OAKLAND — Chinese dragons, African dancers, protests and historical scenes take shape in vibrant colors on once-blighted walls surrounding a parking lot.The Alice Street Mural Project is a mural and documentary about the intersection of cultures at 14th and Alice streets in downtown Oakland.The stories that documentarian Spencer Wilkinson and artists Desi Mundo and Pancho Peskador tell celebrate the Chinese and African-American residents’ history and resilience against displacement.Interviews at the historic Hotel Oakland, home for many Chinese seniors, and the Malonga Casquelord Center, a theater home for many African dance and arts companies, guided the mural design.The artists have invited the neighborhood to food and dance for the mural’s phase I unveiling Friday August 8, at 3 p.m. Phase II, a large wall facing Hotel Oakland should be completed in September.

Saratoga Village Marketplace: The Saratoga Chamber of Commerce and Saratoga-Monte Sereno Community Foundation present the weekly Wednesday certified farmers market in Blaney Plaza, The market features certified local farmers with fresh berries, fruits and produce, as well as fresh fish, other ballet flats jcpenney food specialties and handmade crafts from local artisans, Wednesdays, 2:30-6:30 p.m, saratogachamber.org or 408 867-0753, Race for Literacy: A 5K/10K and half marathon to benefit the India Literacy Project, May 18, 7:30a.m.-noon, Vasona Park, 333 Blossom Hill Road, Los Gatos, $20-55 registration fee, raceforliteracy.org/RaceReg..

Jasmine and Aaron — contemporary. I just don’t understand how Jasmine is one of the bottom dwellers except maybe voters are tiring of all the talk by the judges about her long legs. This routine, taken from “The Giving Tree” story, doesn’t emphasize those legs and Jasmine and Aaron do a great job of telling the story and dealing with a prop apple. Aaron had so many expressions that his face told a story on its own. Mary called the routine “seriously interesting,” Anna showed she was a huge fan of both dancers and Nigel decided to tell the complete story and how it was about unconditional love. Then he got a bit weird, saying that the pair have that kind of love as a couple. Huh??.

Makani’s 9-year-old project to harness wind using aerial turbines it calls “energy kites” went unnoticed by many Alamedans until a few weeks ago, when Google erected a tower and mast-like structure bearing a pirate flag on a paved lot near the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, “They’ve been very hush-hush,” said April Hartness, using hand motions to describe the contraption she saw rising ballet flats jcpenney near her roofing company office, “It was this way, then it was that way, then this way, then that way.”..

Unfortunately, some of the scenes just don’t connect emotionally; the play speaks to the intellect more potently than the heart. Only occasionally, as in Mia Tagano’s turn as a forgotten wife and Dan Hiatt and Anthony Fusco’s duet as long-ago lovers, does the production capture a sense of human fragility. Still, the inventive use of multimedia, from overhead video (projections designed by Micah J. Stieglitz) to close-ups, is both disorienting and seductive, firmly placing the action in the here and now of our media-saturated world. Stangl even punctuates the show with a selfie, a jaunty nod to the zeitgeist.