Community Newsletter: New Hours for Local Economy
When we opened Local Economy in October, we had no idea how any of it would work. For example, we guessed that Saturdays would be our busiest day. Well, we've now got a solid 8 months of data, aaannndd, Saturdays are our least busy day.
Meanwhile, the community has been asking for months for us to open on the other weekdays. So, after consulting with Painted Leopard, who confirmed that Saturdays are their slowest day, too, we've made the decision to start opening on Tuesdays, but no longer on Saturdays.
Of course, Local Economy will often be open on Saturdays for programming, as we are on Sundays. We have many of our biggest and best events on the weekends, and we think there may be a secondary advantage to being able to do workshops and talks all weekend long.
These changes are rolling out right away. We'll be open on Tuesday, June 16.
We also just want to remind everyone of two things! One, anyone can come grab a coffee from Painted Leopard from 8:30-2pm Tuesday-Friday. We've updated the front of the shop, so there are more places to hang out.
And two, anybody can become a member, which supports everything we do and also gets you a tote and some members only hours.
See you soon,
Sarah and Alexis
This Week at Local Economy
We've done over 150 events and workshops at Local Economy over the last 8 months. That's a lot! And there are always more in the pipeline. We're testing out some new formats for events over the coming weeks (jazz and Bay science, anyone?) and we've got some favorites coming back (Botanical drawing, Sunday coffee, Cookbook Club, Utopia Book Club).
If you're interested in hosting something with us, just email us at hi@thelocaleconomy.com.
- Tues, Jun 16, 10am: Storytime for Caregivers with Sarah Wheeler
Come write your own Recommended Reading List for Parenthood! These days, parenting “expertise” is endless. At this special edition of Storytime, host Patricia Zaballos will be in conversation with Sarah Wheeler, educational psychologist, writer, and cohost of The Mother of It All podcast, chatting about the parenting/caregiving books they’ve actually found helpful. - Thurs, Jun 18, 6pm: Kitchen Stories: Sharing Home Recipes and Why They Matter to Us
Cooking is personal, communal, and filled with histories. Bring a dish, a copy of the recipe, and the story behind it—whether it’s rooted in deep family lore or a new kitchen success story. We’ll share food and talk about why these dishes matter to us. Everyone leaves with something new to make and a closer connection to the casual cooks around us. Hosted by member Danny Scuderi. - Sat, Jun 20, 2pm: Substackers Meetup
Do you write on Substack — or have you been thinking about starting? Do you ever wish you could sit down with a circle of writers to swap ideas and talk through the behind-the-scenes of writing and building a community? Vanessa Li, founder of Tomatokind, and Sophie Davies, founder of CUPPA Culture will host an informal, supportive conversation about developing your editorial voice and growing a community on Substack. Sophie and Vanessa will share their own experiences, answer questions, and create space for thoughtful discussion. - Sun, Jun 21, 10:30am: Sunday Coffee, hosted by Jeff Wright, vol. 6
YES! It's back! Jeff Wright hosts a low-stakes morning of chatting, coffee, and snacks, and he’s brought it to Local Economy on a Sunday morning each month. This is definitely one of the best events for members to find their people in the community. And just in time for Father's Day. - Tues, Jun 23, 6pm: Ideas We Need for the Future: Doughnut Economics
We've realized that we'd somewhat haphazardly been programming Local Economy with a track that we were internally calling "ideas we need for the future." This is the first event we're putting officially under that label. Developed by economist Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics aims to create the regenerative and distributive dynamics that this century calls for. Doughnut Economics wants to change the goal for our economy from endless GDP growth to thriving in the “Doughnut,” the space between a social foundation that doesn't leave anyone short on life’s essentials and an ecological ceiling that ensures humanity does not destabilize the Earth. - Thurs, Jun 25, 6pm: An Evening with Oakland's West Edge Opera
Join us for an intimate evening conversation at the intersection of opera, community, and Oakland's living arts scene. West Edge Opera General Director Mark Streshinsky and Oakland Symphony Music Director Kedrick Armstrong sit down with bass Kenneth Kellogg to talk about what it means to make art in and for Oakland and why it matters now more than ever. Every story deserves to be told. But whose stories make it onto the stage — and who gets to tell them? At the center of the conversation: American Apollo, West Edge Opera's West Coast Premiere production coming to Oakland this August. The opera tells the true and long-buried story of Thomas Eugene McKeller, a Black man whose body inspired some of the most celebrated paintings in American art history, yet whose face and name were erased from the canvas. - Fri, Jun 26, 6:30pm: Lo-Fi Oyster Co. and Local Economy Present Tide Tables, Ambient Jazz and Bay Science
