Juror #12

By C.J. Hirschfield

On a chilly day in January, the potential jury pool at the Alameda County Courthouse in downtown Oakland started out with what looked to be more than 150 people. Many were let go with hardship excuses; a good number needed to postpone their duty and were assigned later dates. I had already postponed once; summer is not a time when the boss at Children’s Fairyland can get away.

Alameda County Courthouse, 1225 Fallon St., Oakland

I’m old enough to have been required to take a civics course in high school, and I really do believe, as I’d been taught, that jurors are key to the administration of justice. So there I was, still kinda hoping I wouldn’t be called. When we were asked on a questionnaire whether we knew any lawyers, and I honestly answered that I’m married to one, I thought I might be disqualified. But no – I became juror number 12 in a civil case that was expected to last for five whole weeks. (One young lady literally threw some kind of fit in her quest to be excused—tears, muscle spasms and histrionics. It worked.)

Rats!

By C.J. Hirschfield

Quinn Costello’s new documentary film has it all: food, fashion, music and joy. The fact that its subject is 30-pound rodents that are taking over Louisiana – and encroaching on California – just makes it that much more interesting.

Rodents of Unusual Size will have its East Bay premiere on Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. at the New Parkway Theater. As soon as I heard about it, I marked my calendar.

Poster for "Rodents of Unusual Size"

A Day in the Life at Primary Care

By C.J. Hirschfield

A 10-year-old boy in foster care comes out of his shell after completing a program at Fairyland that teaches him how to be an expert animal caretaker.

A 6-year-old boy, being raised by his grandmother after his brother was shot, enjoys coming with her to a place where he can be a kid again.

An elementary school student in East Oakland wins a Fairyland family pass in a library reading contest, and regularly takes the bus with her mom to delight in our laid-back reading room and literacy-rich activities.

The 2016 Junior Animal Caretaker group enjoys a visit from the Oakland Zoo's Zoomobile, one of several Fairyland community resources for underserved families.

An autistic child surprises his mom by boldly swallowing an edible flower during a horticultural therapy session in Fairyland’s gardens.

We’ve seen how our low-tech, high-touch park can have a markedly therapeutic effect on kids and their family members who have experienced trauma and other challenges.

Which is why we are so pleased that our newest board member, primary care pediatrician Javay Ross, understands the role Children’s Fairyland can play in helping families heal and thrive, and will help us move even further in that direction.

Dr. Javay Ross, Fairyland's newest board member.

We asked Javay, who works at an Oakland clinic for UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland (BCHO), to make a presentation at our last board meeting about the state of pediatric health in Oakland. She decided the best way to do that would be to draw from her actual experience: a day in the life in primary care. She chose a few patients from the 12 she saw during a single day.

Here are a few of them, in her own words:

Eating the Impossible

By C.J. Hirschfield

A classic dry martini, a retro wedge salad with bleu cheese, and a burger. That’s what I enjoyed for dinner after a tough day last week. Something old, something new. The “new” was that my burger was the highly-touted “Impossible Burger,” the disruptive vegan patty that will soon be manufactured by Impossible Foods in East Oakland, providing up to 80 new jobs. I enjoyed my meal at KronnerBurger on Piedmont Ave.; the burger is also on the menu at Umami Burger in Uptown.

Impossible Burger had been in the news last week. The New York Times reported that the Food and Drug Administration, which had been asked by Impossible Burger to confirm that the patty’s secret sauce was safe for human consumption, had “expressed concern.” The sauce is made from soy leghemoglobin – “heme” for short – which is found naturally in soybean plant roots and created in the company’s laboratory.

A City of Neighborhoods

By C.J. Hirschfield

Quick: How many distinct neighborhoods do you think there are in Oakland?

Photographer Stephen Texeira says the answer is 146, and his Oakland Neighborhood Project seeks to hear from all of them.

Children’s Fairyland doesn’t technically constitute a classic neighborhood. Nevertheless, Stephen invited us to participate last week in a photo shoot that allowed our Children’s Theatre kids to share with the world what their distinctively Oakland park represents to them. 

