4:00 PM PACIFIC TIME: MONDAYS - FRIDAYS
Hard Knock Radio is a drive-time Hip-Hop talk show on KPFA (94.1fm @ 4-5 pm Monday-Friday), a community radio station without corporate underwriting. Hosts Davey D and Anita Johnson give voice to issues ignored by the mainstream while planting seeds for social change.
Davey D sits down with Aleah of Youth Speaks during National Poetry Month to reflect on the organization’s 30 year legacy and its ongoing work cultivating young voices across the Bay Area. Aleah, who manages youth programs, frames Youth Speaks as a vital “third space” where young people learn cultural history, develop their voice, and … Continued
On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sat down with Derwin Brown, artist, archivist, sound system builder, and founder of Black American Sound System, for a wide-ranging conversation about history, technology, Black cultural memory, and the Bay Area’s deep relationship to sound. Brown, a former San Francisco State student with a background in music and political science/law, explained … Continued
On a powerful episode of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sat down with filmmaker Byron Hurt and Will DuBose of the New Jersey Coalition to End Domestic Violence to unpack the roots of gender based violence and the urgent need for accountability, healing, and community intervention. The conversation began with Davey D laying out a disturbing … Continued
On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D spoke with Vanessa Camarena-Arredondo of Tao Rising, Jean Melesaine, a Bay Area cultural worker and storyteller, Alex Locust, a disability justice artist and activist, and Sophia Tupuola, a creative problem solver, author, illustrator, and youth organizer, about the launch of Culture Keepers, a new Bay Area project designed to uplift artists, organizers, and community builders whose … Continued
On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sat down with two longtime educators and community thinkers to unpack the forces shaping Black life, education, and public policy. His guests were Dr. David Stovall, professor of Black Studies and Criminology, Law and Justice at the University of Illinois Chicago, and Hodari Bayano Davis, Chief Innovation Officer … Continued
Hard Knock Radio marked the 35th anniversary of Digital Underground’s landmark debut, Sex Packets, with a lively and reflective conversation between Davey D, Money B, and longtime manager Atron Gregory. The interview moved well beyond nostalgia, giving listeners a vivid look at the creativity, discipline, humor, and musical vision that made the album a West Coast … Continued
On Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D spoke with Dr. Matthew Whitaker, Executive Director of the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center in Phoenix, about a disturbing incident involving a police sergeant accused of provoking students at a Phoenix area high school during an anti ICE walkout. The conversation used that moment as a … Continued
Hard Knock Radio host Davey D sat down with music scholar Dr. Rickey Vincent to mark KPFA’s 77th birthday by reflecting on one of the station’s most important legacies: the creation of its Third World Department in 1973. The conversation framed KPFA as more than a radio station. It was described as a political and … Continued
Anna Esaki-Smith joined Hard Knock Radio host Davey D for a timely and wide ranging conversation about the future of higher education, the narrowing of academic opportunity, and what is being lost when colleges are judged mainly by graduate earnings. Framed by recent developments in Indiana, the discussion explored how schools are increasingly being pushed … Continued
Oaklands Housing Crisis Deepens as Advocates Push Back on Criminalization of the Unhoused Oaklands ongoing housing crisis took center stage on Hard Knock Radio as host Davey D sat down with Needa B of The Village and Delilah Aviles, a youth organizer from East Oakland and member of the National Council to End Youth Homelessness. … Continued
