Marcel Diallo
| Marcel Diallo | |
|---|---|
 Marcel Diallo in Oakland, 2006 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Marcel Jack |
| Born | October 9, 1972 |
| Occupations | Poet Musician Artist Philosopher Social Entrepreneur Activist |
| Instruments | Vocals MPC60II |
| Website | Official Site |
Marcel Diallo (born Marcel Jack on October 9, 1972) is an American musician, poet, artist and community builder, known for his founding of the Black Dot Artists Collective, The Black New World and his revitalization efforts in West Oakland's historic, predominantly African-American Prescott neighborhood aka the Lower Bottoms.
In 2009, Diallo was implicated in an Internet fraud and libel scandal against another Oakland activist.[1][2]
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Diallo was born and raised in Richmond, California, the eldest of four children. After graduating from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with a B.A. in philosophy, Diallo moved back to the Bay Area, settling in Oakland while earning a Master's Degree at John F. Kennedy University in Consciousness Studies. In Oakland he became involved in Oakland's cafe poetry scene. He opened a poetry venue, The Black Dot Cafe in 1998. He has four sons with his longtime partner.[3][4][5][6]
[edit] Career
Diallo began as an open mic poet/emcee. He founded the Black Dot Artists' Collective in 1996 with poet Robert Jamal Jackson and percussionist Kele Nitoto. The three artists began an open mic called Rhyme Ritual at The Java House in Oakland that attracted artists involved in the Bay Area's spoken word and poetry scene.
In 1997, Diallo released his first album, The Shaman and The Nigga God, on Akashic Records, a Bay Area independent hip-hop label. A later release from the same label, Flesh and Blood, was reviewed by writer Eric K. Arnold as being a slept-on album.[clarification needed] However, none of his albums have been re-released with wider distribution.
In 1998, Marcel Diallo opened the Ritual Space and Black Dot Cafe in East Oakland. Some well known artists featured were Boots Riley from The Coup, Eddie Gale, Amiri Baraka, The Last Poets, Kahil El Zabar, Marvin X, The Grouch and Bicasso from Living Legends, and Piri Thomas. The space also featured an open mic night called The Word and a youth workshop called Beats, Flows & Videos. Esoterism was a strong theme at both venues where yoga, meditation, vegan lifestyle workshops and other spiritual services were offered alongside traditional hip hop concerts.[7]
When Black Dot artists collective got evicted from their East Oakland location, they relocated to West Oakland. Though the artists collective had previously done arts-activism work such as the No on Prop 21 campaign, it would become concentrated in one neighborhood with their new location in 2000. Coined the Village Bottoms by Diallo, the artists collective focused on community and economic development, as well as affordable housing and anti-gentrification education in West Oakland. The area, which currently involves mostly Pine and Wood streets is being revitalized by a community of active volunteers into a Black cultural district, similar to that of Leimert Park in Los Angeles and Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District in Newark, New Jersey. The area, which has been a multi-ethnic community, but remained primarily African-American after World War 2, saw its economic infrastructure change drastically upon the building of the BART station, Cypress Freeway, and Post Office. Over the years, the area grew one of the worst reputations in Oakland as the Lower Bottoms. Project of Diallo's organization the Village Bottoms Community Building and Development Corporation, have been an urban farm, cultural arts businesses, performance venues, cooperative/collective grocery services, affordable housing, and public arts parades and programs.
Marcel Diallo has remained one of Oakland's most controversial arts figures. He is co-founder of Eastside Arts Alliance, a multicultural organization in the Lower San Antonio District and currently works with Ecocity Builders. Much of his criticism seems to have come from an article written by David Downs in the East Bay Express, where Diallo is featured on the cover. In that article, Downs presents Diallo and the artists from the Art Murmur as opposites, with Diallo taking aim at the "hipsters" which are often young whites relocating to the East Bay. Other criticsm seems to stem from the concept of the cultural district, which some residents label exclusionary. Diallo and many of his non-black supporters have been quoted in countless mainstream media stating that the revitalization of Oakland's oldest Black neighborhood is for the benefit of all residents of Oakland, regardless of race, color or creed. San Francisco Chronicle.[8][9][10][11] He was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Magazine in January 2007 saying, ' It's not just for blacks, said Diallo. "Everybody needs a black cultural district. Just like everybody needs a Chinatown." San Francisco Chronicle.[8][9][10][11]
[edit] Continuing creative efforts
Though Diallo's activism seems a primary focus, he continues to curate at places like Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and create art for exhibits at Bay Area galleries. In 2000, Diallo was selected to exhibit a visual arts installation titled, Scrapyard Ghosts, at ProArts Gallery in Old Oakland. He has since opened various galleries in Oakland's Prescott neighborhood. He has also exhibited and taught at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. His curatorial exhibits have featured some of the Bay Area's renown artists such as former Black Panther Emory Douglas, West Oakland sculptor Bruce Beasley, Eesuu Orundide, Keba Konte, Githinji Wa Mbire, Kevin Slagle, Don Fortescue and others.[12] He has also worked with artists Amiri Baraka, The Last Poets, David Murray[disambiguation needed 
], Kahil El Zabar, Sonia Sanchez, Kamau Da'oud, Marvin X, Piri Thomas, Micheal McClure, Lawrence Ferlingetti, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, and Don Cheadle.
In 2000, Diallo was featured in Source Magazine's Dreaming Americans series.[13]
He has self-published one book of poetry. His forthcoming book Black New World Manifesto, featuring prose and poems with a forward by Amiri Baraka is due for release by Black Dot Cafe Press in 2009.
