HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT

That’s just what Walker and a group of Black, homeless and housing-insecure mothers and children did in November, moving into the unoccupied “Magnolia Street House” to shelter themselves as they called attention to the blatant injustices of Oakland’s overwhelming housing crisis.

Wedgewood Properties, the owner of the house and flipper of dozens of other properties in the area, lost little time in fighting to evict the families. In an early January ruling, Moms 4 Housing lost their case to Wedgewood, which claimed the moral high ground in the situation. Shortly thereafter, the Moms were forced from the home just before 6 am by officers of the sheriff's department armed with riot gear and AR-15 rifles.

In the wake of the Moms’ eviction, and in celebration of their recognition by the Oakland City Council as Black History Month honorees, we checked in with Walker to talk about what’s happened and what’s to come for the Moms.

You’ve gotten a really militant response. Does the scale of that reaction surprise you?

Not the scale of reaction, I don’t think that surprised us, but the support has been outstanding. And we appreciate all of our supporters, it just lets us know we are on the right side of history, we’re doing the right thing, and I think this resonates with everyone, because all of our basic needs are being commodified. Housing is a basic human need, and I think folks are starting to realize that capitalism is playing a part in that not being a reality. And it should be.

It’s been an intentional act of civil disobedience. You’re a lifelong activist. Is that true of the other moms?

Yes, I’ve been a community organizer since the age of 14. All of the other moms have been organizing in their communities, and we’ve seen the change that gentrification has had, we’ve seen our community be victims of the foreclosure crisis, and we’ve seen our folks be displaced either out into the street or to any outside place, to Vallejo, Fresno, Madesto, places like that.

There’s no scarcity of housing. There’s a profiteering crisis.

What’s it like seeing so much support for your mission?

The support has been great, folks are realizing that this is their fight, too, and I think some of the opposition—we’re really clear on the overall message, because we were never about, like, “Oh, so they can just come and take my house.” It was never about that. We wanted to bring awareness to speculation in our community. Corporations that buy hundreds of homes a month and horde them for profit when there’s actually folks that need housing.

There’s no scarcity of housing. There’s a profiteering crisis. There’s a moral crisis that lets this happen in a city with four vacant houses for every one homeless person.

Wedgewood stated the court’s ruling wasn’t only legally correct, but ethically and morally right. I can almost understand playing the devil’s advocate to argue that it’s not ethically ideal, but to say it’s morally okay to have so many homeless people and people pushed out of their homes is truly insane.

We’re all on stolen land. This is indigenous land, so when we talk about “stealing,” this country was stolen, and the corporation does not need this home. They’re composed of five different companies that all play a part in displacing folks.

In their CEO’s office there’s a big Monopoly board. They’re doing this on a mass scale, and I’ve heard that they have properties all over the world. I was very shocked by the overwhelming support, but it just lets me know that everybody is having this issue.

There’s a lot of issues especially with the homelessness in Oakland. It’s been a 47 percent increase since 2017 in homelessness. That is absolutely alarming. It should be an emergency. Until we brought awareness, national attention to this, our mayor wasn’t acting on it, our governor had declared a state of emergency, but the community, our supporters, Moms 4 Housing and other organizations put pressure on these people to actually act. So it just let me know the power of the people. When we organize, we can win.

What have been some of the greatest successes of the movement so far?

Having shelter for those 58 days for myself and my children. We know the facts about homeless children and brain development, but I actually got to see that. I got to see my son take his first steps in that house on Magnolia Street, and say his first words, which were “Thank you.” And my daughter being able to be free and have some security.

It’s so important for our children to have shelter and I think a lot of us don’t even think about what it’s like for children to be homeless and not even have space to develop. That’s been the most rewarding thing to see personally.

Also movement-wise, to see that this is still Oakland. Even though Oakland is rapidly changing, there’s still that history of resistance here, and we’re going to continue to resist, and we’re going to continue to organize, and we saw the power of the people in this whole situation. Our community continues to show up for us.

