A poem in memory of The Jacka and Oakland’s murdered multitudes.

Beast Mode is as though A pinball has attitude, 4-wheel drive, and spikes   Below are a few of Marshawn’s epic runs over the past few years. For every big run there are a hundred others when Marshawn grinds out 4 or 5 yards where there is […]

I’ve been mulling over writing something about the killing of Mike Brown, the resulting mass demonstrations, racist police practices, Darren Wilson’s grand jury miscarriage, and the systemic white supremacy that has facilitated all these realities, […]

On Tuesday night, Oakland natives Marah Hruby and Chris Turner blessed their native soil with an inspiring performance worthy of the historic Yoshis venue.

As children, very few of us wanted to eat our vegetables. I would try to convince my mom “my vegetable shelf (of my stomach) is full, but my dessert shelf is empty.” That never worked, but many of us still do our best to rationalize late night tacos at […]

My little brother just put me on to the south side Chicago emcee Mick Jenkins. He wanted me to be as juiced about Mick as he was, so he led off by texting me a Boy Meets World reference. “It’s been tragic/ Ever since Boy Meets World, it’s Ben (been) […]

When DJ Tap.10 dropped his Champagne Soul mix in 2011, he was introducing a sub-genre that he and his Honor Roll brethren had diagnosed years earlier. The 80s R&B that fit the bill is characterized by the smooth synthed-out romance of acts like Surface, […]

Few groups of people are invisibilized in our society quite like homeless people. We avert our eyes when walking down the street, pat our pockets to show we have no money to give them, and look at our phones when we pull up next to them at freeway exits. […]

Once a year, people of all stripes gather in a Jingletown warehouse in East Oakland to explore the treasures to be had at a huge White Elephant sale. You can find pretty much anything there. There are entire sections dedicated to art, furniture, electronics, […]