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James O'Brien
Jan 183 min read
Project Diary: swaddled
And so, like in the beginning, at the end, the son is swaddled and alone with his mother.


James O'Brien
Jan 172 min read
Project Diary: crowing muted by resurgent violence
As Oakland politicians were set to crow about a 34% drop in homicides from 2023 to 2024, violence surges at the year's turning...


James O'Brien
Dec 17, 20242 min read
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...


James O'Brien
Dec 4, 20242 min read
Project Diary: no due process for the dead
No trial, no hearing, there is no due process for the dead.


James O'Brien
Nov 21, 20245 min read
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?


James O'Brien
Nov 15, 20242 min read
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


James O'Brien
Nov 6, 20242 min read
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 21, 20243 min read
Project Diary: disenfranchised grief
...loving son brother mother sister aunty athlete musician classmate snappy dresser fun-loving uncle father friend or fan...


James O'Brien
Sep 19, 20243 min read
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 16, 20242 min read
Project Diary: a memory of kindness
If she remembers anything, perhaps she remembers not being alone at that moment of despair.


James O'Brien
Sep 10, 20242 min read
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...


James O'Brien
Sep 4, 20244 min read
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.


James O'Brien
Aug 27, 20241 min read
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 21, 20241 min read
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,...


James O'Brien
Jul 30, 20241 min read
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.


James O'Brien
Jul 23, 20242 min read
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 12, 20241 min read
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 8, 20241 min read
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 24, 20242 min read
Project Diary: my West Oakland blues
I can't seem to get over the destruction -- spiritual, cultural, literal -- of West Oakland.


James O'Brien
Jun 20, 20242 min read
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.
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