When we organize, we can win.

What’s been the most unexpected challenge?

Just dealing with a company that hired a PR firm and just dealing with someone who tried to smear the overall objective of the movement, which is for folks to have housing. That has always been the forefront of our struggle. We’re fighting for everyone, not only ourselves.

Dealing with the militarization of the eviction, that was very unexpected. I was actually on Democracy Now! Doing an interview when I heard from Amy that they were coming into the house, so we got over there, and it looked like a scene out of a war zone. They sent robots into the house, they had drones flying over the neighborhood, there were tanks, there was riot gear, military fatigues, police with AR 15, everything. I’ve never seen anything like that in a residential neighborhood to evict mothers and children at five o’clock in the morning.

And they had no idea that our children were not in the house, but luckily we prepared and had our children away and in a safe space, but they didn’t know that. That was a challenge and right now we are holding the Alameda County Sheriffs accountable for this. They have to be held accountable for the way they came in to evict mothers and babies.

What’s the long term goal?

We’re working on a lot of things right now, and our overall goal is to end homelessness. To make sure that folks that want shelter have shelter. And to recognize that housing is a human right. So we’re always going to fight towards that. We also want to be a resource for other homeless mothers and homeless people, and we want to work on policy change, legislation, and come up with real solutions. We just want to work towards real solutions with grassroots organizing.

We have to take care of ourselves, because some of our elected officials are not, unless we put pressure on them. We’re going to continue to put pressure on them, hold the sheriffs accountable, and keep the movement going.

That’s the best example you can give to your children, is to be on the right side of history and to be working to make the world a better place for them.

What are the kids’ reactions and what do you hope they take away from this?

Well my daughter, she asks, we’re not at mom’s house right now, and I’m like, we’re not, we might go back, we’re in negotiations. She’s 5 and she’s very intelligent, so there are some things I can explain to her.

Overall, I think it’s been a good experience for our children because they’ve bonded, all our children love each other, it’s like a sense of community has been created, they see us speaking and they see us taking a stand and putting our bodies on the line for others, and I think that’s the best example you can give to your children, is to be on the right side of history and to be working to make the world a better place for them. I think that when they get older they will really appreciate this moment and the courageousness of their mothers in bringing awareness to this issue.

Culture

The Club Is Coming to the Stage

We enter and make our way to what is approximately front left of the DJ booth, where we’re accustomed to dancing at clubs in New York. “So is this a techno club or a dance performance?” yells an uncertain participant in my boyfriend’s ear. He laughs, bouncing along to Ben UFO, and yells back, “It’s both!” The club has long been a hot topic in European contemporary dance but it is only now making its way into New York performance venues, largely through transatlantic tours. R.O.S.E. follows recent examples like Michele Rizzo’s HIGHER xtn. at MoMA PS1 (May 2024), (LA)HORDE’s Room with a View at NYU Skirball (October 2023), and Gisèle Vienne’s Crowd at BAM (October 2022).

Do these performances compromise the club’s spirit — a space idealized for its anonymity, dark lighting, and thundering music? The notion of the club as a utopian escape is admittedly just that — an ideal — because of how its intense conditions can create barriers to entry. Still, the club remains sacred for many, a place to forge connections and embrace an alternative state of being. Looking at how performances transfer this spirit to new settings reveals what aspects of the club are essential and those that aren’t.

Sharon Eyal, R.O.S.E. 2024. Photography by Stephanie Berger, courtesy of Park Avenue Armory.

Eyal’s dancers make their entrance. The lighting shifts from roving blue to yellow spotlights as Ben UFO’s tracks transition to more melodic beats. Clad in deconstructed lace Dior lingerie with dark red tears painted on their faces, the dancers move cautiously in a tightly maintained pack, slicing paths through the horde with hoof-like steps and jerky leg extensions. After around ten minutes of this controlled choreography, the dancers vanish as the lighting shifts back to blue and Ben UFO picks up his dubby beats. The club, as we knew it, resumes. This cycle of tightly executed movements and free-flowing club-goers repeats several times, each time emboldening the dancers to plunge further into the crowd.

