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"content": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://exhibitions.asianart.org/exhibitions/ha-chong-hyun-retrospective/\">Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective\u003c/a>\u003c/em> doesn’t need a more exciting title because the exhibition is drop dead gorgeous. Though he’s called “the father of Korean modernism,” Ha isn’t yet a household name in the U.S. Nevertheless, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/asian-art-museum\">Asian Art Museum\u003c/a> clearly trusts the paintings themselves to entice people to visit this show. But there’s a surprise among the stunning aesthetic beauty. While Ha’s work supports an art-for-art’s-sake appreciation, it quickly becomes apparent that Ha’s paintings are witnesses to and documents of the tumultuous, consequential history of Korea over the country’s dizzying changes during the 20th and 21st centuries.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I thought I wasn’t going to make it through \u003cem>Ha Chong-Hyun: A Retrospective \u003c/em>without touching the art. Only the prospect of getting kicked out of the museum kept my hands to themselves. The more than 50 paintings in the show, made over six decades, luxuriate in paint. Early experiments in thickly applied impasto texture led to Ha’s invention of what he calls the “back-pressure method,” in which he presses wet paint through a coarsely woven support. The result is a painting surface covered in glistening beads of color suspended in the grid matrix of the fabric. Between these beads, scraped rectangles take the place of brushstrokes to push and smear pigment across the surface. You can’t help but want to join Ha in smudging the paint with your fingers or even other appendages.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e.jpg\" alt=\"close-up of thick white and gray paint applied in textured blocks\" class=\"wp-image-13994873\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Detail of Ha Chong-Hyun’s ‘Conjunction 22-121,’ 2022; Oil on hemp cloth. (Courtesy of the artist; photo by Chunho An)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They’re kind of ice cream,” Asian Art Museum director Soyoung Lee told KQED of the paintings. “I feel like I can almost taste it. I feel like I can smell it. I feel like I want to touch it even though I have to be careful about saying that when I work in a museum!”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ha’s sensual blobs, blots and gestures instilled longing in me too — the kind of desire a 5 year old has for the entire contents of the ice cream case at the shop. I didn’t only want to touch the paint, I wanted to lick it too.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ha was born in 1935, in a Korea that was a colony of Japan. By the time Ha reached adulthood in the mid-20th century, Korea had experienced 35 years of Japanese rule, the U.S. and Soviet Union partitioning the country into two occupation zones, the Korean War and a devastated economy. The only material he could find for painting was the burlap of U.S. grain shipments and army sandbags.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2046\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/19_Work-73-1973-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Barbed-wire-on-panel.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_200-80d91a21.jpg\" alt=\"grid of barbed wire wrapped around square canvas\" class=\"wp-image-13994874\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/19_Work-73-1973-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Barbed-wire-on-panel.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_200-80d91a21.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/19_Work-73-1973-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Barbed-wire-on-panel.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_200-80d91a21-160x164.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/19_Work-73-1973-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Barbed-wire-on-panel.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_200-80d91a21-768x786.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/19_Work-73-1973-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Barbed-wire-on-panel.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_200-80d91a21-1501x1536.jpg 1501w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ha Chong-Hyun, ‘Work 73,’ 1973; Barbed wire on panel. (Courtesy of the artist; photo by Chunho An)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Early works in the galleries show Ha reaching for whatever materials were available: burlap and hemp, metal springs, even barbed wire. Like arte povera, the post-WWII Italian art movement characterized by cheap materials, Ha’s work speaks to the historical reality of pre-urbanized Korea. Though their formal characteristics are interesting on a purely visual level, Lee notes that the materials carry unmissable connotations. Barbed wire, for instance, also marks the demilitarized zone dividing North and South Korea.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In this retrospective, Ha’s back-pressure method paintings start out relatively quiet in the 1970s quietly. Rows of white paint circles push through the loose burlap weave in \u003cem>Conjunction 74-26\u003c/em>. The oil in the paint, absorbed into the burlap around it, creates halo-like stains around the white paint. I started to think about Korea’s push towards modernity; the irrepressible drive towards a developed economy, the uncontrolled drips flowing like the unexpected human consequences of those huge social changes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"986\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/22_Conjunction-74-26-1974-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Collection-of-Museum-of-Modern-Art-photo-by-Jonathan-Muzikar_200-59a3d90b.jpg\" alt=\"wide abstract painting with white dripping dots in grid across brown canvas\" class=\"wp-image-13994875\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/22_Conjunction-74-26-1974-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Collection-of-Museum-of-Modern-Art-photo-by-Jonathan-Muzikar_200-59a3d90b.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/22_Conjunction-74-26-1974-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Collection-of-Museum-of-Modern-Art-photo-by-Jonathan-Muzikar_200-59a3d90b-160x79.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/22_Conjunction-74-26-1974-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Collection-of-Museum-of-Modern-Art-photo-by-Jonathan-Muzikar_200-59a3d90b-768x379.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/22_Conjunction-74-26-1974-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Collection-of-Museum-of-Modern-Art-photo-by-Jonathan-Muzikar_200-59a3d90b-1536x757.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ha Chong-Hyun, ‘Conjunction 74-26,’ 1974. (Jonathan Muzikar)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ever experimenting, Ha began filling nearly the whole surface of his large works with paint and working with the pigment both on the back as well as the front sides of the support in the 1980s. In the ’90s, Ha incorporated color with brilliant effects. By the 2010s, Ha started to tamp thin wooden boards onto a bed of paint that then spurted through the slats, as in \u003cem>Post-Conjunction 10–2\u003c/em>. There’s even one slat painting that uses mirrors instead of wooden boards, allowing visitors to see their reflection spliced among the paint splatters.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The magnificent 2020s paintings — 91-year-old Ha is still very much active — take one’s breath away. The glistening paint appears still wet, alive on the hemp surfaces. A new freedom with color adds a detailed level of variety within each paint mark.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1618\" height=\"2000\" data-id=\"13994877\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/59_Conjunction-26-14-2026-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_2000-ac6f6174.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994877\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/59_Conjunction-26-14-2026-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_2000-ac6f6174.jpg 1618w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/59_Conjunction-26-14-2026-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_2000-ac6f6174-160x198.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/59_Conjunction-26-14-2026-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_2000-ac6f6174-768x949.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/59_Conjunction-26-14-2026-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_2000-ac6f6174-1243x1536.jpg 1243w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1618px) 100vw, 1618px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ha Chong-Hyun, ‘Conjunction 26-14,’ 2026; Oil on hemp cloth. (Courtesy of the artist; photo by Chunho An)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" data-id=\"13994876\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/37_Detail-of-Post-Conjunction-10-2-2010-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-and-collage-on-caanvas.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Sangtae-Kim-2000-9080cb21.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994876\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/37_Detail-of-Post-Conjunction-10-2-2010-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-and-collage-on-caanvas.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Sangtae-Kim-2000-9080cb21.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/37_Detail-of-Post-Conjunction-10-2-2010-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-and-collage-on-caanvas.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Sangtae-Kim-2000-9080cb21-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/37_Detail-of-Post-Conjunction-10-2-2010-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-and-collage-on-caanvas.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Sangtae-Kim-2000-9080cb21-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/37_Detail-of-Post-Conjunction-10-2-2010-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-and-collage-on-caanvas.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Sangtae-Kim-2000-9080cb21-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ha Chong-Hyun, Detail of ‘Post-Conjunction 10-2,’ 2010; Oil and collage on canvas. (Courtesy of the artist; photo by Sangtae Kim)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“His art definitely speaks to what it means for things to go through human hands,” said Lee. “It’s something that requires a little commitment from you … to slow down to look and think about what it is to make things with your hands, with your body — and to feel it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ha’s paintings, irrepressibly visceral, do seem like an antidote to the disembodiment of San Francisco’s AI era. A display of Ha’s many paint-encrusted tools near the exhibition entrance and accompanying videos of him at work hammer home how bodily the artist’s practice is. Indeed, Ha has always called himself a “laborer,” which both speaks to the physicality of his art and his origins as the middle child of a large farming family. I left \u003cem>Ha Chong-Hyun \u003c/em>with the thought that instead of going to touch grass, I could pick up some paint at the art store and give them a squeeze through my fingers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘\u003ca href=\"https://exhibitions.asianart.org/exhibitions/ha-chong-hyun-retrospective/\">Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective\u003c/a>’ is on view at the Asian Art Museum (200 Larkin St., San Francisco) through Jan. 25, 2027.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://exhibitions.asianart.org/exhibitions/ha-chong-hyun-retrospective/\">Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective\u003c/a>\u003c/em> doesn’t need a more exciting title because the exhibition is drop dead gorgeous. Though he’s called “the father of Korean modernism,” Ha isn’t yet a household name in the U.S. Nevertheless, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/asian-art-museum\">Asian Art Museum\u003c/a> clearly trusts the paintings themselves to entice people to visit this show. But there’s a surprise among the stunning aesthetic beauty. While Ha’s work supports an art-for-art’s-sake appreciation, it quickly becomes apparent that Ha’s paintings are witnesses to and documents of the tumultuous, consequential history of Korea over the country’s dizzying changes during the 20th and 21st centuries.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>I thought I wasn’t going to make it through \u003cem>Ha Chong-Hyun: A Retrospective \u003c/em>without touching the art. Only the prospect of getting kicked out of the museum kept my hands to themselves. The more than 50 paintings in the show, made over six decades, luxuriate in paint. Early experiments in thickly applied impasto texture led to Ha’s invention of what he calls the “back-pressure method,” in which he presses wet paint through a coarsely woven support. The result is a painting surface covered in glistening beads of color suspended in the grid matrix of the fabric. Between these beads, scraped rectangles take the place of brushstrokes to push and smear pigment across the surface. You can’t help but want to join Ha in smudging the paint with your fingers or even other appendages.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>I thought I wasn’t going to make it through \u003cem>Ha Chong-Hyun: A Retrospective \u003c/em>without touching the art. Only the prospect of getting kicked out of the museum kept my hands to themselves. The more than 50 paintings in the show, made over six decades, luxuriate in paint. Early experiments in thickly applied impasto texture led to Ha’s invention of what he calls the “back-pressure method,” in which he presses wet paint through a coarsely woven support. The result is a painting surface covered in glistening beads of color suspended in the grid matrix of the fabric. Between these beads, scraped rectangles take the place of brushstrokes to push and smear pigment across the surface. You can’t help but want to join Ha in smudging the paint with your fingers or even other appendages.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e.jpg\" alt=\"close-up of thick white and gray paint applied in textured blocks\" class=\"wp-image-13994873\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Detail of Ha Chong-Hyun’s ‘Conjunction 22-121,’ 2022; Oil on hemp cloth.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of the artist; photo by Chunho An)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“They’re kind of ice cream,” Asian Art Museum director Soyoung Lee told KQED of the paintings. “I feel like I can almost taste it. I feel like I can smell it. I feel like I want to touch it even though I have to be careful about saying that when I work in a museum!”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“They’re kind of ice cream,” Asian Art Museum director Soyoung Lee told KQED of the paintings. “I feel like I can almost taste it. I feel like I can smell it. I feel like I want to touch it even though I have to be careful about saying that when I work in a museum!”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Ha’s sensual blobs, blots and gestures instilled longing in me too — the kind of desire a 5 year old has for the entire contents of the ice cream case at the shop. I didn’t only want to touch the paint, I wanted to lick it too.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Ha’s sensual blobs, blots and gestures instilled longing in me too — the kind of desire a 5 year old has for the entire contents of the ice cream case at the shop. I didn’t only want to touch the paint, I wanted to lick it too.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Ha was born in 1935, in a Korea that was a colony of Japan. By the time Ha reached adulthood in the mid-20th century, Korea had experienced 35 years of Japanese rule, the U.S. and Soviet Union partitioning the country into two occupation zones, the Korean War and a devastated economy. The only material he could find for painting was the burlap of U.S. grain shipments and army sandbags.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Ha was born in 1935, in a Korea that was a colony of Japan. By the time Ha reached adulthood in the mid-20th century, Korea had experienced 35 years of Japanese rule, the U.S. and Soviet Union partitioning the country into two occupation zones, the Korean War and a devastated economy. The only material he could find for painting was the burlap of U.S. grain shipments and army sandbags.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Early works in the galleries show Ha reaching for whatever materials were available: burlap and hemp, metal springs, even barbed wire. Like arte povera, the post-WWII Italian art movement characterized by cheap materials, Ha’s work speaks to the historical reality of pre-urbanized Korea. Though their formal characteristics are interesting on a purely visual level, Lee notes that the materials carry unmissable connotations. Barbed wire, for instance, also marks the demilitarized zone dividing North and South Korea.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Early works in the galleries show Ha reaching for whatever materials were available: burlap and hemp, metal springs, even barbed wire. Like arte povera, the post-WWII Italian art movement characterized by cheap materials, Ha’s work speaks to the historical reality of pre-urbanized Korea. Though their formal characteristics are interesting on a purely visual level, Lee notes that the materials carry unmissable connotations. Barbed wire, for instance, also marks the demilitarized zone dividing North and South Korea.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In this retrospective, Ha’s back-pressure method paintings start out relatively quiet in the 1970s quietly. Rows of white paint circles push through the loose burlap weave in \u003cem>Conjunction 74-26\u003c/em>. The oil in the paint, absorbed into the burlap around it, creates halo-like stains around the white paint. I started to think about Korea’s push towards modernity; the irrepressible drive towards a developed economy, the uncontrolled drips flowing like the unexpected human consequences of those huge social changes.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In this retrospective, Ha’s back-pressure method paintings start out relatively quiet in the 1970s quietly. Rows of white paint circles push through the loose burlap weave in \u003cem>Conjunction 74-26\u003c/em>. The oil in the paint, absorbed into the burlap around it, creates halo-like stains around the white paint. I started to think about Korea’s push towards modernity; the irrepressible drive towards a developed economy, the uncontrolled drips flowing like the unexpected human consequences of those huge social changes.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Ever experimenting, Ha began filling nearly the whole surface of his large works with paint and working with the pigment both on the back as well as the front sides of the support in the 1980s. In the ’90s, Ha incorporated color with brilliant effects. By the 2010s, Ha started to tamp thin wooden boards onto a bed of paint that then spurted through the slats, as in \u003cem>Post-Conjunction 10–2\u003c/em>. There’s even one slat painting that uses mirrors instead of wooden boards, allowing visitors to see their reflection spliced among the paint splatters.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Ever experimenting, Ha began filling nearly the whole surface of his large works with paint and working with the pigment both on the back as well as the front sides of the support in the 1980s. In the ’90s, Ha incorporated color with brilliant effects. By the 2010s, Ha started to tamp thin wooden boards onto a bed of paint that then spurted through the slats, as in \u003cem>Post-Conjunction 10–2\u003c/em>. There’s even one slat painting that uses mirrors instead of wooden boards, allowing visitors to see their reflection spliced among the paint splatters.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The magnificent 2020s paintings — 91-year-old Ha is still very much active — take one’s breath away. The glistening paint appears still wet, alive on the hemp surfaces. A new freedom with color adds a detailed level of variety within each paint mark.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/59_Conjunction-26-14-2026-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_2000-ac6f6174.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994877\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ha Chong-Hyun, ‘Conjunction 26-14,’ 2026; Oil on hemp cloth.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“His art definitely speaks to what it means for things to go through human hands,” said Lee. “It’s something that requires a little commitment from you … to slow down to look and think about what it is to make things with your hands, with your body — and to feel it.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Ha’s paintings, irrepressibly visceral, do seem like an antidote to the disembodiment of San Francisco’s AI era. A display of Ha’s many paint-encrusted tools near the exhibition entrance and accompanying videos of him at work hammer home how bodily the artist’s practice is. Indeed, Ha has always called himself a “laborer,” which both speaks to the physicality of his art and his origins as the middle child of a large farming family. I left \u003cem>Ha Chong-Hyun \u003c/em>with the thought that instead of going to touch grass, I could pick up some paint at the art store and give them a squeeze through my fingers.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Ha’s paintings, irrepressibly visceral, do seem like an antidote to the disembodiment of San Francisco’s AI era. A display of Ha’s many paint-encrusted tools near the exhibition entrance and accompanying videos of him at work hammer home how bodily the artist’s practice is. Indeed, Ha has always called himself a “laborer,” which both speaks to the physicality of his art and his origins as the middle child of a large farming family. I left \u003cem>Ha Chong-Hyun \u003c/em>with the thought that instead of going to touch grass, I could pick up some paint at the art store and give them a squeeze through my fingers.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘\u003ca href=\"https://exhibitions.asianart.org/exhibitions/ha-chong-hyun-retrospective/\">Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective\u003c/a>’ is on view at the Asian Art Museum (200 Larkin St., San Francisco) through Jan. 25, 2027.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Ha Chong-Hyun’s retrospective luxuriates in thick applications of paint.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://exhibitions.asianart.org/exhibitions/ha-chong-hyun-retrospective/\">Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective\u003c/a>\u003c/em> doesn’t need a more exciting title because the exhibition is drop dead gorgeous. Though he’s called “the father of Korean modernism,” Ha isn’t yet a household name in the U.S. Nevertheless, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/asian-art-museum\">Asian Art Museum\u003c/a> clearly trusts the paintings themselves to entice people to visit this show. But there’s a surprise among the stunning aesthetic beauty. While Ha’s work supports an art-for-art’s-sake appreciation, it quickly becomes apparent that Ha’s paintings are witnesses to and documents of the tumultuous, consequential history of Korea over the country’s dizzying changes during the 20th and 21st centuries.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I thought I wasn’t going to make it through \u003cem>Ha Chong-Hyun: A Retrospective \u003c/em>without touching the art. Only the prospect of getting kicked out of the museum kept my hands to themselves. The more than 50 paintings in the show, made over six decades, luxuriate in paint. Early experiments in thickly applied impasto texture led to Ha’s invention of what he calls the “back-pressure method,” in which he presses wet paint through a coarsely woven support. The result is a painting surface covered in glistening beads of color suspended in the grid matrix of the fabric. Between these beads, scraped rectangles take the place of brushstrokes to push and smear pigment across the surface. You can’t help but want to join Ha in smudging the paint with your fingers or even other appendages.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e.jpg\" alt=\"close-up of thick white and gray paint applied in textured blocks\" class=\"wp-image-13994873\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/54_Detail-of-Conjunction-22-121-2022-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Chunho-An_2000-f12c296e-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Detail of Ha Chong-Hyun’s ‘Conjunction 22-121,’ 2022; Oil on hemp cloth. (Courtesy of the artist; photo by Chunho An)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They’re kind of ice cream,” Asian Art Museum director Soyoung Lee told KQED of the paintings. “I feel like I can almost taste it. I feel like I can smell it. I feel like I want to touch it even though I have to be careful about saying that when I work in a museum!”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ha’s sensual blobs, blots and gestures instilled longing in me too — the kind of desire a 5 year old has for the entire contents of the ice cream case at the shop. I didn’t only want to touch the paint, I wanted to lick it too.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ha was born in 1935, in a Korea that was a colony of Japan. By the time Ha reached adulthood in the mid-20th century, Korea had experienced 35 years of Japanese rule, the U.S. and Soviet Union partitioning the country into two occupation zones, the Korean War and a devastated economy. The only material he could find for painting was the burlap of U.S. grain shipments and army sandbags.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2046\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/19_Work-73-1973-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Barbed-wire-on-panel.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_200-80d91a21.jpg\" alt=\"grid of barbed wire wrapped around square canvas\" class=\"wp-image-13994874\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/19_Work-73-1973-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Barbed-wire-on-panel.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_200-80d91a21.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/19_Work-73-1973-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Barbed-wire-on-panel.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_200-80d91a21-160x164.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/19_Work-73-1973-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Barbed-wire-on-panel.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_200-80d91a21-768x786.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/19_Work-73-1973-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Barbed-wire-on-panel.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_200-80d91a21-1501x1536.jpg 1501w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ha Chong-Hyun, ‘Work 73,’ 1973; Barbed wire on panel. (Courtesy of the artist; photo by Chunho An)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Early works in the galleries show Ha reaching for whatever materials were available: burlap and hemp, metal springs, even barbed wire. Like arte povera, the post-WWII Italian art movement characterized by cheap materials, Ha’s work speaks to the historical reality of pre-urbanized Korea. Though their formal characteristics are interesting on a purely visual level, Lee notes that the materials carry unmissable connotations. Barbed wire, for instance, also marks the demilitarized zone dividing North and South Korea.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In this retrospective, Ha’s back-pressure method paintings start out relatively quiet in the 1970s quietly. Rows of white paint circles push through the loose burlap weave in \u003cem>Conjunction 74-26\u003c/em>. The oil in the paint, absorbed into the burlap around it, creates halo-like stains around the white paint. I started to think about Korea’s push towards modernity; the irrepressible drive towards a developed economy, the uncontrolled drips flowing like the unexpected human consequences of those huge social changes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"986\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/22_Conjunction-74-26-1974-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Collection-of-Museum-of-Modern-Art-photo-by-Jonathan-Muzikar_200-59a3d90b.jpg\" alt=\"wide abstract painting with white dripping dots in grid across brown canvas\" class=\"wp-image-13994875\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/22_Conjunction-74-26-1974-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Collection-of-Museum-of-Modern-Art-photo-by-Jonathan-Muzikar_200-59a3d90b.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/22_Conjunction-74-26-1974-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Collection-of-Museum-of-Modern-Art-photo-by-Jonathan-Muzikar_200-59a3d90b-160x79.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/22_Conjunction-74-26-1974-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Collection-of-Museum-of-Modern-Art-photo-by-Jonathan-Muzikar_200-59a3d90b-768x379.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/22_Conjunction-74-26-1974-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Collection-of-Museum-of-Modern-Art-photo-by-Jonathan-Muzikar_200-59a3d90b-1536x757.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ha Chong-Hyun, ‘Conjunction 74-26,’ 1974. (Jonathan Muzikar)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ever experimenting, Ha began filling nearly the whole surface of his large works with paint and working with the pigment both on the back as well as the front sides of the support in the 1980s. In the ’90s, Ha incorporated color with brilliant effects. By the 2010s, Ha started to tamp thin wooden boards onto a bed of paint that then spurted through the slats, as in \u003cem>Post-Conjunction 10–2\u003c/em>. There’s even one slat painting that uses mirrors instead of wooden boards, allowing visitors to see their reflection spliced among the paint splatters.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The magnificent 2020s paintings — 91-year-old Ha is still very much active — take one’s breath away. The glistening paint appears still wet, alive on the hemp surfaces. A new freedom with color adds a detailed level of variety within each paint mark.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1618\" height=\"2000\" data-id=\"13994877\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/59_Conjunction-26-14-2026-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_2000-ac6f6174.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994877\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/59_Conjunction-26-14-2026-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_2000-ac6f6174.jpg 1618w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/59_Conjunction-26-14-2026-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_2000-ac6f6174-160x198.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/59_Conjunction-26-14-2026-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_2000-ac6f6174-768x949.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/59_Conjunction-26-14-2026-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-on-hemp-cloth.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-An-Chunho_2000-ac6f6174-1243x1536.jpg 1243w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1618px) 100vw, 1618px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ha Chong-Hyun, ‘Conjunction 26-14,’ 2026; Oil on hemp cloth. (Courtesy of the artist; photo by Chunho An)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" data-id=\"13994876\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/37_Detail-of-Post-Conjunction-10-2-2010-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-and-collage-on-caanvas.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Sangtae-Kim-2000-9080cb21.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994876\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/37_Detail-of-Post-Conjunction-10-2-2010-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-and-collage-on-caanvas.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Sangtae-Kim-2000-9080cb21.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/37_Detail-of-Post-Conjunction-10-2-2010-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-and-collage-on-caanvas.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Sangtae-Kim-2000-9080cb21-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/37_Detail-of-Post-Conjunction-10-2-2010-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-and-collage-on-caanvas.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Sangtae-Kim-2000-9080cb21-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/37_Detail-of-Post-Conjunction-10-2-2010-by-Ha-Chong-Hyun.-Oil-and-collage-on-caanvas.-Courtesy-of-the-artist.-Photo-by-Sangtae-Kim-2000-9080cb21-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ha Chong-Hyun, Detail of ‘Post-Conjunction 10-2,’ 2010; Oil and collage on canvas. (Courtesy of the artist; photo by Sangtae Kim)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“His art definitely speaks to what it means for things to go through human hands,” said Lee. “It’s something that requires a little commitment from you … to slow down to look and think about what it is to make things with your hands, with your body — and to feel it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ha’s paintings, irrepressibly visceral, do seem like an antidote to the disembodiment of San Francisco’s AI era. A display of Ha’s many paint-encrusted tools near the exhibition entrance and accompanying videos of him at work hammer home how bodily the artist’s practice is. Indeed, Ha has always called himself a “laborer,” which both speaks to the physicality of his art and his origins as the middle child of a large farming family. I left \u003cem>Ha Chong-Hyun \u003c/em>with the thought that instead of going to touch grass, I could pick up some paint at the art store and give them a squeeze through my fingers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘\u003ca href=\"https://exhibitions.asianart.org/exhibitions/ha-chong-hyun-retrospective/\">Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective\u003c/a>’ is on view at the Asian Art Museum (200 Larkin St., San Francisco) through Jan. 25, 2027.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "in-oh-mary-a-closeted-presidents-unhinged-wife-draws-cackles",
"title": "In ‘Oh, Mary!,’ A Closeted President’s Unhinged Wife Draws Cackles",
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"headTitle": "In ‘Oh, Mary!,’ A Closeted President’s Unhinged Wife Draws Cackles | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>What’s more interesting, the Civil War or singing in a cabaret club?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For the lovely and limber Mary Todd Lincoln, it’s no contest, considering the war with the South prompts her to ask an important question: the South of what?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While at least 620,000 soldiers died in a conflict that still carries ramifications for the United States today, Mary isn’t thinking about that history and legacy mumbo jumbo. On her mind is much more critical business at hand, mostly involving her dream of climbing all over a piano crooning classic cabaret hits, tickling the ivories \u003cem>and\u003c/em> the audience.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/MichaelLeporeandJohn-AndrewMorrisoninOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-cb3fd56c.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994803\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/MichaelLeporeandJohn-AndrewMorrisoninOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-cb3fd56c.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/MichaelLeporeandJohn-AndrewMorrisoninOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-cb3fd56c-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/MichaelLeporeandJohn-AndrewMorrisoninOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-cb3fd56c-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/MichaelLeporeandJohn-AndrewMorrisoninOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-cb3fd56c-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Michael Lepore and John-Andrew Morrison in ‘Oh, Mary!’ (Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>In ATG San Francisco’s production of Cole Escola’s \u003cem>Oh, Mary! \u003c/em>at the Curran Theatre, chaos and conflict rule the day, and secrets are revealed in wild, wacky ways. It’s a show clearly not for everyone, with some seriously low-hanging fruit that the audience can snatch up immediately. Yet the play, a 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Drama finalist, is mighty bold and wonderfully irreverent, following a fictional, highly inaccurate version of the first lady in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mary (Alaska Thunderfuck) is more than bored. She’s living a suffocating and banal life while spending way too much time with some guy named Jack Daniels, prancing all over the house in a gargantuan black hoop dress and curls that scream bratty (and a strange, perfectly coiffed bun that’s the centerpiece of her hair game). Her frustration with her top-hat hubby (John-Andrew Morrison) is that he just can’t lay off this Civil War stuff for an evening to ravage her with steamy passion. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Turns out the Civil War is kind of important, and since Mary yearns for a stage, her husband decides to pay for acting lessons with a wonderful but maybe not-so-talented teacher (Wesley Taylor). While Mary is distracted, things get steamy in secret between her husband and his assistant (Michael Lepore).\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994802\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pooya Mohseni and Alaska Thunderfuck in ‘Oh, Mary!’ (Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Does the husband want Mary to become the next Dame Ellen Terry? That would be a hard no, considering he could care less about what she does, as long as it’s far away from him. Acting lessons, though, are a dissatisfying consolation prize for what Mary truly wants: a return as a singular sensation in cabaret, the greatest art form known to civilization. After all, theater is where cabaret stars go to die. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are a few others who catch strays from Mary’s razor-sharp tongue. Her chaperone Louise (Pooya Mohseni) has one job and even fails at that. The play’s pace is outstanding within its tight run time of 75 minutes. Sam Pinkleton’s direction lands each closing scene with sharpness, providing the audience ample opportunities to cackle in the dark. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>These opportunities are built around Thunderfuck’s scintillating set of skills, a star vehicle that Escola himself crushed in my 2024 Broadway viewing. The role hinges on the performer’s nuance. For Thunderfuck, it’s the pensive teeth-sucking and dropping perfectly timed one-liners as Mary processes her new reality in each discovered moment. Notice the quick thinking when Mary realizes she doesn’t have her handy Shakespeare script and hilariously improvises the nurse in \u003cem>Romeo and Juliet\u003c/em> at a critical audition. This new nurse is less Shakespearean and more like a Dickensian villain. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thunderfuck possesses an uncanny ability to move through space with sleek sheen and maximum slitherance. Her physical prowess as a highly regarded drag star, in complete control of her body and its every gesture, is a constant delight.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thunderfuck’s co-stars tee her up early and often, while being superb in their own right. Mary’s husband and his rough-and-tumble bouts with her are all about his never-ending frustration. Morrison marvels with his chaotic, closeted inner monologue. As Louise, Mohseni delivers balcony-reaching reactions that hit perfect notes within this irreverent and campy style. And Taylor’s turn as the tempestuous teacher is all riot, bounding all over the stage while leading with his booty. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/AlaskaThunderfuckandWesleyTaylorinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-a1ef18fa.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994805\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/AlaskaThunderfuckandWesleyTaylorinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-a1ef18fa.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/AlaskaThunderfuckandWesleyTaylorinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-a1ef18fa-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/AlaskaThunderfuckandWesleyTaylorinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-a1ef18fa-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/AlaskaThunderfuckandWesleyTaylorinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-a1ef18fa-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Alaska Thunderfuck and Wesley Taylor in ‘Oh, Mary!’ (Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>There are strict regulations about spoiling the ending, which shall not be done here. However, what does come in the play’s final scene is a real hoot. The denouement is not just a commitment to camp, but a love letter to the art of drag and all its magic. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To borrow from Gen Z, this play and that ending are just \u003cem>stupid\u003c/em>, which is one heckuva compliment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Oh, Mary!’ runs through Nov. 1 at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://us.atgtickets.com/events/oh-mary/curran-theater/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23938240759&gbraid=0AAAAA9-vlNTk2Ub91rE6b0iTSiPscugu3&gclid=Cj0KCQjwlsfWBhD4ARIsACL7p1FrrhFP7_pPKMTlAKAJ-8Os5rV_vXUF8QIHvCt9AO7UdGfVULDlPCsaAj9ZEALw_wcB\">\u003cem>Tickets and more information here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mary (Alaska Thunderfuck) is more than bored. She’s living a suffocating and banal life while spending way too much time with some guy named Jack Daniels, prancing all over the house in a gargantuan black hoop dress and curls that scream bratty (and a strange, perfectly coiffed bun that’s the centerpiece of her hair game). Her frustration with her top-hat hubby (John-Andrew Morrison) is that he just can’t lay off this Civil War stuff for an evening to ravage her with steamy passion. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Turns out the Civil War is kind of important, and since Mary yearns for a stage, her husband decides to pay for acting lessons with a wonderful but maybe not-so-talented teacher (Wesley Taylor). While Mary is distracted, things get steamy in secret between her husband and his assistant (Michael Lepore).\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Turns out the Civil War is kind of important, and since Mary yearns for a stage, her husband decides to pay for acting lessons with a wonderful but maybe not-so-talented teacher (Wesley Taylor). While Mary is distracted, things get steamy in secret between her husband and his assistant (Michael Lepore).\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994802\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pooya Mohseni and Alaska Thunderfuck in ‘Oh, Mary!’\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Does the husband want Mary to become the next Dame Ellen Terry? That would be a hard no, considering he could care less about what she does, as long as it’s far away from him. Acting lessons, though, are a dissatisfying consolation prize for what Mary truly wants: a return as a singular sensation in cabaret, the greatest art form known to civilization. After all, theater is where cabaret stars go to die. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There are a few others who catch strays from Mary’s razor-sharp tongue. Her chaperone Louise (Pooya Mohseni) has one job and even fails at that. The play’s pace is outstanding within its tight run time of 75 minutes. Sam Pinkleton’s direction lands each closing scene with sharpness, providing the audience ample opportunities to cackle in the dark. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>There are a few others who catch strays from Mary’s razor-sharp tongue. Her chaperone Louise (Pooya Mohseni) has one job and even fails at that. The play’s pace is outstanding within its tight run time of 75 minutes. Sam Pinkleton’s direction lands each closing scene with sharpness, providing the audience ample opportunities to cackle in the dark. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>These opportunities are built around Thunderfuck’s scintillating set of skills, a star vehicle that Escola himself crushed in my 2024 Broadway viewing. The role hinges on the performer’s nuance. For Thunderfuck, it’s the pensive teeth-sucking and dropping perfectly timed one-liners as Mary processes her new reality in each discovered moment. Notice the quick thinking when Mary realizes she doesn’t have her handy Shakespeare script and hilariously improvises the nurse in \u003cem>Romeo and Juliet\u003c/em> at a critical audition. This new nurse is less Shakespearean and more like a Dickensian villain. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>These opportunities are built around Thunderfuck’s scintillating set of skills, a star vehicle that Escola himself crushed in my 2024 Broadway viewing. The role hinges on the performer’s nuance. For Thunderfuck, it’s the pensive teeth-sucking and dropping perfectly timed one-liners as Mary processes her new reality in each discovered moment. Notice the quick thinking when Mary realizes she doesn’t have her handy Shakespeare script and hilariously improvises the nurse in \u003cem>Romeo and Juliet\u003c/em> at a critical audition. This new nurse is less Shakespearean and more like a Dickensian villain. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Thunderfuck possesses an uncanny ability to move through space with sleek sheen and maximum slitherance. Her physical prowess as a highly regarded drag star, in complete control of her body and its every gesture, is a constant delight.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Thunderfuck possesses an uncanny ability to move through space with sleek sheen and maximum slitherance. Her physical prowess as a highly regarded drag star, in complete control of her body and its every gesture, is a constant delight.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Thunderfuck’s co-stars tee her up early and often, while being superb in their own right. Mary’s husband and his rough-and-tumble bouts with her are all about his never-ending frustration. Morrison marvels with his chaotic, closeted inner monologue. As Louise, Mohseni delivers balcony-reaching reactions that hit perfect notes within this irreverent and campy style. And Taylor’s turn as the tempestuous teacher is all riot, bounding all over the stage while leading with his booty. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Thunderfuck’s co-stars tee her up early and often, while being superb in their own right. Mary’s husband and his rough-and-tumble bouts with her are all about his never-ending frustration. Morrison marvels with his chaotic, closeted inner monologue. As Louise, Mohseni delivers balcony-reaching reactions that hit perfect notes within this irreverent and campy style. And Taylor’s turn as the tempestuous teacher is all riot, bounding all over the stage while leading with his booty. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There are strict regulations about spoiling the ending, which shall not be done here. However, what does come in the play’s final scene is a real hoot. The denouement is not just a commitment to camp, but a love letter to the art of drag and all its magic. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>There are strict regulations about spoiling the ending, which shall not be done here. However, what does come in the play’s final scene is a real hoot. The denouement is not just a commitment to camp, but a love letter to the art of drag and all its magic. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>To borrow from Gen Z, this play and that ending are just \u003cem>stupid\u003c/em>, which is one heckuva compliment.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>To borrow from Gen Z, this play and that ending are just \u003cem>stupid\u003c/em>, which is one heckuva compliment.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Oh, Mary!’ runs through Nov. 1 at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://us.atgtickets.com/events/oh-mary/curran-theater/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23938240759&gbraid=0AAAAA9-vlNTk2Ub91rE6b0iTSiPscugu3&gclid=Cj0KCQjwlsfWBhD4ARIsACL7p1FrrhFP7_pPKMTlAKAJ-8Os5rV_vXUF8QIHvCt9AO7UdGfVULDlPCsaAj9ZEALw_wcB\">\u003cem>Tickets and more information here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Oh, Mary!’ runs through Nov. 1 at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://us.atgtickets.com/events/oh-mary/curran-theater/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23938240759&gbraid=0AAAAA9-vlNTk2Ub91rE6b0iTSiPscugu3&gclid=Cj0KCQjwlsfWBhD4ARIsACL7p1FrrhFP7_pPKMTlAKAJ-8Os5rV_vXUF8QIHvCt9AO7UdGfVULDlPCsaAj9ZEALw_wcB\">\u003cem>Tickets and more information here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "The Pulitzer-nominated musical has opened in San Francisco, with drag star Alaska as Mary Todd Lincoln.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>What’s more interesting, the Civil War or singing in a cabaret club?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For the lovely and limber Mary Todd Lincoln, it’s no contest, considering the war with the South prompts her to ask an important question: the South of what?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While at least 620,000 soldiers died in a conflict that still carries ramifications for the United States today, Mary isn’t thinking about that history and legacy mumbo jumbo. On her mind is much more critical business at hand, mostly involving her dream of climbing all over a piano crooning classic cabaret hits, tickling the ivories \u003cem>and\u003c/em> the audience.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/MichaelLeporeandJohn-AndrewMorrisoninOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-cb3fd56c.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994803\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/MichaelLeporeandJohn-AndrewMorrisoninOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-cb3fd56c.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/MichaelLeporeandJohn-AndrewMorrisoninOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-cb3fd56c-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/MichaelLeporeandJohn-AndrewMorrisoninOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-cb3fd56c-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/MichaelLeporeandJohn-AndrewMorrisoninOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-cb3fd56c-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Michael Lepore and John-Andrew Morrison in ‘Oh, Mary!’ (Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>In ATG San Francisco’s production of Cole Escola’s \u003cem>Oh, Mary! \u003c/em>at the Curran Theatre, chaos and conflict rule the day, and secrets are revealed in wild, wacky ways. It’s a show clearly not for everyone, with some seriously low-hanging fruit that the audience can snatch up immediately. Yet the play, a 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Drama finalist, is mighty bold and wonderfully irreverent, following a fictional, highly inaccurate version of the first lady in the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mary (Alaska Thunderfuck) is more than bored. She’s living a suffocating and banal life while spending way too much time with some guy named Jack Daniels, prancing all over the house in a gargantuan black hoop dress and curls that scream bratty (and a strange, perfectly coiffed bun that’s the centerpiece of her hair game). Her frustration with her top-hat hubby (John-Andrew Morrison) is that he just can’t lay off this Civil War stuff for an evening to ravage her with steamy passion. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Turns out the Civil War is kind of important, and since Mary yearns for a stage, her husband decides to pay for acting lessons with a wonderful but maybe not-so-talented teacher (Wesley Taylor). While Mary is distracted, things get steamy in secret between her husband and his assistant (Michael Lepore).\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994802\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/PooyaMohseniandAlaskaThunderfuckinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-9d644c33-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pooya Mohseni and Alaska Thunderfuck in ‘Oh, Mary!’ (Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Does the husband want Mary to become the next Dame Ellen Terry? That would be a hard no, considering he could care less about what she does, as long as it’s far away from him. Acting lessons, though, are a dissatisfying consolation prize for what Mary truly wants: a return as a singular sensation in cabaret, the greatest art form known to civilization. After all, theater is where cabaret stars go to die. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are a few others who catch strays from Mary’s razor-sharp tongue. Her chaperone Louise (Pooya Mohseni) has one job and even fails at that. The play’s pace is outstanding within its tight run time of 75 minutes. Sam Pinkleton’s direction lands each closing scene with sharpness, providing the audience ample opportunities to cackle in the dark. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>These opportunities are built around Thunderfuck’s scintillating set of skills, a star vehicle that Escola himself crushed in my 2024 Broadway viewing. The role hinges on the performer’s nuance. For Thunderfuck, it’s the pensive teeth-sucking and dropping perfectly timed one-liners as Mary processes her new reality in each discovered moment. Notice the quick thinking when Mary realizes she doesn’t have her handy Shakespeare script and hilariously improvises the nurse in \u003cem>Romeo and Juliet\u003c/em> at a critical audition. This new nurse is less Shakespearean and more like a Dickensian villain. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thunderfuck possesses an uncanny ability to move through space with sleek sheen and maximum slitherance. Her physical prowess as a highly regarded drag star, in complete control of her body and its every gesture, is a constant delight.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thunderfuck’s co-stars tee her up early and often, while being superb in their own right. Mary’s husband and his rough-and-tumble bouts with her are all about his never-ending frustration. Morrison marvels with his chaotic, closeted inner monologue. As Louise, Mohseni delivers balcony-reaching reactions that hit perfect notes within this irreverent and campy style. And Taylor’s turn as the tempestuous teacher is all riot, bounding all over the stage while leading with his booty. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/AlaskaThunderfuckandWesleyTaylorinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-a1ef18fa.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994805\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/AlaskaThunderfuckandWesleyTaylorinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-a1ef18fa.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/AlaskaThunderfuckandWesleyTaylorinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-a1ef18fa-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/AlaskaThunderfuckandWesleyTaylorinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-a1ef18fa-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/AlaskaThunderfuckandWesleyTaylorinOHMARYFirstNationalTour_photobyEvanZimmermanforMurphyMade-a1ef18fa-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Alaska Thunderfuck and Wesley Taylor in ‘Oh, Mary!’ (Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>There are strict regulations about spoiling the ending, which shall not be done here. However, what does come in the play’s final scene is a real hoot. The denouement is not just a commitment to camp, but a love letter to the art of drag and all its magic. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To borrow from Gen Z, this play and that ending are just \u003cem>stupid\u003c/em>, which is one heckuva compliment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Oh, Mary!’ runs through Nov. 1 at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://us.atgtickets.com/events/oh-mary/curran-theater/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23938240759&gbraid=0AAAAA9-vlNTk2Ub91rE6b0iTSiPscugu3&gclid=Cj0KCQjwlsfWBhD4ARIsACL7p1FrrhFP7_pPKMTlAKAJ-8Os5rV_vXUF8QIHvCt9AO7UdGfVULDlPCsaAj9ZEALw_wcB\">\u003cem>Tickets and more information here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "every-saturday-night-fillmore-district-sfbatco-review",
"title": "‘Every Saturday Night’ Captures a Fight for the Fillmore’s Soul",
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"headTitle": "‘Every Saturday Night’ Captures a Fight for the Fillmore’s Soul | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>Every Saturday Night\u003c/em>, a world-premiere musical that opened Thursday in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>, a single mother living in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/fillmore\">Fillmore District\u003c/a> opens her old Victorian home to the Black community each week to keep the party going well after the clubs close. It’s the story of a time when the Fillmore was filled with jazz music, prosperous businesses and community.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Today, after so-called urban renewal in the 1970s decimated the cultural fabric of the neighborhood, and various attempts to recapture its “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957757/why-san-franciscos-fillmore-district-is-no-longer-the-harlem-of-the-west\">Harlem of the West\u003c/a>” vibrancy, that same area tells a very different story. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1667\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-29-1e9387ec.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994799\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-29-1e9387ec.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-29-1e9387ec-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-29-1e9387ec-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-29-1e9387ec-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-29-1e9387ec-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-29-1e9387ec-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Donte (Darryl V. Jones), left, tells Adarè (Trevor Miller) about growing up in the Fillmore in SFBATCO’s ‘Every Saturday Night.’ (Alexa LexMex Treviño)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Cowritten by Michael Gene Sullivan and Danny Duncan and produced by SFBATCO, \u003cem>Every Saturday Night\u003c/em> casts the Fillmore itself as the show’s main character. Donte Coleman (Darryl V. Jones), tells stories of his childhood in the Fillmore to the teenage son of a new family looking to buy his home and move in. Having learned the history of the neighborhood, the family is shocked to see that it’s not what they expected. Samuel (Jon-David Randle), the new homebuyer, puts it plainly: “There aren’t as many Black people as I thought there would be.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Across its 70-year timeline, from the 1950s to present day, the script is constant in its message, if a little hard to follow at times. The production comes alive when it reenacts the different parties hosted by Donte’s mother Ardella (Cathleen Riddley), providing a “nice place where colored folks can rest” at the end of a busy work week. Between these lively parties with loud jazz and busy dance numbers (with music by Othello Jefferson and choreography by the director, AeJay Antonis Marquis), there’s also a fight to save the district from encroaching redevelopment, and to protect Black residents from the removal that its Japanese residents had faced a few years earlier. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1667\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-82-d59f5932.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-82-d59f5932.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-82-d59f5932-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-82-d59f5932-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-82-d59f5932-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-82-d59f5932-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-82-d59f5932-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Doris (Imri Tate) speaks out against urban renewal and the displacement of the Fillmore’s Black community in SFBATCO’s ‘Every Saturday Night.’ (Alexa LexMex Treviño)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Doris (Imri M. Tate) is crusader for this cause, and convinces Ardella to join her. (“I don’t want to be moved out of my home because somebody wants to bleach the Fillmoe like a damn shirt,” Doris says.) In the original song “For the Greater Good of the Neighborhood,” Doris pleads for Ardella to keep her home, and the audience gets immersed into an anti-redevelopment protest. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Back to the present day, as Donte bonds with the new family’s teenage son, Adarè (Trevor Miller), similar efforts are underway. A “Western Addition Heritage Association” knocks on the door trying to purchase and flip the house, under the guise of keeping it in the community. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1667\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-51-44c859bd.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994801\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-51-44c859bd.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-51-44c859bd-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-51-44c859bd-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-51-44c859bd-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-51-44c859bd-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-51-44c859bd-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Young Donte (Jacob Henrie-Naffaa), center, and others dance the night away at Ardella’s after-hours joint in SFBATCO’s ‘Every Saturday Night.’ (Alexa LexMex Treviño)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>San Francisco is an ever-changing city, for better or for worse. In \u003cem>Every Saturday Night\u003c/em>, emotional and comedic performances bring the city’s history into the present day. “There’s still efforts to disappear and erase the Fillmoe,” Marquis said during a pre-show discussion on opening night. “We are trying to keep it alive.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Every Saturday Night’ runs through Nov. 1 at The Strand (1127 Market St., San Francisco). \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.act-sf.org/whats-on/activate/every-saturday-night\">\u003cem>Tickets and more information here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>San Francisco is an ever-changing city, for better or for worse. In \u003cem>Every Saturday Night\u003c/em>, emotional and comedic performances bring the city’s history into the present day. “There’s still efforts to disappear and erase the Fillmoe,” Marquis said during a pre-show discussion on opening night. “We are trying to keep it alive.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Every Saturday Night’ runs through Nov. 1 at The Strand (1127 Market St., San Francisco). \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.act-sf.org/whats-on/activate/every-saturday-night\">\u003cem>Tickets and more information here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Every Saturday Night’ runs through Nov. 1 at The Strand (1127 Market St., San Francisco). \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.act-sf.org/whats-on/activate/every-saturday-night\">\u003cem>Tickets and more information here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"title": "Review: ‘Every Saturday Night’ Captures a Fight for the Fillmore’s Soul | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>Every Saturday Night\u003c/em>, a world-premiere musical that opened Thursday in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>, a single mother living in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/fillmore\">Fillmore District\u003c/a> opens her old Victorian home to the Black community each week to keep the party going well after the clubs close. It’s the story of a time when the Fillmore was filled with jazz music, prosperous businesses and community.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Today, after so-called urban renewal in the 1970s decimated the cultural fabric of the neighborhood, and various attempts to recapture its “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957757/why-san-franciscos-fillmore-district-is-no-longer-the-harlem-of-the-west\">Harlem of the West\u003c/a>” vibrancy, that same area tells a very different story. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1667\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-29-1e9387ec.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994799\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-29-1e9387ec.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-29-1e9387ec-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-29-1e9387ec-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-29-1e9387ec-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-29-1e9387ec-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-29-1e9387ec-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Donte (Darryl V. Jones), left, tells Adarè (Trevor Miller) about growing up in the Fillmore in SFBATCO’s ‘Every Saturday Night.’ (Alexa LexMex Treviño)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Cowritten by Michael Gene Sullivan and Danny Duncan and produced by SFBATCO, \u003cem>Every Saturday Night\u003c/em> casts the Fillmore itself as the show’s main character. Donte Coleman (Darryl V. Jones), tells stories of his childhood in the Fillmore to the teenage son of a new family looking to buy his home and move in. Having learned the history of the neighborhood, the family is shocked to see that it’s not what they expected. Samuel (Jon-David Randle), the new homebuyer, puts it plainly: “There aren’t as many Black people as I thought there would be.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Across its 70-year timeline, from the 1950s to present day, the script is constant in its message, if a little hard to follow at times. The production comes alive when it reenacts the different parties hosted by Donte’s mother Ardella (Cathleen Riddley), providing a “nice place where colored folks can rest” at the end of a busy work week. Between these lively parties with loud jazz and busy dance numbers (with music by Othello Jefferson and choreography by the director, AeJay Antonis Marquis), there’s also a fight to save the district from encroaching redevelopment, and to protect Black residents from the removal that its Japanese residents had faced a few years earlier. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1667\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-82-d59f5932.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-82-d59f5932.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-82-d59f5932-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-82-d59f5932-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-82-d59f5932-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-82-d59f5932-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-82-d59f5932-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Doris (Imri Tate) speaks out against urban renewal and the displacement of the Fillmore’s Black community in SFBATCO’s ‘Every Saturday Night.’ (Alexa LexMex Treviño)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Doris (Imri M. Tate) is crusader for this cause, and convinces Ardella to join her. (“I don’t want to be moved out of my home because somebody wants to bleach the Fillmoe like a damn shirt,” Doris says.) In the original song “For the Greater Good of the Neighborhood,” Doris pleads for Ardella to keep her home, and the audience gets immersed into an anti-redevelopment protest. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Back to the present day, as Donte bonds with the new family’s teenage son, Adarè (Trevor Miller), similar efforts are underway. A “Western Addition Heritage Association” knocks on the door trying to purchase and flip the house, under the guise of keeping it in the community. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2500\" height=\"1667\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-51-44c859bd.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994801\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-51-44c859bd.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-51-44c859bd-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-51-44c859bd-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-51-44c859bd-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-51-44c859bd-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/EverySaturdayNightcAlexaLexMexTreviño-51-44c859bd-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Young Donte (Jacob Henrie-Naffaa), center, and others dance the night away at Ardella’s after-hours joint in SFBATCO’s ‘Every Saturday Night.’ (Alexa LexMex Treviño)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>San Francisco is an ever-changing city, for better or for worse. In \u003cem>Every Saturday Night\u003c/em>, emotional and comedic performances bring the city’s history into the present day. “There’s still efforts to disappear and erase the Fillmoe,” Marquis said during a pre-show discussion on opening night. “We are trying to keep it alive.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Every Saturday Night’ runs through Nov. 1 at The Strand (1127 Market St., San Francisco). \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.act-sf.org/whats-on/activate/every-saturday-night\">\u003cem>Tickets and more information here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "oakland-public-conservatory-music-20-year-anniversary",
"title": "For 20 Years, Threads of Black American Music Have Converged Here",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>It’s Halloween season, when some people dress up like skeletons, ghosts or witches. But when picking her costume, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13930747/liner-notes-dr-angela-wellman-and-music-of-the-highest-order\">Dr. Angela Wellman\u003c/a> isn’t like most people. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I could be Angélique Kidjo,” says the founder and CEO of the \u003ca href=\"https://opcclasses.squarespace.com/\">Oakland Public Conservatory of Music\u003c/a> (OPC). “Or I could be Abbey Lincoln.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wellman’s music center in downtown \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> is gearing up for for a 20th anniversary gala on Oct. 24, with awards, multiple floors of entertainment, rooms in full decor and sounds from around the world. Attendees have been asked to dress up as their favorite musicians, and Wellman’s still deciding what to wear. (Tracking down an “\u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=abbey+lincoln+hats&sca_esv=074237d04407bddc&udm=2&biw=1405&bih=717&sxsrf=APpeQnsdo3k2M5ubMKQz8MU8iZQaITZwng%3A1791916550740&ei=BnrOatjSLMqNm9cP3OaWyAM&ved=2ahUKEwjY7eSr0beXAxXKxuYEHVyzBTkQ4dUDegQIBhAN&uact=5&oq=abbey+lincoln+hats&gs_lp=Egtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZyISYWJiZXkgbGluY29sbiBoYXRzSLcEUABYAHABeACQAQCYAQCgAQCqAQC4AQPIAQCYAgCgAgCYAwCIBgGSBwCgBwCyBwC4BwDCBwDIBwCACAE&sclient=gws-wiz-img\">Abbey Lincoln hat\u003c/a>” could be the deciding factor).\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She knows one thing, though: while fun, the costume invitation is also an extension of OPC’s ethos.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1706\" height=\"2560\" data-id=\"13994406\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Dr.-Angela-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994406\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Dr.-Angela-scaled.jpeg 1706w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Dr.-Angela-160x240.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Dr.-Angela-768x1152.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Dr.-Angela-1024x1536.jpeg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Dr.-Angela-1365x2048.jpeg 1365w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1706px) 100vw, 1706px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dr. Angela Wellman, founder and CEO of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music. (Courtesy Angela Wellman)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"809\" height=\"794\" data-id=\"13930819\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/AMW-bone-down.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Angela Wellman looks directly into the camera as she plays her trombone.\" class=\"wp-image-13930819\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/AMW-bone-down.jpg 809w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/AMW-bone-down-800x785.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/AMW-bone-down-160x157.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/AMW-bone-down-768x754.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 809px) 100vw, 809px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dr. Angela Wellman plays her trombone. (Via Dr. Angela Wellman)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s really about lifting up the legacy of our music,” says Wellman, “particularly Black music that was created post-Atlantic slave trade.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Dressing as an artist who influenced you, Wellman tells me, is an opportunity to reflect on how “the people that make the music really matter in our lives.” That includes those in the ancestral realm as well as “somebody who you’re rocking with right now.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Giving proper respect to “the now” is a core tenet for the OPC, which offers workshops and classes for growing musicians. The organization regularly invites established artists passing through the Bay Area to perform at their facility and speak to the students. Those interactions provide the students with an “understanding of whose shoulders they’re standing on,” says Wellman.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Often these visits are interactive. Acclaimed trumpeter \u003ca href=\"https://www.etiennecharles.com/home\">Etienne Charles\u003c/a>’ visit started with a workshop in the main studio, and then spilled out into the street as the students joined Charles in a New Orleans-style parade, with everyone playing. “We did a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13830289/jubilation-fills-the-streets-on-new-orleans-second-line\">second line\u003c/a> down the street,” Wellman says.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1632\" height=\"1224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Turre.Wellman-244716ee.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994717\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Turre.Wellman-244716ee.jpg 1632w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Turre.Wellman-244716ee-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Turre.Wellman-244716ee-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Turre.Wellman-244716ee-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1632px) 100vw, 1632px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dr. Angela Wellman and Steve Turre, center, pose with students at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music’s 10th’s anniversary gala. (Courtesy OPC)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Past guests include jazz vocalist \u003ca href=\"https://www.melaniecharles.com/\">Melanie Charles\u003c/a>, Afro-Peruvian artist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cotitomedrano/?hl=en\">Juan Medrano Cotito\u003c/a>, Golden State Warriors DJ and hip-hop producer \u003ca href=\"https://djdsharp.co/\">DJ D Sharp\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Special guests for the 20th anniversary include trombonist \u003ca href=\"http://steveturre.com\">Steve Turre\u003c/a>, a longtime member of the Saturday Night Live Band, and classical composer \u003ca href=\"https://marydwatkins.com/\">Mary Watkins\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Watkins, 87, is an unsung hero, Wellman attests. Watkins has composed three operas, four solo albums and scores for over 20 films and TV shows (including KQED’s \u003cem>Different Colors\u003c/em>). The former music director for San Francisco’s Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Watkins’ work has been presented locally at the Oakland Opera Theater, and nationally at venues like the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institute.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“She’s a prolific composer and pianist,” Wellman says of Watkins, “so we’re giving her a lifetime achievement award.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Steve Turre will also be honored at OPC’s event.\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7FYSVmrzOY\"> A sacred seashell instrumentalist\u003c/a> in addition to being a renowned trombonist, Turre will perform alongside some star alums of OPC, including trombonist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jasimperales/?hl=en\">Jasim Perales\u003c/a>, bassist \u003ca href=\"https://www.aminascott.com/\">Amina Scott\u003c/a> and drummer \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ayindewebb/\">Ayinde Webb\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Now they’re out there in the world,” Wellman says of the graduates, “doing what we supply the space to train young people to do.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The anniversary event will also be a chance to ruminate on the larger context of Black music in this country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“When I think about the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music,” says Wellman, “I think of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/07/04/nx-s1-5779591/how-enslaved-traditions-in-new-orleans-congo-square-shaped-american-music-global-sound\">Congo Square\u003c/a>.” The site in New Orleans where the music that most people call “jazz” originated was a place for people of the African diaspora to commune, enjoy music and tap into the spirit, says Wellman. “As each group practiced, there was this cacophony of rich sounds and polyrhythms.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Expect OPC’s 20th anniversary event to tap into that same spirit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Oakland Public Conservatory of Music’s 20th Anniversary and Gala takes place Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Oakland Science Academy (1515 Webster St., Oakland). \u003ca href=\"https://givebutter.com/c/opc20th\">Tickets and more information here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s Halloween season, when some people dress up like skeletons, ghosts or witches. But when picking her costume, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13930747/liner-notes-dr-angela-wellman-and-music-of-the-highest-order\">Dr. Angela Wellman\u003c/a> isn’t like most people. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I could be Angélique Kidjo,” says the founder and CEO of the \u003ca href=\"https://opcclasses.squarespace.com/\">Oakland Public Conservatory of Music\u003c/a> (OPC). “Or I could be Abbey Lincoln.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Wellman’s music center in downtown \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> is gearing up for for a 20th anniversary gala on Oct. 24, with awards, multiple floors of entertainment, rooms in full decor and sounds from around the world. Attendees have been asked to dress up as their favorite musicians, and Wellman’s still deciding what to wear. (Tracking down an “\u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=abbey+lincoln+hats&sca_esv=074237d04407bddc&udm=2&biw=1405&bih=717&sxsrf=APpeQnsdo3k2M5ubMKQz8MU8iZQaITZwng%3A1791916550740&ei=BnrOatjSLMqNm9cP3OaWyAM&ved=2ahUKEwjY7eSr0beXAxXKxuYEHVyzBTkQ4dUDegQIBhAN&uact=5&oq=abbey+lincoln+hats&gs_lp=Egtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZyISYWJiZXkgbGluY29sbiBoYXRzSLcEUABYAHABeACQAQCYAQCgAQCqAQC4AQPIAQCYAgCgAgCYAwCIBgGSBwCgBwCyBwC4BwDCBwDIBwCACAE&sclient=gws-wiz-img\">Abbey Lincoln hat\u003c/a>” could be the deciding factor).\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Wellman’s music center in downtown \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> is gearing up for for a 20th anniversary gala on Oct. 24, with awards, multiple floors of entertainment, rooms in full decor and sounds from around the world. Attendees have been asked to dress up as their favorite musicians, and Wellman’s still deciding what to wear. (Tracking down an “\u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=abbey+lincoln+hats&sca_esv=074237d04407bddc&udm=2&biw=1405&bih=717&sxsrf=APpeQnsdo3k2M5ubMKQz8MU8iZQaITZwng%3A1791916550740&ei=BnrOatjSLMqNm9cP3OaWyAM&ved=2ahUKEwjY7eSr0beXAxXKxuYEHVyzBTkQ4dUDegQIBhAN&uact=5&oq=abbey+lincoln+hats&gs_lp=Egtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZyISYWJiZXkgbGluY29sbiBoYXRzSLcEUABYAHABeACQAQCYAQCgAQCqAQC4AQPIAQCYAgCgAgCYAwCIBgGSBwCgBwCyBwC4BwDCBwDIBwCACAE&sclient=gws-wiz-img\">Abbey Lincoln hat\u003c/a>” could be the deciding factor).\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She knows one thing, though: while fun, the costume invitation is also an extension of OPC’s ethos.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Dr.