Oakland Black Art & Community | Art of the African Diaspora Curators Interview

What does Black art mean to Oakland—and why does community matter so deeply in the creative process?

In this episode of Tradition Café, I sit down with Art of the African Diaspora curators Eric Murphy and Yolanda Cotton Turner to talk about Oakland culture, Black art, memory, healing, and the power of bringing artists and communities together.

We discuss the Art of the African Diaspora exhibition, the satellite show in Alameda, Oakland nostalgia, preserving community stories through art, and why representation still matters in today’s art world.

This conversation is thoughtful, funny, and full of love for the East Bay.

Topics include:

•  Oakland Black art and culture 
•  Art of the African Diaspora exhibition 
•  Community healing through art 
•  Bay Area artists 
•  Representation in the art world 
•  Oakland history and memory 
•  Eric Murphy artwork 
•  Yolanda Cotton Turner prints 

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Transcript

Intro

Ana 0:00

Do you feel like uh in black art in general, do you feel like the voices are still marginalized in the art world? Or do you feel like it's uh more talked about, more revered than than it was in the recent past?

Eric 0:15

That I can I would agree with that. There's more of this acceptance and even like a trend to show black art. Like it is the thing to show now as opposed to oh, we're just checking off our have to do lists. Um so it seemed to be a bit of a shift.

Yolanda 0:32

It's the people who influence culture, the bigger names, the that in what they collect that kind of moves what galleries then uh are more compelled to show. I think a lot of the major galleries are gonna want to show the work that's popular, the you know, celebrities are collecting. And I think that that's more celebrities are collecting black art now. And I think that that's one of the reasons why we see that it's become more of a trend to do so, in my opinion.

Welcome To Tradition Cafe

Ana 1:09

Hey friends, welcome to Tradition Cafe, the spot where the past bumps into the present, and we get to sip our favorite drinks while digging into the stories that make people well people. I'm Anna Xavier, your host, curious and totally here for the fun of learning about people's lives. In each episode, we'll celebrate heritage, family, and community, whether it's immigrants, the generations that came after them, or chosen families that make life messy, interesting, and unforgettable. So if you're like me, inquisitive, a little nosy, and love a good story, pull up a chair, grab your cup, and thanks for listening. Hey everybody, and welcome back to Tradition Cafe. I've been interviewing a bunch of artists from Art of the African Diaspora, uh, the satellite show at Resistance Press and Gallery 23 in Alameda, California. These are the two curators. I've got Eric Murphy and Yolanda Cotton Turner. Hi guys! Thank you so much for joining me. I'm so excited. Tell us about Art of the African diaspora and the show in general.

Inside Art Of The African Diaspora

Ana 2:17

How long has this been running? Because this is a satellite of the overall one. Eric, do you want to speak to that?

Eric 2:23

Or uh sure. Um, so it went through a couple of different names. The one I'm most familiar with was uh The Art of Living Black. Um, the program is actually in its 29th year. Um it will be the Richmond Art Center, where you see over 160 black artists, so one sample of all of their works. And then um the following months you can go out to all what we call the satellite exhibits and see more of their work.

Ana 2:58

How long have you been involved? You've shown you've shown art, but you've also been a curator as well. How long have you done uh each one individually, and how long have you done both at the same time?

Eric 3:10

So curating I've been doing for about 25, 26 years. Uh for this program. This is actually my second year. So um I've been under the wing of Yolanda and Jessica for this particular one because I was new as a participant for this uh program. So um they assigned me as a curator to uh Studio 23 last year, and I learned from under uh Yolanda, Jess and West like how they structure it and set up their programs for their location. So they'll um as an artist and a curator, last year was my first year participating as far as this program is concerned.

Ana 3:59

Okay, and we're talking about Jess and Wes of Studio 23 Gallery in Alameda, California. And Yolanda, your gallery is right next to that, and it is called Resistance Press. How long have you been involved in this whole overall program?

Yolanda 4:15

Uh I want to say four years, yeah. Um as as a curator or a um, yes.

Ana 4:25

And you were showing art too before?

Yolanda 4:27

Yeah, yeah. So um showing art um as an artist and also curator. So I've been with the art of the African diaspora for about four years, um both as an artist and a curator.

How Curators Choose Artists

Ana 4:43

How were you able to come up with which artists you want to work with?

