Jonathan Bernbaum, ‘fearless’ video artist, among Oakland fire victims

Jonathan Bernbaum, ‘fearless’ video artist, among Oakland fire victims Jonathan Bernbaum, 34, “was brave enough to be completely himself,” wrote Fred Nicolaus in a Facebook tribute to his former Berkeley High School classmate. Bernbaum, an Oakland resident who was one of 36 people killed in Friday night’s fire at a warehouse music event in the Fruitvale District, traveled widely as a sought-after video artist and VJ — video jockey — who created hypnotic visuals that danced in time with electronic music. “I was always happy (and sometimes jealous) to see his success as a VJ — this guy who had suffered in the trenches of adolescence was now traveling to exotic locations and making fiery, animated skulls appear on giant screens for thousands of screaming fans,” Nicolaus wrote. Ayers, a University of San Francisco education professor and the author of An Empty Seat in Class: Teaching and Learning after the Death of a Student, believed Bernbaum would become a journalist or an academic, especially after he joined the debate team at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. “One of the most kickass people I know has left this life for the next,” wrote another high school friend, Rena, in a Facebook tribute.