Peet’s Coffee and Tea, Fruitvale Ave., Oakland, CA.
Ajuan Mance
Category Archives: Oakland
1001 Black Men–#610
Peet’s Coffee and Tea, Fruitvale Ave., Oakland, CA.
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Saturday morning at Peet’s on Fruitvale Avenue is so absolutely, positively Oakland! The use of Oakland as an adjective is intentional, because there’s really no better better way to describe the atmosphere of this place (at this time and on this day). If there is a single language, ethnicity, age, religious group, or subculture that is not represented in this crowd, I can’t imagine what it might be. And the diversity is present on both sides of the counter, among the patrons as well as the employees. There are almost as many dads with strollers or baby wraps as there are moms equipped with the same; and, for a small space in which accidentally elbowing someone else is almost inevitable, the mood is surprisingly light and forgiving. People’s smiles seem to say, “It’s Saturday morning at Peet’s, and it’s all good.”
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#609
The Walgreens on the corner of High and Redding has got to be one of the busiest stores of its kind. There is always a long line, and the line always moves slowly. On those days when I have no more emails to read and no more iPhone games that need tending, I pass the time in that line just looking around and absorbing the particular brand of diversity that reveals itself in this little corner of Oakland.
The man in this drawing is one of those folks who comes to Walgreens to buy his groceries. I don’t mean that he drops into the store to pick up a couple of items that he forgot to grab at the local supermarket. For a lot of complicated and not-so-complicated reasons, a number of folks in the neighborhood find Walgreens to be the best place to purchase not only their snacks and soft drinks, but also their staples. This says a lot about the poor selection of foods available at so many of the corner stores in our city. If Walgreens has a better food selection than your corner grocery store, then your local grocer is probably not prioritizing the selling of food … but I’ll bet he sure stocks a wide array of liquors.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#608
I loved everything about this guy. His entire look was a throwback to an earlier time, from his handlebar mustache and soul patch to his ’80s-style weightlifting shirt to his left-is-right-and-right-is-wrong hoop earring.
If the Village People was a group of hardcore body builders, at least one of them would look like this.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#607
I ran into this gentleman at the Piedmont Grocery, on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. He moved slowly and tentatively up and down the aisles in a way that suggested both a lifetime of wear and tear and the grace and serenity of old age.
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How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.
Posted by Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#605
La Farine Bakery, Fruitvale Ave, Oakland, CA.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#602
Cock-A-Doodle Cafe, Oakland, CA.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#600
Today marks the 600th entry in my series of 1001 drawings of Black Men. Of course, the images in this series depict many more than 600 Black men, and some of my drawings include two, three or even as many as 30 different figures. Some of my subjects are drawn from life, some from memory, and less than a handful from photographs that I took on my phone.
Last Saturday night I found myself at the New Parish in downtown Oakland. The event was the WERQ! Vogue Ball. After the excitement of spending the day at the San Francisco Zine Fest, I was a bit too tired to enjoy such a high energy atmosphere, and I found a quiet corner in which to sit and do some people watching. This brother reminded me a little of a young George Clinton, if George Clinton had worn dreadlocks back in the day. That and the fact that he was wearing sunglasses indoors and at night made a deep enough impression on me that I immediately brought him to mind when I sat down to my sketchbook the next morning.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#599
Webster near 17th, Oakland, CA.
Ajuan Mance
1001 Black Men–#597
School is back in session, and all over the East Bay there are kids with backpacks and lunchboxes on sidewalks and in school yards. You can see them in their bright new back-to-school outfits, walking, running, and laughing together, making their way to and from the local elementaries. The boy in this drawing might be a student at a parochial school, but I like to think that he’s one of those kids whose parents made him dress up for the first day.
The picture in his thought bubble depicts Pam, Penny, Mike, and their father. They were part of the first Black family to be featured in the classic Dick and Jane series of early reading text books. They were introduced in select editions between 1962 and 1965. I thought it was the perfect image for the beginning of a new school year.