Wheeling west from Havana
We were coated in a slick of sweat, diesel exhaust and sunscreen when we coasted up to a man wearing just-shined shoes and drinking rum from a plastic cup. He squinted at our crinkled map, nodded, told us we wanted to go south to the beach at San Luis and walked off as we tried to explain that we were headed north.
Creole in Paris
Antillean Creole is the language spoken in the French Caribbean Islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. To most French people, those are resort destinations. But that changed earlier this year after a series of protests on the island. About a half million people from Guadeloupe and Martinique live in Paris. They are French citizens but they don’t always feel like it. This year, for the first time, two public high schools are offering Antillean Creole language classes. Jacob Fenston reports from Paris.
Voodoo rhythms reach across cultures
When renowned Haitian drummer Daniel Brevil moved to Oakland last year from Port-au-Prince, he found keeping his culture alive meant reaching out to a non-Haitian audience. Since January he’s been teaching rhythms with roots in voodoo and slave rebellion to Bay Area residents.
San Quentin’s Organic Garden
In a corrections facility filled to twice its capacity, inmates at San Quentin Prison have created a tiny retreat within the prison-yard walls: an organic garden. We visit the prison to find out how roses and geraniums exist in a world of razor wire and execution chambers.
Letters to Obama
Among those pinning their hopes on President-elect Obama are some who are far too young to vote. Middle school students at Oakland’s Melrose Leadership Academy wrote down their thoughts for the new president, and a teacher and school psychologist are taking those letters and essays to Washington for the inauguration. We visited their classroom to record some of their letters.
California Song: “The Bay”
In this installment of our “California Songs” series, we hear from Oakland hip-hop duo Zion I. They give us the back story on “The Bay,” a song celebrating the energetic melting pot known as the San Francisco Bay Area.
Erasing the past with laser beams
Some mistakes are easy to fix. But undoing joining a gang, getting a tattoo or both is easier said than done. Now, at dozens of clinics around California, there’s help for ex-gang members and others who want to erase the symbols of their troubled past.
Pacific Pinball Expo
Pinball may seem a bit primitive compared with today’s dizzying video games. But that metal ball bouncing off bumpers and setting off bells and blinking lights still has passionate fans. This weekend, many of them are descending on the Bay Area for one of the country’s largest pinball expos.
Scraper Bike Fever Spreads, Thanks to YouTube
In Oakland, California, the Scraper Bike King and his Scraper Bike Crew started a cult phenomenon when they posted a YouTube music video about their tricked-out bicycles.
California Song: “California Blues”
Jimmie Rodgers, the “Father of Country Music,” was best known for songs about his native Mississippi or peach-pickin’ time in Georgia. But he did visit the Golden State on occasion and it inspired his Blue Yodel Number Four. From Oxford Mississippi, blues music writer Scott Barretta explains—what’s a blue yodel?