Crosscurrents

Violinist Alexi Kenney is curating the San Francisco Symphony event called “SoundBox: Dream Awake.” It’s not your typical classical concert. It actually takes place backstage at Davies Symphony Hall. 

Jenee Darden is the host of KALW’s Sights and Sounds show. She sat down with Alexi to talk about "SoundBox" and his music. Here's an excerpt from that interview.

“SoundBox: Dream Awake” is at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, this Friday and Saturday. Find links, and hear the full interview and more from Sights and Sounds here.

February is Black History Month. So before we go, a poem. Here’s Mukethe Kawinzi reading their piece, ‘'ripgut.' 

You can hear more Bay Area poets here. 

Today, an Iranian singer and composer chooses between obedience or exile. The award winning songs of Mahsa Vahdat. Then, a south bay artist who’s keeping Persian music alive, one note at a time. And, a poem about dancing with modern Persian identity.

Mahsa Vahdat decided to sing, despite the Iranian government’s ban on solo female performance. Then she had to make a choice: obedience or exile.

Justin Ebrahemi is KALW’s Communication Manager… and he’s also a poet! Here he shares a piece about dancing with modern Persian identity called "Brief Islands." 

Tattooing is a form of storytelling. Today, an artist honors his lineage by integrating Filipino traditions into his contemporary practice. Then, using dance to tell the story of Filipino migration to the Bay Area. And, we sing a little karaoke.

The Bay Area is home to one of the most concentrated Filipino communities in the nation. Their history in the Bay Area goes back more than 100 years, but many of the neighborhoods they established, like San Francisco’s “Manila Town” have since been torn down and replaced - the result of urban renewal and property development in the late 1970’s.

But their legacy and cultural impact lives on today. The South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco was formally recognized as a historically Filipino district back in 2016. It’s home to many Filipino businesses. And a new shop is now bringing a long time Filipino tradition to the neighborhood. KALW reporter Viviana Vivas meets one of the artists there, who is using ink and needles to make a mark on people’s bodies, and in the neighborhood.

Today, we meet Japanese American farmers who were incarcerated during World War Two...and resisted. Then, an art exhibit connects the history of San Jose’s Japantown neighborhoods to the present.

Today, we meet an artist who's been screen printing protest posters for more than forty years. Then, an Oakland mural honoring the women of the Black Panther Party. Plus, a poem. 

The Bay Area has a long history of activism and protest that lives on today. And when you walk our sidewalks, you still might come across a flyer on a telephone pole that leads you to a community event… or an act of civic disobedience. 

These days it's safe to say, most of those flyers are made on a computer. But in San Francisco’s Mission district, there’s it's a well kept tradition of screenprinting those posters. The practice is as resilient as the community that developed it.

KALW’S Rae Kim takes us to meet an artist from that community who still believes in the magic of printing messages by hand.