Oakland’s Exhale Collective is helping Black women release the weight of the world through breath and storytelling.
After four years of hosting virtual gatherings, the arts and wellness group has returned to in-person events. Ariel Ward and Christine Board are founders of the Collective. In 2024, they started an artist residency with the Betti Ono Foundation. From November 2024 to August of this year, the Collective hosted a speakeasy series designed for Black women and non-binary people.
At the start of every speakeasy, hosts greet each attendee at the door. Throughout the event, guests can get on the mic to share poems, songs, or whatever is on their hearts.
“There’s usually a bowl or a jar for people to write down anything they would like to release and let go before they enter the space,” Board said. “To allow them to breathe a little bit more deeply.”
The definition of a speakeasy varies across time and cultures. During prohibition, bootleggers sold alcohol at speakeasies. For the Exhale Collective, speakeasies are a space where Black women and non-binary people can be free.
Born in Black feminist spaces
Ward is the daughter of Caribbean parents and was born in Norfolk, Virginia. She grew up in Philly and spent time in England with her grandparents during the early stages of her life. Her upbringing inspired her passion to create nourishing spaces for Black women.
“I study a lot of Black feminists, poets, and creative intellectuals,” Ward said. “I feel like I can make beauty from almost anything because that is what my mother, my grandmother, and all of these women in my culture did.”
Board grew up in the Black Los Angeles neighborhood of View Park, near Crenshaw and 52nd.
”We knew our neighbors and it really did feel like the community raised me and raised each other.” Board said. Her neighborhood and women in her family influenced her values as a Black woman. “They were just women who knew what they wanted and didn’t take any mess from anybody. They made me feel really proud to be a Black woman.” Board said.
Ward and Board’s upbringings informed what they would pursue and accomplish together.
It started with brunch in a studio apartment
Ward and Board met in 2015 while attending Arc Ministries Church as students at UC Berkeley. Board was completing her bachelors in Public Health. Ward was starting her graduate program to study City and Regional Planning. They came together to support each other at a time when they felt isolated as Black students.
Through her work as a transportation engineer, Ward studied the “design” of inequality. “ It led me to question how can we co-create and nourish a move against inequity-also by design.” Ward said.
Inspired by Mahogany Brown’s poem, “Black Girl Magic,” Ward began hosting gatherings in her 350-square-foot studio apartment. The first: a “Black Girl Magic Brunch.”
A friend said the gatherings of Black women felt like “an exhale.” Thus the name.
Ward wanted to expand from her apartment. She asked Board to join her as a co-curator.
Storytelling helps Black women release stress
As a Public Health Data Analyst, Board saw the need to bridge the gap between Black women’s wellness and storytelling.
“The chronic stress of racism and heightened cortisol in our bodies actively deteriorates every part of us.” Board said. “A lot of the reason why there are prominent health problems in Black communities, specifically with Black women, is often because our stories have been systematically silenced.”
The Exhale Collective speakeasies provide a gathering space for Black women to counter the impacts of racism. These practices stem from African American oral traditions.
“The speakeasy is a nod to the Harlem Renaissance,” Board said. “It was a place where people could come and be uninhibited. Be free. A place where you don’t need to come with your people. You can find your people there.”
Finding their people in Oakland
As Ward and Board joined forces, they expanded to Oakland. The Town had a renaissance of its own, filled with Black women business owners and artists. Starting in 2018, they held events in various Black women-owned art galleries such as the Ashara Ekundayo, Joyce Gordon, and Betti Ono galleries.
“I think a key part of our mission has always been supporting Black women-owned spaces, knowing how difficult it is to hold and keep space in a place like Oakland that has been violently gentrified,” said Board.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Collective held virtual spaces to sustain their community. The Joyce Gordon Gallery and the Betti Ono Foundation still remain and made the return of the in-person speakeasies possible.
Rest and communion
Now that the Exhale Collective has completed their one year residency with the Betti Ono Foundation, they are taking time to rest. They plan to resume events next year.
The closing celebration of their residency, Love Communion, took place on Aug. 30 at the West Oakland Library. The Exhale Collective transformed the space to make attendees feel at home.
“We are not powerless. We always have our breath. Breath is resistance, breath is healing. Taking a moment to have a deep breath is healing to our bodies.”
Christine Board, co-founder, Exhale Collective
“We sought to remake the community room into a living room, a space of luxury,” Ward said. The event featured a local artist panel discussion and showcased work from the African American Quilt Guild of Oakland. “We invited everyone to come together in dialogue on what it means to stitch love into our communities through craft.”
While the celebration marked an end to their residency, it also signified the next chapter for the Exhale Collective. Whether online or in-person, breathing will always be at the center of their work.
“We are not powerless. We always have our breath,” Board said. “Breath is resistance, breath is healing. Taking a moment to have a deep breath is healing to our bodies.”
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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