I had the privilege of joining Khamsa’s very first listening party at the Reef Studios. I arrived at the given address and was greeted by a single-paned, glass door propped open, revealing the start of a long and narrow staircase. The music studio was tucked away at the top, bursting with life. A crowd of musicians exchanged hugs and laughter while a small white dog ran between their ankles. The air smelled of pizza, and
I joined my scheduled Zoom meeting with Hannah Jeffers the day after my family left. It was a joyful and chaotic visit, their first since I moved to the Bay Area, and now I was filled with a medley of expected emotions: relief, sadness, gratitude. A confusing and daunting acceptance of the newfound distance between us, as their plane touched down in New York.
My phone call with Ryan Samn opened with the busy sounds of clattering kitchenware ringing in the background.
“Sorry, I’m making dinner with my family right now,” He quickly explained. I myself was hidden in the back room of the tutoring center I work at on Thursday nights. The center was quiet, most of the students having left to return home for their own family dinners, and so I welcomed the familiar sounds of
NOVEMBER 5, 2022 – Earlier this week, after a brief rain in San Francisco’s Mission District, the sun appeared on Clarion Alley where a small team of women were brushing green paint on the top of a “Women, Life, Freedom” mural. The green, red and white of Iran’s flag served as the backdrop to the drawing of a woman cutting her ponytail with scissors — one of the many iconic images emerging from Iran in
The Magic of Music by Emma Grover From May 9th through May 25th, students of Oakland International High School will participate in the first in-school music class as part of their post-session program delivered by ARTogether. But things were different last fall, when we first started our Music Club there. Classes are adjourned, and the sound of chattering students quiets, making room for something unexpected; the notes of musical instruments coming from the high school’s
