Grantee Database
Valerie Troutt Projects : Because of Black Music IAM
Grant Year
2025-26
Grant Program
Impact Projects
Award Amount
$11,100.00
Project Description
Because of Black Music IAM (BOBM) is a summer-long cultural sanctuary from Valerie Troutt Projects that responds to urgent community needs in Oakland’s Black music scene. Black musicians in the East Bay—especially womyn and non-binary artists—face systemic displacement, economic exclusion, and misogyny within the music industry. BOBM meets this need by creating free, intergenerational spaces where Black artists are celebrated, paid, and protected. From June to September 2026, four monthly events at Wyldflowr Arts will feature jam sessions, game nights, and a culminating poetry slam—spotlighting local Black artists and creating opportunities for young artists to be inspired and receive mentorship. CAC funds will support artist pay, event production, and community outreach. BOBM builds healing and belonging through music, offering cultural visibility and economic justice where it’s needed most.
Organization Summary
VTP’s events and productions are spaces where queer, transgender, and non-binary Black folks can have their authentic selves be seen and celebrated. By using the art of SongCare, VTP celebrates the connective power of music, live performance, and musical education – their ability to create intergenerational, cross-cultural connections and shared empathy and joy. The philosophy of SongCare is woven through all our programs including Because of Black Music, Find Your Light, MoonCandy Live House Music Ensemble, and the Valerie Troutt JazzSoul Project & Trio.
VTP’s greatest recent accomplishments are the 2023 Because of Black Music IAM festival and our Find Your Light series. The Find Your Light series is a free musical program centering Black Womyn Artists and the need for an oasis where Black Womyn are centered and valued in real time. VTP leads groups of Black Womyn through Soulful uplifting songs, dance, and yoga movements encouraging Unity, Wholeness, Freedom, Justice and Love. Find Your Light encourages Black Womyn ourselves to create our own futures of Black Womyn-hood by developing new systems and frameworks to better support a healthier tomorrow. VTP has now hosted seven Find Your Light arts and cultural wellness events serving Black Womyn, ranging from an in person event held at Zoo Labs called Black Girl Church to a community SongCare gathering at Oakland’s Regina’s Door that took place before the pandemic. All seven of these events created intergenerational conversation and showcased a number of Black Womyn artists, craft persons, and community members.
Organization
Valerie Troutt Projects
Address
1721 Broadway ste 200
Oakland
94612
County
Alameda
Region
Bay Area – Other
Phone
(510) 395-4842
