This month is about love, BIG LOVE. Over the next four weeks we’re chopping it up with folks who have unique expertise on self-love, tough love, love of community and partnerships built on love of the arts. New episodes drop every Friday morning.
AB Banks on Self-Love
We’re launching the series with with AB Banks discussing self-love, which they define as “doing the right thing with a passion.” That means taking care of themselves and their folks, because self-love can be communal and revolutionary. Day-to-day AB works with the People’s Programs in Oakland, supporting their unhoused neighbors through clinics and food donations. Outside of that, AB is deep in the practice of meditation, and has recently launched a series of meditative videos under the name Mad Chill. In our conversation, AB drops philosophical knowledge and opens up their toolbox, sharing the various shapes self-love can take.
Oopz on Showin’ Love
In the Bay Area, “showing love” is something we toss around all the time, especially in hip-hop circles. One embodiment of the concept is a tie-dye wearing, weed smoking, big smiling man named Oopz. He and the Shmoplife crew are known for throwing fun-loving parties at the Shmop House where the music is slappin’, the tacos are smackin’ and the air grows thick with cannabis smoke. We talk about his journey to becoming an extrovert, and the time his community love was tested following a shooting at the Shmop House, which injured a well-known artist and his good friend, Kool John.
Krea Gomez on Tough Love
The third episode in our series focuses on healing intergenerational trauma through a very firm but benevolent form of tough love. Krea Gomez-Jones is our expert on the topic. As a young adult, she received an old-school style of tough love when she was kicked out of her home for misbehaving. Now she practices tough love in her own way. She’s the Director of Local Initiatives at the Young Women’s Freedom Center and has been a loud voice pushing for the closure of juvenile justice halls and getting kids out of the system. In her work with young adults – and with her own children – she sets boundaries and goals while teaching independence with care.
Karen and Malik Seneferu on Love in the Arts
The finale of our series follows the story of a couple that built their relationship on common ground: love for community, love for art and love for Black folks. Karen Seneferu is an artist and curator whose show, “The Black Woman is God” just returned for a fourth iteration at SOMArts. And Malik Seneferu recently completed the “Clear the Air” mural in San Francisco’s Bayview, a piece that extends over 400 feet and was created out of community workshops on environmental justice. We hear how they collaborate creatively, move with community and relish in actualization of Black love.
Rightnowish is an arts and culture podcast produced at KQED. Listen to it wherever you get your podcasts or click the play button at the top of this page and subscribe to the show on NPR One, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
