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Soccer Bridges Gap at Cal State East Bay

Published

9 years ago

May 8, 2017

Caption: The nonprofit Soccer Without Borders helped Cal State East Bay student Ravis Mubiangata adjust to life in the United States after immigrating from the Democratic Republic of the Congo when he was 13. Photo courtesy of Cal State East Bay

The soccer fields of Cal State East Bay are a far cry from the red dirt fields of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where student Ravis Mubiangata got his start. There, in the streets of Kinshasa, the capital city of 11 million people, Mubiangata and his friends played the game barefoot, outlining a goal using rocks.

But Mabiangata’s worlds will soon collide at a May 11 event designed to bring together American students and faculty and recent immigrants and refugees, hosted by Cal State East Bay and the international nonprofit Soccer Without Borders.

The idea, spearheaded by Mubiangata and Matthew Atencio, associate professor in the kinesiology department and incoming co-director of the Cal State East Bay Center for Sport and Social Justice, is an effort to promote understanding and cooperation.

Like many students at Cal State East Bay, Mubiangata is an immigrant to the United States. The sophomore computer science major moved to Oakland with his family from war-ravaged Central Africa at age 13.

“There were no jobs and we weren’t safe in the Congo,” he says, adding that he likely wouldn’t have graduated high school in his native country, due to his family’s inability to pay the high tuition costs.

Instead, Mubiangata attended Oakland International High School and obtained a free public education. It’s also where he was introduced to Soccer Without Borders, which started in 2006 and uses soccer as a way to create change and inclusion for underserved youth 18 and under, including newly arrived immigrants and refugees.

At his first practice, Mubiangata was handed a pair of cleats and welcomed with open arms by the program’s coach and founder, Ben Gucciardi.

“He said, ‘Here, keep them.’ I said, ‘you’re kidding!’ I couldn’t believe it,” Mubiangata recalls.

“[Mubiangata] spoke no English as a new arrival, acclimated himself to his new surroundings, became the team captain, graduated high school and now attends a four-year college,” Gucciardi says.

“[Our organization] connected him with something he was familiar with — soccer. He was going through so many changes and he knew no one, so this became a very important new community for him. He was able to build relationships and make new friends.”

“Though we don’t speak the same language, we do speak soccer,” Mubiangata says with a smile.

While he has outgrown the Soccer Without Borders program, which supports children and teens, Mubiangata still plays with fellow students and professors on intramural teams at Cal State East Bay.

It was during one of those games Mubiangata and Atencio discussed how CSSJ — which wants to promote international student engagement on campus — and Soccer Without Border could come together for an event that would blend the goals of both groups.

The event, which is co-sponsored by CSSJ’s student club and the Pioneer Soccer Club, will include games featuring two Soccer Without Borders teams pitted against a Cal State East Bay student-faculty team, where both Atencio and Chair of Kinesiology Paul Carpenter will play.

There will first be a one-hour discussion and video presentation at the field house at Pioneer Stadium, followed by three 30-minute matches. The day will culminate in a friendly championship match, with prizes such as soccer jerseys, balls and backpacks. The participants will all be treated to pizza.

Atencio says he hopes the event will raise awareness of the Soccer Without Borders program and recruit future SWB members to become Pioneers at the university.

“[Mubiangata] is a prime example that these immigrants can make it through the transition in a strange country,” he says. “They can feel part of a network. We don’t want them to fall through the cracks.”

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Black Artists in America, Installation Three Wraps at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens

TRI-STATE DEFENDER — With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

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March 24, 2026

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By Candace A. Gray | Tri-State Defender

The tulips gleefully greet those who enter the gates at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens on an almost spring day. More than 650,000 bulbs of various hues are currently on display. And they are truly breathtaking.

Inside the gallery, and equally as breathtaking, is the “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” exhibit, which runs through Sunday, March 29. This is the third installment of a three-part series that started years ago and illustrates part of the Black experience through visual arts in the 20th century.

“This story picks up where part two left off,’’ said Kevin Sharp, the Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea director for the Dixon. “This era is when we really start to see the emergence of these important Black artists’ agency and freedom shine through. They start to say and express what they want to, and it was a really beautiful time.”

With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

“Though [Davis] was from LA, he actually lived in Memphis for a decade,” said Sharp. “He was a dean at Memphis College of Art, and later opened the first gallery in New York owned and operated by black curators.”

Another featured artist is former NFL player, Ernie Barnes. His work is distinctive. Where have you seen one of his most popular paintings, Sugar Shack? On the end scene and credits of the hit show “Good Times.” His piece Saturday Night, Durham, North Carolina, 1974 is in this collection.

Memphis native James Little’s “The War Baby: The Triptych” is among more than 50 works featured in “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, the final installment of a three-part series highlighting the impact and evolution of Black artists through 2011.

The exhibit features other artists with Memphis ties, including abstract painter James Little, who was raised in a segregated Memphis and attended Memphis Academy of Art (before it was Memphis College of Art). He later moved to New York, became a teacher and an internationally acclaimed fixture in the art world in 2022 when he was named a Whitney Biennial selected artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Other artists like Romare Bearden, who had a Southern experience but lived up North, were featured in all three installments.

“During this period of time, he was a major figure,” said Sharp. “He wrote one of the first books on the history of African American art during a time when there were more Black academics, art teachers, more Black everything!”

Speaking of Black educators, Sharp said the head curator behind this tri-part series and Dixon’s partner in the arts is Earnestine Jenkins, Ph.D., an art history professor at the University of Memphis, who also earned a Master of Arts degree from Memphis State University (now UofM). “We began working with Dr. Jenkins in 2018,” he said.

Sharp explained that it takes a team of curators, registrars, counterparts at other museums, and more, about three years to assemble an exhibit like this. It came together quite seamlessly, he added. Each room conjured up more jaw-dropping “wows” than the one before it. Each piece worked with the others to tell the story of Black people and their collective experience during this time period.

One of the last artists about whom Sharp shared information was Bettye Saar, who will turn 100 years old this year. She’s been working in Los Angeles for 80 years and is finally getting her due. Her medium is collages or assemblages, and an incredible work of hers is on display. She’s married to an artist and has two daughters, also artists.

The exhibit catalogue bears some of these artists’ stories, among other scholarly information.

The exhibit, presented by the Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions, is culturally and colorfully rich. It is a must see and admission to the Dixon is free.

Visit https://www.dixon.org/ to learn more.

Fun Facts: An original James Little design lives in the flooring of the basketball court at Tom Lee Park, and he makes and mixes his own paint colors.