The blackberry collective is a troupe of middle school and high school aged performers who attend Oakland School for the Arts. TBC was formed in October of 2021 in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Black students on campus noticed an underrepresentation of black stories in the performance choices and decide to take matters into their own hands and created The Every 28 Hours Project. The show was a 40 minute performance piece made up of 1 minute scenes, monologues, songs and movement pieces that explored the 2015 statistic that every 28 hours, a black person is killed in the U.S.

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The mission of the Blackberry Collective is to provide black students at OSA with the space and opportunity to explore the stories most important to them. We believe that art is healing and creating spaces like the blackberry collective encourages community.