This story aired in the August 6, 2024 episode of Crosscurrents.
Just a short walk from Jack London Square, there’s an old Victorian home that stands out from its neighbors. From the outside, it seems quiet and unassuming, but on the inside it holds a secret: Oakland Secret. It’s a DIY event venue and housing cooperative that’s creating community for queer people and artists.
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Cat Frazier is giving me a tour of her home that she shares with other members of Oakland Secret’s housing cooperative.
“So this is the upstairs area,” she says, as we head up the stairs.
The living room and kitchen look like a lot of the shared housing that I’ve seen before. It’s filled with mismatched and well-loved furniture: a brown couch, a yellow armchair, a wooden dining table. You can tell that a lot of people have passed through here.
“This is where we have meetings and hang out,” Cat tells me.
Above the sink, there’s a huge window.
“You're overlooking the industrial area right before you get to Jack London Square. And then before that, the train tracks. We're really high up.”
The folks who live here don’t mind the noise from the city. It kind of comes with the territory.
It’s not just a home, it’s also an event space that hosts all kinds of stuff, from punk shows, to figure drawing nights. Cat takes me downstairs to show me where the community events happen.
“The art gallery side, we do things like host arts markets, dance parties, music showcases,” she says.
Next to the art gallery, there’s a bike shop. “We do free or low-cost bike repairs. This space is really where people can come and bring their bikes and get them fixed to learn how to build a bike,” says Cat.
And there’s a backyard with a stage, some seating, and a bar that’s covered with this glittery, purple tablecloth.
Cat gestures to it. “I love this bar. And then I also love all the plants.”
“One of the neat things about having a space that’s collected between the BART and the highway is that you always have this background sound, but you don't really have to worry aboutmaking too much noise. It's just kind of like all part of the space,” Cat says.
Usually, event venues need to consider neighbors and noise, but they don’t have to do that here. It means they can put on all kinds of events.
“It's really a versatile space,” Cat says. “And until I basically started working at Oakland Secret, I didn’t realize how much you can do with a space like this.”
On top of living here, Cat is the unofficial manager of Oakland Secret… though the house members don’t like to use labels. All of them spend their time helping this space run smoothly. That means knowing their way around all of the equipment they have for different events.
“We have a piano, we have a stage,and then we also have the projector. Bands play here. And then we also have film screenings. And you could see the huge Oakland Secret key, which is kind of new,” Cat says.
On the back wall, there’s a painting of a key. Next to it, “Oakland Secret” is spelled out in large white letters.
And it isn’t as if one person decided to decorate the place a certain way. Both the residential area and the event space are run cooperatively.
“If there's something huge, like we want to repaint this bathroom, that's gonna be a vote, right?” Cat says.
It’s not just decorations. The collective also deals with financial decisions.
“It's completely different than just kind of living with roommates because, you know, we have a house fund that the event space goes towards. So even financially, we're all supporting each other financially, emotionally and, you know, sometimes contributions are bigger from other people, between people or whatever. But the whole idea of the cooperative is that we're all collectively making a decision and benefiting from that decision,” Cat says.
There are some challenges, though, that come with putting on these DIY events.
Cat says, “That first show for me was kind of difficult.”
There was feedback from the mics, and the stage wasn’t set up correctly. But in the end, it worked out fine...
“The first event that I threw here, I was just like, “Oh, if you build it, they will come and it will be your people.” One thing I love about this space is there's always something new to learn. You'll find that out when we do the setup,” Cat says.
Lilith Spillz, another member of Oakland Secret, is hosting tonight’s show.
“So tonight's event is going to be a touring band. They're from New Orleans,” Lilith says.
While the band gets set up, Lilith writes out tonight’s show on a sandwich board for the sidewalk.
“Wwe have Drugstore Lipstick.and Lisbon Girls.”
A little while later, a handful of people come in to watch. On a small stage, Slade from Drugstore Lipstick, dressed in a frilly, white top and a black skirt, performs a few songs with her mixer.
Pilar, the singer for Lisbon Girls, gets on stage with her bandmates next., “Thank you Drugstore Lipstick, give her a round of applause! That was an awesome set! We’re Lisbon Girls. We’re together traveling from New Orleans. This is our first tour, we’re very excited to be here. Thank you so much for opening the doors to have us come out and perform so, hope you enjoy!” The band kicks off their performance.
Lilith, tonight’s host, dances while the bands play. The music is loud which, at times, can be the hard part of living here.
“I think the noise can be hard part if I don't like the music, to be honest, because I'm going to hear it no matter what,” she says.
But the biggest downside and the biggest perk of living at Oakland Secret are one and the same.
“It's pretty cool too,” Lilith says, “because I feel like people reach out and I get to be like, “Do I want a concert of this,like in my downstairs? Yeah I do! ”
After the show, Slade from Drugstore Lipstick tells me what makes this venue unique from the other ones she’s performed at.
“You’re in this venue, it’s like you're in someone’s home. It’s not a house show because it’s a stage, but it's different from a venue because people are here to listen and engage in whatever beautiful thing the house has planned.”
That’s the secret: you can go to a show, you can go over to a friend’s house, you can be in community, but here, at Oakland Secret, it’s all of those things at once.