Oakland Celebrates 100 Years of Black History With a Night of Culture and Creativity — and Free Food

On Thursday, Feb. 26, the city of Oakland will celebrate 100 years of Black history with a night of music, art, wine tastings and spoken word poetry at the newly reopened Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts.

Of course, no celebration of Black culture would be complete without a spread of delicious food. So event organizers have tapped some of the Town’s most prominent Black chefs to dish out plates of jerk chicken and barbecue.

It’s going to be an all-out party, then. The best part? Everything will be entirely free.

“We want to build a sense of joy and spiritualism in Oakland,” says chef Nigel Jones of Calabash, one of the participating restaurants. “That’s the energy we want to bring for 2026.”

The theme of Oakland’s centennial event — “Black History in Motion: Culture, Community & the Future We Build (1926–2026)” — alludes to the historian Carter G. Woodson’s creation of the first Negro History Week in 1926. That weeklong celebration eventually evolved into what we now know as Black History Month.

Hosted by Oakland City Council President Kevin Jenkins, along with fellow Councilmembers Carroll Fife, Ken Houston and Rowena Brown, Thursday night’s event is meant to be a showcase of the depth and breadth of Black creativity in Oakland. Former America’s Got Talent contestant Dee Dee Simon will perform, as will the MC and spoken word poet RyanNicole. Dr. Chris Wachira of the Kenyan American winery Wachira Wines will be on hand to pour free tastes. And a Black Authors’ Corner will feature Wanda Johnson, Oscar Grant’s mother, who wrote a memoir about her son’s heartbreaking death.

Meanwhile, featured chefs dishing out tastes will include Jones (of Calabash and Kingston 11), caterer Jusala, Dottie Moore and the team from longtime barbecue staple Everett & Jones. Jones, for his part, will serve what has been his signature dish since his Kingston 11 days: slow-roasted jerk chicken, served with a side of rice and peas and sweet plantains.

All of the food will be free, passed out on a first come, first served basis. (Good reason, perhaps, to show up early.)

Jones notes that while it has been a challenging few years for all restaurants in Oakland, Black-owned food businesses have had a particularly difficult time. By and large, they’re scrappy, independent operations, often without any financial cushion. And the COVID shutdowns were brutal for restaurants like Calabash that depend on downtown foot traffic.

Despite the struggles, Jones says he’s hopeful for the future of Oakland.

“Oakland doesn’t have tech. We don’t have oil. We don’t have any anchor stores to drive people downtown. But what we do have is culture,” Jones says, noting how inspired he was by the thousands of people who came out to the Black Joy Parade this past weekend.

“The culture that we have in Oakland — that’s the thing that we need to invest in. That’s what we need to support.”

Oakland’s Black History Month centennial celebration is on Feb. 26, 6–9 p.m., at the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts (10 10th St., Oakland). The event is free and open to the public. Guests are encouraged to attend in “African swag or business attire.”