Week 8 - From Evolution to Revolution

Hello! Hope y’all are having a good week 🙂 I’m going to talk more about Oakland in this blog and what I was able to explore and see over the week. 

Please check out this link for the full blog on Google Docs with images.

I was able to check out Oakland and see a variety of graffiti and symbols. In the part of Oakland surrounding Highland Hospital (where I took the images in this post) , there are a variety of blue collar businesses, most commonly auto shops. This is reflected by the graffiti in the surrounding area. 

As you can see, this Tire shop has a depiction of graffiti stating “Welcome to Oakland”

In another alley, I found a dedication to someone who had passed away saying: “Represent in Paradise”

I was also able to see many connections to the Punk and Hip-Hop Communities, including a reference using the anarchy symbol, and an MF DOOM mural. This mural, as we can tell by the “Ex-V’s” in the top left of the artist’s tag itself, was created by Ex- Vandals, who also created a powerful piece with the Black Power fist and a sign that stated “We are Ex-Vandals.”

Including these sentiments, there were a lot of feminist murals and murals against incarceration of youth of color. 

These murals were incredibly powerful to see, especially the one that lists the reasons why Alameda County is wrong and what they can do to fix the increased incarceration of youth of color. This mural used powerful words “Rehabilitation not Incarceration.”

I also found an incredibly cool alleyway that showed the community of graffiti artists coming together and creating an alleyway full of Mario Kart related artwork

Overall, it was amazing to see the various communities and marginalized diasporas that Oakland graffiti represents including Punk, Hip-Hop, Hispanic, Native, Black, etc. 

See you next week!