bay in search of the perfect ingredients for overly elaborate meals. If you are willing to take him fishing on your boat, he will cook dinner for you.
* Ly Nguyen
Ly Nguyen is a creative writer who is inspired by immigrant journeys and urban culture. Her short stories were published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Chocolate for a Woman's Soul Anthology, and Nha Magazine. Ly was granted art residencies at Hedgebrook,Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation, and the Vermont Studio Center. With grants from the Puffin Foundation and City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program, Ly was the Managing Editor for As Is: a collection of Vietnamese-American visual and literary works. She taught creative writing at the Art Studio,UC Berkeley. She is the co-founder and board emeritus of Oasis for Girls, (http://www.sfoasis.org/) in San Francisco. Most recently she created a blog that chronicles life as a mother (http://mama-lounge.blogspot.com).
* Mike Spencer
Mike Spencer, a licensed private investigator, formed Spencer Investigations, http://www.spencerpi.com/, in 1996. He does criminal defense, civil and domestic investigations. He earned a master's degree in journalism from UC-Berkeley. He reported for a daily in Staunton, Va., the Contra Costa Times, and the Sarasota (Florida) Herald-Tribune covering police and news, including the Loma Prieta earthquake, Hurricane Andrew, and the East Bay Hills fire. He lives in the Oakmore district with a wife and Labrador Retriever.
* Dr. Preeti Sharma
Once upon a time, Preeti Sharma was a professor and published interesting -- but alas, only read by academics -- papers in American and international journals and conferences. So, she turned into a writer and a consultant. She writes for The Hindustan Times, a leading newspaper in India. She has also written for The Hartford Courant. For Novometro, Preeti brings in her expertise on e-commerce and marketing, the stuff she used to teach MBA students at Rensselaer.
She is also involved in setting up gaming sites and is working on a project that caters to a business audience in India.
* Theo Konrad Auer
Not many writers have the odd honor of being been published in two different publications whose titles have something to with fecal matter. Having my art coverage featured on FecalFace.com and my poetry published by the sadly defunct local poetry magazine ASSPANTS, I am one few humans on this planet that can. I am a born and raised Oaklander and the child of immigrant parents from Colombia and Germany. I have been involved in the local arts community in one way or another, mostly writing about it, since I was in high school. In college, I ran an acclaimed live poetry series with poet and black panther Lee Williams at a space which is now occupied by Dwayne Wiggins' Java House. Nowadays, I write poetry and cover our local art community on the web and in magazines. My work has been seen in Juxtapoz, Hi Fructose Magazine and SWEETART Magazine. Write to Theo about art at theo@theoakbook.com
* Scott James
Scott James is a freelance writer, producer, and Zachary's Pizza fanatic living in the East Bay. He enjoys everything about the creative process. His dream is to co-write a screenplay for Franny and Zooey with J.D. Salinger and Miranda July.
* V Smoothe
V is an Oakland lover and the writer of abetteroakland.com
Intern: Mical Asefaw
Mical Asefaw spent 11 years as a manager and chef of Eritrean cuisine at New Eritrea Restaurant and Sawa Restaurants 1 and 2, in San Francisco. She also spent 4 years in Program Development for after programs in San Francisco and Oakland. She is of Eritrean heritage, born in Sudan, and raised in San Francisco’s Fillmore district, and gets a kick out of the question, “Where are you from?” Mical grew up paying weekly homage to Oakland as she participated in community events and patronized local shops. She’s passionate about food, spoken word, social justice, and planning her future business in the restaurant marketing industry. She’s currently majoring in Business Economics at Mills College in Oakland. Mical’s goal is to combine her background in the restaurant industry and her love for writing through her internship at OakBook. |