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Crown Journeys Series
Blues City: A Walk in Oakland
Oakland is a blues city, brawling and husky . . .
Often overshadowed by San Francisco, its twinkling sister city across the Bay, Oakland is itself an American wonder. The city is surrounded by and filled with natural beauty—mountains and hills and lakes and a bay—and architecture that mirrors its history as a Spanish mission, Gold Rush outpost, and home of the West’s most devious robber barons. It’s also a city of artists and blue-collar workers, the birthplace of the Black Panthers, neighbor to Berkeley, and home to a vibrant and volatile stew of immigrants and refugees.
In Blues City , Ishmael Reed, one of our most brilliant essayists, takes us on a tour of Oakland, exploring its fascinating history, its beautiful hills and waterfronts, and its odd cultural juxtapositions. He takes us into a year in the life of this amazing city, to black cowboy parades and Indian powwows, to Black Panther reunions and Gay Pride concerts, to a Japanese jazz club where a Lakota musician plays Coltrane’s “Naima.” Reed provides a fascinating tour of an un-tamed, unruly western outpost set against the backdrop of political intrigues, ethnic rivalries, and a gentrification-obsessed mayor, opening our eyes not only to a singular city, but to a newly emerging America.
Often overshadowed by San Francisco, its twinkling sister city across the Bay, Oakland is itself an American wonder. The city is surrounded by and filled with natural beauty—mountains and hills and lakes and a bay—and architecture that mirrors its history as a Spanish mission, Gold Rush outpost, and home of the West’s most devious robber barons. It’s also a city of artists and blue-collar workers, the birthplace of the Black Panthers, neighbor to Berkeley, and home to a vibrant and volatile stew of immigrants and refugees.
In Blues City , Ishmael Reed, one of our most brilliant essayists, takes us on a tour of Oakland, exploring its fascinating history, its beautiful hills and waterfronts, and its odd cultural juxtapositions. He takes us into a year in the life of this amazing city, to black cowboy parades and Indian powwows, to Black Panther reunions and Gay Pride concerts, to a Japanese jazz club where a Lakota musician plays Coltrane’s “Naima.” Reed provides a fascinating tour of an un-tamed, unruly western outpost set against the backdrop of political intrigues, ethnic rivalries, and a gentrification-obsessed mayor, opening our eyes not only to a singular city, but to a newly emerging America.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
19 people are currently reading
653 people want to read
About the author
Ishmael Reed
140 books443 followersIshmael Scott Reed is an American poet, essayist, and novelist. A prominent African-American literary figure, Reed is known for his satirical works challenging American political culture, and highlighting political and cultural oppression.
Reed has been described as one of the most controversial writers. While his work has often sought to represent neglected African and African-American perspectives, his energy and advocacy have centered more broadly on neglected peoples and perspectives irrespective of their cultural origins.
Reed has been described as one of the most controversial writers. While his work has often sought to represent neglected African and African-American perspectives, his energy and advocacy have centered more broadly on neglected peoples and perspectives irrespective of their cultural origins.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
February 7, 2009
While Reed's subject was intrinsically interesting to me as a resident of Oakland, his prose was lousy. The sentences were poorly constructed, poorly edited, poorly copy-edited, and poorly proofread. At times, it felt like I was being read to directly from the tour literature he had picked up on his visits to landmarks. Not all of this is Reed's fault. Clearly his editor was asleep at the switch.
Furthermore, I found the personality of the narrator as it came through the book distinctly irritating. There was something dogmatic, knee-jerk, even reactionary about it, if a far-left view can be said to be reactionary. He seemed self-important, and he didn't seem like someone who would be much fun to be around.
So while I did pick up some interesting historical facts about my town, and while I appreciated being exposed to a very different perspective from my own on local politics and events, none of this made me want to read anything else by this author.
Furthermore, I found the personality of the narrator as it came through the book distinctly irritating. There was something dogmatic, knee-jerk, even reactionary about it, if a far-left view can be said to be reactionary. He seemed self-important, and he didn't seem like someone who would be much fun to be around.
