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| The Black Dot: An interview wit’ Marcel Diallo |
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| by Minister of Information JR | |
| Tuesday, 22 May 2007 | |
 Marcel Diallo The founder of the Black Dot Artists Collective is Richmond native Marcel Diallo, the young mid-30s visionary who put the crew on its feet. In this interview, we’re going to talk about the Black Dot’s non-profit organizing, philosophy on Black community-building, as well as what is going on in the Bay Area’s cultural arts scene. Check it out ... MOI JR: I know that you founded the Black Dot Artists Collective. What has it blossomed into? Marcel: Well, the original vision and philosophy of the Black Dot, and the Artists Collective that I named after it, is that it is the hidden doorway to the collective unconscious. In this sense it has been my job and the job of those in the collective to assist our people in a rediscovery and manifestation of their unlimited potential. Since we are primarily artists, we have chosen to catalyze this process through advancing the culture using our talents in the fields of spoken word, music, visual art, literary art and the establishment of creative and cultural businesses and institutions that further what the socialists call “advanced work.” That what began as an artists’ collective 11 years ago has blossomed into an entire village of creative people who share core beliefs about self-determination, land ownership, reparations, right diet, and the importance of creating beauty and culture on a daily basis. MOI JR: I know that you have been doing a lot of community work in West Oakland, in the Bottoms. Can you give the people an update as to what is going down there? Marcel: Well, the Bottoms has become ground zero for the largest privately funded housing development to happen in Oakland in quite some time. Roughly a half a billion dollars will have been spent by the time it’s complete. The Bottoms has also become a “hip” place for young, white, middle class people to live. Nonetheless, we are down here maintaining and advancing the culture with the Blackest of intentions. To date, my company, the Village Bottoms Community Building Development Co., has created an environment that has made it possible for roughly 30 young Black families to either purchase a home or start a business in the Bottoms. We are doing a lot of mass organizing through our non-profit organization Black Dot Artists, Inc., and our neighborhood association, The Village Bottoms Neighborhood Association, which will hold its first general assembly meeting sometime in June. One of the first cultural businesses to be up and running was The Black New World Social Aid & Pleasure Club at 836 Pine St. A few weeks ago, The Coup performed there before a standing-room only crowd of roughly 150 people. And a brotha who goes by Afrikan Sciences spins the most soulful dance music I ever heard every Friday starting at 9 p.m. The second business is an African Art Gallery/ Botanica & Curio Shop we call Nganga Diallo’s House of Common Sense. It’s a block down at 924 Pine St. and is open Monday through Thursday noon to 5 p.m. The third business to pop off was Cornelia Bell’s Black Bottom Gallery, located at 1018 Pine St. Since December we have been having art openings every first Friday, presenting new and classic work, and these openings have become the talk of the town. The current show is called “Decolonization: An Installation of Self-Rule,” and it will be up until May 26. Come check it out. The gallery is open Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Two more businesses we are incubating are slated to open on Saturday, May 26. The Soul Foods Cooperative Grocery Store and The Black Dot Cafe. We are having a New Orleans style Second Line parade complete with a 10-piece brass band that day to celebrate the opening of all the new Black businesses in the Village Bottoms Cultural District. It starts around 1 p.m. at the Black New World and will travel the Bottoms stopping at all the Village Bottoms businesses to give them a blessing of prosperity. Come through and check it out! MOI JR: White people have been grabbing the land in the historically Black neighborhood of West Oakland, much like what is going on in the Fillmore, Hunters Point, Harlem and New Orleans, among other places. What do you think that we could do to preserve our communities? Marcel: One thing we could do for starters is begin sticking together and being more unified in how we deal with each other in the community. The only reason white people are able to come into Black neighborhoods and do what they want to, in the first place, is because Black neighborhoods have been left vulnerable, partly by racist redlining practices, but partly by a mass exodus of our own gentry. This word gentry has become a bad word as the root of the term “gentrification,” but the Black gentry – i.e., the Black shopkeepers, business owners, dentists, doctors, teachers and other professionals – were the backbone of the community. So when they left the Black flatland neighborhoods and chased after the White people into the hills and suburbs in search of the Amerikkkan dream, those of us who didn’t make it got left behind without the businesses, professional services and community leadership that the Black gentry once provided. This left the door open for the Yemenian corner store monopoly to occur as well as the emergence of a plethora of highly organized white-run non-profit organizations that suck up all the foundation grants and government funding designated for places like West Oakland. If there were more Black community groups and businesses organized and unified with our heads on straight, we could run our own neighborhood businesses with our own investment dollars, as well as receive all the funding designated for “urban areas” and “at-risk youth” to run our own social programs. A strong, “together” people do not allow missionary-type outsider institutions to dictate their fate; to the contrary, they are self-determined. So to preserve our communities, we’re gonna have to do like we used to do and stick together, pool our resources and keep it in the family. MOI JR: Some of your artwork, as well as art from other artists, are featured in your Cornelia Bell Art Gallery. What is the purpose of your visual art, and how long have you been doing it? Marcel: Well, my visual art is an extension of my musical art and my spoken word art. In all the artistic disciplines I work in, I desire to convey a feeling of the past and the future all in one. Like representing for the ancestors and the yet to be borns, but being rooted right here in the Now. As for the work I made for the “Decolonization” show, I used the old lath wood from the walls of old Victorians belonging to some of the first Black families to live in Oakland, reassembled them into the shape of houses or arrows pointing in the four directions and used new spray paint to add color, images and write the name of African colonies and their liberation date on them. This mix of the new and old is where I’m at right now. It’s like I’m tryna be a link to the past in a generation that’s moving so fast they ain’t paying too much attention to history. If it ain’t on the radio, TV or in the popular magazines, most youngsters ain’t tryna hear or see it. So yeah, I’m attempting to create a blast from the past, but still be true to my futuristic self. MOI JR: What is going on wit’ the Bay Area’s cultural art scene? What other artists do you think that the people may not have heard of and need to watch out for? Marcel: The Bay Area’s cultural art scene is finally recovering from the negative effects of the Slam phenomenon. The true poets, musicians and artists are returning to the forefront, while those who got caught in the slam jam are basically transitioning into a disco-like played-outness, unless they were hard enough workers to make up for their lack of creativity and originality by forging a career in college speaking tours, teaching gigs, “hip-hop” theater and the like. In regards to the true talents that will show the Bay what they got in the coming year or so, I would say look out for the multi-talented writer, painter, fashion designer, poet Letitia Ntofon, longtime Black Dot percussionist and writer Kele Nitoto, and filmmaker, writer, food-artist Tiffany Golden. They all have book projects that are just about complete and will be coming out soon. On the musical side, I’m diggin’ this rhythm selector named Afrikan Sciences, who spins at the Black New World every Friday night. The music he spins doesn’t have a genre label attached to it yet. Come check him out. I’m also diggin’ a few songs I’ve heard from this kat named Eric Rico who lives in Oakland sometimes. As far as local and under exposed, that’s it for now. MOI JR: How can people keep up with you and the different events that you have going? Marcel: Folks can contact us by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or the website at www.blacknewworld.com. Or call one of the businesses – The Black New World, (510) 238-6780; Village Bottoms/ Black Dot Artists, Inc., (510) 433-0444; Nganga Diallo’s House of Common Sense, (510) 451-4661; Cornelia Bell’s Black Bottom Gallery, (510) 238-9008. Holla. Email POCC Minister of Information JR at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , and listen to the Block Report at hiphopwarreport.com or myspace.com/blockreportfilm. |
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