Traci Bartlow

Photography came as a natural expression of documenting the world around her.  With a 35mm camera on her hip and a 'good eye', Ms. Bartlow parlayed her experience in the entertainment industry to a career as a Hip-hop photojournalist in the 1990's.  She has shot for local and national music magazines, record labels, and shot a host of portraiture and live concerts in the Bay Area. 

Currently she has an exhibition of her Hip-Hop industry photos and writings from 1992-1999.  The show is called, "Oakland Picture Lady: Tales of a 90's Girl", and with fine art photographs, collages, an accompanying augmented reality app and podcast.  

Ms. Bartlow had a few of her 90's Bay Area Hip Hop photos as part of the Oakland Museums  exhibition, RESPECT: Hip Hop Style & Wisdom, on display March 24 - August 12, 2018.

In 2023 she was honored to have a solo exhibition at the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville, TN in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop. 

In 2025 she was a keynote speaker at the Catchlight Visual Storytelling conference in San Francisco, and, the Night of  Photojournalism at the Photoville Festival in Brooklyn, NY.

2026 welcomes the launch of her coffee table photography book Oakland Picture Lady: Tale's of a 90's Girl.  Pre-Sales are available HERE.

Ms. Bartlow's first love is dance.  She is proficient in many styles using African, Jazz and Hip Hop dance as a base for her choreography. Her early dance influences were funk and hip-hop social dances, styles that were partially innovated in California in the 1960's, 70's and 80's. As a teenager she won a scholarship to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center and moved to New York City where she trained with world-renowned teachers and choreographers by day, by night she kept her Hip-Hop skills in tact by dancing in legendary New York City Hip-Hop and House music dance clubs.

Ms. Bartlow has been a principal dancer for Nanette Bearden Contemporary Dance Theater and, Forces of Nature Dance Company both in New York City. In the Bay Area she has worked with Newstyle Motherlode, Cultural Odyssey, Robert Henry Johnson, recording artist Martin Luther, S.I.L.K.E., The Coup, and the Walter Hawkins Love Center Mass Choir. She is also honored to choreograph the Sisyphus Syndrome a Jazz/Opera by revolutionary poet and playwright Amiri Baraka.  Ms. Bartlow was recognized for her many years of teaching and performing Lindy Hop and authentic jazz dances from the Harlem Renaissance  in  the African American community in Oakland and was given a Frankie Manning Ambassador of Lindy Hop award. In 2024 she was a guest artist  with Latasha Barne's The Jazz Continuum. 

Ms. Bartlow has been mentoring and teaching for more than 20 years developing the curriculum for many youth and after school programs through out the Bay Area. She has also performed extensive research of black social dance  and is a sought after teacher and lecturer.  She has taught Hip-Hop dance at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts, been a consultant and guest teacher for CalShakes in the Bay Area, Illadelph Legends Hip Hop dance festival in Philadelphia, Lorraine Hansberry Theater in San Francisco, Herrang Dance Camp in Sweden, B-Boy Summit in Los Angeles, as well as an guest faculty in the dance department at UC Davis and guest lecturer for the Fromm Institute at the University of California San Francisco.

Traci Bartlow has also had unique experience in developing cultural institutions in the Bay Area. She was a youth dancer, a faculty member and then on the board of trustees at Citicenter Dance Theater and helped develop the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in Oakland.  Ms. Bartlow is a founding  member of Eastside Arts Alliance and Eastside Cultural Center in Oakland.  At Eastside she has programed many dance events including youth aftershool programs, the Oakland Hip Hop Dance Institute dance conference, The Courts Hip Hop Dance Stage at the Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival and, the Katherine Dunham Dance Stage also at the Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival.

As the director and choreographer for StarChild Dance, Ms. Bartlow's choreography  has been presented at New York City's SummerStage,  Malcom X Jazz Arts Festival, the Black Choreographers Festival, and The Sisyphus Syndrome-A Jazz Opera by Amiri Baraka. in 2022 she was a writer and story consultant for a EMMY award winning film KQED's If City's Could Dance - Oakland Boogaloo segment.  Bartlow has received commissions for her choreography from the Illadelph Legend Dance Festival in Philadelphia, and the Eastbay Community Foundation and, in 2024 received a California Arts Council Creative Corps Fellowship.  In 2025 Ms. Bartlow is a co-choreographer and music researcher for Minty Fresh Circus a contemporary black circus created by Monique Martin. 

"My passion", Ms. Bartlow says, "is to document and preserve black dance and culture.    

B-Love's Guest House a boutique hotel with an art gallery and urban garden, is an extension of Ms. Bartlow's lifestyle of wellness and creativity.  Perfect for the visiting artist or business professional this boutique hotel offers short term housing in  home like atmosphere. It is both relaxing and inspiring with its indoor/outdoor art gallery, and exquisite urban garden.  Amenities include free wifi, self serve breakfast items, and a central location that's close to downtown Oakland, San Francisco, and Berkeley.  This guest house is a short 4 block walk through a historic neighborhood to the West Oakland BART train station.   Check out our  reviews here.