So while I did pick up some interesting historical facts about my town, and while I appreciated being exposed to a very different perspective from my own on local politics and events, none of this made me want to read anything else by this author.
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April 3, 2023Here’s what I learned from this book: Ishmael Reed really hates Jerry Brown. It’s a special kind of hatred too, one reserved by someone on the far-left for someone not left enough. That’s the secret of the Left, destroy those close to you but not close enough. I don’t think Ishmael Reed is an ideological purist by any means. His politics comes across as too messy and stitched together for that. It’s a kind of untenable utopian thinking that based not on an ideal society per se, but on an equitable one. It’s a shame then that equity is so far down the path of idealism that it feel false.
But as I said in his book about Barack Obama, he does call out hypocrisy and falsehood when he sees it. So the Jerry Brown sections of this book–for the uniformed as I was Jerry Brown in between being Governor was mayor of Oakland.–are a bit anomalous or atonal for an otherwise interesting book about Oakland, a kind of beautifully scarred step-sister of a city. It reminds me a lot of the various comedians I know who call Oakland their home, and even Michael Chabon’s flawed novel Telegraph Avenue. It’s interesting to watch someone spend a lot of time and energy learning to love a city they weren’t born into. Had this not been an audiobook, I wouldn’t have read it, but it was, it was short, and it was there and available. I think getting more of a taste of his fiction among his nonfiction was a good way to see more of Ishmael Reed the thinker and person versus the novelist, which is more upcoming.
But as I said in his book about Barack Obama, he does call out hypocrisy and falsehood when he sees it. So the Jerry Brown sections of this book–for the uniformed as I was Jerry Brown in between being Governor was mayor of Oakland.–are a bit anomalous or atonal for an otherwise interesting book about Oakland, a kind of beautifully scarred step-sister of a city. It reminds me a lot of the various comedians I know who call Oakland their home, and even Michael Chabon’s flawed novel Telegraph Avenue. It’s interesting to watch someone spend a lot of time and energy learning to love a city they weren’t born into. Had this not been an audiobook, I wouldn’t have read it, but it was, it was short, and it was there and available. I think getting more of a taste of his fiction among his nonfiction was a good way to see more of Ishmael Reed the thinker and person versus the novelist, which is more upcoming.
January 9, 2017
I knew that I had so much to learn about my town and Ishmael Reed's history of Oakland did not disappoint. Since it is told quite subjectively from a 2003 lens - Reed has a lot of criticism of Mayor Jerry Brown & company's push for real estate and downtown development - it is interesting to think about how this has played out since the book was written.
September 14, 2011
Blues City paints a literary portrait of Oakland, California at the turn of the millennium. Using accounts of cultural events, neighborhood excursions, and interviews with cultural figures and politicians, Ishmael Reed takes a broad view of the city, one that runs from the time of European conquest to the year of the book's publication (2003). In a breezy, conversational style, he reveals that Oakland has been the site of continuous conflict between white elites and egalitarian, community oriented people of color. The former, whether as European colonizers, gold rushers, or dot.com gentrifiers, have been arrogant thieves; the latter, whether as Native American tribes, Chinese laborers, or black train yard workers, have suffered and resisted. The plaintive, garrulous strains of the blues embody this experience for Reed: Oakland is a Blues City.
Reed recounts his dialogues with a councilman, a columnist for the Oakland Tribune, a prominent ex-Black Panther, a well-known artist, among others; he describes visits to Lake Merritt, the Oakland Convention Center, Chinatown, Jack London Square, Yoshi's bar, Preservation Park, as well as additional places; he tells us about a Kwanza celebration, Oakland's Gay Pride March, a powwow, and other functions. He uses his encounters with these people, places, and events as a platform upon which to discuss the city and its many travails, both past and present. He has clearly done a lot of reading into the city's history. His commentary is erudite and sensitive.
