A year ago, Citlali Sanchez Uvovic didn’t know much about storytelling. She’d also never been to Swan’s Market and wasn’t particularly familiar with the surrounding neighborhood in Old Oakland. So when her mom encouraged her to join a youth program based at Swan’s that was all about storytelling, the 16-year-old Fremont High sophomore from East Oakland was curious—but had no clue what to expect.
“I didn’t really know what it was going to be until I started,” she said. “I was just looking at it as something to do in my free time.”