Io, Sherbeam, Alfonso, Carmen, and Praveen pose near the new stairs to the loft that Io just built.
Hi there! So happy to see you! We’re a new people of color-led, gender-balanced maker space that’s about to open up in East Oakland. The maker movement is amazing.
People are making more things from scratch, learning new and lost arts, and having fun. Some are even finding their way to financial liberty through their passions. This is so great and wonderful! Unfortunately, the movement isn’t as diverse as it could be. Which is why we’ve worked so hard to open up this new space!
We really want to take on the challenge of increasing participation of our communities head on. We envision a vibrant space where you can expect to see people of color, immigrants, poor folks, women, youth, transfolks, and queers teaching, learning, and making all kinds of cool things. We also hope to be a force in increasing participation of our communities in STEM fields and startups (of all kinds — micro, macro, non-profit, for-profit, etc.).
That’s the future (hopefully the very near future!). Today, though, what we have is an unfurnished space (as you can see from the photo), a few committed volunteers, and a big dream. Our first big event will be a community brunch on Feb. 12. This will be a chance to tell people about our dream and also to hear ideas from the community and learn how people are interested in using the space. Please like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and/or subscribe to this blog for updates.
So excited!
I can’t wait to see it!!
Congratulations you guys! I’m looking forward to your opening.
YAY!!!
Thanks, everyone! Hope you can make it to our opening event on Sun., Feb. 12! http://omslaunch.eventbrite.com/
I’d love to see you all join an existing hackerspace, like Ace Monster Toys, here in Oakland than go through the rather uphill task of making a new one from scratch. Have you visited us?
Yes, we have visited. AMT and Noisebridge are wonderful spaces. What we’re doing here at LOL is quite a bit different, though. This will become clear as we have more content up. One thing that differentiates us is that we have a focus on social justice and balancing out inequities that exist, particularly among the participation of people of color, women, and other groups that are often underrepresented in STEM fields, the maker movement, etc.