Healing, and Cultural Arts in O d
History, Healing, and Cultural Arts in Oakland
The Case for Cultural Districts as Restorative City Planning
Spring 2023
City Planning 116 | Professor Margaretta Lin
A zine by Jackie, Ahmad, and Quentin
introductions
Oakland, CA– a city shaped by waves of immigration and industry, colonization and capitalism, culture, care, and resistance. If you look closely, its converging histories are written on its walls: freeway scars painted over with vibrant murals, telling stories both of structural violence and of continued community care and vibrance. This zine seeks to tell some of these interwoven stories to provide context for how the city could begin to heal some of the harms perpetrated through racist city planning policy, and to highlight the visions for a cultural zone in East Oakland that community members, artists, and activists are working towards.
We believe that creating spaces in our cities to celebrate culture and arts has the power to connect people and place,
to transform our collective futures, and to re-root our world in beauty and joy.
This zine was created to support the work of the East Side Arts Alliance, the Deeply Rooted Collaborative, and the Unity Council, doing on the ground work to build these realities. We acknowledge that we are not residents of Oakland, and intend to use our privilege as UC Berkeley students to uplift the work and stories of these communities, not to speak for them. We step into their space with open minds and hearts to recognize the pain caused through generational injustices. We are here to engage in their long lasting fight for representation of cultural arts within Oakland, as a form of resilience and not as a marketing tactic.
introductions
Further, we would like to acknowledge that we reside on the territory of Xučyun, the land of the Chochenyo speaking Ohlone people. We recognize that, as residents of Alameda County, we benefited and continue to benefit from the use and occupation of this land. We want to make visible the Native peoples who have had, and contine to have, their voices, rights, and land stolen: each of the structures of injustice that we discuss in this zine are rooted in colonialism; efforts for restoration must be decolonial. By offering this land acknowledgement, we affirm Indigenous sovereignty and commit to amplify the beauty of cultural diversity.
history and context: redlining, redevelopment, and “urban renewal” history and context: redlining, redevelopment, and “urban renewal”
Above:
the HOLC Redlining Map of Oakland, and the swath cut through Oakland’s neighborhoods to build Interstate 980 in 1978.
Redlining maps and discriminatory lending policies segregate Black and Brown communities in areas with no access to economic opportunity, shaping the social geographies and lived experiences of Oakland residents into the present day.
Freeways and urban renewal cut through thriving Black and Brown neighborhoods labeled as “undesireable” and replace them with barren roadways and housing developments. As homes and businesses are bulldozed, communities are separated from each other and from economic and social opportunity.
Children watch as a house gets bulldozed; West Oakland 1968
City planning has been an intentional force for racial violence in Oakland, but not without community resistance.
Toward Downtown from West of Brush St., 1956 and 2015.
14th Street Looking
images via Connect Oakland
“The redevelopment of Oakland in the 1960s leaves us with a rich picture in which racialized lending practices and discriminatory zoning laws created urban blight, but also instigated a lasting and radical liberation movement,” -- Moriah Ulinskas, Places Journal
from the archives: emory douglas & the black panthers
from the archives: emory douglas & the black panthers
Revolutionary Artist of Black Panther Party, Minister of Culture … Douglas’s work was “to provoke a new consciousness in the community. His work revealed the causes of oppression and most importantly, encouraged the self-empowerment necessary to bring about change,” (Black Panther, the Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas p 20).
Art has long been a tool to bring people together, to give a voice to those who would otherwise go unheard, and to make visible and possible a future that was previously unimaginable.
art as resistance art as resistance art as resistance art as restoration art as restoration art as restoration
today in oakland: Alice and 14th St.
today in oakland: Alice and 14th St.
Cultural Arts
Cultural Arts
Mural
Mural
Arts are the only universal forms of expression and communication. The designers of this mural captured the prevailing historical forces of culture within every one of Oakland’s corners while connecting with the community’s needs for how they wanted to be represented. They included riots from the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, the story of Chinese immigration from the Seniors in Hotel Oakland, and other stories from community neighbors to the mural.
Photos of Alice Street through the ages, via the documentary “Alice Street.”
Unfortunately, the murals are not visible anymore due the construction of a large apartment complex in the parking space. The mural brought the communities together to begin a movement in which they danced to the Oakland planning commission’s office, but the office decided to go through with the process disregarding the community’s voice.
The mural was not only a catalyst for social change and addressing the issues that have been existing for centuries, but it was a pathway for different cultures to learn from one another and create relationships through artistic expression. It was a representation of hope and peace for one another.
“the arts are central to creating thriving connections and community!”
- elena serrano
“the arts are central to creating thriving connections and community!”
