KPFA - Hard Knock Radio

Davey D speaks with filmmaker, journalist, and community leader Kevin Epps, known for documentaries like Straight Outta Hunters Point and his work with the SF Bay View. Davey reminds listeners that years ago Epps was involved in a fatal shooting inside his home that was widely understood as self defense. Then–DA George Gascón declined to bring charges in 2016, and many in the community believed the matter was settled.

Attorney and longtime friend Julian Davis joins to explain how the case has resurfaced and why Epps is now on trial for murder nearly a decade later. Davis stresses Kevin’s long record of service, mentorship, and storytelling for Black San Francisco, framing him as someone who consciously chose community work over street life. He lays out how, despite the original self-defense finding and the application of California’s “castle doctrine,” the DA’s office later revived the case in 2019 without new evidence.

Instead, Davis says, the prosecution leaned on controversial 3D forensic animations created by the same contractor who produced misleading visuals in the Laquan McDonald police shooting case. Those animations in Epps’s case have since been ruled inadmissible at trial, but they were still used to justify bringing charges. Davis argues this points to selective prosecution and a reluctance to accept that a Black man from Bayview-Hunters Point acted in legitimate self-defense.

He also details the political shifts inside the DA’s office: the role of an aggressive ADA who pushed the case in Gascón’s final days, his firing under progressive DA Chesa Boudin, and the current law-and-order climate under DA Brooke Jenkins. Davis connects this to broader backlash against progressive prosecutors and a pattern of going hard on Black defendants while showing leniency to police.

Inside the courtroom, Davis flags two major concerns: a judge with little criminal background who tends to favor the prosecution, and a key witness whose story has repeatedly changed over nine years, including her portrayal of the deceased as suddenly “calm and peaceful.” Despite troubling rulings and excluded evidence about the intruder’s violent past, Davis believes the core facts still clearly support self-defense.

The segment closes with a call to action: pack the courtroom for closing arguments, sign statements and petitions at JusticeForKevinEpps.org, and pressure DA Jenkins to drop what Davis characterizes as a profound miscarriage of justice.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Reviving a Case, Erasing the Truth: The Case Against Kevin Epps appeared first on KPFA.

Host Davey D sits down with longtime organizer Minister King X and his attorney Eric Sapp to break down a federal lawsuit that exposes how California is criminalizing dissent and formerly incarcerated people under the label of “Black identity extremism.” The conversation centers on Penal Code 4571, a little-known statute that makes it a felony for anyone who has ever been in state prison to be on land adjacent to a jail or prison without permission from the warden or sheriff, even if they’re peacefully protesting on a public sidewalk.

Minister King recounts how undercover agents grabbed him outside his Oakland office after he helped organize a peaceful demonstration to free elder Ruchell Cinque Magee. He was told he’d violated parole, only to later learn he was being targeted for protesting and organizing against the “prison slave industrial complex.” Eric explains that 4571 has been on the books since the 1940s, rarely used but always there as a tool to make examples out of people like King and chill activism by formerly incarcerated organizers. Their lawsuit argues the law violates the First Amendment and due process because it’s vague, overbroad, and weaponized to silence political speech.

The discussion then widens out. Eric connects the “Black identity extremist” label to a long history of repression from the Red Scare and criminal syndicalism laws to COINTELPRO and today’s domestic extremism frameworks. He stresses that the legal standard is incitement, not vague notions of extremism, and that political advocacy — including calling for revolutionary change — is constitutionally protected.

Minister King situates his work in that lineage of struggle, highlighting elders who spent decades in solitary because of their ideas, not their actions, and describing current efforts to build unity across race and class, end violence and hostilities, and fight a system that still functions as modern-day chattel slavery. As they reflect on the birthday of Chairman Fred Hampton, King frames this lawsuit as part of a broader push for shared humanity, community power, and resistance to fascism, urging people to show up, stay informed, and stand with those being labeled and targeted for loving their people out loud.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Silencing Activism Through a Hidden Felony Law: Penal Code 4571 appeared first on KPFA.

Host Davey D opens Hard Knock Radio by situating listeners in the aftermath of a horrific mass shooting in Stockton, where four young people were killed at a birthday party, and connects it to recent shootings in San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and across the Bay. He pushes back on simplistic narratives that blame “out-of-control gangs” or Hip Hop, and instead invites frontline workers from United Playaz — Rudy Corpuz, Jason Lacey, and Everett — to unpack the deeper mentality, systems, and trauma driving this violence.

