KQED’s Arts & Culture desk brings daily, in-depth cultural commentary and coverage of the Bay Area with a mission to enrich lives and inspire participation. Who We Are
This Sleek Taiwanese Street Food Lounge Serves Beef Noodle Soup Until 2:30 a.m.
Oakland Chinatown nightlife is alive and well — and delicious — at Lounge Chinatown.
Looking Back to When Hops, Not Wine, Ruled Sonoma County
A new exhibit in Santa Rosa chronicles the rise, fall and recent renaissance of hop growing in the region.
A Lowrider Cruise in Honor of Selena, the Queen of Tejano, in San Francisco
A lowrider cruise in the Mission District will pay tribute to the widely beloved singer.
Minnie Bell’s New Soul Food Restaurant in the Fillmore Is a Homecoming
Chef Fernay McPherson brings comfort classics like fried chicken and mac and cheese to her old neighborhood.
Deep Sea Fishing, Filipino Roots and Belonging ‘Where We Are’
Adonis is a DJ who blends together a search for self, deep sea fishing and the love of community.
5 New Mysteries and Thrillers for Your Nightstand This Spring
These thrilling new books will take you from murder in present-day Texas to cryptography in Cold War Berlin.
The Oakland Library's Main Branch to Close for Six Months for Repairs
The 74-year-old building on 14th Street in downtown Oakland will close from May 27 to November.
Funding for KQED Arts & Culture is provided by:
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Akonadi Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Yogen and Peggy Dalal, Diane B. Wilsey, the William and Gretchen Kimball Fund, Campaign 21 and the members of KQED.
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class=\"wp-block-kqed-columns\">",null,"\n\n",null,"\u003c/div>\n"]},{"blockName":"kqed/email-signup","attrs":{"newsletterSlug":"arts"},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"","innerContent":[]},{"blockName":"kqed/post-list","attrs":{"layout":"cardSeriesShowcase","query":"posts?program=rightnowish&queryId=86d56e6a5e","title":"Rightnowish","sectionUrl":"/podcasts/rightnowish","buttonText":"More from Rightnowish","seeMore":false},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"","innerContent":[]},{"blockName":"kqed/post-list","attrs":{"layout":"cardSeriesShowcase","query":"posts/food,arts?tag=editorspick&queryId=9c554332d6","title":"Editors’ Picks","sectionUrl":"/artseditorspicks","buttonText":"More Editors’ Picks","seeMore":false},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"","innerContent":[]},{"blockName":"kqed/section-overview","attrs":{"html":"Let’s be friends! Get daily Arts & Culture updates by following us on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kqedarts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Instagram\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/kqedarts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/KQEDarts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter\u003c/a>, or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13883176/hey-bay-area-have-a-story-to-share-we-want-to-listen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">contact us\u003c/a>."},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-kqed-section-overview\">\u003c/div>\n","innerContent":["\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-kqed-section-overview\">\u003c/div>\n"]},{"blockName":"kqed/post-list","attrs":{"layout":"cardSeriesShowcase","query":"posts/?tag=thedolist&queryId=bf063fb3b8","title":"The Do List","sectionUrl":"/thedolist","buttonText":"More from The Do List"},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"","innerContent":[]},{"blockName":"kqed/post-list","attrs":{"layout":"cardSeriesShowcase","query":"posts/bayareabites,arts,food?category=food&queryId=13affade55d","title":"Food","sectionUrl":"/food","buttonText":"More from Food"},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"","innerContent":[]},{"blockName":"kqed/ad","attrs":{"adType":"inHouse"},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"","innerContent":[]},{"blockName":"kqed/post-list","attrs":{"layout":"cardsRecent","query":"posts/arts?tag=tmw-latest&queryId=90cf8e019d","title":"That’s My Word","sectionUrl":"/bayareahiphop","buttonText":"More Bay Area Hip Hop"},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"","innerContent":[]},{"blockName":"kqed/section-overview","attrs":{"html":"KQED’s Arts & Culture desk brings daily, in-depth cultural commentary and coverage of the Bay Area with a mission to enrich lives and inspire participation.\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"/arts/staff\">Who We Are\u003c/a>"},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-kqed-section-overview\">\u003c/div>\n","innerContent":["\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-kqed-section-overview\">\u003c/div>\n"]},{"blockName":"kqed/ad","attrs":[],"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"","innerContent":[]},{"blockName":"kqed/post-list","attrs":{"layout":"cardSeriesShowcase","query":"posts?tag=rebelgirls&queryId=113bac84163","title":"Rebel Girls From Bay Area History","sectionUrl":"/rebelgirls","buttonText":"More about Rebel Girls From Bay Area History"},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"","innerContent":[]},{"blockName":"kqed/post-list","attrs":{"layout":"cardTextHeavyLarge","query":"posts/arts?&queryId=1830cb2fe41","title":"More Arts","seeMore":true},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"","innerContent":[]},{"blockName":"kqed/funding-credits","attrs":{"text":"Funding for KQED Arts & Culture is provided by:\u003cbr>\u003cbr>The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Akonadi Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Yogen and Peggy Dalal, Diane B. Wilsey, the William and Gretchen Kimball Fund, Campaign 21 and the members of KQED."},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"","innerContent":[]}],"status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1711145205,"format":"standard","path":"/arts","redirect":{"type":"internal","url":"/arts"},"audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-kqed-header\">\u003c/div>\n\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-kqed-columns\">\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-kqed-column\">\u003c/div>\n\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-kqed-column\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-kqed-section-overview\">\u003c/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-kqed-section-overview\">\u003c/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"label":"root-site","isLoading":false}},"postsReducer":{"stream_live":{"type":"live","id":"stream_live","audioUrl":"https://streams.kqed.org/kqedradio","title":"Live Stream","excerpt":"Live Stream information currently unavailable.","link":"/radio","featImg":"","label":{"name":"KQED Live","link":"/"}},"stream_kqedNewscast":{"type":"posts","id":"stream_kqedNewscast","audioUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/RDnews/newscast.mp3?_=1","title":"KQED Newscast","featImg":"","label":{"name":"88.5 FM","link":"/"}},"arts_13956218":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13956218","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13956218","score":null,"sort":[1713487017000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"late-night-taiwanese-beef-noodle-soup-stinky-tofu-oakland-chinatown","title":"This Sleek Taiwanese Street Food Lounge Serves Beef Noodle Soup Until 2:30 a.m.","publishDate":1713487017,"format":"aside","headTitle":"This Sleek Taiwanese Street Food Lounge Serves Beef Noodle Soup Until 2:30 a.m. | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956224\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown.jpg\" alt=\"Two men devouring a bowl of soup noodles and a plate of fried tofu, with chopsticks in their hands.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lounge Chinatown serves an array of Taiwanese street food classics — including stinky tofu — until 2:30 a.m. every night. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Midnight Diners\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much has been written about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/02/americas-chinatowns-are-disappearing/581767/\">demise of the American Chinatown\u003c/a>, as well as the specific troubles that have plagued Oakland Chinatown in recent years — a \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/08/01/oakland-chinatown-faces-a-dual-pandemic-of-violence-covid/\">double whammy\u003c/a> of pandemic-related doldrums and \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2021/02/12/oakland-chinatown-policing-hate-crimes-community/\">fears about anti-Asian violence\u003c/a>. These days, the neighborhood feels like a ghost town anytime after 6 o’clock at night, to say nothing of the late-night jook and roast duck feasts I remember enjoying even just five or six years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’d never guess at any of this, though, if your only data point was Lounge Chinatown, a stylish Taiwanese bar and restaurant that opened in December of 2022 with the explicit intention of being a late-night destination: It serves its massive menu of Taiwanese and Chinese street food specialties until 2:30 a.m., seven days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Run by the folks behind Dragon Gate (\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13918993/dragon-gate-oakland-taiwanese-restaurant-reopening-karaoke\">another classic Oakland night spot\u003c/a>), Lounge stands out like a gaudily neon-lit, bamboo-bedecked beacon amid the well-weathered storefronts and boarded-up windows of 8th Street, in the heart of Chinatown. At a little past 9 o’clock on a recent Thursday night, it was one of just a small handful of places in the entire neighborhood that was still open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing you notice about Lounge Chinatown is the decor, which is so hiply and aggressively Asia-fied in its aesthetics that 20-year-old me, at the very height of my AZN pride, would have \u003ci>eaten it up\u003c/i> — all sleek red leather booths, lucky cat figurines and sexily back-lit Taiwanese whiskey bottles. Five or six different kinds of light fixtures, all designed to resemble various paper lanterns, bask the dining room in a nightclub-like glow. Meanwhile, a mural running the length of the restaurant depicts an unidentified Asian night market scene in such a way that the night market looks like the coolest damn place in the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the kind of restaurant where you might imagine Jet Li — or Son Goku, at the height of his powers — strolling in for a late-night bowl of noodles. And, honest to God, even middle-aged me found the whole vibe to be pretty badass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956225\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956225\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a restaurant on a dark street. The sign reads \"Lounge Chinatown,\" and the entrance is suffused in glowing purple light.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The restaurant’s aggressively Asia-fied aesthetics are a whole vibe. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The main reason we’d come, however, is because I can never resist the siren call of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13940133/stinky-tofu-childrens-book-ra-pu-zel\">stinky tofu\u003c/a> — or of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897272/bay-area-taiwanese-food-scene-nostalgia\">Taiwanese street food\u003c/a>, more broadly. Even more so when it’s still available hours after midnight. As it turns out, the menu covers a surprisingly (and intimidatingly) vast range of Chinese and Taiwanese food genres, running the gamut from meat skewers to hot pot and malatang. You’ll do very well for yourself if you stick to the most famous Taiwanese classics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you aren’t unnecessarily squeamish, you’ll start, as we did, with an order of the fried stinky tofu, which arrives at the table crisp-edged and deliciously pungent, served with all the standard accompaniments: pickled cabbage, soy paste dressing and a dollop of chili sauce. It’s about as tasty a version as you can find in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13955884,arts_13951914,arts_13952823']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>The best way to sample a bunch of things is to order one of the bento boxes, which come with a big scoop of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897498/mama-liu-lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-food-comic\">lu rou fan\u003c/a> (braised pork rice), pickles, sautéed greens and a marinated egg. We went with the fried pork chop — a nostalgic classic for anyone who’s ever bought a boxed lunch at a \u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/2019/3/6/18241749/bento-box-best-food-train-stations-taiwan\">train station in Taiwan\u003c/a>. Lounge’s version hits all the right notes: the jolt of five-spice powder on the crunchy batter, the juiciness and lavish fattiness of the thick, bone-in chop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the star of the menu has got to be the beef noodle soup, a faithful rendition of one of Taiwan’s most famous dishes. The noodles are thick and chewy. The generous chunks of beef shank and tendon are slow-cooked to a jiggly, luxurious tenderness. And the broth? Spicy and savory, heavy on the tongue-numbing Sichuan peppercorn — almost \u003ci>too \u003c/i>boldly flavorful for me to finish the entire bowl, making it perfect for sharing. It’s pure comfort food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ll have to come back again, with more stomach space or a larger group, to try the extensive selection of lu wei, a uniquely Taiwanese genre of cold, braised street snacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My usual worry with a place like Lounge Chinatown is that it’ll be too loud or too trendy — too many weekend karaoke warriors singing badly in public. But the truth is, the restaurant was busy during our visit but not exceptionally so. The vibe was more Chill Place for Quiet Conversation than it was Loud Party Zone. Like the rest of Chinatown, it seems, the restaurant is just starting to get things rolling again. And I, for one, am ready to see what it looks like when it really hits its stride.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Lounge Chinatown is open 10:30 a.m.–2:30 a.m. daily at 366 8th St. in Oakland.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Oakland Chinatown nightlife is alive and well — and delicious — at Lounge Chinatown. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1713487054,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":15,"wordCount":943},"headData":{"title":"Oakland Chinatown Late-Night Restaurant Serves Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup and Stinky Tofu | KQED","description":"Oakland Chinatown nightlife is alive and well — and delicious — at Lounge Chinatown. ","ogTitle":"This Sleek Taiwanese Street Food Lounge Serves Beef Noodle Soup Until 2:30 a.m.","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"This Sleek Taiwanese Street Food Lounge Serves Beef Noodle Soup Until 2:30 a.m.","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","socialTitle":"Oakland Chinatown Late-Night Restaurant Serves Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup and Stinky Tofu%%page%% %%sep%% KQED"},"source":"The Midnight Diners","sourceUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13956218/late-night-taiwanese-beef-noodle-soup-stinky-tofu-oakland-chinatown","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956224\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956224\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown.jpg\" alt=\"Two men devouring a bowl of soup noodles and a plate of fried tofu, with chopsticks in their hands.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lounge Chinatown serves an array of Taiwanese street food classics — including stinky tofu — until 2:30 a.m. every night. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/the-midnight-diners\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Midnight Diners\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and artist Thien Pham. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much has been written about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/02/americas-chinatowns-are-disappearing/581767/\">demise of the American Chinatown\u003c/a>, as well as the specific troubles that have plagued Oakland Chinatown in recent years — a \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/08/01/oakland-chinatown-faces-a-dual-pandemic-of-violence-covid/\">double whammy\u003c/a> of pandemic-related doldrums and \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2021/02/12/oakland-chinatown-policing-hate-crimes-community/\">fears about anti-Asian violence\u003c/a>. These days, the neighborhood feels like a ghost town anytime after 6 o’clock at night, to say nothing of the late-night jook and roast duck feasts I remember enjoying even just five or six years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’d never guess at any of this, though, if your only data point was Lounge Chinatown, a stylish Taiwanese bar and restaurant that opened in December of 2022 with the explicit intention of being a late-night destination: It serves its massive menu of Taiwanese and Chinese street food specialties until 2:30 a.m., seven days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Run by the folks behind Dragon Gate (\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13918993/dragon-gate-oakland-taiwanese-restaurant-reopening-karaoke\">another classic Oakland night spot\u003c/a>), Lounge stands out like a gaudily neon-lit, bamboo-bedecked beacon amid the well-weathered storefronts and boarded-up windows of 8th Street, in the heart of Chinatown. At a little past 9 o’clock on a recent Thursday night, it was one of just a small handful of places in the entire neighborhood that was still open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing you notice about Lounge Chinatown is the decor, which is so hiply and aggressively Asia-fied in its aesthetics that 20-year-old me, at the very height of my AZN pride, would have \u003ci>eaten it up\u003c/i> — all sleek red leather booths, lucky cat figurines and sexily back-lit Taiwanese whiskey bottles. Five or six different kinds of light fixtures, all designed to resemble various paper lanterns, bask the dining room in a nightclub-like glow. Meanwhile, a mural running the length of the restaurant depicts an unidentified Asian night market scene in such a way that the night market looks like the coolest damn place in the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the kind of restaurant where you might imagine Jet Li — or Son Goku, at the height of his powers — strolling in for a late-night bowl of noodles. And, honest to God, even middle-aged me found the whole vibe to be pretty badass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956225\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956225\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2.jpg\" alt='Exterior of a restaurant on a dark street. The sign reads \"Lounge Chinatown,\" and the entrance is suffused in glowing purple light.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Lounge-Chinatown-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The restaurant’s aggressively Asia-fied aesthetics are a whole vibe. \u003ccite>(Thien Pham)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The main reason we’d come, however, is because I can never resist the siren call of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13940133/stinky-tofu-childrens-book-ra-pu-zel\">stinky tofu\u003c/a> — or of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897272/bay-area-taiwanese-food-scene-nostalgia\">Taiwanese street food\u003c/a>, more broadly. Even more so when it’s still available hours after midnight. As it turns out, the menu covers a surprisingly (and intimidatingly) vast range of Chinese and Taiwanese food genres, running the gamut from meat skewers to hot pot and malatang. You’ll do very well for yourself if you stick to the most famous Taiwanese classics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you aren’t unnecessarily squeamish, you’ll start, as we did, with an order of the fried stinky tofu, which arrives at the table crisp-edged and deliciously pungent, served with all the standard accompaniments: pickled cabbage, soy paste dressing and a dollop of chili sauce. It’s about as tasty a version as you can find in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13955884,arts_13951914,arts_13952823","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>The best way to sample a bunch of things is to order one of the bento boxes, which come with a big scoop of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13897498/mama-liu-lu-rou-fan-taiwanese-food-comic\">lu rou fan\u003c/a> (braised pork rice), pickles, sautéed greens and a marinated egg. We went with the fried pork chop — a nostalgic classic for anyone who’s ever bought a boxed lunch at a \u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/2019/3/6/18241749/bento-box-best-food-train-stations-taiwan\">train station in Taiwan\u003c/a>. Lounge’s version hits all the right notes: the jolt of five-spice powder on the crunchy batter, the juiciness and lavish fattiness of the thick, bone-in chop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the star of the menu has got to be the beef noodle soup, a faithful rendition of one of Taiwan’s most famous dishes. The noodles are thick and chewy. The generous chunks of beef shank and tendon are slow-cooked to a jiggly, luxurious tenderness. And the broth? Spicy and savory, heavy on the tongue-numbing Sichuan peppercorn — almost \u003ci>too \u003c/i>boldly flavorful for me to finish the entire bowl, making it perfect for sharing. It’s pure comfort food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ll have to come back again, with more stomach space or a larger group, to try the extensive selection of lu wei, a uniquely Taiwanese genre of cold, braised street snacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My usual worry with a place like Lounge Chinatown is that it’ll be too loud or too trendy — too many weekend karaoke warriors singing badly in public. But the truth is, the restaurant was busy during our visit but not exceptionally so. The vibe was more Chill Place for Quiet Conversation than it was Loud Party Zone. Like the rest of Chinatown, it seems, the restaurant is just starting to get things rolling again. And I, for one, am ready to see what it looks like when it really hits its stride.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Lounge Chinatown is open 10:30 a.m.–2:30 a.m. daily at 366 8th St. in Oakland.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13956218/late-night-taiwanese-beef-noodle-soup-stinky-tofu-oakland-chinatown","authors":["11743","11753"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_12276"],"tags":["arts_2654","arts_21727","arts_10278","arts_1297","arts_8805","arts_1143","arts_14396","arts_15151","arts_21928"],"featImg":"arts_13956223","label":"source_arts_13956218"},"arts_13956202":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13956202","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13956202","score":null,"sort":[1713482463000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"museum-of-sonoma-county-on-tap-hops-beer-exhibition-review","title":"Looking Back to When Hops, Not Wine, Ruled Sonoma County","publishDate":1713482463,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Looking Back to When Hops, Not Wine, Ruled Sonoma County | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":140,"site":"arts"},"content":"\u003cp>Ask any random old-timer in Sonoma County about their summer job as a teenager, and it’s not likely to have been working as a lifeguard at Ridgeway Pool or driving the train at Howarth Park. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many locals of a certain age will tell you they picked hops. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These days, wine grapes are Sonoma County’s dominant, near-monoculture crop. But for many years in the early- to mid-20th century, the region’s most popular crop was hops: those funny-looking pinecone-shaped buds used in making beer. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://museumsc.org/ontap/\">On Tap: Sonoma County Hops and the Beer Revolution\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, a new exhibition at the Museum of Sonoma County, chronicles the rise, fall and recent renaissance of hop growing in the county. It also documents the breweries, both fledgling and nationally known, that loom large in Sonoma County’s beermaking history. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956206\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6478.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956206\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6478.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6478-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6478-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6478-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6478-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6478-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘On Tap: Sonoma County Hops & The Beer Revolution’ at the Museum of Sonoma County includes stories of the migrants and Dust Bowl refugees who worked as hop pickers in the early 20th century. \u003ccite>(Museum of Sonoma County)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The exhibition includes scenes of early hop picking, done mainly by poor families, Chinese immigrants, Indigenous people and young students. It covers these underpaid workers’ 1935 hop strike, and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/gaye-lebaron-remembering-aclu-awards-namesake-jack-green/?artslide=1\">infamous tarring and feathering of two labor organizers\u003c/a> that resulted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a farmworker strike, in fact, that inspired one local hop grower, Florian Dauenhauer, to invent a mechanized hop harvester. Dauenhauer’s company is still active in Santa Rosa, and his invention remains in use today as the industry standard. His original patents are on view in the exhibition, as well as a modern version of his hop harvester. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also on view is a wide-ranging collection of bottles, cans and other artifacts from \u003ca href=\"https://gracebrosbrewing.com/\">Grace Brothers Brewing\u003c/a>, one of the rare breweries to survive Prohibition. Grace Brothers, which operated for decades in central Santa Rosa, distributed its beer all over the country and has \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/benefield-grace-bros-beer-makes-a-treasured-and-temporary-return/\">since attracted a cult following\u003c/a> among beer fans. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='news_11969212']By the 1945 harvest, Sonoma County hit its peak hop production, which generated $2.6 million from 25,000 bales. But mildew, aphids and cold weather soon set in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It faded away so fast,” said the museum’s curator of history Eric Stanley. “Literally within a couple of years, it nosedived.” By 1961, Sonoma County’s hop production was so low that the Farm Bureau stopped including it in its annual reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956205\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6485.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956205\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6485.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6485-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6485-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6485-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6485-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6485-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘On Tap: Sonoma County Hops & The Beer Revolution’ shows the machinery, packaging and distribution of legendary breweries such as Santa Rosa’s Grace Brothers Brewing, as well as early microbreweries like New Albion Brewing Co. in Sonoma. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Later, in 1976, New Albion Brewery started making beer in the town of Sonoma, becoming what’s now recognized as the first modern microbrewery in the United States. The exhibition includes photos, boxes and other ephemera from New Albion, a spiritual godfather to the county’s explosion of craft beer, and outfits like Mendocino Brewing Co., Moonlight Brewing Co., Russian River Brewing Co. and Henhouse Brewing. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you have that much brewing going on, you need hops. Enter the new breed of Sonoma County hop growers, small in scale but dedicated to quality and innovation. The exhibition’s large photos show their new operations scattered around the county, tended to with care and innovation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And who knows? In Sonoma County, there may yet be a victorious future for the small but mighty hop.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘On Tap: Sonoma County Hops and the Beer Revolution’ is on view from April 20–Sept. 1, 2024, at the Museum of Sonoma County (425 Seventh St., Santa Rosa). \u003ca href=\"https://museumsc.org/ontap/\">Details here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A new exhibit in Santa Rosa chronicles the rise, fall and recent renaissance of hop growing in the region.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1713482463,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":15,"wordCount":636},"headData":{"title":"Looking Back to When Hops, Not Wine, Ruled Sonoma County | KQED","description":"A new exhibit in Santa Rosa chronicles the rise, fall and recent renaissance of hop growing in the region.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"WpOldSlug":"museum-of-sonoma-county-on-tap-hops-beer-review","templateType":"standard","featuredImageType":"standard","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13956202/museum-of-sonoma-county-on-tap-hops-beer-exhibition-review","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Ask any random old-timer in Sonoma County about their summer job as a teenager, and it’s not likely to have been working as a lifeguard at Ridgeway Pool or driving the train at Howarth Park. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many locals of a certain age will tell you they picked hops. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These days, wine grapes are Sonoma County’s dominant, near-monoculture crop. But for many years in the early- to mid-20th century, the region’s most popular crop was hops: those funny-looking pinecone-shaped buds used in making beer. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://museumsc.org/ontap/\">On Tap: Sonoma County Hops and the Beer Revolution\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, a new exhibition at the Museum of Sonoma County, chronicles the rise, fall and recent renaissance of hop growing in the county. It also documents the breweries, both fledgling and nationally known, that loom large in Sonoma County’s beermaking history. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956206\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6478.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956206\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6478.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6478-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6478-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6478-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6478-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6478-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘On Tap: Sonoma County Hops & The Beer Revolution’ at the Museum of Sonoma County includes stories of the migrants and Dust Bowl refugees who worked as hop pickers in the early 20th century. \u003ccite>(Museum of Sonoma County)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The exhibition includes scenes of early hop picking, done mainly by poor families, Chinese immigrants, Indigenous people and young students. It covers these underpaid workers’ 1935 hop strike, and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/gaye-lebaron-remembering-aclu-awards-namesake-jack-green/?artslide=1\">infamous tarring and feathering of two labor organizers\u003c/a> that resulted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a farmworker strike, in fact, that inspired one local hop grower, Florian Dauenhauer, to invent a mechanized hop harvester. Dauenhauer’s company is still active in Santa Rosa, and his invention remains in use today as the industry standard. His original patents are on view in the exhibition, as well as a modern version of his hop harvester. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also on view is a wide-ranging collection of bottles, cans and other artifacts from \u003ca href=\"https://gracebrosbrewing.com/\">Grace Brothers Brewing\u003c/a>, one of the rare breweries to survive Prohibition. Grace Brothers, which operated for decades in central Santa Rosa, distributed its beer all over the country and has \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/benefield-grace-bros-beer-makes-a-treasured-and-temporary-return/\">since attracted a cult following\u003c/a> among beer fans. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11969212","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>By the 1945 harvest, Sonoma County hit its peak hop production, which generated $2.6 million from 25,000 bales. But mildew, aphids and cold weather soon set in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It faded away so fast,” said the museum’s curator of history Eric Stanley. “Literally within a couple of years, it nosedived.” By 1961, Sonoma County’s hop production was so low that the Farm Bureau stopped including it in its annual reports.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956205\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6485.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956205\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6485.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6485-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6485-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6485-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6485-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/IMG_6485-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘On Tap: Sonoma County Hops & The Beer Revolution’ shows the machinery, packaging and distribution of legendary breweries such as Santa Rosa’s Grace Brothers Brewing, as well as early microbreweries like New Albion Brewing Co. in Sonoma. \u003ccite>(Gabe Meline/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Later, in 1976, New Albion Brewery started making beer in the town of Sonoma, becoming what’s now recognized as the first modern microbrewery in the United States. The exhibition includes photos, boxes and other ephemera from New Albion, a spiritual godfather to the county’s explosion of craft beer, and outfits like Mendocino Brewing Co., Moonlight Brewing Co., Russian River Brewing Co. and Henhouse Brewing. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you have that much brewing going on, you need hops. Enter the new breed of Sonoma County hop growers, small in scale but dedicated to quality and innovation. The exhibition’s large photos show their new operations scattered around the county, tended to with care and innovation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And who knows? In Sonoma County, there may yet be a victorious future for the small but mighty hop.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘On Tap: Sonoma County Hops and the Beer Revolution’ is on view from April 20–Sept. 1, 2024, at the Museum of Sonoma County (425 Seventh St., Santa Rosa). \u003ca href=\"https://museumsc.org/ontap/\">Details here\u003c/a>. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13956202/museum-of-sonoma-county-on-tap-hops-beer-exhibition-review","authors":["185"],"programs":["arts_140"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_7862"],"tags":["arts_15443","arts_10278","arts_2721","arts_3217","arts_585"],"featImg":"arts_13956207","label":"arts_140"},"arts_13956177":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13956177","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13956177","score":null,"sort":[1713465612000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"a-lowrider-cruise-in-honor-of-selena-the-queen-of-tejano-in-san-francisco","title":"A Lowrider Cruise in Honor of Selena, the Queen of Tejano, in San Francisco","publishDate":1713465612,"format":"standard","headTitle":"A Lowrider Cruise in Honor of Selena, the Queen of Tejano, in San Francisco | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":140,"site":"arts"},"content":"\u003cp>It’s been almost 30 years since Selena, the undisputed Queen of Tejano Music, was tragically murdered — but a group of lowriders are ensuring her memory isn’t forgotten. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Saturday, April 20, a lowrider cruise in San Francisco’s Mission District will pay tribute to the widely beloved singer of hits like “Como La Flor” and “Amor Prohibido.” The cruise will start at 4 p.m., and run along Mission Street between Cesar Chavez and 20th Streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='news_11966254']The annual cruise is organized by the San Francisco Lowrider Council. This year, it takes place directly following the group’s Blessing of the Cars, or La Bendicion, a 1 p.m. ceremony at 24th and Mission BART Plaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Participants in freshly painted classic cars and creative hydraulics are expected to come from all over Northern California to ride slow and low at the event, which carries the tagline: “Anything for Selenas.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Texas-raised singer, one of the most popular Latin music stars in the world, would have been 53 this year. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A lowrider cruise in the Mission District will pay tribute to the widely beloved singer.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1713465612,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":7,"wordCount":187},"headData":{"title":"A Lowrider Cruise in Honor of Selena, the Queen of Tejano, in San Francisco | KQED","description":"A lowrider cruise in the Mission District will pay tribute to the widely beloved singer.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"templateType":"standard","featuredImageType":"standard","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13956177/a-lowrider-cruise-in-honor-of-selena-the-queen-of-tejano-in-san-francisco","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s been almost 30 years since Selena, the undisputed Queen of Tejano Music, was tragically murdered — but a group of lowriders are ensuring her memory isn’t forgotten. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Saturday, April 20, a lowrider cruise in San Francisco’s Mission District will pay tribute to the widely beloved singer of hits like “Como La Flor” and “Amor Prohibido.” The cruise will start at 4 p.m., and run along Mission Street between Cesar Chavez and 20th Streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"news_11966254","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The annual cruise is organized by the San Francisco Lowrider Council. This year, it takes place directly following the group’s Blessing of the Cars, or La Bendicion, a 1 p.m. ceremony at 24th and Mission BART Plaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Participants in freshly painted classic cars and creative hydraulics are expected to come from all over Northern California to ride slow and low at the event, which carries the tagline: “Anything for Selenas.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Texas-raised singer, one of the most popular Latin music stars in the world, would have been 53 this year. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13956177/a-lowrider-cruise-in-honor-of-selena-the-queen-of-tejano-in-san-francisco","authors":["185"],"programs":["arts_140"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_835","arts_11615","arts_69"],"tags":["arts_22093","arts_10278","arts_22092","arts_1257","arts_22091","arts_585"],"featImg":"arts_13956180","label":"arts_140"},"arts_13956178":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13956178","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13956178","score":null,"sort":[1713465326000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"minnie-bells-soul-food-restaurant-fillmore-sf-opening","title":"Minnie Bell’s New Soul Food Restaurant in the Fillmore Is a Homecoming","publishDate":1713465326,"format":"audio","headTitle":"Minnie Bell’s New Soul Food Restaurant in the Fillmore Is a Homecoming | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>Chef Fernay McPherson has been serving her take on Southern comfort foods, like crispy rosemary fried chicken and apparently the Bay Area’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/an-ode-to-minnie-bell-s-gooey-mac-and-cheese-16012173.php\">best mac and cheese\u003c/a>, at her stall at The Public Market Food Hall in Emeryville since 2018. But she has long \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11800814/a-black-chefs-dream-of-returning-to-the-fillmore\">dreamed\u003c/a> of running a restaurant in her hometown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My quest was to find a space in San Francisco and preferably in the Fillmore,” McPherson says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She grew up in that neighborhood, once known as the “Harlem of the West,” which used to be full of Black-owned businesses. But \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11825401/how-urban-renewal-decimated-the-fillmore-district-and-took-jazz-with-it\">urban renewal\u003c/a> efforts from the 1950s through the 1970s forced tens of thousands of families to leave, and most businesses shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>WATCH KQED’s 1999 documentary on the history of Fillmore:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8h2meDtdm8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few have remained, and in recent years, a citywide effort — the Dream Keeper Initiative — is trying to revitalize the area and help bring back Black-owned businesses, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954111/longtime-fillmore-resident-hopes-to-restore-commerce-with-black-led-marketplace\">In The Black\u003c/a>, a shared retail space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13900855,arts_13916044,arts_13874853']\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>The program helped make it possible for McPherson to realize her dream. On Friday, she’ll welcome the public to dine at Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement — a stand-alone brick-and-mortar version of the East Bay stall, featuring a similar menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want to be able to educate people who may not know what was here before,” says McPherson, wearing a blue-gray apron and a graphic T-shirt emblazoned with a photo of Whitney Houston, from inside the 40-seat establishment in the heart of the Fillmore District. “Share those stories that my dad, my aunt share with me about how rich this was and be able to represent the culture and look forward to seeing more of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For her, food is personal, and the restaurant pays homage to her family history. One wall is decorated with a large mural of a photo of Fillmore Street in its heyday in the 1960s. Another wall has two large-scale photographs of her biggest inspirations — her grandma Lillie Bell and her great-aunt Minnie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956186\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956186\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A fresh batch of fried chicken is pulled out of the deep fryer.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pulling a fresh batch of rosemary fried chicken out of the fryer. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I picked these photos because I wanted a photo of them in their youth, like my aunt has on her cap and gown. She was graduating high school. My grandmother was about 21 and it was a professional portrait,” she says. “I just think they look so beautiful, and when I look up at these pictures, it just gives me all the strength that I need to get through my day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McPherson talked more about how important the past has been toward shaping her present with KQED’s Adhiti Bandlamudi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adhiti Bandlamudi: Tell me more about your grandma and great aunt. How did their story manifest when it came to creating a menu and thinking about what experience you wanted to give at Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fernay McPherson:\u003c/b> While I may add a little twist to it, everything that I cook is food that I grew up eating. Before my family left Texas in the 1960s, my grandma made the chicken and pound cake for their journey into San Francisco. So we have that pound cake that she made — but [with] the addition of the caramel. I make it the same way that she taught me to make it. It was one of the cakes that everyone in the family wanted for their birthday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have fried chicken, which is the highlight of what we do, [and] the addition of the rosemary, is very San Francisco with so many rosemary bushes here. So those two married together — the flavors that migrated during the Great Migration with the fried chicken and then the freshness of the rosemary in the city, where I was born and raised. It’s like a perfect blend of Chef Fernay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>It almost seems like your approach to soul food is tradition with a little twist.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Exactly! It’s tradition with a little twist. But the twists are not so much that it doesn’t display a homestyle comfort meal. That was so important for me, for people to eat the food and feel the comfort of home. In Emeryville, people would come and say, “Well, I’m from the South, so I’ll let you know how it tastes.” And I’m like, “Okay, that’s cool.” I know how it tastes [too], you know? But they would always come back and say, “That was so good, that really reminds me of home.” That is definitely the experience that I want people to get. Not too much of a twist, but the perfect twist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956187\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956187\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A chef picks fresh rosemary leaves.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">McPherson prepares rosemary alongside Mundo Pérez at her new Fillmore restaurant. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’ve been operating out of Emeryville since 2018, and now you’re getting ready to open up in San Francisco. You’ve wanted this for so long. What’s going through your mind right now?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a surreal experience. [To] be in the Fillmore, the community where I was born and raised, but also in a neighborhood that was rich in African-American culture, ownership, businesses, jazz clubs, just means so much, because I want to be able to represent a bygone era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I am third generation. My aunt and dad talk about the history of the neighborhood. Then, I have my own history. So it’s three layers to what that history used to be. And by the time I was a teenager and walking around these streets, it was minimal Black businesses; whereas now, it’s almost nonexistent. So being a part of that revitalization is important, so that we can learn about the culture and know what used to be here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Are any of your relatives, like Aunt Minnie, coming to the restaurant’s grand opening? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have a private grand opening party on Thursday, when my Aunt Minnie will see her face on this wall for the first time. My parents, they’re still in the neighborhood. My aunt lives with them, so they’ll all be here. My brothers will be here. My children will be here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956189\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956189\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A paper-lined basket of fried chicken on a countertop.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">McPherson’s famous rosemary fried chicken, ready to be eaten. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What do you plan to serve to Aunt Minnie ?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For her, I will do candied yams, fried chicken, cornbread and greens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How might she respond? Are you ready for her critique?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She critiques it all the time! She tells me all the time you’re getting better and better. She has the food often. So when she comes in, it won’t be anything new. It just has to be right. Because if it’s not, she will let me know. But when she tells me, “This was delicious,” that’s all the validation I need.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.minniebellssoul.com/\">\u003ci>Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is located at 1375 Fillmore St. in San Francisco.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Chef Fernay McPherson brings comfort classics like fried chicken and mac and cheese to her old neighborhood.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1713466316,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":true,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":28,"wordCount":1225},"headData":{"title":"Minnie Bell’s New Soul Food Restaurant in the Fillmore Is a Homecoming | KQED","description":"Chef Fernay McPherson brings comfort classics like fried chicken and mac and cheese to her old neighborhood.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"source":"Food","sourceUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/food","audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-4[…]f-aaef00f5a073/fa7e7425-862b-4a0d-92c1-b15601046432/audio.mp3","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13956178/minnie-bells-soul-food-restaurant-fillmore-sf-opening","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Chef Fernay McPherson has been serving her take on Southern comfort foods, like crispy rosemary fried chicken and apparently the Bay Area’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/an-ode-to-minnie-bell-s-gooey-mac-and-cheese-16012173.php\">best mac and cheese\u003c/a>, at her stall at The Public Market Food Hall in Emeryville since 2018. But she has long \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11800814/a-black-chefs-dream-of-returning-to-the-fillmore\">dreamed\u003c/a> of running a restaurant in her hometown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My quest was to find a space in San Francisco and preferably in the Fillmore,” McPherson says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She grew up in that neighborhood, once known as the “Harlem of the West,” which used to be full of Black-owned businesses. But \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11825401/how-urban-renewal-decimated-the-fillmore-district-and-took-jazz-with-it\">urban renewal\u003c/a> efforts from the 1950s through the 1970s forced tens of thousands of families to leave, and most businesses shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>WATCH KQED’s 1999 documentary on the history of Fillmore:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\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/a8h2meDtdm8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/a8h2meDtdm8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few have remained, and in recent years, a citywide effort — the Dream Keeper Initiative — is trying to revitalize the area and help bring back Black-owned businesses, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954111/longtime-fillmore-resident-hopes-to-restore-commerce-with-black-led-marketplace\">In The Black\u003c/a>, a shared retail space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b2b2b;font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>\u003cstrong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13900855,arts_13916044,arts_13874853","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/strong>\u003c/b>\u003c/span>The program helped make it possible for McPherson to realize her dream. On Friday, she’ll welcome the public to dine at Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement — a stand-alone brick-and-mortar version of the East Bay stall, featuring a similar menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want to be able to educate people who may not know what was here before,” says McPherson, wearing a blue-gray apron and a graphic T-shirt emblazoned with a photo of Whitney Houston, from inside the 40-seat establishment in the heart of the Fillmore District. “Share those stories that my dad, my aunt share with me about how rich this was and be able to represent the culture and look forward to seeing more of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For her, food is personal, and the restaurant pays homage to her family history. One wall is decorated with a large mural of a photo of Fillmore Street in its heyday in the 1960s. Another wall has two large-scale photographs of her biggest inspirations — her grandma Lillie Bell and her great-aunt Minnie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956186\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956186\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A fresh batch of fried chicken is pulled out of the deep fryer.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-31-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pulling a fresh batch of rosemary fried chicken out of the fryer. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I picked these photos because I wanted a photo of them in their youth, like my aunt has on her cap and gown. She was graduating high school. My grandmother was about 21 and it was a professional portrait,” she says. “I just think they look so beautiful, and when I look up at these pictures, it just gives me all the strength that I need to get through my day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McPherson talked more about how important the past has been toward shaping her present with KQED’s Adhiti Bandlamudi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adhiti Bandlamudi: Tell me more about your grandma and great aunt. How did their story manifest when it came to creating a menu and thinking about what experience you wanted to give at Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fernay McPherson:\u003c/b> While I may add a little twist to it, everything that I cook is food that I grew up eating. Before my family left Texas in the 1960s, my grandma made the chicken and pound cake for their journey into San Francisco. So we have that pound cake that she made — but [with] the addition of the caramel. I make it the same way that she taught me to make it. It was one of the cakes that everyone in the family wanted for their birthday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have fried chicken, which is the highlight of what we do, [and] the addition of the rosemary, is very San Francisco with so many rosemary bushes here. So those two married together — the flavors that migrated during the Great Migration with the fried chicken and then the freshness of the rosemary in the city, where I was born and raised. It’s like a perfect blend of Chef Fernay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>It almost seems like your approach to soul food is tradition with a little twist.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Exactly! It’s tradition with a little twist. But the twists are not so much that it doesn’t display a homestyle comfort meal. That was so important for me, for people to eat the food and feel the comfort of home. In Emeryville, people would come and say, “Well, I’m from the South, so I’ll let you know how it tastes.” And I’m like, “Okay, that’s cool.” I know how it tastes [too], you know? But they would always come back and say, “That was so good, that really reminds me of home.” That is definitely the experience that I want people to get. Not too much of a twist, but the perfect twist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956187\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956187\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A chef picks fresh rosemary leaves.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-35-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">McPherson prepares rosemary alongside Mundo Pérez at her new Fillmore restaurant. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You’ve been operating out of Emeryville since 2018, and now you’re getting ready to open up in San Francisco. You’ve wanted this for so long. What’s going through your mind right now?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a surreal experience. [To] be in the Fillmore, the community where I was born and raised, but also in a neighborhood that was rich in African-American culture, ownership, businesses, jazz clubs, just means so much, because I want to be able to represent a bygone era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I am third generation. My aunt and dad talk about the history of the neighborhood. Then, I have my own history. So it’s three layers to what that history used to be. And by the time I was a teenager and walking around these streets, it was minimal Black businesses; whereas now, it’s almost nonexistent. So being a part of that revitalization is important, so that we can learn about the culture and know what used to be here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Are any of your relatives, like Aunt Minnie, coming to the restaurant’s grand opening? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have a private grand opening party on Thursday, when my Aunt Minnie will see her face on this wall for the first time. My parents, they’re still in the neighborhood. My aunt lives with them, so they’ll all be here. My brothers will be here. My children will be here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956189\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956189\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A paper-lined basket of fried chicken on a countertop.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240416-MINNIESSOULFOOD-47-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">McPherson’s famous rosemary fried chicken, ready to be eaten. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What do you plan to serve to Aunt Minnie ?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For her, I will do candied yams, fried chicken, cornbread and greens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How might she respond? Are you ready for her critique?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She critiques it all the time! She tells me all the time you’re getting better and better. She has the food often. So when she comes in, it won’t be anything new. It just has to be right. Because if it’s not, she will let me know. But when she tells me, “This was delicious,” that’s all the validation I need.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.minniebellssoul.com/\">\u003ci>Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci> is located at 1375 Fillmore St. in San Francisco.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13956178/minnie-bells-soul-food-restaurant-fillmore-sf-opening","authors":["11672","11724"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_12276","arts_235"],"tags":["arts_6357","arts_10278","arts_1806","arts_1297","arts_1050","arts_1146","arts_14729"],"featImg":"arts_13956188","label":"source_arts_13956178"},"arts_13956068":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13956068","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13956068","score":null,"sort":[1713434440000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"deep-sea-fishing-filipino-roots-and-belonging-where-we-are","title":"Deep Sea Fishing, Filipino Roots and Belonging ‘Where We Are’","publishDate":1713434440,"format":"audio","headTitle":"Deep Sea Fishing, Filipino Roots and Belonging ‘Where We Are’ | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":8720,"site":"arts"},"content":"\u003cp> \u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like all good sailing stories, Adonis’ love for the ocean begins with a shipwreck followed by a face-to-face meeting with a huge eel. It involves the search for personal identity and the need to pad pockets with paper. Just like many other aspects of Adonis’ life, it centers community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adonis is a DJ who is immersed in downtown Oakland’s nightlife scene. They currently work with \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/clubablunt510/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Club A.B.L.U.N.T. \u003c/a>(Asian Black Latinx Uniting with Native Tribes) throwing parties that center queer folks at venues around Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956076\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13956076 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.18.47%E2%80%AFPM-800x1191.png\" alt=\"Adonis stands behind a set of turntables while DJing at an event in Oakland. \" width=\"800\" height=\"1191\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.18.47 PM-800x1191.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.18.47 PM-160x238.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.18.47 PM-768x1143.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.18.47 PM.png 982w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adonis stands behind a set of turntables while DJing at an event in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Adonis)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When they’re not on the turntables, Adonis spends significant portions of their summers doing deep-sea commercial fishing in Alaska. Adonis sees it as a way to pay bills, build community, and learn more about their Filipino roots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adopted from Cebu City as a child and raised in Maine, Adonis’ quest to learn more about their heritage has taken them across oceans and seas. They’ve taken trips to visit the Philippines, and have studied the Filipino martial art of \u003ca href=\"https://www.eskabodaan.net/\">Eskabo Daan\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week we discuss how it all intertwines — the search for self, love of community, deep sea fishing and appreciation of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956077\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13956077 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.19.18%E2%80%AFPM-800x1023.png\" alt=\"A pile of fish appear in the foreground of a photo of two people in a boat on a body of water.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1023\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.19.18 PM-800x1023.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.19.18 PM-1020x1304.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.19.18 PM-160x205.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.19.18 PM-768x982.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.19.18 PM-1201x1536.png 1201w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.19.18 PM.png 1234w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adonis and a friend bundled up on a cold but successful day of deep sea fishing in Alaska. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Adonis)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC1228855841\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw, Host: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Welcome to Rightnowish, it’s your host, Pendarvis Harshaw. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ok, we all know that one person who has a damn good life story to tell. You know, that one person who has seen some wild things and has had some extraordinary experiences, someone like today’s guest. Their name is Adonis.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adonis is a deep sea diver, a nightclub DJ, a commercial fisherman, and a highly-trained martial artIst, plus they also have a day job. Still, through all of these experiences, they have the ability to find community anywhere, be it in a sea of people in a crowded club or literally in the middle of the ocean. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When it comes to the Bay Area, Adonis has participated in collectives that have been influential in Oakland’s vibrant, queer nightlife. Each one brings much-needed representation and exposure for queer, BIPOC DJs and performers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adonis told me some amazing stories about exploration, friendship, and getting connected to the roots of their Filipino identity. I invite you all to enjoy this ride, right after this message.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You have this wonderful story of your fascination with the ocean and the seafaring creatures of the world. Where does it all begin? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis, Guest:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I really think a big part of this story, for me, is being an adoptee. Uh, my parents were from Maine, or, and they live there now. And so I went to Maine, and I started to be a bit rebellious, they might say. And so there was a punk scene in Maine, it got me traveling around. I had lived in Guatemala in Quetzaltenango. I was going to this school called Proyecto Lingüístico de Quetzalteco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There had been a post online. It was called riseup.net, which is what all the anarchists use. It was encrypted, uh, encrypted email. And so there was a group that I had been in at the time, which was for women and trans women and non binary folks to connect around shared interests of travel, punk, whatever, music. And so, there was a call out that there was an anarchist sailing meetup in, uh, Rio Dulce, in Guatemala. I wasn’t on the internet like that, so I reached out on my little computer, actually probably I had a library computer, and tried to figure out who was going from our crews.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There were two spots and, or maybe three spots, and me and a couple friends, who also used to live here in Oakland, we all, we grabbed those spots out of many people ‘cause of our charisma and good looks, I imagine. And so we all got down to Guatemala, however we got down there, and, uh, jumped onto, into these workshops. People had brought their boats, there was people from Spain, people from Canada,\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I really got to see the ocean in a very specific way through sailing. And we were going from Rio Dulce to the Las Islas de la Bahia in Honduras. I forget which one. I think it was Utila. And the boat just fell apart in the storm. Like, the tiller, which is how you control the rudder of the boat, just snapped off. Everything just fell apart and we had to limp back. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And they were like, “Oh, I’m so sorry. Like, this was supposed to be really cool for you.” And I was so seasick. This was the first, I was like throwing up everywhere. I couldn’t keep food down. It was four days of just trying to get to this place that was not far away. And I, we got back to land and like, “We understand if you want to get off,” and I just looked at them and I was like, ‘That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done in my life.’ \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You said you had come in contact with an eel..\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right, so eventually, we finally made it to Utila. We had to go back, because we were eventually going to go up to Cuba and I think this was 2012. And, um, from where, where I’m from, if you’re in Maine, if you are in the ocean, it’s probably because you fell in and you’ll maybe die there. You just don’t do that. There’s a lot of sailors there. They’re like, “No, no, no, we don’t go swimming here, that’s how you die.” And so I had that in my head, that’s what would happen.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We get to the Bay Islands and they’re like, oh, we’re going scuba or not scuba diving, uh, “We’re going snorkeling.” \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Chuckles]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I was like, ‘That sounds boring.’ And they’re like, “Oh no, we just crossed this really razor sharp reef over here in our flippers walking backwards. And then you jump in and it’s really beautiful.” \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[chuckles] \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And, uh, they finally convinced me. I put on these flippers and so I flopped in, and the reef is just this like, It felt iridescent. The sun was coming through the water. There was just colors everywhere, fish flying around my face. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Um, I looked down and there’s this emerald pile of something on the ground. I’m like, ‘What is that?’ I knew I could dive a little bit. And so, I dove down as deep as I could. And I got close enough and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a moray eel.’ It was a, like, 15 to 20-foot long moray eel and it had a head that was maybe the size of my own head and it was opening its mouth up and down, up and down with these razor sharp teeth and I was so enamored with this beautiful thing in front of me. I just put my face into it and I stared at it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t even know how long I had been down there for. So we go back up, and they’re like, “What the hell are you doing down there?” And I was like, ‘Did you guys see that?’ They were like, “Yeah, and that thing could bite you. Like, you just don’t do that.” But I was so enthralled, and I was like, I can’t stop. And so for the days that we were there still repairing our boats, every day I went down there to just look at things. And from that day forward, um, my life became sailboats. And then after that, I would sail for about four years, having my own vessel, um, going up to Alaska and fishing up there, uh, going, taking other people’s boats to Cuba back in the day and helping people get down to Panama, going through Panama canal, all over. So that’s really how it all began. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It could almost seem conflicting to some, where it’s like, wait, you fell in love with the eel specifically, the fish, and then you in turn become a hunter and later become a fisherman. And what, what’s the connection between the two? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I was on these boats with these really amazing women who were sailors, and they all sailed together. They would go to different parts of the world, meet back up, and these women were like, I was like, ‘what do you guys do for work?’ And they were like, “Oh, we are commercial fishermen in Alaska.” And I was like, ‘So I can just go up there and make thousands of dollars salmon fishing?’ And they were like, “This is the best kept secret. You should come up there and we’ll help you get a job.”\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So these women actually helped place me into these positions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I know Native folks, and I know a couple of like, uh, Black folks, even that came up from Oakland in the 70s that fished up there. But people who were actually running boats or crew, it’s very rare to see people of color up there. And so there’s a whole lineage of Filipinos that were up there in this cannery, which I now fish for. There’s actually a little hut that’s called San Paquita and Caul and that’s where all the Filipinos would hang out at. Um, and it’s still there to this day, and there’s graffiti all over it in this old cannery. And it also has this very huge connection to my life and understanding my own identity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was adopted from Cebu City.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I didn’t feel like I had this connection, right? I was like, oh, I don’t know how to speak these languages. I don’t know what my people were doing. I don’t feel connected to my bloodline. And so to have that all tied back together with, I mean, our people were sailors, how did we get there?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can look at the Bajau people. Those people are spearfishing. They make their own goggles, they were making their own flippers out of whatever they had around, and they were diving down there for 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 minutes getting food. And they’re still more or less nomadic people that live on boats in the Philippines.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As I was doing these things, I was like, ‘Oh, this is what my people did. Oh, I can sail. Oh, I know how to fish,’ like, these are skills and talents that live in my blood. And so I created that, like, art from that, just even, like, the art of sailing, knowing how to sail well, and knowing how to fish well, and knowing how to create lures, and knowing how to cast nets. That lives in my body and so I get to express it. Even though I’m not in the Philippines, it was beautiful to feel like I could integrate my mind and body into skills that I feel my people were amazing at. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That common thread of things that are, that have been present in your ancestors showing up through you through multiple ways, you have a wide array of talents and fishing is just one of them\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">and you’re deeply involved in the community and a number of different groups. I wanted to bring the discussion to the work that you do in Oakland in the nightlife and, and your involvement in it. And so if we could get a little bit of background on yourself as a DJ, tell me about that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What was cool about that is that I met this person, and we decided to make art together. And so we created We Are The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For. And\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I started working here as a wardrobe stylist and set design, um, when I came to the Bay Area. And so, I would use those skills I was learning in the commercial world, in the commercial industries, and bring it to We Are the Ones, which was highlighting the narratives of, um, Black and brown trans folks in the bay. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over the three to five years that We Are The Ones was organizing together, um, we just had some really beautiful parties, a lot of amazing people came through who are now, like, doing really well out here in nightlife. And so now I’m with Club ABlunt, which stands for \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[chuckles]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Asian, Black, Latinos, United with Native Tribes. And that was a collective that my very good friend, Melanique Robichaud, or Black, she started with these other women in the 90s, in the early 90s. And so once We Are The Ones went its direction and a few of us went another direction, and so it’s now me and, uh, Aura and DJ Brown Amy and Black who are working together to do a very similar, similar thing. it just feels like we’re now out of the underground and we’re, we’ve been at the Oakland museum at the, I’m going to be representing then at the SF library.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’ve been able to pull much bigger, uh, artists as well. People want it. Like, we had Susie Analog at Counterpulse for Oakland Pride and so it’s been really beautiful to feel united on a, on a more global front.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So much about Oakland in general, specifically downtown Oakland, the nightlife scene-how would you describe what’s going on right now in Oakland’s queer nightlife scene for folks of color?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, so I feel like I took off a year and a half from going out, and I was like, okay, I’m gonna work on some other projects. It’s been really beautiful to reintegrate into nightlife because, and especially into queer and gay nightlife, which is something that I hadn’t really done. I was creating those events for people, and now I’m going to other people’s events at bars that I really had never spent time in. So, like, I mean, The Port’s about to close down, or like, going to the White Horse, or going to Fluid, which is a new place that’s doing really well. It’s really beautiful and seeing that just proliferate. Because a lot of the times I’m like, ‘SF actually doesn’t really care about us.’ SF feels really gatekeep-y and it’s just pulling all this talent from other parts of the world when there’s so much talent here in the Bay. It’s so nice to see this talent in Oakland.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m noticing this common thread of community and it brings me to wonder, like, when you think of the concept of belonging, what comes to mind?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I guess, as an adoptee, again, I didn’t feel like I belonged. But I feel like I just had to kind of alter my mindset. And be like, I do belong, and I can be here with you, can you be here with me? And when we ask these questions, and I think we really have to look internally and accept ourselves and love ourselves, to know that if anything, we belong where we are.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And no one can take that away from you. They can try, and they will and it gets violent, but no- I think that’s why we even choose to fight back, is because we understand we belong. And that’s why I do the work that I do, or even just be kind to people because I’m like, ‘You belong and your life should also be filled with ease and grace.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I think about, you said like, it’s a way of fighting, you literally are trained in martial arts as well. And even through that further community, further sense of belonging, maybe we could start with, um, what led you to martial arts and then we could talk about belonging in that as well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I mean I danced for a very long time in my life. I played instruments and I think all of those things are connected to the soul of just, you know, being Cebuano, being Visayan, and so I was like, ‘I’m gonna find another art,’ and so I chose-I was like, oh, I’ll try martial arts. So I went on the internet. There wasn’t many places I found, but one stood out, which was called Eskabodan. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I first walked in, I knew it was a place I belonged to. The school was doing really well at the time on Polk Street and so I stayed. I still train with Grandmaster Kastor today, and he is also a legend. I mean, and now I’m training for my second degree black belt. And I also am assisting him in teaching when we travel to Europe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s been really beautiful to feel another, another type of community here that is very Filipino and very rooted in a Filipino art and very rooted in martial arts. It’s like dancing and it’s a total meditation, which makes me feel really calm and it makes me feel confident.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so when I’m in a place that I think at one point that I would have felt nervous about being in, for my own safety of my body or emotional safety or whatever. I can remind myself that I can be calm and I can remember that I do belong here and that I don’t really have to be afraid.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I was in Paris actually, coming back from a seminar that we were teaching and, uh, some young kid ripped, tried to rip my necklace off of my, off of my body. And I have never had to use any of my skills that way. And I just remember my knee jerk reaction was to grab them, twist, twist their wrists in a certain way, and then I saw, I saw it. I saw all the openings. I saw where I could have caused this person harm, or taken them out in a certain way. And all I did was I just like, put them on the ground.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> [laughs] \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I was like, ‘That’s mine. Please give it back,’ and he did. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like, time felt like it slowed down, and I was like, oh, this is what I do this for. I do this so I can protect myself, and I can also protect my friends, and I can be confident in the world, which is what I feel like a lot of the work that I’ve done in general is about. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s beautiful, because I’m watching my daughter do martial arts now and I’m like, ‘I wonder will this actually sink in,’ you know? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It really sinks in. And once it sinks in, it feels like, you can only learn, it’s, it’s like a lesson in life. There’s always more to learn, but the stuff that you learn is priceless and it will always be with you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The folks who raised you, your parents, what do they think of your journey, of all the skills that you’ve acquired, all the places that you’ve been, this person that you’ve become? Do they appreciate all of that?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They do. They’ve always loved me and told me that I was doing a great job. You know, so I was raised by white people, and so I feel like they have this thing where they’re like, “You can do whatever you want in the world.” And so I was told that and, you know, I actually really appreciate that from them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I mean a lot of my friends, they were told that they were basically demons and-for being queer or gay or being trans or whatever and just demonized for their beliefs or kicked out of their house. My parents would never have done that to me. I didn’t even know parents were like that ‘cause my parents weren’t like that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now just through the traditions that I practice and the ways that I view the world. I understand, even though they’re not my birth parents, but both my birth parents and my adoptive parents are the most important things-that they, one my birth parents brought me into the world and then these people raised me. Now I appreciate them, and they have, and what I realize is that they have always loved and appreciated me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All of the things that you do from the martial arts to the fishing, DJing, community building, if there were a way to succinctly tie them all together, how would you explain what the common thread is?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I believe as an artist I have this very specific desire to live in a very specific way. And at first it was the thrill of traveling and then the thrill of creating art, and then the thrill of learning, and then the, uh, and just having this lust for experience.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I want other people to be able to experience life this way if they want to. I have allowed myself to do that, and I also believe that you should do that. And so, when we get together, what does that look like? Or, like, let’s talk about it, let’s sing about it, let’s write about it, let’s draw about it, let’s what, how do we feel alive? There’s something there that is, like, about living to me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It seems to be the thread of my life right now is that, you know, you have one life, but there are many lives to be lived within it and you are another example of that. And so, yeah, thank you. Thank you for that reminder.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Seriously, thank you.Thank you, thank you, thank you. Big shoutout to Adonis, I appreciate your wisdom and it’s extremely clear that your many experiences have shaped your ability to find and build community wherever you go.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For more info on queer nightlife in Oakland, Club ABLUNT’s instagram account is clubablunt510. That’s spelled like club A-B-L-U-N-T, and that’s 510 as in the area code.