Jen Angel

1975 - 2023

News story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

Jen Angel, of Oakland, a former co-publisher of a northwest Ohio-born and widely distributed alternative magazine, who owned a community-based bakery for more than a decade and remained an activist, died Thursday in Highland Hospital, Oakland. She was 48.

She had been injured three days earlier in a robbery. Family and friends posted updates of her condition online and announced her death after she was medically declared to have lost brain function.

Her bakery, Angel Cakes, "will remain open, supported by Jen's estate, and staffed by the talented team that Jen built," said an online statement from family and friends. She lived in Oakland with her partner, Ocean Mottley.

Ms. Angel and Jason Kucsma, now executive director of the Toledo Lucas County Public Library, together published Clamor, first from Bowling Green in the late 1990s and then Toledo. The publication, which described itself as a "diy guide to everyday revolution," featured a variety of writers and artists, many of whom had never been in print, and was available by subscription but also at chain bookstores.

"This is a senseless tragedy in all respects, and my heart goes out to Jen's family and the huge community she has built around her," Mr. Kucsma said. He and Ms. Angel married and divorced during the publication's 38-issue, seven-year run.

"I have not been part of that community for nearly 20 years, but I join many people whose lives she has touched in mourning the loss of someone who was taken far too soon," he said.

In the early afternoon of Feb. 6, Ms. Angel was in her car behind a bank in downtown Oakland when a person broke in, grabbed her purse, and got into a getaway vehicle waiting nearby, Oakland police said.

She chased after the thief and somehow got caught in the getaway vehicle, which dragged her, causing head injuries, KRON-TV reported.

On Friday, Oakland police officials said they were investigating the incident as a homicide, and that they suspected two people were involved, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

An online post from family and friends said that Ms. Angel, as a longtime social movement activist and anarchist, "did not believe in state violence, carceral punishment, or incarceration as an effective or just solution to social violence and inequity."

The statement said that if police make an arrest, "the family is committed to pursuing all available alternatives to traditional prosecution, such as restorative justice...We wish for Jen's legacy to be one of deep commitment to safety and dignity for everyone."

Matt Leonard, of Oakland, a friend who first knew Ms. Angel through her mid-1990s writing in alternative "zines," said the statement "was absolutely the value she lived by and practiced. Some people are confusing that kind of justice with doing nothing. It's the opposite. It just doesn't look like throwing someone away and locking them up."

Jen Angel had been using that name since high school, but she was born Jennifer Engel on Jan. 28, 1975, in Dearborn, Mich., to Patricia and John Engel. She grew up in the Cleveland area and was a 1997 graduate of Ohio State University, where she majored in journalism.

She wrote a personal zine through the 1990s. She also published the Zine Yearbook and edited the publication, MaximumRockNRoll.

She and Mr. Kucsma, in addition to publishing Clamor, organized an annual underground and grassroots media conference that drew hundreds from all over to Bowling Green. She was a founding board member of what became Allied Media Projects, an independent media advocacy organization.

Mr. Kucsma recalled "the honesty of her voice. Her original zine was earnest and something people could relate to across the country."

When they created Clamor, "the internet was pretty nascent, and there was something valuable about walking into a chain bookstore and seeing Clamor on the endcaps," he said. "For her at the time, it was about the core belief that there were a lot of voices not being heard."

She settled in the San Francisco Bay area and in 2008 founded Angel Cakes, a "small-batch bakery" offering cupcakes and cakes, but also "cookies, cakesicles, and other treats," according to the website. Angel Cakes' retail shop opened in 2016.

She continued to take part in economic justice, human rights, and anti-war movements.

"Jen was a pillar of multiple communities, probably a half dozen," said Ryan Fletcher, of Washington, a close friend for more than a decade. "I know so many activists and the work they do, they're standing on the shoulders of a giant, and that is Jen."

Mr. Leonard said: "She exuded a kindness and a positivity and an inclusivity. She wasn't a flashy or showy person in her demeanor, but at a party or an event, she had a gravity, and people could tell, this is someone I should talk to."

Surviving are her mother, Patricia Engel, and sister, Rebecca Johnson, who was her twin.

A memorial service in the Bay Area will be held later, Mr. Fletcher said.

Information from The Blade's news services was used in this report.