 Second. All right. Welcome friends. We'll get started here in just a moment. Thank you for joining us on this beautiful Sunday. Morning. We'll give it a moment for the room to fill up a little. We got a little late start. I'm only a minute late though. Welcome everyone. Welcome. All right, I will give some library announcements and we'll be putting some links in the chat box today. And I'm going to start right now with these links. And this will have links to today's library news, as well as links to our presenter Linda Jackson, and as Linda gives the presentation about all this amazing music will provide links back to that as well as links that you can get this music at the library and other locations. So let's jump in. Let's get started. We want to welcome you here and acknowledge that we occupy the unceded ancestral homeland of the Romitush Sholoni peoples for the original inhabitants of the San Francisco peninsula. We recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. And by the guests we affirm their sovereign rights as first peoples and wish to pay our respects to the ancestors, elders, relatives of the Romitush community. And that link that I put in the chat box leads back to a great reading and resource list about first peoples and particularly the Romitush community so take a look at that. In the upcoming events we partner with the city and county and SF environment for a series of TEDx talks, first one coming up December 8, and this will be on climate change, and the mayor will be in the house for this one. So December 8 live streaming. And December 6, another climate change talk. So this one provides Andreas Karelass provides some hopeful and real strategies that we can do to work on climate change. Some other upcoming programs we have in our beautiful caret auditorium we are doing in person events now. So please come on down there's plenty of room our caret is just a gorgeous theater, lots of room to spread out and we'll be celebrating the work of poet laureate Jack Krishman by watching a film called red poet, and there'll be a conversation with the director and producer. On Tuesday, December 14, we take it out of the library to the beautiful oasis champagne room in downtown San Francisco, south of market, and we'll be celebrating author, Mallory O'Meara will be talking about her book, girly drinks, a world history of women and alcohol. And a repeat performance of last year's inspired chair dance, not cracker inspired chair dance and oral history. I was a little like oh this is not going to be this is not going to be a great turnout but so many people came out. People loved this it was so fun to see people chair dancing and just taking part in this so really all ages all fun all activity for all of the family. So come here about the nutcracker. They've been doing this for a very long time. And it's a great way to get moving. This is a very San Francisco tradition magazine and letters and journals, they will be in the house, January 24, talking about the issue number 122. All right, and now, without further ado, I'm so excited to have Linda back with us Linda Jackson has become such a valuable presenter and human to our library we're so glad that I'm so glad I found you Linda. Linda joined one of my book clubs many long long time ago and I have just become great friends and I'm so happy she she gives of her knowledge back to our library community. Linda is a native San Franciscan writer historian photographer and food artist. She holds a bachelor's of arts degree in English from Mount St. Mary's University and received her master's of fine arts degree in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She's a member of the San Francisco writers workshop, and has recently completed a collection of short stories entitled the religion of slaves. She's been working on her memoir. And again, we're so honored to have her back with us. And without further ado, Linda Jackson everyone. Thank you so very much. This is wonderful to be here today. And I appreciate everybody turning out it's a wonderful Sunday morning, even though it is a little nippy, but we are ready to go and I want to say that doing the research for this project has been absolutely mind blowing. I've learned so much about my hometown and the people in it and the music that originated in this sacred hallowed ground. We're going to start by doing a recap of part one, and then we'll get right into part two so that if you weren't in the, if you didn't attend the August presentation, you're not going to miss a thing. So let's begin. This started this presentation started originally don't see your screen share yet. You don't see my screen share. Okay, let me fix that now. Yeah, I'm hitting it. I wanted everybody to know that this was all set up and we were doing just fine. There we go. There we go. Here we go. There we are. Okay. Perfect. Oh, yeah, this started in observation of black music month, which is in June. It's also called African American Music Month. And so this was an observation of, of, you know, black music in June. And because of the calendar and because of dates and because of cove it, we actually ended up doing the first part of it in August and so here we are in December, doing part two, but the music is still there and we observe black music month, every day of the year because you can't get away from the music of Africans in America. Okay. So this is a recap of part one. This presentation was inspired by my reading a book called blue mind by Wallace Nichols, and the premise of this book is that people who live near large bodies of water, receive energy from the environment, and it works in terms of emotional stability or helping you to get there in terms of creativity in terms of basic calm. And when I think about the effects of water and having been born and raised in San Francisco, and knowing how much being able to see the ocean to see the means to me and the calming effect. I started to consider what it must have been for what it must be affected must have had on a lot of artists here in the San Francisco Bay Area. And so because of the music month I chose to focus specifically on African American artists that come from San Francisco Bay Area. I wanted to remind people that the observation of Black Music Month was originally implemented by Diana Williams and Kenny Gamble. Diana and Kenny were once married, they are no longer, but Kenny Gamble is part of the great music team of producers, Gamble and Huff, who dominated the music scene in 1960s, 70s, and even the 80s. So we got together and well Kenny went to Nashville and saw a museum, you know, commemorating the, the, the accomplishments of country musicians, and he decided that the same thing was necessary for African Americans, and he began about the work of it in early 1970, and then it made it happen in 1979. Now, although Black Music Month was initiated, but in 1979 by Jimmy Carter, there was, and listen, no surprise