Ryan Coogler was born on May 23, 1986. He is a renowned filmmaker, having made a name for himself through screenwriting, directing, and/or producing nine films...
Hung Liu was born on February 17, 1948 in Changchun, China. Hung Liu is a Chinese painter who focuses on paintings based on historical Chinese photographs of p...
The Rebel Kings are a group of drag kings established in 2010 in Oakland, California. They are women and gender-expansive folks who lip sync dressed as men, th...
Favianna Rodriguez was born on September 26, 1978. Favianna Rodriguez is a self-identified queer Latina with Afro-Peruvian roots who currently resides in East ...
Hanifah Walidah was born on October 16 in New York, New York. Hanifah Walidah is an “artist, friend, woman, black, lesbian, shit-talker. In that order.” She cu...
Moshe Kasher is a comedian who was born on July 6, 1979. Soon after his birth in Queens to Jewish and deaf parents, Moshe Kasher’s mother whisked him and his o...
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks, also known as Tom Hanks, is an actor, writer, director, and producer born on July 9, 1956 in Concord, California. The Hanks family line i...
Chelsea Peretti was born on February 20, 1978. Chelsea Peretti is a successful actress, writer, and stand-up comedian; she is best known for her role as Gina L...
Virgie Tovar was born in 1982. Virgie Tovar is an activist and author based in San Francisco, California. She runs a blog that promotes body positivity, showca...
Jess Mowry was born on March 27, 1960 near Starkville, Mississippi. Mowry is an author who writes young adult and children’s fiction based on the experiences o...
Jerold Dwight Ellis III, a.k.a. Yukmouth, was born on October 18, 1974 in Oakland, CA. Yukmouth is an American Grammy-nominated rapper, documentarian, and foun...
Souls of Mischief is a hip-hop group from Oakland, California that is also part of the hip-hop collective Hieroglyphics. Souls of Mischief’s most famous track,...
Juliana “Jewels” Smith is a writer, an educator, and the creator of (H)afrocentric, a comic book series that follows the lives of five undergrads of color who ...
Refa One, a.k.a. Refa Senay, was born in Oakland on July 16, 1972. Refa One is an aerosol artist (using spray paint), muralist, illustrator, activist, and educ...
Duane Deterville was born on March 14, 1960. Duane is an artist, writer, and visual culture scholar primarily interested in African and African diasporic cultu...
Avy Jetter was born on December 11, 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has been a professional zine artist since 2012. A zine is an independently or self-publ...
Turf dancing is a dance form that originated in Oakland, which combines gliding, popping, and waving mixed in with a touch of ballet and break dancing.
Noh ...
Joshua Mays was born in 1976 in Denver, Colorado. He is a muralist and illustrator. His art features black subjects in fantastical settings and is considered b...
Dr. Zakariya Diouf was born on February 12 in Senegal, a country in West Africa. Dr. Diouf has taught at San Jose State University, Sonoma State University, th...
Robert Moses was born in 1963. Robert practices and teaches dance and choreography through RMK Dance Company as well as at Mills as a professor. He incorporate...
Maria Kaylib Chavez, a.k.a. MK Chavez, was born on June 14, 1964 in San Francisco. MK Chavez is a poet and writer. She said, “Animals are always going to be pr...
Keak da Sneak, a.k.a. Charles Kente Williams, was born on October 21, 1977 in Brewton, Alabama but moved to Oakland, CA when he was a few months old. Williams ...
Malik Seneferu was born on April 7, 1971 in San Francisco. A Bay Area native and African-American artist, Malik Seneferu presents a wide variety of representat...
Andrew Demcak was born on September 23, 1968 in Silver Spring, Maryland. Andrew Demcak is a critically acclaimed novelist and poet. He writes YA novels for LGB...
Walter Hood primarily focuses on architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. He is currently a Professor of Landscape Architecture & Environmen...
Samuel Getachew is the 2019 Youth Poet Laureate of Oakland, CA and primarily has been recognized for his poetry (slam poetry and spoken word). His poetry has b...
Daniel Clowes is a cartoonist, illustrator, graphic novelist, and screenwriter. Recently in interviews Clowes has said that he has lived in Oakland for nearly ...
Goapele was born on July 11, 1977 in Oakland, California. Hailed as an original and mesmerizing voice in the new soul genre, singer Goapele has gained national...
Maw Shein Win is an artist of many types, including a poet, musician, video maker, interpretive dancer, performance artist, and a combination of those. She has...
Yiyun Li was born on November 4, 1972 in Beijing, China. She is the author of six books, including three novels and two short story collections, A Thousand Yea...
Tomas Moniz was born on June 5, 1969 in El Paso, TX. He is an author, activist, and zinester who is known for his work on the parenting zine Rad Dad and activi...
Jeremy Mayer was born in 1972 in Northern Minnesota. He is an American sculptor who uses typewriter parts, some dating back more than 80 years, making them int...
Oree Originol was born on September 11, 1984 in Glendale, CA. Oree was inspired by gang culture in his neighborhood by writing also known as graffiti. He began...
Mariko Tamaki was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1975. She is an LGBTQ activist, performance artist, and writer best known for her graphic novels Skim and This On...
Karen Seneferu was born on August 6, 1960 in Oakland, California. As a child in Oakland, she took part in the Black Panther’s free breakfast program. Having be...
Liliana Herrera was born on June 3, 1993 in Sonora, Mexico. She is a visual artist, face and body painter, art teacher, and model. Her more recent ventures inc...
Natalia Anciso was born on March 25, 1985 in Weslaco, Texas. Natalia is a contemporary visual artist whose art draws from her experience as a child growing up ...
Chris Granillo was born in the Coachella Valley in 1982, growing up near Palm Springs, CA. He is a muralist, painter, printmaker, street artist, and sculptor. ...
TheArthur Wright is a pointillist bleach artist who expresses the culture of blackness in his paintings. Wright believes that expression of truths or beliefs a...
William Wong is an author and journalist with a focus on justice for the Asian-American community, immigration, and the history of Oakland Chinatown. Observati...
Shu Yi Liu was born in China on January 1, 1941. Mr. Liu’s art is Chinese drawing and painting where he bridges Eastern and Western art traditions. He uses wat...
Jeremy Webster “Fred” Frith was born on February 17, 1949 in the small town of Heathfield in East Sussex, England. Frith describes himself as a songwriter, com...
