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 novel about a haunted housing project in Michigan, where the real monster is systemic oppression. Then, an organization that has trained Bay Area filmmakers for decades turns 50. What’s next for them in this new media landscape?
Today’s theme is about the stories we tell and how we tell them.
Tamika Thompson
In the novel, “The Curse of Hester Gardens” a Black mother lives in a Michigan housing project with her teen sons. She’s raising them alone while her husband serves time in prison. Hester Gardens is haunted and cursed, just not by ghosts alone. Injustices like systemic oppression, poverty and youth dying by gun violence have become monsters in the residents' lives. “The Curse of Hester Gardens” is part ghost story, and part realistic fiction. There’s also a juicy scandal too. The mother is having an affair with a mega church pastor.
Tamika Thompson is the author of “The Curse of Hester Gardens.” She is from Detroit and now lives in the East Bay. She talked with Host Jeneé Darden about how the things she witnessed growing up Detroit inspired her book.
Paula Smith Arrigoni and Caron Creighton
Many media artists in the Bay Area have received some training at the Bay Area Video Coalition or BAVC, including Host Jeneé Darden. BAVC is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary. About 2,500 students or media makers of various ages take classes at BAVC each year. BAVC artists have won Emmys and been nominated for Oscars. The media landscape has changed a lot in the last 50 years, but today it's changing really fast. So what does media training and education look like today and in the future?
Paula Smith Arrigoni is the executive director of BAVC Media. Caron Creighton is an instructor at BAVC. She's the filmmaker behind the documentary “Wood Street,” which is about the Oakland encampment.
"Wood Street" is screening this Sunday, May 31 at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco as part of the SF Doc Fest. Tickets are sold out online, but you may be able to buy them at the theater.
