Title: Movement & Spirit

The Pins chosen represent a microcosm of the story of movement both physical and political of Black bodies from the south to West Oakland CA. Many significant events in my life are associated with the story engaged here and the Pins used to animate the story.

If this project is about the redefining of redlining, then it answers by offering a narrative shaped by redlining that is redefined by ‘memory of movement.’ This ‘memory of movement’ is imbued with the power to self-center, self-articulate, self-determine value and worth, and to intentionally uplift and build on a continuum of self.

Redlining has given way to gentrification. A facet of gentrification is the displacement of people, the dissolving of communal power and support, and the traumatic and disorienting disruption that results from displacement. Ruptures from place can contribute to ruptures in memory or a break in the continuum of self and the sense of the collective we.

This work is a narrative net for the artist continuum of self in the story of the Lower Bottoms and an act of resistance to the erasure of the collective we by gentrification.

The 16th St. train station is a point of entry for conversations of Blackness and the experience of being Black in Oakland CA. It is connected to the literal movement of bodies, one of the largest movements of refugees (migration) in the United States. This was connected to social economic movement in the South and the presumption of opportunity in the West. It fit it with larger movements of inclusion in war, war time economies, and the economic opportunity offered by the railway for Black men to support families and move them out of the south to build a life in the West.

The Lincoln theater on 7th St. is an example of Black businesses built to serve Black people that supplied multiple needs. It was a part of The Harlem of the West an economic wonder that existed despite redlining, police abuses, and all that went with trying to make home in a sundown town after leaving the overt racism of the South.

The business of entertainment and the news was as closely intertwined then as now and news of culture activates on local stages, bars, and juke boxes as well as the news of politics and community building traveled on the train carried by Brothers of the Sleeping Car Porters whose office was down the street from the theater. Out of the plethora of Black businesses on 7th St, I selected the theater because it was founded by the Freemans. Freeman was a common name taken after slavery by Blacks who wanted to be in control of the narrative/life they lived. The Freemans provided a cultural space that was sometimes a church, sometimes a cabaret, and sometimes a place to sleep if you were down on your luck. It is a space in which a particular kind of communal care and spirit collaborated to bring a sense of completeness and a bit of grandeur to a place that thrived surrounded by attempts to confine and starve it. The physical building is gone. The story of the theater is a part of the story of the Harlem of the West that is a part of the story of Oakland, which is a part of the American story of movement and spirits that are persistent in the pursuit of freedom and place in which to enact life. This story matters.

Pin 3, I picked the Sister Thea Bowman Memorial Theater because it was built on the stories of the 16th St. train station and the dreams played forward in the Lincoln Theater. The Lower Bottom Playaz are Oakland’s oldest Black theater company. It has an origin story in which the Sr. Thea is a crucial part. That story matters to the story of Black theater making and the practice of arts as resistance which is an inbred trait in the Lower Bottoms. The story of service through art and culture and what’s it meant to the narrative of redefining redlining is borne in part by the troupe, its connection and attention to ‘place’ in West Oakland. That the dreams of a Black nun from Mississippi and a Black theater maker who came by Jim Crow car into the 16th St. train station

Could converge in a cultural practice that would not only remember the Harlem of the West but build on its dreams, is the basis for a story of persistence. The story has an origin and is still fighting for the right to write its future in a once-redlined place in a sundown town.

In 2021, I caught myself being a part of the pandemic exodus from San Francisco and moved to the East Bay, settled in the Gaskill/Golden Gate neighborhood in Oakland, a historic Ohlone land near Emeryville Shellmound. As a newcomer, this neighborhood attracted me with its laid-back ambiance, proximity to spaces for creative practices, and diverse local food scene. However, I realized this is just a more recent reality for this neighborhood as more tech and creative industry workers move in. Real estate values soared, new amenities boomed, but the past struggles slowly get buried and silenced, and affordability is no longer true for residents.

Times change and the shift that comes from it in any area seem inevitable, resulting in a generational gap of interests. Solving this issue will probably always remain a huge mystery as it involves so many stakeholders and realistic factors, and it’ll take a village. I want to take this project as an opportunity to contribute my effort in addressing gentrification: Introduce residents and the local creative community to each other; Amplify the new and old stories in the neighborhood; Connect people in the mean of music and food sharing (which I believe to be a universal interest amongst humankind).

