Somewhere to Oakland
By BANDALOOP
Jack London Oak Tree and the Rotunda Building
Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza, Oakland
July 8, 2025
Up above.
Rooted in its current location for well over one hundred years, the immense tree planted in front of Oakland’s City Hall is easy enough to pass by unnoticed, or rather without a second thought. Two stories tall and casting a meters-wide dappled shadow, the Jack London Oak’s tenure here is not just older than sliced bread, the state of Israel, Marylin Monroe, or women’s suffrage, but a symbol of literal as well as metaphorical shelter.
And so below. Melecio Estrella (L), Ganley and littles (R).
Beneath a cloudless blue sky and adjacent to a lunchtime crowd of school-aged kiddos, the trees boughs also served as canopied covering for the opening ceremony of BANDALOOP’s weeks-long free summer series of events “Somewhere to Oakland”, culminating with a performance in their signature jaw-dropping wall-scaling style the afternoon of July 26th. Beginning with words from Melecio Estrella and Demara Vita Ganely, BANDALOOP’s artistic and associate artistic directors, attendees were ushered into a circle and welcomed.
That day, and through the remainder of the event run, space was made for slowing down, sharing bread and hugs and laughter, and, of course, artistic offerings to the community. Migration stories, from personal and familial ones to the cries and sounds of the avians in motion above us, were called in, woven together, an effort to beautify and humanize. We gave thanks to all those whose stories of migration brought us there, sent love and attention, wrapped in the drooping but fortified arms of the large oak’s limbs, a living organism that hold "a whole world in the branches and a whole world below," stands to “weather the storms and carry the stories,” as Ganely said.
A second bowl of inedibles was then passed around; brightly colored strips of fabrics in blues and yellows, oranges and red. Led by dangling feathered but lifeless floaters, a procession wound through Oscar Grant Plaza and indoors, descended a central staircase, and dispersed around a bamboo and connector nest.
An upside-down semi-circle structure reminiscent of a 90’s jungle gym, the structure sat hollow and empty, the people quiet, and space flushed with bright midday sun, harsh shadows.
And then, sound. Ben Juodvalkis, on guitar, provided the sparing but effective backdrop to Destani Wolf’s ethereal vocals, an original work composed by the two.
I watched from a railing one story up, her dazzling voice soaring up and around, filling the vast, open building and stopping unexpecting lunch fellows mid-bite. Mellifluous, controlled, tight and soft, natural and all can be — the birds and winds we’d spoken of, stood under, under that floating glass dome right there with us via Wolf’s vocal chords. A too-brief and transportative moment in worship of the earth, of connection, of healing, and of love. A clear through line from the avian inspiration, but hardly a derivative one, instead, an ascension.
All holding fabrics tied them to the nest, a smattering of color beginning to warm the cool gray. By the end of the month the structure will be covered, obscured, transformed.
So yes, they dance on walls, repelling and floating, at moments the trailing or flying silks or limbs and extended and suspended beyond time and belief. And you should absolutely get your ass to a performance to experience that joy and levity in person. But this opening ceremony was a grounding—and soaring—reminder of the richness and depth of the works the organization offers, the layers of complexity, how deeply rooted each and every artist involved is, and how clearly they care for their, and all, communities. A bright spotlight on all of the elements that can fall to the wayside when presented alongside daring dancers scaling buildings, weightless and flying in ways we all dream to be. The arresting arrangements and world-class vocals, the synchronicity and layered effect of each element bleeding into the next, supporting the weight—and soaring higher—as a collective whole, offer a deeply personal and simultaneously universal stirring of feelings, a wellspring of emotion and beauty.
We must support and show up for the arts, immigrants, and the land we live on, for our collective survival. Dearly, desperately. What a joy and privilege it is to witness those sharing joy, knowledge, and history in such heartwarming communal ways.