He expresses particular concern about Oakland at the time of writing, when Jerry Brown was Mayor—indeed, invective directed toward Brown is a constant throughout the book. Reed faults him for being aloof, overbearing, and, above all, a force behind the expulsion of black people from Oakland through gentrification. Reed is specifically opposed to Brown's "10K Plan," with which he hoped to "revitalize" downtown by getting 10,000 new people to move to the area, and he objects more generally to the reconstruction of the city into a playground for the wealthy (who are apparently always white for Reed). Reed thinks the city government is too focused on making deals with developers and that it should do much more to support affordable housing, social services, and non-profits.
Reed's choice of interviewees, locations, and events allows him to say important things about the city, but he is too concentrated on the city as a site of cultural events and recreation. He says little about Oakland's economy: he doesn't discuss residents' employment patterns or the city's revenue sources, didn't visit any factories or offices, and barely discussed the deindustrialization of the city, which has wrecked havoc upon its tax base. He does not explore the state of Oakland's educational system, didn't drop by any classrooms, and makes no comment upon the city's transportation infrastructure. Perhaps these oversights are to be expected from someone like Reed—a tenured professor at UC Berkeley with adult children—but I think most people will have a different set of concerns when they think about the city. They (we) will wonder how to make a living, how to educate the kids, and how to get from point A to point B, among other prosaic matters. For most of us, Oakland is not primarily a place of leisure or site in which to spend expendable income.
Reed's neglect of the economic context is a serious failing, given its importance to the problems he describes. After all, it takes money to support the type of city that Reed wants--one with social services, affordable housing, and non-profits--but the evisceration of Oakland's industrial base has made raising revenue extremely difficult. Given this, Reed's antipathy to Jerry Brown feels a little gratuitous: after all, one way to generate revenue is by turning downtown into a place where professionals with expendable income and no kids to feed (i.e., people like Reed) come to spend their money at cultural events. This is one way to put money in city coffers, which then could, presumably, be expended on things of use to the disenfranchised. Is it the only way to generate revenue? No. Does this approach have serious social costs? Yes. But Reed rejects it without pointing to an alternative and that does nothing to move the discussion forward.
Oakland's problems are systemic and, to address them, we need to understand *why* the city faces such difficulties. This is a question that Reed does not explore. Reed makes comments throughout his book that suggest that he believes that the responsibility lay at the feet of naturally malevolent white people, but I find it hard to believe that a man of his intellect would embrace such facile racial essentialism and tend to think of such statements as rhetorical excesses.
I share Reed's dedication to social and racial justice, but this book could have and should have been much richer. While I am not sure that it is really possible to write a book that fully captures the pulse of a city, certainly Oakland deserves a better scribe. I hope that will day he or she will appear.
Reed recounts his dialogues with a councilman, a columnist for the Oakland Tribune, a prominent ex-Black Panther, a well-known artist, among others; he describes visits to Lake Merritt, the Oakland Convention Center, Chinatown, Jack London Square, Yoshi's bar, Preservation Park, as well as additional places; he tells us about a Kwanza celebration, Oakland's Gay Pride March, a powwow, and other functions. He uses his encounters with these people, places, and events as a platform upon which to discuss the city and its many travails, both past and present. He has clearly done a lot of reading into the city's history. His commentary is erudite and sensitive.
He expresses particular concern about Oakland at the time of writing, when Jerry Brown was Mayor—indeed, invective directed toward Brown is a constant throughout the book. Reed faults him for being aloof, overbearing, and, above all, a force behind the expulsion of black people from Oakland through gentrification. Reed is specifically opposed to Brown's "10K Plan," with which he hoped to "revitalize" downtown by getting 10,000 new people to move to the area, and he objects more generally to the reconstruction of the city into a playground for the wealthy (who are apparently always white for Reed). Reed thinks the city government is too focused on making deals with developers and that it should do much more to support affordable housing, social services, and non-profits.
