Community Building

When the City of Oakland put out a call for a public art project for the new East Oakland Community Library, they wanted to find a project that would match the community-driven vision they had for the new library. Artist Rene Yung’s answer was to create a new platform where community members could give voice to their personal stories in a very public way, and by doing this, build connections with their neighbors by finding shared experiences. 

If there is any constant in East Oakland, it seems to be change. This area has transformed from rural agricultural area, to a busy factory town, to dynamic multi-cultural urban community in the past 75 years. Waves of communities have migrated to the area each leaving their mark on the face of East Oakland. African American families migrated from the southern United States after World War II, refugee families escaped war and hardship in Asia during the 1970’s, and immigrant families who came from Latin America up to the present day. Themes emerge as you listen to these residents’ stories.   They all have made their way to East Oakland to find homes, jobs, and a better life for themselves and their children. They all share common bonds of humanity that often become invisible in a world obsessed with differences.

The framework of Our Oakland: Eastside Stories revolves around values we share in common, which we call the Archive Five: Our History, Our Culture, Our Family, Our Place, and Our Dreams. Though East Oakland has great diversity in terms of our individual stories, we see common values emerge from the stories in this archive: pride in our roots, love of our families, hope for our futures… and also a shared desire to address the challenges that confront everyone in our neighborhood today. Our Oakland was created in order to make visible those things that we share in common, and to inspire people to turn their stories into positive social actions and collaborations.

The process of creating and filling the archive with community stories is as much a part of the art as the content of the archive. 

This website was designed to provide a social forum for East Oakland Community members to come together online to share our stories and information relevant to our lives. Because about half of East Oakland families don’t have computers in the home, we made an extra effort to make sure that everyone had the chance to contribute to the archive. We hosted a series of Community Storytelling Days on the shared campus of ACORN Woodland Elementary School and EnCompass Academy where dozens of families showed up to meet each other and record their stories for the archive. The fun community events also involved educational and art activities, film screenings, and food, as well as helpful information about community organizations and services.

In addition to bringing individuals and families together on the web and during events, Our Oakland has engaged a diverse number of community organizations to help enrich the project. Grassroots arts and youth media groups helped film and edit stories, lead arts and education activities at Community Storytelling Days, and get the word out about the project.   Non-profits and arts groups are also welcome to become featured website partners to enrich the Our Oakland website with their stories.