Aqueila M. Lewis-Ross is a multi-talented, award-winning Bay Area Native well-versed in singing, poetry/spoken word, and journalism. Aqueila has studied and performed throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and is a graduate of Napa Valley College and University of California, Berkeley. Her book of poetry, Stop Hurting and Dance, published by Pochino Press, is a collection of stories overcoming fear, oppression, gentrification, and police brutality; she honors what it means to live with resilience, love and prosperity. She holds the titles of Ms. Oakland Plus America 2014, SF Raw Performing Artist of the Year 2015, and was an Oakland Voices-KALW Community Journalist awardee in 2016 and Greater Bay Area Journalism Awardee in 2017.
Twenty weeks ago, if you had approached 16-year- old Jerome Traylor and asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he probably wouldn’t have an answer for you. “I had been to
[slideshow_deploy id=’8825′]It will be two years in November, just long enough to love where I live. It was a cold winter night when I first walked up the steps of the multi-family house. At
