This weekend is Oakland's 10th annual Art & Soul Festival, a city-sponsored music event that attracts about 60,000 people.
The well-run, two-day music celebration showcases local talent, making it the kind of festival needed in a city struggling to counter its often-negative image.
I've often wondered why Oakland officials rarely tap our homegrown talent to tell the city's story.
Because when you look at the list of Oakland residents past and present who have climbed to the top of their chosen professions, particularly in the arts and professional sports, it is as impressive a list as you will find anywhere.
Oakland may not be a model city, but when it comes to hometown role models, the city has an embarrassment of riches.
Clint Eastwood, a renowned actor and filmmaker, grew up in Oakland and graduated from Oakland Technical High School. Tom Hanks grew up in the Oakland hills.
Eastwood and Hanks are legends, and they are by no means the only names on the list.
Oakland officials have approached such celebrities in the past, but never with a comprehensive plan to have them boost the city's image, said Samee Roberts, the city's director of cultural affairs and marketing. A new plan to hire a social media company and develop a promotional campaign is now in the works, she said.
It's fair to say the city's image has suffered during Mayor Ron Dellums' four-year term that ends in January. His leadership skills deflated public confidence in government and prompted more questions than answers.
Delroy Lindo - a British-born actor who has starred in movies like "Clockers," "Get Shorty" and Spike Lee's "Crooklyn" - lives in the Oakland hills. His is a familiar face and voice whose participation would bring attention to any city campaign.
In the world of literature, Oakland resident Ishmael Reed speaks the language of the street and has chronicled the culture of urban life. Oakland is his literary landscape. Reed has written more than 20 books and in 1997 stirred residents to their souls with "Let Oakland Be a City of Civility," a poem he read at the inauguration of Mayor Jerry Brown. His fictional work - and that poem - should be part of a mantra spread far and wide in our town.
In the world of sports, I don't know of another city of comparable size that can lay claim to more pro athletes.
The list of NBA players with strong connections to Oakland is as long as your arm, and
Bill Russell, the Hall of Fame player-coach of the
Boston Celtics sits at the top of it. One of the most recognizable, iconic players in the history of the game, Russell is an eloquent, outspoken and strident
African American man and a walking, talking success story.
Russell - and those who followed in his footsteps - could deliver a powerful public service message that casts Oakland in a positive light.
In baseball, Oakland's own Rickey Henderson, a Hall of Fame player and arguably the most potent one-man offensive show in the history of the game, strolls into Peet's Coffee on Lakeshore Avenue unnoticed most days. Hall of Fame outfielder
Frank Robinson, who attended
McClymonds High School in West Oakland, was the first man to win the Most Valuable Player award in both leagues.
It's significant that Russell and Robinson were the first African Americans to become head coach and manager in their respective professional sports. Russell was named player-coach of the Celtics in 1966. Robinson became the first African American manager in
Major League Baseball when he took control of the
Cleveland Indians in 1975.
That's two guys from the same West Oakland neighborhood and the same high school. It almost sounds like fiction, but it's a story unique to the city of Oakland, and a story that deserves to be told.
Oakland has its own marketing department, a city-owned cable station and all the resources it needs to create a public service campaign.
This weekend's Art & Soul Festival is a prime example of what Oakland could do on a regular basis to put its best foot forward.
The same concept should be expanded to create a campaign to tell Oakland's most compelling success stories, and to begin the process of restoring its reputation as a city of winners, a city of champions and, above all, a no-quit city that perseveres.
If you go
What: Oakland Art & Soul Festival
When: Saturday and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.
Where: Entrances are located at 14th Street & Broadway; 16th Street & San Pablo Avenue; and Promenade beside City Center West Garage.
Cost: Adults, $15; seniors and youth, $8; children 12 and younger are free. Tickets are good for one day.
More information:
http://www.artandsouloakland.com/Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/08/19/BAFD1F0IKC.DTL#ixzz0xRqCioQx
Sunday August 29, 2010