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adonis can be found on Instagram at bodegavendetta It’s spelled B-O-D-E-G-A V-E-N-D-E-T-T-A.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode was hosted by me, Pendarvis Harshaw. It was produced by Sheree Bishop and Marisol Medina-Cadena. Chris Hambrick is our editor. Brendan Willard is our engineer\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Rightnowish team is also supported by Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldaña, Ugur Dursun and Holly Kernan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rightnowish is a KQED production. Until next time, peace!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Rightnowish is an arts and culture podcast produced at KQED. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or click the play button at the top of this page and subscribe to the show on \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish\">NPR One\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I\">Spotify\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/Rightnowish-p1258245/\">TuneIn\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish\">Stitcher\u003c/a> or wherever you get your podcasts. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Adonis is a DJ who blends together a search for self, deep sea fishing and the love of community.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1713483138,"stats":{"hasAudio":true,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":69,"wordCount":4189},"headData":{"title":"Deep Sea Fishing, Filipino Roots and Belonging ‘Where We Are’ | KQED","description":"Like all good sailing stories, Adonis' love for the ocean begins with a shipwreck followed by a face-to-face meeting with a huge eel. It involves the search for personal identity and the need to pad pockets with paper. Just like many other aspects of Adonis' life, it centers community.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","socialDescription":"Like all good sailing stories, Adonis' love for the ocean begins with a shipwreck followed by a face-to-face meeting with a huge eel. It involves the search for personal identity and the need to pad pockets with paper. Just like many other aspects of Adonis' life, it centers community."},"audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC1228855841.mp3?updated=1713389171","sticky":false,"templateType":"standard","featuredImageType":"standard","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13956068/deep-sea-fishing-filipino-roots-and-belonging-where-we-are","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like all good sailing stories, Adonis’ love for the ocean begins with a shipwreck followed by a face-to-face meeting with a huge eel. It involves the search for personal identity and the need to pad pockets with paper. Just like many other aspects of Adonis’ life, it centers community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adonis is a DJ who is immersed in downtown Oakland’s nightlife scene. They currently work with \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/clubablunt510/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Club A.B.L.U.N.T. \u003c/a>(Asian Black Latinx Uniting with Native Tribes) throwing parties that center queer folks at venues around Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956076\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13956076 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.18.47%E2%80%AFPM-800x1191.png\" alt=\"Adonis stands behind a set of turntables while DJing at an event in Oakland. \" width=\"800\" height=\"1191\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.18.47 PM-800x1191.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.18.47 PM-160x238.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.18.47 PM-768x1143.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.18.47 PM.png 982w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adonis stands behind a set of turntables while DJing at an event in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Adonis)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When they’re not on the turntables, Adonis spends significant portions of their summers doing deep-sea commercial fishing in Alaska. Adonis sees it as a way to pay bills, build community, and learn more about their Filipino roots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adopted from Cebu City as a child and raised in Maine, Adonis’ quest to learn more about their heritage has taken them across oceans and seas. They’ve taken trips to visit the Philippines, and have studied the Filipino martial art of \u003ca href=\"https://www.eskabodaan.net/\">Eskabo Daan\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week we discuss how it all intertwines — the search for self, love of community, deep sea fishing and appreciation of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956077\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13956077 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.19.18%E2%80%AFPM-800x1023.png\" alt=\"A pile of fish appear in the foreground of a photo of two people in a boat on a body of water.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1023\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.19.18 PM-800x1023.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.19.18 PM-1020x1304.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.19.18 PM-160x205.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.19.18 PM-768x982.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.19.18 PM-1201x1536.png 1201w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-16-at-12.19.18 PM.png 1234w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adonis and a friend bundled up on a cold but successful day of deep sea fishing in Alaska. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Adonis)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC1228855841\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw, Host: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Welcome to Rightnowish, it’s your host, Pendarvis Harshaw. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ok, we all know that one person who has a damn good life story to tell. You know, that one person who has seen some wild things and has had some extraordinary experiences, someone like today’s guest. Their name is Adonis.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adonis is a deep sea diver, a nightclub DJ, a commercial fisherman, and a highly-trained martial artIst, plus they also have a day job. Still, through all of these experiences, they have the ability to find community anywhere, be it in a sea of people in a crowded club or literally in the middle of the ocean. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When it comes to the Bay Area, Adonis has participated in collectives that have been influential in Oakland’s vibrant, queer nightlife. Each one brings much-needed representation and exposure for queer, BIPOC DJs and performers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adonis told me some amazing stories about exploration, friendship, and getting connected to the roots of their Filipino identity. I invite you all to enjoy this ride, right after this message.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You have this wonderful story of your fascination with the ocean and the seafaring creatures of the world. Where does it all begin? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis, Guest:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I really think a big part of this story, for me, is being an adoptee. Uh, my parents were from Maine, or, and they live there now. And so I went to Maine, and I started to be a bit rebellious, they might say. And so there was a punk scene in Maine, it got me traveling around. I had lived in Guatemala in Quetzaltenango. I was going to this school called Proyecto Lingüístico de Quetzalteco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There had been a post online. It was called riseup.net, which is what all the anarchists use. It was encrypted, uh, encrypted email. And so there was a group that I had been in at the time, which was for women and trans women and non binary folks to connect around shared interests of travel, punk, whatever, music. And so, there was a call out that there was an anarchist sailing meetup in, uh, Rio Dulce, in Guatemala. I wasn’t on the internet like that, so I reached out on my little computer, actually probably I had a library computer, and tried to figure out who was going from our crews.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There were two spots and, or maybe three spots, and me and a couple friends, who also used to live here in Oakland, we all, we grabbed those spots out of many people ‘cause of our charisma and good looks, I imagine. And so we all got down to Guatemala, however we got down there, and, uh, jumped onto, into these workshops. People had brought their boats, there was people from Spain, people from Canada,\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I really got to see the ocean in a very specific way through sailing. And we were going from Rio Dulce to the Las Islas de la Bahia in Honduras. I forget which one. I think it was Utila. And the boat just fell apart in the storm. Like, the tiller, which is how you control the rudder of the boat, just snapped off. Everything just fell apart and we had to limp back. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And they were like, “Oh, I’m so sorry. Like, this was supposed to be really cool for you.” And I was so seasick. This was the first, I was like throwing up everywhere. I couldn’t keep food down. It was four days of just trying to get to this place that was not far away. And I, we got back to land and like, “We understand if you want to get off,” and I just looked at them and I was like, ‘That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done in my life.’ \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You said you had come in contact with an eel..\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right, so eventually, we finally made it to Utila. We had to go back, because we were eventually going to go up to Cuba and I think this was 2012. And, um, from where, where I’m from, if you’re in Maine, if you are in the ocean, it’s probably because you fell in and you’ll maybe die there. You just don’t do that. There’s a lot of sailors there. They’re like, “No, no, no, we don’t go swimming here, that’s how you die.” And so I had that in my head, that’s what would happen.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We get to the Bay Islands and they’re like, oh, we’re going scuba or not scuba diving, uh, “We’re going snorkeling.” \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Chuckles]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I was like, ‘That sounds boring.’ And they’re like, “Oh no, we just crossed this really razor sharp reef over here in our flippers walking backwards. And then you jump in and it’s really beautiful.” \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[chuckles] \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And, uh, they finally convinced me. I put on these flippers and so I flopped in, and the reef is just this like, It felt iridescent. The sun was coming through the water. There was just colors everywhere, fish flying around my face. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Um, I looked down and there’s this emerald pile of something on the ground. I’m like, ‘What is that?’ I knew I could dive a little bit. And so, I dove down as deep as I could. And I got close enough and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a moray eel.’ It was a, like, 15 to 20-foot long moray eel and it had a head that was maybe the size of my own head and it was opening its mouth up and down, up and down with these razor sharp teeth and I was so enamored with this beautiful thing in front of me. I just put my face into it and I stared at it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t even know how long I had been down there for. So we go back up, and they’re like, “What the hell are you doing down there?” And I was like, ‘Did you guys see that?’ They were like, “Yeah, and that thing could bite you. Like, you just don’t do that.” But I was so enthralled, and I was like, I can’t stop. And so for the days that we were there still repairing our boats, every day I went down there to just look at things. And from that day forward, um, my life became sailboats. And then after that, I would sail for about four years, having my own vessel, um, going up to Alaska and fishing up there, uh, going, taking other people’s boats to Cuba back in the day and helping people get down to Panama, going through Panama canal, all over. So that’s really how it all began. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It could almost seem conflicting to some, where it’s like, wait, you fell in love with the eel specifically, the fish, and then you in turn become a hunter and later become a fisherman. And what, what’s the connection between the two? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I was on these boats with these really amazing women who were sailors, and they all sailed together. They would go to different parts of the world, meet back up, and these women were like, I was like, ‘what do you guys do for work?’ And they were like, “Oh, we are commercial fishermen in Alaska.” And I was like, ‘So I can just go up there and make thousands of dollars salmon fishing?’ And they were like, “This is the best kept secret. You should come up there and we’ll help you get a job.”\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So these women actually helped place me into these positions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I know Native folks, and I know a couple of like, uh, Black folks, even that came up from Oakland in the 70s that fished up there. But people who were actually running boats or crew, it’s very rare to see people of color up there. And so there’s a whole lineage of Filipinos that were up there in this cannery, which I now fish for. There’s actually a little hut that’s called San Paquita and Caul and that’s where all the Filipinos would hang out at. Um, and it’s still there to this day, and there’s graffiti all over it in this old cannery. And it also has this very huge connection to my life and understanding my own identity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was adopted from Cebu City.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I didn’t feel like I had this connection, right? I was like, oh, I don’t know how to speak these languages. I don’t know what my people were doing. I don’t feel connected to my bloodline. And so to have that all tied back together with, I mean, our people were sailors, how did we get there?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can look at the Bajau people. Those people are spearfishing. They make their own goggles, they were making their own flippers out of whatever they had around, and they were diving down there for 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 minutes getting food. And they’re still more or less nomadic people that live on boats in the Philippines.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As I was doing these things, I was like, ‘Oh, this is what my people did. Oh, I can sail. Oh, I know how to fish,’ like, these are skills and talents that live in my blood. And so I created that, like, art from that, just even, like, the art of sailing, knowing how to sail well, and knowing how to fish well, and knowing how to create lures, and knowing how to cast nets. That lives in my body and so I get to express it. Even though I’m not in the Philippines, it was beautiful to feel like I could integrate my mind and body into skills that I feel my people were amazing at. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That common thread of things that are, that have been present in your ancestors showing up through you through multiple ways, you have a wide array of talents and fishing is just one of them\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">and you’re deeply involved in the community and a number of different groups. I wanted to bring the discussion to the work that you do in Oakland in the nightlife and, and your involvement in it. And so if we could get a little bit of background on yourself as a DJ, tell me about that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What was cool about that is that I met this person, and we decided to make art together. And so we created We Are The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For. And\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I started working here as a wardrobe stylist and set design, um, when I came to the Bay Area. And so, I would use those skills I was learning in the commercial world, in the commercial industries, and bring it to We Are the Ones, which was highlighting the narratives of, um, Black and brown trans folks in the bay. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over the three to five years that We Are The Ones was organizing together, um, we just had some really beautiful parties, a lot of amazing people came through who are now, like, doing really well out here in nightlife. And so now I’m with Club ABlunt, which stands for \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[chuckles]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Asian, Black, Latinos, United with Native Tribes. And that was a collective that my very good friend, Melanique Robichaud, or Black, she started with these other women in the 90s, in the early 90s. And so once We Are The Ones went its direction and a few of us went another direction, and so it’s now me and, uh, Aura and DJ Brown Amy and Black who are working together to do a very similar, similar thing. it just feels like we’re now out of the underground and we’re, we’ve been at the Oakland museum at the, I’m going to be representing then at the SF library.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’ve been able to pull much bigger, uh, artists as well. People want it. Like, we had Susie Analog at Counterpulse for Oakland Pride and so it’s been really beautiful to feel united on a, on a more global front.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So much about Oakland in general, specifically downtown Oakland, the nightlife scene-how would you describe what’s going on right now in Oakland’s queer nightlife scene for folks of color?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, so I feel like I took off a year and a half from going out, and I was like, okay, I’m gonna work on some other projects. It’s been really beautiful to reintegrate into nightlife because, and especially into queer and gay nightlife, which is something that I hadn’t really done. I was creating those events for people, and now I’m going to other people’s events at bars that I really had never spent time in. So, like, I mean, The Port’s about to close down, or like, going to the White Horse, or going to Fluid, which is a new place that’s doing really well. It’s really beautiful and seeing that just proliferate. Because a lot of the times I’m like, ‘SF actually doesn’t really care about us.’ SF feels really gatekeep-y and it’s just pulling all this talent from other parts of the world when there’s so much talent here in the Bay. It’s so nice to see this talent in Oakland.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m noticing this common thread of community and it brings me to wonder, like, when you think of the concept of belonging, what comes to mind?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I guess, as an adoptee, again, I didn’t feel like I belonged. But I feel like I just had to kind of alter my mindset. And be like, I do belong, and I can be here with you, can you be here with me? And when we ask these questions, and I think we really have to look internally and accept ourselves and love ourselves, to know that if anything, we belong where we are.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And no one can take that away from you. They can try, and they will and it gets violent, but no- I think that’s why we even choose to fight back, is because we understand we belong. And that’s why I do the work that I do, or even just be kind to people because I’m like, ‘You belong and your life should also be filled with ease and grace.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I think about, you said like, it’s a way of fighting, you literally are trained in martial arts as well. And even through that further community, further sense of belonging, maybe we could start with, um, what led you to martial arts and then we could talk about belonging in that as well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I mean I danced for a very long time in my life. I played instruments and I think all of those things are connected to the soul of just, you know, being Cebuano, being Visayan, and so I was like, ‘I’m gonna find another art,’ and so I chose-I was like, oh, I’ll try martial arts. So I went on the internet. There wasn’t many places I found, but one stood out, which was called Eskabodan. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I first walked in, I knew it was a place I belonged to. The school was doing really well at the time on Polk Street and so I stayed. I still train with Grandmaster Kastor today, and he is also a legend. I mean, and now I’m training for my second degree black belt. And I also am assisting him in teaching when we travel to Europe.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s been really beautiful to feel another, another type of community here that is very Filipino and very rooted in a Filipino art and very rooted in martial arts. It’s like dancing and it’s a total meditation, which makes me feel really calm and it makes me feel confident.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so when I’m in a place that I think at one point that I would have felt nervous about being in, for my own safety of my body or emotional safety or whatever. I can remind myself that I can be calm and I can remember that I do belong here and that I don’t really have to be afraid.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I was in Paris actually, coming back from a seminar that we were teaching and, uh, some young kid ripped, tried to rip my necklace off of my, off of my body. And I have never had to use any of my skills that way. And I just remember my knee jerk reaction was to grab them, twist, twist their wrists in a certain way, and then I saw, I saw it. I saw all the openings. I saw where I could have caused this person harm, or taken them out in a certain way. And all I did was I just like, put them on the ground.\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> [laughs] \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I was like, ‘That’s mine. Please give it back,’ and he did. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Like, time felt like it slowed down, and I was like, oh, this is what I do this for. I do this so I can protect myself, and I can also protect my friends, and I can be confident in the world, which is what I feel like a lot of the work that I’ve done in general is about. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s beautiful, because I’m watching my daughter do martial arts now and I’m like, ‘I wonder will this actually sink in,’ you know? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It really sinks in. And once it sinks in, it feels like, you can only learn, it’s, it’s like a lesson in life. There’s always more to learn, but the stuff that you learn is priceless and it will always be with you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The folks who raised you, your parents, what do they think of your journey, of all the skills that you’ve acquired, all the places that you’ve been, this person that you’ve become? Do they appreciate all of that?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They do. They’ve always loved me and told me that I was doing a great job. You know, so I was raised by white people, and so I feel like they have this thing where they’re like, “You can do whatever you want in the world.” And so I was told that and, you know, I actually really appreciate that from them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I mean a lot of my friends, they were told that they were basically demons and-for being queer or gay or being trans or whatever and just demonized for their beliefs or kicked out of their house. My parents would never have done that to me. I didn’t even know parents were like that ‘cause my parents weren’t like that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now just through the traditions that I practice and the ways that I view the world. I understand, even though they’re not my birth parents, but both my birth parents and my adoptive parents are the most important things-that they, one my birth parents brought me into the world and then these people raised me. Now I appreciate them, and they have, and what I realize is that they have always loved and appreciated me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All of the things that you do from the martial arts to the fishing, DJing, community building, if there were a way to succinctly tie them all together, how would you explain what the common thread is?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Adonis:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I believe as an artist I have this very specific desire to live in a very specific way. And at first it was the thrill of traveling and then the thrill of creating art, and then the thrill of learning, and then the, uh, and just having this lust for experience.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I want other people to be able to experience life this way if they want to. I have allowed myself to do that, and I also believe that you should do that. And so, when we get together, what does that look like? Or, like, let’s talk about it, let’s sing about it, let’s write about it, let’s draw about it, let’s what, how do we feel alive? There’s something there that is, like, about living to me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It seems to be the thread of my life right now is that, you know, you have one life, but there are many lives to be lived within it and you are another example of that. And so, yeah, thank you. Thank you for that reminder.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Seriously, thank you.Thank you, thank you, thank you. Big shoutout to Adonis, I appreciate your wisdom and it’s extremely clear that your many experiences have shaped your ability to find and build community wherever you go.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For more info on queer nightlife in Oakland, Club ABLUNT’s instagram account is clubablunt510. That’s spelled like club A-B-L-U-N-T, and that’s 510 as in the area code.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adonis can be found on Instagram at bodegavendetta It’s spelled B-O-D-E-G-A V-E-N-D-E-T-T-A.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode was hosted by me, Pendarvis Harshaw. It was produced by Sheree Bishop and Marisol Medina-Cadena. Chris Hambrick is our editor. Brendan Willard is our engineer\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Rightnowish team is also supported by Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldaña, Ugur Dursun and Holly Kernan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rightnowish is a KQED production. Until next time, peace!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Rightnowish is an arts and culture podcast produced at KQED. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or click the play button at the top of this page and subscribe to the show on \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish\">NPR One\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I\">Spotify\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/Rightnowish-p1258245/\">TuneIn\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish\">Stitcher\u003c/a> or wherever you get your podcasts. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13956068/deep-sea-fishing-filipino-roots-and-belonging-where-we-are","authors":["11491","11528"],"programs":["arts_8720"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_835","arts_69"],"tags":["arts_2852","arts_10278","arts_3226","arts_1143","arts_12080"],"featImg":"arts_13956173","label":"arts_8720"},"arts_13956128":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13956128","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13956128","score":null,"sort":[1713390986000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"best-mysteries-and-thriller-novels-spring-2024","title":"5 New Mysteries and Thrillers for Your Nightstand This Spring","publishDate":1713390986,"format":"standard","headTitle":"5 New Mysteries and Thrillers for Your Nightstand This Spring | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":140,"site":"arts"},"content":"\u003cp>Welcome back, mystery and thriller devotees! These books will take you from murder in present-day Texas to cryptography in Cold War Berlin to an online community that might hold the solution to a missing-person case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Happy reading!\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Listen for the Lie’ by Amy Tintera\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956153\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 834px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956153\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.42.17-PM.png\" alt=\"A red book cover illustrated with a winding aux cord.\" width=\"834\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.42.17-PM.png 834w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.42.17-PM-800x1163.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.42.17-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.42.17-PM-768x1116.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Listen for the Lie’ by Amy Tintera. \u003ccite>(Celadon Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Savannah Harper, the sweetheart of Plumpton, Texas, died from blows to her head. A few hours later, her best friend forever, Lucy Chase, was found wandering the town streets covered in blood. While Lucy was never formally charged with the murder, the community convicted her lock, stock and a full plate of barbecue. Five years later, Lucy has come home just as true-crime podcaster Ben Owens arrives to produce an episode of his show, \u003cem>Listen for the Lie.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13956050']As Ben encourages the tetchy, secretive Lucy to share her side of the story with him, she relaxes beneath his sunny, handsome gaze and starts to look at the truth. Unfortunately, truth doesn’t matter much to the residents of Plumpton, who long ago made up their minds about a young woman whose persona chafes against their ideas of femininity. Fortunately, by the time you meet the Plumptonites, you’ll have been mesmerized by Lucy’s hilarious, self-deprecating first-person narration. “It’s probably unfair to say that a podcast ruined my life,” she tells readers, and then, as she talks about making dinner during which she’ll break up with her clueless boyfriend: “Let this be a lesson to all the men out there who can’t handle conflict — man up and dump your girlfriend, or you might end up living with a suspected murder indefinitely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Podcast episodes interspersed between Lucy’s chapters form a clever way for Tintera (already a bestselling YA author; this is her debut for adults) to draw out the suspense. Revealing too much about the other characters might ruin that cleverness, but it’s important to note that even when the story has ended and the murderer found, there are secrets within secrets, the kind that women have long used to protect each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Where You End’ by Abbott Kahler\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956154\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 832px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956154\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.44.04-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover illustrated with winding bare tree branches and two rabbit masks.\" width=\"832\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.44.04-PM.png 832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.44.04-PM-800x1167.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.44.04-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.44.04-PM-768x1121.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Where You End’ by Abbott Kahler. \u003ccite>(Henry Holt and Co.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Abbott Kahler’s debut centers on a young woman named Katherine “Kat” Bird, who has a near-death experience after her car collides with a deer, and wakes to near-total amnesia. She remembers her twin sister, Jude, who tries to fill in all of the blanks in Kat’s memory, but as Kat slowly recovers, she realizes Jude’s recounting of events contradict her own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did the sisters have an idyllic childhood, or were they raised in a cult? If the latter is true, why would Jude be trying to pretend it never happened? Kahler (who has written acclaimed nonfiction as Karen Abbott) constructs a thriller so perfectly paced that you actually will not be able to put it down. You’ll be longing at each step to see how much Kat remembers and how much Jude complicates the memories. Each clue (there are few pictures of the sisters together, for example) has a flip side, a structural technique that works particularly well since the book is set in 1970s Philadelphia, with all of that city’s grittiness, community, and culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kahler based her novel on the real-life story of Alex and Marcus Lewis, 18-year-old British identical twins. In 1982, Alex awoke from a coma following a motorcycle accident and remembered nothing except his brother’s name and face; Marcus decided to use the opportunity to invent new lives for them both. Kahler expands on their situation by going deeper into the effects of trauma for women and girls, making \u003cem>Where You End\u003c/em> incredibly relevant, right up to the truly shocking ending.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘The Night of the Storm’ by Nishita Parekh\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956156\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 832px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956156\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.46.08-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting a large house surrounded by water with a storm raging overhead.\" width=\"832\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.46.08-PM.png 832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.46.08-PM-800x1167.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.46.08-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.46.08-PM-768x1121.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Night of the Storm’ by Nishita Parekh. \u003ccite>(Dutton)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Answer to a question you didn’t ask: In the UK, the board game Clue is known as Cluedo, a portmanteau word for “clue” plus “ludo,” the Latin for “I play.” In Nishita Parekh’s debut, a locked-room mystery that toys with everyone’s memories of playing Clue, readers may want to keep that active verb in mind. Set in Houston among a group of upperclass suburban Desi friends, \u003cem>The Night of the Storm\u003c/em> puts family drama above anything resembling, say, \u003cem>Cape Fear\u003c/em>-style hijinks — but the word “storm” in the title can mean so many things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13955903']Protagonist Jia Shah, single mom to Ishaan, decides they’ll both shelter from Hurricane Harvey at her sister Seema’s large home in Sugar Land. Seema’s husband Vipul and some of his relatives make things more complicated for Jia, through both their busy presence and because Jia and Vipul have some sexual tension going on; one of the things that makes this book fascinating is the look at a second-generation immigrant family enjoying their new country while also feeling the pull of hereditary expectations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re looking for a thriller — and this book is labeled one — you’ve come to the wrong place. \u003cem>The Night of the Storm\u003c/em> resembles nothing so much as a Golden Age mystery, and if you appreciate those, you’ve come to the right place. Parekh has clearly read her Christie, Marsh, and Allingham; she also clearly relishes those authors and their attention to cohesion and convention. Come on in and shelter from this \u003cem>Storm\u003c/em> with a truly unreliable cast of characters.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Rabbit Hole’ by Kate Brody\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956157\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 838px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956157\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.47.47-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting a woman's face partially obscured by a finger print. \" width=\"838\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.47.47-PM.png 838w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.47.47-PM-800x1155.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.47.47-PM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.47.47-PM-768x1109.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Rabbit Hole’ by Kate Brody. \u003ccite>(Soho Crime)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A decade ago, Teddy Angstrom’s older sister Angie disappeared at age 18. When their father chooses suicide on the anniversary of Angie’s death, the now 26-year-old Teddy leaves the private school in Maine where she teaches English for home to sort out family matters with her grieving mother. Teddy discovers Mark Angstrom had grown obsessed with Reddit boards about true crime, some of them specifically about Angie’s case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13955214']Her initial look at the discussions soon turns into an obsession equaling her father’s, one that will pull her into the orbit of 19-year-old Mickey, a local college student with multiple tattoos and perhaps multiple motives for the assistance she gives Teddy. The weird friendship these women create reflects the darkness into which Teddy descends, continuing her addiction to the internet as she develops an addiction to alcohol, and accidentally outing herself as Angie’s sister to the various members of the Reddit boards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brody wisely builds the suspense around Teddy’s dissolution and paranoia, rather than focusing on the details of Angie’s fate, creating an atmosphere so suffocating and panicky that readers will feel the effects of loss, grief, and confusion as surely as if they were inside Teddy’s very smart and once better-adjusted mind. Teddy’s longing not just for her sister’s survival but for their ability to share life as 20-somethings marks her more indelibly than Mickey’s body ink.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘The Berlin Letters’ by Katherine Reay\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956158\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 820px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956158\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.49.15-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting a woman dressed in conservative 1980s-era clothing stands, arms folded in front of a small yellow car and a wall of graffiti.\" width=\"820\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.49.15-PM.png 820w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.49.15-PM-800x1182.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.49.15-PM-160x236.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.49.15-PM-768x1135.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Berlin Letters’ by Katherine Reay. \u003ccite>(Harper Muse)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Brilliant cryptographer Luisa Voekler, whose talent was nurtured by her grandfather’s frequent code-based scavenger hunts, wants to move up in the CIA, but finds her career sidelined in the late 1980s as she translates World War II documents. One day she recognizes a tiny symbol that will lead her down a dangerous path. Her discovery involves her father, Haris, who remains in the East Berlin his family left in 1961 as the East German government put up a wall dividing the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13955156']Reay has written a number of novels based on Brontë and Austen characters, as well as a couple of lighthearted looks at women’s friendships in Illinois, but in 2021 she turned to darker territory, setting books about spycraft in London, Moscow — and now Berlin and Washington, D.C. The cover of \u003cem>The Berlin Letters\u003c/em> announces both its relatively recent time period, with the figure of a young woman dressed in contemporary clothing, yet also nods to the singularity of modern Berlin, with a backdrop of the Wall covered in graffiti and the trunk of an iconic East German Trabant or “Trabi” auto (known for being constructed from lightweight resin).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The author knows East and West Berlin inside out, discussing details like the houses on Bernauer Strasse that allowed inhabitants, for a time, to easily defect simply by walking out of their front doors. However, those details never overwhelm a fast-paced story told by father and daughter from their different vantage points, as Luisa learns the truth of her past, and both stories reach the shocking, history-making night when The Berlin Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bethanne Patrick is a freelance writer and critic who tweets \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/thebookmaven\">\u003cem>@TheBookMaven\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and hosts the podcast Missing Pages.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=5+new+mysteries+and+thrillers+for+your+nightstand+this+spring&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"These thrilling new books will take you from murder in present-day Texas to cryptography in Cold War Berlin.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1713390986,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":20,"wordCount":1583},"headData":{"title":"Best New Mystery and Thriller Novels for Spring 2024 | KQED","description":"These thrilling new books will take you from murder in present-day Texas to cryptography in Cold War Berlin.","ogTitle":"5 New Mysteries and Thrillers for Your Nightstand This Spring","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"5 New Mysteries and Thrillers for Your Nightstand This Spring","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","socialTitle":"Best New Mystery and Thriller Novels for Spring 2024%%page%% %%sep%% KQED"},"sticky":false,"nprByline":"Bethanne Patrick","nprImageAgency":"NPR","nprStoryId":"1239716585","nprApiLink":"http://api.npr.org/query?id=1239716585&apiKey=MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004","nprHtmlLink":"https://www.npr.org/2024/04/17/1239716585/5-new-mysteries-and-thrillers-spring-2024-reading-list-recommendations?ft=nprml&f=1239716585","nprRetrievedStory":"1","nprPubDate":"Wed, 17 Apr 2024 11:29:00 -0400","nprStoryDate":"Wed, 17 Apr 2024 10:49:00 -0400","nprLastModifiedDate":"Wed, 17 Apr 2024 11:29:14 -0400","templateType":"standard","featuredImageType":"standard","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","showOnAuthorArchivePages":"No","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13956128/best-mysteries-and-thriller-novels-spring-2024","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Welcome back, mystery and thriller devotees! These books will take you from murder in present-day Texas to cryptography in Cold War Berlin to an online community that might hold the solution to a missing-person case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Happy reading!\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Listen for the Lie’ by Amy Tintera\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956153\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 834px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956153\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.42.17-PM.png\" alt=\"A red book cover illustrated with a winding aux cord.\" width=\"834\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.42.17-PM.png 834w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.42.17-PM-800x1163.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.42.17-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.42.17-PM-768x1116.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Listen for the Lie’ by Amy Tintera. \u003ccite>(Celadon Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Savannah Harper, the sweetheart of Plumpton, Texas, died from blows to her head. A few hours later, her best friend forever, Lucy Chase, was found wandering the town streets covered in blood. While Lucy was never formally charged with the murder, the community convicted her lock, stock and a full plate of barbecue. Five years later, Lucy has come home just as true-crime podcaster Ben Owens arrives to produce an episode of his show, \u003cem>Listen for the Lie.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13956050","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As Ben encourages the tetchy, secretive Lucy to share her side of the story with him, she relaxes beneath his sunny, handsome gaze and starts to look at the truth. Unfortunately, truth doesn’t matter much to the residents of Plumpton, who long ago made up their minds about a young woman whose persona chafes against their ideas of femininity. Fortunately, by the time you meet the Plumptonites, you’ll have been mesmerized by Lucy’s hilarious, self-deprecating first-person narration. “It’s probably unfair to say that a podcast ruined my life,” she tells readers, and then, as she talks about making dinner during which she’ll break up with her clueless boyfriend: “Let this be a lesson to all the men out there who can’t handle conflict — man up and dump your girlfriend, or you might end up living with a suspected murder indefinitely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Podcast episodes interspersed between Lucy’s chapters form a clever way for Tintera (already a bestselling YA author; this is her debut for adults) to draw out the suspense. Revealing too much about the other characters might ruin that cleverness, but it’s important to note that even when the story has ended and the murderer found, there are secrets within secrets, the kind that women have long used to protect each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Where You End’ by Abbott Kahler\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956154\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 832px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956154\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.44.04-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover illustrated with winding bare tree branches and two rabbit masks.\" width=\"832\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.44.04-PM.png 832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.44.04-PM-800x1167.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.44.04-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.44.04-PM-768x1121.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Where You End’ by Abbott Kahler. \u003ccite>(Henry Holt and Co.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Abbott Kahler’s debut centers on a young woman named Katherine “Kat” Bird, who has a near-death experience after her car collides with a deer, and wakes to near-total amnesia. She remembers her twin sister, Jude, who tries to fill in all of the blanks in Kat’s memory, but as Kat slowly recovers, she realizes Jude’s recounting of events contradict her own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did the sisters have an idyllic childhood, or were they raised in a cult? If the latter is true, why would Jude be trying to pretend it never happened? Kahler (who has written acclaimed nonfiction as Karen Abbott) constructs a thriller so perfectly paced that you actually will not be able to put it down. You’ll be longing at each step to see how much Kat remembers and how much Jude complicates the memories. Each clue (there are few pictures of the sisters together, for example) has a flip side, a structural technique that works particularly well since the book is set in 1970s Philadelphia, with all of that city’s grittiness, community, and culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kahler based her novel on the real-life story of Alex and Marcus Lewis, 18-year-old British identical twins. In 1982, Alex awoke from a coma following a motorcycle accident and remembered nothing except his brother’s name and face; Marcus decided to use the opportunity to invent new lives for them both. Kahler expands on their situation by going deeper into the effects of trauma for women and girls, making \u003cem>Where You End\u003c/em> incredibly relevant, right up to the truly shocking ending.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘The Night of the Storm’ by Nishita Parekh\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956156\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 832px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956156\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.46.08-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting a large house surrounded by water with a storm raging overhead.\" width=\"832\" height=\"1214\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.46.08-PM.png 832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.46.08-PM-800x1167.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.46.08-PM-160x233.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.46.08-PM-768x1121.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Night of the Storm’ by Nishita Parekh. \u003ccite>(Dutton)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Answer to a question you didn’t ask: In the UK, the board game Clue is known as Cluedo, a portmanteau word for “clue” plus “ludo,” the Latin for “I play.” In Nishita Parekh’s debut, a locked-room mystery that toys with everyone’s memories of playing Clue, readers may want to keep that active verb in mind. Set in Houston among a group of upperclass suburban Desi friends, \u003cem>The Night of the Storm\u003c/em> puts family drama above anything resembling, say, \u003cem>Cape Fear\u003c/em>-style hijinks — but the word “storm” in the title can mean so many things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13955903","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Protagonist Jia Shah, single mom to Ishaan, decides they’ll both shelter from Hurricane Harvey at her sister Seema’s large home in Sugar Land. Seema’s husband Vipul and some of his relatives make things more complicated for Jia, through both their busy presence and because Jia and Vipul have some sexual tension going on; one of the things that makes this book fascinating is the look at a second-generation immigrant family enjoying their new country while also feeling the pull of hereditary expectations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re looking for a thriller — and this book is labeled one — you’ve come to the wrong place. \u003cem>The Night of the Storm\u003c/em> resembles nothing so much as a Golden Age mystery, and if you appreciate those, you’ve come to the right place. Parekh has clearly read her Christie, Marsh, and Allingham; she also clearly relishes those authors and their attention to cohesion and convention. Come on in and shelter from this \u003cem>Storm\u003c/em> with a truly unreliable cast of characters.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Rabbit Hole’ by Kate Brody\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956157\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 838px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956157\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.47.47-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting a woman's face partially obscured by a finger print. \" width=\"838\" height=\"1210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.47.47-PM.png 838w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.47.47-PM-800x1155.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.47.47-PM-160x231.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.47.47-PM-768x1109.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Rabbit Hole’ by Kate Brody. \u003ccite>(Soho Crime)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A decade ago, Teddy Angstrom’s older sister Angie disappeared at age 18. When their father chooses suicide on the anniversary of Angie’s death, the now 26-year-old Teddy leaves the private school in Maine where she teaches English for home to sort out family matters with her grieving mother. Teddy discovers Mark Angstrom had grown obsessed with Reddit boards about true crime, some of them specifically about Angie’s case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13955214","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Her initial look at the discussions soon turns into an obsession equaling her father’s, one that will pull her into the orbit of 19-year-old Mickey, a local college student with multiple tattoos and perhaps multiple motives for the assistance she gives Teddy. The weird friendship these women create reflects the darkness into which Teddy descends, continuing her addiction to the internet as she develops an addiction to alcohol, and accidentally outing herself as Angie’s sister to the various members of the Reddit boards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brody wisely builds the suspense around Teddy’s dissolution and paranoia, rather than focusing on the details of Angie’s fate, creating an atmosphere so suffocating and panicky that readers will feel the effects of loss, grief, and confusion as surely as if they were inside Teddy’s very smart and once better-adjusted mind. Teddy’s longing not just for her sister’s survival but for their ability to share life as 20-somethings marks her more indelibly than Mickey’s body ink.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘The Berlin Letters’ by Katherine Reay\u003c/h3>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956158\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 820px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956158\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.49.15-PM.png\" alt=\"A book cover depicting a woman dressed in conservative 1980s-era clothing stands, arms folded in front of a small yellow car and a wall of graffiti.\" width=\"820\" height=\"1212\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.49.15-PM.png 820w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.49.15-PM-800x1182.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.49.15-PM-160x236.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-17-at-2.49.15-PM-768x1135.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘The Berlin Letters’ by Katherine Reay. \u003ccite>(Harper Muse)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Brilliant cryptographer Luisa Voekler, whose talent was nurtured by her grandfather’s frequent code-based scavenger hunts, wants to move up in the CIA, but finds her career sidelined in the late 1980s as she translates World War II documents. One day she recognizes a tiny symbol that will lead her down a dangerous path. Her discovery involves her father, Haris, who remains in the East Berlin his family left in 1961 as the East German government put up a wall dividing the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13955156","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Reay has written a number of novels based on Brontë and Austen characters, as well as a couple of lighthearted looks at women’s friendships in Illinois, but in 2021 she turned to darker territory, setting books about spycraft in London, Moscow — and now Berlin and Washington, D.C. The cover of \u003cem>The Berlin Letters\u003c/em> announces both its relatively recent time period, with the figure of a young woman dressed in contemporary clothing, yet also nods to the singularity of modern Berlin, with a backdrop of the Wall covered in graffiti and the trunk of an iconic East German Trabant or “Trabi” auto (known for being constructed from lightweight resin).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The author knows East and West Berlin inside out, discussing details like the houses on Bernauer Strasse that allowed inhabitants, for a time, to easily defect simply by walking out of their front doors. However, those details never overwhelm a fast-paced story told by father and daughter from their different vantage points, as Luisa learns the truth of her past, and both stories reach the shocking, history-making night when The Berlin Wall fell on Nov. 9, 1989.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bethanne Patrick is a freelance writer and critic who tweets \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/thebookmaven\">\u003cem>@TheBookMaven\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and hosts the podcast Missing Pages.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\">visit NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=5+new+mysteries+and+thrillers+for+your+nightstand+this+spring&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13956128/best-mysteries-and-thriller-novels-spring-2024","authors":["byline_arts_13956128"],"programs":["arts_140"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_73","arts_835"],"tags":["arts_5221","arts_769","arts_585","arts_11718"],"affiliates":["arts_137"],"featImg":"arts_13956129","label":"arts_140"},"arts_13955683":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13955683","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13955683","score":null,"sort":[1712829616000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"rightnowish-akilah-cadet-author-white-supremacy-is-all-around","title":"The Chronic Pain Of White Supremacy","publishDate":1712829616,"format":"audio","headTitle":"The Chronic Pain Of White Supremacy | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":8720,"site":"arts"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her book \u003cem>White Supremacy Is All Around: Notes from a Black Disabled Woman in a White World\u003c/em>, \u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/changecadet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dr. Akilah Cadet\u003c/a> brings the reader into her life as a Black woman living with a disability who recognizes that oppressive forces are as constant as her chronic pain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With witty anecdotes and painful personal tales, Cadet, founder of the diversity consulting firm \u003ca href=\"https://www.changecadet.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Change Consulting\u003c/a>, addresses glaring issues like police brutality and racist microaggressions, and identifies the people who play a hand in maintaining them. Simultaneously, she’s extremely clear: although her last name roughly translates to “soldier” in French, this is not her battle to fight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m pissed and proud of writing a book while juggling multiple jobs and health conditions,” says Dr. Cadet, whose work is multilayered. She encounters oppression in her writing, consulting, and personal life — and, with her Haitian and Louisianan roots, in her ancestry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite all of this, Dr. Cadet still finds time to enjoy the finer things in life. She has a thing for fly accoutrements and fancies herself a wine aficionado. It makes sense: there has to be some balance to doing this work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Cadet talked with the Rightnowish team about racism, ableism and ways one can go about fixing a broken system. Listen below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC3733902808\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet, Guest: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My name Cadet, it means soldier, so when I started marketing and branding my business, we are soldiers of change. But I had to realize, like, this military language is only adding into upholding values of white supremacy. Because white people don’t have to fight for their existence, but as Black people, we have to constantly do that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw, Host:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> What’s up everyone, I’m your host Pendarvis Harshaw. Welcome to Rightnowish. Today our team is talking to Dr. Akilah Cadet. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s one of those people who wears a bunch of hats: she’s the founder and CEO of the diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting firm, Change Cadet. She’s also an author, an advocate for people living with disabilities, and in her free time she’s also a sommelier. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her book, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">White Supremacy is All Around: Notes from a Black Disabled Woman in a White World\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tackles what happened– and what didn’t happen– after “the summer of 2020”. So hang out as we jump into a colorful discussion about her book and what it’s like living with an invisible disability.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All of that, after this\u003c/span>\u003cb>. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Akilah Cadet thank you for joining us. How are you doing? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Great, because I’m here with you. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, yeah. In the building finally.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m so excited. I have been a fan of you for a while. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Thank you\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so now we get to have this, our time together.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s mutual. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I understand people are going to listen. But this is for us and so anytime I get to be in the space with another boss Black person, it’s a FUBU moment and I’m happy to have it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I appreciate that. It resonates. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Congratulations. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You’re coming into the studio just days after your book launch. How does it feel to have your personal, intimate, witty, comical stories packaged and shared with the world? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, I am pissed and I’m proud. And the reason why I say I’m proud is because I wrote a whole ass book and there’s no ghostwriter. There’s no co-writer. I wrote this while working full time with my CEO job and then the other million hats I have because I am Caribbean when it comes down to it. And there’s two years of my life that I put in here in talking about stories from, you know, different parts of my life. Like, I had to go find old phones to get receipts because I’m a Virgo, like, do that whole thing. So I’m very proud of myself for doing that while navigating a lot of health stuff. There’s a few ER visits, there’s a lot of other health things that happened while I was writing this book, and some of that is in the book, so I’m very proud of myself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m proud to have a book deal with Hachette, like a top five publisher. I’m proud to have received a six figure advance to write this book, as a debut author. That’s not an easy thing to do, so I have a lot to celebrate there. But I’m also pissed because the title of my book is \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">White Supremacy Is All Around\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is a great title. I love it. Go me! But I’m dealing with that with how this book is going out into the world and so that’s the part that’s really frustrating. I believe in the liberation of oppressed people, and some people do not, and they don’t want to support the book or, you know, white people aren’t necessarily ready to be comfortable being uncomfortable. And we have to remember that a lot of these folks are in positions of power, and they can determine where my book goes, how it’s seen, how it’s celebrated, and what list it’s on. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s meta. It’s you’re writing about something while living it and yeah, navigating it while talking about how to navigate it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, yeah. And then I have to talk about it all the time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In your first answer, you mentioned and it’s all throughout your book, identity. Identity plays a huge role, your Caribbean ancestry as well as you being a soft Black woman, learning that you can’t always be a soft Black woman, your father’s ancestry with Haitian roots, your mother in Sacramento, with roots back to the south. What has your heritage taught you? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So I’d like to say that I am the transatlantic slave trade, and I think I’m the wonderful, perfect example of how white supremacy is all around with my ancestry, with my culture, with my identity. I am Haitian, French and Black. Being a first generation kid, I sometimes forget I’m like, I’m an American, and I will be disgusted by Americans \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[laughs] \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">because I’m like, ‘What are you doing? Why would you do any of this?,’ and that’s because of my first generation upbringing, I was raised like an immigrant. I also know that being first generation Haitian, it’s why I’m this person who has an endless amount of perseverance. I don’t use the word fight because I don’t time for that, but I have that energy and I have that tenacity to show up and speak up and use my voice. That definitely comes from my Haitian heritage. On my mom’s side, my mom, her family is from a tiny town in Louisiana called Donaldsonville. And like, my grandmother could pass and get away with stuff, and, you know, the Great Migration came this way out to California, but my mom was on the COINTELPRO list. So \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[chuckles]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I get it from my mama, you know what I mean, like legit. And so, the ways in which I show up are directly tied to, you know, my, my ancestry. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In fact, Sacramento being our hometown, my grandfather had the first, Black history museum in Sacramento. But he, prior to that, he had a shoe store and above the shoe store was the Sacramento office for the Black Panthers. My mom was an award winning seamstress, and she would make dashikis and then the Black Panthers would wear her dashikis. They were just like the hot things, right, coming all around. So all of that comes through me. And even though I didn’t start my career, like, dismantling white supremacy, it eventually showed up.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s in you. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Your book is full of just like, the parenthetical thoughts that you have, are just exemplify how your brain works, where language is a thing through and through. And you’re very aware of the evolution of language. You sit at the intersection of culture, diversity, technology and you start the book with a note about how language evolves, almost like apologetically saying like, ay I know some years from now some of these words that I’m using might be outdated. Like why is that important to you?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So a lot of people don’t know that I’ve been a sensitivity editor for years. So I’ve been editing books for publishers and authors, and I look at the book to be able to make sure that story comes through. So if it’s a BIPOC, Black indigenous person of color author, white people may not understand some of the terminology or the cultural things that are coming up, So how are you breaking that down? If you are a white author, please don’t be racist, homophobic, transphobic or any of those things. So that’s why language is really important. And the more we dismantle white supremacy, and the more we are liberating ourselves from oppression, we’re going to be called something different. Right? Ultimately. So if you just look at the history of the language of Black people, there’s, there’s a lot of to getting to Black people. Like right now, still to this day, it’s like ‘African Amer-African-Ameri-African-American? or can I say Black? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">People don’t know what to do. “Black” a couple of years ago was capitalized, right. Because it’s a culture. “White” is still not capitalized. I don’t know why other people are…I do, White supremacy is all around. But, you know, it’s that type of thing. And so that’s why it’s important to be inclusive. But it also role models behavior people should have with constant learning and unlearning. And so where this book was finished in October of 2023, we’re going to have different language in October 2024, 2632. You know what I mean? And that plants a seed that, it’s like, yeah, I’m aware. And so whatever that is, do the math, and that’s what I’m calling them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, I love it. And again, it’s throughout, you know, you talk about like, other-abled.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Non-disabled.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Non-disabled.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So again, I have so many layers of intersectionality. I have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, so if anyone’s listening, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a connective tissue disorder. My body doesn’t know what to do with collagen. My joints subluxate, go in and out or dislocate all the time from my fingers down to my toes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Your language around your disabilities… \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How has that evolved? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Ehlers- Danlos syndrome, I was born this way, in the words of Lady Gaga, but I wasn’t diagnosed until May 2021. And so learning how to understand another complex ableist system, a structure of white supremacy, which is the American Disabilities Act, has been infuriating on so many levels. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, for example, some airlines will say, “But how are you disabled?” That’s illegal. If I’m informing you I’m disabled, you have to accommodate me by law, no matter what I look like, what assisted device I’m doing. But again, people have to be deemed worthy of that. And for some people, they may feel overwhelmed with what I’m telling in the book, but guess the fuck what? I lived that life, and I have to live through all those different parts of intersectionality. So go on the journey [chuckles] right with me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so that’s why you see those teaching moments through language and through my experiences of, you can say, non-disabled, because disabled is not a bad word when people are saying they’re able bodied. I have the ability to do the same thing just like you, or maybe differently, but I’m gonna get the shit done. I have the ability, right? And so when people say non-disabled, it brings this word that people are challenged by into the zeitgeist, into the conversation. And it’s a way to create more awareness and also celebration of disability and the dynamic range that disability has. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m learning here, these teaching moments. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> [laughs] \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s what I do. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These teaching moments haven’t stopped. The first essay in the book, it centers around a huge teaching moment. The opening starts with a meeting in Bordeaux in France. And it revolves around an interaction that you have with a white woman who essentially wants to have a presentation that uses the words “n-ggas beefin” in the presentation. And you have to explicitly demand that that word no longer be used and it takes a while for that to click. And thereafter, it doesn’t even fully register as to who to central character being impacted by this discussion is. Whereas days after this white woman follows up in an email in saying that she is hurt. And you have to explain that again, this is the issue where you being the person hurt, are not even focused on in this discussion. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m like, in reading this, right? I’m like, how did you get to this emotional, intellectual point? Because me, I would have been like, ‘man, let’s just step outside.’ So how did you get to that point where you could really break it down like that? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. So the first chapter of my book is called “White Women Are Exhausting.” It’s dramatic pause because they are. They pick and choose with their intersectionality. They pick and choose with how they want to show up. So in this case, I’ll give you a little bit of the backstory, I was asked to speak at a wine conference for women in Napa, like in May. And I went up there and, you know, magic, did my thing. All of a sudden everybody was like, “Who are you? We want you to do all the things for wine.” And so I was invited to be part of, and I’m still to this day part of this think tank where people determine the future state of fine wine. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They flew me out to Bordeaux. This is the first time in my entire existence of having this company that it was like the private driver and then the sign. It was like, ‘Oh, I, that’s, I’m the white person. I did it!” Right? And so I’m there specifically to bring in more language about diversity and thinking about how diversity is part of wine and fine wine. We have seen the wine landscape change, particularly with athletes, artists who like to buy wine and collect wine. And so younger people are into wine and the consumer is changing of who has wine. Like, the older folks who buy expensive wine, they’re dying. So they have to, it’s what happens, it’s just the natural thing, right? So they have to figure out who’s going to want to keep a sommelier in business, right, and drink this wine. So I go to a chateau. Naturally.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Naturally. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Naturally, you have to go to a chateau in Bordeaux. And there are only two Black people in this group of 60 plus individuals. And it was me and Julia Coney, who is, I’ve dubbed the Beyoncé of wine because she is, and wonderful and great. And and I was just like, ‘This is really white. This is really white.’ And so to go into the situation and be in a room, and I described it in the book, of like in a conversation about diversity, I literally was the only diversity. Everyone else was white. We didn’t even have an AAPI person, Asian American Pacific Islander, no one else. It was just me to represent diversity in a conversation about diversity and then to have her pull up her laptop and have those words so big. I was like, ‘Where are the cameras? Is this, is this like a, this is like a hazing thing, right?’ \u003cem>[laughs]\u003c/em> For me to, like, get into this whole thing. I was like, I can’t believe it. And I distinctly remember and I also talked about in the book, I had to keep pinching myself because I was like, ‘oh, no, I’m triggered.’ But I’m also not in a supportive space because I don’t know these folks. I’m new. I’m new into this whole environment. And there’s bigwigs around the table, including Eric Asimov, who’s the New York Times wine critic, who I was like, oh shit, I did- what? I didn’t fully know what I was getting into. I’m like, this is a big deal, right? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so for all of that to happen, including a white person saying, “Is wiggers better?” I had to pick and choose how I wanted to show up there. I was like, ‘I cannot get into that with you,’ definitely racist, but I don’t have time for that. But I had to use my voice as much as possible so she would stop perpetuating negative stereotypes because it was all about a conversation around Black people and chilled red wine. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So if you don’t know, Lambrusco is a fantastic chilled red wine, I highly recommend. It’s fizzy, it’s bubbly, it’s delicious. But there’s a movement around chilling red wines. And so this consumer wanted to know specifically how Black people thought and we have a culture and they’re looking at hashtags. And those hashtags brought that up. It wasn’t anything for her to do. And so I’m like you can truncate, you can blah, nope nope nope, nothing. But the most important thing is that the white guy had to say something and she’d listen to the white guy, which was Eric Asimov. And he knows, I talk about it all the time. He’s in the book. And that part was infuriating. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it was the 4th of July. Like, it was 4th of July weekend. So I was thrilled when I didn’t have to be in America. It was 2019. I was thrilled that I didn’t have to be in America and here I am, here I am, the country we bought our freedom from as a Haitian, you know, like here I am and I’m dealing with that. And I had to wait before I could see the one other Black person to feel validated, seen and heard, and then constantly be attacked for the rest of the time there by this white woman.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m like, navigating that, all of that, all those elements, all those different…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All of those things, yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then to have the composure, to say you need to go and learn something on your own as opposed to, you know, being vengeful or having some type of big reaction. How do you, how do you reach that point of composure? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Listen, there was a gala later that night and my outfit was f-cking fire, and I needed to focus on people liking my outfit. And I needed to choose myself, quite frankly, because I was already traumatized and triggered. Because anytime someone’s using the N-word, there’s ancestral trauma that comes up. I know, I have enslaved family members, but I also know because of white ancestry, where some of them went. Right, I can, I can figure out my entire life. My parents have done this work. My mom, COINTELPRO, I carry a lot of stuff. But more importantly, there’s so many people in this country, the United States of America, that was the last word they heard before they were lynched, burned alive. These are real things. And so it’s not a word to be played with. There’s too much out there to let you know, to not say the f-cking word. It’s not hard to do it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And this particular woman, who I named Karen. She lives in Atlanta, the land of the A-town stomp. There’s so many things that are happening there, “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” you see all the Black people. You have all the layers of it. You have all the experience and exposure to know what to say and what not to say. And so it was a choice. She chose to harm me because she also called me out, said “Akilah, I would like your feedback on this.” Do you know what I mean? So it’s just like it’s that type of stuff. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But I will teach someone a lesson because I don’t have the privilege of sitting in that position of harm, she does. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t have that privilege. So I had to keep moving forward. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What I’m gathering is like, choose your battles because you’re fighting a bigger war, or you are involved in a bigger war. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, but also like my name Cadet, it means soldier. And so when I started marketing and branding my business, we’re soldiers of change, right? Which I love. So great, right, fantastic. But then I was like, I’m no one’s soldier. Am I a survivor like Destiny’s Child? Yes. But I had to realize, like, this military language is only adding into upholding values of white supremacy because white people don’t have to fight for their existence. White people don’t have to go to the battlefield to prove their existence, to get a job or, I don’t know, check in at a hotel or drive their car or whatever. You know, they don’t have to do that. They don’t have to go out into the streets and be like “We need people to stop killing us.” They don’t have to do that. But as Black people, we have to constantly do that. As, as BIPOC people we have to constantly do that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But given that given that constant like pressure, that’s part of the reason I don’t fully believe in DEI. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t either.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But you do the work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I believe in belonging.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Belonging. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I believe in belonging. Diversity, equity, inclusion, accountability or accessibility or action, there’s so many acronym soups when it comes to DEI. DEI is just straight up performative. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is. You know how I know? Because May 25th, 2020 happened, it was the murder of George Floyd. And it was a holiday, it’s also my mom’s birthday, and then May 26th, all of a sudden, endless amount of emails. All of a sudden people want to hear what I have to say. And I will always do my work as a doctor of leadership and organizational behavior for oppressed people because they’re the ones that have the hardest time in workplaces and spaces for sure. But I don’t just do diversity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Restructuring? Got you. Executive coaching for the white guy? Umm hmm I can do that. Strategic planning? Absolutely. But DEI and that performative nature of what I call the “summer of allyship” and there’s a chapter in the book, is a direct response to people not wanting to be viewed as racist. And so we’re seeing that performative behavior that has happened. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The Summer of Allyship” chapter breaks it down very beautifully, so I highly recommend everyone reads it. But where we are right now with diversity is it’s being attacked. Right? So we’re seeing states and counties removed DEI funding and all this other stuff, which shows you it doesn’t matter, which is why I talk about belonging. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a Black disabled woman, the only place I feel like I belong is my home because I carry so much intersectionality.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once I go out the door, you know, it’s like, okay, where’s a parking spot? Will I be able to make it further or not? Can I park in ADA? Will there be an ADA parking spot? Is someone not going to help me do the thing, or am I just going to get good old fashioned sexism or racism, right, as a result of that. That happens all the time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> What does success look like for you? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you for asking. So, right now, success looks like the book coming out on February 6th. Checked that off, success, that happened. And then it looks like me making it through 12 stops between February 6th and February 29th. And I had to have really small, little benchmarks of success, because a lot of my time in interviews, on this book, centered around this book. But if I can get that person who feels valued and seen in the book, that’s also the third part of success for me that they have that. If I can get that white person who’s like, “I’ve learned so much and I’m showing up differently because of your book,” that is success for me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You have a big event coming up at the de Young this spring?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I do.