La Peña Cultural Center

Welcome to La Peña! Promoting social justice & intercultural understanding through the arts since 1975.

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Cece Carpio

Visual artist, curator, and cultural worker based in the Bay Area.  Cece has produced and exhibited work in Cuba, Fiji Islands, Guam, Guatemala, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Norway,  Philippines, United Kingdom and throughout the United States.

She has been awarded the Rockwood Institute Fellowship for leaders engaged in the Arts as critical agents of change. She also received the New York Foundation of the Art Immigrant Artist Fellowship, a teaching residency at Café R.E.D & La Botica Espacio Cultural at Xela, Guatemala, and artist residency with Aurora Arts Residency Program and Space in the Philippines, KulArts at SOMA San Francisco and Asian Art Museum. She was recently awarded YBCA 100 in 2020.

The City of Oakland, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, UC Berkeley, and Oakland Museum of CA have commissioned her work, which documents —through the use of acrylic, ink, aerosol and installations— evolving traditions by way of combining folkloric forms, bold portraits and natural elements with urban art techniques. 

Cece is currently working as the Galleries Manager for the San Francisco Arts Commission, and traveling teaching and painting with the Trust Your Struggle Artist Collective.

Learn more at cececarpio.com

See next artist

New Mural Project at La Peña!

Los Pobres Artistas showing love to the mural “Sueños” (Mama “Inez” Muralista, 2015-2021).

We have some exciting news: as part of our new Visual Arts Program, La Peña’s Community Room is about to have a brand new mural painted by Los Pobres Artistas, which will be unveiled on December 3rd during our Art Exhibit Opening Night!

To mark this transition, we want to honor and express our gratitude for the work of Mama “Inez” Muralista, whose mural “Sueños” (2015) has been the backdrop for so many wonderful memories at La Peña over the past 6 years. Even though this mural will be rotating out, we are keeping it alive in our photo archives, in our memories, and in our hearts. 

Please read Inez’s statement below and check out the mural’s photo album here!

I created the “Sueños” Mural for La Peña Cultural Center’s 40th anniversary in 2015. Sueños is about honoring and acknowledging indigenous Ohlone land, the BIPOC diaspora of the Bay Area, and socio-political references that reflect La Peña’s core values.

I chose a monochromatic color palette to mirror the appearance of newspapers and graphic novels. Mural making is my form of storytelling and activism. 

I am thrilled to serve as a catalyst to the works of other muralists on this wall. Thank you La Peña Cultural center for allowing me to be in community with you all these years. Let’s keep the art going, for generations to come!

Sincerely, Mama “Inez” Muralista
“Sueños” mural, 2015-2021

Cultural Producers | Healers | Editors

Los Cenzontles is a nonprofit cultural arts academy, a band, a production studio, and a community space for youth and families, working together to amplify our Mexican roots here in the Bay Area and beyond.

Website | Youtube

Chicanx Scholars develops educational resources that celebrate Latinx history and achievements to connect the younger generations to the incredible individuals who have been part of the Chicanx history and also to inspire them to continue moving this culture forward. Check out their website and consider purchasing their unique educational materials!

Website

Selena Feliciano spends most of her days dreaming of how to deepen connections to the biosphere on a mass scale. This requires a critical shift in the ways in which we engage with one another and an examination of how capitalism, white supremacy, and centuries-long destruction of our indigenous roots under colonialism harm our relationship to our beloved Earth.

Website

ev marquee & dezi solèy are afro-indigenous queer femme healing artists and certified AURA(angelic universal regression alchemy) practitioners. Both Ev & dezi draw upon their own unique journeys of womb healing, divine sovereignty & energetic mastery to hold space for other like-hearted souls to self-heal through past life regression and quantum alchemy.

Website

Mi Casita Press is a Chicanx femme led alternative publishing press. Mi Casita Press aims to empower QTPOC through printmaking, print, and community entrepreneurship. It was created in the efforts to make art accessible to communities of color, encourage healing through the arts, promote the work of QTPOC, and amplify the voices of the underrepresented through the practice of self publishing. MCP provides printing services and sells radical zines, prints, alternative printed apparel and much more. Custom apparel orders and printing available!

