Welcome to the EastSide Arts Alliance & Cultural Center!
We are an organization of Third World artists, cultural workers, and community organizers of color committed to working in the San Antonio and other Oakland neighborhoods to support a creative environment that improves the quality of life for our communities and advocates for progressive, systemic social change.
Self Respect, Self Defense, Self Determination
The ongoing onslaught of police & vigilante killings of African Americans around the country is symptomatic of the broadening repression in U.S. society’s rapid swing to the right, also characterized by the buildup of a fascistic prison industrial complex and an emboldened xenophobic commander-in-cheif.
The just call for Black Power identifies the struggle between Black people and oppressive political systems in the US and globally that are based on White Supremacy.
Black Power is a critical challenge to the hypocrisy of so-called American democracy and points to the disempowerment and disfranchisement of Black and all oppressed communities of color.
So we say: BLACK POWER MATTERS and support calls to DEFUND THE POLICE and DEFEND BLACK LIVES. This is a call to organize. We must continue to support organizations, alliances, united fronts and coalitions within and between our communities.
A global uprising demanding systemic changes in how we govern our own communities is underway. EastSide’s work is devoted to raising the cultural consciousness of our respective communities to fight for political empowerment. In the continuum of the artists and activists who came before us, are committed to:
-
SELF RESPECT - To raise political and cultural awareness and values based on a progressive and de-colonized national consciousness
-
SELF DEFENSE - To recognize police repression as a key component of institutional racism and White Supremacy and as an inherent feature of U.S. Capitalism.
-
SELF DETERMINATION - Community control of our institutions and political empowerment for Black and all Third World and oppressed peoples.
Live Arts in RESISTANCE (LAIR) VIRTUAL is a livestream program talking with local artists about their artistic work, dreams and community work.
On September 22, 2020, join us for a conversation between Anne Huang, Executive Director of World Arts West and CK Ladzekpo.
https://www.facebook.com/EastSideArtsAlliance/live/
All upcoming events at the Cultural Center
have been postponed.
Look for posts on virtual events.
World Art West, NAKA Dance Theater and EastSide Arts Alliance present…
LiveArts in Resistance (LAIR) Virtual
**Ancestral Knowledge, Art and Resistance**
Featuring CK Ladzekpo
On September 22, 2020, join us for a conversation between Anne Huang, Executive Director of World Arts West and CK Ladzekpo
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
CK Ladzekpo, PhD, is the director of the African Music Program at the University of California, Berkeley. His is a distinguished career as a performer, choreographer, composer, teacher, and published scholar in the African performing arts. He is a member of a renowned family of African musicians and dancers who traditionally serve as lead drummers and composers among the Anlo-Ewe people of southeastern Ghana in West Africa. He has been a lead drummer and instructor with the Ghana National Dance Ensemble, the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies, and the Arts Council of Ghana.
He joined the music faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, in 1973 and continues to be an influential catalyst of the African perspective in the performing arts. Awards include two choreographers’ fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Irvine Choreographer's Fellowship, and the Ruth Beckford Extraordinary People in Dance Award. He has been a member of the faculty council of the East Bay Center for Performing Arts since 1974. CK served as the co-Artistic Director of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival for 12 seasons.
Sign Language interpretation by Christine Nakahara and Eboni Gaytan.
This event will be streamed live on Facebook!
World Art West, NAKA Dance Theater and EastSide Arts Alliance present…
LiveArts in Resistance (LAIR) Virtual
**Ancestral Knowledge, Art and Resistance**
Featuring Charya Burt
On October 6, 2020, join us for a conversation between Anne Huang, Executive Director of World Arts West and Charya Burt.
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Charya Burt is an acclaimed master dancer; choreographer, vocalist and teacher of Classical Cambodian Dance who has injected new life into the dance form by creating classically inspired, inventive new works.
Among her many honors Charya is a 2019-2020 Dance/USA Fellow and a recipient of the prestigious Isadora Duncan Award for Individual Performance. She has a Certificate
of Honor from the California State Senate, State Legislature and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. A 4 time master artist awardee from the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Charya’s work has been chronicled in KQED Arts, Cambodian’s Dark
Past Behind Her, A Dancer Steps into the Light (2014), and in the US Department of State’s Living Legacy Preserving Intangible Heritage, Classical Cambodian Dance Thrives
in California (2010).
Charya is a dance instructor for the Cambodian Cultural Dance Group of San Jose where she has worked for over 10 years and she conducts periodic workshops for dance groups in Stockton, Modesto, and Fresno. Her Children of the Refugees project through UC’s Critical Refugee Studies in 2017 provided a platform for community members to tell their stories of refugee displacement.