Tide Tables is a special series presented in collaboration with Lo-Fi Oyster Co. Each event combines ambient jazz with conversations about the Bay water, climate, and food systems. Up first, the Wild Oyster Project will be paired with experimental ambient vocalist Roco Córdova. This is gonna be super special and unlike anything we've done before! - Sat, Jun 27, 1pm: Oakland Noticing Club
Turn on your curiosity radar and join us for the latest meeting of the Oakland Noticing Club, an informal meet-up inspired by Rob Walker’s “Savor of the Month” at The Art of Noticing. This month's noticing theme is, in honor of Pride Month, rainbows. Collect them and bring them to share via words, photos, zines, poems, PowerPoint…whatever strikes your fancy. - Tues, Jun 30, 6pm: Botanical Drawing
Our regular drawing event! Hannah Hirsekorn is an artist working in ink on paper and skin. She runs Oology Tattoo, and she specializes in flora and fauna. For her, drawing the more-than-human world is a practice of deep looking and a form of environmental conservation. In this workshop, you’ll bring your own art supplies. Hannah will bring items to draw and do some low-key instruction. - Wed, Jul 8, 6pm: Poetry as Companion: Parenting in Uncertain Times
What might poetry offer caregivers and parents amidst a time of overwhelm, uncertainty and loss? Can poetry be a companion that steadies us and brings us closer to the unsayable? In this workshop, we’ll do a close reading of a poem, learning a simple framework anyone can enter. Then we’ll turn to our own writing to see what’s present and how poems might help us make meaning in our lives. No poetry experience needed - sharing is completely optional! This session will be led by Ben Gucciardi and Evan Bissell and is part of the series, Parents Against the Future. - Thurs, Jul 9, 6pm: How We Disappear: Information in Life and in Death
When Stanford historian Thomas Mullaney “lost” both his parents, he began thinking of how information—all the stuff that makes us, that we make, and that we leave behind—ultimately disappears. Everything that we put “in formation” eventually collapses into randomness. Never is this more evident than in the wake of a parent’s death. Yet from all these elusive, even evanescent, data points, history is written and a future is made. Mullaney's new book about these ideas is called How We Disappear: A Personal History of Information. He'll be joined in conversation by Tamara Kneese, whose 2023 book Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond provides an ethnographic and historical account of the internet of death. - Sun, Jul 12, 5pm: Cookbook Club: In Bibi's Kitchen
It's time for round 3 of Cookbook Club, a partnership with East Bay Booksellers’ Thu Doan. This time, we’ll be cooking In Bibi's Kitchen: The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers from the Eight African Countries that Touch the Indian Ocean. Somali chef Hawa Hassan and food writer Julia Turshen present 75 recipes and stories gathered from bibis (or grandmothers) from eight African nations: South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Comoros, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, and Eritrea. We'll create a sign-up sheet for participants to take on a recipe or two from the book, then gather for a potluck to share what we've all made. - Thurs, Jul 16, 6pm: Local Economy Art: Francis Baker on Beauty and the Anthropocene
If you've been into the shop in recent weeks, you've seen Francis Baker's work on our walls. Baker is showing a selection of his art from the last several years. These pieces are created through camera-less photographic techniques in which plastic fragments and found materials are arranged directly onto light-sensitive paper and exposed to the sun. Come learn more about Baker’s practice and how his use of everyday materials investigates the human impact on the environment. - Sun, Jul 19, 2pm: "This Is Terrible, This Is Wonderful": Postpartum Zine Workshop
This is Terrible, This is Wonderful author Rani Ban invites mothers and caretakers to take part in a collective act of creation: folding, stitching, writing, and decorating a low-fi poetry zine together. While fostering a community of parents, each attendee will leave with a small, hand-stitched and hand-written artifact of their own inner life. Rani will provide all necessary craft supplies, but anyone is welcome to bring more to share! Rani Ban is a writer and artist based in the Hudson Valley, where she owns an art supply store called The Little Art Shop. - Tues, Jul 21, 6pm: Utopia Book Club, No. 3: Everything for Everyone
Tracy Clark-Flory and Sarah Rich lead a discussion about Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune 2052-2072. This work of speculative fiction by M.E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi is a look back at the end of capitalism from the perspective of the commune that helped force a new social order in the ashes of systemic collapse. "Nurses, sex workers, antifascist militants, and survivors of all stripes recall the collapse of life as they knew it and the emergence of a collective alternative," they write. A post-apocalyptic book that's as thrilling as it is depressing for us stuck here in the past. Get your copies from East Bay Booksellers!
