Oakland Asian Cultural Center

Oakland Asian Cultural Center OACC builds vibrant communities through Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) arts and culture

Dance Classes:
Chinese Folk
Mongolian Folk

Music Classes:
Chinese Zither (GuZheng)
Japanese Taiko Drumming

Martial Arts Classes:
Qi-Gong
Kung Fu
Taiji

Language Arts Classes:
Mongolian
Mandarin
English
Spanish

Visual Arts Classes:
Chinese Painting & Drawing
Japanese Ikebana (Flower Arranging)

Applications are open for our Musikang Kalipay Palengke/Vendor Mini-Market on Sunday, July 12, from 1-4 pm. Filipino ven...
06/19/2026

Applications are open for our Musikang Kalipay Palengke/Vendor Mini-Market on Sunday, July 12, from 1-4 pm. Filipino vendors are especially encouraged to apply. There are no fees to vend.

👉🏼 Apply at https://forms.gle/2D8beR5693Gb94Zj6
👉🏼 Tag a friend who'd be a great fit.
👉🏼 Applications close on June 26.

🎶🌞🇵🇭💃🏻 Musikang Kalipay: A Rondalla Concert with the Iskwelahang Pilipino⏰ Sunday, July 12, 2-4 pm🛍️ Palengke / Vendor M...
06/16/2026

🎶🌞🇵🇭💃🏻 Musikang Kalipay: A Rondalla Concert with the Iskwelahang Pilipino

⏰ Sunday, July 12, 2-4 pm
🛍️ Palengke / Vendor Market from 1-4 pm
📍Oakland Asian Cultural Center
388 9th St Suite 290, Oakland
🎟️ FREE tickets with registration at link in bio!

Join us for a joyful musical expression of Filipino American identity in two acts, from the Iskwelahang Pilipino Rondalla of Boston. Act One is a concert version of "Kalipay & Gamay: The Musical," based on the Cebuano children's story, "Kalipay and the Tiniest Tiktik" a heartwarming tale of supernatural friendship and the power of embracing differences. Act Two is "Rondalla Mixtape," an energetic performance of reimagined traditional songs, popular music medleys, and original compositions from the US and Philippines from the Philippine rondalla folk tradition. A palengke/market of local vendors will open at 1 pm in the OACC lobby.

Presented by the Oakland Asian Cultural Center in partnership with the Iskwelahang Pilipino and Sari-Sari Storybooks, with support from Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc. (PAWA), Bindlestiff Studio, Sama Sama Cooperative, and Palaka Music and Arts Studio.

The concert is FREE with registration at the link in bio or at oacc.cc/event/kalipay/

ABOUT THE ISKWELAHANG PILIPINO + RONDALLA

Founded in 1976, Iskwelahang Pilipino (IP) is a volunteer-run Filipino cultural school dedicated to strengthening Filipino American children, families and community. The IP Rondalla Ensemble, established in 1986 under the tutelage of world-renowned Filipino virtuoso Michael Dadap, bridges generations through music by bringing together the fresh energy of young musicians with experienced mentor musicians who together perform Filipino folk, pop, and contemporary Fil-Am compositions.

ABOUT SARI-SARI STORYBOOKS

Sari-Sari Storybooks is an independent press based in Oakland, California, which publishes bilingual Filipino children’s books in Philippine mother tongues. These stories of kindness, courage, and magic celebrate the rich diversity of the Philippines with young readers in the motherland and diaspora.

06/11/2026

"I am an American" is written in both English and Chinese with Wong Kim Ark's portrait at the corner of Sacramento Street and Grant Avenue.

06/11/2026

Celebrate June at OACC! Mark your calendar for our upcoming events, all FREE with registration (🎟️ ticket links in bio).

🪷📽️ Opening Doorways for Belonging and Liberation: PARAMITA Film Screening and Healing Workshop with Kirthi Nath
Fri, June 12, 6-8 pm

🍚🍵🍗 From Ochazuke to Adobo: Care, Memory, and the Immigrant Kitchen with Julia LaChica
Artist reception: Fri, June 26, 5:30-6:30 pm
On view: June 24-August 15

🧩👩🏽‍🎨 Pieces of Self: A Collage Workshop with Trisha Mah
Fri, June 26, 6:30-8:30 pm

☸️ 📷 Artist Tour: The Gyuto Foundation in Photography and Sculpture⏰ Friday, June 12, 4:30-5:30 pm📍Oakland Asian Cultura...
06/09/2026

☸️ 📷 Artist Tour: The Gyuto Foundation in Photography and Sculpture
⏰ Friday, June 12, 4:30-5:30 pm
📍Oakland Asian Cultural Center
388 9th Street, Ste 290, Oakland

Join us for a public guided tour and artist talk with Shire-Baden in conjunction with the Gyuto Foundation in Photography and Sculpture exhibition at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center.

