The Freedom Bus

We are pleased to announce the addition of a drop-off location in Contra Costa County. In addition to the Alameda County Office of Education drop-off location in Hayward, art entries may be submitted at:

This morning Executive Director Dria Fearn gave a presentation on the Freedom Bus Project to a packed house at the Lake Merritt Breakfast Club.  Breakfastclubbers in attendance included Hon. John Sutter, Lee Douglas, Gus Petris, and current Club President Joe Guzman.

Given that past speakers have included local elected officials, most recently the Ma...

AC Transit Director Joel Young, and Co-Chair of the Freedom Bus Project, appeared on Comcast Newsmakers to discuss the Freedom Bus Project and Black History Month. This segment will air during the entire month of February.

During the segment, Director Young shares that the Freedom Bus Project is a collaboration between AC Transit and the Alameda County Office of Education, because it is a means of “incorporating civil rights, arts, and public transportation…to teach civil rights.” Director Young also spoke about his own personal heroes and sheroes from the Civil Rights Movement.

Director Young also thanked Comcast for being a sponsor of the Freedom Bus Project.

The Freedom Bus Project is proud to announce the addition of Waste Management, Clorox, PG&E, National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), and Union Bank to its list of sponsors.

Waste Management is our newest Silver Sponsor, and is sponsoring the VIP Reception at the Art Exhibition and Community Celebration at Oakland School for the Arts on March 25, 2011, hosted by Assemblymember Sandré Swanson and Oakland Mayor Jean Quan.

Clorox, PG&E, NBPA, and Union Bank join the Project as Bronze Sponsors.  Clorox has awarded the Freedom Bus Project a $1000 arts mini-grant, of which it awards twenty-five annually to support performing and visual arts...

Four exceptional entries chosen to appear on more than 200 AC Transit buses.

All participating students will be honored at our Art Exhibition and Community Celebration this Friday, March 25th, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm at Oakland School for the Arts (530 18th St., Oakland, CA 94612).

Thank you to everyone who came out on Friday night to make our event a success. Not only did the official AC Transit Freedom Bus make its debut, but we enjoyed amazing artwork and performances by local students.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan was on hand, and enjoyed viewing the exhibited artwork and visiting with our student artists.

We honored all of our student artists with certificates of achievement, and presented the posters that will adorn more than 200 AC Transit buses as our Mobile Art Exhibit to our K-12 arts competition winners.

Alameda County Chief of Probation David Muhammed spoke about how proud he was that Butler Academic Center at the Juvenile Justice Center was selected to appear in the Mobile Art Exhibit...

Art Exhibition and Community Celebration
The Power of One Inspires Change for All
March 25, 2011
Oakland School for the Arts
6:00 to 9:00 PM
Formal Program begins at 7:15.

Join us as we honor the student artists and the East Bay’s legacy of civil rights and community activism. Check out the exhibition of submissions from our K-12 arts competition, the official AC Transit Freedom Bus, featuring artwork by Berkeley High School Arts and Humanities Academy students, and enjoy vocal and theatrical performances by local students.

This event is free and open to the public, and families are encouraged to attend, but we would appreciate your RSVP to event@freedombusproject.com.

Oakland School for the Arts is located at 530 18th Street in Downtown Oakland, and is accessible by AC Transit and BART.

On Tuesday March 20th Saja, Aeman, and Manar, students from the photography workshop went to the local village of Faquaa to give a photography lesson to local children, providing them with the tools necessary to document their experience as it pertains to water. Additionally a group of children from Gaza were selected to photograph the water issues they face in their daily lives.

The photography students met with the children in the local meeting center where Saja led a lesson on photography with the help of Aeman and Manar. This was the children’s first time using an actual digital camera as opposed to a camera phone...

Later this year from September 23 through October 1, the Freedom Bus will travel across the West Bank with an international group of artists and activists for a 9-day solidarity ride, using Playback Theatre to perform the stories of community members whose voices have so often been repressed, by Israel and by Palestinian society as well.

As Rivers explains it, the ride also responds to a “fundamental human need to experience solidarity in the face of suffering and injustice”...

Despite being shattered by Mer-Khamis’ murder, the students and staff and the Freedom Theatre had one of its best years artistically in 2011, as famed Israeli director Udi Aloni filled in for his good friend and produced an instantly celebrated version of Beckett’s seminal absurdist play, “Waiting for Godot”, which premiered in Ramallah and went on to tour Europe and the United States. Inspired by the Theatre, the Levantine Centre - the biggest Middle Eastern cultural centre in the US - created the Freedom Theatre West.

And now the Freedom Theatre is taking the show on the road with a “Freedom Bus”, which later this month will bring members of the Troupe to Cairo and to do a “playback theatre” with Egyptian activists and artists.

As one member of the Theatre’s international staff, Ben R...