Reed's choice of interviewees, locations, and events allows him to say important things about the city, but he is too concentrated on the city as a site of cultural events and recreation. He says little about Oakland's economy: he doesn't discuss residents' employment patterns or the city's revenue sources, didn't visit any factories or offices, and barely discussed the deindustrialization of the city, which has wrecked havoc upon its tax base. He does not explore the state of Oakland's educational system, didn't drop by any classrooms, and makes no comment upon the city's transportation infrastructure. Perhaps these oversights are to be expected from someone like Reed—a tenured professor at UC Berkeley with adult children—but I think most people will have a different set of concerns when they think about the city. They (we) will wonder how to make a living, how to educate the kids, and how to get from point A to point B, among other prosaic matters. For most of us, Oakland is not primarily a place of leisure or site in which to spend expendable income.
Reed's neglect of the economic context is a serious failing, given its importance to the problems he describes. After all, it takes money to support the type of city that Reed wants--one with social services, affordable housing, and non-profits--but the evisceration of Oakland's industrial base has made raising revenue extremely difficult. Given this, Reed's antipathy to Jerry Brown feels a little gratuitous: after all, one way to generate revenue is by turning downtown into a place where professionals with expendable income and no kids to feed (i.e., people like Reed) come to spend their money at cultural events. This is one way to put money in city coffers, which then could, presumably, be expended on things of use to the disenfranchised. Is it the only way to generate revenue? No. Does this approach have serious social costs? Yes. But Reed rejects it without pointing to an alternative and that does nothing to move the discussion forward.
Oakland's problems are systemic and, to address them, we need to understand *why* the city faces such difficulties. This is a question that Reed does not explore. Reed makes comments throughout his book that suggest that he believes that the responsibility lay at the feet of naturally malevolent white people, but I find it hard to believe that a man of his intellect would embrace such facile racial essentialism and tend to think of such statements as rhetorical excesses.
I share Reed's dedication to social and racial justice, but this book could have and should have been much richer. While I am not sure that it is really possible to write a book that fully captures the pulse of a city, certainly Oakland deserves a better scribe. I hope that will day he or she will appear.
April 9, 2013
This is the most depressing book I've read in a while. The first disappointment was that the book is incredibly poorly edited- sloppy sentences, and pages upon pages of tour-guide quotations which added little to the pastiche Ishmael Reed was attempting to develop.
Even more disheartening was Reed's portrayal of Oakland. He chooses to focus on the negative aspects of the city and its cultural heritage. From his vantage point, he comes off as a pretentious know-it-all, name-dropping lawmakers with whom he disagrees, calling them out for legislating out Oakland's blackness. Written a decade ago, Oakland may have had less to look forward to. But I wish Reed had augured a brighter future for Oakland instead. He bemoans Brown's 10K plan as a white-wash, but 10 years later and Oakland remains impressively diverse. He also doesn't foresee the revitalization of the Oakland art and culinary scene, or the start-ups and pop-ups, collective work spaces, or Occupy.
Oakland has a history of struggle against discrimination and disenfranchisement. The people who are life-long Oaklanders, and even more so the people who come here by choice (among whom I count myself), know this, and see this struggle, and want to celebrate it through their own life and work. That's the beauty of this city to me. I wish he had shown it.
Even more disheartening was Reed's portrayal of Oakland. He chooses to focus on the negative aspects of the city and its cultural heritage. From his vantage point, he comes off as a pretentious know-it-all, name-dropping lawmakers with whom he disagrees, calling them out for legislating out Oakland's blackness. Written a decade ago, Oakland may have had less to look forward to. But I wish Reed had augured a brighter future for Oakland instead. He bemoans Brown's 10K plan as a white-wash, but 10 years later and Oakland remains impressively diverse. He also doesn't foresee the revitalization of the Oakland art and culinary scene, or the start-ups and pop-ups, collective work spaces, or Occupy.
Oakland has a history of struggle against discrimination and disenfranchisement. The people who are life-long Oaklanders, and even more so the people who come here by choice (among whom I count myself), know this, and see this struggle, and want to celebrate it through their own life and work. That's the beauty of this city to me. I wish he had shown it.
