Where Past Meets Possible: Black Futures Ball Illuminates Dreams in Oakland

On the first Saturday night in August, the sun set on the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, a steel-framed, futuristic campus reaching toward the sky.

At one of the entrances, a line formed. Spilling down the center’s stairs were patrons dressed head to toe in glittering silvers and golds, some in radiant fabrics that beamed like Technicolor.

A passerby might have mistaken the scene for a mini Met Gala — women sashaying in golden sun-shaped crowns, men in silver suits that caught the light and scattered it in a cascade.

But this wasn’t the Met Gala — it was the 2025 Black Futures Ball, an annual fundraiser hosted by the East Oakland Youth Development Center. Since its founding in 1978, the EOYDC has stood as a beacon of hope and support for Oakland’s youth, offering resources in career development, wellness, college preparation and arts programming.

The gala took place amid a rising tide of investment in East Oakland’s future — most notably, a $100 million community-led initiative known as Rise East, aimed at reversing generations of disinvestment. Powered by local leaders and a national funder, the effort centers Black and brown families and aims to transform a 40-block stretch of East Oakland through long-term support for housing, education and public safety.

The EOYDC is part of the 40×40 Council, a coalition of community-based organizations working to improve health and quality of life in East Oakland.

One key EOYDC initiative is the Pathway to College and Careers Program, which helps prospective college students navigate the application process and provides financial scholarships to support their journeys.

This was the fourth year of the Black Futures Ball, which the EOYDC hosts to celebrate those scholars and raise funds to help ensure future generations dream big.

On Aug. 2, the past, present and future converged at the gala with the theme Space is the Place — Visionary Dreamwork. Many donors and attendees were once EOYDC participants themselves, giving youth a glimpse of what might await them — futures already mapped among the stars.

Selena Wilson, the EOYDC’s CEO, said the ball’s theme — while futuristic — is grounded in Oakland’s history. She said the 1974 Afrofuturist film Space is the Place inspired her, which starred jazz legend Sun Ra and was largely shot in Oakland.

“We wanted to lean into radical imagination,” Wilson told KQED. “Making space for joy.”

The theme’s double meaning, Wilson said, is about embracing ambition and breaking boundaries, while also making room to uplift and celebrate each other.

To Jada White, a rising senior at UCLA and an EOYDC scholar, the theme takes on many meanings.

“As a Black student, I think I have to remind myself that my journey has a lot more obstacles than somebody else,” White, 21, said. “Me being in the same room as them is a feat within itself.”

Still, White added, it’s not just about taking up space — it’s about “making sure that we’re allowing space for others like us to enter.”

“That’s why it’s really important to have events like this, because most of these donors are Black scholars,” White said. “They were in our shoes before, and I think that seeing that as a scholar is kind of inspiring and endearing.”

Leila Fite, an incoming freshman at Temple University, said radical imagination helped shape her future in public health. At Skyline High School, where many of the scholars attended, Fite did her senior project on Black maternal health and was connected to resources through the EOYDC.

“I got to talk to a whole bunch of Black women in very different, specific medical fields that I had never even heard of,” Fite said. “It really just opened up a whole new scope of possibilities for me.”

Inside the banquet hall, students shared their college plans and majors with families and donors before hearing from guest speakers. This year’s honorary guests included Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee and Dolores Huerta, the labor leader and activist whose name is synonymous with the national farm workers movement.

Tears fell when a scholarship was announced in the memory of Marvin Boomer, a beloved Castlemont High School teacher who was killed in June when he was struck by a driver fleeing from the California Highway Patrol.

Tears fell again when Rev. Dereca Blackmon led a libation ceremony.

She called forth the ancestors “not just to remember them, but to invite them to be with us right here, right now, to bless us as we’ve carved new spaces for our children and our communities.”

She also invoked “the young ones who are yet to be born, that they may call our names with pride.”

Lee presented the Ida Louise Jackson Award. She knew the trailblazing educator and philanthropist personally and called the moment “Sankofa” — a Ghanaian concept of reflecting on one’s history and heritage to look toward the future.

“Just know that those who had the vision are proud,” Lee told the scholars. “You all are making sure that the world survives, and you are secure in the world, for the future.”

When Huerta, now 95, made her way to the podium, the room fell silent.

She reminded the audience of the importance of education and awareness — especially in a time when the federal government has placed those keystone values on a chopping block. Racial and religious divisions, she said, are bolstered by withholding education.

“Si Se Puede,” Huerta said, and the entire room bellowed back: “YES YOU CAN!”

Other speakers included Tajai and DJ Toure from the Oakland hip-hop collective Hieroglyphics. Tajai described “the beautiful vortex” of movements born in the Bay Area — the Black Panthers, hippies, disability rights — and the homegrown talent that Oakland has gifted the world.

“Y’all are the people that are gonna save us,” he said.

After the speeches and fundraising, the crowd poured onto the dance floor. Lights bounced off space helmets and NASA decals. A brilliant dome glowed overhead.

The crowd, blending in a mix of silver and neon, traditional African dress and elaborate face paint, bestows upon the present an insignia, the past marrying the future. Local Black and POC artisans filled tables with jewelry, desserts and more in celebration of abundance, art and joy.

Alyce Kareem, an incoming sophomore at Xavier University of Louisiana, has big dreams. A Skyline graduate and lifelong EOYDC participant, Kareem told KQED she wants to pursue both filmmaking and medicine — two passions she is certain can be blended into one path.

“These spaces push me to express myself and not put myself in a box,” Kareem said, gesturing to the flickering strobe lights and the crowd dancing near her.

When asked about her night and her time at the EOYDC, she simply said: “A dream of mine came true.”

As the midnight fog settled over Skyline Boulevard, the Chabot Center still glowed — lights and music spilling from every door — as though the night sky itself were alive and full of stars.