Anyka Howard

BLACspace Cultural Arts Steward

Zakiya Harris

BLACspace Governance Steward

Carolyn Johnson

BLACspace Real Estate Steward

Adéniké Amin

Mutual Aid Lead

Sadé Shakur

Admin & Infrastructure Lead

Noni Sessions

BLACspace Cooperative Steward

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga

BLACspace Resource Steward

Anna Shneiderman

Creative Operations Lead

Adéniké Amin

Mutual Aid Lead

Anyka Howard

BLACspace Cultural Arts Steward

Anyka is an Oakland native, a mother, artist/activist, strategist, and entrepreneur. Since founding the award-winning Betti Ono Gallery in 2010, she has produced more than 60 exhibitions and programs. Anyka has held significant roles at the Oakland Museum and The San Francisco Foundation, and co-founded the Oakland Creative Neighborhoods Coalition. She designs art, enterprise, and social impact strategy to leverage creative capital, cultural products, and networks for good.

Learn More:  bettiono.com

Sadé Shakur

Admin & Infrastructure Lead

Sed luctus pharetra cursus. Phasellus placerat nunc eu urna tincidunt posuere. Suspendisse in tempor tortor, vitae convallis turpis. Proin aliquet pretium turpis. Suspendisse consequat leo magna, ac dapibus risus consectetur et. Nunc pharetra in enim et molestie. Donec laoreet efficitur mi. Nam nulla velit, cursus et rhoncus quis, tincidunt at nibh. Cras turpis turpis, interdum vel sem sed, posuere suscipit justo. Sed ut auctor enim. Quisque dapibus nisl eu ultricies dictum. Sed tristique aliquam purus quis efficitur.

Shaina Simmons

Storytelling Lead

Sed luctus pharetra cursus. Phasellus placerat nunc eu urna tincidunt posuere. Suspendisse in tempor tortor, vitae convallis turpis. Proin aliquet pretium turpis. Suspendisse consequat leo magna, ac dapibus risus consectetur et. Nunc pharetra in enim et molestie. Donec laoreet efficitur mi. Nam nulla velit, cursus et rhoncus quis, tincidunt at nibh. Cras turpis turpis, interdum vel sem sed, posuere suscipit justo. Sed ut auctor enim. Quisque dapibus nisl eu ultricies dictum. Sed tristique aliquam purus quis efficitur.

Zakiya Harris

BlacSpace Governance Steward

Zakiya Harris aka Sh8peshifter is a dynamic futurist, educator, and entrepreneur whose work seamlessly merges creativity, spirituality, and social impact. Hailing from Oakland, CA, this thought leader and polymath has left a lasting mark on the creative landscape. The author of Sh8peshift Your Life: a creatives guide to personal transformation, Zakiya is a sought after creative coach and founder of Sh8peshift Society Collective, a thriving community that offers Masterclasses, Sound Healing and Wellness Modalities to purpose-driven creatives across the globe. Currently, she serves as the Lead Steward of BlacSpace Cooperative, a capacity building organization for Black Led Cultural Arts Anchors in Oakland and is a Senior Strategist for Edutainment for Equity. Awards and recognitions include the Ella Baker Center Future Leaders Award, Brioxy Fellow and YBCA 100.

Carolyn Johnson

BLACspace Real Estate Steward

CJ is an Oakland native and is the CEO of the Black Cultural Zone. She has thirty years of experience in entrepreneurship, business management, non-profit operations, finance, and commercial real estate. CJ has completed over $250 million in investment sales transactions and has leased hundreds of spaces. Most recently, she was the Director of Commercial Real Estate at a leading Bay Area affordable housing corporation. CJ is also a tenured Professor at College of Alameda in the Business Department.

Learn More:  blackculturalzone.org

Dr. Ayodele Nzinga

BLACspace Resource Steward

Ayodele, MFA, Ph.D. is a Cultural Architect: an actor, playwright, director, published author and community organizer. She is the Founding Director of the Lower Bottom Playaz, Oakland's oldest North American African theater company, Co-Founder of BAMBD CDC, and Artistic Director of BAMBDFEST. She is currently serving as Oakland’s first Poet Laureate. She has received awards from Theater Bay Area, Alameda County and SF Foundation recognizing her 30+ years of arts and civic leadership. She is passionate about the arts as a tool for engaging marginalized communities in cultural organizing to design their own futures.

Noni Sessions

BLACspace Cooperative Steward

Noni is a Co-founder and Executive Director of East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative, which supports BIPOC and allied communities to finance, purchase, occupy, and steward collectively-owned land and housing. As a 3rd generation West Oaklander, cultural anthropologist, and grassroots organizer, Noni’s diverse formative, academic and professional background contributes to her unique approach to economic development. As a Fulbright-Hays fellow she studied international humanitarian strategies for developing communities globally. Upon completing her Doctoral work, she helped found several small scale collective civic action networks. After a 2016 run for city council where she garnered more than 43% of the District 3 vote, Noni saw a clear path to ameliorating resource disparities in her West Oakland community-- by building more cooperative networks and galvanizing opportunities for collective economic action. Since co-founding EB PREC, noni has also co-founded BlacSpace Cooperative as well as a Black led rural intentional community Black to the Land @ Emerald Earth Sanctuary

Anna Shneiderman

Creative Operations Lead

Anna is a cultural strategist, entrepreneur, and ensemble theater artist. She co-founded Ragged Wing Ensemble, a multidisciplinary performance company, The Flight Deck, a shared performance venue, and the Reimagining Business Models in the Arts research project, and served as a CultureBank fellow. She is currently a coach and thought partner for arts leaders, at the intersection of organizational development, somatic leadership development, social entrepreneurship, and racial & social justice. She is fiercely committed to forging a cooperative and regenerative creative economy so that artists and their communities can thrive.

Adéniké Amin

Mutual Aid Lead

Sed luctus pharetra cursus. Phasellus placerat nunc eu urna tincidunt posuere. Suspendisse in tempor tortor, vitae convallis turpis. Proin aliquet pretium turpis. Suspendisse consequat leo magna, ac dapibus risus consectetur et. Nunc pharetra in enim et molestie. Donec laoreet efficitur mi. Nam nulla velit, cursus et rhoncus quis, tincidunt at nibh. Cras turpis turpis, interdum vel sem sed, posuere suscipit justo. Sed ut auctor enim. Quisque dapibus nisl eu ultricies dictum. Sed tristique aliquam purus quis efficitur.