Building the Center for ArtEsteem: Open House & Block Festival (3/26)

WHERE:

3111 West Street

Oakland, CA 94608

WHEN:

Saturday, March 26th, 2022

1:00 - 4:00 PM

GUIDELINES:

• Proof of vaccination or proof of negative COVID test result from within 72 hours required for entrance.

• Be mindful of social distancing; respect everyone’s space.

• Masks must be worn at all times, with an exception for the eating/drinking area. All eating and drinking must take place in the designated area (signage and guidance provided at event).

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ACTIVITIES:

• AHC Rebrand Reveal

• ArtEsteem ArtMobile Creativity Area

  • live mural

  • live mosaic

  • logo coloring pages

  • sidewalk chalk

  • face and body painting

  • tote bag screen-printing

• History of ArtEsteem Gallery

• Community Resource Booths

  • Civicorps

  • City Slicker Farms

  • Common Humanity Collective

  • Community School for Creative Education

  • East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation

  • Friends of Hoover-Durant Public Library

  • Hoover-Foster Resident Action Council

  • Self-Help Federal Credit Union

  • Umoja Health

  • West Oakland Cultural Action Network

  • West Oakland Neighbors

CATERING:

Enjoy a wonderful selection of tacos from Tacos el Precioso, an Oakland-based catering company which prioritizes cooking delicious food with locally sourced, ethically grown ingredients.

Funded by the City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program: Neighborhood Voices for Festivals grant.

Location Update: AHC Has Found A New Home!

With great joy, we'd like to announce that AHC has moved to 101 Myrtle Street!

Our transition was made possible by our friends at Civicorps, who informed us of a vacancy right above their office space. This sunny, cozy and unique setting fits our needs while we continue with programming and gear up to launch our Capital Campaign. Between the collaboration and support of Civicorps, our community, and our dedicated staff, we have made a smooth transition from American Steel.

Currently, we are working to settle into the space while staying mobile enough for our next move to our permanent home.

Stay tuned!

Workforce Highlight: Domonic at Community Foods Market

Community Foods Market (CFM) opened its doors in June 2019 after a decade-long effort to address the food access needs in West Oakland. In addition to food justice, this noteworthy grocery store is dedicated to the recruitment and retention of employees from the community they serve.

Earn2Learn graduate Domonic, pictured in front of Community Foods Market.

Sharing in both values and commitment to the wellness and empowerment of the communities we serve, AHC partnered with CFM again this summer as a worksite for our Earn2Learn program. Earn2Learn intends to connect local youth with Oakland’s medley of businesses, providing training in workplace readiness, self-confidence, and career projection, all with the ultimate result of employment.

Since 2014, AHC has guided 134 youth into positions within our network of Oakland business partners. Participants have expressed that Earn2Learn helped them gain essential hours of job experience, granting access in the future to positions with varied skill sets and experience requirements. Domonic was one of many youth participants to receive paid mentored training and subsequent work that built a solid foundation for navigating a workplace.

For four days a week, Domonic would wake up at 6am to shower, eat breakfast, and take the bus to arrive in time for his 8am shift at CFM. As an entry level grocery stocker, his learning curve was steep. During a worksite program check-in, one supervisor mentioned that Domonic "had a lot of potential and showed good character", and was working consistently to improve his area of focus: communication skills.

Domonic was receptive to the feedback, and would demonstrate measurable improvements in his performance towards the end of the program. During his last week, Domonic asked his supervisors if he could be officially hired. They said yes, and now Domonic begins work at 5am, four days a week, still dedicated to his work at Community Foods Market.

Domonic’s journey to employment at CFM demonstrates how a combination of community resources and mindful business practices continues to be a necessity within West Oakland, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. As CFM profoundly states: “Our vision is to become an empowering, inspiring and transformative place to work for our employees and to enable them to feel a sense of purpose in their work. We strive to create a workplace environment where our employees are empowered to make a difference and are continuously developing and improving themselves.”

SHOP COMMUNITY FOODS

Now offering curbside pickup!

Back To School: Art Kits

AHC knows that it takes imagination to change the world, and that art is a powerful tool to help young people develop self-awareness and compassion. As schools are beginning to host classes in-person, Art Kits are an important part of the ‘Back To School’ season. Each kit contains everything a student needs to stay creative - art supplies, printed activity guides developed by educators and information about additional online resources. 

AHC provides arts education to some of the most underserved communities in Oakland, with 90% of students coming from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. The Art Kit program fills the gap, providing supplies and curriculum to students who would not ordinarily have access to arts education. Click here to support our Art Kit Program.

ArtEsteem Featured at FLAX art & design

We are excited to announce our current exhibition at FLAX art & design in Downtown Oakland. 

