This week on Rightnowish we've got a special episode from our friends at KQED's The California Report Magazine. They’ve launched a new series called MIXED: Stories of Mixed Race Californians. Over 7 episodes, the hosts Sasha Khokha and Marisa Lagos have honest conversations with other mixed race Californians about the challenges and joys of being multi racial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 24, 2023•31 min
Northern California is this beautiful piece of land where high mountains, deep valleys, and cold beaches can bring about a sense of peace. At the same time, the people who live here are constantly debating the land itself. So over the past five weeks we decided to focus on stories broadly about life and land in Northern California, as a part of our From The Soil series. More specifically, we honed in on what people from communities directly impacted by climate change, polluted soil and the priva...
Mar 17, 2023•17 min
At the southern edge of the South Bay in Santa Clara County, where the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains meet the town of Gilroy, there is a grassy pasture. Here, a small stream runs through acres of land while cattle graze and birds fly above. This piece of land is a proposed mining site—but it's also traditional ceremonial ground for the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. For over 200 years, the Amah Mutsun have been unable to access one of their most sacred sites, known as Juristac. "Juristac trans...
Mar 10, 2023•21 min
In honor of her late mother's efforts, Arieann Harrison is continuing the fight against environmental racism in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood. She is the founder of Can We Live, an organization that is working with local residents to screen them for toxins and install devices to monitor airborne pollutants. Can We Live also offers scholarships for students interested in studying environmental justice. This week we talk to Arieann Harrison about growing up in toxic terrain an...
Mar 03, 2023•20 min
On a steep hillside in San Francisco’s St. Mary’s Park, nestled between the Alemany Apartments, the 280 Freeway and the Bernal Heights Neighborhood, there’s a wine vineyard that doubles as a teaching tool. A patch of land adjacent to Alemany Farm is being cultivated by Christopher Renfro and Jannea Tschirch, the co-founders of The 280 Project. Their aim is to use public land to grow crops and introduce people to the world of agriculture, with a specific focus on getting young African-American re...
Feb 24, 2023•21 min
On a crisp afternoon at the Bouverie Preserve in Glen Ellen, a group of twenty one farmworkers suit up in firefighter gear. Woman and men take turns helping each other strap on backpacks and fire helmets in preparation for another intense day of prescribed burn training. These are carefully planned low intensity fires set under specific environmental conditions, intended to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. Many of these immigrant and Indigenous farmworkers typically work in the grape f...
Feb 17, 2023•24 min
A few miles northeast of the California state capital, in the city of Folsom, a public recreation area has recently been renamed Black Miners Bar, after years of being called Negro Bar. Historically, the site is where African American miners were relegated to panning during California’s Gold Rush of the mid-1800s. In the summer of 2022, California State Parks unanimously voted to change the name of Negro Bar to Black Miners Bar temporarily, while the department conducts more research into the tr...
Feb 10, 2023•20 min
This story is part of That’s My Word, KQED’s year-long exploration of Bay Area hip-hop history, with new content dropping all throughout 2023. Dave “Davey D” Cook is a cornerstone of hip-hop culture. He currently co-hosts KPFA’s Hard Knock Radio and serves as a processor of Africana studies at San Francisco State University, where he teaches popular courses on hip-hop and African American music. Davey D is a practitioner of the culture as well as a critic. Over the span of five decades, he’s bee...
Feb 03, 2023•23 min
This episode was originally part of the four-part series on BIG LOVE from 2021. We're revisiting it as a part of our 2023 kickoff series highlighting some of the best stories from our archives. AB Banks, defines love as "doing the right thing with a passion." That means taking care of themselves and their folks, and they see the potential of self-love to be communal and revolutionary. Day-to-day AB works with the People’s Programs in Oakland, supporting their unhoused neighbors through clinics a...
Jan 27, 2023•19 min
This episode was originally part of the Roll With Us: Community and Culture on Wheels series from 2021. We're revisiting it as a part of our 2023 kickoff series highlighting some of the best stories from our archives. Dueñas Car Club is a sisterhood that rolls on 100-spoke rims. Angel Romero is president of the club, which was founded in 2019 and is based in Sunnyvale, California. She's been cruising the strip since she was a kid in the passenger seat of her mother's lowrider. It was through her...