The tour will provide insight into the themes, artworks, and collaborative processes that shape the exhibition, highlighting the Gyuto Foundation's ongoing commitment to cultural exchange, artistic practice, and community engagement.

Following the tour, the featured artist will participate in a public conversation about their work, discussing the ideas and personal experiences that inform their artistic practices. Audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions and engage directly with the artist.

ABOUT THE GYUTO FOUNDATION

Founded by Venerable Thupten Donyo in San Jose in 2000, the Gyuto Foundation is a branch of Gyuto Monastery of Dharamsala, India. Gyuto Foundation has grown to become the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the East Bay and now serves the area’s Tibetan diaspora as a community center dedicated to the preservation of Tibet’s cultural and spiritual heritage.

The "Gyuto Foundation in Photography and Sculpture" exhibit documents the history of the monastery. For the past decade the artist has served as an oral interpreter and translator in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

The event is sponsored by Sticky Rice Club, an economic and community development nonprofit that aims to strengthen neighborhood resilience in Oakland and in the East Bay through the activation of public spaces, cultural events, mindfulness and healing workshops, transformative arts, and community initiatives.

The event is free and open to the public. No registration is required. Find out more about Shire-Baden at https://s-b.squarespace.com.

06/05/2026

🪷 Happening in one week! Join filmmaker Kirthi Nath on Friday, June 12 for a screening of her powerful film PARAMITA and a healing workshop. This event is FREE to attend with registration at oacc.cc/event/paramita/

📽️ Opening Doorways for Belonging and Liberation: PARAMITA Film Screening and Healing Workshop with Kirthi Nath

⏰ Friday, June 12, 2026
6-8 pm (doors open at 5:30 pm)
📍 Oakland Asian Cultural Center
388 9th St Suite 290, Oakland

***r ***rFilm

🧩👩🏽‍🎨 Pieces of Self: A Collage Workshop with Trisha Mah⏰️ Friday, June 26, 6:30-8:30 pm📍 Oakland Asian Cultural Center3...
06/04/2026

🧩👩🏽‍🎨 Pieces of Self: A Collage Workshop with Trisha Mah

⏰️ Friday, June 26, 6:30-8:30 pm
📍 Oakland Asian Cultural Center
388 9th St Suite 290, Oakland
🎟️ FREE tix at oacc.cc/event/trisha-mah

In this workshop, we’ll explore identity, connection, and sharing who you are. We'll make cards that hold the parts of yourself you want to share with others—maybe a memory that matters to you, something you're proud of, a blessing you want to give, or just a quiet truth that feels important.

We'll work with collage—choosing pieces of paper, images, and colors, to make something whole. No prior experience required—just bring your curiosity and an open mind. All materials will be provided: papers, images, supplies, and some gentle prompts to help you think about what you want to create and share.

We’ll explore:
- What feels meaningful to you right now?
- Who you want to connect with and why?
- How to let your cards tell your story?

What You'll Leave With: A handmade collage to give to someone as a small appreciation, or to keep as reminder of the wonderful human you are. Come as you are. Leave with something to share. This event is free to attend with registration at oacc.cc/event/trisha-mah

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Trisha Mah (she/they) is a Chinese-Japanese American collagist and taiko artist from the Bay Area whose work explores cultural identity, intergenerational memory, and liberation. Their collage work—featured in East Bay Open Studios' 2025 Emerging Artist Program—layers analog techniques with emotion and lived experience. Trisha teaches beginner taiko at Berkeley Buddhist Temple and performs with Q***r Taiko and Club Hachijo. Grounding her artistry in 15+ years of community education and social justice work, she holds an MS in Leadership in Community Education from Boston University. Trisha embraces art as ancestral inheritance, fostering spaces where creativity, healing, and collective imagination intersect. Learn more about their work at trishamah.com.

06/04/2026

🍚🍵🍗 From Ochazuke to Adobo: Care, Memory, and the Immigrant Kitchen with Julia LaChica

⏰ ARTIST RECEPTION: Friday, June 26, 5:30-6:30 pm
🖼️ ON VIEW: June 24-August 15 (Wed-Fri, 12-5 pm)
📍Oakland Asian Cultural Center
388 9th St Suite 290, Oakland
🎟️ FREE tix at link in bio

Join us a reception with artist Julia LaChica celebrating her newest exhibition. “From Ochazuke to Adobo: Care, Memory, and the Immigrant Kitchen” is a multidisciplinary installation that grows out of her ongoing work on caregiving, family history, and diasporic identity. Building on themes first explored in “A Promise Unspoken,” a memorial project for her mother, the work explores food, migration, and the ways culture is continually made within everyday domestic spaces.

