Live Event Fundraiser

AHC has launched Art YOU Ready, a dynamic campaign to bring readiness to our community in Oakland. Through the campaign, AHC will distribute Art Kits to over 1,000 Oakland households, containing supplies families need to stay safe and creative.

Join us for Art YOU Ready live, our holiday season online event. We will gather to celebrate community resiliency through art, healing and preparedness.

Saturday, December 12th
5:00pm-6:00pm

AHC Partners with FLAX Art & Design

AHC has partnered with FLAX Art & Design to supply children, youth and families with premium art supplies through the Art YOU Ready? campaign. FLAX is a family owned business and has been at the center of the Bay Area arts community since 1938.

AHC is preparing to distribute 3,000 Art Kits to Alameda County children and families. Our focus is on empowering the communities most in need, in our immediate area; strengthening and inspiring our neighborhoods to be prepared and creative.

Youth Spotlight

Darrion Blackmon (pictured right) came to AHC though our Earn2Learn Program. He is now working at FLAX Art & Design, located in downtown Oakland.

Through Earn2Learn, Darrion has a permanent job in a creative environment that allows growth and encourages leadership.

• Each year, Earn2Learn provides Oakland youth with job opportunities in their own community; fulfilling an urgent need during this time.

• AHC partners with business owners, both large and small, building relationships with entrepreneurs at all levels.

When you donate to AHC, you are supporting programs like Earn2Learn which give work opportunities to young people in under-served communities.

Art YOU Ready? Campaign Launch!

The COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice-related unrest, and present climate
crises highlight the importance of connectedness and community in
the face of uncertainty.

Fires and hurricanes thrive in greater intensity and number every year. Marginalized communities respond to unchecked police power and brutality.
The pandemic poses threats to everyone we know and love. The moment calls, now more than ever, for investment in community, in the shared mental and spiritual condition. 

Our children will change the world, and we know that art empowers
them to grow. 

AHC helps children and families prepare for the future through art. Through the Art YOU Ready? campaign, we aim to distribute 3,000 Art Kits to Alameda County children and families to direct them to crucial emergency resources
and to create self-awareness and community engagement through art.
We hope to embolden the communities first affected by present crises.

Art skills empower child development and community engagement. At AHC, we have served Bay Area families by empowering artistic expression since 1989. With this new campaign, we aim to address this pivotal moment by empowering students to express themselves through artistic response. When you give today, your gift puts quality art materials in a child’s hands alongside disaster readiness information; keeping families creative and safe!

AHC recognizes the opportunity to invest in children and their families through the
Art YOU Ready? campaign.

Your donation enables distribution of Art Kits that artfully prepare
students for emergency.

We're Moving!

"Since Love Is Eternal, Change Need Not Be Viewed As Fearful"

The 11th principal of Attitudinal Healing reminds us to keep calm during times of change. AHC is moving to a new location, and facing new challenges. This is a unique time; between the Covid-19 pandemic and increased operational costs we have been forced to think creatively about our future.

Our new space (pictured below) is significantly smaller and the transition has been especially labor intensive. While situated in this new location, we will begin looking for a permanent home in West Oakland. We appreciate the continued support of our work during this time of transition.

Health Update for AHC Founder Kokomon Clottey

Dear Friends of AHC,

Since love is eternal, change need not be viewed as fearful.
2020 has offered many surprises and opportunities to go inward, reflect,
connect and shift what we are accustomed to.

In January of 2020, our dedicated leader, co-founder and father of AHC,
Kokomon Clottey had a stroke. This indelible occurrence left him fighting to
recover mobility, speech and much more. Along with the onset of Covid-19,
Kokomon had taken this hit with an unwavering stride and was on the road
to recovery until July 2020 when he suffered a heart attack and another
set of strokes.

These unfortunate events have created a profound shift in our direction
and scope. Over his 30 year commitment to AHC, Kokomon has helped us
gain credence, fiscal viability and brought a global perspective that helped
root our work in indigenous African wisdom and methods. He is deeply loved
and respected by so many.

We ask now for your prayers and thoughtful messages for recovery. We know
through the teachings of Mindful Drumming that when we join as one and in
rhythm, miracles can happen. We need your rays of magical healing light now.
And so it is!

If you would like to support AHC founders Kokomon and Aeeshah Clottey
in our GoFundMe effort to offset their cost of hospital bills, medications and
home care, please click here. The development of AHC has been their life's work.
They have freely and compassionately given their love, time and resources
to building AHC.

Thank you in advance for your love and blessings.

Peace,

Amana Harris
Executive Director, AHC

Earn2Learn Provides Jobs for Oakland Youth!

Earn2Learn is a youth-employment program that provides Oakland youth with training and employment opportunities. This year participants have been able to work with local businesses such as Sankofa African Arts and Jewelry, Flax Art Store, and Community Foods Market amongst many others.

The goal of the program is to provide youth in Oakland an opportunity to earn income while developing their employment skills, and building self-esteem through work experience. Earn2Lean is managed by AHC in coordination with Lao Family Community Development Inc. and the Oakland Housing Authority.