because it is the government, they had a paper malfunction. And the, and even though Jimmy Carter signed the proclamation, it was initiated in 1979 it wasn't signed until the year 2000. And by the year 2009 Barack Obama signed the proclamation to rename it African American Music Appreciation Month. And again, good things happen when Democrats are in the office. Okay, pop and musical theater. Here are three of San Francisco and the Bay Area's best known artists. One is Johnny Mathis, who came to San Francisco from Texas as a little boy. You know, and it's interesting thing about Johnny Mathis there might be people who are younger who have never heard of him. But I'm telling you, Johnny Mathis, as I speak to you right now has hip hop money. Johnny Mathis net worth is more than $600 million. And that's really saying something when he came up in the business at the time when opportunities were not always available. And, but he's made quite a name for himself and created such a beautiful body of work. And as a matter of fact, my father took Johnny Mathis's first, well his early publicity pictures they were taken at Bob city in the late 1950s. Now, I know that on to Carol Channing. I know this is about black music, and that's why I included Carol Channing, because she, by her own admission is American. Well, she came from Seattle when she was a toddler so she as she's a graduate of Lowell High School. Incidentally, Johnny Mathis went to Washington, but Carol Channing's mother told her when she graduated from Lowell I think it was about 1939. Her mother told her that her father was in fact a black man who had been passing for white. And she told Carol to be careful about marrying and having children because she believed in the theories of Darwin, meaning that Carol could possibly have a black child, which is true. And Carol kept that to herself until she wrote her autobiography I think it was sometime in the late 1980s, early 90s. And then we have David Diggs who is a native of Oakland, and the star of Hamilton. He is a Grammy and a Tony winner. And he was born and raised right in Oakland. I address some of the gospel dynasties and first and foremost are the Hawkins family, well is the Hawkins family. So we have Tremaine Hawkins who was married to Bishop, Bishop Walter Hawkins. And Tremaine is actually a native San Franciscan and still a recording gospel artist to this day. One thing that I really want to say to you all is that everybody that I mentioned here today. You can find their music on YouTube and Spotify and anywhere else you find your music but I know everything that I needed to find in order to put this together was right there on YouTube. So anyway, one of the things about Bishop Walter Hawkins is that even though he came out of a ministry that is known as Church of God in Christ, he had a very open and compassionate interpretation of the written word of scripture. And he is one of the first ministers in the United States to openly invite gay trans well all of from the LGBTQ plus community. He always made a home for them there. As a matter of fact, when the great music artist Sylvester passed away. His funeral was held at Bishop Walter Hawkins Church, which is called the Love Center, which is still operating today. In the middle is Edwin Hawkins, who actually solidified the name of the Hawkins family with his release of Oh Happy Day in the 1970s. It was one of the first gospel hits to also make it onto the pop charts. And toured the world with just that song and until the day he died. He could never perform anywhere without doing Oh Happy Day. Another first family of gospel are the is the Crouch family Andre Crouch and Sandra Crouch. They are twins and they were born right here in San Francisco. Andre has worked with everyone from Quincy Jones to Michael Jackson, and so has Sandra and they have built quite a legacy in gospel tradition. Okay, so now we're going to get to the rhythm and blues and fun. And this is a little piece that I wrote because I love Sylvester so much before queer I for the straight guy. And before RuPaul's drag race. In the days of yester, there was a queen who reigned supreme, and her name was Sylvester. I never get enough of Sylvester's music from the day I first heard his stuff mighty real and with two tons of fun. He captured the imagination of funk masters and funk imagery around the world. I have several photographs of Sylvester but I will tell you that if you are in San Francisco that recently. There is a new mural of him at the corner of 11th and Harrison. And I have the name of the artist in my notes, but it is absolutely incredible. Don't miss it. Take a look and go see it. What I was talking to Anissa and Lisa about is that there is right now, currently a commercial of apoco rebond commercial which is immense fragrance. And you have these two young hip people all dressed to the nines and getting an limousine and doing their thing. Another thing that I can really pay attention to is the background music because they are playing Sylvester's mighty real. And while you've got these young, you know, white kids, you know, doing their thing you got Sylvester wailing in the background like it's church, it is absolutely fantastic, and actually got a bit of a dichotomy for the imagery versus the, the music. Now, here's my other favorite Sylvester Sly Stone, who was a radio DJ here in San Francisco before he formed his band Sly and the Family Stone. I used to talk to Sly on the radio when I was a kid, and he had a keyboard in his studio. So if you had a special event or a birthday, you could call Sly and say Sly it's my birthday and he would do some riff of happy birthday and put your name in it right there in the studio. And it was wonderful. And we were also, he was first on radio KSOL, K-S-O-L, and then he moved to another radio station, K-D-I-A, and then he moved to Sly and the Family Stone and took the world by storm. Okay, this is Sly and the Family Stone. They were really a wonderful group. We were so proud of them. One of the things that I want to point out about some of these groups that were San Francisco based. You could find them doing concerts in the park. I'll tell you about some other things later, but they were everywhere and they were accessible. I mean, you had a grateful dead house. You had a Jefferson airplane house. You knew where to find these people. I mean, just walking the streets of the hate and in the Goldie Gate Park Panhandle area. It was really a magical, fantastic time to grow up in San Francisco. Another Bay Area girl group. And to me, the original Funky Divas are the pointer sisters, all born and raised in Oakland. One of the things that I like to point out about many of the people that we've already just that I've already shared information about is that these people are the progeny of African Americans who left the south in the first and the second great migrations, getting out of Jim Crow. I mean, Jim