About WOSPFM
The goal of the movement is to give a voice to those people who experienced the growth and development of Oakland’s cultural mystique. By sharing stories through our oral tradition, WOSPFM encourages our elders to speak on their first-hand experiences so that future generations can learn, appreciate, and contextualize the world around them.
West Oakland Stories Positive Feeling Movement (WOSPFM) is an educational and empowering movement where we, the elders of West Oakland, share our stories and our experiences in order to connect the world with Oakland’s living history.
More About the Movement
To those who didn’t grow up here, the city of Oakland has a certain reputation with many negative images and presumptions attached to it. The same is certainly true of other major cities, especially those where a large population of black Americans live there – Baltimore, New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, and so on.
We at WOSPFM want to use this opportunity to highlight both the similarities and differences that exist from person to person, from city to city, and from state to state in celebration of all of our similarities, differences, and the things that make us a community. In doing so, we encourage all of our visitors to join us in practicing our pledge of “No Negative Speak” to each other, or to ourselves, while we all strive to be the best versions of ourselves and our collective communities.
No Negative Speak
Our words and actions have incredible power to shape the world around us. These days, it’s very easy to be overwhelmed by the negativity around us, so we’re encouraging everyone to speak positivity and act positively, so we can all do our part to shape a more positive world for our future generations to enjoy.
For WOSPFM, the “No Negative Speak” movement has several goals:
- To motivate everyone to speak positively to one another
- Pay attention to the elders speaking in the film and you will feel Black Oakland positive attitude and Black pride
- Appreciate Black Oakland’s history and experiences will help Black Oakland today understand who they are
- Encourage everyone to challenge their friends and families to practice the “No Negative Speak” discipline with one another
We’d Love to Hear from You!
What do you think about the No Negative Speak movement? Do you have any stories or perspectives you’d like to share with our community? Who are the elders near you with a story to tell? It can be a story that amazes you, it can be one that is very ordinary, or even one that doesn’t really lead you anywhere at all. If you or anyone you know has a story or a voice that needs to be heard, please message us at [email protected] with “Submissions” in the subject line.