The Black Landscape

Send us Fan Mail Trigger warning! - This episode discusses suicide ideation/self harm. In an autobiographical and music-filled tour-de-force, award-winning performer Jacob Ming-Trent dares to rescue himself from the “slings and arrows” of his past. Born with a gift for poetry but rejected as unfit to play the poet, his search for home yields results both hilarious and tragic. Invoking artistic gen...

Send us Fan Mail Michael Simeon, widely known as BlackGayComicGeek, is a NYC-based media personality and pop culture critic who champions Black LGBTQ+ representation in fantasy, sci-fi, comics, and horror. Frustrated by the lack of diverse voices in fandom, he launched BGCG to create a “Safe Gayven” — a space where Black queer nerds can see themselves in the stories they love.  Across platforms li...

Send us Fan Mail The SF International Arts Festival is here and we are taking a look behind the scenes with some of its featured Black artists! Duane Forrest is a Toronto-based singer-songwriter and multimedia artist. Over the past decade, he has released two full-length albums and toured extensively across Canada, Europe, and Central America, with his music receiving international radio play in c...

Send us Fan Mail From young bright-eyed model to PR Maven, Monique Webber embarked on her fashion PR journey with BCBGMAXAZRIA Group in 2000. After 12 years of successfully building BCBGMAXAZRIA Group into a Go-To brand for A-listers like Halle Berry, Katy Perry, Charlize Theron, Mariah Carey, Rihanna, and more, her VIP expertise was highly coveted and she rose to prominence at leading PR agencies...

Send us Fan Mail As a published author, adjunct professor, organizational development specialist, and former school district educator with over 30 years of experience, Dr. Rachelle Rogers-Ard specializes in coaching agency leaders to dismantle racist policies, practices, and procedures that threaten organizational health. As principal lead of Harvest Consulting , she designs and facilitates custom...

Send us Fan Mail Christopher “Chris” Chatmon is CEO and Founder of Kingmakers of Oakland (KOO) an award winning nonprofit that supports school districts around the country to improve the educational and life outcomes of Black Boys. For 10 years Chatmon served as the first Executive Director, African American Male Achievement (“AAMA”) for the Oakland Unified School District (“OUSD”). The office of...

Send us Fan Mail Catch full episodes on Patreon! Become a member today at Patreon.com/TheBlackLandscape Meet Gina Woods! She's a serial entrepreneur, investor, and business advisor, bringing a wealth of experience cultivating successful beauty brands with a focus on community reinvestment. As the Co-Founder/Owner of Donna’s Recipe with Tabitha Brown, a renowned vegan beauty brand known for it...

Send us Fan Mail August 9-September 13 Candace Johnson’s Scat-ter Brain: The Music of ADHD   <<Ticket Link! A musical celebrating neurodivergence, blending storytelling and song to challenge stigma and reframe ADHD as a creative superpower.  Candace Johnson is a singer, actress, poet, voice instructor, and director of the University of California Berkeley’s Gospel Choir. She is also a voice...

Send us Fan Mail Subscribe to hear the FULL interview and more! Patreon.com/TheBlackLandscape Selena Wilson is a community-centered collectivist dedicated to giving back to the village that raised her--East Oakland. She currently serves as the CEO of the East Oakland Youth Development Center (EOYDC) where she attended programming as a youth. In this role, Selena has leveraged her multifaceted skil...

Send us Fan Mail This is the FINAL WEEK to see "Fat Ham" directed by Margo Hall. A very Black, very Southern, very modern reimagining of Hamlet. Get  TICKETS to "Fat Ham" at San Francisco Playhouse. https://www.sfplayhouse.org/sfph/2024-2025-season/fat-ham/ Margo Hall is the artistic director of Lorraine Hansberry Theatre and an award-winning actor/director/playwright. She retu...

Send us Fan Mail Go see Kathryn Seabron in her 1-woman show "Angry Black Woman 101" at The Marsh in Berkeley, March 15 - April 13. https://themarsh.org/shows_and_events/marshstream/kathryn-seabron/ Subscribe to the Patreon for $5/month to access the full length episodes, exclusive merch, and behind the scenes content! Patreon.com/TheBlackLandscape Kathryn Seabron (Playwright/Performer) b...

Send us Fan Mail *Please excuse my voice, I was at the tail-end of a cold. J.R. Rice is a Black man, writer, teacher, event host & curator, and spoken word artist, born and raised in Oakland, California. He has a B.A in Creative Writing and an English Education teaching credential from California State University of Long Beach. While studying abroad in Greece, he was mentored by the author, Ge...