- elena serrano
the case for a cultural district the case for a cultural district
Oakland has a long and rich history of cultural artists and activists building movements of resistance and restoration in the face of injustices. These histories are inextricably woven together: redevelopment pushed Black families to East Oakland, and the development of the freeways that cut through the city allowed extensive settlement by new immigrants to the Fruitvale area. Waves of Mexican and Central American immigrants to Fruitvale have made that district the major Latino cultural center of East Bay. While Fruitvale and East Oakland are culturally rich, they are still disinvested in by the city, and bear the brunt of decades of racist city planning policy. Today, they face displacement and gentrification.
Organizations like the Unity Council and the East Side Arts Alliance work to uplift these communities and meet their needs-through affordable housing, the creation of community gathering places and cultural centers, and the hosting of cultural arts events.
Karla Guerra of the Unity Council tells us that establishing a Cultural Arts District in East Oakland is an opportunity for the city to invest in the maintenance of this neighborhood’s cultural heritage, to prevent displacement of its already marginalized communities, and to begin to heal historical harms. Cultural Districts have been found to promote equitable development, uplift arts and culture, and protect rich cultures from disappearing.
According to Elena Serrano of the East Side Arts Alliance:
By creating space for cultural arts and connection in the city, these organizations are not only providing social services, but creating places for people to gather and exchange ideas; to be inspired, activated, and healed. Art brings beauty to space and to place.
Art brings beauty to space and to place.
Above & Below: Unity Council’s Dia De Los Muertos Festival in Fruitvale
Above: East Side Arts Alliance Malcolm X Jazz Festival
Below: East Side Cultural Center
visions of a cultural hub for east oakland visions of a cultural hub for east oakland
by the east side arts alliance by the east side arts alliance
“oakland tops the list of most gentrified cities in the US... this leads to displacement, erases the history and cultural identity that a neighborhood has... cultural districts have been recognized to promote equitable development and protect the cultural heritage of marginalized communities, to correct the history of violence.”
This vision of a community hub at Reconstruction Plaza on International Boulevard is a way to preserve culture and foster well-being in East Oakland. The plan includes multicultural programming to keep the space active; resources for local artists and community members; cultural restaurants; a community garden. This vision was collaboratively dreamed by community members, artists, and activists.
Every neighborhood should have one!
- karla guerra, the unity council
case study: san francisco’s cultural districts case study: san francisco’s cultural districts
Established in 2018, San Francisco’s Cultural Districts Program is a “place-making and place-keeping program that preserves, strengthens, and promotes cultural communities,” in ten cultural districts across the city.
what is a cultural district?
The city defines a Cultural District as “a geographic area of location within the City and County of San Francisco that embodies a unique cultural heritage because it contains a concentration of cultural and historic assets and culturally significant enterprise, arts, services, or businesses and because a significant portion of its residents or people who spend time in the area or location are members of a specific cultural, community, or ethnic group that historically has been discriminated against, displaced, and oppressed.”
focus areas
Cultural Heritage Preservation, Tenant Protection, Arts and Culture, Land Use, Economic Development, Cultural Competency
goals
To preserve and promote diverse communities’ cultural assets, events, and way of life; To amplify and support the communities’ cultural traditions and improve the quality of life for its members; To coordinate City and community information, partnerships, and resources to stabilize communities and prevent displacement
political structure and funding
The program is coordinated by the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, in collaboration with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, SF Planning, and Arts Commission.
Hotel tax revenue funds the program, diverting approx. $3 million annually that could otherwise gentrify the city back into its arts, culture, and community.
The Cultural Districts Program works to divert resources into these communities, to support their ongoing self-determination. The role of the city is not top-down planning but ongoing partnership and support.
Grassroots community organizations steer the districts, using festivals, celebrations, resource fairs, activations, and education to strengthen their communities.
community partnerships & sovereignty
readings and resources readings and resources readings and resources
readings recommended by the east side arts alliance:
Ecocity Berkeley - Richard Register
The Battle for Home - Marwa Al-Sabquni
Street Fight - Janette Sadik-Khan
American Babylon - Robert O. Self
No There There - Chris Rhomberg
Visions of Peace and Justice
Creative Community: the Art of Cultural Development - Don Adams and Arlene
Goldbard
100 Families Oakland: Art and Social Change - Dr. Sonia BasSheva Mañjon
other cities are doing it too!
Check out the Minneapolis Cultural Districts (part of Minneapolis 2040), NOLA Grassroots Plan, and the NYC Cultural Plan. Other notable US cities with cultural plans are: Austin, Washington DC, Raleigh, Boston, Chicago, Boise, & Dallas. oakland organizations and resources:
The Deeply Rooted Collaborative
The Unity Council
Community Archival Resource Project
The East Side Arts Alliance
The Black Cultural Zone
Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice
The Village
The Oakland Asian Cultural Center
Malonga Arts Residents Association
Lao Family Community Development
huge thanks to Elena Serrano, Karla Guerra, Aubrey Pandoori, Margaretta Lin, Amy Chu, our classmates & friends, & everyone advocating for a future rooted in restoration and justice.