It was a hot summer day in downtown Oakland, perfect Labor Day weather for the annual Art and Soul Festival. City Center was shut down and blocked off for blocks in several directions, and a mere $10 admission fee granted access to excellent clothes and crafts and art booths; delicious and varied food; and superb live entertainment ranging from a blues stage to a world stage to a latino stage to a hip hop dj spinning hot hits while kids danced on the stage in front of him. My longtime New York City friend, Kim Sullivan, had a layover in the Bay Area, so we met at 12th Street BART and did the festival together. We had a ball walking around, catching up, shopping and enjoying the mellow, friendly crowd. Early in the afternoon we caught a few songs by Pieces of a Dream, the jazz supertrio, featuring soul-jazz vocaliste par excellence, Regina Belle, and they played and sang their hearts out.Later we had a terrific cement picnic in the sun with lunches from Ribs N Things, a Hayward eatery. Kim had hot links, honey yams and red beans and rice, and I opted for tri tip, potato salad and macaroni and cheese. Scrumptious! And the fruit punch was the best we'd ever tasted. We think it may have been the grenadine at the bottom of the glass. We laughed, noshed and relaxed, then made our way to the Main Stage for several numbers by soul-pop balladeer, Jeffrey Osborne, who did elongated versions of his hits like "Back In Love Again," "Love Ballad" and an incendiary take on "The Woo Woo Song" with enthusiastic and occasionally over the top audience participation. Osborne is a real crowd pleaser of a 70s old skool performer and had the audience eating out of his hands.
Too soon it was time to leave and get Kim back to BART so she could relax a bit before the flight home. Although she'd lived here for many years, this afternoon she got to see the fun and happy side of Oakland, courtesy of Art And Soul. We'll be back!
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