Laughing Brook

Welcome to the East Bay LGBTQ+ Healing Arts Center, a grassroots, interdisciplinary collaborative of Oakland, California-based disabled, Black, Indigenous, and Brown LGBTQ+ identified artists and wellness practitioners. We are a diverse community rooted in healing-justice values and committed to promoting the well-being of the QTPOC artist community. Our mission is to offer creative opportunities for health equity through culturally competent, financially accessible, interdisciplinary art innovation and to promote the marginalized LGBTQIA rights advocacy.

Our vision is to create a space where Oakland can be home to one of the most innovative and respected queer arts communities in the world. We aim to provide a safe haven for LGBTQ+ artists of all ethnicities and creative genres to heal, build, and support their art throughout the year. By partnering with supportive Bay Area artists, wellness practitioners, health organizations, and LGBTQIA+ groups, we have been able to provide life-sustaining services to over 25,000 Queer, gender nonconforming, lesbian, bisexual, gay, intersex, asexual, and trans-identified people, especially artists, performers, healers, and families with children.

We offer a range of services including art workshops, job training, professional development opportunities, and collective self-care classes. Our Main Room can host community gatherings with a capacity of up to 85 people, and our QTea Room is available for medicinal tea sessions and client rentals. Our goal is to continue expanding and deepening our genius, celebrating the work of marginalized artists and healers, and promoting holistic wellness methodologies.

Our History

The East Bay LGBTQ+ Healing Arts Center was founded as Spectrum Queer Media in 2009, a QTPOC-led organization. In 2020, we took on the name The Queer Arts Center aka The East Bay LGBTQ+ Healing Arts Center, led by Black Queer and Black Trans artists and healers. Since its inception, the center has been dedicated to providing life-sustaining services to the LGBTQ+ community, particularly artists, performers, healers, and families with children.

Our Impact

Since the onset of the COVID Epidemic, we have provided over 30,000 meals to marginalized QTIBIPOC people. Our programs and services continue to grow and evolve, offering a platform for marginalized artists and healers to showcase their work and promoting the well-being of the QTPOC artist community.