The Bay Area is traditionally a mecca of radical activism extending to the blue-collar rank and file of its working class. Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) had a decades-long legacy of championing human rights and racial equality. By 1984, this led to their refusal to offload cargo from South African ships in a demonstration of solidarity with the international anti-apartheid movement. Episodes like this work stoppage and demonstrations by the California-based Campuses United Against Apartheid played a pivotal role in the collapse of apartheid.
When political prisoner Nelson Mandela, the high-profile figurehead who led the overthrow of this oppressive regime, was released after nearly three decades in prison, he made a special trip to the Bay Area in gratitude. The individual picked by the activist community to greet and introduce him was media personality, Dominique DiPrima.
Building on a Pedigree and Finding a Voice
“Hip hop chose me as much as I chose hip hop.”
— Dominique DiPrima
Born and bred in an incubator of activism, DiPrima’s parents were Amiri Baraka aka Leroi Jones, and Diane DiPrima, poet laureates of New Jersey and San Francisco, respectively. An educator, writer, and founder of the Black Arts Movement, Baraka encouraged his offspring to merge art and activism to impact the community. Poet Diane DiPrima was a groundbreaking feminist, fixture of the Beat Movement, and committed opponent of dictatorship and fascism. Dominique’s childhood was a bi-coastal gumbo of benefits, demonstrations, poetry readings, and so on.
On the cusp of adolescence, she was at a Nuyorican (Puerto Rican New Yorker) poet cafe when she became fascinated with a novel musical genre called rap, or hip hop, and took a tentative step towards a future career path by picking up the mic.
Caught up in this bohemian swirl back in the Bay Area, she regularly enlisted her peers in the production of neighborhood plays before enrolling in the theater program at San Francisco State University. There she was exposed to the academic sway of scholars Angela Davis and Raye Gilbert Richardson.
A fortuitous opportunity came when she gained entry into the world of broadcasting. With a time slot during daytime on Saturday, on one of the “Big Three” broadcasting networks, NBC, KMEL’s “Home Turf” (initially slated to have Bay Area rapper Too Short as its host) was a legit venue for the musical form as it showcased the fashion and culture spawned by the music.
This allowed DiPrima the ability to intertwine music with topics pertinent to the community, utilizing the duality endemic to her personality as an “antisocial extrovert,” referencing a lyric from Kendrick Lamar’s “DNA.”
“When I’m on the mic, when I’m doing my job, I’m very extroverted. When I’m just in life, I’m very shy, actually.”
Among the following, she developed a mentoring relationship with Melina Abdullah during this foundational period in her career. Back then Abdullah was a high school student obsessed with culture and fashion, who modeled hairstyles in her spare time. Today Abdullah is now an activist, academic, and civic leader best known as a co-founder of Black Lives Matter.
“I always considered her—and still consider her—a mentor.”
For impressionable teens in those formative years of the genre, the attractive and articulate DiPrima was especially valuable as a feminist role model, given the misogyny that was and is a component of this idiom.
Highlights of this tenure include exposure for upcoming talents like M.C. Hammer, interviewing an up-and-coming rapper named Tupac Shakur, and networking with the likes of Dave Cook, aka “Davey D,” then a student at Berkeley and a fledgling disc jockey.
Now an established academic at San Francisco State and a hip-hop journalist and historian, he remembers that “she was smart enough to tap into…” that emerging genre. “She was a trailblazer in that regard.”
The combination of a charismatic front person given a platform on a major network was a giant step towards legitimizing what many passed off as a youthful obsession. Personally, Dominique DiPrima was bestowed with a bounty of awards, including five Emmy Awards for merit in the television industry, a fitting resume as she was about to transition to a major market down the coast.
Going down to LaLa Land
“New York is pretty liberal. San Francisco is very activist—there’s always marching, there’s always protesting… But I was surprised when I came to L.A., especially in the Black community, how strong the culture of resistance is.”
— Dominique DiPrima
Life sometimes makes an offer a person can’t refuse, and her considerable bona fides from the Bay area gained her entry into the realm of edutainment, courtesy of 92.3 FM The Beat. Appropriately titled “Street Science with Dominique DiPrima,” she expanded her repertoire by reaching out to the various ethnic enclaves of her new Southern California posting while retaining her core base.
“In the Bay Area we always thought we were more progressive, and everyone stereotypes L.A. as kind of this airhead place,” she recalls about the elitist attitude within the progressive enclaves up north.
“But look at the Black Panther Party tradition here; look at all these scholars that come out of L.A., Dr. Toni Humber, Kwaku Person-Lynn, and Runoko Rashidi. Places like Chaos, the Good Life, etc.…”
A change in geography came with a shift in opinion. “I was delighted and surprised to see how strong the culture really is.”
Easing the transition was the swelling popularity of hip-hop, a taste that transcends boundaries. Even its most ardent advocate, DiPrima, struggles to fully explain its appeal.
“It’s the cool, the swag, the culture. You could look at it as a form of music, but it really is a whole culture.”
Carrying the Mantle of Social Progress
“What I would like to do is to help people embrace and understand who they are.”
— Dominique DiPrima
Transitioning to Stevie Wonder’s KJLH in 2005, she augmented the legend’s adult contemporary soundtrack by hosting the early morning “Front Page,” offering discourse with such notables as Kamala Harris and Maxine Waters. By 2021, the spirits of progressive talk radio again beckoned as veteran commentator, talk show host, and author Tavis Smiley returned to the airwaves with a vengeance after a four-year hiatus, as he launched KBLA TALK 1580.
He gave her an offer difficult to turn down, as KBLA would be one of five African American talk shows in the nation and the only one west of the Mississippi.
DiPrima, who consumes a diet of content from left, right, and mainstream outlets, is concerned about what she sees as a shift to the right politically. More specifically, she is convinced that the so-called “middle” is shifting to the right, as national newspapers are dominated by moguls from the ultra-conservative realm.
That said, she counts herself as an ally to Melina Abdullah, as the former mentor is now a colleague lending her support to causes like the BLM Grassroots initiative. She remains optimistic in spite of setbacks like the last election in November. “…Who doesn’t lose a few battles?” She reasons.
Confronting the myth that the media in this country is liberal, she maintains that the reality is that the right wing owns most of the media. Countering this is her faith in the steadfastness of the younger generation and its ability to see through the media-generated smoke screen engineered to confuse the masses who are, in her words, “…caught up in the struggle of our everyday lives.”
“I believe that we are going to see a continuation and a growth in our consciousness that will create a Black Renaissance in this country.” The public is encouraged to tune in to her show at 1580 on the AM dial (https://kbla1580.com/first-things-first-with-dominique-diprima/ ) from 6 to 9AM. In addition, her personal website is at https://www.dominiquediprima.com.