Each of the city's public pools is offering free swim days, and the various centers are hosting open houses. A sampling of upcoming events and activities include Oakland's Municipal Band summer concert series (the first is at 1 p.m. next Tuesday at the historic bandstand in Lakeside Park) and Studio One art classes in the landmark Malonga Casquelourd Center, 1428 Alice St.

"Western Days" activities, featuring the Black Cowboys, are from 1 to 4 p.m. July 6 at DeFremery Park, 1651 Adeline St. The 150-year-old DeFremery House in the center of the park will be the headquarters for this year's Western Days, organizers said.

Mosswood Recreation Center's open house, July 21, will have information available on summer programs currently being held there. The Gothic-style Mosswood Cottage in the park (built in the 1860s) is another historic property acquired by the city for public use.

A citywide sports 3-on-3 tournament is planned for 2:30 p.m. July 5 at the F.M. Smith Recreation Center, 1969 Park Blvd. Francis Marion Smith, nicknamed "the Borax King," once owned property along Park Street, and the park is named for him. Smith is best remembered for extracting borax crystals from the remote Nevada desert — using mule teams to do so, according to history files.

Another Oakland legend is architect Julia Morgan. One of her best-known landmarks, the YWCA Building, 1515 Webster St., will be the location Thursday of "A Tour with Dancing," featuring choreographer Wendy Rogers and her ensemble of dancers. For the past two weeks, Rogers (who formerly lived in Berkeley and now teaches dance at the University of California, Riverside) has been exploring various Morgan spaces in the Bay Area in order, she said, to reconcile the ways a place shapes human movement and interaction.

Rogers has developed a particular fascination with Morgan (1872-1957), who was the first woman to be admitted and to earn a degree from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and the first licensed woman architect in California. Morgan found her niche among a network of women who were committed to progressive causes, Rogers said.

During her prolific 40-year career, Morgan designed hundreds of homes and dozens of schools, hospitals, sanitariums, orphanages and social clubs run for and by women. She designed the buildings for more than a dozen YWCA organizations in California alone.

Rogers' performance will be at 2 p.m., and again at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the YWCA of Oakland, 1515 Webster St. It will be interspersed with commentary by Julia Morgan historian Karen McNeill and YWCA building manager VJ Purvis. Tickets are $10, free for children 10 and under, and can be ordered through the ODC Theater Box Office, (415) 863-9834, or online at http://www.odctheater.org.

For more information on National Recreation and Parks Month in Oakland, go to http://www.oaklandnet.com/parks, or call 238-7275.

Oakland Tribune
401 13th Street
Oakland, California 94612
(510) 208-6330 Switchboard
(510) 293-2709 Online Content
www.oaklandtribune.com