Candy Cranks

Check it out, this weekend! On Saturday. Hosted by Stalk Bicylces, looks hecka rad…you can win a bamboo bike frame, custom painted by the artists involved!

Old Crow Tattoo and Gallery presents
Femininity

An Art Exhibition and Benefit Raffle for Keep a Breast.org
featuring
…
JOSH MAYS
JORDAN QUINTERO
AMANDA LYNN
AMINAH SLOR

Hosted by Stalk Bamboo Bicycles

Get ready for a beautiful evening of art and charity.
Brought to you by Stalk Bamboo Bicycles and Keep A Breast.org
Femininity is a conceptual art and sculpture exhibition focusing on feminine form and the female essence.
Femininity will feature hand painted Bamboo Bicycle Frames painted by Philip Milic, Amanda Lynn, Josh Mays and Jordan Quintero. One of these beautiful frames fabricated by Stalk Bicycles will be raffled off on evening of the opening with the proceeds to benefit Keep A Breast.org.
Don’t miss this once in a lifetime chance to contribute to a great cause and win a limited edition bamboo bike frame. If you cant attend the opening raffle ticket’s can be purchased at the Stalk Bicycles Website (www.stalkbicycles.com)
Black Diamond Shining Collective will be painting live all evening.

Additional Info about our sponsors
Keep A Breast
The Keep A Breast Foundation™ is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. Our mission is to help eradicate breast cancer by exposing young people to methods of prevention, early detection and support. Through art events, educational programs and fund raising efforts, we seek to increase breast cancer awareness among young people so they are better equipped to make choices and develop habits that will benefit their long-term health and well-being.

Stalk Bicycles
Stalk Bicycles is a team of passionate builders dedicated to fostering the collaboration of art, industry, and earth. In our pursuit of the perfect bike we choose to build with bamboo– a versatile material that can be appreciated anywhere. Whether industrial trade shows or environmental
awareness expos, bike repair shops or art galleries, San Francisco alleyways or the African countryside, our creations speak volumes. This is because our custom bicycles harness nature’s beauty and strength using quality design.

fine print
We’ll be holding the raffle @ 11pm ticket holder’s do not need to be present to win prize’s.
All winner’s will be contacted following the raffle if not present.
If contact with winner isn’t made within 2 business days, A redrawing will be scheduled and winner’s will be contacted by phone

Spokeland is an “an education-based bicycle cooperative aimed at making bikes accessible to EVERYONE.” They are having their first alleycat fundraiser meeting at 1pm at the Bellvue Bandstand by Lake Merritt and Fairyland. It’s $5 to enter, and there is an afterparty too! Should be really fun. I’m gonna be doing a “Bling yer Bike” workshop at the Bring Your Own Queer festival in SF that day, so I’m gonna miss it but Jabari, Jose and maybe Kashif from The Bikery have promised me they will represent.

Have fun if ya can make it!

This sounds amazing!!! An inspirational free festival in West Oakland, “celebrating Life through urban performance, intergenerational health, and environmental action.” October 3rd, starting at 11am in Defremery Park.

There will be all kinds of things happening, including lots of bike stuff:

1. Hood Games will have a bike and skate park open

2. Rock the Bike will have a pedal-powered dance stage

3. Red Bike and Green will host a black critical mass bike ride and historical tour of West Oakland

This will be incredible, and is part of a growing movement of cultural and environmental resources for folks of color communities, but coming from a different place of meeting people where they are at so they can become healthier and stronger, instead of selling people a product that is a “green”commodity. It is also a big celebration of the creativity of our communities, and includes a concert (The Coup will be there, AMAZING!!!), storytelling, food justice, words from Youth Speaks and a live graffiti battle.

About: LIFE is LIVING establishes a new model for partnerships between diverse and under-resourced communities, green action agencies, and the contemporary arts world.

Thanks everyone for all the love and welcoming! Am still figuring out all the posting, but it’s appreciated!!!