January 27, 2014
I bought this book with the intention of learning more about my adopted city. (Beth Bagwell's Oakland: The Story of a City was the text recommended to me, but it did not cover any developments since 1982. This is disappointing, considering how crack, the earthquake, and gentrification / urban renewal continue to shape life in my West Oakland neighborhood.) I give Ishmael Reed's book three stars because I did learn some things, but, like many other reviewers have said, one gets the sense the book was written in some haste and reads more like a light travelogue than a popular history. (Whoever writes an updated, general history of Oakland is going to write a seller; as far as I know, Bagwell's book is still considered the go-to reference.)
While I did not mind Reed's casual writing style, I did find his politics nauseating at times. I did not mind his criticism of Jerry Brown's tenure as mayor or the state of race relations in Oakland so much as his concern that, like, the US military (ruthlessly) ignored Osama bin Laden's (innocent) request to avoid targeting alleged religious sites. Obviously this kind of thing has nothing to do with Oakland and everything to do with a sad, warped mind.
While I did not mind Reed's casual writing style, I did find his politics nauseating at times. I did not mind his criticism of Jerry Brown's tenure as mayor or the state of race relations in Oakland so much as his concern that, like, the US military (ruthlessly) ignored Osama bin Laden's (innocent) request to avoid targeting alleged religious sites. Obviously this kind of thing has nothing to do with Oakland and everything to do with a sad, warped mind.
February 19, 2018
Ishmael Reed takes us on a tour of Oakland circa 2002/2003. He examines the history of the city, starting of course with the native population, through the Black Panthers, and the '99ers dot com population increase. Reed visits a year's worth of local festivals, and compiles the many frustrations with then-mayor Jerry Brown and Oakland's City Council. As someone who has lived in this city for a decade, this is a book that I was always looking for - we never need to stay where we were born, but we should do our best to educate ourselves about our chosen homes. It is amazing how many places mentioned in this book no longer exist. 15 years is both a long time, and not so long, but just a further example of how rapidly things have changed here; mainly to the detriment of the black, minority, and working class segments.
September 5, 2007
An opinionated snapshot of Oakland during the Jerry Brown years, Ishmael Reed's Blues City captures the culture, politics , and history of a city typically overshadowed by it's neighbor to the west. Reed's notes will find resonance with anyone who has loved a city or a neighborhood and his inclusion of accounts of groups as disparate as the Californios and the Black Panthers make for a fascinating read. Reed also spends much of his time lamenting the transformation of Jerry Brown and his policies that favored a revitalization of Oakland through attracting dotcomers downtown.
November 16, 2014
a great read and most informative for anyone interested in oakland. wow - i'll never look at peralta street again without cringing. Lots of interesting history about the notorious formation of oakland as a township, staggering facts about california's native american genocide campaigns, jack london's favorite bar (which still stands on the waterfront) and more.
April 25, 2012
Spirited overview of Oakland's history and a celebration of its diversity. Takes you from pre-colonization when Lake Merritt was still connected to the SF Bay and salmon ran in the Temescal and San Leandro creeks to Spanish mission times to the Gold rush to its haven as a resort town for city dwellers from SF through to the "gold rush" of the internet boom to present day. Great read!
December 5, 2012
This is an insightful book about Oakland, but it has an ax to grind that isn't always on point. Well worth it for me as someone has returned to the Bay Area after a long time in the middle of the US--a good review/getting to know the social/political fabric of the area.
March 28, 2017
Attempts to reclaim Oakland from gov. Jerry Brown's gentrification plan by detailing the history of the city as a multicultural haven.
December 27, 2019
I don’t know from where his reputation as an author arose, and I have to wonder about his tenure at UC Berkeley, but there wasn’t anything in his writing style that attracted me. No grace, no fluidity, no turns of phrases to seduce or haunt the reader. On top of that, his hatred of Jerry Brown ran throughout this book about Oakland, and honestly, that just had no place here. The only reason I upped my rating to 2 stars was that he did reasonable research into Oakland’s history, and he does love this city where I was born and raised. As a Chinese-American, with an American-born father, I have my own perspectives on Oakland and California history.
