KPFA - Hard Knock Radio

On this episode of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D reconnects with South Carolina journalist and political commentator Preach Jacobs for a follow-up conversation examining the rapidly changing political landscape in the aftermath of longtime U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham’s death.

After previously unpacking Graham’s political legacy and what his career revealed about power, race, and the evolution of the Republican Party in South Carolina, Davey D and Preach turn their attention to what comes next. With Graham’s Senate seat now at the center of a new political battle, the conversation explores the emerging Senate race, the forces positioning themselves to fill the vacuum, and whether this moment could disrupt South Carolina’s deeply entrenched political order.

From the Republican establishment and the influence of Donald Trump’s movement to Democrats searching for a path toward statewide relevance, Preach breaks down the political terrain on the ground and the challenges facing anyone hoping to build a winning coalition. The discussion looks beyond candidates and campaign strategy to examine the larger questions surrounding Black political power, voter turnout, rural communities, grassroots organizing, and the changing electorate across the South.

Davey D and Preach also challenge the assumption that South Carolina’s political future is predetermined. Despite decades of Republican dominance, the state’s demographics, growing cities, younger voters, and substantial Black electorate make the battle over Graham’s seat about more than replacing one senator. It raises a larger question: Can a moment of political transition become an opportunity to fundamentally change who holds power—and who gets heard?

The conversation also examines whether Democrats can move beyond traditional campaign strategies and build the kind of sustained, community-based infrastructure necessary to compete in a state where relationships, local organizing, churches, neighborhoods, and grassroots networks remain critical to political life.

Ultimately, this follow-up moves the discussion from Lindsey Graham’s legacy to South Carolina’s political future. With an open Senate seat creating uncertainty and opportunity, Hard Knock Radio asks what this race could reveal about the direction of the Republican Party, the future of Democratic politics in the South, and whether grassroots movements can turn a moment of transition into lasting political power.

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 The Follow-Up to Lindsey Graham’s Impact on South Carolina and Beyond appeared first on KPFA.

Today on Hard Knock Radio, we sit down with acclaimed children’s author, illustrator, and teaching artist Tiffany Golden for a conversation about Black childhood, sisterhood, imagination, and the importance of young people seeing the fullness of themselves reflected in the stories they read.

At the center of our conversation is Golden’s latest book, Rikki & Rai: The Everyday and Sometimes Epic Adventures of the Tucker Sisters, a funny and heartfelt celebration of two sisters navigating family, friendship, and the unexpected adventures tucked inside everyday life.

We also discuss Golden’s picture books I Want to Be Big and Wash Day, her work as a teaching artist, and why creating spaces where Black children can be curious, imaginative, complicated, joyful, and gloriously themselves matters.

It’s a conversation about storytelling, representation, creativity, and reminding young people that their lives—and their stories—are worthy of being seen, heard, and celebrated.

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 Black Childhood, Big Imagination: Tiffany Golden on Storytelling, Sisterhood & Joy appeared first on KPFA.

On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D spoke with Oakland street vendors and organizers Needa B, Joyous and Hannibal Shakur about what they describe as an escalating campaign of harassment, confiscation and criminalization directed at vendors across the city.

Davey opened by emphasizing that street vending has long been part of Oakland’s economic and cultural fabric. Vendors provide affordable food, handmade products and essential income for families, yet city enforcement teams have recently arrived with police, public works employees and equipment commonly used during homeless encampment sweeps.

Needa B said enforcement has targeted people regardless of whether they have permits. “Street vending is part of Oakland’s history. It’s generations deep. It’s part of Oakland’s culture and identity,” she explained. Needa argued that the enforcement is less about public safety than reshaping Oakland for wealthier interests. She warned that traditional vending could be “erased and then repackaged, prepackaged and sanitized” after the people who created the culture are pushed out.

