D. Scot Miller

Oakland journalist reports threats after sharing public records—'Doomloop Dispatch' podcaster says he’s been targeted by serial harasser.

The East Bay Express: Best of the East Bay 2023 - Introduction titled, “Simply the Best,” in homage to the late great Tina Turner.

There’s more than just cheesecake at Charles Ferrier’s new bakery Charles Ferrier opened the first location of his Oakland bakery, Crumble & Whisk, in December. He also considered closing the shop shortly thereafter. Starting in 2013, Ferrier built up his cheesecake business at several different Bay Area farmers’ markets. Along with wholesale orders, he was […]

Joshua Chase and Oakanna stand out when the smoke clears The Oakanna cannabis store bears quite a few distinctions. For one, it’s the first cannabis dispensary approved to be on Oakland’s busy Lakeshore Avenue promenade. Oakanna owner Joshua Chase, who describes himself as the CEO/janitor, was co-owner of other spots, but understands this distinction. “I’ve […]

In August of 2019, EBX sat down with Oakland LGBTQ Center CEO Joe Hawkins and vice president Dawn Edwards, to celebrate two years of a place that almost didn’t happen. Hawkins recalled: “About six years ago, co-founder and current board president Jeff Myers and I participated in the Hands Around Th…

2022 has been, shall we say, an intense year so far. Even as we continue to endure a virus that has wavered some, while we witness the horrifying details of an attempted coup to overthrow the will of people unfolding before us every week, and women’s reproductive rights are in peril all over the cou…

Full disclosure: Christopher Burch is my brother, comrade, friend and inspiration. We’ve known each other for more than a handful of years, and still, every time we speak, I find even more ways we’re connected. Burch’s work is infused with the literary Black radical tradition and touches of what Ishmael Reed dubbed a Neo-Hoodoo aesthetic, […]

“Some have called Ish a ‘trickster,’ and Ralph Ellison—in a drunken rant at a gala in New York City when he was in his 30s—once called him a ‘criminal and a con-man,’ but few call this poet, author, publisher, Columbus Foundation president, musician, playwright, founder of the American Book Awards, screen-writer and cartoonist a Renaissance man,” D. Scot Miller writes.

The East Bay’s alt weekly.

“Welfare queen,” “thug,” “inner-city”: Since the Nixon administration, coded appeals to white supremacy have been part of the Republican playbook. These “gentle slurs” have come to be known as “dog whistles,” or terms that, according to Wikipedia, “use language which appears normal to the majority, but which communicate specific things to intended audiences. They are […]

Many people may not be familiar with rapper Kevin Allen. In 2017, he released the Kevin Allen Project, which was a local favorite though it didn’t get much air-play on mainstream radio. The album was the mature reflection of a veteran rapper who had seen the dark side of the limelight and was seeking something […]

As protests against police brutality continue in the streets, and are met with more police brutality, many media outlets have churned out anti-racist reading lists to meet the demand created by the tragically-newfound interest in white supremacy and anti-Blackness. Due to, perhaps, the choke-hold that corporate America has on the publishing industry, it seems the […]

On Thursday, May 28, a flier calling for “vengeance” in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police made its rounds through the East Bay’s social media channels. It called for a Friday 8pm “Minneapolis Solidarity Demo” at Oakland’s Frank G. Ogawa Plaza, also known to locals as Oscar Grant […]

Before it premiered last Sunday, months of promotional teasers for the AMC series Dispatches From Elsewhere intrigued viewers with scintillating visuals emerging from mundane settings, while only hinting at the show’s quixotic premise. AMC describes its 10-hour series as the story of four people “brought together by chance — or perhaps it’s by design — […]

The East Bay’s alt weekly.

The poet Bob Kaufman spent the entirety of his life in a manufactured obscurity. Although he published two books and several broadsides for City Lights Books, he was overlooked in mentions of the Beat Movement, of which he was an integral part. Over the last decade, there has been a renewed interest in Kaufman, due […]

Although it has existed for more than fifty years, the musical genre known as Bubblegum Pop rarely makes it into the conversations about contemporary music or music history. Internationally acclaimed Bubblegum Pop icon Kim Petras is on the precipice of changing that forever. The 27-year-old German s…

The East Bay’s alt weekly.

The East Bay’s alt weekly.

In June of 2017, Oakland was the only major city in California without an LGBTQ Community Center. The absence was baffling when one considers how well-established the community is in The Town, and how statistically distinctly different Oakland’s issues are from those found in San Francisco. “Many pe…