I have been writing stories about my growing up in
Oakland, California for about 15 years or more. I would have a memory from my
childhood and write it down, sometimes as a snippet or vignette, or as an anecdote and most
times as a full story. Some are notations and ideas to be revisited and fine-tuned
and others as short memories or images. Some of my childhood memories were prompted
by going to my old neighborhoods or in speaking with someone who brought up the
past by saying “Do you remember when…?” Over the years, I have published some
of these stories; some have been blog posts and others have been published in
anthologies or online or print journals.
Most recently, on Thanksgiving last month, my nephew’s
girlfriend’s mother was a guest at my sister’s house. She was a native of the
Bay Area, born and raised in Alameda, just as my siblings and I were raised in
Oakland, my sister born here, my brother and I coming to Oakland as babies. In
speaking with our guest, we found many commonalities; we went to some of the
same places, shopped at some of the same stories and knew some of the same
people. We were constantly saying, “Remember when?” or “Remember the place?”
In the last ten years or so, I have watched my beloved
city, Oakland, go through numerous changes. It started slowly, subliminally,
and slowly, but steady, until suddenly it was there, unrecognizable. Some
things have been beneficial, a lot has not. I have seen the homelessness rates
rise drastically as many families are pushed out of rentals that were previously
affordable. I have seen many institutions torn down or abandoned to be replaced
by corporate and tech offices or new not affordable housing. Schools have been
closing for lack of attendance, replaced by charter and private schools that
are not available to everyone.
For a long time, I have turned a blind eye and
pretended as if the changes did not affect me or that I did not care. But I do
care. Because suddenly or not so suddenly, I was becoming a stranger in my own
backyard, in my space that I have lived, worked and played for 64 of the 66 years
of my life. How did that happen? More important, what was I to do about it? Maybe
it was that Sunday afternoon when I stopped at the Shell gas station on the corner
of Golf Links Road and Mountain Boulevard across from the Oakland Zoo on my way
home and the families leaving the zoo and getting gas at the same station appeared
to be looking at me as if I was from outer space (was I becoming paranoid?) or
maybe I was just looking so good in my Sunday church best they couldn’t help themselves.
Or maybe it was the Emergent Strategy group I was involved with this past
summer where I met a great group of fierce women and men, some new to the Bay Area,
who see social justice to make a better Oakland and the world beyond, but I
decided I was reclaiming my space.
Oakland is full of great people who have made and are
making Oakland great. In reviving my blog, it is my desire to bring to my
readers some of those people and what they are doing s well as some of the
places and institutions that are continuing a legacy of creating space, time
and avenues to retain some of the old Oakland and how it compliments and
engages the new Oakland. I recently had a reading and presented my story, My Blackberry Summer to a group of
writers at a brunch in San Francisco. It was received well and evidently
relatable to several people. I knew for a certainty that it was time to send my
stories out to the world, that my history and the history of Oakland is needed
and wanted; that the institutional memory must not be lost, reclaimed and given
a gift to our City. So, in 2018 look out for Stories of Growing up in Oakland: In My Backyard.
Reclaiming my space, one step at a time.
********************************************************************
Reclaiming My Space
I have to learn to be
comfortable in the spaces I used to occupy
The spaces that were
previously my playground
Those spaces that are now
occupied by others
Who are now claiming as
theirs
As if they have been here
all along
But they are just
squatters and scavengers looking for more
While I am the rightful
owner
I never gave up my space
It was gone but a short
while
But now I am reclaiming
my space
Emergent Strategy Group (Oakland)