Yolanda 4:47

So um the way that the program works is that the there's uh there's a call, right? Um, there's a call so that people who are interested can submit to it. But you know, as a curator, I also let the director know what I'm hoping to find in terms of work. Um if there's certain parameters, I can give those parameters. Um, and I give, you know, a number of artists, the maximum number of artists that I can take. Right. And so um then there's uh after they do all the work in terms of, you know, the call and managing that piece of it, and then they give me my final list of artists. And of course, if there's um any discussion needed at that point, we can talk. But usually it's a great list and you know, with great artists, and um I can run with it.

Ana 5:38

Yeah, they are great artists because I've been talking to, I've been interviewing them too. And it's I've been learning so much about um art of the African diaspora, um, process of painting and creating.

Eric Maps Oakland All Stars

Ana 5:54

Eric, um, your let's talk about your art. Your medium is, I would say, um, you use a lot of maps lately, right? Your your multi uh mixed uh mixed media, mixed media. Mixed media, thank you. Mixed media. Okay, yeah. Talk to me about your style and how did it come about?

Eric 6:16

The work that I'm doing now is a series called Oakland All-Stars. So it's about famous people from Oakland. So two things I had a a really liking for since I know there's a better term to use, but anyway, um I was always into maps and languages since uh elementary school, so it kind of stuck with me all my life. But this particular series, um it kind of traced back to uh this group I was working with that's still around, the African-American Quilt Guild of Oakland. Um they commissioned me to do a design for their cover. And um I was kind of jaded with everybody using the City of Oakland logo, and I needed something else to represent Oakland that's not so typical. So uh I was looking around and I start thinking about growing up. I was like, how come I know what the map of Compton, California looked like, but not Oakland? And you know, growing up watching MWA and everybody, they always pan the camera across that street sign with the map of Compton. So I start looking up the map of Oakland, and I was like, wow, this is a beautiful shape. So I was like, I'm gonna use that for their cover. Um that's something different, not everybody using it, and that's how that started. Fast forward um to 2022. I started the uh Oakland All-Star series, which is basically about famous people from Oakland or famous people that uh are affiliated with Oakland and got their start in Oakland. And um this series was inspired by um Shamar Moore when he was hosting Soul Train Award back, uh not the awards, the TV series back in the early 2000s, and he introduced somebody to the stage um that was from Oakland, but before he did, he was bragging, like, yeah, I'm from East Oakland. I grew up over by Zebrani Park. A lot of people didn't know that, and our show didn't. My jaw dropped, all of our jaw dropped. Like, damn, this dude we grew up watching on the days of our lives back in the 80s. He's from Oakland. I was like, what? So I was like, who else is from Oakland? So I actually sat on this concept for years and finally launched it, and it was actually gonna start off as a t-shirt series with all these famous people, and then I had a show at Joyce Gordon Gallery, got desperate to put some artwork together. So instead of putting a bunch of them on the shirts, I decided to do a single um portrait, and that's how that series began. It started with Juan Toscano Anderson, Zendaya, um, and then the people that's not from Oakland but have affiliation with like Van Jones, Early, Steph Early, and then like um uh Carl West, everybody knows him as Apollo Creed from the Rockies. He's his first professional career started off as a linebacker for the Oakland Raiders. So, anyway, that that's how that whole series started, and that's where the maps and languages came from.

Ana 9:27

The one that surprised me the most was Mark Hamill.

Eric 9:30

Mark Hamill, born and raised in Oakland. I did not know that. Everybody did not know that. That and the funny part about this, everybody like, why don't you do two journey or MC Ham? I'm like, everybody didn't want to know that already. It's like it's not fun. It's like my work is like a trivia. I want you to kind of, you might, but you might not know. And when it comes to Mark Camel, I get that same response. Everybody like, oh, I didn't know it's from Oakland. In the actual picture on his lightsaber, I should have made it bigger, but I pulled a text from his Twitter account. It was a lady from um Diablo magazine, and she was interviewing him, and she's like, Yeah, I was trying to confirm if you're from Castle Valley. And he was like, Yeah, I keep hearing that, and I don't know where people get that from because I was born in Oakland, California. That was on this account. I'm like, oh, that's going right into the picture.