Jan 20, 2023•17 min
This episode was originally part of the "Reel Talk: Filmmaking in the Bay Area… Rightnowish" series from 2021. We're revisiting it as a part of our 2023 kickoff series highlighting some of the best stories from our archives. San Francisco State graduates Alba Roland Mejia and Jon Warfield Harrison are in the early stages of their careers as filmmakers, but their work is already being supported by the likes of Join The Movement Coalition, Oaklandish, Marshawn Lynch's Beastmode, and Kodak. Alba an...
Jan 13, 2023•17 min
This episode was originally part of the "Rightnowish: Musicians to Know" series from 2021. We're revisiting it as a part of our 2023 kickoff series highlighting some of the best stories from our archives. Nappy Nina is a lyricist with a smooth-sultry delivery that's almost jazz-like, especially when coupled with some signature boom-bap production. In her songs, she raps about breakups, missing Oakland, the disappointing produce in Brooklyn, and navigating rough financial waters. Learn more about...
Jan 06, 2023•19 min
If you're going to use Bay Area slang, use it right. "Slap" is a term used in this region since the early 2000s to describe the sound of music laden with hard-hitting 808 drum machine beats and heavy bass lines. It's not a word to describe a quality sandwich. While language, especially slang, is full of words with multiple meanings, many folks from the soil have been on a mission to set the record straight on how the lingo should be used. This week on Rightnowish, we're diving deep into the etym...
Dec 16, 2022•12 min
Chef Avery Zeus is a whiz at combining flavors. They use that same energy when they bring queer people of color together at the monthly "Taco Tuesgay" pop-up event in Oakland. Zeus' company, Concept Kitchen, plans the catering for the event, but their main business is making sure that other QTIBIPOC-led food start-ups have the resources to succeed in the hospitality industry through kitchen access, booking services, and equipment for catering and street vending. Rightnowish's Corey Antonio Rose ...
Dec 09, 2022•18 min
It seems like LarrenWong can do a little bit of everything. He's a former linebacker who played football at James Logan High School and Northwestern University, before signing a professional contract with the Seattle Seahawks. He's an avid reader, student of art history and a talented painter. He's a rising R&B star who sings, writes and plays the guitar; earlier this year he dropped a quality album titled, Songs That I Hate To Sing. Raised in Union City where he was exposed to different cul...
Dec 02, 2022•17 min
Filmmaker Maria Victoria Ponce was raised in Richmond, CA. She’s mastered the art of telling stories that speak to her individual experience of coming up there, as well as the awkwardness that’s universally found in the process of growing up– no matter where you’re from. Recently, she invited Rightnowish host Pendarvis Harshaw and producer Marisol Medina-Cadena to stop by and see the family photos that inspire her coming of age films. They discussed the inspiration for her films and what it mean...
Nov 18, 2022•23 min
This week on Rightnowish, we’re sharing an episode from our friends at KQED’s Mindshift Podcast. It’s all about new approaches to raising and educating children. I didn’t have my first Black teacher until 7th grade, and only one after that until college. When I became a teacher, that’s when it clicked: representation matters, as does exposure to a diverse set of life experiences. In this episode, Mindshift host Nimah Gobir, speaks to Micia Mosely, founder and director of the Black Teacher Projec...
Nov 11, 2022•18 min
Today we’re passing the mic to a group that’s doing some substantive work, both in the community and in the media. The Hella Black Podcast, hosted by Delency Parham and Abbas Muntaqim, is a show focused on movements toward Black liberation. Right now the Hella Black Podcast is running a unique series called Tales Of The Town. It’s produced by former Rightnowish guest and award winning filmmaker, Maya Cueva. Over the course of 12 weeks, Tales of The Town is looking back at historical movements fo...
Nov 04, 2022•28 min
At the heart of Día de los Muertos is a celebration of the cycle of life. It's a time to talk with our dead. We sing to them, prepare altars with flower and food offerings, and share stories to keep their memories alive. It's both a sacred and joyous time. Here in the Bay Area, we go all out for the tradition. Elaborate public altars are constructed in parks, schools, and community spaces. Museums and galleries have exhibits with Day of the Dead themed art and installations. It's truly a moment ...
Oct 28, 2022•27 min
October 25, 2022 marks the third anniversary of the launch of the Rightnowish podcast! This week, we’re revisiting an episode that’s emblematic of this show’s ethos. In July of 2021 we published an episode featuring Alameda’s own producer and DJ, Trackademicks. Known as the “cool collar scholar” from the HNRL collective, Trackademicks is a music producer who makes original songs and has a knack for remixing popular tracks, and adding that Bay Area flavor. In the early 2000s, his "Tell Me When To...