Clubbing in a building once built for the U.S. Army National Guard on Manhattan’s Upper East Side turns out to be surprisingly successful — at least for the audience. What starts as an awkward, scattered group searching for their non existent seats gradually gels into an engaged, bouncing crowd that erupts in cheers each time the dancers enter and exit. Performance patrons who might never step foot in a club find themselves swept up in its potential for communion, moving in unison with fellow ticket holders. But it isn’t until the very end of R.O.S.E. that the dancers finally break free from Eyal’s choreography and join the fired-up audience in a brief moment of improvisatory movement with the music. By keeping her dancers at arm’s length, Eyal seems more interested in the club as a backdrop for her signature movement style than wholly as a space with meaningful stories to be told.

Michele Rizzo, HIGHER xtn. 2024. Photography by Cameron Kelly courtesy of MoMA PS1.

Back in May, I attended Wire Festival, a multiday electronic music event at Knockdown Center that had no shortage of organically united dancefloors. It attracted a crowd of seasoned ravers who were eager to celebrate the start of spring as they danced alongside DJs who played well into the daylight. I left Wire in an afternoon daze to see Michele Rizzo’s HIGHER xtn. at MoMA PS1. My sleepless euphoria only deepened as the performance unfolded, starting with a lone dancer who looked plucked out of the festival.

The dancer, dressed in sneakers, baggy jeans, and a tight tank top, shuffled slowly into the gallery, perfectly in sync with the looping bars of an understated electronic melody. Soon, other dancers, clad in the same staple rave uniform, joined him — each having traveled from Europe for the U.S. museum debut of HIGHER xtn., which premiered at the Stedelijk in Amsterdam in 2018 and quickly became a fixture at kunsthalles and festivals across the continent. As the score’s tempo climbed, the choreography locked into a 16-count sequence, which the dancers executed with precise synchrony. They remained intensely focused, never making eye contact with each other, as they sought release in the endless repetition of synthesized beats. Once the dancers reached their limit, they stopped the sequence and exited the gallery, one by one.

HIGHER xtn. used the focused daylight of the gallery to highlight the meditative release found in the repetitive movements that dominate dark dancefloors. The performance’s restraint brought more consistency and intentionality than Eyal’s all-encompassing club construction in R.O.S.E. Yet both performances offer enticing entry points into club culture for those who may not frequent raves. Rizzo’s ecstatic, hypnotic repetitions reveal how the club can mirror other meditative practices, while Eyal’s interpolation of performance and clubbing helped hesitant audience members blossom by the end. Still, both works overlook one of the most underappreciated aspects of clubbing — its potential for individual expression. HIGHER xtn.’s pristine uniformity especially risks promoting the outdated techno trope that there’s a “right” way to dance to electronic music.

Maybe this shortcoming is, in fact, a benefit. For habitual ravers jaded by one too many sunrise sets, it’s a reminder to return to the club with more intention. If you pause and peer through the darkness, you’ll see hundreds of people moving to the same beat, each with their own subtle variations. This collective choreography is a ready-made spectacle that doesn’t need validation in a theater or museum. And when the music shifts slightly, you can watch the ripple effect sweep through the crowd while feeling the new beat in your body. Maybe this small bit of magic is best left on the dance floor.

Culture

Real Slick, Jack: Psyche Organic Arrives in New York

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Culture

Porsche SCOPES Brings Art, Music, and Design to Toronto

The festival was a full immersion into Toronto’s dynamic creative energy. Day one set the tone with DJ collective Living Room, followed by an experimental performance by Claire Rousay that captivated the crowd. Jewelry designer Steff Eleoff unveiled her Porsche Taycan 4S art car installation—a bold fusion of automotive and wearable art inspired by her Sedona ring—while OVO Sound’s Naomi Sharon and DVSN wrapped up the night with powerful, genre-defying performances.

