Storyland Collective’s free event at Marcus Books includes story time for kids and activities for the whole family.
Sep 10, 2026
Updated 9:46 am PT
That Art Party leads a bookmark-making workshop during a Storyland event at Prescott Market on July 18, 2026. (Courtesy of Blenda Creative)
All throughout the summer, Storyland Collective has been bringing local children’s book authors and illustrators to meet Oakland families where they already hang out — Lake Merritt, the food stalls of Prescott Market and the soccer pitch at Longfellow Fields.
These BookOut events usually start with about 25 minutes of reading out loud from a picture book, followed by arts and crafts sessions and games. “That’s about as much time as we have until the wiggles kind of start taking over,” says Storyland co-founder Indya McGuffin.
Storyland Collective is closing out the summer with a free BookOut block party on Sept. 12, stretching from Marcus Books, the nation’s oldest Black-owned bookstore, to Longfellow Fields. The family-friendly gathering features story time for kids, music and other activities all intended to make reading feel like a celebration. “So at a celebration you’re going to dance, OK?” McGuffin adds.
Read & Run presented by Storyland Collective and Fitnesse Training Club brought families out to Lake Merritt on Aug. 15, 2026. (Courtesy of Blenda Creative)
Featured readers that day include illustrator Kaylani Juanita; Njeri Kamau-Devers, who runs the Chinese language school Little Sheep Chinese Learning Center; Thomishia Booker of Hey Carter! Books; and Mayor Barbara Lee.
“We have kept up a really solid track record of inviting local authors, local illustrators, local creatives to pop up with us at storytime sessions,” McGuffin says. “They all kind of represent different parts of making learning fun.”
Other activities slated for the BookOut include a hair-braiding and face-painting workshop; soccer, field games and relay races; live jazz; a dance party with DJ Red Corvette; a music workshop with the Oakland Conservatory of Music; a photo booth; food; crafting; and more.
Storyland Collective co-founders Indya McGuffin and Bean Kaloni Tupou (left to right) at a BookOut event at Kinfolx in Oakland on June 19, 2026. (Courtesy of Blenda Creative)
Storyland Collective took off earlier this year when McGuffin, who once worked as a children’s book designer at Chronicle Books, teamed up with Bean Tupou, director of operations at the youth writing nonprofit Chapter510. With Storyland, the two collaborators strive to include families that may not have access to other literary programs because of money, time and transportation challenges.
Throughout the summer, they’ve already seen success. BookOut events have drawn regulars who follow them from story time to story time.
“[Reading] could happen at your favorite cafe, your favorite street festival, at your favorite park,” McGuffin says. “Just by showing up and popping up, I think that we are scratching the surface and slowly digging into that accessibility that we want to get at.”
The BookOut takes place at Marcus Books (3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland) on Sept. 12, 10:30 a.m.–2 p.m.