Joyous discussed being handcuffed while filming police confronting another vendor at Lake Merritt. Although she was released, images of her detention circulated online, where she was falsely portrayed as someone selling alcohol. Her personal and employment information was also posted online. Joyous believes she was used as “collateral” because her mother is an organizer.

She pushed back against efforts to portray vendors as dangerous. “We’re not selling drugs. We’re not trying to hurt people,” Joyous said. “It’s just food, it’s camaraderie, it’s building community.” She also connected the crackdown to gentrification and Oakland’s growing affordability crisis.

Hannibal Shakur contrasted the treatment of vendors with the incentives Bay Area cities have extended to wealthy technology companies. “These local micro-businesses are crowdsourcing economic stability,” he said, describing vendors as people investing their wages, labor and creativity into businesses without major loans or corporate support.

Shakur, who has made and sold soap locally since 2012, argued that vendor marketplaces generate business rather than take customers away from established stores. People may arrive to purchase one product but remain to buy food, art and other goods while building relationships.

The guests urged residents to support the newly organized Oakland Street Vendors Collective, patronize vendors and contact city and county officials. Joyous closed with a broader call: “Continue to build with your community, continue to love yourself, and continue to do things that nurture your soul.”

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 Oakland Street Vendors Fight Back Against Sweeps and Criminalization appeared first on KPFA.

On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D continued a far-reaching conversation with organizers and artists Obi Egbuna Jr. and Russell Shoatz III about Black liberation, political prisoners, cultural resistance and their double album honoring Assata Shakur and Pauline Lumumba. Airing on August 11, the recognized 53rd anniversary of Hip Hop, the discussion connected the culture’s revolutionary potential to liberation struggles stretching from Mississippi and Cuba to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Egbuna challenged what he called the “amputated narrative of the African experience,” which isolates Black struggle in the United States from movements across the African world. He highlighted 1925 as the birth year of Malcolm X, Patrice Lumumba, Frantz Fanon and Medgar Evers, noting that Lumumba and Evers were born on the same day. Drawing a direct line between colonial segregation and Jim Crow, Egbuna asked, “What is the difference between sitting on the back of a boat en route to Kinshasa, or sitting on the back of a bus in Montgomery?”

The conversation also examined how celebrated artists and public figures have sometimes been manipulated—or knowingly used—by U.S. foreign-policy interests. Davey D urged listeners to resist simplistic judgments, observing that history is messy and politics rarely fits neatly into categories of heroes and villains.

Shoatz, the son of longtime political prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz, discussed the pressure prisoners face while living under extreme duress. He argued that desperation can force people into imperfect choices, especially when movements lack the power to secure their freedom. Reflecting on the 2020 George Floyd uprising, Shoatz noted that political prisoners were largely absent from the demands presented to the state. His call moving forward was direct: “Solidarity, mutual aid, and putting down whatever small disagreements or differences that you may have.”

Egbuna also restored Pauline Lumumba to her rightful place as an organizer rather than simply Patrice Lumumba’s wife. Following her husband’s assassination, she organized a historic march in Kinshasa in which women demonstrated topless to symbolize that the murder had “stripped the nation naked.” She continued building international support for Congo’s liberation throughout her life.

Closing the discussion, both guests emphasized consistency, political education and institution-building. Egbuna urged support for Cuban medical missions in Africa and called upon artists to create new vehicles for struggle. As he explained, the goal is to use “ingenuity” and “discipline” to take liberation movements to “new unprecedented heights.”

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 The History They Tried to Erase: Congo, Cuba and Black Liberation appeared first on KPFA.

Host Davey D spoke with Pan African organizer Obi Egbuna Jr. and activist and cultural producer Russell Shoatz III about Kotelemela Bolingo, a two-album musical project honoring Assata Shakur and Pauline Opango Lumumba. Meaning “resistance with love” in Lingala, the collection features 30 songs across six genres. Egbuna explained that the project emerged from the Assata Shakur Cuba Defense Campaign and is also intended to support approximately 4,000 Cuban doctors serving throughout Africa. The guests highlighted Cuba’s often-overlooked contributions to African liberation, education and public health, including its response to Ebola, its medical missions across the Global South and its training of Zimbabwean teachers.

