Xocolate & Confections — Local services in Oakland

I went for a poetry reading I heard about on Eventbrite. Let me start by saying this is a quaint, cute, boutique type of store with very affordable, decadent sweets that will put you in your happy place immediately. They offer samples, they are friendly, warm and the environment is very relaxed. Bonus is that in the back there are high end chocolates also on sale. I bought a few on my visit.

Now to the poetry it was amazing....I was snapping, nodding, smiling, yelling hallelujah and shouting Amen to many shared readings and I wasn't alone. The turnout was spectacular.

I am going to go out on a limb and tell you I had to touch this woman 's hand before her leaving the event. She was such a presence. Ayodele Nzinga, Oakland’s First Poet Laureate, Is Here for the People

Ayodele Nzinga raises her fist in front of a mural that says, "We Got Us" by the organization AeroSoul in Oakland on July 19, 2021. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

Poets often exaggerate and embellish to make their points. Well, here’s something that may seem hyperbolic but isn’t: Oakland is currently undergoing some of its most significant changes in recent years, by and for the people.

Whether it’s a group of mothers resisting displacement or artists turning the empty fifth floor of the Tribune Tower into an art installation, you only need to look around to appreciate the work happening here. Muralists, journalists, educators, rappers, community organizations, activists and everyday Oaklanders are united on the front lines of change, and making visible progress.

Now, thanks to their collective efforts, we can finally add a Poet Laureate of Oakland to that list. For the first time in the Town’s 169-year history, the city has announced an official literary arts representative—a designated wordsmith who will not only capture Oakland on the page, but share it throughout the world’s literary circuit. The champion selected for this tremendous task?

Ayodele Nzinga.

You might’ve heard of Dr. Nzinga before. She’s a longtime West Oakland resident who founded and directs the Lower Bottom Playaz, a local theater company that centers Black stories, established in 1999. In addition to being a respected community playwright and poet, she’s also an educator and activist who was most recently involved in the city’s massive Refund movement, the campaign to reallocate resources from the police budget to community programs.

“I hate politics. It’s the art of compromise,” Nzinga tells me. “But some things cannot be compromised, and if there’s any hope for politics, it’s local. I couldn’t just be an artist anymore.”

In addition to her creative efforts, she has attended countless meetings and hearings with local officials, delivering messages on behalf of her people. The collective efforts of Nzinga, Cat Brooks, the Anti Police-Terror Project, the Oakland Progressive Alliance and many others helped ensure a victory for the Refund movement. In June, Oakland City Council voted to redirect $18 million away from the mayor’s proposed police budget into alternative methods for community crime prevention.

As Nzinga’s collaborator, Brooks, wrote in her piece “Oakland can ‘Defund the Police’ and ‘Refund the Community,’” “‘all violence is state violence’ [and] it is the state that creates the conditions under which tragic realities play out.” If that’s true, then it must mean that our poets and artists are fostering the conditions in which the possibilities for healing can occur.

And healing is what Nzinga knows best; it’s her chosen form of poetry.

“I have lived in every segment of Oakland,” she tells me during our phone conversation. “I appreciate the slightly different flavors, and I am interested in every little nuance.”

Ayodele Nzinga, Oakland poet, playwright, community activist, and the city’s inaugural poet laureate, poses for a portrait in...

A Rockridge candy and chocolate store with the best selection of artisan small batch chocolate bars and confections from around the world plus an awesome selection of tiny chocolate squares you can mix and match from different makers which is a really fun gift or for a party. It's like an old fashioned candy store only so much better! They also make Dubai bon bons.

I know chocolate and think they might have the most interesting selection of bars in the Bay Area. Lots of Good Food...

Came here after a big meal. Wanted to get something sweet and happed upon Xocolate & confections.

My family and I were amazed. Packed inside this small space was an amazing array of candies. Felt like museum; candy store and art gallery mixed into one. Amazing displays. Great local sweets. Friendly staff. We spent more time than we expected. And to be honest, we probably could have spent more.

Delightful place to explore and indulge in your...