Bay Space museums and libraries provide myriad methods to discover Black historical past and tradition, from up to date artwork to protest actions. Right here’s only a sampling.
African American Museum and Library, Oakland
Housed in Oakland’s former important library, this particular reference library is residence to 16,000 books by or about African People, 70,000 pictures, a uncommon ebook assortment and an archive of 160 particular collections.
“It’s a repository for African American history,” says library assistant Marco Frazier.
Within the Forties, efforts started to gather oral histories and artifacts about African People within the Bay Space. The rising assortment moved to the Oakland Public Library’s Golden Gate department within the Eighties after which a public-private partnership with the Northern California Heart for Afro-American Historical past within the Nineties.
The museum’s present “Visions Toward Tomorrow” exhibit upstairs highlights the historical past of African American communities in Oakland. However on a current weekend, the area was taken over by a tribute to Black doll artists. It’s an annual occasion based by Karen Oyekanmi, who created the American Black Magnificence Doll Affiliation in 1984 to create Black dolls in a optimistic picture for kids of shade.
Particulars: Open from 10 a.m. to five:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday and Saturday, and from midday to five:30 p.m. Friday. Frazier provides museum excursions at midday on Saturday or by appointment. 659 14th St., Oakland; oaklandlibrary.org/aamlo
Black Panther Celebration Mini Museum, West Oakland
In the summertime of 2020, within the wake of George Floyd’s homicide, West Oakland resident Jil Vest felt bombarded by the various murals depicting violence dedicated towards Black individuals. “I’m not going to paint pictures of what’s being done to Black people. I want to paint pictures of what Black people do,” she remembers considering.
So she launched the West Oakland Mural Challenge, utilizing the facet of her residence as a canvas for a picture celebrating the ladies of the Black Panther Celebration.
And when her downstairs tenants moved out in 2021, she transformed the entire first ground right into a museum in regards to the Black Panther Celebration and its accomplishments.
“History is supposed to be the study of what people did,” she says. “Oftentimes, as Black people in America, we have been taught that our history is the study of what was done to us. If this were a museum filled with what was done to the Black Panther Party, you would leave devastated. I don’t want that energy in my house.”
As a substitute, the message her museum delivers is impressed by the achievements of the celebration, that “18- and 19-year-old young men and women can feed children, take care of elders, open clinics and pre- and post-natal care, create free ambulance programs and give children eyeglasses.”
“This project has accomplished exactly what I set out to accomplish,” she says. “Instead of looking at images that cause your shoulders to curl forward, we’re looking at this beautiful image that causes your shoulders to go back.”
Particulars: Open by appointment — textual content 646-306-7175 — at 831 Heart St., Oakland. Seeking to be taught extra about Black historical past in West Oakland? Vest suggests taking a Black Liberation Strolling Tour; be taught extra at https://www.blwt.org/excursions.
Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco
There’s up to date artwork … after which there’s 20-year-old MoAD, the place a lot of the artwork on show was created final yr. This peaceable area in San Francisco’s museum district is residence to rotating, thought-provoking reveals, resembling “Liberatory Living: Protective Interiors and Radical Black Joy,” a set of furnishings and artworks by 16 designers and artists on show via March 2.
Particulars: Open from 11 a.m. to six p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and midday to five p.m. Sunday at 685 Mission St., San Francisco; https://www.moadsf.org.
Domini Hoskins Black Historical past and Studying Heart, Redwood Metropolis
This museum discovered a everlasting residence in Redwood Metropolis final January. However its origin dates again almost 25 years, when younger Domini Hoskins, then a scholar at Belmont’s Central Elementary College, was dreading having to put in writing yet one more Black Historical past Month essay about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Aren’t there any other famous Black people?” he requested his grandmother, Carolyn.
Carolyn remembers being greatly surprised and making an attempt to clarify to her grandson that the wealthy historical past of African American achievement within the U.S. isn’t one thing that may be compressed into only one month a yr or restricted to Dr. King, Rosa Parks or Malcolm X. So that they began studying collectively.
At present, the Domini assortment fills 22,000 sq. ft of museum area, its historic and up to date artifacts a celebration of Black excellence. You’ll discover shows celebrating African American inventors, resembling George Crum, inventor of the potato chip. There are NFL jerseys from well-known athletes, data by celebrated musicians and memorabilia from historic political victories, together with President Barack Obama’s election.
Particulars: Open from midday to six p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and till 5 p.m. Sunday at 890 Jefferson Ave., Redwood Metropolis; hoskinsblackhistorymuseum.org.
Black Panther Celebration Museum, Oakland
The Dr. Huey P. Newton Basis opened this museum final January in a primary downtown location. A set of putting portraits of former Black Panther Celebration members from chapters across the U.S. is paired with private essays and reflections about their time with the celebration. One other exhibit, “Each One Teach One: The History of the Oakland Community School,” highlights the historic faculty the Panthers ran from 1973 to 1982.
Particulars: Free. Open from 10 a.m. to three p.m. Wednesday-Saturday at 1427 Broadway, Oakland; hueypnewtonfoundation.org/black-panther-party-museum.
Within the works: Silicon Valley African American Cultural Heart
A Santa Clara County heart for African American tradition is anticipated to interrupt floor this yr and open in 2027. Helmed by mission director Walter Wilson and supported with Measure A and state and federal funding, the Silicon Valley African American Tradition Heart proposal contains plans for a neighborhood hub, inexpensive housing and retail.
Particulars: Anticipated to open in 2027 at 2100 The Alameda in San Jose; svafricanamericanculturalcenter.org.
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