Send us Fan Mail Lance Gardner is an award-winning actor, who was last seen on stage in 2019 in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s production of "The 39 Steps" as well as the co-production of "Skeleton Crew" at Marin Theatre and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.  More details about his current role as the lead in "Waste" at Marin Theatre (Feb. 6 - Mar. 2) and photos can be foun...

Send us Fan Mail Robert Townsend , hailed as one of the "Godfathers of the Independent Film World," is a trailblazing actor, director, writer, and filmmaker with over 30 years in show business. Townsend is set to star in his solo show, Living the Shuffle , running at The Marsh Berkeley from January 31 to March 9. For full length episodes, become a member of the Patreon for $5 a month at...

Send us Fan Mail Zuhairah Washington is a Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School graduate and the former CEO of Otrium, a global, sustainable fashion marketplace recognized as one of the The Most Innovative Companies of 2023 by Fast Company Magazine.  She has scaled four multi-billion dollar companies and is widely recognized as a dynamic and visionary leader in technology.  She has over 2...

Send us Fan Mail Diann Valentine founded SLAYYY Hair in 2021 after years of wearing braids and experiencing increased itching, scalp irritation, scabbing, and breakage regularly with her own scalp. Determined to find a healthier and non-toxic solution, she started developing what has become known as the SLAYYY Secret Sauce. After two years of intense research, trial and error, and invaluable feedb...

Send us Fan Mail Destiny Muhammad is a Recording/ Performing Artist | Band Leader | Composer & Producer. Her genre ‘Celtic to Coltrane’ is cool and eclectic with a feel of Jazz & Storytelling to round out the sonic experience. Destiny  collaborations, curations and commissioning  include: Grace Cathedral Christmas Concert Series Stanford Jazz Festival featured Artist,  Santa Cruz Symph...

Send us Fan Mail Rohan DaCosta is a multi-disciplinary artist from Chicago, based in Oakland, working primarily through photography, writing, and song. His book, The Edge of Fruitvale , was published by Nomadic Press on April 28, 2018, and has been since  nominated for a California Book Award and a Pushcart Prize. His portrait photography has been featured at The Flight Deck Gallery, Root Division...

Send us Fan Mail Chi Chi Okonmah lives and breathes her passion as an established Bay Area Artist, Production & Stage Manager, Cultural Strategist, & CA Real Estate Broker. Since moving to California in 2000, Chi Chi has successfully held management and consulting positions for some of the most prominent individuals & organizations in the Bay Area Performing Arts & Activists commun...

Send us Fan Mail Seen in "A Distinct Society," Kenny Scott (he/him) returns to TheatreWorks Silicon Valley as Shawn, an avid basketball fan pursuing a career as a writer. An artistic company member of Oakland Theater Project and Shotgun Players, Scott has appeared in productions at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Marin Theatre, Magic Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Z Space, Crowded...

Send us Fan Mail Bosko Kante is a music producer, inventor, and mechanical engineer who has written and performed talkbox on Grammy Winning Albums by Dua Lipa and Kanye West including the #11 streaming song of all time “Levitating”. When he was forced to lip sync his talkbox part instead of performing live on the American Music Awards with Kanye West, he decided to reinvent the talkbox and make it...

Send us Fan Mail PHER, the Oakland native and global singing phenomenon formerly known as Chris Turner, is a rare artist fully versed in both the jazz tradition and classic soul, and equally comfortable in either universe. As a Soul, R&B and Jazz artist, PHER is taking center stage with his upcoming album “Songs by PHER” complete and ready to be marketed to the world soon. For now, we are rele...

Send us Fan Mail Nazelah Jamison (she / her) is a Bay Area-based performance poet, author, actor, vocalist and emcee. Her first book of poetry, Evolutionary Heart, was released on Nomadic Press in 2016, and reprinted and re-released on Black Lawrence Press in Fall 2023. Her work can also be found in The Racket Journal: Issue Fifteen (2020), Culture Counts Magazine (2021), La Raiz Magazine (2022), ...

Send us Fan Mail Nora Free is a Bay Area based artist (saxophone and flute) from a multiracial background. She's a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and did her PhD in Composition at the University of Pittsburgh. Free is returning to music after a long illness and the work she's now doing with Tiffany Austin at Wyldflowr is essential to her growth as an artist and her approach to w...

Send us Fan Mail Oakland Black Music Week Artist! Tiffany Austin is a vocalist, composer, educator, impresario and philanthropist, whose life's work is the liberation and inspiration of people of African descent. She has released two critically acclaimed jazz/soul albums, holds a Berkeley Law JD and is cofounder of The Diaspora Sessions (an immersive Black Art experience series), and the newl...