Music, lion dancers, and stories filled the Oakland Asian Cultural Center for its fourth annual Lunar New Year x Black History Month celebration.
The free festival featured performances and activities for children as part of an ongoing initiative to build Asian and Black solidarity through culture and shared celebration.
The event opened with Toishan Association Lion Dancers warding off evil, followed by Filipino folk dance by the MPWRD Collective.
The West African drummers of Batanba Drum Call joined the fiery lion and dragon dance of Comrade Lover to chase “away evil spirits like colonizers and imperialists.”
During the performance, a lion stomps out large bags labeled “ICE.” The dragon joins and they kick “ICE” off the stage and out of Oakland. As the drummers conclude, the dancers unveiled two banners: a Palestinian flag and the phrase “Fire Horses Melt Ice.”
The afternoon also included Patty Chu’s Chinese Dance Troupe and Urisawe Korean dance and drumming.
Activities for children and teens included storytime with Dr. Janay Brown-Wood and Aimee Phan and a teen zone by Storyland Collective.
Building Asian, Black solidarity in Oakland
The Oakland Asian Cultural Center (OACC) started Open E.A.R.S. for Change in 2020. E.A.R.S. stands for engage, activate, rise-up, series, according to OACC. The goal is to address anti-Blackness in Asian Pacific Islander communities and Black-Asian relationships in Oakland.
In the past few years, Oakland community leaders have sought to deepen relationships through addressing media stereotypes, rethinking crime prevention, using art for unity and healing, invoking “Third World” solidarity, and organizing together.
Lunar New Year and Black History Month coincide each February. For the first time in six decades, 2026 marks the Year of the Fire Horse. This year also marks 100 years since Dr. Carter G. Woodson started “Negro History Week” in 1926.
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