-Angela-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994406\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dr. Angela Wellman, founder and CEO of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It’s really about lifting up the legacy of our music,” says Wellman, “particularly Black music that was created post-Atlantic slave trade.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Dressing as an artist who influenced you, Wellman tells me, is an opportunity to reflect on how “the people that make the music really matter in our lives.” That includes those in the ancestral realm as well as “somebody who you’re rocking with right now.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Giving proper respect to “the now” is a core tenet for the OPC, which offers workshops and classes for growing musicians. The organization regularly invites established artists passing through the Bay Area to perform at their facility and speak to the students. Those interactions provide the students with an “understanding of whose shoulders they’re standing on,” says Wellman.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Often these visits are interactive. Acclaimed trumpeter \u003ca href=\"https://www.etiennecharles.com/home\">Etienne Charles\u003c/a>’ visit started with a workshop in the main studio, and then spilled out into the street as the students joined Charles in a New Orleans-style parade, with everyone playing. “We did a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13830289/jubilation-fills-the-streets-on-new-orleans-second-line\">second line\u003c/a> down the street,” Wellman says.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Often these visits are interactive. Acclaimed trumpeter \u003ca href=\"https://www.etiennecharles.com/home\">Etienne Charles\u003c/a>’ visit started with a workshop in the main studio, and then spilled out into the street as the students joined Charles in a New Orleans-style parade, with everyone playing. “We did a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13830289/jubilation-fills-the-streets-on-new-orleans-second-line\">second line\u003c/a> down the street,” Wellman says.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Past guests include jazz vocalist \u003ca href=\"https://www.melaniecharles.com/\">Melanie Charles\u003c/a>, Afro-Peruvian artist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cotitomedrano/?hl=en\">Juan Medrano Cotito\u003c/a>, Golden State Warriors DJ and hip-hop producer \u003ca href=\"https://djdsharp.co/\">DJ D Sharp\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Special guests for the 20th anniversary include trombonist \u003ca href=\"http://steveturre.com\">Steve Turre\u003c/a>, a longtime member of the Saturday Night Live Band, and classical composer \u003ca href=\"https://marydwatkins.com/\">Mary Watkins\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Watkins, 87, is an unsung hero, Wellman attests. Watkins has composed three operas, four solo albums and scores for over 20 films and TV shows (including KQED’s \u003cem>Different Colors\u003c/em>). The former music director for San Francisco’s Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Watkins’ work has been presented locally at the Oakland Opera Theater, and nationally at venues like the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institute.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Steve Turre will also be honored at OPC’s event.\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7FYSVmrzOY\"> A sacred seashell instrumentalist\u003c/a> in addition to being a renowned trombonist, Turre will perform alongside some star alums of OPC, including trombonist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jasimperales/?hl=en\">Jasim Perales\u003c/a>, bassist \u003ca href=\"https://www.aminascott.com/\">Amina Scott\u003c/a> and drummer \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ayindewebb/\">Ayinde Webb\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Now they’re out there in the world,” Wellman says of the graduates, “doing what we supply the space to train young people to do.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“When I think about the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music,” says Wellman, “I think of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/07/04/nx-s1-5779591/how-enslaved-traditions-in-new-orleans-congo-square-shaped-american-music-global-sound\">Congo Square\u003c/a>.” The site in New Orleans where the music that most people call “jazz” originated was a place for people of the African diaspora to commune, enjoy music and tap into the spirit, says Wellman. “As each group practiced, there was this cacophony of rich sounds and polyrhythms.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Oakland Public Conservatory of Music’s 20th Anniversary and Gala takes place Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Oakland Science Academy (1515 Webster St., Oakland). \u003ca href=\"https://givebutter.com/c/opc20th\">Tickets and more information here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>It’s Halloween season, when some people dress up like skeletons, ghosts or witches. But when picking her costume, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13930747/liner-notes-dr-angela-wellman-and-music-of-the-highest-order\">Dr. Angela Wellman\u003c/a> isn’t like most people. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I could be Angélique Kidjo,” says the founder and CEO of the \u003ca href=\"https://opcclasses.squarespace.com/\">Oakland Public Conservatory of Music\u003c/a> (OPC). “Or I could be Abbey Lincoln.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wellman’s music center in downtown \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> is gearing up for for a 20th anniversary gala on Oct. 24, with awards, multiple floors of entertainment, rooms in full decor and sounds from around the world. Attendees have been asked to dress up as their favorite musicians, and Wellman’s still deciding what to wear. (Tracking down an “\u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=abbey+lincoln+hats&sca_esv=074237d04407bddc&udm=2&biw=1405&bih=717&sxsrf=APpeQnsdo3k2M5ubMKQz8MU8iZQaITZwng%3A1791916550740&ei=BnrOatjSLMqNm9cP3OaWyAM&ved=2ahUKEwjY7eSr0beXAxXKxuYEHVyzBTkQ4dUDegQIBhAN&uact=5&oq=abbey+lincoln+hats&gs_lp=Egtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZyISYWJiZXkgbGluY29sbiBoYXRzSLcEUABYAHABeACQAQCYAQCgAQCqAQC4AQPIAQCYAgCgAgCYAwCIBgGSBwCgBwCyBwC4BwDCBwDIBwCACAE&sclient=gws-wiz-img\">Abbey Lincoln hat\u003c/a>” could be the deciding factor).\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She knows one thing, though: while fun, the costume invitation is also an extension of OPC’s ethos.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1706\" height=\"2560\" data-id=\"13994406\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Dr.-Angela-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994406\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Dr.-Angela-scaled.jpeg 1706w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Dr.-Angela-160x240.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Dr.-Angela-768x1152.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Dr.-Angela-1024x1536.jpeg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Dr.-Angela-1365x2048.jpeg 1365w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1706px) 100vw, 1706px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dr. Angela Wellman, founder and CEO of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music. (Courtesy Angela Wellman)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"809\" height=\"794\" data-id=\"13930819\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/AMW-bone-down.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Angela Wellman looks directly into the camera as she plays her trombone.\" class=\"wp-image-13930819\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/AMW-bone-down.jpg 809w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/AMW-bone-down-800x785.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/AMW-bone-down-160x157.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/AMW-bone-down-768x754.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 809px) 100vw, 809px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dr. Angela Wellman plays her trombone. (Via Dr. Angela Wellman)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s really about lifting up the legacy of our music,” says Wellman, “particularly Black music that was created post-Atlantic slave trade.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Dressing as an artist who influenced you, Wellman tells me, is an opportunity to reflect on how “the people that make the music really matter in our lives.” That includes those in the ancestral realm as well as “somebody who you’re rocking with right now.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Giving proper respect to “the now” is a core tenet for the OPC, which offers workshops and classes for growing musicians. The organization regularly invites established artists passing through the Bay Area to perform at their facility and speak to the students. Those interactions provide the students with an “understanding of whose shoulders they’re standing on,” says Wellman.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Often these visits are interactive. Acclaimed trumpeter \u003ca href=\"https://www.etiennecharles.com/home\">Etienne Charles\u003c/a>’ visit started with a workshop in the main studio, and then spilled out into the street as the students joined Charles in a New Orleans-style parade, with everyone playing. “We did a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13830289/jubilation-fills-the-streets-on-new-orleans-second-line\">second line\u003c/a> down the street,” Wellman says.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1632\" height=\"1224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Turre.Wellman-244716ee.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994717\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Turre.Wellman-244716ee.jpg 1632w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Turre.Wellman-244716ee-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Turre.Wellman-244716ee-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Turre.Wellman-244716ee-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1632px) 100vw, 1632px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dr. Angela Wellman and Steve Turre, center, pose with students at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music’s 10th’s anniversary gala. (Courtesy OPC)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Past guests include jazz vocalist \u003ca href=\"https://www.melaniecharles.com/\">Melanie Charles\u003c/a>, Afro-Peruvian artist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cotitomedrano/?hl=en\">Juan Medrano Cotito\u003c/a>, Golden State Warriors DJ and hip-hop producer \u003ca href=\"https://djdsharp.co/\">DJ D Sharp\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Special guests for the 20th anniversary include trombonist \u003ca href=\"http://steveturre.com\">Steve Turre\u003c/a>, a longtime member of the Saturday Night Live Band, and classical composer \u003ca href=\"https://marydwatkins.com/\">Mary Watkins\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Watkins, 87, is an unsung hero, Wellman attests. Watkins has composed three operas, four solo albums and scores for over 20 films and TV shows (including KQED’s \u003cem>Different Colors\u003c/em>). The former music director for San Francisco’s Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Watkins’ work has been presented locally at the Oakland Opera Theater, and nationally at venues like the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institute.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“She’s a prolific composer and pianist,” Wellman says of Watkins, “so we’re giving her a lifetime achievement award.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Steve Turre will also be honored at OPC’s event.\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7FYSVmrzOY\"> A sacred seashell instrumentalist\u003c/a> in addition to being a renowned trombonist, Turre will perform alongside some star alums of OPC, including trombonist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/jasimperales/?hl=en\">Jasim Perales\u003c/a>, bassist \u003ca href=\"https://www.aminascott.com/\">Amina Scott\u003c/a> and drummer \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ayindewebb/\">Ayinde Webb\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Now they’re out there in the world,” Wellman says of the graduates, “doing what we supply the space to train young people to do.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The anniversary event will also be a chance to ruminate on the larger context of Black music in this country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“When I think about the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music,” says Wellman, “I think of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2026/07/04/nx-s1-5779591/how-enslaved-traditions-in-new-orleans-congo-square-shaped-american-music-global-sound\">Congo Square\u003c/a>.” The site in New Orleans where the music that most people call “jazz” originated was a place for people of the African diaspora to commune, enjoy music and tap into the spirit, says Wellman. “As each group practiced, there was this cacophony of rich sounds and polyrhythms.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Expect OPC’s 20th anniversary event to tap into that same spirit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Oakland Public Conservatory of Music’s 20th Anniversary and Gala takes place Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Oakland Science Academy (1515 Webster St., Oakland). \u003ca href=\"https://givebutter.com/c/opc20th\">Tickets and more information here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "streetlight-gallery-black-art-home-oakland",
"title": "Making Their House Into a Home Full of Black Art",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>Living rooms are often filled with family mementos, shelves full of books, or maybe a TV, turned on as background noise for rowdy conversations.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the walls inside the East Oakland home of Nyallah Muntaqim and Musa Bey are filled with art. On a recent visit, as Muntaqim sits on the green couch, a white painted hammer nearby looks as if it were smashed into the wall, with roots growing from it, by Antioch artist Tunmi da Silva.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Muntaqim and Bey, wife and husband, cofounded Streetlight Gallery in 2025, during San Francisco’s second annual \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13965269/the-bay-areas-first-ever-black-art-week-is-coming\">Black Art Week\u003c/a>. The choice to use their home came from example: as a child in the Bay Area in the early 2000s, Muntaquim would often attend art exhibits inside people’s homes, seeing Black art sold to Black people in a direct, communal way. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I would be remiss to not call on that history and inspiration,” she says today. As a young visitor to these spaces, Muntaqim had “one of those bucket-list dreams where it’s like, ‘One day, I want to own a gallery.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994620\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Marie-Jose Njoku Obi’s artwork ‘Untitled (The Window)’ on display as a part of ‘A Call Home: Bay to LA’ at Streetlight Gallery in Oakland on Oct. 8, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Once she and Bey realized it would be possible in their own house, they decided to develop the space as a hub for Black artists. The reasoning was simple: “I’ve seen art change people’s lives, at every point in my life,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Art has certainly changed Muntaqim’s life. She dove into visual art when her therapist suggested it as a way to mitigate the pressures of her job as a housing placement case manager. She started by learning skills from a muralist friend, and devoted her post-work hours to watercolor paintings and charcoal drawings.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The combination of Muntaqim’s art practice with her strong organizing background brought Streetlight Gallery to life. She thinks back to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13921254/introducing-tales-of-the-town-by-hella-black-podcast\">\u003cem>Tales of The Town\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, the 2022 photobook, film and album from the creators of the Hella Black Podcast, which brought different communities of Oakland together to recall parts of the city that raised them. It reinforced the idea that art makes the biggest impact when it’s coming from a communal lens.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-11-KQED-6e3caea5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994619\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-11-KQED-6e3caea5.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-11-KQED-6e3caea5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-11-KQED-6e3caea5-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-11-KQED-6e3caea5-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Willie Thomas’s poem over cyanotype on display as a part of ‘A Call Home: Bay to LA’ at Streetlight Gallery in Oakland on Oct. 8, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I realized how important it is for Black folks here in the United States, but also the diaspora, to create work that is inherently political,” she says. “But what does it mean for us to be intentionally political in our work, and our choices, and what we do?” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This question framed the ethos of Streetlight Gallery. The gallery’s first show was titled \u003cem>A Call Home\u003c/em>, and showcased work by Black artists throughout the Bay who use home as a foundational theme in their work, like Dartaiane Beamon, Asari Aibangbee, Thai Hill, Chidera Nwadike and others. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thai year, Streetlight has mounted a second edition of \u003cem>A Call Home\u003c/em>, addressing the cyclical relationship between the Bay Area and Los Angeles. The six artists whose work is on view are either from the Bay and based in Los Angeles, or from Los Angeles based in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"13994627\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-33-KQED-70904865.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994627\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-33-KQED-70904865.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-33-KQED-70904865-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-33-KQED-70904865-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-33-KQED-70904865-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Nyallah Muntaqim, co-founder of Streetlight Gallery in Oakland, on Oct. 8, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"13994626\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-32-KQED-c67ee63d.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994626\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-32-KQED-c67ee63d.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-32-KQED-c67ee63d-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-32-KQED-c67ee63d-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-32-KQED-c67ee63d-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Musa Bey, co-founder of Streetlight Gallery in Oakland, on Oct. 8, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tunmi da Silva’s work in the exhibition shows her connection to the Bay Area through her Nigerian family, and putting her work in Streetlight Gallery specifically means a call to home. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We need spaces that are entrenched in our communities, that are supporting artists who come from our displaced communities. Streetlight supports artists with exhibition space, and gives us an opportunity to come back and speak to and with whoever’s in the area still,” da Silva says. “There has to be some marker, some archive of people who have existed in the city and in specific areas within the city. Showing with Streetlight just felt right.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Da Silva and the other artists in the exhibition show the depth of their experience through woodwork, textile, pottery and other mediums, with familial ties at the center. The work expresses the movement of Black art and life throughout California, and shows how the Bay and L.A. — sometimes \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodgers%E2%80%93Giants_rivalry\">rival regions\u003c/a> — rely on and influence one another. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I want people to see that the Bay Area is not just a place of exodus, high rent, Silicon Valley and tech bros,” Muntaqim says, adding that she hopes people recognize “this place of really rich cultural creative history that still exists today.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-19-KQED-09fb0e07.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994624\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-19-KQED-09fb0e07.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-19-KQED-09fb0e07-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-19-KQED-09fb0e07-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-19-KQED-09fb0e07-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Asaru Aibangbee’s wooden chair on display as a part of ‘A Call Home: Bay to LA’ at Streetlight Gallery in Oakland on Oct. 8, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Streetlight Gallery follows a tradition of Black-owned art galleries in the Bay Area, like B. Love’s Guest House, Tiffany Conway Studio, Jenkins Johnson and many others. Part of that was borne from necessity, as major spaces formally centering Black art are a relatively recent development. The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), for example, didn’t open until 2005. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As the Bay Area continues to change with each tech boom, one thing is constant. “Black creativity has always been foundational to the cultural fabric of the Bay Area,” MoAD’s executive director and CEO Monetta White says.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“Black artists have helped shape who we are as a region, and celebrating their work honors that legacy,” White adds. “It also affirms that our community is still here, still creating, and still proving that what’s made in the Bay resonates internationally.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘A Call Home: Bay to LA’ is on view through Nov. 30 at Streetlight Gallery in Oakland. Viewing is \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.streetlightgallery.org/appointments\">\u003cem>by appointment\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. More information \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc7OO1fM7vF/\">\u003cem>here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the walls inside the East Oakland home of Nyallah Muntaqim and Musa Bey are filled with art. On a recent visit, as Muntaqim sits on the green couch, a white painted hammer nearby looks as if it were smashed into the wall, with roots growing from it, by Antioch artist Tunmi da Silva.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Muntaqim and Bey, wife and husband, cofounded Streetlight Gallery in 2025, during San Francisco’s second annual \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13965269/the-bay-areas-first-ever-black-art-week-is-coming\">Black Art Week\u003c/a>. The choice to use their home came from example: as a child in the Bay Area in the early 2000s, Muntaquim would often attend art exhibits inside people’s homes, seeing Black art sold to Black people in a direct, communal way. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Muntaqim and Bey, wife and husband, cofounded Streetlight Gallery in 2025, during San Francisco’s second annual \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13965269/the-bay-areas-first-ever-black-art-week-is-coming\">Black Art Week\u003c/a>. The choice to use their home came from example: as a child in the Bay Area in the early 2000s, Muntaquim would often attend art exhibits inside people’s homes, seeing Black art sold to Black people in a direct, communal way. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I would be remiss to not call on that history and inspiration,” she says today. As a young visitor to these spaces, Muntaqim had “one of those bucket-list dreams where it’s like, ‘One day, I want to own a gallery.’”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I would be remiss to not call on that history and inspiration,” she says today. As a young visitor to these spaces, Muntaqim had “one of those bucket-list dreams where it’s like, ‘One day, I want to own a gallery.’”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994620\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Marie-Jose Njoku Obi’s artwork ‘Untitled (The Window)’ on display as a part of ‘A Call Home: Bay to LA’ at Streetlight Gallery in Oakland on Oct. 8, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Once she and Bey realized it would be possible in their own house, they decided to develop the space as a hub for Black artists. The reasoning was simple: “I’ve seen art change people’s lives, at every point in my life,” she says.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Art has certainly changed Muntaqim’s life. She dove into visual art when her therapist suggested it as a way to mitigate the pressures of her job as a housing placement case manager. She started by learning skills from a muralist friend, and devoted her post-work hours to watercolor paintings and charcoal drawings.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The combination of Muntaqim’s art practice with her strong organizing background brought Streetlight Gallery to life. She thinks back to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13921254/introducing-tales-of-the-town-by-hella-black-podcast\">\u003cem>Tales of The Town\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, the 2022 photobook, film and album from the creators of the Hella Black Podcast, which brought different communities of Oakland together to recall parts of the city that raised them. It reinforced the idea that art makes the biggest impact when it’s coming from a communal lens.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The combination of Muntaqim’s art practice with her strong organizing background brought Streetlight Gallery to life. She thinks back to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13921254/introducing-tales-of-the-town-by-hella-black-podcast\">\u003cem>Tales of The Town\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, the 2022 photobook, film and album from the creators of the Hella Black Podcast, which brought different communities of Oakland together to recall parts of the city that raised them. It reinforced the idea that art makes the biggest impact when it’s coming from a communal lens.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I realized how important it is for Black folks here in the United States, but also the diaspora, to create work that is inherently political,” she says. “But what does it mean for us to be intentionally political in our work, and our choices, and what we do?” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This question framed the ethos of Streetlight Gallery. The gallery’s first show was titled \u003cem>A Call Home\u003c/em>, and showcased work by Black artists throughout the Bay who use home as a foundational theme in their work, like Dartaiane Beamon, Asari Aibangbee, Thai Hill, Chidera Nwadike and others. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Thai year, Streetlight has mounted a second edition of \u003cem>A Call Home\u003c/em>, addressing the cyclical relationship between the Bay Area and Los Angeles. The six artists whose work is on view are either from the Bay and based in Los Angeles, or from Los Angeles based in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Tunmi da Silva’s work in the exhibition shows her connection to the Bay Area through her Nigerian family, and putting her work in Streetlight Gallery specifically means a call to home. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We need spaces that are entrenched in our communities, that are supporting artists who come from our displaced communities. Streetlight supports artists with exhibition space, and gives us an opportunity to come back and speak to and with whoever’s in the area still,” da Silva says. “There has to be some marker, some archive of people who have existed in the city and in specific areas within the city. Showing with Streetlight just felt right.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Da Silva and the other artists in the exhibition show the depth of their experience through woodwork, textile, pottery and other mediums, with familial ties at the center. The work expresses the movement of Black art and life throughout California, and shows how the Bay and L.A. — sometimes \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodgers%E2%80%93Giants_rivalry\">rival regions\u003c/a> — rely on and influence one another. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I want people to see that the Bay Area is not just a place of exodus, high rent, Silicon Valley and tech bros,” Muntaqim says, adding that she hopes people recognize “this place of really rich cultural creative history that still exists today.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Streetlight Gallery follows a tradition of Black-owned art galleries in the Bay Area, like B. Love’s Guest House, Tiffany Conway Studio, Jenkins Johnson and many others. Part of that was borne from necessity, as major spaces formally centering Black art are a relatively recent development. The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), for example, didn’t open until 2005. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As the Bay Area continues to change with each tech boom, one thing is constant. “Black creativity has always been foundational to the cultural fabric of the Bay Area,” MoAD’s executive director and CEO Monetta White says.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“Black artists have helped shape who we are as a region, and celebrating their work honors that legacy,” White adds. “It also affirms that our community is still here, still creating, and still proving that what’s made in the Bay resonates internationally.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘A Call Home: Bay to LA’ is on view through Nov. 30 at Streetlight Gallery in Oakland. Viewing is \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.streetlightgallery.org/appointments\">\u003cem>by appointment\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. More information \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc7OO1fM7vF/\">\u003cem>here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘A Call Home: Bay to LA’ is on view through Nov. 30 at Streetlight Gallery in Oakland. Viewing is \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.streetlightgallery.org/appointments\">\u003cem>by appointment\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. More information \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc7OO1fM7vF/\">\u003cem>here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Living rooms are often filled with family mementos, shelves full of books, or maybe a TV, turned on as background noise for rowdy conversations.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the walls inside the East Oakland home of Nyallah Muntaqim and Musa Bey are filled with art. On a recent visit, as Muntaqim sits on the green couch, a white painted hammer nearby looks as if it were smashed into the wall, with roots growing from it, by Antioch artist Tunmi da Silva.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Muntaqim and Bey, wife and husband, cofounded Streetlight Gallery in 2025, during San Francisco’s second annual \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13965269/the-bay-areas-first-ever-black-art-week-is-coming\">Black Art Week\u003c/a>. The choice to use their home came from example: as a child in the Bay Area in the early 2000s, Muntaquim would often attend art exhibits inside people’s homes, seeing Black art sold to Black people in a direct, communal way. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I would be remiss to not call on that history and inspiration,” she says today. As a young visitor to these spaces, Muntaqim had “one of those bucket-list dreams where it’s like, ‘One day, I want to own a gallery.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994620\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-12-KQED-1381da74-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Marie-Jose Njoku Obi’s artwork ‘Untitled (The Window)’ on display as a part of ‘A Call Home: Bay to LA’ at Streetlight Gallery in Oakland on Oct. 8, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Once she and Bey realized it would be possible in their own house, they decided to develop the space as a hub for Black artists. The reasoning was simple: “I’ve seen art change people’s lives, at every point in my life,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Art has certainly changed Muntaqim’s life. She dove into visual art when her therapist suggested it as a way to mitigate the pressures of her job as a housing placement case manager. She started by learning skills from a muralist friend, and devoted her post-work hours to watercolor paintings and charcoal drawings.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The combination of Muntaqim’s art practice with her strong organizing background brought Streetlight Gallery to life. She thinks back to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13921254/introducing-tales-of-the-town-by-hella-black-podcast\">\u003cem>Tales of The Town\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, the 2022 photobook, film and album from the creators of the Hella Black Podcast, which brought different communities of Oakland together to recall parts of the city that raised them. It reinforced the idea that art makes the biggest impact when it’s coming from a communal lens.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-11-KQED-6e3caea5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994619\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-11-KQED-6e3caea5.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-11-KQED-6e3caea5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-11-KQED-6e3caea5-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-11-KQED-6e3caea5-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Willie Thomas’s poem over cyanotype on display as a part of ‘A Call Home: Bay to LA’ at Streetlight Gallery in Oakland on Oct. 8, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I realized how important it is for Black folks here in the United States, but also the diaspora, to create work that is inherently political,” she says. “But what does it mean for us to be intentionally political in our work, and our choices, and what we do?” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This question framed the ethos of Streetlight Gallery. The gallery’s first show was titled \u003cem>A Call Home\u003c/em>, and showcased work by Black artists throughout the Bay who use home as a foundational theme in their work, like Dartaiane Beamon, Asari Aibangbee, Thai Hill, Chidera Nwadike and others. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thai year, Streetlight has mounted a second edition of \u003cem>A Call Home\u003c/em>, addressing the cyclical relationship between the Bay Area and Los Angeles. The six artists whose work is on view are either from the Bay and based in Los Angeles, or from Los Angeles based in the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"13994627\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-33-KQED-70904865.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994627\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-33-KQED-70904865.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-33-KQED-70904865-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-33-KQED-70904865-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-33-KQED-70904865-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Nyallah Muntaqim, co-founder of Streetlight Gallery in Oakland, on Oct. 8, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"13994626\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-32-KQED-c67ee63d.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994626\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-32-KQED-c67ee63d.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-32-KQED-c67ee63d-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-32-KQED-c67ee63d-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-32-KQED-c67ee63d-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Musa Bey, co-founder of Streetlight Gallery in Oakland, on Oct. 8, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tunmi da Silva’s work in the exhibition shows her connection to the Bay Area through her Nigerian family, and putting her work in Streetlight Gallery specifically means a call to home. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We need spaces that are entrenched in our communities, that are supporting artists who come from our displaced communities. Streetlight supports artists with exhibition space, and gives us an opportunity to come back and speak to and with whoever’s in the area still,” da Silva says. “There has to be some marker, some archive of people who have existed in the city and in specific areas within the city. Showing with Streetlight just felt right.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Da Silva and the other artists in the exhibition show the depth of their experience through woodwork, textile, pottery and other mediums, with familial ties at the center. The work expresses the movement of Black art and life throughout California, and shows how the Bay and L.A. — sometimes \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodgers%E2%80%93Giants_rivalry\">rival regions\u003c/a> — rely on and influence one another. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I want people to see that the Bay Area is not just a place of exodus, high rent, Silicon Valley and tech bros,” Muntaqim says, adding that she hopes people recognize “this place of really rich cultural creative history that still exists today.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-19-KQED-09fb0e07.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994624\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-19-KQED-09fb0e07.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-19-KQED-09fb0e07-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-19-KQED-09fb0e07-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/261008-STREETLIGHTGALLERY-NG-19-KQED-09fb0e07-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Asaru Aibangbee’s wooden chair on display as a part of ‘A Call Home: Bay to LA’ at Streetlight Gallery in Oakland on Oct. 8, 2026. (Nina Glick/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Streetlight Gallery follows a tradition of Black-owned art galleries in the Bay Area, like B. Love’s Guest House, Tiffany Conway Studio, Jenkins Johnson and many others. Part of that was borne from necessity, as major spaces formally centering Black art are a relatively recent development. The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), for example, didn’t open until 2005. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As the Bay Area continues to change with each tech boom, one thing is constant. “Black creativity has always been foundational to the cultural fabric of the Bay Area,” MoAD’s executive director and CEO Monetta White says.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“Black artists have helped shape who we are as a region, and celebrating their work honors that legacy,” White adds. “It also affirms that our community is still here, still creating, and still proving that what’s made in the Bay resonates internationally.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘A Call Home: Bay to LA’ is on view through Nov. 30 at Streetlight Gallery in Oakland. Viewing is \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.streetlightgallery.org/appointments\">\u003cem>by appointment\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. More information \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc7OO1fM7vF/\">\u003cem>here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Dread Scott Imagines a World Without America",
