Rightnowish

Jane Handcock has written for some of the top names in music, and now it's her turn to step into the limelight. She's an R&B vocalist from Richmond, who has penned songs for the likes of Kelly Rowland, Rick Ross, Teddy Riley and Tyrese. As of late she's worked with the Grand Nationxl collective, dropping multiple songs on their group productions as well as a solo project of her own.  Now Jane, who...

In Evelyn LaChapelle's first team meeting at a new job in the cannabis industry, they were discussing sales when she noticed a "righteous anger" brewing inside her. "My paperwork says I went to jail for over a hundred kilos of cannabis," says Evelyn, "and they're talking sales goals in kilos."   Since Evelyn was incarcerated for marijuana related charges, she's worked in the hospitality industry,...

East Oakland's Capolow is a rapper on the rise. Known for his high-energy anthem songs and his catchy "aye-aye!" ad lib, Capolow's music is ringing bells in the Bay Area and beyond. He made an album called "Oakland Nights" with Kamaiyah, and has made individual tracks with E-40, ALLBLACK, and Nef The Pharaoh. But before he was a rapper – ten years ago – Capolow was one of the students in my class...

"Dynamite" Daisy Bamberger stands inside the ring by herself, shadowboxing. She's surrounded by free weights, kettle balls, punching bags and framed photos from old tournaments. Daisy continues to go through her routine. It's a routine that's obviously working for her. Daisy is a highly decorated 19 year-old boxer from Hayward. After ranking number one in the country and winning 10 national champi...

Xiomara's "Chardonnay" was my song this summer. The track is an audio version of driving down Highway 1 at sunset. Smooth and melodic, with an earnest message to the listener-- advising them to steer clear of that glass of wine they're considering purchasing. Xiomara says that "Chardonnay" is a metaphor about living within your means and "examining this desire for some far off things, some opulent...

At San Francisco's Public Glass, locals have the opportunity to get hands on experience in this ancient and evolving craft. The organization's executive director, Nathan Watson, says his mission is to ensure that Public Glass isn't just located in the Bayview neighborhood, but actually involves community members in their work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wanted nail art that highlights your favorite Disney Movie? Maybe nails that show Mulan below a cherry tree, or Alice at her Wonderland tea party, or maybe you want to see Stitch getting into shenanigans across your hands... Whatever your preference, Vivian Xue Rahey has you covered. These conversation pieces are clear fan favorites online. Vivian's Pamper Nail Gallery has hundreds o...

Tajai Massey sees Hiero day as a physical manifestation of the Souls of Mischief's most famous song, "93 Til Infiinty", where he and the other emcees give listeners a taste of life in Oakland. These days, living in Oakland, it's hard to ignore the growing wealth disparities, the massive unsheltered population, and continued gentrification. "A lot of folks I see during Hiero Day, they've had to mov...

Wolfe-Goldsmith teamed up with a handful of artists to create the 5th Story NFT art gallery, where murals were adapted into augmented reality by Black Terminus Labs. They are also converting the art into three dimensional pieces that will be housed on the blockchain network and sold as NFTs, which will allow the creators to have more control over the value of their work. Wolfe-Goldsmith is a talen...

Prentice Powell is an East Bay poet whose been working from home a lot lately. This has caused some confusion for his kids, "They were just like, 'So dad, do you have a job?'" Powell does have a job, and does big things: he's performed his poems on The Arsenio Hall Show, Verses and Flow, and in the upcoming Nick Cannon movie, She Ball. And just this week, Powell concluded a residency at The Kenned...

As the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the health of individuals and communities around the world, Harvey Lozada focused on the stories coming from the neighborhood just south of San Francisco's Market Street, the SOMA District. Through the film “It Takes The Hood to Save The Hood," Lozada shows how community organizations shifted their focus from being community resources, to being first responders.  ...

Bookcases and bird feeders take shape amid the whir of chop saws, the bang of hammers and the trill of drills. Behind the power tools are girls and non-binary youth, mostly in high school and middle school, but the youngest builders start at age 9. West Berkeley's Girls Garage was founded by Emily Pilloton-Lam in 2013, the organization's mission is to make sure young women and non-binary teens hav...

In 2006, when music producer Trackademicks remixed the smash hit by E-40 and Keak Da Sneak, "Tell Me When To Go," he created a cultural jewel that sent waves throughout the Yay. The remix took a seminal song from the Hyphy Movement, added a unique wrinkle, and then proceeded to make your face melt. The track could be heard at pep rallies in the valley, in nightclubs in San Francisco and blasting o...

