Qulture Collective

Qulture Collective is a queer-owned community space and digital platform in Oakland, California, that fosters creativity, connection, and support for LGBTQIA+ individuals through a café, art gallery, retail shop, and event venue.​ In 2019, Qulture Collective transitioned from a physical space to a national digital platform. Founded in 2015 by Alyah Baker, Julia Wolfson, and Terry Sok, Qulture Collective was established to provide a safe and inclusive environment for queer people, particularly in the face of gentrification and the disappearance of LGBTQIA+ spaces in downtown Oakland. The collective offers a multi-use venue at 1714 Franklin Street, featuring a café that employs queer and allied staff, a retail shop showcasing goods made by queer artisans, and a gallery that hosts rotating exhibitions by LGBTQIA+ artists from Oakland and beyond.

In addition to its physical spaces, Qulture Collective serves as a hub for community engagement, hosting a variety of events such as film screenings, karaoke nights, meditation sessions, and workshops. These programs aim to educate, heal, and empower the LGBTQIA+ community, providing opportunities for artistic expression, social connection, and personal growth.

City

Oakland

Country

United States

Region

N. America

Year of Creation

2015

Featured Project

19th and Lexington: Images from San Francisco’s Last Lesbian Bar 1997-2015
On April 30th, 2015, the last drink was served in San Francisco’s iconic Lexington Club, a nightclub and safe haven for lesbians and queer people in operation since the 1990s. For its longtime community, “The Lex” served as a crucial community and cultural hub, a safe space and nightlife family, of sorts. To archive and commemorate the immense personal importance of The Lexington Club, Qulture Collective opened an exhibition in 2016. Curated by Lauren Tabak and Susie Smith of the Lexington Club Archival Project, 19th and Lexington: Images from San Francisco’s Last Lesbian Bar 1997-2015 exhibited images and ephemera that aimed to show the vibrancy of the community that formed around the Lex. As a social hub and safe space for queer people in the Bay Area, Qulture Collective was selected to house the exhibition.

Resources

Levin, Sam. “Qulture Collective: A Downtown Hub for Oakland Queers.” East Bay Express, 26 Aug. 2015, https://eastbayexpress.com/qulture-collective-a-downtown-hub-for-oakland-queers-2-1/.

“Meet Me at the Club? Nope.” Yr Media, 3 Apr. 2018, https://yr.media/news/meet-me-at-the-club-nope/.

Owen, Elliot. “Oakland queer space readies for opening.” Bay Area Reporter, 19 Aug. 2015, https://www.ebar.com/story/245558/redirect.

Voynovskaya, Nastia. “The House of Malico’s Alignment Festival Centers Creative Healing.” KQED, 27 Feb. 2019, https://www.kqed.org/arts/13851773/the-house-of-malicos-alignment-festival-centers-creative-healing.

More Information

IMPORTANT: Profile pages for all collectives are in permanent development and have been built using information in the public domain. They will be updated progressively and in dialogue with the organizations by the end of 2024. New features and sections will be included in 2025, like featured videos, and additional featured projects. Please contact us if you discover errors. For more information on mapping criteria and to submit your organization’s information to be potentially included in the database, visit this page

Scroll to Top