Local News & Views

As the third-generation director of the San Francisco Black Film Festival, Cree Ray is carrying more than a family legacy — she is helping preserve a vital piece of Black Bay Area culture in a region where Black communities continue to be displaced and diminished. In this conversation, Ray reflects on inheriting the vision of her grandmother, Ave Montague, and her father, Kali O’Ray, while charting a future that embraces new filmmakers, emerging technologies and the next generation of storytellers. More than a film festival, she argues, SFBFF remains a gathering place where culture, community and ownership of Black stories can be protected, nurtured and passed forward.

Look beyond the political theater surrounding redistricting and voting rights and ask a more uncomfortable question: What tangible gains have Black Americans received from decades of electoral representation? At its core, the piece is a call to distinguish between political rhetoric and measurable outcomes, and to build power that extends beyond election season.

Let me be clear: this moment is bigger than Louisiana. This is a civil rights inflection point.

The conditions are ripe for growing Black political consciousness, but revolutionary movements must broaden their reach to all sectors and classes of the people.

Built to fail: The untold story of Black housing in San Francisco  — Housing Series, Part II

“Burlesque is the art of seduction, storytelling, confidence and performance. True burlesque is theater. It’s dance. It’s glamour. It’s comedy, sensuality, character work, music, fashion, and personal expression all living in the same space." - Jujuana Williams

Every summer, thousands gather to celebrate culture, community and resistance through music, dance, food and pageantry at Oakland Carnaval. More than a festival, organizers say Carnaval is a living expression of African cultural survival across the Americas, tracing its roots from ancient Africa to the Caribbean, Brazil and beyond. In this conversation, longtime Carnaval leader Theo Aytchan Williams reflects on the history of the celebration, Oakland’s unique contribution to the tradition, and why creating spaces for Black joy, wellness and cultural pride remains a revolutionary act in the Town.

The Oakland Police Department has been receiving federal oversight since the conclusion of the Oakland Riders trial in 2003 because of its accountability issues and the fact that it has been run like a mafia that is above the law.

As San Francisco leaders move to hand control of Ella Hill Hutch Community Center programming to Shakirah Simley through a 13-month lease pushed by Bilal Mahmood and Daniel Lurie, many longtime Fillmore residents say the process has ignored the very community the center was built to serve. Against the backdrop of youth violence, public corruption scandals and growing distrust of City Hall, residents and neighborhood leaders are calling not just for summer programming, but for transparency, accountability and a genuine community voice in deciding the future of one of the Fillmore’s most historic institutions.

Although two previous universal healthcare bills (CalCare) had failed to advance out of the California State Assembly during the last four years, I had hopes that the 2026 version, AB 1900, would fare better.

"Voters have a right to choose between every candidate the Constitution makes eligible. The Secretary of State does not get to thin that field through arbitrary procedural traps." Dr. Butch Ware, Candidate for Governor

"California is home to one of the largest Black populations in the country, and yet cycle after cycle, Democrats spend millions on everything but Black-owned media, " - Rep. Lateefah Simon

Bayview Hunters Point is being asked to endure a bridge demolition and radiological shipyard teardown at the same time, in a toxic corridor where families have already carried the health costs for generations.

Reviewing his own conduct, Ferrall demonstrated just how untethered he has been all along. He equated the dissatisfaction of both defense and prosecution as proof of his fairness.

Standing with inside organizers and reentering workers, SF Bay View amplifies Minister King X’s call to turn California’s prison yards into centers of worker power, legal literacy and collective reentry.

by Danielle Smith Six thousand San Francisco educators won fully funded health care, sanctuary schools and an up to 8.5% raise over two years by...

We pray that Kevin be allowed to raise his children and do his vital work in the community pending appeal.  Kevin has been a model citizen during the 9-plus-year ordeal since the shooting and has proven he is neither a flight risk nor a threat to public safety.  I pray for grace and mercy for all of us. 

The media, the institution designed to hold our systems accountable, failed one of its own. Not by covering the verdict incorrectly, but by treating presence as optional when presence is everything.

California’s Castle Doctrine, which allows homeowners and residents to use reasonable — including deadly — force against intruders, was supposed to protect people in that situation. It didn’t protect Epps.

 “There is too much that happened to give anybody the sense that this was a proper prosecution and a proper conviction. They ... did so much wrong in order to bring this man into the criminal justice system.” - Judge Harbin-Forte