The paintings on display were created by students in our integrated arts program, ArtEsteem. This is the perfect opportunity to see the work of Oakland youth in-person and AHC Teaching Artist Laila Espinoza is enthusiastic, “It’s a great gift to be able to share art.” She mentions that the exhibition sparked interest even during the installation, “When I was putting the pieces up, customers were curious about the paintings...the powerful stories behind them and the students who created them.”

FLAX art & design have been the Bay Area’s most well-loved retail art business for over 30 years. The ArtEsteem Exhibition is available for viewing at its Oakland location during normal business hours: Monday-Saturday 10:00am-6:30pm and Sunday from 10:00am- 6:00pm. 
1501 Martin Luther King Jr Way, Oakland, CA 94612

ArtEsteem Exhibition: A New Awakening

Attitudinal Healing Connection (AHC) invites the public to ArtEsteem’s 23rd Annual Art Exhibition, Reflections of Me and My World “A New Awakening.” This unique virtual experience will showcase the transformative power of art.

We invite you to join us in celebrating Oakland youth, and their bright future full of hope, resiliency and compassion.

We're Hiring!

Join Our Team

Attitudinal Healing Connection is a 30+ year-old, community-based youth and public art, healing and advocacy organization. We work with the arts to inspire and educate the children and youth in our community, creating support and continuity from grades TK-12 and beyond, engaging with them in their contexts of culture, family, friends, school, the larger communities within the cities of Oakland, San Francisco and beyond. AHC promotes a culture of creativity, and of unity within diversity.

Deadline to Apply: December 31, 2021

Coming Soon: ArtEsteem Exhibition

ArtEsteem student works on her piece for the 23rd annual exhibition.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ArtEsteem’s 23rd Annual Art Exhibition
Reflections of Me and My World“A New Awakening”

WHAT: 23rd Annual ArtEsteem Art Exhibition: “A New Awakening”
WHEN: Saturday, June 5th to Sunday July 4, 2021
WHERE: ONLINE EXHIBITION, www.ahc-oakland.org
CONTACT: Amana Harris, amana (at) ahc-oakland.org

Attitudinal Healing Connection (AHC) invites the public to ArtEsteem’s 23rd Annual Art Exhibition, Reflections of Me and My World “A New Awakening.” This unique virtual experience will showcase the transformative power of art. Come and visit to support the young people, and to awaken your own spirit through their artwork and stories.

This 2020-2021 school year is unlike any other. AHC has been responding to a unique set of challenges to families, principals, and teachers. By working together with them and our team of teaching artists, AHC has been able to continue to bring relevant, healing and educational art experiences and supplies to schools, transforming in person classes into remote ones, creating an entirely new art kit distribution network to help children and youth experience the profound benefits of art at home, both on and off screens.

This year’s exhibition is a culmination of student work during the Covid-19 pandemic. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to gain a sense of how these young artists used art to engage in self-care, mindfulness and creativity. In addition to their artworks, you will see video interviews as they share how they coped with social isolation and uncertainty, and grew their resilience and self cultivation skills.

Founded in 1995, ArtEsteem has helped over 75,000 K-12 students in Bay Area schools, engaging them in creative expression while strengthening their emotional, social, academic and intellectual skills. “A New Awakening” is the 23rd annual exhibition presented by AHC, a community-driven nonprofit, deeply rooted in West Oakland.

We invite you to join us in celebrating Oakland youth, and their bright future full of hope, resiliency and compassion. The online exhibit will launch on Saturday, June 5th and continue through July 5 on AHC’s website: www.ahc-oakland.org.

Shaping The Future: The Importance of Creative Education

Women’s history month is a wonderful time to look back and reflect on the immeasurable accomplishments that women have made throughout the years to reshape culture and society as a whole. From breaking the glass ceiling to being role models for young girls, there are countless empowering women that deserve the spotlight for their vision and dedication that have resulted into lasting positive impacts in today’s world.

Meet Dr. Ida Oberman 
Dr. Ida Oberman is a powerhouse Waldorf schools advocate and the Executive Director and Founder of the Community School For Creative Education (CSCE) in Oakland. Dr. Oberman has supported thousands of young minds through culturally rich, holistic education. Based in the United States, Ida Oberman is a Dutch-born woman who attended a Waldorf school in Germany, an experience that has left a profound impact on her to this day. Waldorf education, also commonly referred to as Steiner education, is an educational system that revolves around developing children's intellect, artistic, and practical skills through holistic means.

Waldorf schools were also co-ed, which was somewhat unique for the time. For
Dr. Oberman, being able to experience this advanced education influenced her dynamic perspectives on education and allowed her to truly grasp the power that art had at healing the world. 

Upon moving to Germany when she was nine years old, Dr. Oberman’s parents enrolled her in a Waldorf school primarily because they discovered that it was a place that was more tolerant of non-German speaking students. She enjoyed every moment of learning and developing through art, music, and building relationships that fostered leadership skills. Furthermore, Dr. Oberman accredits her 3rd-grade teacher and mentor, Hanna Lindengert, and the founding principal of Urban Waldorf School Milwaukee, WI, Dorothy St Charles, for being key women who have helped shape her into the woman she has become today. 

