Project Diary

James O'Brien

Dec 172 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: staring into the eyes of a city

I remember a very stern-faced and serious KD, his bold, confrontational eyes staring into the eyes of a city...

Project Diary: no due process for the dead

James O'Brien

Dec 42 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: no due process for the dead

No trial, no hearing, there is no due process for the dead.

Project Diary: on the limits of our sympathy

James O'Brien

Nov 215 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: on the limits of our sympathy

Think about the last piece of news you read or saw about the killing of a young man in Oakland. What did it tell you about the victim?

Project Diary: a reading at The Crucible in West Oakland

James O'Brien

Nov 152 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: a reading at The Crucible in West Oakland

Last night at a fundraiser for Youth Alive, held at The Crucible in West Oakland, I was invited to read an excerpt from my work in progress

Project Diary: a love that won't be silenced by violence

James O'Brien

Nov 62 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: a love that won't be silenced by violence

It is a story that also speaks to the love that refuses to be silenced by violence.

James O'Brien

Sep 213 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: disenfranchised grief

...loving son brother mother sister aunty athlete musician classmate snappy dresser fun-loving uncle father friend or fan...

Project Diary: looking for the light in their eyes

James O'Brien

Sep 193 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: looking for the light in their eyes

LaRhonda was a teacher in West Oakland who was befriended by Khadija, Marilyn’s daughter, and then became very close to Marilyn. She knew...

James O'Brien

Sep 162 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: a memory of kindness

If she remembers anything, perhaps she remembers not being alone at that moment of despair.

Project Diary: no starker contrast to hate

James O'Brien

Sep 102 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: no starker contrast to hate

This is live-preserving work, it is the work of helping traumatized, devastated people begin to be reborn...

Project Diary: a moment of love can change the world

James O'Brien

Sep 44 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: a moment of love can change the world

KWP crisis responders are interrupters of hate, savers of the lives of the living; they prevent retaliation. They deliver love.

Project Diary: foreshadowing in Sarasota

James O'Brien

Aug 271 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: foreshadowing in Sarasota

She had raised this person who possessed the vision necessary to discover, and deliver a previously unrecognized human right

James O'Brien

Aug 211 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: The Oakland Quartet

Four of the pieces I wrote for San Francisco Magazine about Oakland. Together, they present a picture of a fascinating, complicated,...

Project Diary: so did she rise, after stark loss

James O'Brien

Jul 301 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: so did she rise, after stark loss

So did she rise, after stark loss, economic struggle, civic neglect, disillusionment, obscurity, isolation, out of darkness, out of Oakland.

Project Diary: "They want(ed) their daddy"

James O'Brien

Jul 232 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: "They want(ed) their daddy"

They don’t care who their daddy has been running around with, they don’t care if daddy don’t have a job, that he ain’t had a bath...

James O'Brien

Jul 121 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: never hopeless

Her faith was strong, girded and steely, if rarely worn on the sleeve. Tragedy did not diminish it...

James O'Brien

Jul 81 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: Trophies

“They said that when they went to raid their house, they would have shrines, they would have that that dreadlock, hanging on their wall."

James O'Brien

Jun 242 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: my West Oakland blues

I can't seem to get over the destruction -- spiritual, cultural, literal -- of West Oakland.

Project Diary: in West Oakland, historic opportunism disguised as optimism

James O'Brien

Jun 202 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: in West Oakland, historic opportunism disguised as optimism

Every folder on West Oakland is full of plans for its revitalization and each plan implies the failure of the last, right up to today.

Project Diary: "we don't even have a picture together"

James O'Brien

Jun 181 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: "we don't even have a picture together"

Ashley rested her hand on Jennifer’s head and leaned on the casket for the first and only picture of the two of them together.

Project Diary: "I know he was on loan from God"

James O'Brien

Jun 171 min read

Project Diary

Project Diary: "I know he was on loan from God"

I’m not a foolish woman. I know he was on loan from God for a short period of time. It’s never going to be long enough.

Read the Original Ice City Almanac Blog