Understory

Hey loves! We have missed your faces, hearing about your lives, and joining together to build community resilience. We are excited to offer a sweet community hang out on Saturday August 3rd from 2-6pm at San Antonio Park in East Oakland. Enjoy some of your favorite understory flavors BBQ style! Meat, vegan, and gf options. We’ll also be offering shaved ice and agua fresca. Donations are welcome and will go towards our fundraiser to re-open in a new location. Bring your fam, friends, and pups to this outdoor gathering. Please RSVP (link in bio) so you can stay informed about location details and access information. We can’t wait to see you all soon!

Many thanks for sending us off in style! We are beyond blessed to be surrounded and uplifted by so many wonderful people. We have many more photos, reflections, and updates coming soon but in the meantime please enjoy some smiles from our crew and a couple of sweeties who have been an a meaningful part of understory!

✨ FUNDRAISER MERCH NOW LIVE ✨

As y’all know, we are fundraising for a new space and to provide support to understory workers during this time. We are excited to share some merch that was designed by and to help us get closer to our fundraising goals.

We are deeply moved by their solidarity and hope you all enjoy wearing their designs printed on super soft 100% cotton shirts, crew necks, and hoodies.

PLEASE SHARE WITH A FRIEND ❤️‍🔥✨

Bonfire.com/store/understory

Join us for our big closing party Sunday June 30th!

FREE FOOD • MUSIC • ART • SWEETIES

We’ve cherished these past three years in this space and it’s time to celebrate the many incredible memories we’ve created as a community. Much love to everyone who has contributed towards the vision and vibe of Understory. Please let us feed you one last time, enjoy some music in the sunshine, pick up our recipe Zine and a poster created by our friends

Starting at 11am and going until at least 3pm but maybe later 🍾🍾🍾

• PLEASE MASK UP • WE KEEP US SAFE •

LAST SUNDAY BRUNCH ✨✨✨✨
WORKER POWER FOREVER ✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽

Come send us off in style this weekend!

THREE DAYS LEFT TO COME SEE US BEFORE WE CLOSE OPERATIONS ON SUNDAY!

We have some fun goodies to celebrate our work here including this vegan recipe zine that includes many of our pay-what-you-can sliding scale dishes that various collective members have offered over the years.

We are so thrilled to share these recipes that represent our fierce love for community and our commitment to creating access for all. We encourage anyone to utilize these recipes to nourish your communities.

Please pick up a copy for yourself or a loved one. Funds will go towards supporting our workers after we close. We will be releasing a free PDF in July.

More goodies coming soon - stay tuned!

Deep deep gratitude to our candidate members Von, Avé, Truc, and Shine over the years - thank you for sharing your creativity and traditions. We’ve learned so much from each of you and appreciate your countless contributions to this project.

Slide 1 - luscious soup from VON :: seasonal abundance dinner
Slide 2 - hush puppies from AVÉ :: habanero honey glaze
Slide 3 - chà giò chay from TRUC :: pomelo fish sauce
Slide 4 - lugaw from SHINE :: community offering (no one turned away for lack of funds)

Understory is a living and breathing collaboration made possible by everyone’s contributions to creativity, logistics, and community building. We’re grateful to our candidate members who added their vibrancy and brilliance to the work.

We are looking forward to an acoustic set from at tomorrow night’s all vegan Kamayan Dinner!

Ticket sales have ended but please reach out if you’d like to attend and we will see what we can do.

We’re grateful we can kick off our final week in this space with this beautiful community dinner, lives music, and sweet energy.

Fierce love for our q***r and trans community! Come enjoy a Pride Kick Off celebration with us and friends on Thursday June 27!

🍸 HAPPY HOUR 4-6pm
🌈 Q***R BACHATA CLASS 6-7pm

This is our final week until we find a new space. Come dance if you need more movement in your life! Donations support our fundraising effort to rebuild Understory and support our workers.

