Since 2014, the East Oakland Black Cultural Zone Collaborative Partners have worked with a coalition of residents, government agencies, churches, and grassroots organizing and community groups to help keep Black folks in East Oakland. Through our strategy of building power, securing land, and directing more dollars to community driven projects we can secure a foothold in East Oakland that finally allows our neighborhoods to thrive.
Alena Museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit with the mission of providing critical safe spaces for the African diaspora to express and cultivate their cultural identity. We achieve this mission by developing and acquiring land that will serve as cultural and restorative hubs for the African diaspora. In the African language of Tigrinya, "Alena" translates to "We are here/good." Alena Museum embodies the spirit of our namesake by activating spaces for the African Diaspora who are in dire need of safe gathering space, workspace, live space, and inclusion in the changing urban city landscapes. We declare "we are here" in the face of aggressive gentrification and systematic global land displacement, a contemporary iteration of the white supremacy and colonialism embedded throughout Western history.
