nic feliciano (who also goes by Coco Machete) contains multitudes. She's a fashionista who currently resides in Berkeley, but was born in the Philippines and spent her teenage years in Southern California. After moving to the East Bay for school two decades ago, she's grown into a playwright, chef, thespian and — as she says — "a master of fun." feliciano's creations go beyond the stage. She's currently writing a comic book in which she gives a modern spin on the mythological creature from...

Adonis is a DJ who is immersed in downtown Oakland's nightlife scene. When they're not on the turntables, Adonis spends significant portions of their summers deep sea commercial fishing in Alaska. Adonis sees it as a way to pay bills, build community, and learn more about their Filipino roots. This week we discuss how it all intertwines-- the search for self, the love of community, the deep sea fishing and the appreciation of the Bay Area. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

In her book White Supremacy Is All Around: Notes from a Black Disabled Woman in a White World, Dr. Akilah Cadet brings the reader into her life as a Black woman living with a disability who recognizes that oppressive forces are as constant as her chronic pain. Dr. Cadet talked with the Rightnowish team about racism, ableism and ways one can go about fixing a broken system.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of Rightnowish, we’re passing the mic to our friends at Immigrantly podcast. Host Saadia Khan and her guests examine traditional narratives Americans hold about immigrants and people of color. Through the process, they carefully unravel the nuance and depth of the immigrant experience. Immigrantly explores the everyday miraculousness of immigrant life, like love, food, faith, friendship and creativity through first-person accounts. Immigrantly’s guest for this episode is...

Zoë Boston is a talented artist who takes the highs and lows of life, and creates moving works of art of all sorts. She paints huge, brightly-colored aerosol murals depicting otherworldly beings, with elements of Afrocentrism and scenes inspired by nature. She also does oil-based paintings on canvas, smaller in stature but just as powerful. She's a fashionista, who knows how to put an outfit together-- accessories and all. She's a writer, of both short journal-like essays and profound lyrics...

The Mamas for a Free Palestine collective is made up of mothers across the Bay Area who say they are fed up with business as usual. While they are a relatively new group, these mothers are not new to activism and political organizing. With their children in tow, they are joining with other social justice organizations to demand that elected officials declare a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, as well as end the use of U.S. public funds for Israel's military. Editor’s note: This episode has been...

Mehndi or henna artist Sabreena Haque talks to KQED's Pendarvis Harshaw about setting intentions when having art added to your body, doing menna, aka henna for men and expanding into tattoos.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Mamas for a Free Palestine collective is made up of mothers across the Bay Area who are fed up with business as usual. While they are a relatively new group, these mothers are not new to activism and political organizing. In December 2023 and February 2024, Mamas for a Free Palestine organized alongside Eastbay for Ceasefire Now to rally rank and file workers across various unions and social justice organizations like AROC, Jewish Voice for Peace, PODER, and Anti Police Terror Project to...

This week KQED's Sheree Bishop speaks to Michelle Cruz Gonzales. Michelle spent the late 90s in two iconic all-female punk bands, Spitboy, and Kamala and the Karnivores. In 2016, she released a memoir about her time in Spitboy and being the only woman of color in that band. Now, she teaches English classes with Punk literature at Las Positas College. Michelle talks about feeling seen as a person of color, the importance of supporting artists and musicians, dealing with toxic masculinity, and...

George Crampton Glassanos says he isn't an artist, he's a painter. Despite this assertion, his work is full of eye-catching colors and symbols representative of San Francisco's Mission district culture. It's born out of both a need to serve others, and George's personal urge to create. He's also driven by the need to advocate for the rights of working class people locally and abroad. This all adds to his paintings and drawings, but don't call it artwork. He recently stopped by KQED's...

Last year I drove over 33,000 miles all around Northern California, constantly pursuing a deeper understanding of this region's culture. And then one day, while sitting in traffic, it hit me: you can tell a lot about our culture by simply looking at the freeways. This week, as we celebrate Rightnowish's 200th episode, I give you a glimpse into the things that I think about while I'm bending corners on Northern California's highways and byways.

Ira Watkins paints Black history while living it. He's a self-taught visual artist who has been using dazzling colors, expressive images and hidden messages to document Black history for decades. His work has graced the walls of his Bayview neighborhood and has been shown at the Tenderloin Museum. He's also painted a huge mural in his hometown of Waco, Texas, where the city dedicated a day in his honor-- now every January 17 is Ira Watkins Day. This week we talk about Black history with...

