Jimi Evins
Artist-In-Residence/Senior Artist
Jimi Evins is an Artist, Art Educator, and Cultural Arts Activist. Jimi has been Art Director for many years in the Oakland community. As a graduate of CCA (California College of the Arts), Evins has worked with many arts organizations to bring quality art programming to Oakland, and especially East Oakland. Evins was lead Artist for the initial “100 Families Oakland: Art and Social Change” project in 2005. Jimi has exhibited at the High Museum in Atlanta, GA., San Francisco Art Commission Gallery, the Sargent Johnson Gallery, Berkeley Art Center, Oliver Hyde Gallery, the Richmond Art Center, Slate Contemporary Gallery, Joyce Gordon Gallery, Gallery 555, and the Solano Gallery, among others. He has received awards from the Ebony Museum of Arts, Inc. for Artistic Excellence and Pioneering Spirit in the Preservation of African Heritage, the Community Arts & Education Award from the California College of the Arts, the Jan-Schuyers Artistic Achievement Award from the Richmond Art Center and The Art of Living Black, and honored by the EOYDC for dedicated service as a Champion for Youth. In 2010 he received the Alameda County Arts Leadership Award.
According to Jimi, “Art making has been my passion since I was a child. I am at YSA to help bring a sense of creative possibilities to Youth Spirit participants. I want to improve & instill in youth a sense that they can create, in art, and in their lives, whatever they can imagine. Introducing to youth new methods and materials in the art making process is another of my goals at YSA.”
Jimi’s art has been influenced by his travels to Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and South America.
Alastair Boone
Editor in Chief of Street Spirit
Alastair Boone joined YSA in July 2018 as the Editor in Chief of Street Spirit, the San Francisco East Bay homeless newspaper. As Editor, she assigns and edits the stories in the paper, builds relationships with writers and vendors, and keeps her finger on the pulse of homelessness issues in the Bay Area and beyond. Boone was born in San Francisco, and earned a BA from UC Berkeley in 2016. Previously, she worked for CityLab, The Atlantic‘s website on urbanism and city life. Her writing has also appeared in California magazine and The Daily Californian. At Street Spirit, she is looking forward to combining her passion for social justice with her love for journalism, and elevating homeless voices in the media.
aboone@youthspiritartworks.org
Board of Directors
Lila Blanchard, Secretary
Richmond Site Manager, Rubicon Programs Inc.
Jasmine Braxton, Co-Secretary
Corporate Counsel, Hearsay Social, Inc.
Saphonia Foster
Financial Manager/Consultant, MODIS
Jonathann Giammarco, Treasurer
Inspection Specialist, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
Allen Ratliff, MSW, LCSW
Doctoral Candidate, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley
John Shannon, CPA
Audit Manager, KPMG LLP