We met Aniya Butler in 2017, when she was 10 years old.

She enrolled in a poetry workshop in partnership with House/Full of Blackwomen. The workshop culminated in a book and an evening of performances by local Black women healers, makers, dreamers, and leaders.

On Friday, February 3, we partnered with Youth Vs. Apocalypse to host our very first youth open mic at our new home (the last open mic we hosted was in March 2020!).

“Chapter 510 could be a model for what other communities can do and should be doing; to really bring people together - and to brin them together in a creative way that’s going to allow them to tap into who they are.”

- Charity Chandler-Cole, CEO, CASA of Los Angeles

The Oaklandside covers Oakland Belonging and publishes the audio as a podcast on Spotify.

Led by teaching artist and audio producer Elena Botkin-Levy, students used audio storytelling as a method of collecting and archiving stories about Swan’s Market, site of Chapter 510’s new writing center and much more. This film captures this powerful program from beginning to end. Thanks to video producer/documentarian Miles Lassi and to the Kenneth Rainin Foundation for underwriting this film.

Dear Oakland Allies,

As co-chairs of the Board of Directors, we are pleased to share Chapter 510’s 2021-22 Impact Report with you. This past year has been momentous for the organization: we opened a stunning new writing center in downtown Oakland. Our center is providing a post-shutdown space for youth to reconnect, create, and write with confidence and joy.

WELCOME TO THE BOARD DOROTHY LAZARD, SEAN MCCLUNG, MARNIE WEBB & EDWARD HANNEMANN!

Chapter 510 is offering a creative writing, bookmaking, and publishing course for up to 30 students at Westlake Middle School (Oakland) this school year. This will be Chapter 510’s most intensive offering ever!

The Quest Foundation offered Chapter 510 a $50,000 challenge grant to activate our new Writing Center last year. We’re proud to announce two others joined with Quest to bring our after-school programs to life: The Weinberg Foundation as well as Frances Hellman & Warren Breslau.

Congratulations to our radical design team from IDW and to us! We cannot be more proud to have won internationally acclaimed SF Design Week’s Social Impact Award.

We are so thrilled to be one of this year’s OFCY grantees! The Oakland Fund for Children and Youth have gifted us $75,000 to support programs at our Oakland writing center.

Congratulations Leila Mottley on your Instant New York Times BEST SELLING Oprah Book Club debut Nominated debut novel Nightcrawling!