Ana 10:24

Well, that's cool because you're wanting to represent the things that people don't know about Oakland, for instance, the the celebrities that don't know, but then you're also um uh infusing in it the maps. People are gonna be able to look at these pieces of Oakland that they didn't even know. It's almost like you're shedding a light on some mystery. People think one thing about Oakland, but they don't know all the other stuff. You know what? People think, you know, really bad stuff about Oakland. And Oakland can be incredibly beautiful in some parts. It is, it's very multicultural, it's gorgeous. Yeah.

Eric 10:59

Yeah, and that's that was uh that was the goal.

Ana 11:04

Yeah, that's a good goal. You met the goal.

Yolanda Finds Printmaking And Purpose

Ana 11:09

Yolanda, let's talk about your art. Now I know that you went to college for music, yes. I did. And tell me about how you got into art from that then. How did you make that crossover?

Yolanda 11:22

Yeah, so um I studied music in high school and I really enjoyed it, and you know, it made my my heart sing. And so I decided to when I started college to major in music, I went to Cal State Hayward at the time it was called, and uh, and uh they had a really good music program, so I'm like, yeah, this is the right spot. As I went through their studies, I found that there was a lack of diversity, and that's in the style of music that they were um teaching, right? And so that that that made my heart ache because the thing that I love about music is how it can talk to people across cultures, you know, regardless of language, regardless, there's something about music that speaks to all of us, you know, um, across borders. And um, and that's the beauty of it for me. That's what made me so happy. Um so I was like, well, okay, let me visit one of my other, you know, loves. Let me, you know, see what the art department has to offer. And I was, you know, flipping through what was then a you know paper registry of classes. That's right. And and uh and I I was like, oh, you know, lithography, what I have no idea what that is. I gave the art department a call and I said, What is this lithography class? And they're like, oh my God, so glad you asked. You take a stone, you do this with it, blah, blah, blah. It's so exciting. And I'm like, wow, um, that sounds interesting. Let me try it. And the first print that I pulled from that stone, I fell in love. I fell in love. I was like, this is amazing. I want to keep doing this. So do you still have that one? Uh do I? I'm not sure if I if it's the very first one, but from that time frame, yes. I still have, yeah. Um yeah. So I definitely that's when I decided that, you know, I was going down the road of art. Yeah. I was gonna commit myself to it fully.

Ana 13:47

That's really exciting to find that. And you, you know, did you feel like you were like finding home? Did you feel like you were kind of trying to fulfill something else? And then all of a sudden you were like, What?

Yolanda 13:59

You know, I it it it was, you know, when you when you're taking classes in college, a lot of times you're like, okay, I gotta go to class, I gotta study, I gotta get a grade in this class, and then I'm done. You just do what you need to do and then you're done. You know, you meet the requirements, you, you know, pass your, you know, get the grades you want to get. Um but with my art classes, it was it was a lifestyle. It was it was a way of living. I I literally lived in my art studio classroom. Like I I remember I spent the night there, they didn't know I was there. Shh. Mute.

Eric 14:41

Mute. No, they can't do nothing about it now. No.

Yolanda 14:50

Janitors are coming through cleaning, and I was like, shh. And I just kept working throughout the night. I saw students starting to come early in the morning, and I was like, oh, I gotta get cleaned up. It looked like I just showed up.

Ana 15:06

You were the real deal, man. You actually lived and breathed it.

Yolanda 15:12

Yeah. That's so great. Yeah. And of course, you know, there's um, you know, the the question kept being thrown at me, like, oh, what are you gonna do with this? You know, how how are you gonna make money off of this? What are you gonna do with an art degree? You know, and um my thinking at that time was that whatever I uh what one thing that I really appreciated about creativity um is the healing aspect of it, the way that um it could heal people who were ill, that it could connect people who were angry. Um, I just felt like creativity, art, music, all of the above was very healing and that I wanted to use it to heal. So um I didn't exactly have a plan, but I knew that that's what I wanted to do.

Ana 16:06

I love that. Yeah. Um have you found that it it has worked for you in that manner throughout your whole life? The healing? Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I think a lot of artists um need that. We're kind of tortured souls. But you know, when you go through something, you lean on what you what really helps you express it. Eric, do you find that uh do you find the healing piece in your in your work?

Eric 16:35

I do in terms of uh creating it, it's um healing. Um what I get a joy out of is like when neighbors or somebody purchase my work and then um I'm over at their house and uh one of them, she's like she had it in her living room. She's like, oh, this is where I put your piece. Because uh things get busy, it gets crazy, and I just come in this room and I just look at it, and it's just kind of like a little vacation. So those kind of reactions is what I get a real uh joy off. And it that's yeah, that's that's what really uh that helps inspire me um to know that it has this emotional connection with people.

