District 4 councilmember Janani Ramachandran hosted her birthday party Thursday night at The Golden Bull Bar on 14th Street. Outside the bar, Oakland was reeling from a mass shooting during a Juneteenth celebration at Lake Merritt that injured 15 people and an FBI raid on Mayor Sheng Thao’s home and two residences belonging to the Duong family, the politically connected owners of Cal Waste Solutions.
Inside the bar, a different mood prevailed. “At the end of the night, all I want is your body, all up on mine,” Ramachandran was singing to her fiancé, musician Osagie. Performing as a duo called Wish You Were Us, the two were debuting their first single, The Tequila is Done (but I Ain’t), a slinky little number about the toll of alcoholism on a relationship. A few weeks before the party, the councilmember had released an amorous video for the song in which she co-stars gamely with her partner.
At the conclusion of the concert, Ramachandran told the crowd of around 60 people that the duo would continue hosting events to “spread love and positivity in Oakland and beyond.”
This was the birthday present Ramachandran had given herself: a night off from Oakland’s bad vibes. She did not address the crowd about the shooting or the FBI raid, focusing on the music, and neither did any of the other performers, outside of a little-observed five-second moment of silence at the start of the evening to honor the victims of the mass shooting.
According to the councilmember, proceeds from the show will be used to pay the musicians, videographer, and the fee charged by the ticket platform where the tickets were sold. Neither the councilmember nor her fiancé will get any of the funds.
“I’ve been singing since I was five years old,” Ramachandran told The Oaklandside last week ahead of the event. “I was trained in classical Indian music as a child. I grew up singing and kind of branched out to musical theater, which then I did for a few years after college as well.” After meeting her partner, Ramachandran said, she began to wonder, “How can I go back to creating art? How can we do that together?”
The councilmember said she wants to be part of the “reinvigoration of Oakland’s art scene.”
District 7 councilmember Treva Reid made a brief appearance at the event. Other Oakland figures included FLUID510 co-owner Sean Sullivan and Uptown Downtown Oakland Community Benefit Districts executive director Steve Snider.
Musician and host Laurence Walker emceed the event, addressed the crowd throughout the night to introduce the different musical acts, and told a handful of misogynistic jokes. One was something along the lines of: “Would you rather be with a woman who makes minimum wage at Home Depot and is submissive or a woman who makes six figures and is dominant? I’d rather go for the Home Depot girl.”
DJ and photographer Brandon Robinson played sets before and in between sets. Local musicians Dee Dot Jones and Loove Moore each played a brief set. The jazz band Super Good 4 U Thing performed with Wish You Were Us.
“I’m excited to continue to get back into music and perform more and release more music because it helps me connect with a different array of Oakland constituents,” Ramachandran told The Oaklandside. “The large majority of Oakland residents, especially younger Gen-Zs, who may not be following politics in any way might be more engaged if they see me in other walks of life.”
Not all of her constituents see things that way.
“I don’t begrudge anyone the ability to follow their passion. I think it’s great that she is able to do that–she’s a great singer,” said Sara Kay, a District 4 resident since 2008. “However, I want to hear about what she’s doing for Oakland. What’s she doing to clean up our streets that are littered with potholes? How’s she putting pressure on 311 to actually respond to constituent requests?”
Kay, who did not attend the party, shared with The Oaklandside a series of emails sent to the councilmember since April. She has yet to receive a response from Ramachandran. In mid-April, Nathan Stalnaker, a constituent liaison in Ramachandran’s, recommended that Kay subscribe to the council member’s newsletter, where the link for office hours can be found at the bottom.
Kay tried to find a date and time to speak to the councilmember virtually between mid-April and June, but none were available. Legislative and community coordinator Rebecca Dean replied to Kay’s email on June 18, saying there are no dates available for the rest of the month “because it’s a very busy season with the city budget.”
“Please focus on doing your job as a city council member,” Kay said. “And then if you want to sing, great–we all should have vibrant hobbies. But I really think she should focus on serving us first.”
Given the current political climate and the uncertainty of the mayor’s future, Kay said Ramachandran is not contributing to her “sense of stability.”
The opposite is true for Rajni Mandal, a District 4 resident for a decade. Mandal has followed Ramachandran for about a year because of the councilmember’s stance on public safety, which, according to her website, includes having a fully staffed police department and investing more resources in violence prevention programs and safety community ambassadors.
“I do think that she is responsive with residents whenever I’ve seen her speak. In small groups, she listens,” Mandal said. “I do think that she is very good at taking up a cause and presenting it. Also trying to come up if there’s a deficiency. Why did the deficiency happen and to hold some accountability, which is something that I really appreciate.”
Mandal was one of the attendees at the birthday event at the Golden Bull.
“Time will tell whether this is actually a career change or if it’s just a hobby side thing,” Mandal said. “I’m not sure where I land on that as to how much she’s actually going to spend on this music project.”
Eli Wolfe contributed to this story.
