Be there: The concert is Sunday, Jan. 18, 7 p.m., Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley
by indie b
In Marin City, showing up has never been about spectacle. It has always been about presence, being there when the chairs need setting up, when the music needs space, when culture needs protecting, and when people need care.
For Oshalla Diana Marcus, that way of showing up began early.
At just 14 years old, Oshalla was already using art as a tool for connection and healing. Working with 8-year-olds, she helped younger children learn to read and express themselves through poetry. What she witnessed stayed with her: When young people were given words, movement and creative space, something inside them opened. Fear loosened. Confidence grew. Voices emerged.
That experience shaped everything that followed.
Born and raised in Marin City, Oshalla is a third-generation native whose life has been shaped by this place – and whose work has shaped it in return. Even as she traveled the world as an artist, dancer, healer, instructor and educator, her commitment to home never wavered. What she gathered elsewhere – knowledge, practice and vision – she brought back to Marin City with intention.
Long before titles or recognition, Oshalla was acting as a cultural ambassador for Marin County. She carried the culture of Marin City into rooms where it was often overlooked, and she returned home with tools to build what had been missing.
That commitment took visible form with the founding of Marin City Arts and Culture, the county’s first collective and gallery dedicated to Black artists. Built during the uncertainty of a pandemic and sustained through community belief, the space offered more than exhibitions. It created dignity, opportunity and visibility, especially for artists and young creatives who had never seen themselves reflected in traditional institutions.
Oshalla’s work has always extended beyond gallery walls. Programs like Art in the Park Rx brought creative healing directly into neighborhoods, meeting families and elders where they were. Her Prison to Artistic Freedom initiative opened doors for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists to reconnect with their creativity and their humanity. She continued Marin City’s Juneteenth celebrations even when funding disappeared, because honoring history and resilience was never optional.
Alongside her arts leadership, Oshalla has consistently taught that healing is collective. Trained in theater, dance, yoga, Pilates and holistic health, with studies spanning the United States, Africa and India, she has spent decades reminding people, especially young people, that care is physical, emotional, mental and communal, and that creativity is a powerful form of medicine.
Now, as Oshalla continues her own healing journey following a life-altering stroke, the community she has poured into for decades is responding in kind.
The Art of Healing is a benefit concert bringing together beloved community artists in support of Oshalla’s recovery. But it is also a message to the next generation: that one young person’s creativity can ripple outward for a lifetime.
The concert reflects the same values Oshalla has embodied since she was 14, that art heals, that community sustains, and that showing up matters.
In Marin City, presence has always been the point. The Art of Healing is the community answering that call, for a woman who answered it first, as a young girl helping other children find their voices through poetry and the arts.
Indie b is a writer, artist and performer based in Marin City. She can be reached at beverly@sfbayview.com.
