Matt's Writing

I just launched the Bay Area Underground photobook project on Kickstarter . This is to fund my next book, which I'm collaborating on with San Francisco photographer Joe Sciarrillo. Please check out the campaign before it ends on December 8, 2012:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattwerner/bay-area-underground-photobook-project .  

Pro Arts Gallery party next to Frank Ogawa Plaza Inside Downtown Oakland's clubs, restaurants, and art galleries, January 28, 2012 was just another Saturday night in Oakland, California with live music, good eats, and warm atmosphere. But just a few blocks up the street, hundreds of police officers blocked off Broadway from 23rd to 25th Street. Nearly 300 of the 2,000 Occupy Oakland protesters were arrested in a day-long battle between protesters and police who used flash grenades, smoke grenades, and tear gas. After my unexpected encounter with tear gas earlier in the day, I returned to Downtown Oakland after seeing a lot of Twitter activity about Occupy Oakland . I went to the protest as an observer, not as a participant. I arrived at Frank Ogawa Plaza around 7:45pm. Police officers in riot gear were guarding City Hall. From 8-9pm, I went up to various protesters and onlookers in Downtown Oakland and asked them "What happened tonight?" The following is what...

Little did I know that researching for an article on "Gertrude Stein's Oakland" would get me tear gassed today (Jan. 28, 2012). My day started innocent enough. I went to Bakesale Betty's for lunch. I then checked out the open art galleries near Downtown Oakland as part of the Saturday Stroll . I spoke with several artists showcasing their work, asking them about how they've enjoyed the increased attention and positive press on Oakland's art world. They spoke enthusiastically about the "urban renewal" and "revitalization" happening in Oakland's Uptown. I then cycled over to the Oakland Museum of California to research local history in their Gallery of California History . Because of all the construction on the west side of Lake Merritt, I took a circuitous route, which led me to 10th Street, where a large white police van was blocking the road in front of the Henry J Kaiser Convention Center . A police officer standing in the...

"There" photo by Joe Sciarrillo How can one city be both the object of praise and blame in the same publication? That’s what happened in Sunday’s New York Times . The Travel section , in a piece subtitled “New restaurants and bars beckon amid the grit,” ranked Oakland, California as the 5 th top place to visit in the world in 2012. The same $6 newspaper published the article Shootings Soar in Oakland; Children Often the Victims in its Bay Area edition. The article gives the sad details that in 2011 over 2,000 people were victims of gun violence and 110 people died from homicide in Oakland. To further complicate things, as I write this, Gang Wars: Oakland, Part II is on TV. How am I to reconcile Oakland being celebrated as one of the top-5 places to travel in the world in 2012, while at the same time being called a gang war zone? I’ve been reading a lot and attending events all over Oakland to research for the essays that accompany the in...

(Oakland, California: October 28, 2011) Riding my bike from West Oakland to Downtown Oakland tonight, I wondered what the Occupy Oakland protest would look like. The streets at 7:30pm on a Friday night looked too empty as I crossed under 580 on 7th Street. I took a left onto Jefferson Street, and still saw no one on the sidewalk and very few cars. Earlier in the week, I had read Oakland Local's coverage  of the Tuesday night police action. And I had seen photos of the crackdown with tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and  video of an Iraq vet hauled away, with his head bleeding and people shouting "Medic!" I had an eerie feeling cycling the empty streets, similar to the  feeling I had when I was in the West Bank the day before the Israel-Gaza War started back in December, 2008. But this was my hometown and not halfway around the world. These were my streets. I pedaled on. When I arrived at Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall, I was surprised to ...