Crosscurrents

Today is Cinco de Mayo! And for the Bay Area that means lots of events featuring mariachi! Many of the songs are sung from the men’s perspectives, and they sometimes carry machismo messages. Mariachi Femenil Orgullo Mexicano is changing that narrative. 

How seven thousand stranded passengers in a small Canadian town inspired a broadway musical.

This month, a transitional housing program for unhoused people in Oakland is closing. Then, how poetry can invite us to celebrate the threads that connect us to one another.

Today, we’re going to feature some of the musicians who have provided a soundtrack for Bay Area protests, the Brass Liberation Orchestra.

Struggling with homelessness can make it hard to maintain simple routines. Today, the artist inviting the unhoused community to come as they are. Then, one new novel is inspired by the legacy of environmental racism.

Today, we'll see how an encampment in Berkeley is coming together with the help of one resident.

One new novel from an Oakland writer is inspired by the legacy of environmental racism.

April is National Poetry Month and to celebrate in proper style Bay Poets has been exploring the Poetry Center at SF State’s amazing archives. Today, we wrap up the series and poetry month by talking about San Francisco’s current Poet Laureate, Genny Lim.

Poets have always given a voice to social movements. So today, we bring you a conversation with San Francisco’s first Latino Poet Laureate about how this art from shows up now. 

A Palestinian folk dance group is bringing their people’s story to the big stage. Blending the old and the new into one struggle for freedom. And, a first generation immigrant from the Palestinian and Lebanese diaspora shares poetry. Plus, how the wrongful conviction of two Filipino-immigrant nurses inspires a dance production in San Francisco.

Dabke is an Arabic folk dance with roots in Palestine . In Oakland, one troupe is bringing the generations-old dance to the big stage on April 26th- along with the story of their people’s struggle for freedom. 

Today we will be listening to musician and poet Camellia Boutros read an excerpt from her poem.

How the wrongful conviction of two Filipino-immigrant nurses inspires a dance production in San Francisco.

Today, how the ocean can be a very queer place, literally and metaphorically. Then, one play is bringing the excitement of basketball to the stage. And, a poem that takes photobombing to an almost spiritual level.

There is a growing number of people connecting with the ocean through the outdoor activity called tidepooling. KALW Reporter Anna takes us to a queer tidepooling events in the Bay Area to figure out what makes exploring these places on our coasts important, particularly for queer folks.

The play “Flex” takes audiences back to 1998, right after the launch of the WNBA. It is an exciting time for a high school girls basketball team in a dusty, rural Arkansas town. The young ladies are playing hard to win a state championship.

For poetry month Berkeley poet Zack Rogow ponders how the simple act of photobombing persists with a life of its own. 

Today, we hear how the need for housing can clash with the need to protect our natural resources. Then, how residents of the agricultural town of Pescadero have been dealing with flooding for decades.

Cities along the Bay Area shoreline are trying to restore wetlands to help mitigate floods and fight climate change. But as housing prices in the Bay skyrocket some cities like Newark, are also looking to that empty land to build housing.

Pescadero is a small farming town about two miles east of highway 1 on the coast. Today how the residents of the agricultural town in San Mateo County have been dealing with flooding for decades.

Today, we peer through the lens of over 120 years of Muni photography. Then, an immersive show that is set in one of the San Francisco homes that survived the 1906 earthquake. And, a dad gets a first class lesson in empathy at a family visit in prison.

A photographic exhibit at City Hall that came from a hidden archive highlights one of San Francisco’s most venerable institutions.

" EARTHQUAKE! Shaken, But Standing Strong " is an immersive historical show and tour of the surviving Haas-Lilienthal House that will take place on April 17 and 18.

Uncuffed producer Michael Callahan shares a story about how sometimes the roles get reversed when he's parenting from prison. 

For poetry month Oakland poet James Cagney walks us down memory lane with an ode to the home he grew up in. Here is his piece 'What Remains Eternal.'