PinnedBWOPA at Rainbow Signby Tessa Rissacher “BWOPA is a ‘whop’ to be reckoned with” wrote columnist Ethel Payne in 1974.¹ The organization, then only six years old, was already packing a political punch and hitting its stride in what would come to be a fifty-plus year enterprise. It began in 1968 with a…Black Women In Politics10 min readBlack Women In Politics10 min read
Nov 2, 2020Show Review: POND @ Independent 9/25Originally posted on KALX Berkeley Weblog 10/22/2019 Touring off their new album, Tasmania, Australian psych-rockers POND packed the house for a Wednesday night show at the Independent in San Francisco, drawing a young crowd of clean-cut concertgoers eager to gently headbang and slightly melt their minds before work in the…6 min read6 min read
Nov 2, 2020“My Drinking Group Has a Research Problem”: A Night of SIN at Odd Salon SFby Tessa Rissacher, June 2018 Written for Intro to News Reporting, UC Berkeley School of Journalism “SCIENCE!” shouted the crowd, glasses raised. Onstage, clad in tux and tails, Christian Cagigal, 42, of Daly City, gestured at the projected slide behind him bearing the word “SCIENCE!” in giant red letters. Cagigal…3 min read3 min read
Nov 1, 2020“For the Love of People” Berkeley’s Rainbow Sign and the Secret History of the Black Arts Movementby Tessa Rissacher and Scott Saul Originally published in Current Research in Digital History Vol. 2. 2019 https://crdh.rrchnm.org. Abstract: With its all-female leadership and its balance of Black nationalism, experimental art, and the politics of respectability, the Berkeley cultural center Rainbow Sign suggests some of the hidden complexities of the Black…History19 min readHistory19 min read
Sep 14, 2020Where Kamala Harris’ Political Imagination Was FormedThe short, influential life of Rainbow Sign by Tessa Rissacher and Scott Saul. Originally published in Slate Magazine, September 14, 2020. https://slate.com On March 31, 1972, the Black cultural center Rainbow Sign welcomed local press for Berkeley’s official proclamation of “Nina Simone Day.” At this staged convergence of Black artistic…Kamala Harris11 min readKamala Harris11 min read
