Librarians Association of the University of California - LAUC

My name is Selena Chau. I’m a librarian and a retired performing artist. I performed with a dance company that held rehearsals and concerts at this building, the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, at 14th and Alice Street in downtown Oakland. This building is over 90 years old and is now a city-managed arts center. Through continued care of its theater and studio spaces, civic and performing arts companies have drawn audiences to dance and theater concerts held in this building at 1428 Alice Street. For the first forty years, the building’s ownership and uses were exclusively for White Protestant society–first by the Women’s City Club and then by the Oakland Moose Lodge. Eventually, this building became a significant location for Black and African-American performing arts companies.