Crosscurrents

It’s World Cup fever! So today, we go on a little Bay Area tour of how Jordanian and Algerian fans are getting hyped for their big match. 

The Jordanian national soccer team is playing in the World Cup for the first time in history. The Bay Area Jordanian American community is a tightly knit community of just a few thousand people. A group of enthusiastic fans gathered for a street party in downtown San Mateo to celebrate. Today, Crosscurrents host takes us to that street party, to hear what this historic moment means for Jordanians...

"Nashama" is the nickname of the Jordanian national soccer team. It's a word for a group of people who are chivalrous and brave...but it also relates to being generous and hospitable. Mazra, a restaurant in San Bruno, serves food from the Levant—the area that covers Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. Today, how this spot on the Peninsula embodies Nashama through food. 

Ahead of the Jordan-Algeria World Cup match, KALW's Hana Baba headed over to a favorite community store—South Berkeley Meat and Produce. People visit from all over the state to shop for nostalgic items from Algeria. It’s got a large butcher counter with all kinds of halal meat cuts, including a staple Algerian sausage called Merguez.

How far would you go to get your hands on a cassette tape? Today, we meet two music archivers from Oakland. First an Afghan man’s odyssey to preserve his cultural music. Then, a young woman from Sudan is digitizing old music cassettes for a new diaspora generation.

The Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in 2021, after the hasty conclusion to a 20 year U.S. occupation. Since then, music has been officially banned in the country. Musicians are driven underground, instruments are destroyed, and recordings are contraband. Here in the East Bay, one Afghan-American is working hard to preserve what he can. He’s digitizing tapes he’s sourced from back home and post...

Today, how the political fight over college access is impacting Bay Area students. Then, we bring you readings on grief, intimacy and rest from Black Women writers.

With graduation season wrapping up, many teenagers around the Bay Area are celebrating the end of high school and are making plans to begin college. But in Washington DC, policymakers are fighting over college access. In the past year, the Trump Administration has worked quickly to dismantle the Department of Education. And one of the major programs they want to eliminate is called TRIO, a federal...

“When We Exhale” is a new anthology collection of poetry, essays, and other writings, where Black women reflect on rest, grief, intimacy, cultural memory and healing. Jenee Darden, is the host of the KALW’s Sights and Sounds show recently welcomed the authors behind the anthology to our live event space in downtown SF. It was a night of poetry, fellowship, and connection. In this excerpt from the...

One San Francisco band has been going strong for 144 seasons. Today, we’re hitting the high notes with the Golden Gate Park Band’s music director. Then, the Conservatory of Flowers’ corpse flower is about to bloom again. Plus, we stop by the San Francisco dragon boat festival!

If you go out to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on any given Sunday from April to September… and you wander over to the concourse between the California Academy of Sciences and the DeYoung museum of fine arts… you’ll hear the Golden Gate Park Band playing at the Spreckels Temple of Music. And, when I say any Sunday, I mean it. Because the band is now in their 144th season. That’s since 1882! And...

Over the weekend, San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers announced that their corpse flower, named 'Scarlet,' would be blooming in the next 7 to 14 days. It’s an event that usually makes the news because these flowers can take up to ten years to reach their first bloom and they can smell like… death.  But they’re also endangered. And one of the Conservatory’s neighbors, the California Academy of...

As the Bay Area summer heats up, more people are spending time by the water, and sometimes you might catch the rhythmic and competitive sounds of Dragon Boat Racing. The sport is over two thousand years old and originates in China . The boats are long, thin and often decorated with dragon heads and tails. They are also very fast, powered by a team of either 10 or 20 people, these boats are propell...

For a decade, an Oakland center has been helping local young people discover the joy of writing. Today, we hear about their new anthology of works by 4th graders. Then, we find out how the whole city of San Francisco was blamed for a murder in its streets.   

In April 2023, tech executive Bob Lee was found near San Francisco’s Embarcadero with severe stab wounds. He later died from these injuries. Shortly after his death, some of the loudest voices in tech rushed to blame a chaotic, violent City.  Out of twelve murders that took place in the city that year, it was the only one to garner international attention, fueling a narrative that Lee was killed b...

KALW’s Jeneé Darden who grew up in East Oakland in the ‘80s and ‘90s… and her little kid self would’ve loved a place like Chapter 510 . The youth writing center provides a safe and empowering learning space for young writers. And Chapter 510 centers Black, brown and queer voices… and publishes their works.  Their latest book is “ When the Stars Bloom in Oakland: An Anthology of Poems by Fourth Gra...

Here is Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo reading her poem “It is I, the immigrant.”

Today, we speak with one of the lawyers that exposed a culture of corruption and racism in Oakland’s Police department. Then, for the past year, our Audio Academy fellows have been working hard to report sound rich stories from all over the bay area. Today, we pay them a tribute of thanks. 

Oakland’s Police Department has been under federal oversight since 2003. The oversight began after a civil rights lawsuit was filed on behalf of 119 residents, most of them Black men, who alleged that multiple Oakland police officers had beaten and planted evidence on them. Yesterday we heard from Darwin BondGraham, news editor at The Oaklandside and co-author of the book, "The Riders Come Out At...

Every September, KALW welcomes a new cohort of eight fellows to our Audio Academy training program that’s now in its thirteenth year. Over a span of 9 months the current cohort has been hard at work learning what it takes to report and produce sound rich audio features. Stories that allowed them to follow their curiosity, go deeper on urgent issues or celebrate the communities holding people toget...

After more than two decades, Oakland’s Police Department is on track to be released from federal oversight. Today, the future of Oakland’s PD. Then, the Flor Y Canto literary festival returns to San Francisco’s Mission District.

Oakland’s Police Department has been under federal oversight since 2003, but this year that will be coming to an end. The oversight began after a civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of 119 residents, most of them Black men, who alleged that multiple Oakland police officers had beaten and planted evidence on them.   To understand what this moment means, KALW’s Sunni Khalid spoke with Darwin BondGr...

Flor Y Canto , translates to “flower and song.” This weekend San Francisco’s Mission District will be home again to the weekend-long literary festival known as Flor Y Canto. The streets of the City’s Latino Cultural District will be filled with vibrant events, decorations, and music. All centered around the works by Latine writers, with readings happening all throughout the neighborhood.  KALW’s J...

Today, an East Bay author channels the monsters of injustice into a new horror novel. Then, one bookstore owner is helping people connect and envision brighter futures.

In the novel, “The Curse of Hester Gardens” a Black mother lives in a Michigan housing project with her teen sons. She’s raising them alone while her husband serves time in prison.  Hester Gardens is haunted and cursed.. But not just by ghosts. Injustices like systemic oppression, poverty, and gun violence have also become monsters in the residents' lives.  Tamika Thompson is the author of  “The C...