Beyond Survival: A Mental Wellness Conversation

Survival may have kept us moving—but survival was never meant to be the destination.

Beyond Survival: A Mental Wellness Conversation is a Black-centered community experience focused on Black mental wellness, created to make room for honest conversations about mental health, grief, seasonal depression, barriers to care, creativity, healing and the resources that can help us live more fully.

Taking place immediately after Mental Illness Awareness Week and World Mental Health Day, this gathering will also address the emotional challenges that can arise as we enter the holiday season—a time that can bring grief, isolation, financial stress, family pressures and other emotional challenges to the surface.

Hosted and moderated by Angelique Estella, Beyond Survival will bring together mental-health professionals, community outreach specialists, artists, advocates and people with lived experience for a conversation rooted in the realities, experiences and needs of the Black community.

• A moderated panel conversation
• An audience question-and-answer session
• Mental-health and community resources
• Recommended books, organizations, practices and healing tools
• Artwork and creative-wellness elements
• Space to connect, reflect and be in community

• Grief, depression and emotional wellness
• Mental-health stigma within the Black community
• Recognizing when additional support may be needed
• Accessing mental-health and social services
• Barriers faced by uninsured and underinsured individuals
• Trauma, substance use and recovery support
• Creativity and artistic expression as healing practices
• Self-advocacy and navigating systems of care
• Preparing emotionally for the holiday season
• Moving from survival mode toward a fuller life

Beyond Survival will feature a multidisciplinary panel bringing together perspectives from mental health, community outreach, case management, substance-use and recovery support, the arts, advocacy and lived experience.

Rather than approaching mental wellness from one perspective, this conversation is designed to explore the many ways our mental and emotional health intersect with our relationships, communities, access to resources, creative lives and everyday experiences.

Panelists, community partners and featured participants will be announced leading up to the event.

This gathering is for Black community members and those invested in supporting Black mental wellness who want to participate in an open, compassionate conversation about mental health and healing.

Whether you are navigating your own journey, supporting someone you love, looking for community resources or simply seeking ways to move beyond survival mode, there is space for you in this conversation.

You do not need to be a mental-health professional or have a diagnosis to attend. Come as you are and take what supports you.

The event will take place at Akoma in Oakland. The lounge’s bar will remain open with its regular offerings throughout the event.

Akoma requires a separate $5 annual membership for new members. This fee is paid directly to Akoma and is not included in the Eventbrite ticket price.

Beyond Survival is an educational and community-centered conversation. It is not therapy, medical treatment or a substitute for professional mental-health care.