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Interviews with 12 cutting-edge musicians from Oakland and beyond | Matt Werner | Talks at Google

3,298 views · Published 14 August 2012 · 46:01 · Indexed 29 October 2026

Channel: Talks at Google · 2012 · People & Blogs

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Matt Werner spoke at Google in Mountain View on August 6, 2012 about his book Oakland in Popular Memory: Interviews with 12 cutting-edge musicians from Oakland and beyond. He is introduced by Brit Bjurstrom.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The image of Oakland, California has been tainted in the mainstream media with salacious news reports focusing on street violence, shootings, gangs, and riots. These reports—along with assumptions and stereotypes—feed the fabricated image that outsiders have of the city.

In Oakland in Popular Memory: Interviews with 12 cutting-edge musicians from Oakland and beyond (Thought Publishing / May 2012 / $15.00), Oakland native and former host of the award-winning radio show on Fresh Air: The Alternative, Matt Werner introduces a different narrative by presenting a collection of his best interviews with leading artists from Oakland and artists who've influenced musicians from Oakland.

In the spirit of Studs Terkel, Werner conducted long-form interviews from 2008-2012, which cover the 2008 election of President Obama, the shooting of Oscar Grant, and the Occupy Oakland protests. Werner spoke with artists at length, discussing topics like race relations in Oakland in the post-Oscar Grant era, postmodern literary theory, and the changing landscape of the music industry during the digital revolution.

Through interviews with artists like, Chinaka Hodge, Dahlak Brathwaite, Dave Smallen, George Watsky, Ise Lyfe, K.Flay, Kid Beyond, MC Lars, Rafael Casal, Saul Williams, Talib Kweli, and Victor Vazquez, Oakland is seen as an engine of cultural innovation, as a city bustling with lively avant-garde art and music scenes, spanning from indie rock to spoken word to hip-hop. Oakland in Popular Memory captures the artists putting a new "there" in Oakland.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Matt Werner was born in Oakland, California and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He received his BA in English from UC Berkeley, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with Highest Honors.

Werner interned and volunteered at McSweeney's Publishing for five years where he worked on the oral narrative collections Surviving Justice and Out of Exile, among other titles.

While earning his Master's in Literature and Modernity from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, he DJed on Fresh Air: The Alternative, University of Edinburgh Student radio, winning two radio awards for his artist interview show.

Since March 2010, Werner has worked as a technical writer at Google. His writing for Google has been translated into 40 languages and quoted in dozens of publications, including The Wall Street Journal. Werner also volunteers with the Talks at Google program, hosting leading authors, musicians, and filmmakers at Google.
Outside of Google, Werner writes on music, culture, and local history for a variety of Oakland blogs. He also writes and edits books for Thought Publishing.

For more information about the book, see http://thoughtpublishing.org/books-2/oakland-in-popular-memory/

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