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tell me more about it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. So, because I have nothing else to do, I have been filmed for the past five months to have a documentary done on me. And so the interesting thing, I was like, ‘why? I am not interesting,’ but apparently I am, which I still don’t fully understand, but “Represent Collaborative” approached me to do a documentary. I’m also their chief creative officer, but they approached me because they received some funding, and they wanted to tell the story of me in this book. And so, in April, we will be having the California premiere of my documentary called “Sounds About White: The Untold Story of the DEI Expert”. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So it starts with the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd, and we’re following what my life has been like since then, how I’ve given my heart and soul, the ups and downs, the highs, the lows, the Forbes, the magazines, you know, the amounts of money that’s coming in. And you’re seeing how much money I’ve made, how much money I’ve lost. You’re seeing everything. You’re seeing how it affects my mind, body, spirit and soul, because there are stories about DEI consultants, experts, leaders that are written, but we haven’t had a visual display of what it’s been like. You see me in the hospital. You see me on these planes dealing with shit. You see me everywhere of how I, with every right to not have to show up to do this work as a Black disabled woman, still show up to do this work. I get hate from everyone and everywhere. And I would just love to be loved. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’re welcome. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Big, big thank you to Dr. Akilah Cadet. Doing the work isn’t easy and I know it takes a toll on you. So thank you. Thank you for your efforts, and hats off for being fly while doing it all. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you would like to learn more about Dr. Akilah Cadet and her book, I’d suggest checking out her site: changecadet.com. That’s spelled change C-H-A-N-G-E,Cadet C-A-D-E-T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She can also be found on social media, her Instagram handle is also: ChangeCadet. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode was hosted by me, Pendarvis Harshaw. It was produced by Marisol Medina-Cadena and Maya Cueva. Chris Hambrick held it down for the edits on this one. Our engineer is Christopher Beale and Sheree Bishop is the Rightnowish intern. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Rightnowish team is also supported by Jen Chien, Ugur Dursun , Holly Kernan, Xorje Olivares, Cesar Saldaña, and Katie Sprenger. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you all for listening!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And a quick reminder, KQED is a listener supported station, and getting further support from you would be much appreciated. If you’re financially able, make a donation at donate.kqed.org. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Sounds About White: The Untold Story of the DEI Expert’, a documentary on Dr. Akilah “Change” Cadet’s life and work, screens at the de Young Museum in San Francisco on Saturday, April 13, from 2 p.m.–3:30 p.m. \u003ca href=\"https://www.famsf.org/events/akilah-cadet-documentary-screening-book-conversation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Details here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Rightnowish is an arts and culture podcast produced at KQED. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or click the play button at the top of this page and subscribe to the show on \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish\">NPR One\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I\">Spotify\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/Rightnowish-p1258245/\">TuneIn\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish\">Stitcher\u003c/a> or wherever you get your podcasts. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]=\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Dr. Akilah Cadet discusses her book \"White Supremacy Is All Around: Notes from a Black Disabled Woman in a White World.\"","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1712803820,"stats":{"hasAudio":true,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":105,"wordCount":5373},"headData":{"title":"The Chronic Pain Of White Supremacy | KQED","description":"In her book White Supremacy is All Around: Notes from a Black Disabled Woman in a White World, Dr. Akilah Cadet brings the reader into her life as a Black woman living with a disability who recognizes that oppressive forces are as constant as her chronic pain.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","socialDescription":"In her book White Supremacy is All Around: Notes from a Black Disabled Woman in a White World, Dr. Akilah Cadet brings the reader into her life as a Black woman living with a disability who recognizes that oppressive forces are as constant as her chronic pain."},"audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC3733902808.mp3?updated=1712803909","sticky":false,"templateType":"standard","featuredImageType":"standard","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13955683/rightnowish-akilah-cadet-author-white-supremacy-is-all-around","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her book \u003cem>White Supremacy Is All Around: Notes from a Black Disabled Woman in a White World\u003c/em>, \u003ca href=\"https://linktr.ee/changecadet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dr. Akilah Cadet\u003c/a> brings the reader into her life as a Black woman living with a disability who recognizes that oppressive forces are as constant as her chronic pain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With witty anecdotes and painful personal tales, Cadet, founder of the diversity consulting firm \u003ca href=\"https://www.changecadet.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Change Consulting\u003c/a>, addresses glaring issues like police brutality and racist microaggressions, and identifies the people who play a hand in maintaining them. Simultaneously, she’s extremely clear: although her last name roughly translates to “soldier” in French, this is not her battle to fight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m pissed and proud of writing a book while juggling multiple jobs and health conditions,” says Dr. Cadet, whose work is multilayered. She encounters oppression in her writing, consulting, and personal life — and, with her Haitian and Louisianan roots, in her ancestry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite all of this, Dr. Cadet still finds time to enjoy the finer things in life. She has a thing for fly accoutrements and fancies herself a wine aficionado. It makes sense: there has to be some balance to doing this work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dr. Cadet talked with the Rightnowish team about racism, ableism and ways one can go about fixing a broken system. Listen below.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC3733902808\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet, Guest: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My name Cadet, it means soldier, so when I started marketing and branding my business, we are soldiers of change. But I had to realize, like, this military language is only adding into upholding values of white supremacy. Because white people don’t have to fight for their existence, but as Black people, we have to constantly do that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw, Host:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> What’s up everyone, I’m your host Pendarvis Harshaw. Welcome to Rightnowish. Today our team is talking to Dr. Akilah Cadet. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s one of those people who wears a bunch of hats: she’s the founder and CEO of the diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting firm, Change Cadet. She’s also an author, an advocate for people living with disabilities, and in her free time she’s also a sommelier. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her book, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">White Supremacy is All Around: Notes from a Black Disabled Woman in a White World\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tackles what happened– and what didn’t happen– after “the summer of 2020”. So hang out as we jump into a colorful discussion about her book and what it’s like living with an invisible disability.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All of that, after this\u003c/span>\u003cb>. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Akilah Cadet thank you for joining us. How are you doing? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Great, because I’m here with you. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, yeah. In the building finally.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m so excited. I have been a fan of you for a while. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Thank you\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so now we get to have this, our time together.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s mutual. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I understand people are going to listen. But this is for us and so anytime I get to be in the space with another boss Black person, it’s a FUBU moment and I’m happy to have it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I appreciate that. It resonates. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Congratulations. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You’re coming into the studio just days after your book launch. How does it feel to have your personal, intimate, witty, comical stories packaged and shared with the world? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, I am pissed and I’m proud. And the reason why I say I’m proud is because I wrote a whole ass book and there’s no ghostwriter. There’s no co-writer. I wrote this while working full time with my CEO job and then the other million hats I have because I am Caribbean when it comes down to it. And there’s two years of my life that I put in here in talking about stories from, you know, different parts of my life. Like, I had to go find old phones to get receipts because I’m a Virgo, like, do that whole thing. So I’m very proud of myself for doing that while navigating a lot of health stuff. There’s a few ER visits, there’s a lot of other health things that happened while I was writing this book, and some of that is in the book, so I’m very proud of myself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m proud to have a book deal with Hachette, like a top five publisher. I’m proud to have received a six figure advance to write this book, as a debut author. That’s not an easy thing to do, so I have a lot to celebrate there. But I’m also pissed because the title of my book is \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">White Supremacy Is All Around\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which is a great title. I love it. Go me! But I’m dealing with that with how this book is going out into the world and so that’s the part that’s really frustrating. I believe in the liberation of oppressed people, and some people do not, and they don’t want to support the book or, you know, white people aren’t necessarily ready to be comfortable being uncomfortable. And we have to remember that a lot of these folks are in positions of power, and they can determine where my book goes, how it’s seen, how it’s celebrated, and what list it’s on. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s meta. It’s you’re writing about something while living it and yeah, navigating it while talking about how to navigate it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, yeah. And then I have to talk about it all the time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In your first answer, you mentioned and it’s all throughout your book, identity. Identity plays a huge role, your Caribbean ancestry as well as you being a soft Black woman, learning that you can’t always be a soft Black woman, your father’s ancestry with Haitian roots, your mother in Sacramento, with roots back to the south. What has your heritage taught you? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So I’d like to say that I am the transatlantic slave trade, and I think I’m the wonderful, perfect example of how white supremacy is all around with my ancestry, with my culture, with my identity. I am Haitian, French and Black. Being a first generation kid, I sometimes forget I’m like, I’m an American, and I will be disgusted by Americans \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[laughs] \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">because I’m like, ‘What are you doing? Why would you do any of this?,’ and that’s because of my first generation upbringing, I was raised like an immigrant. I also know that being first generation Haitian, it’s why I’m this person who has an endless amount of perseverance. I don’t use the word fight because I don’t time for that, but I have that energy and I have that tenacity to show up and speak up and use my voice. That definitely comes from my Haitian heritage. On my mom’s side, my mom, her family is from a tiny town in Louisiana called Donaldsonville. And like, my grandmother could pass and get away with stuff, and, you know, the Great Migration came this way out to California, but my mom was on the COINTELPRO list. So \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[chuckles]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I get it from my mama, you know what I mean, like legit. And so, the ways in which I show up are directly tied to, you know, my, my ancestry. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In fact, Sacramento being our hometown, my grandfather had the first, Black history museum in Sacramento. But he, prior to that, he had a shoe store and above the shoe store was the Sacramento office for the Black Panthers. My mom was an award winning seamstress, and she would make dashikis and then the Black Panthers would wear her dashikis. They were just like the hot things, right, coming all around. So all of that comes through me. And even though I didn’t start my career, like, dismantling white supremacy, it eventually showed up.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s in you. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Your book is full of just like, the parenthetical thoughts that you have, are just exemplify how your brain works, where language is a thing through and through. And you’re very aware of the evolution of language. You sit at the intersection of culture, diversity, technology and you start the book with a note about how language evolves, almost like apologetically saying like, ay I know some years from now some of these words that I’m using might be outdated. Like why is that important to you?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So a lot of people don’t know that I’ve been a sensitivity editor for years. So I’ve been editing books for publishers and authors, and I look at the book to be able to make sure that story comes through. So if it’s a BIPOC, Black indigenous person of color author, white people may not understand some of the terminology or the cultural things that are coming up, So how are you breaking that down? If you are a white author, please don’t be racist, homophobic, transphobic or any of those things. So that’s why language is really important. And the more we dismantle white supremacy, and the more we are liberating ourselves from oppression, we’re going to be called something different. Right? Ultimately. So if you just look at the history of the language of Black people, there’s, there’s a lot of to getting to Black people. Like right now, still to this day, it’s like ‘African Amer-African-Ameri-African-American? or can I say Black? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">People don’t know what to do. “Black” a couple of years ago was capitalized, right. Because it’s a culture. “White” is still not capitalized. I don’t know why other people are…I do, White supremacy is all around. But, you know, it’s that type of thing. And so that’s why it’s important to be inclusive. But it also role models behavior people should have with constant learning and unlearning. And so where this book was finished in October of 2023, we’re going to have different language in October 2024, 2632. You know what I mean? And that plants a seed that, it’s like, yeah, I’m aware. And so whatever that is, do the math, and that’s what I’m calling them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, I love it. And again, it’s throughout, you know, you talk about like, other-abled.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Non-disabled.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Non-disabled.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So again, I have so many layers of intersectionality. I have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, so if anyone’s listening, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a connective tissue disorder. My body doesn’t know what to do with collagen. My joints subluxate, go in and out or dislocate all the time from my fingers down to my toes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Your language around your disabilities… \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How has that evolved? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Ehlers- Danlos syndrome, I was born this way, in the words of Lady Gaga, but I wasn’t diagnosed until May 2021. And so learning how to understand another complex ableist system, a structure of white supremacy, which is the American Disabilities Act, has been infuriating on so many levels. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, for example, some airlines will say, “But how are you disabled?” That’s illegal. If I’m informing you I’m disabled, you have to accommodate me by law, no matter what I look like, what assisted device I’m doing. But again, people have to be deemed worthy of that. And for some people, they may feel overwhelmed with what I’m telling in the book, but guess the fuck what? I lived that life, and I have to live through all those different parts of intersectionality. So go on the journey [chuckles] right with me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so that’s why you see those teaching moments through language and through my experiences of, you can say, non-disabled, because disabled is not a bad word when people are saying they’re able bodied. I have the ability to do the same thing just like you, or maybe differently, but I’m gonna get the shit done. I have the ability, right? And so when people say non-disabled, it brings this word that people are challenged by into the zeitgeist, into the conversation. And it’s a way to create more awareness and also celebration of disability and the dynamic range that disability has. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m learning here, these teaching moments. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> [laughs] \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s what I do. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These teaching moments haven’t stopped. The first essay in the book, it centers around a huge teaching moment. The opening starts with a meeting in Bordeaux in France. And it revolves around an interaction that you have with a white woman who essentially wants to have a presentation that uses the words “n-ggas beefin” in the presentation. And you have to explicitly demand that that word no longer be used and it takes a while for that to click. And thereafter, it doesn’t even fully register as to who to central character being impacted by this discussion is. Whereas days after this white woman follows up in an email in saying that she is hurt. And you have to explain that again, this is the issue where you being the person hurt, are not even focused on in this discussion. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m like, in reading this, right? I’m like, how did you get to this emotional, intellectual point? Because me, I would have been like, ‘man, let’s just step outside.’ So how did you get to that point where you could really break it down like that? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. So the first chapter of my book is called “White Women Are Exhausting.” It’s dramatic pause because they are. They pick and choose with their intersectionality. They pick and choose with how they want to show up. So in this case, I’ll give you a little bit of the backstory, I was asked to speak at a wine conference for women in Napa, like in May. And I went up there and, you know, magic, did my thing. All of a sudden everybody was like, “Who are you? We want you to do all the things for wine.” And so I was invited to be part of, and I’m still to this day part of this think tank where people determine the future state of fine wine. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They flew me out to Bordeaux. This is the first time in my entire existence of having this company that it was like the private driver and then the sign. It was like, ‘Oh, I, that’s, I’m the white person. I did it!” Right? And so I’m there specifically to bring in more language about diversity and thinking about how diversity is part of wine and fine wine. We have seen the wine landscape change, particularly with athletes, artists who like to buy wine and collect wine. And so younger people are into wine and the consumer is changing of who has wine. Like, the older folks who buy expensive wine, they’re dying. So they have to, it’s what happens, it’s just the natural thing, right? So they have to figure out who’s going to want to keep a sommelier in business, right, and drink this wine. So I go to a chateau. Naturally.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Naturally. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Naturally, you have to go to a chateau in Bordeaux. And there are only two Black people in this group of 60 plus individuals. And it was me and Julia Coney, who is, I’ve dubbed the Beyoncé of wine because she is, and wonderful and great. And and I was just like, ‘This is really white. This is really white.’ And so to go into the situation and be in a room, and I described it in the book, of like in a conversation about diversity, I literally was the only diversity. Everyone else was white. We didn’t even have an AAPI person, Asian American Pacific Islander, no one else. It was just me to represent diversity in a conversation about diversity and then to have her pull up her laptop and have those words so big. I was like, ‘Where are the cameras? Is this, is this like a, this is like a hazing thing, right?’ \u003cem>[laughs]\u003c/em> For me to, like, get into this whole thing. I was like, I can’t believe it. And I distinctly remember and I also talked about in the book, I had to keep pinching myself because I was like, ‘oh, no, I’m triggered.’ But I’m also not in a supportive space because I don’t know these folks. I’m new. I’m new into this whole environment. And there’s bigwigs around the table, including Eric Asimov, who’s the New York Times wine critic, who I was like, oh shit, I did- what? I didn’t fully know what I was getting into. I’m like, this is a big deal, right? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And so for all of that to happen, including a white person saying, “Is wiggers better?” I had to pick and choose how I wanted to show up there. I was like, ‘I cannot get into that with you,’ definitely racist, but I don’t have time for that. But I had to use my voice as much as possible so she would stop perpetuating negative stereotypes because it was all about a conversation around Black people and chilled red wine. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So if you don’t know, Lambrusco is a fantastic chilled red wine, I highly recommend. It’s fizzy, it’s bubbly, it’s delicious. But there’s a movement around chilling red wines. And so this consumer wanted to know specifically how Black people thought and we have a culture and they’re looking at hashtags. And those hashtags brought that up. It wasn’t anything for her to do. And so I’m like you can truncate, you can blah, nope nope nope, nothing. But the most important thing is that the white guy had to say something and she’d listen to the white guy, which was Eric Asimov. And he knows, I talk about it all the time. He’s in the book. And that part was infuriating. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it was the 4th of July. Like, it was 4th of July weekend. So I was thrilled when I didn’t have to be in America. It was 2019. I was thrilled that I didn’t have to be in America and here I am, here I am, the country we bought our freedom from as a Haitian, you know, like here I am and I’m dealing with that. And I had to wait before I could see the one other Black person to feel validated, seen and heard, and then constantly be attacked for the rest of the time there by this white woman.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m like, navigating that, all of that, all those elements, all those different…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All of those things, yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then to have the composure, to say you need to go and learn something on your own as opposed to, you know, being vengeful or having some type of big reaction. How do you, how do you reach that point of composure? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Listen, there was a gala later that night and my outfit was f-cking fire, and I needed to focus on people liking my outfit. And I needed to choose myself, quite frankly, because I was already traumatized and triggered. Because anytime someone’s using the N-word, there’s ancestral trauma that comes up. I know, I have enslaved family members, but I also know because of white ancestry, where some of them went. Right, I can, I can figure out my entire life. My parents have done this work. My mom, COINTELPRO, I carry a lot of stuff. But more importantly, there’s so many people in this country, the United States of America, that was the last word they heard before they were lynched, burned alive. These are real things. And so it’s not a word to be played with. There’s too much out there to let you know, to not say the f-cking word. It’s not hard to do it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And this particular woman, who I named Karen. She lives in Atlanta, the land of the A-town stomp. There’s so many things that are happening there, “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” you see all the Black people. You have all the layers of it. You have all the experience and exposure to know what to say and what not to say. And so it was a choice. She chose to harm me because she also called me out, said “Akilah, I would like your feedback on this.” Do you know what I mean? So it’s just like it’s that type of stuff. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But I will teach someone a lesson because I don’t have the privilege of sitting in that position of harm, she does. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t have that privilege. So I had to keep moving forward. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What I’m gathering is like, choose your battles because you’re fighting a bigger war, or you are involved in a bigger war. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, but also like my name Cadet, it means soldier. And so when I started marketing and branding my business, we’re soldiers of change, right? Which I love. So great, right, fantastic. But then I was like, I’m no one’s soldier. Am I a survivor like Destiny’s Child? Yes. But I had to realize, like, this military language is only adding into upholding values of white supremacy because white people don’t have to fight for their existence. White people don’t have to go to the battlefield to prove their existence, to get a job or, I don’t know, check in at a hotel or drive their car or whatever. You know, they don’t have to do that. They don’t have to go out into the streets and be like “We need people to stop killing us.” They don’t have to do that. But as Black people, we have to constantly do that. As, as BIPOC people we have to constantly do that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But given that given that constant like pressure, that’s part of the reason I don’t fully believe in DEI. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t either.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But you do the work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I believe in belonging.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Belonging. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I believe in belonging. Diversity, equity, inclusion, accountability or accessibility or action, there’s so many acronym soups when it comes to DEI. DEI is just straight up performative. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is. You know how I know? Because May 25th, 2020 happened, it was the murder of George Floyd. And it was a holiday, it’s also my mom’s birthday, and then May 26th, all of a sudden, endless amount of emails. All of a sudden people want to hear what I have to say. And I will always do my work as a doctor of leadership and organizational behavior for oppressed people because they’re the ones that have the hardest time in workplaces and spaces for sure. But I don’t just do diversity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Restructuring? Got you. Executive coaching for the white guy? Umm hmm I can do that. Strategic planning? Absolutely. But DEI and that performative nature of what I call the “summer of allyship” and there’s a chapter in the book, is a direct response to people not wanting to be viewed as racist. And so we’re seeing that performative behavior that has happened. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The Summer of Allyship” chapter breaks it down very beautifully, so I highly recommend everyone reads it. But where we are right now with diversity is it’s being attacked. Right? So we’re seeing states and counties removed DEI funding and all this other stuff, which shows you it doesn’t matter, which is why I talk about belonging. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a Black disabled woman, the only place I feel like I belong is my home because I carry so much intersectionality.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once I go out the door, you know, it’s like, okay, where’s a parking spot? Will I be able to make it further or not? Can I park in ADA? Will there be an ADA parking spot? Is someone not going to help me do the thing, or am I just going to get good old fashioned sexism or racism, right, as a result of that. That happens all the time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> What does success look like for you? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you for asking. So, right now, success looks like the book coming out on February 6th. Checked that off, success, that happened. And then it looks like me making it through 12 stops between February 6th and February 29th. And I had to have really small, little benchmarks of success, because a lot of my time in interviews, on this book, centered around this book. But if I can get that person who feels valued and seen in the book, that’s also the third part of success for me that they have that. If I can get that white person who’s like, “I’ve learned so much and I’m showing up differently because of your book,” that is success for me. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You have a big event coming up at the de Young this spring?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I do.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tell me more about it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah. So, because I have nothing else to do, I have been filmed for the past five months to have a documentary done on me. And so the interesting thing, I was like, ‘why? I am not interesting,’ but apparently I am, which I still don’t fully understand, but “Represent Collaborative” approached me to do a documentary. I’m also their chief creative officer, but they approached me because they received some funding, and they wanted to tell the story of me in this book. And so, in April, we will be having the California premiere of my documentary called “Sounds About White: The Untold Story of the DEI Expert”. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So it starts with the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd, and we’re following what my life has been like since then, how I’ve given my heart and soul, the ups and downs, the highs, the lows, the Forbes, the magazines, you know, the amounts of money that’s coming in. And you’re seeing how much money I’ve made, how much money I’ve lost. You’re seeing everything. You’re seeing how it affects my mind, body, spirit and soul, because there are stories about DEI consultants, experts, leaders that are written, but we haven’t had a visual display of what it’s been like. You see me in the hospital. You see me on these planes dealing with shit. You see me everywhere of how I, with every right to not have to show up to do this work as a Black disabled woman, still show up to do this work. I get hate from everyone and everywhere. And I would just love to be loved. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dr. Akilah Cadet: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’re welcome. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Big, big thank you to Dr. Akilah Cadet. Doing the work isn’t easy and I know it takes a toll on you. So thank you. Thank you for your efforts, and hats off for being fly while doing it all. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you would like to learn more about Dr. Akilah Cadet and her book, I’d suggest checking out her site: changecadet.com. That’s spelled change C-H-A-N-G-E,Cadet C-A-D-E-T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She can also be found on social media, her Instagram handle is also: ChangeCadet. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode was hosted by me, Pendarvis Harshaw. It was produced by Marisol Medina-Cadena and Maya Cueva. Chris Hambrick held it down for the edits on this one. Our engineer is Christopher Beale and Sheree Bishop is the Rightnowish intern. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Rightnowish team is also supported by Jen Chien, Ugur Dursun , Holly Kernan, Xorje Olivares, Cesar Saldaña, and Katie Sprenger. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you all for listening!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And a quick reminder, KQED is a listener supported station, and getting further support from you would be much appreciated. If you’re financially able, make a donation at donate.kqed.org. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Sounds About White: The Untold Story of the DEI Expert’, a documentary on Dr. Akilah “Change” Cadet’s life and work, screens at the de Young Museum in San Francisco on Saturday, April 13, from 2 p.m.–3:30 p.m. \u003ca href=\"https://www.famsf.org/events/akilah-cadet-documentary-screening-book-conversation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Details here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Rightnowish is an arts and culture podcast produced at KQED. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or click the play button at the top of this page and subscribe to the show on \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish\">NPR One\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I\">Spotify\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/Rightnowish-p1258245/\">TuneIn\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish\">Stitcher\u003c/a> or wherever you get your podcasts. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>=\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13955683/rightnowish-akilah-cadet-author-white-supremacy-is-all-around","authors":["11491","11528"],"programs":["arts_8720"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_73"],"tags":["arts_22070","arts_1210","arts_22071","arts_4027","arts_10278","arts_3652"],"featImg":"arts_13955689","label":"arts_8720"},"arts_13955378":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13955378","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13955378","score":null,"sort":[1712224834000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"rightnowish-presents-immigrantlys-conversation-with-musician-meklit-hadero","title":"Rightnowish Presents: Immigrantly’s Conversation with Musician Meklit Hadero","publishDate":1712224834,"format":"audio","headTitle":"Rightnowish Presents: Immigrantly’s Conversation with Musician Meklit Hadero | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":8720,"site":"arts"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On this episode of Rightnowish, we’re passing the mic to our friends at \u003ca href=\"https://immigrantlypod.com/immigrantly-podcast\">Immigrantly\u003c/a> podcast. Host Saadia Khan and her guests examine traditional narratives Americans hold about immigrants and people of color. Through the process, they carefully unravel the nuance and depth of the immigrant experience. Immigrantly explores the everyday miraculousness of immigrant life, like love, food, faith, friendship and creativity through first-person accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immigrantly’s guest for this episode is \u003ca href=\"https://www.meklitmusic.com/\">Meklit Hadero. \u003c/a>She is a vocalist, songwriter, composer and former refugee who is known for her innovative Ethio-Jazz vocals and lively stage presence. Her music blends together folk, jazz, Eastern African influences, and what Hadero calls “everyday sounds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She has performed worldwide, and just released a new EP called “Ethio Blue.” Hadero is also the co-founder, co-producer, and host of Movement, a podcast, radio series and live show that celebrates songs and stories of immigrant musicians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC1623622968\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw, host: \u003c/b>Hey what’s up ya’ll?! Welcome to Rightnowish. I’m your host Pendarvis Harshaw, and today we’re passing the microphone to our friend Saadia Khan, the host of the podcast Immigrantly, which explores the nuance & depth of the immigrant experience. If you’re a real Jazz fan, like myself – this episode is for you!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It features Meklit Hadero the Ethiopian-born, San Francisco-based artist who is best known for her innovative Ethio-Jazz vocals and electric performance style. So put your headphones on and get ready for some sweet, smooth sounds. We’ll let our friends from Immigrantly take it from here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey everyone. It’s your host Saadia Khan and I’m back to play you another thoughtful, engaging, and jazzy episode. If this is your first time with Immigrantly, welcome. You’ve picked the perfect pilot. Immigrantly, for those of you who don’t know, is a weekly podcast where I sit down with guests from the immigrant community, and talk about the fascinating things they’re doing all in the name of storytelling and subverting narratives.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I am so excited about today’s episode, because let me tell you, music fuels my soul like nothing else. I’m so psyched to have Meklit Hadero, the Ethiopian-born, San Francisco-based artist on today’s show.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She is best known for her innovative Ethiopian jazz vocals and electric performance style. Even if you were to listen for a few minutes, I promise you would notice a genre bending nature to her songs. Her songs weave together jazz, folk, Eastern African influences and what Meklit calls, “everyday sounds.” Yeah, everyday sounds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s performed worldwide from San Francisco to Cairo to London to Montreal. Oh my gosh. Her latest album released in 2017, called When The People Move The Music Moves Too was named among the best records of the Year by Bandcamp and Sunday Times UK. She’s a National Geographic Explorer, a TED senior fellow and a 2019 Artist in Residence at Harvard University. Meklit is co founder, co producer and host of Movement, a new radio series telling stories of global migration through music, and I wonder what is that Meklit cannot do? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In our conversation, by the way, she shares how she looks to music to express longing, pain, hope and other facets of the diaspora. Her words inspired me and reminded me of the importance of heritage and how traditional music from our homelands can be integrated into present movement and music. So if you are a fellow music lover or not, get ready to be transported to a world of melodies and rhythms that shape our everyday life. Without further ado, let’s dive into the jazzy world of Meklit Hadero.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meklit, I am so excited to be doing this interview with you. I was listening to your music yesterday. And can I tell you something?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sure. Tell me.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Your voice is so, so good. Especially your song “This Was Made Here.” And we will talk about that in the show. But let’s set the stage first. Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where did you grow up? When and how did your parents immigrate to the US? Tell me the story.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was born in Ethiopia. And my family came to the US as refugees in the early 80s. We came via Germany. So we were in Germany first, not for too long, but for a year and change. And then we came to Washington DC. And we didn’t know anybody else in the whole country except my dad’s college professor who said come on out and live with us in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. So we went to Iowa. And we lived in Iowa for three years and then moved to New York. And I spent most of my elementary school years in New York and then we moved to Florida. And then I went to college. While I had been in high school, I had that one auntie who was like, you know, had the house and like the organizing chops, and she brought so much of my family from Ethiopia to Seattle while I was in high school. So when I graduated from college, I was like, oh, everybody’s in Seattle. It’s my first chance to really get to know my family. So then I moved to Seattle and I loved the west coast, but I really didn’t like the rain. So then I moved to San Francisco, really just to give it a try. And now I’ve been here for almost 19 years.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When you first came to the United States, how old were you? And do you have any memories from that time?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was two years old when I came to the US. And my first strong memories are in Iowa. And it’s like snippets of things. So really what I remember, my early memories are years of adjustment to the US, of frictions and living with a sense of missing home of not really having our feet on the ground or not having that kind of stability. And my parents just working and working and working and working and working to find that stability to make home to create our networks to understand a system that was you know, not that friendly to them. So those are my my really early memories are that kind of transitional time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I read somewhere that you didn’t know the language initially, yes, but your connection with America in a way manifested in your relationship with music. That’s right. So music became your outlet? Can you talk a little bit about that? What was your relationship with music like as a kid, and how has it evolved now?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My relationship with music as a kid was very visceral. It was always my love. I just I loved music, I loved being surrounded by it, I felt its power. I could feel the emotional journey that singers and musicians like instrumentalists were taking are intended to take listeners on, I could just embody it, I could imitate instruments, I could imitate singers, I would learn the exact phrasing of improvisations. I would listen to songs on the radio of the US radio, if I listened to it around three times, I would know all the words and all the little improvisation. So it was like a lightning focus. But it was all very emotional and physical. And I would, I would also love to sing. And I would stop people in the elevator and ask if they wanted to hear a song, or they would just start performing on buses when I was like four years old. So none of that has gone away. Like it’s just the things get added, you know, so now I have that. But I also have an intellectual side of it too. Like I can understand what somebody’s doing all they’re doing this and that with the phrasing there. You know, the arrangement? This is what the arrangement is doing. What is that sound? Oh, they’re using this and this instrument, you know, you just add layers onto your knowledge, but you don’t lose the foundation, which is about the body, and about the voice and about basic communication around things that matter to you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, you bring up such an important and interesting point. And I wonder the intellectual relationship that you have with music has it changed how you consume music? Oh, yeah. In what ways?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, what I’ll say is it generally doesn’t happen live because when I’m in a live performance, I’m just in it. I’m like, experiencing it, the vibration of the music is washing over me. I’m feeling it. It’s all that but if I’m listening to like a recording now, I think okay, how did they mix that? I think questions like, Oh, I wonder why they made that arrangement choice, but it’s always around. Now. What do I do with that information? Oh, wow. Did you hear the way they did that? Oh, I wonder I would like to try that. Let me experiment with that a little bit. It becomes all a jumping off place to try new things or to expand. This is why like, for example, on your taxes. If you’re a musician, you can deduct like half they call it half. Like if you have like a Spotify monthly subscription, you can deduct half why? Because listening to music is research. Literally if your profession is is music, than listening to music is research and education as a part of how you grow.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I wonder if that learning process can be cumbersome at times. Because for me when I listen to music, I don’t listen to it from an intellectual perspective, right? I am just enjoying it, internalizing it, sometimes crying other times laughing with it. Yes. Since you play close attention to instruments and sounds and lyrics. Does it become cumbersome or burdensome for you?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, you have to be able to turn things off and on right? Just like when you’re composing. You can’t be in your critical mind at first, huh? Do you have to start in a place of generation just like when you’re in a group and you want to brainstorm an idea, you say there’s no wrong answers, and everybody can throw out an idea and you just keep going and go it, you have to do that musically, too. And in order to do that, you have to be able to turn off the critic say, okay, inner critic, you might not think that’s a good idea, but you’re not useful to me right now, you will be useful to me tomorrow when I evaluate these ideas. Right now, I just want a bunch of ideas. And so that is a skill that you can use about anything like, Okay, you’re listening to music, and you find your critic is on and you just be like, hey, inner critic, not useful to me right now, I just want to enjoy this concert. Yes, it is burdensome. But it’s not like we’re at the whim of our own mind. We have to learn to engage with the different parts of ourselves, and have an ability to harness them when they’re useful and quiet them when they’re not.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Talking about music, let’s talk about the song that I mentioned in the beginning \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music “This Was Made Here”]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And you describe this song and I quote, as progressively poetic exploration of displacement, and longing for home, unquote. This is such a profound way to describe music and its raw form that can nurture old roots and lay new ones. Right? Hmm. And you’ve talked about how we cannot talk about America without talking about how refugees and immigrants have contributed to America. In fact, you’ve said, and I may be paraphrasing it, but you create immigrant music, that is American music, basically. But to me, there is a risk to sharing and opening up transcultural instruments to American population, because of how dominant populations normally behave. How do we ensure that we bring the sounds and instruments to America without letting society co-op them?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">First of all, there’s a thing that happens in art, where once you make a thing, it’s not yours anymore. It’s still yours. But it’s also belongs to any listener, like any person who’s listening will have their own interpretation will experience it themselves. This is a funny, not funny example. But I’ll just tell you like one time I had this person write me on social media. And they said, I have to tell you that your music helped me and my husband have a divorce, and still stay connected. Oh, wow. And I was like, Whoa, and they had met at one of my concerts. Okay, so it came flu sick, because for that, so I was the connection, and I was part of their separation. Now, did I ever, ever, ever intend to be that? No. But that is actually an incredibly meaningful accompaniment of this couple on their life’s path and their life’s journey. And so it was not for me to say, like, I’m making this music because I’m trying to express the life that I’ve lived, the communities that I come from, that I’m rooted in, but to these folks, it belonged to them in an entirely different way. That was actually very deeply meaningful, and I think appropriate. So that is to say that what we can control is what we create what we put out there. But there is an element of art in general, where like, once it’s out there, I’m not going to control it anymore. I can’t. And my point is that sometimes that’s good. And sometimes that’s bad. And when it’s difficult is like this kind of like a co optation You know, when this kind of thing can happen. That’s also just part of letting the music go, where it’s like, actually, I just have to make it, I have to make it because if I don’t make it like I’m not well, I’m actually just not well, as a human. I make it for myself to feel okay, in having a creative expression that genuinely reflects my life and invites people into a process where I don’t have to be alone in it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Absolutely. But at the same time, I will go back to my point, how do we ensure that originators get the credit that they deserve? You know, we can allow it to evolve and change into something else transition into something else and people can consume it however they want, right? But at the same time, unless we pay homage to the originators, we are not recognizing the beauty and enrichment of those cultures, especially when dominant cultures are already dehumanizing certain cultures, right?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of course, my work is kind of twofold. One is the musical work which is very tender and raw and personal and my personal journey and then there’s the work that I do as a creator of narratives. And this is more around what you’re talking about, because like, this is why I do the work that I do to bring immigrant musicians together to claim our narratives in public space, to have it broadcast far and wide. And to be able to have those narratives have impact, and begin to be the influencer of dominant narratives. So this is like the work that I do with Movement, maybe to bring it back to like the emotional and the intellectual like this is the intellectual side of what I do, you know, in terms of what it means to acknowledge where the music comes from, what its root is, who the ancestors were, that created it, you know, the foundations of what is being made today, like, that is a project for me, for immigrant musicians. That’s a project for like, pretty much any person of color on this planet.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exactly.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So we can also find community in that. And I think it’s very important that when we do that, we are also speaking with each other, and building solidarity and building community in those processes that can help us to amplify our power.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meklit, talk to me about Movement, because that is one way that you are empowering those stories, and you are in a way reorienting public to storytelling in a way where it’s more holistic. And it is, you know, crediting originators of not just music, but beyond. So talk to me a little bit about Movement. And have there been any surprises along the way?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, well, there’s always surprises. We started the project in 2017, if you can throw your mind back to 2017. And it was Trump’s first year and a few days after the inauguration, we were at the airports protesting on the Muslim ban. And in a lot of ways the beginning of Movement was around that kind of wanting to organize immigrant musicians and immigrant communities at a time when we were under a particular form of attack. I think there’s still a lot of attack right now. It looks different, right. And the project has evolved over the last five years. I think what our intention is, is to bring immigrant musicians to a place where they are shining their stories and narratives on their own terms. We recognize trauma and pain. But we also recognize that we are not only that we are joy, resilience, we are power. We are interconnection, we are strength. And we are very, very broad. We call ourselves an audio archive of radical inclusion. We broadcast our stories to millions of listeners in collaboration with PRX as the world we formally launched as a podcast on April 11, 2023.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Listeners, once you finish listening to this, you should listen to Movement.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yes. Why not? I mean, yes, come on. Come on now. You know, for us also, it’s about intimate human stories. It’s about like, if you Google the word migrant, you’ll see images of refugee camps and mass border crossings. And all those things are real and must be talked about. But also, when I talk to Alsarah, incredible Sudanese, musician, songwriter, composer ethnomusicologist, who lives in New York, and she talks about when she was at the refugee camp, she’s like, that was the most lit place musically she’s ever been in her life because communities were showing up for each other. So there’s always another narrative and you have to actually listen to the people who are experiencing migration in order to really understand to frame and to grounded in what’s really happening for people faxing a story about a border can be a story about two brothers sharing a guitar. We find folks telling us these beautiful stories about the sacredness of water and how that influences their music or a grandmother’s backyard, a song that would bring the rain after a drought, all of these things, intimate human stories that immigrant, migrants, and refugee musicians get to be the ones determining what the narrative is.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Absolutely, Meklit. Was there something about your identity that you discovered through this process that you were not consciously aware of?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, this is gonna sound funny, but I’ll just tell you what comes into my mind when you say this. You know, I’ve always been a person that people want to tell their secrets to. Like when I was a kid in high school growing up, people would just tell me things and I was oh, I was like, ‘Oh, this is interesting.’ Like, I will listen, I will listen and be there for, you know the people in my life. But it wasn’t always just people who are close to me. Even people who weren’t close to me would want to tell me things. But I didn’t really consciously think about that skill, or that thing that’s in my life as a part of what this role is as a host and interviewer. But what I found is that we have very, very different conversations than musicians typically have with folks who are interviewing them for their music, and their album releases all this stuff. Number one, because I share a lot of the experiences that they share from the communities that they grew up in, but also because there’s this other little secret sauce going on, but it’s just like, okay, well, that’s what it is. And so wait, that has a greater purpose. Okay, I’ll put that to a greater purpose.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Can you share an anecdote with us a story that really stood out?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s this great moment, we talked to an artist called Odyssey who’s Sudanese and African American both. And we talked to him about his latest album, and we ended up talking about therapy, and about how our communities can sometimes struggle with the idea of therapy, and how we can actually care for our mental health. But then what that opens up for us, with our families and communities. And so this is what I mean, like, this is a conversation that we’re able to have it from a sense of like, just of knowing what each other’s communities are like enough to be able to ask those questions that maybe somebody couldn’t ask or like, another artist and I, we just had this wonderful riff, I mean, wonderful, I’m making air quotes about the word refugee, and like the identity of a refugee, and I came to this country as a refugee. And so had she, and we were able to, you know, really break that word down from like, all these different angles and what it does to you as a young person, and then how, what is the process of reclaiming that and finding the power in it?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Talk to me about that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For me, what really got to me about that word was the implied white savior, right, that’s on the other side of it. It’s like a binary, like, on one side, you have the refugee and on the other side, you have the white savior, and what would really get to me would be like, white people feeling really good about themselves for having, like, saved me, you know, I’d be like, you don’t know, my parents, you don’t know, like, my parents are the what, like, don’t take away their agency, exactly in the situation and understand that like system. And another thing that I had, like really sit with in this process is what does it mean, as a person who’s a refugee who found refuge in this country, like, if you are not careful to find yourself inhabiting a settler colonial identity, you know what I mean? And like, actually, like, okay, understand that we are on indigenous land, and that we have to be in relation to the land. And what does it mean to be a good steward of the land, that is something that we have to learn from indigenous communities. And so when you know, when the project goes to different places, we pay land tax, for example, when we went to Seattle, at the University of Washington, and we made a little ceremony for ourselves to give thanks, and to pay a land tax to understand that we also can’t come in here with you know, that an identity as refugees and immigrants without also acknowledging that we are finding refuge on indigenous land.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I love what you’re saying, Meklit. But I wonder if a lot of immigrants, refugees, migrants somehow assume that settler colonial mindset as a tool of survival. Proximity to whiteness becomes a way to be seen as part of the community and not to be others. And the more you can approximate yourself to whiteness, the more acceptable you become. So how do we break that cycle?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you think about like the origin of whiteness as a concept, it’s about forgetting your European ethnic identity. You ever go to Germany, you’d be like, they’re so German, you know, you go to you go to like, you go to these places in Europe. And you’re like, this is this is like, there’s an ethnic, you go to Ireland. I mean, I’m just saying like, the the idea of whiteness is to forget. And it’s about power, and it’s about everyone but us, and it’s about class and all of this stuff. It’s incredibly intersectional. But what I’m trying to say is that like to remember, is an act of power. And I understand that it’s about survival. And I’m not saying it in like a call out way. I’m saying it in a like, let us go towards greater healing let us go towards greater wholeness.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But I think there’s nothing wrong with saying it in a call out way either, because a lot of times as immigrants, especially those who come from privileged backgrounds, we don’t recognize the harm that we are causing. So in a way, it’s important to look inwards and do that introspection, right?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Absolutely. But I’m just trying to say, like somebody who’s coming from Afghanistan, you know, after the fall of Kabul, that’s not the time to have that conversation. You know, like, if they’ve hit, it’s like, it’s like, there’s also a time in place, you know, right, just to bring it back to what you were saying earlier about, like survival, like, it’s all a process. And it’s just something that I wish for us in, like our journey as immigrant communities that we can bring awareness to our participation in, you know, the settler colonial identity and to heal and not to fall under the spells of what that can do to you to remain whole. It’s actually also a relationship to the land.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meklit, what does healing look like for you?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh god, I don’t know what healing looks like. Okay, so in one sense, healing, like, there’s a way in which when I was just starting out in music, like I had this really intense realization at one time was like, probably 2005, or 2006. And I was like, Oh, my God, I have to figure this out in front of people. It’s not like other art where I get to practice and practice and practice on my own. And then years later, show what- no, it’s like, when you do music, like, for example, one show is worth 10 rehearsals, because in that show, you’ll figure out okay, what did I really learn? What did I really get? What was I really able to express? Where was my block? You know, where were my blocks? How did it really go, according to my intention of what I wanted to bring out there. And so it’s not just about getting better at your craft in public. It’s also about healing in public. I made these songs and now I have to communicate them from a place of depth in front of people. You realize, oh, wait, I have to heal in public to I wrote these songs for my own healing. And part of the healing is figuring out how to share them. Okay, then when I share them, I realized, okay, where do I break down? Where do I feel my power? And so there’s a part of it that the music itself is the healing process. And then the sharing it is another healing process. For me, it’s really important to meditate. It’s the only way I can have enough energy for my life. I’m a mom of a three and a half year old, and it takes so much energy. So the only way I have enough energy for my life is to meditate but that’s also very supportive of my healing. Spending time with my kid is incredibly supportive of my healing. And I think just staying humble and open and just also trying to not do it all myself, you know, be in community with things and find time to be with my women too, my my dear friends.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meklit, I want to go back to your music, not your music, per se, but sounds. You talk about this in your 2015 TED Talk as to how there is unexpected beauty in everyday sounds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero in clip :\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m going to start today with nature. But before we do that, let’s quickly listen to this snippet of an opera singer warming up. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Vocalising]\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beautiful, isn’t it? Gotcha. That is actually not the sound of an opera singer warming up. That is the sound of a bird.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’ve even talked about wherever you go. You try to be more intentional about listening to different sounds of that, please. And one thing that really grabbed my attention was this comment that you make: that natural world can be our cultural teacher, that we all have to basically pay attention and be active participants in our environment. And I wonder in what ways have you been inspired by soundscape and has it been different in different cities like for instance, New York versus San Francisco? How is the soundscape different?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, it’s very different. First of all, the song that you talked about, “This Was Made Here” earlier, If you listen to that 2015 TED talk I do or there’s a section in it where I talk about the cooking pan lid. That is “This Was Made Here.” That was the origination of this was made here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Meklit Hadero in clip: \u003c/b>It was late one night and it was time to stir so I lifted the lid off the cooking pot and I placed it onto the kitchen counter next to me, and it started to roll back and forth making this sound \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pot clanging] \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">stopped me cold. I thought what a weird, cool swing that cooking pan lid has. So I hightailed it to my backyard studio and I made this. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music- Song “This Was Made Here”]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I use it in my compositions sometimes, like, the other day, my partner was rolling up the window in a weird way. It was like \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[swishing sounds].\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I just started singing the rhythm, and then it got in my head. And as I’ve sat with that idea for longer, I think it’s about hearing patterns. I think that there’s a lot of music, which is about pattern and repetition. And the way that pattern and repetition becomes like a template that other people can be in relationship to each other, where it’s like, I can sing it, and you can sing it back to me, I can drum it, and you can drum it back to me, and then you can drum it, and I’ll sing over it, and then I’ll drum it and then you sing over it. And it becomes a place where we can instantly go into play, we can instantly go into play mode, relational mode. So I think it’s about this way that we can be permeable to what’s going on around us, but then have that as a foundation for relation and interconnection. So we see ourselves not as separate from what’s around us. But it’s like a template for being able to be in relation to everything around us. And then in terms of different places, having different soundscapes, they absolutely do, and what you find is that it has information about the environment, too. So like in New York, what you find is a lot of echoes, and it’s because of the concrete, the amount of concrete everywhere, everything is bouncing off the surface. And so it’s actually hard to tell where things are coming from, because sometimes it can be bouncing off this and it’s really coming from there. So New York requires like a lot of close attention, San Francisco, it has a lot more open space. I mean, this is the thing about the West Coast, you know, it’s like, we have a lot of old trees, you know, we have, it’s just different. The hills here are a thing, you know, and so those changed the way that sound moves in a city. And you know, if you’re going to a natural place, especially, it’s really nice to just quiet your mind for a moment and just orient yourself to the environment around you. And you’ll find that you’ll be more comfortable, you’ll be more aware. It’s like a way that we can sink into our body to be in relation to the space around us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I wonder if you’ve experienced sounds, say in a place like Cairo, where the soundscape the way I see it would be completely different. I grew up in Lahore, and I can give you an example of that. It’s a very crowded place. There’s a lot of hustle and bustle, you’ll hear all sorts of things going on at the same time. How do you see that soundscape? And how is it different from say, US generally?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Well, the US is quieter, I don’t know, my experience of non-Western systems, and please push back if I’m wrong, is that they’re more human driven and Western systems, it’s more system-driven. So it’s like you can hear that you can hear how like even a place like Italy for example, which is like caught in between you know I love it. You know, like I remember being in Italy, and listening to the people selling food would call out. I remember the man selling olives, singing his olives \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[singing]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This is more to me, like what happens in the developing world, you know, or like the global South, and he’s not gonna have an Instagram account where you know where he is, every day, he’s gonna sing to you. And you’re gonna find him by listening for his voice. And this is more like what it is in other places in the world. We don’t have that we have like, you look at the website, you call in advance who calls in advance nobody, maybe maybe my mother, I don’t know. But you look on the website, you know, and then you’re like, okay, this is these are their hours I’m gonna go with these hours. So you’re organized by a date you’re organized at a distance by a technology that is told you to this is how you behave. Whereas like in other places people will call to you to tell you as you’re passing by, and it’s like that makes a more vibrant, alive, chaotic soundscape.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is chaotic, indeed. Meklit, a person like me who’s not a musician, who is not consciously aware of a lot of sounds that happen in nature or otherwise. How do I connect with those sounds? Is there a process? You mentioned something like being quiet then paying attention. But I wonder what that connectedness would look like for somebody like me versus somebody like you who’s a musician and who understands even natural sounds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, we all process information differently. And as humans, you might say our default is visual, right? We have a lot of our brain devoted to our visual cortex, all this stuff. But you know, our audio system is also part of an older part of our brain, we are like it’s in there, it’s deep, deep in there. So whether or not it’s the way that you consciously process information, it’s a big part of your biological system. So you have access to it, but it can kind of dial up or dial down depending on your circumstances, or depending on, kind of, your own tendencies. There’s a wonderful story that I feel called to tell you, in 2011, I started collaborating with a person by the name of John Jenkins, who’s with NASA. And he was on the Kepler mission at the time, and now is on test mission, which is a big telescope that looks for Earth sized planets and other solar systems. This is all gonna make sense in a second. So John, and I started collaborating because he started making star sounds, which is turning the data of light from the stars into sounds. Now why did he do that? He did that. Because, first of all, the way that you find Earth sized planets and other solar systems is that you look for dimming in the light, and that’s the planet traveling in front, its sun. Now that’s a pattern that’s a rhythm.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the light is bright, bright, bright, sun, bright, sun, bright, sun, dim, bright, bright, bright, bright, bright, sun, dim, bright, bright, bright, bright, bright, Sun dim, that’s a rhythm, so you can hear it even in the way that I’m talking about it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What he started to do was to turn that data that light data into sound, so that he could see can I hear the dimming of the stars. Wow, he did that because his mentor was a blind astrophysicist. So his mentor would go to all these conferences, where they would show charts and graphs, so that there was another part of your mind to help you understand the information, however, that part of your mind was the visual part of your mind, which he did not have access to. So his mentor started a tradition of audiolyzing data, so that another one of his senses that he had access to would be able to interpret it with another part of his intelligence, Jon inherited that tradition of audiolyzing data, and he would make what he would call Sonic light curves, which were star sounds looking for Earth sized planets and other solar systems through their rhythms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Jenkins in clip: \u003c/strong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For those of you sonophiles, this is one of my favorite objects. It’s an eclipsing binary. This is time and days. And this is the Fourier domain. So this is a periodic gram. But it sounds really cool. So I’m gonna play it for you. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Sonic sound plays]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. So the bass comping is really the eclipses. So that’s not thermo mechanical energy. But the whistling has stuff going on inside…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s wild. Like the sounds are \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> incredible. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They’re alien. And there, they’re so strange there. And there was just one sound, this beautiful, beautiful, rhythmic sound. And it was like, oh, that’s the one I started playing what I call the star guitar, I was hybridizing the sound of the stars with the sounds of the guitar, the program that I used to use to do that doesn’t exist anymore. It was called the isotope spectron. And sadly, isotope, which is a tech audio technology company, they cancelled the spectrum. And I wrote to them being like, please, what’s the last version you have? And they were like, well, you’re not really going to get it to run on something older than a 2013 laptop, so that I was, you know, that didn’t work out. I did a hip hop space opera called copper wire in 2011, which we put the star sounds in and I put it in Supernova song on my 2017 album, I guess that is to say that your ears are another access to your intelligence and to the intelligence of the world around us. And it’s information in the world around us. So how you do it is just getting quiet. And listen, it’s its own meditation, its own kind of meditation, just listening for the sounds around you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guess what? I’m going to do this right after the interview. I am trying to do some spring cleaning on my Spotify playlist, and I am really curious to know what’s on your playlist.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, right now it’s really a lot of the artists that we’re working with for Movement. So we just had a beautiful interview with Chhom Nimol, who is a Cambodian singer incredible from a family of folk singers in Cambodia. She’s the lead singer of Dengue Fever, the psychedelic Cambodian rock band based out of LA. I’ve been listening to her. I’ve been listening to Odyssey, been listening to Nnamdi, this really eccentric you know oddball genius songwriter who’s Nigerian American, been listening to Little Sims out of the UK, who is also a total genius. And Xenia Rubinos, Cuban Puerto Rican artist who was raised in Connecticut, but lives in Brooklyn. I also listened to a lot of folks who are in my local community in the Bay Area. So Jesus Diaz, a Cuban, Afro Cuban songwriter, composer and arranger. I mean, it’s endless. There’s so much good music out there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, Meklit, if you were to describe America, in a word or a sentence, how would you do that?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I would say like, in a process of reckoning in a state of potential.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I like in a state of potential.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, it’s only one part of it. It’s complexity. Like, I always appreciate when people say like the American experiment, that’s kind of like foundry language, that’s like 1776 language, but it’s not that bad. You know, it’s like, okay, if you’re going to, it’s not a bad way to kind of start to have that at the base. Okay. Didn’t quite go right. Now, now, what’s the next iteration?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, I like that. I like that. So again, as we said, your podcast would have released by now where can people find it?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can find Movement\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wherever you listen to your podcasts. You might have to write my name in there Meklit. Movement, Meklit. Or, if enough of you like and subscribe, then it will just come up when you say Movement. But there’s also lots of other podcasts with that in the title. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dig deeper. It’s worth it. We hear, you know.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I love it. Thank you so much. Frankly, this was wonderful. I am so glad we were able to do this.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know what, this was such an amazing conversation and I did go out and listen to sounds. It is such an interesting process and experience and I really urge all of you to sit in a quiet place not even quiet, just quiet yourself and listen to all the sounds around you and you will love it. I promise. This episode was produced by me, Saadia Khan, written by Yudi Liu and me, and our editor is Haziq Ahmed Farid, and music for this episode is by Simon Hutchinson. Until next time, take care.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pendarvis Harshaw, host: \u003c/strong>Big ups to the team over at Immigrantly, if you’d like to hear more episodes that deconstruct immigrant identity through first person accounts, check them out wherever you get your podcasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Rightnowish is an arts and culture podcast produced at KQED. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or click the play button at the top of this page and subscribe to the show on \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish\">NPR One\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I\">Spotify\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/Rightnowish-p1258245/\">TuneIn\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish\">Stitcher\u003c/a> or wherever you get your podcasts. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]=\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"We’re sharing an episode of Immigrantly podcast, hosted by Saadia Khan.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1712194967,"stats":{"hasAudio":true,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":81,"wordCount":7876},"headData":{"title":"Rightnowish Presents: Immigrantly’s Conversation with Musician Meklit Hadero | KQED","description":"On this episode of Rightnowish, we’re passing the mic to our friends at Immigrantly podcast. Host Saadia Khan and her guests examine traditional narratives Americans hold about immigrants and people of color. Through the process, they carefully unravel the nuance and depth of the immigrant experience. Immigrantly explores the everyday miraculousness of immigrant life, like love, food, faith, friendship and creativity through first-person accounts.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","socialDescription":"On this episode of Rightnowish, we’re passing the mic to our friends at Immigrantly podcast. Host Saadia Khan and her guests examine traditional narratives Americans hold about immigrants and people of color. Through the process, they carefully unravel the nuance and depth of the immigrant experience. Immigrantly explores the everyday miraculousness of immigrant life, like love, food, faith, friendship and creativity through first-person accounts."},"audioUrl":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/chrt.fm/track/G6C7C3/traffic.megaphone.fm/KQINC1623622968.mp3?updated=1712193615","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13955378/rightnowish-presents-immigrantlys-conversation-with-musician-meklit-hadero","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On this episode of Rightnowish, we’re passing the mic to our friends at \u003ca href=\"https://immigrantlypod.com/immigrantly-podcast\">Immigrantly\u003c/a> podcast. Host Saadia Khan and her guests examine traditional narratives Americans hold about immigrants and people of color. Through the process, they carefully unravel the nuance and depth of the immigrant experience. Immigrantly explores the everyday miraculousness of immigrant life, like love, food, faith, friendship and creativity through first-person accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immigrantly’s guest for this episode is \u003ca href=\"https://www.meklitmusic.com/\">Meklit Hadero. \u003c/a>She is a vocalist, songwriter, composer and former refugee who is known for her innovative Ethio-Jazz vocals and lively stage presence. Her music blends together folk, jazz, Eastern African influences, and what Hadero calls “everyday sounds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She has performed worldwide, and just released a new EP called “Ethio Blue.” Hadero is also the co-founder, co-producer, and host of Movement, a podcast, radio series and live show that celebrates songs and stories of immigrant musicians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC1623622968\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pendarvis Harshaw, host: \u003c/b>Hey what’s up ya’ll?! Welcome to Rightnowish. I’m your host Pendarvis Harshaw, and today we’re passing the microphone to our friend Saadia Khan, the host of the podcast Immigrantly, which explores the nuance & depth of the immigrant experience. If you’re a real Jazz fan, like myself – this episode is for you!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It features Meklit Hadero the Ethiopian-born, San Francisco-based artist who is best known for her innovative Ethio-Jazz vocals and electric performance style. So put your headphones on and get ready for some sweet, smooth sounds. We’ll let our friends from Immigrantly take it from here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey everyone. It’s your host Saadia Khan and I’m back to play you another thoughtful, engaging, and jazzy episode. If this is your first time with Immigrantly, welcome. You’ve picked the perfect pilot. Immigrantly, for those of you who don’t know, is a weekly podcast where I sit down with guests from the immigrant community, and talk about the fascinating things they’re doing all in the name of storytelling and subverting narratives.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I am so excited about today’s episode, because let me tell you, music fuels my soul like nothing else. I’m so psyched to have Meklit Hadero, the Ethiopian-born, San Francisco-based artist on today’s show.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She is best known for her innovative Ethiopian jazz vocals and electric performance style. Even if you were to listen for a few minutes, I promise you would notice a genre bending nature to her songs. Her songs weave together jazz, folk, Eastern African influences and what Meklit calls, “everyday sounds.” Yeah, everyday sounds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s performed worldwide from San Francisco to Cairo to London to Montreal. Oh my gosh. Her latest album released in 2017, called When The People Move The Music Moves Too was named among the best records of the Year by Bandcamp and Sunday Times UK. She’s a National Geographic Explorer, a TED senior fellow and a 2019 Artist in Residence at Harvard University. Meklit is co founder, co producer and host of Movement, a new radio series telling stories of global migration through music, and I wonder what is that Meklit cannot do? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In our conversation, by the way, she shares how she looks to music to express longing, pain, hope and other facets of the diaspora. Her words inspired me and reminded me of the importance of heritage and how traditional music from our homelands can be integrated into present movement and music. So if you are a fellow music lover or not, get ready to be transported to a world of melodies and rhythms that shape our everyday life. Without further ado, let’s dive into the jazzy world of Meklit Hadero.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meklit, I am so excited to be doing this interview with you. I was listening to your music yesterday. And can I tell you something?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sure. Tell me.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Your voice is so, so good. Especially your song “This Was Made Here.” And we will talk about that in the show. But let’s set the stage first. Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where did you grow up? When and how did your parents immigrate to the US? Tell me the story.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was born in Ethiopia. And my family came to the US as refugees in the early 80s. We came via Germany. So we were in Germany first, not for too long, but for a year and change. And then we came to Washington DC. And we didn’t know anybody else in the whole country except my dad’s college professor who said come on out and live with us in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. So we went to Iowa. And we lived in Iowa for three years and then moved to New York. And I spent most of my elementary school years in New York and then we moved to Florida. And then I went to college. While I had been in high school, I had that one auntie who was like, you know, had the house and like the organizing chops, and she brought so much of my family from Ethiopia to Seattle while I was in high school. So when I graduated from college, I was like, oh, everybody’s in Seattle. It’s my first chance to really get to know my family. So then I moved to Seattle and I loved the west coast, but I really didn’t like the rain. So then I moved to San Francisco, really just to give it a try. And now I’ve been here for almost 19 years.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When you first came to the United States, how old were you? And do you have any memories from that time?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I was two years old when I came to the US. And my first strong memories are in Iowa. And it’s like snippets of things. So really what I remember, my early memories are years of adjustment to the US, of frictions and living with a sense of missing home of not really having our feet on the ground or not having that kind of stability. And my parents just working and working and working and working and working to find that stability to make home to create our networks to understand a system that was you know, not that friendly to them. So those are my my really early memories are that kind of transitional time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I read somewhere that you didn’t know the language initially, yes, but your connection with America in a way manifested in your relationship with music. That’s right. So music became your outlet? Can you talk a little bit about that? What was your relationship with music like as a kid, and how has it evolved now?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My relationship with music as a kid was very visceral. It was always my love. I just I loved music, I loved being surrounded by it, I felt its power. I could feel the emotional journey that singers and musicians like instrumentalists were taking are intended to take listeners on, I could just embody it, I could imitate instruments, I could imitate singers, I would learn the exact phrasing of improvisations. I would listen to songs on the radio of the US radio, if I listened to it around three times, I would know all the words and all the little improvisation. So it was like a lightning focus. But it was all very emotional and physical. And I would, I would also love to sing. And I would stop people in the elevator and ask if they wanted to hear a song, or they would just start performing on buses when I was like four years old. So none of that has gone away. Like it’s just the things get added, you know, so now I have that. But I also have an intellectual side of it too. Like I can understand what somebody’s doing all they’re doing this and that with the phrasing there. You know, the arrangement? This is what the arrangement is doing. What is that sound? Oh, they’re using this and this instrument, you know, you just add layers onto your knowledge, but you don’t lose the foundation, which is about the body, and about the voice and about basic communication around things that matter to you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, you bring up such an important and interesting point. And I wonder the intellectual relationship that you have with music has it changed how you consume music? Oh, yeah. In what ways?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, what I’ll say is it generally doesn’t happen live because when I’m in a live performance, I’m just in it. I’m like, experiencing it, the vibration of the music is washing over me. I’m feeling it. It’s all that but if I’m listening to like a recording now, I think okay, how did they mix that? I think questions like, Oh, I wonder why they made that arrangement choice, but it’s always around. Now. What do I do with that information? Oh, wow. Did you hear the way they did that? Oh, I wonder I would like to try that. Let me experiment with that a little bit. It becomes all a jumping off place to try new things or to expand. This is why like, for example, on your taxes. If you’re a musician, you can deduct like half they call it half. Like if you have like a Spotify monthly subscription, you can deduct half why? Because listening to music is research. Literally if your profession is is music, than listening to music is research and education as a part of how you grow.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I wonder if that learning process can be cumbersome at times. Because for me when I listen to music, I don’t listen to it from an intellectual perspective, right? I am just enjoying it, internalizing it, sometimes crying other times laughing with it. Yes. Since you play close attention to instruments and sounds and lyrics. Does it become cumbersome or burdensome for you?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, you have to be able to turn things off and on right? Just like when you’re composing. You can’t be in your critical mind at first, huh? Do you have to start in a place of generation just like when you’re in a group and you want to brainstorm an idea, you say there’s no wrong answers, and everybody can throw out an idea and you just keep going and go it, you have to do that musically, too. And in order to do that, you have to be able to turn off the critic say, okay, inner critic, you might not think that’s a good idea, but you’re not useful to me right now, you will be useful to me tomorrow when I evaluate these ideas. Right now, I just want a bunch of ideas. And so that is a skill that you can use about anything like, Okay, you’re listening to music, and you find your critic is on and you just be like, hey, inner critic, not useful to me right now, I just want to enjoy this concert. Yes, it is burdensome. But it’s not like we’re at the whim of our own mind. We have to learn to engage with the different parts of ourselves, and have an ability to harness them when they’re useful and quiet them when they’re not.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Talking about music, let’s talk about the song that I mentioned in the beginning \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music “This Was Made Here”]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And you describe this song and I quote, as progressively poetic exploration of displacement, and longing for home, unquote. This is such a profound way to describe music and its raw form that can nurture old roots and lay new ones. Right? Hmm. And you’ve talked about how we cannot talk about America without talking about how refugees and immigrants have contributed to America. In fact, you’ve said, and I may be paraphrasing it, but you create immigrant music, that is American music, basically. But to me, there is a risk to sharing and opening up transcultural instruments to American population, because of how dominant populations normally behave. How do we ensure that we bring the sounds and instruments to America without letting society co-op them?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">First of all, there’s a thing that happens in art, where once you make a thing, it’s not yours anymore. It’s still yours. But it’s also belongs to any listener, like any person who’s listening will have their own interpretation will experience it themselves. This is a funny, not funny example. But I’ll just tell you like one time I had this person write me on social media. And they said, I have to tell you that your music helped me and my husband have a divorce, and still stay connected. Oh, wow. And I was like, Whoa, and they had met at one of my concerts. Okay, so it came flu sick, because for that, so I was the connection, and I was part of their separation. Now, did I ever, ever, ever intend to be that? No. But that is actually an incredibly meaningful accompaniment of this couple on their life’s path and their life’s journey. And so it was not for me to say, like, I’m making this music because I’m trying to express the life that I’ve lived, the communities that I come from, that I’m rooted in, but to these folks, it belonged to them in an entirely different way. That was actually very deeply meaningful, and I think appropriate. So that is to say that what we can control is what we create what we put out there. But there is an element of art in general, where like, once it’s out there, I’m not going to control it anymore. I can’t. And my point is that sometimes that’s good. And sometimes that’s bad. And when it’s difficult is like this kind of like a co optation You know, when this kind of thing can happen. That’s also just part of letting the music go, where it’s like, actually, I just have to make it, I have to make it because if I don’t make it like I’m not well, I’m actually just not well, as a human. I make it for myself to feel okay, in having a creative expression that genuinely reflects my life and invites people into a process where I don’t have to be alone in it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Absolutely. But at the same time, I will go back to my point, how do we ensure that originators get the credit that they deserve? You know, we can allow it to evolve and change into something else transition into something else and people can consume it however they want, right? But at the same time, unless we pay homage to the originators, we are not recognizing the beauty and enrichment of those cultures, especially when dominant cultures are already dehumanizing certain cultures, right?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of course, my work is kind of twofold. One is the musical work which is very tender and raw and personal and my personal journey and then there’s the work that I do as a creator of narratives. And this is more around what you’re talking about, because like, this is why I do the work that I do to bring immigrant musicians together to claim our narratives in public space, to have it broadcast far and wide. And to be able to have those narratives have impact, and begin to be the influencer of dominant narratives. So this is like the work that I do with Movement, maybe to bring it back to like the emotional and the intellectual like this is the intellectual side of what I do, you know, in terms of what it means to acknowledge where the music comes from, what its root is, who the ancestors were, that created it, you know, the foundations of what is being made today, like, that is a project for me, for immigrant musicians. That’s a project for like, pretty much any person of color on this planet.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Exactly.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So we can also find community in that. And I think it’s very important that when we do that, we are also speaking with each other, and building solidarity and building community in those processes that can help us to amplify our power.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meklit, talk to me about Movement, because that is one way that you are empowering those stories, and you are in a way reorienting public to storytelling in a way where it’s more holistic. And it is, you know, crediting originators of not just music, but beyond. So talk to me a little bit about Movement. And have there been any surprises along the way?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, well, there’s always surprises. We started the project in 2017, if you can throw your mind back to 2017. And it was Trump’s first year and a few days after the inauguration, we were at the airports protesting on the Muslim ban. And in a lot of ways the beginning of Movement was around that kind of wanting to organize immigrant musicians and immigrant communities at a time when we were under a particular form of attack. I think there’s still a lot of attack right now. It looks different, right. And the project has evolved over the last five years. I think what our intention is, is to bring immigrant musicians to a place where they are shining their stories and narratives on their own terms. We recognize trauma and pain. But we also recognize that we are not only that we are joy, resilience, we are power. We are interconnection, we are strength. And we are very, very broad. We call ourselves an audio archive of radical inclusion. We broadcast our stories to millions of listeners in collaboration with PRX as the world we formally launched as a podcast on April 11, 2023.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Listeners, once you finish listening to this, you should listen to Movement.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yes. Why not? I mean, yes, come on. Come on now. You know, for us also, it’s about intimate human stories. It’s about like, if you Google the word migrant, you’ll see images of refugee camps and mass border crossings. And all those things are real and must be talked about. But also, when I talk to Alsarah, incredible Sudanese, musician, songwriter, composer ethnomusicologist, who lives in New York, and she talks about when she was at the refugee camp, she’s like, that was the most lit place musically she’s ever been in her life because communities were showing up for each other. So there’s always another narrative and you have to actually listen to the people who are experiencing migration in order to really understand to frame and to grounded in what’s really happening for people faxing a story about a border can be a story about two brothers sharing a guitar. We find folks telling us these beautiful stories about the sacredness of water and how that influences their music or a grandmother’s backyard, a song that would bring the rain after a drought, all of these things, intimate human stories that immigrant, migrants, and refugee musicians get to be the ones determining what the narrative is.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Absolutely, Meklit. Was there something about your identity that you discovered through this process that you were not consciously aware of?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Okay, this is gonna sound funny, but I’ll just tell you what comes into my mind when you say this. You know, I’ve always been a person that people want to tell their secrets to. Like when I was a kid in high school growing up, people would just tell me things and I was oh, I was like, ‘Oh, this is interesting.’ Like, I will listen, I will listen and be there for, you know the people in my life. But it wasn’t always just people who are close to me. Even people who weren’t close to me would want to tell me things. But I didn’t really consciously think about that skill, or that thing that’s in my life as a part of what this role is as a host and interviewer. But what I found is that we have very, very different conversations than musicians typically have with folks who are interviewing them for their music, and their album releases all this stuff. Number one, because I share a lot of the experiences that they share from the communities that they grew up in, but also because there’s this other little secret sauce going on, but it’s just like, okay, well, that’s what it is. And so wait, that has a greater purpose. Okay, I’ll put that to a greater purpose.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Can you share an anecdote with us a story that really stood out?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s this great moment, we talked to an artist called Odyssey who’s Sudanese and African American both. And we talked to him about his latest album, and we ended up talking about therapy, and about how our communities can sometimes struggle with the idea of therapy, and how we can actually care for our mental health. But then what that opens up for us, with our families and communities. And so this is what I mean, like, this is a conversation that we’re able to have it from a sense of like, just of knowing what each other’s communities are like enough to be able to ask those questions that maybe somebody couldn’t ask or like, another artist and I, we just had this wonderful riff, I mean, wonderful, I’m making air quotes about the word refugee, and like the identity of a refugee, and I came to this country as a refugee. And so had she, and we were able to, you know, really break that word down from like, all these different angles and what it does to you as a young person, and then how, what is the process of reclaiming that and finding the power in it?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Talk to me about that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For me, what really got to me about that word was the implied white savior, right, that’s on the other side of it. It’s like a binary, like, on one side, you have the refugee and on the other side, you have the white savior, and what would really get to me would be like, white people feeling really good about themselves for having, like, saved me, you know, I’d be like, you don’t know, my parents, you don’t know, like, my parents are the what, like, don’t take away their agency, exactly in the situation and understand that like system. And another thing that I had, like really sit with in this process is what does it mean, as a person who’s a refugee who found refuge in this country, like, if you are not careful to find yourself inhabiting a settler colonial identity, you know what I mean? And like, actually, like, okay, understand that we are on indigenous land, and that we have to be in relation to the land. And what does it mean to be a good steward of the land, that is something that we have to learn from indigenous communities. And so when you know, when the project goes to different places, we pay land tax, for example, when we went to Seattle, at the University of Washington, and we made a little ceremony for ourselves to give thanks, and to pay a land tax to understand that we also can’t come in here with you know, that an identity as refugees and immigrants without also acknowledging that we are finding refuge on indigenous land.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I love what you’re saying, Meklit. But I wonder if a lot of immigrants, refugees, migrants somehow assume that settler colonial mindset as a tool of survival. Proximity to whiteness becomes a way to be seen as part of the community and not to be others. And the more you can approximate yourself to whiteness, the more acceptable you become. So how do we break that cycle?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you think about like the origin of whiteness as a concept, it’s about forgetting your European ethnic identity. You ever go to Germany, you’d be like, they’re so German, you know, you go to you go to like, you go to these places in Europe. And you’re like, this is this is like, there’s an ethnic, you go to Ireland. I mean, I’m just saying like, the the idea of whiteness is to forget. And it’s about power, and it’s about everyone but us, and it’s about class and all of this stuff. It’s incredibly intersectional. But what I’m trying to say is that like to remember, is an act of power. And I understand that it’s about survival. And I’m not saying it in like a call out way. I’m saying it in a like, let us go towards greater healing let us go towards greater wholeness.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But I think there’s nothing wrong with saying it in a call out way either, because a lot of times as immigrants, especially those who come from privileged backgrounds, we don’t recognize the harm that we are causing. So in a way, it’s important to look inwards and do that introspection, right?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Absolutely. But I’m just trying to say, like somebody who’s coming from Afghanistan, you know, after the fall of Kabul, that’s not the time to have that conversation. You know, like, if they’ve hit, it’s like, it’s like, there’s also a time in place, you know, right, just to bring it back to what you were saying earlier about, like survival, like, it’s all a process. And it’s just something that I wish for us in, like our journey as immigrant communities that we can bring awareness to our participation in, you know, the settler colonial identity and to heal and not to fall under the spells of what that can do to you to remain whole. It’s actually also a relationship to the land.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meklit, what does healing look like for you?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh god, I don’t know what healing looks like. Okay, so in one sense, healing, like, there’s a way in which when I was just starting out in music, like I had this really intense realization at one time was like, probably 2005, or 2006. And I was like, Oh, my God, I have to figure this out in front of people. It’s not like other art where I get to practice and practice and practice on my own. And then years later, show what- no, it’s like, when you do music, like, for example, one show is worth 10 rehearsals, because in that show, you’ll figure out okay, what did I really learn? What did I really get? What was I really able to express? Where was my block? You know, where were my blocks? How did it really go, according to my intention of what I wanted to bring out there. And so it’s not just about getting better at your craft in public. It’s also about healing in public. I made these songs and now I have to communicate them from a place of depth in front of people. You realize, oh, wait, I have to heal in public to I wrote these songs for my own healing. And part of the healing is figuring out how to share them. Okay, then when I share them, I realized, okay, where do I break down? Where do I feel my power? And so there’s a part of it that the music itself is the healing process. And then the sharing it is another healing process. For me, it’s really important to meditate. It’s the only way I can have enough energy for my life. I’m a mom of a three and a half year old, and it takes so much energy. So the only way I have enough energy for my life is to meditate but that’s also very supportive of my healing. Spending time with my kid is incredibly supportive of my healing. And I think just staying humble and open and just also trying to not do it all myself, you know, be in community with things and find time to be with my women too, my my dear friends.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meklit, I want to go back to your music, not your music, per se, but sounds. You talk about this in your 2015 TED Talk as to how there is unexpected beauty in everyday sounds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero in clip :\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m going to start today with nature. But before we do that, let’s quickly listen to this snippet of an opera singer warming up. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Vocalising]\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beautiful, isn’t it? Gotcha. That is actually not the sound of an opera singer warming up. That is the sound of a bird.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’ve even talked about wherever you go. You try to be more intentional about listening to different sounds of that, please. And one thing that really grabbed my attention was this comment that you make: that natural world can be our cultural teacher, that we all have to basically pay attention and be active participants in our environment. And I wonder in what ways have you been inspired by soundscape and has it been different in different cities like for instance, New York versus San Francisco? How is the soundscape different?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, it’s very different. First of all, the song that you talked about, “This Was Made Here” earlier, If you listen to that 2015 TED talk I do or there’s a section in it where I talk about the cooking pan lid. That is “This Was Made Here.” That was the origination of this was made here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Meklit Hadero in clip: \u003c/b>It was late one night and it was time to stir so I lifted the lid off the cooking pot and I placed it onto the kitchen counter next to me, and it started to roll back and forth making this sound \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pot clanging] \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">stopped me cold. I thought what a weird, cool swing that cooking pan lid has. So I hightailed it to my backyard studio and I made this. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music- Song “This Was Made Here”]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I use it in my compositions sometimes, like, the other day, my partner was rolling up the window in a weird way. It was like \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[swishing sounds].\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I just started singing the rhythm, and then it got in my head. And as I’ve sat with that idea for longer, I think it’s about hearing patterns. I think that there’s a lot of music, which is about pattern and repetition. And the way that pattern and repetition becomes like a template that other people can be in relationship to each other, where it’s like, I can sing it, and you can sing it back to me, I can drum it, and you can drum it back to me, and then you can drum it, and I’ll sing over it, and then I’ll drum it and then you sing over it. And it becomes a place where we can instantly go into play, we can instantly go into play mode, relational mode. So I think it’s about this way that we can be permeable to what’s going on around us, but then have that as a foundation for relation and interconnection. So we see ourselves not as separate from what’s around us. But it’s like a template for being able to be in relation to everything around us. And then in terms of different places, having different soundscapes, they absolutely do, and what you find is that it has information about the environment, too. So like in New York, what you find is a lot of echoes, and it’s because of the concrete, the amount of concrete everywhere, everything is bouncing off the surface. And so it’s actually hard to tell where things are coming from, because sometimes it can be bouncing off this and it’s really coming from there. So New York requires like a lot of close attention, San Francisco, it has a lot more open space. I mean, this is the thing about the West Coast, you know, it’s like, we have a lot of old trees, you know, we have, it’s just different. The hills here are a thing, you know, and so those changed the way that sound moves in a city. And you know, if you’re going to a natural place, especially, it’s really nice to just quiet your mind for a moment and just orient yourself to the environment around you. And you’ll find that you’ll be more comfortable, you’ll be more aware. It’s like a way that we can sink into our body to be in relation to the space around us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I wonder if you’ve experienced sounds, say in a place like Cairo, where the soundscape the way I see it would be completely different. I grew up in Lahore, and I can give you an example of that. It’s a very crowded place. There’s a lot of hustle and bustle, you’ll hear all sorts of things going on at the same time. How do you see that soundscape? And how is it different from say, US generally?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Well, the US is quieter, I don’t know, my experience of non-Western systems, and please push back if I’m wrong, is that they’re more human driven and Western systems, it’s more system-driven. So it’s like you can hear that you can hear how like even a place like Italy for example, which is like caught in between you know I love it. You know, like I remember being in Italy, and listening to the people selling food would call out. I remember the man selling olives, singing his olives \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[singing]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This is more to me, like what happens in the developing world, you know, or like the global South, and he’s not gonna have an Instagram account where you know where he is, every day, he’s gonna sing to you. And you’re gonna find him by listening for his voice. And this is more like what it is in other places in the world. We don’t have that we have like, you look at the website, you call in advance who calls in advance nobody, maybe maybe my mother, I don’t know. But you look on the website, you know, and then you’re like, okay, this is these are their hours I’m gonna go with these hours. So you’re organized by a date you’re organized at a distance by a technology that is told you to this is how you behave. Whereas like in other places people will call to you to tell you as you’re passing by, and it’s like that makes a more vibrant, alive, chaotic soundscape.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is chaotic, indeed. Meklit, a person like me who’s not a musician, who is not consciously aware of a lot of sounds that happen in nature or otherwise. How do I connect with those sounds? Is there a process? You mentioned something like being quiet then paying attention. But I wonder what that connectedness would look like for somebody like me versus somebody like you who’s a musician and who understands even natural sounds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, we all process information differently. And as humans, you might say our default is visual, right? We have a lot of our brain devoted to our visual cortex, all this stuff. But you know, our audio system is also part of an older part of our brain, we are like it’s in there, it’s deep, deep in there. So whether or not it’s the way that you consciously process information, it’s a big part of your biological system. So you have access to it, but it can kind of dial up or dial down depending on your circumstances, or depending on, kind of, your own tendencies. There’s a wonderful story that I feel called to tell you, in 2011, I started collaborating with a person by the name of John Jenkins, who’s with NASA. And he was on the Kepler mission at the time, and now is on test mission, which is a big telescope that looks for Earth sized planets and other solar systems. This is all gonna make sense in a second. So John, and I started collaborating because he started making star sounds, which is turning the data of light from the stars into sounds. Now why did he do that? He did that. Because, first of all, the way that you find Earth sized planets and other solar systems is that you look for dimming in the light, and that’s the planet traveling in front, its sun. Now that’s a pattern that’s a rhythm.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the light is bright, bright, bright, sun, bright, sun, bright, sun, dim, bright, bright, bright, bright, bright, sun, dim, bright, bright, bright, bright, bright, Sun dim, that’s a rhythm, so you can hear it even in the way that I’m talking about it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What he started to do was to turn that data that light data into sound, so that he could see can I hear the dimming of the stars. Wow, he did that because his mentor was a blind astrophysicist. So his mentor would go to all these conferences, where they would show charts and graphs, so that there was another part of your mind to help you understand the information, however, that part of your mind was the visual part of your mind, which he did not have access to. So his mentor started a tradition of audiolyzing data, so that another one of his senses that he had access to would be able to interpret it with another part of his intelligence, Jon inherited that tradition of audiolyzing data, and he would make what he would call Sonic light curves, which were star sounds looking for Earth sized planets and other solar systems through their rhythms.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jon Jenkins in clip: \u003c/strong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For those of you sonophiles, this is one of my favorite objects. It’s an eclipsing binary. This is time and days. And this is the Fourier domain. So this is a periodic gram. But it sounds really cool. So I’m gonna play it for you. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Sonic sound plays]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. So the bass comping is really the eclipses. So that’s not thermo mechanical energy. But the whistling has stuff going on inside…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s wild. Like the sounds are \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> incredible. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They’re alien. And there, they’re so strange there. And there was just one sound, this beautiful, beautiful, rhythmic sound. And it was like, oh, that’s the one I started playing what I call the star guitar, I was hybridizing the sound of the stars with the sounds of the guitar, the program that I used to use to do that doesn’t exist anymore. It was called the isotope spectron. And sadly, isotope, which is a tech audio technology company, they cancelled the spectrum. And I wrote to them being like, please, what’s the last version you have? And they were like, well, you’re not really going to get it to run on something older than a 2013 laptop, so that I was, you know, that didn’t work out. I did a hip hop space opera called copper wire in 2011, which we put the star sounds in and I put it in Supernova song on my 2017 album, I guess that is to say that your ears are another access to your intelligence and to the intelligence of the world around us. And it’s information in the world around us. So how you do it is just getting quiet. And listen, it’s its own meditation, its own kind of meditation, just listening for the sounds around you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guess what? I’m going to do this right after the interview. I am trying to do some spring cleaning on my Spotify playlist, and I am really curious to know what’s on your playlist.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, right now it’s really a lot of the artists that we’re working with for Movement. So we just had a beautiful interview with Chhom Nimol, who is a Cambodian singer incredible from a family of folk singers in Cambodia. She’s the lead singer of Dengue Fever, the psychedelic Cambodian rock band based out of LA. I’ve been listening to her. I’ve been listening to Odyssey, been listening to Nnamdi, this really eccentric you know oddball genius songwriter who’s Nigerian American, been listening to Little Sims out of the UK, who is also a total genius. And Xenia Rubinos, Cuban Puerto Rican artist who was raised in Connecticut, but lives in Brooklyn. I also listened to a lot of folks who are in my local community in the Bay Area. So Jesus Diaz, a Cuban, Afro Cuban songwriter, composer and arranger. I mean, it’s endless. There’s so much good music out there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the end, Meklit, if you were to describe America, in a word or a sentence, how would you do that?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I would say like, in a process of reckoning in a state of potential.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I like in a state of potential.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well, it’s only one part of it. It’s complexity. Like, I always appreciate when people say like the American experiment, that’s kind of like foundry language, that’s like 1776 language, but it’s not that bad. You know, it’s like, okay, if you’re going to, it’s not a bad way to kind of start to have that at the base. Okay. Didn’t quite go right. Now, now, what’s the next iteration?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, I like that. I like that. So again, as we said, your podcast would have released by now where can people find it?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can find Movement\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wherever you listen to your podcasts. You might have to write my name in there Meklit. Movement, Meklit. Or, if enough of you like and subscribe, then it will just come up when you say Movement. But there’s also lots of other podcasts with that in the title. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dig deeper. It’s worth it. We hear, you know.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I love it. Thank you so much. Frankly, this was wonderful. I am so glad we were able to do this.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Meklit Hadero: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Music]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Saadia Khan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know what, this was such an amazing conversation and I did go out and listen to sounds. It is such an interesting process and experience and I really urge all of you to sit in a quiet place not even quiet, just quiet yourself and listen to all the sounds around you and you will love it. I promise. This episode was produced by me, Saadia Khan, written by Yudi Liu and me, and our editor is Haziq Ahmed Farid, and music for this episode is by Simon Hutchinson. Until next time, take care.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pendarvis Harshaw, host: \u003c/strong>Big ups to the team over at Immigrantly, if you’d like to hear more episodes that deconstruct immigrant identity through first person accounts, check them out wherever you get your podcasts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Rightnowish is an arts and culture podcast produced at KQED. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or click the play button at the top of this page and subscribe to the show on \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/721590300/rightnowish\">NPR One\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/show/7kEJuafTzTVan7B78ttz1I\">Spotify\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rightnowish/id1482187648\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://tunein.com/podcasts/Arts--Culture-Podcasts/Rightnowish-p1258245/\">TuneIn\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/rightnowish\">Stitcher\u003c/a> or wherever you get your podcasts. \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>=\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13955378/rightnowish-presents-immigrantlys-conversation-with-musician-meklit-hadero","authors":["11832"],"programs":["arts_8720"],"categories":["arts_1"],"tags":["arts_22061","arts_22060","arts_22059","arts_22062"],"featImg":"arts_13955384","label":"arts_8720"},"arts_13955969":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13955969","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13955969","score":null,"sort":[1713212390000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"a-movement-in-every-direction-bampfa-the-great-migration-review","title":"BAMPFA’s Great Migration Show Brings Nuance to a History Shared by Millions","publishDate":1713212390,"format":"standard","headTitle":"BAMPFA’s Great Migration Show Brings Nuance to a History Shared by Millions | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":140,"site":"arts"},"content":"\u003cp>My mother was six years old when her family migrated west from Tallahassee, Florida in 1954. She was one of approximately six million Black people who moved out of the American South to Western, Northern and Midwestern states in the era known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/migrations/great-migration\">the Great Migration\u003c/a>. My grandfather, a physician who had limited opportunities in the Jim Crow South, moved the family to Porterville, California in the Central Valley. They lived in Palo Alto for five or so years before ultimately settling in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those facts of my family’s migration story were front of mind as I walked through the new exhibition \u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/movement-every-direction-legacies-great-migration\">\u003ci>A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, on view at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive through Sept. 22, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Translating this epic American story of the Great Migration, which has so many facets and truths (and warranted \u003ca href=\"http://warmth.isabelwilkerson.com/\">622 pages from scholar Isabel Wilkerson\u003c/a>), into a walkable, visual experience is a feat. \u003ci>A Movement in Every Direction\u003c/i>, which was co-organized by the Mississippi Museum of Art and the Baltimore Museum of Art and features 12 artists, beautifully showcases how this is a shared history for millions, with very intricate, individual stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955970\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13955970 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-800x288.jpg\" alt=\"Charcoal drawing depicting various Black people.\" width=\"800\" height=\"288\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-800x288.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-1020x367.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-160x58.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-768x276.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-1536x552.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-2048x736.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-1920x690.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert Pruitt, ‘A Song for Travelers,’ 2022; Charcoal, conté, and pastel on paper, mounted onto four aluminum panels. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Adam Reich)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Robert Pruitt’s large-scale charcoal drawing \u003ci>A Song for Travelers\u003c/i> (2022) feels emblematic of that intricacy — both in the craft of the piece and the story it tells. Pruitt draws inspiration from his personal archive (a family reunion photo from the 1970s) and the historical archive of his hometown Houston to depict a community of past and present-day figures offering gifts to a traveler.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The longer you look at this piece, the more detail is revealed. Noticing each gift elicits the bright-eyed feel of answering the question “Where’s Waldo?” It’s a feast for the eyes and the spirit, as one can imagine sitting in the traveler’s seat, receiving the support of the ancestors and community members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955972\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13955972 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Two woven textiles hang on a white wall\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Akea Brionne, ‘School Children’ (left) and ‘Porch Sittin’ (right) from the series ‘An Ode To (You)’all,’ 2022; Jacquard tapestry, poly-fil, rhinestones. \u003ccite>(Courtesy the artist; Photo by Mitro Hood, courtesy of the Mississippi Museum of Art and Baltimore Museum of Art)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The intricacy of stories is also evident in the detailed stitching of Akea Brionne’s tapestries for her installation \u003ci>An Ode to (You)’all\u003c/i> (2022), which reflects on Black maternal family structures through the lives of her great-grandmother and great-aunts. The textiles are eye-catching. By transforming old family photographs into jacquard weavings, which she bedazzles with sparkly embellishments, Akea Brionne honors the women who helped her family move north from Mississippi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some artists, like Torkwase Dyson, take a more abstract approach to the topic. Dyson, who researched plantation economies and Black liberation theory for her piece \u003ci>Way Over There Inside Me (A Festival of Inches)\u003c/i> (2022), says the abstract sculpture reflects how Black people “bend space to have life” throughout history. Dyson’s trapezoidal shapes, made of smoky glass, steel and aluminum, indeed invoke a number of musings about space, place and time; I was reminded of sci-fi-like portals to other locations or dimensions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955974\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13955974\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-800x446.jpg\" alt=\"Trapezoidal figures connected by bent metal bars displayed in the corner of a musuem.\" width=\"800\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-800x446.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-1020x568.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-160x89.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-768x428.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-1536x855.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-2048x1140.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-1920x1069.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Torkwase Dyson, ‘Way Over There Inside Me (A Festival of Inches),’ 2022; Painted steel, glass, painted aluminum, dry-erase marker. \u003ccite>(Courtesy the artist and Pace Gallery; Photo by Mitro Hood, courtesy of the Mississippi Museum of Art and Baltimore Museum of Art)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The exhibition is anchored by some big names (that were, admittedly, the first to catch my eye when the exhibition was announced). Carrie Mae Weems, Theaster Gates and Mark Bradford all contribute powerful new works. I never miss an opportunity to see Bradford’s work and his mural-sized installation – which duplicates a 1913 “WANTED” ad inviting Black families to join a Jim Crow-free settlement in New Mexico – doesn’t disappoint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weems’s video installation, titled \u003ci>Leave! Leave Now!\u003c/i> (2022), is simultaneously haunting and gorgeous. In it, Weems narrates what she knows of her grandfather’s journey to Chicago after he was presumed dead following an attack by a white mob in 1936. She also asks questions about the things she doesn’t know: “What was those early years like for you? When did you become a union organizer?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955971\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13955971\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"A black and white digital image floats in front of a slightly open red curtain\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carrie Mae Weems, ‘Leave! Leave Now!,’ 2022; Single-channel digital video (color, sound) installation with mixed media, 25 min. \u003ccite>(Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; Photo by Mitro Hood, courtesy of the Mississippi Museum of Art and Baltimore Museum of Art)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Leaving the exhibition, I too felt moved to ask more questions about my family’s migration story. I called my mother, realizing I’d never heard the specific reason they landed in Porterville first. “My father got a resident physician job at Porterville State Hospital [now Porterville Developmental Center] and the job came with a house,” she told me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I won’t be surprised if other Black Californians are prompted to reflect on how and when their family members first arrived in the state after experiencing \u003ci>A Movement in Every Direction\u003c/i>. In fact, they’re invited to, via an interactive component where visitors can record memories about their family’s migration story to join a growing archive. (The program notes that more than 300,000 Black people arrived in the Bay Area during the Great Migration.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For everyone who visits, the show and archive are a reminder of how strong the Black American spirit is — and how it continuously strives, in both life and in art.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration’ is on view through Sept. 22, 2024 at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (2155 Center St.). \u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/movement-every-direction-legacies-great-migration\">Find more details and information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"‘A Movement in Every Direction’ presents intricate, individual family stories in work by 12 artists.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1713462723,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":15,"wordCount":1024},"headData":{"title":"BAMPFA Show Tells Stories of the Great Migration Through Art | KQED","description":"‘A Movement in Every Direction’ presents intricate, individual family stories in work by 12 artists.","ogTitle":"BAMPFA’s Great Migration Show Brings Nuance to a History Shared by Millions","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"BAMPFA’s Great Migration Show Brings Nuance to a History Shared by Millions","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","socialTitle":"BAMPFA Show Tells Stories of the Great Migration Through Art %%page%% %%sep%% KQED"},"sticky":false,"templateType":"standard","featuredImageType":"standard","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13955969/a-movement-in-every-direction-bampfa-the-great-migration-review","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>My mother was six years old when her family migrated west from Tallahassee, Florida in 1954. She was one of approximately six million Black people who moved out of the American South to Western, Northern and Midwestern states in the era known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/migrations/great-migration\">the Great Migration\u003c/a>. My grandfather, a physician who had limited opportunities in the Jim Crow South, moved the family to Porterville, California in the Central Valley. They lived in Palo Alto for five or so years before ultimately settling in Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those facts of my family’s migration story were front of mind as I walked through the new exhibition \u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/movement-every-direction-legacies-great-migration\">\u003ci>A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, on view at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive through Sept. 22, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Translating this epic American story of the Great Migration, which has so many facets and truths (and warranted \u003ca href=\"http://warmth.isabelwilkerson.com/\">622 pages from scholar Isabel Wilkerson\u003c/a>), into a walkable, visual experience is a feat. \u003ci>A Movement in Every Direction\u003c/i>, which was co-organized by the Mississippi Museum of Art and the Baltimore Museum of Art and features 12 artists, beautifully showcases how this is a shared history for millions, with very intricate, individual stories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955970\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13955970 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-800x288.jpg\" alt=\"Charcoal drawing depicting various Black people.\" width=\"800\" height=\"288\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-800x288.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-1020x367.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-160x58.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-768x276.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-1536x552.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-2048x736.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/A-Song-for-Travelers-final-1920x690.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert Pruitt, ‘A Song for Travelers,’ 2022; Charcoal, conté, and pastel on paper, mounted onto four aluminum panels. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Adam Reich)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Robert Pruitt’s large-scale charcoal drawing \u003ci>A Song for Travelers\u003c/i> (2022) feels emblematic of that intricacy — both in the craft of the piece and the story it tells. Pruitt draws inspiration from his personal archive (a family reunion photo from the 1970s) and the historical archive of his hometown Houston to depict a community of past and present-day figures offering gifts to a traveler.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The longer you look at this piece, the more detail is revealed. Noticing each gift elicits the bright-eyed feel of answering the question “Where’s Waldo?” It’s a feast for the eyes and the spirit, as one can imagine sitting in the traveler’s seat, receiving the support of the ancestors and community members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955972\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13955972 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Two woven textiles hang on a white wall\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_Great_Migration_207_o3-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Akea Brionne, ‘School Children’ (left) and ‘Porch Sittin’ (right) from the series ‘An Ode To (You)’all,’ 2022; Jacquard tapestry, poly-fil, rhinestones. \u003ccite>(Courtesy the artist; Photo by Mitro Hood, courtesy of the Mississippi Museum of Art and Baltimore Museum of Art)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The intricacy of stories is also evident in the detailed stitching of Akea Brionne’s tapestries for her installation \u003ci>An Ode to (You)’all\u003c/i> (2022), which reflects on Black maternal family structures through the lives of her great-grandmother and great-aunts. The textiles are eye-catching. By transforming old family photographs into jacquard weavings, which she bedazzles with sparkly embellishments, Akea Brionne honors the women who helped her family move north from Mississippi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some artists, like Torkwase Dyson, take a more abstract approach to the topic. Dyson, who researched plantation economies and Black liberation theory for her piece \u003ci>Way Over There Inside Me (A Festival of Inches)\u003c/i> (2022), says the abstract sculpture reflects how Black people “bend space to have life” throughout history. Dyson’s trapezoidal shapes, made of smoky glass, steel and aluminum, indeed invoke a number of musings about space, place and time; I was reminded of sci-fi-like portals to other locations or dimensions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955974\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13955974\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-800x446.jpg\" alt=\"Trapezoidal figures connected by bent metal bars displayed in the corner of a musuem.\" width=\"800\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-800x446.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-1020x568.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-160x89.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-768x428.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-1536x855.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-2048x1140.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DysonT_Install_04-1920x1069.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Torkwase Dyson, ‘Way Over There Inside Me (A Festival of Inches),’ 2022; Painted steel, glass, painted aluminum, dry-erase marker. \u003ccite>(Courtesy the artist and Pace Gallery; Photo by Mitro Hood, courtesy of the Mississippi Museum of Art and Baltimore Museum of Art)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The exhibition is anchored by some big names (that were, admittedly, the first to catch my eye when the exhibition was announced). Carrie Mae Weems, Theaster Gates and Mark Bradford all contribute powerful new works. I never miss an opportunity to see Bradford’s work and his mural-sized installation – which duplicates a 1913 “WANTED” ad inviting Black families to join a Jim Crow-free settlement in New Mexico – doesn’t disappoint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weems’s video installation, titled \u003ci>Leave! Leave Now!\u003c/i> (2022), is simultaneously haunting and gorgeous. In it, Weems narrates what she knows of her grandfather’s journey to Chicago after he was presumed dead following an attack by a white mob in 1936. She also asks questions about the things she doesn’t know: “What was those early years like for you? When did you become a union organizer?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955971\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13955971\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"A black and white digital image floats in front of a slightly open red curtain\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/2022_TGM_MMA_321_o3-1920x1281.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carrie Mae Weems, ‘Leave! Leave Now!,’ 2022; Single-channel digital video (color, sound) installation with mixed media, 25 min. \u003ccite>(Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; Photo by Mitro Hood, courtesy of the Mississippi Museum of Art and Baltimore Museum of Art)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Leaving the exhibition, I too felt moved to ask more questions about my family’s migration story. I called my mother, realizing I’d never heard the specific reason they landed in Porterville first. “My father got a resident physician job at Porterville State Hospital [now Porterville Developmental Center] and the job came with a house,” she told me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I won’t be surprised if other Black Californians are prompted to reflect on how and when their family members first arrived in the state after experiencing \u003ci>A Movement in Every Direction\u003c/i>. In fact, they’re invited to, via an interactive component where visitors can record memories about their family’s migration story to join a growing archive. (The program notes that more than 300,000 Black people arrived in the Bay Area during the Great Migration.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For everyone who visits, the show and archive are a reminder of how strong the Black American spirit is — and how it continuously strives, in both life and in art.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration’ is on view through Sept. 22, 2024 at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (2155 Center St.). \u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/movement-every-direction-legacies-great-migration\">Find more details and information here\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13955969/a-movement-in-every-direction-bampfa-the-great-migration-review","authors":["11296"],"programs":["arts_140"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_70"],"tags":["arts_2227","arts_10342","arts_10278","arts_13952","arts_769","arts_585"],"featImg":"arts_13955973","label":"arts_140"},"arts_13955781":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13955781","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13955781","score":null,"sort":[1712859198000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"judee-sill-genius-lost-angel-documentary-review","title":"A Judee Sill Documentary Ensures Her Musical Genius Won't Be Forgotten","publishDate":1712859198,"format":"standard","headTitle":"A Judee Sill Documentary Ensures Her Musical Genius Won’t Be Forgotten | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":140,"site":"arts"},"content":"\u003cp>Unlike many of the famous people interviewed in the documentary \u003ci>Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill\u003c/i>, I can’t remember exactly when I first heard Sill’s music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I know it was decades after the 1971 release of her self-titled debut album, released by David Geffen’s brand-new Asylum Records. It was definitely long after her death, in 1979, by overdose. As someone who wasn’t alive in the ’60s and ’70s, I placed Sill’s music into my mental filing cabinet alongside contemporaries and label-mates like Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne, as if it had always been there. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, she took up far more of my mental space than that crowd. Sill’s “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/kTAesI73E1U?feature=shared\">Jesus Was a Cross Maker\u003c/a>” became my go-to example of a baffling yet perfect breakup song. At low points, I listened to “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/kyPhvHEtRuw?feature=shared\">The Kiss\u003c/a>,” from her 1973 sophomore album, on repeat. Her haunting voice, sliding through strange tempo shifts and baroque-inspired compositions, still sends shivers down my spine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955794\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000.jpg\" alt=\"Person with eyes closed singing into mic with rose-colored glasses\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1366\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955794\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000-800x546.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000-1020x697.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000-768x525.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000-1536x1049.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000-1920x1311.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An undated photo of Judee Sill singing. \u003ccite>(Greenwich Entertainment)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What I didn’t understand then, and what \u003ci>Lost Angel\u003c/i> explains patiently, admirably, is just how short-lived Sill’s career was, and how far she had fallen from the heights she hoped to achieve as “the world’s greatest living songwriter” before her death at age 35. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the strange landscape of endlessly available streaming music, songs are now often loosed from albums, free-floating from any connection to era or location. This can lead to a transcendent form of time travel, like when \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM18Wuw3Tns\">modern artists cover Sill’s work\u003c/a> in front of massive cheering crowds. But it can also obscure significant biographical facts and musical context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Lost Angel\u003c/i>, directed by Andy Brown and Brian Lindstrom, carefully stitches Judee Sill’s life and music back together. It’s a story that follows a familiar music industry arc, but still holds surprises. We learn that it was in reform school, for instance, that Sill gained her “gospel licks” as the church organist. And that she arrived in reform school after she was arrested, at age 18, as a “teen-age housewife who joined three friends in staging over a dozen robberies ‘just for kicks’” (according to the San Fernando \u003ci>Valley Times\u003c/i>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSYc-cLZUEs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sill showed early musical aptitude, learning to harmonize with herself on a piano as a young girl at her father’s Oakland bar. After his death, Sill’s mother married a Disney animator and moved the family to Los Angeles. By Sill’s accounts, it was a chaotic and abusive household she couldn’t wait to escape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We hear from family, friends, lovers and musicians who came up with Sill in Los Angeles piano bars and folk music haunts. (Many of those musicians found extraordinary success.) We see bits of her songwriting, her drawings and diaries. Animations illustrate some of her more occult and religious themes — she credited divine inspiration for her songs. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the most excellent parts of \u003ci>Lost Angel\u003c/i> arrive in Sill’s own voice. It’s a relief when various star-studded covers melt into Sill’s original versions. Her singing is so crystalline it’s utterly heartbreaking: pure beauty coming out of all that pain, loss and addiction. In the final years of her life she went through numerous surgeries after a car accident; she fell back into hard drugs after doctors wouldn’t prescribe her painkillers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955795\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 900px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Photo-4-Asylum-Billboard-November-1971-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment.jpg\" alt=\"Billboard with album cover and information set against blue sky\" width=\"900\" height=\"611\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955795\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Photo-4-Asylum-Billboard-November-1971-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment.jpg 900w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Photo-4-Asylum-Billboard-November-1971-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment-800x543.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Photo-4-Asylum-Billboard-November-1971-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Photo-4-Asylum-Billboard-November-1971-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment-768x521.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The billboard Asylum Records rented in November 1971 for the release of Judee Sill’s debut album. In the documentary, Sill says she rented a car to sit across the street and just look at it. \u003ccite>(Greenwich Entertainment)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Beyond the songs, we also hear her tell parts of her own story. At one point, a recorded interview shows her striving, thankful for what she has, but restless. Also a treat: her deadpan on-stage banter (when her audience was receptive), in which Sill frames her songs with tidbits of biography I’m sure listeners believed were wildly embellished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Lost Angel\u003c/i> doesn’t bother with the precise dates of performances or arrive at a definitive answer to why Asylum dropped Sill after just two albums. Linda Ronstadt offers perhaps the final word on that matter. “There wasn’t anybody out to get her,” Ronstadt says. “She just didn’t deliver the goods that would have resonated in that culture in that time.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Total precision is not the goal of \u003ci>Lost Angel\u003c/i>, which relies much on 50-year-old memories. But this film does achieve what it ardently sets out to do: introduce Sill to those who are ready to experience the resonance of her music in the present moment. Footage of countless YouTube covers of “The Kiss” scrolls past, and the talking heads offer up an idea of valiantly living on through one’s art. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m sure Judee Sill would agree. I just wish she was here to tell us so.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill’ begins streaming on Amazon and Apple TV on April 12, 2024. It comes to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.4-star-movies.com/\">4 Star\u003c/a> (2200 Clement St., San Francisco) April 16—17 with live pre-show music from \u003ca href=\"https://www.4-star-movies.com/calendar-of-events/lost-angel-the-genius-of-judee-sill-730-pm-62pdl\">Silverware\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.4-star-movies.com/calendar-of-events/lost-angel-the-genius-of-judee-sill-730-pm\">Free Key Choir\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The short life and career of the ’70s singer-songwriter are carefully stitched together in ‘Lost Angel.’","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1713462800,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":true,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":16,"wordCount":928},"headData":{"title":"A Judee Sill Documentary Ensures Her Musical Genius Won't Be Forgotten | KQED","description":"The short life and career of the ’70s singer-songwriter are carefully stitched together in ‘Lost Angel.’","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"templateType":"standard","featuredImageType":"standard","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13955781/judee-sill-genius-lost-angel-documentary-review","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Unlike many of the famous people interviewed in the documentary \u003ci>Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill\u003c/i>, I can’t remember exactly when I first heard Sill’s music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I know it was decades after the 1971 release of her self-titled debut album, released by David Geffen’s brand-new Asylum Records. It was definitely long after her death, in 1979, by overdose. As someone who wasn’t alive in the ’60s and ’70s, I placed Sill’s music into my mental filing cabinet alongside contemporaries and label-mates like Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne, as if it had always been there. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, she took up far more of my mental space than that crowd. Sill’s “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/kTAesI73E1U?feature=shared\">Jesus Was a Cross Maker\u003c/a>” became my go-to example of a baffling yet perfect breakup song. At low points, I listened to “\u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/kyPhvHEtRuw?feature=shared\">The Kiss\u003c/a>,” from her 1973 sophomore album, on repeat. Her haunting voice, sliding through strange tempo shifts and baroque-inspired compositions, still sends shivers down my spine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955794\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000.jpg\" alt=\"Person with eyes closed singing into mic with rose-colored glasses\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1366\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955794\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000-800x546.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000-1020x697.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000-768x525.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000-1536x1049.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Judee-Singing-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment_2000-1920x1311.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An undated photo of Judee Sill singing. \u003ccite>(Greenwich Entertainment)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What I didn’t understand then, and what \u003ci>Lost Angel\u003c/i> explains patiently, admirably, is just how short-lived Sill’s career was, and how far she had fallen from the heights she hoped to achieve as “the world’s greatest living songwriter” before her death at age 35. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the strange landscape of endlessly available streaming music, songs are now often loosed from albums, free-floating from any connection to era or location. This can lead to a transcendent form of time travel, like when \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM18Wuw3Tns\">modern artists cover Sill’s work\u003c/a> in front of massive cheering crowds. But it can also obscure significant biographical facts and musical context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Lost Angel\u003c/i>, directed by Andy Brown and Brian Lindstrom, carefully stitches Judee Sill’s life and music back together. It’s a story that follows a familiar music industry arc, but still holds surprises. We learn that it was in reform school, for instance, that Sill gained her “gospel licks” as the church organist. And that she arrived in reform school after she was arrested, at age 18, as a “teen-age housewife who joined three friends in staging over a dozen robberies ‘just for kicks’” (according to the San Fernando \u003ci>Valley Times\u003c/i>).\u003c/p>\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/FSYc-cLZUEs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/FSYc-cLZUEs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Sill showed early musical aptitude, learning to harmonize with herself on a piano as a young girl at her father’s Oakland bar. After his death, Sill’s mother married a Disney animator and moved the family to Los Angeles. By Sill’s accounts, it was a chaotic and abusive household she couldn’t wait to escape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We hear from family, friends, lovers and musicians who came up with Sill in Los Angeles piano bars and folk music haunts. (Many of those musicians found extraordinary success.) We see bits of her songwriting, her drawings and diaries. Animations illustrate some of her more occult and religious themes — she credited divine inspiration for her songs. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the most excellent parts of \u003ci>Lost Angel\u003c/i> arrive in Sill’s own voice. It’s a relief when various star-studded covers melt into Sill’s original versions. Her singing is so crystalline it’s utterly heartbreaking: pure beauty coming out of all that pain, loss and addiction. In the final years of her life she went through numerous surgeries after a car accident; she fell back into hard drugs after doctors wouldn’t prescribe her painkillers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955795\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 900px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Photo-4-Asylum-Billboard-November-1971-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment.jpg\" alt=\"Billboard with album cover and information set against blue sky\" width=\"900\" height=\"611\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955795\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Photo-4-Asylum-Billboard-November-1971-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment.jpg 900w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Photo-4-Asylum-Billboard-November-1971-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment-800x543.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Photo-4-Asylum-Billboard-November-1971-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Photo-4-Asylum-Billboard-November-1971-Credit-Greenwich-Entertainment-768x521.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The billboard Asylum Records rented in November 1971 for the release of Judee Sill’s debut album. In the documentary, Sill says she rented a car to sit across the street and just look at it. \u003ccite>(Greenwich Entertainment)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Beyond the songs, we also hear her tell parts of her own story. At one point, a recorded interview shows her striving, thankful for what she has, but restless. Also a treat: her deadpan on-stage banter (when her audience was receptive), in which Sill frames her songs with tidbits of biography I’m sure listeners believed were wildly embellished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Lost Angel\u003c/i> doesn’t bother with the precise dates of performances or arrive at a definitive answer to why Asylum dropped Sill after just two albums. Linda Ronstadt offers perhaps the final word on that matter. “There wasn’t anybody out to get her,” Ronstadt says. “She just didn’t deliver the goods that would have resonated in that culture in that time.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Total precision is not the goal of \u003ci>Lost Angel\u003c/i>, which relies much on 50-year-old memories. But this film does achieve what it ardently sets out to do: introduce Sill to those who are ready to experience the resonance of her music in the present moment. Footage of countless YouTube covers of “The Kiss” scrolls past, and the talking heads offer up an idea of valiantly living on through one’s art. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m sure Judee Sill would agree. I just wish she was here to tell us so.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill’ begins streaming on Amazon and Apple TV on April 12, 2024. It comes to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.4-star-movies.com/\">4 Star\u003c/a> (2200 Clement St., San Francisco) April 16—17 with live pre-show music from \u003ca href=\"https://www.4-star-movies.com/calendar-of-events/lost-angel-the-genius-of-judee-sill-730-pm-62pdl\">Silverware\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.4-star-movies.com/calendar-of-events/lost-angel-the-genius-of-judee-sill-730-pm\">Free Key Choir\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13955781/judee-sill-genius-lost-angel-documentary-review","authors":["61"],"programs":["arts_140"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_74","arts_69"],"tags":["arts_21958","arts_10342","arts_10278","arts_977","arts_769"],"featImg":"arts_13955793","label":"arts_140"},"arts_13955679":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13955679","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13955679","score":null,"sort":[1712792950000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"beyonce-election-year-politics-drag-oasis-nightclub-san-francisco-cowboy-carter","title":"Beyoncé Fans Reflect on Election Year Concerns at San Francisco Drag Show","publishDate":1712792950,"format":"aside","headTitle":"Beyoncé Fans Reflect on Election Year Concerns at San Francisco Drag Show | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"arts"},"content":"\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955737\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955737\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-Beyonce%CC%81Fans-JY-050_qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a white sequined dress and cowboy hat kneels on one leg on a catwalk, surrounded by the audience and lit in red\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BeyoncéFans-JY-050_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BeyoncéFans-JY-050_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BeyoncéFans-JY-050_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BeyoncéFans-JY-050_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BeyoncéFans-JY-050_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BeyoncéFans-JY-050_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bionka Simone performs Beyoncé’s ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ at Oasis in San Francisco on Saturday, April 6, 2024. The show drew a sold-out crowd of drag fans and members of the Beyhive as an all-Black cast celebrated the release of Beyoncé’s new album, ‘Cowboy Carter.’ \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/beyonce\">Beyoncé\u003c/a>’s \u003cem>Cowboy Carter\u003c/em> galloped into the national psyche in all of its flag-waving, countrified glory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Considering Beyoncé’s status as an artist \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/20366/six-beyonce-pieces-by-women-of-color-that-you-should-read-right-now\">unafraid to invoke political imagery in both her music and her visuals\u003c/a> — not to mention the way this album has turned into a battleground over who “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101905263/from-beyonce-to-lil-hardin-my-black-country-celebrates-the-undersung-black-history-and-future-of-country-music\">owns country\u003c/a>”— it’s unsurprising that many of her fans consider themselves politically conscious, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We at KQED set out to ask Beyoncé fans at San Francisco’s Oasis nightclub, directly before a Beyoncé-themed drag show, about the state of America and the issues with which they’re most concerned in this election year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955649\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955649\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCE%CC%81FANS-JY-014-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A trio of tattooed and flamboyant people, including two in cowboy hats, smile and line up before a pink and red mural.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-014-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-014-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-014-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-014-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-014-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-014-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-014-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L-R) Lance Derick, Joshua Carrasco and James Aceves. Carrasco, who is a pediatric resident at UCSF, says access to healthcare and health insurance is a huge factor in his voting decisions. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Joshua Carrasco came to the Beyoncé party with two friends, having arrived in San Francisco from Texas almost a year ago. As a pediatric resident at UCSF, Carrasco says he’s concerned about the links between poor health, underfunded education and a lack of affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it comes to queer communities, housing is such an important social determinate of health that I think is undervalued within the San Francisco area,” Carrasco said. “A lot of the Props that were voted on [in the last election] went in a direction that I was not anticipating. I think San Francisco flaunts itself as progressive, but I think in action, it’s less progressive than I had anticipated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955643\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955643\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCE%CC%81FANS-JY-001-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A smiling woman wearing a wide brimmed black hat and leather jacket stands with a shorter woman wearing her hair in braids and a short skirt. They are standing before a pink and red mural.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-001-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-001-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-001-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-001-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-001-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-001-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-001-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annika Gabriel (L) and Gabby Huckabee (R). Both expressed concern about the age of the presidential candidates, as well as concern for their friends of color. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Asked how she’s feeling about the 2024 election, Annika Gabriel said simply: “I’m real worried about my trans friends.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Gabriel’s side was Gabby Huckabee, who said she is “upset for my Muslim friends [and] for my friends of color.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13955021']Huckabee continued, “It’s very upsetting to me that out of everyone they could have possibly chosen for both parties, [Biden and Trump] are the two they still have come up with. I’m not optimistic for the future. I’m still going to vote for Joe Biden. Because I’m very clearly opposed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/donald-trump-tape-transcript.html\">Donald Trump grabbing people by the pussy\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955645\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955645\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCE%CC%81FANS-JY-003-KQED-e1712693509298.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man smiles broadly in front of a neon-lit O sign at night.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aaron McCall has the environment at the forefront of his mind during this election year. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite not feeling enthusiastic about either presidential candidate, Aaron McCall was another attendee determined to make a difference in whichever way he can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we are choosing people to vote for, it is not a moral statement and it’s not a statement of who we like,” the climate charity worker emphasized. “It is a statement of who we’re going to work with and who’s going to work with us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Republicans have actively said they are going to target and attack queer [folks] and people of color,” McCall continued, “and they’re going to destroy the environment in the process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955647\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955647\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCE%CC%81FANS-JY-008-KQED-e1712695709640.jpg\" alt=\"A slender white man in a Beyonce t-shirt, an Arabic man wearing a blue shirt and an Asian woman in a black leather jacket stand with arms around each other outside a nightclub.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L-R) Sean Dante Remigio, Mahmoud Dabbah and Mara Lee. Dabbah isn’t happy with President Biden’s support of Israel and feels there isn’t much difference between Biden and Trump. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mahmoud Dabbah, a Palestinian who has lived in America for three years, believes Biden’s ability to get reelected will be greatly impacted by the president’s support of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gaza\">Israel’s military actions in Gaza.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can see that clearly. I think the whole world is pissed off,” Dabbah said. “This war is horrible and the U.S. is a big part of it. I hope it stops soon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13940030']Asked if he worries about the consequences of another Trump presidency, Dabbah stated: “After what I saw from Biden, I don’t care anymore. It’s all the same for me as an immigrant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dabbah’s friend Sean Dante Remigio agreed. “It feels very much a losing game either way,” he said. “I mean, it’s not even choosing between a lesser of two evils. There is no choice. That is the conflict.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955702\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1402px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955702\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-09-at-4.57.48-PM.png\" alt=\"Two young people of color stand side by side inside a nightclub with thoughtful expressions on their faces.\" width=\"1402\" height=\"936\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-09-at-4.57.48-PM.png 1402w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-09-at-4.57.48-PM-800x534.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-09-at-4.57.48-PM-1020x681.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-09-at-4.57.48-PM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-09-at-4.57.48-PM-768x513.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1402px) 100vw, 1402px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L) Rogue and (R) Stephane are both concerned about houselessness and access to healthcare in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Remigio’s thoughts were echoed by Rogue and Stephane. (Both declined to give last names.) Though the friends remain concerned with housing and healthcare in San Francisco, they don’t see an upcoming face-off between Trump and Biden offering real solutions to the nation’s problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like the options are not great,” Stephane, an international student, said. “Even if I was allowed to vote, I would need better options. I don’t really care about either of the candidates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yeah,” Rogue laughed, “it’s like: Poo-Poo or Pee-Pee!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955648\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955648\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCE%CC%81FANS-JY-009-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two white women, one with a ponytail, one with cropped purple hair, stand close together, smiling warmly at each other. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-009-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-009-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-009-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-009-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-009-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-009-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-009-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Married couple Sunny and Reece Johnson are politically disillusioned — one more so than the other. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Also disillusioned with the election are Sunny and Reece Johnson, who’ve been happily married for 11 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I will tell you that I have stopped thinking about [the election] because it’s distressing,” Reece said. “I do feel very unmotivated to vote, because I’m so burned out on the drama.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would never \u003cem>not\u003c/em> vote, though,” Sunny interjected. “Never.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reece shrugged. “I would like to say that I would never not vote, but I’m so disenchanted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955651\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955651\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCE%CC%81FANS-JY-024-KQED-e1712707940654.jpg\" alt=\"A drag queen strikes a pose in black lingerie and red dressing gown, next to a wooden fence decorated with lights.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Xochitl the Queen poses on the roof deck of Oasis shortly before performing on April 5, 2024. Xochitl works in deportation defense at USF Law and uses her drag to make political statements. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One fan who wishes she could vote is drag queen Xochitl. Shortly before her performance as auburn-haired temptress Jolene, Xochitl said she is “low-key scared” about the upcoming election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My future as a performer, as an artist, as an immigrant and as a member of this society is at risk, depending on who wins,” she said. “They say we have a choice, but it’s an illusion of a choice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a DACA recipient, Xochitl is not eligible to vote, but strives to make a difference through her job at USF Law. She also utilizes performance to express herself politically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I make my voice heard by doing art, doing drag,” Xochitl explained. “My drag is inherently political. I’ve done numbers on stage where I burn the American flag as protest, as part of my work in deportation defense. I express my fear about drag bans through my art.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955646\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955646\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCE%CC%81FANS-JY-006-KQED-e1712693763217.jpg\" alt=\"A person with glasses and short dark haircut, stands hands in pockets in front of a pink and red mural. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dani Arevalos says their biggest concern as a member of the LGBTQ+ community is being respected and acknowledged as a person. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like many people we spoke with at Oasis, LGBTQ issues are front and center for Dani Arevalos, who feels dehumanized by recent attacks on gender nonconforming people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Looking to the future, my biggest concern is being respected as a human being,” Arevalos said. “I come from the Latin community, and also being LGBTQ … Honestly two very different communities [with] the same issue of being oppressed. I think going forward, being respected and being acknowledged [will help us] to move forward as a nation together.”\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"At Oasis nightclub, fans expressed concerns about housing, climate change, Gaza, LGBTQ rights and more.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1712945992,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":30,"wordCount":1376},"headData":{"title":"Beyoncé Fans Reflect on Election Year Concerns at San Francisco Drag Show | KQED","description":"At Oasis nightclub, fans expressed concerns about housing, climate change, Gaza, LGBTQ rights and more.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"templateType":"standard","featuredImageType":"standard","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13955679/beyonce-election-year-politics-drag-oasis-nightclub-san-francisco-cowboy-carter","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955737\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955737\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-Beyonce%CC%81Fans-JY-050_qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a white sequined dress and cowboy hat kneels on one leg on a catwalk, surrounded by the audience and lit in red\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BeyoncéFans-JY-050_qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BeyoncéFans-JY-050_qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BeyoncéFans-JY-050_qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BeyoncéFans-JY-050_qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BeyoncéFans-JY-050_qut-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BeyoncéFans-JY-050_qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bionka Simone performs Beyoncé’s ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ at Oasis in San Francisco on Saturday, April 6, 2024. The show drew a sold-out crowd of drag fans and members of the Beyhive as an all-Black cast celebrated the release of Beyoncé’s new album, ‘Cowboy Carter.’ \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/beyonce\">Beyoncé\u003c/a>’s \u003cem>Cowboy Carter\u003c/em> galloped into the national psyche in all of its flag-waving, countrified glory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Considering Beyoncé’s status as an artist \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/pop/20366/six-beyonce-pieces-by-women-of-color-that-you-should-read-right-now\">unafraid to invoke political imagery in both her music and her visuals\u003c/a> — not to mention the way this album has turned into a battleground over who “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101905263/from-beyonce-to-lil-hardin-my-black-country-celebrates-the-undersung-black-history-and-future-of-country-music\">owns country\u003c/a>”— it’s unsurprising that many of her fans consider themselves politically conscious, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We at KQED set out to ask Beyoncé fans at San Francisco’s Oasis nightclub, directly before a Beyoncé-themed drag show, about the state of America and the issues with which they’re most concerned in this election year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955649\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955649\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCE%CC%81FANS-JY-014-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A trio of tattooed and flamboyant people, including two in cowboy hats, smile and line up before a pink and red mural.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-014-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-014-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-014-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-014-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-014-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-014-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-014-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L-R) Lance Derick, Joshua Carrasco and James Aceves. Carrasco, who is a pediatric resident at UCSF, says access to healthcare and health insurance is a huge factor in his voting decisions. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Joshua Carrasco came to the Beyoncé party with two friends, having arrived in San Francisco from Texas almost a year ago. As a pediatric resident at UCSF, Carrasco says he’s concerned about the links between poor health, underfunded education and a lack of affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it comes to queer communities, housing is such an important social determinate of health that I think is undervalued within the San Francisco area,” Carrasco said. “A lot of the Props that were voted on [in the last election] went in a direction that I was not anticipating. I think San Francisco flaunts itself as progressive, but I think in action, it’s less progressive than I had anticipated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955643\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955643\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCE%CC%81FANS-JY-001-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A smiling woman wearing a wide brimmed black hat and leather jacket stands with a shorter woman wearing her hair in braids and a short skirt. They are standing before a pink and red mural.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-001-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-001-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-001-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-001-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-001-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-001-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-001-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annika Gabriel (L) and Gabby Huckabee (R). Both expressed concern about the age of the presidential candidates, as well as concern for their friends of color. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Asked how she’s feeling about the 2024 election, Annika Gabriel said simply: “I’m real worried about my trans friends.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Gabriel’s side was Gabby Huckabee, who said she is “upset for my Muslim friends [and] for my friends of color.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13955021","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Huckabee continued, “It’s very upsetting to me that out of everyone they could have possibly chosen for both parties, [Biden and Trump] are the two they still have come up with. I’m not optimistic for the future. I’m still going to vote for Joe Biden. Because I’m very clearly opposed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/donald-trump-tape-transcript.html\">Donald Trump grabbing people by the pussy\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955645\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955645\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCE%CC%81FANS-JY-003-KQED-e1712693509298.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man smiles broadly in front of a neon-lit O sign at night.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aaron McCall has the environment at the forefront of his mind during this election year. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite not feeling enthusiastic about either presidential candidate, Aaron McCall was another attendee determined to make a difference in whichever way he can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we are choosing people to vote for, it is not a moral statement and it’s not a statement of who we like,” the climate charity worker emphasized. “It is a statement of who we’re going to work with and who’s going to work with us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Republicans have actively said they are going to target and attack queer [folks] and people of color,” McCall continued, “and they’re going to destroy the environment in the process.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955647\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955647\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCE%CC%81FANS-JY-008-KQED-e1712695709640.jpg\" alt=\"A slender white man in a Beyonce t-shirt, an Arabic man wearing a blue shirt and an Asian woman in a black leather jacket stand with arms around each other outside a nightclub.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L-R) Sean Dante Remigio, Mahmoud Dabbah and Mara Lee. Dabbah isn’t happy with President Biden’s support of Israel and feels there isn’t much difference between Biden and Trump. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mahmoud Dabbah, a Palestinian who has lived in America for three years, believes Biden’s ability to get reelected will be greatly impacted by the president’s support of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gaza\">Israel’s military actions in Gaza.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can see that clearly. I think the whole world is pissed off,” Dabbah said. “This war is horrible and the U.S. is a big part of it. I hope it stops soon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13940030","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Asked if he worries about the consequences of another Trump presidency, Dabbah stated: “After what I saw from Biden, I don’t care anymore. It’s all the same for me as an immigrant.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dabbah’s friend Sean Dante Remigio agreed. “It feels very much a losing game either way,” he said. “I mean, it’s not even choosing between a lesser of two evils. There is no choice. That is the conflict.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955702\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1402px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955702\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-09-at-4.57.48-PM.png\" alt=\"Two young people of color stand side by side inside a nightclub with thoughtful expressions on their faces.\" width=\"1402\" height=\"936\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-09-at-4.57.48-PM.png 1402w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-09-at-4.57.48-PM-800x534.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-09-at-4.57.48-PM-1020x681.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-09-at-4.57.48-PM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-09-at-4.57.48-PM-768x513.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1402px) 100vw, 1402px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L) Rogue and (R) Stephane are both concerned about houselessness and access to healthcare in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Remigio’s thoughts were echoed by Rogue and Stephane. (Both declined to give last names.) Though the friends remain concerned with housing and healthcare in San Francisco, they don’t see an upcoming face-off between Trump and Biden offering real solutions to the nation’s problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like the options are not great,” Stephane, an international student, said. “Even if I was allowed to vote, I would need better options. I don’t really care about either of the candidates.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yeah,” Rogue laughed, “it’s like: Poo-Poo or Pee-Pee!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955648\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955648\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCE%CC%81FANS-JY-009-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two white women, one with a ponytail, one with cropped purple hair, stand close together, smiling warmly at each other. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-009-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-009-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-009-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-009-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-009-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-009-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCÉFANS-JY-009-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Married couple Sunny and Reece Johnson are politically disillusioned — one more so than the other. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Also disillusioned with the election are Sunny and Reece Johnson, who’ve been happily married for 11 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I will tell you that I have stopped thinking about [the election] because it’s distressing,” Reece said. “I do feel very unmotivated to vote, because I’m so burned out on the drama.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would never \u003cem>not\u003c/em> vote, though,” Sunny interjected. “Never.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reece shrugged. “I would like to say that I would never not vote, but I’m so disenchanted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955651\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955651\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCE%CC%81FANS-JY-024-KQED-e1712707940654.jpg\" alt=\"A drag queen strikes a pose in black lingerie and red dressing gown, next to a wooden fence decorated with lights.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Xochitl the Queen poses on the roof deck of Oasis shortly before performing on April 5, 2024. Xochitl works in deportation defense at USF Law and uses her drag to make political statements. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One fan who wishes she could vote is drag queen Xochitl. Shortly before her performance as auburn-haired temptress Jolene, Xochitl said she is “low-key scared” about the upcoming election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My future as a performer, as an artist, as an immigrant and as a member of this society is at risk, depending on who wins,” she said. “They say we have a choice, but it’s an illusion of a choice.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a DACA recipient, Xochitl is not eligible to vote, but strives to make a difference through her job at USF Law. She also utilizes performance to express herself politically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I make my voice heard by doing art, doing drag,” Xochitl explained. “My drag is inherently political. I’ve done numbers on stage where I burn the American flag as protest, as part of my work in deportation defense. I express my fear about drag bans through my art.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13955646\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13955646\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/240405-BEYONCE%CC%81FANS-JY-006-KQED-e1712693763217.jpg\" alt=\"A person with glasses and short dark haircut, stands hands in pockets in front of a pink and red mural. \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dani Arevalos says their biggest concern as a member of the LGBTQ+ community is being respected and acknowledged as a person. \u003ccite>(Juliana Yamada/ KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Like many people we spoke with at Oasis, LGBTQ issues are front and center for Dani Arevalos, who feels dehumanized by recent attacks on gender nonconforming people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Looking to the future, my biggest concern is being respected as a human being,” Arevalos said. “I come from the Latin community, and also being LGBTQ … Honestly two very different communities [with] the same issue of being oppressed. I think going forward, being respected and being acknowledged [will help us] to move forward as a nation together.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13955679/beyonce-election-year-politics-drag-oasis-nightclub-san-francisco-cowboy-carter","authors":["11242"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_11615"],"tags":["arts_1686","arts_1556","arts_10342","arts_10278","arts_3226","arts_10555","arts_5826"],"featImg":"arts_13955736","label":"arts"},"arts_13955802":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13955802","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13955802","score":null,"sort":[1713390752000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"bay-area-rappers-food-lyrics-illustrations-e-40-larry-june","title":"Here’s What Bay Area Rappers Are Eating (According to Their Lyrics)","publishDate":1713390752,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Here’s What Bay Area Rappers Are Eating (According to Their Lyrics) | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen conveying what it means to really be from the Bay Area, I often return to this simple yet revelatory \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/mac-dre\">Mac Dre\u003c/a> lyric: “In the Bay Area, we dance a little different.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether it’s in our music, political activism or technological contributions, there’s a certain out-of-box forwardness that tends to manifest from Bay Area minds — and a pride in how we approach everything with a savvy sprinkling of game, hustlership and top-tier ideation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same can be said for the Bay Area’s food scene, which ranks among the nation’s best and most imaginative. From sourdough bread to the eternal Mission-style burrito, the Bay’s foodmakers have often been ahead of the curve, helping to revolutionize menus nationwide with their fresh farm-to-table approach. To borrow from the great Mac, one could say that in the Bay Area, we \u003ci>eat\u003c/i> a little different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13907726,arts_13934248']\u003c/span>It’s no surprise, then, that in the history of local rap, food has always been a strong reference point — a metaphorical kitchen for creative exchange. An endless platter of well-seasoned slang. For decades, our rappers have delivered punchlines involving sauce, lasagna and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMah0rX6pGU\">lumpia\u003c/a>; dropped verses that generously reference \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkBJR5L2nas\">desserts and bakeries\u003c/a>; and supplied entire songs about stacking bread, cheese and lettuce as lucrative sandwiches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/bay-area-rap-shrimp-crab-17915372.php\">Food-loving Bay Area rappers\u003c/a> have always been bold when it comes to transmorphing culinary items and kitchen utensils into slang that others then appropriate and even misuse (see: “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13908052/food-doesnt-slap\">food doesn’t slap\u003c/a>”). Shock G once talked about getting busy in a Burger King bathroom and declared, “I like my oatmeal lumpy.” On “Dreganomics,” Mac Dre himself asked, “What’s spaghetti without the sauce?” We’ve got Suga T (sweet) and Spice 1 (hot). Berner founded \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cookiessf/?hl=en\">Cookies\u003c/a>. And just a few weeks ago, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900085/stunnaman02-and-the-big-steppin-energy-in-the-room\">Stunnaman02\u003c/a> dropped a whole series of viral videos centered on his latest single. His focus? \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@jayworrld/video/7340701934355254574\">Eating a salad\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a unifying ethos in Bay Area food and rap: \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6GU3PmttyI\">Everybody eats\u003c/a>. So here’s a brief ode to some of our region’s most skilled vocabulary chefs and the tasteful ways they’ve reimagined the ingredients of language that are possible in a kitchen — and the recording studio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956090\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956090\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper E-40 in sunglasses and a beige apron, holding a glass of red wine. In front of him are a burrito and a grilled cheese sandwich.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">E-40 might be the most prolific inventor of food-related slang words in the English language. He’s a head chef in the Bay Area’s rap kingdom. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>E-40: Green eggs, hams, candy yams, Spam, cheese, peanut butter and jam on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etIBcRriUJY\">The Slap\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Digital scale, green eggs and hams / Yams, candy yams, Spam, damn! / Loaded, my cheese, peanut butter and jam / Sammich, mannish, me and my Hispanics / Vanish, talkin’ in codes like we from different planets.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though it may sound like gibberish to the uninitiated, rest assured that \u003ca href=\"https://firstwefeast.com/eat/2013/12/food-rap-decoded-with-e-40-video\">99.99% of anything 40 Water vocalizes has a cleverly associative meaning\u003c/a>. For anyone who has listened to one of the more than 25 studio albums from Vallejo’s kingpin, you’ve surely heard him mention food — perhaps in a variety of languages (some real, some ingeniously invented). In addition to the smorgasbord he notes above in “The Slap,” he has pioneered rhymes across generations that give new meanings to Gouda, feta, mozzarella, lettuce, bread, sausage, salami, paninis, spaghetti, tacos and enchiladas — ad infinitum. Unsurprisingly, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13907726/e-40-goon-with-the-spoon-bay-area-rappers-food-entrepreneurs-hustle\">Mr. Fonzarelli is an actual purveyor of foods and beverages\u003c/a>, with a line of products that includes malt liquor, ice cream and burritos; he even co-owns \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thelumpiacompany/\">The Lumpia Company\u003c/a>. There’s no one with a bigger million-dollar mouthpiece who can distribute as much word candy (“S-L-A-N-G”) quite as flavorfully as the Goon With The Spoon himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Andre Nickatina: TOGO’s #41 sandwich with the hot peppers on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FU1XdPE6lM\">Fa Show\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Baby don’t act dumb, I’m number 41, high stepper / TOGO’s sandwich with the hot peppers / At 90 degrees I might freeze, so when it’s hot I sport leather.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fillmore’s finest, and among \u003ca href=\"https://www.passionweiss.com/2016/11/17/andre-nickatina/\">the most criminally underrated San Francisco rappers in history\u003c/a>, Andre Nickatina has always had a penchant for the spicy, the flavorful, the extemporaneously saucy. From rapping about eating Cap’n Crunch around drug dealers to sarcastically handing out Baskin Robbins dollars to his enemies, Nicky Nicotine (formerly known as Dre Dog) raps about food as casually as any rapper would ever dare. Unlike many of today’s international rap personalities, who seem to only eat at \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/6frbt9/why_are_rappers_obsessed_with_nobu_sushi/\">high-priced sushi conglomerates\u003c/a>, Nickatina is a Bay Area real one, electing to stay fed at a regional sandwich chain from San Jose. The enigmatic “number 41” on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.togos.com/menu/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwoPOwBhAeEiwAJuXRh69gJ2fS8J9qmnAKJEnCmI5720psTxEmhEmkgFAemWoe3auyNuuxExoCTm0QAvD_BwE\">Togo’s menu\u003c/a> has since been discontinued, but a spokesperson for the restaurant IDed it as a sirloin steak and mushroom sandwich that was introduced as a seasonal special back in 2002 — the same year “Fa Show” was released. There is no doubt it must’ve been fire, given its endorsement by a legend who knows how to professionally “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TXpoi-goE\">Break Bread\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956088\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956088\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper Kamaiyah eating from a plate of chicken alfredo tucked under her arm. Next to her is a bottle of champagne.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kamaiyah’s album covers often feature food, Hennessey and champagne — a reflection of the rapper’s saucy, bossy lifestyle. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Kamaiyah: Champagne and chicken on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yls2dMJ63tM\">Whatever Whenever\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Just drink champagne with all my chicken meals.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s fitting that East Oakland’s Kamaiyah — who cooked up the searingly hot single “How Does It Feel” on her transcendent debut, \u003ci>A Good Night in the Ghetto\u003c/i> — continued to double down on aspirational living and good eating with her sophomore release, \u003ci>Got It Made\u003c/i>. As always, the bodacious trapper rhymes over a synth-laced, floaty-spaceship soundscape while bragging about her California riches — and cuisine. The music video for “Whatever Whenever” features Kamaiyah roaming the untainted grounds of a Napa Valley-esque chateau. Her album covers over the years have also featured bags of potato chips, Hennessy and double-fisted bottles of champagne. It’s always bottoms up when Kamaiyah is on the track.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Too $hort: Macaroni, steak and collard greens on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru5B8cFskaw\">All My B*tches Are Gone\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Eat some shit up / macaroni, steak, collard greens, or whatever the fuck.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With over 35 years of classic albums like \u003ci>Cocktails\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Gettin’ It\u003c/i>, there’s no doubt that Short Dogg knows how to feed his multi-generational fanbase. He doesn’t shy away from straightforward lyrics — or having a large appetite for nefarious activities — and he has continued to make seasoned slaps for precisely 225,000 hours and counting (“get a calculator, do the math”). This OG’s plate of choice includes classic soul food staples served with a slab of steak. As the veteran unmistakably outlines on “This How We Eat”: “We make money, we eat, we feed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956087\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956087\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper Larry June in an SF Giants cap, holding a crab cracker in one hand and a fork in the other. In front of him is a whole lobster on a plate.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Besides establishing himself as the healthiest rapper in Bay Area lore, Larry June is also known for sporting vintage muscle cars and cracking lobsters in Sausalito as part of his luxurious lifestyle. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Larry June: Crab legs on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luIhlZBrJos\">Lifetime Income\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“This not my girlfriend, we just eatin’ crab legs.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you know Larry June, then you know he’s all about smoothies, green teas, organic juices and oranges (yee hee!). But just as buttery are his numerously silky references to luxury meals and late-night outings with a seemingly endless rotation of women friends. Without question, the Hunters Point rapper has one of the healthiest appetites of anyone around a microphone, regularly dropping rhymes about his organic sustenance. Since Uncle Larry makes a living off his out-of-pocket food references, he merits an honorable mention for dropping other absolute bangers like “I might write a motherfuckin’ smoothie book or somethin’ … Sell this shit for thirty dollars” and “Watermelon juice riding bikes with my latest chick / I don’t do the clubs that often, I got a check to get.” It’s fitting that \u003ca href=\"https://uproxx.com/music/larry-june-interview-san-francisco/\">he also co-owns Honeybear Boba in the Dogpatch\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Iamsu!: Chicken strips and Moscato on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQcxMU3uvLg\">Don’t Stop\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Keep it real I don’t brag though… / Chicken strips, no escargot / [sippin’] on the Moscato.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To be fair, this lyric is from a young, mixtape-era Iamsu! and might not reflect the current palate of the multi-platinum rapper and producer from Richmond. (In fact, that’s probably true of every rapper on this list, so take these lyrics with a grain of salt.) But when I first heard this song in my 20s, it’s a line that did — and still does — resonate for its unglamorized celebration of living on a low-budget microwaveable diet while maintaining a glimmer of high-life ambition. Personally, I’d take chicken strips over escargot nine out of ten times. And, from the sound of it, so would Suzy 6 Speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956086\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956086\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"The rapper P-Lo wiggles his fingers in delight over a plate of chicken wings sitting on a bed of dollar bills.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">P-Lo often raps about his love of chicken (chicken adobo, fried chicken, chicken wings), and his favorite food-related slang word is also “chicken” (as a stand in for “money”). \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>P-Lo: Chicken wings in the strip club on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-ajtPhAQ1U\">Going To Work\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“In the strip club eating chicken wings.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID='arts_13938479']\u003c/span>There may not be another rapper on this list with as much love for chicken wings as Pinole’s P-Lo. For starters, the lyricist and producer launched a transnational food tour, teaming up with Filipino restaurants around the U.S. and Canada to deliver collaborative one-off dishes, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935891/p-lo-senor-sisig-filipino-food-tour-oakland\">his own spicy sinigang wings at Señor Sisig in Oakland\u003c/a>. If that’s not enough, he has popped up on popular social media channels like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bayareafoodz/?hl=en\">Bay Area Foodz\u003c/a> as \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJYkVcpM6E0\">he searches for the best wings around the Yay\u003c/a>. His songs are even featured on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwyzdhfrNCE/\">national commercials for Wingstop\u003c/a>. For P-Lo, it’s always time to bring back the bass — and taste.\u003cb>\u003ci>\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Guap (formerly Guapdad 4000): Chicken adobo on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DaovaJgytE\">Chicken Adobo\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“How I fell in love with you it was beautiful / Like chicken adobo how you fill me up.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the Black Filipino American rapper from West Oakland, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13905208/a-new-generation-of-filipino-hip-hop-builds-on-a-deep-bay-area-legacy\">food has always played a central role in his upbringing\u003c/a>. The anime-loving, Marvel comics fan grew up in a Filipino household eating champorado, and his songs have never shied away from references to his dual cultures. In what might be his most well-known song, Guap equates romantic satiation to filling up on a bowl of chicken adobo. His love of food goes beyond the booth — he recently spoke out on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13950363/keith-lee-tiktok-oakland-sf-bay-area-struggles\">the recent Keith Lee fiasco\u003c/a>, and he also put together\u003ca href=\"https://trippin.world/guide/oaklands-top-food-joints-with-rapper-guapdad-4000\"> a map of his favorite places to eat around The Town\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cellski: Canadian bacon, hash browns and cheddar cheese on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6wFRZOd7n8\">Chedda\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Gotta get the cheddar, fuck the [federals].”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As most food mentions in Bay Area rap goes, Cellski’s mention of this quintessentially North American breakfast combo isn’t exactly a homage to the real ingredients, as much as it is a reference to his hustling. His 1998 \u003ca href=\"https://www.discogs.com/release/841568-Cellski-Canadian-Bacon-Hash-Browns/image/SW1hZ2U6NDg3ODMxNzk=\">album cover\u003c/a> for \u003ci>Canadian Bacon & Hash Browns \u003c/i>features a cartoon depiction of the rapper getting pulled over and arrested by a Canadian mountie, with an open trunk revealing pounds of medicinal herbs. Nonetheless, there’s a good chance that the veteran San Francisco spitter actually does like to carry Canadian bacon, hash browns and cheddar around — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13922141/cellskis-big-mafi-burgers-come-with-a-side-of-sf-rap-history\">he’s a part-time foodie who runs his own burger pop-up, after all\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956089\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956089\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper Dru Down in gold sunglasses and a black trench coat, holding an ice cream cone in one hand and an ice cream sundae on the table in front of him.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a famous 1996 beef, Dru Down and the Luniz accused New Orleans rapper Master P (who started his musical career in the Bay Area) for stealing their concept of the “Ice Cream Man” — slang for a narcotics dealer. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Dru Down: Ice cream on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uNv2qAje-Q\">Ice Cream Man\u003c/a>” (with the Luniz)\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Get your ice cream, ice cream / Not Ice-T, not Ice Cube, ice cream.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not intended for children, the classic 1993 anthem off Dru Down’s \u003ci>Fools From The Street \u003c/i>paints a startling picture of addiction and illicit drug distribution around Oakland in the wake of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs. Despite its unapologetic content, “Ice Cream Man” went on to establish an indisputably popular food motif in national rap music: ice cream as a stand-in for drug dealing. Since the production includes an audio sampling of an ice cream truck’s inimitable tune, listening to it evokes a sense of nostalgia for the frozen treat — and for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">golden-era Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A brief look at some of the Bay Area’s most notoriously hungry rappers — and the foods they’ve lyricized about.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1713412777,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":28,"wordCount":2211},"headData":{"title":"Bay Area Rappers and Food Lyrics | KQED","description":"A brief look at some of the Bay Area’s most notoriously hungry rappers — and the foods they’ve lyricized about.","ogTitle":"Here’s What Bay Area Rappers Are Eating (According to Their Lyrics)","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"Here’s What Bay Area Rappers Are Eating (According to Their Lyrics)","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","socialTitle":"Bay Area Rappers and Food Lyrics %%page%% %%sep%% KQED"},"source":"Food","sourceUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/food","sticky":false,"excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13955802/bay-area-rappers-food-lyrics-illustrations-e-40-larry-june","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">W\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hen conveying what it means to really be from the Bay Area, I often return to this simple yet revelatory \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/mac-dre\">Mac Dre\u003c/a> lyric: “In the Bay Area, we dance a little different.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether it’s in our music, political activism or technological contributions, there’s a certain out-of-box forwardness that tends to manifest from Bay Area minds — and a pride in how we approach everything with a savvy sprinkling of game, hustlership and top-tier ideation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same can be said for the Bay Area’s food scene, which ranks among the nation’s best and most imaginative. From sourdough bread to the eternal Mission-style burrito, the Bay’s foodmakers have often been ahead of the curve, helping to revolutionize menus nationwide with their fresh farm-to-table approach. To borrow from the great Mac, one could say that in the Bay Area, we \u003ci>eat\u003c/i> a little different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13907726,arts_13934248","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>It’s no surprise, then, that in the history of local rap, food has always been a strong reference point — a metaphorical kitchen for creative exchange. An endless platter of well-seasoned slang. For decades, our rappers have delivered punchlines involving sauce, lasagna and \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMah0rX6pGU\">lumpia\u003c/a>; dropped verses that generously reference \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkBJR5L2nas\">desserts and bakeries\u003c/a>; and supplied entire songs about stacking bread, cheese and lettuce as lucrative sandwiches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/restaurants/article/bay-area-rap-shrimp-crab-17915372.php\">Food-loving Bay Area rappers\u003c/a> have always been bold when it comes to transmorphing culinary items and kitchen utensils into slang that others then appropriate and even misuse (see: “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13908052/food-doesnt-slap\">food doesn’t slap\u003c/a>”). Shock G once talked about getting busy in a Burger King bathroom and declared, “I like my oatmeal lumpy.” On “Dreganomics,” Mac Dre himself asked, “What’s spaghetti without the sauce?” We’ve got Suga T (sweet) and Spice 1 (hot). Berner founded \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/cookiessf/?hl=en\">Cookies\u003c/a>. And just a few weeks ago, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13900085/stunnaman02-and-the-big-steppin-energy-in-the-room\">Stunnaman02\u003c/a> dropped a whole series of viral videos centered on his latest single. His focus? \u003ca href=\"https://www.tiktok.com/@jayworrld/video/7340701934355254574\">Eating a salad\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a unifying ethos in Bay Area food and rap: \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6GU3PmttyI\">Everybody eats\u003c/a>. So here’s a brief ode to some of our region’s most skilled vocabulary chefs and the tasteful ways they’ve reimagined the ingredients of language that are possible in a kitchen — and the recording studio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956090\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956090\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper E-40 in sunglasses and a beige apron, holding a glass of red wine. In front of him are a burrito and a grilled cheese sandwich.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/E40-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">E-40 might be the most prolific inventor of food-related slang words in the English language. He’s a head chef in the Bay Area’s rap kingdom. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>E-40: Green eggs, hams, candy yams, Spam, cheese, peanut butter and jam on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etIBcRriUJY\">The Slap\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Digital scale, green eggs and hams / Yams, candy yams, Spam, damn! / Loaded, my cheese, peanut butter and jam / Sammich, mannish, me and my Hispanics / Vanish, talkin’ in codes like we from different planets.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though it may sound like gibberish to the uninitiated, rest assured that \u003ca href=\"https://firstwefeast.com/eat/2013/12/food-rap-decoded-with-e-40-video\">99.99% of anything 40 Water vocalizes has a cleverly associative meaning\u003c/a>. For anyone who has listened to one of the more than 25 studio albums from Vallejo’s kingpin, you’ve surely heard him mention food — perhaps in a variety of languages (some real, some ingeniously invented). In addition to the smorgasbord he notes above in “The Slap,” he has pioneered rhymes across generations that give new meanings to Gouda, feta, mozzarella, lettuce, bread, sausage, salami, paninis, spaghetti, tacos and enchiladas — ad infinitum. Unsurprisingly, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13907726/e-40-goon-with-the-spoon-bay-area-rappers-food-entrepreneurs-hustle\">Mr. Fonzarelli is an actual purveyor of foods and beverages\u003c/a>, with a line of products that includes malt liquor, ice cream and burritos; he even co-owns \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/thelumpiacompany/\">The Lumpia Company\u003c/a>. There’s no one with a bigger million-dollar mouthpiece who can distribute as much word candy (“S-L-A-N-G”) quite as flavorfully as the Goon With The Spoon himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Andre Nickatina: TOGO’s #41 sandwich with the hot peppers on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FU1XdPE6lM\">Fa Show\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Baby don’t act dumb, I’m number 41, high stepper / TOGO’s sandwich with the hot peppers / At 90 degrees I might freeze, so when it’s hot I sport leather.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fillmore’s finest, and among \u003ca href=\"https://www.passionweiss.com/2016/11/17/andre-nickatina/\">the most criminally underrated San Francisco rappers in history\u003c/a>, Andre Nickatina has always had a penchant for the spicy, the flavorful, the extemporaneously saucy. From rapping about eating Cap’n Crunch around drug dealers to sarcastically handing out Baskin Robbins dollars to his enemies, Nicky Nicotine (formerly known as Dre Dog) raps about food as casually as any rapper would ever dare. Unlike many of today’s international rap personalities, who seem to only eat at \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/6frbt9/why_are_rappers_obsessed_with_nobu_sushi/\">high-priced sushi conglomerates\u003c/a>, Nickatina is a Bay Area real one, electing to stay fed at a regional sandwich chain from San Jose. The enigmatic “number 41” on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.togos.com/menu/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwoPOwBhAeEiwAJuXRh69gJ2fS8J9qmnAKJEnCmI5720psTxEmhEmkgFAemWoe3auyNuuxExoCTm0QAvD_BwE\">Togo’s menu\u003c/a> has since been discontinued, but a spokesperson for the restaurant IDed it as a sirloin steak and mushroom sandwich that was introduced as a seasonal special back in 2002 — the same year “Fa Show” was released. There is no doubt it must’ve been fire, given its endorsement by a legend who knows how to professionally “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TXpoi-goE\">Break Bread\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956088\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956088\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper Kamaiyah eating from a plate of chicken alfredo tucked under her arm. Next to her is a bottle of champagne.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/KAMAIYAH-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kamaiyah’s album covers often feature food, Hennessey and champagne — a reflection of the rapper’s saucy, bossy lifestyle. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Kamaiyah: Champagne and chicken on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yls2dMJ63tM\">Whatever Whenever\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Just drink champagne with all my chicken meals.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s fitting that East Oakland’s Kamaiyah — who cooked up the searingly hot single “How Does It Feel” on her transcendent debut, \u003ci>A Good Night in the Ghetto\u003c/i> — continued to double down on aspirational living and good eating with her sophomore release, \u003ci>Got It Made\u003c/i>. As always, the bodacious trapper rhymes over a synth-laced, floaty-spaceship soundscape while bragging about her California riches — and cuisine. The music video for “Whatever Whenever” features Kamaiyah roaming the untainted grounds of a Napa Valley-esque chateau. Her album covers over the years have also featured bags of potato chips, Hennessy and double-fisted bottles of champagne. It’s always bottoms up when Kamaiyah is on the track.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Too $hort: Macaroni, steak and collard greens on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru5B8cFskaw\">All My B*tches Are Gone\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Eat some shit up / macaroni, steak, collard greens, or whatever the fuck.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With over 35 years of classic albums like \u003ci>Cocktails\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Gettin’ It\u003c/i>, there’s no doubt that Short Dogg knows how to feed his multi-generational fanbase. He doesn’t shy away from straightforward lyrics — or having a large appetite for nefarious activities — and he has continued to make seasoned slaps for precisely 225,000 hours and counting (“get a calculator, do the math”). This OG’s plate of choice includes classic soul food staples served with a slab of steak. As the veteran unmistakably outlines on “This How We Eat”: “We make money, we eat, we feed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956087\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956087\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper Larry June in an SF Giants cap, holding a crab cracker in one hand and a fork in the other. In front of him is a whole lobster on a plate.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/LARRY-JUNE-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Besides establishing himself as the healthiest rapper in Bay Area lore, Larry June is also known for sporting vintage muscle cars and cracking lobsters in Sausalito as part of his luxurious lifestyle. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Larry June: Crab legs on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luIhlZBrJos\">Lifetime Income\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“This not my girlfriend, we just eatin’ crab legs.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you know Larry June, then you know he’s all about smoothies, green teas, organic juices and oranges (yee hee!). But just as buttery are his numerously silky references to luxury meals and late-night outings with a seemingly endless rotation of women friends. Without question, the Hunters Point rapper has one of the healthiest appetites of anyone around a microphone, regularly dropping rhymes about his organic sustenance. Since Uncle Larry makes a living off his out-of-pocket food references, he merits an honorable mention for dropping other absolute bangers like “I might write a motherfuckin’ smoothie book or somethin’ … Sell this shit for thirty dollars” and “Watermelon juice riding bikes with my latest chick / I don’t do the clubs that often, I got a check to get.” It’s fitting that \u003ca href=\"https://uproxx.com/music/larry-june-interview-san-francisco/\">he also co-owns Honeybear Boba in the Dogpatch\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Iamsu!: Chicken strips and Moscato on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQcxMU3uvLg\">Don’t Stop\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Keep it real I don’t brag though… / Chicken strips, no escargot / [sippin’] on the Moscato.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To be fair, this lyric is from a young, mixtape-era Iamsu! and might not reflect the current palate of the multi-platinum rapper and producer from Richmond. (In fact, that’s probably true of every rapper on this list, so take these lyrics with a grain of salt.) But when I first heard this song in my 20s, it’s a line that did — and still does — resonate for its unglamorized celebration of living on a low-budget microwaveable diet while maintaining a glimmer of high-life ambition. Personally, I’d take chicken strips over escargot nine out of ten times. And, from the sound of it, so would Suzy 6 Speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956086\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956086\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"The rapper P-Lo wiggles his fingers in delight over a plate of chicken wings sitting on a bed of dollar bills.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/PLO-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">P-Lo often raps about his love of chicken (chicken adobo, fried chicken, chicken wings), and his favorite food-related slang word is also “chicken” (as a stand in for “money”). \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>P-Lo: Chicken wings in the strip club on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-ajtPhAQ1U\">Going To Work\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“In the strip club eating chicken wings.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13938479","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>There may not be another rapper on this list with as much love for chicken wings as Pinole’s P-Lo. For starters, the lyricist and producer launched a transnational food tour, teaming up with Filipino restaurants around the U.S. and Canada to deliver collaborative one-off dishes, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935891/p-lo-senor-sisig-filipino-food-tour-oakland\">his own spicy sinigang wings at Señor Sisig in Oakland\u003c/a>. If that’s not enough, he has popped up on popular social media channels like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bayareafoodz/?hl=en\">Bay Area Foodz\u003c/a> as \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJYkVcpM6E0\">he searches for the best wings around the Yay\u003c/a>. His songs are even featured on \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwyzdhfrNCE/\">national commercials for Wingstop\u003c/a>. For P-Lo, it’s always time to bring back the bass — and taste.\u003cb>\u003ci>\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Guap (formerly Guapdad 4000): Chicken adobo on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DaovaJgytE\">Chicken Adobo\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“How I fell in love with you it was beautiful / Like chicken adobo how you fill me up.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the Black Filipino American rapper from West Oakland, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13905208/a-new-generation-of-filipino-hip-hop-builds-on-a-deep-bay-area-legacy\">food has always played a central role in his upbringing\u003c/a>. The anime-loving, Marvel comics fan grew up in a Filipino household eating champorado, and his songs have never shied away from references to his dual cultures. In what might be his most well-known song, Guap equates romantic satiation to filling up on a bowl of chicken adobo. His love of food goes beyond the booth — he recently spoke out on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13950363/keith-lee-tiktok-oakland-sf-bay-area-struggles\">the recent Keith Lee fiasco\u003c/a>, and he also put together\u003ca href=\"https://trippin.world/guide/oaklands-top-food-joints-with-rapper-guapdad-4000\"> a map of his favorite places to eat around The Town\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cellski: Canadian bacon, hash browns and cheddar cheese on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6wFRZOd7n8\">Chedda\u003c/a>”\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Gotta get the cheddar, fuck the [federals].”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As most food mentions in Bay Area rap goes, Cellski’s mention of this quintessentially North American breakfast combo isn’t exactly a homage to the real ingredients, as much as it is a reference to his hustling. His 1998 \u003ca href=\"https://www.discogs.com/release/841568-Cellski-Canadian-Bacon-Hash-Browns/image/SW1hZ2U6NDg3ODMxNzk=\">album cover\u003c/a> for \u003ci>Canadian Bacon & Hash Browns \u003c/i>features a cartoon depiction of the rapper getting pulled over and arrested by a Canadian mountie, with an open trunk revealing pounds of medicinal herbs. Nonetheless, there’s a good chance that the veteran San Francisco spitter actually does like to carry Canadian bacon, hash browns and cheddar around — \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13922141/cellskis-big-mafi-burgers-come-with-a-side-of-sf-rap-history\">he’s a part-time foodie who runs his own burger pop-up, after all\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13956089\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13956089\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of the rapper Dru Down in gold sunglasses and a black trench coat, holding an ice cream cone in one hand and an ice cream sundae on the table in front of him.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/04/DRU-DOWN-Color-1-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a famous 1996 beef, Dru Down and the Luniz accused New Orleans rapper Master P (who started his musical career in the Bay Area) for stealing their concept of the “Ice Cream Man” — slang for a narcotics dealer. \u003ccite>(Torre / @torre.pentel)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Dru Down: Ice cream on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uNv2qAje-Q\">Ice Cream Man\u003c/a>” (with the Luniz)\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Get your ice cream, ice cream / Not Ice-T, not Ice Cube, ice cream.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not intended for children, the classic 1993 anthem off Dru Down’s \u003ci>Fools From The Street \u003c/i>paints a startling picture of addiction and illicit drug distribution around Oakland in the wake of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs. Despite its unapologetic content, “Ice Cream Man” went on to establish an indisputably popular food motif in national rap music: ice cream as a stand-in for drug dealing. Since the production includes an audio sampling of an ice cream truck’s inimitable tune, listening to it evokes a sense of nostalgia for the frozen treat — and for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop\">golden-era Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13955802/bay-area-rappers-food-lyrics-illustrations-e-40-larry-june","authors":["11748"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_12276","arts_69"],"tags":["arts_21883","arts_5397","arts_1601","arts_10278","arts_1297","arts_3771","arts_831","arts_21738","arts_1558","arts_9337","arts_1143","arts_1803","arts_1146","arts_19942","arts_19347","arts_3478","arts_3800"],"featImg":"arts_13956152","label":"source_arts_13955802"},"arts_13952260":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13952260","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13952260","score":null,"sort":[1707929631000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"turntablism-invisibl-skratch-piklz-legacy-impact","title":"Turntablism’s Mightiest Heroes: The Legacy, Impact and Aesthetics of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz","publishDate":1707929631,"format":"aside","headTitle":"Turntablism’s Mightiest Heroes: The Legacy, Impact and Aesthetics of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952272\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1080px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952272\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-backstage-in-SF-2017.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-backstage-in-SF-2017.jpg 1080w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-backstage-in-SF-2017-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-backstage-in-SF-2017-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-backstage-in-SF-2017-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-backstage-in-SF-2017-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Invisibl Skratch Piklz’ cultural impact over the past 40 years has been felt around the globe. The crew is pictured here backstage in San Francisco in 2017. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Editor’s note\u003c/strong>: This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/\">That’s My Word\u003c/a>\u003cem>, KQED’s story series on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/\">Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a> history.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On an overcast November day in Oakland, DJ Shortkut – a member of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz DJ crew – was the featured performer on a boat cruise, as part of the DMC World DJ Finals festivities. The weather didn’t get too rough during the two-hour tour, which meandered out to the Bay Bridge and back to port at Jack London Square. The worst was some mildly choppy squalls into fierce headwinds. Because this wasn’t your average boat cruise – its attendees mainly consisted of DJs from all over the world in town for the DMC battle – the ship’s crew circled around Treasure Island for a bit, instead of heading further out into the open sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The calmer waters allowed Shortkut, who had been playing a vibrant set of mostly classic midtempo hip-hop, to show off his mixing and scratching skills a bit. As the boat headed back toward its East Bay dock, Shortkut unleashed an impressive display of scratching skills that lasted for a good five minutes. As the boat neared its mooring, the DJ called his peers to the turntables. What followed was an unforgettable, and super-fun, display of global turntablism at its best, as each DJ in succession laid down a wicked scratch segment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937761\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937761\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with a shaved head stands at a table as a screen behind them shows the images of several people.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shortkut performs with Invisibl Skratch Piklz during the DMC World DJ Finals at The Midway in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It seemed appropriate for Shortkut to be leading the activities. Once a battle entrant in the DMCs himself and understudy to fellow Piklz Qbert, Apollo, and Mix Master Mike, Shortkut has become an accomplished master in his own right – most recently playing an opening set on LL Cool J’s star-studded Hip Hop 50 tour. The message to the younger DJs on the boat was clear: keep developing your skills and be a balanced DJ who can rise to any occasion – scratching and beat-juggling skills are nice, but rocking a party with impeccable selection while displaying your skills is even better.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Perfecting – and Teaching – the Art\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Piklz first rose to prominence during the ’90s, winning multiple world DJ battle titles as a crew and individually while displaying innovative new techniques that elevated turntablism to unprecedented heights. After revolutionizing the artform and birthing scratch music as a genre, by the decade’s end, they had left an indelible mark on DJ culture and furthered its global reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952265\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952265\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.decks_.93.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1196\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.decks_.93.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.decks_.93-800x544.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.decks_.93-1020x694.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.decks_.93-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.decks_.93-768x522.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.decks_.93-1536x1044.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Invisibl Skratch Piklz in Japan in 1993. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Christie Zee, the organizer for 2023’s DMC World Battle, held in San Francisco, has worked off and on for the London-based organization since 1998. She first became aware of the Piklz from an old boyfriend’s copy of DJ Qbert’s \u003cem>Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Musik\u003c/em> mixtape – “It just had so much scratching and it was so fun,” she says. She recalls meeting the crew for the first time in 1999, at the DMC World Finals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m really delicate, really careful about (saying) \u003cem>pioneer\u003c/em> versus \u003cem>legend\u003c/em>, but I do think they were pioneering, because of things they’ve innovated and presented and invented,” she says. “They didn’t invent the scratch, but they just progressed the hell out of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Obviously they have titles under their belts,” says Rob Swift, a founding member of the X-Men/X-Ecutioners, the New York turntablists who famously battled the Piklz in 1996. “But for me, I would say their most pivotal contribution to DJing is teaching the art. Before the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, nobody was teaching. DJing was a secret art.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952266\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952266\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan2_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1192\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan2_.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan2_-800x542.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan2_-1020x691.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan2_-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan2_-768x520.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan2_-1536x1041.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz with Japanese fans, 1993. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Swift – who’s been teaching a DJ course at the New School for Liberal Arts in New York since 2014 – speaks from experience. Within months of Qbert developing the crab scratch, Swift was using the technique in battles. He cites the instructional \u003cem>Turntable TV\u003c/em> series of video tutorials as not only an inspiration for the X-Men, but also for other DJs and even corporate entities. As a result, more people started DJing and the culture grew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Before the Piklz, all of us had our own personal terminology for DJing. But the Piklz started (creating) terms that globally started to become accepted and become the consensus terms… Q started giving individual techniques specific names. In doing so, it made the art teachable, because you can’t teach someone by saying, yo, make it go \u003cem>wigga wigga wigga wigga\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now these guys are selling videos to kids in Japan, kids in Canada, kids across the country, kids in Europe that had no clue how to do this shit… Myself, (Roc) Raida, Mista Sinista, (Total) Eclipse, we were inspired by Q, and we started teaching how to juggle, and we made videotapes just like them.” Without the Picklz, he says, there wouldn’t be “the ripple effects of what we see now, of all these DJ schools, all of these people teaching on YouTube, all these online tutorials, all these companies designing gear with all these effects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952270\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952270\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Japan_.vestax.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1156\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Japan_.vestax.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Japan_.vestax-800x526.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Japan_.vestax-1020x670.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Japan_.vestax-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Japan_.vestax-768x505.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Japan_.vestax-1536x1009.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz at Vestax headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, to preview their signature mixer. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Signature Models and Scratch Technique\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Piklz also served as consultants to audio companies like Vestax and Ortofon to develop ISP-branded mixers and needles; more recently, Shortkut served as a brand ambassador for Serato’s vinyl emulation software. In a 2022 video tutorial for \u003cem>Wired\u003c/em>, the master turntablist demonstrates 15 levels of scratching, from the basic “baby scratch” to complex combos, rhythm and drum scratches, and the beat-juggle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Shortkut, beat-juggling is “live manual remixing, basically, with two turntables and a mixer” utilizing two copies of the same record, or two different records. When done properly, the technique creates an entirely new beat using existing sounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mix Master Mike estimates that he and Qbert have named hundreds of specific scratches. Among his original contributions is the “Tweaker,” which was developed accidentally, due to a power outage. “When you cut a turntable off, the sound still comes out of it” when the needle is left on the record. “You got to manually move the belt with your hand, which (makes) a totally way-out, dragging sound from the record.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952268\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.3fromsideshortkut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1186\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952268\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.3fromsideshortkut.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.3fromsideshortkut-800x539.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.3fromsideshortkut-1020x688.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.3fromsideshortkut-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.3fromsideshortkut-768x518.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.3fromsideshortkut-1536x1036.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz, mid-routine in Seattle, 1994. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In live shows, Mike deploys an arsenal of sound banks with trees of various audio samples for different instruments. He often improvises his sets – rarely playing the same scratch solo twice. With all the scratches he’s invented, “If I’m performing live, it’s all about if I can remember it on the spot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Qbert’s most ubiquitous scratch may be the crab, which uses the crossfader to chop the audio signal, similar to the transformer scratch. Unlike the transformer – performed with just thumb and forefinger – the crab utilizes a rapid tapping motion with the other three fingers, resulting in finer chops, like a triplet of 1/16th notes instead of quarter-notes. The crab can then be combined with other techniques like the stab, the tear, or the orbit to create an infinite number of scratch patterns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Q says the crab has nothing to do with crustaceans, actually. It was originally called the crepe, based off a food order he’d made in Lebanon. Except no one could pronounce the rolled r’s of a Lebanese accent correctly. Among the other scratches he’s named personally, “there’s like the hydro, the laser, the phaser, the swipe, oh man, let’s see, there’s the clover tear, the prism scratch. … there’s so many.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952274\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 749px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952274\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/1996-Vestax-ISP-ad.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"749\" height=\"960\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/1996-Vestax-ISP-ad.jpg 749w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/1996-Vestax-ISP-ad-160x205.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 749px) 100vw, 749px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Vestax advertisement for the Invisibl Skratch Piklz’ signature mixer. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>100mph Backsliding Turkey Kuts\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Piklz began developing tools for DJs with the original \u003cem>Battle Breaks\u003c/em> vinyl record, which resampled various sound effects and verbal phrases, making them more scratch-friendly and accessible. Their imprint Dirt Style has released dozens of such records over the decades with names like \u003cem>Bionic Booger Breaks\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Buttcrack Breaks\u003c/em>, or \u003cem>Scratch Fetishes of the Third Kind\u003c/em>. These records are sometimes credited to DJ Qbert, DJ Flare or Mix Master Mike, and sometimes credited to aliases like the Psychedelic Scratch Bastards, The Wax Fondler and Darth Fader.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Battle Breaks\u003c/em> led to another innovation: the \u003cem>Scratchy Seal\u003c/em> series of skipless records. As Qbert explains, there’s a science behind this. “If you look at the turntable, it spins at 33 ⅓ — 33.33333 (revolutions) per minute. If you just make the BPM of the sound effect 33-point-dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee, the magic number, it’s all going to be repetitive. No matter where the needle jumps, it’s going to land on the same sound again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952264\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952264\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_MMM_best_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2000.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_MMM_best_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2000.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_MMM_best_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2000-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_MMM_best_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2000-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_MMM_best_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_MMM_best_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2000-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_MMM_best_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2000-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Qbert and Mix Master Mike backstage at the 2023 DMC championships in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Jeff Straw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>How\u003c/em> the Piklz scratched also made a difference. According to crew member D-Styles, prior to the Piklz, “a lot of the scratch styles were straight ahead. It was very on the beat. ” He likens the Piklz’ approach to Bird and Dizzy’s excursions in the bebop era – “being ahead of the beat, or behind the beat, being more free with it, not so (much) in the line.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there were other DJ crews before the Piklz, Swift says, the idea of a turntable orchestra was uncharted territory. “One guy would take a horn hit, another guy would take drums, the other guy would take vocals. Nobody was doing that before the Piklz.” This became a common practice, and led to the introduction of team routines in major battles. Qbert remarks that he and the other Piklz have been doing synchronized routines for so long, the communication between them has become telepathic. “It’s just kind of like walking in step.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952269\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.buckethead.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1173\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952269\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.buckethead.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.buckethead-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.buckethead-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.buckethead-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.buckethead-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.buckethead-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Qbert onstage with guitarist Buckethead at the Jazznojazz Festival in Zurich, 1995. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another advancement was the first all-scratching record, i.e. a musical composition consisting entirely of scratched sounds. The scratch music trend resulted in a slew of solo releases — many of them on the now-defunct Bomb Hip Hop label – as well as group albums from the X-Ecutioners, The Allies, and Birdy Nam Nam, and one-offs like El Stew, an alternative supergroup featuring guitarist Buckethead, ISP alumni DJ Disk and producer Eddie Def. After turntablism’s initial wave died down in the early 2000s, the Piklz continued to develop the genre, which Shortkut says has become its own culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a niche market,” Qbert says. “But I’m totally immersed in it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952275\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952275\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/IMG_2459.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/IMG_2459.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/IMG_2459-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/IMG_2459-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/IMG_2459-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/IMG_2459-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/IMG_2459-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz at a Red Bull event. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘It’s Just Some Human Shit, and It’s a Beautiful Thing’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On his solo albums, Qbert has frequently explored sci-fi themes, beginning with 1998’s \u003cem>Wave Twisters\u003c/em>, and continuing with 2014’s \u003cem>Extraterrestria\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Galaxxxian\u003c/em>, 2020’s \u003cem>Origins (Wave Twisters 0)\u003c/em>, and 2022’s \u003cem>Next Cosmos\u003c/em>. He’s imagined what scratch music from across the galaxy might sound like, evoking starships navigating irradiated asteroid belts, alien creatures scurrying across cratered landscapes, and underwater temples emanating immemorial chants over percussive beats, while turning Rakim and Too Short phrases into Zen mantras. He’s done all this by embracing the musical possibilities of the turntable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On what other equipment could you make the sounds go backwards and forwards and just do all these weird things with it? You know, with your hands,” he says. Unlike pressing buttons on a computer, “this is like fucking connected to your soul. It’s not like AI can do it. It’s just some human shit, and it’s a beautiful thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mix Master Mike served as the official DJ for the Beastie Boys from 1998 up until 2012, later joined Cypress Hill, and has toured with arena rock giants Metallica, Guns ‘N’ Roses, and Godsmack, playing to crowds of up to 50,000. His solo catalog has expanded the turntablism field into new arenas – literally. “I’ve always targeted the rock audience,” Mike says. “I’m not just hip-hop. I’m everything around it. The greatness is having to conquer uncharted territories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I like to remain mysterious in that sense as far as being a mysterious artist and being unpredictable. I’m the risk taker, right? It’s therapeutic for me at this point, but it’s like I’m just taking it as a mission because nobody’s doing this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952267\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952267\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMMonthedecks.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1196\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMMonthedecks.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMMonthedecks-800x544.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMMonthedecks-1020x694.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMMonthedecks-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMMonthedecks-768x522.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMMonthedecks-1536x1044.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mix Master Mike. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This philosophy extends from live shows to recordings. “Growing up, I was always listening to soundtrack music. Lalo Schifrin, Quincy Jones, Ennio Morricone.” His goal in making records is to capture a cinematic sense, to make “a soundtrack that can live forever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His newest release, 2023’s \u003cem>Opus X Magnum\u003c/em>, is a headphone album with arena sensibilities. Or vice-versa. There’s lots of subtle instrumental and sound effect-y passages, along with chest-pumping drums and serpentine basslines. The quieter moments are few, but precious. MMM’s Pikl heritage is evident in the way horns, keyboards and vocal phrases are scratched vicariously, resulting in twisty turns that keep your ears guessing what’s next. To the artist’s credit, \u003cem>Opus\u003c/em> does sound epically cinematic throughout, its constantly changing moods and textures suggesting perpetual motion and a full dose of adrenaline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>D-Styles’ two solo albums, released 17 years apart, illustrate his artistic growth. 2002’s \u003cem>Phantazmagorea\u003c/em> delves into dark themes, with vocal phrases seemingly selected for shock value, along with recognizable scratched snippets from KRS-One and Stetsasonic. 2019’s \u003cem>Noises In the Right Order\u003c/em> – inspired by a residency at Low End Theory, a club night frequented by lo-fi producers – recalls DJ Shadow’s \u003cem>Endtroducing\u003c/em> and the trip-hop era, while still using found vocals as documentary. D-Styles says \u003cem>Noises\u003c/em> was about being “more musical and less technical.” There’s plenty of scratching, but the emphasis is on overall composition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952271\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 597px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952271\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-at-HEIRO-DAY-2016.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"597\" height=\"506\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-at-HEIRO-DAY-2016.jpg 597w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-at-HEIRO-DAY-2016-160x136.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz at Hiero Day 2016 in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Being a turntable composer, D-Styles maintains, means using scratching’s vocabulary as a musical language. “You look at it like an alphabet. You got chirps, you got flares, you got crabs, you got autobahns, you got Stewie’s, and all of that stuff. You can add swing to it, you could be ahead of the beat. Behind the beat. You can accent. There’s so much that goes into putting these combinations together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Many Styles\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Apollo and Shortkut, meanwhile, joined forces with former ITF World Champion Vin Roc in 1999 to form Triple Threat, a DJ crew whose mission was to integrate turntablism into party-rocking live sets. “Just coming up as turntablists, we kind of like, created little monsters everywhere,” Apollo says. “All they would do is scratch in their bedrooms.” There’s more to DJing, he says, than just doing tricks and scratching and juggling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Triple Threat released a well-received 2003 album, \u003cem>Many Styles\u003c/em>, which blended turntablist-oriented tracks with emcee features from Planet Asia, Black Thought, Souls of Mischief and Zion-I. The trio toured the United States and Asia regularly, and remained active up until the late 2010s. Apollo – who judged the DMC World Finals last year – still identifies as a Pikl, and says his focus nowadays is on upgrading his studio and reestablishing himself as a producer; he hopes to contribute some tracks to future ISP albums.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952276\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1440px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/LLCoolJ.Ztrip_.shortkut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1440\" height=\"1920\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/LLCoolJ.Ztrip_.shortkut.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/LLCoolJ.Ztrip_.shortkut-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/LLCoolJ.Ztrip_.shortkut-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/LLCoolJ.Ztrip_.shortkut-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/LLCoolJ.Ztrip_.shortkut-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/LLCoolJ.Ztrip_.shortkut-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shortkut, at right, on the F.O.R.C.E. Tour with (L–R) DJ Z-Trip, LL Cool J and DJ Jazzy Jeff. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Shortkut’s recorded output mainly consists of DJ mixtapes covering a wide variety of genres, but he did produce 2012’s “Twelve,” a funky, fun track with “Sesame Street”-esque vocal samples, for the Beat Junkies 45 Series, as well as 2017’s “Mini-Wheels,” a 7-inch single for Thud Rumble, and “Short Rugs,” a limited-edition slipmat designed for 45 rpm records and a 7-inch record with three skipless vinyl scratch tracks. He’s been an occasional headliner at DJ Platurn’s 45 Sessions party; playing all-vinyl sets, he says, helps him maintain his sanity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a lengthy break following 2000’s “final” performance, Qbert, Shortkut and D-Styles officially reformed as ISP for 2015’s \u003cem>The 13th Floor\u003c/em>, their first full-length release. “This was the first time as a scratch artist that I’ve felt able to do shows with the Piklz where people know the songs,” Shortkut says. The album’s moods range from dark to soulful to jazzy, and were intended to be templates for live performances that typically involve improvised scratch soloing over a structured song with defined instrumental parts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952273\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952273\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-making-of-The-13th-Floor-album-Japan-2015.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-making-of-The-13th-Floor-album-Japan-2015.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-making-of-The-13th-Floor-album-Japan-2015-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-making-of-The-13th-Floor-album-Japan-2015-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-making-of-The-13th-Floor-album-Japan-2015-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-making-of-The-13th-Floor-album-Japan-2015-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Invisibl Skratch Piklz in Japan, making their ’13th Floor’ album in 2015. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many of \u003cem>The 13th Floor\u003c/em>’s compositional elements were developed by D-Styles, who went on to become an online instructor at the Beat Junkies Institute of Sound in 2019. He notes the Piklz are more than halfway through their next, as-yet-untitled album — several tracks from which they previewed live during their recent DMC showcase in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My strength is, I’m always in the studio,” says D-Styles. “I always have these ideas, these sketches that I’ll try at home by myself. But I always have parts in mind, so if i have drums, I’ll be like, this is perfect for Shortkut. And then I have these keyboards, you know, these notes. So I’ll carry that side. And then I’ll give Q this (vocal) phrase. And I know he’ll know what to do with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Aesthetics That ‘Vibrate a Certain Way’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Qbert maintains he’s still a student, trying to learn new things after all these years. He keeps pushing himself to new levels because he doesn’t want to repeat what he’s already done. “You got to come unique and original, or else it’s like, fucking wack. Or it’s, \u003cem>ah… he did the same shit last time\u003c/em>, you know? I don’t want to hear that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952294\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1811px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.LPs_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1811\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952294\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.LPs_.jpg 1811w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.LPs_-800x265.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.LPs_-1020x338.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.LPs_-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.LPs_-768x254.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.LPs_-1536x509.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1811px) 100vw, 1811px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sample of Qbert’s visual aesthetic from three full-length albums: ‘Extraterrestria,’ ‘Origins Wave Twisters 0,’ and ‘Next Cosmos in 5D.’\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The most sublime aspect of the Piklz legacy may be their aesthetic, best described as part kung-fu, part sci-fi, part zany humor, yet firmly grounded in DJ culture and hip-hop expression. This is reflected in Mike and Q’s outsize personalities. “Those two in particular are very much outside of this Earth,” says Christie Z, noting that Mike’s custom Serato vinyl is covered in Zectarian language. (In 2017, Qbert joined Mike for a duo performance of MMM’s alienesque single “Channel Zecktar” live at the NAMM showcase.) Artists are sometimes kooky, she says, but she’s used to it by now. “That’s what they do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Mike sees himself as a glowing, ultramagnetic, cosmic antenna. “I would say, you know, my brain is like a super cerebral satellite dish that I’m just logging into the channels in my mind, and I call it the access to the interstellar network, my own interstellar network that’s going on in my head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for Qbert, “nowadays I work off of karma,” he says. Though he’s consulted for audio companies before, when he’s asked for input, he doesn’t insist on contractual agreements. “I’ll give you the honest truth.” If a mixer could be sleeker and more ergonomic, he’ll say so. He feels equipment makers could be more visionary and futuristic with their products. “They could put chromatherapy in these things, you know, they vibrate a certain way to make it heal you as a human.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all of Qbert’s zany sense of humor and embracing of otherworldliness, he’s remarkably down to earth at times. That is to say, his ideology isn’t illogical at all – just advanced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With any art, if you’re deep into it, you’re already touching infinity,” he says. “So you could do so many things in it that you haven’t done. And there’s freakin’ a bag of infinity left — that is never-ending.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11687704\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"60\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-400x30.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-768x58.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The Skratch Piklz' innovations in scratch technique, education and battle tools have impacted the globe. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1708071864,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":46,"wordCount":3685},"headData":{"title":"Turntablism’s Mightiest Heroes: The Legacy, Impact and Aesthetics of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz | KQED","description":"The Skratch Piklz' innovations in scratch technique, education and battle tools have impacted the globe. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"source":"That's My Word","sourceUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop","sticky":false,"templateType":"standard","featuredImageType":"standard","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13952260/turntablism-invisibl-skratch-piklz-legacy-impact","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952272\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1080px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952272\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-backstage-in-SF-2017.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-backstage-in-SF-2017.jpg 1080w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-backstage-in-SF-2017-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-backstage-in-SF-2017-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-backstage-in-SF-2017-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-backstage-in-SF-2017-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Invisibl Skratch Piklz’ cultural impact over the past 40 years has been felt around the globe. The crew is pictured here backstage in San Francisco in 2017. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Editor’s note\u003c/strong>: This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/\">That’s My Word\u003c/a>\u003cem>, KQED’s story series on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/\">Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a> history.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On an overcast November day in Oakland, DJ Shortkut – a member of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz DJ crew – was the featured performer on a boat cruise, as part of the DMC World DJ Finals festivities. The weather didn’t get too rough during the two-hour tour, which meandered out to the Bay Bridge and back to port at Jack London Square. The worst was some mildly choppy squalls into fierce headwinds. Because this wasn’t your average boat cruise – its attendees mainly consisted of DJs from all over the world in town for the DMC battle – the ship’s crew circled around Treasure Island for a bit, instead of heading further out into the open sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The calmer waters allowed Shortkut, who had been playing a vibrant set of mostly classic midtempo hip-hop, to show off his mixing and scratching skills a bit. As the boat headed back toward its East Bay dock, Shortkut unleashed an impressive display of scratching skills that lasted for a good five minutes. As the boat neared its mooring, the DJ called his peers to the turntables. What followed was an unforgettable, and super-fun, display of global turntablism at its best, as each DJ in succession laid down a wicked scratch segment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937761\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937761\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person with a shaved head stands at a table as a screen behind them shows the images of several people.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-22-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shortkut performs with Invisibl Skratch Piklz during the DMC World DJ Finals at The Midway in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It seemed appropriate for Shortkut to be leading the activities. Once a battle entrant in the DMCs himself and understudy to fellow Piklz Qbert, Apollo, and Mix Master Mike, Shortkut has become an accomplished master in his own right – most recently playing an opening set on LL Cool J’s star-studded Hip Hop 50 tour. The message to the younger DJs on the boat was clear: keep developing your skills and be a balanced DJ who can rise to any occasion – scratching and beat-juggling skills are nice, but rocking a party with impeccable selection while displaying your skills is even better.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Perfecting – and Teaching – the Art\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Piklz first rose to prominence during the ’90s, winning multiple world DJ battle titles as a crew and individually while displaying innovative new techniques that elevated turntablism to unprecedented heights. After revolutionizing the artform and birthing scratch music as a genre, by the decade’s end, they had left an indelible mark on DJ culture and furthered its global reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952265\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952265\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.decks_.93.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1196\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.decks_.93.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.decks_.93-800x544.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.decks_.93-1020x694.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.decks_.93-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.decks_.93-768x522.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.decks_.93-1536x1044.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Invisibl Skratch Piklz in Japan in 1993. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Christie Zee, the organizer for 2023’s DMC World Battle, held in San Francisco, has worked off and on for the London-based organization since 1998. She first became aware of the Piklz from an old boyfriend’s copy of DJ Qbert’s \u003cem>Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Musik\u003c/em> mixtape – “It just had so much scratching and it was so fun,” she says. She recalls meeting the crew for the first time in 1999, at the DMC World Finals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m really delicate, really careful about (saying) \u003cem>pioneer\u003c/em> versus \u003cem>legend\u003c/em>, but I do think they were pioneering, because of things they’ve innovated and presented and invented,” she says. “They didn’t invent the scratch, but they just progressed the hell out of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Obviously they have titles under their belts,” says Rob Swift, a founding member of the X-Men/X-Ecutioners, the New York turntablists who famously battled the Piklz in 1996. “But for me, I would say their most pivotal contribution to DJing is teaching the art. Before the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, nobody was teaching. DJing was a secret art.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952266\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952266\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan2_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1192\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan2_.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan2_-800x542.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan2_-1020x691.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan2_-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan2_-768x520.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan2_-1536x1041.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz with Japanese fans, 1993. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Swift – who’s been teaching a DJ course at the New School for Liberal Arts in New York since 2014 – speaks from experience. Within months of Qbert developing the crab scratch, Swift was using the technique in battles. He cites the instructional \u003cem>Turntable TV\u003c/em> series of video tutorials as not only an inspiration for the X-Men, but also for other DJs and even corporate entities. As a result, more people started DJing and the culture grew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Before the Piklz, all of us had our own personal terminology for DJing. But the Piklz started (creating) terms that globally started to become accepted and become the consensus terms… Q started giving individual techniques specific names. In doing so, it made the art teachable, because you can’t teach someone by saying, yo, make it go \u003cem>wigga wigga wigga wigga\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now these guys are selling videos to kids in Japan, kids in Canada, kids across the country, kids in Europe that had no clue how to do this shit… Myself, (Roc) Raida, Mista Sinista, (Total) Eclipse, we were inspired by Q, and we started teaching how to juggle, and we made videotapes just like them.” Without the Picklz, he says, there wouldn’t be “the ripple effects of what we see now, of all these DJ schools, all of these people teaching on YouTube, all these online tutorials, all these companies designing gear with all these effects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952270\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952270\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Japan_.vestax.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1156\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Japan_.vestax.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Japan_.vestax-800x526.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Japan_.vestax-1020x670.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Japan_.vestax-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Japan_.vestax-768x505.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Japan_.vestax-1536x1009.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz at Vestax headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, to preview their signature mixer. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Signature Models and Scratch Technique\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Piklz also served as consultants to audio companies like Vestax and Ortofon to develop ISP-branded mixers and needles; more recently, Shortkut served as a brand ambassador for Serato’s vinyl emulation software. In a 2022 video tutorial for \u003cem>Wired\u003c/em>, the master turntablist demonstrates 15 levels of scratching, from the basic “baby scratch” to complex combos, rhythm and drum scratches, and the beat-juggle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Shortkut, beat-juggling is “live manual remixing, basically, with two turntables and a mixer” utilizing two copies of the same record, or two different records. When done properly, the technique creates an entirely new beat using existing sounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mix Master Mike estimates that he and Qbert have named hundreds of specific scratches. Among his original contributions is the “Tweaker,” which was developed accidentally, due to a power outage. “When you cut a turntable off, the sound still comes out of it” when the needle is left on the record. “You got to manually move the belt with your hand, which (makes) a totally way-out, dragging sound from the record.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952268\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.3fromsideshortkut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1186\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952268\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.3fromsideshortkut.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.3fromsideshortkut-800x539.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.3fromsideshortkut-1020x688.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.3fromsideshortkut-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.3fromsideshortkut-768x518.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.3fromsideshortkut-1536x1036.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz, mid-routine in Seattle, 1994. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In live shows, Mike deploys an arsenal of sound banks with trees of various audio samples for different instruments. He often improvises his sets – rarely playing the same scratch solo twice. With all the scratches he’s invented, “If I’m performing live, it’s all about if I can remember it on the spot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Qbert’s most ubiquitous scratch may be the crab, which uses the crossfader to chop the audio signal, similar to the transformer scratch. Unlike the transformer – performed with just thumb and forefinger – the crab utilizes a rapid tapping motion with the other three fingers, resulting in finer chops, like a triplet of 1/16th notes instead of quarter-notes. The crab can then be combined with other techniques like the stab, the tear, or the orbit to create an infinite number of scratch patterns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Q says the crab has nothing to do with crustaceans, actually. It was originally called the crepe, based off a food order he’d made in Lebanon. Except no one could pronounce the rolled r’s of a Lebanese accent correctly. Among the other scratches he’s named personally, “there’s like the hydro, the laser, the phaser, the swipe, oh man, let’s see, there’s the clover tear, the prism scratch. … there’s so many.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952274\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 749px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952274\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/1996-Vestax-ISP-ad.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"749\" height=\"960\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/1996-Vestax-ISP-ad.jpg 749w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/1996-Vestax-ISP-ad-160x205.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 749px) 100vw, 749px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Vestax advertisement for the Invisibl Skratch Piklz’ signature mixer. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>100mph Backsliding Turkey Kuts\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Piklz began developing tools for DJs with the original \u003cem>Battle Breaks\u003c/em> vinyl record, which resampled various sound effects and verbal phrases, making them more scratch-friendly and accessible. Their imprint Dirt Style has released dozens of such records over the decades with names like \u003cem>Bionic Booger Breaks\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Buttcrack Breaks\u003c/em>, or \u003cem>Scratch Fetishes of the Third Kind\u003c/em>. These records are sometimes credited to DJ Qbert, DJ Flare or Mix Master Mike, and sometimes credited to aliases like the Psychedelic Scratch Bastards, The Wax Fondler and Darth Fader.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Battle Breaks\u003c/em> led to another innovation: the \u003cem>Scratchy Seal\u003c/em> series of skipless records. As Qbert explains, there’s a science behind this. “If you look at the turntable, it spins at 33 ⅓ — 33.33333 (revolutions) per minute. If you just make the BPM of the sound effect 33-point-dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee, the magic number, it’s all going to be repetitive. No matter where the needle jumps, it’s going to land on the same sound again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952264\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952264\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_MMM_best_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2000.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_MMM_best_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2000.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_MMM_best_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2000-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_MMM_best_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2000-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_MMM_best_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_MMM_best_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2000-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_MMM_best_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2000-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Qbert and Mix Master Mike backstage at the 2023 DMC championships in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Jeff Straw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>How\u003c/em> the Piklz scratched also made a difference. According to crew member D-Styles, prior to the Piklz, “a lot of the scratch styles were straight ahead. It was very on the beat. ” He likens the Piklz’ approach to Bird and Dizzy’s excursions in the bebop era – “being ahead of the beat, or behind the beat, being more free with it, not so (much) in the line.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While there were other DJ crews before the Piklz, Swift says, the idea of a turntable orchestra was uncharted territory. “One guy would take a horn hit, another guy would take drums, the other guy would take vocals. Nobody was doing that before the Piklz.” This became a common practice, and led to the introduction of team routines in major battles. Qbert remarks that he and the other Piklz have been doing synchronized routines for so long, the communication between them has become telepathic. “It’s just kind of like walking in step.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952269\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.buckethead.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1173\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952269\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.buckethead.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.buckethead-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.buckethead-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.buckethead-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.buckethead-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.buckethead-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Qbert onstage with guitarist Buckethead at the Jazznojazz Festival in Zurich, 1995. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another advancement was the first all-scratching record, i.e. a musical composition consisting entirely of scratched sounds. The scratch music trend resulted in a slew of solo releases — many of them on the now-defunct Bomb Hip Hop label – as well as group albums from the X-Ecutioners, The Allies, and Birdy Nam Nam, and one-offs like El Stew, an alternative supergroup featuring guitarist Buckethead, ISP alumni DJ Disk and producer Eddie Def. After turntablism’s initial wave died down in the early 2000s, the Piklz continued to develop the genre, which Shortkut says has become its own culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a niche market,” Qbert says. “But I’m totally immersed in it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952275\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952275\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/IMG_2459.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/IMG_2459.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/IMG_2459-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/IMG_2459-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/IMG_2459-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/IMG_2459-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/IMG_2459-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz at a Red Bull event. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘It’s Just Some Human Shit, and It’s a Beautiful Thing’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On his solo albums, Qbert has frequently explored sci-fi themes, beginning with 1998’s \u003cem>Wave Twisters\u003c/em>, and continuing with 2014’s \u003cem>Extraterrestria\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Galaxxxian\u003c/em>, 2020’s \u003cem>Origins (Wave Twisters 0)\u003c/em>, and 2022’s \u003cem>Next Cosmos\u003c/em>. He’s imagined what scratch music from across the galaxy might sound like, evoking starships navigating irradiated asteroid belts, alien creatures scurrying across cratered landscapes, and underwater temples emanating immemorial chants over percussive beats, while turning Rakim and Too Short phrases into Zen mantras. He’s done all this by embracing the musical possibilities of the turntable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“On what other equipment could you make the sounds go backwards and forwards and just do all these weird things with it? You know, with your hands,” he says. Unlike pressing buttons on a computer, “this is like fucking connected to your soul. It’s not like AI can do it. It’s just some human shit, and it’s a beautiful thing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mix Master Mike served as the official DJ for the Beastie Boys from 1998 up until 2012, later joined Cypress Hill, and has toured with arena rock giants Metallica, Guns ‘N’ Roses, and Godsmack, playing to crowds of up to 50,000. His solo catalog has expanded the turntablism field into new arenas – literally. “I’ve always targeted the rock audience,” Mike says. “I’m not just hip-hop. I’m everything around it. The greatness is having to conquer uncharted territories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I like to remain mysterious in that sense as far as being a mysterious artist and being unpredictable. I’m the risk taker, right? It’s therapeutic for me at this point, but it’s like I’m just taking it as a mission because nobody’s doing this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952267\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952267\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMMonthedecks.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1196\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMMonthedecks.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMMonthedecks-800x544.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMMonthedecks-1020x694.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMMonthedecks-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMMonthedecks-768x522.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMMonthedecks-1536x1044.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mix Master Mike. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This philosophy extends from live shows to recordings. “Growing up, I was always listening to soundtrack music. Lalo Schifrin, Quincy Jones, Ennio Morricone.” His goal in making records is to capture a cinematic sense, to make “a soundtrack that can live forever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His newest release, 2023’s \u003cem>Opus X Magnum\u003c/em>, is a headphone album with arena sensibilities. Or vice-versa. There’s lots of subtle instrumental and sound effect-y passages, along with chest-pumping drums and serpentine basslines. The quieter moments are few, but precious. MMM’s Pikl heritage is evident in the way horns, keyboards and vocal phrases are scratched vicariously, resulting in twisty turns that keep your ears guessing what’s next. To the artist’s credit, \u003cem>Opus\u003c/em> does sound epically cinematic throughout, its constantly changing moods and textures suggesting perpetual motion and a full dose of adrenaline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>D-Styles’ two solo albums, released 17 years apart, illustrate his artistic growth. 2002’s \u003cem>Phantazmagorea\u003c/em> delves into dark themes, with vocal phrases seemingly selected for shock value, along with recognizable scratched snippets from KRS-One and Stetsasonic. 2019’s \u003cem>Noises In the Right Order\u003c/em> – inspired by a residency at Low End Theory, a club night frequented by lo-fi producers – recalls DJ Shadow’s \u003cem>Endtroducing\u003c/em> and the trip-hop era, while still using found vocals as documentary. D-Styles says \u003cem>Noises\u003c/em> was about being “more musical and less technical.” There’s plenty of scratching, but the emphasis is on overall composition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952271\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 597px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952271\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-at-HEIRO-DAY-2016.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"597\" height=\"506\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-at-HEIRO-DAY-2016.jpg 597w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-at-HEIRO-DAY-2016-160x136.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz at Hiero Day 2016 in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Being a turntable composer, D-Styles maintains, means using scratching’s vocabulary as a musical language. “You look at it like an alphabet. You got chirps, you got flares, you got crabs, you got autobahns, you got Stewie’s, and all of that stuff. You can add swing to it, you could be ahead of the beat. Behind the beat. You can accent. There’s so much that goes into putting these combinations together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Many Styles\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Apollo and Shortkut, meanwhile, joined forces with former ITF World Champion Vin Roc in 1999 to form Triple Threat, a DJ crew whose mission was to integrate turntablism into party-rocking live sets. “Just coming up as turntablists, we kind of like, created little monsters everywhere,” Apollo says. “All they would do is scratch in their bedrooms.” There’s more to DJing, he says, than just doing tricks and scratching and juggling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Triple Threat released a well-received 2003 album, \u003cem>Many Styles\u003c/em>, which blended turntablist-oriented tracks with emcee features from Planet Asia, Black Thought, Souls of Mischief and Zion-I. The trio toured the United States and Asia regularly, and remained active up until the late 2010s. Apollo – who judged the DMC World Finals last year – still identifies as a Pikl, and says his focus nowadays is on upgrading his studio and reestablishing himself as a producer; he hopes to contribute some tracks to future ISP albums.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952276\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1440px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/LLCoolJ.Ztrip_.shortkut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1440\" height=\"1920\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/LLCoolJ.Ztrip_.shortkut.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/LLCoolJ.Ztrip_.shortkut-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/LLCoolJ.Ztrip_.shortkut-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/LLCoolJ.Ztrip_.shortkut-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/LLCoolJ.Ztrip_.shortkut-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/LLCoolJ.Ztrip_.shortkut-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shortkut, at right, on the F.O.R.C.E. Tour with (L–R) DJ Z-Trip, LL Cool J and DJ Jazzy Jeff. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Shortkut’s recorded output mainly consists of DJ mixtapes covering a wide variety of genres, but he did produce 2012’s “Twelve,” a funky, fun track with “Sesame Street”-esque vocal samples, for the Beat Junkies 45 Series, as well as 2017’s “Mini-Wheels,” a 7-inch single for Thud Rumble, and “Short Rugs,” a limited-edition slipmat designed for 45 rpm records and a 7-inch record with three skipless vinyl scratch tracks. He’s been an occasional headliner at DJ Platurn’s 45 Sessions party; playing all-vinyl sets, he says, helps him maintain his sanity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After a lengthy break following 2000’s “final” performance, Qbert, Shortkut and D-Styles officially reformed as ISP for 2015’s \u003cem>The 13th Floor\u003c/em>, their first full-length release. “This was the first time as a scratch artist that I’ve felt able to do shows with the Piklz where people know the songs,” Shortkut says. The album’s moods range from dark to soulful to jazzy, and were intended to be templates for live performances that typically involve improvised scratch soloing over a structured song with defined instrumental parts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952273\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952273\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-making-of-The-13th-Floor-album-Japan-2015.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-making-of-The-13th-Floor-album-Japan-2015.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-making-of-The-13th-Floor-album-Japan-2015-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-making-of-The-13th-Floor-album-Japan-2015-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-making-of-The-13th-Floor-album-Japan-2015-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-making-of-The-13th-Floor-album-Japan-2015-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Invisibl Skratch Piklz in Japan, making their ’13th Floor’ album in 2015. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many of \u003cem>The 13th Floor\u003c/em>’s compositional elements were developed by D-Styles, who went on to become an online instructor at the Beat Junkies Institute of Sound in 2019. He notes the Piklz are more than halfway through their next, as-yet-untitled album — several tracks from which they previewed live during their recent DMC showcase in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My strength is, I’m always in the studio,” says D-Styles. “I always have these ideas, these sketches that I’ll try at home by myself. But I always have parts in mind, so if i have drums, I’ll be like, this is perfect for Shortkut. And then I have these keyboards, you know, these notes. So I’ll carry that side. And then I’ll give Q this (vocal) phrase. And I know he’ll know what to do with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Aesthetics That ‘Vibrate a Certain Way’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Qbert maintains he’s still a student, trying to learn new things after all these years. He keeps pushing himself to new levels because he doesn’t want to repeat what he’s already done. “You got to come unique and original, or else it’s like, fucking wack. Or it’s, \u003cem>ah… he did the same shit last time\u003c/em>, you know? I don’t want to hear that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952294\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1811px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.LPs_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1811\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952294\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.LPs_.jpg 1811w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.LPs_-800x265.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.LPs_-1020x338.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.LPs_-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.LPs_-768x254.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Qbert_.LPs_-1536x509.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1811px) 100vw, 1811px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sample of Qbert’s visual aesthetic from three full-length albums: ‘Extraterrestria,’ ‘Origins Wave Twisters 0,’ and ‘Next Cosmos in 5D.’\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The most sublime aspect of the Piklz legacy may be their aesthetic, best described as part kung-fu, part sci-fi, part zany humor, yet firmly grounded in DJ culture and hip-hop expression. This is reflected in Mike and Q’s outsize personalities. “Those two in particular are very much outside of this Earth,” says Christie Z, noting that Mike’s custom Serato vinyl is covered in Zectarian language. (In 2017, Qbert joined Mike for a duo performance of MMM’s alienesque single “Channel Zecktar” live at the NAMM showcase.) Artists are sometimes kooky, she says, but she’s used to it by now. “That’s what they do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Mike sees himself as a glowing, ultramagnetic, cosmic antenna. “I would say, you know, my brain is like a super cerebral satellite dish that I’m just logging into the channels in my mind, and I call it the access to the interstellar network, my own interstellar network that’s going on in my head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for Qbert, “nowadays I work off of karma,” he says. Though he’s consulted for audio companies before, when he’s asked for input, he doesn’t insist on contractual agreements. “I’ll give you the honest truth.” If a mixer could be sleeker and more ergonomic, he’ll say so. He feels equipment makers could be more visionary and futuristic with their products. “They could put chromatherapy in these things, you know, they vibrate a certain way to make it heal you as a human.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all of Qbert’s zany sense of humor and embracing of otherworldliness, he’s remarkably down to earth at times. That is to say, his ideology isn’t illogical at all – just advanced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“With any art, if you’re deep into it, you’re already touching infinity,” he says. “So you could do so many things in it that you haven’t done. And there’s freakin’ a bag of infinity left — that is never-ending.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11687704\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"60\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-400x30.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-768x58.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13952260/turntablism-invisibl-skratch-piklz-legacy-impact","authors":["11839"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_69"],"tags":["arts_2854","arts_21712","arts_2852","arts_17218","arts_21940","arts_1146","arts_19347","arts_21711"],"featImg":"arts_13952262","label":"source_arts_13952260"},"arts_13952208":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13952208","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13952208","score":null,"sort":[1707929580000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"invisibl-skratch-piklz-filipino-djs-daly-city-san-francisco-turntablism-history","title":"How The Invisibl Skratch Piklz Put San Francisco Turntablism on the DJ Map","publishDate":1707929580,"format":"standard","headTitle":"How The Invisibl Skratch Piklz Put San Francisco Turntablism on the DJ Map | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"arts"},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Editor’s note\u003c/strong>: This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/\">That’s My Word\u003c/a>\u003cem>, KQED’s story series on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/\">Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a> history.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent Friday night in San Francisco, a couple thousand fans of DJ culture crammed into the cavernous main room of a nightclub in Hunters Point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside The Midway, it was elbow room-only from the stage to the back patio; many of those in the crowd were DJs themselves. The scene recalled the late ’90s-early 2000s glory days of the Bay Area, when turntablism seemed destined to become the Next Big Thing, and DJ nights dominated SF’s club scene. No one was there to dance; it wasn’t that kind of party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937762\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937762\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing a baseball cap stands at a table under fluorescent lighting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">DJ Qbert performs with Invisibl Skratch Piklz during the DMC World DJ Finals at The Midway in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The occasion was the DMC World Championship DJ Battle Finals, with some of the best DJs in the world competing against each other. But there was another attraction too: live showcases by the Invisibl Skratch Piklz and Mix Master Mike, the legendary DJs who transformed the Bay Area into a turntablist Mecca during a seminal era for local hip-hop. DMC event organizer Christie Zee put the proceedings into their proper context: “You can’t have a battle in the Bay without the Skratch Piklz.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As midnight approached, the lights dimmed, and the Piklz – Qbert, Shortkut and D-Styles – were announced to cheers that echoed throughout the high-ceilinged room. The Piklz opened with the 2015 ISP track “Fresh Out of FVCKs,” with its ominous electric organ melody that transitions into repeating melodic chords. A snare drum beat came in, followed by a rhythmically scratched snippet of a stuttering vocal phrase. The electric organ chords shifted into a chopped melody as the snare dropped out, then returned. And that’s all before the mind-bending scratch solos that followed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Piklz proceeded to display their musicality, keeping their technical acumen within the groove pocket with synchronized timing. As is customary with the Piklz, each played the part of a specific instrumentalist: D-Styles as the keyboardist, Shortkut as the drummer, and Qbert as the scratch soloist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952244\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952244\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM_DJ_mixer_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2275.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM_DJ_mixer_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2275.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM_DJ_mixer_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2275-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM_DJ_mixer_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2275-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM_DJ_mixer_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2275-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM_DJ_mixer_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2275-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM_DJ_mixer_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2275-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mix Master Mike at the DMC World DJ Finals at The Midway in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jeff Straw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A live version of “Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts” – a song from D-Styles’ 2019 album \u003cem>Noises In the Right Order\u003c/em> – and several unreleased ISP songs showed that \u003ca href=\"https://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/jazzglossary/g/ghost_note.html\">ghost notes\u003c/a> aren’t just associated with jazz music. The turntable trio used the spaces between to impart a sense of presence and feel, a minimalist approach that allowed their scratches, cuts and juggles to resonate with maximum impact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This would have been a hard act to follow for anyone but Mix Master Mike. The ISP co-founder, who’s been a solo artist since 1995 or so, has a gigantic stage presence and skills to match. A one-man musical blender, MMM unleashed a maelstrom of sonic fury, with bone-crunching drums, an entire range of musical and vocal phrases, and precise turntable cuts that deconstructed the individual pieces of a live performance — only to reconstruct all the fragments into an emotionally-thrilling pastiche. After his set, when Mike was celebrated with a Lifetime Achievement Award, the honor was clearly well-deserved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Invisible Skratch Piklz were celebrating, too – 2023 marks their 30th anniversary – and it’s safe to say no Bay Area crew has done more to advance the DJ artform. Along with New York’s X-Ecutioners and LA’s Beat Junkies, ISP have defined the term turntablist, carving out a cultural niche that rests on a hip-hop foundation but exists in its own space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937759\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937759\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"People stand in a crowd leaning on a barrier indoors.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crowd watches finalists compete during the DMC World DJ Finals at The Midway in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Piklz have counted many firsts. As hip-hop’s relationship with the DJ has flipped from essential to inconsequential, they’ve maintained the DJ tradition for future generations, and extended its global reach. Over the past four decades, they’ve gone from students of the scratch to wizened masters of turntable music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And like most cultural icons, their backstory is involved, multilayered and fascinating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952236\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1528px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952236\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/q.sta_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1528\" height=\"1032\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/q.sta_.jpg 1528w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/q.sta_-800x540.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/q.sta_-1020x689.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/q.sta_-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/q.sta_-768x519.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1528px) 100vw, 1528px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A young Qbert at a community hall mobile DJ dance party. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The Garage Party Era\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Invisibl Skratch Piklz story begins in what former ISP manager Alex Aquino calls the “pre-hip-hop era” of the late ’70s-early ’80s, when youth-oriented street dance intersected with pioneering mobile DJ crews and a Filipino-American tradition of garage parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was before breakdancing,” Aquino says. He recalls being 6 or 7 and seeing strutters, poppers and elements of DJ culture – including the Filipino mobile DJ crews who established a scene built around vinyl records, large stereo systems and frequent dance parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those Filipino DJs was Apollo Novicio, a.k.a. DJ Apollo, a founding member of ISP who spent his early childhood roaming around the Mission District. By the time he reached middle school, his family had relocated to Daly City – where he likely attended some of the same parties as Aquino. “Back in the day, they’d have garage parties and there would be a DJ in the corner of the garage, set up on a washing machine and dryer and stuff like that. And at the parties, they would have popping and locking circles. Strutting, popping and locking. Breakdancing wasn’t even here yet, really. This was, I’d say, early ’80s, and that was pretty much my first exposure to the DJing and dancing element of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952292\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1004px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobiledjparty.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1004\" height=\"674\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952292\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobiledjparty.png 1004w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobiledjparty-800x537.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobiledjparty-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobiledjparty-768x516.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1004px) 100vw, 1004px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Setup for a typical mobile DJ party in the early 1990s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1982, Aquino remembers, a New York transplant named Oscar Sop had introduced B-boying and fat laces to the neighborhood, becoming one of the Bay Area’s first breakdancers. Meanwhile, the DJ crews were becoming more professional, and getting hired for weddings, quinceaneras, traditional Filipino celebrations and the occasional school dance party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apollo recalls “doing the strutting, popping, locking thing before B-boying got here.” Back then, “I didn’t even know it was hip-hop. I was such a young age. I’m like, just doing it and like, later on find out, oh, this is a hip-hop culture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to dancing being popular among Filipino youth, he remembers DJ groups proliferating at local high schools. “It was just kind of like the thing to do,” he says. “All the kids would form DJ groups.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know how to explain (why), but there was a lot of Filipino mobile disc jockey groups,” says DJ Apollo. ”Back in the seventies, my older brothers and sisters, they used to collect music and listen to music. Everybody had to go to the record store and buy vinyl.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952212\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1030px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952212\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobileDJparty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1030\" height=\"778\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobileDJparty.jpg 1030w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobileDJparty-800x604.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobileDJparty-1020x770.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobileDJparty-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobileDJparty-768x580.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1030px) 100vw, 1030px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A mobile DJ party in 1991. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dr. Oliver Wang, author of \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dukeupress.edu/legions-of-boom\">Legions of Boom: Filipino American Mobile DJ Crews in the San Francisco Bay Area\u003c/a>\u003c/em> and a professor of sociology at CSU Long Beach, explains that “the mobile DJ scene that the Piklz’ members got their start in wasn’t an exclusively Filipino phenomenon at all; there were Black, White, Latino and Chinese crews around then too. But the Fil-Am scene flourished above and beyond those other groups because they had distinct advantages coming from an immigrant community with strong social ties and large social networks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, Wang says, “Filipino American families have parties for practically any occasion — birthdays, debuts, christenings, graduations, or just plain house/garage parties for the heck of it. Importantly, those parties all wanted music, and that meant that DJs had all these opportunities to find gigs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time breakdancing became popularized through movies like \u003cem>Beat Street\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Breakin’,\u003c/em> Apollo says, “DJing was already here… there were dances every weekend, and DJ battles and showcases almost every other weekend. That’s how it was when I was growing up around the San Francisco and Daly City area in the early ’80s.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952219\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1163px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/rscdjs.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1163\" height=\"831\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952219\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/rscdjs.jpg 1163w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/rscdjs-800x572.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/rscdjs-1020x729.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/rscdjs-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/rscdjs-768x549.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1163px) 100vw, 1163px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Appearing as FM2O (Furious Minds 2 Observe), Qbert, Mix Master Mike and Apollo perform at an ‘eco-rap’ show in San Francisco, circa 1989–1990. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Apollo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of the top mobile DJ crews at that time was Unlimited Sounds. “They were like the biggest group from Daly City, and they were already established,” Apollo says. Many of the crew members were older and attended Jefferson High School. Apollo remembers hanging out at Serra Bowl, becoming friends with Unlimited Sounds and gradually being drawn into the world of DJing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every day after school, I would just hang out at their garage and practice,” he says. “All the equipment was there, the records were all there, the lights, everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apollo saved his allowance and lunch money to buy his first set of turntables, and formed makeshift DJ crews with his friends. “We would gather our parents’ equipment, like home stereo equipment and gather it all up. I would get my parents’ home stereo system combined with my homies’ parents’ stereo system, combined with my other homie’s house system. And then we would put all the equipment together and we saw we had a DJ group.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apollo started making mixtapes — he still remembers the first time he had enough records to make an all-hip-hop tape — and eventually became good enough to join Unlimited Sounds in 1985, who at the time had gigs all over the Bay Area. That experience gave him a solid foundation in DJing parties and playing a wide variety of records, but he was more interested in “scratching, juggling, trick-mixing — turntablism before it was even called that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952233\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/RSC-DJs-Psycho-City-Cover.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"401\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952233\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/RSC-DJs-Psycho-City-Cover.jpeg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/RSC-DJs-Psycho-City-Cover-160x107.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Rock City DJs at the famed San Francisco graffiti spot Psycho City, January 1993. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Prior to joining Unlimited Sounds, Apollo had hooked up with another up-and-coming DJ who was becoming known for his pause-tape mixes and obsessive focus on scratching: Michael Anthony Schwartz, a.k.a. Mix Master Mike, a Filipino-German kid who attended Jeffferson, the same high school as Aquino and Apollo. Rather than practice the blends and beat-matching typically used at parties, though, Apollo and Mix Master Mike would “do more scratching or tricks, routines and that type of stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With those bedroom routines, a reimagining of the turntable’s possibilities had begun.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Oh, Snap — What Did We Just Do?’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Mix Master Mike didn’t come up in the mobile DJ scene. His early inspiration was seeing Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watching Jay DJ for DMC and Run, he says, he remembers thinking, “Oh, they’re using records, but they sound more like they’re a full-fledged band, you know? That was just profound to me, that he was using records and rocking the house, \u003cem>with just records\u003c/em>. And that’s when I immediately knew that’s what I wanted to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1732px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952222\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMM_.japan_.subway.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1732\" height=\"1177\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMM_.japan_.subway.jpg 1732w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMM_.japan_.subway-800x544.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMM_.japan_.subway-1020x693.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMM_.japan_.subway-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMM_.japan_.subway-768x522.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMM_.japan_.subway-1536x1044.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1732px) 100vw, 1732px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mix Master Mike on the subway in Japan, 1993. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Not long after Run-DMC brought their Raising Hell tour to a sold-out Oakland Coliseum arena, Apollo and Mike formed an informal DJ crew called Together With Style (not to be confused with the SF graffiti crew of the same name) and held long practice sessions in Apollo’s garage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with Mike, “we did go hard on scratching and tricks and juggling – which later on turned into turntablism.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Individually, they would take turns on Apollo’s set of turntables. But one day, they decided to work in tandem — a moment that altered the course of DJ history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Apollo remembers it: “Me and Mike were messing around with the turntables and… we’re like, well, let’s just do something together, since we don’t have to wait our turn (to practice). So I grabbed one turntable, and he grabbed the other turntable and we kind of just started making a beat with two records and one mixer. I got the bass kick and he grabbed the snare and we just started making a beat like, \u003cem>boom, cha, boom boom boom cha, boom boom\u003c/em>, you know? And then we’re just like, ‘Oh, snap, what did we just do? That was crazy.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952218\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 604px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952218\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/10423_136960922731_697132731_2526758_2429020_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"604\" height=\"408\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/10423_136960922731_697132731_2526758_2429020_n.jpg 604w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/10423_136960922731_697132731_2526758_2429020_n-160x108.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Rock Steady Crew DJs in 1991. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Apollo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Apollo and Mike would perfect the two-man routine over a period of several years, “and we just started performing it all over the place at showcases and dances, you know, wherever. People were seeing it and being amazed. We were amazed by it ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='large' align='center' citation='DJ Apollo']I got the bass kick and he grabbed the snare and we just started making a beat like, boom, cha, boom boom boom cha, boom boom, you know? And then we’re just like, ‘Oh, snap, what did we just do?” [/pullquote] \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One witness to the early routine was Richard Quitevis, an acquaintance of Mike and Apollo who went by the name DJ Qbert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Qbert saw it one time and he was amazed by it. He’s like, \u003cem>Oh, what is that?!?\u003c/em>,” Apollo says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Qbert Enters the Picture\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>DJ Qbert grew up in San Francisco’s Excelsior district. Like Apollo, his first exposure to hip-hop precedes the term itself. He recalls fishing at Pier 39 at the age of 12 and seeing the Fillmore dance crew \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weKkAF9NdCI\">Demons of the Mind\u003c/a>. “There would be all these poppers; at the time they were called strutters. They would be playing this really fast electro music. And it was like, ‘Look at these robot-like guys in shiny little outfits with these silver hats.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Qbert was fascinated not only with the vibrant dancers, but the sounds. “I was like, ‘Man, this is crazy. I love it, but where are they getting this music from?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952215\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1371px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952215\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-bologna.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1371\" height=\"984\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-bologna.jpg 1371w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-bologna-800x574.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-bologna-1020x732.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-bologna-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-bologna-768x551.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1371px) 100vw, 1371px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shortkut, Mix Master Mike and Qbert gettin’ up in Bologna, Italy. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Qbert remembers early attempts at breakdancing with his friends, who fashioned their own makeshift outfits. But it was the DJ scratch – particularly the skills displayed by Mix Master Ice on UTFO’s 1985 single “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KE3-IyLsg8\">Leader of the Pack\u003c/a>” – that really drew his interest. “I just started collecting the music, always collecting the music. And that’s what made me become a DJ.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day, Qbert was asked to DJ a garage party. “Everybody was about 12, 13, 14, 15, and everybody was breaking in the garage. And we were playing all my records on a big-ass giant box. Like, you open the top and you put the record in, and you just let that play. And the kids were spinning and they couldn’t control themselves. They would spin and they would spin, right into the DJ box, the turntable box. That was my first time being a mobile DJ.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He explains his early attraction to turntables and scratching: “You could manipulate sound by grabbing (the record), moving forward and backward,” he says, imitating a scratch sound. “It was like a toy. A toy that was like a musical instrument. I didn’t even know it was a musical instrument. I was just thinking of it as like, it just sounds crazy. You just pull sound out of the air and move it, like, ‘Oh, what a weird contraption.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, Q joined a mobile DJ crew called Live Style Productions, and came to the attention of Apollo and Mix Master Mike, who remember going to Balboa High School to see him spin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Q, we just knew from around the way,” Apollo says. “We would go to different showcases on the weekends and see him perform. And so we knew about Q.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952240\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952240\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/600_us_champ_trophy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"407\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/600_us_champ_trophy.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/600_us_champ_trophy-160x109.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz with the U.S. Championship trophy. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1991, Qbert entered the DMCs, winning the U.S. Championships and advancing all the way to the World Finals in London, where he took 2nd place. Aquino claims Qbert’s technical skills were so advanced, they went over most of the audience’s heads, but Qbert admits he got cocky and didn’t practice before his set: “I was sloppy,” he says. That loss instilled in him the importance of practicing, which he took to with rigorous discipline.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Turntables Might Wobble\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Hip-hop journalist and author Adisa Banjoko, a friend, recalls once being at Qbert’s house and hearing him scratch the rhythms of Rakim’s verses from Eric B. & Rakim’s “I Ain’t No Joke” – using entirely scratched tones to replicate Rakim’s stanzas. “You gotta record that,” Banjoko told Q, who just shrugged and said, “Nah, I do that all the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around this time, Apollo and Mike were honing their two-man routine and making beats with the intention of forming a rap crew, with them as producers and DJs. After returning from London with his U.S. title, Qbert introduced Mike and Apollo to a rapper who used to hang out at his house named Nim-FHD.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is where it all comes together,” Apollo says. “Me and Mike were making beats, and we always wanted to find a voice for our beats. And so when Qbert introduced us to this rapper, and when me and Mike heard that guy’s voice, Nim’s voice, we were like, ‘Oh man, that’s the voice for our music.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952232\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 604px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952232\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/n1071373619_171639_1875.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"604\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/n1071373619_171639_1875.jpg 604w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/n1071373619_171639_1875-160x110.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The extended crew. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Apollo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Apollo explained his vision to Nim, and they enlisted H2O, another emcee they met through Qbert, who also joined the group. “We told Q, do you want to be a part of the ‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd5gFx001qg\">Peter Piper\u003c/a>’ routine? And he was like, overjoyed. Like, ‘Let’s do it. Absolutely, let’s do it.’ So then we’re like… why don’t we become the DJs for this group that will be the first rap group with three DJs and two rappers? And we’ll do all the beats and scratching.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They christened themselves FM2O – an acronym for “Furious Minds To Observe” — the first iteration of what would become the Invisibl Skratch Piklz. As Mike says, “it was definitely a meant-to-be moment, when I hooked up with Q.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group was managed by Aquino, who had left Unlimited Sounds and started throwing parties while trying to establish an independent hip-hop label, Ace Beat. While working on a demo tape, FM2O played local venues and music industry showcases like the Gavin Convention and New Music Seminar. In 1992, they appeared at the Omni in Oakland on a bill with Banjoko’s crew, Freedom T.R.O.O.P. 187, plus Organized Konfusion, Gangstarr and headliner Body Count. Epic as that lineup is, Apollo, Mike and Qbert’s orchestrated turntable segment during FM2O’s set was the absolute showstopper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FM2O’s music was slightly ahead of its time; in the early ’90s, “alternative hip-hop” hadn’t yet established itself in the mainstream. No hip-hop group had ever featured three DJs, all of them scratch fanatics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Aquino tried unsuccessfully to secure FM2O a label deal, the DJs made moves in the battle scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952242\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952242\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_MMM_jacket_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2387.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_MMM_jacket_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2387.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_MMM_jacket_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2387-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_MMM_jacket_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2387-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_MMM_jacket_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2387-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_MMM_jacket_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2387-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_MMM_jacket_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2387-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mix Master Mike with his DMC Legend jacket at The Midway in San Francisco, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jeff Straw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The First Major World Titles\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Qbert’s second-place 1991 DMC finish earned him props from Clark Kent, a well-respected New York DJ and producer of the New Music Seminar DJ Battle for World Supremacy. Kent asked Qbert to judge the 1992 battle alongside NYC heavyweights like EPMD’s DJ Scratch and Gangstarr’s DJ Premier. Mix Master Mike, meanwhile, entered as a contestant – and ended up winning the battle. (Ironically, Aquino says, instead of practicing before his routine, Mike had stayed up all night.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLRprNA_GSk\">Video of the battle\u003c/a> – during which Mike performs eight different routines, besting Japan’s DJ Honda in the final showdown before taking on defending champ Supreme in a challenge match – confirms he was on a mission to crush all competition. He doubles up Word of Mouth’s “King Kut” with blinding speed and finesse, blends Schooly D and Flavor Flav phrases to dis “sucker DJs,” slows down the records to juggle entirely new beats, deconstructs the wax into a series of melodic tones, and maintains a sense of rhythmic mastery that’s chaotic and jarring but never veers out of control. Boisterous shouts from the crowd testify to Mike’s determined brilliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billed as the Rocksteady DJs (with the blessing of Bronx B-boy legend Crazy Legs, from the Rock Steady Crew), Qbert, Mike and Apollo won the DMCs that same year with the “Peter Piper” routine. The following year, with DJ Apollo unavailable while touring as the Souls of Mischief’s DJ, Mike and Qbert, billed as the Dream Team, again won the DMC World Championship. Mike still remembers the anticipation and energy that went into the preparations for the battle, along with the ginseng they imbibed before their set “like Chinese martial arts masters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952237\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/l_f99accf3c766cef703abeb72c042e21e.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"397\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952237\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/l_f99accf3c766cef703abeb72c042e21e.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/l_f99accf3c766cef703abeb72c042e21e-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mix Master Mike, pictured at center: ‘It was a discovery. Right? ‘Oh, shit. We could take this and flip it anyway we want to,’ you know?’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These victories were culturally significant. Not only had no West Coast DJ ever been crowned a World Champion before, but no Filipino DJ had ever placed that high in a major competition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To explain just how significant, it’s necessary to understand the evolution of the DJ artform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first development, playing “break” sections of records (known as breakbeats), was initially a clumsy needle-drop technique originated by hip-hop pioneer Kool Herc. Grandmaster Flash refined the DJ vocabulary with backspinning, cueing, cutting, punch phrasing, quick-mixing and reading the record like a clock. Grand Wizzard Theodore developed the basic scratch. Steve Dee invented the beat-juggle. But no DJ was doing synchronized team routines that reimagined the turntables as individual instruments prior to the Rocksteady DJs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was an awesome thing,” Mike says. “It just started from a thought. The collective team, it was like it was a unit. We all had the same aspirations and goals of doing things people had never, ever seen or heard before. And it just spawned this whole movement. And it’s just something that we love to do. It was a discovery. Right? ‘Oh, shit. We could take this and flip it anyway we want to,’ you know? And that was the beauty of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952220\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952220\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1715\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-800x536.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-768x515.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-1536x1029.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-2048x1372.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-1920x1286.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sporting championship jackets in Tokyo, 1993. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Their succession of three major titles in two years elevated the DJ artform and raised the bar for battles. Teams of three or more DJs would soon proliferate throughout the DJ universe, and battle routines became more well-rounded, with emphasis on scratching, beat-juggling, and musicality or rhythmic coherence, as well as sheer technical ability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also led to a backlash of sorts: Mike confirms that after dominating for three years in a row, his crew was politely asked to retire from the DMC competition. He characterizes the request as a “giving other people a chance to win type deal.” But to him and his other Bay Area battlers, “We felt like it wasn’t fair to us because we got a lot in the tank. Let’s go. Keep going. See how far we can go… we were ready to defend the next year. But unfortunately they wanted to make us judges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it turned out, stepping away from the competitive battle scene proved to be a blessing in disguise. “After we stopped battling,” Mike says, “I was like, okay, what’s next? We’re going to make records now. I’m gonna become a full fledged artist, you know? I don’t want to be this DJ dude. I don’t want to be a DJ guy that’s playing other people’s records standing up there. We’ve done that already. I’m going to get in the studio and be a producer, and I’m going to make music out of this whole thing, like, springboard into making original compositions. And so that’s what I’m doing, to this day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952238\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1430px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952238\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-Hawaii-1996.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1430\" height=\"1039\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-Hawaii-1996.jpg 1430w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-Hawaii-1996-800x581.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-Hawaii-1996-1020x741.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-Hawaii-1996-160x116.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-Hawaii-1996-768x558.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1430px) 100vw, 1430px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz in Hawaii, 1996. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But first, the crew needed a new name. During their time DJing for FM2O, the three DJs were collectively known as Shadow of the Prophet, or simply, The Shadow. A chance encounter with an early-career DJ Shadow – who apologetically offered to change his name – led to Qbert graciously telling him that he could keep the name “Shadow,” and that he’d change his group’s name instead. “Rocksteady DJs” and “The Dream Team” were one-offs, for the most part. They needed something catchy that also reflected who they were.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day it came to them. As Qbert recounts, “We was on one, and we were laughing and laughing. And I think Mix Master Mike said, “Why don’t we be called the Invisible Pickles? We were just cracking up and we were thinking about, you know, an invisible pickle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next day, Qbert got a call from his pal Lou Quintanilla, a.k.a. DJ Disk. “And he said, ‘How about Invisible Scratch Pickles?’ I was like, that kind of sounds dope.” (Though it may sound abstract, the name is rooted in a concrete concept: the turntable as an “invisible instrument” that could be almost any instrument – drums, guitar, vocals, anything.) The crew’s offbeat sense of humor reflected in their new name had long been evident; in 1992, they released \u003cem>Battle Breaks\u003c/em>, one of the first DJ tool records specifically designed for scratching, officially credited to the Psychedelic Scratch Bastards on the Dirt Style label. In later years they would put out various releases under an affiliate record label that they named Galactic Butt Hair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before settling on the new name, though, they ran it by a younger DJ who was asked to join the crew — Jonathan Cruz, a.k.a. DJ Shortkut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952228\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952228\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.shortkut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1193\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.shortkut.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.shortkut-800x543.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.shortkut-1020x692.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.shortkut-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.shortkut-768x521.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.shortkut-1536x1042.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shortkut. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Electro and the Art of the Quick Mix\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Growing up in Daly City, Shortkut caught the DJ bug thanks to a Filipino mobile crew who played his 6th grade dance. He started DJing at age 13, after the local Filipino sound system culture had cycled through disco, metal, and New Wave, before arriving at hip-hop, freestyle and Miami bass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Shortkut’s first exposures to a DJ battle took place in a large hall.“There would be about four to six sound systems separately set up in the one room with their own individual sound systems. Each group would get about like 20 minutes to do their thing, and then at the end of the night, whoever won. The word got out that group won, and then that’s who everyone wanted to book for school dances or birthday parties.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortkut joined a crew called Just 2 Hype, which played freestyle, Miami bass and 808-laced Mantronix singles. “That’s why I think the Bay Area is specifically more scratch-DJ based,” he says, “because everyone scratched to fast beats, all the classic electro stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also worked on perfecting the art of the quick-mix, changing up the record every four or eight bars. But records like DJ Jazzy Jeff’s “Live At Union Square” drew him into the world of scratch-mixing. “When I first started scratching, I just listened to records, basically. All the early records I used to buy, I would just try to copy what I heard on record.”\u003cbr>\nIn the late ’80s and early ’90s, he says, “I really got into embracing hip-hop” – catching up with records that hadn’t been hugely popular in the Filipino scene, and becoming further enthralled with scratching and beat-juggling. “That’s when I was first hearing about Qbert and Apollo and Mix Master Mike,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952223\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1742px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan1_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1742\" height=\"1190\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952223\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan1_.jpg 1742w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan1_-800x546.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan1_-1020x697.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan1_-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan1_-768x525.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan1_-1536x1049.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1742px) 100vw, 1742px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">First trip to Japan, 1993. At far left is B-boy and dancer Richard Colón, a.k.a. Crazy Legs from the Rock Steady Crew. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back then, Apollo was the big name, being from Unlimited Sounds. “He was the party rocker. But he was kind of the B-boy out of all the Filipino guys I knew.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As he attempted to build his DJ skills, Shortkut remembers listening to cassette tapes of Qbert scratching and mixing. Initially, he had only basic equipment, and used belt-driven turntables. “I got better once I got to direct-drives because I already knew how to handle it and have a certain feel to it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Qbert winning the U.S. DMC Championship in 1991 was huge, he says. “We didn’t really have any role models, as a Filipino kid.” He took the win as validation – and inspiration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I lived about five minutes from Q’s house,” he says. “I used to go to Q’s house with the guy who taught me how to DJ. We both cold-called Q because we knew he was the one who had all the battle videos. So we would go to his house and dub the videos and while they were dubbing, me and Q would scratch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During this time, Shortkut says, Mike had moved to Sacramento, and Apollo was DJing for Branford Marsalis, “so I would hook up with Q and Disk a lot.” Q used to bring Shortkut and Disk along when he opened up shows in the Bay – affording the younger DJs valuable stage experience. Shortkut, Mike, and Q eventually formed a crew briefly called the Turntable Dragons, pre-ISP. Then, in 1993, Shortkut, Mike, and Q played a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935467/the-bomb-magazine-label-san-francisco-turntablism-djs\">Bomb Hip-Hop\u003c/a> Party – possibly the first time they had been billed as the Invisibl Skratch Piklz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952239\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952239\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/invisblskratchp_002-h.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The five-man crew. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘Everyone That Worked There Was Filipino’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Dave Paul, publisher of \u003cem>Bomb Hip Hop Magazine\u003c/em>, coincidentally also began as a mobile DJ in 1984 with a crew called Midnight Connections. He tells a funny story about working an after-school job for Chevron. “I wasn’t that great. So they moved me from, like, the main Chevron on Geary Street over to one on California Street. And everyone that worked there was Filipino. Turned out everyone that worked there was also a DJ.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paul knew of Apollo from Unlimited Sounds, and had seen Qbert perform a famous “Mary Had A Little Lamb” routine during a San Jose battle around 1989 or 1990. “That really got his name out,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the annual Gavin Convention in San Francisco, Bomb Hip Hop magazine would present live performance showcases. Paul booked the Piklz on multiple occasions, beginning in 1992, when they were still called the Rocksteady DJs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Paul, the vibe of those early performances “was always sort of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDLzGtQmMyw\">don’t-give-a-fuck style\u003c/a>. Like, things didn’t have to be clean. They were just really raw. And it was just ill. They were doing stuff that no one else was doing at the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10345320\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10345320\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/QBertMain.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/QBertMain.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/QBertMain-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">DJ QBert. \u003ccite>(Thud Rumble)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After releasing a now-legendary compilation tape that featured Qbert along with a Canadian MC named Madchild, as well as local underground artists like Homeless Derelix, Blackalicious, Bored Stiff, and Mystik Journeymen, Bomb Hip Hop became a record label in 1995 with the release of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13937489/best-bay-area-turntablism-scratch-dj-albums\">\u003cem>Return of the DJ Vol. 1\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That record essentially started the movement of turntablism as a musical genre. The Skratch Piklz (at that time, Qbert, Shortkut and Disk) were featured on “Invasion of the Octopus People,” while Mix Master Mike contributed his first official solo production, “Terrorwrist.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Return of the DJ \u003c/em>evolved into a compilation series spanning multiple volumes, and inspired numerous others, like Om Records’ \u003cem>Deep Concentration\u003c/em> and Ubiquity’s \u003cem>Audio Alchemy\u003c/em> compilations. Asphodel, an alternative label known for ultra-underground somnolent, ambient, droney electronic music, signed the Skratch Piklz to a deal, which resulted in 1996’s single “Invisibl Skratch Piklz vs. Da Klamz Uv Deth,” which featured Qbert, Shortkut, and Mix Master Mike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952246\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1938px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952246\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1938\" height=\"1882\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca.jpg 1938w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca-800x777.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca-1020x991.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca-160x155.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca-768x746.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca-1536x1492.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca-1920x1865.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1938px) 100vw, 1938px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Invisibl Skratch Piklz vs. Da Clamz Uv Deth,’ 1997. \u003ccite>(Asphodel Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A very strange thing about that (single) is, I had just invented scratch music,” Qbert says. “Which is this thing where every sound is scratched. Drums are scratched, the hi-hats are scratched, the snare and vocals are scratched, the chords, every single thing is scratched! No matter what is in there. So that was tracked out — like, every track was off the turntables, making a complete scratch song.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turntablism spread quickly through San Francisco’s progressive club scene in the mid-’90s. Mark Herlihy’s art/performance collective Future Primitive established itself as an avant garde music label with a live recording of Shortkut and Cut Chemist at Cat’s Alley, on Folsom Street. An outer Tenderloin hole in the wall, Deco, became a headquarters for unfiltered, ultra-creative DJ expression in its basement, via “Many Styles” nights curated by Apollo. Qbert was part of the groundbreaking alternative hip-hop group Dr. Octagon along with producer Dan the Automator and MC Kool Keith, who recorded an indie classic that got re-released nationally by Dreamworks. To this day, Qbert’s scratch solo on Dr. Octagon’s “Earth People” stands out as a particular flashpoint, the turntable equivalent, perhaps, of the guitar solos on “Hotel California” or “Comfortably Numb.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Needless to say, it’s not an empty boast when Mix Master Mike says he and the Skratch Piklz “pretty much created this genre of music.” No one was doing it before them, and many followed in their footsteps. Locally, the Bullet Proof Scratch Hamsters (aka the Space Travelers), Supernatural Turntable Artists, and the Oakland Faders all scratched and juggled. Live bands incorporating turntablists included Live Human (DJ Quest) and Soulstice (Mei-Lwun). New York’s X-Ecutioners were probably ISP’s closest counterparts nationally, having formed in 1989. But despite their turntable innovations, even they weren’t performing or recording as a \u003cem>band\u003c/em> until after the Skratch Piklz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952245\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_ISP_11_JeffStraw-2144.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_ISP_11_JeffStraw-2144.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_ISP_11_JeffStraw-2144-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_ISP_11_JeffStraw-2144-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_ISP_11_JeffStraw-2144-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_ISP_11_JeffStraw-2144-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_ISP_11_JeffStraw-2144-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz at the DMC World DJ Finals at The Midway in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jeff Straw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back when they were known as the X-Men, the X-Ecutioners faced off against the Piklz in a landmark 1996 battle in New York’s Manhattan Center – a contest so epic, it’s listed among \u003cem>Mixmag\u003c/em>’s \u003ca href=\"https://mixmag.net/feature/the-10-best-dj-scratch-battles-of-all-time\">Top 10 DJ Scratch Battles of All Time\u003c/a>. X-Ecutioners member and DJ historian Rob Swift says Qbert first came on his radar in 1991, when he beat X-Ecutioners founder Steve Dee to win the US DMC Finals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We thought he was Hawaiian,” Swift says, because Qbert appeared to be wearing a lei in the battle video. “We didn’t know that he was this Filipino DJ that came out of this Filipino community of DJs in the Bay Area. We didn’t know that there \u003cem>were\u003c/em> DJs out there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Swift later entered the 1991 New Music Seminar battle, where Qbert was a judge; the two exchanged numbers and began calling each other and exchanging videos regularly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When rappers began increasingly excluding the DJ throughout the ’90s, he says he and Qbert would discuss what to do about it., “We would both be like, ‘You’ve got these rappers (not respecting the DJ). Fuck them, and we’re going to create our own DJ scene. If the music industry is going to turn their backs on DJing, we need to figure out a way to just create our own scene.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And,” he adds, “that’s exactly what we did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952225\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952225\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Lebanon.trophy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1166\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Lebanon.trophy.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Lebanon.trophy-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Lebanon.trophy-1020x676.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Lebanon.trophy-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Lebanon.trophy-768x509.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Lebanon.trophy-1536x1018.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz in Lebanon. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Enter the ITF — and D-Styles\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When the Pilkz battled the X-Ecutioners, it was as much about gaining respect for turntable culture as it was about individual bragging rights. Though the court of public opinion is still split on who won, the battle put a spotlight on both crews. As Swift says, “We started strategizing ways to book our own tours and create all-DJ competitions (like) the ITF, the International Turntablist Federation,” who organized the historic battle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Founded by Alex Aquino with help from Shortkut, the ITF was established in 1995 and stayed active until 2005. It was intended as a cultural organization, and as somewhat of a critique of the DMC, which had become the only major DJ competition, following the demise of the New Music Seminar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without the DMC,” Aquino says, “we wouldn’t have this world stage for the guys to be on. But after Q lost that first battle, we were like, something has to change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Specifically, the criteria. “And so, we were like, let’s do our own battle. Let’s have real turntablists and DJs judge it, like a New Music Seminar, but instead of just the one-on-one battle, the advancement class for the belt, let’s do a scratching category. Let’s do a beat-juggling category. And let’s do a team category. And that’s how we started out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952211\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1366px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952211\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.magazine.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1366\" height=\"1834\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.magazine.jpg 1366w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.magazine-800x1074.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.magazine-1020x1369.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.magazine-160x215.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.magazine-768x1031.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.magazine-1144x1536.jpg 1144w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a Japanese magazine, date unknown. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>DJs like Vin Roc, Babu, Craze, and A-Trak all won ITF titles, as did teams like the Allies and Beat Junkies. The ITF succeeded in giving turntablists a visible platform to showcase their skills and in further popularizing the artform in the U.S. and internationally. (In 1999, the DMC would add a team category, and the organization currently rotates additional categories, including Scratch, Portablist, and Beat Juggling.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After \u003cem>Return of the DJ\u003c/em>’s “Octopus People,” with Apollo unavailable and Mix Master Mike pursuing a solo career, the Skratch Piklz needed new blood. For the next few years, ISP membership became somewhat fluid, swelling and contracting as new members joined for a while, before going off to do other projects. DJ Disk, DJ Flare, Canadian teenage prodigy A-Trak, and former Thud Rumble label manager Ritche Desuasido, a.k.a. Yogafrog, were all ISP members at one time or another, along with Shortkut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1996, Beat Junkies member Dave Cuasito, a.k.a. D-Styles, joined the Piklz and became a linchpin for the group; Aquino calls him “the hidden master.” Though not as flashy or famous as Qbert, he’s well-respected in turntablist circles and has helped focus the Pilkz on compositional elements in their music while also being able to scratch, cut and juggle at a high level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Born in the Philippines, D-Styles grew up in San Jose. Like the other Piklz, he was exposed to hip-hop through breaking and its accompanying soundtrack. “I would hear the songs that they were playing, but then they would scratch certain words and certain parts of that song. And so I was always curious how they were doing it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952229\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952229\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.qbert_.dst_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1168\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.qbert_.dst_.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.qbert_.dst_-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.qbert_.dst_-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.qbert_.dst_-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.qbert_.dst_-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.qbert_.dst_-1536x1020.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grandmaster DXT and Qbert. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His answer came when he saw Grandmixer DST (now known as DXT)’s scratch segment on Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit.” After getting a basic Realistic mixer for his birthday, he, too, joined a mobile DJ crew (Sound City), who pooled their equipment like so many others – and spent their meager proceeds on post-gig Denny’s meals. After taking part in typical mobile battles with crews exchanging 20-minute sets, he discovered there was a battle specifically for scratch DJs, and competed in the 1993 DMC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1996, he moved to San Francisco to attend college, but what he really wanted was to pursue music. He was already familiar with Mike, Qbert and Shortkut from the battle scene, and from hanging out on Tuesday night at Deco, a small speakeasy-style jazz bar with open turntables in the basement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One strange night, I got a phone call on my answering machine and it was Yogafrog and Q, and they were like, ‘Hey, man’ – I don’t know if they were drunk or what – but they were like, ‘we need to talk, man. We think we should all come together and form a crew.” They met up and talked, and soon after, he was asked to officially join the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>D-Styles stoic demeanor compliments the other Piklz, yet beneath his focused concentration lies a punk rock attitude that aligns with Qbert’s philosophy that the only rule is there are no rules. Likewise, his turntable-composition approach balances the others’ battle-DJ backgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952235\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 636px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952235\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/SK-A-TRAK-1997-at-Qs.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"474\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/SK-A-TRAK-1997-at-Qs.png 636w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/SK-A-TRAK-1997-at-Qs-160x119.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shortkut and A-Trak at Qbert’s place, 1997. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“As far as a turntable composer, I feel like we definitely embrace the more musical side of it, and less technical,” he says. “For the battle DJs, they really try to spray like a Uzi, you know what I mean? And just get off a bunch of power stuff and try to wow the the crowd and the judges. For music, it’s more about the long-term thing. We want to make music that’s timeless. And it’s not based off of a five-minute routine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the core Piklz now set with Qbert, Shortkut and D-Styles, Mix Master Mike – who remained affiliated with the crew – says, “I felt like we had the perfect stew. Everyone had their own style, their own identity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around this time, Mike began putting together his first solo album, \u003cem>Anti-Theft Device\u003c/em>, which he envisioned as “not an underground album (but) a worldwide release.” He imagined himself as a sonic transducer, attracting and reshaping matter into different forms. He drew on inspirations like Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham, early Public Enemy, Thelonious Monk, Rage Against the Machine and Ennio Morricone. He contemplated the subtlety of silence, of ghost notes and pregnant pauses. And then he went out and made an album with booming, deafening drums and thumping bass on nearly every track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I focused on the drums first,” Mike says. “I wanted to make sure those drums were hitting really hard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952249\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952249\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM.antitheft.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"984\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM.antitheft.jpg 1000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM.antitheft-800x787.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM.antitheft-160x157.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM.antitheft-768x756.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mix Master Mike’s ‘Anti-Theft Device,’ 1998. \u003ccite>(Asphodel Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On \u003cem>Anti-Theft Device\u003c/em>, the found sounds and quirky vocal samples (“NASA maintains this is \u003cem>not\u003c/em> Colonel Blaha’s voice”) often present on DJ mix tapes resurface often, along with boom-bap beats and scratched phrases, instruments and sound effects. There are elements of intoxicated or altered reality, and bug-out moments that suggest turboized vocoders spouting underwater propellers, or seemingly random musical sample generators harnessing infinite libraries of sound, from raga to reggae to rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the end of the day,” Mike says, “it’s about spearheading the evolution of the battle DJ – as artist, composer, tastemaker.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Mike was the first Pikl to make a solo album, Qbert crafted an especially ambitious concept for his first official solo debut. As Mike tells it, he had some extra tracks left over, which he gave to Qbert. “And he fuckin’, just like, went crazy on those beats. And then, yeah. It became \u003cem>Wave Twisters\u003c/em>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952250\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952250\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/R-16932444-1610670653-3566.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/R-16932444-1610670653-3566.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/R-16932444-1610670653-3566-160x160.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">DJ Qbert’s ‘Wave Twisters,’ 1998. The album spawned a cult-classic 2001 animated film of the same name. \u003ccite>(Galactic Butt Hair Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Wave Twisters, the Beasties and Beyond\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Wave Twisters\u003c/em> holds the rare distinction of being a soundtrack around which a movie was later designed. The album received extremely positive reviews, making many music critics’ year-end lists. To this day, it’s regarded as one of the best turntablism albums of all time. Tracks like “Destination: Quasar 16.33.45.78” took ISP battle routines to new levels, imagining a battle in inner space between a heroic dental hygienist and the minions of a villain named Lord Ook. The track revels in sci-fi tropes, with vocal cues like “Attention, starship!” coloring the scratched, transformed and cut-up audio landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Qbert, \u003cem>Wave Twisters\u003c/em> was willed into existence. “I intentionally foresaw it because in the back of my head, I was like, I’m gonna make every song like a storyline. It’s going to be a thing. And somebody’s going to animate this. And then out of nowhere, the universe made it all work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13937489']Meanwhile, Mix Master Mike was setting his own intentions – around becoming a member of the Beastie Boys. A longtime fan of their music, he says, “even before I met them, I always thought I was the fourth Beastie, and I was the missing element.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After meeting the Beasties’ MCA during a Rock Steady Crew anniversary in 1996, Mike took an unusual route to make his dreams come true. “I went up to MCA and introduced myself,” he recalls. “He knew who I was through all the competitions and the battles, and we exchanged phone numbers and went back home. And late at night, I would just leave these scratch messages on his answering machine. Two, three in the morning, just leaving these scratches on his machine, hoping that these transmissions would penetrate. Fortunately they did. \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#mix-master-mike-becomes-the-beastie-boys-dj\">And the rest is history\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952251\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952251\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1611\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-800x503.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-1020x642.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-160x101.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-768x483.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-1536x967.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-2048x1289.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-1920x1208.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L-R) Mixmaster Mike, Mike Diamond, Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch, and Adam ‘Ad-Rock’ Horovitz of The Beastie Boys attend the MTV Europe Music Awards 2004 at Tor di Valle Nov. 18, 2004 in Rome, Italy. \u003ccite>(Bruno Vincent/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mike joined the Beasties in time for 1998’s \u003cem>Hello Nasty\u003c/em> album, remaining part of the group until MCA died of cancer in 2012 and the Beastie Boys disbanded. “So at the end of the day,” Mike says, “it’s all about power of intention, right? And my intention was to get in the band or work with the band.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the ’90s drew to a close, the Piklz weren’t quite done. They produced Skratchcon 2000, a scratching convention, bringing together pioneering masters and acolytes of DJ scratch music. “That was our old manager, Yogafrog,” Qbert says. “His idea to put on a convention called Scratchcon, that was a genius idea of his, and we should do a Part II. We got all the best, most popular scratchers on the planet to come through. It was huge. Steve Dee was there, even Aladdin, all the X-Ecutioners, everybody. It was amazing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952252\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952252\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Garage.Group_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"983\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Garage.Group_.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Garage.Group_-800x524.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Garage.Group_-1020x668.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Garage.Group_-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Garage.Group_-768x503.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L–R) Shortkut, D-Styles, Mix Master Mike, Yogafrog and QBert in QBert’s garage in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, 1998. \u003ccite>(Liz Hafalia /The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Skratchcon drew fans from all over the country, in addition to current and historic scratch DJs,for live showcases and demonstrations like DJ Radar’s introduction of scratch notation. The convention culminated with a live concert at the Fillmore Auditorium, billed at the time as the ISP’s last official performance. To this day, it stands as one of the highpoints of a decade overflowing with revolutionary developments in hip-hop DJ culture, which saw the Invisibl Skratch Piklz make history and become iconic representatives of turntablism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Mix Master Mike says, “There is no ceiling to this. No, it’s whatever you think about is whatever you create and whatever you can apply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11687704\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"60\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-400x30.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-768x58.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"A comprehensive history of the pioneering DJ crew, from Daly City garage parties to world domination.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1708071724,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":121,"wordCount":8314},"headData":{"title":"How The Invisibl Skratch Piklz Put San Francisco Turntablism on the DJ Map | KQED","description":"A comprehensive history of the pioneering DJ crew, from Daly City garage parties to world domination.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"templateType":"standard","featuredImageType":"standard","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13952208/invisibl-skratch-piklz-filipino-djs-daly-city-san-francisco-turntablism-history","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Editor’s note\u003c/strong>: This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/\">That’s My Word\u003c/a>\u003cem>, KQED’s story series on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/\">Bay Area hip-hop\u003c/a> history.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a recent Friday night in San Francisco, a couple thousand fans of DJ culture crammed into the cavernous main room of a nightclub in Hunters Point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside The Midway, it was elbow room-only from the stage to the back patio; many of those in the crowd were DJs themselves. The scene recalled the late ’90s-early 2000s glory days of the Bay Area, when turntablism seemed destined to become the Next Big Thing, and DJ nights dominated SF’s club scene. No one was there to dance; it wasn’t that kind of party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937762\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937762\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing a baseball cap stands at a table under fluorescent lighting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-28-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">DJ Qbert performs with Invisibl Skratch Piklz during the DMC World DJ Finals at The Midway in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The occasion was the DMC World Championship DJ Battle Finals, with some of the best DJs in the world competing against each other. But there was another attraction too: live showcases by the Invisibl Skratch Piklz and Mix Master Mike, the legendary DJs who transformed the Bay Area into a turntablist Mecca during a seminal era for local hip-hop. DMC event organizer Christie Zee put the proceedings into their proper context: “You can’t have a battle in the Bay without the Skratch Piklz.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As midnight approached, the lights dimmed, and the Piklz – Qbert, Shortkut and D-Styles – were announced to cheers that echoed throughout the high-ceilinged room. The Piklz opened with the 2015 ISP track “Fresh Out of FVCKs,” with its ominous electric organ melody that transitions into repeating melodic chords. A snare drum beat came in, followed by a rhythmically scratched snippet of a stuttering vocal phrase. The electric organ chords shifted into a chopped melody as the snare dropped out, then returned. And that’s all before the mind-bending scratch solos that followed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Piklz proceeded to display their musicality, keeping their technical acumen within the groove pocket with synchronized timing. As is customary with the Piklz, each played the part of a specific instrumentalist: D-Styles as the keyboardist, Shortkut as the drummer, and Qbert as the scratch soloist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952244\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952244\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM_DJ_mixer_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2275.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM_DJ_mixer_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2275.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM_DJ_mixer_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2275-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM_DJ_mixer_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2275-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM_DJ_mixer_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2275-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM_DJ_mixer_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2275-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM_DJ_mixer_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2275-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mix Master Mike at the DMC World DJ Finals at The Midway in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jeff Straw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A live version of “Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts” – a song from D-Styles’ 2019 album \u003cem>Noises In the Right Order\u003c/em> – and several unreleased ISP songs showed that \u003ca href=\"https://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/jazzglossary/g/ghost_note.html\">ghost notes\u003c/a> aren’t just associated with jazz music. The turntable trio used the spaces between to impart a sense of presence and feel, a minimalist approach that allowed their scratches, cuts and juggles to resonate with maximum impact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This would have been a hard act to follow for anyone but Mix Master Mike. The ISP co-founder, who’s been a solo artist since 1995 or so, has a gigantic stage presence and skills to match. A one-man musical blender, MMM unleashed a maelstrom of sonic fury, with bone-crunching drums, an entire range of musical and vocal phrases, and precise turntable cuts that deconstructed the individual pieces of a live performance — only to reconstruct all the fragments into an emotionally-thrilling pastiche. After his set, when Mike was celebrated with a Lifetime Achievement Award, the honor was clearly well-deserved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Invisible Skratch Piklz were celebrating, too – 2023 marks their 30th anniversary – and it’s safe to say no Bay Area crew has done more to advance the DJ artform. Along with New York’s X-Ecutioners and LA’s Beat Junkies, ISP have defined the term turntablist, carving out a cultural niche that rests on a hip-hop foundation but exists in its own space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937759\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937759\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"People stand in a crowd leaning on a barrier indoors.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/231103-DMCBattle-13-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crowd watches finalists compete during the DMC World DJ Finals at The Midway in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Piklz have counted many firsts. As hip-hop’s relationship with the DJ has flipped from essential to inconsequential, they’ve maintained the DJ tradition for future generations, and extended its global reach. Over the past four decades, they’ve gone from students of the scratch to wizened masters of turntable music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And like most cultural icons, their backstory is involved, multilayered and fascinating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952236\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1528px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952236\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/q.sta_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1528\" height=\"1032\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/q.sta_.jpg 1528w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/q.sta_-800x540.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/q.sta_-1020x689.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/q.sta_-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/q.sta_-768x519.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1528px) 100vw, 1528px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A young Qbert at a community hall mobile DJ dance party. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The Garage Party Era\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Invisibl Skratch Piklz story begins in what former ISP manager Alex Aquino calls the “pre-hip-hop era” of the late ’70s-early ’80s, when youth-oriented street dance intersected with pioneering mobile DJ crews and a Filipino-American tradition of garage parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was before breakdancing,” Aquino says. He recalls being 6 or 7 and seeing strutters, poppers and elements of DJ culture – including the Filipino mobile DJ crews who established a scene built around vinyl records, large stereo systems and frequent dance parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those Filipino DJs was Apollo Novicio, a.k.a. DJ Apollo, a founding member of ISP who spent his early childhood roaming around the Mission District. By the time he reached middle school, his family had relocated to Daly City – where he likely attended some of the same parties as Aquino. “Back in the day, they’d have garage parties and there would be a DJ in the corner of the garage, set up on a washing machine and dryer and stuff like that. And at the parties, they would have popping and locking circles. Strutting, popping and locking. Breakdancing wasn’t even here yet, really. This was, I’d say, early ’80s, and that was pretty much my first exposure to the DJing and dancing element of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952292\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1004px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobiledjparty.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1004\" height=\"674\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952292\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobiledjparty.png 1004w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobiledjparty-800x537.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobiledjparty-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobiledjparty-768x516.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1004px) 100vw, 1004px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Setup for a typical mobile DJ party in the early 1990s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1982, Aquino remembers, a New York transplant named Oscar Sop had introduced B-boying and fat laces to the neighborhood, becoming one of the Bay Area’s first breakdancers. Meanwhile, the DJ crews were becoming more professional, and getting hired for weddings, quinceaneras, traditional Filipino celebrations and the occasional school dance party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apollo recalls “doing the strutting, popping, locking thing before B-boying got here.” Back then, “I didn’t even know it was hip-hop. I was such a young age. I’m like, just doing it and like, later on find out, oh, this is a hip-hop culture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to dancing being popular among Filipino youth, he remembers DJ groups proliferating at local high schools. “It was just kind of like the thing to do,” he says. “All the kids would form DJ groups.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t know how to explain (why), but there was a lot of Filipino mobile disc jockey groups,” says DJ Apollo. ”Back in the seventies, my older brothers and sisters, they used to collect music and listen to music. Everybody had to go to the record store and buy vinyl.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952212\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1030px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952212\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobileDJparty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1030\" height=\"778\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobileDJparty.jpg 1030w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobileDJparty-800x604.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobileDJparty-1020x770.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobileDJparty-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.mobileDJparty-768x580.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1030px) 100vw, 1030px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A mobile DJ party in 1991. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Dr. Oliver Wang, author of \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dukeupress.edu/legions-of-boom\">Legions of Boom: Filipino American Mobile DJ Crews in the San Francisco Bay Area\u003c/a>\u003c/em> and a professor of sociology at CSU Long Beach, explains that “the mobile DJ scene that the Piklz’ members got their start in wasn’t an exclusively Filipino phenomenon at all; there were Black, White, Latino and Chinese crews around then too. But the Fil-Am scene flourished above and beyond those other groups because they had distinct advantages coming from an immigrant community with strong social ties and large social networks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, Wang says, “Filipino American families have parties for practically any occasion — birthdays, debuts, christenings, graduations, or just plain house/garage parties for the heck of it. Importantly, those parties all wanted music, and that meant that DJs had all these opportunities to find gigs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time breakdancing became popularized through movies like \u003cem>Beat Street\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Breakin’,\u003c/em> Apollo says, “DJing was already here… there were dances every weekend, and DJ battles and showcases almost every other weekend. That’s how it was when I was growing up around the San Francisco and Daly City area in the early ’80s.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952219\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1163px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/rscdjs.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1163\" height=\"831\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952219\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/rscdjs.jpg 1163w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/rscdjs-800x572.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/rscdjs-1020x729.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/rscdjs-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/rscdjs-768x549.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1163px) 100vw, 1163px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Appearing as FM2O (Furious Minds 2 Observe), Qbert, Mix Master Mike and Apollo perform at an ‘eco-rap’ show in San Francisco, circa 1989–1990. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Apollo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of the top mobile DJ crews at that time was Unlimited Sounds. “They were like the biggest group from Daly City, and they were already established,” Apollo says. Many of the crew members were older and attended Jefferson High School. Apollo remembers hanging out at Serra Bowl, becoming friends with Unlimited Sounds and gradually being drawn into the world of DJing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every day after school, I would just hang out at their garage and practice,” he says. “All the equipment was there, the records were all there, the lights, everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apollo saved his allowance and lunch money to buy his first set of turntables, and formed makeshift DJ crews with his friends. “We would gather our parents’ equipment, like home stereo equipment and gather it all up. I would get my parents’ home stereo system combined with my homies’ parents’ stereo system, combined with my other homie’s house system. And then we would put all the equipment together and we saw we had a DJ group.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apollo started making mixtapes — he still remembers the first time he had enough records to make an all-hip-hop tape — and eventually became good enough to join Unlimited Sounds in 1985, who at the time had gigs all over the Bay Area. That experience gave him a solid foundation in DJing parties and playing a wide variety of records, but he was more interested in “scratching, juggling, trick-mixing — turntablism before it was even called that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952233\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/RSC-DJs-Psycho-City-Cover.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"401\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952233\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/RSC-DJs-Psycho-City-Cover.jpeg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/RSC-DJs-Psycho-City-Cover-160x107.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Rock City DJs at the famed San Francisco graffiti spot Psycho City, January 1993. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Prior to joining Unlimited Sounds, Apollo had hooked up with another up-and-coming DJ who was becoming known for his pause-tape mixes and obsessive focus on scratching: Michael Anthony Schwartz, a.k.a. Mix Master Mike, a Filipino-German kid who attended Jeffferson, the same high school as Aquino and Apollo. Rather than practice the blends and beat-matching typically used at parties, though, Apollo and Mix Master Mike would “do more scratching or tricks, routines and that type of stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With those bedroom routines, a reimagining of the turntable’s possibilities had begun.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Oh, Snap — What Did We Just Do?’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Mix Master Mike didn’t come up in the mobile DJ scene. His early inspiration was seeing Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watching Jay DJ for DMC and Run, he says, he remembers thinking, “Oh, they’re using records, but they sound more like they’re a full-fledged band, you know? That was just profound to me, that he was using records and rocking the house, \u003cem>with just records\u003c/em>. And that’s when I immediately knew that’s what I wanted to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1732px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952222\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMM_.japan_.subway.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1732\" height=\"1177\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMM_.japan_.subway.jpg 1732w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMM_.japan_.subway-800x544.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMM_.japan_.subway-1020x693.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMM_.japan_.subway-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMM_.japan_.subway-768x522.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.MMM_.japan_.subway-1536x1044.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1732px) 100vw, 1732px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mix Master Mike on the subway in Japan, 1993. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Not long after Run-DMC brought their Raising Hell tour to a sold-out Oakland Coliseum arena, Apollo and Mike formed an informal DJ crew called Together With Style (not to be confused with the SF graffiti crew of the same name) and held long practice sessions in Apollo’s garage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with Mike, “we did go hard on scratching and tricks and juggling – which later on turned into turntablism.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Individually, they would take turns on Apollo’s set of turntables. But one day, they decided to work in tandem — a moment that altered the course of DJ history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Apollo remembers it: “Me and Mike were messing around with the turntables and… we’re like, well, let’s just do something together, since we don’t have to wait our turn (to practice). So I grabbed one turntable, and he grabbed the other turntable and we kind of just started making a beat with two records and one mixer. I got the bass kick and he grabbed the snare and we just started making a beat like, \u003cem>boom, cha, boom boom boom cha, boom boom\u003c/em>, you know? And then we’re just like, ‘Oh, snap, what did we just do? That was crazy.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952218\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 604px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952218\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/10423_136960922731_697132731_2526758_2429020_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"604\" height=\"408\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/10423_136960922731_697132731_2526758_2429020_n.jpg 604w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/10423_136960922731_697132731_2526758_2429020_n-160x108.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Rock Steady Crew DJs in 1991. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Apollo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Apollo and Mike would perfect the two-man routine over a period of several years, “and we just started performing it all over the place at showcases and dances, you know, wherever. People were seeing it and being amazed. We were amazed by it ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"I got the bass kick and he grabbed the snare and we just started making a beat like, boom, cha, boom boom boom cha, boom boom, you know? And then we’re just like, ‘Oh, snap, what did we just do?” ","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"size":"large","align":"center","citation":"DJ Apollo","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One witness to the early routine was Richard Quitevis, an acquaintance of Mike and Apollo who went by the name DJ Qbert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Qbert saw it one time and he was amazed by it. He’s like, \u003cem>Oh, what is that?!?\u003c/em>,” Apollo says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Qbert Enters the Picture\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>DJ Qbert grew up in San Francisco’s Excelsior district. Like Apollo, his first exposure to hip-hop precedes the term itself. He recalls fishing at Pier 39 at the age of 12 and seeing the Fillmore dance crew \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weKkAF9NdCI\">Demons of the Mind\u003c/a>. “There would be all these poppers; at the time they were called strutters. They would be playing this really fast electro music. And it was like, ‘Look at these robot-like guys in shiny little outfits with these silver hats.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Qbert was fascinated not only with the vibrant dancers, but the sounds. “I was like, ‘Man, this is crazy. I love it, but where are they getting this music from?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952215\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1371px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952215\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-bologna.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1371\" height=\"984\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-bologna.jpg 1371w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-bologna-800x574.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-bologna-1020x732.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-bologna-160x115.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-bologna-768x551.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1371px) 100vw, 1371px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shortkut, Mix Master Mike and Qbert gettin’ up in Bologna, Italy. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Qbert remembers early attempts at breakdancing with his friends, who fashioned their own makeshift outfits. But it was the DJ scratch – particularly the skills displayed by Mix Master Ice on UTFO’s 1985 single “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KE3-IyLsg8\">Leader of the Pack\u003c/a>” – that really drew his interest. “I just started collecting the music, always collecting the music. And that’s what made me become a DJ.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day, Qbert was asked to DJ a garage party. “Everybody was about 12, 13, 14, 15, and everybody was breaking in the garage. And we were playing all my records on a big-ass giant box. Like, you open the top and you put the record in, and you just let that play. And the kids were spinning and they couldn’t control themselves. They would spin and they would spin, right into the DJ box, the turntable box. That was my first time being a mobile DJ.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He explains his early attraction to turntables and scratching: “You could manipulate sound by grabbing (the record), moving forward and backward,” he says, imitating a scratch sound. “It was like a toy. A toy that was like a musical instrument. I didn’t even know it was a musical instrument. I was just thinking of it as like, it just sounds crazy. You just pull sound out of the air and move it, like, ‘Oh, what a weird contraption.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, Q joined a mobile DJ crew called Live Style Productions, and came to the attention of Apollo and Mix Master Mike, who remember going to Balboa High School to see him spin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Q, we just knew from around the way,” Apollo says. “We would go to different showcases on the weekends and see him perform. And so we knew about Q.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952240\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952240\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/600_us_champ_trophy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"407\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/600_us_champ_trophy.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/600_us_champ_trophy-160x109.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz with the U.S. Championship trophy. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1991, Qbert entered the DMCs, winning the U.S. Championships and advancing all the way to the World Finals in London, where he took 2nd place. Aquino claims Qbert’s technical skills were so advanced, they went over most of the audience’s heads, but Qbert admits he got cocky and didn’t practice before his set: “I was sloppy,” he says. That loss instilled in him the importance of practicing, which he took to with rigorous discipline.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Turntables Might Wobble\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Hip-hop journalist and author Adisa Banjoko, a friend, recalls once being at Qbert’s house and hearing him scratch the rhythms of Rakim’s verses from Eric B. & Rakim’s “I Ain’t No Joke” – using entirely scratched tones to replicate Rakim’s stanzas. “You gotta record that,” Banjoko told Q, who just shrugged and said, “Nah, I do that all the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around this time, Apollo and Mike were honing their two-man routine and making beats with the intention of forming a rap crew, with them as producers and DJs. After returning from London with his U.S. title, Qbert introduced Mike and Apollo to a rapper who used to hang out at his house named Nim-FHD.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is where it all comes together,” Apollo says. “Me and Mike were making beats, and we always wanted to find a voice for our beats. And so when Qbert introduced us to this rapper, and when me and Mike heard that guy’s voice, Nim’s voice, we were like, ‘Oh man, that’s the voice for our music.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952232\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 604px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952232\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/n1071373619_171639_1875.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"604\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/n1071373619_171639_1875.jpg 604w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/n1071373619_171639_1875-160x110.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 604px) 100vw, 604px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The extended crew. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Apollo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Apollo explained his vision to Nim, and they enlisted H2O, another emcee they met through Qbert, who also joined the group. “We told Q, do you want to be a part of the ‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd5gFx001qg\">Peter Piper\u003c/a>’ routine? And he was like, overjoyed. Like, ‘Let’s do it. Absolutely, let’s do it.’ So then we’re like… why don’t we become the DJs for this group that will be the first rap group with three DJs and two rappers? And we’ll do all the beats and scratching.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They christened themselves FM2O – an acronym for “Furious Minds To Observe” — the first iteration of what would become the Invisibl Skratch Piklz. As Mike says, “it was definitely a meant-to-be moment, when I hooked up with Q.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group was managed by Aquino, who had left Unlimited Sounds and started throwing parties while trying to establish an independent hip-hop label, Ace Beat. While working on a demo tape, FM2O played local venues and music industry showcases like the Gavin Convention and New Music Seminar. In 1992, they appeared at the Omni in Oakland on a bill with Banjoko’s crew, Freedom T.R.O.O.P. 187, plus Organized Konfusion, Gangstarr and headliner Body Count. Epic as that lineup is, Apollo, Mike and Qbert’s orchestrated turntable segment during FM2O’s set was the absolute showstopper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>FM2O’s music was slightly ahead of its time; in the early ’90s, “alternative hip-hop” hadn’t yet established itself in the mainstream. No hip-hop group had ever featured three DJs, all of them scratch fanatics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Aquino tried unsuccessfully to secure FM2O a label deal, the DJs made moves in the battle scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952242\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952242\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_MMM_jacket_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2387.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_MMM_jacket_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2387.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_MMM_jacket_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2387-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_MMM_jacket_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2387-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_MMM_jacket_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2387-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_MMM_jacket_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2387-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_MMM_jacket_PhotobyJeffStrawBranding-2387-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mix Master Mike with his DMC Legend jacket at The Midway in San Francisco, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jeff Straw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>The First Major World Titles\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Qbert’s second-place 1991 DMC finish earned him props from Clark Kent, a well-respected New York DJ and producer of the New Music Seminar DJ Battle for World Supremacy. Kent asked Qbert to judge the 1992 battle alongside NYC heavyweights like EPMD’s DJ Scratch and Gangstarr’s DJ Premier. Mix Master Mike, meanwhile, entered as a contestant – and ended up winning the battle. (Ironically, Aquino says, instead of practicing before his routine, Mike had stayed up all night.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLRprNA_GSk\">Video of the battle\u003c/a> – during which Mike performs eight different routines, besting Japan’s DJ Honda in the final showdown before taking on defending champ Supreme in a challenge match – confirms he was on a mission to crush all competition. He doubles up Word of Mouth’s “King Kut” with blinding speed and finesse, blends Schooly D and Flavor Flav phrases to dis “sucker DJs,” slows down the records to juggle entirely new beats, deconstructs the wax into a series of melodic tones, and maintains a sense of rhythmic mastery that’s chaotic and jarring but never veers out of control. Boisterous shouts from the crowd testify to Mike’s determined brilliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billed as the Rocksteady DJs (with the blessing of Bronx B-boy legend Crazy Legs, from the Rock Steady Crew), Qbert, Mike and Apollo won the DMCs that same year with the “Peter Piper” routine. The following year, with DJ Apollo unavailable while touring as the Souls of Mischief’s DJ, Mike and Qbert, billed as the Dream Team, again won the DMC World Championship. Mike still remembers the anticipation and energy that went into the preparations for the battle, along with the ginseng they imbibed before their set “like Chinese martial arts masters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952237\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/l_f99accf3c766cef703abeb72c042e21e.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"397\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952237\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/l_f99accf3c766cef703abeb72c042e21e.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/l_f99accf3c766cef703abeb72c042e21e-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mix Master Mike, pictured at center: ‘It was a discovery. Right? ‘Oh, shit. We could take this and flip it anyway we want to,’ you know?’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These victories were culturally significant. Not only had no West Coast DJ ever been crowned a World Champion before, but no Filipino DJ had ever placed that high in a major competition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To explain just how significant, it’s necessary to understand the evolution of the DJ artform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first development, playing “break” sections of records (known as breakbeats), was initially a clumsy needle-drop technique originated by hip-hop pioneer Kool Herc. Grandmaster Flash refined the DJ vocabulary with backspinning, cueing, cutting, punch phrasing, quick-mixing and reading the record like a clock. Grand Wizzard Theodore developed the basic scratch. Steve Dee invented the beat-juggle. But no DJ was doing synchronized team routines that reimagined the turntables as individual instruments prior to the Rocksteady DJs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was an awesome thing,” Mike says. “It just started from a thought. The collective team, it was like it was a unit. We all had the same aspirations and goals of doing things people had never, ever seen or heard before. And it just spawned this whole movement. And it’s just something that we love to do. It was a discovery. Right? ‘Oh, shit. We could take this and flip it anyway we want to,’ you know? And that was the beauty of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952220\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952220\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1715\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-800x536.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-768x515.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-1536x1029.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-2048x1372.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.jackets-1920x1286.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sporting championship jackets in Tokyo, 1993. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Their succession of three major titles in two years elevated the DJ artform and raised the bar for battles. Teams of three or more DJs would soon proliferate throughout the DJ universe, and battle routines became more well-rounded, with emphasis on scratching, beat-juggling, and musicality or rhythmic coherence, as well as sheer technical ability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also led to a backlash of sorts: Mike confirms that after dominating for three years in a row, his crew was politely asked to retire from the DMC competition. He characterizes the request as a “giving other people a chance to win type deal.” But to him and his other Bay Area battlers, “We felt like it wasn’t fair to us because we got a lot in the tank. Let’s go. Keep going. See how far we can go… we were ready to defend the next year. But unfortunately they wanted to make us judges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it turned out, stepping away from the competitive battle scene proved to be a blessing in disguise. “After we stopped battling,” Mike says, “I was like, okay, what’s next? We’re going to make records now. I’m gonna become a full fledged artist, you know? I don’t want to be this DJ dude. I don’t want to be a DJ guy that’s playing other people’s records standing up there. We’ve done that already. I’m going to get in the studio and be a producer, and I’m going to make music out of this whole thing, like, springboard into making original compositions. And so that’s what I’m doing, to this day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952238\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1430px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952238\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-Hawaii-1996.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1430\" height=\"1039\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-Hawaii-1996.jpg 1430w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-Hawaii-1996-800x581.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-Hawaii-1996-1020x741.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-Hawaii-1996-160x116.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP-in-Hawaii-1996-768x558.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1430px) 100vw, 1430px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz in Hawaii, 1996. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But first, the crew needed a new name. During their time DJing for FM2O, the three DJs were collectively known as Shadow of the Prophet, or simply, The Shadow. A chance encounter with an early-career DJ Shadow – who apologetically offered to change his name – led to Qbert graciously telling him that he could keep the name “Shadow,” and that he’d change his group’s name instead. “Rocksteady DJs” and “The Dream Team” were one-offs, for the most part. They needed something catchy that also reflected who they were.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day it came to them. As Qbert recounts, “We was on one, and we were laughing and laughing. And I think Mix Master Mike said, “Why don’t we be called the Invisible Pickles? We were just cracking up and we were thinking about, you know, an invisible pickle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next day, Qbert got a call from his pal Lou Quintanilla, a.k.a. DJ Disk. “And he said, ‘How about Invisible Scratch Pickles?’ I was like, that kind of sounds dope.” (Though it may sound abstract, the name is rooted in a concrete concept: the turntable as an “invisible instrument” that could be almost any instrument – drums, guitar, vocals, anything.) The crew’s offbeat sense of humor reflected in their new name had long been evident; in 1992, they released \u003cem>Battle Breaks\u003c/em>, one of the first DJ tool records specifically designed for scratching, officially credited to the Psychedelic Scratch Bastards on the Dirt Style label. In later years they would put out various releases under an affiliate record label that they named Galactic Butt Hair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before settling on the new name, though, they ran it by a younger DJ who was asked to join the crew — Jonathan Cruz, a.k.a. DJ Shortkut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952228\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952228\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.shortkut.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1193\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.shortkut.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.shortkut-800x543.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.shortkut-1020x692.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.shortkut-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.shortkut-768x521.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.shortkut-1536x1042.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shortkut. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Electro and the Art of the Quick Mix\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Growing up in Daly City, Shortkut caught the DJ bug thanks to a Filipino mobile crew who played his 6th grade dance. He started DJing at age 13, after the local Filipino sound system culture had cycled through disco, metal, and New Wave, before arriving at hip-hop, freestyle and Miami bass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Shortkut’s first exposures to a DJ battle took place in a large hall.“There would be about four to six sound systems separately set up in the one room with their own individual sound systems. Each group would get about like 20 minutes to do their thing, and then at the end of the night, whoever won. The word got out that group won, and then that’s who everyone wanted to book for school dances or birthday parties.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortkut joined a crew called Just 2 Hype, which played freestyle, Miami bass and 808-laced Mantronix singles. “That’s why I think the Bay Area is specifically more scratch-DJ based,” he says, “because everyone scratched to fast beats, all the classic electro stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also worked on perfecting the art of the quick-mix, changing up the record every four or eight bars. But records like DJ Jazzy Jeff’s “Live At Union Square” drew him into the world of scratch-mixing. “When I first started scratching, I just listened to records, basically. All the early records I used to buy, I would just try to copy what I heard on record.”\u003cbr>\nIn the late ’80s and early ’90s, he says, “I really got into embracing hip-hop” – catching up with records that hadn’t been hugely popular in the Filipino scene, and becoming further enthralled with scratching and beat-juggling. “That’s when I was first hearing about Qbert and Apollo and Mix Master Mike,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952223\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1742px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan1_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1742\" height=\"1190\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952223\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan1_.jpg 1742w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan1_-800x546.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan1_-1020x697.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan1_-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan1_-768x525.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan1_-1536x1049.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1742px) 100vw, 1742px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">First trip to Japan, 1993. At far left is B-boy and dancer Richard Colón, a.k.a. Crazy Legs from the Rock Steady Crew. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back then, Apollo was the big name, being from Unlimited Sounds. “He was the party rocker. But he was kind of the B-boy out of all the Filipino guys I knew.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As he attempted to build his DJ skills, Shortkut remembers listening to cassette tapes of Qbert scratching and mixing. Initially, he had only basic equipment, and used belt-driven turntables. “I got better once I got to direct-drives because I already knew how to handle it and have a certain feel to it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Qbert winning the U.S. DMC Championship in 1991 was huge, he says. “We didn’t really have any role models, as a Filipino kid.” He took the win as validation – and inspiration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I lived about five minutes from Q’s house,” he says. “I used to go to Q’s house with the guy who taught me how to DJ. We both cold-called Q because we knew he was the one who had all the battle videos. So we would go to his house and dub the videos and while they were dubbing, me and Q would scratch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During this time, Shortkut says, Mike had moved to Sacramento, and Apollo was DJing for Branford Marsalis, “so I would hook up with Q and Disk a lot.” Q used to bring Shortkut and Disk along when he opened up shows in the Bay – affording the younger DJs valuable stage experience. Shortkut, Mike, and Q eventually formed a crew briefly called the Turntable Dragons, pre-ISP. Then, in 1993, Shortkut, Mike, and Q played a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13935467/the-bomb-magazine-label-san-francisco-turntablism-djs\">Bomb Hip-Hop\u003c/a> Party – possibly the first time they had been billed as the Invisibl Skratch Piklz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952239\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 250px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952239\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/invisblskratchp_002-h.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The five-man crew. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘Everyone That Worked There Was Filipino’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Dave Paul, publisher of \u003cem>Bomb Hip Hop Magazine\u003c/em>, coincidentally also began as a mobile DJ in 1984 with a crew called Midnight Connections. He tells a funny story about working an after-school job for Chevron. “I wasn’t that great. So they moved me from, like, the main Chevron on Geary Street over to one on California Street. And everyone that worked there was Filipino. Turned out everyone that worked there was also a DJ.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Paul knew of Apollo from Unlimited Sounds, and had seen Qbert perform a famous “Mary Had A Little Lamb” routine during a San Jose battle around 1989 or 1990. “That really got his name out,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the annual Gavin Convention in San Francisco, Bomb Hip Hop magazine would present live performance showcases. Paul booked the Piklz on multiple occasions, beginning in 1992, when they were still called the Rocksteady DJs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Paul, the vibe of those early performances “was always sort of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDLzGtQmMyw\">don’t-give-a-fuck style\u003c/a>. Like, things didn’t have to be clean. They were just really raw. And it was just ill. They were doing stuff that no one else was doing at the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10345320\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10345320\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/QBertMain.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/QBertMain.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/01/QBertMain-400x225.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">DJ QBert. \u003ccite>(Thud Rumble)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After releasing a now-legendary compilation tape that featured Qbert along with a Canadian MC named Madchild, as well as local underground artists like Homeless Derelix, Blackalicious, Bored Stiff, and Mystik Journeymen, Bomb Hip Hop became a record label in 1995 with the release of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13937489/best-bay-area-turntablism-scratch-dj-albums\">\u003cem>Return of the DJ Vol. 1\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That record essentially started the movement of turntablism as a musical genre. The Skratch Piklz (at that time, Qbert, Shortkut and Disk) were featured on “Invasion of the Octopus People,” while Mix Master Mike contributed his first official solo production, “Terrorwrist.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Return of the DJ \u003c/em>evolved into a compilation series spanning multiple volumes, and inspired numerous others, like Om Records’ \u003cem>Deep Concentration\u003c/em> and Ubiquity’s \u003cem>Audio Alchemy\u003c/em> compilations. Asphodel, an alternative label known for ultra-underground somnolent, ambient, droney electronic music, signed the Skratch Piklz to a deal, which resulted in 1996’s single “Invisibl Skratch Piklz vs. Da Klamz Uv Deth,” which featured Qbert, Shortkut, and Mix Master Mike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952246\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1938px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952246\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1938\" height=\"1882\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca.jpg 1938w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca-800x777.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca-1020x991.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca-160x155.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca-768x746.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca-1536x1492.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ezgif-3-ae00e595ca-1920x1865.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1938px) 100vw, 1938px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Invisibl Skratch Piklz vs. Da Clamz Uv Deth,’ 1997. \u003ccite>(Asphodel Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A very strange thing about that (single) is, I had just invented scratch music,” Qbert says. “Which is this thing where every sound is scratched. Drums are scratched, the hi-hats are scratched, the snare and vocals are scratched, the chords, every single thing is scratched! No matter what is in there. So that was tracked out — like, every track was off the turntables, making a complete scratch song.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turntablism spread quickly through San Francisco’s progressive club scene in the mid-’90s. Mark Herlihy’s art/performance collective Future Primitive established itself as an avant garde music label with a live recording of Shortkut and Cut Chemist at Cat’s Alley, on Folsom Street. An outer Tenderloin hole in the wall, Deco, became a headquarters for unfiltered, ultra-creative DJ expression in its basement, via “Many Styles” nights curated by Apollo. Qbert was part of the groundbreaking alternative hip-hop group Dr. Octagon along with producer Dan the Automator and MC Kool Keith, who recorded an indie classic that got re-released nationally by Dreamworks. To this day, Qbert’s scratch solo on Dr. Octagon’s “Earth People” stands out as a particular flashpoint, the turntable equivalent, perhaps, of the guitar solos on “Hotel California” or “Comfortably Numb.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Needless to say, it’s not an empty boast when Mix Master Mike says he and the Skratch Piklz “pretty much created this genre of music.” No one was doing it before them, and many followed in their footsteps. Locally, the Bullet Proof Scratch Hamsters (aka the Space Travelers), Supernatural Turntable Artists, and the Oakland Faders all scratched and juggled. Live bands incorporating turntablists included Live Human (DJ Quest) and Soulstice (Mei-Lwun). New York’s X-Ecutioners were probably ISP’s closest counterparts nationally, having formed in 1989. But despite their turntable innovations, even they weren’t performing or recording as a \u003cem>band\u003c/em> until after the Skratch Piklz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952245\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_ISP_11_JeffStraw-2144.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_ISP_11_JeffStraw-2144.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_ISP_11_JeffStraw-2144-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_ISP_11_JeffStraw-2144-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_ISP_11_JeffStraw-2144-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_ISP_11_JeffStraw-2144-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AAA_Q_ISP_11_JeffStraw-2144-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz at the DMC World DJ Finals at The Midway in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 3, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jeff Straw)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Back when they were known as the X-Men, the X-Ecutioners faced off against the Piklz in a landmark 1996 battle in New York’s Manhattan Center – a contest so epic, it’s listed among \u003cem>Mixmag\u003c/em>’s \u003ca href=\"https://mixmag.net/feature/the-10-best-dj-scratch-battles-of-all-time\">Top 10 DJ Scratch Battles of All Time\u003c/a>. X-Ecutioners member and DJ historian Rob Swift says Qbert first came on his radar in 1991, when he beat X-Ecutioners founder Steve Dee to win the US DMC Finals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We thought he was Hawaiian,” Swift says, because Qbert appeared to be wearing a lei in the battle video. “We didn’t know that he was this Filipino DJ that came out of this Filipino community of DJs in the Bay Area. We didn’t know that there \u003cem>were\u003c/em> DJs out there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Swift later entered the 1991 New Music Seminar battle, where Qbert was a judge; the two exchanged numbers and began calling each other and exchanging videos regularly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When rappers began increasingly excluding the DJ throughout the ’90s, he says he and Qbert would discuss what to do about it., “We would both be like, ‘You’ve got these rappers (not respecting the DJ). Fuck them, and we’re going to create our own DJ scene. If the music industry is going to turn their backs on DJing, we need to figure out a way to just create our own scene.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And,” he adds, “that’s exactly what we did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952225\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952225\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Lebanon.trophy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1166\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Lebanon.trophy.