Jenny Stratton

Oakland Roots midfielder Camden Riley kisses his partner in the bleachers as a fireworks show closes the evening of the team’s opening game against San Antonio FC on March 22, 2025. After experiencing an exodus of professional sports teams, Oakland residents have rallied behind the Roots soccer team, which sold over 25,000 tickets for its season opening game at the historic Oakland Coliseum sports venue.

GAPA (GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance) Royals Kiki Krunch (left) and Kalypso (right) pose on the pedestrian bridge at Portsmouth Square in San Francisco’s Chinatown on April 30, 2025. The Chinatown Pride procession will conclude at this historic site. 

Reflecting on the significance of the celebration, Kiki Krunch shares: “We have this notion that the Chinese community has always been conservative in terms of their perspective with the LGBT community. But knowing that [queerness] existed here even during the ’30s, ’40s, and ’60s reaffirms that being authentic to yourself really helps to shape the larger social movement.”

Netsanet Alemayehu, co-owner of Sheba Piano Lounge, is among a group of Black business owners in the Fillmore looking to reclaim the neighborhood as a bastion of Black excellence.

Hortencia M. (left) and Maria E. chant and play buckets as drums as part of the Oakland Sin Fronteras May Day March for Labor & Immigrants in Oakland on May 1, 2025. 

Karina Atheart dances to the beat of indigenous drums celebrating her ancestral roots at the 10th Annual Mexica New Year celebration at Morgan Park in Baldwin Park. 

Alexander G. Seyum shared this reflection on their photo submission: “This photo captures the spirit, traditions, and connection to the Native/Indigenous peoples of Mexico and California. As a photographer, my goal was to showcase a modern-day moment that offers a window into our past.”

Ethan Molina wears his graduation stole as he stands in front of his home in Fresno on May 14, 2025. Molina, a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe in Arizona and a senior at Clovis West High, was told by the school district that he could not wear the stole to his graduation ceremony.

Students gather around midday on March 7, 2025, at the parts of Civic Center Park that have not been fenced off.

Mary Palafox at her Orange County home on April 1, 2025. Trying to get care for her adult son in crisis, she was told “you just need a big guy to come in and help you.”

Glenda Hodgson leans onto a Redwood tree for a breathing exercise in Muir Woods during a morning hike in Mill Valley on April 14, 2025. 

“When I first arrived here in this country I didn’t think about my mental health,” Hodgson said, who fled Nicaragua’s political violence. “Listening to people talk in the Somos group, I realized that a lot of people had been going through similar things.”

The view from a hotel balcony as Pelicans fly in formation during sunset in Del Mar.