Kaiser Center for the Arts

The Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts is a historic, publicly owned multi-purpose building located in Oakland, California.

The organizer, professional ballerina and dance teacher Louise Jorgensen,[13] went to each school to train the children for their role as elves, toys, poinsettias or fairies.

On December 28, 1962, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to an audience of 7,000 at the auditorium to mark the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

[16][17] On November 23, 1969, Western swing pioneer and TV personality Spade Cooley received a 72-hour furlough from Vacaville prison to play a benefit concert for the Deputy Sheriffs Association of Alameda County.

The Main Event featured a WarGames match between The Four Horsemen and the team of Dusty Rhodes, Lex Luger, and The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering.

On the evening of October 20, 1991 as the bands Anthrax, Public Enemy and Primus performed inside while across Lake Merritt the flames of the Oakland firestorm of 1991 were clearly visible from the hall's entrance as Bill Graham stood and greeted patrons at the top of the entry a mere five days before his untimely death.

In January 2012 Occupy Oakland marched on the facility, stating their intent to reclaim this abandoned space for the people, but were kept away by police.

[18] The action and subsequent incidents that day resulted in over 400 arrests by the Oakland Police Department and in an undetermined cost to the city due to damage and vandalism.

[21] On March 26, 2024, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. held a rally to announce his Vice Presidential running mate Nicole Shanahan in front of an audience of several hundred.

Oakland Civic Auditorium around 1917
Auditorium in use as a temporary hospital during the 1918 flu pandemic