Photographer Stephen Texeira captures Fairyland’s Children’s Theatre kids and their messages for his Oakland Neighborhoods photo project. Photo by Stephen Texeira.

Stephen, who was raised in the Bay Area and now lives in the Laurel District, started the project three years ago, believing that his city was among the most misunderstood and misrepresented in the country. His goal: to change Oakland’s image both internally and externally, one neighborhood at a time, by holding photo sessions featuring a local person, couple, or family displaying a sign with a message about the place where they live.

Until last week, his compelling photos graced the windows of a vacant but highly visible building at the corner of 19th St. and Broadway. For 18 months, Stephen’s work attracted the attention of commuters and locals. The reaction, according to the business district’s representative, Andrew Jones, was “totally positive.”

Stephen admits that when he first embarked upon this project, he didn’t have a clear notion of where it would lead him. He has disciplined himself to devote four hours a day to it; the rest of the time he earns his living as a professional photographer for clients that include Alameda Health System, the YMCA of the East Bay, Mills College, and numerous dance companies.

Photographer Stephen Texeira at Fairyland's Aesop's Playhouse.

The neighborhoods project got more attention when it was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle and OaklandLocal. Suddenly, people were contacting Stephen instead of the other way around.

Oakland residents have opened their homes and their hearts to Stephen. For his part, he says his goal is to make images “that are honest, emotional, funny, touching, sad, beautiful, and moving.”

The project allows Stephen to explore parts of Oakland he says he wouldn’t have otherwise seen. He’s sometimes asked whether venturing outside his own neighborhood makes him nervous. No, he answers: “Neighborhoods are made up of families and kids — people who are trying to pay their rent, have a garden. That perspective is huge.”

Stephen says that he never censors what his subjects write on their signs. Often, he says, he is most moved by the folks who write the least.

The photos capture our city’s quirky, proud spirit. One resident representing Allendale is photographed with his happy dog. His message: “I promise Oakland will NOT eat your child, it just wants to lick you in the face.”

From a mom and her three kids whose Bushrod roots go back many generations: “Family.”

And from one young lady from Grand Lake: “Diversity, kindness, and local is my way of describing Oakland!”

Stephen recalls two especially memorable photo shoots. One took place at the East Oakland Youth Development Center, where he worked with kids age 6 to 14. One drew a picture of a gun; another asked how to spell “homicide.” But hearts, butterflies, and trees were also represented in abundance.

Another involved Maybelle Broussard, a 102-year-old resident of Toler Heights who passed away a month ago. In 1932, she was one of a handful of African American students admitted to the University of California at Berkeley. She earned a B.A. in languages in an era when few women of color and only 10 percent of all Americans attended college. “Her message read like a Visit Oakland ad,” says Stephen: “Not too large a city,” “Lots of hills, fabulous views, good transportation.” Her message closes with “Many cultures are living together here peacefully.”

Maybelle Broussard.

“A remarkable woman,” Stephen says.

The shoot Stephen did last week with one of our Children’s Theatre casts was great fun for all of us. A sampling of their messages: “At Fairyland I learned stories that taught me lessons I learned that it’s nice to BE YOURSELF.” “Fairyland is a party to be YOU.” And one that really resonated with me: “Fairyland inspires me to be more ... kid.”

Children's Theatre kids working on their signs.

Stephen will be posting the Fairyland photos on his website, Oakland Photo, later this week. In the meantime, you can see photos from all the neighborhoods he’s already shot. There’s also a map of all 146 Oakland neighborhoods. Proceeds from the sale of photos are put directly back into the project.

Stephen’s photos are also scheduled to be displayed soon in a storefront at 15th St. and Broadway. He hopes one day to see them in the airport, in libraries and cafés, and even in a book.

But for now, he’s still actively recruiting participants for the project.

But don’t think you can convince him you’ve come up with a new neighborhood, as a handful of creative realtors have. ‟Deep East San Francisco” is one that was suggested for an up-and-coming neighborhood near the Emeryville border. Stephen didn’t buy it. For him, 146 neighborhoods are clearly enough.

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C.J. Hirschfield has served for 14 years as executive director of Children’s Fairyland, where she is charged with the overall operation of the nation’s first storybook theme park.