Website | Instagram

Queer Tango's intention is to create a welcoming and inclusive dance space that doesn't let racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia interfere with the joy to be found in dancing tango.

Website

Sola Habibi is a storyteller, community organizer, and creative. They are currently writing a book in and with community and also hosting a Care Economy Series –a collection of round table discussions and workshops to move us from an economy of exploitation and profit to one of collective care. Check out their work on their website & social media, and stay tuned for upcoming invitations!

Website | Instagram

Beats Rhymes and Life (BRL) is a community-based organization that grew in response to a critical need for therapeutic programs designed specifically to serve youth of color who as a group demonstrate some of the greatest health and social disparities. They now offer different programs and workshops rooted in the art of Hip-Hop to empower young folks and give them resources to thrive.

Website

Chetna (she/her) is an alchemist, mixed media artist, circle facilitator and founding educator at Mosaiceye. The mission of Mosaiceye is to steward peace, love and freedom on earth through expressive healing arts and introspective community circle. Her art promotes emotional intelligence, embodiment, mindful compassion, and interconnection with all our parts, one another, mother earth and universal spirit.

Website | Instagram

Cristina Deptula (Authors, Large and Small) An experienced PR firm for authors, musicians, artists, designers, small business people or any other creatives. "Authors, Large and Small" is one of the best deals around, with flat fees for their work ranging from $300-$2250. They offer publicity services over traditional and social media, copy and developmental editing, market research, synopses, proposals and query letters.

Website | Email: info@authorslargeandsmall.com | PayPal: karen_mitchell2@yahoo.com

Tierra Allen contributes to movements for collective liberation as an actor, dancer, singer, director, choreographer, cultural producer, street drummer, activist, writer, and more. Her speculative abolitionist short film THE REMEMBERING TIME screened at the 18th International Queer Women of Color Film Festival in 2022.

Website

Arturo Méndez is an arts producer working in areas of communication, event production and curation, development/fundraising, community organizing, coalition-building, and cultural diplomacy in San Francisco for over 10 years. He is the creator and Director of La Diáspora Festival, and producer of the Mission Arts and Performance Project. He has produced shows for Harvard and Cornell University, as well as the Mexican Consulate in SF, and the Secretary of Culture of Puebla, Mexico.

Instagram

The Public Good Projects is a public health communications non-profit that builds social and behavior change interventions. About a year ago, they launched a new campaign in partnership with Kaiser Permanente called Life Experienced, which is designed to help address social isolation and loneliness among older adults. Check out their website and social media to learn more!

Website

Nora Rahimian provides one-on-one and group consulting for creatives and entrepreneurs, helping them achieve success without having to give up their creative vision, independence, or personal integrity. She has helped clients negotiate endorsement deals, secure dream collaborations, develop successful album release campaigns, and build active fan bases. Nora believes art can create cultural shifts around social impact issues and wants to put power back in the hands of those who are shaping culture. Reach out via email: norarahimian@yahoo.com.

LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter

Carmen Álvarez is a freelance Interpreter and Toltec Healer who offers Toltec Healing sessions (virtual and in person) that provide an opportunity to heal our emotions, our body, and break toxic ancestral patterns. Increase your energy, strengthen your immune system, fortify your aura and have clear energetic boundaries with your space. Allow for your true light and heart to emerge and flourish in this life.

Facebook | Toltec Healing | PayPal | Venmo

The Berkeley Public Library has served the people of Berkeley since 1893, and looks forward to providing many more years of community service! The Central Library, located in downtown Berkeley, plus four recently renovated branches ensure library access for residents in Berkeley’s many and diverse neighborhoods. All programs and services offered by the library are FREE!

Website

The Palestine Podcast Academy connects women from Gaza, east Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank to work in teams as they learn the fundamentals of podcast production and journalism. Aside from media training, they also employ an all-female team of local facilitators, and work with organizations from across Palestine to strengthen solidarity, local networks, and to build the capacities of individuals and organizations.

