Youthful Kinfolk
A music, arts and culture blog and creative collective based in the Bay Area.
2010-2020.
A brief history of YK
I co-founded Youthful Kinfolk in 2010 fresh out of high school (shoutout Encinal) with my brother Yared (some may know him as Sam) Gebru. What initially started as a platform that emulated the “blog rap era” websites such as 2DopeBoyz, illroots and NahRight became something more. Youthful Kinfolk was an art, culture and music publication and creative collective centered around showcasing Bay Area creatives. Over the years we went through many different phases, but the focus of YK was always community. We aimed to bring folks together through events that ranged from artist mixers, art shows, music showcases, artist panels, parties and the monthly Workflow Wednesdays.
Another main focus of YK was showcasing the Bay Area’s talent, and it’s beautiful to see artist friends of ours thriving years later, or carving out a different path for themselves than they initially anticipated. It brings me pride to say that YK was able to give many Bay Area visual and musical artists their first interview, photoshoot, song premiere and perhaps even their first time performing or showing work at an event.
Original Content
A large focus of mine was in providing YK with original content, to try and differentiate ourselves from other online platforms and provide a space to showcase work from both others and ourselves. We would cover events, do long-form features on artists or just showcase photos or work we had been doing lately. It was our space to show love to our community and to express ourselves as a group.
Header image for a feature interview on Kool John’s Shmop City in 2015. Photo by me, design by Diego Mendoza.
Header image for a feature interview on Rossi Rock’s Agassi in 2015. Photo by me, design by Victor Ta.
Events
We loved to bring people together through the events we put on throughout the years, and aimed to facilitate spaces that would create a great experience. I curated, planned, worked and promoted events alongside the YK team ranging from art shows to parties, BBQs, and our monthly mixer series Workflow Wednesday.
Highlights:
REVOLVE - Art Show at Oakland Terminal - January 2015
Parallels - Art Show at KUNST-STOFF Arts, SF - June 2015
If I Ruled the World - Youth Art Show in partnership with Oakland Terminal - July 2015
REVOLVE II - Art Show at Haus of Godspeed, Oakland - April 2016
Adversus - Art Show at Sol Collective, Sacramento - July 2016
Sadie Hawkins - Dance at Ashkenaz in partnership with Hey Ma - August 2016
Live at the Exchange 1, 2 & 3 - Art Exchange events at Massive Barbershop & Merritt Ceramics in Oakland (2016, ‘17 & ‘18)
Workflow Wednesdays - Monthly mixer series from 2016-2019
Workflow Wednesdays
For creatives, finding a space to work amongst others is often a challenge. In an effort to create an environment conducive to creativity and the formulation of ideas, we put on Workflow Wednesdays the first Wednesday of every month. Workflow Wednesdays were a space to get work done amongst other talented folks, connect with others or just a spot to get some free wifi and good tunes. Thank you to Solespace, Kapor Center and Oakland Terminal for hosting us for these. Another shoutout to the folks we teamed up with to put one of these on Women Sound Off, Wine & Bowties, CounterCulture Group and MoveSet Music.
