The Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts, a bustling six-story cultural hub on Alice Street since 1986, houses a vibrant mix of diverse artistic groups. On a recent Thursday afternoon, the Dimensions Dance Theater and Omulu Capoeira were in full swing with their classes. These two groups are part of the Malonga Arts Collective, a group of 10 nonprofit arts organizations in the building since 1996. The air was filled with the sounds of drumming and hip-hop and the energy of the dancers, a testament to the vibrant cultural scene that the Malonga fosters. On the first floor, the building’s theater, while ample, has seats from the 1920s that need cushions to make them comfortable. The theater also needs new theatrical lights and upgrades to the lighting grid. Other parts of the building, such as the ballet studios, haven’t been renovated since the 90s.
The nonprofit organizations that comprise the collective offer a range of affordable classes, including West African dancing, capoeira, hip-hop, and others. The collective also hosts special events, showcases, and festivals. Members estimate that the classes serve around 500 people a month, with special events often attracting more than 300 guests. The city helps support the groups by offering below-market rent. From April 26 to May 4, the collective will host the Bay Area Dance Week, offering the community 19 free dance and drum classes.
However, members of the collective believe that the cultural programming and community services offered at the Malonga are in jeopardy. They argue the city is not doing enough to maintain the building. Without an influx of cash to tackle repairs, the building could fall further into disrepair, causing a halt to classes if it needs to be closed down for major repairs for an extended period.
For the past decade, the group has been trying to get the city’s attention to address issues like mold, an outdated theater, and other repairs. However, the group also understands that Mayor Sheng Thao’s priorities are the projected $177 million budget deficit and public safety.
Collective members include Anthony Fidel, director and instructor of Omulu Capoeira; Deborah Vaughan, co-founder and artist director of Dimensions Dance Theater; and Naomi Diouf, executive director and artistic director of Diamano Coura West African Dance Company.
“One of the reasons we offer the classes is that it is important for our youth to have exposure to the arts,” Deborah Vaughn said. “The goal is not to be the best dancer but to become the best person, learn about themselves, improve their self-esteem, and lift their voices to start making positive decisions that will improve their lives.”
Members of the collective say that the theater could be a “state-of-the-art facility” that helps drive revenue for the center. For now, the theater can’t be used to host as many events because of how outdated it is.
The Malonga is city-owned and is overseen by the Oakland Department of Parks, Recreation, and Youth Development. Last year, Dana Riley, the city’s interim director of Parks Recreation and Youth Development, wrote in a report that “managing a facility of this size and complexity requires designated staff beyond what OPRYD is currently budgeted. Adequate oversight requires the addition of a Recreation Supervisor to focus on implementation, expansion and promotion of cultural art programs and services to the community and management of staff performing day to day operations of the Malonga, including studio, theater and event space.”
In September, the collective will receive a $40,000 grant from the Bay Area Cultural Funders for Equality. The grant can be used at the collective’s discretion to help the arts programming in the building. While members of the collective are looking forward to using this grant, they say it is not enough to expand programming or remedy the infrastructural repairs.
According to city spokesperson Jean Walsh, the total budget to support the 300 Oakland-owned venues is $9.7 million of which $267,700 is allocated for Malonga.
“Realistically, we need around $2 million every fiscal year,” Diouf said. “And that is just to upgrade the building and have an arts manager dedicated to it.”
A long history of fighting for equity
In the three decades since opening its doors, the Malonga Center has grown into a community arts hub and has also seen its share of fights to preserve the building and its programming.
Designated an Oakland Landmark in 2005, the building was constructed in 1928 as the Women’s City Club. In 1986, the City of Oakland acquired the building, and in 1993, it was rebranded as the Alice Arts Center. In 2004, it was renamed once more as the Malonga Casquelord Center in honor of Malonga Casquelourd, a renowned Cameroonian dance artist, instructor, and the founder of Fua Dia Congo, an organization dedicated to preserving the arts among the African diaspora. Casquelourd was a pivotal figure in safeguarding the artistic nonprofits when the then-Alice Arts Center was under threat of closure. Casquelord was killed by a drunk driver who crashed into his car in the summer of 2003. Fua Dia Congo continues to operate out of the building.
The Malonga Center’s six stories are divided into two sections. The first three stories and the basement level are used as a performing arts center that houses the collective. The square footage includes five dance studios, a theater, a smaller black box theater, classrooms, and multi-purpose rooms adjacent to the main building. The top three floors are single-room-occupancy housing occupied by The Malonga Arts Residents Association.
In 2003, Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, founder of the Oakland School for the Arts (OSA), wanted the nonprofits to vacate the building so OSA could occupy the whole property. When the school opened in 2002, it was housed in the basement classrooms.
In 2016, artists from the Malonga and other Oakland culture keepers fought a three-year battle against the developer behind Alice House, a market-rate tower built across the street from the center. As a result of the construction, parking used for the Malonga Center was lost, and the cherished mural the Universal Language—a colorful love letter mural to Oakland’s multiculturalism, featuring portraits of revered local artists and community leaders, including Malonga Casquelourd was obscured. The mural was created by artists Desi Mundo and Pancho Pescador of the Community Renovation Project. The yearslong saga of the mural—and the neighborhood surrounding it was the subject of the documentary Alice Street by Oakland filmmaker Spencer Wilkinson.
