West Oakland: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow is a virtual walking tour and web exhibition aimed at documenting West Oakland’s site-specific Black history. Faced with a housing crisis and large waves of Black displacement, this project urgently asks, how exactly did West Oakland become what it is today?
The host, third-generation Oaklander, researcher, and radio producer Babette Thomas turns to her father’s stories of growing up housing insecure in West Oakland during the 60s and 70s to understand the forces at play. Overlaying multigenerational narratives of Black Oakland, this project combines podcasting, oral history, and forensic mapping to urgently preserve the Black voices that the city is rapidly losing.