It’s our last SUNDAY BRUNCH until we find a new home! We recommend ordering the RUBY SPECIAL named after this gem of a person who we’ve been lucky to work with and who we will miss dearly. Love you Ruby! 💕💕💕

Appreciations for our friends .justice for coming out today with their healing smoothies and sweet energy. So much respect for the work you do to bring healthy, fresh, delicious and free smoothies to the people. We’ve loved sharing space with you these past few years. Thanks for being amazing kitchen pals and thank you Ruby for moving over to our team! To Kelly and Itzel - you are both inspirational and we’re so grateful to know you. To the rest of your team - we wish you all the best and hope you come visit us in the next chapter! 🫂

So much love to our friends at !!! We are so grateful for this revolutionary crew that consistently bring radical care to the q***r community! Check them out at Castro Valley Pride and Berkeley Pride 🌈🌈🌈

Come close out Understory with us! Less than two weeks to enjoy some great food, drinks, and our signature sweet community vibes before we close@our current operations on June 30th!

Deep gratitude to friends and community for contributing towards the close out of this space with us!

Come through for the following special events:

SATURDAY 6/22 - letter writing and free smoothies from our friends The Electric Smoothie Lab 11am-1pm

SUNDAY 6/23 - Solidarity Cinema partial screening of EARTHSEED with and (reserve your seat: bit.ly/earthseedunderstory)

WEDNESDAY 6/26 - Plant Based Kamayan Fundraiser Dinner with starting around 6pm (purchase tickets: bit.ly/UnderstoryKamayan)

THURSDAY JUNE 27 - Pride Kick Off Happy Hour 4-6pm celebrating our q***r and trans community

SUNDAY JUNE 30 - Closing Party!! Come through and be in community with us in this space one last time. Food, music, games, and sweet community vibes. We’d love to see you! ✨

Come thru on Sunday!
RSVP: bit.ly/earthseedunderstory

Solidarity Cinema with People’s Kitchen Collective

Join us for a partial screening of Earth Seed: A People’s Journey of Radical Hospitality, film by Fox Nakai! This event is a collaboration between Understory and People’s Kitchen Collective.

We are so grateful to be in community with PKC! Thank you for such beautiful and generative collaborations over the years! ❤️

7pm Doors Open | grab some free popcorn and a drink from the bar
7:30 Introduction | grounding with PKC and Understory
7:40 Screening | visual poem + partial screening of Earth Seed
8:40 Discussion and community connection time

Understory is wheelchair and ADA accessible. Screening will be indoors. Masks required. Please take a covid test before attending if possible.

Cash bar will be open

COME FEAST WITH US IN OUR LAST WEEK! Join us for a Filipino plant based dinner to celebrate Understory. A communal feast, the kamayan honors Filipino resistance to colonial forces and upholds powerful cultural traditions.

Wednesday - June 26th at 6PM
6PM cocktail hour
7PM Kamayan Feast
Sliding Scale Donation $100-$150
Cocktail pairing $50

Understory exist to build community, engage in new models of cooperatively, bring forward and transform our food heritages and hold space for all those resisting oppression.

Your donation helps to support our workers and gets up closer opening our new location!

Get your ticket at bit.ly/UnderstoryKamayan

Thank you and for joining us in gathering and marking 3 years of movement relationship with Understory. Thank you for your generosity in our fundraising goals! Tinyurl.com/upliftunderstory

And so much appreciation for the work you do to envision and create a better world for us all. Cheers to many more years together in struggle and celebration. ✊❤️

Join us at our next movement fam get together this Saturday with !

HAPPY PRIDE from Understory Worker Collective!

We have been honored to provide a warm and affirming space grounded in fierce love and community care for the past three years.
As working class people of color, we recognizes the vital importance of building q***r spaces that bring intersecting communities together in the fight for collective liberation.
We are so proud that Understory has served as an oasis of radical connection where people can gather, build, or find a soft place to rest and unwind.
We invite you to invest in us to rebuild Understory in a future location so our communities will continue to have a vibrant community space that reflects our shared community values.
Please donate to our fundraiser (link in bio) and share within your networks so we can collectively breathe life into the next chapter of Understory.

