Cheo Tyehimba Taylor is an award-winning journalist, producer, activist, and founder of Forward Ever Media, a multimedia group that helps organizations use storytelling for social change. Under that umbrella, Tyehimba Taylor founded the Game Changers Project – a national fellowship program for emerging Black filmmakers. Tyehimba is also the author of “Like Loving Backward,” a collection of short stories.
What part of Oakland do you live in and how long have you lived in Oakland?
Lake Merritt. I moved to Oakland 10years ago from Brooklyn, N.Y.
Why do you live in Oakland?
Oakland is like the Nile Valley in ancient times. Rich, diverse and ever-changing. It maintains a Black Power legacy while representing a new model of cultural diversity and social progressiveness that other cities strive for.
Give our readers three helpful tips about Oakland.
a) Oakland is to San Francisco what Brooklyn is to Manhattan – more accessible, diverse, and hip.
b) African American Museum & Library
c) Brown Sugar Kitchen and all the hundreds of diverse “foodie” restaurants in the city.
What is one of your favorite things about Oakland?
The Malcolm X Jazz Festival
Who is your favorite Oakland person?
Don’t have a favorite person or politician in Oakland but my favorite people are the black youth who are community organizers in Oakland. They stood up for Oscar Grant and are keeping the social activism legacy alive. The upcoming feature film “Fruitvale,” about the life of Oscar Grant, will make a major impact about police brutality, justice, and how images perpetuated in the media about Black men can have deadly consequences. This is the work I am doing as executive producer of The Game Changers Project. To keep this work alive, we’re using IndieGoGo to fund the project and the campaign ends Tuesday, May 14, 2013. Learn more at www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-game-changers-project/x/343362
