Ayodele Nzinga Archives - Oakland Voices

King Hedley II comes home to BAM House

November 19, 2025 Rasheed Shabazz

New staging of August Wilson classic resonates with Oakland’s history, current challenges.

Black Arts Film Festival honors ‘OGs of Oakland’

August 19, 2025 Ayah Ali-Ahmad

How Oakland’s BAM Film Fest has grown into a powerful celebration of Black arts, film, and community, honoring ancestral legacies and defying a climate of funding cuts.

Black Arts Movement Film Festival returns to Oakland

July 31, 2025 Oakland Voices

Events include film screenings, artist talks, and community networking.

Oakland artists push back after City Council budget freezes Cultural Affairs role

June 23, 2025 Ayah Ali-Ahmad

City Council cuts key arts role, drawing backlash from cultural organizations and advocates.

Oakland Voices graduation ceremony honors 2024 class, alumni

November 26, 2024 Tanna Samone

Oakland Voices celebrated the 2024 Community Journalism Academy on November 22 at Oakstop.

‘Black Tulip’: Action, culture shift in Oakland necessary for Black women’s safety

October 14, 2024 Kristal Raheem

Black Tulip’s Cultural Week of Action featured art installations, street outreach, and letter writing to mobilize against disproportionate violence against Black women and girls. Community members are encouraged to support a City Council resolution to protect Black women.

A Black woman wearing a black hat smiles at camera

Ayodele Nzinga named Rainin Arts Fellow

April 24, 2024 Oakland Voices

Oakland’s Ayodele Nzinga is one of four Bay Area artists selected for a Rainin Artist Fellowship, which comes with $100,000.

A collage of diverse Oakland writers, and a book cover titled THE TOWN

‘The Town’ Anthology Highlights 65 Poets from Oakland

November 27, 2023 Momo Chang

A unique cultural work that is a collection of poems from 65 Oakland poets

a window front with black, red, and green and words BAMBDCDC

BlacArted: Space is the Place

August 10, 2023 Ayodele Nzinga

Editor’s Note: BlacArted is a front-row view into the maze-like mind of a multi-hyphenated artist pondering on art and the nature of reality as it intersects the creative and the imagined. On a balmy Friday

BlacArted: Love Letter to Bay Area Poetry During National Poetry Month

April 21, 2023 Ayodele Nzinga

Editor’s Note: Oakland Voices is launching a column written by our alum and the City of Oakland’s first Poet Laureate, Ayodele Nzinga. BlacArted is a front-row view into the maze-like mind of a multi-hyphenated artist