Rightnowish

Michael Muscadine was born and raised in East Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood, where his family goes back several generations. Muscadine says that's where his grandfather, John Melendrez, instilled in him the idea of community oriented social activism. 

Now Muscadine works as a life coach at the Fruitvale-based nonprofit, CURYJ, which stands for Communities United For Restorative Youth Justice. Muscadine works directly with young folks-- many of whom have had run-ins with the justice system-- to assure that they have resources like food and housing.

Muscadine also works at a community garden in the same neighborhood where he works and lives. Through gardening, and his work at CURYJ, he's literally planting seeds in the same place he has deep roots.

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As the Director of Homeless Services for the Alameda Health System and the Chief Clinical Officer with Health Leads, Dr. Damon Francis has his hands full.

Before the pandemic, Dr. Damon performed heath checkups, tests, and provided resources for people living without shelter and those living with HIV. This year he's taken on treating people living with the virus and informing people how to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

When he talks about quelling the spread of COVID-19, Dr. Damon relies on something he learned while working with people living with HIV/ AIDS: you can't demonize human behavior.

He believes that people are going to be people; he just wants them to do so in the most informed and healthy way possible.

So, when it comes to the ongoing conversation about gatherings in public spaces, like Oakland's Lake Merritt, Dr. Damon doesn't condemn people, instead he asks them to socialize in the healthiest fashion possible: wearing masks, washing hands, staying more than six-feet apart; he also suggests looking at the Alameda County Health Department's page for further information.

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Amir Abdul-Shakur's Instagram page, AmirThePhotographer, looks like a community yearbook. His shots are mostly portraits of Black folks in Oakland, and show each individual in their own radiant light.

His images, some of protests and others of parties, all seem to have an underlying joyous sentiment.

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Dania Cabello is a former professional fútbol player, who now teaches the sport to young folks through the program Oakland Street Stylers. She was one of the main characters in the film Futbolistas 4 Life and is a producer on the series, The North Pole. But her most recent venture involves juicing marijuana leaves to make healing salves and bath salts; and her company is called Ojo De La Sol.

After mastering her remedies in her kitchen, Dania says she went through the long bureaucratic process of filing paperwork, getting her products tested and when she finally got access to a space where she could mass produce, that's when the first shelter-in-place orders came down from Governor Newsom.

Since then, she's struggled to get her products into stores, as meetings are hard to arrange while socially distancing. But nonetheless, she's managed to set up her online shop and sell her her salves and bath salts through a digital storefront. After all, this is a time where masses could use medicine.

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"I'm doing a flip off the boat," said Jarrel Phillips, breaking down last year's performance at Remembering 1619, a play directed by Joanna Haigood of Zaccho Dance Theatre, which acknowledges the first shipment of enslaved Africans reaching Virginia 400 years ago.

"I'm one of the ones that decides, 'I'm not having this, yo, I'm out,'" says Jarrel, summarizing his character in the play.

His onstage persona is much like Jarrel in real life: acrobatic, resilient and close to his roots. From the stage, Jarrel tells the story of Africans surviving in the Western hemisphere. In real life, Jarrel is part the story of how African Americans have survived on the West Coast of the United States.

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DAGHE Digital is just about as unique as they come.

He's a West Oakland kid, who's clear about his West African roots, as his family hails from Nigeria. He grew up a socialite who turf danced and threw "functions" for people who weren't old enough to go to legit clubs. He's grown to become a brand creator, clothing designer, music producer and more.

But his main job? Going stupid on the turntables and microphone at some of the biggest events.

I first sat down to interview him in Oakland last summer, and talked about the other side of DAGHE. You know, the cerebral side, the side that likes to have "business meetings" with himself while he runs the lake. Since shelter-in-place, he channeled his love of running towards a Peace and Wellness run to show solidarity with the protests.

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Is police reform actually achievable? That's the question I'm most interested in asking Regina Jackson.

Ms. Regina, as she's often called, has been the Executive Director of the East Oakland Youth Development Center since 1994. That's where she perfected her system of mentorship and community engagement.

In 2017, Ms. Regina was elected to a four-year term as the Chair of the Oakland Police Commission-- an independent review board that works outside of OPD to oversee policies and practices within the department.

Ms. Regina's goal is to bring her philosophies on mentorship and community development to the Oakland Police Commission, in the hopes that it will result in substantial reform to the Oakland Police Department-- which has been under a federal monitor since 2003.

Ms. Regina is powerful and competent, but given all that I've experienced with police in America, especially over these past few weeks-- with footage of George Floyd's Death and the tale of Breonna Taylor's death, I've grown more pessimistic about the potential of "reforming" police departments in America, Oakland's included.

But if anyone is going to make a dent in police reform, it's going to be someone like Ms. Regina.

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Hadiyah Daché is an esthetician from East Palo Alto, who recently relocated her Fairy Glow Mother business to Oakland.

Her skincare work covers everything finding remedies for acne to waxing intimate areas, and there's so much more to it.

In this conversation, we touch on Hadiyah's roots in EPA, her entrepreneurial drive and why skincare is deeper than just applying sunblock-- which she suggests you do multiple times of day if you're outside in the summer months.

Correction: Hadiyah's last name is Daché.

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Sydney Nycole is a singer and songwriter from Berkeley who has been making music since she was a teen. And although her father (and manager) Gary Reeves has been in the industry since the 1980s, Sydney found this passion on her own.

Once it was established that Sydney, a free spirit who has no problem speaking her mind, was on the path to becoming an artist, it was on Gary to make sure he did his best to be there to support her and to know when to step back and let Sydney do her own thing.

In this conversation, Gary talks about how his experiences working with the likes of Michael Jordan, Jamie Foxx and Blair Underwood informed what it's like to be a father in the entertainment industry. Sydney also offers some insight into what her father has done to help her on her path.

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Poet Tiffany Banks is the host of Speak On It, a weekly poetry night that usually takes place at Liege Lounge in Old Oakland.

But since California has been sheltering in place, the poetry night has taken to the digital realm-- and now the talented performers hop on a big Zoom call just about every Wednesday night to share their work.

As the host of this event, it's on Tiffany to organize the video call, schedule performers, promote the event and, at times, influence bashful artists to share their hidden talents.

In this episode of Rightnowish, Tiffany helps me to tap back into a passion I've had since a kid, writing poetry. And she even convinces me to perform.

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