Rudy stresses that this crisis is not new, just closer to home and more visible. He notes that many shootings never make the news, even as gun violence remains the leading cause of death for young people in the US. From his vantage point, there is effective work happening: United Playaz and similar groups are saving seven out of ten kids they touch, often working directly with shooters and youth in Juvenile Hall. He explains that many teens pick up guns out of fear and a refusal to remain victims, a dynamic made worse by bullying, lack of guidance, and social media “banging” that turns online talk into deadly conflict. Rudy also links school, prison, and social media as profit-driven systems that normalize Black and Brown death.

Jason builds on that by calling for a restorative justice mindset where society owns its role in creating these conditions. Growing up in Pomona, he says guns and gangs were a neighborhood “social norm,” and mass incarceration, militarized schools, and media demonization all pushed Black and Brown youth toward cages. After serving 25 years, he now uses his story to give young people real information about prison and alternatives to violence, emphasizing that it’s okay to care, to want better, and that everyone has a part to play in changing the culture.

Everett, who once faced the death penalty at 19, talks about internalizing a belief system that taught him not to care, and later realizing it was rooted in trauma and miseducation. He argues that intervention has to start from birth, surrounding children with positive environments and countering the lure of the block when school offers no visible payoff. All three guests stress mental health, healing, affirmation, and “living amends” — giving back after harm — as crucial to breaking cycles of violence. They close by urging community members of all backgrounds to join the work, support efforts like the United Playaz gun buyback, and choose connection over punishment as the path forward.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post A Horrific Mass Shooting in Stockton, California appeared first on KPFA.

Host Davey D opens Hard Knock Radio by framing housing and policing as intertwined crises, then centers the conversation on Rahim Kurwa’s book Indefensible Spaces: Policing and the Struggle for Housing. Kurwa begins with the story of Michelle Ross, a Section 8 voucher holder who moved from Los Angeles to Palmdale in 2008. Once there, she faced relentless harassment. City inspectors and sheriff’s deputies repeatedly raided her home, her address was posted on an I Hate Section 8 Facebook page, neighbors graffitied her house, and someone threw a bottle of urine at her children. Kurwa explains that Ross was one of thousands of tenants in Antelope Valley who were policed in this way.

To make sense of this, Kurwa lays out three threads. First, Antelope Valley functions as a “safety valve” for Los Angeles, absorbing defense industry jobs after World War II and later absorbing residents pushed out by rising housing costs. Second, shifts from public housing to vouchers pushed poor residents, especially Black families, into marginal suburban areas. Third, there is a long history of policing as a tool to maintain racial segregation and to regulate Black homes.

Kurwa and Davey pull the lens back to the deeper history of the region. Kurwa describes an early museum that twisted Indigenous history to erase Native presence and justify a white suburban origin story. He then highlights Black histories in the Valley, including Charles Graves, a formerly enslaved man who struck gold, founded an integrated school, and became postmaster. They trace the creation of Sun Village as an all Black town, built because Black families were shut out of Palmdale and Lancaster, and discuss its rise, decline, and recent revitalization around institutions like Jackie Robinson Park.

The conversation then returns to policing and housing policy. Kurwa connects historical “man in the house” rules and midnight welfare raids to contemporary voucher policing in Antelope Valley, where neighbors weaponize nuisance ordinances, Section 8 rules, and online platforms to surveil and evict tenants. He notes that local organizing and litigation led to a landmark Department of Justice case linking policing to Fair Housing Act violations, but enforcement has been weak and overpolicing continues.

They close by tying this local story to national patterns. Kurwa warns that crime free housing laws, school policing, gang databases, and immigration enforcement normalize everyday people acting as enforcers, turning homes and neighborhoods into contested, heavily surveilled spaces rather than places of safety and belonging.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Rahim Kuwra Indefensible Spaces appeared first on KPFA.

Host Davey D opens the conversation by spotlighting the Ninth Annual Social Justice Childrens Book Fair and the larger fight over books, knowledge, and representation. He is joined by organizer and author illustrator Robert Liu Trujillo, along with writers and educators Mona Damluji and Justine Villanueva. Together they walk listeners through how this Bay Area based fair grew from a local need into a powerful cultural hub.

Robert explains that the fair began when he became a young father and could not find childrens books that reflected families of color, queer families, and immigrant communities. Along with organizers like Innosanto Nagara and Laura Atkins, he helped build a space specifically for social justice minded kids books. He also talks about his latest book Fresh Juice, which follows a Black father and son and centers community and healthy food.

