Alice Arts Center wins partial victory
By LeiLani Dowell
Oakland, Calif.
After tremendous public pressure from artists,
community supporters and those taking classes at the Alice Arts
Center, representatives of Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown announced
on June 12 that the Alice has been taken "off the table" as a
possible site for the expansion of a charter arts school
favored by the mayor.
The Alice is world renowned for its African and
African-American dance classes and performances. It is also a
community center for the growth and development of members of
the predominantly African-American community of Oakland. The
complex also houses 50 tenants in single occupancy rooms, the
majority of whom are artists and participants in the Alice's
many arts programs.
At lively rallies held in support of the Alice on May 27 and
June 10, speakers young and old described the possibilities
that the Alice had opened up for them in life, and the avenues
they were able to avoid simply by having a space to call their
own.
However, victory is not complete for the Alice. Although the
public announcement has been made, the ARTS Coalition (Artists
and Residents Survive Together) that came together at the
beginning of the struggle will not rest until its demands are
met in writing. The demands include a written guarantee from
the mayor that the tenants and organizations will not be
evicted, as well as the creation of a board of members from the
Alice Arts community to serve as decision makers for the Alice.
Until these goals are met, the ARTS Coalition will continue to
protest.
The next protest, scheduled for June 24, will be a march
from the Alice to City Hall in downtown Oakland.
On June 15, the Alice community suffered a great loss when
Malonga Casquelord was killed in an auto accident. Casquelord
was a world-renowned Congolese dancer and drummer who created
the Fua Dia Congo dance troupe at the Alice. He was at every
event that involved the Alice, including the protests on May 27
and June 10, and will be greatly missed in that community.
Reprinted from the June 26, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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