The Oaklandside Live-ish: June 15

Day 1 of Live-ish kicked off with a spirited conversation about equitable journalism. Then, on location in West Oakland Fantastic Negrito talked about his latest project and played a set. The day closed with a powerful, solutions-oriented discussion about gun violence.

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Equity in journalism

Internationally acclaimed journalist (and former KRON East Bay bureau chief!) Soledad O’Brien, Maynard Institute director and former Oakland Tribune editor-in-chief Martin Reynolds, and The Oaklandside editor-in-chief and former NPR editor Tasneem Raja in conversation about what equity in journalism really means—and how local and national news organizations can avoid repeating mistakes of the past.

Music from Caroline Chung

When you listen to Fantastic Negrito, you’re invited to hear the story of life after destruction. Each song is a real story about a musician from Oakland who experienced the highs of a million-dollar record deal, the lows of a near fatal car accident that left him in a coma, and is now in the midst of a rebirth that took him from the streets of Oakland to the world stage.

Fantastic Negrito has recently launched his own record label, Storefront Records, based in his home town of West Oakland and is working on his new album that will be the label’s first release.

Gun violence in Oakland

The Oaklandside’s managing editor Jacob Simas moderates a solutions-oriented discussion about gun violence with Antoine Towers of the Violence Prevention Coalition, Daryle Allums of Oakland Frontline Healers, and several community advocates who have also lost children to gun violence: Towanda Sherry, and Olu and Barbara Oluwole. The conversation took place in person at Liberation Park, a project of the Black Cultural Zone in East Oakland. Afterward, violence-prevention advocate John Jones III talks about why the ongoing spike in gun violence in our city isn’t happening “in a vacuum,” as he wrote in a powerful essay for The Oaklandside.