Crow was actually just another form of slavery. And so the first great migration began in about 1916 and went on to about 1939 and 1940 and at that period, more than 6 million African Americans left the south going to the Midwest to the east and coming to the West Coast. The second great migration was during the era of World War two actually documented like from 1940, as late as the 1970s. And again, that was another period where almost 5 million African Americans left the south, you know, for better lives and for I mean, no different than immigrants that come from other shores, only that, you know, these African Americans were native refugees. And they brought their religion, their food, their culture and everything with them. And those who landed in the San Francisco Bay area, their children went on to create something really great. Okay, now for part two. My man, Larry Graham. Larry Graham is the architect of slap and pop funk. He had a way of he has a way of playing his bass guitar to mimic the sound of a drum. And this was a skill that came out of necessity when they lost their connections when he was performing with his mother's group, the Dell Graham trio. So Larry spam, Larry was actually born in Beaumont, Texas, which is bordering is a golf town at the Gulf of Mexico. Interestingly enough, Janice Joplin is also from Beaumont, Texas. So what are the odds that these two people came out of Beaumont and really made great names in music. I just think it's really something about it, but then the Gulf of Mexico is also water but they got out of there, and they brought that soul and just dipped it into the bay, and we are forever grateful. Now, this is one of the brightest stars on the horizon right now. Her name is HR, which stands for having everything revealed her government name I'm told is actually Gabriella Wilson, but she is a four time Grammy winner. And she won an Oscar last year for her song fight for you in Judas and the Black Messiah. Now, Gabriella is from Vallejo. And she, she is a child prodigy and she's been playing music from the time she was a little girl. She also comes from a very interesting pedigree. Her father, her grandfather, played for the San Francisco 49ers from 1973 to 1983. And his name escapes me right now it's somewhere in my notes. Her uncle is MC Hammer, and her cousin is the actress Gabrielle Union. So she really comes from quite a pedigree. You know, I'm going to stop right here because I have stuff that I want to tell you about Larry Graham. And I have the tendency to get a little fast and a little excited, but I have to stop myself and go back. One of the things about Larry is that he played with sly and the family stone from 1966 to 1972. But the story about how he and sly stone met is really interesting and another what you know only in San Francisco story Larry and his mother were playing a gig at a place in right at the corner of hate and Ashbury called relax with Yvonne. It was a little club on the corner of hate and Ashbury. And there was a woman who was familiar with sly and the work that he was doing he was still a DJ at the time, but she saw Larry and his mother doing this gig at Yvonne's And he and she encouraged sly to go and meet with Larry Graham because he knew the slide was put she knew the slide was putting a group together. And so they met for the very first time at the corner of hate and Ashbury in this club, chopped it up. Larry decided to join the band, and then they went on to form sly and the family stone and create and the thing about it is that sly. I mean, every great artist, particularly those in funk from Prince to Bootsy Collins, you know, everybody talks about the indelible DNA that sly stone put into funk music. And it's interesting too because of all the people that sly has influenced all of those that have come and gone and I do mean Michael Jackson and Prince and Whitney Houston sly is still around living in Los Angeles, doing his thing, not the conventional way that most of us would have any appreciation for, but the fact is, he is still here. You know, more than a musician Larry Graham is a funk master extraordinaire revered by guitarist and percussionist throughout the music industry. And he is the architect of the slap and pop technique. Like his contemporaries sly stone and Prince, he has imbued American music with his superpower DNA. And so I had to stop and do that, not taking anything away from her. Okay, getting back to HR having everything revealed. This young lady is only 24 years old as you can see. And there's a lot of buzz where people believe that she is on her way to being an ego, which is the recipient of an Emmy Grammy Oscar and Tony. And as we can see she already has to, and it's clearly well on her way. She wears the dark glasses, and there's not really much known about her, because she says that she wants people to relate to her through her music, as opposed to imagery and all of the things that come along with the kind of garden stardom that she is experiencing right now. But you know, good on her in vogue. Now these are the girls that are really called the funky divas but you know, I take, I don't take any exception to it but I would just say that the original funky divas were the pointer sisters. Interestingly enough, both of these groups were out of Oakland. Now, Cindy Herron, the young lady that you can see that is on the far right is a native San Francisco and the others come from other places, and the group was actually formed in Oakland by producers Denzel Foster and Thomas McElroy. You know, in vogue first hit the scene in the 1990s and their first album Born to Sing peaked at 21, number 21 on the Billboard 200 charts. Their album sold more than 5 million copies and won an American Music Award. And these ladies they've received five Grammys, five Grammy nominations but they've never taken the award home. But the acknowledgement has to be enough. And the music is even more the music is better than any nomination or any statue that anyone can give them. In 2003 they toured with, they toured Europe with Luther Vandross, and I don't know what happened, but Luther said he would never tour with them again. I guess Luther was the fifth funky diva. They continue to form their several iterations of this group over the years, but they continue to to perform with three instead of four members and they are, they are traveling the world, doing foreign and domestic concerts. So these are the funky divas. This is let us see. Let us see is a very unique creature born in New Orleans but raised in Oakland. When she was the child she performed with the new, with the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra. And so she's had music and her DNA for quite some time. She doesn't have her in this category but she actually defies categories, because let us see is into she's, she's has so many different genres and she moves effortlessly between them. She does soul music rhythm and