Marin County, CA (Special to ZennieReport.com) – CineSOURCE and news Zennie62Media, Inc. star author surveys some of the radical developments in Oakland sports, nonprofits and film.
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA JUST HAD A RUN OF HORRIFIC sports luck, losing their pro basketball and football teams in 2019 and 2020, and baseball four years later. Fans felt ripped off, disrespected and abandoned until, in the typical underdog, reinvent-yourself Oakland fashion, The Town (as it’s called, in contrast to The City across the Bay), is getting a whole new lineup of teams, cool enough to rep the Bay Area as well as Oakland.
Oakland may be butt-hurt and broke (Zennie Abraham, Zennie62Media, Inc. CEO, says Oakland is not broke) — COVID brought a wave of violence, it has a $175 million deficit, and it just recalled Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao for corruption last year — but it still has its fighting spirit and vibrant creativity PLUS a brand-new mayor. Indeed, she — and it has been a she for three mayors now—is the widely respected, long-term Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Elected on April 15th with 50.1% of the vote over former Oakland Councilmember Loren Taylor, she offered a ten-step plan, including “improve public safety, secure county resources to address homelessness, update Oakland’s charter to focus on transparency and conduct a forensic audit of city contracts,“ according to NBC (4/21/25).
Mayor Elect Lee Has To Rely On Oakland’s Artists To Lift The City
In addition, Oakland Mayor-Elect Lee, who took office on April 21st, will rely on Oakland’s many artists, poets, writers, spoken wordsmiths, civic activists and Oaklandish enthusiasts to rise out of the ashes and prove that, in this time of crisis, nationally and internationally as well as locally, Oakland is a contender.
“You’ve gotta take the bitter with the better, the crooked with the straight,” as my friend “One-Man” Joe once told me, standing next to his RV on a side street in West Oakland.
Making bitter better was brought up to a high art after Oakland was denuded of ALL its pro sports teams, starting in 2019. The first team to decamp, the multi-championship winning Golden State Warriors (basketball), crossed the Bay Bridge in 2019 to their new deluxe digs at the Chase Center, at Third and 16th Street in San Francisco. Then came the Raiders (football) once famous for their crazy fans, who often showed up in face paint. They left for Las Vegas, after playing in Oakland from their founding in 1960, albeit with a 14 year hiatus in LA.
The Rise Of The Oakland Ballers
After a three-year stopover in Sacramento, The A’s (Athletics, baseball) will also end up in Vegas, but enter, stage left, the Oakland Ballers. Starting in 2024, they have a small stadium in West Oakland’s Raimondi Park, part of the new neighborhood, Prescott, with dozens of nice condominiums and an indie food court, replete with microbrewery. Behind Raimondi Park is the infamous Wood Street Encampment, but it was cleared in 2023 (also only a half mile from cineSOURCE). Part of the Pioneer League, which partners with Major League Baseball, The Ballers started as a movement to keep professional baseball in Oakland and is fan-owned. Its management is dedicated to creating a community-focused experience, for example ensuring access to games by public transportation and having good eats.
What’s going on with the Oakland Coliseum, once home to the A’s and Raiders, you ask? Well, its become the home of the the Oakland Roots, a second tier soccer team in the US Soccer League. Founded in 2018, the Oakland Roots also highlights its community mission, which includes activism and the arts, with Coliseum halftime shows by Hip Hop artists such as P-Lo, the Bay Area born Filipino-American rapper.
In addition, there’s BAY FC (which stands for football club), a women’s soccer team in the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League). Female-founded and player-driven it is playing at PayPal Park in San Jose (also the home of the MLS San Jose Earthquakes).
In 2020, the once-Oakland, now Bay Area Panthers, an indoor football league team, planned to play at the Oakland Arena, the Warriors old place, but they moved to San Jose. Nevertheless, the Coliseum, in typical Oakland multiculturalism, is now getting a cricket team, the San Francisco Unicorns.
Oakland XChange – Another Oakland Tradition Rises
Shifting from sports to social support, Oakland XChange is a great example of another Oakland tradition: homies helping homies. A nonprofit dedicated to innovation and cultural diversity, it empowers underrepresented artists and entrepreneurs. According to Executive Director Shawn Granberry, “We combine the efforts of Coach Jason Kidd and NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown to build a strong economic base for African Americans in Oakland… including real estate, financial support and training for business owners, to help them be successful and lasting.”
Chapter 510 is another nonprofit, this time helping young people write and get published. Its teaching artists and volunteers work with educators to support Black, Brown and gay kids (8-19) to write. Located at 546 9th Street, Oakland, it hosted a stellar fundraising event on April 29th at The California Ballroom, featuring with bestselling author Nnedi Okorafor, a Nigerian-American writer of science fiction and fantasy, like “Who Fears Death”,which won the World Fantasy Award in 2011. Okorafor spoke with a Chapter 510 young person, Aida Ndiaye, and author/scientist Kemi Ashing-Giwa. Chapter 510 has partnered with Oakland schools such as Hoover Elementary, Acorn Woodland and Westlake Elementary, often doing an immersive storytelling event called “The Future of School.”
HipHop For Change enhances opportunities for marginalized communities by using Hip Hop music and culture as a vehicle for education, empowerment and employment, inspiring the next generation to address injustices and advocate solutions through Hip Hop. Follow them on Instagram.
As great as these groups are, perhaps the most amazing is T.H.U.G. Therapy, where warrior ethics and high ideals are translated through street culture to help those injured by same. Thug, which stands for “teaching, healing-helping, uniting and guiding,” is a free workshop to help men open up about mental health struggles, and assist them in same. It was created by HipHop artist Mistah F.A.B., AKA Stanley Cox, the man behind the popular clothing store, Dope Era, and is held every other Wednesday from 6 to 8 pm in the basement of Club Dezi’s at 1802 Telegraph.