The conversation also examined culture as a political battleground. Shoatz described the album as more than a tribute: it combines political education, mutual aid, intergenerational organizing and support for politically conscious artists. Davey connected the project to the tradition of Paul Robeson, the Black Arts Movement, Harry Belafonte and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who treated artists as essential movement partners. The guests contrasted that history with entertainment that glorifies gangsters, pimps and billionaires while erasing revolutionary struggle. Egbuna emphasized that the fight is ultimately about “the power to define”—whether Black people understand Cuba, Africa and liberation through their own history or through narratives manufactured by Hollywood and the U.S. government.

Key takeaways:

Kotelemela Bolingo honors Assata Shakur and Pauline Opango Lumumba while connecting their legacies to contemporary liberation struggles.

The project supports Cuban doctors working across Africa and challenges dominant narratives about Cuba’s international role.

Shoatz emphasized that cultural projects should combine political education, mutual aid, intergenerational work and material support for artists.

Davey D argued that successful movements historically prepared artists to become informed public advocates rather than using them as last-minute entertainment.

Culture can either glamorize exploitation and erase resistance or become a powerful weapon for preserving history and advancing liberation.

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 Assatta Shakur and Pauline Lumumba appeared first on KPFA.

On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sat down with Berkeley-raised singer, songwriter and vocal improviser Destani Wolf for a wide-ranging conversation about her musical journey, creative philosophy and upcoming appearance opening for Patti LaBelle at San Francisco’s Stern Grove Festival.

Wolf’s extensive catalog stretches across soul, R&B, Latin jazz, funk, reggae, Hip Hop and electronic music. She has appeared on more than 40 albums, including three Grammy-nominated projects, and has worked with artists ranging from Bobby McFerrin and John Santos to The Pharcyde and Crown City Rockers.

When Davey asked how she defines herself amid so many styles, Wolf offered an answer that captured the spirit of the conversation: “I’m a voice that hopes to heal.” While soul remains her foundation, she explained that her Mexican heritage, reggae upbringing and Bay Area musical environment all flow through her work. “I’m just trying to be a conduit to the music that wants to come through,” she said.

Wolf discussed performing with Bobby McFerrin’s improvisational ensemble MOTION, which gathers Mondays at noon at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. She described vocal improvisation as a form of co-creation requiring intuition, experience and deep listening. “I’m listening with my whole body,” she explained. The practice is not simply entertainment but something sacred. “The music is medicine,” Wolf said.

The conversation also explored her family’s roots in Guadalajara, the ranchera and mariachi music she heard growing up, and the influence of Bay Area musician John Santos. Wolf recalled her work with the 10-piece band O-Maya and its offshoot AguaLibre, where Hip Hop could blend into salsa, cumbia, reggae and Mexican guitar rhythms.

Wolf also addressed the challenges of being an independent artist responsible for everything from recording and production to promotion. Still, she remains committed to releasing music that brings hope, joy and empathy into a troubled world.

Whether singing about refugees in “White Water Tumbling,” revisiting soul classics with Night Owls or appearing on the Crown City Rockers favorite “Sidestep,” Wolf sees music as a bridge.

“For me, it’s about connection,” she said, “bringing us together and more love in this world.”

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 Destani Wolf: Making Music That Heals, Connects and Defies Categories appeared first on KPFA.

On this edition of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D welcomed three respected voices committed to ending community violence: Miami Da Most, Vallejo community leader and founder of Honey Buns for the Homeless Ones, Rudy Corpuz, founder and executive director of United Playaz, and Hakim Green, educator, activist, and member of the legendary Hip Hop group Channel Live. Together, they discussed the upcoming Ceasefire Vallejo 707 Day initiative while exploring how mentorship, Hip Hop culture,

“Journalism is not about arguing with liars all day. It is about holding and maintaining the truth,” journalist D. Scot Miller told host Davey D during a wide-ranging conversation on Hard Knock Radio about media consolidation, political disinformation and the battle over Oakland’s future.