Oct 21, 2022•21 min
Inside of a classic Queen Anne victorian in West Oakland, photographer Traci Bartlow displays beautifully framed images of the people who shaped hip-hop culture in the Bay Area, and across the nation. Her house doubles as a photography museum and a boutique hotel, that tells the complex story of multiple generations of Black folks, land ownership and community. This week we go back to the 90s as Traci takes us on a tour of B-Love's Guesthouse. Read the transcript for this episode. Information to...
Oct 14, 2022•24 min
Fremont photographer Sydney Welch has compiled a collection of photos that serve as a highlight reel for the latest wave of talented hip-hop and R&B artists emerging from the Bay Area, including Stunnaman02, LaRussell, Kehlani, P-Lo, Su'Lan, Larry June, and Rexx Life Raj. Her images are captured at concerts, showing artists rocking the stage or having an intimate moment backstage. She has Polaroid photos taken at parties and magazine-style portraits shot on film. Most importantly: Sydney's i...
Oct 07, 2022•19 min
There's a lot going on in the world. On top of the constant grind that capitalism demands, there's news of natural disasters, inflation, war and conflicts. And that's in addition to the interpersonal issues we all face. We could use a little more laughter in our lives. So last month, Rightnowish held an event called, Put Your Phone Down! A Rightnowish Comedy Night at KQED's headquarters in San Francisco. Hosted by Pendarvis Harshaw and Rightnowish producer Marisol Medina-Cadena, the evening cons...
Sep 30, 2022•26 min
"It's only on you for the rest of your life," reads the Instagram bio of tattoo artist Shannon Anderson aka Mo' Better. A widely recognized tattoo artist, he's done notable pieces on famous athletes and entertainers, But he's also inked multiple generations of Bay Area families. He's a self-taught tattoo veteran who is paving the way for others to traverse an industry that hasn't been to kind to people who look like he does. For the past twelve years, Mo'Better's been the owner of Inkestry Custo...
Sep 23, 2022•21 min
"People really want something that brings meaning into their life," says Sabreena Haque, a well-known henna artist and burgeoning tattoo artist. Henna is an important part of wedding rituals and birthday celebrations. Similar to tattoos, henna plays an important role in times of transition. Sabreena says the practice of receiving henna, which involves sitting still and letting the paste sink into your skin, is an opportunity for people to set intentions. "As the henna fades, that's when the inte...
Sep 16, 2022•20 min
Sophia Blum, also known as Pio Poke, is a master of the stick-and-poke (or hand poke) method of tattooing. With a handheld needle, she creates detailed textile designs and images of feathers, arrows, birds and botanicals. On top of being a skilled artist, she's in the business of changing the industry — after recognizing unfair labor practices within traditional tattoo parlors, where owners get the lion's share of the the revenue and workers make a small percentage, Blum organized with other art...
Sep 09, 2022•20 min
Our series, Permanent Behavior: Getting Tatted in the Bay, starts with tattoo artist Miguel "Bounce" Perez. Perez has vivid childhood memories of art created by his family: His mother drew “chola-style” portraits of women with feathered hair and sharp brows, while his uncles created lettering in Cali-Chicano Old English script. His father was part of a car club in his West Berkeley community, a neighborhood that was also home to a number of aerosol graffiti murals. All of this poured into Perez,...
Sep 02, 2022•22 min
On Rightnowish, we feature a lot of stories about art that's here today, gone tomorrow—and we wanted to find art that lasts forever. So, we turned to tattoos. Permanent Behavior, our four-part series on tattooing in the Bay, kicks off this week. In these stories, we dive into the permanence of ink, as it resides on impermanent beings. We hear from the creators of the tattoos—the artists behind the needles—all of whom come from a unique mixture of crews, cultures and countries of origin. The artw...
Aug 31, 2022•18 min
Growing up, Robert Liu-Trujillo didn't see himself represented in the books he read. So after he became a dad, he wanted to make sure his son would have stories to relate to. Liu-Trujillo set forth on a path to fill the void. And in doing so, he's contributed to the effort to create a culturally aware and racially just future for all of us. Initially an illustrator, he became an author and has published eight books. He often uses watercolors to create scenes that are full of bright hues and eart...
Aug 26, 2022•20 min
The Rightnowish team is working on some new and exciting projects — but first, we want to hear from YOU. Do you listen to the show? What do you want to hear more of? What's missing? By filling out a quick survey, you can help shape the future of Rightnowish. Check it out: https://bit.ly/3C4MRzt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 22, 2022•3 min