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Lebanon.trophy-800x530.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Lebanon.trophy-1020x676.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Lebanon.trophy-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Lebanon.trophy-768x509.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Lebanon.trophy-1536x1018.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisibl Skratch Piklz in Lebanon. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Enter the ITF — and D-Styles\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When the Pilkz battled the X-Ecutioners, it was as much about gaining respect for turntable culture as it was about individual bragging rights. Though the court of public opinion is still split on who won, the battle put a spotlight on both crews. As Swift says, “We started strategizing ways to book our own tours and create all-DJ competitions (like) the ITF, the International Turntablist Federation,” who organized the historic battle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Founded by Alex Aquino with help from Shortkut, the ITF was established in 1995 and stayed active until 2005. It was intended as a cultural organization, and as somewhat of a critique of the DMC, which had become the only major DJ competition, following the demise of the New Music Seminar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without the DMC,” Aquino says, “we wouldn’t have this world stage for the guys to be on. But after Q lost that first battle, we were like, something has to change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Specifically, the criteria. “And so, we were like, let’s do our own battle. Let’s have real turntablists and DJs judge it, like a New Music Seminar, but instead of just the one-on-one battle, the advancement class for the belt, let’s do a scratching category. Let’s do a beat-juggling category. And let’s do a team category. And that’s how we started out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952211\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1366px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952211\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.magazine.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1366\" height=\"1834\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.magazine.jpg 1366w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.magazine-800x1074.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.magazine-1020x1369.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.magazine-160x215.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.magazine-768x1031.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.japan_.magazine-1144x1536.jpg 1144w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a Japanese magazine, date unknown. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>DJs like Vin Roc, Babu, Craze, and A-Trak all won ITF titles, as did teams like the Allies and Beat Junkies. The ITF succeeded in giving turntablists a visible platform to showcase their skills and in further popularizing the artform in the U.S. and internationally. (In 1999, the DMC would add a team category, and the organization currently rotates additional categories, including Scratch, Portablist, and Beat Juggling.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After \u003cem>Return of the DJ\u003c/em>’s “Octopus People,” with Apollo unavailable and Mix Master Mike pursuing a solo career, the Skratch Piklz needed new blood. For the next few years, ISP membership became somewhat fluid, swelling and contracting as new members joined for a while, before going off to do other projects. DJ Disk, DJ Flare, Canadian teenage prodigy A-Trak, and former Thud Rumble label manager Ritche Desuasido, a.k.a. Yogafrog, were all ISP members at one time or another, along with Shortkut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1996, Beat Junkies member Dave Cuasito, a.k.a. D-Styles, joined the Piklz and became a linchpin for the group; Aquino calls him “the hidden master.” Though not as flashy or famous as Qbert, he’s well-respected in turntablist circles and has helped focus the Pilkz on compositional elements in their music while also being able to scratch, cut and juggle at a high level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Born in the Philippines, D-Styles grew up in San Jose. Like the other Piklz, he was exposed to hip-hop through breaking and its accompanying soundtrack. “I would hear the songs that they were playing, but then they would scratch certain words and certain parts of that song. And so I was always curious how they were doing it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952229\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952229\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.qbert_.dst_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1759\" height=\"1168\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.qbert_.dst_.jpg 1759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.qbert_.dst_-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.qbert_.dst_-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.qbert_.dst_-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.qbert_.dst_-768x510.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.qbert_.dst_-1536x1020.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1759px) 100vw, 1759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grandmaster DXT and Qbert. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Aquino)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His answer came when he saw Grandmixer DST (now known as DXT)’s scratch segment on Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit.” After getting a basic Realistic mixer for his birthday, he, too, joined a mobile DJ crew (Sound City), who pooled their equipment like so many others – and spent their meager proceeds on post-gig Denny’s meals. After taking part in typical mobile battles with crews exchanging 20-minute sets, he discovered there was a battle specifically for scratch DJs, and competed in the 1993 DMC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1996, he moved to San Francisco to attend college, but what he really wanted was to pursue music. He was already familiar with Mike, Qbert and Shortkut from the battle scene, and from hanging out on Tuesday night at Deco, a small speakeasy-style jazz bar with open turntables in the basement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One strange night, I got a phone call on my answering machine and it was Yogafrog and Q, and they were like, ‘Hey, man’ – I don’t know if they were drunk or what – but they were like, ‘we need to talk, man. We think we should all come together and form a crew.” They met up and talked, and soon after, he was asked to officially join the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>D-Styles stoic demeanor compliments the other Piklz, yet beneath his focused concentration lies a punk rock attitude that aligns with Qbert’s philosophy that the only rule is there are no rules. Likewise, his turntable-composition approach balances the others’ battle-DJ backgrounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952235\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 636px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952235\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/SK-A-TRAK-1997-at-Qs.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"474\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/SK-A-TRAK-1997-at-Qs.png 636w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/SK-A-TRAK-1997-at-Qs-160x119.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shortkut and A-Trak at Qbert’s place, 1997. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Shortkut)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“As far as a turntable composer, I feel like we definitely embrace the more musical side of it, and less technical,” he says. “For the battle DJs, they really try to spray like a Uzi, you know what I mean? And just get off a bunch of power stuff and try to wow the the crowd and the judges. For music, it’s more about the long-term thing. We want to make music that’s timeless. And it’s not based off of a five-minute routine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the core Piklz now set with Qbert, Shortkut and D-Styles, Mix Master Mike – who remained affiliated with the crew – says, “I felt like we had the perfect stew. Everyone had their own style, their own identity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around this time, Mike began putting together his first solo album, \u003cem>Anti-Theft Device\u003c/em>, which he envisioned as “not an underground album (but) a worldwide release.” He imagined himself as a sonic transducer, attracting and reshaping matter into different forms. He drew on inspirations like Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham, early Public Enemy, Thelonious Monk, Rage Against the Machine and Ennio Morricone. He contemplated the subtlety of silence, of ghost notes and pregnant pauses. And then he went out and made an album with booming, deafening drums and thumping bass on nearly every track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I focused on the drums first,” Mike says. “I wanted to make sure those drums were hitting really hard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952249\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952249\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM.antitheft.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"984\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM.antitheft.jpg 1000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM.antitheft-800x787.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM.antitheft-160x157.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/MMM.antitheft-768x756.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mix Master Mike’s ‘Anti-Theft Device,’ 1998. \u003ccite>(Asphodel Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On \u003cem>Anti-Theft Device\u003c/em>, the found sounds and quirky vocal samples (“NASA maintains this is \u003cem>not\u003c/em> Colonel Blaha’s voice”) often present on DJ mix tapes resurface often, along with boom-bap beats and scratched phrases, instruments and sound effects. There are elements of intoxicated or altered reality, and bug-out moments that suggest turboized vocoders spouting underwater propellers, or seemingly random musical sample generators harnessing infinite libraries of sound, from raga to reggae to rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the end of the day,” Mike says, “it’s about spearheading the evolution of the battle DJ – as artist, composer, tastemaker.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Mike was the first Pikl to make a solo album, Qbert crafted an especially ambitious concept for his first official solo debut. As Mike tells it, he had some extra tracks left over, which he gave to Qbert. “And he fuckin’, just like, went crazy on those beats. And then, yeah. It became \u003cem>Wave Twisters\u003c/em>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952250\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952250\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/R-16932444-1610670653-3566.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/R-16932444-1610670653-3566.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/R-16932444-1610670653-3566-160x160.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">DJ Qbert’s ‘Wave Twisters,’ 1998. The album spawned a cult-classic 2001 animated film of the same name. \u003ccite>(Galactic Butt Hair Records)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Wave Twisters, the Beasties and Beyond\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Wave Twisters\u003c/em> holds the rare distinction of being a soundtrack around which a movie was later designed. The album received extremely positive reviews, making many music critics’ year-end lists. To this day, it’s regarded as one of the best turntablism albums of all time. Tracks like “Destination: Quasar 16.33.45.78” took ISP battle routines to new levels, imagining a battle in inner space between a heroic dental hygienist and the minions of a villain named Lord Ook. The track revels in sci-fi tropes, with vocal cues like “Attention, starship!” coloring the scratched, transformed and cut-up audio landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Qbert, \u003cem>Wave Twisters\u003c/em> was willed into existence. “I intentionally foresaw it because in the back of my head, I was like, I’m gonna make every song like a storyline. It’s going to be a thing. And somebody’s going to animate this. And then out of nowhere, the universe made it all work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13937489","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Meanwhile, Mix Master Mike was setting his own intentions – around becoming a member of the Beastie Boys. A longtime fan of their music, he says, “even before I met them, I always thought I was the fourth Beastie, and I was the missing element.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After meeting the Beasties’ MCA during a Rock Steady Crew anniversary in 1996, Mike took an unusual route to make his dreams come true. “I went up to MCA and introduced myself,” he recalls. “He knew who I was through all the competitions and the battles, and we exchanged phone numbers and went back home. And late at night, I would just leave these scratch messages on his answering machine. Two, three in the morning, just leaving these scratches on his machine, hoping that these transmissions would penetrate. Fortunately they did. \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/bayareahiphop/timeline#mix-master-mike-becomes-the-beastie-boys-dj\">And the rest is history\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952251\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952251\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1611\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-800x503.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-1020x642.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-160x101.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-768x483.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-1536x967.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-2048x1289.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/Beasties.MixMasterMike.2004-1920x1208.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L-R) Mixmaster Mike, Mike Diamond, Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch, and Adam ‘Ad-Rock’ Horovitz of The Beastie Boys attend the MTV Europe Music Awards 2004 at Tor di Valle Nov. 18, 2004 in Rome, Italy. \u003ccite>(Bruno Vincent/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mike joined the Beasties in time for 1998’s \u003cem>Hello Nasty\u003c/em> album, remaining part of the group until MCA died of cancer in 2012 and the Beastie Boys disbanded. “So at the end of the day,” Mike says, “it’s all about power of intention, right? And my intention was to get in the band or work with the band.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the ’90s drew to a close, the Piklz weren’t quite done. They produced Skratchcon 2000, a scratching convention, bringing together pioneering masters and acolytes of DJ scratch music. “That was our old manager, Yogafrog,” Qbert says. “His idea to put on a convention called Scratchcon, that was a genius idea of his, and we should do a Part II. We got all the best, most popular scratchers on the planet to come through. It was huge. Steve Dee was there, even Aladdin, all the X-Ecutioners, everybody. It was amazing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952252\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952252\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Garage.Group_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"983\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Garage.Group_.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Garage.Group_-800x524.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Garage.Group_-1020x668.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Garage.Group_-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/ISP.Garage.Group_-768x503.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L–R) Shortkut, D-Styles, Mix Master Mike, Yogafrog and QBert in QBert’s garage in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, 1998. \u003ccite>(Liz Hafalia /The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Skratchcon drew fans from all over the country, in addition to current and historic scratch DJs,for live showcases and demonstrations like DJ Radar’s introduction of scratch notation. The convention culminated with a live concert at the Fillmore Auditorium, billed at the time as the ISP’s last official performance. To this day, it stands as one of the highpoints of a decade overflowing with revolutionary developments in hip-hop DJ culture, which saw the Invisibl Skratch Piklz make history and become iconic representatives of turntablism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Mix Master Mike says, “There is no ceiling to this. No, it’s whatever you think about is whatever you create and whatever you can apply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11687704\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"60\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-400x30.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/06/Turntable.Break_-768x58.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13952208/invisibl-skratch-piklz-filipino-djs-daly-city-san-francisco-turntablism-history","authors":["11839"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_69"],"tags":["arts_2854","arts_21712","arts_2852","arts_10278","arts_831","arts_17218","arts_21940","arts_1146","arts_19347","arts_21711"],"featImg":"arts_13952226","label":"arts"},"arts_13950520":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13950520","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13950520","score":null,"sort":[1707948014000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"ruth-beckford-dance-black-panthers-free-breakfast-program","title":"The Dancer Who Helped Start the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast Program","publishDate":1707948014,"format":"standard","headTitle":"The Dancer Who Helped Start the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast Program | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":8978,"site":"arts"},"content":"\u003cp>[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the late 1960s, an uncommonly energetic 43-year-old named Ruth Beckford was teaching an Afro-Haitian dance class in Oakland. A dancing pro since the age of eight, Beckford had a habit of taking a close personal interest in her students. She taught the youngest ones a combination of life skills and etiquette to set them up for bright futures. She encouraged teens and young women to love themselves and pursue their dreams. And when one of her students told Beckford about her involvement with the Black Panther Party, Beckford was keen to be of assistance with that, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The student in question was LaVerne Anderson, who happened to be the girlfriend of Huey P. Newton. Beckford began by accompanying Anderson to some of Newton’s 1968 trial dates. In September of that year, when the idea for the Panthers’ Free Breakfast for School Children Program first came up, it was Beckford who sprang into action and made it happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13874853']Beckford had long been a parishioner at Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://staugepiscopal.org/\">St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church\u003c/a>, then situated at West and 27th Streets. Beckford approached her priest there, Father Earl A. Neil, to find out if St. Augustine’s was willing to host a daily program there to feed neighborhood kids. Father Neil agreed, and he and Beckford went about building a health code-safe kitchen and dining space, as well as a nutritionally balanced menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the first day — a Monday in January 1969 — 11 children came to eat. By Friday, that number had swelled to 135. Beckford and Father Neil made such a success of the free breakfasts, the program was soon mandatory in all Black Panther chapters nationwide. It was also a shining example of Beckford’s ability to turn ideas into action, and to plant seeds that would one day create mighty forests. That’s something she had already been doing in her dance classes for 22 years before she got involved with the Panthers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952106\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/GettyImages-939585344-scaled-e1707777665615.jpg\" alt=\"Several young Black boys, one of whom is wearing a suit, raise their hands to speak as they sit around a table, paper plates of food in front of them.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1298\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for Children program — like this one in New York City in 1969 — combined education and good nutrition. \u003ccite>(Bev Grant/ Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]B[/dropcap]eckford was born on Dec. 7, 1925 in Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://localwiki.org/oakland/Providence_Hospital\">Providence Hospital\u003c/a> to a Jamaican father and a mother from Los Angeles. Beckford was the youngest of four — she had a big sister and a pair of twin brothers — and was raised on 38th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard. She grew up in a household so supportive that, when they saw her kicking along to music in her crib as a baby, her parents pledged to get her into dance class as soon as she was old enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At three years old, Beckford began training in “every kind of dance,” her dedicated mom sewing all her costumes. It was clear from the beginning that the young girl was naturally gifted, and that dance was indeed her calling. By eight, she was a vaudeville dancer. By 14, she was teaching other children. At 17, she toured with the prestigious Katherine Dunham Company, where she fully embraced African and Caribbean dance for the first time. Beckford loved the work but declined a seven-year contract from Dunham so she could attend UC Berkeley instead. (Dunham remained a mentor and friend for life, and Beckford taught in her New York dance school in 1953.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13926548,pop_102326,arts_13916612']During her studies, Beckford was the only Black dancer in UC Berkeley’s dance club, Orchesis. The experience prepared her for working in majority-white companies later on. In her 20s, as the only Black dancer with the \u003ca href=\"https://calisphere.org/item/8c65bcebbbc335b04faa0cd457e3ebd7/\">Anna Halprin and Welland Lathrop\u003c/a> modern dance company, Beckford said she could sometimes hear the audience gasp as she arrived on San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once Beckford had graduated with a modern dance degree, she was keen to serve her community while doing what she loved most. First, she started an annual modern dance showcase that ran for over a decade. Then in 1947, aged just 21, Beckford started the Oakland Recreation Modern Dance Department — the first city-funded dance classes in the United States — and remained project director there for 20 years. Beckford insisted the classes be free so that anyone, no matter their means, would be able to attend. By the time she left in 1967, the department was running 34 modern dance classes for 700 students of all ages and abilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the importance of this program, Beckford later stated: “My philosophy for the young girls was, I would get them in through dance, but my whole goal was to make them be strong, free spirits. The girls got a lot of doses of self-empowerment training, self-esteem training,” she said. “Out of the thousands of girls that I taught, I knew a few would be dancers, but they all had to become women. I wanted them all to be strong young ladies — and it worked.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These relationships were so important to Beckford, she prioritized them over having children of her own. “I feel if I had had children,” she said in 2000, “I would not have been the mentor to the hundreds and hundreds of girls I mentored. I would give them all the attention. I would tell them they were special.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From 1954 on, Beckford was also running her own company, the Ruth Beckford African Haitian Dance Company. Her understanding of traditional styles was so exhaustive, she was invited to choreograph a folk festival in Haiti in 1958. At home, her company’s performances — comprised of six dancers accompanied by three drummers — were unlike anything most dance fans had seen in the Bay Area before. For a start, the company was comprised entirely of Black dancers — a refreshing contrast to the companies Beckford had grown up in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13951198\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13951198 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/GettyImages-576842076-scaled-e1706578196329.jpg\" alt=\"A Black male dancer does the splits in mid-air, while two Black women dance either side of him.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1516\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students and members of Ruth Beckford’s dance group rehearse a number in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Ted Streshinsky/ CORBIS/ Corbis via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]A[/dropcap]fter Beckford retired from teaching in 1975, there was still no stopping her. She became an author, writing an autobiography, two cookbooks and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.jstor.org/stable/2784188\">Katherine Dunham biography\u003c/a>. She also co-authored \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.everand.com/book/502678421/The-Picture-Man-From-the-Collection-of-Bay-Area-Photographer-E-F-Joseph-1927-1979\">The Picture Man\u003c/a>,\u003c/em> about Black Bay Area photographer E.F. Joseph. Her final work, \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Still-Groovin-Affirmations-Women-Second/dp/0829813373\">\u003cem>Still Groovin’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, was a book of spiritual advice and affirmations aimed squarely at mature women. “Women are sort of out there by themselves,” she said, “and women have to mentor each other. My book is a tool to help them become stronger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Still Groovin’\u003c/em> wasn’t her only means of trying to empower her peers. Between 1984 and 1988, Beckford wrote a trilogy of plays titled \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’\u003c/span>\u003cem>Tis the Morning of My Life\u003c/em>, about a woman named Roxie Youngblood who finds herself in a relationship with a much younger man. Beckford admitted the story was inspired by her own life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_102855']“I have a different energy, I think, to most men my age,” she once explained. “As long as I have this energy, I’m going to use it and have fun with younger people. Younger men have the energy I have, and I feel mine is worthy of that.” On another occasion, she noted: “Older women are marrying younger men nowadays because they find they have much more in common.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a New York theater asked permission to stage her first play, Beckford agreed only if the original Bay Area cast could perform it. “It’s time for New York to see what the West Coast can do,” she insisted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a lot of people, co-founding the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast program would have been the pinnacle achievement of a lifetime. That Beckford then went on to mentor generations of young Black women was a huge deal. And the sheer number of ways Beckford sought to be of service throughout her life is ultimately breathtaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She served on the Board of Oakland\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’s\u003c/span> African American Museum and Library, where she also founded an oral history program. She counseled homeless people in Berkeley, and women in shelters and prisons around the state. She served on a dance panel at the National Endowment for the Arts and campaigned for better theater facilities in Oakland. She founded a women’s golf club. She even spent Thursday afternoons in the late 1990s volunteering in Jack London Square’s information booth so that she might pass on her passion for all things Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ruth Beckford remained indefatigable (despite surviving five back surgeries and a hip replacement) until her death at age 93. Shortly before her passing on May 8, 2019, Beckford reflected on a life thoroughly well lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have a joyous life, I have a good time,” she said. “I choreographed my life. Step-by-step, year-by-year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Ruth Beckford used dance as a means to mentor thousands of young women in Oakland. She never stopped serving her community.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1710265590,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":23,"wordCount":1542},"headData":{"title":"The Dancer Who Helped Start the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast Program | KQED","description":"Ruth Beckford used dance as a means to mentor thousands of young women in Oakland. She never stopped serving her community.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-4[…]f-aaef00f5a073/6767ea25-cddc-42bd-baac-b12c0136bde8/audio.mp3","sticky":false,"templateType":"standard","featuredImageType":"standard","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13950520/ruth-beckford-dance-black-panthers-free-breakfast-program","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>n the late 1960s, an uncommonly energetic 43-year-old named Ruth Beckford was teaching an Afro-Haitian dance class in Oakland. A dancing pro since the age of eight, Beckford had a habit of taking a close personal interest in her students. She taught the youngest ones a combination of life skills and etiquette to set them up for bright futures. She encouraged teens and young women to love themselves and pursue their dreams. And when one of her students told Beckford about her involvement with the Black Panther Party, Beckford was keen to be of assistance with that, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The student in question was LaVerne Anderson, who happened to be the girlfriend of Huey P. Newton. Beckford began by accompanying Anderson to some of Newton’s 1968 trial dates. In September of that year, when the idea for the Panthers’ Free Breakfast for School Children Program first came up, it was Beckford who sprang into action and made it happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13874853","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Beckford had long been a parishioner at Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://staugepiscopal.org/\">St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church\u003c/a>, then situated at West and 27th Streets. Beckford approached her priest there, Father Earl A. Neil, to find out if St. Augustine’s was willing to host a daily program there to feed neighborhood kids. Father Neil agreed, and he and Beckford went about building a health code-safe kitchen and dining space, as well as a nutritionally balanced menu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the first day — a Monday in January 1969 — 11 children came to eat. By Friday, that number had swelled to 135. Beckford and Father Neil made such a success of the free breakfasts, the program was soon mandatory in all Black Panther chapters nationwide. It was also a shining example of Beckford’s ability to turn ideas into action, and to plant seeds that would one day create mighty forests. That’s something she had already been doing in her dance classes for 22 years before she got involved with the Panthers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13952106\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13952106\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/GettyImages-939585344-scaled-e1707777665615.jpg\" alt=\"Several young Black boys, one of whom is wearing a suit, raise their hands to speak as they sit around a table, paper plates of food in front of them.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1298\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for Children program — like this one in New York City in 1969 — combined education and good nutrition. \u003ccite>(Bev Grant/ Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">B\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>eckford was born on Dec. 7, 1925 in Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://localwiki.org/oakland/Providence_Hospital\">Providence Hospital\u003c/a> to a Jamaican father and a mother from Los Angeles. Beckford was the youngest of four — she had a big sister and a pair of twin brothers — and was raised on 38th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard. She grew up in a household so supportive that, when they saw her kicking along to music in her crib as a baby, her parents pledged to get her into dance class as soon as she was old enough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At three years old, Beckford began training in “every kind of dance,” her dedicated mom sewing all her costumes. It was clear from the beginning that the young girl was naturally gifted, and that dance was indeed her calling. By eight, she was a vaudeville dancer. By 14, she was teaching other children. At 17, she toured with the prestigious Katherine Dunham Company, where she fully embraced African and Caribbean dance for the first time. Beckford loved the work but declined a seven-year contract from Dunham so she could attend UC Berkeley instead. (Dunham remained a mentor and friend for life, and Beckford taught in her New York dance school in 1953.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13926548,pop_102326,arts_13916612","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>During her studies, Beckford was the only Black dancer in UC Berkeley’s dance club, Orchesis. The experience prepared her for working in majority-white companies later on. In her 20s, as the only Black dancer with the \u003ca href=\"https://calisphere.org/item/8c65bcebbbc335b04faa0cd457e3ebd7/\">Anna Halprin and Welland Lathrop\u003c/a> modern dance company, Beckford said she could sometimes hear the audience gasp as she arrived on San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once Beckford had graduated with a modern dance degree, she was keen to serve her community while doing what she loved most. First, she started an annual modern dance showcase that ran for over a decade. Then in 1947, aged just 21, Beckford started the Oakland Recreation Modern Dance Department — the first city-funded dance classes in the United States — and remained project director there for 20 years. Beckford insisted the classes be free so that anyone, no matter their means, would be able to attend. By the time she left in 1967, the department was running 34 modern dance classes for 700 students of all ages and abilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the importance of this program, Beckford later stated: “My philosophy for the young girls was, I would get them in through dance, but my whole goal was to make them be strong, free spirits. The girls got a lot of doses of self-empowerment training, self-esteem training,” she said. “Out of the thousands of girls that I taught, I knew a few would be dancers, but they all had to become women. I wanted them all to be strong young ladies — and it worked.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These relationships were so important to Beckford, she prioritized them over having children of her own. “I feel if I had had children,” she said in 2000, “I would not have been the mentor to the hundreds and hundreds of girls I mentored. I would give them all the attention. I would tell them they were special.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From 1954 on, Beckford was also running her own company, the Ruth Beckford African Haitian Dance Company. Her understanding of traditional styles was so exhaustive, she was invited to choreograph a folk festival in Haiti in 1958. At home, her company’s performances — comprised of six dancers accompanied by three drummers — were unlike anything most dance fans had seen in the Bay Area before. For a start, the company was comprised entirely of Black dancers — a refreshing contrast to the companies Beckford had grown up in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13951198\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13951198 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/GettyImages-576842076-scaled-e1706578196329.jpg\" alt=\"A Black male dancer does the splits in mid-air, while two Black women dance either side of him.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1516\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students and members of Ruth Beckford’s dance group rehearse a number in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Ted Streshinsky/ CORBIS/ Corbis via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>fter Beckford retired from teaching in 1975, there was still no stopping her. She became an author, writing an autobiography, two cookbooks and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.jstor.org/stable/2784188\">Katherine Dunham biography\u003c/a>. She also co-authored \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.everand.com/book/502678421/The-Picture-Man-From-the-Collection-of-Bay-Area-Photographer-E-F-Joseph-1927-1979\">The Picture Man\u003c/a>,\u003c/em> about Black Bay Area photographer E.F. Joseph. Her final work, \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Still-Groovin-Affirmations-Women-Second/dp/0829813373\">\u003cem>Still Groovin’\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, was a book of spiritual advice and affirmations aimed squarely at mature women. “Women are sort of out there by themselves,” she said, “and women have to mentor each other. My book is a tool to help them become stronger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Still Groovin’\u003c/em> wasn’t her only means of trying to empower her peers. Between 1984 and 1988, Beckford wrote a trilogy of plays titled \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’\u003c/span>\u003cem>Tis the Morning of My Life\u003c/em>, about a woman named Roxie Youngblood who finds herself in a relationship with a much younger man. Beckford admitted the story was inspired by her own life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"pop_102855","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I have a different energy, I think, to most men my age,” she once explained. “As long as I have this energy, I’m going to use it and have fun with younger people. Younger men have the energy I have, and I feel mine is worthy of that.” On another occasion, she noted: “Older women are marrying younger men nowadays because they find they have much more in common.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a New York theater asked permission to stage her first play, Beckford agreed only if the original Bay Area cast could perform it. “It’s time for New York to see what the West Coast can do,” she insisted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a lot of people, co-founding the Black Panthers’ Free Breakfast program would have been the pinnacle achievement of a lifetime. That Beckford then went on to mentor generations of young Black women was a huge deal. And the sheer number of ways Beckford sought to be of service throughout her life is ultimately breathtaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She served on the Board of Oakland\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’s\u003c/span> African American Museum and Library, where she also founded an oral history program. She counseled homeless people in Berkeley, and women in shelters and prisons around the state. She served on a dance panel at the National Endowment for the Arts and campaigned for better theater facilities in Oakland. She founded a women’s golf club. She even spent Thursday afternoons in the late 1990s volunteering in Jack London Square’s information booth so that she might pass on her passion for all things Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ruth Beckford remained indefatigable (despite surviving five back surgeries and a hip replacement) until her death at age 93. Shortly before her passing on May 8, 2019, Beckford reflected on a life thoroughly well lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have a joyous life, I have a good time,” she said. “I choreographed my life. Step-by-step, year-by-year.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13950520/ruth-beckford-dance-black-panthers-free-breakfast-program","authors":["11242"],"programs":["arts_8978"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_835","arts_966","arts_7862","arts_11615"],"tags":["arts_6775","arts_1346","arts_10278","arts_7408","arts_1143","arts_21841"],"featImg":"arts_13951421","label":"arts_8978"},"arts_13937270":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13937270","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13937270","score":null,"sort":[1699894805000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"the-pregnant-teen-who-captained-a-clipper-ship-in-1856","title":"The Pregnant Teen Who Captained a Clipper Ship in 1856","publishDate":1699894805,"format":"standard","headTitle":"The Pregnant Teen Who Captained a Clipper Ship in 1856 | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":8978,"site":"arts"},"content":"\u003cp>On Nov. 13, 1856, witnesses on San Francisco’s shoreline were astonished by the sight of a pregnant 19-year-old girl guiding a grand, 216-foot-long clipper ship into port. Mary Ann Patten had spent the previous two months leading the crew and cargo of the Neptune’s Car to safety from Chile’s Cape Horn. It was a role the young woman stepped up and took on after her husband — respected captain and master mariner, Joshua Adams Patten — contracted \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK541015/#:~:text=Tuberculous%20meningitis%20(TBM)%20is%20caused,to%20be%20infected%20with%20MTB.\">tuberculous meningitis\u003c/a> and pneumonia, rendering him blind, incoherent and bedridden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That Mary had successfully overseen the ship’s safe passage — even while nursing her ailing husband — made her an instant celebrity. That she was the first American woman to captain a merchant vessel made her a nautical legend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13932525']The end of the Pattens’ journey on Neptune’s Car in many ways stands as a testament to their partnership. Joshua and Mary were married when she was just 16. The refined and intelligent girl was born in East Boston to immigrant parents from England, and always had a passion for learning. Joshua was widely viewed as a man of strong principles and good character. Though he was ten years Mary’s senior, the pair quickly developed a deep dedication to one another that was rooted in mutual respect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That dedication was in evidence after the original captain of the Neptune’s Car became ill and Joshua was asked to take his place on an 18-month around-the world voyage. Keen to accept the business opportunity but loathe to leave Mary for so long, Joshua contacted New York’s Foster & Nickerson shipping company and said that he would accept the job only under one unusual condition — that his wife be allowed to go with him. His bosses agreed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937748\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1596px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937748\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM.png\" alt=\"A 19th century painting of a vast clipper ship at sea.\" width=\"1596\" height=\"1130\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM.png 1596w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-800x566.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-1020x722.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-160x113.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-768x544.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-1536x1088.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1596px) 100vw, 1596px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neptune’s Car, the ship that Mary Ann Patten would later captain, as seen in Hong Kong Harbor in the early 1850s.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Conditions aboard clipper ships in the 1850s were far from romantic. Everyday life was cold, wet and grueling. Food rations were limited, illness was common on long journeys and, though sick sailors were isolated as soon as possible, it wasn’t unusual for disease to spread in the tight living quarters. Despite what was sure to be a challenging environment, Mary had no fear about joining Joshua on the epic journey. Having been born into a family of seafarers, she held a reverence and love for the open ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For her first year aboard Neptune’s Car, Mary spent her time wisely and constructively. She studied marinery in Joshua’s library. She assisted her husband with his duties, even keeping the captain’s log. She also took the time to learn how to use the ship’s chronometers — tools to aid celestial navigation. Thanks to her curious mind and diligent personality, by the time Joshua fell ill, Mary had a solid understanding of how to run the ship effectively. It’s a good thing: If she hadn’t, the fate of Neptune’s Car would have been much bleaker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13892514']The reason it was left to Mary to captain the vessel was because the ship’s first and second mates were incapable of doing so themselves. The second mate had never learned how to navigate, and the first — a man named Keeler — was grossly incompetent to the point of dangerous. (Keeler was a hasty replacement for the original first mate, who had broken his leg just before Neptune’s Car set sail.) Keeler was such a liability that he was removed from duty while Joshua was still in charge. One 1877 newspaper article even reported that Keeler was “put in irons” after trying to start a mutiny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon after Mary took over, Keeler wrote her a letter from the brig to try and persuade her that she was ill-equipped to take charge of the ship. He, rather absurdly, suggested that he might take the job instead. Mary responded simply that her husband had not trusted Keeler, so she wasn’t inclined to either. Mary already knew that she had the trust of the rest of the crew, who had adapted remarkably quickly to taking orders from a woman — a diminutive one at that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 1857, the \u003cem>Star of the North\u003c/em> newspaper reported:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The rough sailors all obeyed the ‘little woman’ as they called her, with a will, and eyed her curiously and affectionately through the cabin windows while deep in the calculations on which her life and theirs depended … Her time was spent between the bedside of her delirious husband and the writing desk, working up the intricate calculations incident to nautical observations, making entries in the log book in her own delicate penmanship and tracing out with accuracy the position of the ship from the charts in the cabin.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>When Neptune’s Car finally arrived in San Francisco safely, Mary’s first priority was getting Joshua home and to medical attention. Because he was a member of their fraternal organization, the California Masonic Temple quickly arranged travel for Joshua and Mary back to Boston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13908327']Soon, news broke that Foster & Nickerson were refusing to pay Joshua’s wages. The resulting public outcry was so great that the New York Board of Underwriters awarded Mary $1,000 and the companies whose cargo she had safely delivered gave her an additional $1,500. (All told, that adds up to around $90,000 in 2023 money.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After receiving the money, Mary responded with a humble and widely circulated letter. In it, she wrote: “I … endeavored to perform that which seemed to me, under the circumstances, only the plain duty of a wife towards a good husband.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sadly, just eight months after the Pattens’ return home, and four months after Mary had given birth to their son, Joshua finally succumbed to his long illness at the McLean Asylum in Somerville, Massachusetts. An obituary published July 25, 1857 stated:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Deaf and blind and sick as he has been for months past, [Joshua’s] heroic wife refused to surrender him to the care of strangers. It was not until Friday, when it was apparent that his reason was gone and he was utterly unmanageable, that she consented to his removal to the Asylum. Mary had a fever herself at the time. The patience in suffering and the energy in emergencies which she has hitherto displayed may carry her over this, which she regards as the greatest of her sorrows.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Mary was not long without Joshua. She died of tuberculosis just one month before her 24th birthday, leaving her son, Joshua Jr., to be raised by his maternal grandmother. Today, Mary and Joshua are buried side-by-side in Woodlawn Cemetery, Massachusetts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearby, there is a white stone etched with the words: “Are there seas in heaven, Joshua? And is there such a vessel as our Neptune’s Car? If there is, wait for me and we shall explore the vast and boundless reaches of eternity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Mary Ann Patten was aboard Neptune's Car when her husband, the captain, fell ill. She navigated the vessel to safety.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1705092195,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":21,"wordCount":1237},"headData":{"title":"The Pregnant Teen Who Captained a Clipper Ship in 1856 | KQED","description":"Mary Ann Patten was aboard Neptune's Car when her husband, the captain, fell ill. She navigated the vessel to safety.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-4[…]f-aaef00f5a073/07cbfb3d-2008-4e9f-b066-b0bc01444a1f/audio.mp3","sticky":false,"templateType":"standard","featuredImageType":"standard","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13937270/the-pregnant-teen-who-captained-a-clipper-ship-in-1856","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On Nov. 13, 1856, witnesses on San Francisco’s shoreline were astonished by the sight of a pregnant 19-year-old girl guiding a grand, 216-foot-long clipper ship into port. Mary Ann Patten had spent the previous two months leading the crew and cargo of the Neptune’s Car to safety from Chile’s Cape Horn. It was a role the young woman stepped up and took on after her husband — respected captain and master mariner, Joshua Adams Patten — contracted \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK541015/#:~:text=Tuberculous%20meningitis%20(TBM)%20is%20caused,to%20be%20infected%20with%20MTB.\">tuberculous meningitis\u003c/a> and pneumonia, rendering him blind, incoherent and bedridden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That Mary had successfully overseen the ship’s safe passage — even while nursing her ailing husband — made her an instant celebrity. That she was the first American woman to captain a merchant vessel made her a nautical legend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13932525","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The end of the Pattens’ journey on Neptune’s Car in many ways stands as a testament to their partnership. Joshua and Mary were married when she was just 16. The refined and intelligent girl was born in East Boston to immigrant parents from England, and always had a passion for learning. Joshua was widely viewed as a man of strong principles and good character. Though he was ten years Mary’s senior, the pair quickly developed a deep dedication to one another that was rooted in mutual respect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That dedication was in evidence after the original captain of the Neptune’s Car became ill and Joshua was asked to take his place on an 18-month around-the world voyage. Keen to accept the business opportunity but loathe to leave Mary for so long, Joshua contacted New York’s Foster & Nickerson shipping company and said that he would accept the job only under one unusual condition — that his wife be allowed to go with him. His bosses agreed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13937748\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1596px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13937748\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM.png\" alt=\"A 19th century painting of a vast clipper ship at sea.\" width=\"1596\" height=\"1130\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM.png 1596w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-800x566.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-1020x722.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-160x113.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-768x544.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-07-at-11.15.33-PM-1536x1088.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1596px) 100vw, 1596px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neptune’s Car, the ship that Mary Ann Patten would later captain, as seen in Hong Kong Harbor in the early 1850s.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Conditions aboard clipper ships in the 1850s were far from romantic. Everyday life was cold, wet and grueling. Food rations were limited, illness was common on long journeys and, though sick sailors were isolated as soon as possible, it wasn’t unusual for disease to spread in the tight living quarters. Despite what was sure to be a challenging environment, Mary had no fear about joining Joshua on the epic journey. Having been born into a family of seafarers, she held a reverence and love for the open ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For her first year aboard Neptune’s Car, Mary spent her time wisely and constructively. She studied marinery in Joshua’s library. She assisted her husband with his duties, even keeping the captain’s log. She also took the time to learn how to use the ship’s chronometers — tools to aid celestial navigation. Thanks to her curious mind and diligent personality, by the time Joshua fell ill, Mary had a solid understanding of how to run the ship effectively. It’s a good thing: If she hadn’t, the fate of Neptune’s Car would have been much bleaker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13892514","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The reason it was left to Mary to captain the vessel was because the ship’s first and second mates were incapable of doing so themselves. The second mate had never learned how to navigate, and the first — a man named Keeler — was grossly incompetent to the point of dangerous. (Keeler was a hasty replacement for the original first mate, who had broken his leg just before Neptune’s Car set sail.) Keeler was such a liability that he was removed from duty while Joshua was still in charge. One 1877 newspaper article even reported that Keeler was “put in irons” after trying to start a mutiny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Soon after Mary took over, Keeler wrote her a letter from the brig to try and persuade her that she was ill-equipped to take charge of the ship. He, rather absurdly, suggested that he might take the job instead. Mary responded simply that her husband had not trusted Keeler, so she wasn’t inclined to either. Mary already knew that she had the trust of the rest of the crew, who had adapted remarkably quickly to taking orders from a woman — a diminutive one at that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 1857, the \u003cem>Star of the North\u003c/em> newspaper reported:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The rough sailors all obeyed the ‘little woman’ as they called her, with a will, and eyed her curiously and affectionately through the cabin windows while deep in the calculations on which her life and theirs depended … Her time was spent between the bedside of her delirious husband and the writing desk, working up the intricate calculations incident to nautical observations, making entries in the log book in her own delicate penmanship and tracing out with accuracy the position of the ship from the charts in the cabin.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>When Neptune’s Car finally arrived in San Francisco safely, Mary’s first priority was getting Joshua home and to medical attention. Because he was a member of their fraternal organization, the California Masonic Temple quickly arranged travel for Joshua and Mary back to Boston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13908327","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Soon, news broke that Foster & Nickerson were refusing to pay Joshua’s wages. The resulting public outcry was so great that the New York Board of Underwriters awarded Mary $1,000 and the companies whose cargo she had safely delivered gave her an additional $1,500. (All told, that adds up to around $90,000 in 2023 money.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After receiving the money, Mary responded with a humble and widely circulated letter. In it, she wrote: “I … endeavored to perform that which seemed to me, under the circumstances, only the plain duty of a wife towards a good husband.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sadly, just eight months after the Pattens’ return home, and four months after Mary had given birth to their son, Joshua finally succumbed to his long illness at the McLean Asylum in Somerville, Massachusetts. An obituary published July 25, 1857 stated:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Deaf and blind and sick as he has been for months past, [Joshua’s] heroic wife refused to surrender him to the care of strangers. It was not until Friday, when it was apparent that his reason was gone and he was utterly unmanageable, that she consented to his removal to the Asylum. Mary had a fever herself at the time. The patience in suffering and the energy in emergencies which she has hitherto displayed may carry her over this, which she regards as the greatest of her sorrows.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Mary was not long without Joshua. She died of tuberculosis just one month before her 24th birthday, leaving her son, Joshua Jr., to be raised by his maternal grandmother. Today, Mary and Joshua are buried side-by-side in Woodlawn Cemetery, Massachusetts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearby, there is a white stone etched with the words: “Are there seas in heaven, Joshua? And is there such a vessel as our Neptune’s Car? If there is, wait for me and we shall explore the vast and boundless reaches of eternity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13937270/the-pregnant-teen-who-captained-a-clipper-ship-in-1856","authors":["11242"],"programs":["arts_8978"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_7862","arts_11615"],"tags":["arts_10278","arts_21841"],"featImg":"arts_13937666","label":"arts_8978"},"arts_13932525":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13932525","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13932525","score":null,"sort":[1693577313000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"mother-thompson-san-francisco-tavern-owner-bay-area-history","title":"The Eccentric Saloon Owner Beloved and Defended by 19th-Century Sailors","publishDate":1693577313,"format":"standard","headTitle":"The Eccentric Saloon Owner Beloved and Defended by 19th-Century Sailors | KQED","labelTerm":{"term":8978,"site":"arts"},"content":"\u003cp>Sailors called her “mother,” thieves cursed her name, and for decades she entertained both at her Embarcadero saloon. Mother Thompson, as she was known, may have shared a nickname with a \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza_Thompson\">well-known temperance campaigner\u003c/a>, but her business was booze, banter, then more booze. It was also her to job to boldly defend her bar during a time when it was dangerous to be a woman behind one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13931837']Mother Thompson’s establishment, named Mrs. Thompson’s, was opposite today’s Rincon Park. Its front door was on Embarcadero between Howard and Folsom, with an additional rear entrance on Steuart Street that faced a vacant lot. \u003cem>The San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> reported in 1901 that one patron attempting to use the back entrance was robbed of his pocket watch by three men. The front entrance wasn’t much safer. In 1918, the \u003cem>Sacramento Bee\u003c/em> reported that a 41-year-old sailor named John McMahon was shot in front of the bar by an unknown assailant and died on his way to the Harbor Emergency Hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trouble didn’t always stay outside the saloon either. On one occasion when a customer refused to pay for his drinks, Thompson simply came out from behind the bar, walked up to the man, and slammed him in the throat with a length of rubber hose. \u003cem>The Oakland Tribune\u003c/em> later reported that “he went down as though struck by a pile driver,” and “a couple of swampers [men who performed odd jobs] picked him up and tossed him to the sidewalk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933424\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933424\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-800x946.jpg\" alt=\"An historical image of crowds of men gathered with mules on a busy corner. Behind them is a city block of wooden structures and shops.\" width=\"800\" height=\"946\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-800x946.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-160x189.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-768x908.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367.jpg 846w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The view, in 1900, of Embarcadero facing north from Folsom St. Mother Thompson’s bar was on the block visible behind the crowds in the foreground. \u003ccite>(OpenSFHistory / wnp37.02367)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Thompson’s regulars — mostly sailors — treated her with the utmost respect, often bringing her gifts from their travels including fine silks, wooden carvings and artificial flowers. When her tavern caught fire in 1916, sailors assisted the firemen tasked with extinguishing the blaze. \u003cem>The Chronicle\u003c/em> reported that during the fire, six men in the bar refused to leave, saying “If she goes down, we go with her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13927137']Thompson returned these kinds of favors by offering tabs and free drinks to friendly seafarers who were down on their luck. In a 1911 story in \u003cem>The San Francisco Call\u003c/em>, Thompson — apparently “getting on in years” with gray hair and a “very ample” waistline by then — was quoted as saying, “The sailor byes [boys] has a hard life with nothin’ but a plank between him and death. And so they likes to have what fun they can ashore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These men often felt protective of Thompson and assisted her when she was faced with unruly patrons. “Niver have I been insulted by sailor men,” Thompson told \u003cem>The Call\u003c/em>. “One or twice a man has started to say something, but always it was a landsman and the byes put him out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1913, when a towboat captain named Joseph C. Powell demanded repeatedly that someone else in the bar pay for drinks he’d already consumed, Thompson’s regulars were said to have set upon him, beaten him senseless and taken $5 from his pocket to pay her. \u003cem>The Oakland Tribune\u003c/em> reported shortly thereafter that Powell was “laid up at the harbor hospital for repairs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933422\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933422\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-800x630.jpg\" alt=\"A black wooden shack marked PIER 10 sits before ships docked on the San Francisco Bay. The air is thick with smoke. The ferry building is visible off in the distance.\" width=\"800\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-800x630.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-160x126.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-768x605.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The scene across the street from Mrs. Thompson’s back in 1900. \u003ccite>(OpenSFHistory / wnp4.1330)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It is fairly likely, based on the manner in which she was quoted in \u003cem>The Call\u003c/em>, that Thompson originally hailed from England. This would also explain her popularity with British sailors — she was the only bartender in San Francisco who served English ale in pewter mugs, as was customary in the U.K. at the time. Sailors from Liverpool flocked to see Thompson every chance they got. One report in \u003cem>The San Francisco Call\u003c/em> also mentioned “a swarthy, black-haired Highland Scotchman and a gray-haired old Welsh bosun” enthusiastically singing the sea shanty “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItFqjjLPjcA\">Blow the Man Down\u003c/a>” at the end of the bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thompson, though well equipped to deal with even the roughest of customers, was also known to sit behind the bar knitting on slow nights. She had raised several children — when they were young, they stayed with her at the bar while she worked — and kept a large gray cockatoo as a pet. The bird hung out at the tavern and was known to occasionally shout “Belay, there!” at noisy customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just how long Mrs. Thompson’s was in operation is now difficult to ascertain. Some turn-of-the-century newspaper articles said only the oldest of sailors would remember exactly when it opened. Based on when newspaper reports about the bar disappeared, it was likely put out of business by Prohibition in 1920.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13929998']What we do know is that between 1900 and 1940, women like Mother Thompson made up just 2% of the bartending workforce. Things got even worse in 1948 when \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goesaert_v._Cleary\">a Supreme Court ruling stopped women from working as bartenders\u003c/a> in any establishment that wasn’t owned by their father or husband, or in any town that had a population over 50,000 people. The law was designed to force women back out from behind the bar after the boom in female bartending that had happened during World War II. That law wasn’t overturned until 1971.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mother Thompson had neither the time nor the inclination to worry about whether or not her profession was suitable for someone of her gender. This undoubtedly eccentric woman was concerned only about living her life on her own terms from beneath her signature black straw bonnet. But Thompson also served as an important early example of just how successful a female bar owner could be — not to mention how beloved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She has a deal of kindness in her eyes,” \u003cem>The San Francisco Call\u003c/em> once noted, “and she smiles when she talks of the seafaring men.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Mother Thompson’s Embarcadero tavern was rough and ready, but it was a home away from home for sailors.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1705092279,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":17,"wordCount":1055},"headData":{"title":"Mother Thompson’s San Francisco Tavern Was a Sailor’s Paradise | KQED","description":"Mother Thompson’s Embarcadero tavern was rough and ready, but it was a home away from home for sailors.","ogTitle":"The Eccentric Saloon Owner Beloved and Defended by 19th-Century Sailors","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"The Eccentric Saloon Owner Beloved and Defended by 19th-Century Sailors","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","socialTitle":"Mother Thompson’s San Francisco Tavern Was a Sailor’s Paradise%%page%% %%sep%% KQED"},"audioUrl":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/0af137ef-751e-4b19-a055-aaef00d2d578/ffca7e9f-6831-4[…]f-aaef00f5a073/31669622-87e3-42ec-aad5-b07c01210b6c/audio.mp3","sticky":false,"templateType":"standard","featuredImageType":"standard","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13932525/mother-thompson-san-francisco-tavern-owner-bay-area-history","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Sailors called her “mother,” thieves cursed her name, and for decades she entertained both at her Embarcadero saloon. Mother Thompson, as she was known, may have shared a nickname with a \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza_Thompson\">well-known temperance campaigner\u003c/a>, but her business was booze, banter, then more booze. It was also her to job to boldly defend her bar during a time when it was dangerous to be a woman behind one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13931837","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Mother Thompson’s establishment, named Mrs. Thompson’s, was opposite today’s Rincon Park. Its front door was on Embarcadero between Howard and Folsom, with an additional rear entrance on Steuart Street that faced a vacant lot. \u003cem>The San Francisco Examiner\u003c/em> reported in 1901 that one patron attempting to use the back entrance was robbed of his pocket watch by three men. The front entrance wasn’t much safer. In 1918, the \u003cem>Sacramento Bee\u003c/em> reported that a 41-year-old sailor named John McMahon was shot in front of the bar by an unknown assailant and died on his way to the Harbor Emergency Hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trouble didn’t always stay outside the saloon either. On one occasion when a customer refused to pay for his drinks, Thompson simply came out from behind the bar, walked up to the man, and slammed him in the throat with a length of rubber hose. \u003cem>The Oakland Tribune\u003c/em> later reported that “he went down as though struck by a pile driver,” and “a couple of swampers [men who performed odd jobs] picked him up and tossed him to the sidewalk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933424\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933424\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-800x946.jpg\" alt=\"An historical image of crowds of men gathered with mules on a busy corner. Behind them is a city block of wooden structures and shops.\" width=\"800\" height=\"946\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-800x946.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-160x189.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367-768x908.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp37.02367.jpg 846w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The view, in 1900, of Embarcadero facing north from Folsom St. Mother Thompson’s bar was on the block visible behind the crowds in the foreground. \u003ccite>(OpenSFHistory / wnp37.02367)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Thompson’s regulars — mostly sailors — treated her with the utmost respect, often bringing her gifts from their travels including fine silks, wooden carvings and artificial flowers. When her tavern caught fire in 1916, sailors assisted the firemen tasked with extinguishing the blaze. \u003cem>The Chronicle\u003c/em> reported that during the fire, six men in the bar refused to leave, saying “If she goes down, we go with her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13927137","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Thompson returned these kinds of favors by offering tabs and free drinks to friendly seafarers who were down on their luck. In a 1911 story in \u003cem>The San Francisco Call\u003c/em>, Thompson — apparently “getting on in years” with gray hair and a “very ample” waistline by then — was quoted as saying, “The sailor byes [boys] has a hard life with nothin’ but a plank between him and death. And so they likes to have what fun they can ashore.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These men often felt protective of Thompson and assisted her when she was faced with unruly patrons. “Niver have I been insulted by sailor men,” Thompson told \u003cem>The Call\u003c/em>. “One or twice a man has started to say something, but always it was a landsman and the byes put him out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1913, when a towboat captain named Joseph C. Powell demanded repeatedly that someone else in the bar pay for drinks he’d already consumed, Thompson’s regulars were said to have set upon him, beaten him senseless and taken $5 from his pocket to pay her. \u003cem>The Oakland Tribune\u003c/em> reported shortly thereafter that Powell was “laid up at the harbor hospital for repairs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13933422\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13933422\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-800x630.jpg\" alt=\"A black wooden shack marked PIER 10 sits before ships docked on the San Francisco Bay. The air is thick with smoke. The ferry building is visible off in the distance.\" width=\"800\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-800x630.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-160x126.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330-768x605.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/opensfhistory_wnp4.1330.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The scene across the street from Mrs. Thompson’s back in 1900. \u003ccite>(OpenSFHistory / wnp4.1330)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It is fairly likely, based on the manner in which she was quoted in \u003cem>The Call\u003c/em>, that Thompson originally hailed from England. This would also explain her popularity with British sailors — she was the only bartender in San Francisco who served English ale in pewter mugs, as was customary in the U.K. at the time. Sailors from Liverpool flocked to see Thompson every chance they got. One report in \u003cem>The San Francisco Call\u003c/em> also mentioned “a swarthy, black-haired Highland Scotchman and a gray-haired old Welsh bosun” enthusiastically singing the sea shanty “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItFqjjLPjcA\">Blow the Man Down\u003c/a>” at the end of the bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thompson, though well equipped to deal with even the roughest of customers, was also known to sit behind the bar knitting on slow nights. She had raised several children — when they were young, they stayed with her at the bar while she worked — and kept a large gray cockatoo as a pet. The bird hung out at the tavern and was known to occasionally shout “Belay, there!” at noisy customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just how long Mrs. Thompson’s was in operation is now difficult to ascertain. Some turn-of-the-century newspaper articles said only the oldest of sailors would remember exactly when it opened. Based on when newspaper reports about the bar disappeared, it was likely put out of business by Prohibition in 1920.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13929998","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>What we do know is that between 1900 and 1940, women like Mother Thompson made up just 2% of the bartending workforce. Things got even worse in 1948 when \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goesaert_v._Cleary\">a Supreme Court ruling stopped women from working as bartenders\u003c/a> in any establishment that wasn’t owned by their father or husband, or in any town that had a population over 50,000 people. The law was designed to force women back out from behind the bar after the boom in female bartending that had happened during World War II. That law wasn’t overturned until 1971.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mother Thompson had neither the time nor the inclination to worry about whether or not her profession was suitable for someone of her gender. This undoubtedly eccentric woman was concerned only about living her life on her own terms from beneath her signature black straw bonnet. But Thompson also served as an important early example of just how successful a female bar owner could be — not to mention how beloved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She has a deal of kindness in her eyes,” \u003cem>The San Francisco Call\u003c/em> once noted, “and she smiles when she talks of the seafaring men.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-12127869\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-800x78.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"78\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-400x39.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/Q.Logo_.Break_-768x75.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13932525/mother-thompson-san-francisco-tavern-owner-bay-area-history","authors":["11242"],"programs":["arts_8978"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_7862","arts_11615"],"tags":["arts_6660","arts_10278","arts_21529","arts_21841"],"featImg":"arts_13933547","label":"arts_8978"},"arts_13956146":{"type":"posts","id":"arts_13956146","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"arts","id":"13956146","score":null,"sort":[1713390959000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"the-oakland-librarys-main-branch-to-close-for-six-months-for-repairs","title":"The Oakland Library's Main Branch to Close for Six Months for Repairs","publishDate":1713390959,"format":"standard","headTitle":"The Oakland Library’s Main Branch to Close for Six Months for Repairs | KQED","labelTerm":{"site":"arts"},"content":"\u003cp>The main branch of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-public-library\">Oakland Public Library\u003c/a> will soon be closed for approximately six months in order to address needed repairs, the library announced Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closure of the branch, on 14th Street in downtown Oakland, will start on May 27 and last through November 2024. Other branches of the library will remain open during the main branch’s closure, including the nearby Asian Branch on 9th Street. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Planned improvements to the library building, built in 1950, include a new roof, a new heating and cooling system, repairs to skylights, improvements to lighting and flooring, and “critical electrical system upgrades.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is never a good time to close,” said the library’s director Jamie Turbak in a statement. “However, these infrastructure upgrades underscore the critical need to invest in the future of the Main Library and are long overdue.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13938083']A $4.2 million portion of the cost for the repairs will be funded in part by the California State Library’s Building Forward Library Facilities Improvement Program. As part of the terms of the grant, the City of Oakland matched those funds through Measures KK and U, which were approved by the Oakland City Council in October 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aside from the main branch, the Oakland Public Library operates 16 other branches, as well as the Oakland Tool Lending Library and the African American Museum & Library at Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to access to books, computers, physical media and other services, the library branch hosts community events such as computer help sessions, job search assistance, mental health outreach, crafting activities and more. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The library has set up a \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandlibrary.org/main-library-closure/\">frequently asked questions page\u003c/a> regarding the closure.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"The 74-year-old building on 14th Street in downtown Oakland will close from May 27 to November.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1713390959,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":10,"wordCount":289},"headData":{"title":"The Oakland Library's Main Branch to Close for Six Months for Repairs | KQED","description":"The 74-year-old building on 14th Street in downtown Oakland will close from May 27 to November.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":""},"sticky":false,"templateType":"standard","featuredImageType":"standard","excludeFromSiteSearch":"Include","articleAge":"0","path":"/arts/13956146/the-oakland-librarys-main-branch-to-close-for-six-months-for-repairs","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The main branch of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-public-library\">Oakland Public Library\u003c/a> will soon be closed for approximately six months in order to address needed repairs, the library announced Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closure of the branch, on 14th Street in downtown Oakland, will start on May 27 and last through November 2024. Other branches of the library will remain open during the main branch’s closure, including the nearby Asian Branch on 9th Street. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Planned improvements to the library building, built in 1950, include a new roof, a new heating and cooling system, repairs to skylights, improvements to lighting and flooring, and “critical electrical system upgrades.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is never a good time to close,” said the library’s director Jamie Turbak in a statement. “However, these infrastructure upgrades underscore the critical need to invest in the future of the Main Library and are long overdue.” \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"aside","attributes":{"named":{"postid":"arts_13938083","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>A $4.2 million portion of the cost for the repairs will be funded in part by the California State Library’s Building Forward Library Facilities Improvement Program. As part of the terms of the grant, the City of Oakland matched those funds through Measures KK and U, which were approved by the Oakland City Council in October 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aside from the main branch, the Oakland Public Library operates 16 other branches, as well as the Oakland Tool Lending Library and the African American Museum & Library at Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to access to books, computers, physical media and other services, the library branch hosts community events such as computer help sessions, job search assistance, mental health outreach, crafting activities and more. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The library has set up a \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandlibrary.org/main-library-closure/\">frequently asked questions page\u003c/a> regarding the closure.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/arts/13956146/the-oakland-librarys-main-branch-to-close-for-six-months-for-repairs","authors":["185"],"categories":["arts_1","arts_235"],"tags":["arts_10331","arts_21744","arts_1143"],"featImg":"arts_13956159","label":"arts"}},"programsReducer":{"possible":{"id":"possible","title":"Possible","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? 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You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg","imageAlt":"KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn","officialWebsiteLink":"/mindshift/","meta":{"site":"news","source":"kqed","order":"2"},"link":"/podcasts/mindshift","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5","npr":"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast","stitcher":"https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/0MxSpNYZKNprFLCl7eEtyx"}},"morning-edition":{"id":"morning-edition","title":"Morning Edition","info":"\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. 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