The Oakland Museum of California recently opened an exhibit titled “Black Spaces: Reclaim and Remain,” which will be available to the public until March 1 next year. The exhibit focuses on the historical challenges faced by Black communities in Oakland due to urban infrastructure projects that led to the demolition of homes and community spaces. It invites visitors to reflect on the past through various artifacts, maps, archival footage, and images.
The second part of the exhibit, “3 Perspectives,” features contributions from the Archive of Urban Futures (AUF), a collective composed of UC Berkeley students, alongside their community partners Moms 4 Housing, artist Adrian Burrell, and architect June Grant. Since 2022, under the guidance of Brandi Thompson Summers, AUF has worked to create an archive reflecting Black Oakland’s history and future possibilities.
Brandi Thompson Summers, who previously taught geography at Berkeley and is now a professor at Columbia University, emphasized the project’s service-based orientation. “Too often, students think that there’s a test at the end or a certain skill necessary to do this work,” she stated.
The group produced several works including a short film titled “The Archivists,” directed by doctoral candidate Clara Pérez Medina. The film captures AUF members engaging with archives and conducting oral histories. Pérez Medina expressed hopes that it would encourage Berkeley students to engage more deeply with Black histories in the Bay Area.
Moms 4 Housing is highlighted as AUF’s main community partner. This collective advocates for housing rights amidst the Bay Area’s housing crisis. Their actions in 2019 drew attention to housing issues when they occupied a vacant property in West Oakland. Dominique Walker from Moms 4 Housing stated: “We wanted to highlight the contradictions of there not being enough housing.”
In addition to collaborating with Moms 4 Housing, AUF explored longer historical timelines using resources from various libraries including those at UC Berkeley. They produced zines such as “Who Stole the Harlem of the West?” and “How Will You Remember Home?”, which explore Black experiences in Oakland.
Juleon robinson from AUF remarked on their work’s significance: “The Archive is pushing against forgetting… There’s an immense amount of power in being in community and trying to protect one’s community from these forces of dispossession.”