Come celebrate 3 years of powerful movement partnerships at Understory and support our fundraiser! THURSDAY JUNE 13, 4-6pm

As Understory closes our current location, over the next month we want to honor and celebrate some of the many movements that we’re a part of. We are so grateful for work to free the land and support just transitions, and work towards closing prisons and abolishing policing. In co-creating Understory as a community space we’ve been inspired by the way MG and CR have integrated their politics into their land and building projects.

Come eat, drink, hang out with comrades, and learn about this powerful work!

Support Understory in fundraising for worker salaries and benefits during financial transition! tinyurl.com/upliftunderstory

Please considering donating, sharing and helping us continue the work at Understory beyond June 30th.

Donate to Support Understory Workers in Transition, organized by Understory Oakland In 2021, during the height of the global Covid-19 pandemic, our all POC co… Understory Oakland needs your support for Support Understory Workers in Transition

[cross posting from instagram - 5/23]

Hi loves —

We arrive today with heavy hearts as well as deep gratitude for our community, to announce that Understory will be closing our operations at 528 8th Street. Our final day of service at our current location will be June 30th.

This decision has been incredibly difficult for us because we have poured our hearts into this project over the past three and a half years, we have cherished working together to nourish our community, and our workers depend on this project for survival. Despite the challenges we will face in closing operations, our full worker collective acknowledges this decision as necessary to maintain our integrity, the principles upon which Understory was founded, and for our collective to remain strong and unified throughout the transition.

In this pivotal moment, we are inspired by the support of those close to the heart of this project to fight for the future of Understory. We are deeply humbled by the trust our community has placed in our work and very much want to transition our shared work to a future location in

We are seeking our community’s support as we remain committed to supporting our workers’ financial stability through this transition. Please support our fundraiser ( tinyurl.com/upliftunderstory ), donate if you can, and help us amplify by spreading the word.

Understory is a restaurant project, but also a space of shared liberation, co-created and brought to life by family, friends, neighbors, artists, cultural workers, teachers, healers, organizers, and beyond – all united in the struggle for a better world. We have put our politics into action by providing pay-what-you-can donation-based dishes, supporting emerging chefs of color, facilitating resource sharing, centering political education, and building partnerships that amplify our shared political values and uplift q***r and trans communities of color.

We are profoundly grateful for the support of our community, which has been the driving force of our success and spirit, alongside every person who has ever worked with us. Your past and future contributions and your celebratory presence have uplifted our work in meaningful ways. We hope to rebuild Understory through community investment and we hope to see you all again in a future location. Oakland Bloom will remain in operation at 528 Eighth Street.

In the coming weeks, we invite you all to visit Understory to celebrate the memories and milestones we have achieved together.

THANK YOU ALL FOR EMBRACING, CHALLENGING, AND GROWING WITH US.

With love, gratitude, and in solidarity,
The Understory Worker Collective

As we gear up for our last month at Understory — show us some love by letting us know what has been your favorite dishes and if you would like to see any specials in the coming weeks. Support us by sharing our fundraiser (link in bio) as we are enter this transition period.

Much love 🫰🏽 understory worker collective

Our Spice Crusted Hanger Steak with smoked turnip purée, chermoula herb sauce, and sautéed young squash is the decadent meal you’ve been dreaming of! Come by and enjoy this dish with a glass of wine on our covered patio. ☀️

Sweet Potato Hush Puppies perfect for sharing 🍯

Come see us for dinner and drinks Thursday and Friday nights🍸✨
Brunch weekends 11am-3pm

Calling all brunch babes to come thru this weekend for incredible flavors and signature cute q***r vibes 🧇💫

PLEASE JOIN US ON MAY DAY FOR A COMMUNITY MEAL & KICKBACK 7-10pm

On International Workers Day, we invite our community to break bread with us after a day of action for a FREE PALESTINE. Come kickback with food, music, and more next Wednesday May 1st.

•Free Entry
•Community Meal (sliding scale - no one turned away for lack of funds)
•Additional food and beverages available for purchase
•Music from .sucia_
•Wheelchair accessible
•Masks required indoors/ encouraged outdoors