[edit] Allegations of fraud, libel
In March 2009 Marcel Diallo allegedly registered a Gmail account in the name of Oakland artists' advocate Max Allstadt. The account was used to impersonate Allstadt and send emails full of racist and homophobic invective to black community leaders, journalists, and public officials. Evidence that Diallo was the most likely perpetrator of this attack was reported by Robert Gammon of the East Bay Express in November, 2009.[1]
Gammon wrote that Allstadt sits on a community board that voted against funding Marcel Diallo's Village Bottoms Farms project. The Express also said that court documents included affidavits from Comcast and Google stating that the racist email that attempted to frame Allstadt had originated from Marcel Diallo's residence. Additionally, articles on San Francisco Chronicle's website and in the Express wrote that Diallo's property records revealed massive debts and unending foreclosures. According to the Express, the only reason Diallo had not been evicted from his residence was that a wealthy white developer named Rick Holliday had bailed Diallo out and rented his house back to him.[2]
[edit] Discography
Album/EPs
The Shaman & The Nigga God (1997)
SPACE: Rhyme Ritual Trio (1998)
Live @ The CyberCafe (1998)
Shadows & Moonlight (1998)
Overdue Babies (2003)
Honey Suga Love (2009)
[edit] Bibliography
"The Shaman & Chapter Book", 1997
The Last Will And Testament of Shitworker Jainkins: Prosessays & Bastard Literature, 1998
[edit] Exhibitions
West Oakland Today/Scrapyard Ghosts, ProArts Gallery, 1998 (artist)
Reparations!, Asian Resource Gallery, Oakland Chinatown, 1999 (artist)
Sampling Oakland/ Eastside Story, YBCA, 2006 (guest curator & artist)
OSHUN, Cornelia Bell's Black Bottom Gallery, Oakland, 2007 (artist)
Decolonization! An installation of Self-Rule, Cornelia Bell's Black Bottoms Gallery, Oakland, 2007 (curator & artist)
Betcha Bottom Dollar: An Underground Currency Game, Cornelia Bell's Black Bottom Gallery, Oakland, 2007 (curator & artist)
Black Panther: The Cultural Ministry of Emory Douglas, ART@THE CANNERY, Oakland, 2008 (curator & artist)
West Oakland at The Moment, ART@THE CANNERY, Oakland, 2008 (curator & artist)
Ekpu & The Fattening House: The Art of Inyang Ntofon, ART@THE CANNERY (curator)
BAN5/ The Black New World Recipe Book One: Sanctified Gumbo, Yerba Buena Center for The Arts, 2008 (guest curator & artist)
[edit] References
- ^ a b Robert Gammon. "You Don't Know Jack". East Bay Express. http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/you-dont-know-jack/Content?oid=1428761.
- ^ a b Jonathan Bair (November 18, 2009). "West Oakland, Internet Fraud, and Developers: a Lower Bottom Scandal". SFGate.com / San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inoakland/detail?&entry_id=51942.
- ^ The Black Dot: An interview wit’ Marcel Diallo by Minister of Information JR, Wednesday, 23 May 2007, The Bayview Newspaper
- ^ Against Gentrification: Marcel Diallo sees a black cultural district where Oakland's the Bottoms neighborhood now stands by Anne Stuhldreher, Sunday, January 21, 2007, San Francisco Chronicle Magazine
- ^ Black Dot Artists Collective: Evolving Tradition in West Oakland. By Sonya Smith, Feb 15, 2008, CityFlight.com
- ^ Chief's greatest triumph comes after his death by Marcel Diallo. Oakland Tribune. July 25, 2005. EDITOR'S NOTE: Marcel Diallo, 32, is an Oakland-based musician, writer and cultural historian. His family came to the Bay Area from New Orleans as part of the great migration West by blacks.
- ^ Punk Planet #40, November/December 2000: Marcel Diallo-Black Dot Cafe by Aaron Shuman]
- ^ a b Roots For The Future: West Oakland, California's Black New World club forges a fresh artistic community in the shadows of a once-thriving district. By Jamilah King, February 20, 2008, Wiretap Magazine
- ^ a b Nation: The Fine Art of Rebuilding West Oakland by Richard Gonzales, Morning Edition, February 16, 2007 - NPR
- ^ a b The Odd Couple: How developer Rick Holliday reached out to community activist Marcel Diallo to pave the way for Central Station. By Rachel Swan, August 27, 2008 East Bay Express
- ^ a b Hipster Invasion: Downtown Oakland's fledgling art scene is booming — and some artists and residents aren't terribly happy about it. By David Downs August 30, 2006 East Bay Express
- ^ Scrap yard debris to resurface as historical black art by Rona Marech, Chronicle Staff Writer, Sunday, February 17, 2002
- ^ Dreaming Americans: Marcel Diallo by Eric K. Arnold, The Source Magazine, October 2000
[edit] Further reading
Black Artists in Oakland by Jerry Thompson, Duane Deterville, 2007, Arcadia Publishing, ISBN 0738547255
Maximum Rocknroll, Published by Maximum Rock 'n' Roll, 2006
Z magazine By Institute for Social and Cultural Communications Published by Institute for Social and Cultural Communications, 2000
Building Arts, Building Community? Informal Arts Districts and Neighborhood Change In Oakland, California, by the Center for Community Innovation University of California, Berkeley, 2008. [1]
