“ We will all, at some point, encounter hurdles to gaining access and entry, moving up and conquering self-doubt; but on the other side is the capacity to own opportunity and tell our own story"
2024 Impact Report
-Stacey Abrams
acknowledge all immigrant labor, including voluntary, involuntary, and trafficked peoples who continue to serve within our labor force
Black Humboldt, BH, is a community-based, grassroots organization offering cultural, arts and educational programming to the Black and Brown communities of California’s Northern rural Coast. BH is interested in networking, building relationships and community with residents who identify as Black, Indigenous or as a person of color that also finds themselves intersected with other marginalized identities like 2S/LGBTQAI+, experiencing poverty, being disabled, experiencing incarceration or not having access to higher education. In the summer of 2024 Black Humboldt left their fiscal sponsorship with the Ink People for a transitional period with OpenArt. During this transition Black Humboldt with the support of our community participated in a strategic retreat to outline our growth and impact for the next 5 years. BH intentionally brought the community to the table to ensure our focus and energy was driven by the current needs and wants of those we serve. Through this building time together we decided to get 501c3 status, continue our Black Leaders fellowship and launch a “Solidarity Hub” alongside Cooperation Humboldt in hopes to influence afro-futuristic, decolonized and cooperative methods of building through solidarity.
Black Humboldt operates on the present and ancestral Homeland and unceded territory of the Wiyot Tribe. Please donate to the Wiyot Tribe honor tax. We encourage direct giving to Tribes and Native-led efforts. Tribes and Nations in Humboldt County include Hupa, Karuk, Mattole, Tolowa, Wailaki, Wiyot, Yurok.
Black Humboldt recognizes and acknowledges the labor upon which our country, state, and institutions are built. Remember that our country is built on the labor of enslaved people who were kidnapped and brought to the US from the African Continent and recognize the continued contribution of their survivors. We
Internal Structure
Black Humboldt does not self identity as a social justice organization or a political organization but recognizes that Black and Brown communities experience the negative implications of on going social justice issues and their mere existence is a political topic.
Black liberation is tied to the liberation of all peoples and this is the reason we cannot provide any level of DEI, racial or social justice education, as it would require emotional labor for our already vulnerable community.
Mission: To enlighten, empower, and entertain our Black & Brown community living on California's Northern rural Coast through events made FOR US and BY US.
Goals:
Cultivate necessary, supportive, and inclusive spaces for all Black and Brown communities.
Create, maintain, and sustain economic empowerment.
Educate, empower and liberate our Black & Brown community.
Fill gaps Black & Brown identities face in education, representation, positions of power, and accessibility to resources.
Dismantle systemic issues that negatively affect BIPOC communities on a societal level.
Black Humboldt’s Priorities
Within this approach there is an understanding that “Black” is both a culture and a race and people within it come in many different races, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. There is no one way to be Black and there are many variations of the Black experience.
People who identify as Black, African American, African, Afro, Afro Latiné, Afro Caribbean or from anywhere within the African Diaspora.
These people might also identify as indigenous, POC, 2S/LGBTQAI+, experiencing poverty, being disabled, experiencing incarceration or not having access to higher education.
2024 support
Who do we serve?
CA Arts Council
Humboldt Area Foundation
Wild Rivers Foundation
Mclean Foundation
Social Justice Donor Circle
Queer Humboldt
The Humboldt Community
Juneteenth Sponsors
Cooperation Humboldt
CA Endowment
Our decision to use “Black & Brown” instead of “African American” is to ensure the geographical and cultural inclusivity of everyone within the African diaspora. We hope to highlight that African Americans are one of many variations within a larger global community of individuals who have a shared ancestry, yet diverse cultures, customs, and languages.”
