Rightnowish
by KQED
Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.
Episodes
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Rightnowish’s Grand Finale: Words of Wisdom from Timothy B.
On this final episode of the Rightnowish podcast, we end back where we started, but with some pretty significant updates. In the fall of 2019, renowned visual artist Timothy B. gave us the first full Rightnowish interview for an episode titled, 'From D-Boys to Dope Art.' During that interview...
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Building a Native Arts and Culture Space From the Ground Up
The dense green woods of Sonoma County's Forestville are home to a two-story music studio and residence that runs on solar energy. Known as The NEST, the terracotta colored building is made completely of wood, clay and cob; and it was created for the purpose of serving Native artists. Ras K'dee…
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‘All The Nights We Got to Dance’ is a Tribute to Queer Nightlife in SF
Human memory can be triggered by certain smells, sounds or even a photo. It's funny how the mind works; one small symbol can lead to the rehashing of feelings from years ago. The latest work from artist Marcel Pardo Ariza urges people to take a trip down memory lane by using images of gone but…
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Loove Moore the 'Out Here Specialist' Leads by Example
West Oakland's Loove Moore is a superhero. His special power? His ability to participate. He's a talented musician, dancer, and community documentarian, who interviews people about everything from current events in the Bay Area to how they define love. Plus he can get down behind the camera,...
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Tomas Moniz’s New Book Is an Ode to Friendship in the Bay Area
Tomas Moniz's novel All Friends Are Necessary explores the profound depths of friendship and the unique ways in which love is expressed. The book is chock-full of remedies for grief, sweet moments between friends, observations about Mother Nature and shoutouts to some key Bay Area landmarks and...
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Jazz Meets Hip Hop in Bassist Giulio Xavier Cetto’s World
Jazz and hip-hop are technically two different genres of music, but for bassist and composer Giulio Xavier Cetto, the connection between the two is indivisible. Both genres seamlessly compliment each other as they show up in the music Cetto listens to as, as well as the music he makes. On this...
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Miguel “Bounce” Perez’s Culture Flows Through His Ink
This week we revisit a story that was originally published September 2, 2022 as part of “Permanent Behavior: Getting Tatted in the Bay” , a four-part series, about local tattoo artists. Miguel "Bounce" Perez is a visual artist who owes a lot of his talents to childhood memories with his family.…
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When the Youth Speak, Mush Lee Listens
This week on Rightnowish we take a little dive into family history and explore the big concerns of the next generation with published poet, educator and youth advocate, Michelle "Mush" Lee. Lee is the executive director of the well renowned poetry organization, Youth Speaks. The organization…
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One Time for Public Media Podcasts
We love having conversations about culture, identity and place with local change makers and hometown heroes. If you appreciate the work that we do on Rightnowish, please visit https://donate.kqed.org/podcasts to support us.
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‘Ear Hustle’ Introduces Us to Seniors in the California Institution for Women
As we celebrate Mother's Day, we're taking some time to honor those who have strained relationships with their mothers, are missing their mothers or grew up without their mothers. We're also thinking about the mothers who are missing their children for one reason or another. More than just…
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D Sharp: The DJ with Four NBA Championship Rings
The Golden State Warriors had a rough 2023-2024 campaign, but at least the music was slappin'. During timeouts, breaks between quarters and sometimes even when the ball was in play, the Chase Center's speakers would vibrate with the sounds of legendary Bay Area hip-hop artists. The person often…
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nic feliciano Is Blessed With The ‘Curse of an Overactive Creative Mind’
nic feliciano (who also goes by Coco Machete) contains multitudes. She's a fashionista who currently resides in Berkeley, but was born in the Philippines and spent her teenage years in Southern California. After moving to the East Bay for school two decades ago, she's grown into a playwright…
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Deep Sea Fishing, Filipino Roots & Belonging “Where We Are”
Adonis is a DJ who is immersed in downtown Oakland's nightlife scene. When they're not on the turntables, Adonis spends significant portions of their summers deep sea commercial fishing in Alaska. Adonis sees it as a way to pay bills, build community, and learn more about their Filipino roots.…
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The Chronic Pain Of White Supremacy
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. Dr. Cadet talked with the…
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Rightnowish Presents: Immigrantly’s Conversation with Musician Meklit Hadero
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...
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Zoë Boston, the Artistic Alchemist
Zoë Boston is a talented artist who takes the highs and lows of life, and creates moving works of art of all sorts. She paints huge, brightly-colored aerosol murals depicting otherworldly beings, with elements of Afrocentrism and scenes inspired by nature. She also does oil-based paintings on...
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Mamas for a Free Palestine: Safety Doesn't Come From Bombs
The Mamas for a Free Palestine collective is made up of mothers across the Bay Area who say they are fed up with business as usual. While they are a relatively new group, these mothers are not new to activism and political organizing. With their children in tow, they are joining with other social...
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Sabreena Haque on Marking Transitional Milestones with Henna
Mehndi or henna artist Sabreena Haque talks to KQED's Pendarvis Harshaw about setting intentions when having art added to your body, doing menna, aka henna for men and expanding into tattoos.
