Student and Alumni News

Leila Mottley

LITERARY ARTS • Leila Mottley (’19) appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers to celebrate the success of her novel Nightcrawling, an

Oprah’s Book Club Pick and New York Times best seller.

Nightcrawling was also longlisted for the Booker Prize, making Leila the youngest person ever to be included on this prestigious list. • Daisha Williams (’23), an intern at the Post News Group, wrote “Oakland Youth Rally in Support of Roe v. Wade,” covering the OSA student-led protest walk to Oakland’s City

Hall. NNPA Newswire/BlackPressUSA picked up the story for national publication.

THEATRE • Students performed Every 28 Hours, a play written by students and directed by alumna Tavia Percia (‘11), who now co-chairs the Theatre Department at OSA. The play details the shared and contested 2015 statistic, “Every 28 hours, a Black person is killed in the US,” and is performed in honor of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Jacob Blake.

• Makiah Hiley (’23) won a Bronze Medal for playwriting at the 2022 NAACP National Youth Convention. At the convention, Lupita Nyong’o, star of Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther, surprised 40 students on stage, awarding each one with a $10,000 scholarship.

Every 28 Hours Satya Hawley Matilda the Musical

VISUAL ART • Through her work with Twinwalls Mural Company,

Lisa Max (’20) painted the decorative walls for a new San Francisco Museum of Modern Art exhibition entitled “New Work: Toyin Ojih Odutola.” As this is an integral part of the exhibit, Lisa received wall text credit at SFMOMA.

• OSA’s 2022 valedictorian, Khoa Sands, is attending

Princeton University to study history. During his senior year at OSA, he created and facilitated a course on the “History of Modern Geopolitics: Conflict in Context” that helped students understand and critically examine current events and conflicts in the world today.

MEDIA ARTS • Media Arts students collaborated with several sub-pathways throughout the year, notably creating powerful digital stories that accompanied Visual Art students’ self portraits at OSA’s spring fundraiser,

Heart of Oakland. • Students documented a range of artistic accomplishments at OSA, from recording theatre performances like Twelfth Night, or What You Will, to photographing Vocal Rush, OSA’s award-winning a cappella group, to recording Instrumental Music students.

Twelfth Night Vocal Rush

PRODUCTION DESIGN • Production Design students created vastly different worlds for characters to inhabit, ranging from the

English elementary school in OSA’s middle school production of Matilda the Musical to the modern day, cityscape setting of the high school production of

Twelfth Night, or What you Will. • Nearly 2,000 visitors experienced the “Out of this

World,” space-themed Haunted House, held in OSA’s

Black Box Theater. Production Design students designed and created, Fashion Design students costumed, and student actors staffed the popular community event.

Production Design students alternate this project annually with building tiny homes for Oakland’s local unhoused community.

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC • Siblings Miles and Teo Quale (’22 and ’25, respectively) completed an international tour with their phenomenal Bluegrass band, Crying Uncle. • Pianist Scarlett Chan, an eighth grader, competed in the US Open Music Competition, coming in 1st Place in the Young Prodigy Group; 2nd Place in the Baroque

Group; and 2nd Place in the Classical Group.

• Audio Production and Design students ran the video and audio production for Instrumental Music performances during Heart of Oakland and hosted a spring Listening

Party, showcasing their portfolio of work. VOCAL MUSIC • Vocalist Satya Hawley (’19) debuted her new EP,

Summertime, at the New Parish in Oakland, and invited current OSA students to join her on stage. The video for her single, “Oakland,” was filmed in part at OSA. • Celebrating its 20th year, OSA’s award-winning a cappella group, Vocal Rush is led by OSA alumna and

Vocal Music faculty member, Sarah Vela (’12). In 2022, the group collaborated with eight-time Grammy winner

Beck, performing the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” as part of a Fox Theater event that raised nearly $1 million to benefit UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals.

DANCE • Beatrice Miller (’22) is attending the highly competitive

Ailey/Fordham BFA Program in Dance at Fordham

University, where she was awarded the prestigious

Dean’s Scholarship. • Former student Schuyler Wjisen is now a Dance Artist at the Boston Ballet, where he is performing in Stephen

Galloway’s new ballet, DEVIL’s/eye. • Former student Angela Watson has joined the San

Francisco Ballet as an apprentice for the 2023 season.

Previously, Angela studied at the world-renowned Paris

Opera Ballet School as one of only 30 non-French students invited to train in a class of 200.

FASHION DESIGN • In 2021, Zachary Fernandez (’17) graduated from the

Parsons School of Design at The New School in New York

City and joined the staff of Oscar de la Renta as their

Fabric and Trends Coordinator.

• Ajai Kasim (’20) debuted as a model at New York Fashion Week for the designer Advisry. • Collaborating with the Marin Shakespeare Company,

OSA students worked on the production of Hamlet, providing full hair, make-up, and costume creation for the show.