{"id":190314,"date":"2026-02-23T19:01:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/190314\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T19:01:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:01:22","slug":"black-joy-parade-enlivens-downtown-oakland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/190314\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Joy Parade enlivens downtown Oakland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sun came out for the Black Joy Parade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After days of gloomy weather, downtown Oakland was awash in warmth and sunlight on Sunday afternoon as thousands of people came together to celebrate Black people and Black culture. Now in its ninth year, the Black Joy Parade is one of the city\u2019s cherished annual traditions, whose theme this year was \u201cBlack Is the Blueprint,\u201d highlighting the impact and influence of Black culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Music, muscle cars, motorcycles, and marching bands provided the soundtrack to the day, while vendors selling pro-Black art, clothing, books and jewelry lined the streets. Food and drink stalls kept people fed as artists performed on two stages bookending the festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The evening closed with headliner M\u00fda, a Grammy-award winning singer and dancer who serenaded the crowd with her hits from the 1990s and 2000s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Members of the Omega Psi Phi<\/a> fraternity march and dance along Broadway during Oakland\u2019s ninth Black Joy Parade on Feb. 22, 2026. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

\"\"\/The Cal Band from UC Berkeley marches past Oakland City Hall during the parade. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Brenda (in the red sweatshirt) holds Cameron and Evelyn holds Violet while they enjoy the parade. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Young rapper 2TurntPolo sits atop the Hyphy Burger bus in the Black Joy Parade. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Iyauna Austin rides a horse named Tallulah in the parade. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Horse riders trot past Hotboys on 16th Street. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Performers with the Prescott Circus Theatre warm up before the parade begins. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Four-year-old Sage and her father Christian Ford watch the Black Joy Parade. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

\"\"\/TheAuthur Wright<\/a> sells his visual art at a booth at the Black Joy Parade. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Greg from Pop a Byt Donuts holds up a pan of his creations at the parade\u2019s food court. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Performers dressed as the Grass Bunnies from the Bad Bunny Super Bowl half-time show joined the parade. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Brian Forbes, who makes custom hats, stand beside his green 1972 Ford Ranch Wagon before the start of the parade. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Jordan Roots and his two sons at the sidelines of the parade. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Black Joy Parade organizers pop confetti and celebrate before the start of the parade. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

“*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Avatar\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Ashley McBride writes about education equity for The Oaklandside. Her work covers Oakland\u2019s public district and charter schools. Before joining The Oaklandside in 2020, Ashley was a reporter for the San Antonio Express-News and the San Francisco Chronicle as a Hearst Journalism Fellow. In 2024, Ashley received the California School Board Association’s Golden Quill Award, which recognizes fair, accurate, and insightful reporting on public schools. Ashley earned her master\u2019s degree in journalism from Syracuse University and holds a certificate in education finance from Georgetown University.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Ashley McBride\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sun came out for the Black Joy Parade.\u00a0 After days of gloomy weather, downtown Oakland was awash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[86836,8520,839,143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-190314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-black-joy-parade","9":"tag-downtown-oakland","10":"tag-festivals","11":"tag-oakland","12":"tag-oakland-headlines","13":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}