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Crosscurrents

Lisa Forkish celebrates Bay Area a cappella with the WeSing Vocal Festival

Courtesy of Lisa Forkish
A capella group Vocal Rush

This weekend, a capella music lovers will be gathering in Berkeley for the WeSing Vocal Festival. The three-day event was started by Oakland singer Lisa Forkish who got involved in the a capella music scene during her college years. Her group at that time was the inspiration for the hit film “Pitch Perfect.”

"We're literally singing in harmony with other people, sometimes people with different political beliefs or people from different cultural backgrounds. It's profound, I think, and there are some deep metaphors in that and what we can do through harmony singing."

Since then Lisa’s gone on to teach vocal music at Oakland School for the Arts as the director of the five-time national champion a cappella group, Vocal Rush. 

Jeneé Darden is an award-winning journalist, author, public speaker and proud Oakland native. She is the executive producer and host of the weekly arts segment Sights & Sounds as well as the series Sights + Sounds Magazine. Jeneé also covers East Oakland for KALW. Jeneé has reported for NPR, Marketplace, KQED, KPCC, The Los Angeles Times, Ebony magazine, Refinery29 and other outlets. In 2005, she reported on the London transit bombings for Time magazine. Prior to coming to KALW, she hosted the podcast Mental Health and Wellness Radio.