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.
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
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
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
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.)
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!Make a donation
Private or OrganizationalYour tax deductible donation will support us in this mission and will be applied to our greatest organizational need whether it be staffing or programming.
Learn More
Become a Partner
Our growing resource networkWe appreciate and applaud their commitment to our creative and economic communities of color in the Bay Area!
Learn More
Hire a Black Artist
Let us connect youWhat what type of project are you seeking creative help?
Tell usWhat are you looking for?
Patronize a black-owned business
Let us connect youWhat good/service are you looking for?
Tell usWhat are you looking for?
This year Oakstop Alliance and Damon have helped grow our company’s brand awareness significantly by providing us opportunities and spaces that we would have otherwise not have had access to. In particular, the space Oakstop Alliance gave us access to allowed our Networking Brunch to grow in size and host professional panels that in turn gave the community access to more equitable knowledge.
In the future, we look forward to continuing to work with Oakstop Alliance because we see the impact their work has had for us and in turn the art community in Oakland!
Shawn Fendt
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.
Princess & Brownie Sims
