Oakstop Alliance is a black arts-led non-profit organization in Oakland California.

We empower creative entrepreneurs and small businesses to grow their businesses and enrich their communities with culturally relevant and accessible workshops, events and experiences!

We recognize

in low/middle income areas of the Bay Area there is a vast discrepancy in capital access and funding for black arts and culture practitioners.

Ironically these under-resourced entrepreneurs tend to contribute their sweat equity and personal finances to over-compensate for a systemic lack of resources to curate essential community programs and interventions.

Project Spotlight

We serve the muralists who teach children how to use art to express themselves and beautify their communities. We serve the curator who started with 10 creatives networking in her living room and now needs a venue to host 100 creatives. We serve the black business owners who make up our Main St. and are more likely to extend a line of credit their their customers than any bank or lending institution.
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Oakland Black Business Fund

The Oakland Black Business Fund was incited by disproportionate rates of closure for Black businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, further demonstrating vulnerabilities caused by the historical lack of access to capital for Black entrepreneurs.
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The Oakland Resident Initiative

While Oakland is an undeniable breeding ground for culture and talent, local artists have long expressed the desire to cultivate the musical scene to provide the creative resources readily available in cities like New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles. Our artists are distinctive, groundbreaking and influential…why do they feel they have to leave the city they love and represent to be seen and heard?
Learn More
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Gold Beams

Tayleur Crenshaw has a dream to curate and produce the next big global festival. It started from her living room in Oakland where she hosted seven of her creative friends and they performed for each other in her safe space. The crowd grew exponentially at her next gathering until she ran out of space in her apartment.
Learn More
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Oaktown Soul

We’ve partnered with Oaktown Soul to support their incredible work as a startup record-label, as creative entrepreneurs and as emerging advocates for a viable arts economy in Oakland. Oakstop Alliance is thrilled to be a part of the work that will produce a body of incredible music from Oakland artists and the next great music conference serving independent music artists and entrepreneurs.
Learn More
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Youth Beat Apprenticeship Program Partnership

Youth Beat is an Oakland based non-profit organization that partners with KDOL-TV to provide free, in-depth film, photography, and animation training to low-income Oakland youth. Their most advanced high school students and young adult grads have career paths with the organization as paid interns and staff. Youth Beat came to Oakstop Alliance with a vision to extend their work-based learning program beyond high school.
Learn More

Project Spotlight

We serve the muralists who teach children how to use art to express themselves and beautify their communities. We serve the curator who started with 10 creatives networking in her living room and now needs a venue to host 100 creatives. We serve the black business owners who make up our Main St. and are more likely to extend a line of credit their their customers than any bank or lending institution.
Image

Oakland Black Business Fund

The Oakland Black Business Fund was incited by disproportionate rates of closure for Black businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, further demonstrating vulnerabilities caused by the historical lack of access to capital for Black entrepreneurs.
Learn More
Image

Oakland Resident Music Initiative

While Oakland is an undeniable breeding ground for culture and talent, local artists have long expressed the desire to cultivate the musical scene to provide the creative resources readily available in cities like New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles. Our artists are distinctive, groundbreaking and influential…why do they feel they have to leave the city they love and represent to be seen and heard?
Learn More
Image

Gold Beams

Tayleur Crenshaw has a dream to curate and produce the next big global festival. It started from her living room in Oakland where she hosted seven of her creative friends and they performed for each other in her safe space. The crowd grew exponentially at her next gathering until she ran out of space in her apartment.
Learn More
Image

Oaktown Soul

We’ve partnered with Oaktown Soul to support their incredible work as a startup record-label, as creative entrepreneurs and as emerging advocates for a viable arts economy in Oakland. Oakstop Alliance is thrilled to be a part of the work that will produce a body of incredible music from Oakland artists and the next great music conference serving independent music artists and entrepreneurs.
Learn More
Image

Youth Beat Apprenticeship Program Partnership

Youth Beat is an Oakland based non-profit organization that partners with KDOL-TV to provide free, in-depth film, photography, and animation training to low-income Oakland youth. Their most advanced high school students and young adult grads have career paths with the organization as paid interns and staff. Youth Beat came to Oakstop Alliance with a vision to extend their work-based learning program beyond high school.
Learn More

Oakstop Alliance exists

to actively foster and promote a healthy business ecosystem for creative entrepreneurs and small businesses. The first key need for these communities to thrive is visibility and acknowledgement! Without continued patronage, the black-owned small businesses of the Bay Area simply will not survive. Support for Oakstop Alliance will result in direct and immediate support for the arts community and enable essential cultural programming to reach low-income communities in the Bay Area (and eventually across the world.)
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Get Involved

We get it, we work with phenomenal people and want nothing more than to share them with the world. There are a bunch of ways you can tap into the Oakstop Alliance movement and we appreciate your interest!
1

Make a donation

Private or Organizational
Your tax deductible donation will support us in this mission and will be applied to our greatest organizational need whether it be staffing or programming.
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2

Become a Partner

Our growing resource network
We appreciate and applaud their commitment to our creative and economic communities of color in the Bay Area!
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3

Hire a Black Artist

Let us connect you
What what type of project are you seeking creative help?
4

Patronize a black-owned business

Let us connect you
What good/service are you looking for?
Other ways to support usSome won't cost a penny!

When you’re an entrepreneur, you don’t have all the answers and you may be navigating a new industry or field by yourself. Damon and Oakstop Alliance make you feel like family…your story is important, your business is important and even if you don’t know something, you still are important.

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Princess & Brownie Sims

The Final Sauce

I can’t thank Oakstop Alliance enough. What Oakland Black Business Fund provided me with their technical assistance program goes beyond any monetary figure I could’ve received. OBBF gave my business an identity, for which I’ll forever be grateful!

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Catherean Mitchell

Mitchell’s Transport

We need you!

Together we do really great things for the Oakland Community. Your tax-deductible donation goes a very long way to changing lives.
Donate Today

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