A packed house in Oakland for Coogler<\/p>\n
On Oscar night, 300 fans packed into the New Parkway Theater in downtown Oakland to cheer on Coogler and his film. Each time \u201cSinners\u201d took home an award (it was nominated a record 16 times) the crowd rose in a standing ovation. Theater general manager J. Moses Caesar told NBC Bay Area<\/a> that Coogler had a special attachment to the city. \u201cWhen you hear Ryan Coogler in his interviews, he almost always talks about Oakland and the pride that he has.\u201d<\/p>\n Coogler\u2019s deep emotional ties to the city became obvious in his first feature film, \u201cFruitvale Station.\u201d It depicted the shooting, in the early hours of New Year\u2019s Day 2009, of Oscar Grant at a BART station in Oakland. The death of the unarmed 22-year-old became another flash point<\/a> in the national furor over the shooting of Black men.<\/p>\n Coogler, 39, constantly references Oakland in interviews. And he has used the city in his films, like when he employed a towering apartment building in a nod to the city in \u201cBlack Panther,\u201d the comic book-inspired tale of a fictional African kingdom, which he directed. Oakland had been a center for the radical Black Panther Party.<\/p>\n The filmmaker said he and his wife, Zinzi, also an Oakland native, have their roots in mind when they talk about new projects. Ryan Coogler described the conversations to a New Yorker writer.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just, like, cool. \u2018Will people like this? Will the hood feel this?\u2019 I ask her that a lot,\u201d Coogler told the magazine.<\/a> \u201cThat\u2019s code for the people we grew up with.\u201d But the director said it had been a revelation to find that what vibes in Oakland can captivate audiences far beyond.<\/p>\n An English professor recognizes Coogler\u2019s writing talent<\/p>\n Ryan and Zinzi Coogler both starred as high school athletes in the city. He went to Saint Mary\u2019s College in Moraga, initially to play football. An English professor at the college, Rosemary Graham, read one of Coogler\u2019s first pieces of writing and \u201ctold him to go to Hollywood and write screenplays, because his writing was just that strong and vivid,\u201d she recalled in an interview Monday.<\/p>\n After watching the Academy Awards with friends, Graham was ecstatic. \u201cIt\u2019s really wonderful. It\u2019s great to have something to think about and celebrate in this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n After winning his screenwriting Oscar, Coogler pleaded with the audience to let him speak. \u201cI\u2019m very nervous, and they gonna play me off,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2018Cause I\u2019m from \u2014 I grew up in Oakland and Richmond, California \u2014 and we can talk a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Today\u2019s top stories Sable Offshore Corp.\u2019s Las Flores Canyon Plant, in Goleta, Calif., processes oil from a trio of offshore platforms.<\/p>\n (Al Seib \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n California offshore oil operations restartCalifornia and a coalition of other states sue the Trump administrationCalifornia, 14 other states and the District of Columbia sued to block the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development\u2019s efforts to roll back fair housing protections for LGBTQ+ people<\/a> and other marginalized groups.HUD threatened to defund state agencies that protect LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized groups not explicitly covered by federal law, jeopardizing millions in funding.California sues Oakland UnifiedThe Oakland Unified School District has been sued by the California Department of Education<\/a> over an alleged failure to address antisemitism complaints.The lawsuit follows a series of complaints<\/a> filed by Jewish advocacy groups over Palestinian flags and pro-Palestinian posters being hung on campuses, educators teaching pro-Palestinian curricula and other issues.What else is going onCommentary and opinionsThis morning\u2019s must-readOther must-readsFor your downtime Co-founded by Limerick-born David Copley in 2004, the tables, chairs and other woodwork in Long Beach\u2019s the Auld Dubliner were imported directly from Ireland.<\/p>\n (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Going outStaying inA question for you: What are some of your favorite things to do during spring in California?<\/p>\n Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.<\/p>\n And finally … your photo of the day Michael B. Jordan attends the Vanity Fair Oscar party on Sunday.<\/p>\n (Jason Armond \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Today\u2019s great photo is from Times photographer Jason Armond at Vanity Fair\u2019s Oscar Party on Sunday. Here\u2019s more of the party\u2019s best dressed<\/a>.<\/p>\n Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n Jim Rainey, staff reporter How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you thought the crowd at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood loved \u201cSinners\u201d at Sunday\u2019s Academy Awards, you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[7,2299,1085,891,2300,2297,340,2303,63,2302,143,145,144,1086,1459,2301,2298,74,225,315,688],"class_list":["post-223750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-california","tag-civic-revolt","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-days","tag-essential-california","tag-israel","tag-l-a","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-may","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-pandemic","tag-part","tag-president-biden","tag-red-county","tag-san-diego","tag-state","tag-time","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223750","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=223750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sable](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769199369_605_.jpeg\")
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<\/p>\n
Hugo Mart\u00edn, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n