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Michelle Cruz Gonzales of Spitboy is Punk AF and Lived to Teach About It
This week KQED's Sheree Bishop speaks to Michelle Cruz Gonzales. Michelle spent the late 90s in two iconic all-female punk bands, Spitboy, and Kamala and the Karnivores. In 2016, she released a memoir about her time in Spitboy and being the only woman of color in that band. Now, she teaches…
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George Crampton Glassanos has Pendletons, Paint and Passion
George Crampton Glassanos says he isn't an artist, he's a painter. Despite this assertion, his work is full of eye-catching colors and symbols representative of San Francisco's Mission district culture. It's born out of both a need to serve others, and George's personal urge to create. He's also...
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Learn to Merge: Northern California Freeways & Culture
Last year I drove over 33,000 miles all around Northern California, constantly pursuing a deeper understanding of this region's culture. And then one day, while sitting in traffic, it hit me: you can tell a lot about our culture by simply looking at the freeways. This week, as we celebrate...
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Six Decades of Painting Black History
Ira Watkins paints Black history while living it. He's a self-taught visual artist who has been using dazzling colors, expressive images and hidden messages to document Black history for decades. His work has graced the walls of his Bayview neighborhood and has been shown at the Tenderloin…
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Tommy Guerrero Creates Lo-fi 'Music From the Earth'
As a kid in San Francisco, Tommy Guerrero would stand on his skateboard, sliding down the steep hills of San Francisco slalom style. He'd dodge the dangerous objects in traffic and aim for the lips of the driveways he'd pass, going off them in attempts to catch air. This skillset allowed him to…
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The ‘Qing’ of Queens
Qing Qi is an artist, talented MC, and an actress who doesn't mince words. Her lyrics are explicit for a reason. She looks at the atrocities that readily happen in this country and all around the world, from bombings to kidnappings, and then she asks what's wrong with saying a few four letter…
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Underground Rap, Playa Sh*t, Political Joints: Equipto has Bars
Equipto (born Ilyich Sato) is a hip-hop cultural cornerstone and well-known activist who reps San Francisco to the fullest. He's been making music since the 90s, when he came in the game laying down tracks with the underground group, Bored Stiff. Equipto has rocked shows with the late Mac Dre and...
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Rob Woods Knows You Are Worthy
"Been through it all but I feel like it was worth it, not a perfect man but I feel like I am worthy," sings musician Rob Woods in a raspy yet uplifting tone that's reflective of the sentiment in his trademark song, "Worthy." Woods wrote the song in collaboration with Ricky Jassal, who he met…
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From Buskin’ on BART to Teaching Turfin’
"Turfin' is a way of life for me," says Telice Summerfield, a dancer who has the ability turn a BART platform into a stage where she can glide, tut, bend and bone break on beat. She exchanges energy with onlookers; they get entertained and she gets empowered. The dance is an art. It's also a...
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Boots Riley is Directing the Future
From global issues to community conflicts, Boots Riley has had a foot in a number of the major current events of the past year, and he says he's not done yet. So we're kicking off 2024 by talking to someone who has their finger on the pulse of the culture, and a hand in directing the future.
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'Indigenizing' San Francisco (Yelamu): The Cultural District Honoring Native History
Marisol Medina-Cadena takes a tour of the American Indian Cultural District. It was founded in San Francisco's Mission neighborhood in 2020 to serve as a home base for the Urban Native community. This episode originally aired on July 22, 2022.
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The Coolest Place on Earth: The Public Library
This week on Rightnowish, we talk to librarian Mychal Threets about what it's like to be a social media star and how the public library system is a place for all.
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Music in the Key of Fatherhood
This week Pendarvis Harshaw talks about how the music he grew up listening to, plays into how he and his daughter bond over music now.
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Wives Angelica Medina and Jahaira Fajardo Share Culture Through Dance
Angelica Medina’s first memories of dance are from when she was five years old doing steps to a Selena performance on TV. Her wife, Jahaira Fajardo, remembers being a New York club kid in her late teens, when she thinks of her earliest dance experiences. That’s because dancing felt very...
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Meet the Emo Drag King Who's Bending the Gender Binary
Born and raised in Oakland, Helixir Jynder Byntwell did drag as a hobby until August 2022. That's when they quit their job, won the SF Drag King of the Year competition, and became a professional king, all in the span of a week. Since then, they’ve joined the Rebel Kings of Oakland, a performance...
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The Hip-Hop Photojournalist Who Makes Guests Feel At Home
Inside of a classic Queen Anne Victorian in West Oakland, photographer Traci Bartlow displays beautifully framed images of the people who shaped hip-hop culture here in the Bay Area, and across the nation. Photos of Outkast and Queen Latifah, Busta Rhymes and ODB, hang alongside images of the…
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Hyphy Kids Got Trauma Pt 4, "My Generation's Report Card"
Despite the uptempo party music and the perception of free-spirited fun, it's clear that 2006 was a violent year in my Northern Californian community. But until recently, I hadn't stopped to consider the issues impacting the kids of the Bay Area in the early 2000s, during the hyphy movement:...