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"headTitle": "Dread Scott Imagines a World Without America | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>When I stepped inside Brooklyn-based artist Dread Scott’s latest exhibition at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/ybca\">Yerba Buena Center for the Arts\u003c/a>, I was terrified.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A man in military fatigues armed with an M4 carbine loomed in the corner, guarding an American flag hanging from a short flagpole. When I approached the man, he jerked to life and admonished me, “Halt, stand back from the perimeter. I’m defending the flag. The flag of the U.S. must be respected at all times.” It wasn’t clear when or how I had crossed some invisible boundary, only that he had the power to decide. Artists push back against state power all the time — but it isn’t every day that that role is reversed inside an art gallery.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Defending the Flag\u003c/em> is a new commission for the YBCA show \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://ybca.org/event/dread-scott-the-body-politic/\">The Body Politic\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, and it’s in direct dialogue with the artwork that put Scott on the map nearly 40 years ago, while he was still a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0421-e502d895.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994671\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0421-e502d895.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0421-e502d895-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0421-e502d895-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0421-e502d895-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dread Scott, Installation view of ‘The Body Politic’ with ‘Defending the Flag’ at right. (Matthew Millman Photography)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The 1988 installation \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dreadscott.net/portfolio_page/what-is-the-proper-way-to-display-a-us-flag/\">What Is the Proper Way to Display a US Flag?\u003c/a>\u003c/em> consisted of a flag that viewers could step on while writing their reflections of the experience in a guestbook, below a photomontage of the flag desecration. Vietnam veterans, calling themselves “defenders of the flag,” called for Scott’s death. President George Bush Sr. called the piece “disgraceful” and Congress outlawed the work. Then, in 1989, Scott was arrested for burning a U.S. flag on the steps of the Capitol for a photography project, which led to \u003ca href=\"https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/496/310/\">a landmark decision\u003c/a>, confirming citizens’ rights to desecrate the flag under the First Amendment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a 2018 \u003ca href=\"https://www.ted.com/talks/dread_scott_how_art_can_shape_america_s_conversation_about_freedom\">TED Talk\u003c/a> detailing the experience, Scott stated that he does not “accept the economic foundation, the social relations or the governing ideas of America.” That holds true today, he tells KQED, but adds that, “Long-term, I look forward to a day when people have gotten beyond America — including the foundation of capitalism America rests on.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The first piece visitors to \u003cem>The Body Politic \u003c/em>encounter hangs both outside YBCA as a vinyl banner and outside the exhibition’s main gallery. It visualizes this fantasy of a decentered United States. The 2025 screen print shows a black and green world map with America moved to the margins, overlaid with the phrase “imagine a world without America,” which also serves as the work’s title.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Scott_Imagine-a-world_2000-5345d37e.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994667\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Scott_Imagine-a-world_2000-5345d37e.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Scott_Imagine-a-world_2000-5345d37e-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Scott_Imagine-a-world_2000-5345d37e-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Scott_Imagine-a-world_2000-5345d37e-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Scott_Imagine-a-world_2000-5345d37e-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dread Scott, ‘Imagine a World Without America (Green Land),’ 2025; Screen print on canvas. (Courtesy the artist and YBCA)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A similarly straightforward 2022 triptych of altered photographs titled \u003cem>Obliterated Power\u003c/em> shows the Capitol, Pentagon and Supreme Court buildings — three major sites of governmental power in the United States — erased by black ink, manifesting, on a national level, Scott’s ideal of a vanquished America. For now, we can only imagine such erasure. As long as America persists, the power of the state is enacted on the bodies of its citizens — and non-citizens.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“America is becoming fascist and nationalist,” Scott says, “and who is and who is not an American can determine if you live or die. Those who can’t claim citizenship basically have no rights whatsoever.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bodies take center stage in the rest of the show, which consists of several of Scott’s ghostly sepia body prints, at once detailed and abstract, but no less direct in their messaging. In \u003cem>Fight the Power\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Hands Up\u003c/em>, both 2023, clusters of hands take on different meanings: fists clench in gestures of revolution, fingers spread in pleading. The diptych \u003cem>Mugshot\u003c/em> (2023) features Scott posed in profile and face-forward, holding an identification card typical of an arrest photo.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0153-cfbe7a3f.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994670\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0153-cfbe7a3f.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0153-cfbe7a3f-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0153-cfbe7a3f-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0153-cfbe7a3f-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dread Scott. (Matthew Millman Photography)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The method of body printing Scott uses was pioneered, along with Yves Klein and Jasper Johns, by \u003ca href=\"https://drawingcenter.org/exhibitions/david-hammons\">David Hammons\u003c/a> in the 1960s and 70s, who used it to make similarly politically charged work around issues of the Civil Rights movement. By repeating the motif today, Scott draws a clear parallel between the urgencies of that era and current American political pressures, reminding viewers that the struggle for liberation continues.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The largest work on view, another commission for the show, is \u003cem>Life/Death/America\u003c/em>, a roughly 14-by-35-foot piece. In it, 32 body prints scatter across four canvas panels as though in free fall. The individuals, friends and friends of friends of the artist, range in age, race, gender and class, highlighting the social range of a democratic society. The way in which they are depicted varies too, and was determined by each participant, some wearing business suits, others keffiyehs. In emphasizing representation and diversity, the piece reminds us of the freedom of identity and expression Scott and many others are fighting for.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0069-d129b5e3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994669\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0069-d129b5e3.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0069-d129b5e3-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0069-d129b5e3-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0069-d129b5e3-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dread Scott, ‘Life/Death/America’ at YBCA. (Matthew Millman Photography)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Without direct artistic visualizations of both what we stand to lose and what shedding the current power structures might look like, it can be difficult to maintain a clear picture of the collective future Scott puts forward. Sometimes, in the face of censorship and federal defunding of the arts, it feels like the current administration understands the importance of the arts better than its opposition does. Imagination is a powerful weapon in the war against fascism — and one we mustn’t forget. Art like Scott’s reminds us of its potency. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Art itself doesn’t make political change,” Scott says. “But there hasn’t been a progressive movement I know of that hasn’t had art at the foundation of it in some way. It helps people see the world in a new way and stand strong in the face of their oppressors.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>‘\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://ybca.org/event/dread-scott-the-body-politic/\">Dread Scott: The Body Politic\u003c/a>’ is on view at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission St., San Francisco) through Jan. 31, 2027.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When I stepped inside Brooklyn-based artist Dread Scott’s latest exhibition at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/ybca\">Yerba Buena Center for the Arts\u003c/a>, I was terrified.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A man in military fatigues armed with an M4 carbine loomed in the corner, guarding an American flag hanging from a short flagpole. When I approached the man, he jerked to life and admonished me, “Halt, stand back from the perimeter. I’m defending the flag. The flag of the U.S. must be respected at all times.” It wasn’t clear when or how I had crossed some invisible boundary, only that he had the power to decide. Artists push back against state power all the time — but it isn’t every day that that role is reversed inside an art gallery.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A man in military fatigues armed with an M4 carbine loomed in the corner, guarding an American flag hanging from a short flagpole. When I approached the man, he jerked to life and admonished me, “Halt, stand back from the perimeter. I’m defending the flag. The flag of the U.S. must be respected at all times.” It wasn’t clear when or how I had crossed some invisible boundary, only that he had the power to decide. Artists push back against state power all the time — but it isn’t every day that that role is reversed inside an art gallery.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Defending the Flag\u003c/em> is a new commission for the YBCA show \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://ybca.org/event/dread-scott-the-body-politic/\">The Body Politic\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, and it’s in direct dialogue with the artwork that put Scott on the map nearly 40 years ago, while he was still a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The 1988 installation \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dreadscott.net/portfolio_page/what-is-the-proper-way-to-display-a-us-flag/\">What Is the Proper Way to Display a US Flag?\u003c/a>\u003c/em> consisted of a flag that viewers could step on while writing their reflections of the experience in a guestbook, below a photomontage of the flag desecration. Vietnam veterans, calling themselves “defenders of the flag,” called for Scott’s death. President George Bush Sr. called the piece “disgraceful” and Congress outlawed the work. Then, in 1989, Scott was arrested for burning a U.S. flag on the steps of the Capitol for a photography project, which led to \u003ca href=\"https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/496/310/\">a landmark decision\u003c/a>, confirming citizens’ rights to desecrate the flag under the First Amendment.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The 1988 installation \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dreadscott.net/portfolio_page/what-is-the-proper-way-to-display-a-us-flag/\">What Is the Proper Way to Display a US Flag?\u003c/a>\u003c/em> consisted of a flag that viewers could step on while writing their reflections of the experience in a guestbook, below a photomontage of the flag desecration. Vietnam veterans, calling themselves “defenders of the flag,” called for Scott’s death. President George Bush Sr. called the piece “disgraceful” and Congress outlawed the work. Then, in 1989, Scott was arrested for burning a U.S. flag on the steps of the Capitol for a photography project, which led to \u003ca href=\"https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/496/310/\">a landmark decision\u003c/a>, confirming citizens’ rights to desecrate the flag under the First Amendment.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In a 2018 \u003ca href=\"https://www.ted.com/talks/dread_scott_how_art_can_shape_america_s_conversation_about_freedom\">TED Talk\u003c/a> detailing the experience, Scott stated that he does not “accept the economic foundation, the social relations or the governing ideas of America.” That holds true today, he tells KQED, but adds that, “Long-term, I look forward to a day when people have gotten beyond America — including the foundation of capitalism America rests on.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In a 2018 \u003ca href=\"https://www.ted.com/talks/dread_scott_how_art_can_shape_america_s_conversation_about_freedom\">TED Talk\u003c/a> detailing the experience, Scott stated that he does not “accept the economic foundation, the social relations or the governing ideas of America.” That holds true today, he tells KQED, but adds that, “Long-term, I look forward to a day when people have gotten beyond America — including the foundation of capitalism America rests on.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The first piece visitors to \u003cem>The Body Politic \u003c/em>encounter hangs both outside YBCA as a vinyl banner and outside the exhibition’s main gallery. It visualizes this fantasy of a decentered United States. The 2025 screen print shows a black and green world map with America moved to the margins, overlaid with the phrase “imagine a world without America,” which also serves as the work’s title.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The first piece visitors to \u003cem>The Body Politic \u003c/em>encounter hangs both outside YBCA as a vinyl banner and outside the exhibition’s main gallery. It visualizes this fantasy of a decentered United States. The 2025 screen print shows a black and green world map with America moved to the margins, overlaid with the phrase “imagine a world without America,” which also serves as the work’s title.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A similarly straightforward 2022 triptych of altered photographs titled \u003cem>Obliterated Power\u003c/em> shows the Capitol, Pentagon and Supreme Court buildings — three major sites of governmental power in the United States — erased by black ink, manifesting, on a national level, Scott’s ideal of a vanquished America. For now, we can only imagine such erasure. As long as America persists, the power of the state is enacted on the bodies of its citizens — and non-citizens.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A similarly straightforward 2022 triptych of altered photographs titled \u003cem>Obliterated Power\u003c/em> shows the Capitol, Pentagon and Supreme Court buildings — three major sites of governmental power in the United States — erased by black ink, manifesting, on a national level, Scott’s ideal of a vanquished America. For now, we can only imagine such erasure. As long as America persists, the power of the state is enacted on the bodies of its citizens — and non-citizens.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“America is becoming fascist and nationalist,” Scott says, “and who is and who is not an American can determine if you live or die. Those who can’t claim citizenship basically have no rights whatsoever.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“America is becoming fascist and nationalist,” Scott says, “and who is and who is not an American can determine if you live or die. Those who can’t claim citizenship basically have no rights whatsoever.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bodies take center stage in the rest of the show, which consists of several of Scott’s ghostly sepia body prints, at once detailed and abstract, but no less direct in their messaging. In \u003cem>Fight the Power\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Hands Up\u003c/em>, both 2023, clusters of hands take on different meanings: fists clench in gestures of revolution, fingers spread in pleading. The diptych \u003cem>Mugshot\u003c/em> (2023) features Scott posed in profile and face-forward, holding an identification card typical of an arrest photo.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Bodies take center stage in the rest of the show, which consists of several of Scott’s ghostly sepia body prints, at once detailed and abstract, but no less direct in their messaging. In \u003cem>Fight the Power\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Hands Up\u003c/em>, both 2023, clusters of hands take on different meanings: fists clench in gestures of revolution, fingers spread in pleading. The diptych \u003cem>Mugshot\u003c/em> (2023) features Scott posed in profile and face-forward, holding an identification card typical of an arrest photo.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The method of body printing Scott uses was pioneered, along with Yves Klein and Jasper Johns, by \u003ca href=\"https://drawingcenter.org/exhibitions/david-hammons\">David Hammons\u003c/a> in the 1960s and 70s, who used it to make similarly politically charged work around issues of the Civil Rights movement. By repeating the motif today, Scott draws a clear parallel between the urgencies of that era and current American political pressures, reminding viewers that the struggle for liberation continues.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The method of body printing Scott uses was pioneered, along with Yves Klein and Jasper Johns, by \u003ca href=\"https://drawingcenter.org/exhibitions/david-hammons\">David Hammons\u003c/a> in the 1960s and 70s, who used it to make similarly politically charged work around issues of the Civil Rights movement. By repeating the motif today, Scott draws a clear parallel between the urgencies of that era and current American political pressures, reminding viewers that the struggle for liberation continues.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The largest work on view, another commission for the show, is \u003cem>Life/Death/America\u003c/em>, a roughly 14-by-35-foot piece. In it, 32 body prints scatter across four canvas panels as though in free fall. The individuals, friends and friends of friends of the artist, range in age, race, gender and class, highlighting the social range of a democratic society. The way in which they are depicted varies too, and was determined by each participant, some wearing business suits, others keffiyehs. In emphasizing representation and diversity, the piece reminds us of the freedom of identity and expression Scott and many others are fighting for.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The largest work on view, another commission for the show, is \u003cem>Life/Death/America\u003c/em>, a roughly 14-by-35-foot piece. In it, 32 body prints scatter across four canvas panels as though in free fall. The individuals, friends and friends of friends of the artist, range in age, race, gender and class, highlighting the social range of a democratic society. The way in which they are depicted varies too, and was determined by each participant, some wearing business suits, others keffiyehs. In emphasizing representation and diversity, the piece reminds us of the freedom of identity and expression Scott and many others are fighting for.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Without direct artistic visualizations of both what we stand to lose and what shedding the current power structures might look like, it can be difficult to maintain a clear picture of the collective future Scott puts forward. Sometimes, in the face of censorship and federal defunding of the arts, it feels like the current administration understands the importance of the arts better than its opposition does. Imagination is a powerful weapon in the war against fascism — and one we mustn’t forget. Art like Scott’s reminds us of its potency. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Art itself doesn’t make political change,” Scott says. “But there hasn’t been a progressive movement I know of that hasn’t had art at the foundation of it in some way. It helps people see the world in a new way and stand strong in the face of their oppressors.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Art itself doesn’t make political change,” Scott says. “But there hasn’t been a progressive movement I know of that hasn’t had art at the foundation of it in some way. It helps people see the world in a new way and stand strong in the face of their oppressors.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>‘\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://ybca.org/event/dread-scott-the-body-politic/\">Dread Scott: The Body Politic\u003c/a>’ is on view at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission St., San Francisco) through Jan. 31, 2027.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>When I stepped inside Brooklyn-based artist Dread Scott’s latest exhibition at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/ybca\">Yerba Buena Center for the Arts\u003c/a>, I was terrified.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A man in military fatigues armed with an M4 carbine loomed in the corner, guarding an American flag hanging from a short flagpole. When I approached the man, he jerked to life and admonished me, “Halt, stand back from the perimeter. I’m defending the flag. The flag of the U.S. must be respected at all times.” It wasn’t clear when or how I had crossed some invisible boundary, only that he had the power to decide. Artists push back against state power all the time — but it isn’t every day that that role is reversed inside an art gallery.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Defending the Flag\u003c/em> is a new commission for the YBCA show \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://ybca.org/event/dread-scott-the-body-politic/\">The Body Politic\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, and it’s in direct dialogue with the artwork that put Scott on the map nearly 40 years ago, while he was still a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0421-e502d895.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994671\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0421-e502d895.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0421-e502d895-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0421-e502d895-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0421-e502d895-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dread Scott, Installation view of ‘The Body Politic’ with ‘Defending the Flag’ at right. (Matthew Millman Photography)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The 1988 installation \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dreadscott.net/portfolio_page/what-is-the-proper-way-to-display-a-us-flag/\">What Is the Proper Way to Display a US Flag?\u003c/a>\u003c/em> consisted of a flag that viewers could step on while writing their reflections of the experience in a guestbook, below a photomontage of the flag desecration. Vietnam veterans, calling themselves “defenders of the flag,” called for Scott’s death. President George Bush Sr. called the piece “disgraceful” and Congress outlawed the work. Then, in 1989, Scott was arrested for burning a U.S. flag on the steps of the Capitol for a photography project, which led to \u003ca href=\"https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/496/310/\">a landmark decision\u003c/a>, confirming citizens’ rights to desecrate the flag under the First Amendment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In a 2018 \u003ca href=\"https://www.ted.com/talks/dread_scott_how_art_can_shape_america_s_conversation_about_freedom\">TED Talk\u003c/a> detailing the experience, Scott stated that he does not “accept the economic foundation, the social relations or the governing ideas of America.” That holds true today, he tells KQED, but adds that, “Long-term, I look forward to a day when people have gotten beyond America — including the foundation of capitalism America rests on.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The first piece visitors to \u003cem>The Body Politic \u003c/em>encounter hangs both outside YBCA as a vinyl banner and outside the exhibition’s main gallery. It visualizes this fantasy of a decentered United States. The 2025 screen print shows a black and green world map with America moved to the margins, overlaid with the phrase “imagine a world without America,” which also serves as the work’s title.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Scott_Imagine-a-world_2000-5345d37e.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994667\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Scott_Imagine-a-world_2000-5345d37e.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Scott_Imagine-a-world_2000-5345d37e-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Scott_Imagine-a-world_2000-5345d37e-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Scott_Imagine-a-world_2000-5345d37e-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Scott_Imagine-a-world_2000-5345d37e-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dread Scott, ‘Imagine a World Without America (Green Land),’ 2025; Screen print on canvas. (Courtesy the artist and YBCA)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A similarly straightforward 2022 triptych of altered photographs titled \u003cem>Obliterated Power\u003c/em> shows the Capitol, Pentagon and Supreme Court buildings — three major sites of governmental power in the United States — erased by black ink, manifesting, on a national level, Scott’s ideal of a vanquished America. For now, we can only imagine such erasure. As long as America persists, the power of the state is enacted on the bodies of its citizens — and non-citizens.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“America is becoming fascist and nationalist,” Scott says, “and who is and who is not an American can determine if you live or die. Those who can’t claim citizenship basically have no rights whatsoever.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bodies take center stage in the rest of the show, which consists of several of Scott’s ghostly sepia body prints, at once detailed and abstract, but no less direct in their messaging. In \u003cem>Fight the Power\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Hands Up\u003c/em>, both 2023, clusters of hands take on different meanings: fists clench in gestures of revolution, fingers spread in pleading. The diptych \u003cem>Mugshot\u003c/em> (2023) features Scott posed in profile and face-forward, holding an identification card typical of an arrest photo.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0153-cfbe7a3f.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994670\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0153-cfbe7a3f.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0153-cfbe7a3f-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0153-cfbe7a3f-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0153-cfbe7a3f-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dread Scott. (Matthew Millman Photography)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The method of body printing Scott uses was pioneered, along with Yves Klein and Jasper Johns, by \u003ca href=\"https://drawingcenter.org/exhibitions/david-hammons\">David Hammons\u003c/a> in the 1960s and 70s, who used it to make similarly politically charged work around issues of the Civil Rights movement. By repeating the motif today, Scott draws a clear parallel between the urgencies of that era and current American political pressures, reminding viewers that the struggle for liberation continues.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The largest work on view, another commission for the show, is \u003cem>Life/Death/America\u003c/em>, a roughly 14-by-35-foot piece. In it, 32 body prints scatter across four canvas panels as though in free fall. The individuals, friends and friends of friends of the artist, range in age, race, gender and class, highlighting the social range of a democratic society. The way in which they are depicted varies too, and was determined by each participant, some wearing business suits, others keffiyehs. In emphasizing representation and diversity, the piece reminds us of the freedom of identity and expression Scott and many others are fighting for.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0069-d129b5e3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994669\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0069-d129b5e3.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0069-d129b5e3-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0069-d129b5e3-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/YBCA-Dread_Scott-Body_Politic-0069-d129b5e3-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dread Scott, ‘Life/Death/America’ at YBCA. (Matthew Millman Photography)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Without direct artistic visualizations of both what we stand to lose and what shedding the current power structures might look like, it can be difficult to maintain a clear picture of the collective future Scott puts forward. Sometimes, in the face of censorship and federal defunding of the arts, it feels like the current administration understands the importance of the arts better than its opposition does. Imagination is a powerful weapon in the war against fascism — and one we mustn’t forget. Art like Scott’s reminds us of its potency. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Art itself doesn’t make political change,” Scott says. “But there hasn’t been a progressive movement I know of that hasn’t had art at the foundation of it in some way. It helps people see the world in a new way and stand strong in the face of their oppressors.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>‘\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://ybca.org/event/dread-scott-the-body-politic/\">Dread Scott: The Body Politic\u003c/a>’ is on view at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission St., San Francisco) through Jan. 31, 2027.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "dewey-crumpler-sonic-lineages-moad-review",
"title": "Dewey Crumpler Paints ‘Portals to Absolute Autonomy’",
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"headTitle": "Dewey Crumpler Paints ‘Portals to Absolute Autonomy’ | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>If the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/museum-of-the-african-diaspora\">Museum of the African Diaspora\u003c/a> were presenting only the single painting \u003cem>Breach\u003c/em>, I would still tell you to go see \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.moadsf.org/exhibitions/dewey-crumpler-sonic-lineages\">Dewey Crumpler: Sonic Lineages\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. It’s that compelling. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yes, this is the man who taught \u003ca href=\"https://www.deborahrobertsart.com/\">Deborah Roberts\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iona_Rozeal_Brown\">Rozeal\u003c/a> and Kehinde Wiley at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/sfai\">San Francisco Art Institute\u003c/a>, but somehow we’ve had to wait two decades since his last major solo museum show. Since there are three floors of artworks covering five decades of the 77-year-old Bay Area legend’s practice, you won’t want to further delay your visit to this show.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Breach, \u003c/em>one in a series of shipping container paintings, crashes present and past together, refusing to let us rest in pleasant fictions that modernity has somehow laid historic catastrophes to rest. Please go see the metallic copper leaf in person. It both darkens the sky like a storm and shines like a miracle being born. Copper, a conduit of electricity and a valuable commodity, floods from the sky into the turbulent waters churned by dozens of acid-colored shipping containers. Among them, ghostly figures — so easy to miss in a small digital reproduction — swim. Were they unleashed by the containers falling open or were they preexisting spirits activated by the disorder? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1767\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-209-574fc15f.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994589\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-209-574fc15f.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-209-574fc15f-160x141.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-209-574fc15f-768x679.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-209-574fc15f-1536x1357.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dewey Crumpler, ‘Green Bananas,’ 2017; Charcoal, graphite, mixed media on canvas. (Courtesy of the artist and Jenkins Johnson Gallery New York and San Francisco)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Crumpler never tells his viewer what they should perceive, but he may have left us a clue in \u003cem>Breach’\u003c/em>s upper left corner, where a historic ship tilts precariously in an obvious reference to J.M.W. Turner’s 19th-century painting \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Slave_Ship\">The Slave Ship\u003c/a>, \u003c/em>which recounts a notorious episode from the transatlantic slave trade in which a ship captain threw enslaved people overboard to their deaths in order to collect insurance on the ship’s “goods.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“There is this containment that is being endeavored and, simultaneously, there’s always the escape,” curator Key Jo Lee told KQED of Crumpler’s shipping container paintings. “What he’s pointing to is the perpetual connectedness of all of these things.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To Lee, Crumpler’s work exposes the mechanisms of exploitation, from the slave trade to the present day, in which we have become the product. The names of economists \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek\">Friedrich Hayek\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes\">John Keynes\u003c/a> are spelled out in the waters of another shipping container painting, \u003cem>Collapse\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1955\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-012-f1ab5c0a.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-012-f1ab5c0a.jpg 1955w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-012-f1ab5c0a-160x164.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-012-f1ab5c0a-768x786.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-012-f1ab5c0a-1501x1536.jpg 1501w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1955px) 100vw, 1955px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dewey Crumpler, ‘Quantum #12 (Entanglement series),’ 1998–2026; Spray paint, acrylic, mixed media on canvas. (Courtesy of the artist and Jenkins Johnson Gallery New York and San Francisco)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sonic Lineages\u003c/em> is not quite a retrospective proper, but with works spanning from 1968 to just last year, the exhibit reveals persistent engagement with recurring themes. Beyond the shipping containers lie images of voids and hoodies, each replete with meaning.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Early in Crumpler’s practice, he encountered a photograph of a metal slave collar, with a void at the center where a person’s neck was locked. Instead of “that void, which was meant to completely foreclose Black futures or foreclose our imagination, foreclose our agency,” explained Lee, “what he shows is that that void is actually the portal to absolute autonomy.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Voids appear as three-dimensional forms on paintings, on discs that rotate at different speeds, and in the empty spaces of hoodies that dance like a 2000s iPod ad or open to reveal a futuristic cosmos within. Crumpler began the series after noticing his son’s hoodie thrown over the back of a chair. For me, it’s hard to see a hoodie without thinking of Trayvon Martin and all the potential of his life that his assailant removed. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1653\" height=\"2000\" data-id=\"13994591\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-610-29dbcedd.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994591\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-610-29dbcedd.jpg 1653w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-610-29dbcedd-160x194.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-610-29dbcedd-768x929.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-610-29dbcedd-1270x1536.jpg 1270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1653px) 100vw, 1653px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dewey Crumpler, ‘In the Moment,’ 2023; Acrylic, spray paint, mixed media on canvas. (Courtesy of the artist and Jenkins Johnson Gallery New York and San Francisco)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1464\" height=\"2000\" data-id=\"13994592\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-339-bb07eae3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994592\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-339-bb07eae3.jpg 1464w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-339-bb07eae3-160x219.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-339-bb07eae3-768x1049.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-339-bb07eae3-1124x1536.jpg 1124w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1464px) 100vw, 1464px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dewey Crumpler, ‘Die For The People,’ 1968–69; Acrylic, gold metal leaf on canvas; gold spray paint on frame. (Courtesy of the artist and Jenkins Johnson Gallery New York and San Francisco)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Growing up, Crumpler frequented San Francisco’s de Young, mesmerized by the paintings, but the only time he remembers seeing a Black person at the museum was in the bookstore. “I didn’t see any representations of me anywhere in that environment,” he said. “And I was becoming very conscious of the fact that my identity as an African American had something to do with why there was no possibility of seeing myself echoed back at me.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Years of activism followed: Civil Rights marches, protests outside the Sheridan Palace Hotel against labor discrimination, demands for Black studies courses. When teachers at Crumpler’s college dismissed Black artists as lacking quality or originality, Crumpler brought in Cedric Dover’s book \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://archive.org/details/americannegroart0000dove/page/n213/mode/2up\">American Negro Art\u003c/a> \u003c/em>— its illustrations, “a blast from heaven.” Crumpler cited storied Black jazz musicians and challenged his teachers on the idea, as he summarized their position, that “creative genius only lived in one part of the world.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Though Lee proposed mounting this exhibition several years ago, Crumpler insisted they wait until MoAD could produce a book to accompany it. It’s a requirement from an artist who understands how much the present owes the past and who feels a great responsibility to the future. (It’s easy to imagine this written testament will serve another young artist just as Dover’s book did for Crumpler.) For the present — happily — \u003cem>Sonic Lineages\u003c/em> is on view for many months to come.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.moadsf.org/exhibitions/dewey-crumpler-sonic-lineages\">Dewey Crumpler: Sonic Lineages\u003c/a>’ is on view at the Museum of the African Diaspora (685 Mission St., San Francisco) through May 30, 2027.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>If the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/museum-of-the-african-diaspora\">Museum of the African Diaspora\u003c/a> were presenting only the single painting \u003cem>Breach\u003c/em>, I would still tell you to go see \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.moadsf.org/exhibitions/dewey-crumpler-sonic-lineages\">Dewey Crumpler: Sonic Lineages\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. It’s that compelling. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Yes, this is the man who taught \u003ca href=\"https://www.deborahrobertsart.com/\">Deborah Roberts\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iona_Rozeal_Brown\">Rozeal\u003c/a> and Kehinde Wiley at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/sfai\">San Francisco Art Institute\u003c/a>, but somehow we’ve had to wait two decades since his last major solo museum show. Since there are three floors of artworks covering five decades of the 77-year-old Bay Area legend’s practice, you won’t want to further delay your visit to this show.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Breach, \u003c/em>one in a series of shipping container paintings, crashes present and past together, refusing to let us rest in pleasant fictions that modernity has somehow laid historic catastrophes to rest. Please go see the metallic copper leaf in person. It both darkens the sky like a storm and shines like a miracle being born. Copper, a conduit of electricity and a valuable commodity, floods from the sky into the turbulent waters churned by dozens of acid-colored shipping containers. Among them, ghostly figures — so easy to miss in a small digital reproduction — swim. Were they unleashed by the containers falling open or were they preexisting spirits activated by the disorder? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Breach, \u003c/em>one in a series of shipping container paintings, crashes present and past together, refusing to let us rest in pleasant fictions that modernity has somehow laid historic catastrophes to rest. Please go see the metallic copper leaf in person. It both darkens the sky like a storm and shines like a miracle being born. Copper, a conduit of electricity and a valuable commodity, floods from the sky into the turbulent waters churned by dozens of acid-colored shipping containers. Among them, ghostly figures — so easy to miss in a small digital reproduction — swim. Were they unleashed by the containers falling open or were they preexisting spirits activated by the disorder? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Crumpler never tells his viewer what they should perceive, but he may have left us a clue in \u003cem>Breach’\u003c/em>s upper left corner, where a historic ship tilts precariously in an obvious reference to J.M.W. Turner’s 19th-century painting \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Slave_Ship\">The Slave Ship\u003c/a>, \u003c/em>which recounts a notorious episode from the transatlantic slave trade in which a ship captain threw enslaved people overboard to their deaths in order to collect insurance on the ship’s “goods.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“There is this containment that is being endeavored and, simultaneously, there’s always the escape,” curator Key Jo Lee told KQED of Crumpler’s shipping container paintings. “What he’s pointing to is the perpetual connectedness of all of these things.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“There is this containment that is being endeavored and, simultaneously, there’s always the escape,” curator Key Jo Lee told KQED of Crumpler’s shipping container paintings. “What he’s pointing to is the perpetual connectedness of all of these things.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>To Lee, Crumpler’s work exposes the mechanisms of exploitation, from the slave trade to the present day, in which we have become the product. The names of economists \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek\">Friedrich Hayek\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes\">John Keynes\u003c/a> are spelled out in the waters of another shipping container painting, \u003cem>Collapse\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>To Lee, Crumpler’s work exposes the mechanisms of exploitation, from the slave trade to the present day, in which we have become the product. The names of economists \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek\">Friedrich Hayek\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes\">John Keynes\u003c/a> are spelled out in the waters of another shipping container painting, \u003cem>Collapse\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sonic Lineages\u003c/em> is not quite a retrospective proper, but with works spanning from 1968 to just last year, the exhibit reveals persistent engagement with recurring themes. Beyond the shipping containers lie images of voids and hoodies, each replete with meaning.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Though Lee proposed mounting this exhibition several years ago, Crumpler insisted they wait until MoAD could produce a book to accompany it. It’s a requirement from an artist who understands how much the present owes the past and who feels a great responsibility to the future. (It’s easy to imagine this written testament will serve another young artist just as Dover’s book did for Crumpler.) For the present — happily — \u003cem>Sonic Lineages\u003c/em> is on view for many months to come.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.moadsf.org/exhibitions/dewey-crumpler-sonic-lineages\">Dewey Crumpler: Sonic Lineages\u003c/a>’ is on view at the Museum of the African Diaspora (685 Mission St., San Francisco) through May 30, 2027.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>If the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/museum-of-the-african-diaspora\">Museum of the African Diaspora\u003c/a> were presenting only the single painting \u003cem>Breach\u003c/em>, I would still tell you to go see \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.moadsf.org/exhibitions/dewey-crumpler-sonic-lineages\">Dewey Crumpler: Sonic Lineages\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. It’s that compelling. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yes, this is the man who taught \u003ca href=\"https://www.deborahrobertsart.com/\">Deborah Roberts\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iona_Rozeal_Brown\">Rozeal\u003c/a> and Kehinde Wiley at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/sfai\">San Francisco Art Institute\u003c/a>, but somehow we’ve had to wait two decades since his last major solo museum show. Since there are three floors of artworks covering five decades of the 77-year-old Bay Area legend’s practice, you won’t want to further delay your visit to this show.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Breach, \u003c/em>one in a series of shipping container paintings, crashes present and past together, refusing to let us rest in pleasant fictions that modernity has somehow laid historic catastrophes to rest. Please go see the metallic copper leaf in person. It both darkens the sky like a storm and shines like a miracle being born. Copper, a conduit of electricity and a valuable commodity, floods from the sky into the turbulent waters churned by dozens of acid-colored shipping containers. Among them, ghostly figures — so easy to miss in a small digital reproduction — swim. Were they unleashed by the containers falling open or were they preexisting spirits activated by the disorder? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1767\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-209-574fc15f.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994589\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-209-574fc15f.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-209-574fc15f-160x141.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-209-574fc15f-768x679.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-209-574fc15f-1536x1357.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dewey Crumpler, ‘Green Bananas,’ 2017; Charcoal, graphite, mixed media on canvas. (Courtesy of the artist and Jenkins Johnson Gallery New York and San Francisco)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Crumpler never tells his viewer what they should perceive, but he may have left us a clue in \u003cem>Breach’\u003c/em>s upper left corner, where a historic ship tilts precariously in an obvious reference to J.M.W. Turner’s 19th-century painting \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Slave_Ship\">The Slave Ship\u003c/a>, \u003c/em>which recounts a notorious episode from the transatlantic slave trade in which a ship captain threw enslaved people overboard to their deaths in order to collect insurance on the ship’s “goods.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“There is this containment that is being endeavored and, simultaneously, there’s always the escape,” curator Key Jo Lee told KQED of Crumpler’s shipping container paintings. “What he’s pointing to is the perpetual connectedness of all of these things.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To Lee, Crumpler’s work exposes the mechanisms of exploitation, from the slave trade to the present day, in which we have become the product. The names of economists \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek\">Friedrich Hayek\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes\">John Keynes\u003c/a> are spelled out in the waters of another shipping container painting, \u003cem>Collapse\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1955\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-012-f1ab5c0a.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-012-f1ab5c0a.jpg 1955w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-012-f1ab5c0a-160x164.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-012-f1ab5c0a-768x786.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-012-f1ab5c0a-1501x1536.jpg 1501w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1955px) 100vw, 1955px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dewey Crumpler, ‘Quantum #12 (Entanglement series),’ 1998–2026; Spray paint, acrylic, mixed media on canvas. (Courtesy of the artist and Jenkins Johnson Gallery New York and San Francisco)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sonic Lineages\u003c/em> is not quite a retrospective proper, but with works spanning from 1968 to just last year, the exhibit reveals persistent engagement with recurring themes. Beyond the shipping containers lie images of voids and hoodies, each replete with meaning.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Early in Crumpler’s practice, he encountered a photograph of a metal slave collar, with a void at the center where a person’s neck was locked. Instead of “that void, which was meant to completely foreclose Black futures or foreclose our imagination, foreclose our agency,” explained Lee, “what he shows is that that void is actually the portal to absolute autonomy.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Voids appear as three-dimensional forms on paintings, on discs that rotate at different speeds, and in the empty spaces of hoodies that dance like a 2000s iPod ad or open to reveal a futuristic cosmos within. Crumpler began the series after noticing his son’s hoodie thrown over the back of a chair. For me, it’s hard to see a hoodie without thinking of Trayvon Martin and all the potential of his life that his assailant removed. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1653\" height=\"2000\" data-id=\"13994591\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-610-29dbcedd.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994591\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-610-29dbcedd.jpg 1653w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-610-29dbcedd-160x194.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-610-29dbcedd-768x929.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-610-29dbcedd-1270x1536.jpg 1270w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1653px) 100vw, 1653px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dewey Crumpler, ‘In the Moment,’ 2023; Acrylic, spray paint, mixed media on canvas. (Courtesy of the artist and Jenkins Johnson Gallery New York and San Francisco)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1464\" height=\"2000\" data-id=\"13994592\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-339-bb07eae3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994592\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-339-bb07eae3.jpg 1464w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-339-bb07eae3-160x219.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-339-bb07eae3-768x1049.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/web-Crumpler-07-26-339-bb07eae3-1124x1536.jpg 1124w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1464px) 100vw, 1464px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dewey Crumpler, ‘Die For The People,’ 1968–69; Acrylic, gold metal leaf on canvas; gold spray paint on frame. (Courtesy of the artist and Jenkins Johnson Gallery New York and San Francisco)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Growing up, Crumpler frequented San Francisco’s de Young, mesmerized by the paintings, but the only time he remembers seeing a Black person at the museum was in the bookstore. “I didn’t see any representations of me anywhere in that environment,” he said. “And I was becoming very conscious of the fact that my identity as an African American had something to do with why there was no possibility of seeing myself echoed back at me.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Years of activism followed: Civil Rights marches, protests outside the Sheridan Palace Hotel against labor discrimination, demands for Black studies courses. When teachers at Crumpler’s college dismissed Black artists as lacking quality or originality, Crumpler brought in Cedric Dover’s book \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://archive.org/details/americannegroart0000dove/page/n213/mode/2up\">American Negro Art\u003c/a> \u003c/em>— its illustrations, “a blast from heaven.” Crumpler cited storied Black jazz musicians and challenged his teachers on the idea, as he summarized their position, that “creative genius only lived in one part of the world.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Though Lee proposed mounting this exhibition several years ago, Crumpler insisted they wait until MoAD could produce a book to accompany it. It’s a requirement from an artist who understands how much the present owes the past and who feels a great responsibility to the future. (It’s easy to imagine this written testament will serve another young artist just as Dover’s book did for Crumpler.) For the present — happily — \u003cem>Sonic Lineages\u003c/em> is on view for many months to come.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.moadsf.org/exhibitions/dewey-crumpler-sonic-lineages\">Dewey Crumpler: Sonic Lineages\u003c/a>’ is on view at the Museum of the African Diaspora (685 Mission St., San Francisco) through May 30, 2027.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "In ‘Fjord,’ a Religious Family Navigates Norway’s ‘Enlightened’ Norms",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>Cristian Mungiu’s 2007 neorealist masterpiece, \u003cem>4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days\u003c/em>, followed the agonizing quest of two young Romanian women seeking an illegal abortion. Set in the 1980s during the long-running dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu, the film immersed us in the desperation of ordinary people thwarted and threatened by a ruthless, repressive system.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In his riveting new film, \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> (opening Friday, Oct. 9 in the Bay Area), Mungiu again considers the threats to personal freedom posed by political structures and self-righteous bureaucrats. Instead of a communist country in the old Soviet bloc, however, the setting is socially enlightened, present-day Norway.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em>, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, unfolds within a welcoming community defined by physical proximity and relationships, where English is used to bridge any gaps. Notwithstanding its star casting, it is a low-key ensemble piece that is devoid of showcase moments. Though \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> is never less than involving, it lacks the emotional power of \u003cem>4 Months\u003c/em>, which also won the Palme d’Or.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1336\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord-Family-Picture-Photo-Credit-Tudor-Panduru-ccd9dd5b.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994604\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord-Family-Picture-Photo-Credit-Tudor-Panduru-ccd9dd5b.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord-Family-Picture-Photo-Credit-Tudor-Panduru-ccd9dd5b-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord-Family-Picture-Photo-Credit-Tudor-Panduru-ccd9dd5b-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord-Family-Picture-Photo-Credit-Tudor-Panduru-ccd9dd5b-1536x1026.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Gheorghiu family in ‘Fjord,’ directed by Cristian Mungiu. (Neon)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Gheorghiu clan — Mihai (Sebastian Stan, \u003cem>A Different Man\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Apprentice\u003c/em>), Lisbet (Renate Reinsve, brilliant in last year’s \u003cem>Sentimental Value\u003c/em>) and their five young children — have just arrived in a remote Norwegian town from Mihai’s native Romania. The pristine and stark environment evokes a new beginning, and a clean slate from whatever may have impelled the IT engineer and nurse to pick up and move their family to Lisbet’s country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The early scenes have a faintly ominous tinge, which we might attribute to the awkwardness of meeting new coworkers and the anxiousness of making new friends. The flip side of that, the feeling of otherness that colors the locals’ perception of the newcomers, is the religiosity of the Gheorghius. When Mihai idly plays a hymn on the organ in the break room, what initially seems to be harmless noodling feels uncomfortably like inappropriate evangelizing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the oldest children, Elia (Vanessa Ceban) and Emmanuel (Jonathan Ciprian Breazu), who are sheltered and therefore young for their age, fall under the sway of a neighboring teenage girl. The impulsive Noora (Henrikke Lund-Olsen) lures them on an illicit late-night motorboat ride that seems designed to foreshadow horrible tragedies of youthful bad judgement.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"838\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_SebastianStan-92b39160.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994605\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_SebastianStan-92b39160.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_SebastianStan-92b39160-160x67.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_SebastianStan-92b39160-768x322.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_SebastianStan-92b39160-1536x644.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sebastian Stan in ‘Fjord,’ directed by Cristian Mungiu. (Neon)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I guess I’m still scarred nearly three decades later by \u003cem>The Ice Storm\u003c/em>, because parental indifference and neglect is the furthest thing from Mungiu’s mind as director. On the contrary, it’s an accusation that Mihai hit Elia — a charge, perhaps, instigated by language barriers, amplified by cultural differences and inflated by religious prejudices — that turns \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> on its head.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The film’s early sequences had pointed toward dual tracks: Mihai and Lisbet on one and Elia and Emmanuel on the other. Mihai’s potentially devastating criminal problem shifts the film’s structure to a talky legal procedural (with the foreigner Mihai in the crosshairs) on the one hand and Lisbet’s struggles as a mother and neighbor on the other.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>4 Months\u003c/em> made us feel its protagonists’ nightmarish dilemma without resorting to melodrama. \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> evokes a sense of injustice, and flashes of outrage, but not much else. That’s in part due to Mungui’s avoidance of emotional outbursts, close-ups, dramatic music and other techniques of audience manipulation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"838\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_04-c94291c1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994608\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_04-c94291c1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_04-c94291c1-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_04-c94291c1-768x322.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_04-c94291c1-1536x644.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve in ‘Fjord.’ (Neon)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Consequently, in lieu of a visceral emotional experience, we are given an intellectual conundrum. In trying to protect children from adults, has this enlightened Norwegian society lost its judgement and common sense? Are police and prosecutors doing their jobs diligently and properly or are they bigots who, because the Gheorghius are Christians and not Muslims, plausibly deny their xenophobia?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s possible, I suppose, to see \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> as a critique of so-called woke liberalism—the nanny state dialed up to 11 and misguidedly doing more harm than good. I doubt this is Mungiu’s intent, because it invites viewers across the political spectrum to retreat into, rather than examine, their belief systems, biases and values.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 1975, Swiss director Alain Tanner tapped into the zeitgeist with \u003cem>Jonah Who Will be 25 in the Year 2000\u003c/em>, an arthouse hit that depicted a post-hippie, post-revolutionary, quasi-utopian European society. The thirtysomething parents in the film — and by extension, their country — were messy and mistake-prone, sure, but well-intentioned, kind and optimistic.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"838\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_03-7f0fb205.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994607\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_03-7f0fb205.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_03-7f0fb205-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_03-7f0fb205-768x322.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_03-7f0fb205-1536x644.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A scene from ‘Fjord,’ directed by Cristian Mungiu. (Neon)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Maybe \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> depicts the inevitable aftermath of that generation of permissiveness and experimentation. The instincts to nurture and protect still exist, but they are swaddled in too many regulations, rules and procedures.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mingiu aims to position the Gheorghius as victims of an implacable system with endless power and resources. They have few options, and their decisions should have us on pins and needles. Even before its curious final shot, though, \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> feels like a parable more than real life.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Fjord’ opens in Bay Area theaters on Friday, Oct. 9.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em>, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, unfolds within a welcoming community defined by physical proximity and relationships, where English is used to bridge any gaps. Notwithstanding its star casting, it is a low-key ensemble piece that is devoid of showcase moments. Though \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> is never less than involving, it lacks the emotional power of \u003cem>4 Months\u003c/em>, which also won the Palme d’Or.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Gheorghiu clan — Mihai (Sebastian Stan, \u003cem>A Different Man\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Apprentice\u003c/em>), Lisbet (Renate Reinsve, brilliant in last year’s \u003cem>Sentimental Value\u003c/em>) and their five young children — have just arrived in a remote Norwegian town from Mihai’s native Romania. The pristine and stark environment evokes a new beginning, and a clean slate from whatever may have impelled the IT engineer and nurse to pick up and move their family to Lisbet’s country.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The early scenes have a faintly ominous tinge, which we might attribute to the awkwardness of meeting new coworkers and the anxiousness of making new friends. The flip side of that, the feeling of otherness that colors the locals’ perception of the newcomers, is the religiosity of the Gheorghius. When Mihai idly plays a hymn on the organ in the break room, what initially seems to be harmless noodling feels uncomfortably like inappropriate evangelizing.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The early scenes have a faintly ominous tinge, which we might attribute to the awkwardness of meeting new coworkers and the anxiousness of making new friends. The flip side of that, the feeling of otherness that colors the locals’ perception of the newcomers, is the religiosity of the Gheorghius. When Mihai idly plays a hymn on the organ in the break room, what initially seems to be harmless noodling feels uncomfortably like inappropriate evangelizing.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the oldest children, Elia (Vanessa Ceban) and Emmanuel (Jonathan Ciprian Breazu), who are sheltered and therefore young for their age, fall under the sway of a neighboring teenage girl. The impulsive Noora (Henrikke Lund-Olsen) lures them on an illicit late-night motorboat ride that seems designed to foreshadow horrible tragedies of youthful bad judgement.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the oldest children, Elia (Vanessa Ceban) and Emmanuel (Jonathan Ciprian Breazu), who are sheltered and therefore young for their age, fall under the sway of a neighboring teenage girl. The impulsive Noora (Henrikke Lund-Olsen) lures them on an illicit late-night motorboat ride that seems designed to foreshadow horrible tragedies of youthful bad judgement.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>I guess I’m still scarred nearly three decades later by \u003cem>The Ice Storm\u003c/em>, because parental indifference and neglect is the furthest thing from Mungiu’s mind as director. On the contrary, it’s an accusation that Mihai hit Elia — a charge, perhaps, instigated by language barriers, amplified by cultural differences and inflated by religious prejudices — that turns \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> on its head.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>I guess I’m still scarred nearly three decades later by \u003cem>The Ice Storm\u003c/em>, because parental indifference and neglect is the furthest thing from Mungiu’s mind as director. On the contrary, it’s an accusation that Mihai hit Elia — a charge, perhaps, instigated by language barriers, amplified by cultural differences and inflated by religious prejudices — that turns \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> on its head.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The film’s early sequences had pointed toward dual tracks: Mihai and Lisbet on one and Elia and Emmanuel on the other. Mihai’s potentially devastating criminal problem shifts the film’s structure to a talky legal procedural (with the foreigner Mihai in the crosshairs) on the one hand and Lisbet’s struggles as a mother and neighbor on the other.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>4 Months\u003c/em> made us feel its protagonists’ nightmarish dilemma without resorting to melodrama. \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> evokes a sense of injustice, and flashes of outrage, but not much else. That’s in part due to Mungui’s avoidance of emotional outbursts, close-ups, dramatic music and other techniques of audience manipulation.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 1975, Swiss director Alain Tanner tapped into the zeitgeist with \u003cem>Jonah Who Will be 25 in the Year 2000\u003c/em>, an arthouse hit that depicted a post-hippie, post-revolutionary, quasi-utopian European society. The thirtysomething parents in the film — and by extension, their country — were messy and mistake-prone, sure, but well-intentioned, kind and optimistic.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Maybe \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> depicts the inevitable aftermath of that generation of permissiveness and experimentation. The instincts to nurture and protect still exist, but they are swaddled in too many regulations, rules and procedures.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mingiu aims to position the Gheorghius as victims of an implacable system with endless power and resources. They have few options, and their decisions should have us on pins and needles. Even before its curious final shot, though, \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> feels like a parable more than real life.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Fjord’ opens in Bay Area theaters on Friday, Oct. 9.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Cristian Mungiu’s 2007 neorealist masterpiece, \u003cem>4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days\u003c/em>, followed the agonizing quest of two young Romanian women seeking an illegal abortion. Set in the 1980s during the long-running dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu, the film immersed us in the desperation of ordinary people thwarted and threatened by a ruthless, repressive system.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In his riveting new film, \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> (opening Friday, Oct. 9 in the Bay Area), Mungiu again considers the threats to personal freedom posed by political structures and self-righteous bureaucrats. Instead of a communist country in the old Soviet bloc, however, the setting is socially enlightened, present-day Norway.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em>, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, unfolds within a welcoming community defined by physical proximity and relationships, where English is used to bridge any gaps. Notwithstanding its star casting, it is a low-key ensemble piece that is devoid of showcase moments. Though \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> is never less than involving, it lacks the emotional power of \u003cem>4 Months\u003c/em>, which also won the Palme d’Or.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1336\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord-Family-Picture-Photo-Credit-Tudor-Panduru-ccd9dd5b.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994604\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord-Family-Picture-Photo-Credit-Tudor-Panduru-ccd9dd5b.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord-Family-Picture-Photo-Credit-Tudor-Panduru-ccd9dd5b-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord-Family-Picture-Photo-Credit-Tudor-Panduru-ccd9dd5b-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord-Family-Picture-Photo-Credit-Tudor-Panduru-ccd9dd5b-1536x1026.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Gheorghiu family in ‘Fjord,’ directed by Cristian Mungiu. (Neon)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Gheorghiu clan — Mihai (Sebastian Stan, \u003cem>A Different Man\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Apprentice\u003c/em>), Lisbet (Renate Reinsve, brilliant in last year’s \u003cem>Sentimental Value\u003c/em>) and their five young children — have just arrived in a remote Norwegian town from Mihai’s native Romania. The pristine and stark environment evokes a new beginning, and a clean slate from whatever may have impelled the IT engineer and nurse to pick up and move their family to Lisbet’s country.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The early scenes have a faintly ominous tinge, which we might attribute to the awkwardness of meeting new coworkers and the anxiousness of making new friends. The flip side of that, the feeling of otherness that colors the locals’ perception of the newcomers, is the religiosity of the Gheorghius. When Mihai idly plays a hymn on the organ in the break room, what initially seems to be harmless noodling feels uncomfortably like inappropriate evangelizing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the oldest children, Elia (Vanessa Ceban) and Emmanuel (Jonathan Ciprian Breazu), who are sheltered and therefore young for their age, fall under the sway of a neighboring teenage girl. The impulsive Noora (Henrikke Lund-Olsen) lures them on an illicit late-night motorboat ride that seems designed to foreshadow horrible tragedies of youthful bad judgement.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"838\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_SebastianStan-92b39160.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994605\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_SebastianStan-92b39160.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_SebastianStan-92b39160-160x67.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_SebastianStan-92b39160-768x322.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_SebastianStan-92b39160-1536x644.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sebastian Stan in ‘Fjord,’ directed by Cristian Mungiu. (Neon)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I guess I’m still scarred nearly three decades later by \u003cem>The Ice Storm\u003c/em>, because parental indifference and neglect is the furthest thing from Mungiu’s mind as director. On the contrary, it’s an accusation that Mihai hit Elia — a charge, perhaps, instigated by language barriers, amplified by cultural differences and inflated by religious prejudices — that turns \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> on its head.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The film’s early sequences had pointed toward dual tracks: Mihai and Lisbet on one and Elia and Emmanuel on the other. Mihai’s potentially devastating criminal problem shifts the film’s structure to a talky legal procedural (with the foreigner Mihai in the crosshairs) on the one hand and Lisbet’s struggles as a mother and neighbor on the other.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>4 Months\u003c/em> made us feel its protagonists’ nightmarish dilemma without resorting to melodrama. \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> evokes a sense of injustice, and flashes of outrage, but not much else. That’s in part due to Mungui’s avoidance of emotional outbursts, close-ups, dramatic music and other techniques of audience manipulation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"838\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_04-c94291c1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994608\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_04-c94291c1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_04-c94291c1-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_04-c94291c1-768x322.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_04-c94291c1-1536x644.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve in ‘Fjord.’ (Neon)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Consequently, in lieu of a visceral emotional experience, we are given an intellectual conundrum. In trying to protect children from adults, has this enlightened Norwegian society lost its judgement and common sense? Are police and prosecutors doing their jobs diligently and properly or are they bigots who, because the Gheorghius are Christians and not Muslims, plausibly deny their xenophobia?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s possible, I suppose, to see \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> as a critique of so-called woke liberalism—the nanny state dialed up to 11 and misguidedly doing more harm than good. I doubt this is Mungiu’s intent, because it invites viewers across the political spectrum to retreat into, rather than examine, their belief systems, biases and values.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 1975, Swiss director Alain Tanner tapped into the zeitgeist with \u003cem>Jonah Who Will be 25 in the Year 2000\u003c/em>, an arthouse hit that depicted a post-hippie, post-revolutionary, quasi-utopian European society. The thirtysomething parents in the film — and by extension, their country — were messy and mistake-prone, sure, but well-intentioned, kind and optimistic.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"838\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_03-7f0fb205.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994607\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_03-7f0fb205.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_03-7f0fb205-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_03-7f0fb205-768x322.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/Fjord_03-7f0fb205-1536x644.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A scene from ‘Fjord,’ directed by Cristian Mungiu. (Neon)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Maybe \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> depicts the inevitable aftermath of that generation of permissiveness and experimentation. The instincts to nurture and protect still exist, but they are swaddled in too many regulations, rules and procedures.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mingiu aims to position the Gheorghius as victims of an implacable system with endless power and resources. They have few options, and their decisions should have us on pins and needles. Even before its curious final shot, though, \u003cem>Fjord\u003c/em> feels like a parable more than real life.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Fjord’ opens in Bay Area theaters on Friday, Oct. 9.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Honoring the Black Panther Party on Its 60th Anniversary",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>Six decades ago, a group of young Black activists in Oakland began policing the police. They fed schoolchildren, started medical clinics, created a multilevel grade school and published a newspaper that reached people around the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In leather jackets and berets, they reinvented the color black. And, through their collective willpower, they fanned the flame of self-determination that has long burned within the Black community.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Black Panther Party, founded in 1966, was one of the most important organizations of the 20th century. This month, as \u003ca href=\"https://hueypnewtonfoundation.org/\">The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/index_PhotoGallery.html\">It’s About Time BPP \u003c/a>commemorate the vanguard organization’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.bpp60.org/\">60th anniversary\u003c/a>, the Black Panthers will be honored with a gala, numerous workshops, a community day in West Oakland and more.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1343\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-514079888.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994540\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-514079888.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-514079888-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-514079888-768x516.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-514079888-1536x1031.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Black Panthers march in protest of the trial of Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton in Oakland, California. (Bettmann/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We’re opening it up with an exhibition by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13867337/the-black-panther-partys-free-breakfast-program-a-50-year-old-blueprint\">Billy X Jennings\u003c/a>,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13971589/black-panther-party-survival-programs-exhibit\">Dr. Xavier Buck\u003c/a>, executive director of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation. On Thursday, Oct. 15, at the Oakland Public Library’s main branch, Jennings, a Black Panther Party historian, leads attendees through an exhibition titled \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandlibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/6a8732ffbe1482002988c2a4\">Honoring the Rank & File\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. He’ll also lead a panel discussion and screening of the documentary film \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4JAcG-QHO8\">Lords of the Revolution\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“And then,” says Buck, “we’re partnering with \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oaktownthursdays/\">Oaktown Thursdays\u003c/a>, and doing a special 60th anniversary tribute; \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/larussell\">LaRussell\u003c/a> is the headliner for that.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On the following day, Friday, Oct. 16, brings a variety of workshops, many led by former Panthers or their children, known as Panther cubs. \u003ca href=\"https://www.csustan.edu/people/ms-melissa-charles\">Mel Charles \u003c/a>from Sacramento’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.malcolmxacademy.org/\">Malcolm X Academy\u003c/a> leads a discussion about applying the Panthers’ concept of a Community School to 2026. A critical look at reproductive health comes courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/malic.cfm\">Dr. Mali Collins\u003c/a>, who anchors a session titled “The Black Panther’s Agenda for Black Health: A framework for reproductive freedom in 2026.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A day full of conversations that bring the Party’s ideas into the present will conclude with a set by East Bay hip-hop ensemble \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/macarthurmaze/\">MacArthur Maze\u003c/a> at the Oakland Museum of California.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4JAcG-QHO8\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The next day, Oct. 17, offers an even broader variety of sessions. