32nd Annual Día de los Muertos Community Celebration Live Music by Shanté, Music Set by DJ Moteef, Drag Storytime with Per Sia, Mini House Making, Nexus Black Art Week Panel Discussion, and Gallery Chats This Friday Night at OMCA, Oakland singer-songwriter Shanté brings her soulful sound to the Garden Stage with a powerful live performance. Blending smooth R&B, heartfelt storytelling, and uplifting messages of resilience, faith, and self-discovery, the East Oakland artist delivers an intimate yet energetic set that invites audiences to sing along, reflect, and leave inspired. Keeping the music going, DJ Moteef takes over the Amphitheater with an eclectic and soul-nourishing mix of R&B, House, Funk, Afrobeats, Hip Hop, and reimagined classics that both move the body and stir the spirit. Bay Area-raised and based, DJ Moteef’s sets celebrate a global soundscape with nostalgic selections and are grounded in community, culture, and connection. Families can also gather in the Garden for Drag Storytime with Per Sia, San Francisco’s Drag Laureate, featuring a reading of Hazel’s Best Day: A Story of Community, Accessibility, and Pride in Being Yourself. Guests of all ages are also invited to make their own mini home inspired by Mildred Howard’s house sculptures, using colorful materials to create a tiny home that tells their story. Guests can also join artists Mildred Howard and Adrian Burrell for a special conversation presented in partnership with MoAD Nexus Black Art Week, moderated by OMCA’s  Senior Director of Marketing, Communications, and Visitor Experience, Autumn King.  Alongside an exceptional event experience, Friday Nights at OMCA also features Gallery Chats from 5:30–7:30 pm. Putting a twist on the traditional museum tour, Gallery Chats invite visitors to engage in meaningful conversations, share personal reflections, and explore new perspectives on the artwork, artifacts, and stories throughout OMCA’s galleries. Enthusiastic volunteer facilitators can be found floating between all of OMCA’s galleries, including its Great Hall Special Exhibitions, throughout the evening. Look for the blue “Let’s Chat” shirts to join the conversation. Gallery Chats are included with Museum admission. Program Schedule:  5:15 pm Drag Storytime with Per Sia | Garden 5:30–7:30 pm Make Mini Home Activity | Garden 5:30–7:30 pm Gallery Chats | All Galleries 5:30–6:30 pm Nexus Black Art Week: Mildred Howard & Adrian Burrell | James Moore Theater 6:30–7:30 pm Live Music by Shanté | Garden Stage 6:45–8:45 pm Music set by DJ Shell Heart  | Amphitheater Join our email list to stay in the loop about Friday Nights at OMCA! About Friday Nights: Don’t miss the final weeks of Friday Nights at OMCA! As the days get shorter and fall settles in, Oakland’s favorite weekly block party—complete with Off the Grid food trucks—is wrapping up its current season with a bang. Join us for a few more festive fall evenings of music, community, food, and fun before Friday Nights takes a seasonal pause. OMCA will continue to welcome visitors during regular Museum hours, with plenty to explore—including our latest special exhibition, BeHere/1942: A New Lens on Japanese Incarceration, and featured experiences like OMCA’s 32nd Annual Día de los Muertos Community Celebration. Visit museumca.org for Museum hours, exhibitions, and program details. OMCA also offers a $10 flat-rate parking in the OMCA Garage until 10 pm. Please note that outside alcohol is not permitted, and event details and performances are subject to change. Please view our Garden Guidelines and Dog Policy. Accessibility  Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) is committed to providing programs that are accessible, welcoming, and inclusive of our community. Wheelchairs, sensory inclusive devices, and additional amenities are available for checkout on a first come, first served basis at the Ticketing Desk. To request other accommodations, like American Sign Language (ASL), Cantonese, Spanish or another language interpreter, please email visitor@museumca.org at least three weeks before the event. Learn more about our accessibility options. Performers Shanté DJ Moteef Per Sia Off the Grid Food Truck Lineup Performer BIOS About Shanté Shanté is a singer-songwriter from East Oakland whose music blends soulful R&B, heartfelt storytelling, and messages of resilience, faith, and self-discovery. Through honest lyricism and a captivating voice, she transforms real-life experiences into songs that inspire, heal, and connect. Whether delivering intimate ballads or powerful anthems, Shanté’s performances leave audiences feeling seen, encouraged, and uplifted. About DJ Moteef DJ Moteef is a Bay Area raised and based sound selector whose love for music was shaped by her Nigerian upbringing and the Bay’s hyphy movement. A student of the Beat Junkies Institute of Sound, she has played venues across the Bay including 1015 Folsom, Crybaby, Parliament, and more, while collaborating with brands like LinkedIn and Apple. Her sets celebrate a global soundscape, nostalgic selections and are grounded in community, culture, and connection. About Per Sia San Francisco’s current Drag Laureate, Per Sia, is a first-generation Trans Mexican-American drag artist raised in South Central Los Angeles, with drag roots in San Francisco’s Mission District. Her multidisciplinary practice spans performance, curation, television, and storytelling, presented in spaces ranging from local bars to major museums, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Oakland Museum of California. A graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, she is a co-founder of Drag Story Hour and an educator with Children’s After School Arts, with work featured on KQED Arts, National Public Radio, and CNN. About Mildred Howard Mildred Howard began making art influenced by textiles and African Diasporic dance as early as the 1970s. Howard’s studio became a space for experimentation, where her work has referenced both personal history and collective, generational experiences—from World War I to her family’s roots in the Great Migration. Howard’s monumental public artworks—found across the Bay Area—have highlighted often overlooked histories, from the Black ship workers of Hunters Point to the musicians who defined San Francisco jazz. OMCA’s exhibition Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory brings together Howard’s renowned collages, found-object sculptures, and immersive installations that explore memory, identity, and the African American experience. About Adrian Burrell Adrian Burrell is a multimedia artist whose practice includes photography, film, installation, and experimental media. His work examines the intersections of race, class, and intergenerational dynamics, inviting moments where collective storytelling creates space for remembrance. Burrell’s work has been the subject of the recent solo exhibitions Venus Blues at the Minnesota Street Project Foundation (2023), and Sugarcane and Lightning pt 3 at the San José ICA, CA (2022), each investigating his own family history—archival, speculative, and fictional—as a means of understanding Black life, history, resistance, and liberation in America. A third-generation Oakland artist and US Marine Corps veteran, Burrell received his BFA in Film from the San Francisco Art Institute, CA and MFA from Stanford University’s Department of Art & Art History, where he was also a visiting artist with Stanford’s Institute for Diversity in Arts (2022). About Autumn King Autumn King serves as Senior Director of Marketing, Communications, and Visitor Experience for Oakland Museum of California. With over 25 years of experience working in communications in varied capacities, including media relations, public relations, public information, marketing, and public engagement, her professional career has been primarily in nonprofit management and local government. A transplant, Autumn loves Oakland where she works, volunteers, organizes, and lives. Host of online show Trail Chats, she proudly shines a light on the natural beauty of the Town and the leaders who help it thrive. She can regularly be found trekking in the Oakland hills or at OMCA’s pond talking with the turtles.  Sponsors Friday Nights at OMCA with Off the Grid is proudly supported by the Oakland Museum Women’s Board and Bank of America. Additional support provided by Donahue Fitzgerald LLP, OAKLAND ROOTS AND SOUL SC, LaSalle Mortgage, and Townsend Public Affairs. Learn more about becoming a Friday Nights at OMCA sponsor. Return to Events