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Why do Iove the unsmokables despite being too much of a suburbanite to have made actually it to a live show thus far?
‘Cause the groove is positive, because I adore Bo who has a voice that would kill me with envy - if she wasn’t sweet to a fault (and had somehow managed to tolerate me as a supervisor for some years. Imagine. Me as the boss who directed her to "learn to be more mean." Curious that she doesn’t require therapy in the aftermath…), and the fusion of cultures in this group represents what Oakland means to me.
A young 19 year old Richmond woman from Youth radio was speaking this week about how sad it made her that a tragedy such as the one at Virginia Tech gets worldwide attention, yet no one really gives a hoot that vibrant young people are violently killed every week in places like Richmond and Oakland. One can’t compare tragedies of course, but there is truth in her words.
Often I "represent" as hailing from O-town. It amused yet alarmed me that in the heart of post-Katrina New Orleans, the Cops there raised eyebrows when they heard Dr. Helen was from Oakland. "That’s a rough city." said one officer. (This in the middle of a bullet-pocked police station in a national disaster zone. You’re calling US a rought city?!)
Am I poser since I don’t actually live there? Some may say so. Y’all are entitled to your opinion. But I have spent, and still do spend most of my life working. And I’ve spent the majority of those thousands of hours devoted to Oakland, and now Richmond as well. Because all those communities of color hold brilliance like you couldn’t imagine. Enough talented, creative, hardy young and old souls to make it worthwhile to keep working in a place where my colleagues get mugged seasonally,I wield pepper spray religiously, & I know to either run like hell or duck if we hear gunshots.
My oldest client was 92 yrs old, spunky as all get out and still living independently in Oakland. She’d get Dimsum with her kids (seniors in their 60’s) and join the BART tai chi crew. My young Oaklanders have been African America, Lao, Cambodian, Croatian, Tongan, Vietnamese, Mexican, Chinese, mixed race,white kids, you name it, we got it. And by God, they have made me crack up and grow up like no other.
Despite its nasty rep (or its many fair-weather friends such as all those smiling Warriors fans at Oracle arena last night. Glad to see you twenty thousand enthused folks. Where the hell are you when we have a school fundraiser, political youth rally, or Alice Arts project!?), Unsmokables reminds me of the Oakland I have come to know. Where the most peculiarly random combos of souls become fast friends and share their worlds with one another.
it’s been too long sing Queen Latifah busted outta this hood and onto the airwaves/movies/cosmetics ads-we’re definitely due again for more local talent to catch the larger spotlight…
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