Welcome to “The Sights + Sounds Show with Jeneé Darden," where every week we tap into the Bay Area arts scene and bring you rich conversations with artists. On today’s show, a documentary about Oakland activists who travel throughout California after being inspired by Octavia Butler. Then, we listen to our interviews from the Bay Area Book Festival. One is with an Oakland author who writes about social issues in Latinx horror. The other is a children's book author who co-wrote a story about a little girl not wanting to move.
Today's show is about survival and caring for each other.
Jocelyn Jackson
Legendary sci-fi writer Octavia Butler foresaw what was to come to our country and planet. Down to the year, she warned readers in her novel "Parables of the Sower." But one group is looking to Butler's book as a guide on how to build caring communities and survive in times like today. People's Kitchen Collective in Oakland is an organization that does work at the intersection of art, social justice and food.
In the documentary "EARTH SEED: A People's Journey of Radical Hospitality," the group travels on the trail in "Parables" from Pasadena to Mendocino County. Along the way, they break bread with people of color, in rural and urban areas, who established communities where care and survival are a priority.
"Earth Seed" will be screening at BAMPFA in Berkeley on Sunday July 27. Jocelyn Jackson is a co-founder of People's Kitchen Collective, and Chef-In-Residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco.
Cynthia Gómez
The "Sights + Sounds" team kicked off the summer at one of host Jeneé Darden's favorite events - The Bay Area Book Festival. We interviewed a couple of writers. One of them is Cynthia Gómez. She writes about horror and speculative fiction set in Oakland. Much of her work is about resistance to oppression. Her first book is a collection of short stories titled "The Nightmare Box and Other Stories." Her story about a Latina vampire, trying to survive in expensive, gentrified Oakland intrigued Jeneé. We spoke with Cynthia outside in Downtown Berkeley.
Stephanie Wildman
Summer time is a busy season for moving. For kids, it can be hard to leave behind their neighbors and school. Stephanie Wildman and Adam R. Chang write about this in the children's book "Miri's Moving Day." Miri is a little bi-racial girl who is sad to be moving out of her Chinese grandparents' home. But both her Chinese grandparents and Jewish grandparents do what they can to make her know everything will be alright. They gift her with items from both cultures to make her feel secure.
Adam R. Chang wasn't able to make the book festival, but the "Sights + Sounds" team watched co-writer Stephanie give a reading to kids on the Berkeley Central Library's children's floor. Afterwards, we spoke with Stephanie Wildman about the inspiration behind her book.
