Sights & Sounds After Dark: Creepy Tales

Date and Time

• Thursday, Oct 23, 2025  7pm

Location

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Details

Join host Jeneé Darden for a special spooky season edition of Sights + Sounds, where Bay Area artists and writers share their haunting works. From horror poetry to speculative fiction, from ancestral echoes to playful improv, this evening brings together voices that explore what lingers in the shadows and lives on in memory.
Independent bookstore Medicine for Nightmares will be selling the writers’ books.✨

Featured Guests:

M. M. Olivas — Debut novelist blending Mexico’s indigenous and colonial pasts into present-day hauntings.
Hana Baba — Crosscurrents host and The Stoop co-creator, sharing stories across the African diaspora.
James Cagney — Oakland poet and Cave Canem fellow whose work uncovers the ghosts of loneliness and survival.
Sumiko Saulson — Bram Stoker Award® Finalist for dark poetry and author of Somnalia.
Thaddeus Howze — Speculative fiction author crafting eerie tales of myth, mystery, and dread.
The Fists of Improv — A queer BIPOC troupe serving up spirited, unpredictable performances.

M. M. Olivas is an alumna of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, the Lambda Literary Workshop, and has an MFA in creative writing and English literature from San Jose State University. An Ignyte finalist, and featured on the Stoker’s longlist, Olivas’ fiction as appeared to critical acclaim in Uncanny, Apex, Weird Horror, and Bourbon Penn Magazine. As a trans, first-generation Chicana, she explores the intersection of queer and diasporic experiences in her fiction. Her debut novel, Sundown in San Ojuela, portrays how Mexico’s indigenous and colonial pasts haunt the present. Olivas currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and in her free time, collects transforming robots. More information at olivasthewriter.wtf.

Hana Baba is host of Crosscurrents- the daily newsmagazine on NPR station KALW in San Francisco. She is also co-creator and co-host of The Stoop, the podcast from Radiotopia/PRX that tells stories from across the Black Diaspora, and she is creator and storyteller of the podcast Folktales from Sudan. Her work has also appears on NPR and BBC.
Her journalism work has won awards from the National Association of Black Journalists , the San Francisco Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, among others.
Folktales from Sudan has been featured on the BBC, NPR, OkayAfrica and other global platforms. She has told stories live at the Oakland Public Libraries and the Taste of Africa festival among others.

Cave Canem fellow James Cagney is the award winning author of Black Steel Magnolias In The Hour Of Chaos Theory (Black Lawrence Press, 2023), MARTIAN: The Saint Of Loneliness (Nomadic Press, 2022). His third collection, Ghetto Koans: A Personal Archive, is published by Black Lawrence Press. He was born, raised, and currently resides in Oakland, Ca. Visit his website JamesCagneyPoet.com.

Sumiko Saulson is a two-time Bram Stoker Award® Finalist for Horror Poetry for and Elgin Award Nominee (2022)for Speculative Poetry fir their dark poetry collections The Rat King (published on Dooky Zines) and Melancholia (published on Bludgeoned Girls Press). Winner of the 2018 Afrosurrealist Writers Award, and 2021 Ladies of Horror Readers' Choice Award. Their novel Somnalia: The Metamorphoses of Flynn Keahi, a dark erotic fantasy, is available on Mocha Memoirs Press

Thaddeus Howze is an award-winning author, editor, and podcaster who writes from the haunted edges of Hayward, California. A narrative designer at Wicked Fox Games, he conjures speculative worlds steeped in myth, mystery, and dread. His books include Hayward’s Reach, a collection of strange and unsettling tales, and Broken Glass, an urban fantasy novella starring Clifford Engram, his paranormal investigator who knows the dead never rest quietly. When he isn’t penning fiction, Thaddeus dissects the monsters of politics and culture with sharp, incisive essays.

Ovan: Founder (head fister) of The Fists of Improv, a BIPOC forward Queer improv troupe. Besides doing uniquely provocative and sex positive improvisational theatre performances with the troupe, he also performed at Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy and Carmine Burana with Symphony Chorale.

Olive: They are a silly queerdo that's been a member of the fists of improv for 3 years.

Odero: Some activities that I love include dancing, singing, spinning poi, hanging out, watching anime, reading, partying, playing chess and dressing up! I have been performing improv for over 5 years now; 2 of which have been with the fists!

Gayle Why (they/them, "Enlightened Fister" of The Fists of Improv) is a nonbinary improviser, voice actor, puppeteer, ttrpg gamer, boba enthusiast, and occasional goblin. Their digital ambry can be found at gaylexy.com.

Hosted By

Jeneé Darden is an award-winning journalist, author, public speaker and proud Oakland native. She is the executive producer and host of the weekly arts segment Sights & Sounds as well as the series Sights + Sounds Magazine. Jeneé also covers East Oakland for KALW. Jeneé has reported for NPR, Marketplace, KQED, KPCC, The Los Angeles Times, Ebony magazine, Refinery29 and other outlets. In 2005, she reported on the London transit bombings for Time magazine. Prior to coming to KALW, she hosted the podcast Mental Health and Wellness Radio.

Medicine For Nightmares will be offering books from tonight's authors.

Your RSVP includes admission to Open Decks: Community Art in Motion, a collaborative art exhibition and cultural program featuring original art by 100 Bay Area artists on skateboard decks. Open Decks is on view from July 24 - September 19, 2025.
There is a $10 - $20 sliding scale suggested donation for this event. Nobody will be turned away for lack of funds.
Please become a KALW member today and receive your first drink on us at all 220 Montgomery events.
📍 220 Montgomery St., San Francisco, 2 blocks from BART/MUNI
🚪 Reception doors open at 6:00
🗣️ Program begins at 7:00
🆓 The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want

Please note:
The event space is just to the left of the main entrance to the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street
We recommend taking BART/MUNI, exiting at Montgomery, and walking two blocks north
Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue
If you drive, there are several garages within two blocks of the event location; free street parking is available across from the venue at 7:00 pm