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/breathandthecity/\">Breath and the City\u003c/a>‘s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/lissdelarosa/\">Lissette de la Rosa\u003c/a> leads a seminar on breath work, pushing attendees to dive deep within themselves. Former Black Panther \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/offical_mamacharlottesmusic2/?hl=en\">Charlotte Hill O’Neal\u003c/a>, visiting from Tanzania, will lead a discussion about the Party’s international footprint. Saturday’s schedule also includes a discussion about the relationship between Black liberation and ecology, led by \u003ca href=\"https://www.yesmagazine.org/authors/quinton-sankofa\">Quinton Sankofa\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, actor \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Guenveur_Smith\">Roger Guenveur Smith\u003c/a>, who played Huey P. Newton in Spike Lee’s 2001 production \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278490/\">A Huey P. Newton Story\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, will celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary in a screening; Smith will be joined by Steven Adams, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13874735/fredrika-newton-huey-p-revolutionary-love\">Fredrika Newton\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://awelemakeba.com/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAae8oIBsrcNdxz-eh4a2xn-9zGpDNagrSqX8gN94avGGmMfZQLQJp5FvgjJhMA_aem_oC-lUDOxG0Cl0u-3VefMWg#top\">Awele Makeba\u003c/a>. Also screening at the event is \u003ca href=\"https://www.d-word.com/documentary/2334-ALIVE-IN-BRONZE-HUEY-P-NEWTON\">\u003cem>Alive in Bronze\u003c/em>,\u003c/a> a short documentary about the efforts of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/fredrikanewton/\">Fredrika Newton\u003c/a> and sculptor \u003ca href=\"https://danakingart.com/\">Dana King\u003c/a> to create a monument that now stands on Mandela Parkway in West Oakland, honoring the life of Dr. Huey P. Newton.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QstJpRpp6FY\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Saturday evening, Oct. 17, is the main event: the 60th anniversary gala. “It’s going to be a pretty big deal,” says Buck, explaining that Bobby Seale will be present while the cover art for a new edition of his book \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.blackstonepublishing.com/products/book-1or1\">Seize the Time\u003c/a>\u003c/em> is unveiled.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Buck, the founding director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.blackpantherpartymuseum.org/\">Black Panther Party Museum\u003c/a>, says the Bobby Seale Legacy Foundation worked with the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation on the slate of events. “It’s the first time that these legacies have worked together. And it’s important because one of Bobby Seale’s greatest regrets was not making amends with Huey before he was killed in ’89.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That sort of cooperation is at the center of the entire series, and it serves as a metaphor. “It’s all about looking at this current political moment,” Buck says, “and thinking more about unification than division.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1584\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171.jpg\" alt=\"At right, a white middle-aged man in a suit and tie looks into the distance; at left, more than a dozen Black men in leather jackets and berets stand in two single-file lines next to an A-frame building\" class=\"wp-image-13994541\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171-160x127.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171-768x608.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171-1536x1217.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Actor Marlon Brando, right, attends the funeral of 17-year-old Black Panther Party treasurer Bobby Hutton at the Ephesian Church of God and Christ in Berkeley, Calif. on April 12, 1968. He is flanked at left by members of the Black Panther Party outside the church where an estimated 1,500 people were in attendance. (Lonnie Wilson/MediaNews Group/Oakland Tribune via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On the theme of coming together, Sunday, Oct. 18, offers a free Community Day event at Bobby Hutton Park in West Oakland, bringing the community back to the same grounds where the Panthers held rallies six decades ago. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/moneyb69/\">Money B,\u003c/a> founding member of the legendary Digital Underground hip-hop collective and former student at the Black Panther’s Oakland Community School will guest host. He’ll be joined by performances from \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/numskulloftheluniz/\">Numskull of the Luniz\u003c/a>, The Bobby Jackson Project and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/wolfhawkjaguar/\">WolfHawkJuguar\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A number of other events in October commemorate the Black Panther’s legacy, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd9NJfUygqv/\">a Panther Jam at the Shakur Center\u003c/a> in Sacramento on Friday, Oct. 9. On Sunday, Oct. 11, there’s the \u003ca href=\"https://posh.vip/e/seize-the-time?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAae9RvTirno6ZWKYCwGiORB1t6eAvahHR5Ye0Ma-KJ6soVprYcltqaPReN1PYQ_aem_eWRKBEBtUM8wn-x9L5jLGw\">Seize The Time: A Fashion Experience\u003c/a>, led by \u003ca href=\"https://www.futurisme.studio/\">Futurisme Studios\u003c/a> and featuring DJ sets by \u003ca href=\"https://www.homeisforhomies.com/\">Home is for Homies\u003c/a>. And on Saturday, Oct. 17, Pittsburg’s \u003ca href=\"https://bookstore.revisionpub.com/\">RP Books\u003c/a> hosts a conversation with \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandvr.org/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAacRTQt7YCt-KS4SjkgIq5j65jdF8JEWHH5kk81AfIX31l23mQNt9EKmG0Jzlw_aem_Vzx8TXxIJDuHJUjY6NXIfA\">Michael Roosevelt\u003c/a>, author of \u003cem>The Black Panther Party Ten-Point Plan: A Liberatory Journal\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>More than a half-century ago, when the late \u003ca href=\"https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/black-panther-party-ten-point-program-1966/\">Dr. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale charted 10 specific needs\u003c/a> of working-class African American people in this country, they couldn’t have fathomed that many of those demands — namely “Decent Housing Fit For The Shelter of Human Beings” and “Education That Teaches Us Our True History And Our Role in the Present-Day Society” — would remain unfulfilled.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nor could they have imagined how deeply the work of the Black Panther Party has inspired generations, pushing young people to create change both locally and internationally.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And clearly, the work continues.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Black Panther Party celebrates its 60th anniversary this month with a series of events. \u003ca href=\"https://www.bpp60.org/\">Details and more information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The Black Panther Party, founded in 1966, was one of the most important organizations of the 20th century. This month, as \u003ca href=\"https://hueypnewtonfoundation.org/\">The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/index_PhotoGallery.html\">It’s About Time BPP \u003c/a>commemorate the vanguard organization’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.bpp60.org/\">60th anniversary\u003c/a>, the Black Panthers will be honored with a gala, numerous workshops, a community day in West Oakland and more.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We’re opening it up with an exhibition by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13867337/the-black-panther-partys-free-breakfast-program-a-50-year-old-blueprint\">Billy X Jennings\u003c/a>,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13971589/black-panther-party-survival-programs-exhibit\">Dr. Xavier Buck\u003c/a>, executive director of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation. On Thursday, Oct. 15, at the Oakland Public Library’s main branch, Jennings, a Black Panther Party historian, leads attendees through an exhibition titled \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandlibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/6a8732ffbe1482002988c2a4\">Honoring the Rank & File\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. He’ll also lead a panel discussion and screening of the documentary film \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4JAcG-QHO8\">Lords of the Revolution\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On the following day, Friday, Oct. 16, brings a variety of workshops, many led by former Panthers or their children, known as Panther cubs. \u003ca href=\"https://www.csustan.edu/people/ms-melissa-charles\">Mel Charles \u003c/a>from Sacramento’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.malcolmxacademy.org/\">Malcolm X Academy\u003c/a> leads a discussion about applying the Panthers’ concept of a Community School to 2026. A critical look at reproductive health comes courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/malic.cfm\">Dr. Mali Collins\u003c/a>, who anchors a session titled “The Black Panther’s Agenda for Black Health: A framework for reproductive freedom in 2026.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The next day, Oct. 17, offers an even broader variety of sessions. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/breathandthecity/\">Breath and the City\u003c/a>‘s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/lissdelarosa/\">Lissette de la Rosa\u003c/a> leads a seminar on breath work, pushing attendees to dive deep within themselves. Former Black Panther \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/offical_mamacharlottesmusic2/?hl=en\">Charlotte Hill O’Neal\u003c/a>, visiting from Tanzania, will lead a discussion about the Party’s international footprint. Saturday’s schedule also includes a discussion about the relationship between Black liberation and ecology, led by \u003ca href=\"https://www.yesmagazine.org/authors/quinton-sankofa\">Quinton Sankofa\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The next day, Oct. 17, offers an even broader variety of sessions. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/breathandthecity/\">Breath and the City\u003c/a>‘s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/lissdelarosa/\">Lissette de la Rosa\u003c/a> leads a seminar on breath work, pushing attendees to dive deep within themselves. Former Black Panther \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/offical_mamacharlottesmusic2/?hl=en\">Charlotte Hill O’Neal\u003c/a>, visiting from Tanzania, will lead a discussion about the Party’s international footprint. Saturday’s schedule also includes a discussion about the relationship between Black liberation and ecology, led by \u003ca href=\"https://www.yesmagazine.org/authors/quinton-sankofa\">Quinton Sankofa\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, actor \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Guenveur_Smith\">Roger Guenveur Smith\u003c/a>, who played Huey P. Newton in Spike Lee’s 2001 production \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278490/\">A Huey P. Newton Story\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, will celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary in a screening; Smith will be joined by Steven Adams, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13874735/fredrika-newton-huey-p-revolutionary-love\">Fredrika Newton\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://awelemakeba.com/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAae8oIBsrcNdxz-eh4a2xn-9zGpDNagrSqX8gN94avGGmMfZQLQJp5FvgjJhMA_aem_oC-lUDOxG0Cl0u-3VefMWg#top\">Awele Makeba\u003c/a>. Also screening at the event is \u003ca href=\"https://www.d-word.com/documentary/2334-ALIVE-IN-BRONZE-HUEY-P-NEWTON\">\u003cem>Alive in Bronze\u003c/em>,\u003c/a> a short documentary about the efforts of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/fredrikanewton/\">Fredrika Newton\u003c/a> and sculptor \u003ca href=\"https://danakingart.com/\">Dana King\u003c/a> to create a monument that now stands on Mandela Parkway in West Oakland, honoring the life of Dr. Huey P. Newton.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, actor \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Guenveur_Smith\">Roger Guenveur Smith\u003c/a>, who played Huey P. Newton in Spike Lee’s 2001 production \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278490/\">A Huey P. Newton Story\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, will celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary in a screening; Smith will be joined by Steven Adams, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13874735/fredrika-newton-huey-p-revolutionary-love\">Fredrika Newton\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://awelemakeba.com/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAae8oIBsrcNdxz-eh4a2xn-9zGpDNagrSqX8gN94avGGmMfZQLQJp5FvgjJhMA_aem_oC-lUDOxG0Cl0u-3VefMWg#top\">Awele Makeba\u003c/a>. Also screening at the event is \u003ca href=\"https://www.d-word.com/documentary/2334-ALIVE-IN-BRONZE-HUEY-P-NEWTON\">\u003cem>Alive in Bronze\u003c/em>,\u003c/a> a short documentary about the efforts of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/fredrikanewton/\">Fredrika Newton\u003c/a> and sculptor \u003ca href=\"https://danakingart.com/\">Dana King\u003c/a> to create a monument that now stands on Mandela Parkway in West Oakland, honoring the life of Dr. Huey P. Newton.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Saturday evening, Oct. 17, is the main event: the 60th anniversary gala. “It’s going to be a pretty big deal,” says Buck, explaining that Bobby Seale will be present while the cover art for a new edition of his book \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.blackstonepublishing.com/products/book-1or1\">Seize the Time\u003c/a>\u003c/em> is unveiled.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Saturday evening, Oct. 17, is the main event: the 60th anniversary gala. “It’s going to be a pretty big deal,” says Buck, explaining that Bobby Seale will be present while the cover art for a new edition of his book \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.blackstonepublishing.com/products/book-1or1\">Seize the Time\u003c/a>\u003c/em> is unveiled.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Buck, the founding director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.blackpantherpartymuseum.org/\">Black Panther Party Museum\u003c/a>, says the Bobby Seale Legacy Foundation worked with the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation on the slate of events. “It’s the first time that these legacies have worked together. And it’s important because one of Bobby Seale’s greatest regrets was not making amends with Huey before he was killed in ’89.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Buck, the founding director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.blackpantherpartymuseum.org/\">Black Panther Party Museum\u003c/a>, says the Bobby Seale Legacy Foundation worked with the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation on the slate of events. “It’s the first time that these legacies have worked together. And it’s important because one of Bobby Seale’s greatest regrets was not making amends with Huey before he was killed in ’89.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That sort of cooperation is at the center of the entire series, and it serves as a metaphor. “It’s all about looking at this current political moment,” Buck says, “and thinking more about unification than division.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That sort of cooperation is at the center of the entire series, and it serves as a metaphor. “It’s all about looking at this current political moment,” Buck says, “and thinking more about unification than division.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171.jpg\" alt=\"At right, a white middle-aged man in a suit and tie looks into the distance; at left, more than a dozen Black men in leather jackets and berets stand in two single-file lines next to an A-frame building\" class=\"wp-image-13994541\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171-160x127.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171-768x608.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171-1536x1217.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Actor Marlon Brando, right, attends the funeral of 17-year-old Black Panther Party treasurer Bobby Hutton at the Ephesian Church of God and Christ in Berkeley, Calif. on April 12, 1968. He is flanked at left by members of the Black Panther Party outside the church where an estimated 1,500 people were in attendance. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Lonnie Wilson/MediaNews Group/Oakland Tribune via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On the theme of coming together, Sunday, Oct. 18, offers a free Community Day event at Bobby Hutton Park in West Oakland, bringing the community back to the same grounds where the Panthers held rallies six decades ago. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/moneyb69/\">Money B,\u003c/a> founding member of the legendary Digital Underground hip-hop collective and former student at the Black Panther’s Oakland Community School will guest host. He’ll be joined by performances from \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/numskulloftheluniz/\">Numskull of the Luniz\u003c/a>, The Bobby Jackson Project and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/wolfhawkjaguar/\">WolfHawkJuguar\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>On the theme of coming together, Sunday, Oct. 18, offers a free Community Day event at Bobby Hutton Park in West Oakland, bringing the community back to the same grounds where the Panthers held rallies six decades ago. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/moneyb69/\">Money B,\u003c/a> founding member of the legendary Digital Underground hip-hop collective and former student at the Black Panther’s Oakland Community School will guest host. He’ll be joined by performances from \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/numskulloftheluniz/\">Numskull of the Luniz\u003c/a>, The Bobby Jackson Project and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/wolfhawkjaguar/\">WolfHawkJuguar\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A number of other events in October commemorate the Black Panther’s legacy, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd9NJfUygqv/\">a Panther Jam at the Shakur Center\u003c/a> in Sacramento on Friday, Oct. 9. On Sunday, Oct. 11, there’s the \u003ca href=\"https://posh.vip/e/seize-the-time?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAae9RvTirno6ZWKYCwGiORB1t6eAvahHR5Ye0Ma-KJ6soVprYcltqaPReN1PYQ_aem_eWRKBEBtUM8wn-x9L5jLGw\">Seize The Time: A Fashion Experience\u003c/a>, led by \u003ca href=\"https://www.futurisme.studio/\">Futurisme Studios\u003c/a> and featuring DJ sets by \u003ca href=\"https://www.homeisforhomies.com/\">Home is for Homies\u003c/a>. And on Saturday, Oct. 17, Pittsburg’s \u003ca href=\"https://bookstore.revisionpub.com/\">RP Books\u003c/a> hosts a conversation with \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandvr.org/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAacRTQt7YCt-KS4SjkgIq5j65jdF8JEWHH5kk81AfIX31l23mQNt9EKmG0Jzlw_aem_Vzx8TXxIJDuHJUjY6NXIfA\">Michael Roosevelt\u003c/a>, author of \u003cem>The Black Panther Party Ten-Point Plan: A Liberatory Journal\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A number of other events in October commemorate the Black Panther’s legacy, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd9NJfUygqv/\">a Panther Jam at the Shakur Center\u003c/a> in Sacramento on Friday, Oct. 9. On Sunday, Oct. 11, there’s the \u003ca href=\"https://posh.vip/e/seize-the-time?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAae9RvTirno6ZWKYCwGiORB1t6eAvahHR5Ye0Ma-KJ6soVprYcltqaPReN1PYQ_aem_eWRKBEBtUM8wn-x9L5jLGw\">Seize The Time: A Fashion Experience\u003c/a>, led by \u003ca href=\"https://www.futurisme.studio/\">Futurisme Studios\u003c/a> and featuring DJ sets by \u003ca href=\"https://www.homeisforhomies.com/\">Home is for Homies\u003c/a>. And on Saturday, Oct. 17, Pittsburg’s \u003ca href=\"https://bookstore.revisionpub.com/\">RP Books\u003c/a> hosts a conversation with \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandvr.org/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAacRTQt7YCt-KS4SjkgIq5j65jdF8JEWHH5kk81AfIX31l23mQNt9EKmG0Jzlw_aem_Vzx8TXxIJDuHJUjY6NXIfA\">Michael Roosevelt\u003c/a>, author of \u003cem>The Black Panther Party Ten-Point Plan: A Liberatory Journal\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>More than a half-century ago, when the late \u003ca href=\"https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/black-panther-party-ten-point-program-1966/\">Dr. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale charted 10 specific needs\u003c/a> of working-class African American people in this country, they couldn’t have fathomed that many of those demands — namely “Decent Housing Fit For The Shelter of Human Beings” and “Education That Teaches Us Our True History And Our Role in the Present-Day Society” — would remain unfulfilled.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>More than a half-century ago, when the late \u003ca href=\"https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/black-panther-party-ten-point-program-1966/\">Dr. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale charted 10 specific needs\u003c/a> of working-class African American people in this country, they couldn’t have fathomed that many of those demands — namely “Decent Housing Fit For The Shelter of Human Beings” and “Education That Teaches Us Our True History And Our Role in the Present-Day Society” — would remain unfulfilled.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nor could they have imagined how deeply the work of the Black Panther Party has inspired generations, pushing young people to create change both locally and internationally.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Nor could they have imagined how deeply the work of the Black Panther Party has inspired generations, pushing young people to create change both locally and internationally.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Black Panther Party celebrates its 60th anniversary this month with a series of events. \u003ca href=\"https://www.bpp60.org/\">Details and more information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Events throughout October commemorate one of the most important organizations of the 20th century.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Six decades ago, a group of young Black activists in Oakland began policing the police. They fed schoolchildren, started medical clinics, created a multilevel grade school and published a newspaper that reached people around the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In leather jackets and berets, they reinvented the color black. And, through their collective willpower, they fanned the flame of self-determination that has long burned within the Black community.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The Black Panther Party, founded in 1966, was one of the most important organizations of the 20th century. This month, as \u003ca href=\"https://hueypnewtonfoundation.org/\">The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/index_PhotoGallery.html\">It’s About Time BPP \u003c/a>commemorate the vanguard organization’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.bpp60.org/\">60th anniversary\u003c/a>, the Black Panthers will be honored with a gala, numerous workshops, a community day in West Oakland and more.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1343\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-514079888.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994540\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-514079888.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-514079888-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-514079888-768x516.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-514079888-1536x1031.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Black Panthers march in protest of the trial of Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton in Oakland, California. (Bettmann/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We’re opening it up with an exhibition by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13867337/the-black-panther-partys-free-breakfast-program-a-50-year-old-blueprint\">Billy X Jennings\u003c/a>,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13971589/black-panther-party-survival-programs-exhibit\">Dr. Xavier Buck\u003c/a>, executive director of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation. On Thursday, Oct. 15, at the Oakland Public Library’s main branch, Jennings, a Black Panther Party historian, leads attendees through an exhibition titled \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandlibrary.bibliocommons.com/events/6a8732ffbe1482002988c2a4\">Honoring the Rank & File\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. He’ll also lead a panel discussion and screening of the documentary film \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4JAcG-QHO8\">Lords of the Revolution\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“And then,” says Buck, “we’re partnering with \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/oaktownthursdays/\">Oaktown Thursdays\u003c/a>, and doing a special 60th anniversary tribute; \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/larussell\">LaRussell\u003c/a> is the headliner for that.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On the following day, Friday, Oct. 16, brings a variety of workshops, many led by former Panthers or their children, known as Panther cubs. \u003ca href=\"https://www.csustan.edu/people/ms-melissa-charles\">Mel Charles \u003c/a>from Sacramento’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.malcolmxacademy.org/\">Malcolm X Academy\u003c/a> leads a discussion about applying the Panthers’ concept of a Community School to 2026. A critical look at reproductive health comes courtesy of \u003ca href=\"https://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/malic.cfm\">Dr. Mali Collins\u003c/a>, who anchors a session titled “The Black Panther’s Agenda for Black Health: A framework for reproductive freedom in 2026.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A day full of conversations that bring the Party’s ideas into the present will conclude with a set by East Bay hip-hop ensemble \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/macarthurmaze/\">MacArthur Maze\u003c/a> at the Oakland Museum of California.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/D4JAcG-QHO8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/D4JAcG-QHO8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The next day, Oct. 17, offers an even broader variety of sessions. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/breathandthecity/\">Breath and the City\u003c/a>‘s \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/lissdelarosa/\">Lissette de la Rosa\u003c/a> leads a seminar on breath work, pushing attendees to dive deep within themselves. Former Black Panther \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/offical_mamacharlottesmusic2/?hl=en\">Charlotte Hill O’Neal\u003c/a>, visiting from Tanzania, will lead a discussion about the Party’s international footprint. Saturday’s schedule also includes a discussion about the relationship between Black liberation and ecology, led by \u003ca href=\"https://www.yesmagazine.org/authors/quinton-sankofa\">Quinton Sankofa\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, actor \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Guenveur_Smith\">Roger Guenveur Smith\u003c/a>, who played Huey P. Newton in Spike Lee’s 2001 production \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278490/\">A Huey P. Newton Story\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, will celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary in a screening; Smith will be joined by Steven Adams, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13874735/fredrika-newton-huey-p-revolutionary-love\">Fredrika Newton\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://awelemakeba.com/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAae8oIBsrcNdxz-eh4a2xn-9zGpDNagrSqX8gN94avGGmMfZQLQJp5FvgjJhMA_aem_oC-lUDOxG0Cl0u-3VefMWg#top\">Awele Makeba\u003c/a>. Also screening at the event is \u003ca href=\"https://www.d-word.com/documentary/2334-ALIVE-IN-BRONZE-HUEY-P-NEWTON\">\u003cem>Alive in Bronze\u003c/em>,\u003c/a> a short documentary about the efforts of \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/fredrikanewton/\">Fredrika Newton\u003c/a> and sculptor \u003ca href=\"https://danakingart.com/\">Dana King\u003c/a> to create a monument that now stands on Mandela Parkway in West Oakland, honoring the life of Dr. Huey P. Newton.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/QstJpRpp6FY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/QstJpRpp6FY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Saturday evening, Oct. 17, is the main event: the 60th anniversary gala. “It’s going to be a pretty big deal,” says Buck, explaining that Bobby Seale will be present while the cover art for a new edition of his book \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.blackstonepublishing.com/products/book-1or1\">Seize the Time\u003c/a>\u003c/em> is unveiled.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Buck, the founding director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.blackpantherpartymuseum.org/\">Black Panther Party Museum\u003c/a>, says the Bobby Seale Legacy Foundation worked with the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation on the slate of events. “It’s the first time that these legacies have worked together. And it’s important because one of Bobby Seale’s greatest regrets was not making amends with Huey before he was killed in ’89.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That sort of cooperation is at the center of the entire series, and it serves as a metaphor. “It’s all about looking at this current political moment,” Buck says, “and thinking more about unification than division.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1584\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171.jpg\" alt=\"At right, a white middle-aged man in a suit and tie looks into the distance; at left, more than a dozen Black men in leather jackets and berets stand in two single-file lines next to an A-frame building\" class=\"wp-image-13994541\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171-160x127.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171-768x608.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/GettyImages-1438231171-1536x1217.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Actor Marlon Brando, right, attends the funeral of 17-year-old Black Panther Party treasurer Bobby Hutton at the Ephesian Church of God and Christ in Berkeley, Calif. on April 12, 1968. He is flanked at left by members of the Black Panther Party outside the church where an estimated 1,500 people were in attendance. (Lonnie Wilson/MediaNews Group/Oakland Tribune via Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On the theme of coming together, Sunday, Oct. 18, offers a free Community Day event at Bobby Hutton Park in West Oakland, bringing the community back to the same grounds where the Panthers held rallies six decades ago. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/moneyb69/\">Money B,\u003c/a> founding member of the legendary Digital Underground hip-hop collective and former student at the Black Panther’s Oakland Community School will guest host. He’ll be joined by performances from \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/numskulloftheluniz/\">Numskull of the Luniz\u003c/a>, The Bobby Jackson Project and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/wolfhawkjaguar/\">WolfHawkJuguar\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A number of other events in October commemorate the Black Panther’s legacy, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd9NJfUygqv/\">a Panther Jam at the Shakur Center\u003c/a> in Sacramento on Friday, Oct. 9. On Sunday, Oct. 11, there’s the \u003ca href=\"https://posh.vip/e/seize-the-time?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAae9RvTirno6ZWKYCwGiORB1t6eAvahHR5Ye0Ma-KJ6soVprYcltqaPReN1PYQ_aem_eWRKBEBtUM8wn-x9L5jLGw\">Seize The Time: A Fashion Experience\u003c/a>, led by \u003ca href=\"https://www.futurisme.studio/\">Futurisme Studios\u003c/a> and featuring DJ sets by \u003ca href=\"https://www.homeisforhomies.com/\">Home is for Homies\u003c/a>. And on Saturday, Oct. 17, Pittsburg’s \u003ca href=\"https://bookstore.revisionpub.com/\">RP Books\u003c/a> hosts a conversation with \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandvr.org/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAacRTQt7YCt-KS4SjkgIq5j65jdF8JEWHH5kk81AfIX31l23mQNt9EKmG0Jzlw_aem_Vzx8TXxIJDuHJUjY6NXIfA\">Michael Roosevelt\u003c/a>, author of \u003cem>The Black Panther Party Ten-Point Plan: A Liberatory Journal\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>More than a half-century ago, when the late \u003ca href=\"https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/black-panther-party-ten-point-program-1966/\">Dr. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale charted 10 specific needs\u003c/a> of working-class African American people in this country, they couldn’t have fathomed that many of those demands — namely “Decent Housing Fit For The Shelter of Human Beings” and “Education That Teaches Us Our True History And Our Role in the Present-Day Society” — would remain unfulfilled.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nor could they have imagined how deeply the work of the Black Panther Party has inspired generations, pushing young people to create change both locally and internationally.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And clearly, the work continues.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Black Panther Party celebrates its 60th anniversary this month with a series of events. \u003ca href=\"https://www.bpp60.org/\">Details and more information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "other-minds-experimental-music-festival-san-francisco-charles-amirkhanian",
"title": "As Other Minds Festival Turns 30, an Experimental Music Giant Takes a Bow",
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"headTitle": "As Other Minds Festival Turns 30, an Experimental Music Giant Takes a Bow | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>What’s the state of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/experimental-music\">experimental music\u003c/a> today?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“California,” composer Charles Amirkhanian says, laughing. “It’s happening here. Occasionally we’ll let in someone from New York — or Norway. But we don’t have any problems finding material.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Amirkhanian has long mastered the art of creating a home for the avant-garde. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As the co-founder of Other Minds, a leading nonprofit and record label \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/11353950/other-minds-archives-headed-for-uc-santa-cruz\">dedicated to noncommercial music\u003c/a>, and as the former music director of KPFA, he’s spent decades championing composers who push beyond conventional boundaries. He also has cultivated an audience willing to follow them there through \u003ca href=\"https://www.otherminds.org/other-minds-festival-30/\">Other Minds’ annual festival\u003c/a>, which brings freewheeling musicians and sound poets from around the world to San Francisco. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Oct. 8–11 at the Brava Theater in the Mission District, the festival will celebrate its 30th anniversary. It’s also the 81-year-old Amirkhanian’s last year as executive and artistic director before he retires in January. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Musician and fellow composer Joseph Bohigian, currently Other Minds’ associate director, will take over as artistic director next year. A separate search for the organization’s next executive director is underway. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bohigian says he’ll strive to lead the organization into a new chapter while continuing his predecessor’s ambitions. Much like his mentor, the young composer draws from a wellspring of ancient Armenian culture and the contemporary American experimental music to express something new. He’s also made it his mission to support other artists on their voyages, as Amirkhanian has done for decades. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We’re trying to make sure that there’s a home for out-there music, the stuff that’s not commercially viable, but is exciting and experimental and pushes things forward,” Bohigian says. “We want to serve that small but dedicated audience.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“And the composers who make the music,” Amirkhanian adds. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994061\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-01-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Other Minds Executive and Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian and Associate Director Joseph Bohigian chat at their offices in the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Sept. 17, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>Two kindred spirits, born half a century apart\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On a cloudy Thursday, Amirkhanian and Bohigian sit together in Other Minds’ downtown Berkeley office, surrounded by stacks of CDs and a bust of legendary 20th-century Bay Area new music composer Henry Cowell (“the godfather,” Amirkhanian says). Through the glass windows, cars and passersby screech and blare from below, making their own kind of experimental music. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s a fitting soundtrack for an organization whose mission is, in part, to listen differently. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Despite a nearly half-century age gap, Amirkhanian and Bohigian are kindred spirits. Both of them are percussionists, steeped in a tradition that includes iconoclastic musicians like Cowell, Lou Harrison and others. And both are Armenians from Fresno, the agricultural city in California’s heartland which is home to one of the oldest and most vibrant Armenian diasporas in the U.S. Both have drawn on their heritage in their work in forward-thinking ways. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The two first met in 2011 when Bohigian was a freshman at Fresno State University. Amirkhanian was doing a guest performance at the Fresno New Music Festival, and guest-lectured in one of Bohigian’s music classes. At the festival, the students performed an octet Amirkhanian had written as part of a career-long fascination with the noisiest percussion instrument: the ratchet. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That kind of thing was really exciting,” Bohigian recalls. “This loud, asynchronous rhythm.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bohigian, who was born in 1993, the same year as the first Other Minds festival, began as a pianist before switching to percussion, a classic path into contemporary music.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“If you’re a percussionist, there’s not a lot of old repertoire,” he says. “You’re performing mostly 20th- and 21st-century music.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bohigian started composing in high school, initially writing pieces that imitated composers like Cowell, who devised a method for playing the piano from the inside, on the strings. Bohigian’s first piano piece, written for an AP music theory course, was titled “Song for Spaghetti Armed Steve.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But his work gradually developed a deeper cultural focus. A piece \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10467313/marking-the-armenian-genocide-anniversary-by-featuring-living-armenian-composers?mc_cid=3995258f14&mc_eid=e3b2e66c4b\">he composed during his senior year\u003c/a> of college to observe the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide was performed in 2015 by Fresno State’s New Music Ensemble. Bohigian lived in Armenia from 2019–2020, where he conducted research, studied and taught a laptop orchestra class at the state conservatory in Yerevan. His compositions have been performed around the world. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994064\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Other Minds Associate Director Joseph Bohigian holds a program for the Other Minds Festival at the organization’s offices in the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Sept. 17, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>Reviving the legacy of an Armenian auteur\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bohigian’s latest work will premiere Thursday on the opening night of this year’s Other Minds festival. He will debut \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.otherminds.org/scenes-from-i-am-he-whose-life-and-soul-are-torment/\">I Am He Whose Life and Soul Are Torment\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, an evening-length multimedia performance inspired by the life of Soviet-Armenian auteur Sergei Parajanov.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bohigian’s composition draws from Parajanov’s abstract 1969 film, \u003cem>The Color of Pomegranates\u003c/em>, about the 18th-century bard Sayat-Nova, who sang in Armenian, Georgian and Azeri — the languages of the region. The film was released four years before the director was jailed by the USSR for homosexuality and sentenced to hard labor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The piece brings together Sayat-Nova’s folk music — performed by Bay Area wind instrumentalist and vocalist \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060906/meet-the-duduk-whisperer-a-bay-area-armenian-folk-musician-revives-centuries-of-soul\">Khatchadour Khatchadourian\u003c/a> — with the electronic music tradition that Bohigian is immersed in, to illustrate scenes from Parajanov’s life. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bohigian describes the piece as theatrical, involving staged visual elements and costumes by East Bay artists Tara Baghdassarian and Caro Yaghjian in addition to the electronics and vocals.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We want to really make it immersive,” Bohigian says. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Some other festival weekend highlights include a live electronic performance from Philadelphia-born King Britt, delivering a set of sonic liberation compositions rooted in Black sound. And the festival will close Sunday with a performance by 79-year-old Charlemagne Palestine, who “plays only Bösendorfer pianos with extra keys on the bottom … so that the entire instrument resonates like perfume in the entire hall,” Amirkhanian says. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I want people to understand that this is a rare opportunity to hear a composer who’s now probably at the end of his career and he’s coming here to do this monster hour-long performance,” he continues. “It’s going to be thrilling.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Sunday, Amirkhanian will also be performing a song he composed when he was 18: “Sonatina for Four Bass Drums, Op. 4.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I thought it’d be fun to dredge something up from the past,” he muses.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994065\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Other Minds Executive and Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian at the organization’s offices in the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Sept. 17, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>Finding the ‘other minds\u003c/strong>’\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Amirkhanian also grew up in Fresno, in a household steeped in classical music.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>His mother and her three sisters were all classical pianists. Because Fresno sits roughly halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, musicians traveling between the two cities would sometimes stop there, giving Amirkhanian opportunities to encounter performers and music that might otherwise have passed him by.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One day his father brought home a 78 rpm record with an Armenian rug pictured on the cover and two Armenian names: Alan Hovhaness and Maro Ajemian. Thinking it was an Armenian folk album, he bought it for the family. It turned out to be one of John Cage’s early commercial releases.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Cage’s approach to sound opened another world for Amirkhanian. He remembered a piano altered with screws, erasers and other objects inserted among its strings.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“My mother told him to take it back to the shop,” Amirkhanian recalls. “But the shop would not take it back.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The record stayed, and set Amirkhanian on a lifelong path toward “all the sounds that you could incorporate into music.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Cage, who died in 1992, also inspired the festival’s name, thanks to a dismissive \u003cem>New Yorker\u003c/em> obituary of the artist that says: “His epitaph might read that he composed music in other peoples’ minds.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Amirkhanian and co-founder Jim Newman decided then that they \u003cem>were\u003c/em> the “other minds.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The first Other Minds festival, in 1993, was a hit, featuring composers Philip Glass, Meredith Monk and Julia Wolfe.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The composers … went out and told everybody, ‘Well, they don’t pay much money, but you better accept if you get an invitation to the Other Minds festival,’” Amirkhanian recalls. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Forced to choose a highlight of his 30-year tenure, Amirkhanian recalled \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4rfukf_eqI\">\u003cem>Ice Field\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a performance commissioned by Other Minds in 2001 and composed by Henry Brant. For $10,000, Brant put a jazz band on the balcony of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco and surrounded the audience with a wall of cacophonous sound. The piece won a Pulitzer Prize.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994062\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Other Minds Executive and Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian (left) and Associate Director Joseph Bohigian chat at their offices in the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Sept. 17, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>Other Minds’ electronic futures\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Today, Other Minds’ Berkeley office houses an archive of roughly 4,000 audio tapes from the earliest days of KPFA. The record label releases music that might struggle to find a home elsewhere, particularly work that is too experimental or noncommercial for larger labels. The organization also has a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kalw.org/show/music-from-other-minds\">two-hour program on KALW\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other Minds now also has a holiday in San Francisco. Mayor Daniel Lurie last week proclaimed Oct. 2, 2026 as Other Minds Day, in recognition of its 30th anniversary and the festival’s enduring contribution to San Francisco’s cultural life.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Both men are surprisingly optimistic about the future, even as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13982572/ai-is-coming-for-the-music-industry-how-will-artists-adapt\">artificial intelligence\u003c/a> begins to reshape the way music is made and consumed. Amirkhanian notes that we’re already “surrounded by dangers: politically, culturally — and we’re going to get through it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bohigian says AI has long been used by composers and musicians, predating the current discussions of rogue agents and other hazards. In grad school, he experimented with machine learning, training basic models to recognize certain sounds. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We can find ways to use this, like any other new technology, to our advantage to make something new that we couldn’t have made without it,” Bohigian says.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Taking over the artistic future of Other Minds will require him to keep grappling with these questions. But the principles will be the same: give unusual music a place to exist, give its composers an audience and listen closely to discover what comes next.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Because of the internet, you’re finding out about new people all the time. Every week I’m hearing about some composer that was not at all on my radar, making really interesting work,” Bohigian continues. “I can sometimes get a little bit in my head about what’s out there. And then I hear something new that’s exciting and I think, ‘Oh, we have a bright future.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.otherminds.org/other-minds-festival-30/\">Other Minds Festival\u003c/a> takes place Oct. 8–11 at Brava Theater in San Francisco. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As the co-founder of Other Minds, a leading nonprofit and record label \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/11353950/other-minds-archives-headed-for-uc-santa-cruz\">dedicated to noncommercial music\u003c/a>, and as the former music director of KPFA, he’s spent decades championing composers who push beyond conventional boundaries. He also has cultivated an audience willing to follow them there through \u003ca href=\"https://www.otherminds.org/other-minds-festival-30/\">Other Minds’ annual festival\u003c/a>, which brings freewheeling musicians and sound poets from around the world to San Francisco. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>As the co-founder of Other Minds, a leading nonprofit and record label \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/11353950/other-minds-archives-headed-for-uc-santa-cruz\">dedicated to noncommercial music\u003c/a>, and as the former music director of KPFA, he’s spent decades championing composers who push beyond conventional boundaries. He also has cultivated an audience willing to follow them there through \u003ca href=\"https://www.otherminds.org/other-minds-festival-30/\">Other Minds’ annual festival\u003c/a>, which brings freewheeling musicians and sound poets from around the world to San Francisco. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On Oct. 8–11 at the Brava Theater in the Mission District, the festival will celebrate its 30th anniversary. It’s also the 81-year-old Amirkhanian’s last year as executive and artistic director before he retires in January. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>On Oct. 8–11 at the Brava Theater in the Mission District, the festival will celebrate its 30th anniversary. It’s also the 81-year-old Amirkhanian’s last year as executive and artistic director before he retires in January. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Musician and fellow composer Joseph Bohigian, currently Other Minds’ associate director, will take over as artistic director next year. A separate search for the organization’s next executive director is underway. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Musician and fellow composer Joseph Bohigian, currently Other Minds’ associate director, will take over as artistic director next year. A separate search for the organization’s next executive director is underway. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bohigian says he’ll strive to lead the organization into a new chapter while continuing his predecessor’s ambitions. Much like his mentor, the young composer draws from a wellspring of ancient Armenian culture and the contemporary American experimental music to express something new. He’s also made it his mission to support other artists on their voyages, as Amirkhanian has done for decades. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“And the composers who make the music,” Amirkhanian adds. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On a cloudy Thursday, Amirkhanian and Bohigian sit together in Other Minds’ downtown Berkeley office, surrounded by stacks of CDs and a bust of legendary 20th-century Bay Area new music composer Henry Cowell (“the godfather,” Amirkhanian says). Through the glass windows, cars and passersby screech and blare from below, making their own kind of experimental music. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>On a cloudy Thursday, Amirkhanian and Bohigian sit together in Other Minds’ downtown Berkeley office, surrounded by stacks of CDs and a bust of legendary 20th-century Bay Area new music composer Henry Cowell (“the godfather,” Amirkhanian says). Through the glass windows, cars and passersby screech and blare from below, making their own kind of experimental music. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Despite a nearly half-century age gap, Amirkhanian and Bohigian are kindred spirits. Both of them are percussionists, steeped in a tradition that includes iconoclastic musicians like Cowell, Lou Harrison and others. And both are Armenians from Fresno, the agricultural city in California’s heartland which is home to one of the oldest and most vibrant Armenian diasporas in the U.S. Both have drawn on their heritage in their work in forward-thinking ways. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Despite a nearly half-century age gap, Amirkhanian and Bohigian are kindred spirits. Both of them are percussionists, steeped in a tradition that includes iconoclastic musicians like Cowell, Lou Harrison and others. And both are Armenians from Fresno, the agricultural city in California’s heartland which is home to one of the oldest and most vibrant Armenian diasporas in the U.S. Both have drawn on their heritage in their work in forward-thinking ways. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The two first met in 2011 when Bohigian was a freshman at Fresno State University. Amirkhanian was doing a guest performance at the Fresno New Music Festival, and guest-lectured in one of Bohigian’s music classes. At the festival, the students performed an octet Amirkhanian had written as part of a career-long fascination with the noisiest percussion instrument: the ratchet. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The two first met in 2011 when Bohigian was a freshman at Fresno State University. Amirkhanian was doing a guest performance at the Fresno New Music Festival, and guest-lectured in one of Bohigian’s music classes. At the festival, the students performed an octet Amirkhanian had written as part of a career-long fascination with the noisiest percussion instrument: the ratchet. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bohigian, who was born in 1993, the same year as the first Other Minds festival, began as a pianist before switching to percussion, a classic path into contemporary music.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bohigian started composing in high school, initially writing pieces that imitated composers like Cowell, who devised a method for playing the piano from the inside, on the strings. Bohigian’s first piano piece, written for an AP music theory course, was titled “Song for Spaghetti Armed Steve.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But his work gradually developed a deeper cultural focus. A piece \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10467313/marking-the-armenian-genocide-anniversary-by-featuring-living-armenian-composers?mc_cid=3995258f14&mc_eid=e3b2e66c4b\">he composed during his senior year\u003c/a> of college to observe the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide was performed in 2015 by Fresno State’s New Music Ensemble. Bohigian lived in Armenia from 2019–2020, where he conducted research, studied and taught a laptop orchestra class at the state conservatory in Yerevan. His compositions have been performed around the world. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994064\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Other Minds Associate Director Joseph Bohigian holds a program for the Other Minds Festival at the organization’s offices in the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Sept. 17, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994064\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Other Minds Associate Director Joseph Bohigian holds a program for the Other Minds Festival at the organization’s offices in the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Sept. 17, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bohigian’s latest work will premiere Thursday on the opening night of this year’s Other Minds festival. He will debut \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.otherminds.org/scenes-from-i-am-he-whose-life-and-soul-are-torment/\">I Am He Whose Life and Soul Are Torment\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, an evening-length multimedia performance inspired by the life of Soviet-Armenian auteur Sergei Parajanov.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bohigian’s composition draws from Parajanov’s abstract 1969 film, \u003cem>The Color of Pomegranates\u003c/em>, about the 18th-century bard Sayat-Nova, who sang in Armenian, Georgian and Azeri — the languages of the region. The film was released four years before the director was jailed by the USSR for homosexuality and sentenced to hard labor. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Bohigian’s composition draws from Parajanov’s abstract 1969 film, \u003cem>The Color of Pomegranates\u003c/em>, about the 18th-century bard Sayat-Nova, who sang in Armenian, Georgian and Azeri — the languages of the region. The film was released four years before the director was jailed by the USSR for homosexuality and sentenced to hard labor. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The piece brings together Sayat-Nova’s folk music — performed by Bay Area wind instrumentalist and vocalist \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060906/meet-the-duduk-whisperer-a-bay-area-armenian-folk-musician-revives-centuries-of-soul\">Khatchadour Khatchadourian\u003c/a> — with the electronic music tradition that Bohigian is immersed in, to illustrate scenes from Parajanov’s life. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bohigian describes the piece as theatrical, involving staged visual elements and costumes by East Bay artists Tara Baghdassarian and Caro Yaghjian in addition to the electronics and vocals.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We want to really make it immersive,” Bohigian says. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Some other festival weekend highlights include a live electronic performance from Philadelphia-born King Britt, delivering a set of sonic liberation compositions rooted in Black sound. And the festival will close Sunday with a performance by 79-year-old Charlemagne Palestine, who “plays only Bösendorfer pianos with extra keys on the bottom … so that the entire instrument resonates like perfume in the entire hall,” Amirkhanian says. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I want people to understand that this is a rare opportunity to hear a composer who’s now probably at the end of his career and he’s coming here to do this monster hour-long performance,” he continues. “It’s going to be thrilling.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I want people to understand that this is a rare opportunity to hear a composer who’s now probably at the end of his career and he’s coming here to do this monster hour-long performance,” he continues. “It’s going to be thrilling.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On Sunday, Amirkhanian will also be performing a song he composed when he was 18: “Sonatina for Four Bass Drums, Op. 4.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994065\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Other Minds Executive and Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian at the organization’s offices in the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Sept. 17, 2026. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Amirkhanian also grew up in Fresno, in a household steeped in classical music.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>His mother and her three sisters were all classical pianists. Because Fresno sits roughly halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, musicians traveling between the two cities would sometimes stop there, giving Amirkhanian opportunities to encounter performers and music that might otherwise have passed him by.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>His mother and her three sisters were all classical pianists. Because Fresno sits roughly halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, musicians traveling between the two cities would sometimes stop there, giving Amirkhanian opportunities to encounter performers and music that might otherwise have passed him by.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One day his father brought home a 78 rpm record with an Armenian rug pictured on the cover and two Armenian names: Alan Hovhaness and Maro Ajemian. Thinking it was an Armenian folk album, he bought it for the family. It turned out to be one of John Cage’s early commercial releases.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>One day his father brought home a 78 rpm record with an Armenian rug pictured on the cover and two Armenian names: Alan Hovhaness and Maro Ajemian. Thinking it was an Armenian folk album, he bought it for the family. It turned out to be one of John Cage’s early commercial releases.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Cage’s approach to sound opened another world for Amirkhanian. He remembered a piano altered with screws, erasers and other objects inserted among its strings.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“My mother told him to take it back to the shop,” Amirkhanian recalls. “But the shop would not take it back.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Cage, who died in 1992, also inspired the festival’s name, thanks to a dismissive \u003cem>New Yorker\u003c/em> obituary of the artist that says: “His epitaph might read that he composed music in other peoples’ minds.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The first Other Minds festival, in 1993, was a hit, featuring composers Philip Glass, Meredith Monk and Julia Wolfe.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Forced to choose a highlight of his 30-year tenure, Amirkhanian recalled \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4rfukf_eqI\">\u003cem>Ice Field\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a performance commissioned by Other Minds in 2001 and composed by Henry Brant. For $10,000, Brant put a jazz band on the balcony of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco and surrounded the audience with a wall of cacophonous sound. The piece won a Pulitzer Prize.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994062\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Other Minds Executive and Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian (left) and Associate Director Joseph Bohigian chat at their offices in the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Sept. 17, 2026. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994062\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Other Minds Executive and Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian (left) and Associate Director Joseph Bohigian chat at their offices in the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Sept. 17, 2026. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Today, Other Minds’ Berkeley office houses an archive of roughly 4,000 audio tapes from the earliest days of KPFA. The record label releases music that might struggle to find a home elsewhere, particularly work that is too experimental or noncommercial for larger labels. The organization also has a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kalw.org/show/music-from-other-minds\">two-hour program on KALW\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Today, Other Minds’ Berkeley office houses an archive of roughly 4,000 audio tapes from the earliest days of KPFA. The record label releases music that might struggle to find a home elsewhere, particularly work that is too experimental or noncommercial for larger labels. The organization also has a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kalw.org/show/music-from-other-minds\">two-hour program on KALW\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Other Minds now also has a holiday in San Francisco. Mayor Daniel Lurie last week proclaimed Oct. 2, 2026 as Other Minds Day, in recognition of its 30th anniversary and the festival’s enduring contribution to San Francisco’s cultural life.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Other Minds now also has a holiday in San Francisco. Mayor Daniel Lurie last week proclaimed Oct. 2, 2026 as Other Minds Day, in recognition of its 30th anniversary and the festival’s enduring contribution to San Francisco’s cultural life.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Both men are surprisingly optimistic about the future, even as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13982572/ai-is-coming-for-the-music-industry-how-will-artists-adapt\">artificial intelligence\u003c/a> begins to reshape the way music is made and consumed. Amirkhanian notes that we’re already “surrounded by dangers: politically, culturally — and we’re going to get through it.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Both men are surprisingly optimistic about the future, even as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13982572/ai-is-coming-for-the-music-industry-how-will-artists-adapt\">artificial intelligence\u003c/a> begins to reshape the way music is made and consumed. Amirkhanian notes that we’re already “surrounded by dangers: politically, culturally — and we’re going to get through it.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bohigian says AI has long been used by composers and musicians, predating the current discussions of rogue agents and other hazards. In grad school, he experimented with machine learning, training basic models to recognize certain sounds. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Bohigian says AI has long been used by composers and musicians, predating the current discussions of rogue agents and other hazards. In grad school, he experimented with machine learning, training basic models to recognize certain sounds. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We can find ways to use this, like any other new technology, to our advantage to make something new that we couldn’t have made without it,” Bohigian says.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Taking over the artistic future of Other Minds will require him to keep grappling with these questions. But the principles will be the same: give unusual music a place to exist, give its composers an audience and listen closely to discover what comes next.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Taking over the artistic future of Other Minds will require him to keep grappling with these questions. But the principles will be the same: give unusual music a place to exist, give its composers an audience and listen closely to discover what comes next.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Because of the internet, you’re finding out about new people all the time. Every week I’m hearing about some composer that was not at all on my radar, making really interesting work,” Bohigian continues. “I can sometimes get a little bit in my head about what’s out there. And then I hear something new that’s exciting and I think, ‘Oh, we have a bright future.’”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Because of the internet, you’re finding out about new people all the time. Every week I’m hearing about some composer that was not at all on my radar, making really interesting work,” Bohigian continues. “I can sometimes get a little bit in my head about what’s out there. And then I hear something new that’s exciting and I think, ‘Oh, we have a bright future.’”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.otherminds.org/other-minds-festival-30/\">Other Minds Festival\u003c/a> takes place Oct. 8–11 at Brava Theater in San Francisco. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Charles Amirkhanian reflects on his legacy in avant-garde music — and his festival and record label’s next era. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>What’s the state of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/experimental-music\">experimental music\u003c/a> today?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“California,” composer Charles Amirkhanian says, laughing. “It’s happening here. Occasionally we’ll let in someone from New York — or Norway. But we don’t have any problems finding material.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Amirkhanian has long mastered the art of creating a home for the avant-garde. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As the co-founder of Other Minds, a leading nonprofit and record label \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/11353950/other-minds-archives-headed-for-uc-santa-cruz\">dedicated to noncommercial music\u003c/a>, and as the former music director of KPFA, he’s spent decades championing composers who push beyond conventional boundaries. He also has cultivated an audience willing to follow them there through \u003ca href=\"https://www.otherminds.org/other-minds-festival-30/\">Other Minds’ annual festival\u003c/a>, which brings freewheeling musicians and sound poets from around the world to San Francisco. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Oct. 8–11 at the Brava Theater in the Mission District, the festival will celebrate its 30th anniversary. It’s also the 81-year-old Amirkhanian’s last year as executive and artistic director before he retires in January. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Musician and fellow composer Joseph Bohigian, currently Other Minds’ associate director, will take over as artistic director next year. A separate search for the organization’s next executive director is underway. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bohigian says he’ll strive to lead the organization into a new chapter while continuing his predecessor’s ambitions. Much like his mentor, the young composer draws from a wellspring of ancient Armenian culture and the contemporary American experimental music to express something new. He’s also made it his mission to support other artists on their voyages, as Amirkhanian has done for decades. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We’re trying to make sure that there’s a home for out-there music, the stuff that’s not commercially viable, but is exciting and experimental and pushes things forward,” Bohigian says. “We want to serve that small but dedicated audience.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“And the composers who make the music,” Amirkhanian adds. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994061\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-01-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Other Minds Executive and Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian and Associate Director Joseph Bohigian chat at their offices in the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Sept. 17, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>Two kindred spirits, born half a century apart\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On a cloudy Thursday, Amirkhanian and Bohigian sit together in Other Minds’ downtown Berkeley office, surrounded by stacks of CDs and a bust of legendary 20th-century Bay Area new music composer Henry Cowell (“the godfather,” Amirkhanian says). Through the glass windows, cars and passersby screech and blare from below, making their own kind of experimental music. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s a fitting soundtrack for an organization whose mission is, in part, to listen differently. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Despite a nearly half-century age gap, Amirkhanian and Bohigian are kindred spirits. Both of them are percussionists, steeped in a tradition that includes iconoclastic musicians like Cowell, Lou Harrison and others. And both are Armenians from Fresno, the agricultural city in California’s heartland which is home to one of the oldest and most vibrant Armenian diasporas in the U.S. Both have drawn on their heritage in their work in forward-thinking ways. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The two first met in 2011 when Bohigian was a freshman at Fresno State University. Amirkhanian was doing a guest performance at the Fresno New Music Festival, and guest-lectured in one of Bohigian’s music classes. At the festival, the students performed an octet Amirkhanian had written as part of a career-long fascination with the noisiest percussion instrument: the ratchet. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That kind of thing was really exciting,” Bohigian recalls. “This loud, asynchronous rhythm.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bohigian, who was born in 1993, the same year as the first Other Minds festival, began as a pianist before switching to percussion, a classic path into contemporary music.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“If you’re a percussionist, there’s not a lot of old repertoire,” he says. “You’re performing mostly 20th- and 21st-century music.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bohigian started composing in high school, initially writing pieces that imitated composers like Cowell, who devised a method for playing the piano from the inside, on the strings. Bohigian’s first piano piece, written for an AP music theory course, was titled “Song for Spaghetti Armed Steve.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But his work gradually developed a deeper cultural focus. A piece \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/10467313/marking-the-armenian-genocide-anniversary-by-featuring-living-armenian-composers?mc_cid=3995258f14&mc_eid=e3b2e66c4b\">he composed during his senior year\u003c/a> of college to observe the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide was performed in 2015 by Fresno State’s New Music Ensemble. Bohigian lived in Armenia from 2019–2020, where he conducted research, studied and taught a laptop orchestra class at the state conservatory in Yerevan. His compositions have been performed around the world. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994064\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Other Minds Associate Director Joseph Bohigian holds a program for the Other Minds Festival at the organization’s offices in the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Sept. 17, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>Reviving the legacy of an Armenian auteur\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bohigian’s latest work will premiere Thursday on the opening night of this year’s Other Minds festival. He will debut \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.otherminds.org/scenes-from-i-am-he-whose-life-and-soul-are-torment/\">I Am He Whose Life and Soul Are Torment\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, an evening-length multimedia performance inspired by the life of Soviet-Armenian auteur Sergei Parajanov.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bohigian’s composition draws from Parajanov’s abstract 1969 film, \u003cem>The Color of Pomegranates\u003c/em>, about the 18th-century bard Sayat-Nova, who sang in Armenian, Georgian and Azeri — the languages of the region. The film was released four years before the director was jailed by the USSR for homosexuality and sentenced to hard labor. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The piece brings together Sayat-Nova’s folk music — performed by Bay Area wind instrumentalist and vocalist \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12060906/meet-the-duduk-whisperer-a-bay-area-armenian-folk-musician-revives-centuries-of-soul\">Khatchadour Khatchadourian\u003c/a> — with the electronic music tradition that Bohigian is immersed in, to illustrate scenes from Parajanov’s life. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bohigian describes the piece as theatrical, involving staged visual elements and costumes by East Bay artists Tara Baghdassarian and Caro Yaghjian in addition to the electronics and vocals.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We want to really make it immersive,” Bohigian says. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Some other festival weekend highlights include a live electronic performance from Philadelphia-born King Britt, delivering a set of sonic liberation compositions rooted in Black sound. And the festival will close Sunday with a performance by 79-year-old Charlemagne Palestine, who “plays only Bösendorfer pianos with extra keys on the bottom … so that the entire instrument resonates like perfume in the entire hall,” Amirkhanian says. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I want people to understand that this is a rare opportunity to hear a composer who’s now probably at the end of his career and he’s coming here to do this monster hour-long performance,” he continues. “It’s going to be thrilling.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Sunday, Amirkhanian will also be performing a song he composed when he was 18: “Sonatina for Four Bass Drums, Op. 4.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I thought it’d be fun to dredge something up from the past,” he muses.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994065\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Other Minds Executive and Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian at the organization’s offices in the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Sept. 17, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>Finding the ‘other minds\u003c/strong>’\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Amirkhanian also grew up in Fresno, in a household steeped in classical music.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>His mother and her three sisters were all classical pianists. Because Fresno sits roughly halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, musicians traveling between the two cities would sometimes stop there, giving Amirkhanian opportunities to encounter performers and music that might otherwise have passed him by.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One day his father brought home a 78 rpm record with an Armenian rug pictured on the cover and two Armenian names: Alan Hovhaness and Maro Ajemian. Thinking it was an Armenian folk album, he bought it for the family. It turned out to be one of John Cage’s early commercial releases.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Cage’s approach to sound opened another world for Amirkhanian. He remembered a piano altered with screws, erasers and other objects inserted among its strings.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“My mother told him to take it back to the shop,” Amirkhanian recalls. “But the shop would not take it back.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The record stayed, and set Amirkhanian on a lifelong path toward “all the sounds that you could incorporate into music.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Cage, who died in 1992, also inspired the festival’s name, thanks to a dismissive \u003cem>New Yorker\u003c/em> obituary of the artist that says: “His epitaph might read that he composed music in other peoples’ minds.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Amirkhanian and co-founder Jim Newman decided then that they \u003cem>were\u003c/em> the “other minds.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The first Other Minds festival, in 1993, was a hit, featuring composers Philip Glass, Meredith Monk and Julia Wolfe.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The composers … went out and told everybody, ‘Well, they don’t pay much money, but you better accept if you get an invitation to the Other Minds festival,’” Amirkhanian recalls. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Forced to choose a highlight of his 30-year tenure, Amirkhanian recalled \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4rfukf_eqI\">\u003cem>Ice Field\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a performance commissioned by Other Minds in 2001 and composed by Henry Brant. For $10,000, Brant put a jazz band on the balcony of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco and surrounded the audience with a wall of cacophonous sound. The piece won a Pulitzer Prize.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994062\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/260917-OtherMinds-03-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Other Minds Executive and Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian (left) and Associate Director Joseph Bohigian chat at their offices in the David Brower Center in Berkeley on Sept. 17, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>Other Minds’ electronic futures\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Today, Other Minds’ Berkeley office houses an archive of roughly 4,000 audio tapes from the earliest days of KPFA. The record label releases music that might struggle to find a home elsewhere, particularly work that is too experimental or noncommercial for larger labels. The organization also has a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kalw.org/show/music-from-other-minds\">two-hour program on KALW\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other Minds now also has a holiday in San Francisco. Mayor Daniel Lurie last week proclaimed Oct. 2, 2026 as Other Minds Day, in recognition of its 30th anniversary and the festival’s enduring contribution to San Francisco’s cultural life.