As a kid in San Francisco, Tommy Guerrero would stand on his skateboard, sliding down the steep hills of San Francisco slalom style. He'd dodge the dangerous objects in traffic and aim for the lips of the driveways he'd pass, going off them in attempts to catch air. This skillset allowed him to win contests, have his own signature board, and turn pro before he could legally buy a beer. Instead, that first check from being signed as a professional skater, was spent on a four track recorder and...

Qing Qi is an artist, talented MC, and an actress who doesn't mince words. Her lyrics are explicit for a reason. She looks at the atrocities that readily happen in this country and all around the world, from bombings to kidnappings, and then she asks what's wrong with saying a few four letter words or euphemisms for genitalia? Qing Qi also doesn't shy away from the hardships she's navigated while living in the Bay Area. She pours her observations and personal experiences into her lyrics,...

Equipto (born Ilyich Sato) is a hip-hop cultural cornerstone and well-known activist who reps San Francisco to the fullest. He's been making music since the 90s, when he came in the game laying down tracks with the underground group, Bored Stiff.  Equipto has rocked shows with the late Mac Dre and was good friends with the late Baba Zumbi of Zion-I. Legendary rapper San Quinn even credits Equipto for teaching him how to properly count rap bars.  We discuss his various roles of mentor,...

"Been through it all but I feel like it was worth it, not a perfect man but I feel like I am worthy," sings musician Rob Woods in a raspy yet uplifting tone that's reflective of the sentiment in his trademark song, "Worthy." Woods wrote the song in collaboration with Ricky Jassal, who he met while incarcerated in a California state prison. Since his release, Woods has been traveling around this state reminding people that no matter what they've been through, they too are worthy. His work is...

"Turfin' is a way of life for me," says Telice Summerfield, a dancer who has the ability turn a BART platform into a stage where she can glide, tut, bend and bone break on beat. She exchanges energy with onlookers; they get entertained and she gets empowered. The dance is an art. It's also a political act, as she takes up space at will. Today we discuss how the hyphy movement opened her eyes to the arts as a child, how her experience at UC Berkeley exposed her to inequalities on campus as a...

From global issues to community conflicts, Boots Riley has had a foot in a number of the major current events of the past year, and he says he's not done yet. So we're kicking off 2024 by talking to someone who has their finger on the pulse of the culture, and a hand in directing the future.

Marisol Medina-Cadena takes a tour of the American Indian Cultural District. It was founded in San Francisco's Mission neighborhood in 2020 to serve as a home base for the Urban Native community.  This episode originally aired on July 22, 2022.

This week on Rightnowish, we talk to librarian Mychal Threets about what it's like to be a social media star and how the public library system is a place for all.

This week Pendarvis Harshaw talks about how the music he grew up listening to, plays into how he and his daughter bond over music now.

Angelica Medina’s first memories of dance are from when she was five years old doing steps to a Selena performance on TV. Her wife, Jahaira Fajardo, remembers being a New York club kid in her late teens, when she thinks of her earliest dance experiences. That’s because dancing felt very heteronormative and exclusionary, and as a lesbian growing up in a Dominican household, dancing seemed just not okay for her. Now as adults, Angelica and Jahaira are co-founders of In Lak’ech, the first queer...

Born and raised in Oakland, Helixir Jynder Byntwell did drag as a hobby until August 2022. That's when they quit their job, won the SF Drag King of the Year competition, and became a professional king, all in the span of a week. Since then, they’ve joined the Rebel Kings of Oakland, a performance troupe based at the White Horse Bar. They’ve also participated in several well-attended performances in New York and in the Bay Area, most recently at the Castro Street Fair. Byntwell’s performances...

Inside of a classic Queen Anne Victorian in West Oakland, photographer Traci Bartlow displays beautifully framed images of the people who shaped hip-hop culture here in the Bay Area, and across the nation. Photos of Outkast and Queen Latifah, Busta Rhymes and ODB, hang alongside images of the Luniz and Shock-G, as well as E-40 and The Click. While the photos tell a story about what life was like in growing up in Oakland, it's her house, which is a photography museum and a boutique hotel, that...