It’s a Saturday afternoon in July in East Oakland. Elise “3LISE” Cee graces the stage at the Millsmont Seminary “That’s Oakland, Baby!” Block Party. Styled in a white dress with pink fur boots, her long black hair sways in the wind as her voice echoes across the Greater House of Prayer Church parking lot. A crowd begins to gather around the stage.
After her performance, the DJ, “DC is Chillin,” called her back onstage for another round of applause from the crowd.
“It was really special,” 3LISE said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been honored in that way.” Being honored at the block party reflects not only her growth as an artist, but 3LISE’s pathway to healing through art.
“It’s just a whole bunch of fairies doing donuts in a 67 Mustang. We are just really goofy and crazy, and singing our feelings.”
A fairy, finding her wings
Her music could be classified as R&B or Neo soul, but that’s not how 3LISE (pronounced three-lease) describes her sound.
“It’s just a whole bunch of fairies doing donuts in a 67 Mustang. You know what I mean?,” she said. “We are just really goofy and crazy, and singing our feelings.”
Music has always been a form of expression for 3LISE. She grew up in her family’s church and comes from a community of musicians. She began attending the Conservatory of Vocal and Instrumental Arts (COVA) in East Oakland in third grade. She was passionate about singing but it took her some time to develop her voice.
“ I wanted to be in the band so bad but they wouldn’t let me sing,” she said. “They were like, ‘You’re not confident enough yet and you’re not loud.’”
At the age of 17, 3LISE started to spread her wings as a singer. Her high school band teacher, Ted Gold, booked her first show as a solo artist at a concert in Castro Valley with Small Town Society. “ I think that really showed me I can do this,” 3LISE said.
The “3” in her name is a “spiritual companion,” 3LISE said. The three is a reminder for her- “Growth is not linear, but a dance of creation, destruction, and rebirth,” she said. “3LISE represents more than a name, it’s a living mantra.”
Growth in the midst of grief
As 3LISE grew as an artist, so did her life challenges. In 2022, things took a drastic turn when she lost her father due to gun violence.
She felt deep distrust and anxiety. “My nervous system was in survival mode,” 3LISE said. Grief pushed her toward healing, even though she didn’t know how. The journey brought her to communal healing and restorative justice. “Healing became my lifeline,” she said.
In 2023, she joined the Freedom School for Healing and Justice at the Freedom Community Clinic. 3LISE joined the first apprenticeship cohort and found refuge in the space.
One of the most important lessons she learned in the program was how to practice patience. “When I first started that program, I was a very wired individual, and I was overextending myself,” 3LISE said. “I began exploring breathwork, sound therapy, and somatic practices to re-train my nervous system to remind my body it was safe to feel, rest, and create.”
New Beginnings, healing for self and community
During her healing journey, 3LISE developed a close bond with the founder of the clinic, Dr. Bernadette Lim. “She saw the light in me and she really poured into me as a creative, as a healer, as a friend,” 3LISE said.
When 3LISE arrived at the clinic in 2023, Dr. Lim connected with her as an artist.
“I saw her bring her gifts of music as medicine while we were learning herbalism and energy healing,” Dr. Lim said.
After 3LISE completed the program, she returned as a lead facilitator to teach the next cohort of healers in 2024. That same year, Dr. Lim invited her to collaborate on “Mantra,” a song for her debut album, “New Beginnings.”
“The musical direction of the song was something that you sit with when you are at a precipice moment in life,” Lim said. “It encourages the listener to just allow yourself to be in this moment of uncertainty and to just have faith.”
Dr. Lim played the piano. 3LISE offered her vocal gifts. “It was straight from the heart,” 3LISE. That song really encourages me to this day.”
3LISE and Dr. Lim continue to collaborate and promote healing. This year, they participated in a White Coats for Black Lives panel together focused on medical safety issues among Black and Brown communities.
Music, sound healing, survival
For 3LISE, music and sound healing are not just art, but survival. Her father’s death underscored the need for emotional regulation.
“People need tools to calm themselves down and spaces with a real focus on slowing down,” she said. “Regulation isn’t about shutting down emotions, it’s about creating enough safety within yourself to hold them without being consumed.”
This story is funded by the East Bay Fund for Artists 2 grant from the East Bay Community Foundation.
Kristal Raheem (also known as Raheem Divine) is an ethnographic researcher, educator, and consultant from Oakland. She has earned a B.A. in Sociology and a master’s in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership. Her work calls attention to health and educational disparities among Black, Queer, and other systematically oppressed communities around the world. Through literary and visual storytelling, she aims to help people remember and remain on their path of healing and liberation.
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