Oakland Voices alumni celebrated and showcased arts storytelling at “Seen and Heard” on Oct. 25 at BAM House.
The event featured three Oakland Voices alumni: Dera R. Williams, Tanna Samone and Kristal Raheem.
2019 Oakland Voices alum, Oakland Poet Laureate, and BAM House founder Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, a.k.a. Wordslanger, moderated the discussion. Oakland Voices Director Rasheed Shabazz served as MC.
The showcase highlighted arts and culture stories by the three writers. Their work illuminated themes ranging from comedy, the experiences Black Panther Party members’ children to Black women’s wellness–all accenting the many heartbeats in art.
Highlighting Black Panther “cubs”
Williams said her storytelling honors the voices of her ancestors.
“I wanted a way to join my love of Oakland and my writing,” Williams said. “Oakland Voices gives me that platform.” Williams chose to amplify the voices of the children from the Black Panther Party, known as the “Panther Cubs.” Her stories featured Panther Cubs Meres-Sia Gabriel and Refa One, a.k.a. Senay Alkebulan (Dennis).
Williams met Teresa Williams (no relation) years ago at Merritt College. Teresa Williams, a geography professor, often shared her experiences as a cub. “Her stories were so intriguing,” Williams said. She went to the Oakland Community School from first through sixth grade.”
Comedy makes stories more palatable
Tanna Samone’s stories uplifted comedy that embraces all people. The “Critical Hit” comedy show, held at It’s Your Move board game shop in Temescal, is one of Oakland’s longest-running comedy shows and was one of Tanna’s offerings to Oakland Voices readers. Samone also highlighted three talented Black comedians who are bringing laughter with a new awareness to stages in Oakland and beyond.
“I believe comedy helps make a lot of stories more palatable,” Samone said. “It’s the sugar that helps the medicine go down, if you will.” She’s recently explored stand-up comedy herself. “It’s an art form that I’ve always respected.”
Samone once read on a little tag of a tea bag that read, “laughter is the same in all languages.” She hopes to share her stories and others not only in Oakland but around the world.
Black women healing ourselves
Kristal Raheem shared that she has found writing to be her form of alchemizing grief. The interviewees for her stories are also alchemists of grief. The Exhale Collective is a community building initiative created by Black women for Black women–featured in Raheem’s series.
Raheem focuses on Black women’s health because that’s what Black women talk to her about.
“When I tell people that I’m a health journalist, I feel like I have to emphasize I’m not telling health stories from a Western perspective,” Raheem said. “Almost every Black woman that I meet, whether I’m interviewing formally or just talking, we end up talking about our responsibility to heal ourselves. “We’ve always been the experts of what we need for ourselves and what the community needs.
Raheem said she’s been called to tell restorative health stories.
“It’s a calling,” Raheem said. “Everything is about how we are constantly repairing and restoring and that all goes back to health.”
Giving artists their flowers
One of the artists Raheem wrote about is singer Elise “3LISE” Cee.
3LISE filled the theater with a breathtaking performance of her soulful song, “Kitchen Floor.”
The event ended with the Exhale Collective giving beautiful flower bouquets to the three artists, another reflection of the healing theme in the Seen and Heard event.
Oakland Voices’ first showcase, since 2019
Seen and Heard was the first artist showcase for Oakland Voices. In 2016 and 2017, Oakland Voices collaborated with KALW to host “Sights and Sounds of East Oakland.”
Seen and Heard highlighted a cascade of art forms based in Oakland.
This year’s stories were made possible through funding from the East Bay Fund for Artists II, supported by the East Bay Community Foundation.
Oakland Voices is a community journalism program and part of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.
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