June 24, 2025
A good companion volume to Deep Oakland and Hella Town. I first read this when it came out. As I had only lived in Oakland for four years at that point, much of what Reed wrote about was new to me. 20 or so years later, I'm amazed to see how much has changed over the years. In particular, any mention he makes of the late, great Oakland Tribune gives me a fond recollection of what used to be a mainstay of this town. And what an ax he has to grind with Jerry Brown and his time as mayor. Truth be told, even though Brown was mayor for the first eight years I lived here, I barely remember his two terms.
But Oakland has lost a lot. It's no longer a blues town. Nevertheless, Reed captures then what Oakland still has now - a joyousness. This is a great town to live in. But man, it still could be so much better.
But Oakland has lost a lot. It's no longer a blues town. Nevertheless, Reed captures then what Oakland still has now - a joyousness. This is a great town to live in. But man, it still could be so much better.
March 22, 2012
As a new resident of Oakland this book jumped out at me while browsing at Pegasus and it did not disappoint. These series, Crown Journeys, features writers touring their hometowns (or places close to their hearts) and I've read some of them before out of interest in the author or the place. But reading this guide to my new chosen home was really exciting. Ishmael Reed visits many public festivals & events, many thrown in conjunction with Oakland's 150th anniversary in 2002. He explores California's history, rails against the mayorship of Jerry Brown, and introduces us to the characters he meets along the way. I started making a list of places I wanted to visit & events I didn't want to miss: the annual Black Cowboy Parade, the WPA era Westminster Amphitheater, the Black Panther history tour of Oakland. The book also introduced me to more of Oakland's literary history beyond Jack London and Bret Harte. Authors who have lived here include Amy Tan, Anne Rice, Frank Chin, Maya Angelou, and Lucha Corpi. The Gold Rush has left its mark on the city and Reed compares the onrush of the '99ers (tech money from San Francisco drawn by low rents & other incentives to move across the Bay) to that of the '49ers who "drove out the New Spanish and the Native American populations through genocide and land theft." I won't walk Oakland's streets without remembering his stories, tales of occupation and revolution and survival and the blues. When I first moved here I was surprised how much Oakland reminded me of Detroit, a city I love. Very early in the book Reed says "Oakland is Blues City, and one of the reasons I like it here is because it has the feel of labor cities in the Northeast such as Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo. Oakland is Buffalo with weather." His tour of Oakland will help you see a whole new city.
June 20, 2015
Starts & ends as a walking tour of Oakland, gets waylaid in the middle by a lot of angry monologging about the harm that Jerry Brown was causing the Town at that point in time (circa 2002-2003) and the author's thoughts on the Iraq war, and labor issues (among other disparate topics.) I appreciated many of Reed's viewpoints, tho I am likely symptomatic of the type of Oakland gentrification he is so frustrated with. Perhaps it's this latter aspect of my self that grew impatient with the number of words dedicated to the author's unhappiness with the direction in which he felt Oakland was moving and really, it often seemed, his frustration with the world in general. Ultimately I picked up this book because I wanted to learn about the history of this amazing city, and I felt too much time was spent by the author venting his feelings. *However* it's also this sense of the author's personal passion and growing ties to the city that give this book a unique feeling of life and energy - so while I would have appreciated a bit more in the way of factual information, I'm glad Reed wrote this book in a way that hopefully felt most true to his vision.
December 21, 2016
I found this book on a list of books that Every White Ally Should Read. I was intrigued because I lived in the Bay Area for awhile.
This is a meandering account of Ishmael Reed exploring the history and culture of Oakland based on a year of experiences and research. Reed drops a lot of interesting tidbits about the history of Oakland and the part racism has played in it. This was published in 2005 and talks about the gentrification that was going on at the time (which I am sure has accelerated since then).
He has little good to say about Jerry Brown (the then-mayor of Oakland and now California governor).
I would have liked more fully fleshed out accounts of some of the history.
This is a meandering account of Ishmael Reed exploring the history and culture of Oakland based on a year of experiences and research. Reed drops a lot of interesting tidbits about the history of Oakland and the part racism has played in it. This was published in 2005 and talks about the gentrification that was going on at the time (which I am sure has accelerated since then).
