Art

The Center for ArtEsteem Opens a New Space in West Oakland, Returning Home

After moving into different rental units for the last seven years, The Center for ArtEsteem, a Black-led, West Oakland based non-profit, has bought and renovated a permanent space at 3111 West St. On June 22, about 100 people celebrated the opening of the two-story, 1,500-square-foot space. ArtEsteem Executive Director Amana Harris likened the move to “coming home.”

Published

10 months ago

July 19, 2024

Oakland Post

Artworks hang in The Center for ArtEsteem's new space at 3111 West St. in West Oakland on June 24. Photo by Zack Haber.

By Zack Haber

After moving into different rental units for the last seven years, The Center for ArtEsteem, a Black-led, West Oakland based non-profit, has bought and renovated a permanent space at 3111 West St.

On June 22, about 100 people celebrated the opening of the two-story, 1,500-square-foot space.

ArtEsteem Executive Director Amana Harris likened the move to “coming home.”

Founded in 1989, ArtEsteem, which used to be named Attitudinal Healing Connection, opened its first brick-and-mortar space in 1992.

It was located in the bottom unit of a duplex housing the nonprofit’s founders, Aeesha and Kokomon Clottey, who are Harris’s mother and stepfather. That space was located at the corner of 33rd and West Streets.

“We know this community,” said Harris. “We have kids that have grown up in this neighborhood. After moving around, now we see the greater value of returning here and being more accessible to the community.”

Kamilah Crawford, who is an alumna of ArtEsteem and a former employee, told The Oakland Post she’s happy the nonprofit has returned.

“ArtEsteem not only provided me with art classes and employment after graduating from the University of California, Davis, it provided me with a sense of community and social justice,” she said. “Deep down, I believe what I learned played a role in me becoming a physician’s assistant and my desire to give back to my community.”

Since its founding, the nonprofit’s mission has been to “address social ills by providing opportunities for creative expression and healing to children, families, and individuals.”

ArtEsteem has done programming at over 75 schools in West Oakland and the Bay Area. Currently, it serves about 2,500 young people a year in 25 different schools and has a staff of 20 people.

Each year, the non-profit works closely with about 15 to 20 Oakland high school and middle school students through its Oakland Legacy Project. During a 30-week program each school year, ArtEsteem buses these students to its center two days a week after school to feed and educate them about art and environmental awareness and to build self-esteem.

“We don’t just do art for art’s sake,” said Harris. “We use art so young people can have a better understanding of themselves in the world.”

ArtEsteem got a lot of help to secure its new home. The Walter & Elise Haas Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and an anonymous donor from the San Francisco Foundation provided the largest financial donations. About 100 individuals donated $200 or more.

Artists and individuals have also helped to beautify the space and the nearby area. Students from McClymonds High School, Westlake Middle School, and Hoover Elementary School have collaborated with teams of a dozen or more artists to create four murals in the neighborhood through the Oakland Super Heroes Mural Project, which was originated by Harris, directed by David Burke, and funded by the San Francisco Foundation’s Bay Area Creative Core.

A new mural to be designed by former Oakland Legacy Project students, is in the works. The project also recently got help from Ken Houston and Beautification Council with cleaning up a mural that had been covered with graffiti.

In the building itself, one can see art everywhere.

“We want young people and their parents to feel uplifted by the beauty of the space when they come in,” said Harris. “We want to foster healing and resiliency.”

ArtEsteem is not done expanding its space. It is still fundraising and plans to build a new two-story building next door to its current space, set to open in 2027.

“Now that we own our space, we can dig our roots deeper because we won’t be uprooted,” said Harris.

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Activism

Griot Theater Company Presents August Wilson’s Work at Annual Oratorical Featuring Black Authors

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Published

3 months ago

February 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Late playwright August Wilson. Wikipedia photo.

By Godfrey Lee

Griot Theater Company will present their Fifth Annual Oratorical with August Wilson’s “Half a Century,” at the Belrose on 1415 Fifth Ave., in San Rafael near the San Rafael Public Library.

