VICTORY AT THE ALICE ARTS CENTER

Victory At The Alice Arts Center
By Lynda Carson April 17, 2004

Local Artists Fought Against Oakland City Hall And Won!

Oakland CA--The old saying is that you can't fight City Hall and win. Oakland artists have out smarted Oakland's Mayor Jerry Brown and have just proven that you can fight City Hall, and win.

On April 8, 2004, the City of Oakland and it's Mayor, Jerry Brown, quietly settled out of court with 12 residents of the Alice Arts Center after a suit was filed in small claims court during October 2003. The residents each received a check for $4,800 on April 15, with $500 payed to each of the litigants by the City and the rest of the money owed to each of the litigants coming from an insurance company.

The original suits filed in small claims court by each of the 13 residents of the Alice Arts Center (AAC) sought damage awards of at least $5,000 for each of the litigants.

The City appealed one out of the 13 suits that was filed after the tenant had already won damage awards in small claims court, and the appeal has not yet been resolved.

Already, 3 to 4 new suits have been filed against the City in small claims court by other residents at the AAC since learning of the April 8 settlements made to the others at the center.

Compensation was sought for the lack of a stove and kitchen priveleges that were removed by City Officials at the arts center. Compensation was also sought for a reduction in services and repairs that resulted in roof leaks, faulty showers and a deterioration in the quality of life for the residents. Lastly, damages were also sought after the residents charged that Mayor Jerry Brown had publicly slandered the residents of the arts center.

"For us this is a complete victory," said AAC resident and Tenant Association Member, Theo Williams. "We got our kitchen back with a better stove than before, priveleges were returned to use the vacuum cleaner, all the community bathrooms have been reopened, and we received $4,800 each for the extra money we had to spend for eating out after they took the kitchen from us."

"We won, we beat them! It was'nt so much about the money. It was'nt so much about the stove! A year ago we were almost pushed out the door by the Mayor's scheme to evict us, but we pulled together and fought back. When push comes to shove, you have to educate, agitate, pushback and organize! We want people to know they can fight City Hall, and win," said Williams.

The City of Oakland opened the Alice Arts Center (AAC) in 1987, and it has become a successful center of activity for African and African American dance troupes, with an estimated 50,000 people per year using the services offered at the AAC. The AAC also has a 400 seat indoor theater, and 74 housing units for the resident artists and musicians.

According to the residents at the AAC, the quality of life there went downhill real fast after Mayor Jerry Brown opened up his charter school known as the Oakland School for the Arts at the AAC which took over the 400 seat theater and disrupted all the other programs already in existance at the arts center.

In addition, the residents charge that the City hired Taura Musgrove to run the arts center into the ground so that Mayor Jerry Brown could eventually take over the whole center and run everyone else out.

"Taura Musgrove sabotaged the arts center," said Judith Sims, a long time tenant/artist and organizer at the AAC, who recently helped to form the Alice Arts Center Board which hopes to run and operate the arts center some day.

"Musgrove cancelled the season's list for most of the theater bookings, removed our stove, allowed the building to fall into disrepair, and stopped renting out the residential housing units. We had 25 vacancies and 100 people on the waiting list wanting to move in," said Sims.

"It made the whole place look like nothing was operating well, and suddenly it all chrystalized in April of 2003 when Jerry Brown tried to take over the whole building for his charter school and suddenly it was very clear about what was happening. Thats when we knew we really had a fight on our hands and that we had to save the dance, our housing, and the future of the arts center," said Sims.

The tenants and many organizations at the AAC united into a common front against the Mayor and City of Oakland, and by May or June of 2003, hundreds of protesters and conga players streamed down the streets of Oakland for a series of protests at City Hall to fight against the proposed take over of the arts center by Jerry Brown and his charter school.

"It's so important to save the dance," says Sims. "They shut it down in San Francisco, and they tried to shut it down in Oakland, and we had to fight back to save it."

Jack Wyles, along with Frederique Georges, were also key organizers that helped to figure out how to save the AAC from the Mayor's take over scheme, and they united with Judith Sims and Theo Williams in an effort to save the arts center.

"This is very empowering, a victory for the little people," said Frederique Georges. "If we can do it, anyone can. Even though we fought against the forces of the City and Jerry Brown, I was so focused on what needed to be done to fight back, that I tried to avoid wasteing my time or energy by seeing it as a fight against the City of Oakland."

"If anyone really wants to know why we fought back, it was because it was the right thing to do! Somehow we had to save the arts center, and we did the best we could," said Georges.

According to AAC tenant/musician Jack Wyles, "Sometimes fighting City Hall is not easy when you would rather be doing art. It's hard for artists to waste time fighting City Hall, but it had to be done. What counts more, is the long tedious work it takes to figure out what needs to be done to fight back. It took alot of work to download the forms used for small claims court and figure out a strategy that would prevail in court."

"My message to everyone is that others can do this. The message is that anyone can fight back no matter what the situation is, and they should never give up just because the odds may appear to be in favor of the powers that be," said Wyles.

Credit also goes to small claims legal adviser Rosylen Mangohig for helping the AAC tenants to maneuver their way through the lengthy complicated process in filing a suit against the City.

"The Oakland Ballet gave up the fight too soon and left the AAC when Jerry Brown pushed them around, and they moved to another location and now they are in debt by half a million dollars as a result," said Judith Sims.

"The Mayor is scheduled to leave the art center and move his charter school to another location and we have alot of work to do to get things running smoothly again. We are already organizing to meet the challenges of the future."

"We must continue to smile and laugh. We had a lot of laughs during our battle with the City, and it really helped to keep us sane and focused. Now that we created the Alice Arts Center Board as the next logical step to organize even further, we hope to eventually run and operate the Alice Arts Center some day, and even rename it to be called the Malonga Arts Center," said Sims.

Mayor Jerry Brown lost the battle to take over the Alice Arts Center for his charter school and recently launched another failed take over scheme at a different location in Oakland to set up his charter school, but was also blocked by stiff resistance there by people who were already using that location.