Charya’s mission is to continue to preserve and advance her art form, elevate the professionalism of community dance groups, and to create innovative new works that are firmly rooted in tradition. Charya is the founding artistic director of Charya Burt
Cambodian Dance, based in the San Francisco North Bay. www.charyaburt.com
Sign Language interpretation by Christine Nakahara
This event will be streamed live on Facebook!
EastSide Arts Alliance and dNaga Dance Company presents:
GIRL Project Virtual Hangouts:: Balance
Cyber Space via Zoom
Wednesdays 3:30-4:30pm
Girl Project is maintaining weekly hour long hangouts via zoom where we kick it, take some time to catch up, create art, and get to see each others faces. All GP family is invited, alumni and current!
Girl Project wants to remains here for our girls the best way we now how, by creating space and spending time together. Email to receive the zoom link and we will see you there!!
And don't forget
HOLLA BACK VIRTUAL HOLLABACK ON IG
@Eastsidecultural
EBALDC/Asian Resource Center Gallery and EastSide Arts Alliance present…
A Virtual Reception with Artist
Claudio Talavera-Ballon
Somos tierra que anda – We are Earth that Walks
Tuesday July 21 at 7pm
Available in Spanish with English Simultaneous translation
Somos tierra que anda – We are Earth that Walks tells the story of the Central American migrants in the recent caravans, who are traveling north in search of a better life. The artwork explores the suffering, strife and hopes of those traveling from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries. The exhibit seeks to change the biased narrative portrayed by the media and offer a glimpse of hope. It is also an invitation for needed conversations to help us move beyond this highly charged conflict and towards a solution.
Also featured are women who make the often tragic journey less strenuous for migrants thanks to their compassion, courage, and determination to help. It portrays the women of La Patrona, who feed migrants traveling atop the freight train La Bestia, which carries hundreds of people without access to food or water through treacherous deserts and jungles. The paintings also depict DACA recipients (Dreamers) and community leaders who, through their resistance and dedication, are advocating for those who have completed the journey and are trying to make a new life in the US.
Talavera-Ballón is a Peruvian-born oil painter and muralist based in San Francisco, CA. His work highlights the lives and struggles of farm workers, indigenous people and immigrants throughout Latin America and the US. He has exhibited his works in museums, universities and embassies internationally and in the US, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cusco, the Peruvian Embassy in Washington DC, and Galería de la Raza, San Francisco. To Join FB Live click here
The Eastside Cultural Center venue and office is closed until the lifting of Shelter in Place
Community resources during the COVID-19 crisis
The City of Oakland is working hard to serve the needs of the Oakland community and workforce during the COVID-19 crisis. Please check below outlining resources available to support businesses and workers impacted by COVID-19.
Unemployment Assistance
https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/disaster.asp
This includes Self-Employed workers.
State of CA
https://edd.ca.gov/Unemployment/Filing_a_Claim.htm
Denise Pate
Cultural Funding Coordinator Cultural Affairs Division
Economic & Workforce Development City of Oakland
desk: 510-238-7561
1 Frank Ogawa Plaza, 9th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612
https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/arts-and-culture-in-oakland
COVID -19 | Bay Area Arts & Culture Resource Guide
Artist Resources
https://www.cciarts.org/EastBayOaklandRelief.htm
http://theregistrybayarea.com/covid-19-bay-area-arts-culture-resource-guide/
Virtual Open Mic
https://www.facebook.com/events/211032176973779/?ti=icl
Performing Artists Relief Fund
Grant funding for Bay Area visual arts organizations serving BIPOC and other underserved audiences
Resources for those who live and work in Oakland
https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/oaklands-moratorium-on-residential-and-commercial-evictions
https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/coronavirus-2019-covid-19-business-and-worker-resources
Individuals who work in Oakland have rights to paid sick leave.
California’s State Resources for Employers and Workers includes waiving the 1 week waiting period for unemployment and disability insurance.
Keep Oakland Housed provides emergency financial assistance and services to residents at risk of losing their housing.
Newly launched portal for all affordable housing in Alameda County
We can support Oakland’s small businesses by ordering take-out, purchasing gift cards now, and shopping online.
Bay Area COVID-19 Relief Application for Migrant Youth Community
California Disaster Relief Assistance for Immigrants (DRAI)
https://www.cceb.org/california-disaster-relief-assistance-for-immigrants-drai/
Employment Opportunities
Our Oakland schools are closed during this time and providing free ‘grab n go’ meals to the many students who rely on them at specific sites. Alameda County Community Food Bank also provides free food assistance to families and individuals through its County-wide network of food pantries and soup kitchens.