blues jazz pop neosoul gospel, and she even does musical theater. As a matter of fact, let us see. She had a significant tenure as a cast member and beach blanket Babylon. So she's definitely a Bay Area girl. You know, let us see has been grinding in the music industry for probably 30 years now. And last year, she received her first Grammy. And this is a picture of it. It's for a best traditional R&B performance, her song anything for you. And so again, congratulations to her, because she has really been grinding for a very long time. My boys tower of power, down to the nightclub bump city. These were the funkiest dudes, you know, some of the funkiest dudes that the Bay Area ever produced. And I like the idea that with them with Santana with sly and the family stone, they were a multicultural group. Of course, no women in the group that's okay because they were jamming just the same. I've had several lead singers over the years, but their most popular lead singer is a balladier by Lenny Williams. Now Lenny Williams is originally from the south but he is definitely a San Francisco boy. And when he was not seeing with the group and touring with the group. He actually worked as a probation officer. So you can find Lenny on stage on Friday and Saturday and Sunday nights. You can find him at 850 Bryant doing his job. Oh yes, I remember this album, it got stolen but I used to have this album and this is one of the most iconic album covers in Bay Area music history. I mean the bridge doesn't even look like that anymore and cars certainly don't look like that anymore. But this. There's something about this cover that was so exciting for the people of San Francisco and Oakland I mean you it was everywhere, absolutely everywhere, and you had to have this record there wasn't a party, if you didn't have tower of power. They had a lot of singles. And they started like in 1968 and like many groups they've had many different iterations. They continue to form to perform. They have a website, and you can go on there and find out where they're performing. A lot of times it's out of the city but many times they're in the east they I find that they're in the East Bay, more than I find them in San Francisco. The tower of power is always known for its high powered funk and soul sound it has this driving brass and percussion, the kind of sound that this rich sound that you heard like when James Brown or earth wind and fire because they had the brass and the drums and the funk and it was on. And, but they actually moved in different genres as well and because they've saying, and they've performed with Bonnie rate Eric Clapton john Huey Lewis heart, Santana, Stevie Nicks, and even Paula Abdul, who's not really a singer but what are you going to do. Okay. This is a function, the layos own can function. These guys met the group was formed by two guys, Lewis McCall and Michael Cooper, who met in high school at the layout high school. And he put the band together in the 1970s, and actually made ended up having to leave the Bay area because they were hired by stacks records to play as a backup band for one of the contracted groups there. Felton pilot was a vocalist and an instrument instrument list in the group, and they still perform today. But one thing about Felton pilot I will tell you, he actually has been producing and writing with hammer. Yes, the original MC hammer. So they're all still making music. Let's see what can I tell you about them. Okay. Now we're going to go on to jazz jazz jazz I couldn't say it just once, and twice was the man. George Duke. This again is another funk master. He was born in San Rafael and raised in Marin City, and he graduated from town of highest high school. This isn't one of the things that I want to point out about all of these different genres that I'm going to be talking about that I began. Many of these people were not just performers who decided that they wanted to go into music and taught themselves how to play an instrument. Many of them had formal classical education's let us see her, you know, a lot of them did and educated and professors and teachers of music as well. George Duke received his bachelor's degree from the San Francisco conservatory of music in trombone and composition, and then he got his master's degree from San Francisco State in 1975. You know he started his career as a classical musician but he has an uncle who was who was a great musician by the name of Charles Burrell Charles Burrell is a jazz performer, and even though he played classical music and Charles Burrell was also a music composer, he encouraged his nephew to switch to jazz, because he would be allowed more improvisational license and creativity. And so that's what George did. And so he ended up and so while he was honing his skills as a jazz artist. He played jazz and American culture at Merritt College right there in Oakland. You know he's performed, you know, with in the genres of jazz and rock and R&B, and he's played with everyone from Frank Zappa and the mothers of invention, Cannonball Adderley, Lee Rittenauer, Sheila E. Algerot Earth Wind and Fire, Reeves and so many more. He's even played with Barry Manilow and Melissa Manchester and also the Pointer Sisters. So he had his biggest hit in 1978, called Reach for it. And I'm telling you, you cannot listen to this song without getting up on your feet because tapping your feet will not be enough. And it makes you and it's so cool, it will make you feel cool too. It'll make you hip, it'll make you chip, it'll put a finger in your dip. It is so incredible. So go on to If you want to feel cool today, go on to YouTube or Spotify and pull up Reach for it and let me know what it does for you. Mary Mary Stallings, Mary Stallings, 82 years old, native San Franciscan grew up in Laurel Heights, started singing in the church choir at first day and me which is right there at 2159 Golden Gate still there today. Now she made her bones as a young teenager performing in The Hungry Eye, The Purple Onion and the El Matador. These are like North Beach clubs that were very popular had I mean The Hungry Eye and The Purple Onion are places where you could find Mort Saul, Lenny Bruce, Bill Cosby, Phyllis Diller, you know it was really really a very trendy place, very artsy, very avant garde and she was a part of that movement. She wound up working with Dizzy Gillespie and Earl Hines and West Montgomery but Dizzy Gillespie just like I mean suffered her right here in San Francisco when he was playing and offered her a gig and got her career off and going. Mary is a jazz stylist and this is the thing that I love about jazz because you can give five jazz singers the same song and get a different iteration every time and Mary Stallings is one of those and I'm telling you this is her as she looks today she's 82 years old and counting and can sing her voice is better. She's like as smooth as Napoleon Brandy. And so if you want to just get a