Reginald James

Peralta’s Student Trustees; Ready to Change the Status Quo Peralta News Centre January 2007 By Eve Pearlman Marlene Hurd, one of two students elected last June to the Peralta Community Colleges board of trustees, is in the Merritt College Admissions and Records Building on a recent sunny afternoon. Every minute or two her conversation is interrupted by other students asking for help: “Where do I get a course catalog?” asks one. “Where do I buy books?” queries another. Hurd, a 54-year-old Laney College political science major, is patient and kind with each questioner. She wants to help them find their way. “Look,” she says, gesturing to a long line of students. “That’s our future. When I look at them I want to give them hope.” Hurd herself first began taking courses at Laney after graduating from high school in Vallejo in 1971. But school didn’t stick then for the San Francisco native. “I didn’t see education as a valuable thing then—so I dropped out,” she said. Decades later, a...

BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OPEN MIKE EVENT GIVES ALL A PLACE TO SPEAK -------------------------------------------------- Alameda Journal January 24, 2006 By KARA ANDRADE On Friday night at the Esperanza Community Center, Nina Nero, 22, a mother of two children who has been accepted to UC Davis, steps up to the microphone, unfazed by the 40 people in front of her. She's confident, even though she hasn't been to one of these Boys and Girls Club open mike events. She doesn't know what to expect from the diverse group ranging in age from 3 to 60 -- some wearing hoodies, baggy pants, others with silver Raiders boots or Muslim hijabs. The event is called "Living King's Dream," and it's the third open mike coordinated by Alamedan Reggie James. Nero, who's in her last semester at College of Alameda, shares a poem about when she turned 22. The poem is called, "If Only I Had Listened to Mama." "Mama used to say a hard head is a soft behind, but what did ...

Local Graduate Inspires Youth Alameda Sun Thursday, June 30, 2005 By Valerie Creque Aries are said to be independent, pioneers and natural leaders. For one 23-year-old College of Alameda (COA) graduate, these characteristics ring true. Through adversity, this young man became a voice for the voiceless. Reggie James leads by example and reaches out to the community through his activism. May 27 James received Associate of Arts degrees in sociology and psychology — two of six A.A.s he plans to earn. James was born in Oakland, grew up in Alameda and attended Encinal High School. Along with his single mother, Deborah, James briefly stayed in a shelter on Constitution Way before moving to the Buena Vistas, now known as the Harbor Island apartment complex. In November 2004, James, his mother and more than 1,000 other residents received eviction notices. James and his mother moved out right away. Some residents felt the evictions were unjust. James spoke out. “I tried to re...

NEW BASKETBALL LEAGUE FIRES UP SUMMERTIME -------------------------------------------------- Alameda Journal August 2, 2005 By KARA ANDRADE STAFF WRITER FROM ITS PARKING lot, Chipman Middle School is like any other school during the long drowsy days of summer, abandoned and forgotten in the minds of most students. But the sudden shouts and squeaking of shoes by the gym wakens the evening as teenagers pour out from the side doors in clusters of horseplay and laughter. "Get it from them, Manny!" shouts James Howard, coach of the Alameda Point Stallions who are competing with the Slammers as part of the Boys & Girls Club newly formed basketball league, which began July 19. "Don't waste the clock!" Howard paces as if caged behind the sidelines. The score is 8 to 2, there are two minutes left on the clock, and the Stallions are ablaze in a desperate attempt to bring a respectable ending to the 10-minute game. The clock is relentless, and Dan Ng...