We witnessed SCOPES Toronto bridging underground and mainstream with day two’s lineup. DJ Korea Town Acid’s set paved the way for Angelphroot and Dameer’s debut of BASSMATI, a track blending South Asian influences with bass-driven sounds. Chippy Nonstop’s return to Toronto and Richie Hawtin’s extended set were milestones of the evening, proving that the city’s underground scene has a global resonance.

The final day featured standout performances from local pianist Harrison, Indigenous artist Tia Wood, and hip-hop visionary Sean Leon, who elevated his set with a live choir. Moonshine Collective’s film and musical performance explored themes of African utopia, showcasing art’s power to bridge culture and technology. Rising Toronto star SadBoi, who paused her tour to perform at SCOPES, further underscored the festival’s commitment to nurturing local talent.

Throughout the weekend, we experienced installations from artists like Mitsu Mitsu and culinary creations from Bar Mordecai, capturing the multifaceted creativity Porsche SCOPES brought to Toronto. This milestone 10th edition, open to all, allowed Toronto’s vibrant arts scene to thrive, underscoring SCOPES’ mission to celebrate local talent while connecting it to a global audience.

office had the chance to connect with rising star SadBoi ahead of the event. In our conversation, she shared insights into her creative journey and reflected on what performing and growing up in Toronto means to her and her work.

How are you, and where are you at right now? You told me you were traveling.

Um, I’m good, I’m feeling really good right now. I’m traveling back to Salt Lake City. I had a show yesterday in Seattle. I’m on tour right now with Coco and Claire.

How is touring life treating you? Do you like it?

I love being on the road. To be honest, I feel like I don’t know—like I’ve had good experiences and bad ones—but this time it’s really fun, especially with the people I’m surrounded by. It’s also the longest tour I’ve been on; I have about four more weeks to go. I’m trying not to think about how many days I have left.

Do you feel homesick?

Yes, because when I start thinking about how many days are left, I start to miss my dogs. I’ve just been trying to stay in the moment—I don’t even know what day of the week it is, to be honest with you.

Oh, sweet! What are your dogs’ names?

Jillian and Winston. I know, they’re crazy names.

You’ll be performing at SCOPES in Toronto, which is where you grew up. Do you feel like the crowd is different when you perform in Toronto compared to other cities?

Yes, I mean, Toronto just feels different because it’s home. Every time I come back to perform, something in my career has changed. The last time I performed in Toronto, people just wanted to have a good time, and I’m excited to perform back home again to see everyone’s reactions. I know it’s going to be different from the last time. It’s exciting to see your own growth. Toronto is a tough crowd, though. If we’re with you, we’re really with you.

So, they’re super picky? You have to gain their respect, or what is it?

I think Toronto people are in their own world, but when something really connects with them, they’ll lose themselves in the moment. But it takes something to bring them out of that. Toronto crowds are tough because even if they like you, they won’t show it outright until they’re really vibing with you.

It’s like a vibe check, right?

Exactly. They’ll enjoy your performance, but it’s hard to explain. When people visit Toronto, they often say, “Oh, you guys are so nice,” and I’m like, “I don’t think we’re that nice, we’re just polite.” Like, you can walk down the street, and no one will say anything, but it’s just our mannerisms.

You mentioned Toronto can have a moody energy, especially at night, and that the underground night scene there really inspires you. Can you talk more about what makes Toronto's nightlife so influential for you?

Absolutely, Toronto has this unique energy that comes alive at night. Similar to New York, there are the popular clubs everyone knows, but you need to find your niche—the people who know where the real parties are. I remember going to raves in high school yards, sneaking in because I wasn’t old enough. Events like Baby, Jerk!, and Yes Yes Y’all were pivotal, exposing me to DJs blending dancehall with EDM—something I hadn’t seen before. Toronto nightlife is moody and intense, but when everyone’s out, it’s like the whole city is alive.