Black Dot Cafe, 2009
CC SA-BY Our Oakland

The Black Dot Cafe was a cafe which served as a poetry and music venue in Village Bottoms in West Oakland. It was founded in 1998 by poet and self-styled "mayor of West Oakland", Marcel Diallo Jack.

It was in a variety of locations over the years, most recently in a commercial space in the Pacific Cannery Lofts, provided at low cost by developer Rick Holliday. 1

The cafe originally opened in 1998 on International in the San Antonio neighborhood.2

 

Links and References

  1. You Don't Know Jack East Bay Express November 18, 2009
  2. Against Gentrification / Marcel Diallo sees a black cultural district where Oakland's the Bottoms neighborhood now stands SF Chronicle January 21, 2007