The discussion quickly moves to book bans and political attacks on educators. Davey notes that books like his own with Jeff Chang have been banned, and that this censorship is part of a wider push to cultivate ignorance. Robert describes how work that uplifts people of color or queer identities has been especially targeted, turning banned book lists into a strange mix of badge of honor and real harm, since it removes access for young readers.

Mona connects her university teaching to her childrens writing. Her picture book I Want You To Know grew from a poem to her Iraqi and Lebanese children written on the twentieth anniversary of the United States invasion of Iraq. With lush illustrations of contemporary Iraq, she wants young readers and their caregivers to ask critical questions about war, displacement, and media stereotypes, and to see Arab and Muslim people beyond the usual Orientalist images.

Justine shares how becoming a mother exposed the near absence of Filipino stories in kids books. She began hand making simple bilingual books, which eventually evolved into a multilingual press publishing titles like Mama Mama Do You Know What I Like and Party Time in English, Tagalog, Bisaya, and Binukid. She stresses that seeing yourself on the page can unlock a lifelong love of reading for children and also heal the inner child in adults.

The show closes with Robert laying out details about the fair at Emerson Elementary in Oakland, the new award ceremony at Chapter 510, and the wide range of authors, panels, performances, and activities designed to help families, educators, and community members reclaim reading as a joyful, critical, and deeply political act.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post 9th Annual Social Justice Book Fair appeared first on KPFA.

On this edition ofHard Knock Radio, host Davey D sits down withKamauFranklin”organizer, lawyer, and co-editor ofNo Cop City, No Cop World: Lessons from the Movement”for a deep and revealing conversation about the grassroots struggle in Atlanta and what it means for movements across the country.

Franklin lays out the origins of the Stop Cop City movement, born from the backlash to the 2020 uprisings over police violence. While masses called to defund or abolish the police, Atlantas response”despite its reputation as a Black Mecca”was to buildCop City, a sprawling, militarized training facility funded by corporate giants like Delta, Cox, and Waffle House. Located on land once promised to a working-class Black community, the site has drawn protest, organizing, and repression.

Kamaubreaks down how Black political elites”what he and the late Glenn Ford call theBlack misleadership class”helped enable Cop Citys creation. These are officials who use their identity to gain trust, but govern in ways that align with corporate and developer interests rather than the needs of working-class Black folks. Theyre not struggling with Black liberation politics, Franklin says. Theyre trained to be transactional.

Davey D andKamauexplore the dangers of identity politics when its weaponized for status quo governance. They also touch on the defanging of Black radical politics through state repression, corporate media manipulation, and the amplification of conservative Black voices that present themselves as authentically hood while pushing reactionary agendas.

Franklin highlights the importance of coalition-building, even as the Cop City fight has faced internal challenges and political repression”including terrorism and RICO charges against protesters. He names the essay by Ashley Dixon on base building as a must-read in the book, pointing to the hard, often unglamorous organizing work needed to sustain movements. He also lifts up moments of solidarity with Indigenous communities”especially the Muskogee Nation”who were displaced from the land now being bulldozed for Cop City.

In the final stretch, the conversation turns to the dangers ahead: the rise of white militias, expanded federal surveillance, and increasing use of anti-terror laws to stifle dissent.Kamaucalls for a shift from Know Your Rights to Community Defense. He underscores the importance of building alternative infrastructure”from housing to farms to mutual aid”as a way to deepen political power beyond elections.

Listeners are encouraged to followKamaus work atCommunityMovementBuilders.organd his YouTube platform,Black Liberation Media.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post No Cop City, No Cop World Lessons from the Movement (Encore) appeared first on KPFA.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Special Programming: Poor News Magazine appeared first on KPFA.

Davey D continues his week long focus on Black men and mental health with writer, activist, and filmmaker Kevin Powell, framing the conversation around how Black men can become fully human in a society that constantly puts them in a box. Davey opens by noting Powell’s long record of speaking openly about therapy and healing long before it was common language in the culture.

They begin with writing and technology. Kevin explains that he still drafts everything himself, using his phone like an old notebook, and only leans on tools like spell check and transcription. Both he and Davey stress that AI can be useful for research, but cannot replace the mental muscle you build by reading, writing, and doing deep primary work. They warn that algorithms can erase key parts of Black cultural history, using examples like Roberta Flack’s anti war song on Vietnam, or the absence of Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, and Sly Stone from mainstream lists of songwriter poets.

From there, the conversation moves into manhood, pain, and representation. Kevin traces his journey from an angry young activist and Real World cast member numbing himself with alcohol, to a man in long term therapy who embraces yoga, nature, and emotional honesty. He links his transformation to reading Malcolm X, Black Panthers, radical Black women writers, and seeing how unresolved trauma, father absence, and rigid ideas of masculinity destroy lives, including artists like Tupac, Biggie, Nipsey, and D Angelo.

