7000 COILS
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
7000 Coils : seed member spotlight Interview by : Adéniké AminPhotography : Sasha KelleyWhat is the story behind the name “7000coils,” and what does it symbolize for the collective?
The name 7000COILS is inspired by a powerful Vodoun creation story that centers the primordial serpent spirit Danbala. In this cosmology, Danbala used his body—coiled 7000 times, to form the heavens, the earth, the oceans, and the rivers, laying the foundation for all life to thrive. That image moved us deeply. We saw ourselves, and our collective work, reflected in that mythology.
To us, 7000COILS is a symbol of creation, interconnection, and the divine potential of collective movement. It speaks to the idea that when we come together, each of us a vital coil, a unique expression of energy and talent, we can generate new worlds. Worlds rooted in liberation, beauty, and care. Our name is a reminder that through unity, intentionality, and ancestral alignment, we can shape reality in ways that nourish not just ourselves, but our communities too.
We are not just building a label, we are moving as one body, coiling and uncoiling with purpose, creating sanctuaries of sound, spirit, and storytelling. Each project, each offering, each gathering is another ripple in that ongoing act of creation.
How did the collective come together, and what shared need or vision brought y’all into collaboration?
Lalin and Dan met in 2020 as fully formed artists walking parallel paths. Dan, newly arrived in the Bay from London, was a DJ, cultural curator, creative director, and artist manager with a deep commitment to protecting the integrity of Black queer creative expression. Lalin was in the process of releasing her first solo project as a singer, songwriter, and producer. Having poured so much of herself into the music, she felt a strong resistance to handing over control to traditional gatekeepers in the music industry, people who might dictate the how, when, or in what style her work should reach the world.
Dan, similarly, had no desire to mold themselves into someone else’s vision. They knew the potency of their own medicine and were seeking a space where that magic could live freely. Out of this shared refusal to compromise and a deep alignment in spirit, 7000COILS was born, a container for their artistic visions, ancestral callings, and community-rooted values.
It was created as a sanctuary, a place where no one could tell us “no,” and where we could say “yes” to ourselves, and to others like us: artists who carry vision, depth, and a refusal to be shaped by extractive systems.
In 2021, we met B Dukes, someone who immediately felt like kin. As we deepened in collaboration and community, it became clear that every time we created or held space together, it was easeful, intentional, and powerful. By 2023, B officially joined the collective, adding another coil to the spiral of creation we’re building together.
Oakland has a long and layered history of Black resistance, creativity, and care. How does being based in Oakland shape your work and your values?
The ancestors are definitely our wind beneath our wings. The legacy of our ancestors here inspires us to be innovative, creative, and to create on our own terms.
The very nature of this collective as DIY, as underground, as a center post for gatherings, is very much in alignment with what has been set forth before us.
What does healing mean to you as a collective? And how do you practice it with each other and the communities you serve?
For us at 7000COILS, healing is both an act of remembrance and a radical commitment to presence. It means slowing down, taking intentional breaks, and prioritizing deep check-ins—with ourselves, with each other, and with the communities we serve. It’s about creating conditions where rest, honesty, and tenderness are not afterthoughts, but guiding principles.
Healing, for us, is not just personal, it’s collective and cultural. It looks like carving out space for grief and joy to coexist. It looks like centering Black queer voices without apology. It looks like building altars, dancing through the pain, offering nourishment, and reclaiming the sacredness of sound, land, and ritual.
Within our collective, healing is built into our rhythm. We honor each other's capacity, give space for emotional truth, and choose collaboration that doesn’t extract. We check in often, adapt our pace, and hold space for whatever is real in the moment. In community, our offerings, whether it's a sound bath, a DJ set, a free store, or a ritual performance, are designed to open portals to restoration, belonging, and transformation.
At its core, healing to us means remembering that we’re not machines. We are spirit, we are story, and we are sacred. Every gathering, every offering, every beat we drop is a chance to return to that truth, together.
Can you share a moment, big or small, that reminded you why this work matters?
2 summers ago, we had over 200 black queer sacred humans in our collective space, BlaQyard, during this gathering it became abundantly clear that this is essential work. Hearing from community members reflecting on how they’d never or rarely experienced an exclusively Black, queer and trans space provided clarity and expanded the vision around creating containers that are specifically for us, our joy, rage, healing, falling apart, building together – the messy, beautiful, growth edges and deep pleasures.
Ensuring the experience isn’t the last time folks have a utopia that resembles the world we desire on a consistent basis.
When people encounter 7000COILS, whether it’s through a song, a ritual, a gathering, or a digital offering—we want them to feel deeply cared for. We want them to feel held, seen, and remembered.
Our hope is that folks leave with a felt sense that healing and artistry don’t have to be separate, that joy and grief can be companions, and that there are still spaces in this world where care is not conditional. We want them to remember the medicine of slowing down, of being in the right relationship with self, with community, with spirit.
We also hope people walk away inspired to honor their own magic. To trust their own timelines. To feel less alone in their becoming.
At its core, 7000COILS is about restoration and reclamation - of sound, of power, of ancestral connection. Every offering we share is a reminder: you are sacred, you are enough, and you belong.