Dueñas Car Club is a sisterhood that rolls on 100-spoke rims. Founded in 2019 and based in Sunnyvale, the head of the club is Angel Romero. She's been cruising the strip since she was a kid as a passenger in her mother's lowrider. It was through her mother that Angel inherited her passion for cool cars, cruising through the city, and serving the community. Now, the members of the car club work wit...

Santa Rosa’s Randy Harlan and Bolinas’ Garnett Silver-Hall are known for using wheelchairs the same way others use skateboards-- grinding on rails and riding off ramps. The duo are both adaptive athletes in the "chair skating" community and founders of Northern California's Wheelchair Motor Cross-- WCMX. After connecting through mutual friends, the two have skated at parks in Northern California a...

Marsha Howard grew up in the skateboarding mecca of San Francisco. After getting her first board as a gift from a St. Anthony's Christmas donation program when she was 13 or 14, she's skated with friends in front of the Ferry Building and bombed down the windy roads of Twin Peaks. She's also worked at Thrasher Magazine and been a skateboarding fashion model. Nowadays she's a teacher and skates for...

For his daughter's fourth birthday, Pen adopted an adorable gray and white kitten. His thinking? It'll teach his child about the responsibility of loving and caring for a living creature. Instead, Pen got the lesson. In this special Father's Day episode of Rightnowish, Pen brings you into the story of his daughter, Z, their cat, Skye, and his revelation about where responsibility ultimately reside...

Berkeley’s Omar "Meez" Jones is a biker, photographer, graphic designer and entrepreneur. One of his top talents is his ability to take his lifestyle and make a living off of it. Earlier this year, a series of Apple billboards promoting their "Hometown" campaign sprung up all around the Bay Area, featuring the silhouetted images of two bikers hitting wheelies. Those bikers are Jones and his good f...

From 1979 to 1988, Richard was a part of the Golden Rollers, a trio of skaters who performed in Golden Gate Park every Sunday. Since first getting his roll on, Richard has been featured in the television pilot, Dancing Wheels, was Damon Wayan's skating stunt double, performed on stage with Vaughn Mason and has been featured in Ebony Magazine. Richard also has custom wheels that bear his name, and...

In 2018 the Hasta Muerte coffee shop in East Oakland made national headlines when they asked Oakland police officers to leave their cafe. Matt Gereghty, part-owner of the cooperative cafe, was the first person to tell an officer the cafe's policy of asking cops to leave. He read from a collectively written script the staff had composed before opening the shop. Gereghty tells me it wasn't meant to...

After winning an MTV reality TV show contest about a dozen years ago, Rocky Rivera landed a gig at Rolling Stone. That was a crowning moment in her career as a journalist. Since then, Rocky Rivera's enjoyed a successful musical career and expanded her world as an educator in Oakland public schools. Most recently she published an autobiographical collection of essays, Snakeskin, which takes a look...

Kate Dash, aka Been Milky, is one of the coolest mothers you'll ever meet. She likes to bomb down huge San Francisco hills on a skateboard, she notoriously dyes her hair bright colors, she's a cannabis connoisseur and she's on the verge of launching a brand called Milky's World. Been Milky, whose name honors the fact that mothers have the ability to feed all of humankind, sees mothers as the most...

Artist Paola de la Calle plays with images and symbols that recall her childhood, her family's homeland in Colombia, and explores themes of citizenship and the politics of food. Bananas, tv satellites, door knocker hoops, sugar cane, and social security cards, to name a few, repeat in her work. She experiments with these images and themes across mediums. Paola's linocut prints, embellished flags,...

Through blogs and TikTok videos Brena Jean discusses what it means to be one of the millions of people living with lipedema. The rarely diagnosed chronic disorder affects mostly women and causes fat cells within the body to build up and harden instead of burn; it's often confused with obesity or lymphedema. As a result, many people living with lipedema don't know they have it. Or, in Brena Jean's...

Alan Chazaro uses poetry to explore Bay Area culture, his love for hip-hop, and machismo stereotypes. We first talked in 2019 about his first poetry collection, This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album. Since then, Chazaro moved to Mexico, travelled through Central and South America, and then, ultimately, returned to the Bay Area. Chazaro has also been dabbling in the journalism trade-- with stories...