Black Dot Artists Collective: Evolving Tradition in West Oakland

By Sonya Smith
Photos by Jennifer Beechinor
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For the past 11 years, Marcel Diallo has been nurturing his vision of a creating a thriving cultural arts district in West Oakland. Founder of the nonprofit, Black Dot Artist, Inc. (BDA), Diallo and fellow artists are working hard to leave a lasting legacy called the Village Bottoms Cultural District, that celebrates and sustains the many contributions that African American residents of West Oakland have contributed to the area.

So far, the Richmond native has opened the Black New World Social Aid and Pleasure Club, the Cornelia Bell Gallery, the Black Dot Café, and the Soul Foods Organic Grocery Store—all along Pine Street in West Oakland. Additionally, Diallo’s Village Bottoms Community Building Development Company assists black families with purchasing homes or starting businesses in the West Oakland community.

Even as BDA opens these innovative organizations, it is still a nonprofit that relies upon support from the community it serves. During 2008 through 2009, BDA plans to raise $120 thousand dollars, to that end, in December 2007 the organization hosted an inaugural fundraising event in the elegant Rotunda Building in downtown Oakland.

The gala event was called, “An Evening with Don Cheadle.” Cheadle is known for his roles in films, such as “Hotel Rwanda,” “Crash,” “Devil in a Blue Dress,” and “Ocean’s Eleven/Twelve/Thirteen”.

Recently, The Nobel Peace Prize laureates presented a peace award to the A-list star and fellow actor, George Clooney, for their efforts to raise awareness about the dire circumstances of people in war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur.

CityFlight had the opportunity to talked with Diallo and Cheadle before the gala:

CityFlight.com: What is your vision for 2008?

Marcel Diallo: For 2008, I see us still existing. That’s the first and foremost. I still want to be in existence, as a cultural district, as an organization, as a people, as a village, as a family. I still want to be in existence because I think that’s kind of right now being threatened is our existence down there in West Oakland. Basically, I still want to be around. I don’t want to be pushed out.

CF.com: Do you think it is a possibility that you will get pushed out of West Oakland?

Diallo: Well, you know, if we’re not able to bring awareness to the fact that people have to support reciprocally, the institutions that support them. That’s what we’re trying to do at this event here, is to push that notion, that institutions give to the people, people give back the institutions, and it’s that back and forth that creates the flow that allows us to exist. But that’s been our biggest problems as a people. We don’t give to the things that sustain us. So I hope to just be here.

CF.com: How did you get involved with supporting this community work?

Don Cheadle: I’ve known Marcel for many years, and we were just catching up every time we’d see each other, we’d just start catching up back in the day. And I remember when this was just an idea, that he had concept that he was talking to me about. We’re here at the 11th year of this Black Dot thing being in existence, so it is definitely something that took hold and he ran with.

I had a chance to go down and look at the district and see the things that he’s doing down there and see the area that he’s going to have at some point, this incredible revitalization. He just wants to make sure, as he’s saying, that they’re part of that, the people in that community, who have historically been in that community since it was a community have a chance to be a corner stone of that community.

I think that’s important and dealing with it through the cultural aspect that he is, I think is the best way to do it, rather than just saying, ‘Damn it, we deserve to be here’. We deserve to be here because we’re part of the Diaspora of what this whole community is about. It’s a rich culture and we need to be a contributing part of it.

CF.com: Historically West Oakland had a strong cultural base. Black people went there and were able to go there and participate in all sorts of cultural functions, such as food or music, do you see yourself continuing that tradition? </b>

Diallo: Yeah, continuing it, advancing it, evolving it. Yeah.

CF.com: Evolving it?

Diallo: Evolving it, yeah, because we can’t be what we were. I’m in a 1930s suit but I’m flipping it in a 2007 way, you know what I mean? You have to put your own stamp on it.

But yeah, in a nutshell, we are just trying to make sure that that continuum is honored and we’re there. Like I’ve said before, things are changing rapidly around us. And the crash in the housing market is not helping, any, as well. Right now we are just trying to maintain.

CF.com: What is the first, if you can name one thing, that our readers can do to help you further your aim?

Diallo: Well, the first thing they can do is go to blackdotartist.com, which is our website, and push donate now. That’s what this is about, creating the individual donor base. Just going back to … like, even Obama’s campaign right now. It’s not what you give but how many people give.

So, it can be as small as $5, $10, $25 a month to this cause, but if thousands of us do it, then we can sustain because these institutions, like the Black New World Cultural District, the Blackdot Café, which is a nonprofit run café for community folks, Cornelia Bell Gallery, which is a visual arts gallery that features the work of neighborhood folks, and different things like that, the Soul Food Cooperative Grocery Store, which is a health food store in the middle of the ‘hood, on the corner, a corner store—an old corner store, the only non-liquor store there, the only black-owned corner store there, you know what I mean?

So these things will only stay in existence with the support and sponsorship of us, the people. So, the first thing that the readers can do is to become part of the donor base because I think that’s what’s going to help. And like I said, no matter how small, $5, $10 a month $25 a month, that’ll begin to solve some of the problems and alleviate the stress.

And if they want to participate further, just come on down and experience what it’s about, come put their breath on it and their spirit on it and view it with some of their experience.

CF.com: You are doing a lot of work internationally. This is sort of the micro level, do you see a correlation between working at this micro level with the work you are doing globally?

Cheadle: Well, the macro is my friendship with Marcel, which, as I’ve said, has been for years. I think that the distinction between micro and macro, really, in the future is going to disappear. With the globalization of every thing and as more things fuse together, I think movements like what Marcel is trying to do are going to become necessary.

People are going to find themselves—unless they want to be pushed out by oligarchies and conglomerates and situations where they don’t have any personal control—you are going to have to be looking for ways that you can hold on to the things that make you unique members of the larger picture.

It’s not isolationism, it’s respecting what you have and where you come from and looking at your history and saying I’m true to that and this is the way I add to the whole. You know, there is a real homogenization of everything now and I don’t think that is to the benefit of the greater good.

I think our uniqueness is fabulous and that we need to hold on to that, and we can still come together. We don’t have to all try to be the same thing. And I think that, I don’t know if this is tangential to what you are trying to ask me, but I feel like it all is going to start to matter more, everyone caring about each other and the environment and taking care of themselves and being responsible members of the community.

We’ve kind of been able to get away with not doing a lot of that. And especially in the past eight years or so, it’s been a very, I think, sad time spiritually for this country, and I think things like this are important to do.

To learn more or to donate to the organization, visit the Black Dot Artists, Inc. website.

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