The Flyer: September 2026 in North Oakland
Hello to my North Oakland neighbors (and everyone else who has found their way onto this newsletter) – it’s been so long!
For anyone who’s actually been keeping track, it’s been 8 months since I sent out a dispatch… life honestly just got very busy, and making the zine slipped further and further into the depths of my todo list. But somehow I’m back to long, slow walks across the Bushrod athletic field, joining impromptu pickup soccer games, music jams with the North Oakland Assembly crew… it’s good stuff, just in time for second summer. It’s also good to know that making this newsletter is something that I’ll always genuinely want to come back to do, after I’ve found myself again.
That said, I drafted this a few days ago and now it’s almost the weekend, so let me get this out so that this stuff is still relevant lol…
September 2026
In an attempt to be more consistent, I’m paring things back to the basics: the event calendar. It’s a somewhat selfish move because it’s something I always want for myself, and something that I can get done more consistently with the time I have. But also, people meeting up and doing stuff together is the heart of being in community with each other, so it also just makes sense.
Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I’m really proud of the curation this time around! I could have made this an all-music issue with all the concerts, disco dance floors, and jams happening this month… but barring that, I included a healthy sampling of them across the spectrum, and then filled in the rest with the usual mix of art/learning/merry-making/whatever else. Here’s a quick sample (full list of events is at theflyer.org/events) – if you go to anything, take pictures or let me know how it was!
🎷 [9/12 @ 7PM] The Supplicants @ Root Stock Arts. I discovered this spot because I saw an unfamiliar sign while looking out of the 6 bus window. Turns out it’s a new arts space on Telegraph Ave spearheaded by Sameer Gupta, an East Bay native who stewarded a South Asian jazz scene in Brooklyn for decades. This jazz concert (which is bound to be a spiritual experience) is just a small taste of what this space has to offer; there’s a cooperative vision here that I can’t wait to see (read more at KQED).
🪩 The same night: club yearn (disco time) at White Horse Bar. I will probably attempt to go to both and somewhat regret it the next day, but it’s cool that I can find both of these things here.
🍻 [9/14 @ 5PM] Good Times 1 Year Anniversary. I had a professor in grad school who grew up in Oakland, and said there used to be a bar called the Alcatel somewhere around the same intersection that Good Times now sits. I have absolutely no idea what it was like, but somehow Good Times feels like it’s filling a natural role here: a fully unpretentious, chill, kind, welcoming watering hole for the community. Go celebrate what is hopefully the first of many years in the neighborhood (and report back on whatever weird 80s cartoon they’re playing on the TV) – food’s by Tacos Oscar.
🫂 [9/27 @ 1PM] Caregiving Workshop at Local Economy. Highlighting this because it’s relevant to every one of us at some point in our lives (for me, more recently). Go learn from folks at the Zen Caregiving Project about how to care for those with chronic illness, entering hospice, or otherwise.
As always, this issue of The Flyer will be available on various sign poles near Bushrod Park, and online for more info, links, and archives. One of these days I’ll probably put together a little text digest for what’s happening week by week? Let me know if that sounds interesting…
Quick Musings
I wrote some stuff in the zine version about feeling pessimistic about AI stuff. I would rather not get into that again here, but message me if you’re interested in my thoughts (which are mostly fears and frustrations about an AI-induced market collapse, and how I hope we can find ways to defend ourselves against that).
Instead, I would really like to spend time writing about all the amazing ways that people are making beautiful community life happen!! I went to three different block parties in this neighborhood in August, and all of them bore the soul of the place we call home. Little-big things, you could say – so simple, but so important, to gather and have fun with the people around you. Let’s not forget that (and in fact, let’s do it more and more – summer shouldn’t be the only time we do this!).
Getting Involved
As usual, I would love for others to contribute to The Flyer in whatever way they’d like! It could be as simple as a photo of flower, a cool book you found on the sidewalk, a recipe for all the stuff growing in the community gardens…. whatever way want to honor what’s special about the neighborhood. Length or format doesn’t really matter because we’re making all this up on the fly anyway haha; I’ll just figure out how to present it, whether on the web or in the zine or on a pole.
Some subjects I would LOVE to write about (if you want to write about any of these instead, let me know…):
Nature & Environment: What street plants can you eat around here? What’s the deal with El Niño?
Music: Someone’s gotta document the Starry Plough open mic scene, or the queer-aoke at White Horse.
Critical Perspectives: Why are there so many vacant lots and buildings around Oakland (there’s actually a city-wide assembly happening on this topic right now)? What stage of gentrification are we in now, and what’s at risk of being lost with the next AI-driven boom-bust cycle?
…and probably a lot more!
So yeah anyway. If all goes well I’ll be putting another one of these together early next month, and will perhaps try to add an insert with some photos/writing/etc… hit me up before then.
Behind the Scenes
Just a few random notes for people who are interested in how this happens…
Even though I wasn’t making the zine for most of this year, I was getting really into making the street pole zine holders! At some point I put a one up on Shattuck and filled it with zines about BART, and it worked pretty well. Unfortunately I have decided that I need to find a solution other than rubber bands to help the compartment close again… they break too easily and dry up in the sun (even the UV-resistant ones I got)…
I ran a workshop for the Bathers Library Symposium on The Art of Sticking Sh*t on Poles, where we walked around and observed all the stuff we found on street poles, theorized a bit about it, and then made our own street art.
If you walk around here there are actually quite a few street poles that are completely abandoned… I would love to take them over haha. More community art & infrastructure on the street!
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Okay that’s all for now! Have a lovely weekend :) If you have any tips/ideas/newsflashes/art for the October issue, email me at [email protected].
your neighbor,
~humphrey