Website

Myriad Outreach Project is a Bay Area direct action group that aims to connect intersectional people through shared experiences. Myriad engages in collaborative art activism: banner drops, flyering, posters, shields making/training, street murals, educational forums, and performance art, along with garbage pickup, crochet circles, and homeless outreach food drive components, which have fed over 4,000 people. They are in their fourth year of operation and currently on the pathway to becoming a nonprofit!

Myriad Outreach Project Instagram | Affinity Collab Instagram |
Oakland Builders Collective Instagram | Facebook

Teaching Artists | Educators | Cultural Workers

Robin Flower is a wildly creative musician. Her technical expertise on mandolin, guitar, and fiddle results in great romps through her own original instrumental compositions, songs and traditional fiddle music. See her website and attend her classes!

aaron lazansky

Aaron Lazansky-Olivas a.k.a. SpazeCraft, is a multi-disciplined artist, educator, cultural producer and chief creative director of Soh Nup Ink / EDU. For the past 20 plus years, Spaze has been providing innovative urban arts, culture, and media literacy programming to community members & educators nationally and globally.

Gamelan Sekar Jaya (GSJ) is a Berkeley arts organization dedicated to the music and dance of Bali, Indonesia. Founded in 1979, GSJ fosters artistic exchange between Bali and the United States through master artist residencies, school workshops, performances, and the creation of innovative new works for music and dance.

Mariela Herrera is a musician providing an online play group called Mariela's Circle Time, which is in Español and for children. Mariela is going live daily on her Facebook page. Contact her to be part of this class!

Facebook | Email: mariela.arts@gmail.com

Stephanie Pepitone teaches Rockin' Kids Sing-Along, a 45 minute sing-along class for families with young children. Session includes movement/dance, story time and jam session with instruments. Sign up by emailing Stephanie directly (stephaniepepitone@gmail.com) or purchase a 5 session pass on her website.

Anna-Maria Violich-Olivier and Natalia Bernal ​​had the great fortune of meeting in the spring of 2015, when Natalia took her four year-old child to a Music Together class which Anna-Maria was teaching. They started chatting and realized that they were both Spanish-immersion teachers with a passion for children’s music.

Bianca Rodríguez is a professional Flamenco dancer with over 20 years of experience. She has performed throughout Spain, Texas, and California including La Peña with visiting Spanish artists Antonio Rey and José del Tomate. People can sign up for Bianca's class at The Beat Performing Arts.

In Lak'ech Dance is more than a dance academy. It is an inclusive community where people can feel free to be their true, authentic selves and claim their identity with pride and honor while reaching personal goals through dance. Everyone is accepted and loved as they are.

Melissa Cruz is a full-time performer, choreographer and educator who offers in person and online flamenco dance classes.

Website | Instagram | PayPal | Venmo: @Melissa-Cruz-11 | melissacruz.weebly.com 

Suzanna Sitomer runs a not-for-profit music education startup designed to bring music education to underserved communities. At this time when there are a ton of kids out there without access to their music, Suzanna is here to help them express themselves with their instruments. She offers lessons on violin, viola, cello, and guitar.

Website | Venmo: @suzanna-sitomer

Momo LeBeau is a dancer and choreographer from Oakland who had the dream to spread the love and joy of Hip Hop dance and culture to the masses. Momo has brought Bodywerk Dance all over the Bay Area and provides a safe space for people to leave their troubles behind.

Cabeza de Vaca is a Cultural Center located in Santa Monica that offers a variety of classes: Aztec Dance & Drum, BellyDance, Hawaiian Dance, Yoga, Mayan Cacao Ceremony, Mesoamerican Ball Game, and Community Garden.

Jesse Weber is a working percussionist who teaches and performs in the several groups listed below. Contact him to register in one of his classes!

Momo Lebeau (Bodywerk Dance) is a dancer and choreographer from Oakland, CA. He is the owner and founder of Bodywerk Dance, which is a self-funded, Black-owned dance company started in 2012.