Oakland youth graduate from our Earn2Learn program (2019)

Let’s Stay Creative! Art Kit Drive

Attitudinal Healing Connection (AHC), Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA), 
Vision Quilt and Junior Center of Art and Science are teaming up to show LOVE, and are continuing to inspire learning through creativity. Realizing that students may not return until the fall and Teaching Artists may be out of work for the remainder of the school year, we have identified some simple and unique ways to provide alternative options for children to access arts instruction.

Please help us with this immediate need to keep children and families engaged.

Self As Super Hero: Expanding to New Locations

Self as Super Hero (SASH) is a year-long self-exploration art project where students reinvent themselves into superhero characters that combat issues in their communities. The final result is a 5 by 4 ft tall
self-portrait.  The SASH program has expanded to include classes at
the Creative School For Community Education (CSCE), and
San Francisco University High School.

This project has many components that equip and aid the young artists in creating these imaginative characters. Through design, critical thinking, and the use of narrative devices students explore the many avenues and possibilities that allow them to build their self-as-heroes from scratch. In the beginning of the year, students brainstormed and documented all of their world building ideas. As a class, we created portfolios that included design and costume ideas, superpower development, and storytelling. Students studied the building blocks for creating art-- the Elements and Principles of Art and Design.

Instructor Etty Alberto (right) helps students with their SASH portraits at CSCE in Oakland.

Youth from Summerbridge begin the SASH curriculum.

In preparation, students viewed past examples that are permanently displayed at AHC headquarters. This proved beneficial as a group activity since they were able to see the proper formatting for stories, artwork titles, and creativity. The remainder of our year will be spent focusing on the completion of their life-sized self portraits. 
- Etty Alberto, ArtEsteem Instructor, CSCE

Youth visit AHC for artistic and literary inspiration (above).

Students share the inspiration behind their portraits.

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More information can be found in
Self As Super Hero, Handbook on Creating the Life-Size Self-Portrait
by Amana Harris. 

More from AHC

Hoovers Students Help Design MLK Banners

Last week our student-designed banners were installed on Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Oakland.  The students' involvement in the community banners project has been in development since January of 2019.  The project was presented to AHC by the San Pablo Area Revitalization Collaborative (SPARC). It presented AHC with the opportunity to lead a beautification project that would have a lasting legacy in the Hoover-Foster community. The first and original theme of the banners was centered on community identity, whereas the second and final installment of banners pay homage to the great social justice activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The first set of banners were installed on San Pablo Avenue, between Brockhurst and 29th Street. The second set of banners are installed on Martin Luther King Jr. Way,
between 32nd and 29th Street.

San Pablo Avenue & 31st Street

The MLK banners were student-designed and led with the support of community members of Resident Action Council (RAC), primarily Ms. Annette Miller. The students from Hoover Elementary were offered the opportunity to submit an artistic rendition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as an entry to win the opportunity to convert the artwork into a banner to be installed on  MLK Jr. Way. Over forty student submissions were retrieved. A winner was selected unanimously by RAC.

Martin Luther King Jr. Way & 32nd Street

With the additional support of Gold Metropolitan Media and the City of Oakland, the MLK banners
were installed the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, just in time to celebrate and remember the
many teachings of one of the world's most iconic civil rights leaders. One year later, the entire process
has expanded and strengthened the community as a whole. Collaborative efforts were exercised and generational connections were established for years to come. - Eduardo Escobedo, ArtEsteem Instructor

ArtEsteem ArtMobile at the Lunar New Year Bazaar

AHC was excited to participate in the 2020 Lunar New Year Bazaar. Through the ArtEsteem ArtMobile, we were able to be out in the streets, connecting with the community directly during this annual celebration. The Lunar New Year Bazaar is a free annual event hosted in the heart of Oakland's Chinatown to celebrate the Chinese New Year. There is a cultural entertainment stage with live performances and over 80 vendors selling traditional new years decorations, flowers, candies, and gifts.

According to Chinese zodiac, 2020 is the year of the Metal Rat. AHC was able to customize an art project for the event; a temporary 5’ x 15’ mural featuring a metal rat, dragon and red Chinese lantern symbols. There was also face painting and coloring book activities for youth. 

The holiday is traditionally a time to honor household and heavenly deities as well as ancestors. It is also a time to bring family together for feasting. The main Chinese Lunar New Year activities include: putting up decorations, eating reunion dinner with family on New Year's Eve, fireworks, and gifting red envelopes filled with money.

The ArtEsteem ArMobile is a fully-equipped mobile art classroom, and an extension of our award-winning arts education program, ArtEsteem. The vehicle has allowed us to extend our services outside the classroom and directly into the neighborhoods that need access to arts education. Since the launch of the ArtEsteem ArtMobile, we’ve been able to participate in over 41 community-based events, offering customized projects involving table crafts, painting, drawing, large murals, face painting and much more. With our knowledgeable staff and on-board sound system we can make your next school event, festival or private party one to remember!
Click here to book.  - Jamie Sanitate, ArtMobile Manager

Check out the ArtEsteem ArtMobile in action at festivals, schools and
community-led conferences.