snippet of what this woman can do see if you listen to one song you're going to have to listen to more, because she will not let you go. She's particularly fond of her rendition of black coffee and lucky so and so, but she's very familiar and has done a lot of work with the great American songbook and a lot of other forms and so if you like good jazz and if you like a good voice, you will be totally captivated and delighted by Mary Stallings. Mary is very well known in San Francisco and in the jazz community worldwide. She's made numerous appearances at the Monterey Jazz Festival and she's also done the San Francisco Jazz Festival and she's a regular at the Jazz at Lincoln Center so please take a listen to Mary Stallings. Now this one is very, very special to me. Linda Tillery. Linda Tillery is a native San Franciscan and a graduate of Lowell High School. I am acquainted with Linda, haven't seen her for many, many years, but Linda's brother is married to my cousin, and Linda's niece was a friend of mine when I went to high school with her and I knew her for years, haven't seen her in years either. But Linda is also the progeny of people of the second great migration as you can see 1948. Her parents are originally from Texas as our mind, and she went to City College for a little while but she was just so into music that she dropped out to begin her music career. She began her career with her own group The Loading Zone in 1968, and she's been active forever. She was nominated for Grammy in 1997 for best musical album for children. You know, Linda has been around on the San Francisco music scene forever and if you know music in San Francisco, then hers is not a new name that you've just heard out of my mouth. She played, she toured with Vanilla Fudge, the Jeff Beck group, Jethro Tall, Sam and Dave, and Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janice Joplin. And there's a story about them playing the film or Bill Graham's film or where The Loading Zone Linda Tillery's group opened for Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janice Joplin. By the time Linda got off that stage opening for Janice Joplin, Janice pulled her manager aside and said, don't ever put me on the bill with this woman again. She probably said this beat, you know what, but Linda just wiped the floor just left everything on the stage, and actually it was probably a little, you know, upsetting and unsettling for Janice Joplin. And you think about how could Janice Joplin be intimidated by somebody? This is the girl that intimidated Janice Joplin. Linda, in 1992, I mean, Linda established the Cultural Heritage Choir, these ladies, and they are a group of artists dedicated to the curation and performance of music of the African diaspora and the enslaved Africans. The recent CD, Say Your Business, is an eclectic collection of everything from rhythmic African chants to Negro hymns and spirituals. If you ever get a chance to see Linda Tillery, don't miss it. She is an extraordinary artist and performer. I imagine that if you put a slide of her blood under a microscope you would see little musical notes floating around in there because she embodies music and has for over 60 years. This lady, this is a very, very special lady, Miss Memory Midget, and oh, I see a typo in there, don't hate me. Her mother is from Alabama and her father is, you know, was from Tennessee and she is part of the first migration as she was born in 1920. She went to the Conservatory of Music. And I mean, she was always very much about academics. She's an academician. Well, she was, she passed away in 2013. She moved to San Francisco in the 1950s and was an opening act for, you know, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie at the Downbeat and the Black Hawk night clubs, which were in the film war of San Francisco. Memory Midget was discovered. She, let me, let me just read to you what I have here about her. She performed with, it was in Downbeat. This is the club in the film war where she was introduced to Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday came to San Francisco quite a bit. I actually have pictures that my father took of Billie Holiday taken at Bob City right here in San Francisco at Post and Fillmore. So Memory was playing and Billie Holiday came in and listened to her play and invited her to join her on tour. So from 1954 to 1955, Memory Midget played, was the pianist for Billie Holiday's band. And she was actually at Billie Holiday's concert at Carnegie Hall. Now, Memory was, Memory was classically trained and always wanted to play at Carnegie Hall, but she never thought that she'd be playing jazz at Carnegie Hall, but she was just glad to be there. She was an interesting person because in 1965, she had an automobile accident. And I think that she decided that she couldn't, you know, perform anymore because it takes quite a bit. And so she went back to school and earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from USF. And, and then she went on to earn a master's degree in public health from UC Berkeley. She taught high school at Skyline College, and at McCleiman, no, it's excuse me at Skyline High School, and at McCleiman's High School in Oakland. And she actually taught high school at Mission right here in the city. She then became chief administrator with the Department of Public Health and Sanctions. You know, and so she's had an extraordinary life and she's been in the arts and she's been in academia, and she's also been in business, but as a musician and an educator and a health administrator. She applied her scholarship to a collection of photographs and correspondence and musical programs and artifacts about her family. She had the forethought to document her family's history in America and how they got from the south to where to the to the Bay Area, and that entire collection is accessible to you. Right now at the Oakland Public Library. Yay for libraries. I love libraries and librarians. So you want to find out more about memory midget. There's a whole slew of information waiting for you. Mr. John handy the saxophonist. Again, another. Texas transplant who made his way to San Francisco. John handy actually was mentored by Charlie Mingus. And when he was in his early 20s, and during the 1960s, John handy had several of his own bands. That you know he took on tour he toured domestically and internationally. He graduated from a climate high school and studied music at San Francisco State. But this was in the 1950s, and he ended up having to go to war he was in the Korean War, which interrupted his education, but he came back and completed his degree in 1958. He was a professor of music history and performance and taught at San Francisco State University for decades for decades, but he also taught at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and the San Francisco Conservatory of music. John handy is a consummate musician, but if you're going on YouTube and