Sedrick Cabrera Born & raised on the central coast of California, in the farm working community of Watsonville, Sedrick holds a B.A. in Theatre Arts from San Jose State University, where he trained as a classical actor. Since graduating, Sedrick has been a resident artist of El Teatro Campesino. Through his work, Sedrick hopes to bring light to Latinx struggles and help start a dialogue towards potential solutions. Sedrick is available for hire as a teaching artist

Shefali Shah is a highly sought out instructor of Bomba dance and a central member to the Bomba ensembles Aguacero and La Mixta Criolla. She leads the Bomba y Plena workshops at La Peña with Héctor Lugo and is also the director and choreographer for the youth Bomba performance group Quenepas.

Cascada de Flores is a dúo that presents interactive stories of music and dance to children and families. They also play concerts celebrating the Latin Songbook, enhanced with their own original material.

María de la Rosa is a performing artist and teaching artist whose work is based in the Son Jarocho, a traditional music and dance genre from Mexico. She also performs in her ensemble DíaPa'Són.

Raúl Vargas is the musical director, composer, booking agent and promoter of the band Makrù, a world fusion music project based in San Francisco. Makrù has been playing, sharing conscious messages and supporting causes they believe are important since 2008, like immigration issues, gentrification, and social justice among others.

Makrù Instagram | PayPal: raultrasound@gmail.com | Venmo: @raultrasound

Héctor Lugo is a percussionist, singer, songwriter, producer, and educator. A native of Puerto Rico, he has performed and recorded with a variety of prominent artist in the Bay Area’s Latin, Jazz, and Afro-Caribbean music scenes. He is the founder and director of the Caribbean roots music and dance ensemble La Mixta Criolla and musical director of the Afro-Puerto Rican folkloric ensemble and education project Aguacero.

Website

Artisans | Craftspeople

Amy Alaman is a mixed-media artist and jewelry maker who creates hand-painted wood earrings, hand-crafted silver and crystal jewelry, and also sells original artwork and prints; commissions are open for original paintings and custom silver jewelry! Amy also leads art-based healing circles for womxn online and offers one-on-one art-based healing sessions and coaching.

Website | Instagram

Ellen Salazar is the founder and owner of Rainbow Turtle Jewelry, where she creates beautiful handbeaded jewelry combining colors and shapes to make unique earrings, necklaces, and more.

Instagram | Facebook | Store

antonia beltran

Antonia Beltrán's work mixes her Mexican-American background with her Oakland Bay Area upbringing. She sells pins, vinyl stickers, patches, notecards, postcard prints, matted prints, t-shirts, hoodies, handmade/painted clay dolls, and mini canvases.

PayPal | Instagram | Facebook | Store | Venmo: @whosthatgurl

earth majesty

Earth Majesty is a line of jewelry celebrating the divine. The adornments invoke energies of protection, abundance and healing through sacred designs and semi-precious stones. Earth Majesty is the work of Bay Area artist, Eva Miranda, who's been making jewelry for twenty years.

Website | Instagram

Alfonso González is the creator of Fonzie's Artisanal Goods, which offers candles, room sprays, and Mexican handcrafts.

Website | Instagram

laiza

Laiza Fuhrmann Silva works creating oil paintings, jewelry, and ceramic sculptures that focus on body image and positivity.

Website | Art Instagram | Ceramics Instagram | PayPal | Venmo/CashApp: @LGG033.

toni rodriguez

Toni Rodríguez is an Oakland-based mix media artist who works primarily with clay, jewelry making and paint.

Instagram

Adjowah is the owner of The Weekend Store, a project that was born from a deep desire to provide not just a good gift, but the perfect gift. The store offers an extensive collection of hand-made items that center feminists, BIPOC, and LGBT+ communities while using reclaimed or recycled materials.

Website

House of Jefas is a culture driven lifestyle accessory brand for bad ass jefas that are not afraid to make bold moves.

Website | Instagram

Victor Juárez is the owner of local business Aztek Pride, which offers handcrafted leather work with hand selected stones such as turquoise, jade and obsidian.

Instagram

auxo chromo

Auxo Chromo focuses on art, jewelry, and vintage items. Her shop is filled with goodies from art made by herself to fabulous vintage finds. She specializes in BIG earrings with BIG personality for the unique, fun and daring.

