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Grounding

Check-In

Workshop Intro from Alie

1:30pm-3pm Olka

Meditation

Ritual Poem

Freewrite

Dance Break

Share out

Close

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The Butterfly Hug (self-calming exercise for anxiety)

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Name
Pronouns

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May 4th, 6pm-7:30pm on Zoom!

Janae Newsom & Brandy Collins

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Olka  - https://www.instagram.com/hakkillo/

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Poem about your liberated world

Prose about liberated world

Bullet points

Snatches of an idea

Headline

Title

What question are you asking yourself?

How can I get from here to there?

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Collective Poetry - Liberated Vision (4_9_22) (1)

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Binta Ayofemi is an Innovator Reclaiming Spaces for Black Art By Brandy Collins

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Binta Ayofemi is an Innovator Reclaiming Spaces for Black Art By Brandy Collins

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Artist Binta Ayofemi. Photo courtesy of Ayofemi.

The artist, designer, and community innovator Binta Ayofemi's work is a complex symphony. Each work of art is composed with the intention to have Black art felt with the same passion that one would feel music.

Reclaiming spaces for art means having the same focus on as many moving parts as a conductor in an orchestra. "I have to actually have this kind of discipline and clarity to do this work," Ayofemi said. She adds that some people also "don't expect to have a Black woman anchoring space."

Some of Ayofemi's art installations are done outdoors. When the pandemic hit, it made her work as an artist and visionary a longer process. However, she said in some ways, there were benefits. "[The pandemic] allowed me to be more nimble about really honoring things that can be done in the outdoors, things that can be done with few elements to create an environment. I really came to love the fact that through both planning and improvisation, you could create such a beautiful experience."

Working behind the scenes on many projects throughout Oakland and San Francisco, Oakland-based Ayofemi's work in reclamation for urban spaces takes on a life of its own once they have been set in motion. She reimagines urban developed spaces, taking over empty buildings, lots and turning them into a safe haven for Black people to find joy.

Ayofemi is the founder of Ground, the organization reclaims abandoned or underutilized buildings, then transforms them into artistic spaces filled with what Ayofemi describes as "notions of Black abstraction that points to Black joy." Ground was founded in 2018 as a way to take space that was underutilized for the sake of beautifying spaces. Ayofemi has been doing this work professionally for five years.

In 2016, she held a musical performance called "Untitled (Chorus)" as part of Yerba Buena Center for Arts (YBCA)'s Third Thursday. In "BLACK MATTER," Ayofemi worked with turf dancers between Embarcadero and West Oakland BART stations as part of an exhibition in 2019-2020, and was a 2021-2022 honoree for the Yerba Buena Center for Arts cohort. She will debut "BLACK ENERGY," a sculpture series exploring "Black and indigenous music, movement, and land practices," which is slated to open this June.

Ayofemi's "BLACKSPACE" is an ongoing series of reclaimed storefronts and sites transformed, including a vacant lot turned into a meadow. One of these is titled "Commune," expected to open this month as a gathering space for performances, music, and movement.

Ayofemi also created a pop-up farm stand with East Oakland Youth, and later at Liberation Park in coordination with Black Cultural Zone. Ayofemi has plans to bring the farm stand to the Grand Lake area. "PORTALS" is an installation created for the Oakland Museum of California (2021-2022) and will debut this summer. The artist created the installation in West Oakland by milling a set of benches using local wood and metal, culminating in "a lush, Afrofuturist, Black, and Indigenous garden sculpture with iridescent surfaces."

Ayofemi is the founder of Guild, a separate effort for creating woodwork pieces. There are future plans for the Guild project to work on homes. Building wood furniture is an artwork in itself, Ayofemi said. "Actually, the artwork for me is just like actually having us do craft and manufacturing."

The latest long term venture Ayofemi is working on is reclaiming the space at 1716 Broadway, Commons, at the former Best Music Company location.

When asked to describe the work that Ayofemi does, she likens her work in art to the music of Alice Coltrane, the spouse of musician John Coltrane, describing the work as slow notes that build over time. "I see it less as being really fluid," Ayofemi said. "It's more that we have a very specific set of notes and there are many different combinations that I can make. So, I see my work as more of a composer and working with these notes."

The notes of work she has built over time has been to take up space with Black art in different forms. "I love the way bands have different people playing together and together those differences create something really harmonized," Ayofemi said. "I try to approach that with community-based projects."

Whether it's reclaiming industrial spaces or creating art with turf dancers, Binta Ayofemi's work, much like ethereal musical notes, are far too expansive to describe in words alone.

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' Black Voices in the Town' is funded by The African American Response Circle Fund. In 2020, the Brotherhood of Elders Network in partnership with the East Bay Community Foundation established the fund in response to the impact of COVID-19 as a public health crisis for African Americans who live, work, and worship in Alameda County.
This article has been updated to clarify names of artworks and years of the installations, along with additional descriptions of some of the installations.

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Binta Ayofemi is an Innovator Reclaiming Spaces for Black Art

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The artist, designer, and community innovator Binta Ayofemi's work is a complex symphony. Each work of art is composed with the intention to have Black art felt with the same passion that one would feel music. Reclaiming spaces for art means having the same focus on as many moving parts as a conductor in an orchestra.

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The Black Moon Podcast is an exploration into Black death. Interrogating the understanding of death in the western world, providing vital information that will help Black people be better prepared to engage with death, and providing space for collective healing.

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For over thirty years, Frontiers has explored the diversity of women's lives as shaped by such factors as race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and place. Multicultural and interdisciplinary, Frontiers presents a broad mix of scholarly work, personal essays, and the arts offered in accessible language. The journal prides itself on publishing articles that bridge disciplines and that appeal to both academic and non-academic audiences.

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JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources.

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Collective Poetry - Liberated Vision (4/9/22)

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Your reflections help support funding for this workshop. Please fill out this form by the end of this workshop

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Raise Your Voice is a free monthly workshop exploring connection, healing, and empowerment through creative writing and expression. The goal is to illuminate stories of Black writers in the Bay Area and the dynamic power of writing. Authentically presenting our communities with additional tools to reimagine, cultivate, and create.

How We Exhale by Olka Baldeh

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Raise Your Voice is a free monthly workshop exploring connection, healing, and empowerment through creative writing and expression. The goal is to illuminate stories of Black writers in the Bay Area and the dynamic power of writing. Authentically presenting our communities with additional tools to reimagine, cultivate, and create.

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Chitchat With Aliecat Episode 47: Grace

In this episode of Chitchat With Aliecat, I reflect on the power of grace and self compassion. This is the two year anniversary of Chitchat With Aliecat. Each episode of this podcast expands on the impact of community care and intentional growth. Try a little tenderness!

2021 © Spotify AB

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Chitchat With Aliecat Episode 47: Grace In this episode of Chitchat With Aliecat, I reflect on the power of grace and self compassion. This is the two year anniversary of Chitchat With Aliecat. Each episode of this podcast expands on the impact of community care and intentional growth. Try a little tenderness!

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639 Hz ❯ PURE POSITIVE LOVE ENERGY ❯ Miracle Tone Healing Music | Heart Chakra Solfeggio Frequency

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the garden of delight by Lucille Clifton | Poetry Foundation

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Listen to this episode from Solfeggio Frequency (s) on Spotify. 639 Hz Solfeggio frequency, is used for balancing the energy center known as the Heart Chakra....This frequency can be used to attract love, enhance communication, enable the creation of harmonious community and personal relationships, as well as heal damaged relationships and the people around us.

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"we are calling a world of. . .

And here we are free . . . "