Crosscurrents

If you’ve made media art in the Bay Area sometime in the last fifty years… you probably know the Bay Area Video Coalition : BAVC. Around 2,500 students and media makers of various ages take classes at BAVC every year. And BAVC artists have received Oscar nominations, and won Emmys! One of their students was KALW’s Jeneé Darden, who is now the host of the Sights and Sounds show. To mark their 50th...

June is National Immigrant Heritage Month. And that brings us to another legacy Bay Area arts institution was founded by immigrants from west Africa: Diamano Coura West African Dance Company in Oakland . Founded by award winning artistic directors,  Zakarya and Naomi Diouf,   They've been performing and teaching dance from Western and Central Africa since 1975.  Over the decades, Diamano Coura dan...

Immigrant artists have a big impact on their adopted countries, but many also leave a legacy in their countries of origin. Daisy Zamora has been a foundational force of poetry here in San Francisco… but before she left her home of Nicaragua she was an active combatant in the movement to topple the Somoza dictatorship in the early 70’s. Today she is a professor of Latina/Latino Studies at San Franc...

Today, we explore a series that captures San Francisco at the height of the AIDS epidemic. It's a conversation with the host of “When We All Get To Heaven.” Then, we visit the Bay Area’s first women’s sports bar- Rikki’s. Plus, a poem about found family. 

Pride Month is a time to celebrate accomplishments of LGBTQ+ individuals, and commemorate the ongoing fight for the whole community to gain equality and justice. It’s also a time to remember and honor those we’ve lost. That includes the millions of people that have died of AIDS-related illness. That’s the aim of the Peabody award winning documentary project, ‘When We All Get To Heaven.’ With archi...

In June 2025, San Francisco welcomed its first women's sports bar: Rikki’s! In honor of Rikki’s first anniversary, here’s the story of how it came to be, from the host of Bounce, KALW’s Erin Lim. 

Now, a poem about becoming ourselves, with the help of our chosen family. This is San Jose Poet, Lorenz Mazon Dumuk reading his poem, “Everyday I become an Egg.”

Today, we take dancing to a deeper level with Afro-Cuban folklore. Experiencing dance as spiritual practice. And, we head over to Oakland's first Haitian restaurant for some hearty, braised goodness.

June is Caribbean Heritage Month. And The Bay Area is home to a vibrant Caribbean American community, including thousands of Haitians. Crosscurrents host, Hana Baba wanted to visit one Haitian American that’s been in the culinary news over the last few years - his restaurant was named one of the tastiest restaurants in the Bay Area by the SF Chronicle, among other accolades. He’s Chef Frantz Felix...

You can experience Caribbean culture in the Bay Area though delicious food. And also through rhythm and dance. Next a dance form that’s deeply connected to the history and faith systems of one Caribbean culture - Afro-Cuban folkloric dance. Reporter Leila Day experienced this dance form on a visit to the Dance Mission Theater in San Francisco. And brings us this story

Here’s Nia Pearl reading her poem ‘Bones talk out of the side of their neck. You can hear more from local poets here. 

It’s California’s primary election day. Today, we hear how first time voting can be daunting... and depending on where you are, a potentially baffling experience. Plus, we paddle out with the Queer Surf Collective.

Figuring out where and how to cast a ballot can be difficult to navigate, especially when we are leading busier lives and also investing time to make informed voting decisions. It gets even trickier when it is your very first time casting a vote, like many California teenagers that have just turned 18.  So our first story today is from TBH, our podcast, by, about and for teenagers. But before we g...

Two Bay Area surfers are opening up the possibilities at the shoreline. Kyla Langen and Nic Brisebois are the founders of the Queer Surf Collective. They invite all bodies, all and boards to surf differently, and more inclusively. In 2024, Reporter Leenah Bassouni learned how they are pushing queer culture from the bars to the beach.

Today, one school program in San Francisco is connecting ethnic studies and environmental science, to nurturing belonging. Then, an immersive play that brings audiences to an important moment in local trans history. And, we hear about a little piece of fabric that represents the living history of San Francisco, and LGBTQ+ pride.

The Bay Area is known for its beautiful natural places and for being the birthplace of many social movements. One school program has found common ground between the two. For over 25 years, two high schools in the city have combined ethnic studies with environmental studies. Reporters Paula Sibulo and Olivia Mendez are recent graduates of San Francisco State. In this story, they wanted to explore h...

Late on a summer night in 1966, a cop put his hands on a customer at a popular gathering space for trans women and drag queens. Coffee was thrown in his face, and a riot erupted right there at Compton's Cafeteria in the Tenderloin. This moment was one of the first documented acts of LGBTQ+ resistance in the country.  For the past year, an immersive play called The Compton's Cafeteria Riot has been...

San Francisco laid many of the bricks that built the road to LGBTQ+ liberation, equality, and Pride. One of them takes the shape of a piece of fabric, that’s also a piece of living history.  In this story from 2023, by reporters Sandra Halladey and Alastair Boone, we hear about how the first Pride Flag came to be. And how the bit of cloth, the iconic rainbow, and the pride movement, live on.  On t...

Today, we’ll hear how Bay Area listening bars have their roots in World War II Japanese culture. Finding a space just for music. Then, we’ll unpack the throughline that connects the different Chinatowns around the world. Plus, a poetic ode to the Mission.

A different kind of bar scene has grown across the Bay Area since the pandemic: listening bars. Derived from a tradition that took off in 1930s Tokyo, they're businesses that play high-fidelity music from vintage speakers. Reporter Nava Rawls went to find out if these special places made for listening are one-hit wonders… or here to stay.  

This is our last episode airing during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, so today we bring you a conversation from our friends at the podcast “Worst Quality Crab.”  Their show is a conversational version of an Asian American cookbook. It’s hosted by Freesia and Samson Lee, and they talk to guests about food that is meaningful to them, family history, and the people that make thei...

San Francisco’s first Latino poet laureate, Alejandro Murguia published his poem ‘Mission Vision,’ in 2013. Here is Bay Poets host Josiah Luis Alderete reciting it.

Today, we hear advocates defend their cases for San Francisco’s competing tax propositions. We’re getting into San Francisco props C and D. Then, we hear from a young South Bay organizer on how youth are feeling about voting this year. Then, how James Baldwin inspired this year’s theme for the Bay Area Book Festival.

Next Tuesday, June 2nd, is California’s 2026 primary election. And there’s a lot for voters to decide on. In San Francisco, two competing propositions have become a high-stakes referendum on how the city taxes its largest employers: Prop C and Prop D. KALW recently hosted a live conversation between proponents of both Props C and D. It was co-presented with the San Francisco Public Press, and mode...

As we wrap up Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, many in the diaspora will also be getting ready to vote, some for the first time. Next we’ll hear from the younger generation. Ralph Leaño Atanacio works with AAPI Youth. They are a queer Filipinx immigrant, and the Co-Director of the South Bay Youth Changemakers. It’s an organization that builds up Asian American youth voices by fo...