I wanna tell everyone about an event hosted by Richmond SPOKES and the newly forming East Bay Community Bike Collaborative on Wednesday, September 29th. The idea is to get everyone together, and collaborate with each other to help grow the bike cultures of the East Bay. Hecka exciting! I will definitely be sharing with folks about how it goes and what are next steps, if folks are interested but not ready to come out to the meetings yet. If you do wanna come, get in touch and we can ride together!

You can learn more about the event by clicking on this LINK.

Here is the invitation, via Richmond SPOKES:

Come to our first meeting to find out how to get involved.
Wednesday September 29th 2010
•6:30 gather @ Future site of SPOKESHOP Richmond Bart Station •then roll down to 401 1st street #215 7-8 PM
~We will be exploring and defining membership
~addressing the mission of the collaborative
~Why collaborate
~About the community Barter system
~the direction of the new East Bay bike cultures

The meeting is accessible from the Bart Amtrak, AC transit by Bike walking or if you really have to by car.
This is not officially a pot luck but as it is an evening meeting SPOKES will accept generous sharings of libation and nourishment and set up some space to commune and consume.

Also- about the artwork. This piece is done by Paul Barron, and I originally saw it in a Richmond SPOKES post, talking about how bikes are a tool of power and resistance. I think it is always complicated to glorify guns, as they are weapons of both self defense and oppression. This print is really growing on me, I think the artists is very skilled, and we share similar politics. You can read more about his intention behind the piece here.

OMG, hella excited to be writing for Candy Cranks as an Oakland rider! I look forward to connecting with a larger bike community, it’s so inspiring to hear about what is happening all over the world. Thanks for having me! My name’s Elokin, and that’s me in the picture with my bike “Stella”.

Oakland… an amazing place to be on a bike. I’m originally from San Diego, moved up here 5 years ago and started teaching bike programs with youth. It’s been an incredible adventure. I was in SF until a year ago, and I gotta say, I super love the East Bay. Cuz I am not from here I definitely work on checking myself and my role in the process of gentrification in Oakland, it’s important for all us transplants (by choice) to look at why we are here. I came here to be closer to work- I work with Cycles of Change, a bike education org here in the East Bay. We have a collectively-run bike shop, The Bikery, centering the leadership of people of color, youth especially, as well as women and transfolk, and people grown up in Oakland.

Oakland inspires me as a biker cuz the bike scene here is fiercely political and creative. We have Bikes 4 Life, who work to address criminalization of youth and create a space where young folks learn skills to run a business. They organize a Peace Ride each year- this year’s ride focused on bringing justice to victims of police violence, especially Oscar Grant and Fred Collins who were murdered by BART police in Fruitvale. I am honored to get to work with them, and also organized that ride with RBG and P.O.K.E.R.  Red Bike and Green, (RBG) is a collective of black urban cyclists, who work “to improve the physical health, individual economy and local environment of African Americans by strengthening the relevance of bike culture within the Black community”. Started by a woman, Jenna, she’s amazing. And the People Of Kolor Everyday Ridin’ (P.O.K.E.R) rides, are fun community building rides to check out for folks of color. And other great bike orgs are Richmond SPOKES, which is in Richmond, close to Oakland, doing fabulous things in the bike movement. And of course Baybe Champ, the Scraper Bike King, who has drawn international attention to the creativity of Scraper Bikes in Oakland.

K, those are the folks I want to introduce you to for now, in Oakland/East Bay. The idea is, there are so many strong and amazing bike communities here- I definitely feel part of a growing movement for social justice through being involved in bike community. I’m excited to build it with you- please write to share your events! I plan on including a lot of great events in my posts, and interviewing all the amazing women who are involved in bike organizing and run bike shops, make bike art, etc. here in Oakland. There are so many great folks to introduce to each other!

I also work on these blogs if you ever wanna check ‘em out or add anything. Thanks for being part of this with me!

www.sugarbellybikes.blogspot.com

www.thebikery.blogspot.com