LaChica understands ochazuke and adobo as living archives—recipes as pedagogy, kitchens as classrooms, and caregiving as cultural transmission. Growing up Japanese/Filipino in San Francisco, she learned culture not through formal institutions but through daily acts of cooking, storytelling, and adaptation. LaChica is particularly interested in how memory is carried forward within q***r, mixed-race, and diasporic communities, how cooking and caregiving become cultural production and resistance—acts through which we sustain one another and make belonging possible.

The exhibition will be on view from June 24-August 15 during OACC open hours (12 noon-5 pm) or by appointment. The June 26 artist reception with Julia LaChica is free to attend with registration at the link below. Light refreshments will be served.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Julia LaChica is a q***r Japanese/Filipino multidisciplinary visual artist, designer, and educator based in Oakland, California. Her work explores intergenerational memory, caregiving, diaspora, and the everyday rituals through which culture is made and transmitted. Drawing from family archives, spoken word, and a visual language shaped by protest and pedagogy, LaChica centers domestic spaces—kitchens, altars, and archives—as sites of cultural production, resistance, and healing.

AsianAmerican Free JuliaLaChi

🍚🍵🍗 From Ochazuke to Adobo: Care, Memory, and the Immigrant Kitchen with Julia LaChica⏰ ARTIST RECEPTION: Friday, June 2...
06/04/2026

🍚🍵🍗 From Ochazuke to Adobo: Care, Memory, and the Immigrant Kitchen with Julia LaChica

⏰ ARTIST RECEPTION: Friday, June 26, 5:30-6:30 pm
🖼️ ON VIEW: June 24-August 15 (Wed-Fri, 12-5 pm)
📍Oakland Asian Cultural Center
388 9th St Suite 290, Oakland
🎟️ FREE tix at oacc.cc/event/ochazuke-adobo/

Join us a reception with artist Julia LaChica celebrating her newest exhibition. "From Ochazuke to Adobo: Care, Memory, and the Immigrant Kitchen" is a multidisciplinary installation that grows out of her ongoing work on caregiving, family history, and diasporic identity. Building on themes first explored in "A Promise Unspoken," a memorial project for her mother, this installation extends that inquiry into food, migration, and the ways culture is continually made within everyday domestic spaces.

LaChica understands ochazuke and adobo as living archives—recipes as pedagogy, kitchens as classrooms, and caregiving as cultural transmission. Growing up Japanese/Filipino in San Francisco, she learned culture not through formal institutions but through daily acts of cooking, storytelling, and adaptation.

Through visual art, text, and ritual gestures, she examines how families preserve, hybridize, and reinvent traditions across generations. LaChica is particularly interested in how memory is carried forward within q***r, mixed-race, and diasporic communities. In this work, cooking and caregiving become forms of cultural production and resistance—acts through which we sustain one another and make belonging possible.

The exhibition will be on view from June 24-August 15 during OACC open hours (12 noon-5 pm) or by appointment. The June 26 artist reception with Julia LaChica is free to attend with registration at oacc.cc/event/ochazuke-adobo/. Light refreshments will be served.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Julia LaChica is a q***r Japanese/Filipino multidisciplinary visual artist, designer, and educator based in Oakland, California. Her work explores intergenerational memory, caregiving, diaspora, and the everyday rituals through which culture is made and transmitted. Drawing from family archives, spoken word, and a visual language shaped by protest and pedagogy, LaChica centers domestic spaces—kitchens, altars, and archives—as sites of cultural production, resistance, and healing.

🧵🪡📍👚 Join us this Friday for June Mending Circle!As always, this gathering is free to attend. There will be no instructo...
06/02/2026

🧵🪡📍👚 Join us this Friday for June Mending Circle!

As always, this gathering is free to attend. There will be no instructor, but we will provide basic materials including thread, needles, a sewing machine and some patches. Please bring items that you would like to repair.

🗓️Friday, June 5
12 noon-1 pm
📍Oakland Asian Cultural Center
388 9th St. Suite 290�Oakland, CA 94607

Questions? 📧 Email: [email protected]
Cost: Free
Bring: Items that need repair

Address

388 9th Street , Suite 290
Oakland, CA
94607

Opening Hours

Wednesday 12pm - 5pm
Thursday 12pm - 5pm
Friday 12pm - 5pm
Saturday 12pm - 5pm

Telephone

+15106370455

Website

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