However, for the members of the Malonga Arts Collective, these two highly publicized incidents are just two examples of the collective’s daily battle to get city employees and Oakland officials to recognize the cultural significance of the building and the nonprofits it houses.
Anthony Fidel, director and instructor of Omulu Capoeira, an organization that provides Afro-Brazilian arts, dance, and drumming classes, said there needs to be more clarity on how the Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth Development department wants to run the building.
Fidel said the city treats the Malonga like a venue that gets rented by the hour and not like the cultural center it is. When a repair is needed, the collective has to send maintenance requests to Oakland Public Works (OPW) via OAK311. Repairs, they say, are not always addressed in a timely matter.
“We are an arts building, but the city wants to run it like a regular parks and rec venue, which we are not,” Fidel said about the friction with the building’s management. “They are not advocating for the arts like they should.”
The collective would like the city to hire an arts manager dedicated to working in the building. The manager would help with day-to-day operations and market all cultural events and classes.
The same informational report indicated that the city is “exploring the establishment of a Malonga Cultural Arts Advisory Council as a forum for public input at the neighborhood level to begin conversations about creating a cultural arts master plan.”
According to Walsh, the City is conducting a feasibility study to evaluate how the Malonga operates. The study— expected to be completed this summer— will support Oakland Park Recreation and Youth Development (OPRYD) management of the facility and establish ways to facilitate improvements and fundraising.
“The ultimate goal is to maximize the effectiveness of the arts center to better support the Oakland Arts community,” Walsh said.
Fidel said the building has yet to reopen to pre-COVID business hours, and neither management nor the City of Oakland does any marketing to promote all the weekly classes and other special events at the Malonga.
“The city is actively trying to fill a staff vacancy, which will enable the center to be open on Mondays,” Walsh said.
Struggling to secure sustainable arts education for future generations
Not far from where Fidel’s capoeira classes occur, the Dimensions Dance Theater company youth dancers are in a ballroom practicing for their annual showcase in May. Dance teacher Monet McCants guides the girls through the choreography created by one of the dancers, Sicily Mwanabaraka.
Deborah Vaughan, co-founder and artist director of Dimensions Dance Theater, observes from the side of the room. Dimensions is a 50-year-old institution that has been in Malonga since 1993 and focuses on teaching Western modern dance and traditional African dances.
“Auntie Deborah!,” said a dancer greeting Vaughn as she headed to class.
“So with the kids, we do different things, take them to performances, travel with them,” Vaughn said. “We approach them holistically.”
Vaughn wants the city to recognize the value of a cultural center like Malonga, where youth can express their artistic interests. She said Mayor Thao had visited the building before and discussed its needs with the collective. Vaughn added that she understands the mayor is in a “unique situation dealing with the city budget’s deficit and the recall.”
“This building is our home; it has always been our home since we came into the Bay Area,” said Diouf.
Like Fidel and Vaughn, Diouf also wants to find a consistent flow of funding so the collective can continue its mission out of the building for future generations.
“We always make a place in this building for people to come to. So that it doesn’t matter where people go, or how long it’s been, because we have a foothold in this building, they can always come back and find a seat,” Diouf said. “And they will always say, ‘Oh, you are still here.'”
For the previous fiscal year, according to Walsh, the city allocated a total of 3.57 million for deferred maintenance and emergency repairs at the 300 buildings it owns. As of Mar. 31, 80% of the funds were spent “performing emergency and urgent priority repairs.” The city also has a backlog of $9 million in “unaddressed urgent deferred maintenance repairs.” For context, the city of Oakland’s Capital Improvement Plan for 2019-2021—the city’s budget for fixing its buildings and infrastructure—estimated that $1.5 million was required for theater improvements and $250,000 for studio floors at the Malonga building.
Diouf, like Fidel, agrees that the city needs a clearer vision of the Malonga Center’s purpose.
“The city, Parks and Rec, and the people who manage this building still cannot get an understanding that this is a cultural center,” Diouf said. “And a cultural center’s functions are different from a regular building that you rent for a day.”
In an ideal world, the collective would like to find a way to purchase the building from the city, thus giving them full control to tackle the repairs independently without going through the city when there isn’t enough money to invest.
The collective sees the Oakland Asian Cultural Center as an example of how it can be done. Although the building is owned by the city, the API arts and cultural center organization holds a 10-year lease with the city, and is thus able to do all routine maintenance and repairs that are under $5,000 and can receive donations to maintain the building. Like the Malonga, the center in Chinatown rents out different rooms, and all of the funds go to the cultural programming and maintenance of the building. The Oakland Asian Cultural Center can also receive donations from private individuals, foundations, and other private donors to sustain its work. Donations cannot be used for repairs because the Malonga Collective doesn’t have a lease with the city for the building as OACC does.
“This building is a jewel,” Vaughn said, “it deserves more.”
Correction: The facility where OACC is housed is owned by the City of Oakland.