Instagram | Shop

Gema creates one-of-a-kind hand-beaded jewelry, and is also available for custom work.

Webhttps://beadedgems915.bigcartel.comsite | Instagram | Facebook

nicole landreth

Nicole Landreth, a.k.a. Sunshine, is an artist and a creative entrepreneur. Curiosity and creativity are inextricably intertwined in her life, which is basically how she navigates and processes the world and her experiences in it. She makes mandalas, macrame, and woodburning.

Website | Instagram

rah azul

RAH Azul, from Xochipilli Visions, is a self-taught painter and muralist from the San Fernando Valley. He is a first generation American born in East Los Angeles to Mexican parents who migrated from a small Pueblo in Jalisco called Zapotlanejo. Azul draws inspiration from his Mexican heritage and indigenous roots to express the beauty of his culture.

Website | Instagram

Casey Ress creates handmade and one of a kind stained glass pieces with unique designs that are full of color. Arcadian Stained Glass creates panels to hang in your windows, lamps to light up the room, nightlights, mirrors and more!

Store | Instagram

Bianca Verbera is the owner of Bianquis Designs, which offers handmade jewelry made from vintage findings, watercolor paintings, glass vases and dried flower bouquets.

Website | Instagram

Steffanie Méndez is a mom, wife & seamstress making all handmade crafts & sewn merchandise through her business Sew_Mexican.

Instagram

claythe

Claythe Elizabeth Design's goal is to make snail mail fun again. She creates greeting cards in Spanish and English, stickers, and prints for people to enjoy. Her products feature elements of her culture and her goal is to connect with people and spread happiness through her designs.

Store

jerry limon

Jerry Limón creates beautiful, original designs celebrating music and culture. He then uses hand screen printing techniques to make apparel for men, women and babies.

Store

portal artesanal

Portal Artesanal is a family-owned, small artesanías and crafts business, started by a pair of siblings facing the struggle of finding jobs related to their professional degrees because of the lack of legal documentation. They create from pillows and kitchen towels to tote bags, jewelry and coin purses.

Instagram | PayPal | Zelle: 925 822-5858

touch point jewels

Touch Point Jewels creates handcrafted jewelry for men and women created using Sterling Silver, Brass, Copper, Genuine Coins, Gemstones and Cowrie Shells.

Website and store

skip kirk

Skip Kirk is a Gender Euphoric Fashion store that celebrates non-binary bodies and playful expression.

Store | Patreon

Griselda Madrigal is an undocumented artist and educator based in the Bay Area in California. She founded Muxeres Xingonas in 2016 to to empower and motivate BIPOC immigrant communities to express themselves with cultural representations while creating a sense of belonging through virtual platforms.

Website

Zoe Holtzman is a metalsmith and jewelry artist, currently located in Berkeley California. Her work combines her memories and connections to nature and land inhabited by both herself and her ancestors. She is of Chinese, Hawaiian, Norwegian, and Ashkenazi Jewish decent, so much of her work is also inspired by the many cultures she comes from and the native plants and animals from those regions.

Website | Instagram 

The Designing Chica is a local business owned by Susana Sánchez that offers artwork inspired by her culture for the home and office.

Website | Instagram

Chula_SF is a local business owned by Claudia Canseco that offers hand painted hats, artesanal earrings and necklaces.

Instagram 

dayanna

Dayanna G is an East Bay- based handmaker of baby and toddler shoes/apparel that celebrates brown culture. Her signature items are her original handmade Sarape booties and her Frida harem jumpsuit.

Store 

karen rodriguez

Karen Rodríguez Pastora is an entrepreneur, intersectional feminist, artivist, witch, tarot reader, Reiki II practitioner, writer/poet and editor. She is a native of Nicaragua, from Bilwi on the Caribbean Coast. She is also the founder of La Botica de lxs Brujxs, where you will find designs created with the specific intention of relating magic and art to day-to-day activities.

Store | PayPal | Venmo @labrujarodriguez

seelena de la huerta

Seelene de la Huerta aims to bring joy to you with bracelets, little sculptures and succulents in one of a kind handmade planters!

Store | Instagram