by Dara Kerr/WEST OAKLAND

The smell of burning rubber and exhaust fumes fills the night air. Girls in stilettos, tight jeans and leather jackets stand around drinking out of plastic cups while every few minutes a biker revs his or her engine and screeches through the crowd. The faint sound of hip-hop pulses under the motorcycle engines.

This is one of Oakland’s black motorcycle club parties – parties that the city is trying to curtail. Last summer, the Oakland Police Department stopped allowing special events permits for motorcycle parties at Historic Sweet’s Ballroom.

Special events permits are required by the City of Oakland for any gathering over 50 people and it is the police department’s discretion whether they are granted. And in Oakland, motorcycle clubs want to know why their parties aren’t getting the ok.

In the parking lot of East Oakland’s Moose Lodge, hundreds of bikes are lined up: Harleys, Ninjas, low-riders with boomboxes, and helmets are poised on the handlebars like skulls on sticks.

Four to five hundred people walk or ride through the entry gate, and everyone seems to know each other. There are hugs and shouts as each person enters the lot.

Inside the lodge, stuffed moose heads hang over the spot where people can get professional photos taken, just like a high school prom. Frilly dresses and suits are traded in for jeans and leather. The hallway opens up into an industrial-sized room with a DJ on stage playing west coast hip-hop while people crowd in to dance.

“It’s a brotherhood, a sisterhood. If you’re hungry, you get fed,” says Myeisha Millsaps, a local biker. “You’re accepted no matter who you are.”

Northern California has dozens of black motorcycle clubs and a different one sponsors each party; it’s their responsibility to provide in-house security.  The Moose Lodge also has a policy of providing its own security.

“We usually work Quinceañeras [celebration of a girl's 15th birthday], but they’ll call us down for these motorcycle parties,” said one of the two security guards working that night.

Despite the rough-looking crowd, the parties have a record of little violence. “It’s all love, we all come to mix and mingle with each other. Compared to [dance] clubs, there are no fights,” said Mike Taylor, a professional motorcycle painter.

If there is a biker at the party someone doesn’t get along with, there is a code most bikers follow: “You don’t disrespect, if you don’t like them you don’t speak to them,” Millsaps said.

Last month, several black motorcycle clubs banned together to talk to the Oakland City Council about party permits and limitations. The focus of their pleas was to show the city council that they are good citizens and should be allowed to have their parties at any venue if they follow the rules.

“Saddle Tramps,” “North Bay Riders” and “Oakland Wicked Wheels” adorned the backs of the biker’s leather jackets as they lined up to speak in the open forum.

“We are not a gang. We ride motorcycles all in the name of love from LA to the Bay,” said David Ward of the East Bay Dragons. “These motorcycle clubs have brought Crips and Bloods together. It’s brought black men together here.”

Moose Lodge parking lot

“This is the first time ever the African American clubs are being brought together for something like this,” said Mellow Williams, president of the North Bay Riders. “The City of Oakland is trying to shut down everything so there are no parties at all, and we are meeting with them so they will see us as something positive not a nuisance.”

Downtown Oakland’s Historic Sweet’s Ballroom can hold 1200 people. Motorcycle parties there filled the venue, and police said they led to parking issues, traffic congestion and a lot of noise for local residents.

“They motored all over the place, cruising with their loud mufflers, some places are not conducive to having those types of parties,” said Special Events Unit Police officer Mike Morse.

The Moose Lodge is in a non-residential area, so noise is less of an issue.

Ken Tichnor, who took over management of Sweet’s in September, believes there was more going on. “The permits had to do with guns that people were bringing into the club,” he said.

Morse confirmed that a “couple of folks were arrested with handguns” at Sweet’s over the summer.

The motorcycle clubs agree that guns can be a problem and are working to address it. “Not every bike club is a good club, there are bad elements everywhere,” said Williams, “so, we are trying to police our own, we set up barriers on the block to give us better security, so they won’t bring guns and fights.”

Leslie Lawrence, who works for the Moose Lodge, said they don’t have any problems with the motorcycle club parties. “They are much better than other groups that have parties here. They are good guys, they are proponents against guns,” she said.

The bikers said they are glad they can throw parties at the Moose Lodge, but some motorcycle clubs need bigger venues. The East Bay Dragons have been headquartered in Oakland since the 1950s; crowds of over 1000 bikers, from all over the bay, come to their parties.

“Our parties are too big for the Moose Lodge, which is the only place allowing parties to happen,” said D-Wicked from the East Bay Dragons. “We wanna be able to give dances in Oakland.”

According to Williams, parties are an integral part of black motorcycle club culture, and they are willing to work with the city to do what is necessary to make them possible. “We will do what it takes, we will get permits 30 days prior to events, that is no problem,” he said.

D-Wicked agreed. “This can be a beautiful thing right here if we can just stop the hating.  If police give a little, everybody will get along,” he said.

Part of what the motorcycle clubs wanted to show the Oakland police and city council is that being in a club includes helping the communities they live in.

Biker enters Moose Lodge lot

“So many clubs are doing positive things, giving back to the community, we have carwashes and fundraisers for sickle-cell anemia and breast cancer, we are involved in the Adopt a Highway program,” said Williams.

Every Thanksgiving, the North Bay Riders and 11 other clubs raise money to feed families in need. They also come together to pay for funeral processions that certain families cannot afford.

Gary ‘On-One’ Gordon, who works for the Black Biker magazine, agreed, “They do non-profit work, raise money for victims of violent crimes, toy drives, and give assistance to the underprivileged.”

Many motorcycle clubs act as support groups for their members. Lady Hog Rydaz is an all-female bike club; they are also all single mothers. Queen Dread, one of the members, said she joined the club after her boyfriend was killed two years ago to get support from women in similar situations.

The bikers will continue to meet with Oakland officials in hopes of convincing them that they are well-intentioned, serious about “policing their own” and should be allowed to have parties if they follow the rules.

As the Moose Lodge party begins to wind down, bikers group together in their respective clubs and begin to leave the lot. The sponsoring club starts to clean up, opening and closing the gate and picking up trash.

“Everyone is here for the same thing – to socialize,” says Millsaps. “It’s home for bikers on the streets, it’s a place we can come together.”

with multimedia assistance by Tasneem Paghdiwala

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