Oakland Memories Turned Into Art

Ana 17:23

Yeah. And Yolanda, you do a lot of representation of Oakland, or you have a series that um has an Oakland inspiration to it.

Yolanda 17:31

So um Yeah, I I was raised in Oakland. Um and um obviously through you know the past some odd years, we've had a lot of change, both um in communities and in um in businesses. Um, but you know, a lot of our memories are held in in the places that we used to go to, right? I remember my dad taking me to Esther's, you know, and getting some peach cobbler. That's that was our thing. And we would talk to them there, and you know, it was it was just something that we did, you know, and it was a heartwarming memory that I still hold. Now with change, you know, comes a lot of upset, you know, and I wanted to kind of heal that upset with my work. And uh basically the Oakland signage series focuses on some of the signage of old businesses that uh were, you know, you know, placeholders in the community, right? That people remember, that people who grew up in Oakland had a connection to. And so I created that work for them to bring back those heartwarming feelings, those memories, to talk about those memories, right? So that other people, newcomers, could hear those memories and therefore having more reverence and understanding for the place that they moved to, being able to kind of mesh the c culture together instead of letting change rip it apart.

Ana 19:14

Yeah, and actually I have a personal story about that that work of yours. I I went into uh Resistance Press with a friend of mine named Yolanda, who was born and raised in Oakland, and she saw one of your paintings uh or prints. Prints, thank you. She saw one of your prints, and um I remember it brought tears to her eyes because she and you know, I I it was a family member or something, went there all the time. Yeah, her dad, yes. Yeah. And it did. She put it and she sat there and stared at two different versions of it. I think you had two different colors or something. Yeah. And we ended up she ended up wanting to have a picture with with you. It was so great. And so as someone who moved from the Midwest to Oakland, I was like, oh, I get to hear how it's home. You know, right. I'm not I I came here and it's home for me now too. Yeah. But I get to hear about the stories of the people who really feel this culture, who really were born with it, you know.

Yolanda 20:24

I love that you brought that up. You know, that's that gives context to an unfamiliar place that can make someone else's home seem like home to someone else, you know, that can help the person who feels like their home is disrupted feel reconnected again, you know.

Ana 20:45

And also be able to say it to the world that you have a, you know, society or you know, media or whatever has this one view of Oakland. Right. This is my home we're talking about, you know? Right. And I have so many beautiful memories. Let me, you know, share that with you and you can soak that in. Eric, what you got?

Eric 21:04

You look like this is what I had on earlier. It might look familiar. I was wearing this earlier today, and I couldn't figure out whether to keep the shirt on or switch.

Ana 21:18

And then God, I love the giant bird.

Eric 21:27

And print a lineup cut by this artist named Yolanda Cotton Turner. Oh my god, I sold so many shirts. Everybody loves quarter pound. They love her shirts. And then my personal favorite growing up, Flint Barbecue.

Yolanda 21:50

Still there, right?

Eric 21:52

They're gone.

Yolanda 21:52

No.

Eric 21:53

They're gone. No more Flint. So this is near and dear to a lot of us who grew up.

Ana 21:58

Oh yeah. Yeah.

Eric 22:00

And she recaptured our memory.

Ana 22:04

I couldn't help it.

Eric 22:06

I had to get both of them. It's like Oakland.

Ana 22:09

Yeah.

Yolanda 22:10

Oh gosh. Those must have been fun to create. Yeah, they were. Thanks for sharing that, Eric. Thank you.

Eric 22:17

I couldn't help it. As soon as y'all start talking about it, I was like, Pause. I'm sorry, I had to do it.

Ana 22:23

I gotta go get it. I love that you're show and telling for her.

Eric 22:32

Oh no, that's DNN.

Ana 22:35

But see, that's that's my art still at work. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Um, everybody who's grown up here, and even I know those places, you know, and I moved here in 2000, and I still see, you know, well, I you saw how sad I got when I saw that Flintz was closed. When did that close down? What the hell? Why where have I been?

Giving Back To The East Bay

Ana 22:57

Tell me about what it means to you to give back to that community, this Bay Area or East Bay, um, to the art of the African diaspora. You guys are bringing so many memories memories alive for people. How does that feel? To be able to give back to that.

