On a recent Thursday evening, at a standup show called Holy Ground Comedy, Wolfe Pack Studios felt more like a house party. Squads of mostly 20- and 30-somethings filed into the cozy, downtown Oakland art space. Old friends hugged, and new acquaintances mingled on velvet couches. Upstairs, while a few guests played chess, a smiling Chef Njeri served big plates of Caribbean food — chicken legs, salad, rice and peas.
When the evening’s MC, Langstyn Avery, asked how many in the audience were born and raised in Oakland, a healthy number of cheers erupted from the crowd. And when he asked who was born outside the U.S., audience members enthusiastically shouted out Colombia, Lebanon and Vietnam. In this inclusive atmosphere, compliments and laughs flowed freely, and everyone — not just the comedians on stage — seemed comfortable sharing themselves.
That’s the kind of feel-good vibe artists are cultivating at Wolfe Pack Studios, the new art gallery and event space founded by muralist Rachel Wolfe-Goldsmith. Since opening in October 2022, the small storefront has become a clubhouse where writing workshops, comedy shows and album release parties bring together the Town’s many creative scenes.
“I think culture is made of experiences, right?” Wolfe-Goldsmith says of her omnivorous programming. “You’re curating these moments in time with specific people to create a certain energy, to inspire people in a certain type of way.”
Wolfe-Goldsmith serves as the creative director at the public art nonprofit Bay Area Mural Program (BAMP), and she’s responsible for some of Oakland’s best-known walls, including a tribute to the women of the Black Panther Party in West Oakland. Though most people encounter her art in its static form, she says her practice has always been alive and participatory. She got her start painting at electronic music festivals a decade ago, and years of living in big, communal artist houses left her comfortable in spaces where new ideas and activities are always flowing.
“Art doesn’t have an R.O.I. [return on investment] or a definite measurement of what it does for you, but you see it when people come experience a space full of music, storytelling, community or the actual art on the walls,” she says. “It’s impactful to the spirit.”
