Voices from artists fearing crackdowns on artist collectives
OAKLAND, Calif.—As the San Francisco Bay Area’s artists grieve the loss of life from a deadly warehouse fire in Oakland that killed 36 people, they are also bracing for a possible city crackdown. The city has vowed to protect artists, but many have voiced concerns and point to Baltimore where officials raided a collective called the Bell Foundry, just days after the fire in Oakland.
Here’s what two artists in Oakland and Baltimore are saying:
JAY FIELDS, 35, Oakland-based musician went to the Ghost Ship to meet friends but arrived to see it in flames and later learned several of his friends died. The Ghost Ship was particularly unsafe, he said, and not representative of Oakland’s diverse art scene that has flourished in old warehouses.
“These places provide a channel for expression. We need to put more resources into creating safe spaces for these people.”
Fields echoed the call of Oakland’s artists, urging the city not to act hastily and shut the warehouses and evict artists:
“This has already been so tragic and such a huge loss. We have to make something good come out of it,” he said. “Don’t shut these spaces down. That is exactly the opposite of what needs to happen.”
EMILY MOORE, 25, moved to the Bell Foundry in Baltimore a year ago from Washington, D.C. “where my life had collapsed,” she said. “I lost my job, I lost a relationship, I lost my father, all in a four-month span. The Bell Foundry saved my life.”
She got an affordable place to live and a support system until she was evicted this week.
“Coming to a place where you have fifteen friends who can associate with my experience of trauma was incredibly valuable,” she said. “Being in a space where there is consistently creative encouragement, political fodder, literature at your disposal, wrapped me up in a world that I couldn’t have imagined.
“Having this space uplift creative projects, fantastic minds, gave value to a world that had been devalued throughout my childhood.”