Miller, an award-winning writer, former managing editor of the East Bay Express and co-host of Doomloop Dispatch, argued that too many reporters have become “stenographers” who repeat press releases instead of investigating who created a narrative, who benefits from it and why a media outlet is promoting it. “My job is to get ahead of the story,” Miller explained. “My job is not to trail the story.”

Davey D connected this decline in independent journalism to changes he witnessed in the music industry, where access to artists, concerts and advertising was frequently tied to favorable coverage. Both described how media consolidation transformed news organizations into promotional arms for corporate interests. What executives once called “synergy,” Miller said, was actually “compliance.”

The conversation then turned to political misinformation and the campaigns targeting progressive politics in Oakland. Miller argued that well-financed interests have used websites, public relations firms, social media and sensational crime coverage to create perceptions that do not always match available evidence. These narratives can have real consequences, Davey noted, because public policy and funding decisions are often based on perception, whether accurate or manufactured.

Miller urged journalists to rebuild strong, locally rooted institutions. Drawing upon Kwame Ture’s distinction between mobilizing and organizing, he said community journalism should not be obsessed with reaching the largest possible audience. It should help residents understand their own neighborhoods, preserve historical memory and challenge false claims with documented facts.

That approach is especially important as Oakland considers another police contract, Miller said. He encouraged residents to examine police spending, oversight, overtime and measurable accountability rather than accept fear-based narratives about crime.

For Miller, journalism must function as a “North Star.” Its purpose is not to become popular or win endless online debates, but to establish a trustworthy public record. “My job is to preserve the truth until you can come to it,” he said. “My job is not to influence you.”

The post Crime, Cops and Manufactured Fear: The Battle Over Oakland’s Future appeared first on KPFA.

Former Congressman Jamaal Bowman delivered that declaration during a wide-ranging conversation with Hard Knock Radio host Davey D about AIPAC’s influence, the Democratic establishment’s attacks on progressives, low voter turnout and the growing struggle over the party’s future.

Bowman recalled entering Congress in 2020 after defeating 31-year incumbent Eliot Engel. A lifelong educator and former middle school principal, Bowman became the first Black person to represent New York’s 16th Congressional District. He said tensions with AIPAC began when he demanded greater accountability for US aid to Israel and supported protections for Palestinian children.

Following October 7, Bowman joined Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib and other lawmakers in calling for a ceasefire. AIPAC subsequently poured more than $20 million into efforts to defeat him, making his 2024 contest the most expensive House primary in US history at the time. But Bowman emphasized that money was only part of the story. Redistricting removed approximately 200,000 Black residents from his district, while thousands of potential supporters stayed home.

“We can’t stay home. We can’t take it for granted,” Bowman said, acknowledging that progressive candidates and grassroots movements must build year-round organizing infrastructures. He argued that communities cannot wait until election season to mobilize around affordable housing, universal healthcare, childcare, utility costs and local elections.

Davey D pressed Bowman about accusations that the Democratic Socialists of America and the broader progressive movement are disconnected from Black communities. Bowman conceded that DSA must address racial injustice beyond an exclusively class-based analysis. Even if economic inequality were dramatically reduced, he explained, “we’ll still be Black in this country” and confronted by racism.

Bowman also rejected attempts to separate Palestine from struggles affecting Black and brown communities. He described Palestine as a defining moral issue connected to colonialism, militarism, mass incarceration and immigration enforcement.

While supporting harm reduction, Bowman challenged Black political leaders who settle for incremental reforms while accepting special-interest money. Real transformation, he insisted, requires people to “get their hands dirty” and enter the political fight.

The conversation closed with Bowman discussing his upcoming memoir, which traces his journey from East Harlem, through education and into Congress. Written especially for disillusioned voters, the book promises to pull back the curtain on congressional politics, campaigning and his confrontation with AIPAC.

