The Oaklandside covers Oakland Belonging and publishes the audio as a podcast on Spotify.

Led by teaching artist and audio producer Elena Botkin-Levy, students used audio storytelling as a method of collecting and archiving stories about Swan’s Market, site of Chapter 510’s new writing center and much more. This film captures this powerful program from beginning to end. Thanks to video producer/documentarian Miles Lassi and to the Kenneth Rainin Foundation for underwriting this film.

Dear Oakland Allies,

As co-chairs of the Board of Directors, we are pleased to share Chapter 510’s 2021-22 Impact Report with you. This past year has been momentous for the organization: we opened a stunning new writing center in downtown Oakland. Our center is providing a post-shutdown space for youth to reconnect, create, and write with confidence and joy.

WELCOME TO THE BOARD DOROTHY LAZARD, SEAN MCCLUNG, MARNIE WEBB & EDWARD HANNEMANN!

Chapter 510 is offering a creative writing, bookmaking, and publishing course for up to 30 students at Westlake Middle School (Oakland) this school year. This will be Chapter 510’s most intensive offering ever!

The Quest Foundation offered Chapter 510 a $50,000 challenge grant to activate our new Writing Center last year. We’re proud to announce two others joined with Quest to bring our after-school programs to life: The Weinberg Foundation as well as Frances Hellman & Warren Breslau.

Congratulations to our radical design team from IDW and to us! We cannot be more proud to have won internationally acclaimed SF Design Week’s Social Impact Award.

We are so thrilled to be one of this year’s OFCY grantees! The Oakland Fund for Children and Youth have gifted us $75,000 to support programs at our Oakland writing center.

Congratulations Leila Mottley on your Instant New York Times BEST SELLING Oprah Book Club debut Nominated debut novel Nightcrawling!

Chapter 510 published SIX gorgeously designed and printed BROADSIDES of poetry written by Oakland seventh-grade authors who participated in Chapter 510's WHISPERING TO THE AIR workshop with poet Giovanna Lomanto.

We are thrilled to introduce our newest staff member, Alexandra Céspedes-Kent. Alexandra first gained a love of writing in the eighth grade when she had a dynamic, engaging English teacher at her East San Jose public school.     

In a new anthology of poems, ten Oakland fifth graders rewrite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in their own words. With frank and exquisite language, the young poets offer rich insight into what it means to have the freedom to move, rest, think, seek a safe place to live, be cared for, and have a family.