Jordan Cooper

Sep 10, 2024 | eastbayexpress.com | Jordan Cooper

In the Bay Area we’ve become accustomed to pairing recreational drugs with social venues. This region offers bars, hookah lounges, cannabis cafes and gentlemans’ clubs with cigars. The smell and smoke, or the drunken behaviors, keep users of different substances from frequenting the same scenes. The new alternative is kava bars. There are currently three in the East Bay—MeloMelo on Grand in Oakland, Rootwater on Third in Jack London Square and Bula Kava on Mission in Hayward.

Sep 3, 2024 | eastbayexpress.com | Jordan Cooper

With less than two months until camp-lovers can attend their local showing of Rocky Horror, the Oakland International Film Festival will fill that hole with an 85-minute, campy, indie film on Sept. 13. The film, Werewolf Serenade, serves as entertainment for the locavores of the Bay Area and its wine valleys. Like its title, the film doesn’t take itself too seriously, and the audience isn’t expected to either.

Jul 29, 2024 | broadwayworld.com | A.A. Cristi |Jordan Cooper |Kate Hamill |Langston Hughes

Get Access To Every Broadway StoryUnlock access to every one of the hundreds of articles published daily on BroadwayWorld by logging in with one click. Email:Existing user? Just click login. Baltimore Center Stage is offering a Flash Sale to celebrate the company's 2024/25 Season, the first programmed by Tony Award-nominee Stevie Walker-Webb in his new tenure as Artistic Director. For a strictly limited time, August 1-4, 2024, guests can save up to 50% on all tickets to BCS' mainstage programming.

Jul 9, 2024 | eastbayexpress.com | Jordan Cooper

For California, a state with an ever-mixing population, fusion is strength. Children grow up exposed to different cultures, religions and ethnicities, which fosters cultural sensitivity and adaptability, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Las Cafeteras, a band that treasures that fusion, especially the fusion of cultures in Los Angeles, began with three young community organizers in college.

Jul 9, 2024 | eastbayexpress.com | Jordan Cooper

Once a week, in San Francisco’s Mission District, a cafe hosts live music from a genre not many Americans know: Balkan music. Revolution Cafe (2006-2021) started the tradition that Bissap Baobab now continues—Balkan Sundays, free to all and alive with Balkan music and dancing. The Balkans are a conglomerate of countries in southeastern Europe, from Moldova to Greece and Turkey to Croatia. Despite the many historical and current disputes between the countries, their cultures remain intertwined.