A Call Home: Bay to LA @ Streetlight Gallery

Presented as part of Nexus Black Art Week, Streetlight Gallery presents A Call Home: Bay to LA.

As we explore how Black artists shape Bay Area culture, we can’t overlook the deep connection between the Bay and Los Angeles. Rather than competing, these two regions form an interconnected ecosystem.

For generations, artists have come to the Bay to study, refine their voice, and build community-often moving toward LA to expand their practice and reach broader audiences.

But this link goes beyond industry opportunity. It is rooted in shared histories of migration, redlining, and ongoing displacement. From Bayview-Hunters Point, West Oakland, and the Fillmore to Leimert Park, Watts, and South Central-Black neighborhoods have always been engines of cultural production, political imagination, and community care in the face of gentrification.

A Call Home looks at the Bay and LA in constant conversation, connected by the movement of artists, ideas, and shared histories.