The city of Oakland and nonprofit partners recently announced a second round of grants awarded to people of color to fund artistic and cultural projects on racial justice.
The “Belonging In Oakland: A Just City Cultural Fund” launched last year as a partnership between the city’s Cultural Affairs Division, the East Bay Community Foundation and the Akonadi Foundation. The second round of awards announced Thursday went to eight projects that are receiving a combined $780,000 in two-year grants.
Among the awardees is “Village in Oakland,” a mural project led by unhoused artists and housing advocates, and “Dads Evoking Change” by artists using new media features to show the systemic marginalization of Black fathers by the family court system.
A full list of the awardees and descriptions of their projects can be found online.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said, “We hope that the social and cultural connections made through this program will push all of us to reimagine what our lives, our city, and our country would be like if we all truly felt like we belonged.”