disrupt hopelessness art show & tour
Our #DISRUPTHOPELESSNESS Art Show and Tour focuses on leveraging the unique power of arts and culture to inspire people to build vibrant, resilient, and socially connected communities in the places that we call home. We are an expansive network of creatives who control our own narratives, hold space for own community and create concrete steps toward liberation for our people. Our project engages artists, activists and community influencers in each city to help us create an open, community centered dialogue around healing, social justice, human rights, and other critical subjects that are essential to our peoples liberation in cities across the country.
Dear Beloved by KQED, photo series by Ayesha Walker, Kevin Allen, Wallah Umoja, Joe Keefe, Mogli Maureal, KQED, photo booth portraits by LoveYourSelfie, film by OG Media, paintings by G. the Artist, Zoë Boston, Junebug, and mural by Mel Waters
JOY + PAIN, LIKE SUNSHINE + RAIN RETREAT: DAY 1 - concert w/ sol development @ mama dog studios
Photos: Kevin Allen
JOY + PAIN, LIKE SUNSHINE + RAIN RETREAT: DAY 2 - THE DAY OF HEALING @ FLOWHOUSE
Photos: Kevin Allen
JOY + PAIN, LIKE SUNSHINE + RAIN RETREAT: DAY 3 - THE HIKE
Photos: Kevin Allen
CREATIVE CORPS INITIATIVE | COMMUNITY LISTENING SESSIOn @airship laboratories in RICHMOND
Photos: Kevin Allen
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), in partnership with the California Arts Council (CAC), is one of the administering organizations in the Bay Area for the Creative Corps Initiative, providing artists with a living wage as they work with nonprofit institutions within one of the four key issue areas to create a project of our choice. These issues include civic engagement, social justice, climate justice, and community health & wellness. As directed by the CAC, the Creative Corps Initiative prioritizes communities that fall below the 25th percentile on the California Healthy Place Index. In San Francisco, those communities include Chinatown, Tenderloin, and Bayview/Hunters Point. In the East Bay, those areas include parts of Oakland, Richmond, and Hayward.
YBCA utilizes a community co-design process to implement this initiative in San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond, and Hayward. This process will be led in partnership by a facilitator that is deeply rooted in each community. BE-IMAGINATIVE is the facilitator for the Richmond and Hayward areas, focusing on the key issue area of community health & wellness. The first step in the co-design process will be a community listening session (CLS) with artists, nonprofit leaders, and cultural bearers of the neighborhood. At the CLS, we will discuss the needs of the community, how artists can affect changes within the community, and how artists intersect with organizations working in the issue areas to create a campaign or project. The next step after the CLS will be the creation of the RFP/RFQ (request for proposals/qualifications) by a select group of participants that were engaged in the listening session. After the creation of the RFP/RFQ, the application will be made available based on the direction of those who created it.
emmy award-winning ‘DEAR BELOVED: Music, healing & Storytelling with SOL Development’ @ history train station in west oakland, ca
KQED’s Dear Beloved is an experience with collaborative works and music of hip-hop ensemble SOL Development and BE-IMAGINATIVE, as we use our artistry and lived experience to disrupt cycles of trauma and violence in their community.
Hosted by KQED’s Pendarvis Harshaw, Directed by Benjamin McBride and Elie Khadra and filmed at West Oakland’s historic 16th Street Train Station, a hub for the Great Migration of African Americans from Southern states to the Bay Area during the 20th century, we invite you to bear witness to the healing power of telling one’s own story.
Our powerful mothers who honor their angel children recite poignant letters written to them. Mama Tonya Lancaster, Mama Annette Miller and Mama Myra Jones of the BE-IMAGINATIVE collective share their stories of loss and summon restorative care and resilience. Their stories are accompanied by new music from members of hip-hop ensemble SOL Development including "I'm Alive" and "Her Pain" at 25th Street Recording Studio.
celebration of our emmy award-winning ‘DEAR BELOVED: Music, healing & Storytelling with SOL Development richmond, ca
Film by SLVTR Films
Our emmy celebration was amazing and we’ve got a whole community of people to thank for this. We’ve been sitting on these photos for a "decade" now. We are so happy to finally share them with you. Our party was a huge success and opportunity for us to come into an experience of joy and celebration, honoring the both/and. We are so blessed to be part of such a beautiful family of people who really hold us in the vision to #DISRUPTHOPELESSNESS!
Very special thank you to: SOL Development, The Song Remedy, Represent Collaborative, CoBiz Richmond, Bold Woman Brands, Merced Verbena, Ryann Nicole, LoveYourSelfie Booth, Zoe Boston, SLVTR Films, Monifa Akosua, DJ Sake One and Mama Tammy.
And Thank you to our donors: Casey Carroll, Nina Camille Robinson, Barbara McClain, Penelope Douglas, Mario Catley, Lenore Estrada, Tonya Lancaster, Teju N Adisa-Farrar, Kelly Whalen, Olivia Cueva, Michael Paige, Erin Feher Montoya, Justine Gonzalez, Elonda Jackson, Carol Umanzor, Jihye Ku, Alanna Rayford, Alexandra Waite, Stephani Mcgrath, Toni Dancu, Farima Pour-Khorshid, Jasmine Hudson, Michele Seville, Elise Hankins, Marnae Hazzard, Katherine Barnes, Ian A. Nimmo, Jennifer Pollock, Yudelka Ramirez and also those of you who chose not to be named, we appreciate you so so so much! Thank you.
HEAL OAKLAND MURAL BY OCTAVIO HERNANDEZ, THE PEOPLES CONSERVATORY
Photos by Ayesha Walker and LoveYourSelfie Booth
KQED PRESENTS: A LOVE SUPREME BLACK HISTORY MONTH DRIVE-IN @ FORT MASON IN SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Photos by Wallah Umoja, Joe Keefe, Mogli Maureal
BE X Sol @ alena museum OAKLAND, CA
Photos by Ayesha Walker
Photos by LoveYourSelfie Photobooth
BE X sol @ BRICK HOUSE gallery SACRAMENTO, CA
mario woods tribute in san francisco
Photos by Ayesha Walker
Sol X oakhella @ redbay cafe oakland
Photos by Ayesha Walker
In loving memory of
kamaiu sol, demetrius tanner, Victor McElhaney, mario woods, kareem johnson, Diante Jones, Sean Eric, Dujuan Armstrong, Demaria Corgile, Steve Brown, Maxwell Thomas, Diante A. Miller, Jordan Holmes, Keith Smith, Kerry Baxter, mali & assata mitchell,
To our ancestors of BE-IMAGINATIVE, may you continue to guide the healing work of our collective. May you be remembered for who you are, may your legacies live on forever.