It’s not just art for us,
it’s life
Through incubation, resource mapping, co-production, and cultural events, we ensure that creatives of African descent—even those who don't yet identify as artists—have a platform to engage intentionally and authentically with their communities. This is our community. This is our home.
In an Ideal world, Afro Urban Society doesn’t need to exist. Until then, we envision community-powered societies where Black folks live, breathe, and create without permission.
Afro Urban Society is a non-profit organization of cultural creatives dedicated to boosting art, media, and the tough-but-necessary conversations relevant to the African diaspora. Through our diverse projects and programs we support the resiliency, interconnection and unique artistic and cultural expressions and contributions of people of African descent in the Bay area, and globally.
One thing remains constant no matter the medium: We move.
We Move
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We Move
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We Move
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We Move >> We Move >> We Move >>
How We Do It
Facilitate development and production of new work for theaters, galleries, festivals, and online.
Present opportunities for presentation via our Afro Urban Society network for dynamic visibility and audience building
Nurture a network of artists and creatives and connect them to paid opportunities that also build their work experience and professionalism
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Design & technical production fellowship and training program for Black womxn and gender non-binary people to create professional career pathways
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Multidisciplinary artistic fellowship on Afro-diasporic relations and identity
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Pan African Arts & Culture program for school-age children
We curate and host various fellowship and training programs enabling our community members to level up on their creative and artistic craft and practice. Our offerings include:
We incubate
We celebrate the work of community of artists and creatives with and through performance, cultural expression, media, and community events such as:
We Celebrate
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(fka Bakanal de Afrique): bi-annual multidisciplinary Afro-urban art and culture festival
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Afro-pop ensemble of dancers and musicians
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Share about our community through our various online and in-print publications
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Original & Unique apparel, merch, publications and art
Connect our community members with work opportunities beyond Afro Urban Society
We elevate
Our Story
Bakanal de Afrique 2016
Afro Urban Society (AUS) began in 2004 as One3snapshot, founded by Nkeiruka Oruche, Anneli Akinde and Chinenye Aneke, as a collective of creatives producing art that spoke to the African urban experience. In 2005 under the Danceslave project, Oruche began offering dance classes and workshops as well as Afro-dance performance for girls and young women emphasizing cultivating identity in a complex world.
By 2009, we were working with local artists and performers in the San Francisco Bay Area to produce small community events that create relationships among people of all Afro ethnicities through population music, street dance and continental aesthetics. Bakanal de Afrique emerged in collaboration with Tossie Long & Kola Shobo.
MDG - 2022
To deepen our impact and carry out our mission, we collaborated with various entities over the years - including Nigerian Entertainment, Bassey Ikpi, Dance Mission, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Stern Grove Festival, Oakland Museum of California, and Nike Centre for Art and Culture - to produce over 90 public events, workshops, art, artist collaborations and performances.
Spearheaded by Oruche, Afro Urban Society was created as a non-profit umbrella for the myriads of projects and collaborations in 2014. In 2017, with financial support from individuals, artists and grants, we began enriching our programs and expanding who we serve.
In 2019, we sparked Lit from the Black! Stage Lighting Design and Technical Production Fellowship for Black womxn and gender non-binary people to increase employment and creative opportunities for Black people in the arts industry.
In 2020, we served and collaborated with over 200 Black artists/creatives and cultural workers through 11 projects and over 63 workshops/events, virtually, outdoor, and hybrid, including co-producting & presenting Bakanal de Afrique multidisciplinary festival that explores and celebrates the odyssey of urban Afro-descended people through art and culture.
In 2021 we activated Afro Culture Kids , a pan-African arts immersion program for children, offering free/donation-based Pan-African arts, dance, music & cultural activities via indigenous practitioners and facilitators. To date we have served over 460 African, African American, and African immigrant youth in Oakland, and San Francisco Bayview communities. The project has engaged over 35 artists/creatives from the SF Bay Area, Haiti, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Nigeria.
In 2022, our 16-person performing ensemble Gbedu Town Radio presented ‘Mixtape for the Dead & Gone #1’, our first post-covid theater production to a 7x sold-out audience in San Francisco and Oakland.
In 2022/2023, Wakabout Express, our travel cultural exchange project for people of African Descent took 6 California-based creatives to Nigeria (#510ToDa234) for 6 weeks. The project employed and showcased over 260 artists of African descent, and raised $60,000+ to make it happen. We jumped our in-person global programming on the continent with pilot youth and adult programs and events in Lagos, Nigeria.
Our work is exemplified through 10+ years of cultural arts programming, engaging over 1000 artists, and producing over 56 performances or community events annually to an audience of over 15,000 people around the SF Bay area and internationally.