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20^th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Previous performance highlighting essential Black American authors included Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry with Langston Hughes.

The play will be performed at 3:00. p.m. on Feb. 20, 21, 22, 27, and 28 at 7:00 p.m., and on Feb. 23 at 3:00 p.m.

For more information, go to griottheatercompany.squarespace.com/productions-v2

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Activism

MLK Day of Service Volunteers Make Blankets and Art for Locals in Need

“Everyone has an opportunity to participate,” said Glenda Roberts, kinship support care program manager at CCYSB. “Our nonprofit organization and participants recognize how important it is to give back to the community and this is serving. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, ‘Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.’”

Published

4 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Photo courtesy of the nonprofit.

By Kathy Chouteau
The Richmond Standard

The Contra Costa Youth Service Bureau (CCYSB) and Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church (BMBC) are collaborating with a team of volunteers for a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, Monday, Jan. 20 that will wrap the community’s most vulnerable people in warm blankets and provide them with an uplifting gift of art.

Volunteers will kick off their activities at BMBC at 11 a.m., making blankets for the unhoused people served by the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP) and art for those in convalescence in Richmond.

Others will get to work preparing a lunch of chili, salad, a veggie tray, and water for participants, offered courtesy of CCYSB, while supplies last.

“People of all ages are welcome to participate in the MLK Day of Service,” said Roberts. Volunteers can RSVP via phone to Glenda Roberts at 510-215-4670, ext. 125.

CCYSB Boardmember Jackie Marston and her friends donated the materials and supplies to make the blankets and art projects. The nonprofit is also providing the day’s complimentary lunch, as well as employees to volunteer, under the direction of CCYSB Executive Director Marena Brown.

BMBC, led by Rev. Dr. Carole McKindley-Alvarez, is providing the facility for the event and volunteers from the church, which is located at 684 Juliga Woods St. in Richmond.

Located in Richmond, CCYSB is a nonprofit youth advocacy organization that serves eligible children, youth, and low-income families with a variety of wraparound services so they can thrive. Programs include academic achievement, youth mentorship, truancy prevention and direct response.

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Art

Vandalism at Richmond Ferry Terminal Saddens Residents

Residents have been lamenting the destruction online. Ellen Seskin posted photos of the vandalism to the Facebook group, Everybody’s Richmond, on Jan. 12, saying she encountered it while out on a walk. “It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

Published

4 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Graffiti mars the walkway at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Photo by Kathy Chouteau, The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

“This is why we can’t have nice things,” stated the post on NextDoor.

The post referenced images of graffiti at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Not just on the terminal, but also on public artwork, on trail signs, on public benches and the boardwalk.

On Wednesday, the Standard stopped by to see it for ourselves. The good news was that it appears the graffiti on the terminal and on the artwork, called Changing Tide, have been cleaned for the most part. But graffiti remained abundant in the area around the relatively new ferry terminal, which opened to the public just six years ago.

Graffiti artists tagged benches and the boardwalk. Cars that had done doughnuts in the street marked the cul-de-sac just outside the historic Craneway Pavilion.

A ferry worker told us the graffiti had been there since before he started working for the ferry service about a week ago.

A member of the Army Corps of Engineers who did not want to be named in this report called the scene “sad,” as “they’d done such a nice job fixing it up.”

“It’s sad that all this money has been spent and hoodlums just don’t care and are destroying stuff,” he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how soon the graffiti would be removed. The Standard reported the graffiti to the city’s graffiti abatement hotline. We were prompted to leave a message reporting the address and location of the graffiti.

“It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

In the comment section responding to Seskin’s post, local attorney Daniel Butt questioned why there aren’t cameras in the area.

On Nextdoor, one resident suggested searching to see if the tags match any accounts on Instagram, hoping to identify the perpetrator.

On its website, the City of Richmond says residents should graffiti immediately call Public Works graffiti removal and/or Code Enforcement at 510-965-4905.

Kathy Chouteau contributed to this report.