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 Jamaal Bowman Exposes the Battle to Silence Progressives appeared first on KPFA.

On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sat down with educator and historian Dr. Hodari Davis for a powerful conversation about Black history, political education, and the forces working to erase the traditions of Black resistance.

Davis warned that the current assault on Black history is not simply about removing a few books from libraries or changing exhibits at museums. It is part of a broader effort to criminalize Black thought, obscure the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist politics of freedom fighters, and separate younger generations from their history.

“The criminalization of Black thought and the mischaracterization of our cultural practice as anti-American is driving much of the public narrative,” Davis explained. He noted that the scholarship of figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, J.A. Rogers, Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan, John Henrik Clarke, and Carter G. Woodson is increasingly being reduced to unsourced social media sound bites. In that environment, serious historical research is often placed alongside misinformation, opinion, and political propaganda.

Davey D and Davis also explored the importance of Black August, which emerged from the Black freedom struggle and the resistance of incarcerated people. Davis connected August to a long history of liberation, including the Haitian Revolution, Gabriel Prosser’s planned uprising, Nat Turner’s rebellion, the March on Washington, the Watts uprising, the Ferguson uprising, and the national prison strike.

“Black History Month is for people who aren’t Black,” Davis declared. “Black August is for Black people.”

For Davis, Black August offers communities an opportunity to study resistance, learn organizing strategies, and pass liberatory knowledge to the next generation. “If we don’t remember it, honor it, and observe it, then it will just disappear altogether,” he cautioned.

Davis also discussed his free Black history classes at the People’s House in West Oakland. The introductory sessions expose participants, particularly young people, to essential books, scholars, movements, and ideas.

The conversation ultimately served as both a warning and a call to action: institutions cannot be trusted to preserve Black history for us. Parents, grandparents, teachers, artists, journalists, and community organizers must intentionally carry that history 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 Dr Hodari Davis on Black August and Preserving Black History appeared first on KPFA.

On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D spoke with longtime organizer and Black Power Media contributor Kalonji Changa about the history and continuing purpose of Black August. Changa stressed that Black August is rooted in the resistance of incarcerated freedom fighters and must remain centered on political prisoners. Black August is about resistance, he explained. Its an annual commemoration. Its not a celebration. He traced its origins to California prisons and the killings of George and Jonathan Jackson, while warning against turning the observance into a general celebration of everything Black that happened during August. This is not the Black History Month of the summer, he said. While Marcus Garvey and the Haitian Revolution deserve recognition, Changa argued that folding every historic event into Black August risks watering down its original political purpose.

The conversation took an emotional turn as Changa remembered historian, prison abolitionist and activist Johanna Fernndez, who recently passed. Calling her a powerful, beautiful, serious freedom fighter, Changa emphasized her decades of tireless work on behalf of political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Fernndez, a professor at Baruch College, was also the author of *The Young Lords: A Radical History* and helped expose more than one million NYPD surveillance records documenting decades of monitoring antiwar activists, civil rights organizations, the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords and other movements. Changa recalled that whenever he helped bring Mumia onto Black Power Media or KPFA, Johanna Fernndez was on the line. He praised her consistency, saying she fought for Mumia without using his name to build her own profile. Davey D described Fernndez as such a constant presence that many assumed she would always be there, making the full impact of her passing difficult to comprehend.

The discussion then connected Black August to todays political climate. Changa defined a political prisoner as someone targeted for their political beliefs or someone who develops a political consciousness while imprisoned. He described the current period as McCarthy Era 2.0, pointing to government attacks on groups opposing war, capitalism and U.S. foreign policy. His advice was to study history, organize carefully and reject empty posturing. Dont watch what I say, watch what I do, he concluded. Action is supreme.

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 Black August, Political Prisoners and the Legacy of Johanna Fernndez appeared first on KPFA.