Ida Oberman in her home town of Tübingen, Germany, preparing to move to New York City for her first teaching job, 1984 (top left) - Hanna Lindenberg & Ida Oberman, Stuttgart, Germany - Dorothy St. Charles, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Community School for Creative Education Journey 
Upon graduating from school, Dr. Oberman chose to migrate to the United States to earn her Ph.D. Here she learned English as a foreign language and leveraged her previous holistic education foundation to succeed in her advanced career objectives. She always knew that the inspiration she received from her Waldorf education would translate into her opening a school someday. In fact, this was the beginning of a 20-year planning journey to make that blueprint vision a reality. But Dr. Oberman did not just plan to open a Waldorf school; she aimed to break away from the private sector and bridge the path to make this type of education available to everyone, launching the first-ever urban public Waldorf School in the world. 

Dr. Oberman became committed to bringing Waldorf education to society using the
public-school model so every child can have the education they deserved regardless of their economic status.

With this as her cornerstone angle, along with her tenacity and resilience, Dr. Oberman worked diligently with Oakland Community Organizations (OCO) since 2008. OCO convened a vast range of community leaders, public officials, educators, and parents helping to launch CSCE in 2011. This was a euphoric moment in her life that she simply describes as ‘incredible.’ 

CSCE Impacts 
Fast forward to today, Dr. Oberman takes immense pride in being able to provide children and youth with a Waldorf education that engages the whole child- head, hands and heart. To date, CSCE has built countless leaders such as Chiara Parks, who won the 2021 International Black Youth Techathon Education Series at age 11. Dr. Oberman is a creative fundraiser, and has formed a monumental intercultural network locally, state-wide and internationally. Some of those partners include The Alliance for Public Waldorf Education, Envision Learning Partners Bay Area Performance Network, BELL Learning, and the Alameda County Food Bank. Dr. Oberman also is a key ally with AHC, and together we have helped empower young minds through integrated arts education. According to Dr. Oberman, “Through art we grow into our true humanness in deep relationships with others. We are so thankful for our deep partnership.” 

Dr. Oberman is undoubtedly an educational advocate for all people, regardless of gender, race, or religion. But as a woman herself, she is exceptionally proud of how much opportunity has risen for women today and what they have accomplished from generation to generation. Now that she is established in her career, she finds great joy in being a mentor to others. She also understands the importance of  educational systems that allow young girls to capitalize on their strengths so they can live their lives to the absolute fullest and leave their own lasting marks that influence positive, global change.

"Education lays the foundation for a girl’s future" - Ida Oberman.

Women's History Month: Aeeshah Clottey (AHC Co-Founder)

March is Women’s History Month. We’d like to take the time to acknowledge the trailblazing women that are within our midst now. Women that have paved the way and dedicated themselves to laying a strong foundation for others to build, grow and thrive. First, we will acknowledge our co-founder and leader of the Attitudinal Healing Connection (AHC) in Oakland, Mrs. Aeeshah Clottey (known by many in the community as Ms. Aeeshah).

Born in Louisiana and the youngest of 12, she grew up picking cotton and being reared by her tenacious older sisters, heroic mother, and hard-working father. At age 15, Aeeshah migrated west to help her elder sisters who had settled in East Palo Alto to work and raise families. It was there that she finished high school, became the valedictorian of her class and got a full scholarship to UC Berkeley. At Berkeley, she became fully awakened to the impact of racism, witnessing how its insidious nature manipulated humanity’s capacity to live in unity. Her spiritual and philosophical evolution and the tumultuous civil rights movement of the 60’s led her to join the Nation of Islam. 

Dedicated to the Black liberation movement, she found that her journey had not ended as she sought truth through books that spoke to higher conscious thinking, awareness, and spirituality. At this point, she was introduced to a set of books, "A Course in Miracles," which connected her to a burgeoning Attitudinal Healing community in Tiburon, CA. This new relationship catalyzed a profound and effective shift in her thoughts and direction. Aeeshah knew there was more to learn and understand—her path led her into an inner journey of healing and a deeper connection to her purpose.  

In 1989, she co-founded AHC with her life partner and husband Kokomon Clottey. Since then, she has traveled the world, supported the development of other Attitudinal Healing Centers globally and written the published books: Beyond Fear, Twelve Spiritual Keys to Racial Healing (revised and published as Color Theory) and Eternal Quest for Happiness.

Through her work, passion, and commitment, she envisions a world where everyone is loved, educated and valued. Her notable projects involve parent and community engagement, workforce development for youth, and teaching the values of being a good neighbor while imparting the benefits of public housing. She is a woman beyond her time with the unique ability to connect with all communities and build an array of diverse allies to support the work of AHC.