Crosscurrents

Oakland-based singer/songwriter Quinn DeVeaux is one part city, one part country. When he plays with his band, the Blue Beat Review, he taps into Ray Charles and plays the savvy bandleader, burning his way through tune after tune and keeping his audience dancing late into the night.

We played you this sound and asked you to guess what exactly it is and where exactly in the Bay Area we recorded it.

Today on Crosscurrents:

• A peek inside the Museum of Capitalism in Oakland.
• Getting across the Bay the old fashioned way — by ferry. 
• A Bay Area Beats with Quinn Deveaux. 

The Sons Of Soul Revivers are a San Francisco-based quartet who come from a family of gospel singers; their songs are grounded in the gospel tradition.

Oakland-based Cherríe Moraga is a Chicana poet, essayist, playwright and feminist activist.

Earlier this month, the Cal State University Chancellor announced something huge.  He issued an executive order that will radically change what’s known as “remedial” education.

Today on Crosscurrents:

• A big change in the Cal State University system that’s going to affect twenty five thousand first-time students each fall.
• Long-time writer and activist Cherrie Moraga on the need for optimism in the face of history.
• A Bay Area Beats with The Sons Of Soul Revivers.

People all across the country are getting ready for next week’s solar eclipse, seeking out the best spots to see it, buying their safe viewing glasses, and learning up on what exactly an eclipse is.

Today on Crosscurrents: 

• All the information you need to know to enjoy the upcoming solar eclipse here in the Bay.
• A story from our friends at 99 Percent Invisible about the Salton Sea.

West Oakland has had an air pollution problem for years, and it’s taken a toll on residents. Emergency room visits for asthma are highly concentrated in West Oakland and Emeryville, but they drop off dramatically when you get to other parts of Oakland.

The Desi Comedy Festival is the only South Asian comedy festival in the country.

When Deuce Eclipse and Juan Manuel Caipo joined forces in 2008, they wanted to make music that could do two things: provide information, and make beats that bang.

Today on Crosscurrents:

• What happens when you measure air pollution block by block.
• Meeting the men behind the largest South Asian comedy festival in America.
• How the Bay Area band Bang Data forged its own unique identity.

In the world of street art, painting over somebody else’s work — especially one connected to the local community — is sacrilegious.

A psychology team at Stanford studied whether self-affirmations actually work to improve academic performance for students of color.

This auditory guessing game is part of Audiograph, a crowd-sourced collaborative radio project mapping the Bay Area’s sonic signature.

Today on Crosscurrents:

• A desecrated mural reveals the role street art plays in the survival of the Mission District’s culture
• A Stanford researcher explores the effects that affirmations can have on young students of color
• The answer to this week’s Audiograph mystery sound

William Lehnhart joined the military when he was 20 years old, during a time of peace. 

Alex Nieto was a young Latino from San Francisco who was shot at 59 times by four San Francisco police officers on the night of March 21, 2014 in Bernal Heights Park. All four officers were later acquitted of all charges.  

Elizabeth Rosner’s parents both survived the Holocaust. Growing up she felt traumatized, even though she personally didn’t experience the camps. And when she talked to other children of survivors — not just of the Holocaust, but also of the Cambodian killing fields and the Armenian genocide — she realized she wasn't alone.

Today on Crosscurrents:

• How a San Francisco man killed by police is being remembered
• A daughter of Holocaust survivors explains how trauma can be inherited
• A veteran discusses his struggle to return to civilian life after fighting in Iraq

In early June, I was walking a trail in Land’s End in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, when I came upon a children’s book called The Fox Wish, by Kimiko Aman. Each page was a mounted panel, installed just a few feet away from the next, like storytime breadcrumbs.

It was a delightful book about a fox who steals a little girl’s jump rope, but it got me wondering: What’s a children’s book doing in this National Park?

August 6th marked the 72nd anniversary of when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Wednesday is the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki. Altogether, nearly 200,000 people died in the attacks.

Not everyone is happy about the state’s new climate change laws.

Today on Crosscurrents: 

• How California’s commitment to cap-and-trade pollution policy will affect local communities.

• The story of a great summer romance between the National Parks Service and the San Francisco Public Library.

• Remembering the lives impacted by two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

You might expect that a Jerry Garcia-themed event in San Francisco would be founded by a Deadhead. You know, a stereotypical Grateful Dead mega-fan who followed the band around the country for years, dropping acid, wearing tie dye, and talking about world peace.

That’s not Tom Murphy.

He’s got a crew cut, drives a Nissan Altima, and is usually dressed business casual. He’s a loan consultant.

Dani is twenty-two years old. She was born in Mexico and moved to Richmond when she was three. About a year ago, she started working at a cannabis dispensary. It’s more than just a job. She identifies as a “first generation bud tender” - one of the first people to openly sell cannabis now that it’s becoming legal in California. She's proud of her role, but it hasn’t been easy. Cannabis is still not federally legal so as an immigrant, she's working in a legal grey area. Plus, her family wasn’t too happy with her work.