Boots Riley

People associated me with West Oakland long before I lived here. The Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club shot a lot of videos in the neighborhood. Whenever a producer comes from the East Coast they want to shoot here. They like the architecture—the old buildings and the old houses. I moved to Lower Bottoms in 2006 and it’s the friendliest neighborhood I’ve ever lived in. Families that moved here in the 1950s and ’60s are still here. Someone will say, “Oh, it’s a sunny day. Let’s have a barbecue on the sidewalk.” If someone doesn’t show up, they go knock on their door and say, “Hey, you didn’t get a plate,” and offer some food. I had a studio at Tenth Street and Wood Street filled with tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment. Often I would be in such a rush that I’d leave my door open all day, but nothing was ever taken. That’s the benefit of community and people knowing each other. When we were recording our last album we came to Brown Sugar Kitchen every day. The studio was just a few blocks away, and we would come for coffee and pastry in the mornings and sometimes later for a meal. The people in West Oakland are really proud of Brown Sugar Kitchen. Like the neighborhood, it’s a remix of the old and the new. Because the food represents black culture, the people here see it as a beacon. It’s part of the ideal of what West Oakland should be.