“I love you hair! Mind if I take your picture?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“You live in this neighborhood?”

“I live in Oakland actually.”

“I love it over there, I love the grounded energy and the palpable creative flow.”

“Especially if you’re young and like to be into things. My son is political and he’s very involved in things over there. He’s a sergeant in the Black Riders. They’re the new Black Panthers. The Panthers have a lot of negative associations with them. The Riders go in the community and feed people, they take care of people when they get shot, because in certain neighborhoods the police just don’t come, they do CPR, they’re political activist. The stand up to the police, pigs as they call them, and protect people from police brutality. I’m really proud of him, he’s standing up for his community.”

“Are you a political person? Do he get that influence from you?”

“You know, I’m a Christian, and a black woman, and I raised them to be culturally aware. I think he got it from me celebrating Kwanzaa every year. He got a real keen sense of what our people have done. In traditional history you don’t get much information about what African Americans have done for society. So that was his starting point, but he’s doing more now. He studies African religions, he teaches classes, it’s just phenomenal what this movement is doing. And you may not have heard about them because they’re not especially newsy. When I asked him about Trayvon Martin and Oscar Grant he said that was just too newsy. There were 3 people in Stockton who were murdered by police, one of them on camera, that’s where my son is.”

“Well I can see you’re very proud of your son and it sounds like he’s doing great work…but what about you? What are you about?”

“Well my name’s Candace and I just found out that that is an title for African queen mothers in ancient kingdoms. That’s about right…I’m the original queen!”