A part of this project would be two site-specific audio collages solely made with sounds recorded in the neighborhood and a poem inspired by my historical research and conversations with neighbors. There will also be a gathering at the Golden Gate Branch Library, co-hosted with Commons Archive, a local creative grassroots history project that builds neighbor relationships. The sound compositions will be presented there, and visitors can take a look at the publications consisting of neighborhood stories that Commons Archive has collected over the years. Visitors can enjoy some sweets and share their own stories before heading for a short, intentional walk to listen closely to the sounds of the neighborhood. We will walk to Temescal Creek Park and listen/sing/make weird sounds to the creek that’s buried underground but has a small opening covered by a grate near the entrance of the park.

“The Drive-by”, a short film about distilled memories

My family immigrated to the US from Taiwan in 1985 when I was 11 years old. Our first residence was right at the border of a redlined area, on San Pablo Avenue close to Gilman Street in Berkeley. It was a small complex of one-bedroom utility apartments sandwiched between a Chinese-owned auto shop and a vacant lot that sold Christmas trees every winter. Most of the tenants were immigrants or young international students. I have distinct memories of hardship and confusion attached to this area growing up as a child, and in the last 37 years, every time I would drive by this building (which would be at least once a year whenever I visited family over the holidays), I would always make sure that I grab a hard look at this building before it quickly passes by outside my car window, compelled by the mysterious impulse to want to hold on to fragments of those memories. Those memories included my first adventure to the MacDonald’s down the street; playing my mom’s favorite piano song in our tiny living room and seeing tears streaming down her face; sharing a worn-out second-hand sofa bed with my two siblings which by morning we’ve managed to sink into the middle like sardines.

The Drive-by is a recreation of that moment when fragments of my family life in 1985 swirl into my mind and puts me in a state of remembering. Even though the policy of Redlining was long abolished by that point, my family and I created a life in the aftermath. Using spoken poetry, recorded conversations, pictures, and manipulated sounds, I hope to share a glimpse of a family navigating life in all the in-between spaces of inclusion/exclusion, past/future, and yellow zone/red zone.

This sound-walk includes interviews with members of the community about the work they do in and for this place we call Oakland. As you traverse sites like DeFremery Pool and a 20 square-foot mural, Oakland will be animated by the labour and care of its residents, and the many invisible forces that upset, disrupt, protect, sustain, and salvage our community. Enjoy the sounds and voices of your neighbours, the people who pass and serve you often, and listen to the knowledge that they have to impart. Their insights are both universal and specific, veering between warm anecdotes and firm critiques. From a seasoned educator to a teen lifeguard, their words are a record of Oakland today.

The function of redlining was to devalue certain neighborhoods' worth to investors. These interviews, conducted in redlined neighborhoods decades after the 1937 "residential security map" was published, express the value that was never captured by redlining's discriminatory metrics. The project seeks to redefine how we evaluate a community and encourages its audience to, like the subjects of the project, make investments in the people and places among which they live.

I’ve watched my neighborhood in South Berkeley change since I moved here in 2002. Over the years I’ve developed a close relationship with my immediate neighbors and I’ve come to understand that there are complex social and political relationships between the families who grew up in this neighborhood (and whose parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents lived in this same neighborhood) and families who have more recently arrived. Anecdotally, I’ve heard, mostly from my neighbors, of the difficulties that black families faced as the neighborhood changed. I’ve found myself in a difficult position as a newcomer to the neighborhood. I’ve commented on the gentrification of the neighborhood, painfully aware of the fact that I am also a factor in that gentrification, despite being BIPOC myself. 

This project, Redline Redefined, presented a unique opportunity to dig into the unsavory history of oppression in this, my neighborhood. The practice of redlining, and other practices of racial discrimination have had lasting effects on this, and many others, communities. I welcomed the opportunity to interview my neighbors, to record their voices, tell their stories through their sounds and began to learn more about the history of this community. Through this process I’ve come to know a few more of my neighbors, learned some of the neighborhood’s history, and developed a better sense of how to be a part of this community. I hope that these pieces are informative and inspirational to others! 

I moved to a freshly-converted box factory on the edge of Oakland's Jingletown in 1994, a place to be with my instruments and rehearsing ensembles day and night, side by side with a flour mill, a cement plant, a household hazardous waste facility, a commercial bakery, and an estuary used by humans since 4000 BCE (and dredged in 1913 by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers). My piece will center on the historic and contemporary redlining of this neighborhood at the intersection of the former townships of Clinton and Brooklyn, where I still reside. The work will be available as a five-point geo-located sonic tour, five graphic scores, a community bike ride that shares history, goes into some deep listening, and points out some edible plants.

The work starts with the long history of exclusion and erasure, from the 19th century dispersion of its Ohlone shellmound for maritime commerce, to the 1937 recommendation the Oakland Building Inspector for slum clearance due to the prevalence of "low class foreign elements" (Portuguese and Azoreans), Chinese, and Black residents standing in the way of the business development, to the $1.5 billion housing development currently underway, with its promise of a mere 400 affordable homes among its 3,000 luxury apartments and condominiums slated to be below sea level by 2050. Research, field recordings, and historical images are the compositional building blocks, uncovering old communities, such as the Portuguese congregation of Mary Help of Christians Church, and recognizing newer ones, from street residents of Fruitvale Bridge Park across from the Tidal Canal to the Spanish-speaking homeowners of Lower Fruitvale to the Just-Moved-Inners of Brooklyn Basin.

The “finished” piece reflects my observation of these radical, creative, and powerful communities: a series of five graphic scores for improvisers, five sound sketches, and a five themed wearable artifact that all call redefinition of this redline as a greenline of consciousness, resonance, and commitment.

Flatlands is a short film portraying the landscape of West Berkeley and the hidden history of Asian discrimination from both the 1800s as well as the redlining policy of the 1930s. Filmed mostly from the San Francisco Bay Trail pedestrian bridge crossing the I-80 freeway, the footage alternates between an eastward view looking towards the city and hills, and a westward view towards a fog laden bay. A voiceover reads the texts of area descriptions and racist language documented in the U.S. government's Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) redlining policies. Drawing upon the research of Berkeley resident and historian Richard Schwartz, the film also focuses on the construction site of the Berkeley Commons, located on the former site of the Standard Soap Company, where Chinese laborers were unjustly fired in favor of white workers in 1879.

Alan is a creativity proponent and loves to observe and draw and imagine the environment. He was a licensed landscape architect for 15 years and has been a muralist since 1990. His art studio is on Lowell Street in Oakland and has been operating for 25 years. Alan has painted over 50 murals, including the historical From Elk Tracks to Bart Tracks; and Parallel Migrations along the Bay. Alan has exhibited his visual art and taught widely in places such as EBMUD, OMCA, Rutgers University, Mendocino Art Center, and the Omega Institute.

Derek Gedalecia's main musical project is called Headboggle which has seen many record releases and live performances in the Bay Area and around the country since the early 2000s. Derek has varied experience with field recording, video game voice editing, live sound, and sound design. He works as a technician at the SFMOMA. As a youth, Derek studied classical and ragtime piano from noted ragtime composer/revivalist Dr. Brian Dykstra.

Dongpu Ling is an intermedia artist born in Shanghai, China, currently based in Los Angeles, California. She is working at the intersection of art and technology. Her artistic practice is deeply rooted in exploring the relationship between the physical and digital worlds, using interactive installations and performance art as a means of bridging the gap between the two. By integrating machine intelligence into her works, she creates intradisciplinary relationships that challenge the boundaries of traditional media formats. One of the key themes in her work is the unseen, including body senses, data transformation, and theoretical physics. Through her art, she aims to make the intangible tangible.

Dongpu's work has been exhibited at many institutions, including the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, The College Book Art Association, Tin Flats, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Coaxial Arts Foundation, and Santa Clarita City Hall.

In 2018, she obtained her B.F.A. in Intermedia Art from Arizona State University. She then pursued further education and received her M.F.A. in Art & Technology with a concentration in Integrated Media from the California Institute of the Arts in 2021. Dongpu Ling is currently a faculty member in the same program where she obtained her degree.

Jonathan Davis is a journalist, storyteller, and radio maker. He's worked in various newsrooms, on audio series for two public radio stations, and a variety of independent podcast series. This includes serving as associate producer on The Intersection, the Edward R Murrow Award-Winning audio series out of San Francisco’s NPR affiliate station KALW. During his time as producer, the series also won the San Francisco Press Club’s first-place prize for best radio documentary.

In 2022 Jonathan was awarded the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism, a grant and partnership between The Carter Center Center and Reveal (from the Center for Investigative Reporting). His reporting turned into an episode for Reveal, which aired across the country on NPR. The three stories in that episode won the First Place Award in audio reporting for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. Beyond his public radio work, he's helped develop four independent podcasts from scratch including serving as producer and editor on those series.

Getting to tell the world’s stories through the magical medium of audio is an honor. Previous to working as a radio maker with KALW, he was a part of their Summer Journalism Fellowship and training program. He also has reported and produced news stories for KPFA, the legendary Pacifica Network outpost in Berkeley, CA.

Prior to audio journalism, Jonathan worked in a variety of sectors including management consulting, sustainability, financial services, workforce development, training & facilitation, philanthropy, and the non-profit world. He has a B.S. in Accounting & Business/Management and a B.A. in Sustainability Studies from the University of Florida (c/o 2012).

Redline Redefined Project:

For this project, I am weaving together a series of individual conversations that capture the history, memory, and present reality of East Oakland. These interviews will include a soundscape of community members and neighborhoods (past and present), and an examination of the changes/triumphs/challenges these communities have endured vis a vis the ripple effects of redlining and gentrification. We’ll also look at if/how redlining holds up as a concept for understanding this place. And along the way, we’ll be answering a grand question: where is Deep East Oakland, really?

Michele Cheng is an interdisciplinary composer and improviser-performer intertwining diverse media such as music, theatre, visuals, and puppetry to engage with social issues and cultural identities. Through a journalistic approach to interview and research, she develops creative work that shines light on underrepresented narratives. Her works have been featured internationally at National Sawdust (US), Roulette (US), MATA Festival (US), CCRMA (US), SEAMUS (US), NYCEMF (US), LMCML (Canada), ICMC (Chile), ESPACIOS(Argentina), ISSTA (Ireland), Sonorities (UK), MANTIS (UK), eavesdropping(UK), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon (France), AMKL (Poland), NTCH (Taiwan), SICMF (South Korea), TMAO (Thailand), among others. She has received commissions from the JACK Quartet, National Sawdust, I Care If You Listen; grant from New Music USA; and scholarship from Atlantic Center for the Arts. Michele plays multiple instruments, builds custom instruments and puppets, and has shared the stage with artists from various backgrounds. She is a co-founder of the experimental pop duo Meoark and fff, an interdisciplinary improv collective led by feminist media artists.

Rae Diamond is a neurodivergent interdisciplinary artist, educator, and nature advocate who inhales life and exhales music, poems, stories, and other creations. They are the author and artist of floating bones (First Matter Press), the author of The Cantigee Oracle (North Atlantic Books), and the founder of the Long Tone Choir. Rae is a student and teacher of Qigong, and harbors equally deep loves for the transcendent and the absurd. Find them online at raediamond.com, @raediamond on Substack and @rae13diamond on Instagram.

Zachary James Watkins studied composition with Janice Giteck, Jarrad Powell, Robin Holcomb, and Jovino Santos Neto at Cornish College. In 2006, he received an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College, where he studied with Chris Brown, Fred Frith, Alvin Curran, and Pauline Oliveros. He has received commissions from The Switch Ensemble, Density512, the Beam Foundation, sfsound, The Living Earth Show, Kronos Quartet, the Seattle Chamber Players, The Switch Ensemble, Splinter Reeds, and The Empyrean Ensemble, among others. His 2006 composition Suite for String Quartet was awarded the Paul Merritt Henry Prize for Composition and has subsequently been performed at the Labs 25th Anniversary Celebration, the Labor Sonor Series at Kule in Berlin, Germany, and in Seattle, Washington, as part of the 2nd Annual Town Hall New Music Marathon featuring violist Eyvind Kang. He has performed in numerous festivals across the United States, Mexico, and Europe. He releases music on the labels Sige, Cassauna, Confront (UK), The Tapeworm, and Touch (UK). Novembre Magazine (DE), ITCH (ZA), Leonardo Press, Walrus Press, and the New York Miniature Ensemble have published his writings and scores. He has been an artist-in-resident at the Espy Foundation, Djerassi, the Headlands Center for The Arts, and the Amant Foundation Siena, Italy.

Watkins' new composition “Black Triad” for Oboist Kyle Bruckman, Bassoonist Jamael Smith, and his own unique interactive electronic system will explore the potential of 3-note harmonic relationships. A “triad” is one term that describes such a relationship. The piece features harmonic tension and release through subtle timbral and frequency modulation.