Homebodies: BlaQyard Artist Residency Program '23

We are BlaQyard, currently helmed by Chibueze Crouch and Gabriele Christian in correspondence with the organizing team VANGUARDEN (Bre, Dan X KKINGBOO, and Madre Guía) with an exciting announcement for spring 2023. We are starting Homebodies, our own homegrown artist residency program at BlaQyard. Homebodies is a three-month pilot artist residency, with the option to live in and shape this home and large yard and barn spaces. To help jumpstart the next era of this house, we hope to interweave community artists into our larger vision of rooting this property as a community arts venue on unceded Chochenyo Ohlone land (now known as Fruitvale/East Oakland).

(barn space in the left corner and artist room with its own entrance in the right corner)

BlaQyard is a collective of Black + Queer (BlaQ) artists based in Oakland and initially formed in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We took that global hiatus to field an initial call for support and draft home as a blank canvas to envision what we desire for ourselves collectively and independently, our home, and our community. Our rotating membership has included artists Kalima Amilak, Naomi Lee, Ariana Hall, and marlo magdalene. As a space, we have held successful New Year's Eve celebrations, community fires, birthday parties, experimental performances, and even a (secret) queer wedding. Now, we hope to ground into bigger visions for community involvement.

Our goal for this year's fundraiser is threefold:

1) To support three emerging artists with free rent, workspace, mentorship (who are also paid) and a modest stipend

2) To reconcile transition/repair costs from recent vacancies and the start of this residency

3) To compensate the organizing team for a dense three months of community programming

Homebodies will be releasing an open call in tandem with this fundraiser. We hope to move-in our first resident by March 15th. We already have nonprofit arts support from Clarissa Dyas at Circo Zero, an initiatory $2,000 for the organizing team to get this program off the ground and into community awareness.

Our breakdown for our $13,000 ask is below:

$3,000 covers three months of rent for the artist residency room

$3,000 covers three modest stipends for the artists

$1,500 covers three modest honorariums for artist mentors

$3,000 covers partial rent and utilities for the Feb 1 - Mar 15 transition vacancy period, in which we will collectively prep the space for the residency (weed the yard, reseed the garden, move out junk, begin refurbishing the studio)

$2500 covers visual arts studio overhaul and repair

(artist studio window facing the yard; roof & interior to be replaced/repaired)

Any surplus over this goal will go towards an optional materials budget for the artists in question and will also go towards increasing the pay for artists, mentors, BlaQyard members and the organizing team unilaterally (divided evenly).

We welcome any questions/curiosities about this residency program in its current early stages. Contact and follow along at BlaQyard's Instagram. Please share widely! We cannot attempt this without your support. And even if Black History month ends, Black history needs must and will continue to be met. This space is literal fertile ground for that next big milestone.