Crosscurrents

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...

Black horror can be informed by past trauma and that sometimes gives us glimpses of the future. In Octavia Butler’s classic 1993 book “ Parable of the Sower ,” natural disasters are on the rise, people are vanishing, and America just became “Great Again.”  Today, some people are looking to genres like Black horror and Afro-Futurism as a guide for the times. In this story from 2025, Reporter Krista...

The Bay Area Video Coalition has had a big impact on local media for half a century. Now it looks to the future. Then, the story of a Liberian immigrant’s first encounters with American life. From Liberia, to a pioneering Oakland dance company.

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.