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Location

4799 Shattuck Avenue, Temescal, Oakland
Website
https://omnicommons.org/

The Omni Commons (lovingly referred to as "The Omni") is a Collective of Collectives sharing a space in The Omni, an Italian-style building at 4799 Shattuck Avenue in Temescal.  Omni aims to create a community-owned space that privileges a more equitable commoning of resources and meeting of human needs over private interest or corporate profit.

The Omni features a large ballroom which hosts regular music shows, political events, movie and documentary screenings, community discussions and art exhibitions. The participating collectives run regular open classes, plenary meetings, hands-on workshops and reading groups. Additionally, there is a hackerspace with software and hardware engineering facilities and a DIY science lab, featuring experiments and workshops on biology, physics, chemistry etc. The events of the space are announced in its open calendar and are mostly open to the public, whereas membership and/or financial contribution is encouraged to keep the space running.

The Omni Commons was recognized as The Best Place to Get Radicalized by Best of the East Bay in July of 2015 (East Bay Express). It was also awarded the 2015 Oaklandish Innovator Award.

Current Member Collectives

  • Bay Area Public School is a free, self-organizing, anti-capitalist school with radical and contestatory politics.
  • Birdhouse is a new collective bringing art and artists to the Omni Commons.
  • Buried Seeds is dedicated to the production & accessibility of Earth-based medicine.
  • Chiapas Support Committee supports autonomous health care and education in Zapatista communities.
  • Counter Culture Labs is a citizen science and DIYbio space that is open sourcing biology.
  • Food Not Bombs has been bringing free food to parks, political events, neighborhood gatherings, and social centers since 1991.
  • Global Women's Strike is an international network working toward the return of military spending to the community starting with women, the main caregivers everywhere.
  • Liberated Lens is a radical film & video collective dedicated to social change.
  • Material Print Machine is an artist-run studio and bindery dedicated to the art of print and publishing.
  • The Mess is a theatre troupe and collective of writers, dancers, singers, actors, and mischiefmakers who are out to do comedy that is a reflection of the Bay Area’s diverse culture.
  • Phat Beets is a food justice group building farmers markets and gardens in North Oakland.
  • Sudo Room is a place to build, learn, reclaim technology for the people, and create alternatives to the tech industry
  • Timeless, Infinite Light is an Oakland small press focused on contemporary poetry and critical theory.

Founding Collectives:

 

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