Spotlight Sundays: Alice Street Screening with Malonga Arts Dance and Drums
Spotlight Sundays: Alice Street Screening with Malonga Arts Dance and Drums
September 20 from 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
This month’s Spotlight Sundays highlights the story and spirit of Oakland as a nexus of community belonging and resilience in the face of rapid gentrification, themes central to Mildred Howard’s artwork and practice. We will screen the documentary Alice Street, directed by Spencer Wilkinson, which narrates how a neighborhood mural on 14th and Alice Street catalyzed a multiracial coalition to rally in protection of cultural arts and livability in Oakland.
Groups featured in the film from the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts will open and close the program, including a drum offering by Bantaba Drum Call to call in ancestors and a performance by Dimensions Dance Theater to root in Black joy and resistance—hearkening back to Howard’s many years spent honing her dance skills with Oakland dance legend Ruth Beckford before immersing in the visual arts. Hosted by Oakland Chinatown organizer Lailan Sandra Huen, this day will delve into the intimate layers of anti-displacement work ranging from ensuring cultural continuance to sustaining the places that house personal, collective, and ancestral memory. Please join us to experience and reflect on the power of multicultural community engagement.
Language access: The film will screen in English with Chinese subtitles.
This Spotlight Sundays is a part of our exhibition programming for Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory, on view through October 18, 2026.
Accessibility
Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) is committed to providing programs that are accessible, welcoming, and inclusive of our community. Wheelchairs, sensory inclusive devices, and additional amenities are available for checkout on a first come, first served basis at the Ticketing Desk. To request other accommodations, like American Sign Language (ASL), Cantonese, Spanish or another language interpreter, please email [email protected] at least three weeks before the event. Learn more about our accessibility options.
Bios
Spencer Wilkinson is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, educator, impact producer, and founder of Endangered Ideas, an Oakland-based production company. His documentaries explore culture, identity, and social change, paired with community impact campaigns that inspire civic engagement. Before filmmaking, he spent a decade working with systems-impacted youth. His films include Alice Street, ONE VOICE: The Story of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, Oakland Boogaloo (co-produced with KQED and recipient of a Regional Emmy Award), AscenDance, and Solomon Hill. His work has screened internationally, aired on PBS, and reached thousands through educational and community partnerships.
Lailan Sandra Huen is a 5th-generation Oaklander whose family sought refuge in Oakland Chinatown after the 1906 earthquake. She was part of the Oakland Chinatown Coalition, having led campaigns to secure Community Benefits Agreements in new developments and working for equitable development. She authored the “Our Neighborhoods” report for the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, which documents best practices to protect our cultural districts. Lailan is a doctoral student in East-West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies with a focus in belonging and racial healing.
Bantaba Drum Call harnesses the healing power of drums and community. Led by master drummer and culture keeper Baba Mosheh Milon, Sr., Bantaba offers year-round community workshops that explore mindfulness, movement, and various drum and percussion styles. With a name drawn from the Mandingo term describing a “community circle and gathering place for important events,” Bantaba roots its practice in therapeutic and cultural enrichment.
Founded in Oakland in 1972, Dimensions Dance Theater (DDT) creates, performs, heals, and teaches dance reflecting the lives and historical experiences of African Americans and people throughout the African Diaspora. Under co-founder and Artistic Director Deborah Vaughan, DDT is one of the oldest contemporary dance companies in the US, widely recognized for its repertoire of traditional African, jazz, and modern dance idioms and its Rites of Passage program for youth.
Based at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in downtown Oakland, DDT is a leading member of the Malonga Arts Collective and presents an annual home season in October.