Core Programming
* Figures based on financial statements Jan – December 2024
Financial Summary *
Total Revenue = $145,500
Total Expenses = $137,521
Juneteenth Black Business Fund
Ten $1000 unrestricted awards
Community Mutual Aid:
$2500 allocated
$7500 helped raise for other causes
Back to School Kits for Success
75 supply kits distributed- clothing & haircuts
Home Away Project
35 gifts distributed & 35 hot plates served
Temporary Jobs
135 Black & Brown consultants / independent contractors
$$ Giving
Black Liberation Month is a retitling of Black History Month and will take place for the entire month of February every year. Black Humboldt is intentional in this series of programming as we see it as a way to empower the Black community. The program consists of 5-10 workshops led by local Black and Brown community members, art exhibits and showcases. We hope to instill tradition around celebrating Blackness, our history and our continued contributions to The North Coast and the ever growing Black and BIPOC culture of this area.
Arts for Black and Brown Bodies is a month-long series that explores Black and Brown bodies within art forms society doesn’t normally attribute to Black or Afro culture or communities. The series works to create art and culture in non-traditional spaces in hopes to grow our presence in the art world. The series occurs for an entire month, both in March and October every year, and includes 6-15 art workshops led by local BIPOC artists that take place in exclusive spaces for BIPOC community members. The month may also host art exhibits, gallery shows, movie screenings and artist showcases at local venues.
Exclusive Black Networking Mixers- Necessary space dedicated to the gathering of community members who identify as Black, African American, African, Afro, Afro Latiné, Afro Caribbean or from anywhere within the African Diaspora. Black Humboldt has chosen to host exclusively Black spaces/events in hopes to provide healing and connection to our Black and Brown community.
Black Family Gatherings- Necessary space dedicated to the gathering of community members who identify as Black, African American, African, Afro, Afro Latiné, Afro Caribbean or from anywhere within the African Diaspora AND THEIR LOVED ONES, regardless of race, even if their loved ones are not blood related. In these necessary spaces we are trusting our community to keep our spaces safe and trusted.
Black Humboldt's events and programming have always and will always house arts as a tool to transform and express culture. The arts have a long history within Black and afro culture for being a vehicle for social change, expression and healing and is something shared across all the many races, ethnicities and languages of Blackness.
Total income = $142,286
Black Leaders Fellowship
Get involved!!
Juneteenth
Contact us
Black Humboldt is a volunteer run organization centering the work of Black & Brown community members and the various intersections of their lived experiences.
We operate with an open door policy to invite anyone from our community to platform their voices, needs and ideas and encourage folx to get involved in whatever ways they can.
The Black Leaders Fellowship Program was created to connect with the community we serve, create leaders, create job opportunities, provide professional and personal training/development and further the mission of Black Humboldt.
In 2024 our fellows attended the Black Joy Parade in Oakland, hosted a strategic planning retreat open to the community and created upgrades and new developments for our 2025 fellows to further enrich the professional and
Black Humboldt, The Eureka Chapter of the NAACP and the Black community of North Coast communities host a Juneteenth Cultural Festival every year, 2024 was the 5th annual gathering the theme was “Visions of a Liberated Future”. The event hosts culturally significant educational, entertainment and arts events/programs hosted by Black & Brown community. Juneteenth is an event celebrating freedom, diversity and community as the country recognizes June 19th as the day slavery was ended in 1865 and African Americans were freed. The event features a large selection of local BIPOC vendors, restaurants, artists, community leaders and performances. History: “Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States.
This event creates necessary, inclusive space for the Black and BIPOC community, platforms Black culture, arts and lifestyle, celebrates and educates on the history of Juneteenth, creates safe spaces to hold conversations around race, equity and systematic oppression, celebrates diversity, community and Black liberation, highlights Black and Brown community members, artists and educators and supports Black & BIPOC owned businesses, professionals and artists while raising funds for Black Humboldt's Black Business Fund and operations.
2024 - 2025 Fellows
Levia Love – Business Liaison
Alby Alawoya - Business Liaison
Rosemary Grady – Resource Liaison
Mo Harper-Desir – Development Fellow Lexxi Reid – Communications Fellow
personally development of this program. All of our fellows will be graduating at the end of 2024. They led the community through surveys and data walks as a collaborator in the RRRise project and we’re able to make organizational connections in Sacramento and LA.
We invite organizations, artists and community members to get involved with our 2025 Juneteenth festival.
Email Blackhumboldt@gmail.com for an invite to our Feb info session
Sponsorship opens January 2025 & packages start at as little as $25