you want to hear his seminal work, and I call it seminal because it is his most popular work. It is a hard work. And again, it's fun key. It is classy bluesy it is everything that makes you feel good. So if you want to hear a sampling of john handy, go on to Spotify or your favorite music outlet, and, and Google and put in hard work, and listen to that saxophone let it take you away. Hip hop, not necessarily my milieu but some really really interesting people here. Okay, Paris, Oscar Jackson Jr. Now when I learned that his name was Oscar, Oscar Jackson, I always think whenever I hear somebody named Jackson, are they related to me, and you might think well that's really you know you know a shot in the dark but not so because my grandfather, Jackson was one of 16. My father was one of 13. And in the generation of my grandfather, he had two brothers who had to leave the south, very very quickly because, well they killed a couple of white people. They were sharecroppers and one is said to have killed a white man with an axe, another one was said to have killed white man. I mean, I guess that's what was handy right. And so I said all of that to say that they had to leave the south. And one of my great uncles didn't come back to the south for over 60 years because he was afraid that he could still be prosecuted and had they known he was there they may have done that. But I've had relatives that have spread out all over the country and the world. And we have stories I come from a huge family, obviously. Sorry folks we'll get Linda back here just a moment. You're muted Linda. Okay, I'm not on me. You just need to share your screen again I don't know what we have a little hiccup. I don't know what happened I didn't touch a thing. You were on a roll though. Okay, are we back. I don't see your screen yet. You don't see my screen. Okay because it's giving to me like it's back. And I see Lisa's on mute I don't. There we go. That's what I get for talking about killing white folks. I don't think so. No, no, no, just a joke just a joke you know I didn't stand up comedy for years don't be offended people don't be offended. Okay, do you see my screen now. Okay, good, good, good. Okay, good. So this is what I was talking about Oscar Jackson so it's a very, very large and then he grew up in the film where he is a native San Francisco and and he grew up in the state of San Francisco. And so I am it's not out of the realm of possibilities. Be a relative of mine. But this is a young man who is to me he's a he is a he is a gentleman and a scholar. You know, he is very his music is very politicized, and he is an activist, and he has several other names in the world they give you several different names so one of his names is Gatt Turner, as which is a take a gun because Paris believes in the philosophy of the Black Panther Party and he is also called the Black Panther of hip hop, and that is one of his logos on his on his music label, but he's very very highly respected in the community in the in the hip hop community, particularly in the Bay Area. He's a graduate of UC Davis and he has a bachelor's degree in economics, which he received in a year that is first album the devil made me do it was released. In the 1990s. Paris found himself at odds with his music label because of the content of his music and some of his incendiary album covers the album art. And so he was always fighting with music labels and changing labels until he just decided to start his own label, which he founded in 1992 called Scarface Records. Okay. As the 90s drew to a close Paris retired from the music industry and began work as a stockbroker, you don't find many in hip hop getting out of you know hip hop and going into Wall Street, or to the financial district and that's what he did because he had a career in economics, and he knew a little bit about, you know, business and money given his experience. And so, but in 2003. He came back to music and released an album called Sonic Jihad, and it had a provocative cover on the album of an airplane flying into the White House very reminiscent of the planes flying into the World Trade Center You know Paris and much of his work, their indictments on racism and crime and police brutality and, you know, immigration and he addresses all of these issues in his music, which doesn't really necessarily make him a darling of you know, conservative politicians. Let me see. One of the things, you know, really real set at the emergence of Donald Trump into the White House. And in his album Sonic Jihad. He did a song, well, a rap about his displeasure with Donald Trump. Let me see. Well, why is it happening. I don't know I'm not getting my presentation is not responding. Boy, do I have a good one for you. I see your little cursor on the screen you can try your arrow buttons to Linda. Let's see. I don't see them. No, let's okay let's see. So I hit new share again. Shall I try sharing it again. We still see Paris up there. Yeah, okay let's see. I can't, I can't get the, the program to progress. I don't know what's going on here. Yeah, you can just stop share and share again that should help. Okay to stop share and then share again already. I thank you all for being patient with me. Yeah, I think it was that little hiccup that we have that. Okay. Okay. Still not happening. I wonder what's going on. You are screen sharing live. I'm going to try to stop the share one more time. Or do I need to go out of the presentation and come back in again. It's just not progressing forward is that what's not because you know I hit my space bar so that I can go to the next slide. And for some reason it's not happening. And I didn't touch anything again. I'm going to try to stop the share and then try to share again. Okay. Weird. Oh, I see your little arrows there though. Okay, so what can I, if you hover on your presentation. Okay. Hover on what you just stopped sharing again. It did. Let me try. Okay. Let me see. Okay, let's see. We see MC. Oh, here we go. Here's my next slide. I think we're back on again. Thank you so much. And thank you for your patience everyone. Okay, this, as I was saying, Paris was really, really disgusted by Donald Trump. And when there was that whole controversy about baby man hands. There was a song about it, which he put on his 2020 album, safe space invader. And you can see the little image I found of baby man hands. And so this video is currently streaming on YouTube. Please go take a look at it and listen to the rap. One of the things that I want to tell you all about when you're listening to rap music, particularly if you're, you know, participating in a program like this. There are websites out there where you can actually lyrics of these songs, you know, any song, but particularly rap part to understand because it's all so fast with the thriving beats and everything. And so, if you're interested, go to a website where you can find the lyrics and pull up the lyrics and then