He has little good to say about Jerry Brown (the then-mayor of Oakland and now California governor).
I would have liked more fully fleshed out accounts of some of the history.
May 26, 2008
In my opinion this started out a bit awkwardly, but when Reed gets going it really takes off. Having volunteered for Wilson Riles Jr's campaign against the contemptible Jerry Brown (quoting Noam Chomsky on his radio show before running for Mayor as a progressive, then changing spots to pro-development, anti-social program strongman when elected), the section on said campaign was tough to read, but I'm glad it's there.
I especially liked the oral history of blues preservationists in the second half of the book. Reed spirit and tributes to the unsung grassroots heroes and heroines of Oakland make this a beautiful little book.
I especially liked the oral history of blues preservationists in the second half of the book. Reed spirit and tributes to the unsung grassroots heroes and heroines of Oakland make this a beautiful little book.
June 20, 2012
As a new resident of Oakland, I was glad to stumble upon this snappy guide, which is a great reference to learn a bit about the city's history and different neighborhoods. I liked Reed's blending of political, cultural, and historical information and felt like it was a perfect introduction to the area.
January 1, 2016
Really interesting to hear the history of things like Preservation Park, Pardee House, Black Panthers, Chabot Space and Science Center, etc. It was written a few years ago, and with Jerry Brown gone as the mayor twice-over, I'd love an epilogue to hear what Reed thinks of the current Oakland and its future.
March 3, 2009
I love both Oakland and Ishmael Reed. I used to see him around town a lot, which was always cool.
This book is worth reading but not especially great or illuminating. However, if you don't happen to know a whole lot about Oakland before reading, you will get more out of this bk than I did.
This book is worth reading but not especially great or illuminating. However, if you don't happen to know a whole lot about Oakland before reading, you will get more out of this bk than I did.
March 26, 2017
I moved to Oakland a few months ago and I had been trying to find a decent book on the history and current state of the city. I stumbled unto Blues City in one of the used book stores on Piedmont. Glad I did.
March 2, 2007
A very extreme non-fiction view from a well respected author.
January 14, 2014
These "City Walks" books are great if you have a few days to spend reading them and walking around the place. Ishmael Reed is a great writer and he does a good introduction to Oakland's history
Want to read
January 17, 2009So Google Books little snippet seems to indicate he mentions Homo hop performers and drag kings.
July 8, 2009
Decent introduction to political and cultural elements of the city. Good gift for a new resident.
February 29, 2016
Enraging and stunning and poetic all at once
March 30, 2016
A beautiful, spare travelogue, a valentine to a city that has gone through racial divide and transformations over the last 150 years. It's really quite good.
January 14, 2018
A love song to his home town.
November 18, 2023
In Blues City: A Walk in Oakland, Author Ishmael Reed gives a candid look into the the city of Oakland, California from its early beginnings to its look around the early 2000’s. As a professor at UC-Berkeley, he takes time away from his campus life and daily views of both Alcatraz and The Golden Gate Bridge to really explore the city of Oakland, itself.
He, his daughter Tennessee and wife, Carla take historic tours to better understand how the city came to be in its present state. From the Gold Rush of ‘49 to the Dot Com Era of ‘99, Oakland produced great writers such as Jack London, Bret Harte and a host of other cultural icons who constantly had their hands on the wheels in politics, housing and the welfare of the poor. They were often a loud voice for those from who were otherwise, not being heard. The blues, the music, the food, the mixed racial heritage and the struggle for equality combine to stamp Oakland as a unique place on the map!
He, his daughter Tennessee and wife, Carla take historic tours to better understand how the city came to be in its present state. From the Gold Rush of ‘49 to the Dot Com Era of ‘99, Oakland produced great writers such as Jack London, Bret Harte and a host of other cultural icons who constantly had their hands on the wheels in politics, housing and the welfare of the poor. They were often a loud voice for those from who were otherwise, not being heard. The blues, the music, the food, the mixed racial heritage and the struggle for equality combine to stamp Oakland as a unique place on the map!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews