Suki O’Kane’s Artist Statement

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.