Yolanda 23:14

It feels like a a sweet debt to pay for being a part of the community. Love that. Yeah.

Eric 23:23

Oh, that was good.

Ana 23:24

That was good. That's some good tape.

Eric 23:28

That was better than 007's martini I don't know how I don't know how to follow that with uh t

Ana 23:34

that's my sound bite right there. That's the hook.

Eric 23:38

Yeah, I don't know how to follow that one up.

Ana 23:41

Eric, how do you feel? That's great. Um, so what uh tell me more about that feeling. Tell me about that emotion of sweet debt to pay. That's a beautiful way to put that.

Yolanda 23:53

It's it it's the place that, you know, I mean, different places, different people, different um, you know, events, different, you know, just the life and culture of the East Bay has raised me. And as a product of that, I feel like it's I owe it to the culture to feed back into it.

Ana 24:19

God, that's so beautiful. Eric, you want to follow that up?

Eric 24:24

Oh no, I'll I'll have something to say. Yeah, this is what I can do. No, no, it's uh in a similar vein. Um, it really feels good. What well one of the main things as curator in in this program is um is just being able to work with established artists, but also like emerging artists and just giving them an opportunity to feature their work. That's the beautiful thing about this program. You got a mix of all of them, and they're in the same place. And um the thing is, it's like um it's just nice to give back and offer them uh a voice. And with these programs, it's just so many talent, it's just so much talent out here, and you don't know it until these programs come up. And to be able to serve these artists uh is amazing. And what's even more amazing and uplifting and encourage you to keep doing it is the feedback you get from the show. It's like, oh, I love what you guys did. I love how you curated the show, and um, it was one of the best shows I had. And you know, when they start giving these kinds of feedbacks, you like, yep, I have to I have to do it again. That's a call to duty.

Ana 25:53

Right. Um

Trend Versus Substance In Black Art

Ana 25:55

Do you feel like uh in black art in general, do you feel like the voices are still marginalized in the art world? Uh but not as celebrated as they should be. I do feel like it's um more talked about, more revered than than it was in the recent past.

Eric 26:17

That I can I would agree with that. I think it's more spoken for, more recognized than um previous years. Um even in terms of art being collected, and it's been before, but I noticed it more like around the pandemic and around a ju round George Floyd. It's like this bigger um turnaround and like quest to show black art where I didn't see that before. It was like even like museums, they'll purchase it and then have it hidden in their collection and never get put out to be seen. Um and a lot of that seemed to change. I think there's like this trend and demand to the point where they feel there's more of this acceptance and even like a trend to show black art. Like it is the thing to show now as opposed to oh, we're just checking off our have to do lists. Um so it seemed to be a bit of a shift. Um and me for it, I I could be wrong, but I noticed it around George Floyd and post-George Floyd. There's uh just a total different attitude and acceptance and featuring more black art and collecting black art.

Ana 27:48

Yolanda, did you want to say something?

Yolanda 27:50

Yeah, I did want to say something. So uh there's um the the the you know thought that it's the people who influence culture, the bigger names, the that and what they collect that kind of moves what galleries then uh are more compelled to show. There I think a l I think a lot of the major galleries are gonna want to show the work that's popular, the thing that the popular the, you know, celebrities are collecting. And I think that that's um more celebrities are collecting black art now. Um, and I think that that's one of the reasons why we see that it's become more of a trend to do to do so, um, in my opinion.

Ana 28:40

There's a difference between trend and trendy. Um so you're saying a trend as in like a movement of curiosity and knowledge and learning. It's not trendy though, right?

Yolanda 28:55

Um I think that uh trendy is something that that's fleeting, right? And I don't it of course we don't truly know in until time passes, you know, but I I feel like uh trendy also uh suggests something that's uh not deep in meaning. And um I think that there is a lot of depth depth and meaning when we're talking about black art.

Eric 29:19

Kind of like with hip-hop, you know, it's like looked at as, oh, it's not gonna last, or it's not this, and then as time develops, you see how powerful, impactful it is. So it was always something of substance and value, but the thing is getting the general public, getting the audience to see that value, and that's where the thing is. And if you get people like celebrities and people who are influential that have sense enough to appreciate it and put it out there, it feels like other people feel like, oh, okay, now this is acceptable when it should have been acceptable. You should have seen the merit and the value in it already. But um, I hate to say this, is I I keep telling people this world is like a big high school for grownups. Sometimes we look for other people to tell us this is okay when, you know, those with good judgment could look and tell that something had value from jump.