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Both men are surprisingly optimistic about the future, even as \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13982572/ai-is-coming-for-the-music-industry-how-will-artists-adapt\">artificial intelligence\u003c/a> begins to reshape the way music is made and consumed. Amirkhanian notes that we’re already “surrounded by dangers: politically, culturally — and we’re going to get through it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bohigian says AI has long been used by composers and musicians, predating the current discussions of rogue agents and other hazards. In grad school, he experimented with machine learning, training basic models to recognize certain sounds. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We can find ways to use this, like any other new technology, to our advantage to make something new that we couldn’t have made without it,” Bohigian says.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Taking over the artistic future of Other Minds will require him to keep grappling with these questions. But the principles will be the same: give unusual music a place to exist, give its composers an audience and listen closely to discover what comes next.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Because of the internet, you’re finding out about new people all the time. Every week I’m hearing about some composer that was not at all on my radar, making really interesting work,” Bohigian continues. “I can sometimes get a little bit in my head about what’s out there. And then I hear something new that’s exciting and I think, ‘Oh, we have a bright future.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.otherminds.org/other-minds-festival-30/\">Other Minds Festival\u003c/a> takes place Oct. 8–11 at Brava Theater in San Francisco. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>At the main branch of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/berkeley\">Berkeley\u003c/a> Public Library sits a set of speakers that look like mountains.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The pair of nearly nine-foot white triangular wooden blocks tower over \u003ca href=\"https://blackamericansoundsystem.org/tagged/the%20break%20room\">\u003cem>The Break Room\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which is less of a room and more of a nook off of the second floor’s main hallway. At the base of the speakers is a garden of faux plants, and archival posters of star-studded local events hang in the window behind them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On the floor, separating the two mammoth speakers, a pair of long brown wooden blocks are laid horizontally and stacked on top of one another. Written on them in bold red letters are the words “\u003ca href=\"https://blackamericansoundsystem.org/\">Black American Sound System\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4941-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994361\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4941-scaled.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4941-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4941-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4941-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4941-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The towering John Henry Sound System is an artistic commentary on labor and culture, music and movements. (Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“These are 1984 Cerwin-Vegas,” says singer and sonic designer \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ddeonbrown/\">Derwin Deon Brown II\u003c/a>, describing the speakers. Brown calls it the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reels/Dd4rX4iykUM/\">John Henry Sound System\u003c/a>, named after the Black American folk hero.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Brown and his towering sound system are the centerpiece of \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/inthestax\">In The Stax\u003c/a>, an annual series of music-related programs across the Berkeley Public Library system. The first performance in the series takes place Thursday, Oct. 1 at the Claremont Branch with instrumentalist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/connoisseurrat/\">Connoisseur Rat\u003c/a>, and events continue through the second week of December.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Since launching in 2022, the series has featured artists like Oakland punk band \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/5ra-3x0cNxQ?si=-_tfH-67cPYp_zuZ\">Skip the Needle\u003c/a> and soul singer \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkfX6lwXTHU\">Marisha Ashanti\u003c/a>. Berkeley Public Library Specialist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/_readwatchlisten/\">Chinyere Keita\u003c/a>, who organizes the events, says the goal is to bring Black artists into the space.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Born and raised in Oakland, Keita spent her teenage and young adult years at the Berkeley library, working there for the past 15 years. During that time, she’s noticed that younger folks and people of color will overlook the library as a welcoming third space, and assume that all it offers are books and free wi-fi.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I just want to always remind people that our culture is here. Our history is here,” she tells me during a recent phone call. “And Derwin Deon Brown II had the exact kind of thing reflected in his artwork.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Brown is In The Stax’s first artist-in-residence. Along with his John Henry Sound System, he’ll debut his forthcoming album (also titled \u003cem>John Henry\u003c/em>) later this fall. In the meantime, he’s been working with Keita to develop the event series. “And all the programming,” says Keita, “is around Black artists.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1337\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545.jpg\" alt=\"An African American man in a hat and brown jacket and a woman in a green shirt and large afro pose for a photo inside of a library.\" class=\"wp-image-13994358\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545-1536x1027.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Artist Derwin Deon Brown II and library specialist Chinyere Keita have programmed a series of events this fall throughout the Berkeley Public Library system. (Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The series features performances from the likes of lyricist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kayattamusic/\">Kayatta\u003c/a>, a panel discussion about the current state of Black radio, a Wild West Femme Cypher and a workshop where people can burn their own playlists to a CD and create collages as cover art. More than just listening to a lecture, Keita tells me, it’s about weaving new ideas into the culture of the library.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Yoga was actually our most popular program at the Oakland Public Library,” says Brown, referring to a workshop last spring where he collaborated with \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/blacktoyoga/\">Black to Yoga\u003c/a> and compiled a playlist of songs to center healing. “We’re gonna be doing the same thing at Berkeley Public Library,” he says, “but this time, live.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Instruments and vocals, sound waves and varying vibrational energies are tools to help people center themselves. And ultimately the goal is to use those tools to get people to relax and recharge. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994359\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-scaled.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">In addition to being a musician and designing the mammoth John Henry Sound System, Derwin Deon Brown II is the youngest member of the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandbca.org/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAadUF8JYpjlSY-QjJAHuM76e8nYpYMxezNfVQ0tBvJIS3oRxhGekji8j2xe-2A_aem_jNfBI64Zd3bz1zSSrO-zUQ\">Oakland Black Cowboy Association\u003c/a>. (Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“And when we talk about ‘the break,’” Brown says, “we really want to embody all the definitions of that.” The “break” can be a rest, a dose of culture or a break from habits. It can even be breakbeats found in hip-hop. Ultimately, says Brown, it’s about convincing people to “integrate breaks into our lives.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The 27-year-old laments the amount of time that work has taken him away from his family. Originally from Pasadena, he moved to Oakland in his college years, attending San Francisco State University. “Oakland has raised me as a man,” he affirms, now a decade into his East Bay residency. A former legal aid and social worker, Brown admits the corporate ladder is deceiving.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m thinking I’m working my way up and really I’m just on a treadmill, like many people, chasing the next thing,” he tells me with an exhale. “Niggas was tired. You know, we’re working and doing too much shit, man.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>John Henry is an intentional name for Brown’s sound system and forthcoming album. In the folk tale, Henry, a broad-shouldered African-American blue-collar worker with a hammer, bore a hole through a mountain faster a machine, but collapsed and died soon after his victory.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s an allegory for Black labor, and the limits of our labor,” Brown professes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"Looking out the window from inside of the Main branch of the Berkeley Public Library, as translucent concert posters adorn the windows.\" class=\"wp-image-13994357\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-scaled.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">As a part of ‘The Break Room,’ archival concert posters adorn the walls and windows of the Berkeley Public Library. (Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For Brown, as a Black queer man in America, the “machine” he’s in competition with can take many forms, be it new predatory technology or old-fashioned racism. It can even show up internally, he says, clarifying that poor mental health, habitually people-pleasing or bouts of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101892/is-it-love-or-limerence-why-intense-chemistry-can-be-misleading\">limerence\u003c/a> are “machines” of a different sort.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“How do I temper those machines? How do I study them, observe them and conquer them?” asks the artist. “What would it be like if John Henry survived? That’s what this is about.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On the fifth floor of Berkeley’s main library is a multimedia station where people can \u003cem>take a break\u003c/em> and listen to a CD from Gucci Mane and read an article about John Coltrane, or slap a record by Santana and peruse a magazine with Steve Lacy on the cover.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And just a few floors below, encased in hand-cut wooden triangles, are a set of speakers unlike any other, as four 15-inch drivers, two tweeters and a midrange horn come together to sonically spread culture.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They’re custom-made for pretty loud bass,” Brown says of his John Henry Sound System. Although they’re in a library, the speakers are on par with the ones you’d hear at concert halls, churches and clubs. “And that’s really the sound that I wanted to bring,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Events in the \u003c/em>‘\u003cem>In The Stax’ series run now through Dec. 12. \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/inthestax\">More details and information here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Brown and his towering sound system are the centerpiece of \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/inthestax\">In The Stax\u003c/a>, an annual series of music-related programs across the Berkeley Public Library system. The first performance in the series takes place Thursday, Oct. 1 at the Claremont Branch with instrumentalist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/connoisseurrat/\">Connoisseur Rat\u003c/a>, and events continue through the second week of December.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Since launching in 2022, the series has featured artists like Oakland punk band \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/5ra-3x0cNxQ?si=-_tfH-67cPYp_zuZ\">Skip the Needle\u003c/a> and soul singer \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkfX6lwXTHU\">Marisha Ashanti\u003c/a>. Berkeley Public Library Specialist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/_readwatchlisten/\">Chinyere Keita\u003c/a>, who organizes the events, says the goal is to bring Black artists into the space.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Born and raised in Oakland, Keita spent her teenage and young adult years at the Berkeley library, working there for the past 15 years. During that time, she’s noticed that younger folks and people of color will overlook the library as a welcoming third space, and assume that all it offers are books and free wi-fi.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Born and raised in Oakland, Keita spent her teenage and young adult years at the Berkeley library, working there for the past 15 years. During that time, she’s noticed that younger folks and people of color will overlook the library as a welcoming third space, and assume that all it offers are books and free wi-fi.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I just want to always remind people that our culture is here. Our history is here,” she tells me during a recent phone call. “And Derwin Deon Brown II had the exact kind of thing reflected in his artwork.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I just want to always remind people that our culture is here. Our history is here,” she tells me during a recent phone call. “And Derwin Deon Brown II had the exact kind of thing reflected in his artwork.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Brown is In The Stax’s first artist-in-residence. Along with his John Henry Sound System, he’ll debut his forthcoming album (also titled \u003cem>John Henry\u003c/em>) later this fall. In the meantime, he’s been working with Keita to develop the event series. “And all the programming,” says Keita, “is around Black artists.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Brown is In The Stax’s first artist-in-residence. Along with his John Henry Sound System, he’ll debut his forthcoming album (also titled \u003cem>John Henry\u003c/em>) later this fall. In the meantime, he’s been working with Keita to develop the event series. “And all the programming,” says Keita, “is around Black artists.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"alt": "An African American man in a hat and brown jacket and a woman in a green shirt and large afro pose for a photo inside of a library.",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545.jpg\" alt=\"An African American man in a hat and brown jacket and a woman in a green shirt and large afro pose for a photo inside of a library.\" class=\"wp-image-13994358\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545-1536x1027.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Artist Derwin Deon Brown II and library specialist Chinyere Keita have programmed a series of events this fall throughout the Berkeley Public Library system.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545.jpg\" alt=\"An African American man in a hat and brown jacket and a woman in a green shirt and large afro pose for a photo inside of a library.\" class=\"wp-image-13994358\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Artist Derwin Deon Brown II and library specialist Chinyere Keita have programmed a series of events this fall throughout the Berkeley Public Library system.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The series features performances from the likes of lyricist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kayattamusic/\">Kayatta\u003c/a>, a panel discussion about the current state of Black radio, a Wild West Femme Cypher and a workshop where people can burn their own playlists to a CD and create collages as cover art. More than just listening to a lecture, Keita tells me, it’s about weaving new ideas into the culture of the library.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The series features performances from the likes of lyricist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kayattamusic/\">Kayatta\u003c/a>, a panel discussion about the current state of Black radio, a Wild West Femme Cypher and a workshop where people can burn their own playlists to a CD and create collages as cover art. More than just listening to a lecture, Keita tells me, it’s about weaving new ideas into the culture of the library.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Yoga was actually our most popular program at the Oakland Public Library,” says Brown, referring to a workshop last spring where he collaborated with \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/blacktoyoga/\">Black to Yoga\u003c/a> and compiled a playlist of songs to center healing. “We’re gonna be doing the same thing at Berkeley Public Library,” he says, “but this time, live.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Yoga was actually our most popular program at the Oakland Public Library,” says Brown, referring to a workshop last spring where he collaborated with \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/blacktoyoga/\">Black to Yoga\u003c/a> and compiled a playlist of songs to center healing. “We’re gonna be doing the same thing at Berkeley Public Library,” he says, “but this time, live.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Instruments and vocals, sound waves and varying vibrational energies are tools to help people center themselves. And ultimately the goal is to use those tools to get people to relax and recharge. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Instruments and vocals, sound waves and varying vibrational energies are tools to help people center themselves. And ultimately the goal is to use those tools to get people to relax and recharge. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994359\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-scaled.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">In addition to being a musician and designing the mammoth John Henry Sound System, Derwin Deon Brown II is the youngest member of the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandbca.org/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAadUF8JYpjlSY-QjJAHuM76e8nYpYMxezNfVQ0tBvJIS3oRxhGekji8j2xe-2A_aem_jNfBI64Zd3bz1zSSrO-zUQ\">Oakland Black Cowboy Association\u003c/a>.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994359\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">In addition to being a musician and designing the mammoth John Henry Sound System, Derwin Deon Brown II is the youngest member of the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandbca.org/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAadUF8JYpjlSY-QjJAHuM76e8nYpYMxezNfVQ0tBvJIS3oRxhGekji8j2xe-2A_aem_jNfBI64Zd3bz1zSSrO-zUQ\">Oakland Black Cowboy Association\u003c/a>.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“And when we talk about ‘the break,’” Brown says, “we really want to embody all the definitions of that.” The “break” can be a rest, a dose of culture or a break from habits. It can even be breakbeats found in hip-hop. Ultimately, says Brown, it’s about convincing people to “integrate breaks into our lives.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“And when we talk about ‘the break,’” Brown says, “we really want to embody all the definitions of that.” The “break” can be a rest, a dose of culture or a break from habits. It can even be breakbeats found in hip-hop. Ultimately, says Brown, it’s about convincing people to “integrate breaks into our lives.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The 27-year-old laments the amount of time that work has taken him away from his family. Originally from Pasadena, he moved to Oakland in his college years, attending San Francisco State University. “Oakland has raised me as a man,” he affirms, now a decade into his East Bay residency. A former legal aid and social worker, Brown admits the corporate ladder is deceiving.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The 27-year-old laments the amount of time that work has taken him away from his family. Originally from Pasadena, he moved to Oakland in his college years, attending San Francisco State University. “Oakland has raised me as a man,” he affirms, now a decade into his East Bay residency. A former legal aid and social worker, Brown admits the corporate ladder is deceiving.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I’m thinking I’m working my way up and really I’m just on a treadmill, like many people, chasing the next thing,” he tells me with an exhale. “Niggas was tired. You know, we’re working and doing too much shit, man.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I’m thinking I’m working my way up and really I’m just on a treadmill, like many people, chasing the next thing,” he tells me with an exhale. “Niggas was tired. You know, we’re working and doing too much shit, man.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>John Henry is an intentional name for Brown’s sound system and forthcoming album. In the folk tale, Henry, a broad-shouldered African-American blue-collar worker with a hammer, bore a hole through a mountain faster a machine, but collapsed and died soon after his victory.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>John Henry is an intentional name for Brown’s sound system and forthcoming album. In the folk tale, Henry, a broad-shouldered African-American blue-collar worker with a hammer, bore a hole through a mountain faster a machine, but collapsed and died soon after his victory.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It’s an allegory for Black labor, and the limits of our labor,” Brown professes.\u003c/p>\n",
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"alt": "Looking out the window from inside of the Main branch of the Berkeley Public Library, as translucent concert posters adorn the windows.",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"Looking out the window from inside of the Main branch of the Berkeley Public Library, as translucent concert posters adorn the windows.\" class=\"wp-image-13994357\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-scaled.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">As a part of ‘The Break Room,’ archival concert posters adorn the walls and windows of the Berkeley Public Library.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"Looking out the window from inside of the Main branch of the Berkeley Public Library, as translucent concert posters adorn the windows.\" class=\"wp-image-13994357\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">As a part of ‘The Break Room,’ archival concert posters adorn the walls and windows of the Berkeley Public Library.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For Brown, as a Black queer man in America, the “machine” he’s in competition with can take many forms, be it new predatory technology or old-fashioned racism. It can even show up internally, he says, clarifying that poor mental health, habitually people-pleasing or bouts of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101892/is-it-love-or-limerence-why-intense-chemistry-can-be-misleading\">limerence\u003c/a> are “machines” of a different sort.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“How do I temper those machines? How do I study them, observe them and conquer them?” asks the artist. “What would it be like if John Henry survived? That’s what this is about.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“How do I temper those machines? How do I study them, observe them and conquer them?” asks the artist. “What would it be like if John Henry survived? That’s what this is about.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On the fifth floor of Berkeley’s main library is a multimedia station where people can \u003cem>take a break\u003c/em> and listen to a CD from Gucci Mane and read an article about John Coltrane, or slap a record by Santana and peruse a magazine with Steve Lacy on the cover.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>On the fifth floor of Berkeley’s main library is a multimedia station where people can \u003cem>take a break\u003c/em> and listen to a CD from Gucci Mane and read an article about John Coltrane, or slap a record by Santana and peruse a magazine with Steve Lacy on the cover.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And just a few floors below, encased in hand-cut wooden triangles, are a set of speakers unlike any other, as four 15-inch drivers, two tweeters and a midrange horn come together to sonically spread culture.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And just a few floors below, encased in hand-cut wooden triangles, are a set of speakers unlike any other, as four 15-inch drivers, two tweeters and a midrange horn come together to sonically spread culture.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“They’re custom-made for pretty loud bass,” Brown says of his John Henry Sound System. Although they’re in a library, the speakers are on par with the ones you’d hear at concert halls, churches and clubs. “And that’s really the sound that I wanted to bring,” he says.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“They’re custom-made for pretty loud bass,” Brown says of his John Henry Sound System. Although they’re in a library, the speakers are on par with the ones you’d hear at concert halls, churches and clubs. “And that’s really the sound that I wanted to bring,” he says.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Events in the \u003c/em>‘\u003cem>In The Stax’ series run now through Dec. 12. \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/inthestax\">More details and information here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "The John Henry Sound System Comes to the Berkeley Public Library | KQED",
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"headline": "The John Henry Sound System Comes to the Berkeley Public Library",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>At the main branch of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/berkeley\">Berkeley\u003c/a> Public Library sits a set of speakers that look like mountains.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The pair of nearly nine-foot white triangular wooden blocks tower over \u003ca href=\"https://blackamericansoundsystem.org/tagged/the%20break%20room\">\u003cem>The Break Room\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, which is less of a room and more of a nook off of the second floor’s main hallway. At the base of the speakers is a garden of faux plants, and archival posters of star-studded local events hang in the window behind them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On the floor, separating the two mammoth speakers, a pair of long brown wooden blocks are laid horizontally and stacked on top of one another. Written on them in bold red letters are the words “\u003ca href=\"https://blackamericansoundsystem.org/\">Black American Sound System\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4941-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994361\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4941-scaled.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4941-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4941-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4941-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4941-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The towering John Henry Sound System is an artistic commentary on labor and culture, music and movements. (Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“These are 1984 Cerwin-Vegas,” says singer and sonic designer \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ddeonbrown/\">Derwin Deon Brown II\u003c/a>, describing the speakers. Brown calls it the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reels/Dd4rX4iykUM/\">John Henry Sound System\u003c/a>, named after the Black American folk hero.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Brown and his towering sound system are the centerpiece of \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/inthestax\">In The Stax\u003c/a>, an annual series of music-related programs across the Berkeley Public Library system. The first performance in the series takes place Thursday, Oct. 1 at the Claremont Branch with instrumentalist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/connoisseurrat/\">Connoisseur Rat\u003c/a>, and events continue through the second week of December.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Since launching in 2022, the series has featured artists like Oakland punk band \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/5ra-3x0cNxQ?si=-_tfH-67cPYp_zuZ\">Skip the Needle\u003c/a> and soul singer \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkfX6lwXTHU\">Marisha Ashanti\u003c/a>. Berkeley Public Library Specialist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/_readwatchlisten/\">Chinyere Keita\u003c/a>, who organizes the events, says the goal is to bring Black artists into the space.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Born and raised in Oakland, Keita spent her teenage and young adult years at the Berkeley library, working there for the past 15 years. During that time, she’s noticed that younger folks and people of color will overlook the library as a welcoming third space, and assume that all it offers are books and free wi-fi.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I just want to always remind people that our culture is here. Our history is here,” she tells me during a recent phone call. “And Derwin Deon Brown II had the exact kind of thing reflected in his artwork.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Brown is In The Stax’s first artist-in-residence. Along with his John Henry Sound System, he’ll debut his forthcoming album (also titled \u003cem>John Henry\u003c/em>) later this fall. In the meantime, he’s been working with Keita to develop the event series. “And all the programming,” says Keita, “is around Black artists.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1337\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545.jpg\" alt=\"An African American man in a hat and brown jacket and a woman in a green shirt and large afro pose for a photo inside of a library.\" class=\"wp-image-13994358\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/DSC01545-1536x1027.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Artist Derwin Deon Brown II and library specialist Chinyere Keita have programmed a series of events this fall throughout the Berkeley Public Library system. (Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The series features performances from the likes of lyricist \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kayattamusic/\">Kayatta\u003c/a>, a panel discussion about the current state of Black radio, a Wild West Femme Cypher and a workshop where people can burn their own playlists to a CD and create collages as cover art. More than just listening to a lecture, Keita tells me, it’s about weaving new ideas into the culture of the library.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Yoga was actually our most popular program at the Oakland Public Library,” says Brown, referring to a workshop last spring where he collaborated with \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/blacktoyoga/\">Black to Yoga\u003c/a> and compiled a playlist of songs to center healing. “We’re gonna be doing the same thing at Berkeley Public Library,” he says, “but this time, live.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Instruments and vocals, sound waves and varying vibrational energies are tools to help people center themselves. And ultimately the goal is to use those tools to get people to relax and recharge. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13994359\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-scaled.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4933-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">In addition to being a musician and designing the mammoth John Henry Sound System, Derwin Deon Brown II is the youngest member of the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandbca.org/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAcGRvZgJzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA85MzY2MTk3NDMzOTI0NTkAAadUF8JYpjlSY-QjJAHuM76e8nYpYMxezNfVQ0tBvJIS3oRxhGekji8j2xe-2A_aem_jNfBI64Zd3bz1zSSrO-zUQ\">Oakland Black Cowboy Association\u003c/a>. (Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“And when we talk about ‘the break,’” Brown says, “we really want to embody all the definitions of that.” The “break” can be a rest, a dose of culture or a break from habits. It can even be breakbeats found in hip-hop. Ultimately, says Brown, it’s about convincing people to “integrate breaks into our lives.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The 27-year-old laments the amount of time that work has taken him away from his family. Originally from Pasadena, he moved to Oakland in his college years, attending San Francisco State University. “Oakland has raised me as a man,” he affirms, now a decade into his East Bay residency. A former legal aid and social worker, Brown admits the corporate ladder is deceiving.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m thinking I’m working my way up and really I’m just on a treadmill, like many people, chasing the next thing,” he tells me with an exhale. “Niggas was tired. You know, we’re working and doing too much shit, man.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>John Henry is an intentional name for Brown’s sound system and forthcoming album. In the folk tale, Henry, a broad-shouldered African-American blue-collar worker with a hammer, bore a hole through a mountain faster a machine, but collapsed and died soon after his victory.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s an allegory for Black labor, and the limits of our labor,” Brown professes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"Looking out the window from inside of the Main branch of the Berkeley Public Library, as translucent concert posters adorn the windows.\" class=\"wp-image-13994357\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-scaled.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/IMG_4914-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">As a part of ‘The Break Room,’ archival concert posters adorn the walls and windows of the Berkeley Public Library. (Pendarvis Harshaw)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For Brown, as a Black queer man in America, the “machine” he’s in competition with can take many forms, be it new predatory technology or old-fashioned racism. It can even show up internally, he says, clarifying that poor mental health, habitually people-pleasing or bouts of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101892/is-it-love-or-limerence-why-intense-chemistry-can-be-misleading\">limerence\u003c/a> are “machines” of a different sort.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“How do I temper those machines? How do I study them, observe them and conquer them?” asks the artist. “What would it be like if John Henry survived? That’s what this is about.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On the fifth floor of Berkeley’s main library is a multimedia station where people can \u003cem>take a break\u003c/em> and listen to a CD from Gucci Mane and read an article about John Coltrane, or slap a record by Santana and peruse a magazine with Steve Lacy on the cover.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And just a few floors below, encased in hand-cut wooden triangles, are a set of speakers unlike any other, as four 15-inch drivers, two tweeters and a midrange horn come together to sonically spread culture.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“They’re custom-made for pretty loud bass,” Brown says of his John Henry Sound System. Although they’re in a library, the speakers are on par with the ones you’d hear at concert halls, churches and clubs. “And that’s really the sound that I wanted to bring,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Events in the \u003c/em>‘\u003cem>In The Stax’ series run now through Dec. 12. \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/inthestax\">More details and information here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>Billie Joe Armstrong’s side project The Coverups usually play small club shows that sell out instantly after being announced on Instagram.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This week, though, fans have advance notice, and the price is right: the Green Day frontman’s cover band will headline the Rodeo Art and Music Market, a free outdoor festival in the heart of Rodeo, Armstrong’s hometown.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Playing favorites from the classic rock, modern rock and punk canon, The Coverups have appeared at small Bay Area dives like Kilowatt, Thee Parkside and the Ivy Room. The band hasn’t played a free outdoor show for seven years, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgBXuOFsoZQ\">they appeared at a block party in Oakland\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The event at Lefty Gomez Field on Saturday marks a homecoming for Armstrong, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DdosGMSA098/\">once played little league baseball\u003c/a> at the very same spot he’ll be singing hits from the 1960s through the 1990s. A typical Coverups setlist includes songs from the Replacements, the Plimsouls, David Bowie, the Ramones, Joan Jett and the Buzzcocks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other acts at the festival include the Black Excellence Band and Whateverglades. Food booths, crafts, DJs, record booths and more round out the event. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Rodeo Art and Music Market runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m on Saturday, Sept. 26. The Coverups are scheduled to play from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rodeomusicandartmarket/\">Details and more information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Rodeo Art and Music Market runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m on Saturday, Sept. 26. The Coverups are scheduled to play from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rodeomusicandartmarket/\">Details and more information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Billie Joe Armstrong’s side project The Coverups usually play small club shows that sell out instantly after being announced on Instagram.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This week, though, fans have advance notice, and the price is right: the Green Day frontman’s cover band will headline the Rodeo Art and Music Market, a free outdoor festival in the heart of Rodeo, Armstrong’s hometown.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Playing favorites from the classic rock, modern rock and punk canon, The Coverups have appeared at small Bay Area dives like Kilowatt, Thee Parkside and the Ivy Room. The band hasn’t played a free outdoor show for seven years, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgBXuOFsoZQ\">they appeared at a block party in Oakland\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The event at Lefty Gomez Field on Saturday marks a homecoming for Armstrong, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DdosGMSA098/\">once played little league baseball\u003c/a> at the very same spot he’ll be singing hits from the 1960s through the 1990s. A typical Coverups setlist includes songs from the Replacements, the Plimsouls, David Bowie, the Ramones, Joan Jett and the Buzzcocks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other acts at the festival include the Black Excellence Band and Whateverglades. Food booths, crafts, DJs, record booths and more round out the event. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"/>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Rodeo Art and Music Market runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m on Saturday, Sept. 26. The Coverups are scheduled to play from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/rodeomusicandartmarket/\">Details and more information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"soldout": {
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