Identity, Strengths & Weaknesses
The ArtEsteem program is moving full steam ahead at Hoover Elementary School! The current project focuses on themes of identity. The youth are designing masks that reflect different aspect of their personality, and in essence, how they see themselves. This process has brought some thought provoking discussions to the classroom. Students were challenged by being asked critical questions such as, “What have you learned about your identity?” and “What are your strengths?”
This project will go on throughout the school year, and we’re excited to show you the completed pieces on May 18th at ArtEsteem’s 21st Annual Exhibition! The event is happening right here at AHC, catch the details on our event page.
Masks from different cultures, for inspiration.
From left: Mask inspiration, Mr. Eddie helps out, student writes down her strengths.
Students work on developing their narrative, and help each other along the way!
Student thinks about her identity.
BAYCAT Filming at AHC
We loved having our friends from BAYCAT at AHC this morning! BAYCAT is a nonprofit based in San Francisco that provides media education and jobs for youth of color. Their mission is to end inequality and racism through the art of storytelling.
This morning they interviewed AHC co-founders Kokomon and Aeeshah Clottey for a documentary on food justice in black communities. We will keep you posted about it’s release date!
pictured: AHC co-founder Kokomon Clottey
pictured: BAYCAT staff
pictured: AHC co-founder Aeeshah Clottney
Maze Cut Bookmaking: Honoring LGBTQ and Black Communities
The celebration and honoring of the LGBTQ community and Black community has been stiched into our art project this week at Tenderloin Community School (TCS) in San Francisco. Along with their mentors, our participating students learned and celebrated the LGBTQ and Black community during regular school hours. ArtEsteem stopped by TCS to support in the capturing of that knowledge and materialize it
into a book for the students to keep and share.
The handmade book integrated modern and classical symbols from all over the world that represent various gender identities. In addition, in honor of Black History Month students familiarize themselves with the classical Adinkra symbols from Ghana that centered around respected characteristics like strength, knowledge, honor, etc.
Mr. Eddie and Ms. Nan assisting students in the bookmaking process.
In all, it was a fantastic day of learning, celebrating and honoring the LGBTQ and Black communities in addition to learning a new art medium that will not be forgotten shortly.
-March 14, 2019
Three students pose with their freshly-made books.
Learning Fabric Arts with the ArtMobile
This week we took the ArtMobile across the Bay for Art Week at MLK Middle School! We facilitated fiber art classes for 3 days to over 400 students. Working with fiber arts is a unique experience, and the students were able to let their creativity soar.
Our projects involved bold designs, and we spoke about symbols relating to Black History Month, in addition to icons of peace and personal development.
Thanks to everyone at MLK Middle School for hosting the ArtMobile pop-up. The ArtEsteem ArtMobile is a fully equipped mobile art studio available for schools, festivals and community building events. To learn more, click here.
- February 27th, 2019
MBK Rising! Mural Launch
Lead Mural Artist Andre Jones (pictured on the left) was more than excited to have the likes of Mayor Libby Schaaf (pictured in the middle) and longtime community champion and AHC Executive Director Amana Harris (pictured on the right) by his side on his co-designed works of art.
This year just keeps on glowing for the city of Oakland and AHC. MBK Rising!’s successful launch marked another joyful experience to our 2019 as we completed two inspiring murals on the lively walls of Martin Luther King Jr’s Elementary School. Both murals focus on the importance of learning and education that are best achieved when working together as a community.
Dedicated to bringing art back into the STEM model, MLK Elementary School Principal Ms. Groves joined forces with the talented and experienced mural artist Andre “Natty Rebel” Jones and AHC Executive Director Amana Harris to add some life back into the school atmosphere.
Principal Groves (pictured on the left) poses proudly with Councilwoman Barbara Lee (pictured on the right).
The sun covered us all morning into the afternoon as we painted our hearts out for the community and for the MBK Rising!. We left no stone unturned and no (designated) wall unpainted-- and that’s exactly how we planned it to be.
- February 20th, 2019
ABOUT MBK:
In 2014, President Obama launched My Brother’s Keeper and issued a powerful call to action to close opportunity gaps facing boys and young men of color. The initiative sparked candid dialogue and action around the country to help more of our young people reach their dreams, regardless of their race, gender, or socioeconomic status.
Featured artists (Tim Bluitt and Isabel) share a few smiles and pointers with the Honorable Mayor Libby Schaaf.
Mayor's Inauguration
What an exciting and honorable way to kick off 2019!
The ArtEsteem ArtMobile got its tires rolling on this beautiful Saturday to celebrate the inauguration of Mayor Libby Schaaf. With an agenda centered on collaborative mural-building, our staff hung a 17ft canvas on the left wall of the ArtMobile to be prepped for sketching. Once the canvas was held up, experienced artist, Daniel Jimenez began outlining some of Oakland’s most notable buildings to be colored in by our creative community.
Showcasing a clean canvas in his best Vanna White pose is AHC staff, Eddie Escobedo.n
Meanwhile, AHC staff Eddie Escobedo and Phyllis Hall catered to the growing number of youth lining up to participate in the stencil-making program. The stencils were cutouts of Oakland’s greatest treasures; ranging from the California bear to the Bay Bridge to the Oak tree. Participants were provided with the opportunity to either paint on one of the seven stencils onto a piece of paper for personal collection, paint a stencil onto the stretched-out canvas, or freestyle a painting of your choice onto the canvas that best speaks to their 2019 aspirations.