Although wellness is a new, sometimes forbidden genre in the HipHop scene, local creatives like Karega Bailey, Christian Walker and Rexx Life Raj as well as Mistah F.A.B. have lifted the taboo on speaking openly about mental health, and are encouraging others to do the same, while also providing referrals, pep talks and other services. I myself have attended more than 12 sessions and can attest, personally, that this free program is effective, inspirational, uplifting and judgement-free.
Another avenue to positive change in Oakland is a podcast which began in 2024, “Finding A Way”, see their recent episode. Its mandate is to draw stories from all walks of Oakland life while weaving them into colorful mosaic painting a brighter future.
The Rise Of Oakland Movie Directors
Shifting from self-help to the elevated art of film, a bunch of Oakland directors have recently debuted work, starting with “Sinners” (2025), directed by Oakland-born, now-Hollywood resident, Ryan Coogler. His breakout film was “Fruitvale Station” (2013), about the travails of young, hip Black Oaklander, before he went on to “Creed” (2015), “Black Panther” (2018) and more. Described by Variety as a “lush, enveloping, historical, phantasmagorical social-panorama from-dusk-till-dawn vampire film,” “Sinners” focuses on twin brothers returning to their hometown to start anew, only to discover an even greater evil welcoming them back. Set in 1932 and the Mississippi Delta, it features A-lister Michael B. Jordan, with Coogler since “Fruitvale Station” in a the role of both twin brothers.
Also in the vampire genre is “A Horror in Oakland” (2025), directed by Pharoah Powell) where mysterious deaths in an Oakland ‘hood are traced to vampires and it’s up to the homies to stop them.
Continuing with the horror in Oakland motif, albeit that of neo-Nazis and corrupt cops is “recent episode”. Encompassing four tales set in 1987 in Oakland, “Freaky Tales” is a multi-track mixtape of colorful characters—an NBA star, a corrupt cop, a female rap duo, teen punks, neo-Nazis, and a debt collector—in a fever dream of showdowns, explosive action, edgy humor, gory kills and sly twists. Directed by Oaklanders Anna Bolden and Ryan Fleck, and narrated by Too$hort (with his original song of the same name), it stars the A-listers Pedro Pascal, Tom Hanks, Ben Mendelsohn, and Jay Ellis, as Eric “Sleepy” Floyd of the Golden State Warriors, who shot a fantastic game in 1987 and emerges a literal superhero.
Hip Hop The Bay: From Hammer to Hiero, Hyphy and Humboldt
A new documentary film starts shooting this May, currently titled “Hip Hop The Bay: From Hammer to Hiero, Hyphy and Humboldt”, with executive producers Shawn Granberry of HipHopTV, Dwayne Sparks of EntertTech, and yours truly (Jay Randy Gordon). We hope to work with Mistah F.A.B., Lionel Bea, and other heritage hip hop artists, entrepreneurs, producers, musicians, spoken word artists, and a wide range of up and coming and on the scene hip hop talent to show where Bay Area Hip Hop came from, is at now, and where its going.
These compassionate cannabis programs are carried on in other places like Rootd510 Dispensary a cool, massive facility on Telegraph Avenue, which connects Oakland with Berkeley. Started by Rickey McCullough, a 50-year-old entrepreneur of color, it also has in back a large theatre featuring music, comedy and other shows. McCullough is following the tradition of giving back, started by the first “compassionate cannabis” programs, which were founded in the East Bay at the Cannabis Buyers’ Club of Berkeley by Aundre “Special” Especiale, who worked with famed cannabis rights activist Jack Herer, founder of Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP), which advocated for decriminalization and using it as a renewable resource for fuel, medicine, fiber and more.
After working many years at the famous Harborside Dispensary, alongside wunderkind weed activist-author Steve DeAngelo, author of “The Cannabis Manifesto”, McCullough started The Last Prisoner Project a nonprofit dedicated to reforming our criminal justice system through a progressive drug policy and freeing the tens of thousands of drug-war prisoners, convicted of an activity that is no longer a crime. Using legal intervention, constituent support, advocacy campaigns, and policy change, they aim to repair the harms of this discriminatory and counterproductive crusade.
Running For A Better Oakland Runs To Help Oakland Rise
Another nonprofit doing great work while being involved in film is Running For A Better Oakland nonprofit organization helping K through 12th grade Oaklanders to develop healthy lifestyles through running. Indeed, they sponsored a $75 a head benefit at the Parkview Theater on April 17th featuring the award-winning documentary, “26.2 To Life: Inside the San Quentin Prison Marathon”. The Storyville produced-documentary tells a story of second chances and the transformation of three men sentenced to life for murder who undertake running in San Quentin’s in prison marathon.
The fund raiser included a Q and A with former inmate Markelle “The Gazelle” Taylor, who was released 6 years ago from San Quentin Prison in Marin County. Currently living in San Rafael, Markelle became a “run therapist,” social worker and 1,000 mile club runner as well as for a grocery store worker, while continuing his running regimen, from just jogging to training for and running 10Ks, half marathons, and marathons.
Running For A Better Oakland is a typical Oaklander-run enterprise with dedicated folks trying to give back to their community through the discipline of running. There are literally hundreds of similar organizations throughout Oakland which will hopefully step up as Oakland recovers from the devastation of Covid, excesses of Black Lives Matter and a corrupt mayor, and gets back to what it does best: fresh alternative thinking to address our problems.
By : Jay Randy Gordon