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Hyphy Kids Got Trauma Pt 3, "From DVDs to MTV"
In the early 2000s, the underground DVD business was a major conduit of culture. Those documentaries showed the backstory of hip-hop artists and street culture all across the United States. One of the films Hood 2 Hood: The Blockumentary,, also included an early depiction of hyphy culture as I…
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Hyphy Kids Got Trauma Pt 2, "We Dance Different"
Before the "hyphy movement" and even prior to having its own name, the style of dance now commonly known as Turfin' or Turf Dancing, provided an outlet for young folks in Oakland to party to their favorite music, have fun by physically telling stories and express themselves while taking up room…
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Hyphy Kids Got Trauma Pt 1, “In the Building”
The Hyphy Movement was often looked at as goofy, but there was a lot of pain behind those big sunglasses and oversized airbrushed t-shirts. Welcome to Hyphy Kids Got Trauma, a four-part series about the Bay Area, and the significance of the year 2006. In part one we land in Oakland and meet host...
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Rightnowish Presents 'Hyphy Kids Got Trauma'
Rightnowish Presents 'Hyphy Kids Got Trauma' - A four part exploration of a transformative year in Bay Area music history, 2006, through the eyes and ears of Pendarvis Harshaw. As a college student and burgeoning journalist at the time, Pendarvis navigates the shifting tides of a culture in...
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Rightnowish Presents Ritually Podcast: 'A Feminist Call to Prayer'
Hey Rightnowish listeners, today we’ve got a special bonus episode to share with you. It’s from our friends at Ritually, a new podcast, from Brazen Media hosted by London-based journalist Nelufar Hedayat. She’s reported about all sorts of things — human trafficking, the war in Afghanistan (where...
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Adorned: Host Marisol Medina-Cadena Exits Her Flop Era
What began as a personal quest to get out of this rut (or flop era as the chronically online people say) that I was experiencing, quickly developed into my focal point for work. So, I enlisted the help of my podcast department colleagues to help me figure out how I would translate this self help...
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Adorned: Chelsea Macalino-Calalay Makes the Bling of Your Dreams
Jewelry designer and brand creator of Wyphys, Chelsea Macalino-Calalay exudes fierceness, but also serenity. Rocking bleached brows that match her shag-mullet, a crystal blue gem on her canine tooth, delicate rings, and a thick gold chain, heart pendant choker, that was inherited from her auntie,...
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Adorned: Florist Jessica Cotrim on Letting Our Intuition Bloom
The dahlia is San Francisco’s official flower and it’s also a favorite for the Excelsior raised floral designer, Jessica Alicia Cotrim. Her love for San Francisco and her neighborhood is on full display when you walk into her cozy shop, Beija Flor Flower Gallery. Between the hanging dried roses,...
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Adorned: Sophia Mitty Stitches Her Pride for the 415
When Sophia Mitty first started to sew, she was making it work from her bedroom. She’d place a wooden board on top of her bed as a makeshift table in order to cut out patterns. Nowadays, Mitty has her own work space to really spread out and create. Located in South San Francisco, her studio...
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Adorned: Perfumer Mauricio Garcia Puts the Aroma of The Bay in a Bottle
The Bay Area is home to enchanting ecosystems. For starters, we have sand dunes, golden grassland hills, redwood forests, and the pacific coast. Whenever I get a waft of the marine fog or the cool Bay breeze, I feel cleansed. Now imagine being able to take in that smell whenever or wherever you...
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Pocho Poet Josiah Luis Alderete Speaks Fire In The Mission
In a city that gives the cold shoulder to working class people and creative folks that aren't backed by trust funds or tech money, Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore opens their doors to those who still care about the artistic soul of San Francisco. It's a place where you can walk in and be…
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The SOL Affirmations Podcast Talks The Gift of Impermanence
On today's show we're passing the microphone to Dr. Felicia Gangloff- Bailey and Karega Bailey, hosts of the SOL Affirmations podcast. Karega and Felicia are both educators, and members of the R&B-soul-hip-hop band SOL Development. They're also a married couple who’ve navigated the harsh…
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Liner Notes: Flutist and Vocalist Elena Pinderhughes is Limitless
Elena Pinderhughes has been around the East Bay jazz scene since before she learned how to walk. Since recording her first published work as a kid, she has gone on to share stages with Herbie Hancock and work with Carlos Santana. She's also played NPR's Tiny Desk with Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah...
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Liner Notes: Big Vibin' with Bassist Giulio Xavier Cetto
Raised in musical family, Giulio Xavier Cetto's musical influences range from his Venezuelan-Italian heritage to Bay Area rap. Giulio can play multiple styles and genres with ease, but at the intersection of jazz and hip hop is where his artistry truly shines. He brings an electric energy to his...
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Liner Notes: Dr. Angela Wellman and Music Of The Highest Order
Dr. Angela Wellman’s musical journey traces back to her upbringing in Kansas City, MO. As a young person involved in a music training initiative that was backed by the CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) program, she found the trombone– or rather, it found her. In 2005, after music...
About this show
Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.
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KQED
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