Ana 30:20

Yeah, and hip-hop was a really good analogy.

Eric 30:22

The value and the merits and the quality of work was always there. You just needed some people to tell you like, yes, it's okay.

Yolanda 30:30

Yeah, and Eric, I'm glad you brought up hip-hop because that's exactly what was going on in the back of my mind when I brought the, you know, I was talking. Is the same kind of, you know, in the beginning of hip-hop, you know, it it it was a big question. Is this gonna last? Is this, you know, a viable source of music? Is this, you know, real? Is it, you know, and I think there's a lot of those questions were surrounded. So that I was actually thinking of hip hop when I was answering. So thanks for bringing that up, Eric.

Eric 30:59

Oh yeah.

Bringing Black Art To New Cities

Yolanda 31:01

As a curator, um, in Alameda specifically, um, you know, Alameda's always uh kind of fostered my art career. So I became very connected to the Alameda art world. Um made some wonderful connections, it got connected to a wonderful community, and um that that really became my art home. Uh, and I think that it's important for me to bring this show to Alameda to help, you know, uh bring to the forefront black art and to expose maybe some people who aren't used to seeing black art on a regular basis and letting them meet some of the artists and interact with the work and um be exposed to the story.

Eric 31:52

This whole program kind of permeates this beautiful black art in cities that you normally wouldn't see it. Um, you know, you got it in Balao, you got it in Alameda, um, you got in Sonoma, you got, you know, it's everywhere in areas that you normally don't hear or not used to seeing it, and it kind of showcases the work that we do and kind of expose cities that's maybe not used to seeing our work to uh see what we can do and what we have and the value of it.

Ana 32:29

Yeah. That's right. That's right. Uh because the satellite show is one of many uh of the larger art of the African diaspora show that is uh based in Richmond, I guess. Uh how many others are there? Because you mentioned Vallejo and then here in Alameda.

Yolanda 32:51

Yeah, there's there's a hundred and fifty plus that's that's in the program.

Ana 32:58

I didn't know it was that many!

Yolanda 32:58

In the program, yeah, absolutely. And then each satellite has, you know, uh, you know, a handful here and there. You know, they're we're all scattered about in our satellites, but there's a hundred fifty plus artists in Richmond. We're all showing, you know, one piece to represent, you know, who we are as artists.

Where To See The Shows Online

Ana 33:20

Yeah, and they have a website that if you guys don't know this, you can go to the website and I know that they have an online gallery. If you can't make it out to any of the satellites, then by all means go to the website and check it out. The artists are phenomenal, and you can um I'll put the website up on the screen and buy something, be a collector. You mentioned that everybody gets one piece, or are there gonna be many pieces? What do we get to see from you?

Yolanda 33:51

Yeah, so it in the satellite show um at Resistance Press, there's gonna be four artists. I'm one of them. Next door at Studio 23, there'll be another four artists. Eric is one of them. So you're gonna have a total of eight artists that you can see um in one night, one event. We're right next door to each other. We should share a courtyard. So, and we're working together to put on this event for the community. So, um, what are you gonna see from me? That's gonna be a surprise.

Ana 34:23

What? What?

Yolanda 34:29

You have to come to the show to see

Ana 34:33

there's the hook. Another hook, Eric. You gotta keep up. Another hook. Have I actually seen the piece of work that I um you have not, no. Yeah. Yeah. Now I'm excited. Everybody else should be excited too, because her other work phenomenal. Uh you had one shown. Well, we just saw the the um Oakland pieces, uh prints. And you had another one in the larger the larger show at the Richmond Art Center.

Transformation Art And The Tick Story

Yolanda 35:09

Yeah, and that one is an abstract piece. It's called Intercontinental. It's about, you know, um moving from one form into another. It's about moving out of an established set form into a um more authentic uh sense of self. And it's about transitions, it's about movement, it's about um becoming a vibrant rich blue background representing the uh the sense of truth that emerges when you are tran making some sort of move from one form to another, when you're making some transformation. You really come in tune with the true sense of who you are and trusting who that person is in order to emerge into that new form, right? The new form is sort of like a burnt orange. Um, it's a a mesh. Uh, it's a mesh form that's emerging, kind of flipping out of that. We're forever changing as individuals, you know. We are as we are today, and tomorrow we'll be on our way to a different form of ourselves, a different sense of who our representation in this world, right? It's gorgeous.