listen to the song because it will make a lot more sense to you. And this one will give you a really good laugh. Okay. Okay. In a career that spans more than more than 30 years, Paris has collaborated with many artists who make up the hip hop pantheon, like Chuck D and public enemy. He ran from NWA, dead press, the conscious daughters and more keep in mind that these groups promote produced a lot of political music, you know, NWA with, you know, fuck the police and, you know, Paris with you know, so many that you know the devil made me do it sonic jihad and not. But Paris is also very, very mainstream. He is also what is known as a soundtrack artist, and he has music that you have heard on in film and television. There's the television. They use his music, the purge on the USA network uses Paris's music. There was a wonderful, wonderful show called the deuce on HBO, which I never missed. And they used Paris's music as well. And then there's all day and a night, you know, a movie on Netflix, and on young rock, the sitcom about, you know, about the rock. They use Paris's music on there. Paris is a man who has distinguished himself in the music industry, academia, the world of finance and activism. As his body of work continues to expand, we can undoubtedly expect more consciousness raising lyrics, images and invaluable content from this true man of music. This guy, this is a bad mofo. Speaking of bad mofos hammer NC MC hammer, you know, you can never look at him without saying please hammer don't hurt me, because this boy wiped the floor with his dance moves. It's interesting thing. And when hammer first hit the scene is MC hammer, I mean he was a Christian artist before that. But I remember in my day, when I was in high school and early in college, when we were going to parties in Oakland we from San Francisco, gonna, you know, hit the bridge and go to Oakland, we practiced our dance moves because it has always been known that then folks in Oakland could just be dangerous on the dance floor. And this man emerged. It was all over. It was all over. You know people have these controversies about was it Michael Jackson or hammer or whatever. I like them both, but I got to go with hammer when it comes to the moves and the energy. I mean moonwalking is cool but I mean, how many times can you do that right. Anyway, hammer was born in Oakland and he's a graduate of Castlemont High School, and he is credited for developing a style of rap called pop rap, freestyling and dancing and less offensive than somebody like Paris or NWA. You know, what can I tell you about hammer. I think I missed one of one of my slides to but we'll go back to it. There are a couple of other things that I wanted to let you know about hammer. Oh yes. In the night in the mid 80s hammer started his own label called busted productions. And while he was doing that he was writing and producing and recording himself and other artists, and he even and this is a very famous story. He used to sell his CDs out of the trunk of his car. I mean this man, I mean the hustle that you saw on stage was nothing new to him this man had hustle from the word go from the timing was a little boy. He was a fat boy for the Oakland A's when he was a kid, and he got the name hammer, because a lot of the baseball players a major league baseball used to say that he looked like hammer and Hank Aaron, Hank Aaron, you know, the greatest, you know baseball players of all time. And when they met it turned out that they that hammer did look like him and so that's how he got the name hammer, but he went on to do great music things on his own. He became a hip hop artist. He was actually a Christian Christian artist. He is as I speak, a minister right now and I'll tell you where you can find them if you want to go to church. Right in the 1980s when he started his production company, and the subsidiaries that came along with it, this man employed over 100 people, many of them his friends from the hood, you know, giving everyone an opportunity and there are stories about him co signing for for a brand people, all sorts of stuff and you know, half of them probably didn't live up to the agreement, but he had the heart to do that for them because he's always one to give back, he speaks about that quite a bit. And in the 1990s. Oh, wait, wait, wait, one other interesting thing. When she was 12 years old, Keisha Cole was mentored by MC hammer, he encouraged her and actually gave her her first taste of what the music industry was like, and she has gone on to be a very, very successful and popular and be diva, you know, and a lot of that you know that began with hammer hammer won a Grammy award for best long form music video for his music short, please hammer don't hurt him. And this was a film that he made starring himself, why not about a young successful rapper, who comes back to his old neighborhood, and wants to, and begins to do battle with a drug dealer who was using the children in the neighborhood to sell drugs. And so that's what this short was about. And he won a Grammy Award for it, which is really, really something. But at the height of his career. He was a frequent guest on various television shows and sitcoms, and he even hosted Saturday Night Live as a guest and the musical performer as a host and the musical guest. And so he worked for cameos, the future films and was even in Arnold Schwarzenegger's film The Last Action Hero in 1993. He collaborated with Tupac Shakur, when they were both label mates at Death Row Records, which was you know, led by you know the infamous CEO should night. You know, I think hammer probably met Tupac when Tupac was a member of digital underground before he went out on his own. And don't get mad at me for not mentioning digital underground in this presentation I don't have anything on them, because there was just so many. Some people just didn't make the cut, but I had to give you hammer so what are you going to do hammer continues to make music, and even had a popular Super Bowl commercial this year. He currently serves as a preacher at the Jubilee Christian Center in San Jose, California, where he leads hip hop gospel service and prayer. It's Sunday night at six o'clock so you've got time to to San Jose to see MC hammer and get a little taste of the spirit high fee high fee is high fee was born in East Oakland, it is indigenous to the San Francisco Bay area, like a lot of music sub genres are, you know, it's flamboyant, it's wild, it's dance, it's side shows and it's music. And it's very very to me. I mean when I'm doing the research on this, everything that I found about high fee says to me that it is just simply about just out there doing whatever they feel in a moment, which would be good, but could also be dangerous. But anyway, that's high fee, and it is indigenous to the San Francisco Bay area. This is Mr. Thab, Mr. FAB. P.D. Cox. He is a native of Oakland, and he is one of the architect texts of