Black Panther Party Museum Press Release
Oakland, CA, January 28, 2026 – This Black History Month, the Black Panther Party Museum announces Happy Heavenly Birthday, Oscar, a powerful new exhibition honoring the life of Oscar Grant III and affirming the enduring struggle for justice, dignity, and collective remembrance. Opening February 1, 2026, the exhibition will be on view through February 28, 2026, at the Black Panther Party Museum, located at 1427 Broadway in downtown Oakland.
The exhibition is part of two Bay Area activations of 1-800 Happy Birthday, a project by WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, Even/Odd and Campaign Zero, which serves as a living memorial for Black and Brown people killed by police violence. 1-800 Happy Birthday was created by artist and filmmaker Mohammad Gorjestani in collaboration with the families of the project celebrants. Rather than centering tragedy, 1-800 Happy Birthday reclaims birthdays as sites of love, memory, and resistance – moments to honor lives beyond the circumstances of their deaths.
Oscar Grant, killed by a transit police officer in 2009, would have turned 40 this year. His death became a flashpoint for national conversations about police violence and accountability, reverberating across generations of movement building. This exhibition situates Grant’s life and legacy within that ongoing history, while insisting that remembrance must remain human, communal, and grounded in care.
Through sound, imagery, and participatory ritual, Happy Heavenly Birthday, Oscar invites visitors to engage memory not as abstraction, but as lived experience. Voices of loved ones anchor the installation, reminding audiences that each life lost carried dreams, humor, relationships, and futures.
“The killing of Oscar Grant belongs to a long and unbroken history of police violence against Black communities,” said Dr. Xavier Buck, founding director of the Black Panther Party Museum. “This includes Denzil Dowell, whose murder by police was investigated by the Black Panther Party just six months after their founding, and Bobby Hutton, the first recruit in the Party, slain by police at just 17-years-old. This exhibition reflects that tradition by honoring life while confronting the conditions that make remembrance necessary.”
As a steward of Black radical history and the largest archival collection dedicated to the Black Panther Party, the Museum continues to present programming that connects past and present struggles for liberation. Happy Heavenly Birthday, Oscar aligns with that mission by transforming grief into collective witness and reflection.
An opening reception will take place February 1, 2026, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and is open to the public. You can reserve a spot here.
The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation
The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation is dedicated to preserving and promoting the true legacy and ideals of the Black Panther Party. Since 1995, the Foundation has commissioned public art and created education tools to inspire and inform real social, economic and political change. The Foundation is the number one source for historical preservation and archival collections for people seeking the truth about the Black Panther Party. The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, was co-founded by Fredrika Newton and is based in Oakland, CA, the birthplace of the Black Panther Party. Follow on Instagram @hueypnewtonfoundation
About WORTHLESSSTUDIOS
WORTHLESSSTUDIOS is a New York based not-for-profit art organization that provides essential resources to epoch-making artists producing ambitious artwork. Through public art projects, exhibitions and residency programs, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS executes its mission at a grand scale while still building a strong, intimate and supportive community for artists, art organizations, fabricators and art patrons who all share a passion for sculpture and in bringing big dreams to life.
About Even/Odd
Founded by Mohammad Gorjestani, Even/Odd is a San Francisco, CA, creative studio & production company for bold campaigns, experiences and original content. Led by the perspectives of diverse multi-disciplinary talent, it creates culture-expanding projects to inspire a new future of art, innovation and storytelling. It promotes equity through the redistribution of economic, creative, cultural and professional capital with each project it creates.
About Campaign Zero
Campaign Zero is a data-driven organization started by activists to provide information and tools to end police violence. Campaign Zero encourages organizers, activists and policymakers to focus on solutions with the strongest evidence of effectiveness at reducing police violence. For more information, please visit campaignzero.org.
