Skaters enjoy a rollerskating event at Lake Merritt. Credit: Pete Rosos

Ever since launching our newsroom, one of The Oaklandside’s goals has been to help people enjoy the city by reporting stories about Oakland’s rich arts scene and sharing information about the many local events and venues that provide opportunities for cultural exchange, education, and entertainment.

Last June, we compiled a roundup of events to celebrate Juneteenth. The post was quite popular among readers, so we took the idea and made it a weekly column called This week in Oakland, where we highlight five local events.

Of course, there’s a whole lot more going on in Oakland than we can fit into our roundup each week, and many events that we wish we could include don’t get featured. We receive messages from readers every week letting us know about their events, and we have no doubt there are many more that aren’t even making it onto our radar.

That’s why our team at Cityside—the nonprofit organization behind The Oaklandside and Berkeleyside—has been working behind the scenes with the folks at Events.com to create an events calendar for our website, where anyone can easily create and submit a listing for an event that’s taking place in Oakland or beyond.

The events calendar officially launched this week. 

A screenshot of user-submitted listings as they appear on The Oaklandside’s new events calendar.

At the top of the page, readers can also browse the current This week in Oakland post, see other recent articles we’ve published that are tied to local events, then scroll down to view local event listings.

To create a listing, just click on the “add event” button at the top of the events calendar section, and you’ll be directed to the self-submission form. 

A screenshot of the online submission form for The Oaklandside’s events calendar.

We’re thrilled to provide our readers with this new way to connect with other members of the community and get the word out about local events. We encourage you to use it, spread the word to others in the community who can also benefit, and bookmark the page so you can come back whenever you’re looking for things to do around town. 

If there’s an event that you think should be included in our This week in Oakland series, don’t forget to email me at azucena@oaklandside.org.

Azucena Rasilla headshot

Azucena Rasilla is a bilingual journalist from East Oakland reporting in Spanish and in English, and a longtime reporter on Oakland arts, culture and community. As an independent local journalist, she has reported for KQED Arts, The Bold Italic, Zora and The San Francisco Chronicle. She was a writer and social media editor for the East Bay Express, helping readers navigate Oakland’s rich artistic and creative landscapes through a wide range of innovative digital approaches.