Powell describes his film When We Free the World, built over six years with about seventy Black men from teens to elders. The film centers Black men talking frankly about depression, addiction, violence, body image, sexuality, and joy, insisting that Black males must talk to survive. Together, he and Davey close by offering practical tools for mental health: therapy, small trusted circles of brothers, clear boundaries, journaling as self reflection, movement, and protecting Black boy joy and Black male complexity in the face of an unhealthy celebrity culture and a toxic, narrow model of manhood.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Journalist Kevin Powell Discusses Mental Health appeared first on KPFA.

Hard Knock Radio host Davey D marked Mental Health Awareness Month by centering a rarely held but urgently needed conversation: what real healing looks like for Black men. Joining him were artist and wellness leader Karega Bailey, Oakland rapper and community organizer Mistah FAB, and Dads Evoking Change founder Kareem Chadley, all of whom have turned deep personal loss into collective work.

Karega opens by noting that many of us only recently got the language to name what we have always seen in our families and neighborhoods. Depression does not always look like someone shut down and isolated. It can look like high performers showing up for everyone except themselves. He stresses that suicidal thoughts are often invisible, especially around the holidays, and urges listeners who are struggling to give life one more day and reach for community. His Men’s Wellness Fellowship is about removing barriers so Black men can share their stories, feel fully human, and be met with love instead of suspicion.

FAB speaks of Thug Therapy as a space where brothers can talk without feeling studied or mocked. He breaks down how humor often becomes armor, describing how he played the clown at his mothers funeral while feeling shattered inside. Growing up, crying meant punishment. Parents and caregivers, often under extreme pressure themselves, pushed boys to be hard enough to survive. That emotional shutdown turns many into what he calls desensitized robots. He also calls out medical and educational systems that rush support to others while treating Black men as disposable.

Kareem traces his journey from grieving father to founder of Dads Evoking Change. Navigating family court, he watched fathers reduced to paychecks while being cut off from their children. His organization offers free legal support and counseling, but he says the first thing most men need is space to unload their emotions without being punished for them. With so many children growing up in separate households, he argues that teaching emotional processing is as essential as any legal strategy.

Together, the three insist that wellness, culture, and organizing belong together. From Men’s Wellness Fellowship to Thug Therapy to Dads Evoking Change, they frame this work as coalition, not competition, and close by calling listeners to invest in their own healing and in the humanity of the people around them.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Mental Health Week conversation Part Two appeared first on KPFA.

Hard Knock Radio host Davey D marked Mental Health Awareness Month by centering a rarely held but urgently needed conversation: what real healing looks like for Black men. Joining him were artist and wellness leader Karega Bailey, Oakland rapper and community organizer Mistah FAB, and Dads Evoking Change founder Kareem Chadley, all of whom have turned deep personal loss into collective work.

Karega opens by noting that many of us only recently got the language to name what we have always seen in our families and neighborhoods. Depression does not always look like someone shut down and isolated. It can look like high performers showing up for everyone except themselves. He stresses that suicidal thoughts are often invisible, especially around the holidays, and urges listeners who are struggling to give life one more day and reach for community. His Men’s Wellness Fellowship is about removing barriers so Black men can share their stories, feel fully human, and be met with love instead of suspicion.

FAB speaks of Thug Therapy as a space where brothers can talk without feeling studied or mocked. He breaks down how humor often becomes armor, describing how he played the clown at his mothers funeral while feeling shattered inside. Growing up, crying meant punishment. Parents and caregivers, often under extreme pressure themselves, pushed boys to be hard enough to survive. That emotional shutdown turns many into what he calls desensitized robots. He also calls out medical and educational systems that rush support to others while treating Black men as disposable.

Kareem traces his journey from grieving father to founder of Dads Evoking Change. Navigating family court, he watched fathers reduced to paychecks while being cut off from their children. His organization offers free legal support and counseling, but he says the first thing most men need is space to unload their emotions without being punished for them. With so many children growing up in separate households, he argues that teaching emotional processing is as essential as any legal strategy.

Together, the three insist that wellness, culture, and organizing belong together. From Men’s Wellness Fellowship to Thug Therapy to Dads Evoking Change, they frame this work as coalition, not competition, and close by calling listeners to invest in their own healing and in the humanity of the people around them.

Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting, hosted by Davey D and Anita Johnson.

The post Mental Health Week conversation Part One appeared first on KPFA.