Visual Art

Photography show unearths hope behind street art’s rough edges

‘Tunnel Vision: The Graffiti Tunnels of Eastbay’ features photos by Walter Yetman that explore graffiti art and the individuals behind it.
Walter Yetman/Courtesy
‘Tunnel Vision: The Graffiti Tunnels of Eastbay’ features photos by Walter Yetman that explore graffiti art and the individuals behind it.

San Francisco’s Tenderloin is known for its bouts of insane creativity, its street art and its generally seedy drug scene. Reflecting this gritty, eerie and perfectly grimy subculture of the Tenderloin is SF-based Art Primo’s latest exhibit, “Tunnel Vision: The Graffiti Tunnels of Eastbay.” Read More…

Editorial Cartoons

Oakland Art Murmur Summer

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Maura Chen/Staff

Contact Maura Chen at [email protected]

The Soapbox

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Capitalism and weed

Murmurs from the Bathroom Wall

As 4/20 fast approaches, stoners everywhere are gathering together their beloved bongs, trusty lighters and favorite strains for an afternoon that will be unforgettable. Or, if smoking a particularly potent plant, forgettable. Set against the backdrop of recent ballot measure approvals in Washington and Colorado, this Saturday is the perfect Read More…

The Soapbox

Murmurs

When walls write back

Murmurs from the Bathroom Wall

Trouble in your love life? Need some anonymous guidance to navigate the turbulent tide?  Simply write out your problem in a bathroom stall of your choosing and by the next day you’ll have plenty of responses — some helpful, some judgmental. And, while Berkeley is home to many up-and-coming Dr. Read More…

The Soapbox

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If I were not afraid

Murmurs from the Bathroom Wall

“What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” asks a fifth-floor Moffitt graffitist in the women’s restroom. Beneath it is a series of responses from various individuals that, taken together, forms a hypothetical bucket list of tasks that will probably never be completed. Fears naturally work to our instinctual advantage Read More…

The Soapbox

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A nameless notion

Murmurs from the Bathroom Wall

There is a very particular type of disappointment that comes each time I realize a piece of bathroom wall graffiti is unoriginal and uncredited. The words hang in the air, without lovely little beginning or ending quotation marks, without a final, resounding authorial citation. If the quote in question is Read More…

The Soapbox

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Unwashable

Murmurs from the Bathroom Wall

Up until about a week ago, the first-floor women’s restroom of Evans Hall was a graffiti goldmine. The bathroom contained so much quality material that all of my prior blog posts had used it for inspiration in some way or another. To my disappointment, I discovered recently that the walls Read More…

The Soapbox

graffiti

Making a mark: Someone was here

Murmurs from the Bathroom Wall

Molly’s name dances on the wall. Two loopy “l”s tango together before crashing down into a finishing “y.” The way the letters are strung together, you could almost see her hand gliding across the plastic laminate bathroom partition, announcing to the world that she, Molly, sat on that very toilet Read More…

The Soapbox

graffitti

Expressions of faith

Murmurs from the Bathroom Wall

Note: Each week in this blog, I will examine a piece of graffiti, typically those scrawled on bathroom walls from around campus. My aim is to take these anonymous musings to a greater discussion that hopefully relates to the student body at large. After scoping out what at this point Read More…