high fee. Now I knew P.D. when he was a little boy I was acquainted with his mother, when she was raising him over in North Oakland. I haven't seen him in years since he was a little boy, but he is more than just a rapper he is an activist. I saw something on the news last week where he's doing holiday giveaways to support his community, but he is very much an activist and very very well respected in the hip hop community, and over in the Bay and Sacramento and in the other regions of northern California. I'm glad to see that he's so successful and happy. E40, who is another very, very popular hip hop artist born and raised in Vallejo. He is another architect of high fee, and he is the one who helped me to understand the true definition of what high fee is. And you can actually find him talking about it on YouTube or any place else. All you have to do is just Google E40 and everything you want to know about him will come up. This is Mack Dre, and as you can see he is no longer with us. He again is another of the architects of high fee, and he was also very much a performer and a writer of gangster rap, and it was also a record producer born and raised right in Oakland, California. He may he rest in peace, but he has made an indelible impression upon music in the hip hop community. He will never be forgotten. This is Saweetie, Diamante, Quavia, Valentine Harper. She is one of the new up and coming hip hop artists. And she is truly she appears to be a force to be reckoned with. She is born and raised in Santa Clara, California. And she attended San Diego State, but she received her degree in communications and business from the University of Southern California. Again, not just your typical hip hop artist. She is a rapper and a singer-songwriter and her grandfather, it's her grandfather, Willie Harper, who was a linebacker with the San Francisco 49ers. And MC Hammer, interestingly enough, is her uncle. Did I lose you all again? Well, anyway. We lost your screen. Okay, I don't know what. Oh, let's see, let's see. Here we are. Okay. Okay. Saweetie began her career by posting many raps on Instagram. And by 2018, she debuted her first single in extended play called High Maintenance. Her second album, Icy, contained her first top 40 single My Type. In 2021, she had two top 20 singles, Tap In and Best Friends. She used to build her brand and career, and she has already garnered nominations for an MTV Music Award, a People's Choice Award, a BET Award, and the Billboard Music Awards. So that is Saweetie, another one. So again, there we are after my presentation, talking about the music of the San Francisco Bay Area. Uh-oh. Are we still on? We're still here. Okay, great, great, great. Are there any questions? Let's see. I just want to put out there, too, man, that was so wonderful and very thorough. We could probably have a part three, honestly. But we have a wonderful service at the library called Hoopla Digital. And all of this music is on there with your library card. You can be listening to music right now. Yeah, all of these people were on there. So check out Hoopla Digital, and I will put it in the chat one more time. But does anyone have questions today for Linda? That was so wonderful. Thank you, Linda. Thank you. Okay, let's see. Um, no, no, we did have some tech issues. We apologize about that. Welcome. Yeah, I know you lose people when you get tech issues. Zoom world. We do have a hand raised. Oh, my God, you should see my workspace. You should see the dining room table. It's like a dining room table, and there's not a space that you could even put a glass on it. I've got stacks of papers. So did you just go into a rabbit hole, Linda, when you started researching all of this? Oh my God, you should see my workspace. You should see the dining room table. It's like a dining room table and there's not a space that you could even put a glass on it. I've got stacks of papers and photographs and whatnot. I've got a whole collection of ink cartridges that I'd love to sell to somebody. I do so much ink, but I love that rabbit hole. It is hard to come out. There's so much information. You know, one of the things if we still are we have people with is one of the things that I want to say to everyone watching this is that we have such a wealth of artistry and creativity here in the San Francisco Bay area. And these people, they depend, they, you know, are out in the world, but they depend upon us because we, this is their home. And so we have got to, it's important that they know that we acknowledge them, that we appreciate what they do, that they bring style and creativity, grace and cachet to the San Francisco Bay area. They make us a part of who we are. I agree. And you know, when you were when you were doing your presentation, I just kept thinking, gosh, this is the reason I made my way out here, you know, because of all this creativity and all these amazing humans. Oh my goodness, yes. Maria, I see you've unmuted go ahead. No, you can also put your question in chat. If you want Maria. Okay. She must be having technical difficulties. There's something in the water. Good one. Ruth does say in chat she saw that. Yes, she was on Saturday Night Live. She was. Yes, she was. And I mean, and she was, she was really doing it with her girls and everything I saw that that was a big last week. If I'm not mistaken. And then Patsy would like to know if you know of any good venues in the city she just they just went to a venue called Mr. Tipples and wondering if there's any other venues you might know of. Well, there's Yoshi's, you know, in the East Bay. There's, you know, there are quite a few places and I should have been, you know, better prepared to tell you I was prepared to tell you where you could find it on on YouTube, but I will tell you if you see any of these artists particularly that you're interested in, they all have their own websites and they all have their calendars up there where they're performing, you know, and some of them are smaller venues and some of them are arenas, you know, but it's easy enough to tap into them. We'll have to do that. Yes. You know, we'll have we'll definitely be having Linda back. She is our repeat presenter. If there's no more questions, I'm going to put there's some love coming in the chat there for you, Linda. So knowledgeable and always bring in the good humor as well. We love that. And friends check out hoopla digital and get your library card if you haven't very easy to do. And thank you so much Linda and thank you. Thank you. I'd like to thank the public library for always supporting me and being so open to what I have to offer you guys really rock over there. I love librarians always have. We love you. Oh, yes, indeed. All right, friends. Well, we brought the sun out so now we can go out and have a great day. Thank you everyone. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone for joining me today. You all have a wonderful Sunday.