Students had the opportunity to bridge environmental advocacy with arts and explorations. Learning alongside environmental experts, students tackled environmental issues in their local community while taking action through activist art. Students were able to build community with their cohort and practice diverse forms of art-making, all while exploring the Bay Area's natural landscapes.

Legacy toured Lake Temescal, Frog Creek & Little Frog Creek, and Lands End to learn about the Bay Area's expansive range of ecologies and histories. Partially guided by historical events, native and nonnative species, and environmental phenomena gathered from WhollyH2O's Walking Waterhood moving tours, Legacy students immersed themselves in knowledge while enjoying the sweet, sweet outdoors. Additional outdoor excursions included a bike ride around Jack London and an air issues talk featuring a mobile air monitoring car with Dr. Melissa Lunden, Chief Scientist, Katharine Pelzer, Commercial Operations and Growth Strategy, and Dave Johnson, Air Quality Mapping Team member from Aclima, and Brian Beveridge from West Oakland Environmental Indicator Project.

Legacy was joined by two amazing artists: one virtually and one in the classroom!

Douglas Kearney, a California-raised poet, writer, and performer, taught a lesson on calligrams—text that forms an image which relates to the text—that Legacy students applied to native plants they found during a previous visit to City Slicker Farms.

Christopher Martin, a multidiscipline artist from South Carolina, taught a lesson on creating banners with his unique style and font. Legacy students drew upon Martin's black and white hanging banner format and strong social justice imagery to form four banners in teams, each representing an element from the 2021-22 Legacy curriculum theme (earth, water, air, and fire).  

Check out AHC's 24th Annual Exhibition page to see the completed calligrams and banners.

Legacy participated in the second conference day of the Oakland Frontline Healer's Speak Up! Youth Conference series on December 1st, 2020, titled "Navigating COVID-19: Academic and Mental Health Needs". Legacy Ambassadors Jason Navas and Nayzeth Vargas were members of the conference design team, assisting in the creation of the presentation section for fellow Legacy Ambassador Nikko Cabrera. 

On March 1st, 2021, Legacy Ambassadors Clinton Johnson, Makiya Wilson, Nayzeth Vargas, and Nikko Cabrera presented the narrative and origin stories for the super hero characters in Mural #5 of the Oakland Super Heroes Mural Project to the Public Art Advisory Committee.