The Heart of Oakland

It was a beautiful weekend for the Oakland Art & Soul Festival. The last time I went to Art&Soul was four years ago when I first moved here. It was small, and free and somewhat interesting. Times have changed. Art & Soul is now three days of six stages of music, loads of art, craft and food vendors, and chock full of the kind of diverse energy that is uniquely Oakland. It now costs $10 and is well worth the price, especially since people in my office building got in free. I went up on Sunday to see what it was about and hear Lucinda Williams who was headlining the main stage. As great as she was and she is fantastic Lucinda Williams is not what Oakland Art & Soul is all about. Art & Soul is about the Oakland kids dancing their hearts out on the World Dance stage, where just about anybody can join the groups performing on stage. It's about everybody standing in the same long line for a beer whether you're wearing bling or Birkenstocks. For three days it's a place where the people of Oakland can display the fantastic energy of the city, and nobody gets shot.