An East Palo Alto Youth Center Makes Space for Adults — With a Side of Funk
East Palo Alto is often overshadowed by the neighboring city of Palo Alto, one of the Bay Area’s tech powerhouses. But it was a different story this past Sunday, when the newest youth center in East Palo Alto welcomed all generations for music from Vallejo’s own Con Funk Shun.
EPACENTER officially opened its doors in 2022, with input from the city’s youth. As a space for students to cultivate their creativity, it offers workshops and studio space for design, art, dance, fashion and more.
More recently, they’ve expanded their programming to include the community’s elders. That includes this year’s summertime concert series, which before Sunday’s show had hosted artists like Sheila E., Tony Lindsay and Pete Escovedo. In an effort to make the concerts accessible to the community, tickets for East Palo Alto residents were offered at one-third the cost of general entry.
With Con Funk Shun onstage to close out the concert series, the sun shined on stage, while a metaphorical light shined throughout the crowd. People spent the band’s set dancing, smiling and connecting.
Many in attendance remembered the site, in an industrial area on Bay Road, before EPACENTER was built.
“ I think it was a tire company, a moving company. It was a couple of different things that used to be in this area before they converted it over here to this good space that we never got to utilize before,” said Kabaila Everett, who came to the event with her mother Carol Dozier.
While the makeup of the crowd was older, many were excited to see that the next generation in East Palo Alto now has a space to cultivate their interests.
Both inside and outside the building, the impact of the students is visible in every corner. The signs above the entryway and the cafe read “Welcome” in English, “Bienvenido” in Spanish and “Talitali Fiefia” in Tongan to accommodate the diversity of the community that EPACENTER serves.
Staci Edwards, the center’s strategic initiative associate, remembers being in middle school and wanting to take up playing the guitar, but there were few places in East Palo Alto where she could learn. Luckily, her sister attended a college preparatory program, and Edwards was able to take lessons in the same building.
In that same room where she played guitar, she would also join a group that led to the beginning of EPACENTER. With the help of the community’s youth, the vision for the center came to life.
“ I was excited,” Edwards said. “Just the idea of just being able to imagine what this could become, and how this could help our community, and give more opportunities to the youth in our community, was such an exhilarating feeling within itself.”
On Sunday, the walls painted with blue, green, orange and other vibrant colors — chosen by students —surrounded the amphitheater. On stage, East Palo Alto’s own Will Roc Project opened the show, playing the hits of Vanity 6, the Mary Jane Girls and more.
“It’s been very moving to know that you have a positive impact on all sorts of people who really didn’t have access to an opportunity like that before, “ said Nadine Rambeau, EPACENTER’s executive director. “When people come up to me, they have such a light in their eyes. It’s almost like something that they have been wanting, and they’re lit up from the inside.”
Ronnie Matthews, who’s seen many changes over the 50 years he’s lived in East Palo Alto, welcomed the new energy brought by EPACENTER.
“This is beautiful for the community,” Matthews said. “Last week we had our first car show here, and it was really nice. It brought everything full circle. Me and my friends as kids, we grew up building our cars out of these wrecking yards that used to be down there.”
When Con Funk Shun hit the stage with their sparkling blazers and big brass instruments, the East Palo Alto community joined together in joy. A boy and his mother danced on the sidelines. The crowd hugged and celebrated to the music.
EPACENTER hopes to continue serving people of all ages in East Palo Alto, with the summer’s concert series as just a start.
“We have classes for young people. We have internships for young people,” Rambeau said. “But it was important for us to start thinking about other age groups, especially those who helped found the city and have been living in it for decades and decades, to finally gain access to our facility. That’s why we started here.”