Rocky Rivera with Rightnowish

NOTE: This event has been postponed to April 15. Please check back when the KQED Live spring season is announced for details.

SF-based rapper Rocky Rivera joins Pendarvis Harshaw, host of KQED’s Rightnowish, for a concert and interview. Rocky’s music is a journey into the spirit of resistance, blending social justice, feminism, and West Coast-style hip hop into anthems with timeless appeal.

Rocky’s career took off after winning an MTV reality TV show contest and getting a gig at Rolling Stone as a journalist. Since then, Rocky’s expanded her repertoire to working as an educator in Oakland’s public schools and is now the author of a collection of essays, Snakeskin, which expresses the importance of restorative justice practices. Rocky Rivera likens that process to a snake shedding its skin – it also parallels her process of going through a period of personal, artistic and spiritual growth.

Her concert, featuring special guest DJ Roza, will be interspersed with stories of how personal and family history shows up in her music.