Ana 36:35

I also love the tick. What is that one actually called? Is it the tick?

Yolanda 36:40

It's the tick.

Ana 36:41

It's the tick?!

Yolanda 36:41

It's the tick.

Ana 36:42

I love that one.

Yolanda 36:44

Yeah, I created the tick on its own without a real place to go, just as ticks do. They're looking for a host. And I I remember and I that would that one was um uh a dry point etching. Um and it it just kind of I created it when I had studio space over at Jingletown Art Studio. Um, and I remember um Judith, who has recently passed last year, um she came in and she saw it and she was like, oh my god, I love this tick. What's the tick story? And I told her, I was like, I don't know. Um I'll I'll keep you updated. And some years passed, and there was a show at Studio 23 that uh it was called Displacement. And I used the tick in a piece. So it was the piece was about uh an apartment complex that was across the street from me at the time, and it was, you know, there was a lot of people who were kicked out of their homes. Uh displacement was a show about gentrification in the Bay Area. So um that's where the tick was. The tick was representing the developers.

Ana 38:18

Bloodsuckers.

Yolanda 38:19

That's right.

How To Support Artists In Person

Ana 38:21

The vampires.

How To Support Artists In Person

Ana 38:22

I think that people should really uh start collecting more unique or you know, um art made by someone they know, someone they, you know, saw making something. Um, just go and visit some art. Uh there are galleries all over the place. I mean, if you live here in Alameda, Oakland, Resistance Press and Studio 23 put on something all the time. You know, you guys are very well-established, um, respected members of the art community here, and there's a lot that's always going on. Go and see these shows and learn. And on March 21st, you can go and you can even talk to the artists. That's a privilege. That's a privilege because you don't always get that if you go to a museum. I mean, you rarely get that, you know, but at at this show, you're gonna actually be able to talk to these artists. It's been a really big honor getting to meet everybody, and I've been learning so much. I want to hear people's stories. I mean, that's what my podcast is about. I want to hear your stories, you know. No matter where you come from, talk to me about your life.

Yolanda 39:32

Yeah.

Podcast Award Voting And Thanks

Yolanda 39:33

Yeah. And and Ana, um, I believe that you have the women's podcast uh what is it? Uh a vote? Uh tell me a vote.

Ana 39:45

Yes, uh-huh. I was nominated for a podcast award uh in uh Women's podcast uh Women's Podcasters Award. I see, this makes me so uncomfortable. But I'm in the society and culture um section. Ah, okay. Yeah, and uh voting starts April 1st.

Yolanda 40:08

So amazing. So yeah, we'll be sure to vote for you because we love your content. And we think that it's um valuable to the community. Thank you. So yeah, no, seriously. You do great work.

Ana 40:26

Thank you. I just want to say that it has been like a true honor to be able to do this. I got to do something this important, and it's truly an honor, and I get to I get to learn at the same time. Lifelong student, this is amazing for me. Thank you. Thanks everybody else for listening. I appreciate it. Yes. Bye. The Art

Sponsors And Where To Listen

Ana 40:53

of the African Diaspora Satellite Exhibition at Resistance Press and Studio 23. The project is made possible through the generous support of our sponsors who believe in the power of art and community. Julie's Coffee and Tea Garden is a serene community-centered base in Alameda, offering organic coffee, herbal teas, and wholesome food. Created to nourish both body and mind. Digifly is a grassroots, homegrown digital flyer distribution company. Made by local or local. Think of it as an electronic community billboard. Digifly screens are all over the East Bay, seen by over 150,000 local companies. You'll see digital flyers for East Bay restaurants, retail shops, comedy clubs, art shows, museums, concerts, all the things that make the East Bay such a great place to live. Whether you are trying to get the word out about your business or upcoming events, or you're just looking for something fun to do this weekend, you need to check Digifly. Visit digifly.com to learn more and find Book. ArtFush is an artist-run nonprofit that supports artists by creating exhibitions, workshops, and community events. Making sure art is seen, shared, and experienced behind the gallery walls. Visit my website at traditioncafe.com. You can also reach out to me at on up at traditioncafe.com. You can listen to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. But you can watch us on YouTube.