Dozens of participants waited eagerly to bless the canvas with their paint brushes—massaging vibrant colors up and down the space as they could. Drawing even some of our local government representatives to the stage to add to the creative process. Some of those representatives being Council representative Lynette Gibson of District 3—pictured below painting a stencil with the help of AHC staff Eddie—and District 6 Council Member Loren Taylor.
Local super heroine Councilwoman Lynette Gibson stencils an Oakland crane onto the canvas.
Pictured is newly-elected Council Member Loren Taylor assisting his daughter’s fine stencil work.
In all, with enough sunrays to keep the goosebumps down and enough paint to re-coat Frank Ogawa Plaza, the day came to a successful end. The wonderful freestyle paintings by dozens of children proved to be the x-factor that propelled the work of art to be greater than expected. We thank Mayor Libby Schaaf, her wonderful staff, and the tons of awesome individuals that contributed to this memorable collaboration.
Praising our Land, Honoring our Ancestors
One of our students overjoyed with her beautiful face painting design at the Harvest Festival.
To the left our Hoover staff, Neeka, face painting a student with a sugar skull design.
Tis a season of pumpkin carving and ancestor honoring! For this year's Harvest Festival at Hoover Elementary School, our ArtEsteem Art Mobile paid the Hoover community a visit, providing face painting and calavera mask-making. The Art Esteem Art Mobile themed its art activities after the Dia de los Muertos tradition that a great number of the Hoover community culturally-practice.
Students gathered by the dozens as everyone waited patiently, and eagerly, to get their face painted in the resemblance of sugar skull-inspired designs. With the help of Hoover staff, and even Hoover students themselves, packs of students left joyfully with beautiful designs on their faces.
While face painting seemed to be the hot ticket, the calavera mask-making was a great success in itself, churning out over a 150 completed projects! The participating students got a glimpse of some of the many methods to creating their own calavera.
In center our staff, Eduardo, facilitating a calavera mask making lesson.
MAN-UP CONFERENCE 2018
October 27, 2018 the AHC team was invited by the magnificent Chris Chatmon, Founding Executive Director for African American Male Achievement (AAMA), to serve our young black and brown kings of the Bay Area for this year's Man-Up Conference held in Oakland's Metwest High School.
The AAMA's Man-Up Conference's main focus was to strengthen and build African American male students in Oakland and beyond in not only academia, but in life itself. It was a great honor for AHC to have been invited to their space to provide our services and love to the whole AAMA family.
Watch the video below to catch a glimpse of the fully engaged group of young men at the conference constructing paper tool boxes. These tool boxes were filled with paper cut-outs of symbols that signify and represent various spiritual ideas and characteristics such as: strength, wisdom, courage, love for God, etc. The cut-outs that these young men either possess, honor, or value were then glued onto the toolbox to express what means most to them.
With more than 20 big brothers and big sisters present, our young people did not leave the conference without knowing that we had their back the whole way through.
OUR ARTESTEEM ARTMOBILE IS AVAILABLE FOR BOOKING!
Since its official release, our ArtEsteem Artmobile has been out and about hitting the Oakland and San Francisco streets, making appearances at city events, festivals, school sites, parks, and Oakland City Hall. Our active presence in and around Oakland is expanding and we are ecstatic to finally be mobile and ready to make an appearance at a space near you!
Being personally invited to Oakland’s biggest and most popular events, the ArtEsteem ArtMobile has been the center of attention. Fully equipped with a sound system, four mobile art tables and an impressive collection of art materials and tools, we have been able to provide an average of three different art activities at every event we’ve been booked for.
Attending one of West Oakland’s First Fridays provided us with the opportunity to reaffirm our presence in the community by offering stencil-making services for our community members.
Pictured to the left, our Executive Assistant, Eddie, provides some art pointers to some of West Oakland’s brightest and most creative youth.
Heart-in-a-Basket
In the image above, WOLLP student, Noel, pictured in the black head scarf, channels her energy to pull out a very large weed with the help of Environmental Instructor, Neeka, pictured in the overalls.
Every Tuesday, our West Oakland Legacy students have an opportunity to work their designated plot of land, converted into a garden, at City Slickers Farms. There, our students learn basic farming practices and environmental studies. Our Environmental Studies Instructor, Neeka, formulates a weekly lesson plan that highlights the interrelation of human health with that of our lands. By developing and tending to the garden, the students learn about the beauty of the agricultural process which includes: the preparation of the soil, sowing, adding manure and fertilizers, irrigation, harvesting and storage.
On this particular Tuesday, WOLLP’s lesson plan was dubbed ‘Heart-in-a-basket’, where each student anonymously wrote on a piece of paper something difficult they were currently experiencing. These entries were then read aloud, discussed and reflected upon by the group. By introducing different healing and calming mechanisms to help in moments of anger, sorrow, fear, anxiety, and the like, WOLLP recognizes that our youth are experiencing a lot in their lives and it is essential that we collectively create a safe and supportive space.
This activity helps students to understand the complexity of their friends’ lives; create empathy by getting a glimpse at their circumstances; get something off their chest that they might be holding in; feel what it’s like to be safe after sharing something personal; and guides them to recognize the importance of being a good friend and community member.